Music is the universal language
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” - Luke 2:14
General Interest
“I made it with realism in mind”: Inside Masayoshi Takanaka’s ridiculous six-kilogram surfboard guitar
Nothing proves humans have free will quite like Japanese jazz fusion virtuoso Masayoshi Takanaka’s ridiculous red surfboard guitar.
Weighing around six kilograms and looking more like beach equipment than a stage instrument, the larger-than-life guitar will return to the spotlight this March. Takanaka’s first UK solo shows were originally booked for London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire, but overwhelming demand saw them upgraded to two nights at Brixton Academy, where nearly 10,000 fans are expected to watch the 72-year-old shred his psychedelic surf classics with the lifeguard-board-turned-guitar in hand.
Created in collaboration with luthier Takeda Yutaka, the surfboard guitar was designed to capture the breezy, beachy essence of Takanaka’s psych-surf sound. It also doubles as a tribute to a late friend – an experience that prompted the guitarist to reflect on life’s fleeting nature.
“You can do what you like while you’re alive. When you’re dead, you can’t do anything. So I decided to make a surfboard guitar,” Takanaka says in an interview with Surfer Today. “I’m jumping the gun a bit, but I was thinking, ‘Oh, come to think of it, surfing was popular around the time of the Bubble Era… I have a summer song that goes well with it…’ and then I thought it would be interesting to make a surfing guitar. I heard it was hard to make.”
After exploring several options, Takanaka and Yutaka hollowed out a real surfboard to house a playable guitar inside.
“I made it with realism in mind,” the luthier explains. “The surfboard itself is hollow inside, so you can’t attach the neck or parts directly to it. So I attached the neck to a small wooden body and screwed it in from the back of the surfboard. In order not to sacrifice playability, we made sure it wasn’t too heavy and left enough clearance around the neck. Considering maintenance, the guitar part is removable.”
The surfboard guitar originally debuted in light blue on Takanaka’s 2004 and 2005 tours before being repainted bright red. Its complexity made the luthier vow never to attempt another, and its monstrous weight meant Takanaka could only play it for a few songs per show.
“It’s hard to play, as expected. I just play this because I wonder if people watching me will find it fun, but I wonder if some percentage of them think I’m stupid,” Takanaka admits. “So if I play two songs with this guitar at a concert, I will get a little more exhausted. So, I think it would be better to use it only occasionally.”
Fans hoping to see the surfboard guitar in action are in luck. Takanaka says he’d given the instrument away after years of touring with it in Japan, but managed to get it back for his upcoming world tour.
“Actually, I gave it away after using it at a lot of my shows in Japan,” the guitarist tells The Guardian. “I thought I didn’t need it any more. But life is short, and you have to do what you really want to do while you’re still alive – that was why I made the guitar in the first place.”
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“He says stuff off the top of his head, and I’m sure regrets it later”: Chris Poland says he “doesn’t hold a grudge” against Dave Mustaine over the “terrible s**t” he said about him after he left Megadeth
Former Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland has opened up about his early years with the thrash icons, recalling the intense musical chemistry – and often chaotic bond – he shared with frontman Dave Mustaine.
In a new interview with the Heavy Metal Mayhem radio show, Poland looks back on life with Mustaine in Megadeth’s formative days [via Blabbermouth]: “Me and Dave lived together in a rehearsal studio. We took ‘bird baths’ with cold water in a sink for a year. And then we toured repeatedly. We were together all the time. We were a real band when Megadeth first started. And once that happens, everybody kind of becomes brothers.”
“I know Dave said terrible shit about me [in the later years], but I don’t hold a grudge. And I understand,” the guitarist adds. “I know how Dave is. I know Dave. That’s how he is. He says stuff off the top of his head, and I’m sure regrets it later.”
Poland played on the band’s first two albums, Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good! and Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?, and returned as a guest on 2004’s The System Has Failed.
“When [Dave] asked me to play on The System Has Failed, I was, like, ‘Yeah, I’ll play on that. Of course I will,’” Poland recalls. “[It had] the same vibe that I got from the first two records. There’s something about when he writes riffs and I play over ‘em – there’s some kind of weird magic, man.”
On creative freedom in the early days, he explains, “The way it was with Dave was if you played something and he didn’t tell you not to play it, then you could play it. So when I did the descending harmonies on Peace Sells or I added some kind of minor note in a chord here or there, and he didn’t say, ‘Hey, don’t play that,’ then I’d play it.”
“But as far as writing, Dave wrote everything. All I did was play with a note here and there, or a harmony. But that’s the thing about Mustaine – I mean, he’s still writing riffs today that are fucking good. [Laughs] He’s the riff master.”
Reflecting on the musical style that drew him to Megadeth in the first place, Poland says, “The way I looked at [Megadeth’s music] was, ‘This is fast Led Zeppelin.’ I had a decent idea of how to get a good distorted sound, and so when the pedaling got involved, I just adapted to it. And then, of course, his spider chord thing – I learned a lot from Dave.”
The post “He says stuff off the top of his head, and I’m sure regrets it later”: Chris Poland says he “doesn’t hold a grudge” against Dave Mustaine over the “terrible s**t” he said about him after he left Megadeth appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Billy Corgan thinks rock has been “purposely dialled down” in culture: “All I know is I saw the gravity shift”
Billy Corgan feels rock was purposely dialled down within culture, so that rockstars didn’t have as much of a voice.
The Smashing Pumpkins frontman shared his thoughts during his The Magnificent Others podcast, where he even mentions his theory of the supposed involvement of the CIA. In the video, Corgan argues that rock was replaced by rap in late 1990s, and now a similar shift is occurring with pop being “completely dominant”.
He says [via MusicRadar], “I think, and I will say it overtly, I think that rock has been purposely dialled down in the culture. Again, this gets ‘wizard behind the curtain,’ right? Somebody’s gonna say, ‘Well, how do you know who was the wizard behind the curtain?’ All I know is I saw the gravity shift.”
He continues, “If you were at MTV or around MTV in 1997 or 1998, suddenly they decided rock was out when rock was still very, very high up. And it was replaced by rap… Their standards and practices immediately shifted, so now things that weren’t allowed were suddenly allowed.
“People were waving guns. Some people assert that the CIA was involved in all that. Again, above my pay grade, but I saw it happen. I did witness it happen. Of course, great music came out of it,” he clarifies. “Qualitative things and great artists came in, but there was this overt shift. I saw it happen. And then now, rap seems to be waning in terms of its cultural influence.
“Pop is completely dominant. Rock is probably the most dominant ticket-selling thing in the Western world, and yet there’s almost no representation of rock in culture. So, why do we have that schism? I think they purposely dialled down the ability of rock stars to have a voice in the culture.”
Another hot take from Corgan comes from a recent Guitar World interview, in which he argued that technical proficiency when it comes to guitar isn’t as impressive as it used to be.
“If you’re going to play a lead in an alternative rock band in 2025, what are you trying to say? No-one’s going to care that you can play good, because there’s fifty 10-year-olds playing Eruption on YouTube,” he said.
“There’s nothing actually that impressive about somebody being able to play the guitar at a decently high level anymore, so I think it’s the expressive quality that makes it interesting. So I’m more interested in creating a feeling than showing off.”
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“I couldn’t help overplaying”: John Mayer on nerves during first Dead & Company tours
John Mayer has opened up about his early days playing with Dead & Company, including the healthy dose of nerves he felt sharing a stage with his idol, Grateful Dead legend Bob Weir.
Despite being a Grateful Dead fanatic long before he joined Dead & Co. in 2015,, stepping into the band’s sprawling, improvisational world – and doing it next to one of its founding members – was a different challenge altogether.
Speaking to Rolling Stone about those first tours, Mayer admits he struggled to resist filling every gap in the music.
“As much as I want to lean back at the very beginning when I’m playing, I couldn’t help overplaying in some of those first few tours. You just do,” he says. “Even if I knew not to overplay, I’m still going to overplay. It’s going to be wordy. I have to adjust my way into the 10-ring on the target.”
Part of that, he explains, simply came down to nerves.
“You could tell yourself not to get nervous, you know exactly why you shouldn’t be nervous, and your hands are going to shake,” says Mayer, describing it as a “natural, physiological moment you have to break through to get comfortable through experience.”
The musician also reflects on his relationship with Weir, who passed away earlier this year, and how their onstage chemistry evolved over time. As the tours went on, the two guitarists gradually developed an almost unspoken understanding onstage – the kind that comes from playing night after night together.
“It changed over the years, because we both got to know each other and trust each other,” Mayer explains. “How did I read his signals? I just knew the way his head moved – we all do – and had an understanding of what his instincts were night after night.”
Eventually, their musical back-and-forth became second nature.
“It got to the point where, in those last few tours, he knew when I would step forward and really hit the gas. And because I’d figured it out by then, I knew when to step back, look at Bobby and say, ‘It’s yours again.’”
That comfort didn’t come immediately, though. Mayer admits that during the early shows he often found himself wondering whether Weir approved of what he was doing onstage.
“I’d think: ‘I hope he’s happy. He might not be. Oh, he just went and turned his guitar amp up. Does that mean he thinks I’m too loud? Is someone going to come into my [dressing] room and say, ‘Hey, can you turn your guitar down?’ Then one day, you walk up onstage and there’s plexiglass between the amps and you go, ‘I have a feeling I’m a little too loud.’”
Looking back, Mayer says those early tours were about earning his place – both with fans and with Weir himself.
“The first couple of tours were proving to the audience that I had a right to be there. And the rest of the tours were proving to Bobby that I meant well for everything I was trying to do.”
“I think whatever conversations Bob had on the bus about me in the very beginning changed over the years,” he adds.
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It’s time you ditched your tube amp for a modeller: this is why you should do it
The discourse online about real amplifiers versus modelling and emulation is just that: discourse. While it’s healthy to explore different avenues, the conversations bring up points that may not matter as much as you may think.
Realistically, an amp modeller can never replace an amp, but I’m here to say that modern amp modelling is good enough to consider, the pros of portability, reliability, form and function outweighing the difference between a real amp and a modeller. Even that statement might ignite some fiery discussion, so let’s get down to brass tacks.
Better Than The Real Thing
An emulation of an amplifier can never really sound like an amplifier, but that doesn’t mean they sound bad. Older amplifiers and boutique designs alike are often hand-wired, meaning while the quality control might be higher, they’re more susceptible to characterful imperfections. These are ironically why we love our own amps so much – or lust after someone else’s!
Digital reproductions of amps will perform exactly the same in every condition, there’s no imperfection. Real amplifiers, especially those equipped with valves, are heavy, cumbersome and require consistent servicing. While digital modellers may require software updates or repair from time to time, the wear-and-tear is minimal.
The reason an emulator can’t really replicate an amplifier in a room is because of how a speaker cabinet and its speakers push air after being amplified by a circuit. The size, arrangement and layout of speakers in a cabinet change how sound and air is pushed in every direction, adding different layers of frequencies in front (and behind!) the amplifier that also bounce around the room.
Here’s the kicker: even a real amplifier is often mic’d up, either in the studio or on the stage. The crowd won’t really be hearing your amp in an ambient space, they’ll be hearing the mic’d sound, often digitised, mixed and amplified through a PA. Hell, even at bigger venues you’ll be hearing this mic’d sound in your monitors or in-ears, and in a recording it’ll (usually) be a digital version of your mic’d amp. So the difference between a real amp and a modern emulation? Negligible.
Modern amp modelling has come a long way. Early incarnations of amp modelling left a lot to be desired, the presence, heft and nuance of an amplifier’s circuit being lost in the capture. Today, amp modelling seems to be about as good as it can get, seemingly really tough to pick in a blind test, and it continues to improve. Digital solutions allow guitarists to access plugins intended for use in mixing, as well as a growing number of increasingly accessible and affordable options. Early adopters of professional-sounding emulations and modellers were expected to fork out thousands, and the modern day sees world-class sounding solutions in increasingly tidy, pedalboard friendly packages.
Pedal Power
What’s more, how rare is it these days to see a guitar player that doesn’t have a fairly substantial pedalboard at their feet? It’s almost a given that someone is going to be using multiple pedals that can be used to subtly shift and shape our sounds, or overtly process them for more special effects like chorus, delay and abrasive distortion.
The problem though, is that sometimes we’re required to turn on or off multiple pedals at once, requiring either compromise or tap dancing maneuvers to engage multiple pedals at once. The system offered by most modellers allows you to create and toggle between different patches, i.e. multiple settings saved as a single patch, allowing you to create different patches, either with a base tone and multiple effects or for totally different tones.
For example, a single stomp on a pedal can switch an effect-laden patch to a dry one, or even switch to a whole new amp between sections of a song. The digital effects are all available inside the modellers so you require a smaller pedalboard, the units themselves being set up in a way that you require less footswitches depending how your patches are set up.
Speak The Truth
Another huge part of improved amplifier emulators are the leaps and bounds that cabinet emulation has taken via impulse responses, microphone emulation and even detailed nuance of speakers and cabinet construction. Cabinets and speakers play a huge part in the low end of a tone, your choice helping palm mutes to bloom, adding dynamic and weight to your playing, further helping to develop a realistic feel to emulations, instead of just a great tone.
Multiple ‘mic’ options give you more control over that end of your sound than the mics used at a venue, and you’re less susceptible to mics on cabinets getting bumped and changing your tone dramatically. Anyone who’s tried their hand at recording will know that movements of mere millimeters of a microphone can shift your tone from weighty, balanced bliss to fizzy, grating buzz.
What’s more, amplifier emulators bring emulations of mics that are often relegated to the safe confines of a studio, like big tube condensers, vintage ribbons and more. In this instance you’d likely set up your sound, cabinets and microphones and all, and send your tone direct to front-of-house (FOH).
The risk here is that you’re still at the mercy of the front of house engineer to treat and mix your sound, but this is no different than a real amp mic’d up!
Perfect Balance
Another thing to keep in mind when choosing to make the switch to digital is if you’re in a two-guitar band. It can sometimes sound unbalanced when only one guitarist in the band has gone digital, especially so when sending sound directly to FOH. The ambient sound of a cabinet in the room, especially smaller venues, can leave a digital rig feeling thin and lacking air and space, despite all the huge advancements in cabinet emulation.
All of this is to say that digital amplification and modelling has come a long, long way since the early days of stock plugins, kidney-shaped digital modellers and the like. While the emulation of pre-amp sections has come a long way, the technology to emulate the sound of an amp in a room helps us to more accurately recreate our favourite tones, all recallable at the touch of a single button – no tapdancing!
Writing off a technology only serves to ensure you’re left behind. There’s nothing to lose as an amp devotee, you’ll either confirm your commitment or find a new avenue for tone!
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A New EarthQuaker Devices Reverb Pedal
Kemper Upgrades Its Profiling Technology
The best looper pedals for all needs and budgets
If a riff is worth playing, it’s worth playing 25 times while you widdle ineptly over the top of it. And that is one very good reason for the current popularity of loopers… but it’s by no means the only one.
A looper is your pathway to instant multitracking. Most of them use the same basic principle of operation – stomp once to start recording, stomp again to end the cycle and start overdubbing – and that’s putting a uniquely powerful tool at your feet. If you want to slap down rough backing tracks for writing new melodies, build elaborate soundscapes of layered harmonies, or just have a virtual band to jam with, there’s going to be at least one pedal on this list that will make your life easier than it was before. And while some of them are both complex and pricey, the good news is that plenty are neither of those things.
Incidentally, there’s a certain ginger-mopped troubadour who’s probably done more than anyone else to popularise the art of looping – and, naturally, not everyone is a fan. But if you’re hoping to get to the end of this guide without seeing him mentioned, that’s going to be rather difficult… as his name is on one of the products.
At a glance:
- Best simple looper: TC Electronic Ditto 2
- Best do-it-all looper: Boss RC-600 Loop Station
- Best two-channel looper: Pigtronix Infinity 2
- Best multi-memory looper: Electro-Harmonix Nano Looper 360
- Best soundscaping looper: Chase Bliss Audio Mood MkII
- Best combined looper and delay: Keeley Eccos
- Best practice looper: DigiTech Trio+
- Best looper for busking: Sheeran Looper +
- Best compact looper: Boss RC-5 Loop Station
- Why you can trust Guitar.com
Best simple looper: TC Electronic Ditto 2
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It was a different world before the original TC Ditto came along – think caves, loincloths and saber-toothed tigers. This was the pedal that kickstarted the looping craze, simply by being so much simpler than what came before it. The Ditto 2 isn’t quite as basic as its predecessor (which, by the way, is still being made), but it retains that ethos of putting user-friendliness first.
So again you get a single footswitch – which is now more rugged, to withstand relentless repeat stomping – and a knob for loop level. But there are also a few handy added features, including a LoopSnap mode that automatically corrects slightly mistimed taps of the switch. And the price difference from the old version is minimal.
Need more? Read our TC Electronic Ditto 2 review.
Best do-it-all looper: Boss RC-600 Loop Station
This is pretty much the opposite of the Ditto 2, in the same way that an Airbus A380 is the opposite of a paper aeroplane: not simple but elaborate, and not tiny but absolutely hee-yooge. Because this is the flagship of the Loop Station line, and it’s a very powerful piece of kit.
With the RC-600 you’re getting six stereo tracks, 13 hours of storage and a suite of on-board effects, with an LCD screen to help you navigate it all. But don’t be intimidated: Boss knows how to keep things accessible, and you can easily begin with straightforward Ditto-style looping before you begin to explore the advanced capabilities of this floor-hogging beast.
Need more? Read our Boss RC-600 Loop Station review.
Best two-channel looper: Pigtronix Infinity 2
This one’s been around since 2020, and there’s since been an Infinity 3 model launched, but it remains a solid choice if you want to be able to loop on two independent tracks… and yes, it’s every bit as intuitive to use as it looks.
Record a loop on track 1, record another on loop 2, then flip freely between the two to overdub more parts – it automatically times these jumps to happen at the end of the currently playing cycle, so you don’t need to worry about messing things up with sloppy transitions. Again there are bonus features – notably an octave-down effect that has numerous uses – but again you can have a lot of fun without them.
Need more? Read our Pigtronix Infinity 2 review.
Best multi-memory looper: Electro-Harmonix Nano Looper 360
In spirit, the Nano Looper 360 is another entry in the ‘simplicity first’ category: if it didn’t have that right-hand knob it would be more or less a clone of the original TC Ditto. But that knob is a secret weapon that opens up all sorts of possibilities.
Well, actually, what it opens up is one particular possibility: that of recording a whole bunch of backing loops at home – up to 11 of them – and then calling them up whenever you need them. This means it can be used as a handy notepad for song ideas, or even as a live backing band with a built-in set list.
Best soundscaping looper: Chase Bliss Audio Mood MkII
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All the loopers described above are really good at recording whatever you play into them and then repeating it back to you in pristine audio quality – clean, pure and unaltered. The Mood really, really doesn’t want to do that.
In my review of this pedal I summarised it as “a cinematic loop-scaping leviathan”. It has delay and reverb on one side, randomised micro-looping on the other, and a ‘clock’ control for messing with the fabric of space and time in the middle. It’s always listening, even when it’s switched off, and you have no control over which of your notes it will fire back at you… so yes, the Mood is a looper, but it’s way more creative and unpredictable than anything else on this list.
Need more? Read our Chase Bliss Audio Mood MkII review.
Best combined looper and delay: Keeley Eccos
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In a sense, a looper is just a digital delay pedal with ideas above its station – so why not stick the two effects in one unit? The Keeley Eccos does this brilliantly, and crams an impossible amount of functionality into one compact enclosure.
The looping side works just as it should, with the usual footswitch operation and the added bonuses of reverse and half-speed modes. But the delay part goes off on its own path, colouring the repeats with a nice touch of flangey modulation – or more than a touch if you go mad with the knobs’ secondary functions. You even get three slots for storing user presets… and just to really blur the line between the two effects, you can record a loop and set it to gradually decay.
Best practice looper: DigiTech Trio+
Bandmates all walked out on you because of your excessive perfectionism and/or poor personal hygiene? Neither of those things will be a problem if you replace them with DigiTech’s ‘band creator and looper’ – because it never makes mistakes and it doesn’t have a nose. What it does have is the power to listen to what you play and respond by adding drums and bass.
With 12 musical genres to choose from, 12 song styles within each genre and up to five parts for each song, it’s quite the sophisticated arranger – and you get separate level knobs for the guitar, bass and drum loops. Obviously this is never going to sound or feel the same as playing with real musicians, but it’s a heck of a home practice tool.
Best looper for busking: Sheeran Looper +
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Considering how many young strummers must have been inspired to buy a looper after seeing him play, you can hardly blame Ed Sheeran for grabbing his own slice of the pedal pie by launching a signature brand. This is the entry-level model, but it still offers two tracks, instrument and microphone inputs, a full-colour LCD screen and – most crucially if you’re planning to take it busking – the ability to run off four AA batteries when you don’t have access to mains power.
There’s even a battery-powered PA speaker, the Sheeran Busker, to complete your street-ready rig. Just add a guitar, a mic and maybe a smidge of talent.
Best compact looper: Boss RC-5 Loop Station
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Some loopers are simple and small; others are complicated and expansive. The real challenge is to mash those two worlds together without making a mess all over the floor. Boss has plenty of history in that kind of smart engineering, and has been building loopers for longer than most – its influential RC-20 came out in 2001. So who better to make a genuinely compact pedal that can do it all?
The RC-5 follows the classic Boss design format that goes all the way back to the 1970s, yet it somehow packs in 57 backing rhythms, 13 hours of stereo recording time for up to 99 separate loops, and an unrivalled array of connectivity options including MIDI, expression pedal control and USB backup. It’s a big looper hiding in a small box.
Why You Can Trust Us
Every year, Guitar.com reviews a huge variety of new products – from the biggest launches to cool boutique effects – and our expert guitar reviewers have decades of collective experience, having played everything from Gibson ’59 Les Pauls to the cheapest Squiers.
That means that when you click on a Guitar.com buyer’s guide, you’re getting the benefit of all that experience to help you make the best buying decision for you. What’s more, every guide written on Guitar.com was put together by a guitar obsessive just like you. You can trust that every product recommended in those guides is something that we’d be happy to have in our own rigs.
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Rig Rundown: Tyler Armstrong (The Band Feel)
The guitarist for the classic rock revivalists proves old amps, paired with even older guitars, is still a recipe for tonal success.
Tyler Armstrong, lead guitarist for St. Louis, Missouri, rockers the Band Feel, recently invited PG’s John Bohlinger out to Smoakstack Studios in Berry Hill, just south of Nashville, for this Rundown of the axes, amps, and effects he’s using to conjure the classic rock ’n’ roll sounds of the ’70s. Aside from his pedals, Armstrong sticks to the tried-and-true recipe: American guitars through British amps. Scroll for some highlights of the Rundown, and watch the video to get the nose-to-tail treatment.
Brought to you by D’Addario.
Tone on Loan
This all-original 1959 Gibson Flying V is on loan from Gibson’s Certified Vintage program. Armstrong secured it for some recent studio work, and attests that out of five he test-drove that were built in the same period, this one is the best of the bunch. He’s gotta give it back, right? “We’ll see what happens,” Armstrong grins.
Friend from ’53
Armstrong acquired this “super messed-up” 1953 Fender Telecaster with the help of a friend in Illinois. The warped neck was heat-treated to make it playable, and the body has been contoured on the back and front to give it a Jeff Beck feeling. It’s kept in open-G tuning for some live performances.
Dynamic Duo
In studio, Armstrong uses a 1965 Vox AC15 2x12 combo and a Marshall JMP Super Bass. When playing live, he runs the JMP alongside a 1963 Fender Bassman.
Tyler Armstrong’s Pedals
Among Armstrong’s select studio weapons are a Sonic Research ST-200 tuner, Mythos Oracle, Electro-Harmonix Small Stone EH4800, Mythos Luxury Drive, EarthQuaker Devices Swiss Things, R2R Electric Pre-Amp with an extra knob for EQ, MXR Phase 90, vintage Maestro PS-1A, and an L.R. Baggs Voiceprint D.I.
Fender celebrates 30 years of the Hot Rod Deluxe with limited-edition version – here’s how you can get one
Fender is celebrating 30 years of its hugely popular 40-watt Hot Rod Deluxe combo amp with a limited-edition 30th Anniversary version.
In keeping with the 30th Anniversary aesthetics also boasted by the company’s Blues Junior IV relaunch that arrived last year, the 30th Anniversary Hot Rod Deluxe features a Western-style covering, along with a vintage ‘50s brown and gold grille cloth.
Tweaks haven’t only been made in the aesthetics department, though; the 30th Anniversary version of the Hot Rod Deluxe swaps out the original’s 12-inch Celestion A-type speaker for another ceramic Celestion speaker, the 12-inch G12M-65 Creamback.
Credit: Fender
The amp’s circuitry has been modified on the original, too, with tweaks to the preamp section for “increased overdriven note definition”, plus a “smoother” spring reverb.
Elsewhere, the 30th Anniversary Hot Rod Deluxe sports a pine cabinet, polished stainless steel faceplate, black Chickenhead knobs and a leather handle, and comes with a two-button footswitch and cover.
Credit: Fender
Still 40 watts, the amp is fitted with three channels to choose from – Normal, Drive and More Drive – and is powered by a trio of 12AX7 tubes in the preamp section and two 6L6’s in the power section.
Often touted as a great pedal platform for its high headroom, the Hot Rod Deluxe also features an effects loop, in which you can place modulation, delay and reverb pedals after the preamp and prior to the power amp.
Price-wise, you can get your hands on the 30th Anniversary Hot Rod Deluxe for the princely sum of $1,299 / £1,269 / €1,489.
Learn more at Fender.
Credit: Fender
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Megadeth On Ice: Watch Teemu Mäntysaari play Let There be Shred while ice skating
Megadeth guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari has just shared a rather cool video of him playing Let There Be Shred while ice skating.
The Finnish guitarist, who joined the band in 2023 following Kiko Loureiro’s departure, says making the video was “so much fun” and combines his two favourite things: guitar and ice hockey. Let There Be Shred marked the third single to arrive from their final album, which landed in January.
Though the video doesn’t use the raw audio, Mäntysaari masters this ice cold shred-through smoothly, even when moving backwards, and close up shots show him tearing through the fretboard. Take a look in the video below:
The final, self-titled album from Megadeth marks their 17th studio record. It is also their first and only record featuring Mäntysaari since he joined the band. In 2024, Mustaine said having on board made them feel more united: “We are a band again,” he told Loudwire Nights. “It doesn’t feel like me and some side players or session guys… I feel like Kiko did us a really huge courtesy by helping us find Teemu.”
The band’s final record features their own rendition of Metallica’s Ride The Lightning, which frontman Dave Mustaine originally helped to craft during his time with Metallica. At first, people believed the track to be middle-finger to the band that fired Mustaine back in 1983, but their decision to record the track came with intentions much more wholesome.
Mustaine helped write a number of Metallica songs before his firing, including a selection from the band’s debut album, Kill ‘Em All, and decided to record Ride The Lightning as a mark of respect to his first real band. Though Megadeth are retiring, it does seem that Mustaine has his sights set on other projects, with one possibly being acting.
Megadeth are currently on their farewell tour. You can view the full list of scheduled shows via their official website.
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How Eddie Van Halen’s treasured Lamborghini Miura was restored and unveiled as a touching tribute to the guitar legend
Eddie Van Halen wasn’t just about music, he also had an impressive collection of classic cars and was passionate about all things automotive.
In 2023 after his passing, Lamborghini paid tribute to the guitar icon during a special 60th anniversary event for the luxury car brand, after restoring Eddie’s custom Miura. The model made its public debut in 1966, was the first to be coined a “supercar”.
The vehicle’s revving engine can also be heard on Van Halen’s Panama right after the guitar solo. According to a 2023 article from Van Halen Newsdesk, Eddie sold the car in 2019 to Curated Motors in Miami.
As newly shared by Ital Passion, John Temerian, founder of Curated Motors, sent the Miura to Italy to be restored by Lamborghini’s historical division. The restoration should have taken around two years and ended up taking almost four due to COVID-19.
Eddie’s Miura was originally gifted to him as a wedding present from his wife Valerie Bertinelli, and featured custom changes that made it a special model, including a custom number plate bearing their wedding date, “APR 11”, and a red finish instead of green.
It was decided they would not restore an idealised version, but would reinstate the car’s unique character, just as it was given to the musician. The refurbished car was officially unveiled at the anniversary event while Van Halen’s music played out, and then taken for a stunning drive around Northern Italy.
You can hear more about the story and check out the refurbished car in the videos below:
In other Van Halen news, a recently unearthed 1978 interview with rock journalist, author and Eddie’s close friend, Steve Rosen, shows the legendary guitarist recounting his experience stumbling across his famed tapping technique.
“I really don’t know how to explain it. I was sitting in my room at the pad at home, drinking a beer. I remember seeing people just stretching one note and hitting the note once… Anyway, it’s just one note like that, and they popped the finger on it real quick to hit one note and I said, ‘Well, fuck nobody is really capitalising on that.’ I mean nobody’s really doing more than just one stretch and one note real quick,” he said.
“So I started dicking around and said, ‘Fuck, this is a totally new technique that nobody really does.’ ‘Cause it is. I really haven’t seen anyone really get into that as far as they could because it is a totally different sound. A lot of people listen to that, and they don’t even think it’s a guitar.”
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Play Sierra Hull’s Lyrical New Ballad “Spitfire”
“It took a while for James and I to open up”: Lars Ulrich admits not being receptive to Cliff Burton’s musical ideas when he first joined Metallica
Metallica’s third album, Master Of Puppets, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and bassist Cliff Burton helped it soar to success.
During the making of the record, which would be Burton’s last before his tragic death during its supporting tour, the other band members began to embrace Burton’s more melodic ideas, opening them up to new ways to experiment.
In an archival interview republished in Classic Rock magazine, drummer Lars Ulrich says, “Most of the record was written in May and June of 1985, from the best ideas that were kicking around on our riff tapes.
“Cliff had been in the band for a few years and he brought in a lot of harmonies and melodies. It took a little while for James [Hetfield] and I to open up to some of Cliff’s ideas about harmony and melody, because we’d never played stuff like that before. But after a while we got it and that’s when we started experimenting more.”
Guitarist Kirk Hammett adds, “James would show Cliff and me the riffs, and we’d build the songs from there. Some I’d already be familiar with. The main riff in Battery, for instance. The first time I heard James play that was in England, on his acoustic guitar. We were watching The Young Ones, and all of a sudden he started messing around with this sort of galloping rhythm. I said: ‘Wow, that’s cool.’”
Ulrich describes this young iteration of the band as “snot-nosed punks trying to do something different from everyone else,” before Hetfield then adds, “I remember writing the chorus to Master Of Puppets in our living room and thinking it was too commercial, too obvious. ‘If it’s too easy, something’s wrong’ was kind of the Metallica mantra.”
In other huge Metallica news, the band are due to take up residency at the Las Vegas Sphere across October and November of 2026, and into January 2027. The residency will continue their ‘no-repeat’ weekend tradition, with unique set lists for each night.
The post “It took a while for James and I to open up”: Lars Ulrich admits not being receptive to Cliff Burton’s musical ideas when he first joined Metallica appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I didn’t break it, but it was pretty close”: Suzi Quatro recalls the time she nearly broke Alice Cooper’s nose on tour
Tour antics can sometimes get out of hand, and that was nearly the case for Suzi Quatro, when she very nearly broke Alice Cooper’s nose.
Quatro supported Cooper on his 1975 Welcome To My Nightmare tour, which was a colossal run that saw the shock rocker kick things off in March that year and wrap in December. The tour was turned into a concert film, and took place in a multitude of venues across the USA, as well as Canada and parts of Europe.
- READ MORE: The Genius Of… Quatro by Suzi Quatro
Speaking to Classic Rock for the new edition of its print magazine, Quatro recalls, “I was friends with so many acts from Michigan – MC5, Amboy Dukes, Grand Funk Railroad – and I’ve known Alice for years and we always had a connection. I supported him on the Welcome To My Nightmare tour in 1975, 85 dates. We called him Vinnie The Boss.
“We were on a turboprop and making at least one flight a day, if not two. Back then I was a terrible flyer, so it was white-knuckle time. But it was wonderful because there was a lot of Detroit people around, musicians who I’d known forever. A lot of blackjack was played. On a big tour like this you get a little crazy. In one hotel we decided to have a rubber dart-gun fight before a show,” she says.
“We hid behind mattresses in the hallway, and it got serious, dark… Who was going to win? Alice hid in a room. Then I saw his rather large nose poking out from behind a television set, and I went [mimes shooting a pistol] ‘boink!’ I didn’t break it, but it was pretty close. His first words were: ‘Ouch!’ and then ‘Good shot!’ That night, on stage he wore my tour T-shirt out of respect.”
Last year when Cooper was on tour, guitarist Nita Strauss also became the centre of one of Cooper’s stunts, as she shared a close encounter with a boa constrictor during a live show. In a video shared to her Instagram, the snake could be seen licking her face as she continued to play through Cooper’s 1991 hit, Snakebite.
Alice Cooper is playing shows across the globe this year. Suzi Quatro will play across the UK in April. Find out more via her official website.
The post “I didn’t break it, but it was pretty close”: Suzi Quatro recalls the time she nearly broke Alice Cooper’s nose on tour appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
J. Rockett Aqueous Review
It might be an overstatement to call the J. Rockett Aqueous chorus “surgical.” But for any player that has lamented a lack of subtlety in vintage-style chorus effects, the Aqueous offers an impressive level of control, making it a promising studio and performance tool and an intriguing alternative to the classics—even as it often excels at those sounds.
Waves on the Turquoise Sea
J. Rockett seems to relish a challenge. Even drive pedals, like their Archer series of Klon clones, sit either at the head of their class or are designed to the specification of a very particular, discerning player. In some cases, they have collaborated with designers responsible for stompbox institutions, with the aim of redefining them. They rarely build anything ordinary, and in that way the Aqueous fits the company’s lineage well.
The Aqueous’ digital circuitry is built around the Accu-Bell ABE-1, an effect module constructed by the same company that makes the popular Belton Brick module at the heart of many popular and excellent digital reverbs. Though it’s a digital circuit, Aqueous’ sounds make it a spiritual descendant of many pedals that vintage heads obsess over, like the Boss CE-1 and CE-2 and Electro-Harmonix Poly Chorus and Clone Theory. With the exception of the Poly Chorus, most of these pedals were straightforward affairs offering little control beyond rate and depth. Where additional controls existed, as with the Poly Chorus, they often served to make things extra weird. What’s cool about the Aqueous is that it uses its extra flexibility to achieve greater precision and subtlety instead.
The most interesting of these additional controls are the preamp and tilt EQ knobs. The former will appeal to some as a way to compensate for perceived volume loss. But it’s also capable of subtle drive that blurs modulations and makes them sound like a more cohesive part of your signal, not unlike a dark analog delay. The tilt EQ adds either real darkness by subtracting high end, or brightness that brings a more analog-like liveliness to the output. The tilt EQ works beautifully in concert with the wet-dry mix control, another much less common chorus control parameter, to enable very specific shaping of the modulation intensity and presence.
The practical importance of chorus—or any modulation—that can be foregrounded or tucked back into the hidden corners of a mix in this fashion is hard to underestimate. In live situations, different rooms can respond to the EQ peaks and valleys created by chorus in the same way overdrive or distortion can, and the ability to adapt to those shifts can be the difference between a guitar that goes missing in a mix and one that vibrates with life. The studio benefits of a chorus this nuanced are even more obvious. In both situations the Aqueous can be a great scalpel.
I Threw a Brick
As we’ve noted in earlier J. Rockett reviews, the company has a way of building things to a bulletproof standard. This applies to the Aqueous for sure. Though the I/O and 9V DC jacks are mounted to the printed circuit as well as the enclosure, the enclosure itself is robust enough to be used in self-defense. And it’s hard to imagine many shocks, bumps, or bruises that the Aqueous couldn’t handle. The knobs, meanwhile, are the kind that make on-the-fly adjustments easy. They are smooth, sensitive, and resistant to accidental adjustments. But the real beauty of the control set is the use of Neve-style wing knobs for the preamp and tilt eq, which stand up a little taller and facilitate easy adjustment with your toe.
The Verdict
If you're open-minded about what chorus can be, the Aqueous merits more than a casual tryout. Vintage-aligned players with very specific opinions about how chorus should sound might find certain elements of classic voices missing. Aqueous’ tendency to be many things could also come at the expense of super-deep, over-the-top sounds like those a vintage Poly Chorus or Way Huge’s Blue Hippo can generate.
But if you’re less attached to those templates, Aqueous might leave you wondering why anyone bothers with less tailorable chorus units. A colleague suggested that Aqueous might be a chorus for people who don't like chorus. I’d venture that Aqueous is simply a great chorus for players who want a more flexible one.
Question of the Month: Who's Your Favorite Independent Guitar Builder?
Adam Sturgeon, Status/Non-Status
Being left-handed has major downsides when it comes to guitars. There are very few choices available, setups are often terrible, and the better options come with reversed wiring. I've spent a lot of time building my own guitars, with various issues and inevitable failures along the way. So, it was very exciting to connect with Belvedere in building my own, fully custom leftie. Belvedere is a newer guitar company operating out of the Mile End Guitar Coop in Montreal. From highly curated woods to handwound pickups, pre- and post-build consults, I’m feeling incredibly fortunate and inspired to work with them!
Obsession: Lately, I’ve also been totally obsessed with tattoos. Again. There are several shops and quite the community of artists in my neighborhood, and I’ve been making new friends and getting renditions of some of my favorite personal items tattooed all over my legs—a coffee mug, old guitar pedal, even a hockey skate.
Dennis Cagle, Reader
I have gone to NAMM and other vintage shows for a number of years now. I’ve played the best of the big-name manufacturers, as well as boutique guitars from across the country … and other continents. As a lifelong musician and a wanna-be luthier myself, I honestly can say that my favorite builder is none other than Anthony Sims and the guys at Lucky Dog Guitars. They produce the best-quality, best-sounding, best-looking, and best-playing guitars that I’ve found. Even though I’m no longer on the road, and the guitars that come in for setups or other jobs are ones I work on for my own enjoyment, I had to buy a Lucky Dog for myself. For playability, it’s the standard that I strive for when I send one out. I won’t even mention what great guys Anthony, John, and Eric are.
Obsession: A few years ago, I attended the Amigo Guitar Show that comes to Franklin, TN, each year. This show had thousands of vintage instruments, treasures really. One vendor had a $60,000 price tag on a Martin dated around 1918, if I remember correctly, and he looked at me and said, “Pick it up and play it.” I’ve been obsessed ever since.
Ted Drozdowski, Contributing Editor
For sound, imagination, and vibe, Chris Mills from Zuzu Guitars in Pennsylvania is my guy. Chris built my main instrument, which I call the Green Monster, and no two of his guitars are alike. The Monster’s finish is a Behr color called fish pond, the mahogany body and perfect-for-me neck are hand cut, and Chris makes his own exceptional pickups, which, with coil splitting, give me the core tones of a Les Paul and a Strat, with a Strat’s weight and balance. If you check zuzuguitars.wordpress.com, you can see all of his work, which is trad and rad at the same time.
Obsession: Tremolo. I’m in a Pops Staples phase … again. But, I love adding EHX’s Pico Atomic Cluster to it, for a William Burroughs approach to melody.
Brett Petrusek, Director of Advertising
Rock N Roll Relics for their unmistakable visual signature, cool energy, and rock ’n’ roll attitude. Their shop in North Hollywood has an old-school record store vibe. It reminds me of the early San Dimas Charvel era. Every guitar I’ve picked up from Billy Rowe and Co. has always just felt great, like an old friend. You don’t need to spend a lot of time getting to know the guitar; it just works with you right away. With custom finishes, custom colors, and premium parts, like ratio tuners by Graph Tech, Jescar Frets, TonePros bridges, paper in oil capacitors, and multiple pickup configurations, you can make it your own. It’s also cool to know that no two guitars are the same—when it’s yours it’s uniquely yours.
A totally different style, but I must also give a shout out to Tonfuchs guitars from Germany. I was happy to discover and see a few of these guitars in the wild at the 2026 NAMM show; the builds were impeccable. Uwe Schölch is an artisan/craftsman of the highest order. Check his guitars at tonfuchs-guitars.com, and on IG at: @tonfuchs_guitar.
Obsession: Currently in the studio working on my band’s second album and I kinda want a Flying V. So yeah, recording and Flying Vs.
Joe Satriani and Steve Vai are “Dancing” and letting loose on latest SatchVai single
While Joe Satriani and Steve Vai’s SatchVai project has been touring for the last couple of years, the pair of guitar legends are still in no rush to release a full album. Instead, they’ve been drip-feeding their fans, sticking to one collaborative release a year – and it’s finally time for another single.
Dancing comes as SatchVai’s third track to date. It joins the 2024 release of I Wanna Play My Guitar and 2025’s The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1 – and it’s a vibrant burst of playful guitar tones. The riffy reimagining of Paolo Conte’s 1981 track of the same name sounds like it could soundtrack a bombastic cartoon heist, unfolding in a chaotic slew of bright, bouncy grooves.
“Dancing really captures the playful side of what Steve and I discovered on stage together last summer – that push-and-pull of melody and energy,” Satriani explains in a press release. “The video also gave us a chance to show that spirit in a completely different way.”
Directed by Satriani’s son, ZZ Satriani, the Dancing music video is brilliantly goofy. The surreal narrative sees Satriani and Vai trying to please an over-the-top manager (played by comedian Brendon Small) who insists that their live show isn’t entertaining enough. To up their gave, the SatchVai pair need to start doing backflips, grow bigger fingers… and start Dancing, of course.
“This band thrives on surprise – musically and visually,” Vai says. “Dancing is a perfect example of that. It’s melodic but relentless, and the video turns that energy into a kind of surreal comedy. It’s a glimpse into the personality of this band before we even hit the stage.”
While there’s no telling what ‘surprises’ the duo have in store next (perhaps the second half of The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1?), the SatchVai project will be embarking on a US tour this April. The Surfing With The Hydra tour will run up until 30 May, with support from prog-metalers Animals as Leaders.
Head to satchvaiband.com for more information and tickets.
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Sharon Osbourne says Ozzfest will “absolutely” return in 2027
Last month, Sharon Osbourne hinted that she was in talks with Live Nation to revive Ozzfest. Now, Sharon claims that there will “absolutely” be an Ozzfest revival next year.
In a recent appearance on the RIFFX podcast, Ozzy Osbourne’s widow and ex-manager since 1979 confirmed the news. When asked if Ozzfest would return in 2027, she said: “ Yes, absolutely – we’re gonna do it.”
First held back in 1996, Ozzfest served as an annual festival celebrating the metal and hard rock scene. From nu-metal to dark gothic metal, the line-up was an eclectic representation of the metal genre. It halted its run in 2008, with a few one-off events before a solid run of annual events between 2015 and 2018.
As Sharon explains, that three year run wasn’t meant to end in 2018. In her words, her and Ozzy always wanted to revive Ozzfest – but, unfortunately, that’s when Ozzy fell ill. “It was just a month before Ozzy got sick, and that was at the Forum in L.A…. there were no plans to stop it,” she says. “We were still gonna do it, but Ozzy couldn’t.”
However, Ozzy didn’t want his illness to put a permanent halt on Ozzfest. “Ozzy and I would talk about it, and he’d say, ‘Do you think Ozzfest would work without me?’” she recalls. “And I’m, like, ‘Yeah, it’s a brand. It will work without you.’ And he said, ‘We should do it!’”
In January, Sharon revealed in a Billboard interview that she was in discussions with Live Nation about Ozzfest. “It was something Ozzy was very passionate about: giving young talent a stage in front of a lot of people,” she explained. “We really started metal festivals in this country. It was [replicated but] never done with the spirit of what ours was, because ours was a place for new talent. It was like summer camp for kids.”
In the interview, she also shared plans to include some new flavours in the Ozzfest revival line-up. “I’d like to mix up the genres,” she said.
Despite Ozzy’s name being slapped on the festival, Sharon played an equal role in Ozzfest’s creation. In fact, Sharon is the reason the festival even exists; she brainstormed Ozzfest to spite Lollapalooza, since the festival refused to book Ozzy to perform. So it’s safe to say fans are in safe hands. “All of the creative direction for visuals at Ozzfest was mine,” she told Billboard. “I can’t sing a note – I’m tone-deaf – but I can be creative, and I like to create things.”
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Dave Mustaine says he wants to move into acting after Megadeth’s retirement – and would even cut his hair to do it, but only for a “big part”
After over 40 years, the end of Megadeth is in sight. And while frontman Dave Mustaine wouldn’t be surprised of their farewell tour lasts “three to five years” – via an interview with Kerrang! – he’s already making plans for life post Megadeth – and he’s got his sights set on Hollywood.
As he tells Classic Rock in a new interview, he plans to use his retirement to pursue new avenues of interest, like expanding his acting portfolio. “I wouldn’t mind studying acting,” he says.
While he’s not a very seasoned thespian, Mustaine has had a handful of small acting gigs in the past. Perhaps his most serious role was a one-off appearance in the TV series Black Scorpion. The 2001 show followed the titular superhero fighting crime, and Mustaine played villain Torchy Thompson. More recently, he did some voice acting in the 2017 horror/musical Halloween Pussy Trap Kill Kill.
That being said, Mustaine is adamant he wants to fine-tune his skills. “I’ve already done a ton of stuff on TV – hosting game shows, appearances in small sitcoms and movies – so I’m very accustomed to being in front of the camera,” Mustaine explains. “I think that might be fun to do.”
And he’s serious about it; he’s even willing to chop of his iconic ginger mane to land the right gig. “If they asked me to cut my hair, I’d be willing to do it!” he adds. “But it would have to be for a guaranteed part – and a big part, to make that kind of a commitment!”
As well as his acting dreams, Mustaine also notes that he’d be interested in helping other artists. If anyone is keen to learn some guitar from one of the best, he’s more than willing to pass down some advice. “I really want to share my gift with younger musicians,” he says. “Actually, it doesn’t even have to be a younger musician. It it’s somebody that’s a little bit older and they want to learn what it is that makes Dave tick, I don’t care about their date of birth, I just want to be able to share.”
He goes on to note that sharing his gift is only fair – considering it was a generous “gift from God”, in his words. “I’ve been gifted,” he emphasises. “I wouldn’t be this good on my own.”
Recently, Mustaine revealed that ex-Megadeth members wont be involved in the band’s grand farewell tour. It’s a decision that ex-bassist David Ellefson has criticised. Speaking on Argentinian rock radio station UnDinamo, he said: “I have always said that I am available for that. And I would do it because I think any reason that I’m not there now is unfounded… I would hope and even pray that any misunderstanding or any bitterness would be removed, that that would somehow be dissipated.”
Megadeth are currently on tour in support of their self-titled final record. See the band’s official website for dates and tickets.
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