Norse Guitar Feeds

Shnobel Tone has introduced the latest addition to its line of premium guitar effects. The new Dumbbell Driver combines the company’s acclaimed Daily Driver Overdrive with the recently launched Dumbbell Boost into a single, super flexible pedal.

The Dumbbell Boost and Daily Driver circuits are identical to the standalone versions of these pedals. Both the overdrive and boost circuits are completely independent and can be used together or separately, activated by their own dedicated true-bypass footswitches. A two-position toggle switch allows you to assign the order of the effects when both circuits are in use: Boost>>Overdrive or Overdrive>>Boost are available, providing a huge range of sonic options. Setting the toggle to the right places the Dumbbell Boost in front of the Daily Driver.

The pedal offers an intuitive 6-knob control set. The four knobs on the left side of the pedal control the Daily Driver circuit with Volume, Gain, High frequency and Low frequency EQ. The Daily Driver controls on the left side also include a three-position toggle switch for added EQ flexibility: the switch offers two different high-cut settings, along with a flat setting in the center position, so you can dial in the perfect overdrive sound with any amp.

The two knobs on the right side of the pedal control the Dumbbell Boost circuit. The Input knob adjusts the input impedance and acts as a supplemental tone control: when turned all the way to the left it gives you a brighter, less bassy sound; turned all the way to the right it delivers a full range sound with rich harmonics reminiscent of a Dumble-style circuit. The Level knob controls the Dumbbell Boost’s output level.

Sporting gloriously retro-flavored chrome-skirted knobs and available in either Black or White, Shnobel Tone’s Dumbbell Driver includes these features:

• Six control knobs: Four knobs on the left side for adjusting the Daily Driver overdrive; and two knobs on the right side for adjusting the Dumbbell boost.
• Three-position “Hi Cut” toggle switch affects just the Daily Drive portion of the circuit (not the Dumbbell boost).
• Two-position toggle selects the order of effects when both circuits are engaged
• Two true bypass foot switches for activating each circuit
• Pedalboard-friendly top mounted power and in / out jacks
• Hand-built with top quality through-hole components
• Standard 9v center negative power – no battery compartment

Shnobel Tone’s Dumbbell Driver carries a street price of $329 and can be purchased at shnobeltone.com.

To honour Gary Clark Jr’s fusion of blues, rock, hip-hop and jazz, Gibson has unveiled a new signature model in his name. Inspired by BB King’s beloved Gibson, the Gary Clark Jr. ES-355 serves as a testimony to the blues legend as well as marking Clark’s ongoing impact on the genre.

While Clark has previously worked with Gibson on his SG and Casino models, this guitar is particularly special. “When I was a child, I had a poster on my wall with BB King playing his signature Lucille guitar,” Clark explains in a Gibson promo clip. “As a kid, I always wanted one of those guitars. I would go to the music shop, I would see them on the wall, and I liked the way that they sounded. I just wanted to be a part of that world.”

Handcrafted in Nashville by the Gibson Custom Shop, the Gary Clark Jr. ES-355 boasts a three-ply maple and poplar body. The multi-ply binding allows for a more vintage aesthetic, thanks to its figured maple outer layer and VOS Cobra Burst finish.

• READ MORE: “Are you f**king kidding me? He’s one of the only guitarists you can identify with one note”: Joe Bonamassa’s brutal response to those who claim BB King “doesn’t play much on guitar”
  

The guitar also has a mahogany neck, which has been shaped into a ‘50s Rounded Medium C profile, with a bound ebony fretboard. In terms of frets, you’re looking at 22 medium jumbo frets and mother‑of‑pearl block inlays.

Up on the headstock, there’s another vintage nod in the form of the iconic Gibson Custom Shop split diamond inlay. There are also Grover Rotomatic tuners, to add a more premium feel.

Credit: Gibson

The hardware has also all been finished in VOS nickel, emphasising that aged and vintage feel. That extends to the ABR‑1 Historic no‑wire bridge and a Bigsby® B7 vibrato. Gold Top Hat knobs with dial pointers have also been used to add that nostalgic edge.

The Gary Clark Jr. ES-355 is also kitted out with unpotted Custombuckers featuring Alnico 3 magnets, to capture a warm and dynamic range. The pickups are also wired with CTS audio taper pots and paper‑in‑oil capacitors, while there’s also a three‑way toggle, and a mono Varitone circuit to tweak and toy with your tone.

With a limited run of 100 guitars, it’s no wonder why the Gary Clark Jr. ES-355 has already sold out. Each lucky buyer will receive their guitar in a Gibson Custom hardshell case adorned with Gary Clark Jr. graphics.

Now a four-time Grammy Award winner, having his own signature Gibson is no longer a dream. It’s a reality he has earned. “It’s a dream come true, really,” he says. “And it’s one of the most versatile instruments… with the humbuckers and semi-hollow body, you can play it acoustic. It’s my go-to instrument at this time. And it’s gorgeous!”

For more information, head to Gibson.

The post “It’s a dream come true”: Gary Clark Jr’s signature Gibson honours his hero BB King appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Since the furore of NAMM – where hundreds of brands launched more exciting new products than we could realistically keep track of – the world of guitar gear has felt relatively quiet. But it seems things are starting to switch back on, as a slew of new guitars arrive courtesy of Jackson, Charvel and Gretsch.

• READ MORE: Thieves steal Martin D-28 worth $15k from Baltimore music store: “You feel violated – it’s really sad”

So get ready for some six-string eye-candy, and if you like, to nerd out on some spec sheets from the massive new drop. Here’s everything you need to know:

Jackson Pro Plus Pure Metal

Credit: Jackson

Three new guitars join Jackson’s blacked-out Pro Plus Pure Metal series, a line of instruments “built for speed and designed to withstand the demands of relentless touring”.

Comprising the Pro Plus Pure Metal Limited Edition Soloist SL1A, Limited Edition Rhoads RR1A and Limited Edition Kelly KE1A, the three new additions come loaded with singular Bare Knuckle Holydiver humbuckers, Floyd Rose 1000 Series double-locking tremolos and stainless steel frets.

Learn more at Jackson.

Charvel Pro-Mod Plus Dinky

Charvel has expanded its Pro-Mod Plus Dinky line with five new guitars, which blend “sophisticated style with assertive tone”.

Specifically, the new additions are the DK24 HH 2PT E in Raven Black and Celestial Silk, DK24 HH 2PT E QM in Midnight Ocean and Chlorine Burst, DK24 HH HT E QM in Violet Radiance, DK24 HSS 2PT QM in Blue Curaçao, Limited Edition DK24-7 HH 2PT EB in Celestial Silk.

These guitars sport Seymour Duncan Full Shred TB-10, Alnico Pro II APH-1N and Custom Flat Strat SSL-6 pickups in various configurations.

Learn more at Charvel.

Gretsch Broadkaster LX Figured Center Block with String-Thru Bigsby

Credit: Gretsch

Four new Broadkaster models join the Gretsch lineup: the Broadkaster LX – with a figured center block and string-thru Bigsby – in Havana Burst and Bourbon Stain, and the Broadkaster Jr. LX in Caramel Dawn and Tropic Aura. Both feature Pro Twin Six humbucking pickups and Adjusto-Matic bridges with string-thru Bigsby B7GP vibrato tailpieces.

Learn more at Gretsch.

The post Metal-ready shredders and new Broadkaster models: Inside a massive new guitar drop from Jackson, Charvel and Gretsch appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ahead of Spiritbox’s recent show at Nashville’s Pinnacle, PG’s Chris Kies spent some time with the Canadian alt-metal giants’ guitarist Mike Stringer and bassist Josh Gilbert to get the story on their down-tuned mayhem. See about the highlights below, and watch the full Rig Rundown for more.

Brought to you by D’Addario.

Signature 7

Stringer’s signature Aristides STX guitars, like this 7-string, are the first axes he reaches for. Inspired by Kurt Cobain’s Jag-Stang, the STX comes in 6-, 7-, and 8-string configurations, as well as multi-scale options. In lieu of traditional guitar woods, Aristides’ proprietary Arium material works perfectly for Stringer’s needs—it can hit any “stupid-low” tuning with ease and clarity. The guitar is loaded with Stringer’s signature Bare Knuckle Halcyon pickups and an EverTune bridge. The 7-string STXs are in F-sharp tuning, with Ernie Ball Custom Paradigm strings (.010–.074).

Ocho Loco

Stringer calls this 8-string Aristides the “prototype,” since it was the first one produced. It’s employed on “Fata Morgana.”

PVH vs. EVH

Stringer uses a Fractal Axe-Fx III, favoring a PVH 6160 model based on the EVH 5150 Stealth. It shares rack space with an ART Pro Audio SP4X4 power distribution system, Shure AD4Q, and Radial JX-44.

Mike Stringer’s Pedalboard

Stringer’s buddy at Omilion Audio built out his onstage boards. Along with a Fractal FC-12 Foot Controller, RJM Mastermind PBC/6X, and a Radial SGI-44, Stringer’s board carries a Peterson StroboStomp tuner, Boss DD-6, Electro-Harmonix Freeze, a pair of DigiTech Whammy Ricochets, Line 6 DL4 MkII, Chase Bliss Mood and Generation Loss, EarthQuaker Devices Sunn O))) Life, a pair of EarthQuaker Rainbow Machines, and a Hologram Electronics Microcosm.

Charvel Shredder

Modeled on Charvel’s San Dimas bass, this multi-scale (34-37") 5-string is tuned to F-sharp, and has Nordstrand pickups and a Darkglass B2M2 Tone Capsule onboard preamp. The custom-gauge strings come from Kalium Music.

Four-String Friend

This Fender Precision bass is also on hand, tuned to B-A-D-G. It takes Ernie Ball strings.

Axe and Block

Along with his Quilter Bass Block 800, Gilbert, too, uses a Fractal Axe-Fx III, nestled in his backstage rack alongside a Shure AD4D and a Radial JX 42. Like Stringer, he uses a 6160 model for his dirty tones; a Darkglass B7K model is also in the mix. Gilbert’s tonal “scene changes” are handled in Ableton.

EVH 5150 Stealth

ART Pro Audio SP4X4

Shure AD4Q

Radial JX-44

Radial SGI-44

Peterson StroboStomp Tuner

Electro-Harmonix Freeze

DigiTech Whammy Ricochets

Line 6 DL4 MkII

EarthQuaker Devices Sunn O))) Life

EarthQuaker Rainbow Machine

Charvel San Dimas Bass

Fender Precision Bass

Ernie Ball Strings

Quilter Bass Block 800

Shure AD4D

Radial JX 42

Here’s a classic Guitar International magazine interview with Andy Summers (The Police) from Mar 15, 2010.

by: Skip Daly

It is a daunting and perhaps completely irrelevant task, in the context of a guitar magazine, to attempt to write an introduction to an interview with Andy Summers. The man is an absolute icon for guitarists everywhere, so what can be said that hasn’t been stated thousands of times previously?

With a career that spans being a member of The Animals, selling a young Eric Clapton his ’59 Les Paul, world domination with The Police in the early ’80s, and again in 2007/2008, and the release of twelve solo albums, in addition to multiple collaborations, this man’s ongoing musical journey has been both compelling and long.

And that is only the musical part of his life. There is also “Andy Summers – Photographer” and “Andy Summers – Author”. With the 2006 release of his memoir, One Train Later, he not only succeeded in delivering the absolute definitive story of The Police’s meteoric rise into the stratosphere of rock immortality, but did so in an extremely well-crafted artistic manner, making readers truly feel as though they were in on the ride. The memoir further serves to place The Police within its proper context, as only a part of Summers’ unparalleled life.

In describing the man himself, and his love of literature and film, his Police bandmates would famously dub him “The Art Monster”. Though I doubt anyone can do a more accurate job describing the integrity and genuine artistic hunger that drives Andy Summers than what The Edge wrote in the forward of One Train Later: “That Andy absorbed the success of The Police, as he did all the other ups and downs he experienced along the road, without losing a sense of himself, his passion for, and his belief in the sacred and life-changing qualities of music is a testimony to the purity of his motivation as a musician, songwriter, and artist.”

Check Out The Police Collection at Amazon.com

Andy’s musical prowess was recognized by the Martin Guitar Company when the company paid tribute to his contributions to music with an 000C-28 Andy Summers Signature Edition issued in 2006,  in a limited edition of 87.  And, of course, Fender issued a tribute Telecaster for Mr. Summers in “relic” form that captured all the hard driving wear “adorning”  his original.

Mr. Summers recently sat down with Guitar International Magazine for an interview to discuss his current works-in-progress, as well as the phenomenon of The Police.

******

Skip Daly: Let’s start right in with guitars – what’s the lay of the land there? How many guitars do you have lying around these days, and is your famous ’61 Telecaster still your favorite?

Andy Summers: I picked it up yesterday. I’m in the middle of working on an album, and I played a solo for it on the Telecaster yesterday. I still love it, yeah. I’m in the rather unusual position of having six of them. Of course, I’ve got the original, but then Fender released the Signature model at the beginning of the Police reunion tour, so I ended up with a bunch of them.

They’re all great. I keep one of the copies at hand – because I keep the original locked up, for obvious reasons.   I keep one in the studio and I really enjoy it. I don’t know if I really have…well, yeah, I suppose I do have some quote-unquote “favorite guitars”.

The Tele is definitely up there, and I have my Strat, as far as electrics go – also a copy that Fender made of my 1961 Strat, which I used throughout the Police reunion tour. It’s a great guitar, so I particularly like that. My “third” electric guitar, if you will, would be the 335, outside of getting into classical or acoustic guitars. It depends on the music. I go by the music first and pick up the guitar that will fit. I don’t say “well, it’s all going to be on the Tele or the Strat”, because it doesn’t always work that way.

SKIP: Do you play much these days just for fun, as opposed to work? Do you play as much or more than you did when you were younger?

Andy Summers: I play all the time. You know, I’m a guitarist – I practice every day. I think about it. I write a lot of music- mostly on the guitar. I would say it is the main pre-occupation for me. I have a lot going on, but the guitar is completely central for me.

SKIP: I think I phrased that question wrong. I was trying to ask if you still get fulfillment from the simple joy of playing, as opposed to thinking of it as “work”.

Andy Summers: Yes I do, and I’ve never thought of it as work. I still get great pleasure from playing and I enjoy practicing. Sitting down to play for however long I’m going to play…is a pleasure. Rather than work, it’s the opposite – positive feedback maybe. What can you say? You’re talking about someone’s life…and my life is so entwined with the instrument I don’t want to think of my engagement with it as labor. It’s given me everything .

You know, you work on things…sometime you’re working on a discipline, like a certain aspect of technique, or you’re learning pieces of music – there are all sorts of nuance. You go through phases where you’re playing better, and other phases where you feel like you need to practice more. I feel good when I’m playing really well. Usually when you practice with intention you end up playing better, and your sense of self – that is so tied the instrument – improves. The world gets rosier.

SKIP: You were a pioneer in the use of the Echoplex and various other effects. Do you have any new pieces of gear that you’ve been experimenting with?

Andy Summers: I’m always open to an interesting device – some very good stuff is being made these days, but in general it is mostly variations on what has gone before – fuzz echo, chorus looping, etcetera.

I’m not a ‘gear-head’ or a pedal junkie at all. I can talk about gear, but I’m not a guy who buys the guitar magazines and reads about the latest little pedal that’s being made – maybe because I have a studio that’s packed to the rafters with gear!

I have loads and loads of pedals and things. I’ve got the rack that I rebuilt for the Police reunion tour. I’ve got a mini version that I’ve used for many, many smaller trio gigs. I have several amps. Basically, I’ve got my really big gear for stadiums and arenas, and that’s a Bob Bradshaw rig that we rebuilt using Mesa Boogie cabinets. On the Police tour we used two of Bob’s 100 watt heads. The rack was a combination of analog pedals and digitals echoes.

We operated the whole thing from the side of the stage with a remote. I programmed all of the stuff, all of the songs. The guy that works with me is a musician also – it can only be operated by a musician, someone who knows how to count beats, so that the effect is coming in at the head of the chorus, or for the solo, etcetera. We used a three speaker cabinet system, so I split out the echoes and the dry signals side to side. So, that’s the really big rig for the giant gigs.

Then I’ve got a much smaller version with Mesa Boogie cabinets and a few pedals, which is much easier to move around obviously. And then I’ve got amps. Lately, I have just been plugging straight into the amp, and I’ve been getting great sounds with no effects at all.

SKIP: I actually didn’t intend that so much as a straight up “gear” question so much as I was thinking about back when your innovative use of Echoplex really had a profound effect on the actual sound of the music itself.

Andy Summers: ….an important point – in all sincerity – is that music is made by the mind, the heart and the imagination, not gear. But, that being said, let’s open it up to technology for a minute, as it can be viewed as a two-sided thing. I always say the music comes first, and then you just sort of strap the technology on. But, sometimes the technology can create a way of playing, and I too am susceptible to that!

I find if I pick up an acoustic or a classical or a certain kind of electric, my playing falls in with the instrument. The instrument will draw certain responses from me. It promotes that. It’s the same with gear. Obviously, in the early days of the Police we were looking to sound different, and we were asking ourselves “How can we sound bigger?” Or, put another way, how can we expand the sound of a trio?

When the Echoplex turned up, it was great for the band because our trio sound seemed to expand exponentially and we were able to get into that “space jam” stuff. It was significant and eventually Stewart got one and started playing his drums through one as well.

Back in those times, there were a lot less pedals around. I started off very simply with a Phase 90 and a little bit of reverb, but as we became more successful I got the Pete Cornish board, which had envelope filters and wah wahs and different fuzz boxes, and the whole thing got much better as I began to blend the effects together.

In the late ‘80s, it went into this digital period, which I didn’t enjoy very much because I personally felt like I lost control of it. I wasn’t as hands-on. I felt like I was being controlled by the technology, instead of the other way around.

It’s alright for some of the echoes, but generally I like to be able to interact with the gear as I’m playing, which I think a lot of players do. For this past tour, in ‘07/’08, it was a mix of pedals and digital, all computer-controlled. I mean, I set the sounds for every song but because we were playing gigantic shows that were all about choreography, with the lights and everything hitting at exact moments, I didn’t play around with it very much. But, I did have the facility to override anything that was being done by the remote at the side of the stage. If I wanted to, I could get in there and change it in a second.

In the early days of the Police, I had a lot of gear on a little table on the side of the stage, and I could move the Echoplex around at will, and change the sounds. Depending on the acoustics of the hall, or if we wanted to do something crazy…I could adjust it. It was very primitive technology by today’s standards, but in some ways it felt more organic, and I think people have come back to that. ‘Retro’ is back, as it were…

SKIP: One of the things that has always struck me about your guitar playing, aside from the inventive use of effects and tone, is how demanding the material is to play. I mean, the typical “guitar hero”, so to speak, might play fast, flashy solos…but with your guitar work, even the verses are pretty challenging, with your used of stacked fifths, etcetera. “Every Breath You Take”, for example, sounds deceptively simple, and doesn’t even have a guitar solo, but that is not an easy song, technique-wise, to play. How did you develop this style, and was it a deliberate approach to employ such long stretches and tough chord fingerings or was it more organic?

Andy Summers: Well, to some extent it was just that I had the ability to do it. Before I joined the Police I played classical guitar for several years, and my hands were really strong so I could make those stretches naturally. But, I think it really comes down to the kind of music we wanted to play, and how we didn’t want to sound like anyone else…not playing big barre chords with thirds in them. We tried to avoid that sort of thing, and came to the idea of playing with added ninths – three parallel fifths.

So, a lot of it was promoted by those concerns, I suppose. When you talk about a band like The Police, it was a happy confluence. Pure chemistry. It was the three right people together at the right time – there’s no formula . It comes out of years of playing, reacting, and a music sensibility that is influenced by many, many things – not just rock – and bringing these diverse strands into a specific context. And, in my case, I was working with a singer who had the ears for it. All of this translates into the hands in a very instinctive way.

SKIP: You mentioned working on a new solo record…can you talk about that a little bit? What do you have in the works?

Andy Summers: Yeah, after the Police tour I took a break – who wouldn’t – but this year I’ve decided to really get started again and right now I’m making an album with a pretty well-known guitarist named Andy York. He was in the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet for many years. He left a couple years ago. He’s got quite a whole profile on the guitar scene and has made a lot of records. He’s a great player, essentially a classical player, and a very good composer.

Basically, we got together in my studio and both brought music in, but the real task is finding out how to play together beyond any formal compositions that were already in place. After a couple of weeks of playing we started coming up with some really exotic material and that was what I was looking for. Essentially, in a situation like that, you create a ‘third person’ that is born from your creative striving together – like any good band I suppose.

We’re almost finished with it. It’s essentially two guitars – some of the tracks are only two guitars, but some of the tracks have a few overdubs. It varies between two nylon string guitars to a combination of steel and nylon, and then I play a bit of electric here and there. It sounds pretty great right now actually. I’m very pleased with it.

SKIP: So the thrust of the record is more acoustic, as opposed to a full band thing?

Andy Summers: Oh yeah, mostly acoustic – no drums apart from some nifty guitar percussion from Andy York.

SKIP: So, hand-in-hand with that, can you talk a little bit about what the inspirations for this were, in terms of what you’re listening to these days. Or does what you’re currently listening to even tend to influence your current work?

Andy Summers: Well, it’s a good question. My answer would be that I am mostly influenced by a sensibility in music, the feeling that you get from it. That’s what gets me interested more than a flash lick. For instance, I’m mad about the baroque composer Biber right now. I love the feeling from his music. I don’t think I will be recording anything quite like it. Although you never know! I don’t know, I think everyone’s the same in that if you’re listening to something you like, you want to go and do it. I think that’s one of the prime forces, although it’s may be not always practical to literally try to play everything you like. But, the important thing is to have your sensibilities, your imagination shaped in a good way.

When I was beginning on the guitar, I would hear something and immediately think “How do I do that?” But, that was a healthy thing, absolutely fine when you are starting out. After a few years though you may want to be listening to your own voice.

SKIP: I guess I was just wondering if you happened to hear something that might inspire you…

Andy Summers: Yeah, obviously there are people I like. The only musical style that I can think of that might relate slightly to this current recording is that of Ralph Towner. We’re talking about a different kind of music, that’s really about composition and texture and coming together in a way that’s non-generic.

I’m always looking for the non-generic in music. No matter what you do, there’s going to be an influence from somewhere, because art is not created in a vacuum. It has to come out of something. The best way to learn is to start by copying other people. Eventually, if you’ve got innate talent, then you’re going to find your own voice. It doesn’t matter if you’re Miles Davis or John Coltrane, you’ve got to start somewhere. Then – hopefully – you find your thing and you develop it. It’s a process.

Click here to view the embedded video.

SKIP: Not to veer off into left-field here, but this is pretty topical these days, especially with you working on a new record – I have to ask what your take is on the current state of the music business, with rampant free downloading of music, etc.

Andy Summers: Yeah, well, it’s a pertinent question. I mean, I’ve been working away at this record and it’s a small voice, but it does come up – “Why the hell are you doing this?” I mean, I’ve made records all my life, and I’ve always collected records. We’re now sort of at the point where you give it away or it gets downloaded. We’ve had a lifetime of living with the ‘object’ and revering the object. I basically think it’s terrible actually. I can talk about the negative aspects of the internet…maybe there are some positive ones. I mean, to some extent, it’s destroyed music. Everything’s free.

What do you do if you’re a musician? You spend your life working to become good at something and, like any other craft or trade, you expect to get paid for it. The only way you can do now as a musician is to play live, because the days of earning royalties are over. I don’t know…and also, the advent of You Tube and all of that stuff – any amateur can be on the internet promoting his music to the detriment of the real players, so it’s become a great leveling field. There it is…what are you going to do?

I feel very fortunate to have gone through the time I did, because with The Police in the ‘80s we sort of hit the golden era of the record business and concert promotion. And we certainly did in ‘07/’08, before the recession happened – we were very lucky actually. I don’t know…I don’t know quite where it’s going. You tend to look back on the old days with nostalgia – so many great record stores and book stores – all of it is being taken away by the internet. Obviously, you’ve got a million guitarists on You Tube now, and some of them are phenomenal. Anything you want to know, just go on YouTube and it’s got to be there somewhere. So, maybe that’s a good thing. But everyone, every person gets to be seen now, whether it’s Facebook or Myspace. Privacy is a thing of the past. I d have no desire to be on Facebook or Myspace…it’s too public for me. I’m not interested.

Also, if you’re a musician I find that it’s a tremendous distraction. You’ve got to be ‘in your own head’ to some degree, and not looking at everything that’s going on all the time. You need to build your own musical world. If you’re seeing a million guys on YouTube just shredding all day, how do you get your bearings?

SKIP: Yeah, I guess it’s a question of how it’s used, whether you go there once in a while as a reference for something specific. But, I see your point that it’s something you could easily get sucked into.

Andy Summers: Yeah. You know, when I was a kid starting out and could barely spell the word ‘guitar’, there was none of the phenomenal amount of information that’s around now. Trying to find out how to play a C 9th chord was a major challenge.

SKIP: I know this is a few years old, but I’d love to chat about your book, One Train Later, for a few minutes. I really enjoyed that memoir and found it to be a very interesting read. How did the book come about? Was that a long-time ambition? Is it something that you always wanted to do?

Andy Summers: Yes, it was always there. I’ve always immersed myself in writing, and over the years of traveling I have kept journals. So, it felt like a very natural step for me – one that was long overdue, but I finally got around to it. I certainly felt like I had plenty to say. I felt my story was one that would be interesting to a lot of people, and I also embraced the challenge of writing a literate book, rather than a moronic ‘kiss and tell’ rock band book.It was a challenge. But, it was not unlike making a record – organizing the material, getting cathartic with it, and waiting for the muse to strike. I’ve worked through the process many times. It probably took me a couple years all in all.

SKIP: If I’m not mistaken, the book came out before there were any plans for the Police reunion. What made it feel like it was the right time to do it?

Andy Summers: The book had nothing to do with the tour.  It was just something I had to do. But, possibly – in my egotistical view – I think it was one of the things that helped bring the tour together. It came out in October, 2006 – about two months before we got together and decided to do the reunion tour.

I actually got a very sweet email from Sting, as I remember, praising the book, he was delighted by it, and that kind of warmed up the atmosphere. Then we met a couple of times between then and the decision to do the tour. It was great timing, actually. I had a lot of very lucky timing around that period. The book came out as we were getting ready to go on that tour.

I also had another book come out – a huge Taschen photography book about The Police that I’d finally pulled together. And then the Signature Telecaster came out. Everything came out and none of it was planned. It was an incredible year in that sense, plus the phenomenal thing of the tour as an opportunity to promote all of it.

SKIP: So, you do think it helped provide a bit of a catalyst for the reunion tour?

Andy Summers: Well, I’d like to think so. I mean, it could be a bit fanciful. But, the whole year, I could feel it coming that it probably was going to happen. The three of us had met up at the Sundance film festival in January of 2006, and we were photographed together in a bar, and that photo just went right around the world in about 30 minutes flat. I think that was the seed that sort of started the train of thought…and by the end of the year, we were there.

SKIP: You not only do a great job of telling The Police story, but you’re also pretty frank in there. At one point, when you’re describing your immersion in celebrity status at the height of The Police’s fame, you include a rant about how burned out you were on everything and you conclude that section by writing: “I am a rock-and-roll asshole, an emaciated millionaire prick…”

Andy Summers: Yeah, that’s probably true, things do get distorted.

SKIP: This struck me as fairly confessional stuff. Do you have regrets from those days?

Andy Summers: No, I don’t regret anything. Well, I mean, of course it did break up my marriage, and that was a regret. Luckily we did get back together after four and a half years. That’s all in the book. But, not much else in terms of regrets…I mean, it was an incredible time.

SKIP: Speaking of fame, at this point in your life, on an average day, are you able to, say, go to the supermarket without getting recognized and accosted? Does life feel better these days as compared with the height of the insanity in the early ’80s?

Andy Summers: Well, through 2007 and 2008,  it was insane. It’s always context, you know? This is what I’ve always found: if you’re actually engaged in – let’s say some ‘high profile career activity – people tend to recognize you more often. I live in LA and I can usually do most stuff without getting hassled. It depends.

But, if I go to an event, and – I’m, say, ‘looking the part’ – I get hassled a lot. If I go to New York, I get recognized a lot. I don’t know why, always in New York, more so than L.A.  I guess it’s because LA. is much more spread out – people are very used to celebrity. It’s always context.

Also, I think it depends on if you dress up or dress down…the way you look. There are certain nuances to it. I get quite a lot of it, and it’s not unpleasant. People are usually very nice. They come up and say that they enjoy what you’ve done, and that’s it. And I think a lot of it’s going on that you don’t even notice right away – you know nudging, whispering pointing. That’s always happening in restaurants and movies. But, Paris Hilton I’m not.

SKIP: Another thing I found fascinating in your book were all of the pre-Police stories, including the one about how  you sold Eric Clapton your Gibson Les Paul, which went on to be an iconic guitar for him.

Andy Summers: Yeah, I put that in the book thinking it was going to totally freak everybody out, and it didn’t freak people out as much as I thought. I thought that was a pretty amazing bit of info that had never really been put out there before.

SKIP: Yeah, I was wondering if he pays you royalties?

Andy Summers: I should have kept the bloody guitar. It’s probably worth half a million at this point. I don’t even know if he’s still got it. I should have asked him because he came to see us play at one point in England. I should have asked him for it back at the original price!

SKIP: Joking aside, you’ve lived a pretty amazing musical journey, with a longer back-story than many realize. How do you think your few extra years of age, wisdom, and experience made The Police a different experience for you, as opposed to what it must have been like for Stewart and Sting?

Andy Summers: Well that’s true. I’d been playing a bit longer than them. Stewart was 22…Sting was 23 or so…I’m ten years older than Stewart. So, maybe…I was able to bring a lot of balance to the situation. I was pretty good at arranging everything, and getting it to sound really like a band. I had that ability. I’d been in a lot of bands, so I could really get things to sound right quickly.

I felt really sure of myself, I suppose, at that point about what I was able to do. I’d been in California. I’d gone to college. I’d played classical guitar for many years. Then I came back to playing the electric, and I sort of felt ready for anything. I was blazing at that point. Also, I don’t know if ‘desperate’ is the right word, but I really wanted to get in the right situation, because I didn’t know how much longer I could go on just playing. I felt like I was too smart for it – I didn’t want to just be “some guy in a band”. Oddly enough, it was The Police that was the one that turned the corner for me. I was able to bring a lot to it – not only musical weight, but a drive and push because I really wanted it to succeed, as did the others. We were three very driven guys. That’s what made the group what it was.

SKIP: In terms of outside, non-musical interests, you’re obviously heavily into photography and did some exhibitions last year. Are there any other obsessions that you indulge in during your free time apart from music and photography?

Andy Summers: Well, yes…I don’t know about “obsessions”, although I’m probably an obsessive. Music is the main thing. I’m pretty involved with photography. I did four photography shows last year, 15 the year before, put another book out, and I’m working on another one presently. That’s an on-going situation.

This year, I really want to focus on playing. I’ve got another band thing coming up in the summer that I think is going to be really interesting. I can’t say anything about it just yet, but an announcement will be made. I’m working on this guitar record that I mentioned earlier right now. I really want to make a trio record of some kind this year, and I’m also working on “an evening with electric guitar and orchestra” – I’ve written quite a lot for that already. So, I’ve got a lot of creative projects in the works now.

Outside of guitar, photography, and composing, I’m a travel nut – particularly to exotic locales. I want to go to Tibet this summer, and I’m going to Africa in April. So, traveling would be my other obsession – apart from science, writing, and film of course.

SKIP: You’ve been incredibly prolific obviously with releasing music – correct me if I’m wrong: twelve solo albums and multiple collaborations. What do you consider to be the highlights from your body of work, and why?

Andy Summers: Yeah, outside of The Police – you can put that wherever you want to put it – but yes, I’ve made a lot of records. There’s so much to think about there…it’s a lot of records…I think they’re all pretty great actually…

SKIP: Probably an unfair question…

Andy Summers: Yeah, when you talk about my playing in the Police, you really need to listen to the solo records if you really want to hear what it’s all about. It’s really very different. Solos galore, as it were. I’ve made a lot of records of my own compositions, and they got more complicated as they went on, but the Monk and the Mingus records that I made got a lot of notice…particularly the Mingus record, I really tried to push the envelope on that one.

I played with the Kronos Quartet and had Debbie Harry, Q Tip, and Randy Brecker on it. That was quite a stretch. My last band cd was called Earth & Sky, which I think was pretty great – and I say that in all immodesty. I made a really interesting record about three years ago with Ben Verdery a great and innovative classical guitarist. It was a really sweet cd that was basically improvised in a couple of afternoons called First You Build A Cloud. Check out the version of “Bring On The Night” on that one.

To me, the Police music is, well, different. In that situation, you are dealing with songs and trying to get them over in the most convincing way possible and also reacting and dealing with the sensibilities of two other people – therein lies the challenge. The more harmonically advanced, complex music is all on the solo records. That’s where I am the composer and I try to extend the ideas beyond anything generic – and by that I mean on the guitar and compositionally.

SKIP: Would you say you enjoy the two equally, in different ways?

Andy Summers: Yes, I do, but they both occupy a different headspace. When we did the Police tour, I was able to do that with a 100% enthusiasm, and I enjoyed being in the band. You go back to that and it’s like “oh, I’m in a band again…” – something I’m very familiar with. It’s a little different from leading your own band, which I’ve done for many years, where you’re writing all the music and playing all the solos. But when you’re back in “the rock band”, it’s a different animal. It’s all about playing your parts and trying to play them really well. And you’re communicating about the parts and trying different things as a group. I know how to do that, and I’ve done it most of my life, so I really enjoyed it because you feel that you are being challenged and that your skills and experience are being called upon.

One of the things that goes along with that, with The Police getting back together after a very long break, is that you can’t be soft and just do caricatures of the old hits. We had to come out completely blazing and sort of blow everyone away. That was the attitude – it had to be really, really strong. And, of course I’d never stopped playing. I’d played millions and millions of gigs in between.   So I just brought all of this playing experience and years of making records back into this situation. So, if anything, there was just more strength to bring to it. Plus, on the technical side, the sound was phenomenal. I was able to get the best guitar sounds, I’d ever had.

So, it was a great experience on many levels. The only thing I can say on a slight negative about the Police tour was that it can get a bit boring playing pretty much the same set over and over and over again. Because I’m used to playing shows where I play different sets every night and I improvise all over the place and don’t always know what’s going to happen and I really get into different dialogues with the drummer that we don’t rehearse. Doing the big, expensive rock show, you can’t really do that.

Everything is distilled down to the essence, and everything is really worked out. Although, one of the things about it, and people don’t really understand this, it’s a sort of cliff-hanger in other ways. I mean, for example, I had to listen to eight beats in the in-ear monitors, and I had to make sure I can hear them, and I had come in with “Message In A Bottle” right on time.

If you miss moments like that, everything goes wrong because somebody else is playing something else. So, it was absolute precision timing. As well as trying to play with power and nail the solos and all the rest of it, you’d be listening intently, and trying to keep the crowd happy. It’s not just fingers on the neck of the guitar. You’re listening…hard – and you’ve got a sort of hyper-awareness, because it’s also second-by-second events for an hour and a half with thousands of people listening and watching you…

Click here to view the embedded video.

SKIP: I once heard a guitarist describe what you’re talking about there as being a bit like surfing, where you’ve got to not think about it too much and just try to stay on top of the wave and ride with it…

Andy Summers: Yeah, well obviously, like anything, if you’re going to do a thing like that you rehearse and rehearse and rehearse until you’ve pretty much got it right. Then after a couple of months on the road, it starts to become second nature, and you really cruise then. And that’s when the band really starts to get good because you’re not thinking about it – it’s imprinted at that point. That takes a while.

SKIP: I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Stewart.  Did you have a chance to read that, and particularly his remarks about you?

Andy Summers: Yes I did. Pretty amusing, and typical Stewart. I suppose I have to respond in kind. Its nice to be called a “motherfucker” on your instrument after all, that being a great compliment from someone you have spent half your life playing with – so thanks to him for that, and likewise I’m sure. As to this stuff about me not being acknowledged by other guitarists – my experience is the reverse.

But, maybe that’s Stewart’s relationship with other guitarists he has hired, as they probably can’t get a word in edgeways – something I think he would admit to. My experience is nothing but accolades and praise from the guitar world, but putting that to one side – ultimately, what compels you is the next idea – the next challenge, not stuff from the past which, sadly, you become a bit blasé about. There is a real danger in bathing in accolades – they will bring you down if you listen too hard – they should be accepted lightly and then you move on…

SKIP: What was your reaction to Stewart’s story about rehearsing with Henry Padovani in attendance?

Andy Summers: Well, yes you have to laugh about something like that. You couldn’t make it up – like something out of a badly written book about a rock band. But, in fact Henry Padovani did turn up. I’m not sure why. I didn’t even recognize him when he walked into the rehearsal room, but I did notice Sting and Stewart had these ridiculous smirks on their faces – like they were really enjoying this moment, probably because they are perverts and bastards.

So there I am for the next three days blazing away in the sessions with poor old Henry sitting in a chair opposite me like an acolyte – I felt very sorry for him actually. Stewart seems to enjoy seeing people in really compromising situations, so he really enjoyed it. It was a weird scene, but then it was Stewart who kicked Henry out of the band.

SKIP: I have to again quote something Stewart said regarding collaborations: “Andy, for all his great talents as a guitarist, IS a guitarist – which means he is allergic to all other guitarists.” Is it true that you prefer to be the sole guitarist in whatever project you’re involved with? What are the criteria, if there are any, by which you might enjoy collaboration with another guitarist?

Andy Summers: And he is a drummer…he was probably joking, but actually no – not in the least. I’m not allergic to guitarists by any stretch. In fact, I’ve enjoyed projects with other guitarists for many years, including the one I am just finishing with the great Andy York.

I also toured in Brazil five times with Victor Biglione, a very accomplished player from Rio, and I will be back there later this year on tour with Roberto Menescal – hardly sounds like an “allergy” does it? I have empathy with guitarists, not antipathy. The guitar is one instrument that really does have a great worldwide community and it is something to enjoy. Do trombonists have the same scene – might one gently ask? So, I’m not allergic to other guitarists.

The thing about the guitar is it’s one of the only instruments you can really play with somebody else. How often do two trumpeters get together and play? I love playing with other guitarists – if they meet certain criteria. As for the criteria, that’s a good question. You find out when you sit down with another person what they can do and how whole they are as a musician.

For me, they’ve got to have a high level of musical language, and they’ve got to be able to really play, and the most important thing – and the thing that I always find is a slight bug bear with most guitarists – is their sense of time and pulse…where they feel the time, and if they can accompany or not. This is the thing where most guitarists fall down.

I’m kind of surprised, but I think most guys work really hard at playing licks and solos, and they don’t learn about time, and how to comp, and have an abstract sense of time. The thing I enjoy most when I’m playing with another guitarist is if he’s got that abstract sense of time as if there’s a pianist accompanying you, then it’s a great thing…that’s really great to play with. And it’s much rarer than you’d think.

I think a lot of guys practice and practice and they study YouTube and they learn how to tap and they do this and they do that, but then when you put them in a real musical situation where you’ve got to be able to do all kinds of things – not just tap out a solo, but play the chords in the right time and accompany somebody else, and really be a musician – and then it becomes another thing and people can’t do it.

They worked so hard at shredding or whatever, but they cant play with a steady rhythmic pulse and you find you can’t really make music after-all. For me, most of the guys that I’ve played with are pretty all-around. They can play solos, but they’ve got the other stuff as well. One of the best that I ever played with, obviously he’s a great guitarist, was Larry Coryell, who accompanied so beautifully…I actually learned something off of him. We did a tour together and we played together quite a bit. The sense of music in the accompaniment…there was the abstraction of the time, but you could feel the pulse underneath. It was really there.

People don’t understand this about music. They say “How do you improvise?” and I always say “Learn the form, have it locked in your head, and then you can play any note you want.” People get so fucked up about playing the right scales over the chords, but in a more advanced sense it doesn’t really matter if you’ve got the time and the form in your head. There’s a whole other side to music that I think a lot of kids just don’t get. It’s also, to some degree, a difference between “rock soloing”, people learning how to tap and all these very corny diatonic scales they play and strict sixteenth notes and all that…but really solos ought to be much more abstract and play outside and inside the time, and bend the time, and always come back at the right moment. A lot of rock soloing doesn’t really allow for that, unless it’s a genius like Eddie Van Halen maybe.

SKIP: You know, your comments here are making me think of your solo in “Driven To Tears” for some reason, where it’s completely outside and takes you to a totally different place and then it comes back and you almost don’t know what hit you…

Andy Summers: Well, it’s appropriate for the song, and it was meant to be a summation of what the emotion was in the lyrics. Hence, the atonality.

SKIP: You talked a little about your Signature guitar models earlier – the Martin and the Fender guitars. I was curious how closely you worked with Fender and Martin on getting those right? You’re obviously pleased with the end results because you’re using them. But what all goes into that process?

Andy Summers: Yeah, it’s an interesting process. It’s a given that they’re the experts – they’re in their factories making millions of guitars every year, so you kind of have to go with the flow. I don’t try to dominate those situations. They were all quite enjoyable experiences.

Fender, for instance, came to me to ask if they could make the Telecaster. They said they were getting calls everyday about “When is Andy’s Telecaster coming out?” and asked me “Do you have it?” and I said “Yes, I do”. So, they came to my studio and they took the guitar apart, which killed me. They took the whole thing to pieces, photographed it, measured it, videoed it, and somehow made a map of all the scratches and the paint that was missing.

It’s kind of incredible what they did. So, they knew everything about it, and then they went off to start putting the basic model together.

The trickiest part about it was actually the electronics, which we took a few shots at in terms of the pickups, particularly getting the back pickup right. Because it’s got a Gibson humbucker on the front, and a Tele pickup on the bridge position, and then it’s got this overdrive built into it.

SKIP: Yeah, it’s a hybrid right?

Andy Summers: Yeah, it’s sort of almost like a Gibson-Fender. When I got it, somebody had played around with the guitar, as people did in those days, to create this sort of hybrid guitar. But it was just a great guitar, and it always played so beautifully. Of course, it was an incredibly lucky guitar for me. It changed my life.

But, so yeah, I had quite a lot of interaction with them. The guitar itself – the neck, the feel of the body, the weight, and everything – that was all exact. So, it was really just a question of getting the electronics right. It was kind of a fun thing to do, talking to them and trying out different things until we really felt that it was as close as we could get it. I ended up having the original and the new one both in the studio and playing them in and out through the amps until you couldn’t tell which one was which, and that’s really how we got to it.

The Martin was a lot of fun because I really enjoyed working with Dick Boak – that was probably the most enjoyable experience, making the steel string. I had them put Buddhist mudra hand gesture markers at the 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th and 15th frets for the dot positions on the neck.

It’s very beautiful, and it’s got a Lotus on the headstock, and then the edges of the soundboard were bound ’30s style black and white stripe pattern. It really gives it a look. They should have put it on the back as well.

Unfortunately, they didn’t. But, it’s a great looking guitar and it’s also great to play. And it’s got the pick-up in it and a little microphone in it. That was a really fun collaboration and I’d still like to do another one with them.

The Gibson one was reasonably straightforward. I was playing a 1960 335 with a beautiful, red cherry color. They looked it up and they think it was the only one made that year like that. So, they basically copied it. There was nothing else really done with that one – it was a straight copy.

There’s a part of me that really enjoys being around luthiers and around the wood in the shop and all that. I’ve always liked those guys, and getting involved with the design. I’m actually working at the moment with a very talented luthier named Mike Peters who is based in Los Angeles In fact, he is making me five different guitars as we speak.

Briefly – three of them are nylon string instruments, one a small Parlor size guitar along the lines of an instrument from the 1850’s, one a straight classical with a slightly shorter scale length than usual – about 640, and a nylon string Terz. In other words, a small guitar tuned to G and with a Nashville tuning – that one should be amazing. He is also building me an electric guitar with a classical neck. This was partly inspired after working with Flea [the bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers] and playing a night of Bach in a special concert we did.

I was experimenting with playing Bach on a Strat and putting it through some interesting effects – it ended up sounding very convincing and quite beguiling to the point where I wanted to extend the idea further and maybe record an album of Bach this way or put it in an ensemble or something. But, I needed a hybrid electric that I could really play classical on. And oh…Mike is also building me an electric Terz, because I found that playing Bach on the Terz with the raised G string was so strange that it worked. I am breathlessly waiting for all these babies to see the light of day.

SKIP: When I asked Stewart about the possibility of The Police doing something again, he surprisingly left the door open: “No matter what any of the three of us says about the way we feel now…it’s too powerful”. What are your thoughts on doing something as The Police again?

Andy Summers: I would pretty much go along with Stewart on that. I always think it’s unfinished business. Why does it have to end? People always want to hear the band and want to hear those songs. We haven’t killed each other. We made it through the tour. It was the third biggest tour of all time, only because we decided not to go on forever, otherwise it would have been the biggest. It was just a phenomenal success on all levels.

I don’t know, we’ll see. To me, I don’t think it’s wishful thinking…it is just too powerful to think it’s over. I don’t know. I’m not sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. Just getting on with the next project – so to speak.

SKIP: Do you think the experience of that tour changed your relationship with the other guys relative to the time before, when there was more of this feeling of unfinished business?

Andy Summers: I don’t know. We’ve been through such a life experience together. No matter what, the bond is so strong. It’s kind of like being married to somebody and stabbing them, and yet they still stay with you. It’s kind of crazy, but that’s the way it is. I feel the tension as I speak – it ain’t over…

SKIP: I guess I’m wondering if the tour kind of helped heal old wounds? Did everybody come out of it kind of feeling healthier about the whole thing?

Andy Summers: That’s a nice idea, but I don’t think so. It was difficult. At the beginning, after the first fight, I thought “We aren’t going to make it, it ain’t going to work, it’s not going to happen.” But, the minute we started playing in front of those gigantic audiences, it was so ridiculously strong…it was hard to moan and feel bad about it when you’ve got that kind of success enveloping you.

I do think we can do it again. Why not go back in the ring with Mike Tyson?

Maybe the excuse is “Hey, we’ve still got a few wounds that need healing – better go on tour again.” We could have gone on. But, certainly, apart from the emotional life and whatever else lies between the three of us, Live Nation would love to get us out there again. We are good for the industry. But, even if the business people put it together- just because we can make a lot of money, there are still the issues of “Can you guys get it together and sort it out?” and I’m speaking about emotion, not just music.

You’d think by now it would be “We’re all grown up now, no problem.” But, it’s still difficult. Because when you do this kind of thing, in this field, you’ve got to be vulnerable. That’s the way it is. You have to wear your emotions on your sleeve to be able to do it really well, so that all the magic can happen. It’s a bit like trying to defuse a bomb.

SKIP: Last question…given your incredibly successful career, what remaining musical ambitions do you have? Is there anybody you’d love to collaborate with, etc?

Andy Summers: Yes the future stretches on replete with possibility. I see no end to playing or writing music. It is very sustaining. As soon as I have wrapped this current cd, I am going back to the orchestral project that I have been nursing for awhile that is a sort of fantasia for electric guitar and orchestra, the guitar almost taking the part of a violin in the traditional sense of a violin concerto, the modern guitar having all the ability to sustain notes in the same way. I imagine I’ll be out with that sometime next year.

Apart from that and apart from one amusing thought about the life of a musician and that is that I seem to spend half of my life feeling fucked up in a bedroom in a foreign hotel – it’s really all about composing music all the time, giving life to the nonstop song in your head. I’m fortunate enough to have a fully working studio and an engineer so that does facilitate it somewhat, although I usually start with a guitar and a sheet of manuscript and a pencil.

I‘m working on another piece for guitar and twelve cellos – tricky notation. What else? I’m going to Dakar, Senegal next month to meet with some great Senegalese players. It will be interesting to see what emerges from that.

I guess the thing is if you really love music, that love doesn’t end just because you have a bit of commercial success – the curiosity and the quest goes on and on and on.

As to other projects, there is the possibility of a really interesting band later this year another book of photography and show to go with that, and I intend to trek into the heart of Tibet this summer.

SKIP: Thanks so much for your time Andy. I really enjoyed speaking with you.

Andy Summers: Thanks very much, it was a pleasure.

******

I asked Andy’s guitar tech, Dennis Smith,  about the rig Andy used both in the studio and on the road and he offered up the following list:

SPEAKERS

4 x Mesa Boogie 2 x 12 Recto cabs

(2 for center dry image – 1 left and 1 right for stereo wet image)

(It’s worth noting that Andy has been using Mesa Boogie cabs for 15 -20 years)

AMPS

Custom Audio Electronics OD-100 Mono Head (by Bob Bradshaw)

Mesa Boogie 2:90 Stereo Power Amp  (for colour)

Crown XTi 1000 Stereo Power Amp (clean)

Carvin DCM-150 Stereo Power Amp (clean)

SWITCHING

Bob Bradshaw switching System

FX

Lexicon PCM-70

Eventide Eclipse Harmonizer

TC  Electronics D TWO Delay

TC Electronics 1210 chorus

PEDALS

Love Pedal by Sean Michaels

Klon Centaur 1

Klon Centaur 2

Maxon OD9 Overdrive (copy of a tube screamer should note that it is better than a tube screamer)

Pigtronix Philosopher’s Tone by David Koltai

Fuzz Factory

CAE V-Compressor

Keeley Compressor

Redwitch Chorus

Redwitch Phasor

Empress Tremolo

Voodoo Labs Analog Chorus

Moog Moogerfooger

Diamond Memory Lane 2

Diamond Halo Chorus

Budda Amplification – Budda Wah wah pedal

Boss FV-500L (1) for continuous control

Boss FV-500L (2) for continuous control

Boss FV-500H Volume

Ernie Ball Volume

ACCESSORIES

Sennheiser wireless system

Voodoo Labs Pedal Power Plus 2

D’Addario Strings

Planet Waves accessories

Grover Allman Straps

Dunlop 2mm Picks

Various sizes REAL ROCK picks

GUITARS

Andy has well over 100 guitars including:

Andy Summers Telecaster

Fender Strat

Andy Summers Signature Gibson 335

Andy Summers Signature Martin Acoustic – See below what Dick Boak, Director, Artist Relations, Martin Guitar Company told us about his collaboration with Andy.

“Andy visited the factory to discuss the project in depth. We spent much of the day together. He identified the basics of his 000 Cutaway performance guitar idea, with Buddhist inspired inlays that I created (with much effort) graphically from a multitude of varied “mudra” hand positions, plus a lotus blossom with root for the headstock. These drawings went through many incantations. The challenge with the inlays was to draw them with correctly sized routed lines that could be filled with black epoxy, then cut to shape. This was an entirely new techniques that enabled the pieces to be cut from a single piece instead of being a jig-saw assembly of many pieces.

Michael Gurian worked with me to create the checkered top binding that Andy has always loved. The resulting guitar was/is stunning and unique. It is what Andy prescribed – an impressive acoustic electric cutaway made for professional stage and studio use.

Lastly, Andy wanted to plug in of course, so we chose the new (at the time) Fishman Ellipse Blend electronics package with a mic/under-saddle pickup combination and on-board soundhole lip controls allows effortless amplification.”  – Dick Boak, Director, Artist Relations, Martin Guitar Company

 

Playing the supportive role as a musician calls for heightened awareness, deep listening, patience, and an open mind.

Police are appealing for help identifying four suspects believed to have stolen a Martin D-28 acoustic guitar worth $15,000 from a music store in Baltimore, Maryland.

The guitar – located high on the wall in the acoustic room at Music Land in Bel Air – was the target of a group of four thieves believed to be of Romani origin, police say. As CCTV footage shows, the suspects wait for the employee present to step out of the room, before taking the guitar from the wall and concealing it inside a big winter coat.

• READ MORE: How Taylor quietly revolutionised its most iconic design with the Next Generation Grand Auditorium

“One of the female suspects was on lookout,” says store owner Larry Noto [via WMAR-2 News Baltimore]. “The other two suspects took the guitar. She had a long black winter coat on, a very puffy coat. It was freezing out. You know how it was a couple of weeks ago and had sort of a black bag that they slipped the guitar in.”

It’s believed that the theft took place in under a minute. Noto explains of the rare, high-price D-28: “This was a consignment piece from 1947, so a very rare, special piece that we just happened to have on sale as part of our consignment programme.”

“You know you trust people, and they came and they even said, ‘Oh, you have such a nice store,’ and we just thought these were nice people looking for guitars,” says Noto. 

“You do feel violated and it was really sad and disturbing to watch the video that had happened. We’re a local family-owned business, [and have] served the community for 55 years.You just don’t think something like that’s going to happen to you.”

Those with information on any of the suspects are encouraged to contact Bel Air police on 410-638-4500. 

Sadly, music gear remains a common target for thieves. Just this month, guitarist Chris Buck appealed for help finding a selection of gear stolen from his car in Bristol.

And Music Land is far from the first brick-and-mortar store to deal with thieves; for example, in 2024, criminals made off with a $5,200 Gibson Les Paul by simply walking out of a Canada store with it.

The post Thieves steal Martin D-28 worth $15k from Baltimore music store: “You feel violated – it’s really sad” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

One of the greatest guitar players who ever lived, Eddie Van Halen is widely credited with popularising two-handed tapping as a guitar technique. 

Many guitarists dabbled with tapping before Eddie entered the limelight in the late ‘70s – with evidence of the technique predating hard rock by decades, used by the likes of Harvey Mandel, Frank Zappa, Steve Hackett and Italian guitarist Vittorio Camardese, to name a few.

But it was Eddie who really brought tapping to a mainstream audience following the release of Van Halen’s landmark debut in 1978, and has become somewhat synonymous with the technique.

• READ MORE: Quiet Riot’s Kelly Garni says Randy Rhoads didn’t have a rivalry with Eddie Van Halen, rather a “fascination”

And in a newly unearthed 1978 interview with rock journalist, author and Eddie’s close friend Steve Rosen, the legendary guitarist can be heard recounting his experience stumbling across the technique, before it would later captivate audiences on classic Van Halen cut Eruption.

“It’s like having a sixth finger on your left hand,” Eddie explained shortly following the release of the band’s debut album. “Instead of picking, you’re hitting a note on the fretboard.”

Asked by Rosen whether he developed the technique himself or had heard it elsewhere, Eddie replied: “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 continued: “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.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Eddie reflected on how he “hates” bands at the time who overloaded their records with overdubs and extra tracks. He explained that the majority of the songs on Van Halen were relatively simple in terms of additional guitar tracks.

“I’d say out of the 10 songs, three of them, like Runnin’ with the Devil – [that’s] a melodic solo, so I put a rhythm underneath it, you know.

“Songs that have a spontaneous solo like I’m the One, Ice Cream Man, and most of the songs on the album – Ted [Templeman], our producer, felt, and us also, that it was good enough on its own without fattening it up. Also then when we play it live it sounds the same.

He went on: “I hate people – without naming names – all these bands, they over-produce in the studio, and then when they walk out on stage people go, ‘Wow, is that the same band?’ It doesn’t sound the same. 

“With us, it sounds exactly the same, and maybe even better, because you get to see us doing it at the same time. It’s very energetic. We’ll get you up and shake your ass.”

You can watch the full unearthed 1978 interview below: 

The post “I started dicking around and said, ‘F**k, this is a totally new technique”: Eddie Van Halen explains the origins of his legendary tapping technique in unearthed 1978 interview appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Electro-Harmonix introduces Bass Big Muff Pi 2

Hylight UK has introduced their new Custom SD 2x12 amp, a 20-wattcombo that builds upon the company’s legacy dating back to the 1960s.

With modern features such as Effects Loop and Line Out, the new Hylight Custom SD "Shiny Diamond" combo (VR204C-212F) is powered by a pair of EL84s and offers clean headroom and bright chime, ideal for crunchy British rock.

The amp delivers 20-watt output at full power and has a built-in attenuator (via splitting the transformer, activated with a toggle switch on the front control panel) which can dial back the output to ½-watt. Its preamp tube configuration includes four 12AX7s/ECC83s and the combo comes standard equipped with a pair of Fane F70 12” speakers. Other speaker options include Fane A60s, Crescendos reissue, A30, F30, F25, and F90. Hylight also offers Celestion speakers options upon request.

This 20-watt combo is made in England with the best available components for those guitar players who are looking for a classic British sounding amp based on the early 70’s models.

Hylight Electronics has been making high quality amps since the 1960's. Bands such as Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues, the Rolling Stones, and The Who have all used Hylight-made amps to help create their legendary sounds. With their military-spec chassis, point-to-point wiring, and marine-grade cabinets, Hylight amps are known for their rugged, professional build quality.

The new Highlight Custom SD 2x12 carries a street price of $3799. For more information visit hylight.co.uk.

Beloved and influential Los Angeles trio Failure – Ken Andrews, Greg Edwards, and Kelli Scott – announce Location Lost, their seventh studio album and fourth since reuniting in 2014 after a 17-year-hiatus, along with a spring North American tour. The LP features nine new tracks that showcase a focused, modern and ever-evolving vision of Failure’s utterly unique sound, led by first single "The Air’s on Fire." Location Lost will arrive April 24th as the first release under Failure Records/Arduous Records/Virgin Music Group.

Pre-save / pre-order Location Lost here: https://ffm.to/locationlost.

Recorded after the completion of the recent Hulu/Disney+ documentary Every Time You Lose Your Mind, Location Lost doesn’t arrive as a victory lap or a nostalgia exercise. Instead, it sounds like a band actively negotiating where — and who — they are now. “It’s very different,” Edwards says plainly of the follow-up to 2021’s Wild Type Droid. “There are sounds and parts that really don’t have any precedence within the Failure world.”

“The Air’s on Fire” embodies this sense of disorienting unfamiliarity. Almost immediately after finishing editing the documentary, Andrews suffered a serious back injury that required surgery. The operation was technically successful; the recovery was not. The single is the album’s most literal confrontation with Andrews’ medical trauma, its oppressive atmospherics and crushing bottom end mirroring his struggle to breathe on his own. “That song is directly about my surgery and waking up,” he explains. “I basically coded. Everything was spinning. I kept saying, ‘Turn the air on. I’m fine—just take me home.’ I was definitely not fine.”

Listen to “The Air’s On Fire” HERE and watch the video for the track, directed by Sean Stout, HERE.

WATCH & SHARE “THE AIR’S ON FIRE” OFFICIAL VIDEO

At the opposite emotional pole is the largely acoustic, straight-up breakup song “The Rising Skyline” featuring Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams, an artist whose longtime public admiration for Failure has unquestionably helped introduce the band to an entirely new generation of listeners. The album also delivers dose after dose of Andrews, Edwards and Scott’s signature creative and instrumental interplay, from the warning bell-like guitar chimes on propulsive opener “Crash Test Delayed,” to the elastic, bass-driven groove of “Halo and Grain” and the grinding, methodical wall of sound on “Solid State,” which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on 1996’s all-time-classic Fantastic Planet. Other songs such as the slow-burning, dream-inspired closer “Moonlight Understands” and the stuttering “Someday Soon” emerged from singular, unrepeatable moments.

Failure will premiere material from Location Lost on their spring headline North American tour, kicking off with an album release show on April 21 at Zebulon in Los Angeles and wrapping in Toronto on May 20th. All Under Heaven is supporting all headline dates starting May 3. Their run of shows also includes festival appearances at Las Vegas’ Sick New World, Chicago’s SPACE ECHO @ Radius and Daytona Beach’s Welcome to Rockville. Tickets go on sale to the public this Friday, February 20th at 10am local time. For tickets links and more information, visit https://www.failureband.com.

Failure’s musical communion has intrigued critics, fans, and peers for more than three decades. Following Comfort and Magnified, the trio created what is largely considered one of the ‘90s most influential and innovative albums, 1996’s Fantastic Planet. The 17-track collection earned rave reviews and onboarded a trove of new fans and also led the band to headline Lollapalooza’s second stage and craft one of the era’s most recognizable videos, “Stuck on You.” After a 17-year hiatus, Failure returned with The Heart Is a Monster in 2015, followed by 2018’s In the Future Your Body Will Be the Furthest Thing from Your Mind and 2021’s Wild Type Droid.

‘LOCATION LOST’ TRACK LISTING

01 - Crash Test Delayed

02 - The Rising Skyline ft. Hayley Williams

03 - Solid State

04 - The Air's on Fire

05 - Halo and Grain

06 - Someday Soon

07 - Location Lost

08 - A Way Down

09 - Moonlight Understands

FAILURE TOUR DATES

Apr 21 Los Angeles, CA - Zebulon (Album Release Show)

Apr 25 Las Vegas - Sick New World Festival

May 02 Chicago, IL - SPACE ECHO @ Radius

May 03 Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop

May 05 Nashville, TN - Basement East

May 06 Atlanta, GA Masquerade - Hell

May 08 Daytona Beach, FL - Welcome To Rockville Festival

May 09 Asheville, NC - Eulogy

May 10 Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle

May 12 New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge

May 13 Cambridge, MA - Sinclair

May 14 Hamden, CT - Space

May 15 Washington, DC - Union Stage

May 16 Harrisburg, PA - Arrow at Archer Music Hall

May 17 Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts

May 19 Detroit, MI - Shelter

May 20 Toronto, ON - Opera House

Beloved and influential Los Angeles trio Failure – Ken Andrews, Greg Edwards, and Kelli Scott – announce Location Lost, their seventh studio album and fourth since reuniting in 2014 after a 17-year-hiatus, along with a spring North American tour. The LP features nine new tracks that showcase a focused, modern and ever-evolving vision of Failure’s utterly unique sound, led by first single "The Air’s on Fire." Location Lost will arrive April 24th as the first release under Failure Records/Arduous Records/Virgin Music Group.

Pre-save / pre-order Location Lost here: https://ffm.to/locationlost.

Recorded after the completion of the recent Hulu/Disney+ documentary Every Time You Lose Your Mind, Location Lost doesn’t arrive as a victory lap or a nostalgia exercise. Instead, it sounds like a band actively negotiating where — and who — they are now. “It’s very different,” Edwards says plainly of the follow-up to 2021’s Wild Type Droid. “There are sounds and parts that really don’t have any precedence within the Failure world.”

“The Air’s on Fire” embodies this sense of disorienting unfamiliarity. Almost immediately after finishing editing the documentary, Andrews suffered a serious back injury that required surgery. The operation was technically successful; the recovery was not. The single is the album’s most literal confrontation with Andrews’ medical trauma, its oppressive atmospherics and crushing bottom end mirroring his struggle to breathe on his own. “That song is directly about my surgery and waking up,” he explains. “I basically coded. Everything was spinning. I kept saying, ‘Turn the air on. I’m fine—just take me home.’ I was definitely not fine.”

Listen to “The Air’s On Fire” HERE and watch the video for the track, directed by Sean Stout, HERE.

WATCH & SHARE “THE AIR’S ON FIRE” OFFICIAL VIDEO

At the opposite emotional pole is the largely acoustic, straight-up breakup song “The Rising Skyline” featuring Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams, an artist whose longtime public admiration for Failure has unquestionably helped introduce the band to an entirely new generation of listeners. The album also delivers dose after dose of Andrews, Edwards and Scott’s signature creative and instrumental interplay, from the warning bell-like guitar chimes on propulsive opener “Crash Test Delayed,” to the elastic, bass-driven groove of “Halo and Grain” and the grinding, methodical wall of sound on “Solid State,” which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on 1996’s all-time-classic Fantastic Planet. Other songs such as the slow-burning, dream-inspired closer “Moonlight Understands” and the stuttering “Someday Soon” emerged from singular, unrepeatable moments.

Failure will premiere material from Location Lost on their spring headline North American tour, kicking off with an album release show on April 21 at Zebulon in Los Angeles and wrapping in Toronto on May 20th. All Under Heaven is supporting all headline dates starting May 3. Their run of shows also includes festival appearances at Las Vegas’ Sick New World, Chicago’s SPACE ECHO @ Radius and Daytona Beach’s Welcome to Rockville. Tickets go on sale to the public this Friday, February 20th at 10am local time. For tickets links and more information, visit https://www.failureband.com.

Failure’s musical communion has intrigued critics, fans, and peers for more than three decades. Following Comfort and Magnified, the trio created what is largely considered one of the ‘90s most influential and innovative albums, 1996’s Fantastic Planet. The 17-track collection earned rave reviews and onboarded a trove of new fans and also led the band to headline Lollapalooza’s second stage and craft one of the era’s most recognizable videos, “Stuck on You.” After a 17-year hiatus, Failure returned with The Heart Is a Monster in 2015, followed by 2018’s In the Future Your Body Will Be the Furthest Thing from Your Mind and 2021’s Wild Type Droid.

‘LOCATION LOST’ TRACK LISTING

01 - Crash Test Delayed

02 - The Rising Skyline ft. Hayley Williams

03 - Solid State

04 - The Air's on Fire

05 - Halo and Grain

06 - Someday Soon

07 - Location Lost

08 - A Way Down

09 - Moonlight Understands

FAILURE TOUR DATES

Apr 21 Los Angeles, CA - Zebulon (Album Release Show)

Apr 25 Las Vegas - Sick New World Festival

May 02 Chicago, IL - SPACE ECHO @ Radius

May 03 Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop

May 05 Nashville, TN - Basement East

May 06 Atlanta, GA Masquerade - Hell

May 08 Daytona Beach, FL - Welcome To Rockville Festival

May 09 Asheville, NC - Eulogy

May 10 Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle

May 12 New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge

May 13 Cambridge, MA - Sinclair

May 14 Hamden, CT - Space

May 15 Washington, DC - Union Stage

May 16 Harrisburg, PA - Arrow at Archer Music Hall

May 17 Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts

May 19 Detroit, MI - Shelter

May 20 Toronto, ON - Opera House

Upon resurrecting the long-lost Dual Op-Amp Big Muff 2 circuit with Josh Scott of JHS Pedals, Electro-Harmonix recognized that the pedal would be an instant favorite of low-end lovers and went to work “bassifying” the pedal. Enter the low-end optimized Bass Big Muff Pi 2 with features selected for full spectrum fuzz tones of all flavors.

The Bass Big Muff Pi 2 features the original’s pushed mid grunt and classic singing sustain any Big Muff lover would feel at home with. The bass version now includes a clean BLEND knob and Bass Boost for extended tone performance with Bass Guitar or any player looking for extra clarity and low-end. The typical VOL/TONE/SUSTAIN knobs set overall output volume, treble/bass eq balance, and distortion respectively. BLEND sets the overall wet/dry mix to dial in the perfect balance of fuzzy chaos and solid fundaments from your clean tone. The BASS BOOST switch adds even more low-end to your signal for booming bass tone even at higher TONE knob settings.

Additionally, the pedal features a silent true bypass footswitch with Latching/Momentary Action. Click the footswitch for normal latching functionality or press and hold the footswitch of a momentary burst of fuzz.

The Bass Big Muff Pi 2 ships a 9 Volt battery (power supply optional), is available now and has a U.S. Street Price of $122.00.

All has been quiet in the world of The 1975 since their headline Glastonbury set last year, but it seems frontman Matty Healy has been undertaking a series of random side quests.

At the end of their set last summer, the word ‘DOGS’ flashed up on stage. Since then, Healy has suggested that the band are working on not one, but two new records during a Q&A at a college, and that DOGS could be the name of at least one of them.

• READ MORE: Yungblud says “it’s only the people who didn’t reach the mountaintop” who are “gatekeeping” rock music

No further details have yet been revealed, and it looks like Healy has his hands full. In a recent viral video, he was seen gifting a TV to an unsuspecting Uber driver, and in another viral post was photographed jumpstarting someone’s car.

Healy had recently taken over comedian Dax Flame’s Instagram for a week, where he shared a number of skits, including his random TV giveaway. A few weeks prior, a TikTok circulated of Healy helping to jumpstart the stranger’s car after it broke down.

You can see both posts below:

View this post on Instagram

 

View this post on Instagram

At the band’s Glasto set, Healy had a rather cool guitar in-hand: a creation of one of the Fender Custom Shop’s most interesting builders, Levi Perry, who has earned a rep for loading his builds with built-in effects. The Fuzz Brain ’67 Tele Matty used on the revered Pyramid Stage offered just that, with built in fuzz, octave and delay circuits.

Whether or not Healy has put any of his custom builds of vintage guitars down on the new albums to come from The 1975 is not yet clear, but one thing we’re certain of is that it won’t be heavy. In 2024, Healy said, “For me… unless you’re Glassjaw, Converge, Refused, or further than that, heavy is fucking lame… We can do heavy all day long, but we’re not because it wasn’t new. We wanted to be something quite new.”

The post “The king of random side quests”: Matty Healy goes viral for helping jumpstart a stranger’s car – and giving a TV to a perplexed Uber driver appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Should the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame be reserved only for veterans of the rock genre? It’s a stance Gene Simmons holds, and made clear during a recent appearance on the Legends N Leaders podcast. 

“Hip-hop does not belong in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame – nor does opera or symphony orchestras,” he said.

Whether or not the Rock Hall should include artists from a wide range of genres is up for debate – but the fact remains that many non-rock artists, including hip-hop veterans like Public Enemy, Grandmaster Flash and Run-D.M.C., count themselves as inductees.

• READ MORE: “Steve couldn’t utter a word. John stubbed out cigarettes on the back of his hand”: The 1976 gig that “petrified” the Sex Pistols

And in a new interview with TMZ, Public Enemy leader Chuck D refutes the comments of his fellow Rock Hall of Famer Gene Simmons, saying he’s missing the “roll” part of the Hall’s name.

“Everything else other than rock, when rock ‘n’ roll splintered in the ’60s, is the roll,” he explains [via NME]. “Soul music, reggae, hip-hop, which is rap music. Hip-hop is a culture, so it embodies sight, sound, story, and style.”

“But music, the vocal on top of the music, has already been determined. So that’s the roll, that’s flow, that’s the soul in it. Kiss are rock gods, but they don’t have a lot of roll to them.”

Chuck D is thee right person to address Gene Simmons’ tone deaf commentary.

I love how he focuses on the importance of music creation and narratives because it’s not enough to own our stories.

We have to keep telling them too. #BHMpic.twitter.com/qSIqLcxNTZ

— Renee (@PettyLupone) February 13, 2026

Gene Simmons attracted criticism with his initial comments, in which he spoke about hip-hop: “It’s not my music. I don’t come from the ghetto. It doesn’t speak my language.”

In a recent interview with People, the bassist denied that his comments were racially veiled, saying, “I stand by my words,” while adding: “Ghetto is a Jewish term… How could you be, when rock is Black music? It’s just a different Black music than hip-hop, which is also Black music.”

“Rock ‘n’ roll owes everything to Black music,” he concluded, adding: “All the major forms of American music owe their roots to Black music.”

The post “Kiss are rock gods, but they don’t have a lot of roll to them”: Public Enemy leader Chuck D responds to Gene Simmons’ comments that hip-hop doesn’t belong in the Rock Hall appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

When a band’s been in the game long enough, chances are they’ve been through a number of lineup changes to keep the wheels turning. And generally, fans will always hold one lineup in higher stead than others.

The ‘golden era’ of an artist’s career, while sometimes reflective of their period of peak commercial success, is often relative, and is different to different fans depending on when they discovered the artist’s music.

• READ MORE: “Steve couldn’t utter a word. John stubbed out cigarettes on the back of his hand”: The 1976 gig that “petrified” the Sex Pistols

Hard rock outfit Whitesnake were a band with a laundry list of previous members, including Steve Vai, Bernie Marsden, Joel Hoekstra, Doug Aldrich and so many more over the course of their on-and-off 40-year career.

And in a new interview with Chaoszine, Dutch guitarist Adrian Vandenberg reflects on the fanbase’s tendency to have favourites in terms of lineups.

Remembering the band’s Restless Heart tour in 1997, he says: “In certain countries, it went great. South America, man, people went nuts. But in many other countries, they only wanted to hear the 1987 album.

“And England… holy shit, England has always been so split up. You got the guys saying, ‘Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden, that’s the real Whitesnake.’ Then the other guys go, ‘No, no, John Sykes is the shit.’

“It’s like Van Halen, you know? ‘Sammy Hagar is better than David Lee Roth.’ ‘No, Roth is the guy.’ I don’t know why people do that. Come on, man, you like the band, or you don’t, you know? So, the same thing was happening on that tour. People were expecting that big pompous 1987 sound in some countries.”

“We had some surreal experiences in weird cities, man,” he also says. “Great memories, and it was different playing with that lineup. We hit Japan, Europe, South America and Russia, which will probably never happen again the way the world is now. At least not in our lifetime – it’s a strange world we live in right now.”

The post Whitesnake guitarist thinks fans should stop comparing different band lineups: “Come on, man, you like the band, or you don’t!” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

It’s been four long years since the Red Hot Chili Peppers released 2022’s Unlimited Love – but there might be something new on the horizon. In a new interview with MOJO, bassist Flea hints that the band have been cooking up some new tunes.

While this March will see Flea releasing his solo jazz solo debut, Honora, fans have been wondering what that means for the bassist’s main gig with the Chili Peppers. MOJO addresses the elephant in the room, asking whether there’s any plans for a 13th album. “We’ve been writing music together, recording at [guitarist] John Frusciante’s house, and the music feels great,” Flea reveals.

• READ MORE: How to get better recorded guitar sounds at home with mobile absorbers

As Flea puts it, the process has been a bit longer due to the hunt for “magic” in the studio. “Ultimately, once we start playing, it’s about… just catching a magic groove and doing it good,” he adds.

It’s the same approach he has adopted while recording his upcoming jazz record, and one he feels about music on the whole. While it’s an intuitive process working on his solo project, it can be more difficult in a band, due to there being multiple moving cogs in the machine. “It’s like being in a marriage with four people that’s always moving and changing, all these challenges and all the things that you have to deal with,” he explains.

“Egos are inescapable and my ego is as big and as fragile as anybody’s. But it’s always, no matter what, this intrinsic part of who I am and it’s alive and it’s beautiful and you never know what shape it’s going to take next. I really feel like that right now.”

In the past, Flea has made it clear that he never wants to produce rock for rock’s sake. In fact, in 2016 he told SiriusXM’s Pearl Jam Radio that he considered “rock music [to be] a dead form in a lot of ways”, far from its ‘90s heyday of “exciting” releases.

With that in mind, it makes sense that Flea is exploring other avenues of sound – and why the Red Hot Chili Peppers are determined to take their time making their next record, just to ensure their signature blend of funk, rap and rock feel utterly fresh.

Flea’s Honora solo debut will drop on  27 March, and will feature a slew of exciting artists including Thom Yorke and Nick Cave.

The post “We’ve been writing music together, recording at John’s house – it feels great”: Flea hints at new Red Hot Chili Peppers music on the horizon appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

As the legend goes, Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen were like two ships passing in the night. Despite both earning their stripes on the 1970’s Sunset Strip, the pair of iconic guitarists rarely crossed paths. But that didn’t mean they didn’t know about each other.

With Quiet Riot and Van Halen both on the rise, Randy and Eddie became some of the hottest guitarists on the strip. It was impossible not to compare the two – especially when both bands would often play just doors down from each other. “We became well aware of Van Halen,” Quiet Riot’s original bassist Kelly Garni tells the Booked On Rock Podcast [transcribed by Ultimate Guitar]. “Especially when we’d [perform] at the Starwood… we knew they were playing down the street at Gazzarri’s.”

• READ MORE: How to get better recorded guitar sounds at home with mobile absorbers

Garni notes that Van Halen existed in very different circles, frequenting venues that weren’t exactly Quiet Riot’s “type of a club”. However, their differences didn’t mean there was a rivalry between the pair. “There was no competition,” Garni explains. “Most certainly, there was no competition in Randy’s world. Because Randy didn’t compete.”

“It just wasn’t in Randy to try to compete,” he continues. “He couldn’t! The way his brain was wired… he could not form a thought like ‘Oh, I’m gonna be better than that guy!’”

In fact, rather than a rivalry, there was a fascination; Rhoads was curious to see just what Eddie Van Halen had to offer. “He went down to Gazzarri’s because people were talking about this guy,” Garni recalls. “Randy said, ‘I’ll go see what the deal is’… So he went there, he saw him play, and he went, ‘Yeah, OK, the guy’s good.’”

Apparently Rhoads even got himself backstage to meet his supposed ‘rival’. “Randy was trying to get backstage to meet him, and he did get back there…” the bassist says. “But Eddie was acting kind of crazy and bouncing off of walls in his underwear. And Randy was like, ‘Oh okay… not the best time to meet this guy.’”

So, rather than leaving with a burning sense of rivalry, Rhoads only thought: “‘He was really good, but he looked kind of nutty.’”

The pair went on to perform on just one bill together on 23 April 1977 at California’s Glendale Community College. It’s unknown just how many times the pair crossed paths beyond that… but many musicians have claimed that Rhoads and EVH developed more of a ‘rivalry’ in their later years.

Ozzy Osbourne in particular sensed some competition between the pair. The Black Sabbath legend referenced an archival 1982 Guitar Player clip to prove his point, noting how Eddie claimed “everything [Rhoads] did he learned from me”, and later adding “he was good, but I don’t really think he did anything that I haven’t done”.

“I heard recently that Eddie said he taught Randy all his licks … he never,” Osbourne told Rolling Stone in 2022.

Alongside the strange claim, he also claimed that Rhoads “didn’t have a nice thing to say about Eddie”, either. “Maybe they had a falling out or whatever, but they were rivals,” he said.

The archival Eddie clip was also briefly mentioned in a 2022 documentary, Randy Rhoads: Reflection of a Guitar Icon. One of Rhoads’ friends, Kim McNair, explained: “This was the years of guitar heroes. To a large degree, bands were judged on their guitar player. I think all the guitar players in town kept up on each other.”

The post “Eddie was acting crazy and bouncing off of walls in his underwear. Randy was like, ‘Oh okay… not the best time to meet this guy’”: Quiet Riot’s Kelly Garni says Randy Rhoads didn’t have a rivalry with Eddie Van Halen, rather a “fascination” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Unapologetically brash and loaded with attitude, it’s hard to imagine punk’s standard-bearers could suffer pre-performance nerves. But for all their cocksure anti-establishmentism, The Sex Pistols were prone to pre-gig anxiety like anyone else.

As journalist and photographer John Ingham recalls in a new feature in MOJO magazine, there was one gig in particular that struck fear into the hearts of Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock.

• READ MORE: “Mick and Keith operate in a different financial stratosphere”: The stark financial disparity of the Rolling Stones revealed by Ronnie Wood son’s court case

Cast your imagination back to 9 July, 1976; the Pistols are gearing up for a gig at London’s 2,100-capacity Lyceum Theatre, supporting Supercharge and The Pretty Things. As Ingham recalls, this was the first time they’d played in a “big space”, and nerves were high.

“What was really strange was that it seemed such an amazingly unimportant gig,” Ingham says. “And they were so absolutely petrified before, backstage. Steve couldn’t talk, he couldn’t utter a word, he had the look of death on his face. To them, it was extremely important. It was the first time they’d played in a big space.

“John was really nervous. I found that strange. It hadn’t occurred to me that they wanted to win people over. That was the night that John stubbed out cigarettes on the back of his hand while he was singing. It frightened me.”

But the four-piece ultimately rose to the occasion: “Up until this point, they were getting better at it, but it was still the same kind of noise…” Ingham continues. “Suddenly there was this major step up in musical ability. Glen was phenomenal, the bass playing was tremendous. Paul was right on the beat. In one night, suddenly they were all just there.”

The Sex Pistols are still active, with a number of shows planned for 2026. However, John Lydon is no longer in the fold (Frank Carter now holds frontman duties), and has documented his somewhat fractured relations with his former bandmates in recent years.

“Come on Mr. Carter, you’re not Johnny Rotten, I am,” he told Frank as the band approached their reunion tour last year, previously saying in reference to his former bandmates: “I am the Pistols, and they’re not.”

More recently, guitarist Steve Jones said he has “nothing but love” for Lydon, saying he’ll “never shut the door” on a reunion, but asserting that he didn’t think “John would have the energy like Frank does”.

The post “Steve couldn’t utter a word. John stubbed out cigarettes on the back of his hand”: The 1976 gig that “petrified” the Sex Pistols appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

In Converge’s world, things don’t happen by accident – if they say something, they mean it. So, when vocalist Jacob Bannon ushered in the metalcore pioneers’ new record Love is Not Enough by observing that “realism is missing from a lot of modern music”, you knew they planned on doing something about it. “People, especially young people, crave authenticity,” guitarist Kurt Ballou expounds. “The process of recording metal music has been more akin to data entry than playing instruments for quite a long time now – there’s a whole generation who have been raised with this sort of ‘perfect’ music.”

• READ MORE: How Angel Du$t became the most unconventional band in hardcore

Love is Not Enough is not that. It’s a hulking, febrile thing, alive in all its grit and human imperfections. It is Converge at their most Converge – a band reflecting upon the artistic choices and creative bonds that have underpinned a genre-shaping 35 year run. There are solos on the title track with the head-spinning ferocity of Axe to Fall’s all-timer of an opener Dark Horse, for example, while To Feel Something finds Ballou reinterpreting stabbing, lurching Jane Doe-era carnage from the perspective of someone who’s learned to control the violence at their fingertips. Following on from 2021’s Bloodmoon: I, a collaboration with modern goth icon Chelsea Wolfe, Ben Chisholm, and Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky, it is about uncovering fresh ore in old hills.

“There are songs on Bloodmoon that I barely played guitar on,” Ballou says. “Making Love is Not Enough, that goes back to regular Converge, where we are much more comfortable in our roles. The division of labour is well established in the band and it’s back to being focused on our own stuff. But, also, there’s less space to hide. The guitar ideas are mine, and I’m playing them all. There’s a deliberate lack of collaboration on it. Guitar solos are not my thing, but we’re not having guest musicians here. No one’s playing this solo for me, so I gotta fucking do it. So, you know, I did it.”

Image: Press

Caving In

Recorded at Ballou’s God City facility in Salem, Massachusetts, the album is chiefly a document of a band capable of caving your head in from 10 paces. Bassist Nate Newton and drummer Ben Koller are a rhythm section with an unparalleled track record of unleashing sense-rearranging barrages, while Ballou and Bannon remain a pugilistic pairing pushing each other to scabrous new heights.

If you A-B the studio version of Love is Not Enough’s closer We Were Never The Same against its staging in Converge’s recent Audiotree session, you get a visceral idea of how close they have come to capturing the real thing. “When it comes to recording hardcore and metal my approach is always, ‘What does it feel like to watch this band live?’” Ballou says. “What does that excitement feel like, and can I try to capture that excitement? That’s my goal.”

Ballou is an interesting case study for this stuff, though, because he’s a working producer as well as a gnarly guitar player in a hardcore band. When he’s collaborating on Nails’ latest voyage into the death metal morass or helping Fleshwater assemble molasses-thick shoegaze-pop, his word isn’t law.

In fact, his views on recording music are malleable and driven by the desire to get at what people really want. “In my job, I interact with younger people who are fascinated with analog equipment – they’re taking pictures of their session with point and shoot film cameras,” he continues. “But I don’t want to be a luddite. I don’t want to be too cool for modern techniques.”

“All that technology exists for a reason,” he continues. “Incredible engineering has been done to create amp sims, drum replacements, audio file warping and tuning, and I do use that stuff sometimes when it’s helpful to present the music in the most flattering way. I’m not opposed to it. But I think that one of the things about technology that is important to keep in mind is exercising some restraint.

One of the things about an older style of recording is not so much that tape sounds better than digital, or tube amps sound better than modellers, it’s more that the process of using analog equipment necessitated a certain type of workflow. It didn’t require restraint when you were limited to 24 tracks. That was just what there was, and you had to make it work. Now, you would have to make a choice to limit yourself.”

Tools Of The Trade

That studio-rooted discipline also has interesting parallels with Ballou’s attitude towards his other-other career with God City Instruments (GCI), a boutique outfit producing guitars, basses, pedals and DIY pedal kits – something that grew out of Ballou’s legendary GCI business card, which took the form of an actual PCB (sans components) for his Brutalist Jr circuit.

“My wife does a lot of the order-fulfillment side of that and I QC guitars,” he says. “We’ll get a shipment every three or four months and I’ll spend a few days with them. The company is still pretty small, but it’s manageable. I’m not really trying to grow it – I don’t really want to lose control of it.”

“To double my sales would require more than double of my effort, you know? I think a lot of bands end up in a similar situation,” he adds. “Converge, for example, we have great people that we work with, our fans are awesome, and we can go and play shows just about anywhere in the world. But to play a venue twice the size is more than twice as expensive. We’d be required to have guitar techs and drum techs and lighting techs. The ticket price gets a lot higher and now we’re not doing things on our own terms.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, GCI gear forms the backbone of Ballou’s work on Love is Not Enough. Fitted with their overwound Slug Jammer humbuckers, there are multiple Craftsman models in play, along with a 27.5” scale Deconstructivist baritone that was used to bring the muscle on Distract and Divide, To Feel Something and Amon Amok, a trio of Drop A monsters.

“I’ve also got a really good short-scale Tele with Lindy Fralin pickups,” he notes. “I used that for a bunch of the clean, atmospheric background sounds on Amon Amok. On Force Meets Presence I might have used my First Act Sheena. I can’t remember if I actually did this, or if I just was thinking about doing it, but a lot of that song is rooted on the A string, so to make that clean I might have taken the low E off of the guitar for that whole section.”

Image: Press

Spreading The Load

While working on Bloodmoon: I, Ballou had to find his place within a guitar sound that he viewed as vibe-based more than “dense or athletic”. Here, the opposite is largely true. But his amp selection process remained the same, with five or six rigs primed for work as he chased a tone. “I used to have a whole bunch of amps running at the same time, hoping to capture the best of all worlds,” he says. “But I’ve come to realise over time that it just flattens whatever cool character each one has.”

With the rhythm sounds oscillating between an early Sparrows Sons model, employed with a Boss OS-2 to accent its articulate, wide-ranging gain, and a GCI Onslaught-assisted Dean Costello HMW, most of the leads were tracked with a first generation Bad Cat Black Cat, paired again with an OS-2 or a GCI Crimson Cock.

“That’s like an NPN Rangemaster,” Ballou says. “It’s really the best for matching a guitar to an amp. If your guitar feels too bright or too dark, or not loud enough, or too loud, by turning a few knobs on that thing, you can make it work.”

What pass for cleans in Converge’s world, meanwhile, were captured on a Traynor YRM-1 that Ballou picked up for $99 in the mid-1990s. “I can, honestly, probably record anything with that amp,” he observes. “I also have a few JMP 2204s, but one of them is from a transitional year when it started getting a little more JCM900-ish. I want to say I have a ‘76 and a ‘79. They’ve obviously been maintained differently over the years, but the newer one is tighter and the older one is creamier. I like them both a lot – that was set up as a pedal platform as I needed different sounds. If a song needs a fuzz part or an HM-2 part, that amp can do it all.”

Image: Press

Bright Spark

Zooming out, though, something remarkable about the way Love is Not Enough sounds is the warmth and clarity behind its guitars. As a riffer, Ballou is naturally a grimy, aggressive player, meaning that keeping a sense of nuance alive requires deliberate thought. “I’m always pushing the brightness to try to get more clarity,” he says. “But then sometimes you end up with a very chirpy sound, which is not very metal. The OS-2 quells the chirpiness and also starves the bottom end.”

From both a philosophical and practical perspective, Ballou sees his yard as the mid-range. Returning again to the idea of a division of labour, he is happy to leave the sludge to Newton and the splashy stuff to Koller’s cymbals. He’s not trying to grind you to a pulp, he’s trying to punch you in the solar-plexus. “Listen to the classic Slayer records – they don’t have crushing low end or sizzly high end,” he says. “There are great guitar sounds that have that, but we’ve always thought of Converge more as a hard band than a heavy band.”

Converge’s Love Is Not Enough is out February 13 through Deathwish/Epitaph.

The post Why metalcore pioneers Converge have returned to bring an end to “data entry” modern metal and show a new generation the power of authenticity appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.