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Wish you could more easily keep up with everything that’s been happening in the world of guitar? Now you can. Welcome to Guitar.com‘s weekly roundup of top guitar stories and developments you need to know about.

This week, we’ve got the results from an auction selling the personal collection of a particular Mancunian guitar legend, a new update about Fender’s ongoing Stratocaster legal campaign, the bougiest guitar picks you’ll ever see and loads more. Read below to find out more.

Johnny Marr guitar collection rakes in £3.6 million at auction

The sale of Johnny Marr’s personal guitar collection took place at London auction house Christie’s this week, and fetched the former Smiths man a pretty decent payday. All in all, the collection of over 100 lots comprising electric and acoustic guitars, amps and other memorabilia, yielded over £3.6 million in an auction lasting over five hours. A significant chunk of the proceeds are going to charity, though, split evenly between the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and the National Autistic Society.

Take a look at some of the final figures from the auction.

Want to test the prototype from Guitar Center’s new in-house guitar brand? Here’s how you can

Is the guitar industry crying out for some real innovation? Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto certainly thinks so, and he’s so steadfast in this belief, in fact, that earlier this year he announced the launch of the retail giant’s new in-house guitar brand. Of course, the project caught a bit of flak for crowdsourcing design ideas without what the community believed was a robust compensation structure. But sidestepping that for a moment…

The time has come to test what Guitar Center’s been cooking, and the retailer is inviting guitarists to apply to test it themselves at its offices in Westlake Village, CA later this month. Want to be a part of guitar industry history?

Read more to find out how you can.

Fender CEO Bud Cole admits “we could have done this better” over Strat legal threats, but claims the campaign is working

Credit: Adam Gasson [main], Naoki Tsuruta [inset]Fender’s cease and desist campaign against fellow guitar builders making Strat-reminiscent designs has shaken the industry, prompting widespread backlash and in some cases legal pushback, too. In a new interview, CEO Edward “Bud” Cole reflects on the company’s legal campaign to protect the Stratocaster, admitting “we could have done this better”. He does, however, claim the campaign is working…

Read the full story now.

MONO partners with Polyphia guitarist Tim Henson on signature dual-carry guitar case

Accessory news, now… Polyphia mastermind Tim Henson has partnered with MONO to create his own signature version of the brand’s M80 Classic Dual guitar case, which is able to carry and keep safe two electric guitars at the same time. As far as guitar cases go, it’s got some real tech spec candy, with durable Sharkskin for reliable protection, MONO’s patented dual protection design and Headlock neck suspension system, and a metal Polyphia badge for the cherry on top…

Learn more about the MONO x Tim Henson M80 Classic Dual Electric Guitar Case.

You won’t believe how long it took Matt Bellamy’s guitar tech to capture all his amp sounds

Muse frontman Matt Bellamy is a true amp modeller convert, with a Fractal Audio Axe-Fx III making up the heart of his live rig. His features dozens of captures of his own collection of amplifiers from Vox, Diezel, Gibson and more, and his guitar tech Chris Whitemyer has revealed just how long and meticulous the process was when capturing them.

“All of those amp sounds [in the Axe-Fx III] are his amps,” Whitemyer says. “[We modelled] everything. 63 days, eight hours a day, left before dinner every day…” he says.

Learn more about Matt Bellamy’s monstrous Muse live rig.

Gibson and Baggs tackle muddy live performance sound with the new HiFi DNA acoustic pickup system

Has Gibson just revolutionised acoustic guitar pickups? For the company’s latest project, it’s partnered with acoustic pickup specialist Baggs – formerly L.R. Baggs until a recent rebranding – to create the new HiFi DNA acoustic pickup system, designed to deliver “the most natural, studio‑grade live tone ever achieved from an acoustic guitar”.

Robi Johns, Sr. Product Development Manager at Gibson Acoustic, describes it as the solution he’s been chasing since the 1970s…

Find out more about the new Gibson x Baggs HiFi DNA acoustic pickup system.

Pink Floyd are releasing 18-carat gold picks worth nearly £6,000

And finally, Alexa, play Money…

In perhaps the most ostentatious story of the week, Pink Floyd have partnered with the Royal Mint on a super limited line of guitar picks made entirely of 18-carat gold. Each pick is etched with the artwork from the band’s landmark 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon, and described as “fully functional”. You’ve gotta be rocking some serious dollar to take one of these gigging though, as just one will set you back a princely £5,750.

Want flashy but not that flashy? In addition to the 10 gold picks up for grabs are 300 silver versions priced at £129.50 a piece.

Learn more about Pink Floyd’s limited run of gold and silver guitar picks.

The post Johnny Marr’s 7-figure payday, reflection from Fender’s CEO and 18-carat-gold Pink Floyd picks: here are this week’s guitar stories you need to know about appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Reverend Guitars and Billy Corgan have launched the Reverend Guitars Billy Corgan Infinite Sadness models, just in time for the Smashing Pumpkins “Rat In A Cage Tour” celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the band’s epic double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

This special-run guitar is limited to 60 pieces. There are 36 Reverend Billy Corgan Z-Ones and 24 Reverend Billy Corgan Drop Z extended scale guitars, each in a Black Sparkle finish with an ebony fretboard and Mellon Collie moon graphic on the body. Every Infinite Sadness guitar comes in a Reverend two-tone soft case that includes a Certificate of Authenticity and a special edition poster from Billy Corgan called “Mellon Collie Moon.”

This is the same model that Billy played this guitar during the Pumpkins’ Lollapalooza set in summer 2026.

The Reverend Billy Corgan Z-One, a third signature collaboration between Billy Corgan & Joe Naylor, is inspired by the heavier songs in the Smashing Pumpkins Catalog. An alder body creates a thick tone, while deep cutaways provide easy access to the higher frets. Railhammer Z-One pickups have a fat midrange and a smooth top end, with custom artwork etched into the covers. An aluminum pickguard and a “Z” icon at the headstock make this one futuristic-looking guitar. The Billy Corgan Z-One is for anyone who wants to rip big rock solos with a thick yet smooth tone.

The Reverend Billy Corgan Drop Z combines the aesthetic features of his Z-One signature model and a longer 24-fret, 26.25″ scale neck designed for drop tunings. The long-scale neck provides appropriate string tension for down-tuning, so the tone stays deep and full while remaining punchy and clear. The Alder solid body paired with Railhammer Billy Corgan Z-One Pickups delivers higher output and velvety treble for a rich, weighty rock tone. The roasted Maple neck, ebony fingerboard, and medium oval profile are comfortable to play, even with the slightly longer scale length.

The Reverend Billy Corgan Infinite Sadness Z-One carries a $1899 street price and the Drop Z carries a $1999 street price. For more information visit reverendguitars.com.

A Christie’s auction listing over 100 guitars and other items from Johnny Marr’s personal collection has raked in over £3.6 million, more than tripling its total estimate made prior to the event.

The auction took place over a period of five hours yesterday (17 September), with the final figure finishing up at a respectable £3,649,280. Highlights from the sale included Marr’s 1982 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo – used across his time in the Smiths, including on their second single This Charming Man, and extensively on the band’s self-titled debut – which sold for £358,400, far exceeding its £60,000-£80,000 estimate.

• READ MORE: Noel Gallagher reveals the “best bit of advice I’ve ever been given” from Johnny Marr about buying guitars

There was also the Cherry Red 1960 Gibson ES-355, which was bought for Marr in early 1984 by Sire Records founder Seymour Stein, after Marr said jokingly that The Smiths would sign to his label if he was gifted a new guitar. With a pre-auction estimate of £100,000 – £150,000, this guitar smashed that figure, selling in the end for £204,800.

Other six-figure lots included the Cherry Gibson Les Paul Standard bought by Marr for the Smiths’ second album Meat is Murder, and which he professes to using on “more records than any other”. With a custom-installed Bigsby tremolo, this guitar also sold for £204,800.

Another highlight was the 1971 Martin D-28 acoustic used on many classic Smiths hits including Rusholme Ruffians (recently played by UK PM Andy Burnham in Ukraine, of all people) What She Said and Meat is Murder, smashed its £30,000 – £50,000 estimate, selling for £128,000.

Elsewhere, Marr’s “go-to rhythm guitar” between 1984 and ‘85 – a Roger Giffin-refurbished Fender Telecaster which sold for £121,600. Marr’s signature Comet Sparkle Fender Jaguar – which he used to record the James Bond theme for 2021’s No Time to Die – also sold for a solid £46,080.

Of the total money raised from the sale, proceeds from 31 lots spanning 10 guitars, 1980s concert posters, and sales awards, will be split equally between the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and the National Autistic Society.

“The auction has been a great experience and has exceeded all my expectations,” says Johnny Marr. “I’d like to thank everyone who made bids and special thanks to Christie’s for making it so memorable.”

Amelia Walker, Christie’s Specialist Head of Private & Iconic Collections, London, adds: “We are thrilled to have been able to partner with Johnny Marr for this landmark auction, the results of which reflect his groundbreaking and unparalleled musical influence.”

“We’re incredibly grateful to Johnny Marr for choosing Guide Dogs as one of the charities benefitting from this auction,” says Jo Stevenson, Head of Customer Experience at Guide Dogs.

“As a charity we’re almost entirely funded by donations; this will go a long way in helping people with sight loss live the life they choose. We’d like to say a huge thank you to Johnny for his generosity and for sharing his impressive guitar collection with his fans.”

Hayley Butler, Head of Fundraising at the National Autistic Society adds: “We are delighted by the success of the auction. The amazing funds raised will support our mission to create a society that works for autistic people. We’d like to say an enormous thank you to Johnny, and to everyone who bid on these iconic guitars.”

Iconic guitars continue to regularly command sky-high prices at auction. Billionaire Jim Irsay’s collection – which featured classic instruments once owned by Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and many others – brought in a total $94.5 million following his death in 2025.

That auction holds the record for the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction: David Gilmour’s legendary Black Strat, which raked in a staggering $14,550,000 on its own, over three times the total amount generated by the entire Johnny Marr auction. That auction also saw Jerry Garcia’s Tiger guitar sell for over $11 million, and Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit Fender Mustang sell for nearly $7 million.

Take a look at the final results of Marr’s Guitars: The Johnny Marr Collection over at Christie’s.

The post Johnny Marr guitar auction brings in £3.6M – with several iconic Smiths instruments selling for six-figure sums appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Positive Grid’s Spark completely redrew the guitar amp map when it burst onto the scene in 2019. Bringing studio-ready tones to the fingertips of guitarists everywhere was the mission, and what a successful ride it has been. The brand has gone from strength to strength in the years that followed, with the Spark now a family of amps that run the gamut from headphones to portable PA systems. Now, however, they’re taking a left turn into the speakerless world of pedals.

• READ MORE: Positive Grid Reactor review: does your guitar amp really need an AI chatbot?

On paper, it seems like a very sensible move – pedalboard amps are increasingly popular, both for live use and for playing at home, and so having something compact that puts all the great sounds and ease of use of the amp into a smaller form factor is surely onto a winner.

At least, that’s what we’re all hoping anyway – trying to be both a practice amp, live solution and recording option in one is a lot of hats to wear, we’ll see if any fall off along the way…

What is it?

It won’t surprise people to learn that the Spark Pedal effectively distills the important bit from its amp brethren into a 6×4” floor unit. Now, it’s worth noting that the tech in here is the latest hotness – it uses PG’s HD Tone engine, the same architecture found in the latest Spark 2 amp.

Like its sibling, it comes loaded with 33 high-quality amp models and 43 effects as standard, and crucially that also means you get access to over 100,000 community-created presets courtesy of the hugely useful ToneCloud setup. If you’re a long-time Spark-user that has spent endless hours crafting perfect tones, fear not. You can easily load your saved presets from other Spark products and take them with you on the go. As with the other Sparks, it offers a relatively compact but useful array of bass and acoustic options for extra utility here too.

Sensibly for a floor-based option aimed at live players, it has the facility to be used purely as an effects unit – if you want to bypass the onboard amps, you can – and simply use it as a compact but powerful sound box.

The concessions to streamline its live use don’t stop there either – as with most Sparks, the Pedal has a built-in rechargeable battery, meaning that you won’t have to worry about plugging it into the mains or your PSU and in fact, you can’t – but more on that later. The battery life is promised to be up to seven hours, which is pretty impressive.

On the top you’ll find five chunky rotary knobs for on-the-fly tweaking, plus a trio of multi-function footswitches, while round the back you’ll find the upgraded I/O options that really set out the stall for this being a live tool. In addition to the usual mono input jack, headphone and USB-C output for silent practice and direct recording, you’ll find stereo outputs, an expression pedal socket, and in a first for a Spark product, MIDI in and out as well. Of course, being a Spark you’ll also need to hook this thing up to bluetooth to use the companion app, which is rather essential.

Usability and Build Quality

The concern with any multi-effects that doesn’t have a a screen is that all the useful functionality is going to be hidden in the companion app, and nobody really wants to be whipping their phone out mid-gig do they?

Thankfully, while the Spark app remains a standard setter for both its ease of use and consistent and straightforward connectivity in this sector, there’s plenty you can do on the pedal itself once you spend a little time familiarising yourself with the fundamentals.

The three foot switches are home to up to six presets across two banks. Editing them and saving them using the pedal itself is satisfyingly straightforward. Select the preset you want to modify, do your thing, then press and hold the foot switch to save. No 20-page guide, secret handshake, or ritual sacrifice is needed here – it’s all rather intuitive.

The multifunctional volume knob in the center is responsible for switching between the two operating modes. In FX mode, the knobs control drive type, modulation, delay and reverb. Click that centre knob and the color coded LED light will indicate you are now in Amp mode. This is where you sculpt gain, bass, middle and treble, just like a real amp. Hold the centre knob down and you will activate the basic but welcome built-in tuner.

The built-in 60-second looper is as uncomplicated as one gets. Pressing pedals one and two together activates Looper mode. Recording/overdubbing, play/stop, and undo/redo functions are all handily activated with a footswitch each. If you can count to four, you’re golden here.

It’s an undersold part of the Positive Grid experience that they clearly put a lot of thought into the physical usability of their devices as well as the app-based stuff, and that’s true again here. It would have been very easy to make this pedal look like a Boeing cockpit, but with some simple and intuitive paring back, they’ve kept all the features you’d need mid-show accessible.

That said, the Spark app is absolutely crucial to the experience here. Constructing signal chains and exploring ToneCloud is a total blast. However, on-the-fly adjustments in a live scenario from the pedal alone proved much more difficult. For example, you stomp into your meticulously crafted solo channel but the volume isn’t quite there? Reaching down to turn the main volume knob will sort that out. However, it turns up the volume across all your other channels too, like a master volume knob would. Not ideal.

The app isn’t a bonus feature here, it’s still the star of the show, and a necessary companion when you’re sculpting your sounds. I ended up having my iPhone in a cradle attached to the mic stand during rehearsals, but that’s really not what you wanna be doing during a performance is it?

There are some other compromises here to get it out at the very impressive $199 price point. Compared to the rugged unflapability of a Boss pedal, the Spark Pedal’s aluminium chassis and one-piece silicone cover are perfectly serviceable, but I would wonder how well that cover is going to last after a few months of being knocked about on venue floors and on street corners.

And knock it about you probably will. While the fact that this weighs just 0.58kg is very impressive – that’s significantly less than a Nano Cortex for example – there is a tradeoff there. It’s so lightweight, it’s quite easy for a stray foot to knock it away from where you want it to be – while the sturdy rubber footing stops it flying out into the audience, again I wonder how robust that would be long term.

The footswitches also don’t feel as premium as you’d like – they have resistance and lack that satisfying “click” of other stomp boxes. I’d probably think twice before stamping down on them with gay abandon in a pair of Docs, put it that way.

The pedal’s built-in battery is again both a boon and a potential issue. On the one hand, if you were a busker or were using it as your entire rig, the ability to run it without plugging into anything is potentially the killer app: especially with that seven-hour battery life.

On the flipside, if you wanted to use this alongside other pedals, or as a semi-permanent part of your pedalboard, the fact that it only runs on battery power – you can’t have it plugged into a pedal power supply or any other pass-through adapter – could be a real issue. Do you really want the hassle of having to make sure that one pedal is charged up before every gig? And then there’s the potential of battery degradation in the future that we’re all more than familiar at this point – seven hours at launch is great, but how long will that be in two years of heavy use, or five? This is obviously a problem with any guitar device with a lithium-ion battery in it, but it could be extra problematic for futureproofing with a device that’s designed to be used live without a net.

Sounds

The excellent sound produced by Positive Grid products is no secret in 2026 – if you’ve enjoyed the broad array of amps and effects in any other Spark product to date, expect the same here.

The consumer-friendliness of the entire ecosystem should also be applauded, and there’s a real sense of community here among the ToneCloud regulars. The variety of tonal possibilities never seems to end, and I found myself getting lost for hours just… playing. Headphones on, Metallica backing tracks, completely butchering album upon album’s worth of Kirk Hammett solos. Heaven. It’s also a great tool if you’re in a covers band – with so many song-alike and artist-alike tones in the ToneCloud, dialling in the sound you need is an absolute doddle.

If you’re after the crystalline Vox-adjacent tones of a Matchless or the punishing brutality of a cranked Peavey 5150, the Spark’s HD models do a fine job of recreating the whole gamut of amp types with a faithfulness that belies the Spark Pedal’s humble size – whether you’re running direct into a powered cab, a PA system or just going through headphones. That’s true with drop tunings, heavy riffing, almost anything that might cause a lesser modeller to get a bit glitchy and messy. This isn’t a level of sonic fidelity that can go toe-to-toe with the likes of Neural or Kemper, but remember that this is considerably cheaper than even some of the more affordable amp and effects units out there.

The effects are equally impressive, with the drives sounding thick and chewy, the fuzzes sputtering in the appropriate way, and the reverbs and delays sounding suitably cavernous. Again, this isn’t a HX Stomp, but that’s double the price!

If you don’t fancy that hassle of building a Spark signal chain yourself, the Spark AI tone-prompting feature has been updated to version 2.0 now, and while it’s certainly not foolproof, it’s clear that PG has learned some lessons from the Reactor amp and the results you get are more or less very usable. It’s not essential, but it’s a handy one to have if you’re trying to sketch out song ideas or find inspiration in a hurry.

Should I buy one?

At $199, the Spark Pedal represents a superb amount of functionality and versatility in a small, intelligently designed package. The combination of portability, solid tones, app features and straightforward usability makes this the perfect unit for buskers, jamming musicians, and bedroom players alike.

There are definitely a few drawbacks to consider if you’re a gigging musician looking for a credible live option however. While you can get by with most everyday needs with the on-pedal controls, the thought of having a mid-gig crisis that requires whipping a phone out and trying to pair with your pedal via Bluetooth fills me with a special kind of dread. I’m not wholly convinced by the build quality and long-term battery life either.

Also, if I was to indulge myself slightly, I would love to have a powered speaker output included, allowing the Spark Pedal to power a cab directly. Blackstar’s Amped pedal range has shown just how appealing a true “all-in-one” pedal-amp format can be.

Of course, adding a power-amp stage would demand a totally different power architecture, and likely ruin the Spark’s rechargeable portability, so perhaps I’m asking a Swiss Army knife to pack a chainsaw. Still, it would be dreamy.

Perhaps it’s inevitable that a product aiming to do so much at this price point is going to have some compromises here and there, but this is still a very impressive and fun to use product that ticks a lot of boxes.

If you’re happy to tinker with tones on your phone, and want the flexibility of a unit that can be at home both in the bedroom, the practice room or the street corner, this is a very compelling option. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but the Spark is mature technology at this point, instead, it’s trying to build on what it did so well half a decade ago – removing friction from the guitar playing experience.

Alternatives

This space in the market is home to some other excellent and affordable alternatives. Boss’s GX-1 ($229.99/£219) takes its tone DNA straight out of the flagship GX-100, and has a screen and a wah pedal built-in – I’m not convinced the amp models sound as good as the Spark’s though. Blackstar’s Amped 2 is a little more expensive and doesn’t have as many onboard sounds (£391), but the tones are legit and it really packs a punch, and can power a cab directly. The Line 6 POD Express ($179.99/£149) is even more compact than the Spark Pedal, and comes directly from the HX family of processors, but it’s got a limited palette of sounds comparatively.

The post Positive Grid Spark Pedal review: The Spark ecosystem welcomes another box of tricks appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Gibson today unveiled the DES Series, an ultra-limited collection of six guitars available worldwide exclusively through Gibson.com and Gibson Garage locations. The launch coincides with the Gibson Band’s return with the release of a new benefit single “Sanctuary,” written by Gibson board member and artist ambassador Cesar Gueikian. The recording features orchestration and keyboards by Dream Theater’s Jordan Rudess, lead guitar by Mateus Asato and guest vocals by Jagger Davies; Produced by Gueikian and Emery Dobyns. The song will support Save the Music Foundation in partnership with Gibson Gives Foundation , helping to restore, sustain and expand music education programs nationwide.

To celebrate the release, and raise additional funds benefitting Save The Music, a one-of-a-kind Gibson “Sanctuary” Soundwaves guitar featuring artwork based on the song’s actual soundwave pattern will be auctioned via RalyUp. The custom artwork was created in collaboration with visual artist Tim Wakefield of Soundwaves Art Foundation. Stream “Sanctuary” on major platforms at HERE , and bid on the Soundwaves guitar through RallyUp at https://go.rallyup.com/744876.

Above: Gibson Gives and RallyUp are auctioning a one-of-a-kind Gibson “Sanctuary” Soundwaves guitar featuring artwork based on the song’s soundwave pattern created in collaboration with Tim Wakefield of Soundwaves Art Foundation. Bid at https://go.rallyup.com/744876 .

Gibson DES Series

In partnership with philanthropic giving, the DES Series launches today and applies a bold new design and modern performance features to six Gibson body shapes: the Les Paul™, SG™, ES™, Explorer™, Flying V™, and Victory; and was developed by Gueikian, Gibson master luthier Jim DeCola and Gibson’s craftspeople.

Each model features a Ghost Burst finish, Super Split Block inlays, a compound-radius ebony fretboard, black nickel hardware and Gibson ELEV8 humbuckers with Alnico 8 magnets. A portion of each DES series guitar purchase supports Gibson Gives Foundation to further its efforts to spread the healing power of music. The Gibson DES Series is available now exclusively via Gibson.com and Gibson Garage locations.

Explore the Gibson DES Series of ultra-limited guitars, available worldwide today on Gibson.com.

Gibson ES DES in Ghost Burst

The Gibson ES DES in Ghost Burst, available exclusively on Gibson.com, is part of an ultra-rare, limited collection. Conceived by Gibson Artist Ambassador and Gibson Board Member Cesar Gueikian in collaboration with Master Luthier Jim DeCola and Gibson’s expert craftspeople, this modern semi-hollow guitar pairs a dramatic Ghost Burst gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish with AAA figured maple, black nickel hardware, and distinctive uncovered zebra-coil pickups. Built for today’s technical players, it features a comfortable Rounded C mahogany neck, an ebony fretboard with a 10"–16" compound radius, 22 medium-jumbo frets, mother-of-pearl Super Split Block inlays, locking Grover tuners, and a Nashville Tune-O-Matic bridge. New Gibson ELEV8 humbuckers with Alnico 8 magnets deliver a powerful, articulate voice, while push/pull coil-tap controls expand its tonal versatility. Complete with a Gibson hardshell case, this limited-production instrument offers exceptional Gibson craftsmanship and modern performance, with a portion of the purchase supporting Gibson Gives.

Gibson Explorer DES, Ghost Burst

Own an exceptionally rare Gibson Explorer DES in Ghost Burst, part of an ultra-limited collection. Developed through a creative collaboration between Gibson Artist Ambassador and Gibson Gives Board Member Cesar Gueikian, Master Luthier Jim DeCola, and Gibson’s expert craftspeople, this bold instrument features an ’80s Explorer mahogany body topped with a multi-ply-bound AAA figured maple cap. A SlimTaper mahogany neck and compound-radius ebony fretboard provide fast, comfortable playability, while mother-of-pearl Super Split Block inlays, black nickel hardware, and uncovered zebra-coil pickups create a distinctive modern aesthetic. Gibson ELEV8 humbuckers with Alnico 8 magnets deliver powerful, articulate tones ideally suited to high-gain and progressive playing, complemented by intuitive master volume, master tone, and three-way selector controls. Finished in dramatic Ghost Burst gloss nitrocellulose lacquer and supplied with a Gibson hardshell case, this limited-production Explorer offers an extraordinary combination of collectible design, technical performance, and uncompromising Gibson craftsmanship, all while supporting the meaningful mission of Gibson Gives.

Gibson Flying V DES, Ghost Burst

Own an exceptionally rare Gibson Flying V DES in Ghost Burst, part of an ultra- limited collection. Conceived by Gibson Artist Ambassador and Gibson Gives Board Member Cesar Gueikian and brought to life in collaboration with Master Luthier Jim DeCola and Gibson’s expert craftspeople, this striking instrument pairs an ’80s-style mahogany Flying V body with a multi-ply-bound AAA figured maple top. Its SlimTaper mahogany neck, bound ebony fretboard, 10"–16" compound radius, 22 medium-jumbo frets, and mother-of-pearl Super Split Block inlays offer fast, refined playability. A pair of Gibson ELEV8 humbuckers with Alnico 8 magnets delivers a focused, high-output voice with tight lows, clarity, and dynamic articulation, while locking Grover tuners, a Nashville Tune-O-Matic bridge, black nickel hardware, and uncovered zebra pickups complete its bold aesthetic. Finished in dramatic Ghost Burst gloss nitrocellulose lacquer and accompanied by a Gibson hardshell case, this limited-production Flying V offers an extraordinary combination of collectible design, modern performance, and uncompromising Gibson craftsmanship, all while supporting the meaningful mission of Gibson Gives.

Gibson Les Paul DES, Ghost Burst

Own an exceptionally rare Gibson Les Paul DES in Ghost Burst, part of a n ultra-limited collection. Developed through a creative collaboration between Gibson Artist Ambassador and Gibson Gives Board Member Cesar Gueikian, Master Luthier Jim DeCola, and Gibson’s expert craftspeople, this performance-focused Les Paul features an Ultra-Modern weight-relieved mahogany body, a multi-ply-bound AAA figured maple top, and a SlimTaper mahogany neck with a Modern Contoured Heel for enhanced upper-fret access. Its bound ebony fretboard has a 10"–16" compound radius, 22 medium-jumbo frets, and elegant mother-of-pearl Super Split Block inlays. Gibson ELEV8 humbuckers with Alnico 8 magnets deliver a bold, high-output voice with exceptional clarity and articulation, while push/pull coil-tap, True Bypass, and Phase controls provide an expansive range of tones. Finished in striking Ghost Burst gloss nitrocellulose lacquer with black nickel hardware, uncovered zebra pickups, locking Grover tuners, and custom Epic/Epic+ switch-ring labels, this remarkable guitar arrives with a Gibson hardshell case.

Gibson SG DES, Ghost Burst.

This rare Gibson SG DES in Ghost Burst, is part of an ultra-limited collection. Developed through a collaboration among Master Luthier Jim DeCola, Cesar Gueikian, and Gibson’s expert craftspeople, this modern performance instrument features a sculpted double-cutaway mahogany SG body topped with AAA figured maple. Its fast SlimTaper mahogany neck, ebony fretboard with a 10"–16" compound radius, 24 medium-jumbo frets, and mother-of-pearl Super Split Block inlays provide an extended playing range and effortless access across the neck. Gibson ELEV8 and ELEV8 Plus humbuckers with Alnico 8 magnets deliver a tight, aggressive, and articulate voice ideal for high-gain and contemporary styles, while push/pull coil-tap controls expand the available tonal palette. Finished in striking Ghost Burst gloss nitrocellulose lacquer with black nickel hardware, uncovered zebra pickups, locking Grover tuners, and custom Epic/Epic+ switch-ring labels, this remarkable SG includes a Gibson hardshell case. Own a highly collectible, stage-ready Gibson while supporting the meaningful mission of Gibson Gives.

Gibson Victory DES, Ghost Burst

This exceptionally rare Gibson Victory DES in Ghost Burst, is part of an ultra-limited collection. Developed through a creative collaboration among Master Luthier Jim DeCola, Gibson Artist Ambassador and Board Member Cesar Gueikian, and Gibson’s expert craftspeople, this modern performance instrument features a double-cutaway mahogany Victory body topped with an AAA figured maple cap. Its fast SlimTaper mahogany neck, bound ebony fretboard with a 10"–16" compound radius, 24 medium-jumbo frets, and mother-of-pearl Super Split Block inlays provide exceptional playability and a refined appearance. Gibson ELEV8 and ELEV8 Plus humbuckers with Alnico 8 magnets deliver tight, aggressive, and articulate tones ideal for high-gain and contemporary styles, while push/pull coil-split and inner/outer coil-selection controls offer impressive versatility through a streamlined control layout. Finished in stunning Ghost Burst gloss nitrocellulose lacquer with black nickel hardware, uncovered zebra pickups, Grover tuners, and an Explorer-style headstock, this limited-production guitar includes a Gibson hardshell case. This is your opportunity to own a distinctive, highly collectible Gibson while supporting the meaningful mission of Gibson Gives.

Sonisfact arrived with four pedals built on a single idea. Every box holds two circuits. @TomButwin details the VOS line of overdrives, three pedals that each pair two classic drive voices with a 6-band graphic EQ, along with the VCP-80, a chorus and phaser in one enclosure that runs both effects at once.

All three VOS Overdrive Stations run the same architecture. A 6-band EQ on LED faders can sit before or after the drive circuit, and a clean blend folds dry signal back in against the dirt. On the right footswitch, a HIT fader sets the level hitting the drive and stays live when the drive is bypassed. What separates the three is the voice toggle. The green VOS-80 covers the most familiar ground, with Nashville on ODR-1 duty and Texas handling Tube Screamer tones. The gold VOS-81 goes aggressive, pairing the vintage Distortion+ sound Randy Rhoads made famous with the 250 tone Yngwie used to push a non-master amp, and Doug Aldrich has been running it into his tube amp for solos. The blue VOS-82 is the most amp-like of the set, moving from Wide for modern rock to Thick for cranked tube amp territory while holding onto the character of the guitar and amp underneath.

The VCP-80 sits apart from the overdrives. It houses an analog phaser with 45, 90 Vintage, and 90 Modern modes alongside a BBD chorus with low and high cut, and the two can run together through dual outputs.

SHOP SONISFACT PEDALS: https://www.sonisfact.com/

Ashdown has announced that the company’s products will be exclusively available across the USA through Guitar Center and Musician’s Friend. The new distribution arrangement marks a watershed for the British company as it aims to build a larger following in America.

For the first time in nearly three decades, Ashdown will have a dedicated footprint across the United States, with products available through 300 Guitar Center stores and online at GuitarCenter.com. From instruments and effects to practice amps and full stadium ready rigs, American musicians will now have more opportunities to plug into Ashdown products.

This new partnership will introduce Guitar Center customers to a wide range of Ashdown gear, including the company’s new Made in England collection of bass and guitar amplifiers. The new Ashdown range comprises nine key product families:

UK - ABM – Ashdown Bass Magnifier: The original Ashdown range and the sound behind countless stages and recordings.

UK - CTM – Classic Tube Magnifier: All-tube amplification for players who still worship at the altar of glass and high voltage.

UK - RBM – Rootmaster Bass Magnifier: Lightweight, powerful and built for working bass players.

UK - OBM – Original Bass Magnifier: Straightforward digital amplification delivering power, tone and simplicity.

UK - PBM – Portable Bass Magnifier: Compact amplification for musicians who need great tone wherever they go.

UK - SBM – Studio Bass Magnifier: Premium UK-built combos that reduce the weight without sacrificing the sound.

UK - Peacemaker: Boutique, tube guitar amplification, handcrafted in England for players demanding exceptional tone, feel and craftsmanship.

Ashdown Roasted Bass Guitars: Distinctive, inspiring instruments built for players at every stage of their journey.

Ashdown Effects and Accessories: Signature pedals, professional tools and everything else needed to complete an Ashdown rig.

The new exclusive partnership with Guitar Center comes as Ashdown approaches its 30th anniversary. Founded by Mark Gooday in 1997, the company is still family owned and based in the UK, with Mark’s son Dan Gooday serving as Managing Director of the growing enterprise.

For more information visit ashdownmusic.co.uk

Whatever side you land on, one thing’s absolutely certain: Fender’s campaign to issue cease and desist letters to guitar builders making Stratocaster-reminiscent designs has sent shockwaves through the industry.

A bit of background to catch you up: late last year, Fender won a default judgement in Dusseldorf, Germany after the defendant, Chinese instrument manufacturer Yiwu Philharmonic Musical Instruments, failed to show up to court. The ruling resulted in the Stratocaster body shape being deemed a “work of applied art”, and protectable under copyright law.

Following the ruling, Fender embarked on a campaign to issue guitar companies large and small with cease and desist letters demanding the cessation of production of guitars closely resembling the Stratocaster. Those on the receiving end included Californian boutique builder LsL Instruments, German retail giant Thomann and PRS, one of the world’s largest guitar companies.

But the move was met with widespread criticism from the guitar community, with prominent guitar creators like Rick Beato, Rhett Shull and Tim Pierce distancing themselves from Fender, not to mention legal pushback from some of the companies targeted.

Following the backlash, Fender CEO Edward “Bud” Cole spoke at a dealer event in an attempt to calm things down, clarifying that the brand was “not suing anybody”.

“What we’ve done is reach out thoughtfully and [respectfully] to a handful of companies whose guitars come extremely close to replicating the iconic Fender Stratocaster design,” he said.

Now, some time after the initial cease and desist letters were sent, but while Fender still battles to legally reclaim its Stratocaster body shape, Cole has reflected once again on a turbulent few months for the company in a new interview with Bloomberg.

“There’s been a lot of introspection about this,” he says. “It’s clear to me that this got ahead of us – the legal process got ahead of us – and that we could have done this better.” Despite his reflective comments, though, Cole believes Fender’s campaign to reclaim the Strat is working.

Cole says a large part of Fender’s legal campaign was to urge differentiation and innovation in the guitar industry. “They’re simply copying designs, and that does not help our industry,” he says of builders making S-types. “We all start out with the same piece of wood. There are unlimited ways to design a guitar with that piece of wood.”

Clarifying Fender’s position, Cole says the company is “very, very focused solely on large manufacturers now”, adding: “We are not focused at all now on boutique builders.”

Where that leaves LsL Instruments – the boutique brand that made its presence as a recipient of a Fender cease and desist most known – is unclear. LsL confirmed in June that it had hired veteran guitar industry lawyer Ron Bienstock, who famously won a 2009 trademark case against Fender on behalf of a consortium of guitar brands. It saw Fender’s request to obtain trademarks for its Stratocaster, Telecaster and Precision Bass body shapes rejected.

Whether down to its legal costs is not clear, but LsL recently announced a flash sale in order to “raise $75,000 in a very short amount of time”.

Regardless, Bud Cole continues his reflection, saying Fender’s goal was not legal aggression, but rather to “begin conversations with people” about how brands could “begin to design something that is not a direct copy”. “That has always been our objective,” he says.

You can read the full feature at Bloomberg.

The post Fender CEO Bud Cole admits “we could have done this better” over Strat legal threats, but claims the campaign is working appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

MONO has introduced the MONO x Tim Henson M80 Limited-Edition Classic Dual Electric Guitar Case, marking MONO’s first-ever artist collaboration.

Designed in collaboration with Polyphia guitarist and virtuoso Tim Henson, the limited-edition case brings together MONO’s design-led philosophy with Henson’s creative perspective. Developed over months of prototyping, from initial concepts to the final build, it reflects a shared commitment to purposeful design and uncompromising functionality.

MONO x Tim Henson M80 Classic Dual Electric Guitar Case features include:

• Built on MONO's patented dual protection design, the case safely carries two guitars within a single streamlined profile.
• A distinctive square-patterned front panel is paired with a custom off-white plush interior for a refined visual statement.
• A specially incorporated front handle provides greater control and versatility when carrying the case.
• A custom Polyphia metal badge adds a signature detail unique to the collaboration.
• Durable, water-resistant Sharkskin™ exterior provides reliable protection for travel and touring.
• A reinforced steel-riveted webbing handle offers lasting strength, comfort and durability.
• MONO’s patented Headlock® neck suspension system securely supports and protects both instruments while in transit.

Beyond his distinctive approach to guitar, Henson has a deep appreciation for design and aesthetics, making him a natural collaborator for MONO. A longtime MONO user alongside his band Polyphia, he has relied on MONO gear throughout his career, making this collaboration a meeting of MONO's industry-leading approach to instrument protection and one of the most innovative guitarists of his generation.

Launching alongside Polyphia’s latest single, “Power in the Blood”, the campaign follows a day in the life of Henson, carrying his Ibanez nylon-string and electric guitars in the MONO x Tim Henson M80 Classic Dual Guitar Case. Henson shares why he partnered with MONO to create his signature case, the thinking behind the features he selected, and how his creative vision shaped the final product.

"I’ve been using MONO gear for years, so I’m very happy to have gotten the opportunity to make my own version of the M80 Classic Dual,“ said Tim Henson. “I’m constantly switching between my electric and nylon-string signature guitars, so having one case that carries both and looks exactly the way I want it to is perfect."

The MONO x Tim Henson M80 Classic Dual Electric Guitar Case carries a street price of US $399.99. To learn more visit: timhenson.monocreators.com.

[Editor’s note: MONO is part of Vista Musical Instruments, which like Guitar.com, is part of the Caldecott Music Group.]

Polyphia guitarist Tim Henson has further expanded his growing collection of signature gear with a new take on MONO’s M80 Classic Dual guitar case, which is able to carry two guitars at once within a streamlined profile.

Henson, of course, has a number of signature guitars to his name with Ibanez, including his TOD-10 electric, which sports his signature rose-and-thorns inlay across its fretboard, and a number of nylon-strings gear towards virtuosic playing, too.

• READ MORE: Why Tosin Abasi created the wildest nylon-string guitar ever: the Stage 7

So with so many guitars in his portfolio, it makes sense that he’d have a signature carry case that can protect more than one at the same time, right?

Though it’s another entry in Henson’s catalogue of signature gear collaborations, the new Tim Henson M80 Classic Dual case marks a big moment in MONO’s history, as it’s the first time the musical accessory company has officially collaborated with an artist. Henson himself has been a user of MONO cases for some time, so the partnership is a natural fit.

You might think it’s just a guitar case, but MONO’s design-led philosophy and meticulous attention to detail is apparent all over the new Tim Henson case, which was developed over months of prototyping.

On the outside, the case sports a distinctive square-patterned front panel with durable, water-resistant Sharkskin material for reliable protection, along with a custom Polyphia metal badge, a specially incorporated front handle and reinforced steel-riveted webbing handle.

Inside, it boasts MONO’s patented dual protection design – which keeps two instruments safe at once – with the brand’s patented Headlock neck suspension system, as well as a custom off-white plush interior.

“I’ve been using MONO gear for years, so I’m very happy to have gotten the opportunity to make my own version of the M80 Classic Dual,” Henson says. “I’m constantly switching between my electric and nylon-string signature guitars, so having one case that carries both and looks exactly the way I want it to is perfect.”

The MONO x Tim Henson M80 Classic Dual Electric Guitar Case is available now for $399.99 via MONO’s website and select authorised dealers.

Learn more at MONO.

The post MONO partners with Polyphia guitarist Tim Henson on signature dual-carry guitar case appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Of the most influential guitar players of all time, heavyweights like Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix often get the first mentions. But there’s one guitarist who’s somewhat unsung by comparison, and was so influential, in fact, that folk-rock guitarist Richard Thompson calls “the original guitar hero”.

And that’s Davey Graham, the late veteran British guitarist and folk-rock revivalist, credited with popularising DADGAD tuning, among many other accolades.

• READ MORE: Does tonewood really matter? This is how the wood your guitar’s made of affects the sound

“He was a great player, and a great pioneer who took from everything,” Thompson explains in a new interview with Uncut. “He knew enough jazz, North African music, traditional music, Caribbean music, it’s all in there, and if you went to visit him he’d switch from one to the other, like, ‘Have you heard this one? But what about this?’ He was the first. After him comes Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, then John Martyn et cetera.”

Though he had a lasting impact on the guitar world, Davey Graham wasn’t without his struggles. In an interview last year, folk legend Martin Carthy spoke of Graham’s battle with heroin addiction, recalling the first time he dabbled in the hard substance and how it affected his creative ability.

“I thought I’d done a really good job, but when I put the record on, I went: ‘What the fuck is that?!’ It was absolutely terrible. I was playing this solo that was nonsense,” Carthy remembered of the pair re-recording a version of Port Mahon, originally written by Sydney Carter.

He went on: “On the way home from that session, Davey told me that he’d had his first fix the night before: ‘Oh, it was great, I’m going to do it again.’”

Continuing in the new interview with Uncut, Richard Thompson says: “One does not judge. People have to get through life, and sometimes you need a bit of fortification to do so.”

Thompson himself is a lifelong teetotaller, a decision he says he made at a “fork in the road” in the 1970s.

“If you’re in the music community you see a lot of damage, you see a lot of people die young,” he says. “In the ‘70s I saw a fork in the road, and I can go this way and I’ll be dead in, you know, seven years, and if I go this way, I might survive. It was a conscious choice.”

The post The iconic British folk guitarist that Richard Thompson claims is the “original guitar hero” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

For a spectacle that is a Muse show, frontman Matt Bellamy is pretty particular about the sounds he wants onstage. The Manson-toting guitarist is well and truly an amp modeller convert, with a Fractal Audio Axe-Fx III being the heart of his live rig.

Yep, Bellamy’s arsenal of custom electric guitars might be the main attraction for regular folk attending Muse shows. His numero uno, a Floyd Rose-equipped Manson MB and the stunning mirror guitar with an MXR Phase 90 and ZVEX Fuzz Factory built right in, are some notable highlights.

But for us slightly nerdier guitar gear aficionados, what’s lurking within the walls of his rack-mount amp and effects processor is far more intriguing…

• READ MORE: Does tonewood really matter? This is how the wood your guitar’s made of affects the sound

And that’s because it’s packed with heaps of custom amp captures from Vox, Diezel, Laney, Orange, and Fender amps, and even a Gibson amp dating back to 1938. And as his guitar tech Chris Whitemyer explains in a new interview with Premier Guitar, the process of capturing them was so meticulous that it took a whopping 63 days. That’s over two months…

“That was one thing Matt insisted on, was ‘I don’t want anyone else’s amps.’ He wants his amps,” Whitemyer explains, adding that the Muse superstar is the proud owner of “about 35” amps. “There’s kind of oddball ones that are really cool, and they’re all in there [the Axe-FX III].”

The veteran guitar tech, who has also worked with Guns N’ Roses, Whitesnake and Nine Inch Nails, goes on to explain how he and Bellamy are “always” running a combination of amp sounds as opposed to any one on its own, and says he runs three Axe-Fx III units concurrently to get Bellamy’s sound.

“All of those amp sounds [in the Axe-Fx III] are his amps,” Whitemyer says. “[We modelled] everything. 63 days, eight hours a day, left before dinner every day…”

Earlier this year, Manson – which is part-owned by Meng Ru Kuok, CEO of the Caldecott Music Group, which also owns Guitar.com – announced that it had worked with Matt Bellamy to create a production-run model of his iconic Time is Running Out guitar. 

Loaded with a slew of integrated systems, including a Sustainiac Sustainer, Z-Vex Fuzz Factory, Manson/Ron Joyce FL Wah, and a MIDI Strip controller, the guitar comes at a hefty price tag, with the more decked out version sitting at £29,999, and a [slightly] more affordable model available at £11,999.

The post You won’t believe how long it took Matt Bellamy’s guitar tech to capture all his amp sounds appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The wood that your guitar or bass is made from affects your tone as much as any other gear choice you make, as much as pickups, pedals and amps. This is especially true for acoustic guitars, with or without a pickup.

Different woods like alder, ash, mahogany and more add subtle nuance to the resulting tone, in turn changing how you play, pick, dig into strings and the harmonic content bouncing around.

• READ MORE: Why your guitar’s fretboard radius matters more than you think

There’s countless arguments, discourse and opinions online about how much each component of a guitar affects the overall sound, extending to discussion around factors off the guitar, such as player’s hands, technique, feel and more. Discourse aside, what is true is that everything matters.

While different woods have different amounts of impact, each component affects sound, which in turn affects feel, affecting technique and subsequently the final signal that has passed through the guitar to an amplifier or out of a soundhole. Even the most simple guitars might have a handful of components doing 1 per cent each, but 20 of those leads to a 20 per cent variance between sonics and sound— a huge amount when you think about it!

The weight and feel of the guitar is largely at the behest of the woods it’s made from, both the body, neck and fretboard, and these also feature wildly different tonal characteristics because of structural integrity, quality and weight.

Fretboards

Fretboard wood varies a little less than body wood, so let’s start there. Many guitars feature either rosewood or maple fretboards, though ebony is another common, albeit premium, choice. Various woods like purpleheart, or amaranth, ovangkol and pau ferro are all often used in situations where rosewood is unavailable, either because of logging restrictions or cost prohibitive situations.

Rosewood is used extensively on electric guitar fretboards. Being a softer wood, it absorbs certain frequencies and accentuates others, often being known for a warmer, more midrange sound, making it a great choice for a mid range instrument like the guitar. Brightness is retained in a controlled way, while low end melts away a little bit without the resulting sound being overtly thin.

Maple is a harder wood, and while retaining the mid range character of rosewood, its bright disposition is thanks to the snap and attack of your playing bouncing off the hard surface instead of vibrating away into the wood. This is augmented by the glossy finish on many maple necks, used both for tone, as well as to protect the clean, light-coloured maple from getting grubby.

Ebony is again, even harder than maple, and is particularly bright, the grain almost invisible on premium cuts of ebony. While rosewood has visible grains and imperfections in the wood, ebony usually offers a particularly glassy finish, both aesthetically and sonically. Furthermore to your choice of wood, designs like a one-piece maple neck can prevent tone from fizzling away between components. While a rosewood fretboard is often glued to a maple neck, for example, the tiny gap between neck and board allows vibrations to escape, while a single piece of maple that serves as neck and fretboard has no gap for that sweet, sweet tone to escape to!

Perfect Pairings

Pairing your fretboard wood with body wood can help to shape and refine the sound. More common warm guitar woods like mahogany for electric guitars or rosewood for acoustic guitar can be paired with snappier fretboards for a controlled tone, while matching a warm fretboard with a warm body wood can provide a more mellow, vintage, mid-range focused sound.

Mahogany is commonly used on Gibson’s Les Pauls, paired with a rosewood fretboard, or ebony on the Custom range. Fender uses alder extensively to provide weight relief compared to the hefty mahogany Gibsons. Alder provides a nice middle ground that harnesses the punch of a rich, firm wood, while its lightness allows a little mud and low end to fizzle away. Fender also commonly uses various species of Ash, even lighter and brighter again, paired with warmer fretboards.

These subtle differences are augmented further by your choice of pickups, so be weary of those pairings! The wrong choice of pickups can either miss out on the richness of your wood, or augment to the point of harshness.

Acoustics

These choices are even more obvious on an acoustic guitar, guitar makers pairing different woods for the top, sides and back of the guitar. These choices, along with the soundhole, serve as the guitar’s amplifier and affect the sound entirely. Variations of maple are commonplace in modern tops for acoustic guitars, the bright demeanour of the wood being perfect for clarity in playing.

More vintage-style acoustics, like parlour guitars, sometimes use rosewood for the top and sides resulting in a warmer, more dimmed sound that allows the mid range to shine through. Both rosewood and ebony are common on acoustic guitars, though the brightness of maple is often overkill for the brightness of acoustics, the resulting sound being brittle and harsh.

The character and controlled acoustic qualities of a tonewood come together in semi-hollow guitars, some of which have a comb of standard electric guitar pickups and piezo systems. The timbre of the tonewoods in semi-hollow electrics harness woods like alder and ash, usually reserved for solid body electrics, tying together acoustic resonance and controlled, mid-forward chime.

While tonewood may have a small effect on its own, the way they allow or prevent vibration from escaping into the ether have a huge effect on the resulting sound. Different designs allow sound to vibrate away differently, either pushing brightness into your pickups or mellowing it out entirely. Harder and softer woods offer brighter or warmer sound respectively, and your choice of body wood yields the same results, this being exacerbated in acoustic guitars because they act as both guitar and amplifier as sound bounces out of the soundhole.

In the pursuit of your perfect sound, you’ve also got to try different tonewoods to see what matches your style, technique and feel, different woods either being great to augment your own playing, or to harness different tonal tools for different jobs. There’s no right answer for everyone, but there might be a wrong one, so try as many guitars as you can.

The post Does tonewood really matter? This is how the wood your guitar’s made of affects the sound appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Electro-Harmonix has launched the Adrian Belew Echoflanger, a limited edition signature version of the fabled EHX modulator.

From his career launching stints with Frank Zappa and David Bowie, collaboration with the likes of the Talking Heads and the Tom Tom Club, and his career defining years in King Crimson, Adrian Belew has always been on the cutting edge of using effects for cultivating intriguing and out-of-this-world guitar tones. Ever at his left-hand, the Electro-Harmonix Echoflanger had been employed to create some of Adrian’s most notable sounds.

The new signature Adrian Belew Echoflanger is an all-analog multi-mode modulator capable of sounds from smooth and airy to warped and wild. Classic modes from the original include Filter Matrix, Flange, Chorus, and Slap Back, plus new combination mode: Slap Back + Filter Matrix and Adrian’s signature Chorus + Flange. In addition to standard modulation controls like VOLUME, RATE and WIDTH for setting output, speed, and range of effect, the Echoflanger includes a TUNE knob for dialing in the centerpoint of the modulation waveform, and a FEEDBACK knob to adjust from mild mod to runaway self-oscillation. The BLEND switch adds/removes the dry signal from the effect signal for traditional chorus/flanger-type effects or more intense vibrato sounds.

The new twist on a classic tone twister features stereo outputs, and true bypass with mechanical relays. The pedal ships with standard EHX 9 Volt power supply and has a U.S. Street Price of $239.00.

Aaron Sabourin runs Dominion Electric Effects Co., out of Ottawa, Ontario, as a one-man show, building effects using pricey, vintage parts when his day job permits him to. His Faceless Fuzz and Soul Power—inspired by the Fuzz Face and Hendrix’s screaming tone at Fillmore East circa 1970, respectively—are top-shelf recreations of common circuits that have been around for a long time. But it’s Sabourin’s commitment to using premium components in bomb-proof builds that make his pedals so coveted. His latest design, the Filmotone, strays a little further from the guitar-tone canon: It’s an effect pedal designed to approximate the sound and dynamic feel of a single-transistor preamp wrenched from the guts of a Bell & Howell Filmosound film projector.

As far as I can tell, there aren’t a ton of pedals on the market based on DIY amps made from old film projectors. Bell & Howell Filmosounds, with their hefty grab-and-go design, were designed to let owners screen films anywhere, with both image and sound thanks to an integrated tube amplifier. A few decades back, an Ontario amp technician, Bernie Raunig, began stripping the amplification sections, then modding and rehousing them. These low-wattage “projector amps” are still revered for their frankly undeniable mojo, and though there is not one particular manufacturer nor tone that defines the projector-amp sound (the projector amplifier amplifiers themselves evolved over time) the general tonal thumbprint tends to be transparent, warm, full, and very vintage.

Film Foundation

The Filmotone’s handsome dark-green sparkle finish, paired with its classy white font and detailing, is a lovely thing to behold. Sabourin’s pedals all follow a similarly sparse art direction, but the Filmotone might be the prettiest of the bunch.

The pedal’s two controls—a knob for boost and one for saturation—are fairly self-explanatory; boost handles your volume level, and saturation adds just that—and exactly that. It doesn’t really feel like the Filmotone adds dirt, or fuzz, or gain in the strict sense of those terms. Saturation feels like the only adequate descriptor for what it does—almost like liquid gorging and swelling a plank of wood, making it more massive. The only other control on the Filmotone is an internal switch that toggles between “full” and “tight.” The latter cuts some of the pedal’s bass presence when engaged, making the Filmotone a better, more focused fit in some high-gain applications.

Lights, Camera, Saturation!

With the boost knob at noon and saturation all the way counter-clockwise, Filmotone is an immediate signal fixer-upper. It widens and boldens your signal, and blunts sharp edges in your tone for a pleasing, lightly compressed, vintage feel. As you crank the saturation knob, you’re greeted with gentle, organic breakup, with chewy, thick low-end that evokes the output from many vintage, low-wattage tube combos that remain benchmarks for “good tone.” Reducing guitar volume cleans the signal up, but the Filmotone retains low-end authority in these situations. What it brings, essentially, is a feeling of balance and fullness that you might otherwise get only by turning a tube amp up really loud. That makes it a great choice for players who need something to enliven a low-volume stage, home, or practice setup. (Maybe for this reason, I preferred using the pedal with the internal switch set to “full.”)

Stacked against other preamp pedals in my arsenal, Filmotone didn’t get quite as nasty, which is fine, because as a clean and low-to-mid-gain tone-shaping tool, it’s exquisite. None of my other preamp stomps yielded sounds as wide-screen and three-dimensional as the Filmotone, and while these qualities were never more apparent than when it was the only effect engaged, having it upstream from my Fairfield Barbershop or a Fuzz Face clone, among others, demonstrated just how satisfying the Filmotone’s EQ profile is: It focuses extreme frequencies without losing the big picture.

There were times that I wished I could coax more dirt from the Filmotone’s saturation knob. By comparison, Walrus Audio’s Filmosound-inspired amp-in-a-box, the 385, takes players straight through to explosive, gooey distortion and fuzz. Dominion’s Filmotone doesn’t get that filthy, but that’s fine. As a clean boost/tone-sweetener, it’s truly top-tier.

The Verdict

Dominion’s Filmotone is a high-class preamp that stands apart from the pack. For a 2-knob pedal, its price tag is steep, but if exceptional sound, components, and build quality are important factors, you’ll want a ticket for the Filmotone.