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Blackstar’s Beam Mini is available now – and it packs a mighty punch despite its portable size
After making its grand debut at January’s NAMM show, Blackstar’s Beam Mini desktop amp is finally available to the public. The tiny DSP-powered amplifier boasts massive tone, as well as cramming a whole host of digital amp models, ISF control and TONE3000 NAM compatibility into its portable size.
Regardless of whether you’re performing with an acoustic, bass or electric guitar, the Beam Mini offers 12 different amp models to experiment with. The selection varies from six Blackstar amps, to six recreations of classic amps crafted by Ampton. There are also three specialised bass amps, as well as a pair of acoustic voices and an acoustic simulator thrown in for good measure.
Despite its smaller scale, Blackstar has assured that the Beam Mini doesn’t sacrifice on tone. That means that you can take that diverse selection of amps anywhere and know it’ll still sound cracking. That’s also aided by the amp’s two 60mm full-range drivers, its pair of passive bass radiators and Blackstar’s Super Wide Stereo technology, all designed to offer an “expansive, room-filling sound”.
Users can also fine-tune their sound thanks to Blackstar’s ISF controls, as well as morphing their tone with any of the 35+ effects in the amp’s library. Users can navigate their way through any personalisation on the amp’s SpeedDial and Light Beam Display, removing any need to navigate through long, bloated menus.
However, if there is any interest in delving a bit deeper, the amp can be controlled via the Beam app. The app allows for further editing of tones, as well as allowing access to an online library of amps, cabs, mics and pedal models – as well as any artist-uploaded patches and tone settings, which can be uploaded and shared amongst the app’s community.
Alongside the tone editing and modelling abilities, the amp also boasts Blackstar’s IR-driven speaker and mic simulation, CabRig. The addition allows the amp to extend beyond a mere tool for performing and instead allows for recording – be that guitar parts or vocals, thanks to its studio-quality microphone input.
The amp is even planning to introduce Moises AI down the line in August, which should allow users to separate stems from your recordings. Blackstar plan to add the additional AI tool in a software update.
If that already sounds up your street, there’s also the guarantee of it being weatherproof, dust-tight and rechargeable. With 18 hours of potential playtime, it’s a strong option for musicians wanting to practice or record on the go, keeping things light but still offering a nice selection of tone to play with.
For more info, head to Blackstar.
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Fender Godzilla Distortion: imbue your pedalboard with the “sonic might of the King of Monsters”
Following the roaring success of Fender Japan’s Godzilla-themed Stratocasters last year – which we labelled, and still believe to be, some of the coolest guitars we’ve ever seen – the guitar titan has now unleashed its Godzilla Distortion pedal upon the world.
The distortion pedal was first unveiled along with the Godzilla-themed Strats in October 2025, but like those, was exclusively available in Japan. Now, those who sit in the intersection of the guitar player/Monsterverse fan Venn diagram all over the world can get their hands on one.
They’re subject to “limited stock”, though, so you’ll have to be quick…
Described as a “powerhouse pedal” capable of transforming your rig into a “heat-ray-breating beast”, the Godzilla Distortion is designed for the range of distortion use cases, from “thick rhythmic chugging” to “soaring lead tones that cut through any mix”.
Credit: Fender
The unit itself is powered by an op amp-based distortion circuit, with active Treble and Bass controls for crafting the perfect EQ curve for your tone.
Visually is where the pedal really shines, though; there’s a striking Godzilla-themed wraparound artwork, with “Godzilla” emblazoned on the bottom of the unit.
Credit: Fender
It’s pedalboard-friendly, too, of course, with top-mounted jacks plus a road-ready aluminium enclosure. There’s also true-bypass switching, so when the pedal is switched off, you know your signal is clean and unaltered.
Credit: Fender
So if you want to “unleash sonic might as legendary as the King of Monsters himself”, you’d better get on the Godzilla Distortion quick, as we imagine these will sell out fast.
Price-wise, the Godzilla Distortion clocks in at a totally reasonable £145. Get yours at Fender.
The post Fender Godzilla Distortion: imbue your pedalboard with the “sonic might of the King of Monsters” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“Those touring years are dog years”: Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted believes the “accelerated lifestyle” of touring contributed to his throat cancer diagnosis
Last year, bassist Jason Newsted was diagnosed with throat cancer, and kept it a secret from fans. Though he has already had treatment to fully cure it, he chalks the cancer up to the “accelerated lifestyle” of his time touring with Metallica.
In a new interview with the Let There Be Talk podcast, Newsted explains that he received a cancer diagnosis last February. While he’d been suffering with earaches and a sore jaw, he had simply written it off as minor ailments that were only slightly impacting his ability to sing. When he finally noticed a lump on his neck, he decided it was time to get checked up. “The doctor calls [back] and he says, ‘You need to come in’,” the bassist recalls [via Blabbermouth].
The 63-year-old initially thought “there’s no way…”, before remembering how chaotic his years in Metallica had been. “I expected [a diagnosis like that] maybe 20 years from now… but then I started thinking about it,” he says. “Our accelerated lifestyle [in Metallica]… with the big tours, you’re doing a couple of hundred shows a year… Those touring years are dog years.”
He goes on to explain how, due to the intense touring schedule, one Metallica year is the equivalent of “four or five” normal years. In his opinion, its a lifestyle that has taken its toll. “If you put the math down, that’s taxing on your cells, three flights a day… that kind of shit, it’ll get you,” he says.
Newsted underwent surgery for this cancer last May, a procedure he describes as the doctor taking “a bunch of shit outta [his throat]” with lasers. “The cavern inside my head is different than it was, but we got it early,” he explains. “And I got my ‘free and clear’ about three weeks ago! So I beat it.”
While Newsted is happily celebrating his cancer-free future, he advises his rock and roll peers to seriously be cautious and conscious of their own health moving forward. “There’s 550 cancers that we deal with… and there’s no telling when it’s going to come,” he reflects. “I wanna be an advocate, of course, for everyone to be aware of things like that. It can happen to anybody.”
To further prove his point, he name-drops peers that have also suffered from mouth, tongue and throat related cancers, pointing to Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson, Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine and Social Distortion’s Mike Ness. “It’s the most prevalent cancer now for males over 40,” Newsted explains.
Despite the lifestyle taking its toll on his body, Newsted doesn’t regret his time in Metallica. The bassist parted ways with Metallica back in 2001 after 15 years, and continues to be a massive supporter of the thrashers.
Regardless of his diagnosis, the bassist hopes to carry out his North American headline tour with his Chophouse Band project this summer. The tour comes a full year after his cancer surgery, so Newsted is ripe and ready to roll. “I promised myself I was going to rest [after my surgery], and that was the first time I’ve done that in my life,” he says.
Jason Newsted and the Chophouse Band will be playing an eight-date headline tour this July, before supporting country rockers Blackberry Smoke for a further 10 dates.
For tickets and more information on Jason Newsted and the Chophouse Band’s summer tour, head to the band’s website.
The post “Those touring years are dog years”: Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted believes the “accelerated lifestyle” of touring contributed to his throat cancer diagnosis appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Have Greta Van Fleet broken up? Fans speculate over meaning of “thanks for the wild ride” social media post
Greta Van Fleet have sparked rumours of a breakup following a cryptic social media video “thanking” their fans.
The video in question was shared yesterday (4 May), and shows clips of the band throughout their 14-year-tenure. After flickering through multiple videos from across their career, the video closes out on a message reading: “Thanks for the wild ride, love, Josh, Jake, Sam [the Kiszka brothers] & Daniel [Wagner].”
Prior to sharing the video across their social media channels, the group had been keeping a low profile. On their Instagram, the band hadn’t shared anything since July 2025. Even then, the post was simply an anniversary post to mark two years of their last record, 2023’s Starcatcher. Before that, they’d not posted since March 2025.
While the reflective video seems like a farewell, some fans aren’t entirely convinced. Some have noted that the music in the clip is unfamiliar, hinting that there is new Greta Van Fleet music on the way. If that is the case, the message could simply be thanking fans for the “wild ride” touring their last album, waving off the era to welcome in the next one.
As well as that, the new video has been edited in a way that is reminiscent of other clips throughout the Starcatcher album cycle, particularly the fuzzy, film-strip-like overlays.
Over the years, Greta Van Fleet have had a tough time earning their place in the rock world. At first, many wrote the band off by labelling them as “derivative”, due to their similarities to Led Zeppelin. However, the band went on to gain a huge fanbase and even earn the Grammy for Best Rock Album for their 2017 EP, From The Fires.
Currently, the band has neither confirmed nor denied whether they will be breaking up. However, if the outcome does see the end of Greta Van Fleet, the members aren’t entirely abandoning music; brother Jake Kiszka has been working with Ida Mae’s Chris Turpin on new Mirador music, with the duo set to release their The Gathering EP in June.
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Podcast 549: The Music Emporium’s Adam Dardeck and Andy Cambria
On this week’s podcast, we’re joined by Adam Dardeck and Andy Cambria of The Music Emporium. Founded in 1968 by Stu Cohen, The Music Emporium is one of the most successful retailers of boutique and vintage guitars in the world. This year, the Lexington, Mass.-based store is sponsoring our 2026 Fretboard Summit and, thanks to their generous support, we’re granting our first-ever scholarships to the guitar festival!
To apply for the scholarship, go here.
Follow The Music Emporium here.
We talk to Adam and Andy about the new program, the Summit, how The Music Emporium has evolved over the years, 2026 retail sales, the brands that they are loving right now, and more. Plus: Even more Summit updates.
Join us at our 2026 Fretboard Summit in Chicago for three days of guitar demos, concerts, workshops and podcast tapings with some of our favorite artists: https://fretboardsummit.org
This year’s Summit has over 80 luthiers and brands showcasing their new and prototype gear!
Subscribe to the Fretboard Journal’s quarterly print magazine: https://shop.fretboardjournal.com/products/fretboard-journal-annual-subscription
We are brought to you by Peghead Nation: https://www.pegheadnation.com
(Get your first month free or $20 off any annual subscription with the promo code FRETBOARD at checkout).
Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar: https://mmguitarbar.com
The post Podcast 549: The Music Emporium’s Adam Dardeck and Andy Cambria first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
Former Turnstile guitarist Brady Ebert could face life in prison following alleged hit-and-run
Former Turnstile guitarist Brady Ebert is facing life in prison after striking his ex bandmate Brandan Yates’ father William with his car.
Upon arriving to William Yates’ home on 29 March, Ebert is alleged to have struck down the 79-year-old with his vehicle, leaving him severely injured with a broken leg.
News of Ebert’s alleged hit-and-run first hit the press back in April, with the Baltimore Banner reporting that the guitarist considered his actions to be of “pure self-defence”, claiming that “they’re the attackers”. Despite pleading his innocence, a Montgomery County grand jury has now formally indicted a charge of attempted first-degree murder – a significant upgrade from the Montgomery County police’s original charge of attempted second-degree murder.
The more serious charge comes with potentially more severe repercussions for Ebert; now, if the guitarist is convicted, he could be handed a life sentence.
According to the Baltimore Banner, Ebert’s alleged hit-and-run was preceded by the guitarist driving by William Yates’ home, honking his horn and yelling “obscenities” at William Yates, his daughter and his son-in-law. However, Ebert allegedly then escalated the situation and drove back around to the house.
Surveillance footage provided by the Montgomery County police allegedly shows William “warning” his daughter and her partner to get away. However, the 79-year-old wasn’t so lucky; according to the police, Ebert struck Yates while he was trying to run away, yelling that he “deserved it”.
Back in August 2022, Turnstile parted ways with Ebert. While the guitarist had been a founding member, the group explained in an Instagram Story: “We are deeply grateful for our time together. Our love for him continues and we wish him nothing but the best moving forward.”
Turnstile confirms guitarist Brady Ebert has left the band
byu/papo96 inindieheads
However, in a statement shared with Rolling Stone last month, the band clarified that Ebert’s removal from the project had been triggered by his self-destructive behaviour and increasingly “violent” nature. “Turnstile cut ties with Brady Ebert in 2022 in response to a consistent pattern of harmful behaviour affecting himself, the band, and the community,” the band explained.
“After exhausting every available resource to support his access to help and recovery, a boundary ultimately had to be set when healthy communication was no longer possible and he began threatening violence.”
“In the years since, his baseless tirades have continued in public. We never addressed it. We chose to protect his privacy and the circumstances around his departure, even when he did nothing to be deserving of that protection. Over the past few months, his threats only escalated further… We have no language left for Brady.”
In recent years, the ex-Turnstile riffer joined a new band, The S.E.T. (Self Evident Truth). However, his new bandmates also ended up kicking him out back in February, following some erratic social media posts criticising Turnstile.
According to NME, Ebert publicly accused his former bandmates of “misusing funds from a benefit gig”, forcing his new band to cut ties with him. “Brady is no longer a member of The S.E.T.,” the band wrote on Instagram. “We will not stand by his ridiculous comments and behaviour toward the members of our band and our community.”
The criticism of his old band came shortly after Ebert had criticised them in January. According to Vice, the guitarist had slammed Turnstile for posting an “abolish ICE” post, labelling it a performative move: “Lmao, no one in Turnstile cares at all about ethics or social issues in general, they’re just pandering to their audience.”
The post Former Turnstile guitarist Brady Ebert could face life in prison following alleged hit-and-run appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“We figured we needed to do it as good or better than the original”: Dave Mustaine on Megadeth’s Ride the Lightning cover
One of the biggest headlines in the leadup to the release of Megadeth’s final album was the announcement that a cover of Metallica’s Ride the Lightning was set to appear.
As the story goes, Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine co-wrote the track when he was still a member of Metallica in the early ‘80s, alongside James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Cliff Burton. Mustaine ended up being fired in 1983 before the release of the band’s debut album, Kill ‘Em All, and Ride the Lightning first appeared as the title track of Metallica’s second album the following year.
- READ MORE: Dave Grohl says Foo Fighters still make music “like a band that plays in a f**king garage”
When Megadeth’s cover of Ride the Lightning was confirmed, Dave Mustaine described his intention to make it a full-circle moment, saying: “I wanted to pay my respects to where my career first started.”
And while Mustaine says he “put [his feud with Metallica] to sleep many years ago” in a new interview with Brazil’s Ibagenscast [via Blabbermouth], it seems there was at least a small competitive streak to Ride the Lightning cover.
“I’ve always thought that James was an excellent guitar player, so when we set out to do the song, we figured we needed to do it as good or better than the original,” he says. “And we figured, how are we gonna do that? Metallica’s an amazing group.
“So we sped it up just a little bit, made it a little bit more frantic, and then we kind of spiced up the solo a little bit. And then, at the end, there’s some drum fills that the Metallica guys had played, and I told Dirk [Verbeuren, Megadeth drummer], I said, ‘Have fun there. Just have fun.’
“So he did a drum fill at the end in the four spots that there’s drum fills. And I think that they’re really stunning drum fills. They may be similar to the original stuff, but I’m not sure how similar. And he recorded his parts, and I love it.”
Also in the interview, Mustaine touches again on his desire to complete the circle of his career, so to speak.
“Going back to why we did that song,” he explains, “it’s kind of closing the circle, paying my respects to the band that I was a founding member in. And love me or hate me, they’ll never be able to erase me.
“And I think that when people can look with acceptance and fondness of the two bands and not try and keep something that I don’t wanna keep going. I don’t wanna have a feud. I’ve put that to sleep so many years ago.
“So, yeah, I wanted to do something that was — just show some respect, ’cause it doesn’t matter to me if he cares, if he likes it; it matters what I do and that I show respect and close the circle.”
The post “We figured we needed to do it as good or better than the original”: Dave Mustaine on Megadeth’s Ride the Lightning cover appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Heidi Curtis’ destiny is intertwined with guitar music: “It’s a craft that has to be chipped away at”
Imagine if you told teenage Heidi Curtis, as she learnt Florence & The Machine’s Dog Days Are Over on guitar, that she’d be announcing tour dates with Florence a few hours before having coffee with Guitar.com.
Having already played with Ben Howard and Paolo Nutini, Curtis’ list of co-signs is already undeniably stacked – despite having just three released songs to her name. Across the hour we spend with her in Newcastle city centre, we learn how her story is six years in the making.
“I was doing mic nights at Lola Jeans for £40 a week, I was buzzing!” she recalls, running us through jobs at Newcastle United and a Mexican restaurant. “I stayed at home, I honed my craft… my mam and dad are really supportive. It’s good to see artists put out music [quickly], but I also think it can be dangerous, the change of pace in how music’s released. It takes so long to actually perfect your live performance. It’s a craft that has to be chipped away at.”
After multiple iterations, Curtis’ live band has been solidified for three years, a constant while her songwriting took many shapes and sizes in her background life in North Shields. Raised on piano, which she learnt mostly by ear, she was soon ‘borrowing’ her older brother’s Telecaster and amassing guitars of her own, notably a 1978 Gibson Dove acoustic, which reminded her of the “white-winged dove” from Stevie Nicks’ Edge Of Seventeen.
Disengaged with the Ableton-heavy music production course at Newcastle College, Curtis was instead drawn to the “privacy” of playing guitar in her room, the playing style of Johnny Marr, and the purity of live production with her bandmates. “It’s a puzzle – and I love puzzles,” she smiles. “I never have that tyrannical leadership… I want my band to have the same status as session musicians in the 70s: very revered and honoured. I want to preserve that, because their musicianship is incredible.”
Image: Jay Davison
Bide Your Time
In November, the mystical, heart-throbbing riff of her debut single Undone revealed what she’d been building. Next came the magical duality of Siren – a modern-day successor to Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain – before the raw downstrums of What Am I Missing? announced her debut EP, Hollow Heart (due 29 May). She has two albums’ worth of music ready to go. While Curtis tugs at folk-rock, indie and grittier rock threads, it’s evident that the guitar is at the centre of her identity.
“I can’t believe how much love that Undone riff got!” she beams. “Originally, it had this massive Tube Screamer on it, and it was a bit ridiculous. It’s the rumble and hit of the strings, everything about the guitar gives so much life to a track. I’ve been able to manipulate guitars to work with me, via going down an alternate tuning route. When I came back to standard, I knew what my style was. Trying to find your own style in standard is tricky.”
That case study, surrounding DADF#BE and DADDAD tunings, exemplifies the crux of Heidi’s songwriting journey. Before she could share her music with the world, she had reach a level of self-assurance in her artistry, taking no shortcuts. While many artists wrestle with that in the public eye to feed the music and content machine, Heidi was determined to do it her way.
She was afforded that space after her talent was spotted by Owain Davies, who, in tandem with her older brother Tom, co-manages Heidi alongside Ben Howard and Sam Fender. Hailing from the same town, Curtis has watched on in real time as Fender shot to fame, now arguably the biggest British guitar act of the decade.
“Being around him, and that level of quality, made me dedicated to stick with this process,” she says, pointing out how he also started releasing at 24, having written since the age of 16. “I’m in a really privileged position in that regard.”
Trusting the journey, Curtis learned how to channel her gut instinct and write with a degree of self-assurance. “You’ve got to meditate on the practice of not allowing others’ opinions to get involved,” she says. “Have you ever played Zelda? You’ve got to tame these horses. I see songs as these spirit-like pieces. You’ve got to really tame [them], ‘No, this is going this way.’”
Particularly after an active year of gigging in 2022, the self-inflicted pressure to ready her music did weigh on Curtis, “but it made me dig so much deeper,” she continues. “When my nana passed away. I would have never reached that point of emotional depth if I hadn’t [felt that] genuine heartbreak. You’ve got to dig for those [moments], to be honest with your emotions. It’s definitely made me understand and honour the time and the effort.”
Image: Jay Davison
One Step Back And Three Steps Forward
In 2023, What Am I Missing? catalysed the wave of songs we hear on Hollow Heart – and beyond. Frustrated by writer’s block, she turned to her guitar, on holiday in Cyprus, and allowed the truth of feelings to come to the surface, instead of aimlessly seeking out answers. You can feel the urgency of her predicament in the track, a headspace she had to re-enter when it came to recording.
“It’s exactly the same as acting,” she suggests. “Every song is a lesson. If you don’t confront those issues, it blocks the other ideas from being able to migrate. As an artist, you’ve got to be on the move… mentally. Writer’s block is a sign that you’ve stood here for too long. The patch of sun has moved, and you’re still standing there. I now know whenever I get writer’s block, I’m not confronting something properly.”
Although Curtis is finally emerging into the public spotlight, behind the scenes, she’s always been on the move. Her taste has changed – from Bob Dylan to Girls Aloud to Metallica and Hendrix – and so has her live show, a muscle she’s kept strengthening, “like going to the gym”. Now, there is room for ambition to enter the fray, as the fruits of her labour finally come to life, proving that the long, old-fashioned march was the right course of action. While she’s watched from the sidelines, the success of guitar acts like Fender, Fontaines D.C. and Wolf Alice “gives [her] so much faith” in her methods.
“Now, people will sniff around and I’ll think, ‘You were at my gig four years ago and had no interest,’” she laughs. “It takes a bit longer to get people knowing you, but when the moment happens – and I believe it will – a really solid fanbase that are buying tickets and invest in your art [is important]. I see artists with thousands of followers that are struggling to sell out an academy show. If the music is good enough, and your artistry’s good, it’s gonna be fine.”
Hollow Heart is out 29 May via AWAL
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UA Intros UAD Enigmatic '82 Overdrive Special
José González: A Matter of Time
Don’t be fooled. Yes, José González’s mellifluous folk-pop, powered almost exclusively by Spanish acoustic guitars, sounds like it must have been a breeze to make. But if it were, a lot more of it would exist. As things stand, the acclaimed Swedish singer, songwriter, and guitarist (a child of Argentinian parents who emigrated to Scandinavia in the 1970s) has managed to put out just five solo albums in the past 23 years. Because his work is truly a solo production—González plays, sings, and records all the parts either at his home in Gothenburg or in a private studio space nearby—he has nobody to blame for this but himself. And as he explains during a recent Zoom interview with Premier Guitar, a key issue is that he starts the creative process for each of his albums intending to attain a noble ideal, of which he inevitably and invariably falls short.
“The first ambition always is to do everything, the whole album, with one guitar and one voice,” González says. “But then I’ll have a song that I feel will still be good enough for the album [that way] but I’ll just try adding one more guitar, or some vocals, or some clapping, or some looping. It’s cheating,” he acknowledges, “but you know, I’m old enough to not care that much about it. So that becomes part of the new ambition, which is to make it all sound like it was done with just one guitar and one vocal.”
A bemused grin flashes from behind the 47-year-old González’s dark, scraggly beard. “But then I run into another problem,” he continues, “which is that if the album sounds like it was done with just one guitar and one vocal, it’s a bit too homogeneous and boring for many people. So that’s when I start pushing each song in different directions, adding echoes and reverbs, changing the style of guitar playing. When I put my producer’s hat on, then it’s a different ambition: to make the album more interesting.”
José González’s Gear
Guitars
- Estevé Adalid 11 classical acoustic
- Estevé 9CB classical acoustic (one with spruce top and one with cedar top)
- Loriente Clarita classical acoustic
- Córdoba Rodriguez classical acoustic
- Alhambra classical acoustic
Effects
- Boss OC-3 Super Octave
- Boss GE-7 Equalizer
- Roland RE-201 Space Echo
- Ableton Live software (for live looping)
Strings & Capo
- D’Addario Pro Arté EJ46 Silverplated Wound/Nylon Core
- Shubb C2 capo
Pickups, Mics, & DI
- Fishman Prefix Pro Blend pickups
- Neumann U 67 and SM 69 microphones
- Radial Engineering Firefly tube preamp/DI
Recording Software
- Logic Pro
- Universal Audio plugins, including A-Type Multiband Dynamic Enhancer, EP-34 Tape Echo and Precision De-Esser
Does González foresee a time when he might actually achieve his first ambition of making a literal solo album? “That could happen,” he says. “I don’t know, there’s many things I want to do with life. If I look into my future, when the kids [an eight-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son] are older and they move from home, I might play every day and all of a sudden have 10 songs that are amazing and just put them out on an album like that. But then again, I might just be happy on my porch by the water. And I might not have an audience that wants to see this old dude.”
One has a hard time imagining the latter situation ever coming to pass if González keeps making music that matches the consistent quality of his latest release, Against the Dying of the Light. Like its four predecessors, the new album sounds simple at first, quiet alt-folk spotlighting González’s gentle, reedy voice and mellow nylon-string plucking. But it reveals greater complexity the more closely you listen: in the tricky rhythms that course through each song, derived from West African, Caribbean, and Brazilian sources; in the harmonic richness of the chord progressions; and in the advanced philosophical concepts referenced in the lyrics.
“The first ambition always is to do everything, the whole album, with one guitar and one voice.”
Indeed, Against the Dying… could legitimately be called a concept album—not in the rock-opera sense, but in the more basic definition of a linked group of songs that explore kindred ideas. The album opens with “A Perfect Storm,” which presents a problem: Human consciousness and well-being are threatened by artificial intelligence, algorithms, memes, and other human creations. The implications of that problem are examined more deeply as the album progresses, until 13 songs later, we arrive not at a solution but at an awareness with which a solution might be found—an awareness of our own humanity. The closing song, “Joy,” concludes with these words: “As we cognify everything/We’re still conscious souls/Who can’t help but sing.”
Each song on Against the Dying… flows into the next one naturally, like the evolution of an argument or the telling of a tale. Some of this is the product of post-facto track sequencing, but sometimes González wrote the songs with their order in mind from the start. For example, the lightly skipping “For Every Dusk” is followed by the more introspective “Sheet” because the songs were originally written as two sections of the same composition. The former track, with three subtly interlocking guitar parts, is also the one that strays farthest from its author’s opening play-it-all-on-a-single-instrument mission.
According to González, “For Every Dusk” was composed in a manner similar to the way he writes most of his songs, but ended up sounding different due to certain performance realities. “I always start with guitar,” he says, “and then I start humming. And then I start writing, and when I start writing I do the words and the melodies, partly on their own and partly by sitting with the guitar. That’s the part where I give up sometimes, because I raise the bar a bit too high for myself. With some songs, I’m not able to play that well and sing at the same time. I could sort of lower the bar for the guitar part, but usually I record the guitar separate. ‘For Every Dusk’ was one of those songs. I basically did full takes and felt like they had some highlights, but none of them were good enough, even if I tried to edit them. It sounded way better if I just put two of the takes together [running simultaneously]. Then it sounds like two guitarists hanging out. The guitars are almost playing the same thing, but you get these variations that are nice, and they also sound similar to the music from Mali, where usually a couple of people with guitars are playing.”
“It became obvious that people were liking my acoustic guitar and vocals. That was what I was doing best.”
González has been a fan of Malian music for the past two decades; guitarist Ali Farka Touré and kora player Ballaké Sissoko were his gateway drugs. “Later, I got to hang out with [fellow guitarist] Sidi Touré and Bombino [Omara Moctar] from Niger. It was a pleasure to see how they play, and it’s just fun to jam with that sort of music. And I recently sang on a track for [Saharan “desert blues” band] Tinariwen’s new album—I’m really happy with how that turned out.”
Another highlight of Against the Dying…, “Ay Querida,” features an ear-grabbing alternate tuning. With a nod to legends Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake, the guitarist cranks the low E string of his Estevé Adalid 11 down, way down, to B. That, however, is the song’s only deviation from standard. González employs several similar tunings, all of which share a minimum of retuned strings. “I never retune the A, D, B or high E,” he points out. “It’s only the low E and the G that go down, or up—there are many songs that are E-A-D-A, for example. But it’s fun to have those downtuned songs. The first one that became popular was ‘Far Away,’ that was used in a video game [Red Dead Redemption]. And since then, I have a couple of songs that are in that tuning. They’re really fun to play live, because you have a P.A. with subwoofers, and when you tune down, all of a sudden you’re not playing guitar, you’re playing bass.”
Besides the transglobal rhythms and the altered tunings, the most distinctive elements of González’s guitar style are what he plays (nylon-string acoustics) and how (always with a combination of the flesh and nails on his right-hand fingers, never a pick). That’s the way he played when he first took up the instrument at age 13; he even studied classical guitar for a while in his youth. “I went to a private teacher here in Gothenburg,” he remembers, “and I asked him, ‘Could you teach me jazz guitar?’ He told me, ‘No, I can’t, but I can teach you classical guitar.’ So I started learning all these Spanish classical tunes, like [Francisco Tárrega’s] ‘Recuerdos de la Alhambra,’ [Isaac Albéniz’s] ‘Asturias,’ some Bach even. I went to see my teacher once a month for a couple of years, but it took too much time to learn. So I let that go, but I learned a lot during those years.”
It wasn’t long before González had made a significant stylistic break from his early classical studies. By age 15, he was playing bass in the first of three hardcore punk bands that occupied his spare time for most of the ’90s, eventually switching over to electric guitar. “The hardcore songs weren’t bad,” he says now, “but they weren’t that good, either. And we didn’t have much success with them.” His next band, formed in 1998, was Junip, a trio that reunited him with the classical acoustic in a new indie-rock context: “It became obvious during those years that people were liking my acoustic guitar and vocals. That was what I was doing best.”
“I always start with guitar, and then I start humming. And then I start writing.”
Five years into Junip’s career, González released a solo seven-inch single, which unexpectedly hit No. 4 on the Swedish pop chart. The band proceeded to go on the backburner (though it reconvened for albums in 2010 and 2013), and González dropped his university studies—he’d been working toward a PhD in biochemistry—to focus on music full-time. “All of a sudden, I was famous in Sweden,” he recalls.
And the nylon-string guitar had played a major role in making this happen. “At that point it became a thing for me to not switch to steel-string, even though that would have meant louder sound when we were playing live,” González says. “My sound engineers were trying to get me to play steel-string, but to me that sounded like what everyone else was doing. I wanted to do what I liked, and in a way that wasn’t new either, because in the ’60s and ’70s there were Spanish guitars everywhere, in the folk traditions and the protest singers and the music that I listened to when I was young.”
That vintage sound has informed not only González’s writing and playing but also his approach to recording. Although he works strictly in the digital domain with Logic Pro, he’ll add analog-style ambience to his tracks whenever he deems it necessary—which is most of the time. “I’ll record through a tube amplifier, so I get that distortion that you can’t really take away later,” he says. “After that, I’ll add some saturation in different steps, depending on the type of song, and some tape emulator. And then, one of my favorite things to do is to add noise. The Universal Audio A-Type plugin has a noise generator that’s pretty round in its sound. I’ve got some nice mics—on the new album, I used Neumann’s SM 69 stereo mic a lot—but I don’t want things to be too bright or hi-fi, so I try to make it sound more old-school.”
Add every hour spent looking for just the right kind and amount of tape-style distortion to every hour spent struggling with the relative complexity of guitar arrangements, and you begin to understand why it generally takes five-plus years for a José González album to be completed. And of course, those aren’t the only things that can eat up a lot of time. “I’ll tell my label, ‘The album’s almost done, I have all the demos so I’m gonna start recording soon,’” González says. “So they start booking tours and setting up interviews. But then, you know, life catches on. Someone in the family gets sick, and I’m not rehearsing guitar as much, and then I need another month, or two more months. But eventually,” he concludes with a shrug, “I get to a point where I feel like this is good enough.”
He’s being humble here. For most listeners, José González’s “good enough” is way more than that.
Dave Grohl says Foo Fighters still make music “like a band that plays in a f**king garage”
They may be one of the biggest rock bands in the worlds, but Foo Fighters still operate and make music “like a band that plays in a fucking garage”, according to Dave Grohl.
Speaking to Radio X’s John Kennedy about the band’s latest album Your Favorite Toy, the frontman explains that despite decades of success, the group’s creative process hasn’t strayed far from their roots.
“The way we function as a band… I know that all of this is much different than it was when we were young and playing in bands in a garage, but we still function like a band that plays in a fucking garage,” he says. “It’s the same thing! It’s like, ‘Hey, I’ve got a riff,’ and we show it to everybody.”
“Maybe people would imagine that we’re a lot more professional than we actually are,” Grohl adds, “but really the way that we function… it’s really similar to [Dave’s previous punk band] Scream.”
Describing Your Favorite Toy as a good example of how this works, Grohl says he typically brings in rough guitar parts and lets the track evolve organically with the rest of the band.
“Usually I’ll put down a rhythm guitar and then maybe a sort of melodic bit above that, almost for reference,” he explains. “Like, I’ll double the rhythm guitar, and then I’ll have some sort of melodic line that goes above it. But the funny thing is that nobody knows what I’m going to sing until I sing it.”
“So, I don’t go to the band and say, ‘Hey guys, listen to this song idea.’ I don’t do that. We record the instrumental and nobody’s really sure what the vocal melody is going to be. And there have been times where everyone lays down their tracks, and then I’ll be inspired by what they do, and change the vocal melody from things that they’ve done. So it’s always kind of a bit of a mystery.”
Asked how the band manages to balance its three-guitarist lineup, Grohl says, “As far as guitarists in the band… I’m sort of like a rhythm guitar player. Chris [Shiflett] is very much a lead guitar player and Pat [Smear]… Most bands, like the guitar players have a pedal that they step on for distortion. We just have Pat.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Grohl also shared a behind-the-scenes detail about the band’s latest album title. He originally wanted to call it For Good, inspired by a lyric in Your Favorite Toy – until another release threw a wrench in his plans.
“I wanted to call the record For Good, because that song, Your Favorite Toy, at first I called it For Good. In that song, Your Favorite Toy, it says, ‘Get back, hear that boy, someone threw away your favorite toy for good.’”
“And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a good not only title for the song, but also for the album.’ They could have more than a few meanings, but I’m like, ‘That’s kind of nice – For Good.’ And then that Wicked movie came out, and it’s called Wicked: For Good. And I was so pissed! So, then I changed the title of the song, and then it just became the title of the album.”
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Randy Bachman calls Paul Reed Smith a “legend” of modern guitar making: “I said, ‘You’re the new Leo Fender. You’re the new Les Paul. You’re the new Orville Gibson’”
Randy Bachman has praised the genius of Paul Reed Smith, hailing the PRS founder as a “legend” of modern guitar making and placing him alongside the likes of Leo Fender, Les Paul and Orville Gibson.
Speaking in a new interview with Guitar World, Bachman recalls meeting Smith at a Christmas party hosted by producer Kevin Shirley last year, where the conversation quickly turned from mutual admiration to Smith’s impact on the guitar industry.
“I was in Nashville at a Christmas party for Kevin Shirley, the producer,” says the Bachman–Turner Overdrive guitarist. “He’s a really good friend of mine, and he produced my Heavy Blues album [2015]. At his party, I got to meet Paul Reed Smith, who says to me, ‘You’re a legend.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding? You’re a legend. You’re the new Leo Fender. You’re the new Les Paul. You’re the new Orville Gibson.’”
“Two legends get together, what are you going to do?” Bachman quips.
While the exchange reflected the kind of mutual respect you’d expect between two guitar heavyweights, Bachman says that the meeting also led into something more practical.
With ongoing health issues making heavier instruments increasingly difficult to manage, he has been actively searching for a lighter guitar setup.
“I said to Paul, ‘I’m looking for a lighter guitar, even lighter than my ’57, because I’ve got a back issue,’” says Bachman. “I had my left knee replaced. I’m a cancer survivor. I had four cancers, and I can hardly stand up. I’m learning to walk and balance again.
“Standing on one foot and operating your pedals is like tap-dancing, and I can’t do that yet. I’m still building up. I work out every day in a pool with weights. And he said, ‘I’ve got a new guitar. It’ll be under 4 lbs.’ So I got his number. I’m typing him a letter right now.”
The post Randy Bachman calls Paul Reed Smith a “legend” of modern guitar making: “I said, ‘You’re the new Leo Fender. You’re the new Les Paul. You’re the new Orville Gibson’” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Finneas on why he thinks singing live “is just infinitely harder than strumming a guitar”
Finneas has argued that singing live is “infinitely harder” than playing the guitar on stage.
Speaking on a recent episode of On Film…With Kevin McCarthy, the producer, musician, and singer-songwriter breaks down how he views live performance dynamics when he’s on stage with his sister and longtime collaborator Billie Eilish.
“I always think of my role as the guy holding the trampoline while the acrobat is flipping,” says Finneas. “So it’s like they’re doing the hard thing, but I could kill them.”
Expanding on that comparison, particularly in contexts like Saturday Night Live, where the pair often perform together, he adds, “If Billie and I are playing SNL or something, I’m like ‘Billie’s doing the hard part’. Billie is singing, which is just infinitely harder than strumming a guitar.”
“If I fuck up my guitar part, she’s in the open ocean,” he explains. “And that to me is like, I am locked in. I’m right there.”
“The other part is like if Billie wants to take an extra beat because she’s feeling the significance of a line… that would be such a failure if I’m like [hits imaginary keyboard] and I step on the beat.”
Finneas traces this sensitivity back to his early musical training, noting that he “grew up singing in choirs” where “watching the conductor” was essential.
“You better be watching the conductor,” he says. “Even if you are learning the song as you’re singing it, you better be looking up and back ‘cause they’re going to cut you off and bring you in.”
“And also that is the fun of it,” the producer continues. “but that would be so embarrassing to be like, ‘Oh my god, she was taking a pregnant pause and I blew through it ‘cause I was too relaxed or whatever.’”
Watch the full interview below.
The post Finneas on why he thinks singing live “is just infinitely harder than strumming a guitar” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Strymon Fairfax review – an old-school drive pedal with plenty of rough edges
$199/£199, strymon.net
Strymon, renowned purveyor of hi-tech reverb and delay pedals using advanced digital signal processing, apparently has a team known as “our analog guys”. Presumably they spend most of their time making coffee for everyone else, but every now and then they are allowed to design something. That’s the origin of the Fairfax overdrive… and on this evidence, it’s time for the digital nerds to start making their own coffee.
- READ MORE: Twilight Pulse Audioworks Konstante review – a dual dirt pedal that’s faster than the speed of light
In fact, the best way to appreciate this fully analog dirt machine might be to cover up the name at the bottom and pretend it’s made by some ultra-hip indie brand. Because the sounds it makes are about as far from Strymon’s usual fare as you can get.
Image: Press
Strymon Fairfax – what is it?
There’s a sort of reverse arms race going on in the stompbox world, with makers rifling through the archives in search of ever more old and obscure kit to recreate. In this case, the inspiration comes from the Canadian-made Garnet Amplifiers Herzog – a tube-driven preamp built in the 60s for Randy Bachman of the Guess Who. He used it on the band’s biggest hit, American Woman, and throughout his subsequent career with Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
The Herzog is, in a word, large – it’s designed to be stacked on top of an amp, not stomped on. The challenge for Strymon, then, was to capture all of its rich valve tones – without using DSP, remember – in a compact pedal. So the Fairfax has a preamp, a power amp and “an ingenious custom circuit that emulates the saturation characteristics of the output transformer”.
There’s also a real transformer – in the power supply, converting your standard adapter’s 9v into 40v – and you get controls for drive, output level and ‘sag’. This dials in extra compression and spluttery gating as the biasing of the JFETs is pushed out of whack. There’s no tone control, just a toggle switch for bright mode.
Image: Press
Strymon Fairfax – sounds
The sound of the Fairfax is sweet and chunky, with a gently crumbly texture. Basically it’s vanilla fudge in stompbox form. And while it’s not the first overdrive pedal to produce that kind of tone, it’s among the best of its type.
With drive at halfway and sag at minimum, you get a medium-gain crunch tone that’s pretty much uncoloured in pure EQ terms but with a ‘sticky’ feel that sets it well apart from the average transparent overdrive. There’s an element of gurgly scuzz involved, but it’s addictively pretty and responds nicely to variations in pick attack.
As you crank the drive, all the good stuff just gets bigger. It doesn’t go quite as fuzzy as, say, a Land Devices HP-2 or Hudson Broadcast (two pedals with which it has some tonal similarities), but it will do a fine impression of a small tweed combo at full volume – and adding some sag just makes it feel even more amp-like. There’s some wonderfully squishy compression available before things turn properly splatty, and it’s only towards the top of the dial that the gating effect starts to properly pinch.
The bright switch has been well judged, letting you decide whether or not to let all the high frequencies through unchecked, and I never found myself wishing for more control over the voicing of the Fairfax. You might feel differently if you’re using extra-sizzly single-coils, though.
Strymon Fairfax – should I buy it?
For me, there are two reasons to buy this pedal. The first, and most obvious, is that it’s awesome – smartly designed, unexpectedly versatile and bubbling over with musical character.
The second is that, the better the Fairfax sells, the more likely it is that Strymon’s bigwigs will let those analog specialists loose on a load of other Series A projects. The second entry, the recently announced Canoga, looks like a fairly unremarkable vintage-style fuzz; but after a debut like this, who knows what else they’re capable of?
Strymon Fairfax – alternatives
Other compact overdrive pedals with the emphasis on chunky warmth include the Supro Drive ($219/£189) and Beetronics Fatbee ($189/£199). But then again, why mess about with silly little stompboxes when Garnet Amplifiers is still going and you can order a reissue Herzog for CA$695?
The post Strymon Fairfax review – an old-school drive pedal with plenty of rough edges appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
D-style Overdrive Special tones go digital in Universal Audio’s new UAD Enigmatic ‘82 plugin
Universal Audio has unveiled the UAD Enigmatic ‘82 Overdrive Special Amp, a new native plugin designed to emulate some of the most coveted D‑style amplifiers in guitar history.
Available now for Mac and PC, the Enigmatic ‘82 Overdrive Special Amp captures the authentic D-style amp sounds favoured by legendary players like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton and more.
“These are tones you associate with uniquely great players,” says UA Senior Product Manager James Santiago. “We modelled more than four different era D‑style amps, from early Santa Cruz builds to later LA studio favourites… because no two were exactly alike.”
The plugin delivers three distinct amp voicings – Rock, Jazz, and Custom – covering essential eras of the fabled Overdrive Special sound in a single package. Built on Universal Audio’s amp modeling and component-level circuit analysis, Enigmatic ‘82 aims to bring those tones into a versatile, in-the-box format for modern players and producers.
Credit: Universal Audio
Users can mix and match power sections and tone stacks, as well as add the legendary Hot Rubber Monkey (HRM) mod, creating a D‑style amp circuit that’s uniquely theirs. The plugin also includes nine curated cab and mic setups designed for mix-ready tones, along with more than 40 presets from artists including Joey Landreth, Megan Lovell and Daniel Donato.
“Whether you favour intricate chord work or expressive lead playing, you’ll instantly find that classic ODS sound that responds to every nuance of your playing and cuts right through the mix,” says Universal Audio.
The UAD Enigmatic ‘82 is available as a native plugin, either as a standalone purchase or as part of Universal Audio’s UAD Spark subscription. The plugin is priced at $99, with a launch discount of $49 available through 25 May.
Learn more at the Universal Audio website.
The post D-style Overdrive Special tones go digital in Universal Audio’s new UAD Enigmatic ‘82 plugin appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
New Substack - Building a Guitar Without Instructions
Check out my latest Substack post!
New steel string acoustic guitars in progress, will be available for sale by the beginning of summer!
Stayed tuned for updates!
FU-Tone’s Mass Appeal
If you phone FU-Tone on a Sunday, there’s a decent chance company president Adam Reiver will be the one who picks up. Even after decades in the industry and building a global customer base, he hasn’t distanced himself from his clients—something that, in the age of AI chatbots, can still catch customers off guard.
“People will call, and they go, ‘Oh my god, is this the guy in the video? Is this Adam? I can’t believe I’m talking to you,’” he tells Premier Guitar. “And I go, ‘I can’t believe I’m talking to you!’”
That interaction captures something elemental about FU-Tone and Reiver: He’s one of us. “I'm just a guitar player like you, or some kid in Kansas, or the guy on the cover of Rolling Stone,” he says.
This connection isn’t just a customer service quirk. It reveals a philosophy at the heart of his brand. From the early days of designing the EVH D-Tuna to the present, this approach has shaped FU-Tone into a tight-knit community of dedicated musicians from all walks of life.
It also explains why so much of what Reiver builds and talks about centers on helping players take full control of their tone—not just upgrading their instruments, but understanding them.
To fully grasp how deeply this mindset is embedded, it helps to look at Reiver’s own journey as a player. His story began at a moment when guitar culture ruled the world, during a shift from traditional sounds into more experimental territory.
“It was around ’81 when I first really found the guitar,” he says. “And if you roll the clock back two or three years from there, it was basically, ‘Do you want a Strat, a Tele, or a Les Paul?’ And then off you go. I didn’t think modding and hot-rodding guitars were a thing.”
Reiver was there at ground zero to witness the shift toward customized superstrats, the rise of early custom-shop brands like Jackson and Charvel, and brand-new horizons in playing technique. Not wasting any time, he jumped in headfirst, becoming fascinated with how he could change, improve, and completely reimagine his favorite instruments.
“My first guitar was like a cheap, $200 Hondo Flying V,” he says with a touch of pride. “But by the time I was done with it, it had a Kahler in there. It had an Invader pickup in the bridge. It had a Mighty Mite triple-coil pickup in the neck. It was like, do anything you could do to just tinker and play with the guitar.”
Just about everyone who’s played electric guitar for any amount of time is familiar with that unexplainable pull to hot-rod their favorite instrument. In Reiver’s case, however, it was more than curiosity. It was a new paradigm. The guitar was not a finished product. It was a platform.
“The advent of FU-Tone was, ‘How do you make this guitar sound better?’”
While other tinkerers of his era pursued those same goals by winding pickups, building guitars, and adding wild finishes, Reiver’s curiosity found its outlet in fabrication. Thanks to his high school’s metal shop, he wasn’t modifying existing parts—he was making new ones.
“I was not a good student, except for that class,” he recalls with a laugh. “I got straight As in metal shop. I liked how you could fabricate parts from an idea in your head. Like, ‘How do we do this? How do we get this idea from here to there?’”
That experience translated directly into how he would later develop products. Even before founding Floyd Upgrades—FU-Tone’s original name—his process was simple and immediate. Draw something, build it, test it, refine it. Still, Reiver admits he’s no machinist.
“I know enough just to be dangerous, just to get myself in trouble. So I contracted with this guy who was a professional machinist. I would literally sketch something on the side of a box and say, ‘Can you make this?’ He would whip it up old-school and bring it back to my office.”
This spirit of experimentation wasn’t just limited to those early years. That same trial-and-error approach still defines FU-Tone products today. Instead of designing in isolation, Reiver works through ideas with the instrument in hand, adjusting based on feel and response. And as with his in-house machinist, he doesn’t work alone.
One of Reiver’s most celebrated “assistants” was Eddie Van Halen himself. Working in a small team alongside Eddie, he helped develop the EVH D-Tuna through a similar cycle of experimentation, providing locking-trem players access to instant drop-D riffage.
“[That process] became a melting pot,” Reiver says. “It would be one of those side-of-the-box conversations. I would say, ‘Well, maybe we should angle it a little, make this longer, make that shorter, make this, do that.’ I would put it on a guitar, and [Ed] would monkey with it, and say, ‘No, no, no. Do this. Do that.’”
Like Reiver, Van Halen used the guitar as a testing ground, emphasizing constant refinement in pursuit of maximizing tone. And their early success only signaled the start for Reiver.
“You know, the advent of FU-Tone was, ‘How do you make this guitar sound better? How can you make this sustain more? How can you make it clearer? How can you make it louder?’ That’s where it came from.”
With tone chasing now an obsession, Reiver turned his attention to a specific piece of hardware, one most players assumed Floyd Rose had already perfected: the tremolo. The way Reiver saw it, the point where the guitar strings terminate in the body was the most important piece of the tonal equation.
“I don’t care if you play rock, metal, death metal, country, or pop—you want to have a good guitar tone.”
“In the beginning, that was the biggest thing, and I started making one product, a 37 millimeter Big Block,” he says. “I was like, ‘Wow! It sustains way more, it sounds better, and it’s more articulate. Okay, I’ll do this.’ I invested $880 to make a run of the blocks, and said, ‘Well, worst-case scenario is I could just give them to my friends, or, you know, sell them online.’”
In theory, the Big Block was exceedingly simple: a larger, heavier brass tremolo block designed to replace the smaller stock versions that came with most locking systems. With its increased mass, it maintained more string vibration, which translated into more sustain and articulation.
The Big Block was a hit, and soon enough, some of the world’s most notorious tone-hound guitarists were spreading the Floyd Upgrades gospel. Reiver realized that if one overlooked component could make that much of an impact, there were probably others.
Soon, he was manufacturing highly regarded double-locking tremolo replacement parts for the most popular trem models available. From titanium fine tuners to the little metal inserts found in each saddle, his theory about the effect of mass on tone proved correct, time and time again.
But while he was gaining users, not everyone was a fan of the moniker: Floyd Upgrades.
“A certain company didn’t like me using part of their name in my little company, and that’s fair enough,” Reiver acknowledges. “But the real blessing in disguise was that I became FU-Tone. And thank god I did, because I ended up going on to do so many other guitar parts and projects that have nothing to do with someone else’s brand.”
With a new name over the office door, FU-Tone was free to innovate and expand much further into the electric guitar market.
“FU-Tone encompasses a lot now,” Reiver says. “I make stop tail bridges. We make Tele parts. I make my own locking tremolos. We make guitars. We even make pickups.”
This relentless expansion is about more than just product lines. From tiny titanium (or brass or copper) saddle inserts to full guitar builds, every FU-Tone offering still reflects Reiver’s original conviction: tone isn't tied to any single component, but to how everything works together. It’s what Reiver has characterized as the “FU-Tone vein of tone.”
“I still pinch myself every day that I get to work with people I looked up to and tried to play like, and now I’m sitting in their living rooms.”
But what is that tone? Reiver explains: “FU-Tone vein of tone means lots of sustain, clarity, and articulation. It’s considering the wood and essence of your guitar, your hands and your playing, and then moving far beyond that.”
That idea shifts the conversation away from chasing specific gear and toward understanding how your instrument actually responds—where every material choice becomes another variable in the final sound. So what can you expect when you swap out your Ibanez Edge tremolo block for a brass or titanium one? What’s the tonal difference in the metals used in their Nancy Wilson-approved acoustic guitar bridge pins? Forever a gear nerd, Reiver’s always happy to explain.
“Brass is big and warm and round. When you think of brass, think of Eddie Van Halen, Warren DeMartini, or a George Lynch-type of sound. Titanium has a lot of sustain, but with a certain level of clarity to it, almost like a layer of glass, with really nice note separation. And copper I find to be very similar to brass, with more of a scooped-out midsection.”
From icons like Nuno Bettencourt and Slash to modern players like Lzzy Hale and Nita Strauss, countless A-listers have credited FU-Tone upgrades with having a meaningful impact on their signature sounds.
But FU-Tone products aren’t just for stars. They’re for all guitar players, and they’re also very DIY-friendly. Reiver swears that if you give him a few minutes and watch one of the company’s detailed how-to YouTube videos, you’ll be customizing your favorite instrument in no time. “If you’ve never done any of this, it can seem very intimidating,” he says. “But if you have the ability to change your own strings, you can do this.”
As a guitarist himself, Reiver knows firsthand how badly a trip to the local “expert” can go—which is exactly why he’s worked to democratize the process.
“I’ll get a guy who will buy some parts and take them to his local guy,” Reiver explains, “and he’ll say the same thing [I always hear]: ‘My guy said…’ And I’m thinking, ‘Here it comes!’ I’ve even gotten on a Zoom with guys and walked them through it. And by the end, they’re better than ‘their guy.’ I tell them, ‘You’ll never pay someone else to do it again [laughs].’”
Personal Zoom calls from a company president aren’t exactly standard practice in this industry. For Reiver, though, that’s the point—growth through relationships, not traditional marketing. “I have a handful of core guys that are all still dear friends to this day,” Reiver says. “But one of the guys who was there in the very beginning was Phil Collen from Def Leppard. After that, my phone would ring, and it would be some big artist, and they would say, ‘Phil has this on his guitar, and said to call you.’”
That kind of connection establishes a level of trust that can’t be manufactured. And for Reiver and the FU-Tone team, it also shapes how those relationships develop.
“These are not clients—they’re friends,” he says. “We’re at each other’s houses. We’re at each other’s events. It’s organic, and it’s real. I still pinch myself every day that I get to work with people I looked up to and tried to play like, and now I’m sitting in their living rooms.” He laughs. “But I play it totally cool.”
With an artist roster that includes Gary Holt (Exodus, Slayer) and Michael Wilton (Queensrÿche), it might be easy to assume FU-Tone is strictly for shredders. But Reiver’s products have found traction with players across genres and styles, and though he’s a rocker himself, he’s consistently surprised by the range of sounds and approaches the broader FU-Tone community brings.
“I’m not a big country fan, but I can tell you, those guys are the most badass musicians,” he says. “We’ll get the guys in Rascal Flatts, Jim Kimball from Reba [McEntire]’s band, Paul Sidoti from Taylor Swift’s band. I don’t care if you play rock, metal, death metal, country, or pop—you want to have a good guitar tone. I’ve been doing this for over 30 years, and that never gets old.”
FU-Tone may operate on a global scale, but it’s still rooted in the same instinct that led a high school kid to start modifying a budget guitar—and the same belief that the best conversations about tone happen one player at a time. Which is why, if you happen to call on a Sunday, you just might end up talking tone with Adam Reiver.
Judy Collins Suite Judy Blue Eyes Farewell Tour Adds Dates – Special Guests for 2026-2027
Press Release
Source: Think Press
Judy Collins – Photo credit: Shervin Lainez
Legendary singer-songwriter, Judy Collins – who celebrates her 87th birthday today – will embark on her highly anticipated “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes” farewell tour beginning July 4, 2026. Spanning iconic venues and cities across North America and beyond through winter 2027, this milestone tour has added dates and special guests.
Additionally, The Americana Music Association announced a special “Judy Collins and Friends” celebration at the 2026 AmericanaFest in Nashville in September. This final farewell tour will be captured on film for a forthcoming documentary on Judy’s life, music and legacy.
The tour kicks-off on July 4, 2026 with Judy headlining the live, star-studded PBS nationally televised Independence Day event “America Made In Virginia: 250 Years Together” celebration hosted by Virginia’s American Revolution 250 Commission (VA250) in Colonial Williamsburg, the capital city of revolutionary Virginia.
Throughout the tour, select dates will feature special guests including the newly confirmed August 30th performance at Tanglewood, featuring Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rosanne Cash, and Amanda Shires. Other guests confirmed along the tour are Richard Thompson, The High Kings, Bruce Cockburn, Elles Bailey, Livingston Taylor and Norwegian duo Oakland Rain, who are also filming the tour for a forthcoming Judy Collins documentary. Visit https://www.judycollins.com/ for specific guest appearance
Judy Collins – Photo credit: Patrick Donovan
Following the main tour, Judy will present the “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes – Celebration Encore,” a special series of encore performances for devoted fans and new audiences alike – an opportunity to celebrate six decades of musical brilliance with one of folk’s most treasured artists.
A 7-time Grammy nominee, Collins is an award-winning folk singer-songwriter who has released 55 recordings during her prolific career. She has released six albums since 2015 alone, and her Grammy nominated 2023 album Spellbound is her first of all original, self-penned songs. Collins is also a published author, filmmaker, keynote speaker for mental health and podcast host. In 2025, Judy Collins released Sometimes It’s Heaven: Poems of Love, Loss and Redemption – personal poems about love, loss and redemption.
Watch Christopher “Isto” White Perform His Arrangement of “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love”
“The guitar is so much more personal”: Former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford on why he’d always pick a good guitar over a good amp
Ahhhh, the great guitar vs amp debate. Unless you’re totally new to the guitar gear community, you’ll be aware of the perennial debate over what’s better: a great guitar with a sub-par amp or a great amp with a cheap guitar.
Both sides have strong voices. Math rock legend and Covet guitarist Yvette Young went on record a year ago to extol the virtues of an expensive amp, saying going for a bad amp is like “ruining a really nice audio file with something that’s going to degrade it a lot”.
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Meanwhile, the opposing camp has adherents in Lita Ford and Whitesnake’s Doug Aldrich, who said last year: “You can get a great sound out of any amp that works.”
And it’s the second camp that former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford finds himself in, as he explains in the new issue of Guitarist.
“I’d buy the guitar. Shit, these days, half the time I’m playing through a rented amp,” he laughs. “But the guitar is so much more personal. You’re physically touching the thing and, in a perfect world, it becomes a part of you to where you don’t even think about it any more.
“It becomes just a way to get your insides out, since your fingerprints are literally on it. There’s direct contact and that’s gonna exchange your subtleties way more than an amplifier will, I think.”
So there you have it, if you’ve got some budget and you’re deciding whether to spend more of it on your amp or guitar, you know which direction Marc Ford would steer you in…
And if you do opt to zero in on the ideal guitar, Ford has a few buying tips to orient you in the right direction.
“The ultimate guitar tip for guitars – and really, any guitar, though it’s more obvious on acoustic and maybe less so with electric – is that it’s got to sound good when it’s not plugged in,” he says. “There has to be a tone that catches your ear. And it probably needs to be unique compared with other guitars.
“Obviously, feel is important. It’s gotta feel good to you. But if it doesn’t sound good when it’s not plugged in, there’s no way that you’re ever gonna get it to sound good through the electronics.”
The post “The guitar is so much more personal”: Former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford on why he’d always pick a good guitar over a good amp appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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