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Podcast 565: Wood & Wire Fine Fretted Instruments
On today’s Fretboard Journal Podcast, we are talking to Jim and Frank from Wood & Wire Fine Fretted Instruments, a recently opened Chicago-area guitar store celebrating high-end and boutique instruments. This may just be the most Fretboard Journal-ish guitar retailer on earth.
Jim Newcomb served as CEO of the Old Town School of Folk Music and is responsible for bringing the Fretboard Summit to Chicago. Frank Hamilton is a former student at the Galloup School and headed the repair shop at the recently closed Guitar Works from 1999-2004.
Wood & Wire distinguishes itself with an inventory featuring bigger boutique brands like Collings, Huss & Dalton and Boucher alongside hand-picked luthier-built instruments from legends such as Jason Kostal, Tyler Wells, Paul Woolson and others. They also carry both high-end acoustics and electrics, vintage instruments, and select amps.
During our chat, we talk about the origin of the store, their desire to make it a community hub, the intricacies of modern guitar design, and so much more.
Subscribe to the Fretboard Journal’s quarterly print magazine. Issue 60 is now mailing and features Christopher Guest; a cover story penned by John Monteleone and other surprises: https://shop.fretboardjournal.com/products/fretboard-journal-annual-subscription
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We are also brought to you by Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar: https://mmguitarbar.com, located in Seattle, Washington.
The post Podcast 565: Wood & Wire Fine Fretted Instruments first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
Slash receives the 2026 Les Paul Spirit Award for his “pioneering musicianship and enduring influence”
Slash has been honoured with the 2026 Les Paul Spirit Award for his “creative legacy, pioneering musicianship and enduring influence on generations of artists and fans”.
The legendary Guns N’ Roses guitarist received the award this October during an intimate and private event presented by the Les Paul Foundation in partnership with Gibson Gives, held at The Les Paul Recording Studio at Universal Master Recordings in Hollywood.
The Les Paul Spirit Award is presented to an individual who “exemplifies the spirit of the late Les Paul through innovation, engineering, technology and music” each year.
The award, which is always made uniquely for the recipient, was created from hand-carved acoustic boards that Les Paul built and used in his home recording studio. Previous recipients include Bob Weir, Nile Rodgers, the Edge, Peter Frampton and Steve Miller.
Slash and Les Paul shared a special friendship during Les Paul’s lifetime and often played music together. Speaking of the award, Slash says, “Les was so much more than a great guitarist and innovator. He was an actual inventor who changed the instrument itself, built groundbreaking recording equipment and completely reimagined how artists could record music.
“I feel incredibly lucky that I got to know him, hang out with him and play music with him. I cherish the relationship we had, and receiving an award that carries his name and spirit is a tremendous honour.”
Credit: Les Paul Foundation
Michael Braunstein, Executive Director of the Les Paul Foundation, adds: “We are honoured to present the Les Paul Spirit Award to Slash this year. He and Les shared a special friendship and often jammed together when they could.
“Not only does Slash exemplify the creativity and curiosity Les had during his life, but he is also an extraordinary talent and a wonderful supporter of the Les Paul Foundation. If Les were still alive today, Slash and he would be jamming onstage together somewhere regularly.”
Slash ft. Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators are due to release a new album next year. You can check out the first single, Flying Blind, below:
Find out more about Slash ft Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, or pre-order their new album, via Slash’s official website.
The post Slash receives the 2026 Les Paul Spirit Award for his “pioneering musicianship and enduring influence” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I didn’t know what the f**k was going on”: Yngwie Malmsteen reveals that he was asked to join Kiss… and the bizarre reason they pulled out
Yngwie Malmsteen was once asked to join Kiss, but the reason why he was eventually turned down had nothing to do with his skills on guitar.
A member of the band’s team was very interested in having Malmsteen on board, according to the guitarist himself, but they never called him again after learning he was above six foot in height.
In an interview with eonmusic , Malmsteen is asked about the bands he’s been asked to join across his career, including when he was nearly recruited to join Ozzy Osbourne after the death of Randy Rhoads.
“It was right after,” he confirms. “What happened was, I sent this cassette tape to Guitar Player magazine, and it was me playing drums, bass, keyboards, guitar, obviously, and vocals, and they went fucking ape shit. And this guy, he would send my cassettes to everybody. I had people from Kiss, from Night Ranger [calling me].
“I can’t remember all the people who would call. I was still in Sweden. I was 18 years old, a kid. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on. It was funny because I remember [with] Kiss — I don’t know if it was a manager or whoever called – but he kept [saying], ‘You’re hot, you’re hot.’ I’m like, ‘What? What the hell?’, because I was speaking the Queen’s English in those days, and I didn’t [know what] ‘hot’ meant!”
He adds, “Anyway, they wanted me to come over and join Kiss, and they asked me if I’m six foot tall, apparently they wanted me to be six foot and I’m more than that, so they didn’t call back.”
Kiss wrapped their farewell tour, End Of The Road, in 2023 with a huge show at Madison Square Garden in New York. And, of course, the band are set to continue on with a string of widely anticipated avatar shows in the style of ABBA’s Voyage in the future.
At the time, fans called on the band do a mighty show at the Las Vegas Sphere. Speaking to American Songwriter earlier this year, Kiss frontman Paul Stanley explained why they were never tempted by it.
“Towards the end of the tour, people were saying, ‘Why don’t you play the Sphere?’” Stanley recalled. “The truth of it is, the Sphere minimises a band. It makes a band miniature. You’re not going there to see a band – you’re going to see screens.”
The post “I didn’t know what the f**k was going on”: Yngwie Malmsteen reveals that he was asked to join Kiss… and the bizarre reason they pulled out appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Get’m Get’m Introduces Bitch What! Strap Collection
Adding to the company’s line of eye-grabbing straps, Get’m Get’m has unveiled the new Bitch What! collection.
The new straps combine bold, fun colors with textured serpentine faux leather, premium materials, and Get’m Get’m’s signature multi-layer construction. Bitch What! straps are designed to deliver the comfort, support, and craftsmanship musicians expect from a high-end strap while giving them something visually unexpected.
Key features include:
- Available in nine colors: Aqua, Black, Gold, Neon Green, Neon Pink, Neon Yellow, Red, Silver, and White.
- Textured Serpentine Faux Leather—A distinctive, snakeskin-inspired texture with a bold, tactile finish. Get’m Get’m calls this look “serpentine” to distinguish the collection from its existing snakeskin strap designs.
- Premium Materials & Reinforced Stitching—Built for long sets, loud nights, and plenty of rock ’n’ roll.
- High-Quality Multi-Layer Construction—Lining is made of soft, high-quality nylon for comfort, stability, and better weight distribution while playing.
- Fully Adjustable Up to 65 Inches—2 inches wide and comfortably adjustable for guitarists and bassists of different sizes.
- Real 7 oz. Leather Tips—Strong, secure leather ends designed to keep the instrument where it belongs.
- Pewter Hardware—Durable pewter-tone hardware adds the final badass touch.
Each of the new straps is available for a $129 street price and can be purchased on the Get’m Get’m website: getmgetm.com/products/getm-getm-bitch-what-guitar-ba….
Bitch What! Strap Collection
Adding to the company’s line of eye-grabbing straps, Get’m Get’m has unveiled the new Bitch What! collection.
“A special edition Minotaur, fit for a Rat Queen”: Dunable launches signature model for Castle Rat’s Riley Pinkerton – but there’s only four available
Dunable has unveiled a signature Minotaur guitar for Castle Rat singer and guitarist Riley Pinkerton, but there’s just four of them available.
This ultra-limited guitar, called The Summoner, was designed by Pinkerton herself. Dunable says that she had “a very specific vision” for the guitar so that it would suit their music, and with it being so limited, it is priced at a high-end £2,760.99.
Specs-wise, the guitar has a mahogany body and neck, and an ebony fingerboard with 22 jumbo stainless frets. Visually, the model is really quite striking with its gold/white colourshift lacquer finish, further complemented by a custom gold crackle/gold holoflash pickguard.
Other features include a 24.75” scale length for “very fast” playability, gold hardware in keeping with its overall aesthetic, and only “the essential specs needed for heavy riffing”: a single Direwolf pickup and kill switch. It also comes with a hard case to keep it pristine.
The guitar is currently in production, and won’t ship until mid-November. Take a closer look at it below:
Last month, Guitar.com caught up with Pinkerton for a new episode of My Guitars & Me. She walked us through her favourite Gibson SGs, which fittingly show their fair share of battle scars, wear and tear from a suit of chainmail, and even a dash of body glitter.
A true highlight was her #17 SG, which she bought with her relief check during the COVID-19 pandemic: “I bought it used off Reverb. When the pandemic hit, we got a check, so I was like, I’m gonna buy a guitar.’ So that’s what I did,” she shared.
“It’s [got a] chainmail rash instead of buckle rash,” she added. “And everything I own is covered with sparkles, because I wear body glitter onstage, so that’s everywhere.”
Watch the full episode below:
Find out more about The Summoner guitar by heading over to Dunable.
The post “A special edition Minotaur, fit for a Rat Queen”: Dunable launches signature model for Castle Rat’s Riley Pinkerton – but there’s only four available appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Johnny Marr says he’s more sentimental about clothes than he is about guitars: “I’d actually find it harder to get rid of some of my jackets”
Johnny Marr has a confession to make: he finds it harder to part with some of his clothes than he does with his guitars.
You might find that utterly bizarre, but Marr has only proven so with his recent guitar auction via Christie’s. Over 100 guitars went under the hammer across the five-hour event in September, fetching over £3.6 million and more than tripling the total estimate made prior to the event.
A key highlight was 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 album. It sold for £358,400, far exceeding its £60,000-£80,000 estimate.
And yet, in an interview with Mr Porter, he says, “I’d actually find it harder to get rid of some of my jackets than I would some of my guitars. Oh man, I’m getting a visceral reaction even thinking about it.”
He goes on to explain, “Growing up in the inner city in the 1970s, me and my sister were clothes freaks. It’s like the way some families like football. It’s part of the culture. Before the Smiths, the only job [I’d] ever had was working in a clothes shop.
“I was a sales assistant then. But the reason I got that job was that me and my girlfriend [now his wife, Angie] would make what bits of money we could by jibbing on the train from Manchester to London, coming down to King’s Road and buying shirts and jackets, bringing them back up to Manchester. That’s how I made enough to buy my guitar and amp.”
Even now, Marr is particular about how he dresses on stage. In fact, there’s a fair bit of thought that goes into his style in an effort to serve the significance of his guitar: “I know what works for me and I have some strong, strong feelings about what you really can’t wear while you’re playing the guitar: anything that makes the guitar look like a fucking banjo. That’s the problem with baggy stuff. It makes your guitar look too small,” he states.
Johnny Marr’s new album, The Age Of Everything, was released this October. You can order it via his official website.
The post Johnny Marr says he’s more sentimental about clothes than he is about guitars: “I’d actually find it harder to get rid of some of my jackets” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Martin 5-28 Terz review: great guitars come in the smallest packages
$3,599/£3,799, martinguitar.com
The stringed instrument that we now know as the guitar has a long and winding history that goes back almost as far as the history of the human race itself: the oldest depiction of someone playing a stringed instrument is an ancient Hittite carving that dates back over 3,500 years.
Over the next few millenia, cultures across the world would conceive of various ways to make music through a combination of vibrating strings and wood – from the oud and the lute, to the vihuela and the cittern.
Even by the 1500s, when the proto-forms of what we now understand as a guitar started to become popular across Europe, there was a great deal of variety in terms of shape, size and the number of strings as makers and players experimented to work out what worked and what didn’t.
One of the most popular and important evolutionary forks is the Terz, which was extremely popular in the 1800s, especially in central Europe – often as an accompaniment to someone playing on a regular guitar. The Terz also has a special place in the history of Martin Guitars, as these are the sorts of instruments that Christian Frederick Martin Sr was building in his native Germany, before he emigrated to the USA.
For 2027, Martin has reintroduced the Terz guitar into the company’s standard line in the shape of the 5-28 – so what’s the deal?
Image: Press
What is it?
In essence, a Terz guitar is a small-bodied (Size 5) acoustic guitar where all the strings are tuned a minor third higher than E standard – G-C-F-A♯-D-G. “Terz” is the German musical terminology for a third, hence the name – in Francophone countries the guitars are sometimes called ‘tierce’ guitars for the same reason.
The Terz’s tuning gives the same effect as placing a capo on the third fret of your regular acoustic, but combined with the tiny body it gives a sweeter tone that makes it such a great accompaniment for a regular flat-top.
Over the years Martin has periodically made Terz guitars, and they’ve earned quite a reputation among artists over that time. Dolly Parton is without doubt the most famous and visible exponent of the Terz – for many years she used a 5-18 Terz as her primary guitar, but the guitar has also been used to great effect by the likes of Marty Robbins, Sting and even Billy Corgan.
This association has made vintage Martin Terz guitars very collectable – but they rarely come cheap. They were never mass-produced, and finding a clean vintage example is very tricky because the string tension of that added third is hard going on the bridge, top and braces.
Thankfully for those of us who have always been Terz-curious, the brand new 5-28 makes the experience a great deal more affordable and accessible – it’s still not a cheap guitar by any stretch of the imagination, of course, but at least you don’t have to be friends with a vintage guitar dealer to hope to see one.
As you’d expect from a Standard series guitar, you get premium tonewoods – a solid spruce top with solid East Indian rosewood back and sides, an ebony board, and 28-style flourishes including mother-of-pearl inlays and a multi-stripe binding around the body and the soundhole. The guitar comes with a hard case and is available for lefties, too – but what you don’t get is any onboard electronics: it’s a case of mic it up or get the drill out here.
Image: Press
Build Quality and Playability
The first thing that strikes you about the 5-28 is the size of the thing – it is a very tiny guitar, even by parlor standards. In fact, the 5-28 is the smallest guitar in the Martin catalogue at this time, unless you count the D-28 Christmas tree ornament, which only really counts if you’re a mouse or other musical rodent.
Despite its diminutive size, it feels every bit a Martin built by the craftspeople in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. From the top to the bottom of this tiny Terz, I could not find a flaw in woodworking, assembly, finish, fretwork or anything else – this feels like the sort of guitar that could become a family heirloom, something you can pass down through the generations, as has often been the case with historic Terz guitars. Thanks to the ageing toner on the guitar’s top, it already looks well-travelled.
The playing experience is certainly a lot more compact than a regular Martin dread – this is a 12-fret design, but the 21.38-inch scale length here is very noticeable, though the standard 1.75-inch nut width means that it at least only feels cramped in one direction. If you’re a bigger-handed, bigger-bodied player however, you may have to shake the feeling that you’re not having a Gulliver’s Travels moment.
Image: Press
Sounds
Considering the Terz is tuned 3-steps higher the sound is still surprisingly full and articulate with clean note separation all the way up the neck. You won’t achieve the bass notes or the rounded mids of a traditional D-28 or D-18, but the note clarity and fullness of tone exceed the series 5 body shape expectations.
For comparison I went back and forth between my Martin Bigsby D-28 and the Terz and although the pitch was higher with less bottom-end, the playability was very similar. The Terz sits in its own tonal space for sure, but there is a question about how useful it is on its own – you’d have to be sure your voice provided the right range to accompany it properly, or you’d have to be sure the band around you can provide some of the bottom-end fullness.
The smooth playability up and down the neck, combined with that compact scale length, does encourage ventures up the fretboard. Thankfully, I found the 5-28 to offer a tonality that was obviously higher in register, but never piercing or shrill – it’s actually rather rounded and lovely.
Image: Press
Should I Buy One?
If you are a tone chaser looking for different sounds than your garden variety Martin acoustic guitar, the 5-28 is a lovely instrument that adds a new sonic palette that you probably didn’t even know you wanted.
Given its small stature, it has more projection and focus than you might expect, but it’s going to struggle to be heard on a big stage or in an ensemble – the decision to not include a pickup feels odd in that circumstance.
Given its place in Martin’s history and the collectability of these instruments, it does feel like something that could be a musical investment – especially if more modern artists start to discover its charms now. From a practical perspective, its small size also makes it a much more realistic prospect as an airplane carry-on – its hard case would probably fit in the overhead locker of even the stingiest airline.
There are obviously some caveats to what is a niche instrument – you will likely have to rethink the key you sing in to be accompanied by the 5-28, and you’ll probably want some friends around to fill out the sonic spectrum too. Team it up with another acoustic guitar, mandolin or 12-string and it offers a really unique tonal texture in a separate frequency path.
But ultimately, the great thing about the 5-28 is that it will likely enable more players – like me – to spend some time with a Terz guitar and discover the unique magic these instruments offer. As a different kind of acoustic guitar experience, it’s up there with the very best.
Alternatives
Terz guitars are few and far between in the catalogues of most guitar brands, so you have to get creative. Martin is feeling the small-bodied bug at the moment, and the new 00L-16E ($2,499) is a less bijou guitar, but one with bags of character and great sounds. Gibson’s L-00 Special ($1,999) is another great parlor-sized guitar, with real Robert Johnson mojo. Another incredible US-made parlor is the Breedlove Roots Parlor E ($2,899), while the Larrivee P-03 Mahogany Recording Series ($2,149) used to be made in Canada, but is now built in California – it has a 24-inch scale and 12-fret neck join. String any of these parlors up Nashville-style (or stick a capo on three) and they’ll get you a little closer to the vibe of a Terz without actually being one.
The post Martin 5-28 Terz review: great guitars come in the smallest packages appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Happy Birthday Jackson Browne – And Everything I Know About Connecting Songs In Different Keys
October 9th. Jackson Browne’s birthday. And Sean Lennon’s too – still in his 50s, October 9th being what it is in music history. Jackson’s second album – For Every Man – really grabbed me when it came out. Particularly the way Take It Easy morphed into Our Lady of the Well as the opening medley. […]
The post Happy Birthday Jackson Browne – And Everything I Know About Connecting Songs In Different Keys appeared first on On The Beat with Totally Guitars.
On the Bench: A 1957 Gibson Skylark
In 1957, the world was experiencing profound change. The Civil Rights Act was signed in September. Then, the space race ignited in October, when the Soviet Union launched their Sputnik satellite. The push to put a man on the moon had officially commenced.
Music was also rapidly evolving in 1957. Buddy Holly recorded “That’ll Be the Day” with the Crickets, and it became a defining song of the rock ’n’ roll era. Paul McCartney and John Lennon met in Liverpool, leading to the formation of the Beatles. Teenagers across America were watching American Bandstand on television after school, spreading music across the nation.
On the bench today, I have a 1957 Gibson Skylark. This model is the GA-5 without tremolo, with the designation GA-5T sporting an added tremolo circuit. It is a 5-watt amp, with a standard set of tubes: a 5Y3 rectifier, 6V6 output, and 12AX7 preamp. If this tube configuration sounds familiar, it is because the Fender Champ uses the same setup! There are many similarities between these two amplifiers. They both put out about 5 watts, have a single-ended output section, and house an 8-inch speaker. While they’re in the same family of amps, there are a few key differences.
“With the volume cranked, the Skylark delivers. The overdrive tone is raw, smooth, and well-balanced.”
Overall, I find the Skylark to have more grit than the Champ, with warm and mid-heavy cleans, whereas the Champ sounds more chime-y and bright. Since these are 5 watt amps, the user can max the volume for that natural tube breakup without rattling the walls. With the volume cranked, the Skylark delivers. The overdrive tone is raw, smooth, and well-balanced. It sounds naturally pleasing to the ear without getting too harsh. This is great for blues, rock, or any guitar player who wants that authentic edge.
The Skylark came in a few different versions over the years, with some using different tubes. This amp has only a volume control, and that’s it! There’s no tone stack either, which is one of the reasons why it has that perfect overdrive sound. The Champ, for example, has the typical TMB tone stack. This stands for “treble, middle, bass”, and is a combination of high-pass and low-pass filters. It is a network of capacitors, resistors, and potentiometers that bleed off specific frequencies. This type of circuit will result in a cleaner, more controlled amplification of the guitar. In the Skylark, the signal goes from the first gain stage through a coupling capacitor, to the volume control. There is not much there in terms of tone shaping, but that also means there is barely any signal loss. The signal then travels into the next gain stage—full frequency response and all.
This amp came to me mostly original. The speaker had been replaced, and a 1/4" jack was installed on the back panel. This modification was performed so the user could plug the amplifier into an external speaker cabinet, which provides a lot more versatility. I knew that this amp would need the original filter capacitors replaced, and a grounded power cord installed. The circuit is totally point-to-point, meaning there are no circuit boards or terminal strips. All of the components are soldered directly to the tube sockets, potentiometers, and so on. I like to hard-wire the new capacitors in, and solder their grounds directly to the chassis using my large 1940s soldering iron. This is how I typically ground the power cord as well.
After a quick service, it’s time to fully test the amp. I’m mainly listening for crackling and popping, and testing for coupling capacitor leakage. This amp sports the beloved bumble bee coupling capacitors, which I love to leave installed whenever possible. As a reminder, coupling capacitors pass the audio signal from one gain stage to the other, while blocking the DC voltage from the previous section. As time goes on, these coupling capacitors may begin to leak DC voltage into the audio signal. In this amp, only one of the coupling caps needed to be replaced, as it was leaking about 5 volts.
This amp is cathode biased, so I replaced the cathode bypass capacitor and resistor for the output tube. This is to promote reliability in the output circuit, and keeps the 6V6 running as intended. I left in the first stage coupling capacitor, as it tested totally fine. There’s always a line between originality and reliability, so it’s up to the repair technician to make that judgement call based on their testing and observations.
After testing for a while, I concluded that I did not need to replace any of the other resistors or tubes. The amp came to me with nice old American-made tubes, which can truly stand the test of time. I love being able to leave the old tubes in, especially if the amp has sentimental value like this one. The grit and growl of the Gibson Skylark is an essential component in any collection, and this one will be howling at the moon for another 70 years.
A Simple Way to Convert an 8 String Classical Guitar Tuning into a Brahms Guitar Tuning!
For those of you who don’t know what a Brahms guitar is, it is a classical guitar with eight strings, a cello end pin and the guitarist holds the guitar like a cello. Please visit my page on the Brahms guitar, Paul Galbraith’s website or Redmond O’Toole’s Instagram account for more details of this wonderful style of guitar.
About twice a year I receive emails from guitarists asking me if I will make them a Brahms, I tell them “yes, I can” and then they ask what I charge to make one for them. I tell them that the base price for my classical guitars is $8,000 and a Brahms guitar starts at $8,500 - that is when they lose interest. A lot of work goes into making a Brahms guitar: I triple laminate the sides; I hand cut all the fret slots, the fretboard is fanned, this guitar actually has eight different string lengths(!); the neck is wider than a standard classical; I have to make a special bridge, which is angled to matched the different string lengths; installing the cello endpin; etc., etc.
Recently, a guitarist asked me if I could make a Brahms guitar for them, and if I could send one to them to try out, just to make sure they would want one. I do not have a Brahms guitar on hand. I told them that a client of mine has one for sale, they should contact that client to discuss the playing technique used for playing a Brahms guitar and the possibility of buying the guitar.
The next week I contacted the guitarist and asked them why they wanted to play a Brahms guitar. Their answer was what I expected, the Brahms guitar offers more musical possibilities than a six string classical guitar. Then I suggested to them what a guitarist can do to experience a Brahms guitar without having to buy one.
WARNING! What I am about to suggest is to be done at your own risk! This is just a suggestion! I am not responsible for any damage done to any guitar! This suggestion is a way to try out the tuning of a Brahms guitar! DO NOT drill a hole in the guitar for a cello end pin! Hold the guitar as you would a standard classical guitar! If you do change strings, protect the guitar while you do the work! Please read this ENTIRE post before attempting!
If you really are interested in trying a Brahms guitar without a cello endpin, find someone who is willing to loan you a standard eight string classical guitar, or better yet, find someone with an eight string guitar that is interested in trying out the Brahms tuning. I also suggest that you read about the history of the development of the Brahms guitar before you attempt changing strings.
A Brahms guitar is usually tuned B1 E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4 A4. A standard eight string guitar is usually tuned A1 B1 E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4. All you need to do to convert that eight string guitar tuning over to a Brahms tuning is to remove the eighth string completely from the guitar. Once you do that, shift the remaining strings over towards the bass side, so that the seventh string now becomes the eighth string, the sixth string becomes the seventh string, the fifth string becomes the sixth string, so on and so forth until there is no longer a first string on the guitar. Then you need to find a first string that can be tuned to A4 without breaking.
I suggest buying a set of Aquila Bionylon High A Tuning Classical Guitar Strings.
Here is Aquila Strings description of the set:
High A tuning: A D G c e a, regular guitar intervals, but the 1st string is an above normal e.
We are proud to introduce the Bionylon® the first eco-friendly synthetic string in the world. These special sets also offered in Low A, High G and Low E tuning all designed for a guitar of 64-66 cm scale can give a guitar quartet, all using normal 6 string classical guitars, the range of an orchestra.
These strings get good reviews at the various on line guitar string dealers.
I suggest that you take that high “a” string and use it as the first string on the guitar. Eight string classical guitars are usually built to withstand the add tension of two extra strings, if in doubt about this you should contact your local luthier or qualified repair person. If you are uncomfortable in changing these strings take the guitar to your local luthier or qualified repair person and pay them to do the work!
Once you add that high “a” string, slowly tune all the strings, perhaps you should start with A435 to see how the guitar will react. To try out the tuning, hold the guitar as you normally would, DO NOT DRILL THE GUITAR FOR A CELLO ENDPIN! If you like the tuning and want a custom Brahms guitar, contact me or any luthier about making one for you!
Again, I must state that this procedure is just a suggestion, do not proceed with this if you are uncomfortable with the idea.
I first learned about the Brahms guitar in 1994, shortly after it was premiered by Paul Galbraith, I was immediately impressed by expanded range of the guitar. I shared the article with a fellow guitarist and he said, “Now, that’s best idea I’ve seen in a long time! Every guitarist should have one!
”
If you have any questions or comments about this idea, please email them to me at
highcountrylutherie@gmail.com
I will not answer any comments posted to this post.
Vintage Vault: 1966 Gretsch 6122 Country Gentleman
What if I told you that you could get a vintage guitar model from the original Big Bang of rock for less than a new U.S.-made Fender or Gibson? With the Gretsch 6122 Country Gentleman, you can.
The double-cutaway Country Gents of the 1960s were ostensibly Chet Atkins signature models. But it was a young man named George Harrison who sent demand for these guitars through the roof, when he played one in living rooms across the United States during the Beatles’ first televised performance on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964.
Thanks to Harrison’s unofficial endorsement, Gretsch went from building a comfortable 2,000 models a year to struggling to keep up with demand, reportedly making 100 a day following the explosive Sullivan set.
While Harrison’s was a 1963, the production run of Country Gents he inspired from ’64-’70 brought about a few changes: the standard walnut brown finish was lighter than Harrison’s mahogany-colored, the Grover tuners had a more streamlined “kidney” shape, the mute pads changed from red to black, and, over time, some other minor changes were instituted (for example, the “Country Gentleman” branding was made more prominent on pickguards circa 1966).
However, the basic idea that Chet Atkins worked out with Gretsch had remained largely intact since ’61. These were high-end guitars, built for peak performance, without too many distracting frills: hollowbody, 17" wide and about 2" deep, with a laminated maple top, back, and sides. The f-holes were painted on, per Atkins’ orders, so that there were no real holes introducing feedback.
They had ebony fingerboards with a 12" radius, and a 24.5" scale length, a gold-plated Bigsby vibrato tailpiece, a Filter’Tron pickup in the bridge and Super’Tron at the neck, and three volume knobs—that’s right, count ’em, three—for neck, bridge, and master.
There’s not a single tone knob on the whole guitar, but there are three switches: a 3-way tone switch (to choose between bass, standard, and treble), a 3-way pickup selector, and a kill switch.
Add it all up, and you’ve got a certified guitar for a certified guitar player. (There’s even a felt pad snapped onto the back so you can stay comfortable while Travis picking for hours on end.)
“You could get a vintage guitar model from the original Big Bang of rock for less than a new U.S.-made Fender or Gibson.”
Back in the mid-’60s, a retailer would have asked for a whopping $595 for a new Country Gentleman—and that’s if they even had it in stock. Adjusted for inflation, that’s over $6,000 in 2026 money, a testament to the top-notch quality Gretsch and Chet targeted.
That figure puts into stark relief what a great buy these are on the vintage market right now. The 1966 Gretsch 6122 Country Gentleman selected for this Vintage Vault column is listed in good condition from Reverb seller Chicago Music Exchange for just $2,650. (Like Harrison’s, at some point a previous owner removed the string mutes and filled in the holes.)
A price tag of $2,650 is still a good deal less than the $3,799 Gretsch asks currently for the closest reissue, the G6122T-62GE Vintage Select. And even that is on the higher-end of average vintage prices at the moment. In 2026 so far, the average final sale price on Reverb for ’64-’70 Country Gents is $1,900, a big drop from the 2021 peak of $3,400.
Country Gent pricing follows a trend in the vintage guitar world that some people—particularly a lot of sellers of vintage guitars—seem to have missed: the vintage guitar market has cooled. Not by a ton, and certainly not uniformly. The overall market is down 10-15% compared to its 2021/2022 peak, with values on the whole remaining above what they had been pre-pandemic.
That said, a lot of once-offbeat models—like the Gretsches of the world, CBS-era Fender offsets, and others—gained a ton of value during the pandemic, only to have slipped further since. Final prices can be 20% to even 40% lower than their peaks. This Country Gentleman is just one example, with plenty more to be found.
It’s a good reminder to all of us vintage guitar nerds out there: These days, it’s a great time to be a buyer. So if you see a guitar you like, go ahead and throw out an offer. Refer to the actual final sale prices you can always find in the Reverb Price Guide, and don’t take asking prices at face value. You just might score a real-deal vintage gem, for way less a current reissue.
Get up to 20% off Fender this October at Guitar Center!
Guitar Center are currently offering big savings across the Big F catalogue, with a wide range of electric models, amplifiers and other gear from Fender reduced throughout October.
A number of its Player II models are reduced, and many are Guitar Center exclusives boasting unique finishes. Offers end on the 28 October.
- READ MORE: The best picks for electric guitar and acoustic guitar, from Jim Dunlop, Fender, Ibanez and more
From Stratocasters and Jazzmasters, to Teles and P-Basses – which are currently celebrating their 75th birthday this year – there is a wide range of deals to choose from, so we’ve rounded up some of the best. Take a look below.
Fender Player II Stratocaster HSS Plus Top in Blue Burst
This limited-edition Player II Stratocaster HSS Plus Top model has a maple fingerboard, an alder body, and of course, a striking flame maple top that gives it its “Plus Top” status. The HSS pickup configuration consists of a Player Series humbucker and Alnico V single-coils, for a versatile range of tones. Now $799.99, you can save $130 on this guitar.
Credit: Guitar Center
Fender Player II Advanced HSS HT Stratocaster in Surf Green Pearl
Save $260 on this mean looking Strat. Fitted with upgraded Seymour Duncan electronics and featuring “fast-playing appointments and the direct feel of a hardtail bridge”, the Fender Player II Advanced HSS HT Stratocaster is a performance-oriented model. It has an alder body, matte black hardware and an exclusive Surf Pearl finish.
Credit: Guitar Center
Fender Player II Precision Maple Fingerboard Limited-Edition Bass in Ocean Turquoise
This limited-edition P-Bass is now $799.99. It offers a punchy split-coil Precision Bass pickup, an alder body and maple neck, a 4-saddle bridge, synthetic bone nut and vintage-style tuners. It also has a Modern C-shaped neck and chrome hardware to complete its contemporary look.
Credit: Guitar Center
Fender Player II Jazzmaster Electric Guitar in British Racing Green
Save $80 on this exclusive Jazzmaster. It has a classic alder body, a maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard, and a pair of Player Series Alnico 5 Jazzmaster single-coil pickups for a wide tonal palette.
Credit: Guitar Center
To view these deals and more, visit Guitar Center.
The post Get up to 20% off Fender this October at Guitar Center! appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Are you better off building your own fuzz pedal?
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Fuzz pedals! Those gloriously angry little boxes that bring the sweetest kind of tonal devastation to your rig. They’re the first effect to be condensed down into a little stompbox, and their wonderfully fuzzy sounds have inspired generations of guitarists ever since Satisfaction blew everyone’s minds.
And the best fuzz sounds out there don’t have to come from $500 boutique boxes – they can come from projects that you make yourself, either out of a kit or from the ground up. There’s an unmistakable joy that comes from playing something you’ve created yourself –are you always better off building your own fuzz?
Getting building
You might have seen a lot of buzz around DIY fuzzes, and been curious as to how to enter this world. You will need a bit of kit if you don’t have it already. First off is a good soldering iron, which is essential for all but the most basic of DIY pedal kits. You’ll also want a good set of flush cutters for trimming component legs and cutting wire to length, as well as wire strippers, wrenches to tighten things. And finally an often overlooked part of the assembly process is a PCB holder – these are absolutely worth the investment, as they make populating a PCB or veroboard a breeze! If all that kit seems a bit overwhelming, StewMac luckily offers a pedal building tool kit, as well as the individual parts if you just need to top up your workbench to be pedal-ready.
So, why build a fuzz? There are a lot of reasons – let’s dive into a few.
A teachable moment
Image: Cillian Breathnach
You can read up on electronic circuits all day – but, when it comes to musical equipment, there’s perhaps no better way to learn than getting practical and hearing the results right away. Fuzz pedals are an awesome way into the world of pedal building, mainly because they’ve generally got a low parts count, which makes them pretty approachable to actually put together. But their simpler design also means that small adjustments go a long way – there’s more immediacy between your design decisions and the resulting sound.
If you’re just starting out, I’d say that getting a simple one-knob fuzz under your belt first is a far better idea than trying to start with a multi-mode dual-PT2399 modulated delay. And, of course, the resulting sound of a fuzz is one of the most glorious aspects of playing guitar – few experiences on this instrument are quite as gratifying as a really good fuzz pedal into a loud amp.
So, where to start? Using veroboard, also known as stripboard, is a great way to get into ground-up builds, mainly because it’s a flexible base for whatever layout you want to throw at it. Buy a chunk of veroboard and the right components, and you can get a good few practice builds under your belt fairly quickly, building essential soldering skills and a good understanding of signal-path basics. There are lots of community-sourced tagboard layouts out there for different effects – if you’re building low numbers of pedals for your own enjoyment, it’s just as good as a PCB, even if it requires just a little more patience.
Kits are, of course, more one-and-done – you don’t need to worry about sourcing any part of the build, as the enclosure and all on- and off-board parts are included. To get started, check out StewMac’s selection of kits here.
Whatever substrate you’re using, basic fuzz circuits are very moddable. Fuzz Face- and Tone Bender-inspired builds will let you quickly make big adjustments with only minor tweaks, and even in more parts-heavy builds, there are often common modifications that the community on places like Reddit and freestompboxes.org will recommend and guide you through. And while you can start out by messing about and swapping out the odd part here and there, you’ll likely soon be calculating filter roll-offs and sourcing obscure germanium transistors off eBay – which brings us to customisability.
Truly your own
Image: Cristian Storto / Getty
We’re not just talking aesthetics here, although that does come into it. Off-the-shelf fuzz options will generally have a pretty broad appeal, tonally. But once you’ve got the basics down, making your own fuzzes lets you get really specific in chasing that ideal tone, in some cases much more so than modding a pre-built fuzz would. Plus, that’s less and less possible these days, with modern surface-mount builds making it far harder to perform circuit tweaks.
For example – clipping diodes. Not all fuzzes use them, but for ones that do – like the Big Muff – they can have a huge impact on the sound. You’ll likely find out your preferred combination, and it may well be that you find a sound that’s not otherwise obtainable. For example my personal favourite clipping combination is a germanium diode going one way, and a red LED going the other way – these have drastically different forward voltages, and so the resultant signal is very asymmetrically-clipped. As a sound it combines the louder, sharper edge of LED clipping with the more squishy, compressed character of germanium, and is pretty much always a cool addition to a build like a Big Muff.
Other simple tweaks are also much easier to do when you’re building the circuit from the ground up. Frequency response can often drastically adjusted with tweaks to just a few values in the tone stack if there is one, or the in-line filtering stages if there isn’t. The Big Muff is again a good example – don’t like the infamous midrange scoop? Change the values of a couple of resistors and capacitors, and you can flatten it out or give it a boost instead.
With all of these minor tweaks, it’s easy to put extra circuit controls on a switch for extra flexibility – I’ve built a couple of FZ-2 circuits, and found that I don’t always want an upper-octave sound – putting a switch that breaks the signal on one side of the rectification lets you toggle it, giving a whole new set of sounds to an already multi-mode circuit. The same goes for clipping diodes, tone stacks and extra circuits. For example, you can experiment with adding in a boost circuit before, after or even during the main effect signal path for extra punch and saturation.
And, of course, you have the all-important transistors – these are the beating heart of the fuzz sound – more often than not, all of the distortion in a fuzz comes from overloading a series of transistors far beyond their usual sonic limits. This means that finding unique, weird ones can lead to a totally unique and incredible sound. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the humble 2N5088, but the unpredictable, unstable nature of germanium is hard to replicate. And, for multi-transistor circuits, you can always take the hybrid approach to get the best of both worlds!
Should you never buy a fuzz again?
Image: Cristian Storto / Getty
Obviously, building your own fuzz pedals is great fun. But isn’t always the best option. The parts of the DIY world that are the most accessible tend to focus on what’s already been done, and at some point, it’s good to see what new ideas other builders bring to the table – maybe just to inspire your own playing, or maybe to give you a few ideas about your next fuzz pedal build.
Of course, there’s also the rabbit hole aspect of it all – like any hobby, building fuzzes can draw you in whirlpool deep alarmingly quickly – before you know it, you’ll have setup a search alert for an array of new-old-stock germanium transistors, your desk will be overwhelmed by half-populated PCBs and you’ll be dreaming about ideal bias voltages for your next build…
So, you may be just fine with accepting the sounds of an off-the-shelf pedal. But, guitarists have never really been able to be normal about effects, especially not fuzzes – why not join the ranks of many builders before you, and get tinkering?
See StewMac’s pedal-building resources here.
The post Are you better off building your own fuzz pedal? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Seward Park Electric Maravilla Review
Preamp pedals can be a lot of things. They tend to get lumped in with overdrives and boosts, and, in a sense, that’s fair. Preamps, ODs, and boosts are all plugged in before an amplifier’s power section, after all—usually employed to add body, grit, or a measure of distortion.
So, what’s the difference? Well, in the absence of a definitive answer about clipping and EQ circuitry differences—and certainly these can be factors—it can be just as helpful to imagine the preamp/overdrive divide in terms of personalities. An overdrive can be charming but brusque—all full of easy answers to life’s problems and, sometimes, a bit of loudmouth. A good preamp, meanwhile, can be the life of the party—an extrovert even! But it can also be an empathetic, responsive listener and conversationalist.
OK, maybe that isn’t the most watertight metaphor, but Seward Park Electric's Maravilla preamp is one pedal that makes it look particularly apt. Compared to many overdrives, the Maravilla has a huge tone vocabulary—one that spans civilized, sparkling, and venomous. It tends to feel exceptionally well integrated with your amp and guitar. And at the right settings, the Maravilla adds color and energy to a signal without hoovering up the oxygen that makes a guitar feel alive in your hands. Whatever you call it, it has more to offer as a tactile link to your guitar and as a tone scalpel than most overdrives I know.
Maximized Multifactedness
The essence of what makes the Maravilla tick is not terribly complex. Gain is generated via germanium transistors, which are less common in overdrives but make the pedal more dynamically responsive and lend the drive a smoother, less aggro voice. But it’s how the Maravilla builds upon this simple architecture that makes a difference. There is no single drive control on the Maravilla. But a pre-gain control enables you to smash the germanium transistors with input gain, while the post-gain control enables you to take the output from the germanium transistor section and pound the transformer for even more saturation. Transformers are not unheard of in effects pedals, but they aren’t commonplace either. Functionally they can take the place of buffers. But here, as in other excellent preamp-inspired pedals like Hudson’s Broadcast, the Maravilla also uses a transformer to lend extra richness to the distortion.
This simple, if slightly unorthodox, gain chain conjures many complex drive shades by itself. But the Maravilla’s powerful, fluid EQ section also transforms the distortion. The pedal even offers a post-gain presence control, called “air” here, that changes the gain and compression characteristics, along with how the pedal responds to touch and picking dynamics.
“Just as with single coils, the germanium bits of the Maravilla’s beating heart are responsive to touch, tone, and volume dynamics in ways that expand the PAF vocabulary.”
The Punch Spectrum
Uncovering Maravilla’s treasures can feel like fumbling in the dark at first—such are the interactive sensitivities of the six controls. Having all six knobs at noon positions is not a bad place to begin, and you can usually find a baseline not too far from your guitar and amp’s natural voice in these regions. But it pays to be bold as you venture forth from there. And getting a feel for how the post- and pre-gain controls shift the feel of your rig is an ideal launch pad for these experiments.
Slightly advanced pre-gain levels tend to generate sounds and attack most like a conventional overdrive. And depending on where I set the pedal’s EQ, I find sounds similar to those from the Klon and Tube Screamer clones I use as overdrive reference. High post-gain settings in isolation introduce a lean, clean, muscular edge to an amplifier’s input. Any setting that favors heavy pre- or post-gain levels can yield creative results. But it’s when the two are used together in generous servings that the Maravilla comes alive.
As organic amp-style drive goes, the sound and feel of both gain controls at 3 o’clock is hard to top. With a Telecaster and a Vibrolux on either side of the Maravilla, I heard a meaty, rambunctious version of this combination that suffers little from compression or unflattering midrange spikes. You can dial in plenty of compression and odd EQ peaks with the air and EQ controls if you want. But in terms of creating burly, blossoming, naturalistic variations on your natural guitar/amp voice, the two gain controls working together with smooth EQ combos yields the goods. Maximum pre- and post-gain settings sound fantastic too and made the Telecaster and Vibrolux sound positively Marshall-like. But any of these combinations of high pre- and post-gain distortion can be tamed and made near-clean with guitar volume attenuation, and I tended to keep them at higher levels for that reason.
Humbuckers, predictably, have a different relationship with Maravilla. I found the sweetest drive sounds by favoring the pre-gain, using a less dynamic air setting and more conservative tone levels. But just as with single-coils, the germanium bits of the Maravilla’s beating heart are responsive to touch, tone, and volume dynamics in ways that expand the PAF vocabulary. The Maravilla dazzles with Vox- and Marshall-style amps too. It can make an EL84-based rig sound sizzly. But dialing back the pedal’s rangy treble control and adding a scoop of preamp gain can give the combination a buzzy ’60s-practice-amp-set-to-blast essence that, with a little guitar volume and tone attenuation, recalls the crunchy/fuzzy tones David Hidalgo and Tchad Blake cooked up for Latin Playboys’ records. If you’re strictly into the maximum rock ‘n’ roll potentialities of a British amp and the Maravilla, though, fear not. It’s just as easy to dial up monster sounds as it is to find off-kilter ones.
The Verdict
Using the Maravailla in performance can be tricky business if you don’t do your homework. And paradoxically, this means its wonderful versatility may be its only drawback. But this is a drawback in very relative terms. The homework Maravilla demands of you is 101-level stuff. Yes, small adjustments to any of the Maravilla’s controls can profoundly affect the whole, and you might create something ghastly before you happen upon the magic recipe that matches your aims. But the Maravilla is forgiving, and you get used to the sweeps and range in its controls fast. It’s fantastic for awakening lifeless, one-dimensional signals that are missing energy or a certain EQ emphasis. It can add aggression through unique shades of saturation that can span smooth and fuzzy. And as you get to know its core strengths, you may find that some of the strangest sounds it produces might just become the most essential. Indeed, if the most obvious tone sweeteners here don’t convince you of Maravilla’s ability to outperform your average overdrive, the unexpected surprises most certainly will.
Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks' "The Art of Music" Debuts October 1st on Public Television
- YouTube
October 1st marks the premiere of The Art of Music’s third episode, featuring GRAMMY © Award winning blues rock combo and Tedeschi Trucks Band co-founders, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks filmed live from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Petrie Sculpture Court. It features intimate performances and a wide-ranging interview with legendary music journalist David Fricke. Corporate funding for the series is provided by Chase. The series is distributed by NETA.
Presented by United MileagePlus Cards from Chase. *
PREVIEW at youtube.com/watch
“What a beautiful and unique setting for a concert and interview,” said Derek Trucks. “Sitting in a room full of masterpieces from all over the world was inspiring - watching Susan hold and play Mississippi John Hurt’s guitar is something I won’t forget.”
The episode reveals details of the Tedeschi and Trucks musical journey, inspirations, family influences, and their personal connection to Derek and the Dominos’ “Bell Bottom Blues.” A performance with Sippie Wallace's “Women Be Wise” on Mississippi John Hurt's Gibson guitar, drawn from the Met's collection and a breakdown of “Who Am I” and “What in the World” highlight music from their sixth studio album release Future Soul.
Check local listings for more information at listings.tracmedia.com/artOfMusic.
“The Art of Music” format keeps pulling extraordinary moments like this out of artists,” said Don Maggi, founder and president of iMaggination. “Susan and Derek didn't just talk about their influences — they played them, on an instrument from the Met's own collection. That's what this series is built to do.”
This special interview and performance featuring Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks presented by United MileagePlus Cards from Chase was an unforgettable occasion for Chase United Cardmembers who were invited to attend the intimate live taping. TheUnited MileagePlus Cards from Chase provide Cardmembers with access to exclusive events and experiences in addition to many reward and travel benefits with United Airlines.
Other episodes of The Art of Music include Sheryl Crow with Jason Isbell and
Peter Frampton with Warren Haynes, available at www.theartofmusic.co.
Are PRS Guitars priced so highly that only “dentists and doctors” can afford them? Paul Reed Smith responds: “We’ve done everything in our power to make the SEs affordable”
Paul Reed Smith of PRS Guitars has responded to comments about the brand’s prices, and the ongoing joke that their models are only affordable for those in medicine or dentistry.
Reed Smith was asked directly by a viewer during a Q&A with Andertons why PRS only makes guitars for dentists, and while he laughs it off, he also provides an explanation behind some of their more high-end model price points, and brings one of their more affordable models into the conversation.
The question is asked right at the start of the Q&A, with Reed Smith responding (via Guitar World), “I didn’t know Carlos Santana and John Mayer were dentists,” pointing to two of the brand’s signature artists. “The question implies that only dentists and doctors buy the guitars. It’s just not true anymore.”
Reed Smith goes on to make reference to the SE Silver Sky to back up his point. The guitar, launched in 2022, sits around the £800 price point. It scored a 9/10 in our review at launch, and was even the best-selling guitar on Reverb from its release until 2024, when it was dethroned by the Fender Player Telecaster.
“I mean, there was a time in the late ’80s [when] maybe that was true, but Sweetwater did a thing: the most expensive guitars. We weren’t in the first 10. We’ve done everything in our power to make the SEs affordable,” he adds.
“These S2s are really affordable. Look, you can say that to some people, a Private Stock’s not affordable [priced at $8,000 – $14,000], but that’s an awful lot of time and energy and skill level for what we charge for them. So I’m okay with it.”
To watch the full Q&A, including discussions around the never-ending tonewood debate, you can check out the video below:
And speaking of tone, Reed Smith has even explored how hardware impacts a guitar’s overall sound. In a 2025 YouTube video for PRS’ Rules Of Tone series, he said: “In a lot of the past videos, I’ve stated that whatever the guitar string touches is God.
“To exaggerate that, if the bridge is made of rubber, the nut is made of rubber, and the tuning peg is made of rubber, the guitar is not going to have the kind of high-end that it would have if these things were made out of metal.”
Learn more about PRS Guitars.
The post Are PRS Guitars priced so highly that only “dentists and doctors” can afford them? Paul Reed Smith responds: “We’ve done everything in our power to make the SEs affordable” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“They were round the back sniffing and snorting”: The time Tony Iommi’s mother-in-law-to-be became suspicious after seeing his friends disappear during his wedding day
![[L-R] Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Tony-Iommi-new-hero@2000x1500.jpg)
The 1970s saw serious rock and roll excess, with many of the top bands at the time indulging heavily in alcohol and hard drugs. One of these bands was Black Sabbath…
But they weren’t the only ones. Apparently, when Sabbath and Eagles were recording their respective albums, Technical Ecstasy and Hotel California at adjacent studios at Miami’s Criteria in 1976, Sabbath entered the Eagles recording room to find the faders “so clogged with cocaine they wouldn’t move”.
And in a recent interview with Classic Rock, Tony Iommi explains how the drug habit of those around him didn’t cease even on certain special days…
Sabbath’s drug habits reportedly escalated when they headed to America in the early ‘70s. The band reportedly racked up a £55,000 cocaine bill while recording their fourth album, Vol. 4 in 1972.
But those habits came home with them, and were evident when Tony Iommi married his first wife, Susan, in November 1973.
As the story goes, his mother-in-law-to-be began to wonder why Iommi’s friends kept disappearing from the church during the wedding day.
“They were round the back sniffing and snorting!” Iommi laughs. “America changed us.”
In other news, Tony Iommi recently revealed the gruesome truth of what happens if he plays guitar without his prosthetic fingertips, which he wears after an accident decades ago which saw him lose the tops of two of his fingers.
“One time, years ago, when it did come off, I fretted a string and it sliced right through my finger. There was blood all over the place!” he recalled.
Tony Iommi is set to release his first solo album in 21 years, From the Dark, later this month. Check out its lead single, World Alone, below:
The post “They were round the back sniffing and snorting”: The time Tony Iommi’s mother-in-law-to-be became suspicious after seeing his friends disappear during his wedding day appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Boss EX-4 Effects Expander review – a force multiplier for compact pedalboards
$329/£289, boss.info
You don’t see a lot of occasional tables these days, do you? You know the type, the nest of side tables that would sit unmolested at the corner of an elderly relative’s living room until such a time as they had company over and required a wobbly edifice to place extraneous drinks and biscuits onto.
Correlation doesn’t mean causation, of course, but there can be no doubt that the decline in occasional tables is inversely proportional to the rise of the occasional effects pedal. Back in the dark mists of the 2010s, Line 6 came out with the M5, and it was in many ways the original occasional pedal. Inside its relatively compact package, the M9 and then smaller M5 offered a whole bunch of effects that you might only need now and then in one package designed to sit in the middle of your pedalboard ready to be anything you needed it to be at a moment’s notice.
Despite being a verifiably great idea, in the following years we saw relatively few competitors to the M9, but that has changed recently. Now the likes of TC Electronic and Zoom offer compact multi-effects units, while at the other end of the market the likes of Eventide and Hologram Electronics bring a boutique sheen to proceedings. Even Line 6 itself got back into the party with the impressive HX One a few years back.
Image: Adam Gasson for Guitar.com
Now it’s Boss’s turn. Though the company already has the PX-1 Plugout FX as a compact multi-effects unit, its unique approach to being a literal stompbox library (not to mention its microtransaction-based library) means it doesn’t really fit the bill. The EX-4, on the other hand, offers a whole smorgasbord of sounds in a compact chassis, for a very reasonable price.
What is it?
In essence, the EX-4 crams 120 onboard effects, mainly from Boss’s own enviable back catalogue, crammed into the rugged and compact (but not that compact) form factor of Boss’s 200 series enclosure.
You can run up to four of these effects simultaneously, so if you’ve ever fancied running four shimmer reverbs into each other just to see what happens, you’re in luck here. You can also control the routing options of said four effects, so you can run them either in old-fashioned serial, as two separate serial chains made up of one, two or three pedals each, or using three different types of parallel routing.
The sounds here are mainly focused on guitar, but there are a handy helping of bass options too, and the effects on board run the gamut from the standard to the downright weird. So yes you’ll find the usual suspects of overdrive, distortion, reverb, et al in various common Boss and non-Boss flavours, but that’s not all. Delve into the menu and you’ll find the likes of the Slow Gear, Super Feedbacker and Slicer pedals recreated here, but also some really esoteric flavours like the Defretter (for guitar and bass), the Humaniser and the guitar synth.
As you would well expect for a pedal with this much going on, there are 128 user presets to go with the 128 factory ones. All of this is controlled by a pair of footswitches that can either be used to switch up and down through the presets or, in manual mode, the two switches can be used to turn two of the effects in the bank on and off by default. They can also be configured to control master bypass, tap tempo and even individual parameter control. Coloured lights around each switch also make it easy to see at a glance what the switch is currently up to.
Image: Adam Gasson for Guitar.com
There’s plenty of onboard control for the pedal courtesy of five rotary controls, plus a 2.4-inch full-colour screen that shows you your current preset plus the four effects you have in that chain. You can turn these effects on using four FX buttons on the edges of the control panel, all of which handily light up in the colour of the effect that is currently in its bank. Editing the effect in question is a job for the rotary knobs, with the large knobs up top controlling the bank and the effect type, while the three smaller knobs tweak parameters contextually based on what’s above them. All the knobs also have a secondary click function that is represented on the second line of context-dependent info on the screen.
But that’s not all – in addition to tweaking all the effect types manually, the EX-4 also has a new feature called ‘Gear Suite’ that’s accessed by a dedicated small button on the top left. For each effect type that you select, if you hit the Gear Suite button, you’ll be presented with 10 factory and user presets for each individual effect type, meaning that you can not only streamline your auditioning process by zeroing in on some classic sounds, but it also means you can then save those presets and use them in any of your global presets. It’s presets within presets, basically – Preset-ception?
All these sounds come complete with a useful amount of IO to go with it – you get stereo ins and outs (half of which can double as effects send and return) plus a control for an external footswitch or effects pedal. There’s also a USB-C for software updates and – mercifully given the breadth and depth of tweakability at play here – full MIDI control, should that be your particular kink.
Power comes courtesy of an included Boss PSU, but should you be living in 2026 and want to power this off your own pedalboard power supply, you’ll need to make sure you have at least 300mA of juice on tap.
Image: Adam Gasson for Guitar.com
Usability and build quality
When AI goes full Skynet and wipes humanity out sometime in the near future, there’s a fair bet that alongside Keith Richards and cockroaches, Boss pedals will be the effect du jour of whatever guitar-playing ghouls occupy the wasteland in our absence. Now, the 200 series might not have the same indestructible reassurance of the trusty Compact Pedal, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a serious bit of hardware – all bent powder-coated steel and sharp angles.
The footswitches are rugged, soft-click affairs – they’re nicely spaced out but rather small compared to the norm. Plenty will naturally lean towards footswitch toppers here, but be aware that this is likely to obscure the contextual LEDs around the switches themselves… that’s presumably what Boss’s own transparent toppers are meant to get around.
The rotary switches are plastic rather than metal, but they are stepped rather than smooth travelling. This feels rather satisfying, and it definitely makes it easier to be precise with your tweaking, but there is a flipside. Because each click represents a single notch on the scale, given that many of the parameter values are out of 100, making a significant adjustment to that takes many more twists of a knob than is wholly enjoyable. I can understand the rationale for why Boss did it this way, however; the alternative would be to have a knob that wasn’t sensitive enough for precise adjustment.
The colour LCD screen is bright, crisp and clear – 2.4 inches doesn’t look great on paper, but all the text is rendered clearly – it’s certainly an improvement on the HX One’s tiny little screen.
Image: Adam Gasson for Guitar.com
That text is still pretty small, mind you – you’re definitely going to want to get your presets sorted before a show because you’ll need the reading glasses/a pair of binoculars to make out the text on a dark stage in the heat of battle. This is unquestionably the nature of the beast with compact multi-effects units, however, and the preset name and number itself is rendered in large, legible type, while the various contextual coloured LEDs also make things much easier to navigate on the fly.
The problem that you often encounter with compact multi-effects units is how you include as much tweakability and deep-editing as the user will want without making the top of the pedal look like the control console at Abbey Road. Too often with compact pedal makers, especially those on the boutique side of things, they try to squeeze too much into too few controls, making any kind of editing a chore, and leaving you with the suspicion that the designers assume most people will be using MIDI to control the thing anyway.
Boss has sensibly opted for a middle ground in all this – the controls are relatively spartan and clearly labelled, but the contextual nature of those three central knobs means that you can do a huge amount of tone sculpting right there on the pedal.
I am very much a Guy Who Does Not Like Menus, so it really does say a lot that within a few minutes, without even looking at the quick start guide, I worked out how to do pretty much everything I wanted to do – from preset saving to parameter tweaking to signal path adjustment. For a pedal with a whole lot going on, it really is very easy to use.
Image: Adam Gasson for Guitar.com
Sounds
The reason that you’ll find a Boss pedal or two on practically every guitar player’s ’board is that for nearly 50 years now the company has been a byword for great effects sounds, and that’s very much in evidence across the broad span of tones on offer here.
It is a little frustrating that some classic Boss stompboxes are included here by name – the Metal Zone, the Turbo Overdrive, the Slow Gear, the Space Echo – while others are broken up into various generic modes that, while perhaps making sense on a bigger workstation like the GT-1000, feel a bit overly granular for a pedal of this type. Perhaps this is done to not tread too heavily on the toes of the polarising PX-1 Plugout FX pedal, which offers dedicated replications of individual Boss stompboxes, several of which have to be purchased separately.
This is a very different beast to the PX-1, and I get that, but it’s still annoying to me that I can’t simply select the DM-2 when I want a DM-2 sound, though, y’know?
Image: Adam Gasson for Guitar.com
The sounds themselves are ace, however – especially the ones that are directly derived from Boss pedals. Indeed, A/Bing them alongside their original pedal-based equivalents, it’s hard to find much difference – my Super Overdrive, DS-1 and CE-2 were pretty much indistinguishable with the EX-4 appropriately dialled in, and running the Slow Gear emulation on the PX-1 proved similarly indistinguishable.
What you are sacrificing in the quest for this cornucopia of sonic variety is the sheer sonic quality you might find in high-end separate effects or the very top end of the modelling world. You’re not going to get the same ethereal bliss you’ll find in a Strymon BigSky from the shimmer reverb mode here, nor will the glitch delay offer the sort of juddery brilliance of a Chase Bliss pedal.
But as Yngwie likes to remind anyone in earshot – less isn’t more: more is more. And in that regard, you cannot really fault the offering here – the ability to run four effects simultaneously, combined with the myriad routing and external and internal switching options, really is pretty compelling. It elevates this pedal above the utility Swiss Army Knife pedal into something that you can legitimately build your rig around.
Forget replacing one pedal on your ’board; I could easily see a world where a lot of guitar players could scale down to a mini pedalboard containing an EX-4 with maybe a tuner and a few choice dirt boxes, and still be able to cover pretty much any base in a cover band or function gig.
As with any multi-effects pedal, the question of where it goes on a larger board is a more philosophical one. The send and return sockets do increase your flexibility there for sure, but there are still likely to be signal chain compromises, especially if you’re using all for sound banks.
Image: Adam Gasson for Guitar.com
Should I buy one?
There are pedals out there that offer more sounds in a similarly-sized package – the HX One, for example – and you can definitely argue that using a sound engine from an eight-year-old pedal is not exactly that exciting.
But with respect to the good folk at Boss, they haven’t sold tens of millions of pedals because they sound way better than everyone else. Some Boss pedals are unimpeachable, sure, but mainly people love Boss because they are affordable, they sound good, and they don’t let you down. In all three senses, the EX-4 ticks those boxes, and it would be a really keen ear who would notice the lack of premium sonic fidelity in a live environment.
The ability to run four sounds at once in such a small format is also a pretty compelling offering, especially if you’re a guitarist who likes to run fast and light when it comes to pedalboards – far more than just a one-shot occasional pedal, it could be the inspiration for downsizers to finally ditch their two-row ’boards.
At just over $300, the Ex-4 is also an impressive value proposition, and its straightforward and sensible control layout also means it shouldn’t scare off those of us who get queasy at the thought of menu diving. The impressive I/O (including the internal routing options) make the issue of where it sits on your board more straightforward too – and if you’re hooking it up to a MIDI switcher, those options are only further enhanced.
In many ways, this is the pedal that I think a lot of people perhaps imagined or assumed the rather polarising Boss PX-1 would be when it was launched. And I do wonder if the EX-4 had come out first, would people have been a lot less hostile to the Plugout FX’s stated goal as an expandable library of classic and rare Boss effects? We’ll never know now, but it’s very easy to see the Effects Expander reaching a much wider audience – as a multi-function utility pedal on bigger ’boards, or as a force multiplier for compact builds, this is a really compelling proposition.
Image: Adam Gasson for Guitar.com
Alternatives
If you want more of an all-in-one solution, the Boss GT-1000CORE ($659/£649) offers more sounds and AIRD-powered amp simulation. The obvious elephant in the room is of course Line 6’s HX One ($299/£229), which offers more effects to choose from, but with the limit of just being able to use one at a time.
The affordable and even more compact TC Electronic Plethora X1 ($155/£119) offers a choice of seven different effects, but with the ability to use two at once, and the flexibility to load TonePrint presets onto there as well as your own. The sounds might not be up to the standards of Boss or Line 6, but the Valeton GP-50 ($119/£99) offers a huge array of effects and amps in a tiny package for very little cash.
The post Boss EX-4 Effects Expander review – a force multiplier for compact pedalboards appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“Come to the show and f**king tell me how many bots you see”: Geese clap back at claims their popularity is a “psyop”
You’ve heard of industry plants… but who exactly is planting these curated artists? While overnight success stories once masqueraded as calculated record label marketing, the notion of an ‘industry plant’ has recently become far more sinister. Because what if the CIA are manipulating the charts in an attempt to psychologically control audiences en masse? What if a one-hit wonder is infused with political propaganda, designed to infect our minds and dull our senses?
… is what someone crazy might believe. Unfortunately, plenty of innocent up-and-coming bands have been sucked into the whirlwind of such conspiracies – with potentially the biggest name to come under fire being Geese.
Back in April, the indie rock unit were labelled a ‘psyop’ (shorthand for a ‘psychological operation’ used in the military when referring to psychological warfare) in an article by Wired. The piece was inspired by an original Substack article written by singer-songwriter Eliza McLamb, entitled Fake Fans, which looked into Geese’s marketing agency, Chaotic Good. In it, McLamb critiqued how the company used manipulative marketing strategies, like posting ‘fan edits’ across TikTok to curate a ‘Fake Fandom’ before any real fandom had formed.
Now, Geese have finally addressed the entire fiasco. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, bassist Dominic Digesu has one thing to say to anyone genuinely believing they’re a ‘psyop’: “Just come to the show, and fucking tell me how many bots you see!”
If you’re wondering, Geese are regularly selling out pretty big shows. In September, they sold out two nights at Queens’ 13,000 capacity Forest Hills Stadium. So it does without saying that there are plenty of flesh-and-blood Geese fans out there.
Nonetheless, the band seem pretty worn down by the discourse. However, they’re keen to clear the air and assert their genuine appeal. Frontman Cameron Winter even chimes in, acknowledging how people might believe the band were an industry plant; when he saw all the praise rolling in, he started to doubt whether the attention was genuine or not.
For a moment, he believed that the band’s record label was paying for bots to stream their music and post about them. “I thought the same thing, I really did,” he admits. “That seemed like a reasonable explanation. We were just like, ‘Oh my god the whole fucking thing is fake’. We were having a meltdown.”
It got so bad that the band even chased down their label to find out what was the truth. “We marched up to our label over email, the relevant team members, like ‘how long have all our fuckin’ fans been fake, you sons of bitches?’” Winter says.
In the end, it turns out that no bots were being used – just a really dodgy, “shitty” marketing technique which involved Chaotic Good flooding TikTok with videos every day. “We learned that we should shot up to Zoom meetings about how our record’s going to be advertised,” the frontman admits. “It wasn’t comments or fake fans or bots or anything. It was low-effort TikTok posts that were used to boost the algorithm.”
In spite of the bad press, Geese are a very real band from Brooklyn. If you’ve got a second, you can give their last album, Getting Killed, a listen – because, if their fans are all robots, it’d be nice for them to win over a few human listeners.
The post “Come to the show and f**king tell me how many bots you see”: Geese clap back at claims their popularity is a “psyop” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Slash Honored with 2026 Les Paul Spirit Award During Hollywood Celebration
Rock icon Slash received the 2026 Les Paul Spirit Award last night, Monday, October 5, during an intimate celebration at The Les Paul Recording Studio at Universal Master Recordings in Hollywood.
Presented by the Les Paul Foundation in partnership with Gibson Gives, the philanthropic arm of Gibson, the private event brought together a room filled with music-industry luminaries, artists, media, friends and special guests to honor Slash’s extraordinary creative legacy, pioneering musicianship and enduring influence on generations of artists and fans.
The evening centered on the presentation of the one-of-a-kind Les Paul Spirit Award, recognizing Slash as an artist who embodies Les Paul’s pioneering spirit through innovation, creativity, technology and music. The celebration also included a reception and a tour of the historic recording studio, offering guests a closer look at the remarkable legacy of Les Paul and the continuing impact of his work on modern music and recording.
Slash and Les Paul shared a special friendship during Les Paul’s lifetime and often played music together. That personal connection brought added meaning to the evening as guests celebrated not only two of the most recognizable guitarists in music history, but also two artists united by an enduring curiosity, an instinct for innovation and a lifelong commitment to expanding the expressive possibilities of the electric guitar.
“Les was so much more than a great guitarist and innovator. He was an actual inventor who changed the instrument itself, built groundbreaking recording equipment and completely reimagined how artists could record music. I feel incredibly lucky that I got to know him, hang out with him and play music with him. I cherish the relationship we had, and receiving an award that carries his name and spirit is a tremendous honor.” --Slash
“We are honored to present the Les Paul Spirit Award to Slash this year. He and Les shared a special friendship and often jammed together when they could,” said Michael Braunstein, Executive Director of the Les Paul Foundation. “Not only does Slash exemplify the creativity and curiosity Les had during his life, but he is also an extraordinary talent and a wonderful supporter of the Les Paul Foundation. If Les were still alive today, Slash and he would be jamming onstage together somewhere regularly.”
The annual Les Paul Spirit Award is presented to an individual who exemplifies the spirit of the late Les Paul through innovation, engineering, technology and music. The physical award presented to Slash was created from actual hand-carved acoustic boards that Les Paul built and used in his home recording studio. Because each award is fashioned from authentic studio materials personally created by Les Paul, no two Les Paul Spirit Awards are exactly alike.
Previous recipients of the Les Paul Spirit Award include Bob Weir, Nile Rodgers, the Edge, Peter Frampton and Steve Miller. Slash now joins that distinguished group of artists whose creativity, originality and contributions to music reflect the trailblazing spirit that defined Les Paul’s life and career.
A GRAMMY Award-winning guitarist, songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Slash has helped define generations of rock music through his work with Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, Slash’s Snakepit, Slash Ft. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators and Slash’s Blues Ball Band. With more than 100 million albums sold worldwide, he has created some of the most iconic guitar performances in rock history while continuing to push his artistry into new territory.
His most recent solo album, Orgy of the Damned, was released by Gibson Records in 2024 and topped the Billboard Blues Albums chart for 13 weeks. Whether exploring the blues or recording rock albums with Slash FT. MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS, Slash remains driven by the same instinctive, collaborative approach that has defined his career.
Prior to the award presentation, select members of the media were invited inside the Les Paul Recording Studio for an exclusive advance listening session featuring four songs from Slash FT. MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS’ forthcoming album, Flying Blind. Guests heard “Good Time Girl,” “One of Your Kind,” “Flying Blind” and “Looking for a Miracle,” offering an early glimpse at the band’s next creative chapter.
Set for release on February 26, 2027, via Gibson Records, Flying Blind was recorded largely live with producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette and captures the raw chemistry and unfiltered energy that have become hallmarks of the band’s sound. The preview underscored that, even after decades at the forefront of rock music, Slash continues to create with the same passion, spontaneity and commitment to collaboration that have defined his extraordinary career.
The Flying Blind WORLD TOUR 2027 will take Slash FT. MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS across Latin America, North America, the United Kingdom and Europe, with stops at iconic venues including The Wiltern, Beacon Theatre and Ryman Auditorium. Tickets are on sale now: home.slashonline.com/tour.
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