General Interest

Former Guns N’ Roses member Matt Sorum has seen his fair share of frontmen command a stage. But after catching Yungblud’s recent gig at the Hollywood Palladium, he says he’s convinced rock ’n’ roll’s future is in safe hands.

The drummer recently shared a photo with Yungblud – real name Dominic Richard Harrison – on Instagram, praising the pop-rock provocateur as a “pupil of RNR” who’s “done his homework” and studied greats from Freddie Mercury, Mick Jagger and Steven Tyler to Axl Rose and Ozzy Osbourne.

• READ MORE: He brought the house down at Black Sabbath’s farewell gig, and once hilariously defied a no-moshing order at a Japan show. Like it or not, Yungblud is the star rock music needs

“Happy to report there is hope in the world of rock n’ roll,” he writes. “Truly inspired and blown away by Yungblud’s gig at the Hollywood Palladium last night. If you were there you know what I mean. The room was electric and the crowd was insane. The energy all came from the stage as Yungblud brought it.”

“He has discovered himself and is unleashing it on the world,” Sorum continues. “I will go so far as to say I saw something historic last night and the world needs this. Congrats Dom you are going no place but up!”

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It’s no faint praise, coming from a musician whose career spanned stints with Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver and the Hollywood Vampires. Sorem’s comments also add to a growing chorus of rock veterans championing Yungblud as more than just a crossover act dabbling in guitars.

The 27-year-old recently brought down the house at Black Sabbath’s farewell show last month with a soaring rendition of Changes that won over even hardened skeptics. Ozzy Osbourne himself had long been a supporter, forging a personal friendship with the singer before his passing in July.

Meanwhile, Yungblud’s ‘Idols’ World Tour is set to continue across North America and Europe in 2025. The tour began on 23 August in Los Angeles and is scheduled to conclude in April 2026 in the UK.

The post “There is hope in the world of rock ‘n’ roll”: Matt Sorum hails Yungblud as rock’s next great star after Hollywood Palladium show appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

A red Baldwin Burns Double Six 12-string electric guitar lent to Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler in the mid ‘70s is headed to auction, and could fetch up to £30,000, experts say.

The guitar was lent to Knopfler by old friend Jeff Sadler, who played guitar for numerous bands in north-east England, including Brethren, which later became Lindisfarne. It was originally intended to be part of Christies’ massive Mark Knopfler Guitar Collection Sale, which raised nearly £9 million last year.

• READ MORE: Reverb’s Labor Day sale is on – save thousands on guitars, amps and pedals right now

However, according to auctioneer Gardiner Houlgate, the 12-string was withdrawn prior to the auction and returned to Jeff Sadler.

Despite Knopfler using the Double Six “regularly in the studio and on stage” – including on Dire Straits’ second album Communiqué, and at the band’s Prince’s Trust Rock Gala performance in the mid ‘80s – the instrument is said to be in “perfect original condition”.

Now, the guitar is scheduled for auction via Gardiner Houlgate on 9 September, alongside a Jimmy Page-owned 1957 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120, which was given away by the Led Zeppelin man in a competition in NME Magazine in 1974.

“Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits had a huge influence on music and guitar players not just in the 1980s and ‘90s, but through to today,” says Luke Hobbs, auctioneer at Gardiner Houlgate.

“I’m confident this guitar will attract a lot of attention from fans and collectors alike – particularly as it has such a great story behind it.”

The auction – featuring both the Mark Knopfler-played Double Six 12-string and Jimmy Page-owned Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 – will take place at Gardiner Houlgate, 9 Leafield Way, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 9SW on Tuesday, 9 September.

The guitar will also be available for public viewing on Friday 5 and Monday 8 September from 09:00 – 17:30, and on the day of the sale, too.

For more information, head to Gardiner Houlgate.

The post Burns Double Six 12-string “borrowed” by Mark Knopfler for 50 years and used on classic Dire Straits album could fetch £30,000 at auction appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

More than a decade since Sonic Youth’s split, Thurston Moore is certain about one thing: fans hoping for a reunion shouldn’t hold their breath.

It’s a stance that has held firm even after the guitarist briefly reconnected with former bandmates Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley late last year at New York’s the Stone. The trio’s hour-long set of improvised noise had shades of Sonic Youth’s old magic, but Moore insists it wasn’t meant as a prelude to something bigger.

• READ MORE: “If I can’t find a plectrum, it’s the only thing that really un-anchors me”: Thurston Moore says he never leaves home without a guitar pick

“It was a gig I had at the Stone, and I initially asked Lee to do a guitar duo,” the musician explains in a recent chat with Rolling Stone. “We’ve done this before in different places, and I thought it would be cool to ask Steve to play, because he’s in town, and he plays drums. And I thought that would be cool. So that’s all it was.”

Asked if the performance stirred any nostalgia, Moore quickly shakes it off: “I didn’t think about that. I don’t, like, miss things. I miss the future,” he says. “As far as music is concerned, reformation doesn’t really come into it so much.”

“We had a solid career of 30-plus years, far longer than most bands have had. The legacy of the recordings stands on its own. I don’t feel like there’s anything left unsaid as far as what we were doing.”

As unique as Sonic Youth’s sound was, the guitarist says he has little interest in recreating it: “We’re all kind of long in the tooth now. I don’t know if that can ever be recaptured. And I don’t like the whole ‘re’ thing, you know, reforming.”

Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth co-founder and Moore’s ex-wife has echoed similar sentiments. Speaking with Rolling Stone last year, Gordon said that any reunion “would never be as good as it was.” And Moore agrees.

“I find bands that get back together to be just an exercise,” he says. “A lot of the time it’s less to do with the band and has more to do with the brand. Unless it’s the OG members, you know, but even, a lot of the aspects of bands that are so important is their youth. And to replicate that is a little bit like a grandmother in a mini-dress, which I don’t want to be.”
Despite frequent offers, he’s content to leave Sonic Youth where it ended.

“I get asked every day. We all do. It’s a constant thing,” Moore says. “I like it because I’m glad we had such an effect and left such a mark… I’m so proud of it, and it’s such a big part of my life experience. But it’s very encapsulated. It has a great beginning and middle and end.”

With that chapter closed, Thurston continues to focus on his solo work. Earlier this year, the musician released a new single, The Serpentine, followed last month by a cover of the Velvet Underground’s Temptation Inside Your Heart.

The post “I don’t feel like there’s anything left unsaid”: Thurston Moore on the likelihood of a Sonic Youth reunion appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Few compliments hit harder for a guitarist than being mistaken for Eric Clapton. And for John Mayer, that moment came courtesy of none other than session legend Robbie McIntosh.

Over his career, McIntosh has played alongside some of music’s biggest names – from Paul McCartney and Mark Knopfler to Norah Jones – and, of course, John Mayer.

Looking back on his time in Mayer’s band for his Where The Light Is live album, McIntosh shares a story that perfectly illustrates the Gravity hitmaker’s guitar prowess.

• READ MORE: “I could put a record out right now”: John Mayer says he’s written enough songs to make a new album – but here’s why he’s not going to do it

“Steve Jordan and Pino [Palladino] had done Continuum and John was looking for another guitar player,” he tells Andertons. “Pino and Steve suggested me, I think just because I can learn things pretty well.”

While preparing for the sessions, McIntosh was deep into Mayer’s catalogue when a mix-up occurred. Listening to one of the tracks, he assumed the lead guitar was Slowhand’s – only to find out it was the work of Mayer himself.

“John is an unbelievable guitar player, but playing some of the parts was quite easy – I certainly can’t play his lead stuff,” says McIntosh. “Then John actually phoned me up, and I kind of put my foot in it, because I thought Eric Clapton was playing the lead guitar on, I think it was Stop This Train.

“I said, ‘Oh, when did you get Eric to play on that?’ He said, ‘Eric’s not playing on it. That’s me.’ Just on that track, it sounded more like Eric Clapton than John Mayer. He laughed, and he said, ‘Oh, thanks, man.’”

It’s no surprise Mayer took it so gracefully, for the guitarist has long cited Clapton as a major influence. The two have since shared the stage at events like Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival and even recorded guitar duets together.

Watch the full interview below.

The post “Eric’s not playing on it. That’s me”: The time John Mayer received the ultimate guitar playing compliment from Paul McCartney’s session guitarist appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Few guitars have earned the reputation of the Fender Stratocaster. Ergonomic, versatile, and endlessly imitated, it’s often held up as the very blueprint of electric guitar design.

Since its debut in 1954, the Strat has served as a faithful workhorse for players ranging from Jimi Hendrix to pop powerhouse Olivia Rodrigo. But as Rodrigo’s guitar tech Luis Munoz argues in a new video on social media, even Leo Fender didn’t get everything right.

• READ MORE: Meet the new Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage collection: Aged lacquer finishes meet stainless steel frets, locking tuners and shred-ready necks

In fact, “Leo Fender got one thing wrong,” Munoz declares in a new Instagram reel. And the problem, he argues, isn’t with the guitar’s design flourishes, but with something far more basic: the wood screws used to hold its neck in place.

“The Strat is iconic, but Leo missed one detail: wood screws for the neck joint,” he explains. “The neck comes off often for many reasons like shimming, some have the truss rod adjustment at the heel, for fret work etc. With all that on and off, those holes will eventually strip.”

To prove his point, Munoz showcases a Hendrix anniversary Strat that arrived on his bench with a loose neck and a crude “fix” – toothpicks shoved into the screw holes.

“My guess, they were probably drilled a bit too big from the factory? The solution, toothpicks shoved in as a ‘fix’. That doesn’t work,” he writes.

Instead, the guitar tech lays out two proper solutions: redrilling and plugging with maple, or using threaded inserts with bolts. The latter, Munoz notes, is his “go-to” option. “[It’s] faster, stronger, cleaner,” he explains, adding that while he’s more cautious with vintage pieces, inserts are often the best long-term fix for most working guitars.

By the end of the reel, Munoz demonstrates the finished job: “I can take the neck off a million times with no worry now,” he says. “Some claim better sustain because of the tighter connections. Ps, I don’t know if that’s true.”

Watch the full process below.

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A post shared by Luis Munoz (@modernguitartech)

The post Olivia Rodrigo’s guitar tech explains the “one thing Leo Fender got wrong” when designing the Fender Stratocaster appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

€199.99 (Tonex One) & €799.99 (Tonex Cab), ikmultimedia.com

Just when you think the line between real guitar amplification and digital emulation couldn’t get any more blurry, along comes IK Multimedia and pours a bucket of molten lava over it.

Looking for a portable headphone amplifier? A device you can plug into your laptop via USB for direct recording, with instant access to multiple amp and speaker cabinet models? A jamming tool that can produce clean and dirty tones of all kinds at virtually any volume? A proper chunk of gigging backline, with channel switching, that lets you hear yourself on stage without relying on monitors? The Tonex One and Tonex Cab aim to give you all of the above, and more.

• READ MORE: Blackstar ID:X 50 review: “stands out by knowing exactly what it is, and who it’s for”

IK Multimedia Tonex One & Cab – what are they?

It’s probably time to stop being surprised by how much functionality can be crammed into a single pedal these days. After all, what’s going on inside the Tonex One is mostly just digital processing, so the only reason it’s as big as it is – and next to the original Tonex Pedal this thing is basically an atom – is that IK needed to make room for knobs and sockets.

So, that functionality… there is computer software involved in this package, and I’ll come to that in a minute, but it is possible to simply power up the pedal, plug in a guitar and start playing – with 20 factory presets to scroll through and plenty of scope for on-device editing. There’s a tuner built in, and you can even pick two favourite sounds then flip between them with the A/B footswitch.

That just leaves the question of what you’re plugging it into. There’s only one jack output on this pedal, but that’s not as limiting as it sounds. For a start, the USB-C port that’s used for connecting to your PC or Mac for sound-editing can also send audio from the pedal for recording; and the main output doubles as a (stereo) headphone socket. So you’re covered for silent noodling, as well as running it into a DI box, a recording interface… or an FRFR cabinet.

In case you’re not familiar with that term, it stands for ‘full range, flat response’ and means the Tonex Cab is no ordinary guitar cabinet. Like an English salad, it’s designed to be utterly characterless – that is to say, as tonally neutral as possible, with all the frequency-filtering coming from the source, so its only job is to make everything louder. And by ‘louder’ I mean an eminently giggable 350 watts of solid-state amplification.

That’s pushed through a custom Celestion 12” driver and a 1” tweeter, and there are tone controls on the top for tuning it to the room, plus various other bonus features including an aux input. You can even load IRs into the cab, which could be useful for playing with preamps that don’t have that part built in.

And so we come to the third part of the deal: the on-screen editing. IK is known for its AmpliTube emulation software, and a stripped-back SE version of that is included with the pedal along with Tonex SE and Tonex Editor. This is the free corner of a large and complex app ecosystem that includes lots of paid add-ons plus options for capturing and sharing home-recorded tones, but for the purposes of this review I’m going to stick with Tonex Editor – that’s the simple way to control the sounds being produced here.

IK Multimedia Tonex One & Cab – are they easy to use?

Just looking at this pedal, you know the word ‘fiddly’ is going to come up before too long… but I’ve got to admit, IK has done a sterling job of making the Tonex One easy to operate.

For starters, if you’re plugged into a computer you don’t even need a nine-volt power supply because it can be powered through the USB port – a simple idea but a brilliant one. And here’s another: the status LED in the middle is actually a button. You can use this to change control mode for the four knobs – bass, middle, treble and volume or gate threshold, compression, reverb and gain – or, by pushing it and the footswitch simultaneously, to enter preset scrolling mode. It even changes colour. Fiddly? Yeah, a bit, but smart.

The cab is even simpler, because all you really need to do is switch it on, plug in the pedal and make sure to start with the volume at zero unless you want your eardrums to shatter like poppadoms. It has tilt-back legs for better stage monitoring, just like a Fender Twin Reverb – and, at 15kg, has the advantage of being about half that amp’s weight.

The software side is pretty straightforward too – at least once you’ve got it going. The first thing you’ll need to install if you don’t have it already is IK Product Manager, a sort of hub for managing all your IK downloads. Confusingly, the only option that showed up on my Mac was called Tonex CS; but once downloaded, this magically changed its name to Tonex SE… and turned out to contain both Tonex and Tonex Editor.

It’s a bit of a mess, to be honest, but luckily that’s not the case with the editing app itself. With the pedal plugged in, it takes just a few seconds to sync then lets you go ahead and twiddle yourself into oblivion. Changes on the desktop are instantly applied to the pedal, so you can make adjustments in real time and not have to worry about saving.

The included amp selection is not huge but covers most bases, from Marshall and Soldano to Dumble and Dr Z, and there are 16 cab models to choose from. All amps share a common control array, including parametric EQ and presence, and you even get some basic ‘studio’ effects: compression, modulation, delay and reverb.

On the subject of effects, the free software’s 20 presets include one that has a Tube Screamer in the circuit, and five stomper-only models that can be used in front of a real amp, turning the Tonex One into a sort of ‘normal’ overdrive/fuzz pedal (there’s a stompbox mode where the footswitch engages bypass instead of A/B flipping).

But I don’t want to dwell on these virtual pedals too long – partly because they’re not very good, and partly because there’s so little you can do with them. Yes, there are thousands more stompbox models you can download from IK’s ToneNet sharing site; but if you dream of stringing together a virtual pedalboard to run into your virtual amp, like you can in AmpliTube, that’s not an option here. You can’t even adjust the knobs in Tonex Editor. Forget the pedals, move on.

IK Multimedia Tonex One & Cab – what do they sound like?

Shall we start with the One and Cab working together? Go on then, but just let me warn the neighbours first – because while 350W is nothing special by FRFR standards, this black box is nonetheless an absolute house-shaking beast.

In terms of sheer volume, you’ll be fine here unless you’re planning to play Wembley Stadium without a PA. Maybe it doesn’t feel exactly the same as cranking a real valve amp, but it’s big, rounded and well balanced, and sounds just as convincing at bedroom levels as it does when you’re waking babies three streets away.

Clean tones have all the top-end chime and low-end warmth you could ask for, the transition into crunch happens naturally and with no loss of conviction, and the various high-gain models are impressively tight and impactful. It’s in the heavy zone, in fact, that the Tonex One seems to be happiest of all: even if the noise gate is pretty crude, the factory presets for full-throttle Marshall, Orange, ENGL and Mesa Boogie sounds are all excellent. There’s also a Tweed Deluxe model that does the Neil Young ‘splat’ remarkably well.

Given the aforementioned limitations with virtual effects, it’s important that our teeny-weeny amp can take real pedals well – and it can, getting on famously with everything from low-gain drives to Muff-style fuzzes. I’d have no qualms about using this as a live rig with my pedalboard.

Everything above applies equally when you’re listening through headphones or desktop monitors, meaning this pedal very much lives up to its billing as a true all-round tool… and it’s worth noting that the Tonex Cab works fine without its wee friend as well: I ran a Walrus Audio ACS1 into it and was rewarded with a rainbow of top-class clean and overdriven tones.

One more clever feature to add to the list: there’s a knob on the cab’s control panel marked ‘amp tone’, which the manual says “increases the realism”. What that actually means is anyone’s guess, but it can be used to liven up the midrange in a way that’s surprisingly useful.

IK Multimedia Tonex One & Cab – should I buy them?

The Tonex One is an ambitious little pedal that makes a fine job of everything it sets out to do – so if you like what you’ve read about it on the IK website, you’re unlikely to be disappointed. The Cab is more complicated because it’s quite expensive for an FRFR box, and the extra functionality you’re getting for that money isn’t necessarily going to change your life… but the two of them do look awfully cute together.

IK Multimedia Tonex One & Cab alternatives

Don’t overlook the full-size Tonex Pedal (€429.99), which offers more tweaking power (and space) without resorting to the external software. Other miniature amps worth considering range from the headphone-friendly Fender Mustang Micro Plus ($134.99/£119) to the almighty Walrus Audio Mako Series MkII ACS1 ($449/£419).

Don’t like the price tag on the Tonex Cab? The Positive Grid Spark Cab ($299/£289) is a way more affordable 140W option, while the likes of Fender, Laney, Line 6 and HeadRush all make powered FRFR cabinets now.

The post IK Multimedia Tonex One review – a complete amp solution for absolutely everyone? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

3RD POWER unveils the LYRA, a handcrafted tube amplifier that unites the voices of two of the most iconic amps ever made—the 1962 Deluxe and the 1965 Deluxe—in a single, elegantly designed package available in head format as well as 112 combo.

Built for players who demand authentic tone and uncompromising versatility, the LYRA allows guitarists to step seamlessly between the warm, raw character of the early ‘60s and the refined clarity of the mid-’60s.

With meticulous attention to detail, premium components, and vintage-inspired craftsmanship, this amp captures the soul of two eras while offering modern reliability and transportability. In use, each signal path is pure tube, focussed and effortless. Plug into either channel, or access them both with your favorite AB-Y pedal, and it feels alive - responsive to every touch, every note, as well as every silence. Tube driven spring reverb and our patented VenueMode attenuator are built in and round out the features.

"The LYRA is about honoring history while inspiring new sounds," says amp designer, Dylana Scott. “On stage or in the studio, it’s like having two timeless classics by your side,—ready at the flick of a switch."

The LYRA is now available in limited release.

LYRA Features:

• Head or 112 Combo Versions Available
• ’62 DELUXE Voice on Channel One
• ’65 DELUXE Voice on Channel Two
• Tube driven Spring Reverb on board
• Dual 6V6 Power Tubes
• Patented VenueMode™ Built-in Attenuator (20W/12W/5W modes)
• Custom Wound USA-made Power & Output Transformers by Heyboer
• Hand-wired and Hand Built in Minneapolis, MN
• Limited Lifetime Warranty

Pricing for LYRA is around $2799 (head version) and $3299 (112 combo). For more information, please visit www.3rdPower.com.

Hello, and welcome back to Mod Garage. This month, we will start our custom-shop experiment with a very cheap electric guitar and see how far we can push it, customizing each and every little detail to see if the wood is really important regarding the amplified tone of an electric guitar.

Basically, we will be putting high-quality parts into an extremely cheap guitar to see what will happen. The idea behind it is very simple: If the wood plays a major role in the amplified tone of an electric guitar, our cheap guinea pig can’t sound any good, no matter what we do. However, if it’s really all about the pickups, electronics, internal wires, guitar cable, strings, and, of course, the individual playing style, the cheap guitar has the potential to sound fantastic. (Another interesting experiment would be to put cheap pickups, electronics, wires, etcetera, into a high-end custom shop electric guitar, and see what happens!)

“This is the perfect guinea pig for our experiment because it sports a lot of features that are considered ‘bad’ for the tone of a guitar.”

You may remember the thesis from the last issue: The more solid an electric guitar is built, the less influence its primary structure has on the amplified tone. So to get this challenge started, I decided to use a Telecaster-style guitar, thanks to its very solid construction. I got a Harley Benton TE-62CC model from Thomann for $148 including shipping. It was delivered in a nice vintage seafoam green color. That’s a complete guitar for less than the price of a good pickup set, so what can we expect from it? It was important for me that the guitar wasn’t pre-selected, so I asked for a randomly picked instrument out of the pile, with the stipulation to not open the box and send it directly to someone else rather than to me so you can be sure I had no chance to do any work on this guitar. A big shout-out to Benedikt from Harley Benton to make all this happen.

The guitar was shipped directly to my friend and colleague Haiko Heinz, who is not only a professional guitarist and teacher but also a renowned gear tester and columnist for the German online mag Bonedo. Haiko runs his own gear-review channel and has made countless gear-testing videos, so you can be sure that over the years he’s had his hands on virtually everything with 6 strings. I asked Haiko if he would make a “before video” of the guitar and he agreed; you can watch Haiko playing the guitar here. (After my work is done, I will ship the guitar back to Haiko and he will make another video to compare it with the stock factory condition.)

After finishing the first video, Haiko sent the guitar to me, and I have to say that, considering the price, I was really impressed with the quality. It’s a standard vintage-flavored Telecaster, and the plan is to completely take it apart down to the last screw, analyse each and every little detail, and transform it into a much better guitar in terms of playability, comfortability, longevity, appearance, and, of course, tone. My goal is to keep the budget under $500, including the guitar, so I’ll be using a mix of new and used parts for our remaining $352. Let’s see how far we can get with this.

The entire procedure is not set in stone. It’s just one possible way to do such a project, and certainly not the only way. I want to keep it as transparent and easy as possible so you can follow along, step-by-step, if you have a guitar you want to spruce up.

So what can we expect from a guitar at this price? We can be sure that we’ll find some flaws and signs of cost-cutting under the high-gloss hood. This is the perfect guinea pig for our experiment because it sports a lot of features that are considered “bad” for the tone of a guitar. Here are the most prominent of them; we will talk about all of these in detail during this series.

• The body is made out of basswood, which is not a classic tonewood.

• The body is made out of multiple pieces of wood.

• The body is not nitro lacquered but has an ultra-thick polyurethane finish, which we all know is killing tone because the wood of the guitar can’t breathe and resonate freely.

• The “1-piece” maple neck is not one piece and has a glued-on maple fretboard, which is not vintage correct, and lessens high-end and attack.

• The guitar is really lightweight so it’s not very loud and doesn’t sustain well.

• It comes with thin strings which have less sustain and thinner tone.

We can’t change the primary construction of the guitar (i.e. the wood used for its body and neck), so through the course of our mods we’ll see how much these things matter to a guitar’s tone. I’ll even install some lighter-gauge strings to really start from the lowest possible point tonewise—at least, according to Common Internet Guitar Knowledge (CIGK).

After playing the guitar for a while and thinking about what to do with it, I decided to transform it into a single-pickup Esquire-style model, because less is often more. We will talk about the differences between a 2-pickup Telecaster and a single-pickup Esquire in detail and you will see it’s not the same tonewise.

If you’re following along with one of your own guitars, your exercise for this month is to completely take it apart. I will do the same with my Harley Benton so we have the same starting point.

Next month, we will start to work on the guitar, defining what to do and making some plans on how to proceed. The custom-shop game is open now, so stay tuned!

Until then ... keep on modding!

Experience a sprawling collection of fuzz, delay, and modulation pedals that fuel massive walls of Pscyh-Rock sound. From vintage fuzz faces to boutique builds and custom creations, look back at classic Rig Rundowns from The Flaming Lips, All Them Witches, Elder, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, and more.

The newly launched company BzzzzKill has introduced its debut product: a specially designed coil that drastically reduces hum in Stratocaster-style guitars.

BzzzzKill solves a problem that has plagued Strat players for more than 70 years: single-coil pickup noise. The new BzzzzKill hum reduction device virtually eliminates Stratocaster 60 cycle hum without noticeable tone loss or permanent modifications to your guitar and its pickups.

Unlike other solutions that require pickup replacements, permanent alterations, or external power sources, BzzzzKill employs a meticulously engineered passive dummy coil that installs inside your guitar’s control cavity without drilling.

On most Strat-style guitars, the installation process is straightforward and easily reversible, with no need for batteries, routing, or new pickups. Simply remove your pickguard, place the BzzzzKill coil next to the pickup selector switch, solder its wires to a few existing solder connections, and you'll immediately hear a dramatic Improvement. Single-coil 60 Hz hum is virtually gone and your tone is retained.

BzzzzKill’s design finds the optimum balance between hum reduction and tone preservation. It’s currently available in two models. A Dual Layer model is specifically optimized for Stratocasters with reverse-wound/reverse-polarity (RWRP) middle coils. A Single Layer model is designed for vintage-style SSS (single-single-single) pickup configurations.

The innovative solution operates as a passive device requiring no batteries or maintenance, working in all pickup switch positions and remaining compatible with effects chains. The device maintains the guitar’s original dynamic range and low-end response while virtually eliminating hum at all gain levels except maximum gain settings, where only minimal hum remains.

BzzzzKill is the culmination of decades of research and development by inventor Richard Moreton of RSM Custom Guitar Works. “I created over 200 prototypes in perfecting the BzzzzKill, mostly to solve my own quest for great tone and the ideal combination of hum reduction, and tone preservation,” says Moreton. “What started as a personal mission to get rid of the buzz in my own Strats became an obsession to create something that didn’t exist — one-and-done noise reduction without the compromises other solutions demand.”

Current BzzzzKill models sell for $199 USD for both the Single Layer and Dual Layer configurations. The company plans to expand to Telecaster and other single-coil models in the future. For more information visit www.bzzzzkill.com.

Ours is a frantically paced world. So, I quite like instruments and effects that slow my roll. Delays, reverb, and tremolo all do the trick nicely. But rotary-speaker-type effects can be every bit as good at slowing frantic, frenzied picking to a molasses pace.

Whether a rotary-style pedal “spins” at a slow rate or a fast one … it’s all a lullaby to me. To truly distort time and have a decelerative influence, though, a rotary effect must create a real sense of depth. Boss’ RT-2 Rotary Ensemble possesses this kind of dimensionality in abundance. It’s syrupy and complex. And while it lacks some of the features that distinguish more embellished, contemporary rotary, vibrato, or Uni-Vibe-style pedals, the Boss’ smartly streamlined controls deliver subdued or in-your-face modulations in many shades, with functionality that doesn’t distract.

Ode to Rotation

Though the RT-2 is, in many respects, a more compact riff on the Boss’ RT-20, which was discontinued in 2019, it isn’t as simple as it looks from five paces. The two knobs on the pedal’s face are actually four controls made up of two concentrically stacked dials. Two of the knobs set the speeds you move between when you press and hold the soft-latch pedal. The other two set the effect output level (which is handy for backgrounding or foregrounding the effect) and a drive circuit that approximates tube amp drive in a real rotary speaker. The drive control, though, can also be repurposed as a balance between virtual bass and treble “horns” when you slide a switch on the pedal’s crown. A second switch on the crown selects fast and slow ramp times between two rotary speeds.

A third “mode” switch moves between three distinct effect voicings. The first, in Boss’s description, approximates the frequency response of a Leslie 122. To my ear it is the most open and neutral of the three. Mode II is described as having a wider tonal range more suited to drive and distortion. It’s much more focused in the midrange and slices like a machete when paired with a gain device or overdriven amp. Mode III is flat-out dirty, and while it sounds cool with distortion, it’s useful for achieving radical tone shifts in rigs with fewer effects. A lot of Hendrix and Gilmour fans will spend time here. The footswitch, in addition to functioning as the bypass, and the ramp switch can be reconfigured in different ways. Most notably, it can be used to activate the slowest rate of rotation first, or vice versa.

Sundae Swirl

Though some expensive, dedicated rotary speaker simulators may be better at achieving the mechanically derived, microtonal nuances of a real Leslie or Fender Vibratone, the RT-2 nails the mood and basic richness of the genuine article. The modulation pulses are distinctly hazy around the edges in a way a Uni-Vibe pedal or standard vibrato is not. At the slowest rates, these modulations can serve as a simple thickening agent in a fashion that almost mimics light boost or compression, particularly when the effect level is set to conservative zones. Faster modulations are more overtly rotary-like. Pitch shifts are less binary and bouncy and instead seem to melt into one another. And in a recorded mix with an appropriate sense of room ambience, you’d probably be hard-pressed to discern the RT-2 from a real Leslie.

Though the drive control is effective for adding attitude and color to modulations, I derived a lot more utility and fun from using the control in its balance capacity. The ability to mix the virtual high and bass horns—effectively mimicking the microphone placement and mix emphasis when recording the treble and bass horns on a real Leslie—enables surgical placement of the effect in a mix. But it also helps summon the RT-2’s most natural and realistic rotary tones, and it’s the control I tinkered with most when exploring the pedal’s range.

Accurately simulating a real rotary speaker remains one of the trickier feats in pedal design. Not coincidentally, the best simulators are pretty pricey. And while the RT-2’s $239 price tag can give pause, the pedal’s combination of no-fuss functionality, compact size, and often very delicious, convincing, and ecstatically elastic and animated approximations of a mechanical Leslie make crossing the $200 threshold a much more palatable proposition. And I’d venture that once you are fully immersed in the RT-2’s textures, and the surprisingly numerous, even unconventional, ways they can be applied, this well-executed pedal will pay back the investment many times over.