General Interest

D’Addario is proud to introduce Jack Plugs: a fast, effective way to block unused ¼" jacks on pedals, amps, and audio gear. Touring guitarists, studio engineers, and live sound techs alike can prevent accidental connections, speed up the rig set up process, and protect their gear from dust, debris, and interference. Even better, installing these small, easy-to-use accessories is simple and requires no tools, minimum hassle, and no cleanup.

Small Solution, Big Impact

“We created the Jack Plugs to solve a problem we kept seeing on stage and experienced ourselves — accidental connections that kill your signal or worse, damage your gear.” As Product Development Manager Robert Cunningham put it, “these plugs are a simple fix that prevent mispatching, especially with speaker outputs where the wrong ohm load can be a real issue. They're small and inexpensive but they’ll save countless gigs.”

Features:

• Blocks unused jacks to avoid unwanted signal paths or disruptions
• Shields open ports from dust, debris, and potential damage.
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• Ideal for musicians, studio engineers, and live sound techs.
• Maintains a clean, organized rig for optimal audio performance.

Product Info:

• Street Price: $4.99
• Available now at daddario.com and through participating retailers and distributors
• More Info: https://ddar.io/jackplugs-pr

• Product Images: Available via Dropbox

After a recent teaser campaign set off a spiral of speculation in the guitar gear community, JHS has finally revealed its anticipated new pedal, the 424 Gain Stage.

A series of riddles posted to the brand’s Instagram account got people guessing. It wasn’t long before keen-eyed gearheads landed on the assumption that the upcoming pedal would be based on the vintage Tascam Portastudio 424, a portable multitrack recorder known for its lo-fi flavour.

• READ MORE: The inside story of Noel Gallagher’s Oasis reunion Hiwatt amps: “We unapologetically make colossal sounding, big and heavy amps”

And as it turns out, they were right. The new 424 Gain Stage is heavily inspired by the Portastudio 424, so much so that JHS says it’s a “historically accurate recreation”.

Why now to release a pedal inspired by the Tascam Portastudio 424, you might ask. Well, it couldn’t be anything to do with the rise of Mk.Gee, the Eric Clapton-touted lo-fi guitar maestro – who has a Portastudio 424 in his guitar rig – could it?

With the 424 Gain Stage, JHS hopes to offer guitarists that lo-fi sound without having to cram a Portastudio 424 into their backpack every time.

In terms of its controls, the $249 pedal has a relatively simplistic layout, with a single footswitch and controls for Volume, Bass, Treble, Gain 1 and Gain 2, harking back to the workflow of the original Portastudio 424.

In terms of I/O, the 424 Gain Stage sports regular jack input and outputs, as well as a balanced XLR output.

“In 2024, an artist named Mk.gee released an awesome record, and the guitar world exploded,” JHS founder Josh Scott says, introducing the new pedal and, of course, talking about Mk.gee’s Two Star & The Dream Police. “Tone chasers everywhere had to know how he was getting this really incredible and unique sound.

“We all realised he’s not using a guitar amp. He’s using a Tascam 424. I also realised, ‘Hey, wasn’t I going to make a pedal version of this at one point?’

“It’s an authentic and perfectly replicated single channel strip on the Tascam 424,” he continues. “Over the years, I’ve learned that so many albums and guitar parts that I love use this device or devices like it.

“Then this Mk.gee thing comes along. It’s really new and fresh and different. That really pushed me over the edge of wanting those sounds that are classic, and those newer sounds.”

In addition to doing the “Mk.gee thing”, JHS says the 424 Gain Stage does the job when harnessing the sounds of other artists including D4VD, Steve Lacey, Mac DeMarco and Radiohead.

The 424 Gain Stage is available now, priced at $249. For more information, and to get yours, head to JHS.

The post “Yes, it does the Mk.Gee thing!”: Lo-fi lovers rejoice as JHS launches new pedal inspired by the classic Tascam Portastudio 424 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Sweetwater is offering a generous discount on a rather unique guitar – this Martin D-11E acoustic with a large picture of David Crosby on it, encouraging you to “rock the vote and the stage all at once”.

This guitar certainly has character, and was once priced over $1,600 but is now down to $1,299. It follows on from a former run of David Crosby Rock the Vote instruments, with a patriotic spruce top featuring artwork by Robert Goetzl.

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The guitar landed in August 2024 and is limited-edition, with only 47 made. The artwork is certainly realistic, and while it may not be to the taste of some players, for a Crosby fan it makes for one hell of a unique collectible. Alongside the pictures of him, it also features a quote from the late musician: “democracy works, if you work it!”

According to Martin, this D-11E was “crafted to inspire young people to engage in our democracy, honouring the legacy of David Crosby and his passion for voting”. At the launch of the collaboration, Martin said it was proud to support Rock the Vote, reinforcing the importance of civic engagement.

The guitar itself has a classic Martin dreadnought shape, though its depth is slimmed down. Its back and sides are made of American sycamore and it has a comfortable Performing Artist neck profile and a glassy ebony fingerboard.

Furthermore, it also comes equipped with an LR Baggs M-80 pickup that utilises a free-floating humbucking coil as a 3D body sensor and offers “authentic-sounding” tone. You can take a closer look at the guitar below, and hear from the artist behind its looks:

To purchase one of these unique Martin D-11E guitars, head over to Sweetwater to find out more.

The post This quirky acoustic guitar features a big painting of David Crosby telling you to vote – get it now at a HUGE $350 discount appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.



“Here’s what happens when you invite a mandolin company, with crazy curiosity, to a guitar show four years in a row.” -Adrian Bagale 

Northfield’s Adrian Bagale joins us this week for what has to be one of the most insightful industry chats we’ve had in years.

We talk about what the company is unveiling at our 2025 Fretboard Summit in two weeks – a new instrument for guitarists, pictured above – but we also talk about so much more.

For nearly 20 years, Northfield has built superb instruments both in the US and China. We discuss Northfield’s unique business model, how they are navigating recent tariffs, and the growing popularity of acoustic music in China itself. Whether or not you play mandolin, Bagale’s enthusiasm for music – and gear – is truly infectious.

https://www.northfieldinstruments.com

Come see Northfield and the new instruments at the Fretboard Summit: https://fretboardsummit.org/

The Fretboard Summit is our three-day festival celebrating great guitars and great guitar people. We have nearly 80 luthiers, amp builders, and pedal makers exhibiting, hourly workshops and master classes, and some mind-bogglingly great evening performances.

The fun takes place August 21-23, 2025 at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music.

We are brought to you by: Stringjoy Strings: https://stringjoy.com

(Use the code FRETBOARD to save 10% off your first order)

Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar: https://mmguitarbar.com

Peghead Nation: https://www.pegheadnation.com (Get your first month free or $20 off any annual subscription with the promo code FRETBOARD at checkout).

The post Podcast 511: Northfield Instruments’ Adrian Bagale first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

“Should anybody be remotely interested…” posted Noel Gallagher recently alongside the photos that he knew perfectly well that a huge swathe of the guitar nerd community had been extremely interested in.

• READ MORE: What guitars does Noel Gallagher use? The instruments that will power the Oasis Live ’25 reunion tour

Ever since Oasis triumphantly returned to the stage in Cardiff last month, Adidas-clad guitar obsessives have been poring over any hint of the gear Noel Gallagher was using to recreate the magic to such fantastic effect. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already read articles about Noel’s new P-90-loaded Les Paul, or watched videos about it, but these photos were the motherlode – an in-depth look at the pedalboard and amps that Gallagher was using to power this monster guitar sound.

We’ve checked out the pedalboard in detail elsewhere, but the amps were perhaps even more interesting. In defiantly modern style, instead of a huge wall of stacks, instead we had a pair of isolated small combos providing that gigantic sound – a Marshall SV20C and a Hiwatt Custom 50 along with a pair of backups.

As with so much of the gear Noel’s using on tour, they seemed like remarkably down to earth and off-the-shelf choices, but the truth is actually a little more involved. It turns out the Hiwatts were actually created specifically for the tour by the brand’s UK Custom Shop, and we’ve got the inside story on how these amps were made – and how they’re not quite as stock as they seem.

Vertical Flight

“I’m not sure how Noel became a fan of Hiwatt,” says Hiwatt Custom Shop engineer Tom Hannon. “But I’d like to think that it was the same as most of us who when growing up, saw bands like The Who, Pink Floyd, Kinks and Slade on TV and in magazines, blasting those huge Hiwatt stacks.…but more likely it was because after the success of the first few records he had a bit more money to spend on a better amp!”

Oasis fans will know that Noel used Hiwatt amps in the last decade or so of Oasis – specifically distinctive Custom vertical DR103 combos that would regularly be seen behind him on stage.

“I bumped into Noel’s old roadie at NAMM recently who mentioned that his back was still bad from lifting them on and off the stage every night,” Hannon jokes. “We unapologetically make big and heavy amps!”

When the announcement of the reunion tour was made, Hiwatt understandably reached out to Noel’s guitar tech to make themselves available.

“We simply expressed that should they need anything for the tour, we’re ready to build!” Hanon explains. “Noel was open to using the vertical combos again, so we made a couple and sent them over. He also requested the horizontal Custom 50s to try both amps with the current ‘triple-guitar attack’ setup.”

Noel had previously used 100-watt Hiwatts live, but the 50s offered a more controllable option in a modern precision live sound environment.

“As Hiwatt is a clean pedal platform amplifier with an extreme amount of headroom, you really have to crank a 100 watt to get the slightest bit of grit,” Hannon observes. “Whereas the Custom 50 breaks up a bit more at lower volumes, I think it made more sense for Noel to downsize his other amps used for the extra drive and just go with the Hiwatts.”

Secret Ingredients

The Custom 50s sent for Noel and fellow guitarist Gem Archer, Hannon added some hidden tonal extras – though he’s not sure whether or not the guitarists are using them live.

“When working on Noel’s Oasis amps I added a couple of extra tonal options, should they be required,” he explains. “For some of the amps I added low-pass filters which are switchable via a push/pull CTS pot on both the normal and bright channels.”

Noel and Gem eventually plumped for the horizontal Custom 50s, with Custom Fane Purpleback speakers in them – with neither guitarist providing any request for tweaks or changes when they arrived. Getting them ready in time for the tour however, was a different kind of challenge – these amps were going to power the most hyped rock ‘n’ roll reunion in history, after all. “As all of our Custom shop range is meticulously hand-wired along with our rigorous testing procedures, they do take a little while to build,” Hannon notes. “We definitely had a busy couple of months getting them together!”

For builders like Hannon however, the labour was one of love – he’s one of a generation of guitarists for whom Oasis is a vital part of their musical journey.

“This really meant a lot to me,” he confirms. “I must have only been 8 years old when I first saw them live at Glastonbury Festival back in ‘95. A few years later I learnt to play guitar whilst noodling along to Definitely Maybe, practising the solos to Bring It On Down and Supersonic.

“When we got the go-ahead to start working on the amps at the beginning of the year, it was a really exciting time. I’m extremely lucky to work with a lot of great artists at Hiwatt but this one definitely hits differently. I was down the front for the first Heaton Park show, it was just an absolutely electric atmosphere! One of the best, if not THE best gig I’ve ever been to. Arms in the air, bucket hat on, singing every word. Long live Oasis… and Hiwatt!”

The post The inside story of Noel Gallagher’s Oasis reunion Hiwatt amps: “We unapologetically make colossal sounding, big and heavy amps” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Step into the world of colossal, meticulously crafted pedalboards that power some of the heaviest, most creative guitar tones in modern music.

In this Best Of compilation, we revisit our biggest, wildest, and most intricate metal rig rundowns to date, featuring Matt Pike (Sleep), John Baizley & Gina Gleason (Baroness), Page Hamilton (Helmet), Erik Bickerstaffe (Loathe), Will Swan (Dance Gavin Dance), Sunn O))), Reba Meyers (Code Orange), and Will Putney (END).

From boutique one-offs to vintage rarities, from precision routing to total chaos, these pedalboards redefine what’s possible in heavy guitar tone.

Thanks to our sponsor, D'Addario!

Exclusive: Full details of the black Gibson Les Paul Standard seen and heard at Oasis reunion shows

What’s the story behind Noel Gallagher’s Live ’25 Les Paul?

It was the moment every Oasis fan had been waiting for since the biggest reunion tour in British music history was announced last summer. July 4th saw Oasis take to the stage at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff for their first appearance on stage together since 2009, blowing away the cobwebs in emphatic fashion with a hit-packed set.

The Live ’25 tour continued in Manchester and now London, generating rave reviews from music fans and media alike. Thanks in no small part to the three-guitar wall of sound architected by Noel Gallagher, Gem Archer, and Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs, Oasis are on fire and sounding bigger than ever. But eagle-eyed guitarists in the audience have been quick to notice that one of Noel Gallagher’s main instruments for the reunion shows is a mysterious black Gibson Les Paul™ with P-90 pickups, which appears to be new to his collection.

Online speculation has been rife, so we spoke to Lee Bartram, the Head of Commercial, Marketing & Cultural Influence at Gibson EMEA, to bust a few myths and get the inside scoop on the design process behind Noel Gallagher’s new Les Paul.

Gibson and Epiphone have worked with Noel on several instruments over the years. What’s the story behind the black Les Paul, and did Noel always have it in mind for the reunion shows?

“We have been working on this guitar for at least 18 months. It really came from a conversation around creating a Les Paul that would accommodate P-90s (which Noel was playing a lot with NGHFB at the time, favoring Epiphone USA Casinos) at high volumes, without compromising on the sound and tone of the pickup.

“Aesthetically, Noel had an idea of what he wanted it to look like, and we tried out a few hardware, finish, and color options before landing where we did. Obviously, at the time of initial designs, I had no idea what the guitar was intended to be used for. But, as development continued, it was important to create a guitar that would give different sonic layers to a lineup of three guitarists playing to stadium-level attendances. The guitar needed to be loud and capture the vibe of those earlier shows, without compromising the output and tone of the pickups.”

What are the main specifications?

“The guitar is based on a 1960 Les Paul Standard, but with the humbuckers swapped out for P-90s, so it’s a great hybrid model. The SlimTaper™ neck profile is as per the artist’s preference, as are the Grover® tuners, which are present on all the Gibson models Noel plays. It’s got a maple top on a mahogany body, with the Ebony finish being Light Aged through the Murphy Lab in Nashville. Everything we build for Noel starts out as Light Aging, and he will then decide after playing it if he wants to add more aging or keep it as it is, knowing it’s more straightforward to increase the aging levels than decrease them. In this case, he wanted more on the body, neck, and back, which looks great on stage.”

Are the pickups and wiring stock? Or is there anything extra going on under the hood?

“The pickups are Gibson Custom P-90s as stock. Noel wanted to capture a very traditional P-90 sound with these, so there is no additional wiring. Noel has a great understanding of what he wants from a pickup and gives relevant feedback—excuse the pun! He knows that Gibson invented the P-90, and we didn’t want to mess with a winning formula. Having aged nickel covers on the pickups is relatively unique, however, and something the Gibson Custom Shop spent a lot of time getting right. The results look great and the pickups sound amazing at volume… mission accomplished!”

Presumably, it’s been a buzz to be involved in this project?

“Not knowing originally where that guitar was going to end up, it’s been quite emotional to see it being used during the biggest reunion tour ever. We’ve received amazing feedback on the guitar, and I think it’s safe to say it has become the talk of the town every time it is used—I’ve had so many people reach out wanting to know what it is and if we can build one for them.

“It’s great to see that people are just as passionate about guitar as ever before. For this guitar to be part of such a monumental musical event is a thrill, and knowing it was designed specifically for it makes it even better. The first time people saw the band together in 16 years was with a guitar that Gibson designed and built directly with the artist. That’s pretty cool.”

Visit the official Oasis website for Live ’25 ticket updates, shop the Epiphone Noel Gallagher Riviera, and watch the Noel Gallagher “Icons” episode on Gibson TV.

Stemming from the deepest roots of the brand's rich history, D'Angelico is proud to introduce the Excel 16—an all-new 16-inch-wide archtop offering undeniably punchy, woody and sweet tone that immediately recalls classic New York City jazz.

A happy medium for traditional jazz players looking for an instrument that is easier to wield than its larger counterparts, the Excel 16 has a slightly shallower body depth at 2.75" but still yields all the full-bodied warmth one desires from an archtop. A 12-inch fingerboard radius and slightly thicker C-shape neck create remarkable comfort—equal parts hefty and fast-playing. The Excel 16's acoustic resonance is complemented by either a Seymour Duncan Johnny Smith Floating Mini Humbucker that maximizes top sustain or a Seymour Duncan '59 Humbucker, for those in pursuit of bold and balanced tones that can more easily cut through in a larger band setting. Available in Amber and Amaretto Burst.

D'Angelico Excel 16 Hollowbody Electric Guitar - Amber