General Interest

If you’ve ever wanted to learn guitar, Guitar Tricks could be the platform for you. With nearly 30 years of experience, Guitar Tricks’ online library of video lessons and tabs is a comprehensive approach to learning guitar – and a full access subscription is currently 65% off.

Guitar Tricks’ Summer Black Friday sale has been extended up until 29 July, offering budding guitarists the chance to secure a subscription for $29.95 per month, as well as the Ultimate Beginner Bundle and Song Builder’s Toolbox.

• READ MORE: Guitar Tricks review: still a great video-based learning platform in 2025?

The deal will allow users access to a brand new Power Drills video lessons, as well as Guitar Tricks’ classic 100 Essential Licks video series. Users will also be able to access a set of educational e-books, including the Ultimate Beginner Guide, Guitar Setup Guide and Guitar Soloing Guide.

Users will also be able to utilise AmpliTube 5 guitar modeling software, as well as gaining access to the Tape It Pro app to record your new guitar skills for potential tracks.

At the start of this year, we awarded Guitar Tricks 8/10. While the company has been operating since 1998, its old-school design allows you to focus squarely on your guitar skills. Once you’re set up, the site isn’t bloated by a flashy interface – it allows you to grow, with basic tools like online tuners, backing tracks, metronomes and simple fretboards to visualise chords or work through your scales.

The site also boasts a wide range of guitar styles, with its Core Learning System offering you the chance to work through foundational styles like the Blues or Rock, before delving further into more niche flavours. The site has lessons on Jazz, Funk & Soul, Metal, Surf, and more.

There are over 800 song-specific lessons offered across Guitar Tricks, so you’re sure to find something that takes your fancy. And whether you’re still learning the ropes, or hoping to learn a new track, there’s even an app to catch up on lessons on the go.

Guitar Tricks’ 65% off sale is running until 29 July. The 65% discount also applies to gift subscriptions and certificates.

The post Guitar Tricks is currently offering 65% off full access subscriptions – but not for long appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Iommi says the legendary singer was determined to grace the stage one last time to say goodbye to his fans

Tony Iommi has opened up about the death of his longtime friend and Black Sabbath brother, Ozzy Osbourne, and the “shock” he still feels in the wake of the metal legend’s passing.

Osbourne’s death earlier this week left a massive hole in the music world. And few feel that loss more deeply than Iommi, who performed alongside Ozzy just weeks ago at Back to the Beginning, Sabbath’s farewell concert in their hometown of Birmingham.

• READ MORE: “We’ve lost our brother”: Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward pay tribute to Ozzy Osbourne

In a new interview with ITV News, the guitarist admits [via Blabbermouth]: “Yeah, it was a shock for us [to find out that Ozzy had died]. I mean, when I heard yesterday, it couldn’t sink in. I thought, ‘It can’t be.’ I only had a text from him the day before. It just seemed unreal, surreal. And it really didn’t sink in. And in the night I started thinking about it: ‘God, am I dreaming all this?’ But as I said before, he’s not looked well through the rehearsals.”

Looking back on it all, Iommi says he believes the final performance at Back To The Beginning might have been Ozzy’s last mission.

“I think he really just held out to do that show. I really feel, and me and Geezer [Butler] were talking about it last night, that we think he held out to do it, and just after that, he’s done it and said goodbye to the fans. And that was the end of it, really.”

He adds that the show meant the world to Ozzy, even if he was physically struggling.

“He’s built up for it for a while now,” says Iommi. “He’s been sort of training and trying to do what he can, so he could do this gig, so he could do it. And that’s really what he wanted to do. I think he must have had something in his head that said, ‘Well, this is gonna be it, the last thing I’m ever gonna do.’ Whether he thought he was gonna die or what, I don’t know. But he really wanted to do it and he was determined to do it. And fair dues, he’d done it.”

Asked whether Ozzy seemed to enjoy being on stage again, Iommi recalls: “I think he was moved and frustrated as well, ‘cause he wanted to stand up. You could see he was trying to get up. But yeah, it meant everything to him. This is what we built up for, for that big ending where he could see all the people and we could all see all the people, and close it in that way. But we didn’t expect to close it so quick with Ozz; we didn’t expect him to go that quick, really. Well, we didn’t expect him to go. So it’s been a shock.”

Still, Iommi says he’s grateful Sabbath had that final moment together: “I’m really glad we did it, ‘cause it was a final thing for everybody. And I think if we hadn’t done it, people couldn’t have seen the band and Ozzy. It would’ve been a shame. But they’ve got a chance to see us all and see Ozz for the last time in that situation.”

Reflecting on Ozzy’s legacy and their decades-long friendship, Iommi says, “There’s never gonna be another Ozzy. He’s the only one – one Ozzy and that’s it. [And he’s] just a special person, just the way he is. He says what he thinks. Many times we said to him, ‘Now, don’t get saying anything.’ And, of course, he does… And we did have a laugh on stage.”

“As much as we were serious about the music, we’d always have this thing, and Ozz would always come over to me and pull faces,” Iommi continues. “Of course, the audience couldn’t see that, and he’d be pulling all these funny faces, and I’d just crack up. Then he’d go over to Geezer and do the same. He was just that sort of person. He was a showman.”

Tributes have flooded in for the Prince of Darkness following the news of his death.

“Goodbye dear friend. Thanks for all those years – we had some great fun,” wrote Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, while longtime Ozzy guitarist Zakk Wylde thanked the legend for “blessing the world with your kindness and greatness”.

The post “I think he really just held out to do that show”: Tony Iommi speaks on Ozzy Osbourne’s death just weeks after Black Sabbath’s final farewell appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

One of the most influential guitarists of his generation, Billy Corgan has also written and recorded the bass tracks on almost every album in the entirety of the Smashing Pumpkins’ history

We meet Thompson to find out how he’s preparing to go head-to-head with Tommy Emmanuel, chat about the end of his touring days, and talk about how fresh tunings yield fresh ideas

Neville Marten recalls interviews with one of his musical idols, the singer-songwriter supreme and total legend, the great JT himself

Fender has announced the 2025 Fender Next class, a global artist development program spotlighting the next generation of guitar players “making waves in music and culture.”

Now in its seventh year, Fender Next has supported 175 artists across various genres and geographies since 2019, offering them the tools, visibility, and platform to shape the future of guitar. Past inductees include Sam Fender, Phoebe Bridgers, Wet Leg and more.

• READ MORE: “He was almost offended that I said that”: Eddie Van Halen’s friend reveals how the guitarist would react to praise
  

This year also marks a first, with alumni Omar Apollo and IDLES invited to help handpick the new class.

Curated by Fender’s Artist Marketing team, the 2025 roster spans the US, UK, Mexico, France, Germany, China, Japan and New Zealand. Artists were selected based on guitar ability, artistic influence, fan engagement, and alignment with Fender’s brand, along with industry referrals and data-driven insights from managers, labels, agents, and tastemakers.

“Fender Next has always been about championing the artists who are redefining the role of guitar in music and culture,” says Jason Klein, Fender’s Artist Marketing Lead. “What makes this year especially meaningful is that some of our past Fender Next alumni helped identify and recommend artists of the new class – proof of both Fender and the creative community’s belief in this artist development program and its ability to inspire next generation guitarists.”

This year’s Fender Next artists features 20 artists, which include:

• Aziya (UK)
• Lambrini Girls (UK)
• Balu Brigada (New Zealand)
• Leon Thomas (USA)
• Brandy Senki (Japan)
• Maggie Baugh (USA)
• Chinese Football (China)
• Malcolm Todd (USA)
• Cruza (USA)
• Man/Woman/Chainsaw (UK)
• Darumas (USA)
• Marc Scibilia (USA)
• Flawed Mangoes (USA)
• Oracle Sisters (France)
• Fleshwater (USA)
• otoha (Japan)
• Friko (USA)
• Renee (Mexico)
• Horsegirl (USA)
• wavvyboi (Germany)

Each artist will receive increased visibility via Fender’s global channels and social media, which reach over 17 million followers, plus access to editorial support, brand partnerships and performance opportunities via Lagunitas Brewing Company.

This year’s class will also receive a curated welcome pack with tools for the road and studio, including a Player II Modified Stratocaster with gig bag, Hammertone effects pedal, Mustang Micro Plus headphone amp, PreSonus HD9 headphones, Fender strap, cable, mug and a one-year PreSonus Studio One subscription.

“We are super excited to be part of Fender Next,” says UK punk duo Lambrini Girls. “Time to blast riffs and throw a tv out a hotel window. Thank you to all involved, may the gods of rock smile down on you amen.”

Malcolm Todd also comments, “I’m so excited to be on Fender Next, this is like a dream come true for me. I grew up watching some of my idols do this series so it’s definitely a full circle moment. I hope to inspire more people to pick up the guitar and hopefully fulfill their dreams of being in Fender Next too.”

The post Fender Next Class of 2025 is here: From punk duo Lambrini Girls to TikTok sensation Malcolm Todd, meet the rising stars of guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Danelectro brings back its real spring reverb pedal in a more compact ’board-friendly form

Rock journalist Steven Rosen isn’t just another writer who interviewed Eddie Van Halen – he was one of the few who could call him a friend.

Over years of conversations, hangouts and studio visits, Rosen gained rare insight into the man behind the guitar. Their connection eventually became the foundation for Tonechaser, Rosen’s intimate book chronicling his friendship with one of rock’s most legendary players.

• READ MORE: “That might be stupid coming from the son of Eddie Van Halen”: The surprising opinion Wolfgang Van Halen holds about guitar solos

In a recent interview with Igor Paspalj, Rosen opens up about the challenges of balancing admiration with friendship and what Eddie really thought about being praised.

“It was that fine line between being his friend, hanging out with him, being a journalist,” says Rosen [via Ultimate Guitar]. “And it was also recognising, even as a friend, that you’re sitting across the table from Edward Van Halen. You know, this guy is changing the world of guitar. He goes out and plays in front of 50,000 people, and he sells millions of records, and he’s married to this [famous] actress, and he’s all those things. It was hard to not go overboard and just be a psychopath and go, ‘My God, Edward, the solo was amazing!’, and just try to be a normal friend around him.”

Still, there were moments Rosen couldn’t help himself, and Eddie didn’t always appreciate it.

“And there were a couple times that I write about in the book where I kind of did go overboard,” he says. “It was one solo that he did on the Fair Warning record. And I forget what it was. Just one of those amazing solos. I go, ‘My God. Edward, it was incredible.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, it was okay.’ But he was almost offended that I said that.”

Eddie’s humility, Rosen explains, ran deep, even if he was fully aware of his own genius: “He was incredibly sure of who he was as a musician. He knew he was a very good guitar player. But he would never, he would never tell you. ‘Oh man, did you hear my solo on that record? It was fucking great, man. I kick ass.’ He never talked like that.”

“So, when I said that, it was almost like I was demeaning his playing, because I was sort of bringing it down to a level by saying, ‘Oh man, it was fucking great.’ It’s like, he didn’t need to hear it, and it couldn’t be defined in just a couple words.”

But even that dynamic could flip on its head. At times, when Rosen tried to dial back the praise and stay composed, the Van Halen guitarist would unexpectedly look for more.

“I remember one time, it was a song that he was really happy with the way it turned out,” Rosen recalls, “and he played it for me, or he was playing the solo on maybe my guitar not plugged in, which he would do a lot, which you can hear in the audiobook, and that stuff is amazing.”

“He plays like a bunch of stuff on the second record. Oh, my God, that’s amazing, incredible. And I’m thinking, ‘Don’t go crazy. Don’t say, ‘That’s the most amazing thing I ever heard.’ Be cool about it.’ Eventually, I said, ‘Hey man, that’s good.’ And then he says, ‘You didn’t think it was really good yet? I thought it was neat.’ Which was Edward’s way of saying, ‘It’s the best I can do.’”

The post “He was almost offended that I said that”: Eddie Van Halen’s friend reveals how the guitarist would react to praise appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Do a quick search for #guitars on TikTok or Instagram and you’ll soon find yourself witnessing the technical wizardry of Emma Harner. Bringing a splash of math-rock intricate polyphony to her predominately nylon and steel-string acoustic output, the Nebraska-born Boston-based singer-songwriter’s captivating videos have catapulted her to 1.7million likes on TikTok and 225,000 followers on Instagram. She can also count John Mayer, Plini, Mateus Asato and Tosin Abasi among her fans. Even more impressive is that she only properly picked up the guitar at the start of lockdown.

• READ MORE: Meet Orla Gartland, the independent singer-songwriter embracing her instincts

Nonetheless, the 21-year-old’s growing notoriety in the music scene has always felt like a foregone conclusion. Her parents enrolled her in classical violin lessons from the age of two, and she started penning her first songs – with the help of a ukulele and keyboard – during middle school. She would hear a lot of Paul Simon and The Beatles (two of her dad’s favourites), but it was discovering Radiohead while in a high school symphony that proved most “explosive; they made so many really cool melodies happen at the same time… that band really scratched an itch for me.”

Image: Sydney Tate

Lockdown Lessons

Despite her lifelong love for writing and performing, her interest in guitars didn’t come until the global pandemic hit. “I suddenly found myself with a lot of time to do whatever I wanted,” Harner recalls, adding that dad gave her a 1980 Fender Classical he had bought with his first tax return. “I very quickly became obsessed with that guitar,” she says. “I was playing all the time – under the desk, during Zoom school…”

Unlike most aspiring songwriters who would watch other guitarists and then attempt to recreate what they saw, Harner took a different approach when it came to teaching herself how to play. “I wanted to see how far songwriting with the guitar could take me,” she reflects. “I already knew that I really liked to explore instruments and tonality that way,” she says, “and I was just addicted to how the guitar felt to hold and play; the vibration under my fingers was really nice.”

Working at Guitar Center in Omaha during her first year of studying music at university was a learning curve too. “It gave me more of a handle on some really basic things about gear, like the difference between a Strat and a Tele,” she says. “I’m still not a big expert on all the different guitars, but I’m really interested in it and I think that time working there really jump-started my knowledge of all that stuff.”

While she calls her initial technique “iffy at best”, transferring to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston led to an “overhaul”. Her “really cool” teacher Abigail Aronson Zocher (who also taught Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker) pushed this. After buying a classical guitar, she would learn classical pieces and the pair discussed right hand technique and left hand technique. Harner describes this journey as “a really cool marriage” of what she had learned on violin, especially phrasing and lightness of fingers; “‘how can we take this one phrase and play it 200 different ways?’”

Image: Sydney Tate

The Reel Thing

Having landed on a sonic that fuses the intimacy of folk with the complexity of math rock, she started posting videos of her playing her own songs on TikTok. “Just one or two that didn’t do very well,” she says humbly. Undeterred, her fortunes changed when several clips reached 10,000 views each. “I was like ‘Whoa, that’s such a big number. It’s all happening!’”

At the same time, her friends were enjoying similar success – but on Instagram Reels. “To me, Instagram is really public,” she considers. “It’s like my resume, so I was scared to be cringe.” Nonetheless, Harner decided to go for it and started cross-posting: “I thought ‘it wouldn’t be the worst thing to have a couple more followers’.” Greater numbers on TikTok followed: “it was really motivating, and addicting, to write something and get almost instant feedback on it.”

She advises new artists to follow suit: “there’s no harm, especially if you have a TikTok account where no one knows you,” she considers, though struggles to nail down exactly why her videos amassed a large audience. “My most concrete advice is to always have the lyrics on screen… it’s an attention span game; you’ve got to think ‘if I was on a dopamine-seeking phone scroll, would I watch this past one second?’”

Of course, her intricate guitar playing has played a huge part. “The community of people who play guitar really fast on Instagram and TikTok is close-knit,” she says. “We all know each other; I get added in other people’s videos all the time, but everybody is musically different in certain ways”. Her own obsession? Alternate tunings and melody. “And I’m a little more Midwest emo or math-rock in a folk-y way.”

Notes Taking

Describing herself as “the kind of person who really likes to sit with myself and think in my own head”, Harner’s songwriting method is primarily guitar-first. “I’ll come up with a riff that I think is fun to repeat, play and interesting enough for me,” she shares. “Then I’ll go into my Notes app, see what lyric ideas could fit with it and expand on it all in ways that hopefully make sense.”

Despite being in the early stages of her career, Harner has already received support from some big names in the scene, including YouTube-famous guitarist Joshua Lee Turner, whose band – The Bygones – she joined on tour last year. Animals as Leaders guitarist Tosin Abasi and Australian prog-rock guitarist Plini have reached out too. But the biggest – “especially for my mother” – has been John Mayer; “I’ve had a couple of comments from him, which was a big deal.”

Touring with one of her personal guitar heroes, Orla Gartland, was “awesome” too, especially as “some of her songs were really important to me when I was a teenager”. Being so new to the industry, Harner took mental notes and asked lots of questions; “how she makes everything click and all the ends meet is… terrifying actually. I don’t know if I could ever hustle like her.”

An equally special part of her journey has been the messages she’s received, especially from older people who have been inspired to pick up their guitar again after hearing her music or seeing her videos. “It’s so awesome,” Harner says, adding that this feeds into the legacy she hopes to leave: “more people making music and more people playing guitar because I believe, really passionately, in self-expression on guitar.”

Side Hustle

True to her words, flawless debut EP Taking My Side brings her story so far to life. A softly-stunning coming-of-age collection, the oldest of its five songs was written three years ago. “It’s really cool and gratifying to have it out,” she enthuses, “because it has taken such a long time from writing it to the finished product. It took a while but I did it.”

Her patience and persistence paid off. Lead single False Alarm pairs beautiful strummed chords with vulnerable songwriting, while her ethereal vocals on the Bond-soundtrack-manifesting Do It are paired with cinematic strings; the latter doesn’t sound a million miles away from Billie Eilish’s early releases. As if keen to showcase a heavier side of her artistry, midway outlier Yes Man – which starts as a break-up lament – veers closer to Olivia Rodrigo territory with its loud riffs, before simmering down again. A thrilling indication of her potential next direction, it’s followed by the brilliantly-written Lifetimes: ‘You’re the chopping block, I’m the mouldy spot, and we are waiting for the knife’.

In just 14 minutes, Emma Harner has made her mark as not only a compelling songwriter but one of America’s most impressive new guitarists.

‘Taking My Side’ is out now

The post Meet Emma Harner the guitarist thrilling TikTok with math-rock inspired acoustic guitar wizardry appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

A mini amp with 52 amp modes, 49 effects, tuner, drum machine and recording interface all in a compact, portable package

OC Pedal Co. has released the company’s second pedal, the LA HABRA Hard Clipper. This distortion captures some of the classic 80’s and 90’s drive tones we know and love.

The LA HABRA Hard Clipper is heavy, but still organic in its touch response, it’s kind of like fuzz for people who don’t like fuzz! The pedal’s interface is simple, it features a master volume, tone knob and a gain toggle switch allowing players to change the character of the clipping. The gain level is fixed! This unit shines through clean pedal platform type amps.

Key pedal features include:

• 80’s/90’s distortion tones
• Stacks well with overdrives
• Two clipping profiles to change the character of the distortion
• True bypass on/off switch
• 9-volt operation via standard external DC input (no battery compartment)
• Top-mounted input/output/DC jacks for easy pedalboard installation
• Designed and assembled in USA

The OC Pedal Co. LA HABRA Hard Clipper carries a street price of $179 and is available direct to consumer at www.ocpedalco.com

Daron Malakian doesn’t believe everything he writes should be recorded right away, and he doesn’t craft songs in front of a computer with a DAW. “I guess I’m old school that way,” he confesses. “I just sit with my guitar on my couch, and if I come up with a good idea I record it on my [smartphone] voice memo.” Over time, he’ll go back to those ideas, repeatedly, whenever he picks up his guitar. “I entertain myself that way, playing with it like a toy, and then, sometimes years down the line, I record it.”

-YouTube

Whether with System of a Down or his own band Scars on Broadway, Malakian’s melting-pot songwriting alchemy draws as much from his Eastern (Armenian) heritage as it does his Western (American) influences. This unforced approach to songcraft has been at the heart of his success ever since he burst onto the scene with System of a Down’s eponymous debut in 1998. System released Toxicity in 2001, featuring their controversial, breakout single “Chop Suey!” and the epic, requiem for life’s meaning, “Aerials.” In 2005, they released two albums, Mezmerize and Hypnotize, the former featuring “B.Y.O.B,” which earned them a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. For a band that only released five full-length albums between 1998 and 2005—three of which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200—System of a Down sure left an indelible imprint on hard rock and heavy metal with their socially provocative lyrics and drop-tuned guitar manifestos.

Malakian launched Scars on Broadway and released their self-titled debut in 2008 largely because System had become inactive. In 2018, he issued Dictator, simultaneously rebranding the outfit as Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway, citing the fact that he envisioned a rotating cast of musicians rather than a singular lineup. The third Scars album, Addicted to the Violence, dropped on July 18. On each record, Scars delivers lyrics that are in line with the social themes that fuel System’s worldview. Musically, however, Malakian doesn’t seem bound by genres or interested in recreating the success of past endeavors. The binding ingredient in his sound is simply to be honest as an artist.

“I have to be open to using whatever colors the song is asking for.”

“I’m going to make a Beatles reference, but I always want to be careful,” he clarifies. “I’m not putting myself on their level, but when you listen to the Beatles and you hear, [sings] ‘Michelle, ma belle…,’ then ‘Helter Skelter,’ then ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,’ it shares the same DNA, but it’s so different stylistically. I’m not saying I achieved that on the same level, but I like artists that go through phases.” He cites Iggy Pop’s The Idiot, produced by David Bowie, as a prime example. “When you listen to that album it’s just so different from the Stooges. Having said that, the Ramones kept the same formula, and I freaking love the Ramones, so nothing against those guys, but it’s not what I do.”

Take “The Shame Game” on Addicted to the Violence. After the up-tempo, aggressive, one-two-three socio-political punch of “Killing Spree,” “Satan Hussein,” and “Done Me Wrong,” the mid-tempo song drops in, grabbing the listener’s attention with a dark, foreboding guitar part that completely shifts the tenor of the album, from heavy-on-the-riffs cultural insanity to mid-tempo atmospheric musical empathy. It’s an epic detour that enhances not only the track listing but exemplifies the yin and yang of Malakian’s songwriting, whether it’s the back and forth between mid- and up-tempo numbers or the amalgam of emotions and influences present in any given tune. Most importantly, “The Shame Game” reflects his patience when it comes to crafting a song, and is a great example of how Malakian can sometimes spend years toying with an idea.

“I used to start that song with the vocals: [sings] ‘Ain’t no shame in your game,’ but I was never really happy with it,” he explains. “I even recorded it that way when I first started working on this album during the pandemic.” One day, while sitting with his guitar in his living room, the intro 6-string part spilled out. “I didn’t even really come up with it for ‘Shame Game,’” Malakian admits. “But when I put it there, it completed the song. And that only happened years after I wrote the bulk of the tune.”

Malakian practices this unobtrusive approach to songcraft not by imposing his ego onto his ideas, but rather by allowing the song to tell him what it needs. “If I didn’t have moments like ‘Shame Game’ or ‘Addicted to the Violence’ or ‘You Destroy You,’ it wouldn’t feel like me,” he explains, citing three songs from his new album that most embody his Armenian upbringing and broad musical palette. “I can’t just pick three colors and say, ‘I’m only going to use these colors for this piece of work.’ I have to be open to using whatever colors the song is asking for. Sometimes it’s going to be heavy and you’re going to want to mosh, sometimes it’s going to be emotional and you’ll want to sing along, and sometimes you’re going to laugh because it’s freaking ridiculous and funny and kind of stupid. And those are all the sides of human emotion I’ve always tried to express in my writing.”

Malakian’s view is that he is merely channeling whatever it is the universe has to offer, and his lack of an agenda creates the necessary space for the creative juices to flow. It’s one of the reasons he gives the songwriting process time. “I just let things happen very naturally, and whatever sticks with me, sticks with me,” he attests. “Sometimes I don’t even feel responsible for it, like, ‘How the fuck did that just come out of me?’ Everything I do is subconscious.” When System first came out, for example, he says people would often focus on the Armenian influence in their music. “We were like, ‘We’re really not trying to write like that.’ It’s just part of the culture we’ve been around, so it’s bleeding into what we’re doing without us really trying to make that happen. It just happens.”

Daron Malakian’s Gear

Guitars

1962 Gibson Les Paul SG Standard

1968 Gibson ES-335

Amp

Dave Friedman-modded ’70s Marshall JMP100

Effects

Boss DD-6 Digital Delay

MXR M101 Phase 90

Strings and Picks

Ernie Ball 2215 Skinny Top Heavy Bottom (.010–.052)

Jim Dunlop Delrin Triangle .96 mm picks

Malakian grew up in Los Angeles and went to an Armenian private school, where he also attended church. It was there he first got into music, via singing, long before picking up a guitar. “I would sing Armenian church-chant kinds of things,” he recalls. He subsequently wrote a lot of the melodies in System of a Down (“Serj [Tankian, System lead vocalist] might be singing them, but I wrote a lot of those vocal lines”), and is the main lyricist and singer in Scars. His family lived in a small apartment when he was an adolescent, so he couldn’t have any loud instruments. He actually wanted to be a drummer, but didn’t get his first instrument until his family moved into a house when he was 11, and he finally got his own bedroom. “Guitar happened by accident,” he says. “I’m happy that it happened, but my parents didn’t buy me a drum set because you couldn’t turn it off. [laughs] To this day, I’m more interested in vocalists and drummers than I am guitar players.”

“I actually have to stretch myself to get bluesy.”

When Malakian’s parents did eventually buy him a small amplifier and a guitar, he says, “I was like, ‘Alright, this is what I’ve got. Let me see what I can do with this thing.’” He spent hours in his room playing, but instead of focusing on guitar chops, songwriting became his passion. “I found my own voice through writing songs,” he recalls. He’s so song-driven, in fact, that he wrote much of the first Scars record primarily using synthesizers and drum machines, which imbued the early demos with “electronic-goth vibes.” When he assembled a band, he introduced those songs to the unit with his guitar. “Songs like ‘Funny,’ ‘They Say,’ ‘Whoring Streets’ [from Scars on Broadway], and even ‘Guns Are Loaded’ [fromDictator] were all written on synthesizers before becoming guitar-driven rock songs,” he admits. When he transitioned them to guitar for band rehearsals, he says, “I found myself playing things that I wouldn’t have come up with had I come up with them on the guitar.”

The solo in “Done Me Wrong” is an example of how the Armenian influence can seep into Malakian’s songwriting with a bit more intentionality, and that it’s not necessarily the guitar that needs to be the focal point of his tunes, even when soloing. “The solo that you hear in the middle of the song, that keyboard, synthesizer-style, is the type of solo that you’ll hear in Armenian wedding-pop-dance music,” he explains. “I co-wrote that song with my guitar player, Orbel Babayan, and it drives very much like Deep Purple in the way that the rhythm moves. And like Deep Purple, we wanted that kind of solo, not in a neoclassical way, but more like what we call ‘Rabiz’ in Armenian music.”

Malakian says that blues-rock-based riffs and motifs don’t come as naturally to him as they would to someone who was raised on American rock ’n’ roll. Conversely, styles like Rabiz do come more naturally to him than they might to your average Westerner. “I actually have to stretch myself to get bluesy,” he admits. “That’s just because of where my family comes from and the community that I grew up in. But I was born and raised in the United States, so I was influenced by rock, metal, and pop radio, too.”

“I always tell people when you put out an album it’s forever.”

Ever since System’s Mezmerize and Hypnotize albums, Malakian has pretty much kept the same “heavy” guitar tone for recording. His main amp is a Dave Friedman-modded Marshall 100-watt JMP100 from the ’70s. For guitars, he relies on his 1962 Gibson Les Paul SG Standard and a 1968 Gibson ES-335. “We had the fires in L.A. back in January, and I had to evacuate,” he recalls. “I left all my guitars except for those two. I cannot replace them.” For recording, he generally stacks those guitars on top of each other. “The semi-hollowbody just explodes sonically, so I often use that for my heavy tone.” During System’s heyday, he layered a lot of guitars on top of each other, but with Scars, he doesn’t. “On this record, I didn’t really bust out a million guitars,” he says of Addicted to the Violence. He doesn’t employ many effects, either. “Sometimes I’ll use a phaser or a delay, but I’ve never been that crazy about using effects.” A hallmark of Malakian’s guitar sound is the crispness and crunchiness of his rhythm tone, a testament to these vintage axes and his minimalist approach.

Malakian’s early relationship with Rick Rubin, with whom he co-produced System of a Down’s albums, also had a significant impact on his songwriting and record-making ethos. “I’ve never had another producer aside from Rick Rubin, so his production style is what I bring to my mindset—it’s not technical at all,” he explains. “He’s someone who guides you on a journey and gives you advice.”

When Malakian wrote “Lost in Hollywood” [from Mezmerize] and brought the song to the band, Rubin looked at him and said, “It’s good, but it’s not finished.” Malakian recalls, “I thought it was finished, but that night I got home and that whole middle section came out of me. [sings] “I was standing on the wall, feeling 10 feet tall…’ It came out of nowhere.” Now, he says, he can’t even imagine the song without that part. “It’s the best part of the whole fucking song,” he attests. “Did he turn a knob? Did he fine-tune my guitar sound? No, but he made my song better just by giving me a little nudge and saying, ‘I don’t think it’s finished.’ I hear some people have experiences with Rick and they’re like, ‘He didn’t do anything.’ If you want your hand held through the whole fucking process and someone to sit there to be your motivation while you’re doing your guitar tracks, he’s not that guy.”

At this point in his career, Malakian has the luxury of not having to shoehorn his creativity into record company deadlines or marketing campaigns. He likens his artistic mindset, which leans towards capturing moments of divine inspiration, to preparing a meal. “I always tell people that when you put out an album it’s forever,” he says. “And because it’s forever, I don’t mind taking forever to finish that thing that’s going to be forever. You don’t serve a meal until it’s done cooking. And I’m in no rush.” He laughs. “It’s done when it’s done, and it will taste better to you that way.”

YouTube

Listen to Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway’s Addicted to the Violence in its entirety.

Declan Mehrtens and Gus Romer brought the heat for the punk quartet’s storming spring headline tour.

Australian punks Amyl and the Sniffers have had a pretty good year. In October 2024, they released their third full-length, Cartoon Darkness, and opened a run of North American shows for Foo Fighters. This year, they warmed up the stage for the Offspring for a handful of shows in Brazil, then tore off across the United States and Canada for a headlining tour.

Ahead of their stopover at Nashville’s Marathon Music Works, PG’s Chris Kies met with guitarist Declan Mehrtens and bassist Gus Romer to see what weapons the Aussie invaders are using to conquer the music world.

Brought to you by D’Addario

300 Club

Mehrtens reckons he’s played around 300 gigs with this trusty Gibson Explorer, and it was used on just about every track on Cartoon Darkness. While recording, he equipped it with flatwound strings and a Lollar P-90 pickup in the bridge, but for tour, it’s got a Seymour Duncan Saturday Night Special in the bridge in addition to its stock neck pickup. It’s tuned a half-step down, and an identical (though less beat-up) Explorer is on hand in case this first one goes down.

Deluxe Dreams

This Fender Telecaster Deluxe comes out for the set’s softest song, “Big Dreams.”

Marshall and Friends

In addition to his beloved JCM800, Mehrtens is running a Hiwatt Custom 100, a model he discovered in Foo Fighters’ studio. Both are dialled in for a general-purpose rock tone, and an always-on Daredevil Drive-Bi, kept behind the stacks, runs into the Hiwatt to push it into breakup.

Declan Mehrtens’ Pedalboard

The jewel of Mehrtens’ board is his SoloDallas Schaffer Replica, famous for its recreation of Angus Young’s guitar tone. In addition, he runs a TC Electronic PolyTune 3 Noir, Electro-Harmonix Soul Food modded with LED diodes, MXR Micro Flanger, two MXR Carbon Copy Minis, and a Vox wah pedal. A switcher with six loops, built by Dave Friedman, manages the changes.

P for Punk

Romer plays this Fender Precision Bass, which is either a 2023 or 2024 model, though he insists the “P” in P bass stands for “punk.”

Three-Headed Beast

Romer’s signal is split into three channels: One split comes after his tuner, and runs clean to front-of-house, another channel runs direct and dirty from this Ampeg SVT Classic, and the last runs through his cabinet into a Sennheiser MD 421.

Gus Romer’s Pedalboard

Romer’s board, furnished with the help of Mehrtens, gets right to the point: It features a TC Electronic PolyTune 3, a Boss ODB-3, and an MXR Distortion+.

Gibson Explorer
Fender Deluxe Telecaster
Marshall JCM800
TC Electronic PolyTune 3 Noir
MXR Carbon Copy Mini
MXR Micro Flanger
EHX Soul Food
Vox wah pedal
Boss ODB-3
MXR Distortion+
TC Electronic PolyTune 3
Fender Precision Bass
Ampeg SVT Classic
Seymour Duncan Saturday Night Special

The project saw the producer and guitarist travel the world and record legendary players in unusual locations

Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs have wreaked havoc on markets around the world, and the musical instrument industry has been heavily affected.

We’ve seen US amp and pedal companies stretched to breaking point already, with some industry commentators predicting “mass layoffs” as a result of price hikes and consequential low sales of goods.

• READ MORE: “The electric guitar is an American cultural export” NAMM CEO John Mlynczak on why Fender, Gibson, PRS and others joined forces to lobby congress over wood tariffs

Now, in a new conversation with Reuters, John D’Addario III – CEO of family-run instrument accessories company D’Addario – explains the impact tariffs, both potential and already enforced, have had on the business, and what he predicts for the landscape for the rest of the year.

“We estimate that we have incurred anywhere between $500,000 to $750,000 in additional costs that we didn’t plan for, already this year,” says CEO John D’Addario III.

According to the video’s description, D’Addario expects to accumulate more than $2 million in tariff costs this year alone.

“We’re not alone,” he continues. “I’m sure other businesses are dealing with that. But it did force us to react quickly in terms of price changes.”

D’Addario is one of the world’s leading makers of musical accessories, with a strong presence in markets around the world.

“What did we do in the onset of the tariff war? Lots of things,” he goes on. “First, we filed an application for a foreign trade zone that we could designate for portions of our facilities, which would allow us to import either finished goods or parts of finished goods. And avoid tariffs, presumably, if you re-exported that product to our export customers.

“And that’s very important because our business is roughly 50/50 US and international in terms of volume.”

D’Addario explains that in response to Trump’s tariffs, the company has developed the agility to reroute shipments of its goods on the fly.

“We can literally, if we need to, divert shipments that are on their way to the states to other markets where we have our own entities,” he says. “So literally stuff that’s on the water intended to go to the US, we can divert if we need to to different parts of the world, to avoid the tariffs.”

The big question though: are the price of D’Addario strings and other accessories set to rise?

“We implemented a price change in early May, and if necessary we may need to consider additional price increases if tariffs continue to escalate,” D’Addario says.

“At the end of the day, I think what we have to concentrate on is things that we can control. Things like onshoring, things like creating a foreign trade zone. Those are the things that we can control and we’ll continue to do those things so we can preserve our company’s presence and strength in the market.”

View D’Addario’s full product lineup via its official website.

The post Are your favourite guitar strings about to get more expensive? D’Addario expects to incur more than $2 million in tariffs this year as a result of US trade policy appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Shredding does feature on Mammoth’s third album, The End, but guitar solos aren’t always a given

At the end of the very thorough—and essential—manual that accompanies the Asheville Music Tools APH-12 phaser, designer Rick “Hawker” Shaich sweetly dedicates the pedal to the memory of the Grateful Dead’s bassist Phil Lesh. In fact, there are several references to the Dead in the manual—most pertaining to the APH-12’s ability to mimic Jerry Garcia’s envelope filter tones. But it is probably Lesh, the Dead’s relentless experimentalist, that would have appreciated the impressive, immersive APH-12 the most. Because while the all-analog APH-12 excels in rich conventional phaser sounds, it is capable of radical filtering and EQ effects, vibrato, tremolo, ring modulation, and more that would have been right at home on 1968’s Anthem of the Sun, the Dead’s mad-scientist production apotheosis. But you certainly don’t need to be a Deadhead to appreciate the sounds and craft that distinguish the APH-12. If you dig peppering your own productions and compositions with distinctive, weird, arresting textures—or just buttercream-thick phaser sounds—the APH-12 is a feast of treats that can transform a tune.

 12 Stages, Infinite Roads

The fact that Hawker once worked as an engineer for Moog is a less-than-well-kept secret. And it’s impossible to not be excited about the APH-12 in the context of the Moogerfooger MF-103 phaser, a Bob Moog modulation masterpiece that Hawker helped refine during his tenure. With its 12-stage capability, drive control, and LFO section, many aspects of the APH-12’s features and functionality mirror those of the MF-103. But the APH-12 has a very different architecture. Where the MF-103 featured just 6- and 12-stage phase effects, the APH-12 is capable of 2- and 4-stage phasing as well as single-stage and odd-numbered staging that yield unusual, colorful out-of-phase effects. It also features an envelope-controlled mode that enables dynamic command of the modulation.

Learning how all these functions work together takes time. Though Hawker initially conceived the APH-12 as the company’s first analog/digital hybrid pedal, his ears led him back to an all-analog design. That means you can’t rely on presets to capture sounds derived from sensitive and interactive controls. You have to pay attention and probably take notes. But the process of decoding the APH-12’s secrets is instructive, engaging, immersive, and intuitive in its way, and learning its language is addictive stuff that often yields musical gold.

You Can Always Go Home

Though it’s easy to get into very strange places with the APH-12, getting back to a safe space is as simple as selecting the 1-, 2-, 4-, or 6-stage phasers and backing off the phase amount, LFO resonance, and sweep controls. The latter, which adjusts the center frequency for the modulations, effectively works like a tone control, taming and enhancing peaks that can make a phase cycle super intense or subtly woven through the fabric of a musical phrase. It’s not only easy to return to these more modest phase effects if you get lost in the weeds, but they are deeply satisfying and, in terms of depth and character, rival or better my own favorite phasers. This capacity for thick, rubbery versions of classic 4- and 6-stage phase controls is enough to make a case for replacing every phaser in your collection with the APH-12. But it’s the pedal’s ability to deliver the unexpected that makes the hefty near-$400 price tag a value.

The odd-numbered stages, for example, are as impressive for their filtering effects as modulation. In the single-stage mode, the modulations can double as tremolo pulse, but the frequency cancellations lend a dirty ’60s attitude to guitar lines that would serve one of Sergio Leone’s grittiest spaghetti Western scenes. The 3-stage setting is home to some of my favorite colors in the APH-12. It can sound nearly as chewy as the 4-stage setting, but has a funky, vowel-ly attack that bridges the gap between Funkadelic and Pink Floyd and, for its narrower tone emphasis, sounds more focused in a multi-instrument mix.

“This capacity for thick, rubbery versions of classic 4- and 6-stage phase controls is enough to make a case for replacing every phaser in your collection.”

The 5-stage mode, like the 3-stage setting, is home to some of the most Garcia-like tones, especially when used with the dynamic envelope setting on the modulation switch. But in 5-stage mode you also start to hear more pronounced variations on the APH-12 and the most mold-breaking tones. Here you’ll find modulations that are both elastic and vocal but also effectively lo-fi in a distant radio broadcast kind of way. This tendency is beautifully enhanced in 9-stage mode, and you’re likely to find a lot of sound designers lurking here, crafting dark submarine resonances and the atmosphere of chains clanking in an empty, hulking space freighter.

The odd-number modes aren’t all, well, odd. Slow-motion phase cycles with a heap of drive (which uses a JFET saturation stage to enhance even-order harmonics) can produce dreamy filter sweeps that are super-dramatic without being sprawling and bossy. The APH-12’s 12-stage mode is another place where sound designers and players seeking simple but pronounced coloration will co-exist. Here again, the APH-12 excels at shaping intense modulations that can be slotted surgically in a mix. But I was also able to construct tone environments equally well suited for a David Lynch-led field trip to trans-dimensional realms populated by metallic seagulls, distant throbbing motors, and fragments of fractured interstellar communications.

The Verdict

The sounds highlighted here are a fraction of what the APH-12 can do. And while there are significant differences under the hood, anyone who has been thwarted in the secondhand Moog MF-103 market will find much to sate their hunger here. But outside any comparisons to a discontinued classic, the North Carolina-built APH-12 is an outstanding modulation, filtering, and noise machine that can bring the weirdness and the ruckus one second and slide back into slippery, sonorous, rich, and gliding phase tones in the next. It’s an expensive pedal, but you could replace multiple phasers and noisemakers sitting in your closet with this and never miss them—unless you get a hankering for your Phase 90’s one-knob, no-brainer simplicity. Factor in the considerable R&D and the many years of engineering experience behind the execution of this fine modulator and that $397 price tag starts to look like a very fair price—and a smart investment—indeed.

Winnipeg band Propagandhi’s new record was fully written when bassist Todd Kowalski showed up to a rehearsal with a rough, weird demo of a slow, lurching metal song. Vocalist and guitarist Chris Hannah, who splits principal songwriting duties with Kowalski, was pissed. “I’m like, ‘For fuck’s sake man, at the eleventh hour? Are you serious? Another song and one where I have to learn a new guitar technique? Whatever.’” The band—Kowalski, Hannah, drummer Jord Samolesky, and guitarist Sulynn Hago—began playing the song, which is now called “Guiding Lights,” and within a short time, Hannah realized that they’d just found the opening track for their new album. “You never know how something’s gonna unfold,” he says, “and you have to remain open to changes as the writing goes along.”

At Peace is Propagandhi’s eighth full-length, and their first in eight years, after 2017’s Victory Lap. It features some of their more experimental compositions, like the aforementioned opener, and the prog-metal ballad “Stargazing,” which is one of the gentlest songs in Propagandhi’s almost 40 years together. There’s the slowed-down hard rock of “No Longer Young,” and the sort of late-career downtempo metal of “Benito’s Earlier Work” and “Day By Day.” There are doses of skate-punk, thrash, and melodic hardcore here, too, but At Peace certainly marks a new speed for Propagandhi.

“We almost pushed ourselves in the opposite direction that we usually push ourselves,” says Hannah. “We’re usually looking for ‘frantic and dense, out of control.’ This record, we thought, ‘We’re going to push ourselves in the opposite direction, out of our comfort zone, into under-control, lots of space, room for things to bloom.’ For us, that meant slowing down.”

“I was working on just being able to play simple, mechanical things at much slower speeds. I realized when I did it for a long time, and I got okay at it, when I sped it up, it was so much better.”

The tempos of some of the songs on At Peace were uncomfortably slow. For decades, Propagandhi has been a band that either plays fast or really fast, and Hannah simply didn’t know how to play riffs at much less than breakneck speed. Judas Priest’s 2018 record Firepower was an energetic inspiration for the new approach. “There’s an essence to that record that I think we were all hoping to evoke in writing these songs,” says Hannah. “It’s not an aesthetic thing, like we don’t have any of the ornamentation or performance capabilities of the guys in Judas Priest, but we wanted to honor something that we heard in that record, and I think that drove us to dial things back a bit and open it up. It harkens back to the music we first were inspired by in the ’80s, like the thrash-metal scene. The sense that you are being vaulted into outer space by the performance of the band was really important to us, but those bands also were able to control things.”

The downshift was especially difficult for Hannah. He never had a guitar teacher growing up, so he’s always figured things out for himself. That means that now, in his 50s, he’s still trying to correct “bad” techniques that he’s developed over the years. One of them is playing too fast. When Hannah comes up with a high-velocity riff now, he sets a metronome and tries to play it at half speed. The point is to determine if the phrasing is still intelligible; if it’s not, he’s not playing it right when it’s at full speed, either. “I was working on just being able to play simple, mechanical things at much slower speeds,” he says. “I realized when I did it for a long time, and I got okay at it, when I sped it up, it was so much better. In the course of doing that, sometimes you discover the slower speed is actually better. The stuff you’re trying to do gets more of a chance to be heard instead of just blowing by everybody.”

Another key part of Hannah’s style has been to hide his playing behind high-gain signals; during the making of At Peace, he was determined to break that pattern. Inspired by lower-gain metal records like Nuclear Assault’s Game Over and Hallows Eve’s Monument, Hannah dialed in less distortion, aiming to play his parts with as little gain as possible on his EverTune bridge-equipped Gibson SG, running into a Friedman BE-100 head. The Friedman’s sheer power helped maintain a feeling of chaos, but so did a custom guitar built by Winnipeg’s Allan Beardsell, which didn’t have an EverTune bridge—Hannah’s request. “EverTune made an amazing invention, and nine times out of 10 that’s what I want to play, but you have to give up something for that, and you give up just a touch of chaos and variability,” says Hannah.

Chris Hannah’s Gear

Guitars

1997 Gibson SG with EverTune bridge, Bare Knuckle Pickups Nailbomb in the bridge, and Seymour Duncan JB in the neck

Allen Beardsell-built custom electric

Amps

Marshall JCM2000 DSL 50-watt head (live)

Friedman BE-100 (2015 revision; studio)

’90s Mesa/Boogie Rectifier angled 4x12 (de-tolexed) with two Celestion V30s on the bottom and two Celestion G12M Greenbacks on the top

Effects

Fractal VP4

Strings & Picks

Jim Dunlop Flow Gloss 2 mm and 3 mm picks

Any string brand (.010-.046 or .010-.052)

Writing and recording these songs, says Hannah, “the best part of being in a band is being in the practice space. Everything outside the practice space door is almost universally bullshit. I don’t like touring, I don’t like playing live, I don’t like any of it. I like being in the practice space, because there’s where you are literally playing, you know, exploring.”

The title At Peace, says Hannah, is paradoxical. “It’s earnest, but it’s also sardonic,” he explains. “There has to be some meaningful aspect to our time on earth. I keep bringing up this old adage: ‘Accept what you can’t change, and change what you can’t accept.’ But in this era, there are some things that we cannot accept that we also cannot seem to change at this point. The trajectory and the momentum behind the insanity is very daunting and frightening. So what do you do? Sure, I could read Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now and develop a mindset where I accept what is happening. But can I live with myself? I find life under this particular system of organization to be a constant state of humiliation. How do I find meaning within that? As somebody who has kids, how do I face my kids to not seem like I’ve just lived the life of a coward the whole time in the face of all this?”

“This record, we thought, ‘We’re going to push ourselves in the opposite direction, out of our comfort zone.’ For us, that meant slowing down.”

The title song itself is a series of explorations of darkness, and meditations of a sort on trying to resolve our world’s exhausting contradictions. The last line is lifted from the Canadian songwriter Bruce Cockburn’s “Lovers in a Dangerous Time”: “Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight/Got to kick at the darkness ’til it bleeds daylight.” Here, Hannah belts the final word over the furious clang of the main guitar riff.

The track and the record arrive at a time when it feels as though a new threshold for global-scale madness and cruelty is reached each week, and Propagandhi’s music still functions as a flaying of this international order. (“This is the one place where I can tell the world what I really think of it,” says Hannah.) But there’s a resignation to At Peace, too—a feeling of acceptance that we’re on a sinking ship. Hannah’s just not sure where we go from here. “You can see I don’t really have an answer, but that’s kind of the point of the song, and maybe even the title of the record,” says Hannah. “I don’t know what the answer is in this insane world anymore.”

YouTube

The brutal, moving animated video for At Peace’s title track illustrates the mindset of the always-political Propagandhi in 2025.

Ford recalls how, back then, she was working hard to carve her own playing style and path, without “trying to copy any other guitarists – not even my favourite, Ritchie Blackmore”