Music is the universal language
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” - Luke 2:14
Premier Guitar
A Guitar With a 20-Watt Speaker Built In? | Inspire Pro Demo
Usually, if you're bringing an electric guitar to a gig, you need to bring an amp, or at least a speaker, too. The Enya Inspire Pro changes that. It's got one built in. Tom Butwin unpacks a smart guitar that folds an entire signal chain into a carbon fiber body, and makes the case that even the most die-hard traditionalist can find a use for it.
Behind the speaker sits the processing: more than 50 amp models, a deep effects library, an onboard looper, tuner, and drum machine. Switch to line-out mode and all that modeling routes out the quarter-inch jack to an amp, interface, or FRFR cab. Add the wireless footswitch and you're jumping between patches and presets from the floor. The Enya app handles the rest, offering the ability to rearrange effect blocks, dial in parameters, and generate tones from a written or spoken prompt.
The Inspire Pro is available at two price points. The SD carries a USA Seymour Duncan set (SSL-2/SSL-3/TB-4), a titanium alloy and brass bridge, and a gloss finish. The AL swaps in Enya's own Apex Lab pickups and a matte Lazer Radiance finish, keeping all the same smart features.
Royal Blood Announce New Album "Dead Company"
Royal Blood, one of the most important British rock bands of their generation, return today with an explosive new single “Ten Over Ten” and announce their long-awaited fifth studio album, Dead Company released via Warner Records on November 13th.
Dead Company marks a powerful new chapter for the duo, who last released an album in 2023. Following a period away from the spotlight, Mike Kerr (bass, vocals) and Ben Thatcher (drums) entered the studio in 2025 with no deadline, no distractions and a simple ambition: to see what was possible with two people, 12 notes and infinite outcomes.
Self-produced by Royal Blood, they set out to make an album as raw, human and visceral as possible. Dead Company strips everything back to its core. Immediate and uncompromising, it captures Royal Blood at their most powerful.
The band adds “After putting the Royal Blood engine in neutral for a couple of years, we've been building up the revs and are playing faster and harder than ever with this album. Written and recorded with the stage in mind, we cannot wait to play it live for years to come.”
The first track to be revealed, “ Ten Over Ten ,” is a menacing desert rock meets Motörhead behemoth of a single. The lyrics and vibe were inspired by the frontman training for a marathon, and it became all about endurance and pushing yourself. Click here to listen.
Since they first emerged 12 years ago when they released one of the fastest-selling rock debuts of the century, Royal Blood have made one hell of an impact: each of their four albums has hit Number One in the UK, shifting over 1 million records, becoming an arena-filling, festival-headlining tour de force, and forerunners of the guitar rock revival we’re seeing today.
The album announcement follows news of three sold-out intimate August underplay shows in the UK. Click here for tickets and tour details. U.S. tour and more to be announced soon. Click here for more info.
Ultimately Dead Company is a bold 10-track album. This is what they were born to do, so they might as well turn it up. And with that Royal Blood return louder, sharper and more vital than ever.
Sully Guitars Adds 24-Fret Version of Singlecut ‘71 Trella
Sully Guitars is now offering a 24-fret version of its set-neck ‘71 Trella singlecut model. Builder Jon "Sully" Sullivan said, "The '71 addresses the issues I had with the classic singlecut while adding my own flair. The design celebrates its 15th birthday this year, and it's been rewarding to see it grow."
The new version adds two frets to the original 22-fret design. According to Sully Guitars, the upper-fret access and neck-to-body balance of the original have been maintained in the update. A '71 Trella 24 prototype has been used on tour by Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Kiki Wong, including on songs such as "1979."
Wong said: "The Trella is by far a work of art embodying all the beauty, versatility, and charisma I need from an instrument. It truly became one of my favorite guitars of all time."
Sully Guitars '71 Trella 24 specs:
- Body/top: Set-neck singlecut with carved top, now available with 24 frets (previously 22).
- Neck: Slim C profile, 24 stainless steel frets, contoured neck heel for upper-fret access.
- Hardware: Hipshot locking tuners; choice of Hipshot, TonePros, or Floyd Rose bridge; Sully's USA-wound pickups.
- Custom options: Sparkle finishes, heavy relic aging, custom inlays, and baritone scale lengths available.
- Build: USA Custom Series instruments are built by a small team in Texas, PLEK'd, and shipped with a handwritten certificate of authenticity from Sullivan.
Sully Guitars’ '71 Trella 24 has a straight price starting at $3,839. For more information visit sullyguitars.com.
On Bass: Are You Playing With Your Ears or Your Eyes?
I was plugging away in my home studio recently and realized I needed to tune my bass. Within arm’s reach I have a rack tuner, a pedal tuner, and even a few clip-on tuners, but since my hand was on the mouse, I pulled up a tuner plugin within my DAW. The aesthetics on the tuner were great, from the pseudo brushed steel “housing” to the wide, beautifully visible strobe that danced nicely until I found my pitch. It was clear that out of the several DAW tuners I have, this one felt like someone wanted to give it a little more design attention than the others.
It’s a tuner. I get it.
What I also understand is marketing. My degree happens to be in marketing (world-traveling bass player was not one of the options at my college - I had to conquer that on my own), and as I spent many hours filling the plastic seats of my classrooms, I gained an understanding of how we are “nudged” toward certain products and when it comes to buying things, our eyes tend to drown out our other senses.
The MI (musical instrument) business is no different. Bass, amp, and pedal companies are all vying for your cash. They know what you are into. Or at least they think they know. They spend a lot of time designing products, sometimes for themselves, sometimes for the consumer. Either way, they are looking for an edge. There is a lot of trial and error, of course, and sometimes our eyes choose a product over all our other senses. Every company wants their product to stand out. Some follow trends and design for the current market (remember the relic’d guitar war of ‘14?), while others stick to their look forever (much like my dad’s haircut), come hell or high water.
“How many times have you turned your nose up at a particular amp based on the name plate or a guitar for its headstock shape?”
How many times have you turned your nose up at a particular amp based on the name plate or a guitar for its headstock shape? How often are we brand-biased and not sonically driven? Often, I think.
When I moved to Nashville two decades ago, I auditioned for a touring indie artist, and thankfully landed the gig. Before the tour, the MD took me aside and said he wanted to see a P-bass in my hands, not the active 5-string I used in the audition. I had other passive 4-strings that were great, but no, he wanted a P. After settling in town, I also learned that producers were looking to see a certain name on the headstock, no matter the tone or pedigree of the bass being played.
There is certainly an argument for a “tried and true” tone formula; however, I know some bass players that can track master recordings with a broom handle and twine, headstock shape be damned. We shouldn’t let a logo run our lives. I like certain features, I like certain tones, and I also like to root for the underdog. We certainly should give all instruments a fair trial before finding them guilty of not being ‘good’.
I have a $10 no-name garage sale bass that I have used on recording sessions. I’ve seen your favorite bands filling arenas running original red Line 6 “bean” PODs and dummy cabinets onstage. If you are using your ears instead of your eyes, you may free yourself a bit.
Variety is the spice of life. No doubt. We aren’t in a Henry Ford era where all the guitars are simply one design, one pickup, and painted black (and thankfully so). We have different musical needs and tonal requirements, so we inevitably search for “the sound,” or the workhorse, or the feature-packed entity that will quench our thirst. We have limitless wood/electronic configurations at our mail-order beck and call, and in the same breath, it is very easy to become a trail horse and only see what we want to see.
Do yourself a favor: go to a local store and pick up an instrument or try a brand you have ignored in the past. Close your eyes and listen. You may be surprised.
Eric Gales Goes Months Without Playing Guitar
The blues-rock guitar star sits down with PG's Nikos Arvanitis discussing his growth as a player (including prioritizing time away from the instrument), finding inspiration in figures outside of music, engaging with the social-media phenoms for a motivational challenge, and explaining why his partnership with Kiesel is a perfect fit. Sponsored by: https://stewmac.sjv.io/APO2ED
Tokai Hard Puncher Review
When my editor approached me about reviewing this bass, I had a very visceral sensation of being 12 years old again. That’s when I started playing bass—and perusing basses in a Swedish mail order catalog that had everything from home improvement tools to musical instruments. I distinctly remember scanning that catalog, once upon a time, and spotting a Precision Bass lookalike called the “Hard Puncher,” which, I suppose, sounded much more heroic to a non-native, beginning-English speaker than “P-Bass.”
The Hard Puncher, as it turns out, was made by Tokai, a Japanese manufacturer of what are now known colloquially among collectors as “lawsuit guitars.” Tokai’s instruments were more than just catalog eye candy for European and American players that couldn’t afford a real Fender or Gibson. Most Tokais of the ’70s and ’80s were also exceptionally well-made instruments. So, when the company ceased exporting instruments in the ’90s, it left behind a dedicated cult of fans. That cult is bigger these days, and Tokais are no longer cheap, secret sleepers among the collector set. Good ones fetch pretty hefty prices. So, it’s little mystery that Tokai is having a go at exporting these Japan-made gems again—this time with a push from Audio Collective Group, a distribution company founded by Warm Audio.
Picking Up Where They Left Off
The quality that makes original Tokais minor treasures is recognizable here by feel alone. Fretwork, the neck joint, and the bone nut seat are all tight and solid. The gloss polyester finish is rich and very well executed in a deep dakota red with hints of brown and oxblood that looks fantastic against the red tortoiseshell pickguard. Options abound, though—the new Hard Puncher is available in seven different finishes, and Tokai even offers a choice between alder and ash for bodies, and maple and rosewood for fretboards. (You can select these options on the Tokai website, which, in turn, directs you to a dealer with an instrument that matches your order.)
The 1-piece maple neck is U-shaped and employs a fairly thin slice of rosewood for the fretboard, if you opt for one. The neck has a very nice profile for those of us without large hands, and the compound 7.25" – 10.25" radius lends a natural feel under the fingers. But the neck is also reminiscent of real 1960s-vintage Fender Precisions I have known. As nice as that vintage familiarity is, I wouldn’t complain if Tokai opted to eschew authenticity and use a satin finish on the neck instead of the glossy one on our test instrument. But thanks to the general profile, the feel is fast.
More Extra Effort
Though the basic fit and finish on our Hard Puncher was easy to observe, I was impressed by deeper details—like how carefully the pickups were set up. The E-string side of the P-bass pickup was screwed deeper into the body than you tend to see from most manufacturers. This is the very first adjustment I perform on any bass I buy to compensate for naturally louder low E-strings. The move suggests to me that the folks at Tokai are hip to real-world performance challenges as well as pure aesthetics. It’s a nice thing to see.
The action was great, too—neither too low nor too buzzy. And like the pickups, the careful adjustment meant one less change to make before I took the Hard Puncher on the road or to a session. It’s easy to imagine living with the instrument onstage in most other practical respects, too. It’s comfortable, the medium weight feels good, and it’s very well balanced. Perhaps the only disappointment with the design is that the truss-rod access is a little too much like a vintage P-Bass. You can’t make an adjustment without removing the pickguard first. That’s not a big deal for many players, but as a touring professional who travels between drastically different climates, frequent and easy truss rod adjustment is pretty important.
Force and Flexibility
Rumbling through an amp with tone and volume wide open, the Hard Puncher rewards with a rich, punchy, classically P-bass sound. It’s free of the upper-midrange honk that plagues some P-styles, but retains the immediacy and low-mid emphasis in transient notes that a great P-style should have. Just as importantly, the upper notes on the neck have real body and strong sustain, while the lower notes never feel muddy or too big. The output is just very balanced.
It’s very easy to shape the output from that foundation, too. The tone control has a very usable sweep that allowed me to carefully shape the top end I wanted to tame, rather than just going fully bright or completely dark, which happens in some affordable basses. Dark tones still exhibited great sustain, by the way, which perfectly suited my reggae experiments with the Hard Puncher.
As a player who performs a lot of rock shows, I want to know that a P-style instrument will sound big, warm, and almost piano-like in that setting—particularly with a pick. To find out if this was the case with the Hard Puncher, I swapped the nickel-coated strings that came with the bass for steels. The new set really made the Tokai come alive, without sounding too bright—even on the thinner strings. As you might have suspected, it’s a great rock machine
The Verdict
The Hard Puncher’s $1,499 street price puts it in a very competitive bracket. But I think there’s room there for a high-quality, Japan-made instrument like this. The tones are super solid. The feel inspires confidence from a playability and quality standpoint. Plus, there’s just something hip about a Tokai. It’s a cool way to break from the pack, but it’s also just a great performer with a familiar, even vintage-like feel. Even in a crowded product space, the Hard Puncher screams “contender!”
Esoterica Electrica: What a Neck Joint Says About Your Guitar
The history of the bolt-on guitar neck joint is often told as a Leo Fender story, but it’s really about how replaceability and modularity came to the guitar sphere. Despite that, beneath every argument about sustain and resonance lies a deeper question: what kind of object is a guitar supposed to be?
For centuries, the answer seemed obvious. Long before the electric guitar existed, stringed instruments were built around the assumption that neck and body belonged together. Violins, cellos, lutes, and classical guitars employed mortise-and-tenon or dovetail joints secured with hide glue, creating an intimate union between the instrument’s major structural (and tone producing) components. Early steel-string acoustics and carved archtops inherited this tradition without question. The glued neck was not merely a construction method; it was part of an entire philosophy of instrument making. A guitar was conceived as a singular object, born whole and expected to age as such. Even the cast aluminum Rickenbacker “Frying Pan” from 1932 was a single piece, taking the concept to the max.
In that world, repair itself reinforced the idea. Neck resets and delicate joint work were accepted rites of passage in an instrument’s life. A neck might be removed, but only through a skilled and somewhat invasive process. The relationship between neck and body resembled marriage more than assembly—with all the benefits and arguments.
Then came Leo Fender.
To be clear, guitars with screw or bolt-on necks had been marketed as early as the 1920s. The Stromberg‑Voisinet/Kay Kraft archtops from the 1930s even featured adjustable neck pitch. But when Fender introduced the Telecaster, it introduced a radically different understanding of guitar manufacturing. It was not conceived as an acoustic ideal. It emerged from the practical logic of Detroit industry. Bodies and necks could be fabricated separately, finished separately, inventoried separately, and united at the final stage of production. Repairs became simpler and cheaper. Variability became manageable. Most importantly, the neck ceased to be a permanent partner and became a module. This conceptual shift is difficult to overstate. Fender transformed one of the guitar’s defining structural elements into a replaceable component. Four screws and a neck pocket accomplished what centuries of instrument-making tradition had never contemplated.
The industry soon divided into two distinct cultural camps. Bolt-on instruments became associated with practicality, clarity, and twang. Elsewhere, companies like Gibson, Gretsch, Guild, and Rickenbacker doubled down on set-neck construction. There, the fixed neck remained a symbol of continuity with violin-making traditions, craftsmanship, and legitimacy. Over time, these manufacturing decisions hardened into mythology. But whether or not the physical reality justified such certainty is debatable, the cultural meanings endured and became codified.
As decades passed, both approaches have evolved. Early bolt-ons were bluntly functional: flat pockets, wood screws, and steel neck plates. Still, builders set about refining the concept. CNC machining produced neck pockets of remarkable precision. Sculpted heels softened the once-abrupt transition between neck and body. Machine screws threaded into metal inserts pushed mechanical consistency beyond what Leo Fender (and vintage purists) felt necessary.
Set-neck construction has evolved as well. Traditional dovetails have given way in many production environments to more standardized mortise-and-tenon joints. Technology brought unprecedented consistency to neck angles and joint geometry. As both systems matured, many of the practical differences narrowed. A well-executed bolt-on could feel seamless. A precisely fitted set-neck could be astonishingly consistent. The old assumptions survive largely because they have become part of guitar culture itself.
Repair reveals the deepest distinction. A bolt-on remains fundamentally serviceable. Neck replacements, profile changes, and even scale-length experiments can be relatively straightforward. A set-neck guitar, meanwhile, remains committed to permanence—its repairs are often more invasive, and potentially more expensive.
Existing in the background of this long-standing debate is the neck-through design, the logical endpoint of continuity. Here, the neck is no longer attached to the body in the traditional way. It becomes part of the body, extending uninterrupted beneath the bridge and pickups. Utilized by makers like Rickenbacker, and later embraced by builders in the 1970s and 1980s, neck-through construction represents maximum integration and minimum modularity. If the bolt-on celebrates replaceability, the neck-through celebrates unity. Heaven help you if you need repairs.
Seen from this perspective, neck joints might not be categories, but points along a spectrum. At one end lies serviceability, at the other lies permanence. Today, no approach occupies a higher evolutionary rung. Each method is also at the mercy of a hundred other decisions a builder must make. So, the choice is rarely about quality or sound alone. Instead, the construction choice reflects a builder’s (and therefore the player’s) assumptions about identity, maintenance, sound, and the relationship between parts and the whole. In this subjective battle, where do you stand, and why?
Martin Guitar Launches Two Joe Bonamassa Signature Models
C. F. Martin & Co. has introduced the 00-18 Joe Bonamassa and 00-10E Retro Joe Bonamassa, two new signature acoustic guitars inspired by Bonamassa's treasured 1937 Martin 00-18 shade-top.
The 00-18 Joe Bonamassa and 00-10E Retro Joe Bonamassa recreate the look and character of his prized 1937 Martin 00-18
Marking Martin's second collaboration with the blues-rock superstar, the collection includes a handcrafted Nazareth-built model alongside a more accessible version produced at Martin's Navojoa, Mexico facility. Both feature a custom 1937-style sunburst and carefully replicated top wear based on Bonamassa's original guitar, capturing the appearance of an instrument that has spent decades making music.
"If you told me when I was a kid that I'd be sitting here in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, with not one, but two signature guitars, I'd be like, 'You're out of your mind,'" Bonamassa said.
Handcrafted in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, the 00-18 Joe Bonamassa pairs a solid spruce top with genuine mahogany back and sides for a warm, clear, and responsive voice. Its compact 00 body offers balanced tone and comfortable playability equally well suited to blues, folk, fingerstyle playing, and songwriting.
Golden Era scalloped X-bracing delivers an open, dynamic response, while faux tortoise binding, the custom 1937-style sunburst, and replicated top wear faithfully reflect the appearance of Bonamassa's original pre-war instrument. A Golden Era Modified Low Oval neck profile with a standard taper provides a comfortable vintage-inspired feel.
Bonamassa brought an early prototype into the studio and compared it directly against his original 1937 Martin. "When we put the mic in front of it, my producer said, 'I like that one better,'" Bonamassa recalled of the Nazareth-built model.
Each 00-18 Joe Bonamassa includes a hardshell case and carries a $3,999.99 street price.
Crafted in Martin's Navojoa facility, the 00-10E Retro Joe Bonamassa brings the look, feel, and spirit of Bonamassa's pre-war 00 to a wider range of players.
It pairs a solid spruce top with solid sapele back and sides for balanced tone, warmth, and focused projection. Its custom 1937-style sunburst and visually replicated top wear mirror the distinctive character of Bonamassa's original guitar. Scalloped spruce X-bracing supports a responsive acoustic voice, while a Performing Artist neck with a high-performance taper offers smooth, approachable playability.
The model also features Martin E1 electronics with volume, tone, and phase controls, along with a built-in chromatic tuner, making it equally at home onstage, in the studio, or around the house. Bonamassa personally tested the onboard electronics in live performance before approving the final production model.
Each 00-10E Retro Joe Bonamassa includes a softshell case and carries a street price of $1,299.99.
Widely regarded as one of the world's foremost vintage guitar collectors and historians, Bonamassa has built a reputation that extends well beyond the concert stage. His extraordinary collection of historically significant instruments has made him a trusted authority among players and collectors alike, while each of his signature collaborations has become an opportunity to faithfully recreate some of the rarest and most coveted guitars ever built. With these new models, Bonamassa and Martin turn their attention to one of the most personal instruments in his collection, giving players two ways to experience the sound, feel, and visual character of his beloved pre-war 00-18.
The 00-18 Joe Bonamassa and 00-10E Retro Joe Bonamassa are available through authorized Martin dealers and at martinguitar.com.
Duane Betts: Rising Son
Towards the end of Duane Betts’ video for “Heartache,” a melancholy song about grief written after his father died in April 2024, the 48-year-old guitarist etches the initials “FRB” in the sand. It seems like a riddle, or perhaps a non sequitur, until you realize Betts’ late father, Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers Band, was born Forrest Richard Betts. “It was something that was kind of thought about and plotted out as an easter egg—something very meaningful, but not obvious. We didn’t want to be too on the nose about any of the references,” the singer and guitarist says, speaking to Premier Guitar by phone from a summer home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the night before he’s scheduled to perform with the Allman Betts Family Revival in Vail, Colorado. “Some people don’t know that my dad’s first name is Forrest. They might not catch the initials.”
While inspired by the senior Betts’ death at age 80, “Heartache” is a universal ballad, on the edge of Neil Young-style folk-country and, yes, the Allman Brothers’ soulful southern rock. “I’ll wait, watch over you / Nothing I can do,” Betts sings, then repeats the phrase “there’s nothing you can do” multiple times before playing a solo that is both mournful and hopeful on his cherry-red 1961 Gibson ES-335, a guitar he inherited from his father. “I wrote that song down in Florida, shortly after my dad passed away, with my friend [singer-songwriter] Stoll Vaughan,” Betts says. “I had this haunting chorus melody, and I was mumbling ‘heartache,’ and it just went from there. It’s a universal feeling that everybody can relate to. It’s about loss and acceptance and getting through that process.
“It’s about everything and everyone that you’ve lost, you know?” he adds. “The lyric is simple, but it’s vulnerable and personal to me and I’m very proud of it.”
In the video, filmed in Malibu, California, last March, Betts, slender with long hair and a thin mustache, wears open-collar, earth-toned suits that can only be described as “Allman Brothers chic.” In one of these outfits, he wanders into the ocean; in another, he plunges into a pool. “Actually, I don’t think we wrecked any of them,” he says of the clothes. “The first one turned out okay. We just air-dryed it. It was a lot of fun. The pool was about 10 degrees colder than the ocean, and the ocean wasn’t warm.”
Betts made “Heartache” and the rest of his new album, Isle of Hope, with Dave Cobb, the Nashville producer who has worked with just about everybody, from the Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb to pop star Teddy Swims, and has a knack for drawing out the country soul from raggedy-voiced singer-songwriters like Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, and Jason Isbell. Betts came across Cobb’s work while recording a session with guitarist J.D. Simo; while Betts was waiting for an Uber, “me and J.D. were getting some quality time,” and Betts played him a new tune called “Reckless.” “You know who would love to do this? Dave,” Simo told him.
Duane Betts’ Gear
Guitars
- 1961 Gibson ES-335
- Gibson Dickey Betts Les Paul Gold Top prototype #1
- Pre-war Martin acoustic
- Fender Telecaster (courtesy of Dave Cobb)
Amp
- 1961 Magnatone Troubadour
Pedal
- Union Tube & Transistor NeverMORE
Cobb proved to be exactly as advertised while producing Isle of Hope, an album that balances laid-back, hymnlike tracks such as “Silver Afternoon,” “Best Wishes,” and the lead single “Heartache” with more hard-driving numbers like “Pills and Liquor,” “Down to Houston,” and the closing track “Keep My Hands Clean.” The latter songs capture the tight, barrelhouse swagger of early-1970s Rolling Stones, though they are surprisingly concise by the standards of the Allman Brothers diaspora. Throughout the album, potent slide-guitar solos—performed primarily by Betts and Johnny Stachela—add both fire and texture. Their guitar work often recalls Duane Allman’s playing alongside Eric Clapton on Derek & the Dominos’ “Layla.”
“Dave is a genius in the studio. He can frame things in his head while he’s playing in the band and map everything out perfectly and know where everything fits at all times. It’s what a producer is supposed to do—times 100,” Betts says, launching into a technical explanation of which portions of which studio takes wound up in the final track. “I wanted to have a vehicle like ‘Heartache’ to play a little differently. Dave set me up. I had the solo mapped out over different chords, over a different point in the song, and he changed it and gave me a nice path to just go at the end of the song, over those other chords. It turned out to be a great idea.”
Reproducing the album live has proved to be a challenge as the band rehearses for dates through the end of 2026 and early 2027—mostly because Betts’ road band has only two guitarists, which pushes him to play an acoustic or “an electric like an acoustic.” He adds: “You can’t play all the parts on the record. You have to be thoughtful. ‘Maybe the keyboard player can do something.’”
“We didn’t make a ‘guitar record,’ but there’s plenty of guitar playing on the record.”
Discussing the album, Betts has a habit of changing the subject to move the attention off of himself—his own songwriting, his own vision—and onto the other musicians who worked on the album, particularly his friend Simo on rhythm guitar. “I really wanted everybody to have their moments. J.D. doesn’t play any solos per se, but his guitar work on this record is just excellent,” Betts says. “We didn’t make a ‘guitar record,’ but there’s plenty of guitar playing on the record.”
The new album has a rawer, more spontaneous and live-in-the-studio feel than Betts’ solo debut, 2023’s Wild & Precious Life, a more star-studded affair that featured guests like Derek Trucks—himself the nephew of a late Allman Brothers Band member, founding drummer Butch Trucks—plus Marcus King and Nicki Bluhm. On Isle of Hope, Betts mostly plays an acoustic guitar, a pre-war Martin, although he uncorked the 335 in key moments, like the electric solo in “Heartache.” “I cut the solo after the band went home and got it,” he says.
Has Betts’ playing evolved since Wild & Precious Life? Not in his own estimation. “I don’t know if my playing has changed that much—I kind of play the way I play,” he says. “When given the opportunity to play over different chords, or a different style, you might play differently.”
Because Isle of Hope is so clearly—and lovingly—dedicated to his late father, Duane has had even more opportunities than usual to reflect publicly on Dickey Betts’ legacy and influence. Betts was a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band in 1969, after he and former bandmate Berry Oakley accepted an invitation from guitarist Duane Allman to join an informal jam session at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. That gathering ultimately led to the formation of one of Southern rock’s most influential bands.
Duane was born to Dickey Betts and his then-wife, Paulette, in 1978, seven years after his namesake, Duane Allman, was killed in a motorcycle accident. By that time, the Allman Brothers had broken up, then reformed, and were putting out rock albums like Enlightened Rogue during an era of punk and disco. They were touring regularly, and Dickey brought his son on the road. Duane was home-schooled and had a tutor, as he once told the Marin Independent Journal: “It was great. I loved it. ... It was mainly me and the adults. I didn’t get to socialize with kids my own age. I had to make up for that later.” Eventually, he left his father’s hometown of Sarasota, Florida, for his mother’s home base in Malibu. There, he earned his GED and began playing in bands, including Backbone69, whose lineup featured the sons of Roy Orbison, producer Lou Adler, and Berry Oakley.
Around age six or seven, Betts took up drums before switching to guitar. His first electric was a tiger-striped sunburst PRS prototype with a 5-way switch—a model that Paul Reed Smith had personally given to Dickey Betts and Warren Haynes.
“Most of the guitars I own are my dad’s, and it’s really a beautiful thing.”
“I really haven’t played it much,” Betts says. “Believe it or not, I sold it to a good friend because I just wasn’t using it. Then I bought it back. About 15 years later, I thought, ‘Man, it’d be cool to own my first guitar.’” He approached his friend and asked, “You’re not playing as much anymore—can I buy my guitar back?”
“That’s what friends are for,” Betts adds with a laugh.
“Most of the guitars I own are my dad’s, and it’s really a beautiful thing,” he continues. “He was so good at playing that Delta stuff on the National steel. He was such a master, and a student of those guys, and it was always so thrilling to hear him play that style.”
Children of famous musicians sometimes spend their careers trying to distance themselves from their parents’ work. But Betts is happy to talk about his father, who was his primary guitar inspiration and frequent teacher. Although, he says, “It’s not like we spent an hour a day talking about guitar—or an hour every other day, even. I kind of wanted to learn on my own. I liked the challenge.”
Dickey, he says, “taught me about fundamentals. Like a Chuck Berry rhythm. Like a 12-bar blues. ‘Go listen to Freddie King, “Hideaway.”’ He was turning me on to stuff like that.”
Befitting his own generation, Betts also picked up on the guitar sounds of Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins, and combined their ideas with the John Coltrane records he was absorbing in his teens. “I forgot who said it: ‘Every rock ’n’ roll guitar player’—whether they’re punk rock, Steve Jones or whoever— ‘should have a little bit of Chuck Berry influence in them,’” Betts says. “That’s how my dad felt. I’m sure Keith Richards feels that way.”
“If you’re being truthful, it can’t be wrong.”
Betts has also forged a creative partnership with fellow Allman Brothers heir Devon Allman, the son of Gregg Allman, who died in 2017 at age 69. The two longtime friends formed the Allman Betts Band in 2018, embracing their shared musical heritage while occasionally inviting other second-generation musicians—among them Dweezil Zappa, son of Frank Zappa, and Tommy Prine, son of John Prine—to join them onstage.
After Dickey Betts’ death, Duane and Devon found common ground in a loss they both understood. “A lot of that goes without saying. We don’t sit and talk about it at length,” Betts says. “He knows. You just look at somebody, and you’re there for them—it’s an unspoken thing. He knows what it’s like.”
Betts says he has found similar understanding among other friends who have experienced the loss of a famous parent. “Alex Orbison lost his father at a young age,” he says. “They’re here in spirit. We’re in the same boat a little more.”
For all the practical lessons Dickey Betts taught his son about guitar—rooted in Chuck Berry riffs and blues fundamentals—it was a more philosophical piece of advice that left the deepest impression. As Duane has told interviewers, his father’s guiding principle was simple: “Go play to nature, and it can never be wrong.”
“He had an abstract way of thinking about art and music and life—the way he wrote some of his songs, like ‘Seven Turns,’” Betts says, referring to the Allman Brothers Band’s 1990 track. “I think what he meant was that god, nature, the universe—whatever higher power you believe in—can’t be wrong.”
“So if you’re being truthful, it can’t be wrong,” he continues. “If you can accurately emulate the movement of water, how could that ever be wrong? That’s god moving right in front of your eyes. He meant that you should try to reflect things that are beautiful and natural. Basically, try to have good taste.”
Rig Rundown: Kris Donegan
Nashville studio veteran Kris Donegan was at Nashville’s East Iris Studios earlier this summer when PG’s John Bohlinger stopped in to check out all the gorgeous vintage gear that Donegan uses to make the magic happen. Have a look at some quick highlights below, and tune into the new Rig Rundown for all the details. Brought to you by D’Addario.
Slip Sliding Away
Donegan built this chopped-up, DIY slide guitar himself, using a Strat as a host instrument. The Duesenberg MultiBender gives a very convincing impression of a proper slide guitar. This, and all of Donegan’s guitars, take D’Addario strings.
Bukovac’s Beauty
This 1958 Gibson ES-335, an early model with an unbound neck, 3-ply thin top, and a super-low neck angle, was previously owned by Tom Bukovac.
Four-Headed Beast
Among his studio tools is this quartet of amp heads: a Fender Bassman, Silvertone Model 1484 Twin Twelve, Mesa/Boogie Dual Caliber DC-5, and a late-’60s, 50-watt Marshall head from a transitional period.
Kris Donegan’s Pedalboard
Donegan’s sprawling studio board includes an Ernie Ball VP JR, Peterson StroboStomp HD, Xotic Effects RC Booster, Greer Amps Lightspeed, Ibanez Mostortion, Analog Man King of Tone, Pro Co RAT, Boss GE-7, Boss VB-2w, Boss TR-2, Basic Audio Scarab, Strymon Mobius, Line 6 M9 Stompbox Modeler, Strymon Brigadier, Mr. Black SuperMoon, JHS NOTAKLÖN, and FX Engineering Mirage Compressor. A Strymon Zuma and a pair of Strymon Ojais handle power needs.
John Page Guitars Introduces the Noah Levine Signature DL Baritone
John Page Guitars has introduced the Noah Levine Signature DL Baritone, a new signature model developed in close collaboration with guitarist Noah Levine, lead guitarist for Noah Kahan and a multi-platinum songwriter. The release marks the latest expansion of John Page Guitars' baritone platform, continuing the company's focus on hand-built American instruments designed around the way real players actually use them.
Designed by legendary guitar builder John Page, who co-founded the Fender Custom Shop, and hand-built in Delaware, Ohio by John Page Guitars Master Builder Chase Gullett, the Noah Levine Signature DL Baritone launches in an initial “Batch 01” release of four artist-selected finishes: green, blue, black, and yellow, each finished as a heavy relic and personally chosen by Levine.
Highlights include:
- Heavy relic-finished body in green, blue, black, or yellow: an authentic, road-ready look and feel from day one
- Choice of rosewood or maple neck and fretboard: dial in the exact feel and tone that fits your playing style
- Fishman Fluence P90 or Lollar P90 pickup options: Fluence P90s deliver quiet, versatile tone built for the stage, while Lollar P90s bring classic vintage warmth
- “Noah’s Spec” rosewood neck and fretboard paired with Fishman Fluence P90 pickups: matches Levine’s own touring instrument exactly
- Premium hardware and electronics selected by John Page: reliable performance night after night
- Unique Batch 01 serial designation: marks your guitar as part of its debut run
The Noah Levine Signature DL Baritone carries a retail street price of $5,995 USD (Street Price: n/a). For more information visit johnpageguitars.com/noah.
Win a Double-Cut Powerhouse: Enter to Win the Hagstrom Megin!
Ready to unleash pure tone and road-tested reliability? Enter today for your chance to bring home the Hagstrom Megin!
Hagstrom Megin Giveaway
Hagstrom Megin
It’s a double-cut of magic.
Discover a new realm of musical enchantment with the all-new Hagstrom Megin – a guitar that transcends the ordinary and invites you into a world where tone and playability unite perfectly.
In the language of old Norse, “Megin” translates to “Magic,” and this guitar lives up to its name, promising a spellbinding playing experience that captures the essence of enchantment on every stage.
Crafted especially for the modern-day road warrior, the Hagstrom Megin stands as the essence of “bang for the buck,” presenting musicians with the ultimate gigging companion that never compromises quality.
Take it on the road, let it seamlessly become an extension of your musical mastery, and witness the magic unfold in every note.
This extraordinary instrument features a meticulously crafted mahogany long mortise and tenon set neck and a mahogany body, dually delivering a resonance that speaks directly to the soul of your music. Fitted with two powerful Hagstrom Custom 62 humbuckers, the Megin offers a versatile tone that effortlessly adapts to your musical journey, whether it’s weaving sweet melodies or unleashing powerful riffs.
Designed with the touring musician in mind, the Megin is a straightforward powerhouse. Its wrap-around bridge not only enhances sustain and resonance but also channels all that string energy directly back into the instrument, unlocking the magic of its tonal qualities. All that energy contained within the body works as a perfect partner together with our Hagstrom H-Expander truss rod, where that transfer of string energy resonates from the tip of the headstock to the butt of the body to masterfully capture complete resonation throughout the entire instrument. With master volume and tone and 3-way toggle controls, simplicity reigns without sacrificing control on stage or in the studio. This is pure tone, power, and playability – the perfect ally for those who demand reliability on stage.
To heighten the string energy and resonance to the next level, we selected a 25.5” scale length. This intentional decision not only enhances the sustain but also crafts a commanding voice that expresses unmatched clarity and precise pronunciation. Feel free to drop tune effortlessly, unleashing a growl and grunt that will undoubtedly leave your audience in awe.
Step into a world where music transforms into magic. Embrace the enchantment with the Hagstrom Megin – your passport to a sonic realm unlike any other. As always, Hagstrom delivers another masterpiece, ensuring that every chord struck with the Megin resonates with the enticement of true craftsmanship, design, and a pure dedication to the working musician. Welcome to a new era of musical magic.
This Small Amp Sounds HUGE
This dapper 20-watter delivers a full-spectrum sound that starts at jangly chime before its EL84s natrually overdrive into a musical, singing saturation zinging with overtones and sustain.
Homewrecker
I originally started experimenting with this circuit over a decade ago while chasing the aggression and harmonic complexity of a cranked vintage British amplifier, but at a volume that actually made sense in the real world. Most high-powered amps sound incredible wide open, but become almost unusable outside of large stages. I wanted something that captured that same energy, compression, and sustain without needing arena-level volume.
The goal became creating an amp that lived right on the edge of saturated and aggressive, while still articulate enough to hear every string inside a chord. I spent years refining the gain and power section so the amp would respond dynamically to pick attack and guitar volume changes instead of simply producing more distortion.
A huge part of the design was the transformers. I worked closely with Brian at Sour Sound to develop custom transformers specifically for this amplifier. Nothing about the power section was off-the-shelf. The transformers were designed around the exact feel, response, and harmonic character I was chasing, and they became a major part of the amp’s larger-than-life voice.
Even though it’s a 20W design, it doesn’t behave like most small amps. It feels bigger than its size, moving from subtle vintage textures to fully saturated overdrive while still retaining clarity and touch sensitivity.
The final design reflects years of refinement, listening, and testing. The 20W became the amp I had been trying to build for years — raw, responsive, and inspiring to play the second you hit the first chord.
A key part of the amp’s character is the custom-tuned smoothing filter in the power section. This helps control harshness while keeping the amp open, punchy, and harmonically rich. The result is an amp that stays aggressive and dynamic without becoming stiff or fatiguing.
The amp also features a Boost switch that adds additional gain, saturation, and low-mid body. It thickens the response and pushes the amp further into rich overdrive while still maintaining clarity and note separation.
The Bite switch is designed to increase perceived gain. It tightens the response, adds edge to the attack, and helps the amp cut through a mix with more aggression and presence without drastically increasing overall volume.
Combined with the custom Sour Sound transformers, the entire amp was voiced to feel bigger, more responsive, and more alive than a typical 20W amplifier. Every feature was designed around touch sensitivity, harmonic detail, and making the amp inspiring to play at any volume."
Features:
• 20 watt all-tube head
• Hand-wired in the USA
• Sour Sound Custom Transformers
• Full-wave rectifier
• Cathode Bias
• 2 x EL84 power tubes
• 2 x 12AX7 preamp tubes
• Bite switch
• Boost Switch
• 4, 8, and 16 ohm impedance
Learn more: https://www.goshsound.com/homewrecker
Acoustic Soundboard: A New Technique From a Romanian Violinist
As anyone who has toiled long enough in any art form can tell you, hitting walls is inevitable, even necessary. They exist to remind us that there’s something on the other side, someplace to go that we haven’t discovered yet. We may not see the way over today, but when we start looking, that’s when new ideas reveal themselves (and not always in a way we can anticipate).
Sometime around 2002, up against such a wall, I was gifted a portal into a new way of approaching the guitar. A friend of mine brought me to see the 1993 Tony Gatliff film Latcho Drom. It follows the path of Roma music as it moves from India and Iran through eastern Europe, eventually landing in Spain, evolving and changing along the way, picking up influences yet retaining its unmistakable signifiers. No talking, no written narrative, just people and music. One scene focuses on an older man standing under a tree with a young boy watching on. The man is Nicolae Neacşu (1924-2002), the great Romanian violinist known for his work with the group Taraf de Haïdouks. As he plays and sings mournfully about the dictator Ceaușescu, he begins to tug on a small piece of string, a horsehair from his violin bow that’s tied on to one of his violin strings. The sound is haunting, complex, simple, earthy, and mystifying. I wanted to run out of the theatre right then, grab a guitar, and try it.
Without a horsehair on hand, and after several attempts with dental floss, cotton thread, and fishing line, I landed on a certain quality of polyester sewing thread that was able to produce a similar effect: cheap, thin, textured, stretchy thread. When I finally got the grip and the right tension, and the first vibrations bounced the sound through my fingers, I felt like I’d been handed a secret technique, like a Japanese hiden—a singular masterstroke.
I’ve spent the last thirty years in pursuit of these connections between the guitar and the natural world. Whether it’s through the raw physics of the instrument, drawing from the sounds of animals, looking to other cultures and their instruments, or finding ways to prepare and effect the guitar to break it open, there is no shortage of discoveries to be made. And this one technique, distilled from Roma ingenuity, has been one of the most curious and most useful. I always have a spool of polyester in my gig case. It takes about 30 seconds to tie it on before a show. I most often tie a strand onto the G string and another onto the D (double knots each), so that two arms-length threads are constantly dangling gently and unobtrusively from about an inch in front of the bridge. (You can pull two strings or more at the same time to create harmony.) I can take them up at any time. By scraping my finger nails down the textured polyester thread, the friction creates a vibration that transfers onto the guitar string. It’s similar to the physics of a cuíca, or the feeling you get when you run scissors down a ribbon to make it curl.
It’s really effective. I most often tie thread onto my 1951 Gibson J-45. There’s a clarity, response, and growl that I get from this instrument that blends well with this technique. I also use it on my ’69 Martin N-10, but because the tension is a bit lower on classical guitars, intonation is less reliable when the thread pulls outward on the nylon strings. At low volume, though, the effect can be sublime. Tied onto an electric guitar and multitracked, a lone producer can emulate an orchestra, creating a more unique sound than using VST. Hit it with distortion, delay, and reverb, and you have the four horses of the apocalypse.
Why not just use a bow? Since guitar bridges, unlike violin bridges, are flat, it’s difficult to bow single-note melodies without hitting multiple strings. This technique produces a similar (if creepier) sound as a bow, but allows the player to focus on a single string.
It’s more complicated to talk about and describe this than it is to just try it. So, give it a shot. Make sure the thread can produce a “zipping” sound when you run your nails down it. That’s the most important thing. The wound strings of the guitar work best as anchors; they lock the thread in place. And you can tie it anywhere along the string horizontally, but the closer you are to the bridge, the clearer and more fundamental tone you get (the further away from the bridge you tie it, the more strange harmonics you get). It’s been a really rewarding way for me to experience another side of the guitar. I hope you get to try it.
Floyd Rose Unveils Limited Edition Etched Paisley USA Series Tremolo
Floyd Rose has introduced a Limited Edition Laser-Etched Paisley USA Series Original Tremolo, an exclusive release that adorns the iconic double-locking tremolo with an eye-catching, timeless design.
Each limited edition Paisley Tremolo begins as a genuine chrome USA Series Original before receiving a precision laser-etched paisley pattern across the hardened steel base plate, saddles, and fine tuners. The result is a strikingly unique interpretation of the classic Floyd Rose look, combining vintage-inspired style with modern manufacturing precision.
More than just a finish, the etching creates a subtle, understated look that catches the light from every angle while revealing incredible detail. Inspired by the classic paisley motifs that have graced iconic guitars for decades, it brings a fresh take to the legendary Floyd Rose Original.
Each unit is built with precision machining and premium materials, so the Etched Paisley Original Tremolo delivers the tuning stability and professional performance musicians expect from a genuine Floyd Rose.
With only 50 pieces available worldwide, the Limited Edition Paisley USA Series Original Tremolo carries a $355 street price. For more information visit FloydRose.com.
On the Bench: A 1965 Fender Twin Reverb
When Fender launched the Twin Reverb in 1963, the music world was blessed with a high-powered, reverb and vibrato-equipped tube amplifier that would become a staple for performing bands. The tweed Twin amps of the decade prior featured totally different circuitry, with lower output power and more grit than we hear from the crystal-clear Twin Reverbs of the ’60s and ’70s. After 1963, spotting a Fender Twin Reverb in a band’s backline became commonplace.
On the bench today we have a 1965 Fender Twin Reverb. The amp was brought to me by a client who described this one as his “daily driver.” This is the case for many musicians who don’t mind lugging around the 65-pound combo. The Twin Reverb’s power and clarity makes it a perfect pedal platform, and its durability makes it the perfect workhorse amplifier.
The main complaint was noise issues, including very scratchy controls. Once I removed the chassis, I was thrilled to see that the amp was almost totally original! The fact that this amp has been heavily used with its 60-year-old parts is a testament to the quality of the components and the circuit design. The filter capacitors were beginning to bulge and leak, so the owner and I decided it was time to give the amp a solid refurbishing to promote stability for future decades of use.
Each technician has their own method of refurbishing a Fender amplifier. Determining how far to go with a restoration is a delicate dance between reliability and originality. I want to repair the issues at hand, while also addressing the parts of the circuit that are prone to issues. In many cases, the bulk of the restoration focuses on the power supply and power amplifier. These sections of the circuit are handling a lot of power and high voltages, and over time they just wear out. Oftentimes, the tone-shaping components in the preamp are able to stay original.
Once I replaced the filter capacitors with high quality F&Ts, I moved on to the cathode bypass capacitors. These caps were also beginning to show signs of weakness, and I typically find myself replacing these in most of my Fender restorations. The last capacitor that I like to replace is the bias capacitor, which is in charge of filtering the negative bias voltage for the output tubes.
In most amps and many other consumer electronics made before the ’70s, the resistors used are called carbon composition resistors. These are small brown resistors that are made out of finely ground carbon, and mixed with a non-conductive binder. When serving as a preamp plate resistor, these small components have an important job. The plate resistors are connected to the power supply, and feed high voltage to the preamp tube plates. Once the signal is amplified through the preamp tube, that signal exits the tube through the tube’s plate and onto the rest of the circuit. In short, these preamp plate resistors see both high voltage DC and the AC guitar signal. Over time, it is common for the internals of the resistor to break down, which can impart some very noticeable popping and crackling into the signal path.
The last step is to address the vibrato effect. The funny thing is, Fender used the term vibrato but the effect is actually tremolo. In my initial testing of the amp, I noticed that while the effect was functioning, it was a bit weak overall. This is typically due to the oscillator capacitors drifting from spec over time, which can weaken the depth of the volume fluctuation. In this case, replacing the three oscillator capacitors helped get that “vibrato” stronger.
After a deep cleaning of all the pots, jacks, and tube sockets, I ran the amp to listen for any other miscellaneous issues. Many of the tubes in this amp are a variety of vintage tubes, and they passed testing with no noise, excessive microphonics, or overheating issues. Modern tubes are great, and we’re so lucky to have access to them. But I’m always excited to be able to leave in the old tubes, as the quality of manufacturing from decades prior and the mystical “mojo” of the old glass bottles tends to be desired.
The last step in a large refurbish job like this is to play through the amp for a while. I will wiggle the reverb RCA cables to make sure there is no cut-out, test the footswitch, and poke around to make sure I didn’t miss any poor connections or weakened solder points. The Twin Reverb truly lives up to its reputation. It is loud and proud, full-bodied and crystal clear.
Steadfast Designs Introduces the Steadfast Stopbar
Steadfast Designs has launched the Steadfast Stopbar™, a patented aluminum tailpiece that aims to eliminate string-change stress and keep guitars in tune longer. Designed for any guitar with a traditional Tune-O-Matic/stopbar setup, it reimagines the conventional stringing process by anchoring the ball-ends at the tuner and locking the free ends at the tailpiece with precision set screws.
The goal: faster string changes, improved tuning stability, and better tone from a stronger, lighter material than most factory-equipped stopbars. It's intended for gigging musicians, studio guitarists, guitar techs, and anyone who would like fast and easy string changes with better tuning stability and tone so they can get back to playing sooner and sound better too.
Key features of the Steadfast Stopbar™ include:
- Patented string-locking design aims to remove stress and cut restringing time by up to 75%.
- Innovative double-locking arrangement: created by precision set screws (at the tailpiece) and the string’s ball-ends (at the tuning post). Your guitar’s tuning stays put better than ever.
- CNC-machined in the USA from billet 6061 aluminum: stronger, lighter, and more resonant than the material used in most stock stopbars, with better sustain and clarity.
- Drop-in replacement is fully compatible with US and metric spacing. No drilling, no permanent modifications, zero impact to resale value – and easy upgrade to install.
- Available finishes: Nickel Plated, real 24K Gold Plated, black anodized, and silver anodized.
See the Steadfast Stopbar™ in action: https://www.youtube.com/@SteadfastDesigns
The Foundation Series is available now in five configurations: Faded ($99), Studio ($104), Pro ($109), Standard ($129), and Custom 24K Gold-Plated ($169). For more information on Steadfast Stopbars™ visit www.steadfaststopbar.com.
Goose: Modern Men
The chameleonic Connecticut-based band Goose have covered a lot of musical ground during their career, offering a little bit of something for just about everyone. Starting out as a self-described “indie-groove” outfit, they were quickly adopted by the jam-band community thanks to the group’s enthusiastic embrace of improvisation, and utter disregard for musical boundaries. Goose’s collision of genres—both onstage and over the course of five studio albums—has smashed together folk, jazz, funk, R&B, pop, progressive, and psychedelic rock. Thus far, they have yet to fold Swedish death metal into the mix, but give them time and they surely will.
Fans can personalize and interpret a band in a multitude of ways, but what does founding guitarist, singer, and primary songwriter Rick Mitarotonda want listeners to appreciate about Goose?
“I don’t think I have any ideas of what I want people to understand about the band,” he says. “For us, I think the goal is to just follow our instincts and creativity and be authentic to ourselves. And continue to uncover and unravel what that is and what that could be.”
He lets that sink in, then continues, “Everyone’s got their own prism through which they see the world and how they relate to things, and there’s no way to know or understand or try to intellectualize what people seem to be thinking about us or what they think of what we do or anything like that. It’s unknowable. It’s not up to us what people make of what we do. It’s just up to us to try to do the best we can with what we have.”
For the group’s growing and fiercely loyal legion of devotees—an audience now large enough to fill amphitheaters, pavilions, and arenas—Goose are doing just fine with what they’ve got. The band’s three-hour-plus shows are fast becoming the stuff of legend for their “anything goes” ethos in the grand tradition of premier jam bands both past and present.
Rick Mitarotonda’s Gear
Guitar
- Greg DeLuis Empress custom model
Amps
- 1960s Fender Deluxe
- Vintage Marshall combo
Effects
- Ibanez Tube Screamer
- MXR Carbon Copy
- Strymon El Capistan Tape Delay
- Strymon Deco Tape Saturation & Doubletracker
Strings, Picks, & Cables
- D’Addario NYXL strings (.010 –.046)
- Dawg David Grisman mandolin pick
- Mogami cables
These aren’t just concerts; they’re more like communal experiences. And the group’s marathon improvs, led by Mitarotonda’s breakneck virtuosity, aren’t self-indulgent, murky ragmops. Each extended interlude is packed with fun, discovery, and a bit of high-wire danger, and carries a sharp emotional breakthrough. There isn’t anything calculated or predictable about Goose (the lineup also features guitarist-keyboardist Peter Anspach, bassist Trevor Weekz, and drummer Cotter Ellis); everything they do feels spontaneous and alive. Nowhere is this more evident than in their playful and promiscuous choice of covers, which can sashay from Laura Branigan to Bob Seger one night, Steppenwolf to A-ha the next.
How a band navigates success can be a tricky bit of business, particularly as it transitions from cult darlings to mainstream stars. Mitarotonda admits that Goose’s rocket-like ascent has presented some challenges. “Certain aspects of this are totally overwhelming,” he says. “There’s little junctures where things you do or things you intend get misinterpreted, and you have no control over it. That can be difficult to contend with. Plus, there’s a struggle to find a balance and wanting to have time to breathe and reflect and process and write and do other things in life that feed creativity amidst the constant ability to tour.”
“There’s no way to know or understand what people seem to be thinking about us or what they think of what we do.”—Rick Mitarotonda
Anspach, who joined Goose in 2017 following the departures of several guitarists and keyboardists, isn’t feeling the pressure. “There have been a lot of times where it’s felt like just tour, tour, tour,” he says. “The pace isn’t really locked down, though. Last year, we put out two albums [Everything Must Go and Chain Yer Dragon], but before that we were touring for two years without a new record. I think in general, we definitely want to keep making records. I don’t really see that slowing down just yet.”
Mitarotonda, for his part, isn’t letting fame affect his creative decisions. “We’re not that big where we’re at risk of jumping the shark,” he says with a smile.
For a band that consistently throws left curves to its audience, Goose’s new album, Big Modern!, is one hell of a wild ride. While it’s not a dedicated concept record—there’s no narrative story or stated theme—it does feel, in sometimes jarring ways, like an homage to the glory days of MTV-era 1980s. The sleek, pulsating groove of “Torero” recalls Jan Hammer’s lush, synthetic noir soundscapes in Miami Vice, while “Savenger” is a synth-pop pastiche that evokes the Human League, Howard Jones, and Mr. Mister. “Media” is a dense and chaotic cardio workout that combines Remain in Light-period Talking Heads with the Tubes at their commercial peak. And if you’re too lazy to search for Nena’s “99 Luftballoons” or Kim Wilde’s “Kids in America,” you can simply cue up “Pop,” a delicious power-pop knockout. It’s all over-caffeinated and overblown, wildly entertaining, and hooky as hell.
Peter Anspach’s Gear
Guitars
- John Suhr Classic S
- Gibson Firebird (belonging to producer D. James Goodwin)
Amps
- 1960s Fender Princeton
- Vintage 100-watt Hiwatt
Effects
- Boss DD-20 Giga Delay
- Analog Man King of Tone
Strings, Picks, & Cables
- D’Addario NYXL strings (.010 –.046)
- D’Addario picks
- Mogami cables
Mitarotonda reasons that if Goose made an ’80s record, they did so unwittingly. “There’s no denying that’s a pretty consistent thread throughout,” he says. “It’s a very synth-heavy record. The drums and the guitar tones are big. A lot of things just pushed the material in that direction, but not in a contrived way. It’s funny, because obviously I wasn’t alive during the 1980s—I was born in 1990—but when I think about that period in time, it was like there was this big, superficial sense of forward momentum. Everybody was saying, ‘The future is now,’ and there were these extremes in sound and fashion. There was new technology coming very fast, and I think people were just inundated with stimulation. The aesthetic was loud, and I think that loudness is a perfect metaphor for the overstimulation that’s going on with technology right now.”
As has been the case since the early days of Goose, tunes are rarely born from jams. Much of the material on Big Modern! was written by Mitarotonda and his longtime collaborator, Matt Campbell. The two recorded “fairly fleshed out” demos that the guitarist says “really informed the trajectory of where we were going.”
“Usually, we kind of sketch out bare-bones demos and then fly by the seat of our pants hashing it out in a practice room,” he says. “This time, we went deeper with the demos, and it became a really valuable process because there were layers and textures that came out of it. We’d be working on a piece, and I’d say, ‘I want to add some bass on this.’ I would just track some bass, then play something and listen back to it, and I’d feel like it became a part of something. There were lots of weird little segments that stood out to me that just kind of added to the whole thing.”
Anspach listened to the demos and was faced with deciding between vintage ’80s-style keyboard textures or some level of dual-guitar attack. “There was a lot of keyboard stuff to learn and figure out for this record,” he says. “But there were also songs like ‘Torero,’ where I’m playing these keyboard layers, but then I switch to guitar. But we’ve developed the technology so that the synths can continue to play while I’m on guitar.”
Mitarotonda marvels at his bandmate’s multi-purpose capabilities. “Peter’s pretty clutch at all that,” he says. “On this record, we really built the shit out of these tracks to get them to sound really big. Then we had to try to figure out how to recreate it with just the four of us. There was a point when it was like, ‘Shit, do we need another guy to do some of this stuff?’ But Peter was like, ‘I can be three guys, actually.’ He figured out the game plan and the tech, and he’s playing guitar and four keyboards at the same time.”
“Torero” is one of the focus tracks on Big Modern!, but it almost didn’t see the light of day. The band road-tested it live to great effect before hitting the studio, but the song refused to behave once recording was underway. “We spent a whole day on it, and it just wasn’t there,” Mitarotonda recalls. “After dinner, we went back to it and figured out the arrangement and were just ripping takes. The energy that didn’t exist before became explosive. It was so cathartic, and the way Cotter dug into it, it was epic.”
So, too, is the guitarist’s splashy and exuberant solo, which hits like a ton of bricks. “Good 2B” features another turbulent lead break, but one that takes on a surreal quality as the song churns on. “That one presented some challenges because we knew we could really open the song up live,” Mitarotonda says. “Coming out of the drum break, there’s a ton of steam and it just wants to go on forever.”
His solo on the huge rocker “Salt” generates heat in a different way—it’s slow and full of legato lines, calling to mind George Benson’s unhurried manner of phrasing. “That was the biggest improv on the record,” he says. “We did a bunch of takes as a band, just trying out things, and they all went to different places. In the end, there was a long jam and it just seemed right to leave all those spaces between notes.”
“It’s a very synth-heavy record. The drums and the guitar tones are big.”—Rick Mitarotonda
For the most part, Mitarotonda improvised his solos while tracking with the full band. It’s taken him a while to adopt this approach, and he admits that when Anspach joined Goose, he still maintained a perfectionist’s attitude of crafting and nailing solos during the demo phase. “Peter finally said, ‘Dude, let’s just track it already.’ And he was right. Nothing can touch a holistic take when you’ve got everybody together. You just can’t fake that energy.”
Neither guitarist changed much about his guitar and gear setups for Big Modern! Mitarotonda relied on the same Greg DeLuis custom-made Empress model he’s been playing since 2023. “There’s only a couple of times I might pick up something else,” he says, “but I tracked the whole record with the DeLuis.” Likewise, he estimates that he recorded “perhaps 99 percent” of the album with his favorite amp, a 1960s Fender Deluxe, and “one tiny segment” with a vintage Marshall combo. “I’m not sure what kind,” he says with a smile. “I’ve always been a bit of a simpleton when it comes to gear.”
Anspach kept things basic, as well, using a John Suhr Classic S, as well as a Gibson Firebird that belongs to the band’s producer, D. James Goodwin. “That Firebird rips. It’s pretty sick,” Anspach says. Ampwise, he alternated between a 1960s Fender Princeton and a vintage 100-watt Hiwatt.
Controlling guitar sound in the studio is a far easier affair than achieving consistent onstage tone and balance—each venue offers its own variables, particularly for outdoor gigs, where sound waves are at the constant mercy of temperature and humidity.
“We try to deal with that as best we can,” Anspach says. “The fact is, it changes night to night, so you just have to embrace it and be like, ‘This is what we have to work with.’ We do as much as we can to keep things at a certain level, and we have a great guitar tech and audio team. There have been a few times where we’re feeling like something is really off, so you make little adjustments. Ultimately, you have no choice but to just ride the wave. The show goes on.”
Sometimes that show goes on without a soundcheck, as was the case last year at the Newport Folk Festival, when a series of thunderstorms and a shelter-in-place order threatened to nix Goose’s appearance entirely. When the weather cleared, the band took to the stage for a shortened set, which turned into a “you-had-to-be-there” moment when they were joined by Kenny Loggins for a high-octane performance of the singer’s cinematic mega-hit, “Danger Zone.”
“It was totally wild and hilarious,” Mitarotonda says. “We had no soundcheck, so it was pretty rough. Kenny couldn’t hear us, we couldn’t hear him, he couldn’t hear himself—it was crazy. We were literally in the danger zone with Kenny Loggins. It was quite the experience. Kenny’s the man.”
Tonewood Teardown: Upgrading Our Harley Benton Guitar’s Tuners
Hello, and welcome back to Mod Garage! After working on the neck of our Harley Benton guitar last month, let’s spend some money to spruce it up a bit more, starting with the tuners.
Last month we learned that the stock tuners were pretty heavy, which can lead to neck dive and discomfort. Their stability didn’t impress me, either, so let’s replace them. I wanted to keep our vintage look, so some Kluson originals came to mind. These are also available as locking tuners, which are usually a good choice, but they’re heavier than standard tuners and unnecessary on an Esquire-style electric without a vibrato system. After some research, I decided to use a set of “ClipHAUS” tuners from GÖLDO. This is German vintage at its best: The design goes back to a mechanism made by the ROKO (Robert Kolb) company in the ’60s. What looks like a roof at the top is a clip made of spring steel, pressing the worm shaft against the gear wheel, resulting in backlash-free movement.
However, the old ROKO machine heads, which were used by many guitar manufacturers such as Gretsch, Guild, Höfner, and Framus, were much clunkier and lacked the cool Kluson lining on the clip. Also, these new tuners use a patented “push-through” design: The strings are run through the shaft from the top and can then be clipped off as they sprout out the back—a handy way to avoid scratches and cuts from rogue string ends on your headstock. The housing, including the steel clip, is stamped from sheet steel with extreme precision. As an additional bonus, a set of ClipHAUS tuners is less than half the weight of cast-housing tuners. This particular model is available with different tuner buttons; I went with a set sporting the original oval Kluson shape for a vintage look, which set me back $75 for a full set.
Next, I wanted to give the tuners an “aged” look. First, I broke the shine by giving the tuners, bushings, and buttons a once-over with fine sandpaper or steel wool. If you want to mimic corrosion on the shafts, you’ll want to remove the nickel plating on them completely, a job you can accomplish with steel wool. I placed the tuners and the bushings on some old newspapers, got out my gloves and goggles, and applied some iron oxide (ferric oxide) liquid on them with a Q-tip. Careful not to get any in the tuners—we don’t want any oxidation inside.
Time to decide if you want to mimic the typical oxidation of original non-plated shafts. If you want to do so, apply the liquid only to the case and buttons, leaving out the shaft. Watch the process carefully, and if you like what you see, stop the process by wiping the liquid off the tuner with a wet cloth or paper towel. Afterwards, apply the liquid to the shaft only and watch and stop the process when you’re content. This will take longer on the shaft than on the cover, so I recommend doing it in two individual steps. Personally, I didn’t want oxidation on the tuner shafts, so I simply put on the liquid in only one step. Reminder: This is just one way for aging your hardware, which I chose because its cheap, easy, effective, and safe. There are plenty of others you can try!
Don’t forget to put a drop of oil into the tuners and turn the shaft several times to lubricate them. One drop is plenty, and will last a very long time.
After a quick check, I realized that the new bushings wouldn’t fit the holes in the headstock, and the old screw holes wouldn’t fit for the new tuners. That led to two easy tasks, if you have the right tools.
The headstock’s holes need to be enlarged, which at first might sound like an easy task. Unfortunately, it’s not, and a word of warning: Never try to enlarge a hole in a guitar’s headstock with your hand-held drill and standard drill bit! It will almost certainly end in disaster. Instead, here are three options I recommend:
-The quick and dirty solution: Use a sharp, fine, coarse, rounded file for wood, and enlarge the hole carefully until it’s big enough. If it’s not perfectly round, don’t worry. The bushings on top will mask your dirty little secret.
-The semi-pro solution: Use a very sharp countersunk drill bit in your stationary drill press, and choose a moderate speed. Don’t forget to wear gloves and goggles for this, and drill from the top towards the back of the headstock.
-The professional solution: Use a very sharp handheld tapered reamer. You’ll only need 20 seconds to do each hole.
I decided to use a reamer, so the new bushings will fit tight and snuggly.
For closing the screw holes on the back of the tuner, as well as closing one of the screw holes for the string trees, I decided to use toothpicks and some wood glue. Standard toothpicks are typically made out of any soft wood like birch, which makes them a poor choice for closing holes on a guitar, especially if you need to drill into them later on. Such soft toothpicks can be stabilized by using some super glue, but the better option is to use hard bamboo toothpicks, like you might find in a local Asian restaurant. They’re a bit thicker in diameter and much harder compared to standard toothpicks, so they’re a great match for this task.
After the wood glue has completely dried, you can chop off the toothpicks carefully flush with a sharp chisel, exacto knife, or razor blade. Because the area will be covered with the new tuners, you don’t need to be super careful, but putting a bit of tape to protect the surface won’t hurt.
We spent $75 on our tuners this month, so our budget for future investments is down to $121. We’re not out of the woods yet: Next month, we’ll press in the new bushings the right way and continue working on the neck, so stay tuned.
Until then, keep on modding!
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