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Last month, Guitar Center announced plans to launch its own in-house guitar brand – but caught flak from the guitar community for what it deemed the crowdsourcing of ideas with limited rights for those who submitted successful ones.

At its core, it seems like a worthwhile idea. “Guitars haven’t changed that much in the last 50 years, and we’re about to change that,” said CEO Gabe Dalporto, as he rationalised Guitar Center joining the likes of Thomann (with Harley Benton) in developing its own guitar brand from the ground up.

But some community members took issue with the move, with one labelling a stipulated rule for contributors to waive “moral and similar rights” to their ideas as “peak corporate cringe”.

• READ MORE: Gibson launches new ‘50s and ‘60s ES-335s – including one that should get Keith Richards fans excited

Now, Dalporto has joined YouTuber Phillip McKnight to explain a little more about how the brand’s idea to create its own guitar brand came about.

“Our private brands team came to me and they said, ‘Hey, we’re going to launch a new guitar. It looks just like a Tele, and it’s a Tele, but it’s not called a Tele.’ I’m like, ‘Reject it. No, this is stupid,’” Dalporto recalls.

“There’s a great Tele out there. It’s made by Fender. It’s an amazing guitar. The world doesn’t need another Tele clone. And it doesn’t need another Stratocaster clone. It doesn’t need another Les Paul clone. It just doesn’t.”

Dalporto explains that while other large musical instrument retailers have their own in-house gear brands, his idea is to do something radically different with Guitar Center’s new one.

“All big companies like Guitar Center, like Thomann – they’ve got their own private brands. Sweetwater’s got a few private brands. It’s what you do, right. You create private brands. 

“But all those private brands are just knockoffs of something else. And I’m like, ‘The world just doesn’t need that. We don’t need another knockoff. Why don’t we guys try to do something exceptional? And why don’t we do it out loud, in public, and start with customer feedback.”

Addressing the community backlash that occurred when Guitar Center asked its customer base for ideas, Dalporto continues: “Now, [people say] you’ll get the Homer Simpson car if you take everybody’s [opinion]. 

“And fine, but would you rather you don’t listen at all? And actually, every opinion that’s out there is out there from here to here, so you’re going to have to make choices. You can’t please everybody.

“There’s been some really cool ideas, and some of it is novel, some of it is like, ‘This guy in the ‘80s designed this nut and it is so amazing, and you’re like, ‘Holy shit, that is pretty cool, let’s take a look at that.’ So we’re taking information from Reddit, from Instagram, we’re getting some really legendary guitarists to come in and consult with us, we’re going to focus groups.”

Ultimately, Dalporto isn’t interested in seeing the project through unless what comes of it is meaningfully different.

“I said to our team, ‘We’re not going to build something if it isn’t awesome, and I don’t want something that looks like or feels like anything else.”

In terms of where things are in the design process, the CEO reveals the team has developed a number of prototype guitars, and is trying out different builds and pickup configurations.

“Our goal is to come up with something that doesn’t look like a Tele and a Strat that actually is reasonably priced – in the $700 to $900 range – a good solid quality guitar, not some $200 knockoff, that is meaningfully better, and differentiated. That is your workhorse guitar that you can take to any gig and travel with and is versatile – that’s what we’re going for. 

And while the company is still in the relatively early design process, Dalporto reveals his team already have plans for subsequent instruments.

“We’ll probably also do a second model that is just radically out there on the technology front,” he says. “And so we’re gonna push the bounds of technology and we’re gonna push the bounds of analogue.”

You can stay up to date with the latest from Guitar Center’s project at the r/GuitarLab subreddit.

The post “The world doesn’t need another Tele or Strat clone – it just doesn’t”: Why Guitar Center is launching its own guitar brand that’s “meaningfully better and differentiated” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Sometimes, too many cooks can spoil the broth – and that’s exactly what Ritchie Blackmore felt when he left Deep Purple back in 1975. In the 51 years since his initial departure from the band, he’s thrived being the boss in his musical projects, rather than having to consult a “committee” of other musicians.

In a new interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Blackmore explains that leaving Deep Purple to pursue other projects like Rainbow and Blackmore’s Night was his way of escaping a musical “stalemate”. While Deep Purple were always busy deliberating over their art, Blackmore just wanted to get straight into the studio. “I just felt that the band wasn’t pulling [its weight] as a musical venture,” he says. “It became a committee.”

• READ MORE: “Jimmy Page is a magical guy… Always will be!”: Ritchie Blackmore sets the record straight on Led Zeppelin ‘feud‘

In the Deep Purple “committee”, Blackmore notes that “there were always five different answers” because “everybody was into different things”. It always delayed creativity, because the band couldn’t decide what to do. “I got a little bit tired of the committee meetings…” he explains. “I basically thought ‘I’m going to [leave], get four other musicians, [and make it so I can] just get on with playing the music.”

He goes on to explain that the band sometimes couldn’t agree on tour dates. “Our manager [would] turn around to the band and say, ‘Okay, guys, let’s work out the tour for the next year’… straight away, it was ‘Okay, what about January the 25th?’… And somebody would speak up, ‘Oh, I can’t make that, I have a wedding to attend.’”

“This went on, believe it or not, until about June or July,” he laughs. “And I’m thinking, ‘This is ridiculous…. Are we a band any more, or are we just people going on holiday and going to weddings?’”

Another key reason for leaving was to truly let his creativity shine. While the differing tastes and “committee meetings” were already a hurdle, there were some cases where Blackmore felt his talent was being muffled due to other members not believing in his work. In some cases, members even rejected his writing if it meant they wouldn’t get writing credit.

He points to a track that ended up being on Rainbow’s 1975 debut, Black Sheep of the Family. “I thought it was a great song that we should do, whereas one of the members of the band said, ‘I don’t want to do that song… We didn’t write it, so we won’t get writing credits,’” he says.

It’s a strange memory he also recalled in a chat with Guitar World last month: “A band member said, ‘If we didn’t write it there’s no point in doing it because we won’t get writing credits’. I was really disappointed in that statement.”

Eventually, Blackmore would enlist Ronnie James Dio to record the track instead – and working with Dio would change everything. “We [recorded the track] in an afternoon,” he tells Ultimate Classic Rock. “We worked so quickly together. There was no committee meetings. He wasn’t going on holiday or getting married or anything else. Finally, things seemed to be going along quite quickly… and that’s when I decided to leave Deep Purple.”

Last November, Blackmore was forced to postpone the second leg of his Blackmore’s Night tour due to medical reasons. The dates are yet to be re-scheduled, and you can find out more about the band via the Blackmore’s Night website.

The post “The band wasn’t pulling its weight as a venture – it became a committee”: Why Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Gibson has expanded its ES lineup with two new vintage-inspired takes on its legendary semi-hollow electric: the ES-335 50s and ES-335 60s.

Handcrafted in Nashville, Tennessee, the new models aim to give players a more era-specific ES-335 experience, much like Gibson’s existing Les Paul Standard ‘50s and ‘60s guitars. While both instruments feature the classic ES-335 semi-hollow construction with three-ply maple/poplar/maple and a solid maple center block, each model leans into distinct appointments and feel from its respective decade.

• READ MORE: Gretsch is metal now? Legendary guitar maker unveils two new baritone models begging for downtuned riffs

The ES-335 50s arrives with a thicker Rounded C neck profile, dot inlays, a longer pickguard and a pair of Custombucker humbuckers loaded with Alnico 3 magnets. Vintage Deluxe tuners with keystone buttons plus gold Top Hat knobs with dial pointers complete the ‘50s aesthetic.

Meanwhile, the ES-335 60s opts for a faster SlimTaper neck, small block inlays, Grover-style tuners, a shorter ’60s-style pickguard and calibrated T-Type humbuckers with Alnico 5 magnets.

That ’60s-inspired spec also arrives just months after Gibson partnered with Keith Richards on a pair of ultra-limited – and ultra-premium – ES-355 Collector’s Edition models based on the Rolling Stones guitarist’s own 1960 ES-355. Richards famously used ES-355s during the recording of Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main St., as well as throughout the band’s live shows in later decades.

Elsewhere, both ES-335 models share the same core DNA including a 24.75” scale length, rosewood fingerboards with a 12” radius, ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridges and aluminium Stop Bars.

The finishes are split by era too: the ES-335 50s is available in Vintage Natural, Vintage Tobacco Burst and Ebony, while the ES-335 60s comes in Vintage Burst, Sixties Cherry and Dark Walnut.

“These new models are built for players who know exactly what they want, delivering a distinct decade-correct feel, look, and tone while preserving the unmistakable ES-335 voice that works in virtually any genre,” says Gibson.

Both guitars ship with Gibson hardshell cases and are available now for $3,499.

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For more information, head to Gibson.

The post Gibson launches new 50s and 60s ES-335s – including one that should get Keith Richards fans excited appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Jack Osbourne has shared a fresh update on the long-awaited biopic about his father, late Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne.

Speaking during a livestream on his YouTube channel last week, Jack – who serves as one of the movie’s producers – confirmed that the script is complete and the project is now actively moving forward.

• READ MORE: “Have Nuno Bettencourt and Tom Morello line up a bunch of bad motherf**kers”: Jason Newsted’s vision for an “appropriate” Eddie Van Halen tribute concert

“I can tell you this: we are moving ahead,” he says [via Blabbermouth]. “I was on calls today about it. The script is right there. We are good. This movie will absolutely happen.”

While no director has yet been attached, Jack says the team is preparing to begin that process soon, though fans may still have a long wait ahead of them.

“Realistically – I mean, look, we’re already halfway through ‘26 – it probably won’t come out until ‘28,” he explains. “But you never know. But, yeah, we’re full steam ahead. We’re about to start going out and getting a director attached. So, fingers crossed. I’m really excited. It’s, yeah, very much been a labor of love, of course. But, yeah, I’m excited – I’m excited for everyone to see this film.”

Plans for an Ozzy biopic first emerged back in 2021, years before the singer’s death last July at the age of 76.

Jack had previously shed light on the film’s direction during an appearance on Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast earlier this year, revealing that the project had undergone a rewrite and narrowed its focus to Ozzy’s early solo years following his departure from Sabbath.

Asked if details of the biopic had been announced yet, Jack said: “Well, it was announced that we were doing it with Sony Pictures. We haven’t announced the cast yet, ‘cause we haven’t settled [on all of it].”

“Initially it was gonna go from kind of my dad as a young man to the kind of mid-’90s, but we’re shrinking it down,” he said. “We’re doing a rewrite right now. In my perfect vision of it, it would be kind of the tail end of Sabbath, him going solo. [Because] you gotta have the love story. And that’s kind of the main focus of the film, and all the craziness that happened in the early ‘80s and Randy’s [Rhoads, late Ozzy guitarist] tragic death. But, yeah, it’s an origin story.”

The post Jack Osborne says the planned Ozzy Osbourne biopic will feature the fallout from Randy Rhoads’ death appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien has been talking of his move to Wales, where he now spends his time close to the cottage where Led Zeppelin have written many of their songs, especially those for Led Zeppelin III.

Writing for the 1970 album took place in Bron-Yr-Aur cottage in Wales between Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, and its remote setting and lack of power made for the perfect, inspiring retreat. O’Brien feels his move to Wales has made his connection to the band even stronger, and he feels he now understands them in a “deeper” way.

• READ MORE: “Jimmy Page is a magical guy… Always will be!”: Ritchie Blackmore sets the record straight on Led Zeppelin ‘feud’

Speaking to Prog Magazine, O’Brien says, “When you go to this land, you understand Led Zeppelin in a way that goes deeper. When you hear The Battle Of Evermore – man, it’s like being on the top of fucking Plynlimon, the highest point in mid-Wales, and you feel it. And it’s so in this land, this land of poets, this land of mystery, this land of spirit.

“If you’re sensitive to this stuff – and, as musicians, we tend to be sensitive souls – you feel it. And that’s why I’ve been drawn to Wales. That’s why I love Wales. That’s why Wales is my home,” he explains.

Ed O’Brien has also been reflecting on Radiohead’s career. In a recent Uncut interview, he was asked about the moment in his career when he felt Radiohead had created something completely artistically new, “I think The Bends, really,” he replied.

“You could feel the influences on the sleeve of Pablo Honey, but The Bends was pretty diverse. If you think about the way that that album bookends, it starts with Planet Telex and ends with Street Spirit. Two quite different songs – the power and the sonic playfulness of one, and then the emotion of the other.

“We knew there were flaws with the first album, and it was propped up massively by Creep. If Creep hadn’t been as big as it was, there’s a very good chance we may never have made another record, because the record company would have dropped us,” he admitted.

Ed O’Brien is releasing his second solo album, Blue Morpho, on 22 May. 

The post “When you go to this land, you understand Led Zeppelin in a way that goes deeper”: Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien on why moving to Wales reframed his love of the iconic rock band appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

£435, teachingmachines.co.uk

It’s easy to look at the world of guitar effects these days and wonder if we’ve reached a point where all the innovation has started to dry up. It feels like not that long ago every month seemingly saw a new and wildly inventive new pedal arrive, often out of nowhere, that instantly inspired people to make new music and approach their instrument differently.

• READ MORE: Line 6 Helix Stadium XL review – “bewilderingly ambitious… but it feels like the future”

Those ‘wow’ moments seem to come along less frequently nowadays, and that’s only natural. Like iPhones or the mechanical wristwatch, guitar pedals have reached a “mature technology” stage where most of the big breakthroughs have happened. We’re probably past ‘peak pedal’ now – as this very website opined a few years back – and while that doesn’t preclude people making interesting new pedals, they’re going to be mainly iterating on what already exists.

It does, however, make it all the more exciting and interesting when something comes along that does surprise you, and that does approach things in a way that you haven’t seen before. Allow me to introduce the Teaching Machines FuzzBillion.

Teaching Machines FuzzBillion: what is it?

Teaching Machines is the brainchild of Frank Naughton and Mat Wigley, two friends and musicians who decided to work together to craft unique musical devices from their home city of Cardiff, Wales. The brand’s first product, the Wellspring – a rackmount analogue stereo spring reverb with a huge amount of unconventional tweakability and functionality – showed that this two-man operation was not short of ambition or inventiveness.

The FuzzBillion is their first foray into floor-based guitar pedals, and while it looks like the sort of thing you’d use to input the nuclear codes or do some Cold War code-breaking (or in guitar terms, a Lovetone pedal from the 90s), it is in fact a totally unique and totally analogue dirt pedal.

On the top of the pedal you’ll find 11 rotary switches that are numbered from 0-9. Each of these rotaries controls various types of diodes and amplification devices from Germanium to Silicon and light-emitting diodes.

The numbers determine the intensity or type of the effect on offer, and each of these different stages then feeds into the next one using analogue technical wizardry. Effectively, it’s as if someone took apart a whole bucket load of fuzz pedals and reattached their components to a code generator wheel.

The result is, the brand claims, quite literally billions of possible permutations and combinations. I’ve not done the maths on this myself, but safe to say, there’s a lot going on here than your standard three-knob fuzz pedal…

Teaching Machines FuzzBillion: build quality and usability

I said that this thing looks like something you’d use to input the nuclear codes into, and that’s reflected in the overall build quality. With its rugged steel chassis, old-school plastic switches to control the rotaries, plus a big metal knob and footswitch, this certainly feels like something that’ll come through armageddon unscathed alongside Keith Richards and the cockroaches.

In case you were wondering, by the way, the ‘Wedi gwneud yng Nghymru’ you can see stamped on the case in our photographs isn’t more code that needs cracking, it’s simply Welsh for ‘Made in Wales’.

In terms of size, it’s not exactly pedalboard-friendly, and it’s not lightweight either. But given the way this pedal operates, you imagine it’s envisioned more as a studio tool anyway, so maybe that doesn’t matter.

The operation is both incredibly simple and deathly complicated. To make a sound, simply pick an 11-digit number, plug it into the rotary controls on the FuzzBillion and see what happens.

Now, if you’re feeling a little scared by all that open pasture ahead of you, don’t fret – Teaching Machines isn’t sending you into this blind. There’s a cheat sheet included in the box that explains exactly what each rotary control does, and the manual itself features a really in-depth but accessible guide to each one that features loads of example settings to try out – both for guitar, but also bass and synth too.

There’s also a good portion of the manual given over to providing space to log your favourite combinations – a handy little table that has space to put in 112 different presets with room for both the number and a brief description.

And you’ll need to get your pen and paper out, because this is an all-analogue thing, and that means no onboard presets, no MIDI and no way to save or recall anything other than the old-school method.

I do appreciate this commitment to the all-analogue form on some level, but it does definitely limit the FuzzBillion’s potential as a live tool to not have any way to quickly store and recall presets. I can’t imagine your bandmates having much sympathy for you stopping the gig between songs so you can input a credit card-length number into what is effectively an 11-barrel combination lock.

The act of putting those numbers in, however, is a big part of the FuzzBillion’s appeal – the tactile nature of it, the way the numbers thunk so satisfyingly as you input your chosen number… it’s a pedal that’s clearly designed to make you take a beat and enjoy the experience of tone exploration.

One slight drawback to this was the incongruous way the + and – controls are laid out – so that you have to press the switches on the bottom to increase the number, and the ones on top to go down.

No matter how long I spent with this pedal, I never once managed to adjust my brain to this upside-down configuration, and I hope future units turn them the other way. That doesn’t take away from the fact that using it is a hugely fun, unique experience that is unlike any other pedal.

Teaching Machines FuzzBillion: build quality and usability

A billion sounds then, but are they any good? Well, I decide the best thing to do is plug the FuzzBillion into a P-90 loaded Goldtop and clean Princeton Reverb, and have at it.

As you might well expect, all the main fuzzy food groups are covered here, and then some. From thick and sustaining Gilmour-esque leads, to Faces, Muffs, and Benders, and Velcro-ripping zonky splutters – I struggled to find a single fuzz sound it couldn’t do with absolute conviction.

But despite the name, this isn’t all about fuzz, and by delving deeper into the permutations and what they mean, you can quickly summon every other strand of the dirty dimension.

Awesome boosts and overdrive sounds? check! Distortion, yep tons of it. Hendrixian Octavia? Yes indeed! The best bass fuzz we’ve ever heard? Yep. Even when adding texture to synths or drum machines in the studio, the FuzzBillion, excels with gorgeous sonic authenticity and an innate ability to encourage further tweaking in search of new sonic horizons.

Personal sonic highlights include some simple op-amp boosts that offered gorgeous interactivity with the guitar’s volume control, a mismatched transistor fuzz, and hours of fun making spaceship noises with the theremin-ish Phase-locked Loop rotary (nope, I don’t know what that is either), desperately trying to follow the pitch of my notes. The sounds here are truly inspiring.

Teaching Machines FuzzBillion: should I buy one?

In a world of instant patch recall, deep-dive sub menus, amp capture and IR rig modelling, it’s refreshing and enlightening to realise your time investment experimenting with the FuzzBillion will not only be some of the most fun you’ve had with your instrument, but you’ll also develop a deeper understanding of how your dirt sounds are created and how components work together to shape that tone.

There’s no doubt that a lack of presets and MIDI control is going to limit its live utility, but studio musicians will rejoice at the transformer-isolated switchable line-level ins and outs, allowing the FuzzBillion to add its dirt to everything from synths to samples.

Teaching Machines describes the FuzzBillions as the “last distortion pedal you ever need” and while all us pedal obsessives know that’s a fanciful idea no matter how good something is, it’s rare to find one pedal that covers so many bases in such a comprehensive way – while also adding some new points on the map that you’ve never heard before. It’s not cheap, but the unique things rarely are.

Teaching Machines FuzzBillion: alternatives

It won’t surprise you to learn that there are not many all-analogue dirt pedals that promise a billion sonic combinations on the market – in that regard, and in the way you use it, it’s certainly unique. However, if gain experimentation and versatility is what you’re after, then Chase Bliss’s Preamp MKII covers a huge array of Boost, Drive and Fuzz textures – you’ll have to find one on the used market though as it’s out of production. At the fuzzy end of the spectrum, the Clusterfuzz ($219) by FunctionFX has a number of different clipping options and filters in a compact package.

The post Teaching Machines FuzzBillion review: is this the most ambitious and unique dirt pedal ever made? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Steve Hackett has revealed that Genesis were accompanied by a rather strange companion in the studio while recording their A Trick Of The Tail album – a lion cub.

Released in 1976, A Trick of the Tail marked the band’s seventh studio album, and was their first record featuring drummer Phil Collins as lead vocalist following the departure of Peter Gabriel. The album celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and early work began in a peculiar basement rehearsal studio in Acton, London.

• READ MORE: “A Beatle knows who I am? Ridiculous”: Peter Frampton’s response when George Harrison invited him to play on All Things Must Pass

Speaking to Prog Magazine, Hackett recalls of the studio, “I seem to remember at one point that there was a spare lion roaming around. Well, a lion cub: it was like a pussy cat, rolling over, being playful. It did have a very rough tongue, and a big head.

“It was like a cross between a large cat and a medium-sized dog. It had no teeth at that point, but you could feel the strength of the little thing. That said, growing up in the 1950s I went with my dad to a market in Peckham and you could buy baby alligators in fish tanks. I stuck my finger in a monkey’s cage and got it bitten. Of course, I now sympathise with the monkey.”

Speaking of the band’s shifted lineup at the time, he also adds: “I will always miss Pete, but I was very glad to work with the other guys and see that we were all coming up with extraordinary things that were not solely dependent on one guy. Songwriting was very much at the heart of Genesis, which is why people still listen. It can’t be for the hairstyles or the strides!”

Hackett discussed the “imperfections” in classic Genesis albums in an interview last year, and though he feels such flaws do come to sound “sweeter” over time, he’s not opposed to polishing them up when revisiting these records in the present day.

“I think old material sounds sweeter with the passing of time. I think you forgive its imperfections and try and change those things when you go to it again. So things that might have been recorded in haste with aspects of timing and tuning, there’s no excuse for that these days. If you’re going to do a revisit, you might as well straighten out those things,” he said.

The post “At one point that there was a spare lion roaming around”: Steve Hackett on the bizarre recording of Genesis’ A Trick Of The Tail album appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The idea of an Eddie Van Halen tribute concert is something that’s been discussed a lot since the guitarist tragically died in 2020, but has never come to pass. Now, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted – who was once in the frame to take part – has made his feelings known about what the concert should entail, should it ever happen.

The idea of a tribute show was reportedly proposed in 2021, a year on from Eddie’s passing, by Alex Van Halen and former Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth. Joe Satriani said in an interview earlier this year that the idea “fell apart”, and felt uncomfortable with the idea of taking on guitar duties.

• READ MORE: Steve Vai recalls hearing unreleased material at Eddie Van Halen’s house: “Nobody plays like they do when they’re in their room alone… It was such great stuff”

During a chat with Eddie Trunk on TrunkNation, Newsted recalls also being contacted by Alex: “I remember having a phone call with Alex and then telling Joe [Satriani] that I didn’t think it was appropriate, and that was the last I ever heard of it. I think I’m in the same camp as most people [in thinking] that [it needs to] be done properly and concisely.

“It needs to be a special thing, two nights at some place and it’s just that, but it’s getting kind of late to do it correctly, I think. It’s got to be an honour show. It has to be that. It’s not just going to be some kind of rock show. It has to be a hybrid dedication kind of event, and I’m not sure those logistics could be worked out anymore,” he shares.

Trunk then discusses the idea of having a show with a similar format to the tribute concerts the Foo Fighters hosted after the passing of drummer Taylor Hawkins. Newsted then goes on to question if a supposed tribute event would be honouring the whole of the Van Halen band, or just Eddie, and shares opposing ideas for the two.

“How are you going to do that and still pay homage to Alex also and pay homage [to] the band? If you’re going to do an Eddie tribute, then have Nuno Bettencourt and Tom Morello line up a bunch of bad motherfuckers, and you do that thing and everybody takes their shot at one of Eddie’s songs. Something like that. That needs to be its own category and its own thing.

“If you’re going to have a Van Halen honour, then it needs to be for the band. That’s how I see it,” he says. “If somebody would be able to co-ordinate something that was timely and appropriate, like an anniversary of a passing, of the beginning of the band, an anniversary of the biggest album of the band – something that made sense to the fans – and they did it as an honour to the music that was made, not just certain guys that played it, that’s the way it has to be done in my opinion.”

While there are no plans at the moment for any tribute show, Alex Van Halen is putting together an album of unheard Van Halen material with help from Steve Lukather. The record will utilise material that was due to be come the next Van Halen record and re-work it. Lukather has confirmed he is not playing guitar on the record.

The post “Have Nuno Bettencourt and Tom Morello line up a bunch of bad motherf**kers”: Jason Newsted’s vision for an “appropriate” Eddie Van Halen tribute concert appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$122/£125, ehx.com

It doesn’t take much to get me excited about a new pedal – especially one with the words ‘Big Muff’ on the front. And when it’s a long-forgotten variant that never went into production, found by chance in a pile of old papers and now brought into existence after almost half a century… well, by the time the announcement video finished I was sitting in a pool of my own saliva.

• READ MORE: Strymon Fairfax review – an old-school drive pedal with plenty of rough edges

But then, after I changed my trousers, my inner cynic began to stir. Do we really need yet another Muff? If this circuit is so good, why did Electro-Harmonix choose not to build it in the late 70s? And doesn’t the involvement of JHS Pedals supremo Josh Scott – undisputed world champion of stompbox salesmanship – suggest the whole thing might be more about clever marketing than genuinely new tones?

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff 2 – what is it?

The story goes that Josh and archivist Daniel Danger were researching their book on the history of Electro-Harmonix when, during a visit to the old workshop of original Big Muff designer Bob Myer, they found the hand-drawn schematic of the fuzz that never was. And so, with Bob’s blessing, they made it real – first as an ‘EHX by JHS’ pedal in a large folded metal enclosure, and now also as a nano-sized version produced by EHX.

The technical angle is that it’s powered by dual op-amps rather than transistors. That’s also true of the model favoured by Billy Corgan and recently reissued as the Op Amp Big Muff Pi, but we’re told to expect a different sound here – something “slightly more dynamic, slightly more fuzzy”. It’s controlled by the classic three-knob array of volume, tone and sustain.

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff 2 – what does it sound like?

It sounds big and it sounds muffy, but that doesn’t mean it sounds Big Muffy… at least, not completely. This is a fuzz with no shortage of thickness, and when you hit strident power chords you can certainly hear the rich, gurgly roar that defines the type – while single notes sing out with that familiar boop-boopy smoothness.

It’s only when you crank the tone knob to open up the top end that… well, it doesn’t happen. You can sharpen up the treble for sure, but it never fizzles and sizzles with the freshness of its many siblings. What you get instead is a solid midrange – which is not exactly vintage, and can sound congested at times, but could be welcome if you’re not a fan of the old Big Muff mids-scoop.

Max out the sustain and it gets fuzzier, of course, but you might also notice a jittery gating effect when you stop playing, which is not pleasant. Luckily, there are two ways to avoid this: either keep the sustain down at around halfway, which is quite filthy enough for most use cases, or just carry on playing forever.

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff 2 – should I buy it?

Remember, this circuit wasn’t lost – it was rejected – and there’s nothing in the performance of the Big Muff 2 to suggest that was some sort of calamitous mistake. If you’re looking to buy your first Muff, this is not the one to go for – EHX has several other options that cover the basics better.

Having said that, once you strip away the backstory and judge the pedal on its own merits, it is really rather nice. This is a straightforward fuzz with a powerfully throaty sound that might even hit the spot more satisfactorily than a traditional Muff for some players.

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff 2 alternatives

For something tonally similar but a little more ‘correct’, your first port of call is probably the Electro-Harmonix Green Russian Big Muff Pi ($109/£85). But there are hundreds of refinements to the formula from other makers, including the EarthQuaker Devices Hoof ($179/£195) and ThorpyFX Fallout Cloud (£199.99/$299).

The post Electro-Harmonix Big Muff 2 review – a forgotten fuzz masterpiece, or just a marketing exercise? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Gretsch isn’t the first brand that comes to mind when you think ‘metal’. Hell, you could argue several other brands under the Fender umbrella – Charvel, Jackson and EVH – already have that sector covered.

But the good folks at Gretsch seem keen to get in on the drop-tuned, heavy riffing action, too, as they unveil a pair of new baritone models, which aim to bring “essential Gretsch power and fidelity at sub-sonic levels”.

• READ MORE: First a Godzilla Strat, now a PAC-MAN Tele…

Arriving in the brand’s mid-priced Electromatic series and adopting the Jet and CVT blueprints, the new guitars come with extended scale lengths (baritones, duh), plus coil-splittable Twin-Six Alnico humbuckers.

The Electromatic Jet Baritone lands with a massive 29.75” scale length, along with a Performance “C” maple neck and bound rosewood fingerboard, a chambered mahogany body with Comfort Contours and a bound carved maple top.

Meanwhile the CVT – a gretsch design touted by the likes of Rory Gallagher, Jimi Hendrix and Josh Homme – aims to “expand players’ sonic palette and help them descent into uncharted depths”, with a 27” scale length, mahogany body with beveled contours, and like the Jet, a Performance “C” maple neck and bound rosewood fingerboard.

These two guitars are far from the first baritones in the Gretsch lineup, but judging by the demo video below – for which the brand has tapped Loathe guitarist Erik Bickerstaffe – it seems its leaning heavily into the heavy metal angle with this launch.

Price-wise, the Electromatic Jet Baritone clocks in at £609 / €719 / $699, while the Electromatic CVT Baritone is priced at £599 / €709 / $599.

Learn more at Gretsch.

The post Gretsch is metal now? Legendary guitar maker unveils two new baritone models begging for downtuned riffs appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The truss rod might be one of the most misunderstood components on a guitar when it comes to DIY setups. A lot of players think it’s some delicate mechanism that’ll explode if you look at it wrong, while others treat it like a universal fix for every setup issue. The reality sits somewhere in between, and getting it right makes a massive difference in how your guitar plays. So let’s take a look at what a truss rod is and what it actually does.

• READ MORE: What’s the point of a guitar’s pickguard anyway? This is what it’s actually there for…

What a Truss Rod Actually Does

A truss rod is a metal rod running through the length of your guitar neck, and it has one very specific job: counteracting the pull of your strings and contributing to neck stability. That’s really all it does. Your strings create somewhere between 100 and 180 pounds of combined tension pulling on the neck, trying to bow it forward. The truss rod provides resistance against that force.

Picture your neck like a diving board with weight on the end. The strings are that weight, making it curve. The truss rod is what lets you control how much it flexes. When you tighten the rod, you’re pulling the neck backward, reducing the bow. When you loosen it, you’re allowing more forward bow.

As an aside, there are dual-action truss rods, which can bend the neck in either direction, but the vast majority of guitars use standard single-way truss rods. Some guitars and basses use two truss rods to do the same thing, but for the sake of simplicity here we’ll just talk about single-action ones.

This is where the confusion starts. The truss rod doesn’t directly raise or lower your action. It doesn’t fix fret buzz on its own. It won’t help your intonation. It controls one thing: the amount of curve in your neck, which is called “relief.” That relief is the intentional bow you want in the neck to give strings room to vibrate without smacking into frets.

Understanding Relief

Most guitars play best with between 0.005” and 0.012” of relief measured at the center of the neck. You check this by fretting the low E string at both the first fret and where the neck meets the body (typically around the 17th fret), then looking at the gap between the string and the fret around the 7th or 8th fret. That small gap is your relief.

Too much relief makes the middle of the neck feel like it has high action. Playing in that 5th-to-9th fret range becomes harder than it should be. Too little relief – or a back-bow where the center of the neck is actually higher than the ends – causes fret buzz, especially on the lower frets when you’re playing with any real attack.

The right amount depends on your playing style. Light players who mostly strum chords can run less relief. Aggressive pickers and lead players who really dig in need more space for the strings to move around without buzzing out.

Common Mistakes

The most frequent error is using the truss rod to adjust action height when the real problem lies elsewhere. Action is primarily set at the nut and bridge. The truss rod only matters if your neck relief is off.

Another common issue is being overly cautious. Yes, you can damage a truss rod, but it’s not nearly as fragile as people think. These components are designed to be adjusted regularly. The key is making small changes, giving the neck time to settle, and checking your work. A quarter turn, waiting several hours or overnight, then reassessing – that’s the process.

Then there’s adjusting without actually measuring. Some of you out there might have laser eyes, but all it takes is a capo and a feeler gauge to be precise, so why not just measure? In my experience (gained from millions of mistakes), guessing leads to problems.

Finally, people adjust too quickly after changes. Brand new strings, different string gauges, major temperature swings – necks need time to adapt to these changes before you start making adjustments. Give it a few hours at least.

The Correct Approach

Start with your guitar tuned to pitch. Relief changes with string tension, so you need accurate tension to get an accurate measurement.

Check your current relief using the method described earlier – fret at both ends, observe the gap at the middle. Need more bow? Turn the truss rod nut counter-clockwise to loosen it. Need less bow? Turn it clockwise to tighten. Standard threading rules apply here and the truss rod adjustment will normally be at the headstock of the guitar (sometimes beneath a truss rod cover) – but on some models, they are at the base of the neck, where it attached to the neck pocket.

Begin with a quarter turn. That’s 90 degrees of rotation. Retune your guitar since changing neck shape affects string tension slightly. Then wait. Check it the following day. Make another small adjustment if necessary.

If you keep tightening without seeing changes, or if the nut becomes genuinely difficult to turn, stop immediately. You’ve either reached the rod’s adjustment limit or there’s a structural problem that needs professional attention. Truss rods can strip out or seize up depending on their construction, and if that’s the case, it will require an experienced tech to do some surgery, which can require removing the fretboard to access the truss rod.

When the Problem Isn’t Relief

High action uniformly across the entire fretboard points to bridge or saddle height, not relief issues. Buzzing only on the first few frets suggests nut slot problems before relief problems. Buzzing everywhere might mean you need fret leveling work.

The truss rod is one component in a complete setup, not a magic solution. A proper setup involves nut height, truss rod relief, bridge height, intonation adjustment, and sometimes fret work. These elements work together as a system.

Knowing what the truss rod actually controls – and equally important, what it doesn’t control – prevents you from chasing solutions in the wrong direction. Once you understand its actual function, setting up your guitar becomes much more straightforward, and you’ll stop making adjustments that create more problems than they solve.

The post This is how your guitar’s truss rod actually works – and here’s what you’re doing wrong with it appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Palace Skateboards. Supreme. Jameson Whiskey. Godzilla. It’s generally pretty difficult to know where Fender is heading next in terms of its collaborations, but I bet you didn’t see this one coming.

The guitar giant has just announced its new partnership with Bandai Namco, proudly unveiling its new Limited Edition PAC-MAN Player II Telecaster, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the Telecaster and the 45th anniversary of the legendary arcade game.

The iconic PAC-MAN maze is unmistakable, and it’s emblazoned in all its glory across the front face of the new Player II Telecaster. We all remember the peril we felt as kids as PAC-MAN’s arch rivals, the ghosts Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde were never far behind… And they’re all featured on the guitar’s eye-catching retro design. There’s also a Fender x PAC-MAN logo on the back of the guitar.

• READ MORE: Fender Godzilla Distortion: imbue your pedalboard with the “sonic might of the King of Monsters”
  

In terms of specs, the Limited Edition PAC-MAN Player II Telecaster features an alder body, Modern C neck profile, 9.5”-radius, 22-fret rosewood fingerboard with rolled edges, a pair of Alnico V single-coil Tele pickups, ClassicGear tuning machines and a six-saddle string-through-body Tele bridge.

The pickups are controlled by three-way blade switch, as well as singular volume and tone controls.

“Teaming up with Bandai Namco isn’t just a partnership, it’s a collision of two cultural forces that have shaped generations,” says Justin Norvell, Chief Product Officer at Fender. 

“Fender and PAC-MAN share something rare: the ability to make people feel something profound, decade after decade. Our new offering honors that legacy with the uncompromising craftsmanship Fender is known for, wrapped in the unmistakable iconography of one of gaming’s greatest legends – a natural expression of two icons that have never stopped inspiring, built for the fans who grew up with both, and for the players who carry that spirit forward.”

“As we celebrate our milestone anniversaries, our PAC-MAN collaboration with Fender captures the endearing legacy of two global icons  that have created memories across generations, and done so in the hands of people who have been able to experience joy and showcase their skill,” adds Susan Tran, Sr. Director of Brand Development for PAC-MAN at Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. 

“Seeing and holding the PAC-MAN Player II Telecaster, it just feels right, as if this is exactly how these two timeless brands were meant to come together, in something exquisite that conjures nostalgia, feels familiar, and inspires creativity the moment it is in your hands.”

In addition to the PAC-MAN Tele, the two companies have also unveiled a line of clothing exclusive to Japan under Fender’s F IS FOR FENDER line. Available at Fender’s flagship Tokyo store, and at the F IS FOR FENDER website, the collection includes three retro-inspired premium cotton T-shirts in a range of colours, and two “nostalgia-infused” baseball caps.

The Limited Edition PAC-MAN Player II Telecaster is available now, priced at £949 / $1099.99 / €1099.99.

Learn more at Fender.

The post First a Godzilla Strat, now a PAC-MAN Tele… appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Session bassist Guy Pratt has revealed how his headless bass was stolen from a music store in London in the 1990s, which remains missing to this day.

Pratt, who has played with Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Madonna, and many other huge artists, shared the story during an episode of his Rockonteurs podcast, hosted alongside Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet. His bass was taken as part of a string of thefts at the time, when a thief used the headless design to their advantage.

• READ MORE: The intriguing history of Steinberger guitars

Pratt recalls (via Guitar World), “I had this bass, and I gave it to the Bass Centre [in London, England] to sell. They called me up one day and said, ‘Really sorry, Guy, but someone’s nicked your bass.’ And it turns out they’d had a raft of thefts of headless basses.

“Eventually, this guy got caught. They went round to his place, and he’s got a flat full of headless basses for the simple reason he’d figured out a way he could nick them, because they don’t have a head, if you had a big carrier bag, you could put the body in the bag and have the neck go up your arm. So he stole about 50 basses.”

The podcast clip has been highlighted by content creator Danny Sapko, who has also shared Pratt’s appeal to locate the missing guitar in return for a reward. The bass you’re looking for is a Steinberger L2, serial number 712.

Speaking of stolen bass guitars, Ian Horne, a former sound engineer for Wings, recently recalled how remarkably relaxed Paul McCartney was when he broke the news to him that his 1961 Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass had been stolen.

While Wings were working in a recording studio, Horne had parked a truck full of their gear on a West London street, which was broken into. The stolen bass became the focus of a BBC Two documentary film, McCartney: The Hunt For The Lost Bass. It has since been reunited with McCartney.

“All these things go through your head,” said Horne in a Radio Times interview. “I must have looked like a beaten man when I knocked on the door. I just came out with it: ‘I’ve got some bad news, Paul. Our truck was broken into and the bass was stolen.’ I expected him to go ballistic, but Paul was lovely about it. He said, ‘It’s all right, I’ve got another one.’”

The post “If you had a big carrier bag, you could put the body in the bag and have the neck go up your arm”: How a prolific guitar thief stole 50 headless bass guitars in the ’90s appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Despite Angine de Poitrine initially landing on their microtonal sound as a joke, the polka-dotted papier-mâché-headed duo have taken the rock world by storm. Now, guitarist Khn de Poitrine’s wonky, double-necked bass/guitar started out as an experimental Frankensteinian hack job is being sought after by guitarists across the globe – and Eastwood Guitars has recreated it for the masses.

Upon sharing a Guitstarter campaign for the Microtonal Doubleneck 4/6, fans flocked to pre-order and back the model. While Eastwood Guitars only needed 12 backers to make the guitar a reality 36 customers have since bought the $1,299 axe.

• READ MORE: “The guitar gets funny questions because it looks like a dead body”: Angine de Poitrine have to transport their double-necked guitar in a sleeping bag – which causes problems at airport security

The Microtonal Doubleneck 4/6 appears to boast 38 frets on its guitar neck, coming in at 24.75” in scale, while the bass neck has 28 frets and sits at 30.5”. Alongside the bolt-on maple necks with rosewood fingerboards, the guitar features an alder body and Gotoh-style nickel and chrome hardware. It also weighs in at around 11 lbs.

While the model isn’t an official collaboration with Angine de Poitrine, Eastwood explains that there had previously been talks of collaborating with the band’s luthier, Raphael Le Breton. There had been discussion of authentically recreating guitarist Khn de Poitrine’s iconic instrument – but Khn “ultimately decided he would prefer not to have a signature replica of his guitar made available for purchase”.

The company goes on to claim that the decision was one they “fully respect”. However, Eastwood was still keen to release something inspired by the group. “Many years ago, Khn had approached us with a request to build a white, microtonal version of our Eastwood 4/6 Doubleneck featuring black appointments,” the company explains. That old request has finally been brought to life.

There’s still 18 days left to pre-order a model, if you’re interested. Though, be warned – the signature Angine de Poitrine polka-dots are not included.

Though the anonymous Canadian group have kept things pretty private, last month saw them speaking to Cult MTL and explaining that the project is “a culmination of a lot of years of inside jokes”. Even their bizarre names are tongue-in-cheek, with Khn saying: “The names were our alter egos in a 10-minute free jazz project, where I was just fooling around on saxophone and [Klek] was on drums.”

Drummer Klek also forged his partner’s strange, alien guitar as a joke. “I took two guitars, and I took the frets from one board, which was kind of rusty and fucked up anyway, and I put them on a second fret board,” Klek said. “We thought it would look fucking sick, and for 15 seconds, we were like, ‘Oh, that’s a funny joke.’ But it became clear that it was a good idea.”

“The whole idea of the band was to assume a bit of a satirical approach to rock music in general,” Khn added. “We wanted an exaggeration, so the double-neck guitar was the perfect choice to kind of make fun of guitar heroes.”

For more information, head to Eastwood Guitars.

The post Eastwood Guitars unveils an Angine de Poitrine-inspired double neck guitar/bass – polka-dots not included appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

After NAMM President John Mlynczak this week said Donald Trump’s tariffs are “tilting the playing field against American manufacturers, American retailers, and the American children and families who depend on affordable instruments”, EarthQuaker Devices CEO Julie Robbins has announced she has joined a delegation of NAMM members to meet with congress to urge tariff relief on musical instruments.

In a press release shared with Guitar.com by EarthQuaker, it’s revealed that Julie Robbins joined the 20th NAMM Washington DC Advocacy Fly-In, representing the state of Ohio – where EarthQuaker is based – alongside 100 music business leaders and professionals representing all 50 states.

The delegation argued that tariff relief would benefit music retailers, manufacturers, educators and students across the US.

• READ MORE: Taylor Next Generation 324ce review: “this could easily be your forever acoustic”

“EarthQuaker Devices has spent more than $100,000 in tariffs since April 2025,” Robbins says. “That’s money that could have gone toward good jobs for Ohioans and provided our team with more resources to innovate.”

Julie Robbins has been a longtime advocate for tariff relief, and testified on Capitol Hill before the Senate Small Business committee in May 2025 about the harmful effects of tariffs on the musical instruments industry, specifically smaller, family-operated businesses.

“Today, I asked Ohio’s Congressional Representatives to stand up for their constituents,” she said. “And I will continue to advocate for relief as long as I have to in order to get them to join the fight in earnest.

In John Mlynczak’s latest statement on the devastating effects of Trump’s tariffs, he argued that they threaten the flow of new musicians into the industry, on which it so heavily depends.

“[These tariffs] will price beginners out of the market, which will hurt the American students, retailers, and manufacturers that depend on today’s students becoming tomorrow’s customers…” he said. 

“The American professional instrument market is only as strong as the student market that feeds it.”

Learn more about the NAMM Advocacy D.C. Fly-In at NAMM.org.

The post EarthQuaker Devices CEO says the brand has spent “more than $100k in tariffs since April 2025” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Not many guitarists out there have the bragging rights to say they’ve played one of Jimi Hendrix’s guitars, but My Chemical Romance’s Ray Toro can, and the experience, he says, was “mind blowing”.

MCR recently put out a teaser post on Instagram in relation to the 15th anniversary of their 2010 album, Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys. The album turned 15 back in November, but now the band have posted a graphic with the roman numerals XV and the famous spider graphic from the album’s artwork.

In a recently republished 2011 Guitar World interview about the album, Toro and fellow guitarist Frank Iero shared what guitars they were playing at that time, when Toro said he’d managed to get hold of a Strat that once belonged to Hendrix.

• READ MORE: “You ain’t gonna hear nothing”: Buddy Guy admits that when he first saw Jimi Hendrix play live he thought he was “too loud” – but the Brits were next level

He said, “I’m still a Les Paul player, but recently I had the chance to play one of Jimi Hendrix’s Strats. Totally mind blowing! This guy, Jimmy, from Mates Rehearsal Studios in California, had one. I had shown up at the studio, and I didn’t have a guitar to play, so Jimmy let me play this Hendrix Strat that he got from Jimi’s old guitar tech.

“The thing was beat to shit, but it was the best-playing guitar ever. I played it for a year – Jimmy let me use it in the studio. Man, I loved that.” He added, “Live, I’m still a Les Paul guy, but playing Jimi Hendrix’s Strat really got me interested in Strats and other guitars. In fact, I’m in desperate search for the ultimate Tele to play. If I can find one, I’m there.”

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In other Hendrix-related news, Marshall is marking 60 years since he first played through one of its amplifiers by launching a unique gear drop featuring three items with designs inspired by Hendrix’s style, sound, and interest in science fiction.

The drop includes a reskinned Acton III Bluetooth speaker, a 1959 JMH Half Stack, and a limited-edition Fuzz Face pedal, all featuring nods to his love of velvet, the jewellery he wore, and his unique sound.

More news about MCR’s Danger Days anniversary celebration is set to arrive imminently. Head over to the My Chemical Romance website for further updates, or to check out their full list of tour dates.

The post “The thing was beat to shit”: The time My Chemical Romance’s Ray Toro got to play one of Jimi Hendrix’s Strats appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

When you think of the forefathers of thrash metal, the likes of Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax and Exodus spring to mind. Whether the genre’s origins can be traced to a single person is the subject of much debate, but Megadeth drummer Dirk Verbeuren thinks the creator of thrash is clear: Dave Mustaine.

In a new interview with Brazil’s TV Braba, Verbeuren looks back on his 10 years to date with the band, and waxes lyrical on the musical legacy Dave Mustaine has carved out.

• READ MORE: “A Beatle knows who I am? Ridiculous”: Peter Frampton’s response when George Harrison invited him to play on All Things Must Pass

“To be in the band for 10 years and to kind of continue the legacy with great music – obviously everything Dave has done is iconic, but also the amazing drum work of Nick Menza, Gar Samuelson, Chuck Behler [former Megadeth drummers], all the guys that have been in the band since then, it’s truly an honour. In metal music, you can’t really go much higher than that legacy

He goes on: “And to me, Dave is the guy who invented thrash metal. He wrote a lot of the iconic early stuff that kind of defined what that genre sounded like, and you can recognise his riffs among a million riffs. He has such a unique style of playing to this day on the guitar that, to me, Dave is the ultimate rock god. Absolutely.

Elsewhere in the interview, Verbeuren remembers being a fledgling rock fan, and Megadeth being one of the first live shows he ever saw in 1990.

“It’s still surreal to this day to be part of such an iconic band. You have to know that I went to see Megadeth live in 1990, so I was like 15 years old at the time. It was one of the first shows I ever saw. I only saw two other shows before that.”

Dave Mustaine doesn’t pull any punches over how influential he has been on his thrash metal genre-mates, either.

“Kerry [King, Slayer guitarist] and I played together [during the early days of both bands], and I showed him how to play Megadeth songs, which was before [Slayer] started having all their pivotal records. Kerry and I had a really great time together,” he said in a recent interview.

“And I wrote music in Metallica and I wrote music in Megadeth. So I’ve been very influential with the guitar with these three bands.”

“And when I met Scott [Ian, Anthrax guitarist] and the guys in Anthrax out in New York,” he goes on, “the same thing happened. Their first record was very different from the record they made after they met me and the guys in Metallica. So I think that’s great. I love all those bands.”

Megadeth are currently on tour supporting their self-titled final album. Check out a full list of dates at their official website.

The post Megadeth drummer says Dave Mustaine “invented thrash metal” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Back in the ‘70s, the rock scene was a bit of a sausage fest. When Heart broke onto the scene, sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were in the midst of their 20s – and it could sometimes be a struggle to be taken seriously. In her new solo documentary, In My Voice, Ann has reflected on her career thus far, including how men used to belittle her and her sister.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Wilson admits that the predominantly male rock scene wasn’t very encouraging at first. “You would build yourself up and do something really great, and you’d feel really good about it – then you could get put down and squashed down very easily by the rest of the men,” she admits.

• READ MORE: “I wake up every morning thinking about what’s on my pedalboard” Adam Granduciel on his love of effects and the next The War On Drugs album

Despite her and her sister being branded as a ‘Little Led Zeppelin’ due to their buckets of guitar talent, men never seemed to judge them on their merit. Everything seemed to be pointedly attacking them just because they were young girls. “They could make you feel like you were really silly for even trying,” she adds. “We were lucky enough to have great people around us, but I know other women who were starting up close to our time that had to rebel as hard as they could to get anything happening at all.”

Prior to Heart’s formation, the sisters already had a sense of rock ‘n’ roll’s inherent sexism after walking out of a 1969 Led Zeppelin gig. In an interview with Premier Guitar’s 100 Guitarists podcast, Nancy recalled how appalled her and sister had felt while watching Robert Plant perform “scandalously” suggestive tracks at the Green Lake Aqua Theater in Seattle.

“The singer, he’s so suggestive,” Nancy recalled. “He’s got his shirt wide open, he’s got his bare chest, and his jeans were really low riders. He was moving in this way that was super-suggestive and we were kind of shocked. We’re like, ‘Oh, my God.’”

Aged 15 and 19 at the time, the pair weren’t very comfortable with the sexuality on display. “We were in a little folk band at the time,” she adds. “We were from the suburbs. So we were kind of square, square little hippie chicks to be unenlightened, let’s just say. And so, they were like, ‘Oh, they’re so loud. They’re just being so suggestive and loud.’”

“Then, he sang [the Lemon Song], saying ‘Squeeze My Lemon,’ and we’re like, ‘we must leave…’ because we were just shocked! We actually walked out… We were scandalised!”

Alongside the new documentary, Ann is releasing a new track, Nothing But Love. It’s a track she wrote back in the ‘90s, and will feature on the In My Voice soundtrack. “That track never saw the light of day until now,” she explains.

“I’ve always really liked it, but it didn’t fit with what was going on in the 1990s at all. It’s just so unlike what was going on at that moment, but it seems natural now. It’s got some soul to it. It’s something that I love hearing, and I love singing. I hope people really get lifted by it.”

The post “I know women who had to rebel as hard as they could to get anything happening at all”: Heart’s Ann Wilson recalls the sexism of rock and roll in the ’70s appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Peter Frampton has looked back on the time he received an unexpected invitation from George Harrison to record on the Beatles legend’s third album, All Things Must Pass.

George Harrison recorded the album predominantly at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios), but the now-defunct Trident Studios – located at 17 St Anne’s Court in Soho – was used for some overdubs, partly in order to utilise its 16-track recording technology.

• READ MORE: “It’s a little bit of a cheat”: John Mayer’s “critical take” on why country songs are always talking about drinking

As the story goes, Peter Frampton first met George Harrison through Terry Doran, Harrison’s personal assistant and a man heavily involved in organising the All Things Must Pass sessions.

And via a chance meeting at a pub between Frampton and Doran, Doran invited Frampton to Trident to meet George Harrison, who was producing a self-titled album for R&B singer Doris Troy.

After playing guitar in front of Harrison, the Beatles man was so impressed that he invited him to EMI Studios to play acoustic guitar on his album, including on tracks If Not For You and Behind That Locked Door.

Now, in a new interview with MOJO, Frampton recalls his interactions with George Harrison while recording the album.

“He was at Trident Studios. In the control room, there was George and he goes, ‘Hello, Pete’ – I thought Pete Townshend must have walked in behind me,” Frampton remembers.

“I mean, a Beatle knows who I am? Ridiculous. He said, ‘You want to play? Stephen Stills is downstairs.’ Klaus Voorman was playing bass, Ringo was playing drums, and George gives me this guitar, which I find out later was the guitar Eric gave him which he played on While My Guitar Gently Weeps. George said, ‘Here’s the chord, let’s go…’”

Elsewhere in the interview, Peter Frampton reflects on his Inclusion Body Myositis, which has progressively hampered his ability to play guitar in recent years.

“It’s become dangerous for me because if I fall I really do hurt myself, and going into a hundred hotels where everything’s different? Whereas I know every square inch of my house,” he says.

“But mentally, physically and otherwise, everything’s fine. It sounds weird but I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.”

Indeed, in another recent interview with the New York Times, the 76-year-old musician also commented on how he stays in a mentally good place despite his diagnosis. “If I don’t accept what I have, I’m going to be mad for the rest of my life,” he said.

Elsewhere, Peter Frampton is set to release his new album Carry the Light this week on 15 May. It marks his first collection of songs since his IBM diagnosis. Listen to Lions at the Gate, a track from the album, below:

The post “A Beatle knows who I am? Ridiculous”: Peter Frampton’s response when George Harrison invited him to play on All Things Must Pass appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Adrian Belew has looked back on the leadership of Robert Fripp after King Crimson was reignited in 1981 with new members, after seven years of lying dormant.

The original Crimson lineup disbanded after the release of 1974’s misunderstood record, Red. The new iteration consisted of Fripp, Belew, Bill Bruford, and Tony Levin, and was originally going to be called Discipline. It was Belew who suggested they go out under the Crimson name, and Discipline ultimately became the name of their comeback LP.

• READ MORE: “They’re booby-trapped!” Steve Vai recalls the difficulty he faced learning Robert Fripp’s guitar parts for BEAT

Speaking to MOJO, Belew explains, “I think I just wanted to tell people I was in King Crimson! Robert had already said our music had the spirit of Crimson, different as it was. So he went for it and that upped the stakes immensely – especially for him.

“Every decision went through Robert,” he adds. “If something wasn’t up to snuff he’d tell you. But he also gave me great latitude as a songwriter. Some of my own stuff had been a bit whimsical or personal, but I knew Crimson had to be less specific, more abstract.”

He goes on to explain: “I didn’t want to embarrass myself with these three highly intelligent guys. The only fairly straight-ahead love song was Matte Kudasai, which evolved out of this beautiful guitar instrumental Robert presented to me. That was when I thought, OK, I can write to this crazy music.”

Fripp has since reflected on the rocky release of Red. In a Guitar World interview released earlier this year, he said, “I would’ve stayed as an estate agent in Wimborne, Dorset, if I had known the grief that was coming my way. I would have stayed in real estate!

“My approach has been, if you read your press, you read all of it. And if you read all my press, there have been – by and large – as many people who hated it as who enjoyed it.”

Adrian Belew is now touring with the BEAT band, which plays ’80s King Crimson music and is composed of Steve Vai, Tony Levin, and Danny Carey. View their upcoming tour dates via the BEAT website.

The post “Every decision went through Robert. If something wasn’t up to snuff he’d tell you”: Adrian Belew on Robert Fripp’s leadership of King Crimson appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.