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Maker of the iconic Big Muff, Electro-Harmonix knows a thing or two about fuzz pedals. And the New York-based company is putting that expertise to good use again with its new stompbox, the Bender Royale.

Housed in EHX’s Nano-sized chassis, where the three-transistor Bender Royale sits on the fuzz spectrum is between the original vintage flavour of a two-transistor fuzz, and the more “over-the-top wall of sonic mayhem” that is the four-transistor Big Muff.

• READ MORE: Meet NotPedals.com, a marketplace that’s making boutique handmade pedals more accessible than ever

EHX’s fresh take on the Germanium MkIII version of the circuit, the Bender Royale builds on a standard control set of Volume, Fuzz and Bass, with the addition of a Fat switch which adds bass and low-mids for “tonal thickness”.

Guitarists can use the Bias knob to dial in the “sweet spot for the perfect amount of rip or leave the circuit starving for voltage”. There’s also a Clip switch which can be used to re-bias the final germanium transistor for a rougher fuzz tone.

And finally, the unit’s Treble control is an active treble shelving filter for harnessing high frequencies, while its Blend knob is available to mix wet and dry signals – great for zeroing in on the perfect level of clarity, especially when stacking other drive pedals.

Elsewhere, the Bender Royale features a mechanical relay true-bypass switch, with latching/momentary functionality.

The Bender Royale is available now for $149, and comes with a standard EHX nine-volt power supply.

For more information, head to Electro-Harmonix.

The post “Germanium fuzz explosion!” Meet Electro-Harmonix’s latest fuzz pedal, the Bender Royale appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

How many hours of practice per day should guitarists aspire to? Answers for this question vary greatly, with some saying serious players should be aiming to get hours in every day.

On the upper end of the spectrum, virtuoso Steve Vai recently recounted his rigorous practice regimen as a teenager, which saw him “happy if I got nine hours a day”.

• READ MORE: “AI should be putting mufflers on cars, not doing art for us”: Wolfgang Van Halen slams AI use in music

Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty doesn’t adopt quite the same level of obsession to his practice schedule, but in a new interview with CBS Sunday Morning, he details how he keeps his chops sharp.

“It just feels really good,” he says [via Guitar World]. “I like to practice, because my connection to the guitar makes me feel better. It’s a kind of therapy.

“It always takes a certain amount of time to work up to where you were yesterday. It doesn’t just start right there. You kind of sink back or something. Your muscles have to get warm again, I suppose.”

He goes on: “What’s cool about it is the next day, meaning today, you start practicing, and then you get better at something than you were yesterday. 

“That happens every single day. Sometimes, there’s a big chunk I’m trying to get better at, and sometimes it’s just some little thing. And the more you do it, the easier it gets, and the more you understand it, and you develop the actual coordination.”

But the big question: how many hours does John Fogerty actually practice per day? He answers about two or three hours.

“That’s ingrained in me, and also when I do that – that’s kind of what for other people would be their office, and their meditation space to kind of get it together to do their job.

“I’m practicing, and I do have various things I’m trying to get better at, but it also allows me to mentally and spiritually bond with the music that I love. You know, there’s always little bits of stuff that I’m not good at, and I wish I was better at some parts.”

Elsewhere, John Fogerty recently revealed the one thing that’s more important to musical success than being a good guitar player.

The post At 80 years old, this is how much John Fogerty practices guitar a day appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

With the widespread adoption of AI, artists have different levels of acceptance when it comes to its use in music. Some say it’s very much here to stay and should be embraced – like ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, who recently called the technology “unstoppable” – while others think we should pump the brakes.

Wolfgang Van Halen, for example, hasn’t pulled any punches when it comes to his thoughts on the matter, and even goes as far as to say generative AI is “dumb”.

• READ MORE: “It’s like some terrible disease”: Bruce Dickinson blasts the use of mobile phone cameras at Iron Maiden shows

In a new interview with Springfield, Missouri’s Q102 radio station, the Mammoth leader and multi-instrumentalist explains [via Blabbermouth]: “I think generative AI is really stupid. I just think it’s dumb. I think it’s a waste of time.

“I think AI should be putting mufflers on cars, not doing art for us. But other people feel differently. That’s how I feel. I think it’s dumb. I think it’s just – I don’t know – it’s not my thing.”

When pressed on the fact that some record labels are increasingly leaning on AI, WVH responds: “Yeah, it’s lame. Well, you know why? ‘Cause it allows you to pay less people. 

“All the people at the top see the line go up because they’re paying less people to do more work with less money. It’s kind of the way – every industry is, unfortunately, like [that] at the end of the day, which sucks. It’s never really about what’s being made. It’s how quickly you can make it and shovel it out to people.”

Despite Wolfgang’s stance on artificial intelligence, it hasn’t stopped the topic of AI from entering the Van Halen world.

Last year, it was revealed that drummer Alex Van Halen had reached out to ChatGPT maker OpenAI, to analyse “the patterns of how Edward would have played something” in hopes of generating new Eddie Van Halen riffs and solos.

That touches on a whole other issue entirely, mind, as Wolfgang Van Halen has repeatedly expressed his reservations – and even refusal – to posthumously release banked EVH riffs and ideas.

Elsewhere in the Van Halen world, vocalist Sammy Hagar recently called out Alex Van Halen, accusing him of “not doing his brother’s musical legacy justice” for leaving out his era of Van Halen in his book, Brothers.

Wolfgang Van Halen is set to release his new album with his band Mammoth, The End, next month. Listen to its title track below:

The post “AI should be putting mufflers on cars, not doing art for us”: Wolfgang Van Halen slams AI use in music appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The first time I bought a handmade, boutique pedal was in 2015. I was 19, spurred into expanding my pedalboard by effusive comments on Reddit and a desperate need to try and sound like Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats. The pedal was a Fuzzhugger Algal Bloom. It was more money than I had ever spent on a single pedal ever in my life, and I had absolutely no idea if it would even make it across the Atlantic – I crossed my fingers and, two weeks later, a package arrived at my door.

It was everything I’d hoped it would be – fuzzy, weird and beautiful. And In the decade since, that pedal has rarely left my setup, even when I went down to a mini board in a moment of misguided madness. It remained consistent throughout an ever-changing rig of different drives, fuzzes, amps and guitars. I’ve played more music through it than basically any other piece of equipment, and I owe it all to going out on a limb and ordering something weird and handmade from overseas.

• READ MORE: Earthquaker Devices Fuzz Master General review – “the full gamut of vintage-adjacent fuzz tones”

One person who really understands the unique joy of this is Alex Bray, founder of NotPedals.com. A Melbourne-based musician and pedal fanatic, he founded the storefront to stock strange and wonderful small-batch pedals – and to combat what he describes as a “monoculture” within the pedal world.

“I wouldn’t call myself a builder,” Bray says. “A lot of people think I am – I’ve tinkered a bit, you know, I got a Big Muff when I was 16, I played with that and modded it a bit. But I’m not a builder. But my friends are – people I know from all around the world, they’d make something and send it to me, and it would end up on my board. And I always said, ‘this is fucking cool, where are you selling these? How are you getting them into the hands of musicians?’”

The answer, he laments, was always the same. “‘Oh, I built a website’, or ‘I kinda put it on Instagram’, or ‘I put it on Reverb and it got lost amongst a million second-hand Les Pauls’. So they weren’t really finding a place to cut through, there wasn’t one central place where it could just be about pedals. So I built it.”

Not… pedals??

You can easily see for yourself what Bray has built. NotPedals’ front page is full of pedal brands you almost certainly haven’t heard of, but you probably immediately want to know more about. I mean, an overdrive that has interchangeable little ‘fuses’ for different sounds? A pedal that does, er, something with a “???” switch and a “!!!” knob? A quad-BBD analogue delay with presets and tap-tempo?

It’s rare to see pedals like this all together. Of course, there are a few other places that do collect some rather out-there sounds – Break The Machine is one great example – but these don’t share NotPedal’s sole focus on the purely small-batch, handmade things.

“The really original stuff is harder for people to get into in a lot of ways,” Alex says, “unless you absolutely trawl Instagram, Reddit and Reverb all the time to find these tiny builders. And then shipping can be super expensive, too!” And so one of the things NotPedals aims to do is a good deal of that searching for you. “NotPedals is heavily vetted. I know every builder that is on there, I’ve spoken to and built a relationship with all of them. They’re all making really high-quality stuff that you can’t find anywhere else.”

Shipping and shopping

There are really strong communities surrounding these kinds of boutique pedals – but normally it’s a bit more builder-focused, with makers congregating in DIY-oriented spaces like /r/diypedals and freestompboxes.org. But as a consumer who doesn’t want to debate the virtues of leaded vs unleaded solder, your shopping experience is much more likely to be drawn in by the immense gravitational pull of the major retailers.

One of the most appealing things with the big retailers, over ordering something kitchen-table-assembled, is consistency. You know what you’re going to get in terms of shipping and tracking, and the returns process. NotPedals is aiming to bring that feeling to the small-batch boutique world, too. One of the most striking things about the platform is that shipping is free. Worldwide. For everything. When I receive my NotPedals products for review, they come with great tracking and arrive quickly.

How does it all work? Despite Alex being based in Melbourne, the warehouse where the goods are stocked is in Ohio, bang in the middle of the USA’s shipping corridor. “I didn’t really want to spend $70,000 creating a completely bespoke shipping solution. So I thought it would be better to ship it all from one central place,” Alex explains. “When I bring a new builder onto the platform, after I meet them and get to know them and everything, they’ll ship the first batch to our warehouse in Ohio – everything goes out from there.”

“I’ve had people emailing us, particularly US customers, saying things like ‘I ordered this last night, and I was having dinner tonight, and the guy rocked up with the pedal! The bigger brands have access to this really nice retail experience – smaller builders before NotPedals didn’t really have that. As a buyer and as a musician as well, I want that nice, smooth experience, just as good as buying a Boss pedal – you know that it’ll be fast and there’s going to be proper tracking. I think all the smaller builders deserve that.”

Part of this, obviously, helps the platform feel much more approachable. Regardless of the actual price of an item, no one likes to add something to their cart and then suddenly see £40 of postage slapped on top of things just to get it to you from America – this resonates with both me and Alex, given that we’re based in the UK and Australia respectively. And, in order to expand out the ease of the process to a wider range of customers and also help mitigate the impact of tariffs, there are plans to open an EU warehouse as well.

Culture Shift

Since I bought that Fuzzhugger in 2015, the pedal world has continued to grow. What’s notable is that the makers who were at one time definable as bonafide “boutique” brands – JHS, EQD, Walrus and even Chase Bliss – have become some of the biggest names in pedals, in the space, second only to brands like Boss and EHX.

“The crux of it is, there are five or six dominant brands – they make great stuff. But it’s become a monoculture,” says Alex. “The same stuff is in every post on socials, on Reddit, on anything in the guitar communities. If you go into a guitar shop, which I hate doing now, it’s the same things all over the place. There really isn’t as much originality anymore in that market, in my opinion. As an artist, I think that doesn’t really flow with the originality and creativity that’s meant to be there in music. We’re not selling fucking accounting software!”

Of course, all of these brands make awesome pedals, and it’s especially great that a lot of the more artistically-led brands, ones with cool graphics and out-there effects, have risen up to be part of the mainstream. However, as they grow they inherently change. The kinds of experiences, sonic or otherwise, that you get from a single-person operation are intrinsically different to those offered by a business operation that’s expecting to shift thousands of pedals.

An example: when I receive the Ploverdrive for review, it comes with a Nanoblocks model of a bird, a level of case-candy that’s extremely rare for anything other than limited-edition pedals from larger brands. Sonically, there’s also a lot more room for the totally out-there when you’re expecting to shift tens of units rather than thousands. Some of the pedals on NotPedals will be totally unusable for the vast majority of players – which can make them a great antidote to having to contemplate the creative possibilities of the same identical Instagram board for nth time that day.

The sound of a NotPedal

Bray’s own musical background is in punk, (as he puts it, “lots of Dead Kennedys influence, lots of really questionable band names”), but he was still keen to cater to all sonic tastes with the platform. “I didn’t want to back us into a corner where every pedal on there was wild and full-on. Overdrives and compression and so on all have their place. There are builders all over the world, who range from making subtle, tasteful germanium drives to the most fucking crazy self oscillating tremolo-Fuzz-Face-thing. I connected with a real mix of people.”

Something else Alex notes is that some advances in tech have opened some sonic foors for smaller builders. “People have really broadened out from doing modified TS9s or Blues Drivers into potentially some really high-end sonic territory. I just got a Surreal Audio Echo Sphere – the stuff this pedal does compared to what I thought was a ‘boutique pedal’ even three years ago, is right up there with, I think anything else you can get on the market – it’s an all-analogue delay with preset banks, tap tempo, subdivisions and different LFOs. It’s crazy”.

Coupled with technical advancements, Bray highlights the agility of brands like these. “They’re the jet skis vs the oil tankers. They can turn on a dime and make something fucking weird that maybe won’t sell a lot – which is great. I personally don’t want another Centaur – I want something that is going to be like the Centaur is now but in 15, 20 years.”

For Bray, this forward-looking approach is essential – as that growth continues, we need more builders who fill those niches within the boutique community – and not just the unobtanium niche. “I was speaking to JHS and they’ve been super supportive from the day I emailed them cold!” Bray says. “I just said, I’m launching this thing. You’re a pedal guy, Josh, what do you think?’ – and their point of view is that there’s probably a lot of the new guard of pedals on NotPedals right now. A lot of the brands that no one knows about yet, but in ten years, they could be another JHS.”

A deeper look

Given the variety of sounds to be had from NotPedal’s catalogue, it’s only fair that we actually get our ears around what the storefront can offer. Alex kindly agreed to ship us three NotPedals pedals to check out – the Emerald Ox GLTTR!, the Galahcore FX Ploverdrive and the Monkey Riot Pedals Rippletron. You can check out our review of the Emerald Ox GLTTR! tomorrow – and hold onto your cochleas, as it’s the wildest of the bunch.

The post Meet NotPedals.com, a marketplace that’s making boutique handmade pedals more accessible than ever appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Bruce Dickinson has made no secret of his dislike of fans using mobile phones during Iron Maiden shows; the band have even prohibited their use for select upcoming gigs, though not all.

In a new conversation with Appetite For Distortion, the 67-year-old singer goes as far as to say he wishes the “camera on those things had never been invented”, explaining how their widespread use at concerts diminishes the experience for both the artist performing and fans alike.

• READ MORE: “He can do a lot of things people didn’t expect him to be able to do”: Dweezil Zappa thinks Wolfgang Van Halen’s success has proved wrong people who gave him a “hard time for no reason”

“It’s like some terrible disease, that people feel the need to look at the world through this stupid little device. It’s like a failing of humanity,” he explains. “You’re surrendering your senses completely to this little fascist in your hand.”

He goes on: “Put it down, put it in your pocket and look around you. Look at the people, look at the joy, look at the band, feel the emotion, feel the music. What a phone does, it cuts all of that off.

“And so I feel sad. I also feel pissed off, because as a performer, I want to perform for an audience of people that have some emotional feedback – not a bunch of Android twerps.”

Phone use at live shows has been a subject of contentious debate in recent months. One of the most high-profile bands from the rock and metal world to instate phone bans at their shows was Swedish juggernauts Ghost, with frontman Tobias Forge calling gigs with widespread phone use “deeply disconnected”.

In practice, these phone bans are achieved using locking phone pouches – with Yondr being one of the biggest suppliers – to attendees before entering a venue.

While many fans have received such phone bans well, others have voiced their concerns, for example pertaining to the ability to contact people not present at the venue in an emergency, or simply the removal of people’s freedom to choose how to remember the event.

“Many people want to share their experience and why shouldn’t they?” one fan wrote in a Reddit thread discussing Ghost’s phone ban.

As the discussion picks up steam, more and more high-profile artists are considering phone-free shows, with one of the most prominent being pop sensation Sabrina Carpenter. While she hasn’t decided to ban phones at shows yet, she recently revealed she was considering it.

Iron Maiden recently announced a new series of European shows on their Run For Your Lives tour, and while most will allow phones, there will be two phone-free shows in Paris, which will be filmed for an upcoming release.

See a full list of upcoming Iron Maiden dates via the band’s official website.

The post “It’s like some terrible disease”: Bruce Dickinson blasts the use of mobile phone cameras at Iron Maiden shows appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

After rumours recently began to swirl surrounding a potential Fleetwood Mac reunion for JK Rowling’s 60th birthday party, the band’s representatives have set the record straight and confirmed these rumours are untrue.

The rumours were ignited after a source hinted to the Daily Mail that was perhaps on the cards. “It is going to be no-expense-spared,” the source said. “She always finds a superstar band to perform for her New Year parties so the birthday will be no different – in fact it could be bigger better than years gone by because this time it’s for her 60th birthday.”

• READ MORE: “He can do a lot of things people didn’t expect him to be able to do”: Dweezil Zappa thinks Wolfgang Van Halen’s success has proved wrong people who gave him a “hard time for no reason”
  

But now, a rep for Fleetwood Mac has called this gossip out as being “categorically false”, adding, “It’s not in the realm of the true.”

As for why a Fleetwood Mac reunion could never be on the cards, band members agree that it’s impossible without Christine McVie, who passed away in 2022.

“When Christine died, Fleetwood Mac died… We cannot replace her,” Stevie Nicks told Rolling Stone in 2024.

Drummer Mick Fleetwood made similar comments in 2023, when he told press at the 2023 Grammys [via Consequence] that a Fleetwood Mac reunion was “unthinkable” following McVie’s death.

While the band did momentarily reunite for 2019 children’s hospital benefit concert and tour in 2018-2019, Christine McVie said in 2022 that the band “had kind of broken up again”. This wasn’t due to the band’s infamous relationship dramas, instead citing health reasons, telling Rolling Stone at the time that she didn’t “physically feel up for it.”

So no, don’t get too excited – Fleetwood Mac aren’t returning any time soon.

The post “This is categorically false”: Fleetwood Mac respond to reunion rumours appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

With the spectacular success of his band Mammoth, Wolfgang Van Halen has certainly proved those who have accused him of riding on the back of his father’s success wrong.

And as a fellow child of a musical pioneer, Dweezil Zappa has his sympathies with what Wolfgang has been through.

• READ MORE: Save up to 70% on guitars, amps and effects in Thomann’s massive Guitar Days sale
  

In a new conversation on the Andertons YouTube channel, Zappa – son of legendary musician Frank Zappa – says Wolfgang has been given a “hard time for no reason”, commending him for being a “trooper” in his response to critisicm

Wolfgang has dealt with critics even since replacing Michael Anthony as Van Halen bassist in 2006. Earlier this year, he said his dad would be “disgusted” at online trolls who think they are defending Van Halen’s legacy.

It’s Wolfgang’s stoicism in the face of criticism that, among other traits, garnered Dweezil Zappa’s admiration, but also his musical skill.

“He can do a lot of things that I think people didn’t expect him to be able to do,” he says. “And I’m sure it’s not because he wanted to prove them wrong. “It’s in his blood. It’s a thing for him to just keep exploring.”

Dweezil also says the fact Wolfgang is also a musician isn’t indicative of nepotism.

“I equate it to like, let’s say my dad was a medieval shoemaker… And he was the guy that invented the pointy-toed shoe.”

“I would have to perfect the pointy-toed shoe to carry the business forward, that’s how I look at it. I’m still working on making that pointy-toed shoe be as good or better than the original.”

Dweezil also notes that it’s important to find your own voice as an artist regardless, as he found himself compelled to do in his youth. However, as he explained in an interview with Marshall in June: “I don’t think I ever really developed my own style until I went through a whole other process of learning a lot about my dad’s music.”

The post “He can do a lot of things people didn’t expect him to be able to do”: Dweezil Zappa thinks Wolfgang Van Halen’s success has proved wrong people who gave him a “hard time for no reason” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$399/£379, walrusaudio.com

In a world where every boutique pedal builder worth their salt is seemingly getting in on the high-end DSP, it’s worth remembering that when they came along five years ago, the Walrus Mako series was a very big deal.

• READ MORE: Boss PX-1 Plugout FX review – “This is a pedal that could find a home in a lot of rigs”

It was rare enough at the time for boutique builders to invest the time, resource and ingenuity required to take advantage of the sort of high-end chips we saw in big brand modellers, even less so for them to squeeze it into such a compact form factor.

Those first Makos were a hit, and so it’s no surprise that the brand has come along with a MKII version that takes what was so successful about the originals and refines them even further. These MKIIs have been around for a while now, but today we’re checking out the updated version of one of the best of the original crop – the M1 High Fidelity Modulation Machine.

Walrus Mako M1 MKII High Fidelity Modulation Machine – what is it?

Like its predecessor, the M1 is designed to offer high-fidelity digital recreations of all your favourite modulation sounds – to the uninitiated that means chorus, phaser, tremolo, vibrato, rotary speaker, and filter sounds.

New for the M1 MKII is the addition of a flanger mode to one of the chorus settings, addressing what was a bit of an oversight on the original, but that’s not all. There are 18 algorithms in total, so three for each effect type, and there’s also been a fair bit of work done under the hood – several of the algorithms have been redesigned from the ground up to be more usable and better sounding, too.

The most striking difference between MKI and MKII is of course that two-inch OLED display that replaces the bank of fiddly mini-toggle switches. This means you can more easily access and tweak the various secondary functions as the display adjusts to reflect whatever you have to be tweaking.

Elsewhere, the layout has further been tidied up – the sides of the MKI were somewhat cluttered with stereo in and out jacks, a USB-C for software updates AND the power jack all on the sides. The sensible decision has been made here to shift the USB out the way up the top alongside the MIDI in and thru jacks.

Walrus Mako M1 MKII High Fidelity Modulation Machine – usability

One of the truly brilliant things about the Mako range is the way Walrus distilled a lot of the sounds and functionality of a bigger modeller into a compact package that, broadly speaking, put everything you needed on the pedal where any idiot (hello!) could quickly work out what he’s doing.

The worry when adding a screen to proceedings is that you’re going to, by design really, add extra functionality that will necessitate both menu-diving and manual consultation – the true nemesis of any lazy and technology-adverse guitar player.

There’s no doubt that there is an element of that with the MKII – it’s not as WYSIWYG user-friendly as the original, and you probably will need a scan of the online user guide to make sure you know what you’re doing.

At its core things are initially pretty straightforward still – there’s the big central rotary to select which type of effect you want to use, but now you’ll need to click on that knob to cycle through the three modes rather than select it with a mini-toggle.

Above you’ll find three global controls for rate, depth and lo-fi (more on that in a minute) and then you have two further ‘encoder’ rotaries that control what’s being displayed on the screen.

The left hand rotary controls the ‘parameters’ functions – which to those of us who don’t speak Walrus means things like the modulation type, the waveform symmetry, the stereo spread of the tremolo and the attack on the filter effects. There are loads; three for each position, and each can then be cycled through using our old friend the clicky knob.

The right-hand encoder is given over to the various fun bits of the ‘lo-fi’ aspect of this pedal. You can individually set the levels of various parameters like – say, tape age, saturation or noise – and then this whole gumbo can then be added to taste using the global control above it.

If all that seems like a lot to get your head around, well that’s why there are 128 MIDI-recalable presets – or nine onboard the pedal itself. You’re going to need them, because honestly who fancies messing around with all that in the heat of a gig?

One thing that hasn’t fully been fixed since the MKI is that Walrus aren’t exactly giving you a lot of help in that regard either – while the brightness of the OLED doubtlessly makes things easier to see on the fly, actually tweaking the thing is still a fiddly and fraught affair.

Walrus Mako M1 MKII High Fidelity Modulation Machine – sounds

One thing that absolutely set the original M1 apart from so many other compact modulation pedals was the variety and quality of the sounds, and there’s little doubt that the MKII version raises that bar again.

Do most of us really need three Leslie speaker sounds at our toe-tips? Surely not, but the subtle nuances that Walrus has managed to capture between the standard, moving horn and moving drum modes here are really wonderful to hear played out – especially when you start messing around with the mic-distance control.

And it’s the same story across the board, the chorus sounds are lush, deep and inviting – especially the gloriously 80s tri-chorus mode, which will have you sizing up an Armani suit with big shoulder pads in a matter of minutes. I certainly didn’t miss the replaced dual-chorus mode as a result, and the presence of the flanger here instead is very welcome. It’s a pleasantly wooshy thing that can get a bit out of hand if you’re not careful but sometimes that’s all part of the fun, isn’t it?

A good tremolo sound is one of the most sumptuous places to hang out for any guitar player, and I was particularly taken with the Pattern mode, which uses the shape and symmetry parameters to make all sorts of juddery, off-kilter throbs. Bags of fun.

As with the MKI, the secret ingredient of all this is that lo-fi mode, and the extra control and editing you can do over the various parameters now is a great way to dial in just the right amount of weird to enhance your sound without it seeming too artificial.

Walrus Mako M1 MKII High Fidelity Modulation Machine – should I buy one?

If you’ve already got an M1 MKI, I would say there are some very limited reasons to upgrade here – the sounds are broadly very similar and there was absolutely nothing wrong with them in the first place.

If the thing you liked about the original was its ease of use and simple operation, I would stand firm where you are, but if you’ve been pining for the ability to get more control and more tweakability out of your sounds, this really is a no-brainer – it offers a huge amount of editable parameters without any tedious nested menus or what have you.

If, however, you don’t own a MKI and are just after a fantastic and comprehensive modulation pedal that takes up minimal space on your board while offering you some of the very best sounds out there? This is another home run for Walrus and its Mako platform.

Walrus Mako M1 MKII High Fidelity Modulation Machine – alternatives

If you want a similarly compact modulation pedal that isn’t skirting PS5 price territory, the Electro-Harmonix Mod 11 ($123) sounds nowhere near as good as the Walrus but it’s still pretty good and has loads of sonic options. If peerless sound is your goal and space and precise are less of an issue, then both the Strymon Mobius ($449/£399) and the Eventide H90 Harmonizer ($899/£845) are big, brilliant and, certainly in the case of the Eventide, eye-wateringly expensive.

The post Walrus Mako M1 MKII High Fidelity Modulation Machine review – “some of the very best sounds out there” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

‘Hopecore’ was never meant to be the point. But Evan Lo, the artist known across the digital world as Flawed Mangoes, will forever be associated with that neologism. The American musician’s early releases under the moniker – short, emotive tracks that layer swelling ambience underneath delicately-tapped, looping melodies – were swept into the burgeoning online trend for positive posting in 2023, and he found his audience snowballing as his music became a pillar of the movement.

It was clearly something that happened to Lo’s releases, rather than something he set out to do with them. Lo laughs as he tells Guitar.com that he used to find it “cringe” that people were using the term hopecore to describe his music.

“Now, I don’t know if I could say I’m at peace with it,” he admits, “but, I don’t care as much these days. How people want to interpret my music is up to them. I’m grateful, at least, that it was a really positive thing that got attached to it, and that was what reached so many people”.

But the word hopecore – which GQ described as “the last gasp of a less-toxic Internet” – is more applicable to content than it is music alone. Hopecore memes and edits are steeped in sentimentality and positive affirmations, with a specific trend for mixing Lo’s music underneath motivational speeches. The combination of Dramamine and Everything Everywhere All At Once star Ke Huy Quan’s joyful Oscar acceptance speech, for instance, has been viewed millions and millions of times, and there’s a related segment on Kai Cenat’s livestream that uses Lo’s track Swimming to soundtrack guests giving their own best motivational speech. Lo even got to take part in that one himself.

As a movement rooted in the deeper recesses of TikTok, fully grasping what the #hopecore tag actually means requires being ‘terminally online’. But it’s also a pushback against the bleak, inhuman feeling that pervades our post-ironic, post-pandemic, post-AI slop internet.

Regardless, Lo’s standing in hopecore does make sense when you dive into his extensive back catalogue. His earliest ‘pre-hopecore’ viral successes showcase his ability to evoke melancholic nostalgia and peaceful reminiscence with only a few layered tracks of reverb-drenched, killswitch-fitted guitar. His musical vignettes have a warmth to them that immediately takes you out of your doomscroll into at least the memory of warm summer evenings and quiet, still mornings.

“How people want to interpret my music is up to them. I’m grateful that it was a really positive thing that got attached to it”

Out on the road

When Guitar.com speaks to Lo for his cover story, he’s just home from a refreshingly offline activity: his first ever tour as Flawed Mangoes. “The shows were awesome, so much fun,” Lo says. “It’s been so long since I was in that world of live music – it was very fulfilling to reconnect with that.” His trip across the US saw him play three shows in New York, LA and his hometown of Boston. And the translation of an audience grown through viral success into bodies in a room was clearly successful, too – he had no problem selling out all three shows.

Lo and his band spent eight months of rehearsals tightening the live sound of Flawed Mangoes, as well as translating his more atmospheric material into a punchier, full-band format. “Prior to putting the shows together, I was pretty scared about that transition. I knew it was something I wanted to do, I just needed to figure out the best way to go about it. But I committed to playing with a band – I thought that would have way better energy on stage compared to me just sitting there with a looper pedal.”

The commitment to adding energy meant expanding things beyond the ‘bedroom’ instrumentation, and recontextualising the music to sit within a setlist rather than a playlist. “The songs developed their own live arrangements,” Lo says. “We were playing with the structure a lot, changing it to make it more fun to play in a live setting, and giving it more energy, and adding drums to the ones without drums. It turned out to be a really fun experience, and I think it surprised a lot of people, too.”

The intro’s over

And speaking of surprises – recent Flawed Mangoes releases have featured one in particular, and that’s Lo’s singing. Lo explains that he’s mainly just trying to make music that’s “addictive to listen to”, whatever it sounds like. “I just listen to too much music with vocals not to be inspired by that,” he says. “It’s been a really fun journey, learning how to sing and how to write with vocals.”

But tracks like Surreal don’t just add vocals. They’ve evolved the Flawed Mangoes sound into dense, heavy shoegaze with a mathy edge – too chaotic to gently bubble away in the background of an edit. But while full band stuff may be new territory for Flawed Mangoes, it’s not so much for Lo himself. “In high school I was in a math rock band, and then a jazzy indie band. We didn’t play that many shows, but we rehearsed every week, and wrote songs, and just enjoyed doing that,” he says.

“It was math rock and post rock that were the two colliding worlds for me – bands like Battles and El Ten Eleven were hugely influential. Maybe the biggest influence at the time, though, was Tera Melos. They were doing this crazy tapping along with some really heavy stuff and frantic song structures – all the math rock shit! I really liked that. That’s where I really learned to tap, and write riffs around tapping.”

“I committed to playing with a band – I thought that would have way better energy compared to me just sitting there with a looper pedal”

Producer’s mindset

After spending his high school years playing in bands, Lo put the guitar down when he was at college, finding himself drawn into electronic, producer-focused scenes. “I was more active on SoundCloud, in all these niche internet genres – I got into vaporwave at one point, and lofi – these internet producer scenes where people could release music and find an audience through the community, which was really great.”

Online music discovery, however, has changed a lot since the mid-2010s. In the heyday of vaporwave and lofi beats, microlabels were the place to go to find either an audience or new artists. “Now, it feels like people are realising it can be easier to bypass that label platform when you’re making music – it’s this even playing field. You can build your own brand, and put your own music out there.”

Of course, it’s nice cyclical synchronicity that Lo was active in these scenes – in some ways they were the precursors to a lot of today’s internet-rooted music. “Aesthetically and musically, they still have some influence on what’s popular,” Lo says. “But everything changes very fast.”

The 80s and 90s nostalgia of vaporwave has moved on into reminisces about the jungle and breakbeat soundtracks of PS1 and PS2 video games, the electronic flipside to a revival of Deftones-esque, Y2K-inspired nu-gaze. But regardless of what specific ‘era’ Lo’s music might evoke, though, he states that a “key part” of his sound is “going for that nostalgic sort of feeling – for instance, I really like what Boards Of Canada do, they’re one of my favourite artists.”

Cycling back

After graduating Lo returned to the guitar, because, in his words, “everything’s cyclical”. “The guitar was what ended up breaking through on social media. So then I was thinking, ‘I guess I’m back all in on guitar now’ – but having the producer’s experience and skillset was vital. Being able to mix and master all of my own music then get it out as quickly as possible has been really important for my process.”

It’s also helped him develop his sonic signatures. “On the plugin side, I use a tape emulator called Sketch Cassette all the time for the lo-fi vibe. But maybe more important than that are digital artefacts. They may sound shitty to some people, but they can be tastefully dialled in. I get a lot of them by time-stretching with non-optimal algorithms, or just by using digital pitch-shifters – they really take things to a level that the analogue artefacts just can’t!”

That’s not to say Lo doesn’t appreciate real effects pedals – quite the opposite. His most valued, he tells Guitar.com, is his MXR Dyna Comp, set to give him maximum sustain. And on the guitar side, he got pretty hands-on with his own made-in-Mexico Telecaster to install that DIY killswitch. “For whatever reason a friend of mine was stripping a J Mascis Jazzmaster for parts. We ended up taking the rhythm circuit switch from it and I thought, oh, I can make a killswitch with this!”

“I had heard Jonny Greenwood, Tom Morello and Buckethead use one and thought it was cool. So we soldered it together in their basement and cut a little hole in the pickguard with an Exacto knife, which is why it’s kinda fucked-up looking. The Tele was one I got for $350 second-hand, and it was my backup. So I didn’t care about it as much – there wasn’t much thought into it, other than ‘this would be cool’.”

“People are realising it can be easier to bypass that label platform when you’re making music – it’s this even playing field”

Hopecore and beyond

Obviously the installation of that killswitch turned out to be more than just some cool addition to a backup guitar – Killswitch Lullaby now has well over 100 million Spotify streams, and its viral success was the first step in launching Flawed Mangoes’ career into what it is now.

But it’s arguable that Killswitch Lullaby and other tracks like it, with their melancholic haziness and tightly-curated palette of layered, ambient melodies, were primed to be folded into other content – especially on TikTok, a platform that makes it easy to mash one thing into another. And so came an inevitable drive to build on those shorter pieces.

“I definitely did find it a little limiting,” Lo says. “There was this expectation to create this really specific genre. I think it’s important that I don’t restrict myself, and this is something that I still feel like I have a lot of space to grow in. I was in this one lane of instrumental, drumless guitar music – so making different stuff really helps me get out of my head, and be like, ‘I can do whatever I want, and it’ll be okay’”.

Flawed Mangoes’ new single Anthem is out now.

Words: Cillian Breathnach
Photography: Sam Keeler

The post “I think it’s important that I don’t restrict myself”: Flawed Mangoes is defying genre expectations and moving beyond ‘hopecore’ appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Thomann is hosting its massive Guitar Days sale – with up to 70% off a huge range of guitars, amps, effects pedals and more.

Between 18 September and 28 September, around 500 products – including from top brands like Fender, ESP, PRS, Taylor and Marshall – are available at heavy discounts.

• READ MORE: Multi-effects signal chains explained – everything you need to play and record direct

Here at Guitar.com, we’ve taken the liberty to cherry pick some of the very best deals in the Guitar Days sale, so read on to see what we’ve found…

Are you a Metallica fan looking for the perfect V-style guitar to add to your collection? Look no further than the ESP LTD KH-V in a striking Black Sparkle finish. A signature model by none other than Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, the KH-V is loaded with a pair of EMG Bone Breaker humbuckers for unrivalled high-gain tones. And during Guitar Days, you can get yours at just £777, down from £1,222. That’s a huge 36%, or £445 off.

Or if you’re looking for something a little more budget-friendly, this Sterling by Music Man S.U.B. Axis AX 3 in Neptune Blue is now only £353 down from £508. Specs include a maple neck and fingerboard, 22 narrow frets, two alnico humbuckers and a five-way selector switch.

If money’s less of an object and you’ve got a little to blow, why not consider the ESP Snakebyte in Camo? A signature model of thrash riff master and right-hand demon James Hetfield, this camouflaged beauty is loaded with a pair of EMG JH ‘HET’ SET pickups, with other features including a TOM bridge and Gotoh locking tuners.

There’s a hefty £500 saving available on this one, bringing what you pay down from £6,099 to £5,599. Hey, if you wanna play the best you’ve gotta pay the best, right?

In terms of amps, there’s a range of deals available to suit different budgets, like 12% off this more high end Friedman Small Box or this Supro Amulet 1×10 combo for just £798.

In the effects department, there’s cool discounts to be had on the Universal Audio UAFX Brigade Chorus & Vibrato, Electro Harmonix POG3 Octaver, Pigtronix Chromatic Tuner, TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 and so many more.

These are only a few of the deals available in the Guitar Days sale. To browse the full lineup yourself, head to Thomann.

[deals ids=”2prupufigYqEqnupYFJOsa”]

The post Save up to 70% on guitars, amps and effects in Thomann’s massive Guitar Days sale appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

In February, Eagles legend Don Felder suffered a collapse while performing onstage during the Rock Legends Cruise.

The cause turned out to be dehydration, and after he was taken to receive medical attention he made a speedy recovery. “I have always said that I’m going to rock till I drop. I never knew it would be in the middle of Tequila Sunrise, instead of like [Life in the Fast] Lane or Hotel [California] or something really fun,” he said at the time.

• READ MORE: What’s more important, your guitar or amp? Phil X reckons he has the answer

Now, in a new interview with Guitarist, Felder recounts the experience, confirming that he’s now “feeling fantastic”.

“I didn’t realise what dehydration was, or what it could do to you,” he explains. “When it hit me in the middle of the set on that cruise ship, I had no idea what was going on. It was like somebody reached over, took the light dimmer and just slowly dimmed it down to zero.

“I was holding onto the microphone stand just to keep myself from collapsing when Jaden [Osborne], my girlfriend, who was on the side of the stage, recognised it immediately and came over to help me get off the stage.

“Ironically, there happened to be a paramedic in the crowd from Gainesville, Florida, of all places – where I come from – who came backstage and took me down to the medical place.

He explains that he was given an IV and “30 minutes later” he was back “saying, ‘Let’s go finish the set.’ But they said, ‘No, everybody left,’ so I took the rest of the day, and the next day I continued the show”.

“But I didn’t realise how important it was to stay hydrated, especially at sea. I don’t drink alcohol or do any drugs, so I couldn’t figure out what the hell it was. But it was just a total matter of not drinking enough electrolytes. So I’m back to 100 percent.”

Eagles currently have a string of dates planned at the Sphere in Las Vegas. For tickets and a full list of dates, head to the band’s official website.

The post “I didn’t realise what dehydration was!”: Eagles legend Don Felder reveals the truth behind his terrifying on-stage collapse appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Many guitarists contract Gear Acquisition Syndrome and end up with stacked pedalboards, but the fundamentals of any electric guitar rig will always be your guitar and amplifier.

It’s only natural, then, that the debate surrounding whether your choice of guitar or amp is more important has raged since time immemorial.

• READ MORE: Gibson celebrates 50 years in Nashville with the relaunch of the Les Paul Custom 70s

And there’s prominent voices on both sides of the debate. Math rock whizz and Covet guitarist Yvette Young reckons amp is more important, asserting that a “cheap guitar doesn’t mean a bad guitar”.

But Bon Jovi guitarist Phil X finds himself on the other side, saying the guitar is the core of everything, so getting a good one should be your priority.

Asked in the new issue of Guitarist whether he’d rather have a cheap guitar and an expensive amp or an expensive guitar and cheap amp, he replies: “You know, what’s in your hands is almost more important.”

He explains: “But I think I’d have to get a better guitar and a cheaper amp. You can always get around on a cheaper amp or then go get a cheap pedal to make the cheap amp even better.

“But if you’re playing a really shitty guitar, you’re really limiting your progress.”

Of course, the guitar vs amp debate is highly nuanced, and although price point offers some measure of product quality, this isn’t always the case.

Phil X does make the good point that if you’re a beginner playing a poorly setup guitar – with high string action, for example – you’ll be hindering your ability to get to grips with certain techniques and get the most out of your playing.

That said, on the other side of the argument, the sound that comes out of your amp has a huge effect on inspiration. If the sound isn’t right, your creative spark may not be ignited in the same way as if you were working with a better guitar tone.

So what can we conclude from all this? The guitar vs amp debate will remain aflame for the long-foreseeable future. But at least proponents on the guitar side can count Phil X among their allies.

The post What’s more important, your guitar or amp? Phil X reckons he has the answer appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

It’s been 50 years since Gibson set up shop in Nashville, and the company is celebrating by reintroducing a classic model to the current Gibson line – its the return of the Les Paul Custom 70s, with era-correct specs in honour of the original model.

Originally created in 1953, the first Les Paul Custom was created with a simple brief: a black signature that “looked like a tuxedo”. Over the years, it gradually shifted, with Gibson trialling out both single and double cutaway models throughout the ‘60s before settling on the single cutaway in 1968.

• READ MORE: Gibson collaborates with Loog for child-friendly range of Les Paul and SG guitars

For two decades, the Custom 70s has only been available via Gibson’s Custom shop. Now, it’s back on the official Gibson line-up, and it has plenty of nostalgic nods to the original models. There’s plenty of classic ‘70s specs, from the mahogany body boasts a three-piece maple top, to the volute headstock adorned with the iconic Custom Split Diamond headstock inlay.

The guitar also has a ‘70s profile on the maple neck, as well as a bound ebony fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and mother-of-pearl block inlays. The Custom 70 also has gold hardware, including an aluminium Nashville Tune-O-Matic bridge, an aluminium Stop Bar tailpiece, and smooth-turning Grover Rotomatic, which adds a very classy, timeless touch.

More ‘70s-approved features come in the form of the diamond-shaped Posi-Lok strap locks, Witch Hat control knobs and a pair of Calibrated T-Type humbuckers that are hand-wired to Orange Drop capacitors.

The Les Paul Custom 70s come in four glossy finishes: Tobacco Burst, Ebony, Buttercream Top, and Wine Red. Each guitar also comes with its own hardshell case.

This isn’t the only way Gibson has been celebrating its 50 years in Music City, Nashville. There has been plenty of nostalgia and reflecting on the company’s growth since 1975; back in July, the company announced that it was releasing 650 limited-edition Les Paul Music City Special guitars, which were inspired by Gibson’s 1970s Marauder.

The Les Paul Custom 70s costs £3,499 and is available now.

The post Gibson celebrates 50 years in Nashville with the relaunch of the Les Paul Custom 70s appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

We’ve all daydreamed about our perfect guitar, mentally building a Frankenstein-ian model out of different bodies, necks and headstocks. However, not everyone has the chance to make their dream a reality – but YouTuber Samurai Guitarist has worked for over two years to bring his perfect guitar to life.

In a new YouTube video, Steve Onotera has announced that he has founded his own guitar company, Otera Guitars. The Otera TK-1 serves as the company’s debut guitar, with the turquoise electric wearing a boxier version of a Telecaster silhouette. As Onotera puts it, the Otera TK-1 is “the guitar [he] always wished existed – and now it does”.

• READ MORE: Martin D-X2E review – is this the new must-have budget dreadnought acoustic?

In his announcement videos, he explains the thought process behind the guitar. “Like so many guitar players, ever since I picked up the instrument I’ve been dreaming up my own signature model,” he reflects. “However, 10 years in… no brands have expressed any interest in doing a signature guitar with me. So I figured, you know what, forget them. I’ll do it myself.”

Limited to 100 units, the TK-1 was manufactured in Cort’s factory, a factory that has churned out gear for Fender, Epiphone, PRS and many other quality brands over the years. And it certainly sounds like a decent guitar, based on Onotera’s preview of the axe in action on his channel.

The guitar boasts a three-piece maple neck with a vintage U profile, 9.5” radius rosewood fingerboard and 21 jumbo frets. We’ve also got an ash-topped basswood body, which is finished off with a striking turquoise sheen. There’s also a choice of two interchangeable pickguards; you can opt for a standard white pickguard, or there’s an engraved floral option that’s hand-signed by Onotera himself.

The guitar also boasts a pair of Seymour Duncan pickups, with a P90 Silencer Soapbar in the neck, as well as a BG1400 in the bridge. There’s also a four-way selector.

“I want the first Otera guitars to mean something, that’s why we’re starting small,” Onotera writes on the Otera website. “For years, I imagined a guitar that felt different – one that captured everything I love about the classics, but with its own character… The TK1 is the guitar I always wished existed. Every detail was chosen for a reason, with the hope that it inspires the same passion in you that it inspires in me.”

The debut Otera TK-1 guitar costs $1,299, and comes with a Otera/Cort branded gig bag. But, of course, its only limited to 100 guitars – so once its out of stock, it will never be produced again.

Head to Otera Guitars to find out more information.

The post “It’s the guitar I always wished existed – and now it does”: YouTuber Samurai Guitarist launches his own guitar brand appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Sammy Hagar has criticised Alex Van Halen for leaving out his era of Van Halen in his memoir Brothers, even accusing the singer of “blasphemy”.

Contention is nothing new in the Van Halen world, but the latest spat comes after Hagar posted a photo of himself and Eddie Van Halen heading to the stage before a show in 1991, with discussion mainly centering around the clothes they were wearing in the era.

• READ MORE: “The noise of us playing thrash metal upstairs was traumatising the children”: Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil claims the local council tried to shut down a studio he was recording in because of its proximity to a nursery

But the comments section took a turn when several commenters began discussing the different Van Halen eras, with one writing: “My dad always said the [David Lee] Roth days were about the party; the Sammy days were about the music.” [via Ultimate Classic Rock]

Another wrote: “No disrespect to Alex but it’s okay to like Van Halen with Sammy, even if he doesn’t anymore,” while another wrote: “Most purists believe Van Halen ended with David Lee Roth.”

Unfortunately, the latter comment provoked a response from Hagar, who wrote: “It could have [ended], my friend, but instead we went on to sell over 50 million records for [a] No. 1 album [then] sold out every building and stadium in the world for a whole decade. That never happened again.

Hagar goes on to say that Alex Van Halen is “not doing his brother’s musical legacy justice by not acknowledging all the No. 1 albums and some great music Eddie and I wrote together – not Alex – but Eddie and I wrote together”.

He adds: “To not acknowledge [those] 10 years of music is blasphemy to his brother’s musicianship, songwriting and legacy.”

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Following the departure of frontman David Lee Roth in 1985, Sammy Hagar became Van Halen’s second singer, and fronted the band for 11 years until 1996. He also fronted the band again for a brief period between 2003 and 2005.

Sammy Hagar recently expressed an interest in settling his differences with David Lee Roth. After rumours swirled that DLR had mocked Hagar for claiming Eddie Van Halen visited him in a dream, Hagar asserted that this wasn’t the case, saying: “This is the first real olive-branch moment Dave and I have had in 100 years.”

The post “Alex is not doing his brother’s musical legacy justice”: Sammy Hagar blasts Alex Van Halen for ignoring his era of Van Halen in his book appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Although Biffy Clyro have made their mark on the world of alternative rock, they’re no strangers to heavier sounds. When frontman Simon Neil kickstarted his own heavy metal side-project back in 2023, Empire State Bastard was the perfect outlet of extreme thrash carnage. In fact, the project was so chaotic that it nearly got a recording studio shut down.

In a new interview, the raucous Scotsman reveals that Empire State Bastard’s debut, Rivers Of Heresy, had some rather loud recording sessions. So loud that the council had to get involved. “We spent eight days [in Todmorden’s Lapwing Studio] and it was hilarious,” Neil tells The Guardian. “Below the studio, there’s a nursery. The day we left, the council wrote to the studio asking them to close, because the noise of us playing thrash metal upstairs was traumatising the children.”

• READ MORE: Billianne on viral success, battling imposter syndrome and her years-in-the-making debut album

The “traumatising” clash of sound was a combined effort from Neil, guitarist Mike Vennart and Slayer’s very own Dave Lombardo on drums. Just listen to pummelling war cry of Stutter or Tired, Aye? and it’s hardly a lullaby – you can hardly blame the council for being a tad concerned.

However, it seems the studio was able to avoid any long-term closure. Lapwing Studio is still open, and the team have even responded to Neil’s Guardian interview – and there’s absolutely no bad blood. “Nice little quote about the studio here from Simon!” the team write on Facebook. “Said complaint is framed here in all its glory.”

When they weren’t in the studio, Neil also made a point of education Slayer’s Lombardo on the joys of Todmorden, otherwise known as the “UFO sightings capital of Europe”, apparently. “We took Dave for a curry and a pint, and whenever anyone recognised him they were in disbelief,” Neil laughs.

Elsewhere, today marks the release of Biffy Clyro’s tenth studio album, Futique. As Neil explains, it’s a record about acceptance, growth and living in the here and now. “I realised that, by ignoring painful memories, I’d been denying part of myself,” he reflects. “I found joy in understanding that everything that happens makes you who you are. It pulled me out of a fog – so the album is about embracing whatever’s happening now.”

The post “The noise of us playing thrash metal upstairs was traumatising the children”: Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil claims the local council tried to shut down a studio he was recording in because of its proximity to a nursery appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

£99, funnylittleboxes.co.uk

Britpop was a moment in cultural history. Which is another way of saying that it all felt like great fun at the time but, let’s be frank, much of the music it produced has aged like raw meat in an unplugged freezer.

• READ MORE: Earthquaker Devices Fuzz Master General review – “the full gamut of vintage-adjacent fuzz tones”

People seem to have fond memories of Supergrass, though – and the Oxford trio have now provided the inspiration for an effects pedal: the Funny Little Boxes Caught By The Fuzz.

Funny Little Boxes Caught By The Fuzz – what is it?

It’s Britpop in a box! Released in 1994, Caught By The Fuzz was the debut single that made Supergrass famous. It’s fast and catchy… and best of all, it’s got the word ‘fuzz’ in the title. To be honest, the one thing it doesn’t have is a particularly memorable guitar sound, but maybe that doesn’t matter – we’re talking about capturing the spirit of an era here, not copying an EQ curve.

FLB’s previous pedals have all been focused on American grunge tones, and this one brings a simplification as well as a change of accent: fuzz and volume are the only controls. That suggests a classic noise box in the style of the early Fuzz Faces and Tone Benders, which is certainly a promising starting point.

It’s built in the otherwise tranquil English city of Norwich, and there is one extra feature worth mentioning: instead of a simple status LED, it has a pair of blue ones that flash in sequence like the lights on a police car. Escaped convicts might find this a tad unsettling; for everyone else, it’s a welcome bit of fun.

Funny Little Boxes Caught By The Fuzz – what does it sound like?

It turns out this pedal has more in common with the fine upstanding officers in the front of that police car than with the stoned teenager in the back – because it’s an eminently sensible and disciplined fuzz.

With both knobs pointing northwards, the first thing to report is a tidy bass/treble balance that will let you quickly forget the absence of a tone control. The mids are even-handed too – neither raspy nor scooped – and the fuzz itself is tight but thick-grained, with a nice Marshall-esque edge to hard-punched chords. It doesn’t exactly clean up when you pull back on the guitar’s volume, but it does soften down very sweetly.

There are no surprises when the gain is cranked: it’s more of the same, keeping things clear and balanced as the distortion thickens. It won’t go anywhere near Big Muff territory in terms of sheer fuzziness, though – if you need something that can also cover the sludgy grunge side of the 90s, this probably isn’t it.

Turn the fuzz down to around 9 or 10 o’clock, on the other hand, and suddenly it’s more like a low-gain overdrive: the punky element is gone, replaced by something tonally transparent but with an injection of extra body and sustain that gives real authority to single-note melodies. This low-gain sound can get rough and scuzzy with sustained chords, but it’s an extra dimension that adds genuine value to the pedal.

Funny Little Boxes Caught By The Fuzz – should I buy it?

Does it sound like the Supergrass song? Well, yes, it can in the right setup – so if you’re planning to be Gaz Coombes in a tribute band, this pedal might be as essential as a good pair of sideburns. But, defying the apparent limitations of the two-knob format, it also has plenty to offer for anyone else who’s in the market for a really nice general-purpose fuzz.

Funny Little Boxes Caught By The Fuzz alternatives

There aren’t as many pure two-knob fuzzes around as you might think. The Jam Pedals Fuzz Phrase Si (€229/£219) is one, although it cheats slightly by having an internal trimpot for bias, and the Pedal Pawn Fuzz (£197) is another. Want something even simpler? The Beetronics Tuna Fuzz ($99/£99) only has one knob.

The post Funny Little Boxes Caught By The Fuzz review – a two-knob dirt machine that goes beyond its Britpop brief appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

While the classic Led Zeppelin lineup we all know is Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones, another musician was once in the running to front the band: the late Terry Reid.

Though fans often disagree as to why Reid ultimately passed on the opportunity – with some saying he outright turned it down and others saying it was due to his prior commitments with the Rolling Stones, Reid – who passed away in August 2025 – sets the record straight in his final interview with MOJO.

• READ MORE: “They used a lot of the old tricks that we all kind of did”: Aerosmith recall being ‘annoyed’ by Van Halen at first

“I didn’t turn Jimmy down,” he insists. “I told him, I’ve got to go do this tour with the Stones. When I get back, let’s have a go.”

While Reid ultimately never joined Led Zeppelin, the story goes that he suggested to Page who would become the band’s singer and drummer, Robert Plant and John Bonham.

“In Birmingham I’d played with The Band Of Joy a couple of times – bunch of fucking hooligans,” Reid continues.

“When Peter [Grant, Led Zeppelin manager] and Jimmy were talking about getting people for the band, I said, ‘Whatever you do, you’ve got to try these guys out.’ I contributed half the band. That’s enough on my part!”

That he was in the running to join Led Zeppelin wasn’t the first time Terry Reid found himself with the opportunity to join bands, including Deep Purple and the Spencer Davis Group.

“I suppose I didn’t really want to be part of a band,” he says. “The only time I really considered it was with Jeff Beck. He had a sensitivity that was totally different [from] any other guitar player. But he was always going down his own path, too, so it never happened.”

“I’ve lived my life the way I wanted,” Reid concludes. “Running around, chasing your tail, chasing after this, chasing after that, it’ll do one of two things: it’ll either drive you crazy, or it’ll get you in a whole load of trouble.”

The post “I suppose I didn’t really want to be in a band”: The late Terry Reid explains why he turned down Jimmy Page’s offer to front Led Zeppelin in final interview – but reveals the other guitar icon he nearly said yes to appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

When Van Halen burst onto the hard rock scene in the late ‘70s, they didn’t just make an impression, they shook the established order. For Aerosmith guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, their first encounter with the band was a mix of annoyance and awe.

In a recent interview with Rick Beato, the pair open up about their initial reactions to the group that would go on to redefine rock guitar.

• READ MORE: “I don’t think I would have ever been able to live it down”: Wolfgang Van Halen on why he was worried playing his father’s songs could have “ruined my life”

Perry, in particular, admits he was initially baffled by Eddie Van Halen’s approach: “Well, first of all, it was kind of annoying,” he says [via Ultimate Guitar]. “It’s like, we didn’t know what he was doing. I mean, we knew a little bit about it. I remember Bill Lawrence used to do the tapping, when he’d sit and write… But it was like, damn… like the equivalent of Jeff Beck; somebody who was just kind of out of reach.”

But what frustrated him at first soon turned into admiration. “I mean, the more and more I listened to his stuff, it just blew my mind, because it’s so tasty. There was nothing schlocky ever in it.”

Whitford adds that Van Halen’s relentless work ethic and tight chemistry set them apart from their peers: “And the power, like when I read Alex’s [Van Halen] book – you read that, and then get an understanding how, day in and day out, they would get up in the morning, and go play together till midday, every day,” he explains.

“And then, you listen to these records, and you hear the lock that those two guys had, and the power that they had. It was like, ‘Whoa, that’s one of the most powerful bands I’ve ever heard.’”

For Perry, it wasn’t just the playing – it was the way Van Halen completely reimagined the hard rock formula.

“On that first record… When I heard that, it was like, they used a lot of the old tricks that we all kind of did and left behind. They took it, and turned it up to 11,” says the guitarist. “And that first album was fucking stunning… I remember, when they were playing clubs, that [Eddie] would turn around and do shit so people couldn’t see what he was doing. And, God, if people could see it, I don’t think they could do it anyway.”

Watch the full interview below.

The post “They used a lot of the old tricks that we all kind of did”: Aerosmith recall being ‘annoyed’ by Van Halen at first appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Looking for a guitar that’s as at home on the road as it is on stage? Cort Guitars’ Earth GO combines traditional acoustic craftsmanship with intelligent, performance-focused features, delivering a portable, versatile instrument without compromising the tone musicians love.

Perfect for players seeking portability, creativity, and a modern edge, the Earth GO keeps the familiar feel of an acoustic guitar while adding a suite of smart tools for practice, recording, and live performance.

• READ MORE: Gibson collaborates with Loog for child-friendly range of Les Paul and SG guitars

The Earth GO sports a 3/4 size mini dreadnought body, making it ideal for travel, casual playing, or players with smaller hands. Its solid Sitka spruce top delivers clarity and responsiveness, while mahogany back and sides deliver warmth and depth. According to Cort, this classic tonewood pairing ensures a balanced and resonant acoustic voice.

The guitar’s mahogany neck features a comfortable “C” profile and a 22.8” (578mm) scale length, complete with a laurel fingerboard with 6mm white dot inlays and a 15.75” radius. With a PPS nut (43mm wide) and 19 frets, the guitar offers accurate intonation and a natural playing feel.

At the core of the Earth GO is the HyVibe H2 smart system, which turns the guitar into a mini performance hub. Built-in effects – reverb, chorus, delay, tremolo, octaver, phaser, and distortion – eliminate the need for external pedals. Players can stream backing tracks via Bluetooth, loop melodies, tune up with the onboard tuner, or keep time using the integrated metronome. Whether practicing at home or performing live, these intuitive tools offer unmatched creative freedom.

In terms of hardware, we’ve got die-cast tuning machines with black knobs, a dual-acting truss rod for easy neck adjustments, and a laurel bridge with a PPS saddle. The guitar also comes factory-equipped with coated strings for durability and playability, and each instrument includes a gig bag for added portability.

Available in Open Pore and Open Pore Brown Burst finishes, the Cort Earth GO can be picked from Thomann for $431 / £382.

Learn more at Cort Guitars.

The post Cort’s Earth GO packs traditional acoustic craftsmanship and modern smart tools – including looping, effects, and Bluetooth – into a compact travel guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.