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Guitar Center has officially launched Rig Advisor, an “AI-powered shopping assistant” designed to help musicians navigate the often overwhelming world of music gear.

Dubbed the first-ever in-store AI shopping tool in music retail, Rig Advisor promises a smoother and smarter browsing experience by delivering real-time, personalised recommendations based on your local store’s inventory.

• READ MORE: “Bring the competition on”: Guitar Center CEO says he’s not afraid of big brands like Gibson and Fender selling products direct

As Guitar Center would have you know, Rig Advisor isn’t just another chatbot slapped onto a screen. Rather, it’s a mobile-based tool that “helps customers discover, compare, and explore gear in real time by prioritising products available at that specific store location”.

You can access it by scanning a QR code in-store, where you can then ask questions, compare products, or search for gear inspired by specific songs or artists. Whether you’re chasing John Mayer’s tone or building your first podcasting setup, Rig Advisor provides instant, store-specific suggestions based on what’s available on the shelves.

“Rig Advisor is like having a professional gear consultant in the palm of your hand, delivering lightning-fast answers as you explore our music stores,” says Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto. “It will turn our stores into tech-powered music hubs where creativity, curiosity, and inspiration lead the way.”

Besides its friendly interface, the beauty of Rig Advisor lies in its practicality. Say you’re curious about the difference between a tube amp and a solid-state one – Rig Advisor will break it down in plain English. You can even build full rigs – pedals, amps, mics, the whole deal – based on your current setup or a goal you have in mind.

And because it pulls from your chosen store’s live inventory, whatever it recommends is actually there to try today. No more falling in love with a piece of gear online only to find it out of stock.

The tool is also available in multiple languages, with the AI smart enough to respond in whatever language you use to ask your question.
Now live in locations across the US, Rig Advisor aims to “[enhance] the in-store experience by giving musicians an easy way to navigate options and make more confident decisions, whether they’re browsing solo or working with a store expert.”

In other news, a Guitar Center employee from Ohio was recently found to have used customers’ credit cards for personal purchases after they were rude to him.

Reports claim that management had learned of the purchases after a customer called about a transaction made at the store that was not his. The employee, 18, is also believed to have copied the credit cards of two other customers.

Learn more at Guitar Center.

The post Meet Rig Advisor, Guitar Center’s new in-store AI shopping assistant: “It’s like having a professional gear consultant in the palm of your hand” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Taylor Swift is unquestionably one of the most popular and successful artists of the 21st century. Her music has been categorized as everything from pop to folk to country to rock, and while it would be a stretch to call her music guitar-centric, she does play guitar and has nonetheless inspired a generation of people to pick up the guitar and start trying to find their own voice. In that sense, it’s worth taking a look at some of the artists who inspired Swift herself to become the musician she is today.

• READ MORE: These are Dave Grohl’s four biggest guitar-playing influences

Shania Twain

Few influences are more important than the one who inspired you to pick up a guitar in the first place and for Taylor Swift, she has often claimed that it was Shania Twain. This should come as no surprise, as Shania was very popular during Taylor’s formative years. While Twain is not known for her guitar-playing prowess, she does play guitar, especially in her early career.

For Twain and Swift, the guitar is not used for flashy, impressive solos; it is merely a tool for conveying the songwriting ideas they both have. Nobody is going to put Taylor Swift or Shania Twain on a list of great technical guitar players, but as far as using the guitar as a tool to write hit songs, they are both hugely influential.

Shania Twain provided an essential step in the musical evolution of Taylor Swift, most notably the first step – the inspiration to pick up a guitar and make music with it. That step should never be underestimated. Swift has in kind no doubt inspired millions of young people to pick up a guitar and play music. It’s the wonderful legacy of the guitar as a pop music icon that continues to bear fruit over 70 years after it first appeared.

Matt Slocum

The guitarist of Christian rockers and one-hit wonders Sixpence None The Richer might not be on many guitar playing Mount Rushmores, but they hold a special significance for Taytay. After she had been inspired to pick up a guitar by Shania, Swift has stated in several interviews that the first song she actually learned to play was Kiss Me – and from that moment, the music world would never be the same!

Ronnie Cremer

Every musician has to start somewhere by learning the basics of guitar playing. For Taylor Swift, that came in the form of a guitar instructor named Ronnie Cremer who lived in her hometown of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. Some might imagine formal guitar lessons to be a highly structured, “run through the scales again” sort of affair.

But according to most reports, Cremer was instrumental in teaching Swift the basics – chords, tuning, how to use a capo, etc. From there, they focused on real world applications of those building blocks such as using the guitar as a tool for songwriting – not necessarily technical proficiency. These lessons took place for about two years in 2002-2003 – Swift would have been about 12 years old at the time.

The Chicks

While Taylor Swift may never be known for her technical guitar playing prowess, she will forever be known as an electric performer. At the time of writing this article, she has the highest-grossing tour of all time at over two billion dollars.

According to an interview with ABC Swift claimed that her electric live performances were inspired by The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks), “Early in my life, these three women showed me that female artists can play their own instruments while also putting on a flamboyant spectacle of a live show,” she explained.

The Chicks’ influence is also evident in her daring songwriting that leans into feminist empowerment. Swift continued, “They taught me that creativity, eccentricity, unapologetic boldness and kitsch can all go together authentically… Most importantly, they showed an entire generation of girls that female rage can be a bonding experience between us all the very second we first heard Natalie Maines bellow ‘that Earl had to DIE’.”

Joni Mitchell

It has been said that Taylor Swift’s 2012 album Red was inspired by Joni Mitchell’s 1971 album Blue. Both artists have written deeply personal autobiographical songs with lyrics that could be described as confessional. Swift would no doubt call Joni a trailblazer for the path she is currently treading through the industry. Mitchell’s influence on Swift’s songwriting style is evident to even untrained ears. Swift has also claimed that she learned to play Mitchell’s song A Case of You early on in her career.

Liz Rose

Liz Rose is a songwriter from Nashville who has worked with Swift throughout her career. Her role seems to have been very much that of a mentor who was able to sculpt Swift into the songwriter she is today, perhaps more specifically, her understanding of melody. She was instrumental in encouraging Swift to write songs about her own personal experiences which ended up working out incredibly well for her. Rose co-wrote several hit songs with Swift, such as You Belong With Me, Teardrops on My Guitar, White Horse, and All Too Well.

Taylor Swift has cemented her legacy as one of the greatest pop stars in history, alongside The Beatles and Michael Jackson. But her journey is not over, and it seems like the guitar – and her guitar influences –will always have a place in her music.

The post These are Taylor Swift’s six biggest guitar influences appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on a river… Whether you’re thinking of the original Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1969 roots rock classic, or the Grammy-winning 1971 Tina Turner cover, Proud Mary is an undeniable classic. But it wouldn’t have been written if John Fogerty hadn’t had a six month stint in the army…

In a new interview with Classic Rock, the CCR frontman reflects on his time in the army in 1967. While it isn’t an experience he looks on fondly, his eventual honourable discharge encouraged him knuckle down on his creativity. “There’s nothing like having something taken away to make you appreciate it,” he reflects.

• READ MORE: “Getting excited is somewhat premature”: King Crimson manager counters Jakko Jakszyk’s claims that the band are recording a new album

“In the army, you’re not free, you’re not self-determining. And so, when you get back home and you now have time to decide your own schedule, you also decide to be a little more careful what you spend your energy on.”

For Fogerty, his priority was channelling his energy into his music. “I decided, for one, ‘Wow I gotta get more organised about my songwriting,’ because I’d always kinda done it haphazard – not really a specific approach,” he explains.

“So, I went and got a little notebook… I guess the idea in my mind was simply, ‘Well, you’ve got to have a place where you write every down so it’s all in one place’… and that was a big change in my life.”

With the help of his new notebook and creative determination, Fogerty would help piece together Proud Mary. It’s his own musical ode to freedom. “It’s a strange story behind the song that not many have as their motivation, I suppose,” he says. “But, for me, the hype of the Vietnam war and the spectre of being sent to the jungle and possibly getting maimed or dying, getting relief from that was a very big deal.”

“So, getting my honourable discharge, I ran right in the house and picked up my guitar, and the first line of Proud Mary is, ‘Left a good job in the city/Working for the man every night and day’. I mean, that’s exactly it. I felt relieved and elevated that I was finally free.”

Last year, Fogerty reflected on the importance of Proud Mary, noting it as a pivotal moment in his musical career. In fact, it was the first time he had ever fully finished a song. “When I finished Proud Mary, that was such an amazing experience — almost like being abducted by a flying saucer,” he told Guitar Player. “I had never really written a great song before, even though I had tried many times.”

“When I finished, I was holding that piece of paper in my hand, almost 90 percent of it was on the page there, and I had a title and a chorus,” he continued. “And I could just hear it… and I realised I had just written what you’d call a classic. I was awestruck.”

“I was excited, trembling. I was almost scared of it! It was almost as if you’d walked into a room and discovered some amazing treasure and secret. And at that first moment, I was terrified that this might be it, that I would never get to do this again.”

The post “The spectre of being sent to the jungle and getting killed – getting relief from that was a big deal. So after my discharge, I ran in my house and picked up my guitar”: John Fogerty on the origins of Creedence Clearwater Revival mega-hit Proud Mary appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

With the rising cost of touring and infamously low streaming revenue, even rockstars can struggle to make ends meet. In fact, Exodus and Slayer guitarist Gary Holt has spoken out about how he even sends out his own merch to earn more money.

In a recent chat with German outlet Medal.de, Holt explains that everything on his Holt Awaits webstore is packaged and delivered by him. “People think, ‘Oh, you’re a rich rock star’… No!” he admits. “I sell shirts, and I sell them outta my fucking closet. Pack this one up, label it, send it off.”

• READ MORE: Chase Bliss Brothers AM review: “it could easily be the last drive pedal you ever buy”

While it doesn’t cover all of his living costs, selling merch is something that “helps” Holt get by. “It doesn’t pay the bills,” he says. “[But] it helps… It helped a lot in the pandemic.”

Considering his work in thrash metal hasn’t set him up for life, Holt jokes that his retirement plans might have to centre around some illegal activity. “[I might] turn to a life of crime, maybe,” he says. “I don’t know. I haven’t found a way to make money being charming, so I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”

If Holt doesn’t fall into a life of crime, he thinks he’ll stick within the realms of metal. “If I honestly retired, I’d probably do more producing,” he muses. “I’d stay in music. But sometimes I daydream about not leaving the house.”

Of course, a full retirement is still a few years away. Slayer pulled off a killer performance at Black Sabbath’s final farewell show, and Exodus just rounded off a European Summer tour, with a pair of shows set for September. “I’m not full of energy – I’m fucking tired,” Holt notes. “But we’re gonna do this as hard as we can, as heavy as we can until we can’t.”

“That’s why we recorded so much music [for Exodus’ next record]. We figured, do it now while we are still able to. Who knows? I’ve had elbow problems, hand problems, and shoulder problems now. Maybe in five years, age will catch up, and the arthritis will get bad, and I can’t do it. I don’t know.”

In a recent chat with Serbian journalist Jadranka Janković Nešić, Holt also discussed Exodus’s follow up to 2021’s Persona Non Grata. “It’s going to be released as two totally separate records,” he revealed. “We had so much material that we just [thought], let’s work extra hard.”

“I wish we had 20 songs done instead of 18, because then we would have the next album done! Then I could go on vacation or something. I’ve never had one.”

The post “People think, ‘Oh, you’re a rich rock star.’ No. I sell shirts outta my f**king closet”: Gary Holt on the reality of being a metal guitarist in 2025 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

King Crimson’s Robert Fripp certainly has a way with words, and while these days his lack of filter often gives himself and wife Toyah Willcox the giggles, it seems back in the day he wasn’t one to hold back on his musical opinions either.

Among the era of the band’s Red album, as well as Starless And Bible Black, Fripp sat down for a chat with Guitar Player. In the 1974 interview, which has been newly shared on the publication’s website, Fripp had some incredibly bold opinions on the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and guitar in general.

• READ MORE: “Getting excited is somewhat premature”: King Crimson manager counters Jakko Jakszyk’s claims that the band are recording a new album

“I’ve never really listened to guitarists, because they’ve never really interested me,” he told the magazine. “I think the guitar is a pretty feeble instrument. Virtually nothing interests me about the guitar.”

He went on to add, “I haven’t been influenced by Hendrix and Clapton in the way that most people would say it. I don’t think Hendrix was a guitarist. I very much doubt if he was interested in guitar playing as such. He was just a person who had something to say and got on and said it.

“Clapton I think is mostly quite banal, although he did some exciting things earlier in his life with Mayall. I saw Cream live once and I thought they were quite awful. Clapton’s work since, I think, has been excessively tedious.”

As scathing as some of these hot takes are, there was one guitarist who Fripp let off the hook – Jeff Beck, whose playing he said he could “appreciate as good fun”.

Despite Fripp’s old and bold remarks, he’s since had a lot of fun covering both Hendrix and Cream classics for his Sunday Lunch covers series on YouTube alongside Willcox, which you can watch below.

The post The time Robert Fripp claimed Jimi Hendrix “wasn’t a guitarist” and that Eric Clapton was “mostly quite banal” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

A Guitar Center employee from Ohio used customers’ credit cards for personal purchases after they were rude to him, reports claim.

Management allegedly learned of the purchases after a customer called about a transaction made at the store that was not his. The employee, 18, is also believed to have copied the credit cards of two other customers.

• READ MORE: “For every 10 people who start playing guitar, a year later, one person is playing, and nine are not”: Guitar Center is looking to create more “long-term” musicians – here’s how

The report comes from news outlet Cleveland.com, which says a further investigation revealed that the employee had charged $5,087 to the other two credit cards. It claims the man chose customers as “victims” who were “rude to him, used foul language and made situations bad for him”.

The report does not clarify the outcome of the investigation, or what has happened to the employee since these thefts occurred. Guitar.com has reached out to Guitar Center for further information.

In other Guitar Center news, the company’s CEO, Gabe Dalporto, said he wasn’t afraid of competition from large brands like Gibson and Fender in a recent interview. His comments arrive among rising competition as more brands continue to sell directly to their customers thanks to online shopping.

“This is a competitive market. It always has been,” he told Guitar World in June. “We welcome it. I think if we give an amazing experience, we win.”

He added, “Nike tried to go direct and tried to pull back from retailers, and Nike got crushed. It’s important, if you are a brand, to have those relationships with your vendors, but bring the competition on. I just think we have a much larger, more integrated experience. You can experience all the products, not just one.”

The post Guitar Center employee admits to using rude customers’ credit cards to steal over $5,000 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Is rock ‘n’ roll dead? Well, despite some – including Kiss‘s Gene Simmons, thinking it is – Ghost frontman Tobias Forge believes the future of rock music is bright.

In a new interview with Consequence, Forge insists that the next big rock ‘n’ roll act is just waiting in the wings.

“I think it was Gene Simmons that said it most times, but a lot of people have said that rock ‘n’ roll is dead and there will be no new headliners,” he says. “I understand that it’s been sparse, but I think that with the unfortunate disappearance of a lot of [legacy] bands… I do believe that with time I think that there will be more [headlining rock] bands.”

• READ MORE: Why does Greta Van Fleet’s music sound so much like Led Zeppelin?

With genre veterans like Kiss breaking up after 50 years, it’s certainly time for new blood to enter into the rock world. Forge points to the likes of Sleep Token, Måneskin and Greta Van Fleet as those bearing this flag.

“They are all new bands. I think they prove that you can absolutely go places. You can form a band tomorrow and theoretically become a big band within a few years. I think you do so by trying to want to create something.”

In Forge’s eyes, there’s somewhat of a prejudice towards new bands. “I think that there’s this strange time phenomenon that happened somewhere in the 2000s where everything that was sort of old was ‘old’, and everything that came after was ‘new’,” Forge explains.

It’s something Forge chalks up to age. Older music fans often abide by the rock and metal “hierarchy”, Forge notes. “There’s this idea in large swaths of metal community that the hierarchy is based on age,” he says. “[Post-2000s bands] just keep on being labelled as new, especially by people who at the time were in their 20s or 30s or 40s and now are in their 40s, 50s, 60s.”

He goes on to defend Greta Van Fleet, who Rolling Stone labelled ‘expert forgers’ in 2018 for sounding like Led Zeppelin. The band have been labelled as ‘derivative’ since they first hit the rock scene. “I don’t wanna hear anything about Greta Van Fleet now, because I think that their intentions are true,” he insists. “They just happened to sound like someone else, but that’s not their fault! So, stop it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Forge harks back to Avenged Sevenfold’s Download Festival headline debut in 2014. Much like with Greta Van Fleet, it felt like another form of older fans rejecting anything they consider to be ‘new’, regardless of a band’s quality.

Forge has found that younger rockers feel less prejudice towards ‘new’ bands, as they grow up with them. “If you ask a lot of our fans who are 15 years old now, just the fact that our band has been around for 15 years, do you think that they think that we are a new band?” he says. “No! And that’s how it should be.”

Of course, Forge is aware that certain acts – including Ghost – receive flack for being inspired by the ‘old’ bands. But, in his eyes, plenty of up-and-coming acts take their inspiration as a springboard, forging something entirely new.

“I understand that we’re just a Mercyful Fate/Blue Öyster Cult/Alice Cooper wannabe band,” he jokes. “But you need to do something new. Don’t look at your one idol and say, ‘I wanna be like him. I want to be like her. I want my band to sound exactly like that band.’ That’s most likely not gonna get you anywhere.”

The post “They just happened to sound like someone else, but that’s not their fault. So, stop it”: Tobias Forge defends Greta Van Fleet – and says the future of rock is bright appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$179/£189.99, earthquakerdevices.com

While it might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of dance-punk legends LCD Soundsystem, a fuzzed-out bass guitar has still underpinned some of the band’s best tracks. The pedal producing that fuzz happens to be a V6 transistor Big Muff, one purchased by bandleader James Murphy all the way back in 1989. This unit has now found a second life as the Chelsea, a signature recreation of the pedal from EarthQuaker Devices, named after the guitar shop it was purchased in all those years ago.

• READ MORE: Chase Bliss Brothers AM review: “it could easily be the last drive pedal you ever buy”

What is the EQD Chelsea?

The Chelsea is effectively James Murphy’s version of the Hizumitas. Like with Wata’s own Elk Sustainer, Murphy’s pedal has been toured to almost death and is currently held together with duct tape – and thanks to some drifting 1980s components, it’s also developed a character all of its own. The Chelsea aims to capture it in sonic amber – without the risk of it falling apart or drifting any more.

The V6 transistor Big Muff is one of the variants that featured a tone-bypass switch by default, which EQD has kept here. This allows you to take the dual-filter tone stack out of the circuit completely, meaning a much more midrange-forward sound rather than the classic Big Muff scoop.

As with many of EQD’s recent pedals, the Chelsea features a soft-touch momentary switch for relay true-bypass, and a quick peek inside reveals very little of the actual circuit, thanks to a large daughterboard for the power and audio jacks. The build quality is all correct and proper, with crisp artwork – even if the design itself isn’t too fancy. The pink limited-edition variant is pretty cool, however!

The sounds

The Chelsea sounds, well, like a Big Muff – specifically, like a slightly lower-gain vintage one. It’s definitely in the territory of “fuzz” rather than “overdrive” but there’s also not the sort of extreme saturation and razor-sharp mids-scoop that you might expect from pedals like the modern NYC Muff.

The controls function as you’d expect – it is still a Big Muff variant, and so there are not going to be too many surprises. One thing that does stand out is the rather modest output level – at full whack, it only pushes things a touch beyond unity gain. This isn’t totally unheard of for Big Muffs, of course, but if you’re the kind of player that likes your fuzz pedals to completely annihilate your preamp section, you’re going to need a boost too.

Having played and built a good deal of Big Muff circuits over the years, I’ve personally found that lower-gain versions of the circuits tend to be better at letting bass through – the Sovtek Green Russian variant, for example, is a surprisingly low-gain circuit for something that has a rep as a doom monster. But it’s the lower gain that allows for some clarity with basses and down-tuned guitars.

There are other factors, of course, but the principle stays generally true here. Both in terms of the low-end and the pick attack, the Chelsea rumbles with the best of them. Obviously, LCD Soundsystem’s bass fuzz sound never really veers into extremely saturated low-end drones, and so the percussive-yet-gritty thing the Chelsea achieves makes total sense.

Bypassing the tone gives a growling, midrange-forward sound which I tend towards when playing the Chelsea on a six-string. On bass, the midrange scoop I get when leaving the tone stack engaged is great for adding clank in the high-end and thickening up the low end even further. The sweep of the tone control, as you might expect, is as subtle as a brick, ranging from entirely smoothed-off to entirely fizzy.

Unlike a lot of bass-focused fuzzes, there’s no clean blend here; however, I don’t find this to be too much of an issue. The specific circuit being recreated here is clearly more than up to the task of retaining that low-end by itself.

Should I buy a Chelsea?

For some bassists, the lack of a clean blend may mean that the Chelsea will never be an always-on proposition, but if you’re the kind of player who wants to add a Big Muff to your bass sound, practicality may not be a priority. The level of clarity that will be offered will also of course depend on the rest of your rig – some bass amps take fuzz better than others!

In any case, though, the Chelsea is a cool circuit variation, and that tone-bypass switch does help it stand out from EHX reissues. However, it is still a chunk of change for a circuit which already has countless variations on the market. Would I recommend it in a vacuum? Absolutely – but it’s worth shopping around unless you really know your Big Muffs!

Chelsea alternatives

I don’t think there’s space on the entire internet to list every Big Muff variant you can buy here, but here are some interesting ones that will scratch the same itch. The Evil Eye FX Warg ($149) is another boutique recreation of a Muff variant that comes with an option for some more midrange. The EHX range of reissues, including the Green Russian, Triangle and Ram’s Head variants, will give you a similar vintage sound with a little more midrange than the modern NYC variant. EQD’s own Hoof V2 ($179/£199) is a cool variant with a lot of grit and bass. And for a final leap down this particular rabbit hole check out Wren And Cuff’s entire lineup.

The post EQD Chelsea Low-End Fuzz Driver review: bass-friendly big muff appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Dave Navarro and the other members of Jane’s Addiction have filed a lawsuit against Perry Farrell following an on-stage altercation that caused them to cancel their remaining tour dates. The frontman has also launched his own lawsuit against his bandmates.

The much-publicised incident that spurred this situation ocurred in September 2024, when Farrell shoved and seemingly punched guitarist Navarro during their gig at the Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston. The show then ended abruptly, and the rest of their tour was also cancelled.

• READ MORE: Jane’s Addiction reunion? “No chance,” says Dave Navarro, following onstage fight last year

The band filed their lawsuit on Wednesday (16 July), with Farrell filing a separate legal complaint (not a countersuit) against them just a matter of hours later. As reported by Variety, Navarro, Eric Avery, and Stephen Perkins’s lawsuit alleges that they lost $10 million due to the tour cancellation and suspension of all other band activities following the on stage scrap.

There are also claims of a backstage altercation between the two, with both giving a different version of events. Due to this alleged incident, and their highly publicised on-stage fight, Navarro is also suing for intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract.

Farrell, however, alleges that the trio orchestrated a year-long campaign of bullying and harassment against him, and claims he had no say in the cancellation of their tour and the break up of the band.

A statement from Farrell’s team shared exclusively by Variety reads, “As a founding member and creative force behind Jane’s Addiction, Perry Farrell has always prioritised the band’s legacy and its supporters, which is why the events of September 13th, 2024 in Boston and the resulting fallout was so devastating.

“Without warning or consultation and using Perry as a scapegoat, Dave Navarro and the other band members took it upon themselves to abruptly cancel the remaining tour dates – violating contracts and disregarding all professional obligations…”

It continues, “Dave Navarro then intentionally and publicly blamed Perry for the cancelled tour dates, effectively destroying Perry’s reputation and causing him irreparable harm. Despite this continued bullying perpetuated by Navarro, Perry’s dedication to Jane’s Addiction and the preservation of its positive impact on the music industry remains unshaken.”

Christopher Frost, attorney for the three JA bandmates, comments, “Persuaded by Perry Farrell to revive the legendary configuration of the band, Dave Navarro, Eric Avery, and Stephen Perkins had high hopes that they could capture the pure spirit of the band’s early days and build on it. Initially they did, in the studio and onstage. But, as our lawsuit explains, they did so with a fourth bandmate who was by turns unwilling or unable to perform to a reasonable standard and who repeatedly threatened to derail the tour.

“Ultimately, with the attack on Dave Navarro seen around the world, Perry Farrell abruptly and unilaterally ended all the plans for a Jane’s Addiction revival. He also left his bandmates holding the bag for an unfulfilled tour and record deal, as our lawsuit explains in detail. Dave, Eric, and Stephen never wanted it to come to this.”

In regards to the claims of violence between the two away from the public eye, Navarro alleges he was punched by Farrell backstage, whereas Farrell denies this and claims it was Navarro who “aggressively assaulted” both himself and his wife Etty Lau.

The post Dave Navarro and the rest of Jane’s Addiction sue singer Perry Farrell over on-stage bust-up, claiming they lost $10 million as a result appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Fernandes Guitars has entered bankruptcy proceedings once again, but this time there is some hope that the legendary Japanese guitar brand might continue in some form.

This news arrives after the company previously filed for bankruptcy back in July 2024.  Shortly after, Fernandes withdrew its petition, but the company hasn’t made any announcements since.

• READ MORE: Mesa/Boogie officially releases Mark IIC++ modified amplifier to the public for the first time

Now, however, Tokyo-based news outlet, Nikkei Asia, has confirmed that the company has re-filed bankruptcy, with filings claiming the brand has amassed a total debt of around 730 million yen ($4.9 million). The Tokyo District Court granted permission for proceedings to begin on 9 July.

An interesting wrinkle to the new filing, however, is the confirmation that part of the Fernandes trademark has been transferred to another company in advance of these proceedings. While no details have been revealed at this stage, it could potentially mean that Fernandes will continue in some part.

Fernandes’ history begins in 1969, and it grew to become a go-to provider for budget import guitars. In addition to making guitars, Fernandes was also widely known for its Sustainer pickup – which is widely used by other brands and as an after-market add-on.

It ceased trading when it originally filed for bankruptcy last year, and its website remains closed. At the time, Fernandes released a statement in which it said, “Fernandes Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ‘Fernandes’) is currently owed a considerable amount of debt to multiple creditors, and unfortunately, it has become impossible to continue business.”

It later added, “Creditors and business partners who have claims or debts against Fernandes will be contacted in writing by the attorney representing them in the bankruptcy proceedings… We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patronage over the years.”

Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong has used a Fernandes S-type model (affectionally known as Blue) across their live shows for years, having owned it since the age of 11, and even Metallica’s Kirk Hammett has owned one too – his FST-13, named Edna, appears on the cover of Metallica’s The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited. Other notable Fernandes players include Ed O’Brien of Radiohead, and Robert Fripp of King Crimson.

Guitar.com will report on any further information regarding the future of the Fernandes Guitars brand.

The post Fernandes guitars files for bankruptcy again – but there may be hope for the future of the brand appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

John Hornby Skewes & Co, also known as JHS but unrelated to the US pedal brand, has announced that it is closing down after over sixty years in business.

JHS owns the Vintage, Encore and Fret-King brands, as well as being one of the UK’s largest distributors – currently supplying the UK market with brands such as Danelectro, Godin, Donner, Lava Music, Shubb, Wilkinson and many others.

• READ MORE: Vintage REVO Series Integra – can a neck-through guitar this cheap be any good?

In a statement released this morning, JHS is at pains to point out that the closure has nothing to do with financial troubles that have dogged the UK music retail sector in recent months, but due to a rather unique set of circumstances spurred by the death of the company founder, John Hornby Skewes, in September of last year.

In a statement from JHS shared with Guitar.com, these unique circumstances. “The JHS business comprises of a property company and a trading company, both majority owned by family trusts set up by the late John H. Skewes,” it reads. “The settlor of those trusts stated that after his death, the Companies should be sold.

“Steps have been taken over the last few months to try and secure a buyer to take John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd. forward under new proprietorship. This has thus far not been possible.”

It goes on to explain, “The trustees, shareholders, and board of John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd. have concluded that to achieve the settlor’s mandate, a process of conducting an orderly winding down of John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd. will commence with immediate effect.”

The company stresses that this is not a liquidation or administration process, and that JHS is “entirely solvent”. It anticipates that its closure process may take up to 12 months as it continues to trade, downsizing along the way, “gradually disposing of its stock and assets, including its valuable trademarks and other intellectual property”, which will be sold to the highest bidder.

JHS has created a variety of in-house brands over the last few decades, including Encore, Vintage and Fret-King – the latter two working in close tandem with after-market guitar hardware and electronics pioneer, Trevor Wilkinson.

The future of these brands will no doubt be determined in the coming months, but for the time being it seems to be business as usual as JHS begins the process of winding down its operations.

JHS concludes, “The trustees, shareholders, and directors of JHS would like to pay tribute to those who have engaged with us over the decades, in whatever capacity or manner of contribution.”

The post Vintage and Fret-King owner John Hornby Skewes & Co is shutting down despite being “profitable” and “entirely solvent” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Damon Albarn is primarily known for his work in Blur and Gorillaz, he’s had plenty of musical projects in his time. But one of his most interesting musical ventures – Africa Express – also led to an unexpectedly intense reaction to an acoustic Welsh folk song.

In a new interview with Mojo, Albarn looks back at two decades of Africa Express – a non-profit organisation that facilitates cross-cultural collaborations between musicians in African, Middle Eastern, and Western countries. Not all of these collaborations have been well-received by the audience however.

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Albarn recalls the most memorable of these took place in Lagos, Nigeria in 2008, where things really turned sour.  Why? “Gruff Rhys decided to do a ballad in Welsh,” Albarn explains.

The Super Furry Animals frontman’s performance was just an acoustic folk tune, with Rhys taking to the stage with just his acoustic guitar. “I accompanied him and held up Welsh-language placards,” Albarn says. “It went over the head of the audience, and they started throwing things. First it was booze, then it was bottles, then tables and chairs, until [Nigerian saxophonist and activist] Femi Kuti calmed things down.”

At least the experience didn’t sour Albarn’s affection for the Welsh language – even if the Nigerian crowd probably won’t be putting Fuzzy Logic on their Spotify playlists. Albarn even recorded some of The Good, The Bad & The Queen’s – his art-rock supergroup – sophomore record, 2018’s Merrie Land, in North Wales.

Speaking to Mojo about his motives for starting Africa Express, which was spurred by the lack of artists from the African continent appearing on the Live 8 benefit concerts.

“I didn’t want to put on a white linen suit and be helicoptered into a disaster zone,” he explains. “Which was the route of the celebrity in Africa up until that point. Maybe that’s an unfair assessment but that’s how I felt then. I thought I would love to go to Mali but do what I actually do, make it something real to me.”

“We went to Salif Keita’s home in Bamako and he sang three songs then handed his guitar to Martha Wainwright, and she played three,” reflects cofounder Ian Birrell of that first Africa Express show. “[Malian duo] Amadou & Mariam were there, Jamie T… We spent time with Toumani Diabaté, went to an amazing show at Bassekou Kouyaté’s house. As we left, Norman Cook said it was like the best Later… With Jools Holland he’d ever seen.”

The post “First it was booze, then it was bottles, then tables and chairs”: Blur’s Damon Albarn recalls how an acoustic folk song turned a gig into a riot appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

We all know Eddie Van Halen was a great appreciator of classic British rock bands – Van Halen’s cover of You Really Got Me on their debut showed that. But according to Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, teenage Eddie was so obsessed with The Who, he could replicate Pete Townshend note for note – even as a teen.

In a new interview with Professor of Rock, Anthony recalls Eddie’s impressive skills when he first auditioned to join for Van Halen. “When I jammed with Eddie and Alex that first time, they played some of their original stuff,” the bassist explains. “They were going through these time changes and I’m [thinking], ‘Whoa! What a trip!’”

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“They were great players,” he continues. “They really impressed me… [Eddie] could play the whole Live at Leeds [The Who] album, playing it note for note. It was just as good, if not better than [Pete] Townshend!”

Rather than being intimidated by Eddie and Alex’s talent, Anthony rose to the challenge. “They were putting me through time changes, and I was really digging it because it was something new to me,” he admits.

Anthony would learn over 300 songs, both covers and original tracks, to keep up with the band. “Every day at rehearsal, I’d be learning,” he recalls. “Just cramming songs in because we’d be auditioning for little clubs around the area.”

As Van Halen grew in popularity, their dedication and talent would impress fans and peers alike. In fact, David Lee Roth soon alerted Eddie to the fact that peers were listening in on rehearsals in the hopes of stealing ideas.

“Friends of his that play guitar would sit outside our little rehearsal garage and listen to us,” Anthony says. “They’d be out there listening to what Eddie was doing because they knew that he had something going on that they weren’t doing.”

To avoid artists poaching ideas off of Van Halen, Roth came up with a ploy to disguise Eddie’s talents. “Dave used to tell him, ‘hey, when you play solos… turn your back to the audience because you don’t want these guys to see what you’re doing!’” Anthony explains. “So a lot of times Ed would do that!”

The post The Who album that Eddie Van Halen loved so much that Michael Anthony claims he could play it “note for note, probably better than Townshend!” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

When Shinedown’s Zach Myers gave his John Mayer PRS Silver Sky signature a hot pink paint job and a relic’d finish, it was treated like an act of sacrilege. While Myers loved the final product, inspired by Mayer’s beaten-up BLK1 Strat, the backlash initially made him resent his custom project.

In a new interview with MusicRadar, Myers admits that he once considered destroying the guitar by throwing it into a blaze of onstage pyro. “I was like, ‘One night I’m just going to throw that thing in the fire and let it burn to death because I’ve had [so much] drama around this guitar,’” he reveals

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Though Myers isn’t too sure who got wound up over his custom Silver Sky, Myers notes that Paul Reed Smith himself didn’t seem mad about it. “He didn’t say anything!” he explains. “He notoriously doesn’t like relics – it’s well documented, his hatred of relics. Yet it’s fine. Hey, I would never relic a flame-top guitar – I just felt the Silver Sky lent itself to that kind of cool thing.”

In the past, Myers has hinted that some of the backlash seemed to come from other members of the PRS team. This could potentially be because the company was gearing up to release Mayer’s signature in Roxy Pink in 2021, after Myers had already debuted his pink John Mayer Silver Sky onstage.

Speaking to Premier Guitar in 2022, Myers explained that he received “an upset phone call” after the company heard of the guitar. “I don’t know if it was [Mayer] that was upset – I’ll just say someone was upset that I had my own white guitar painted pink,” the guitarist explained.

“They were like, ‘Well, what if other artists want a pink guitar and you have one?’” he recalled. “If John wants to get mad, I basically just copied the BLK1. That’s really all I did! It’s exactly the same… If you’re a Mayer fan, you can probably tell.”

Myer’s tech, Drew Foppe, has publicly supported Myer’s custom Silver Sky in the past. “For people who don’t quite understand what a tribute relic job looks like, and just want to talk trash about what kind of wear and tear a guitar should or shouldn’t have… you’re missing the entire point in the first place,” he wrote.

His post shows Mayer’s BLK1 Fender Strat alongside the ‘infamous’ relic’d PRS Silver Sky. “I get some people don’t like relic guitars,” he wrote. “But to talk trash on a really, really good relic job is just ridiculous!”

“This is a TRIBUTE to the original, not just a random heavy relic job,” he continued “Some of you people have lost your dang minds to speak on something you know nothing about!”

Nowadays, Myers can look beyond the hate, explaining that his custom Silver Sky is one of his favourite axes. “It’s still one of my coolest looking guitars,” he tells MusicRadar.

The Shinedown guitarist is set to release a new signature guitar of his own very soon. He’s even played a prototype onstage at recent shows – but it’s not too dissimilar to his last signature. Rather ironically, the new release is just a paint job.

“Really, it’s pretty much the same thing as the last one – but it’s a different colour,” he says. “I believe we might have done something different with the pickups. It’s basically a different colour variation of the Myers Blue, of the last version of the Myers. It’s a cool colour, matching headstock. It’s very pretty.”

The post “I’m just going to throw that thing in the fire”: Shinedown guitarist admits his relic’d PRS Silver Sky inspired so much “drama” that he wanted to get rid of it appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Imagine copping a quality 1960s Fender Deluxe on Facebook Marketplace for under £3,000. You’d already be pretty satisfied – but what if that amp turned out to be a priceless piece of Beatles history?

That’s exactly what happened to 45-year-old James Taylor. When the father of two was picking up his purchase, the seller alleged that the Fender amp was previously owned by John Lennon. “They told me it might have been gifted to someone by John Lennon, but I have heard these stories before and I didn’t pay it much mind,” he tells Manchester Evening News.

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However, after some digging, Taylor started to believe the seller’s claims. Taylor discovered that the Facebook seller did have some ties to Lennon; the seller was friends with Rob Lynton, a songwriter and guitarist who had worked with Lennon on his 1971 album, Imagine.

Taylor reached out to Lynton to confirm whether the amp was once Lennon’s – and Lynton confirmed that it was.

In fact, Lynton went so far as to hand-write Taylor a ‘Certificate of Authenticity’ as proof. “My friend Mal Evans, who was The Beatles’ roadie and general Factotum for many years… initially loaned me the amplified for recording purposes,” Lynton writes. “He advised me that this amp was John’s.”

“In 1971, I was invited to play on John Lennon’s Imagine album,” the ‘certificate’ continues. “Following the recording sessions, I was with John and I mentioned that I had been loaned the Fender amplifier by Mal Evans, as I required a smaller amplifier than the ones I owned at the time.”

“I asked John if I should bring the amplifier to his home, or return it… he responded: ‘No, thanks very much for all the work you’ve done on the sessions. Don’t worry about bringing it back, you can keep it. It’s yours!’”

While Taylor was already happy with his new amp, the news has just made the purchase even sweeter. “I bought the amp because I wanted the amp, and I didn’t pay John Lennon sort of money for it,” he tells Manchester Evening News. “When all the details started checking out, I realised I had something very exciting on my hands. I wasn’t expecting it at all!”

“One of my earliest listening experiences was my parents introducing me to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at a young age… And now I have John Lennon’s amp, which is crazy to think about!”

According to Taylor, the amp still “plays and sounds fantastic”, and he’s already used it for some band practice sessions. Though he does admit he “might have been a bit more cautious had [he] realised the historical importance” of the piece of gear.

Looking forward, Taylor is hoping to further investigate what tracks Lennon might have used the amp on. He’s also thinking he might sell on the piece, as “it would be scary to have something so valuable in the house”.

“There are many parts of me that wish I could hold onto it, but it is a risk to keep in a house with toddlers rushing around,” the father of two admits.

The post Man buys John Lennon’s old Fender guitar amp on Facebook Marketplace… for barely $4,000 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$2,599/£2,549, taylorguitars.com

If you’ve been paying attention over the last seven months, you’ll have probably heard the stir caused by Taylor’s Gold Label guitars. After 50 years of defiantly and obsessively looking forward in its guitar designs, the Californian guitar company – now under the watchful eye of master luthier Andy Powers – decided to look back.

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The result was a guitar that somewhat changed the conversation about what we perceive as ‘the Taylor sound’. As Bob Taylor himself told me last year, when it comes to the tonality of Taylor guitars, “You have to like it, to like it” – and that for every person who loved the pristine, bright characteristics that are the brand’s trademark, another person would dislike it for exactly the same reason.

But by Powers’ own admission, the people who don’t vibe with the classic Taylor sounds aren’t wrong for doing so – they just have different tastes. The Gold Label Collection was Powers responding to that: “I’m thrilled that many people do love this,” he told me, “But for those who don’t, well, there can be other sounds too.”

The result was an all-new design in pretty much every way – new body style, new bracing pattern, new neck construction, new visual style and above all else, a new sound. Well, I say new – it was new for Taylor, but it was a sound that sprinkled a sheen of something very old onto the formula, and made our reviewer Michael Watts call the 814e an “important milestone” in the evolution of Taylor guitars.

Evolution doesn’t stand still of course, and there was always the sense that it wouldn’t be long before the Gold Label concept expanded further, and here we have it in the shape of another (sort of) new body shape, and a more accessible price point. Meet the Gold Label Grand Pacific.

Taylor Gold Label 517e – what is it?

Those of you familiar with Taylor guitars will be aware of the Grand Pacific body shape already. Introduced back in 2019, the Grand Pacific was Powers’ take on a slope-shouldered dreadnought guitar. In a classic bit of foreshadowing, the Grand Pacific was the first Powers-designed Taylor that hinted at his desire to expand the tonal recipe in a more old-school direction.

The GP has since become a mainstay of the Taylor line, but for the Gold Label guitar, the body has been tweaked somewhat. The guitar retains the body dimensions of the original, but has upped the depth by ⅜ of an inch to be a full 5 inches at the soundhole. For reference, that’s deeper than a Martin Dreadnought or a Gibson Super Jumbo: a chunky boi indeed.

Otherwise we have much the same basic specs as the Super Auditorium-sized 814e – including the new fanned V-Class bracing, the revolutionary long-tenon Action Control Neck, and another notable appearance of LR Baggs’ Element VTC pickup in place of Taylor’s proprietary Expression system.

Visually it’s got the same tweaked peghead design and inlays, and the same 1930s-influenced pickguard and bridge shape… but elsewhere things are really rather distinct.

For starters, whereas the 814e was available with a torrefied spruce top, and either rosewood or koa back and sides, you can get a Gold Label Grand Pacific in spruce/rosewood configuration in the shape of the 717e. But the guitar we have here has tropical mahogany back and sides, to go with the neck of the same material.

And then there’s the colour of the thing of course – the initial run of Gold Label guitars were either available in natural or a smoky caramel sunburst, but the 517e also comes in this rather lovely gloss Blacktop.

A casual perusal of the festival stages across the world this summer will leave you in little doubt that shade- and painted-top acoustics are very much Having A Moment right now, and this guitar feels right at home in that world. That painted top is also a nice nod to the Depression-era guitars that informed the Gold Label’s sonic and visual character, and I must admit to being rather charmed by the whole package, visually.

Taylor Gold Label 517e – build and playability

Back in that conversation I had with Bob Taylor, he emphasised to me that subjective opinions on sound were not something that concerned him – all he really cared about was that the build quality of his guitars was beyond reproach regardless.

Candidly, that’s often been my experience with Taylor instruments – they are invariably wonderfully and innovatively constructed guitars that reflect the care, craftsmanship and attention to detail that the company has become famous for, regardless of what price point you’re talking about. The 517e is of course far from a cheap guitar, and so you’d expect a first-class degree of build, fit and finish here – and that’s exactly what you get, pretty much.

The satin-finished neck is beautifully applied and supremely comfortable, with Taylor’s ‘Standard’ carve offering a slinky and accommodating palmful that welcomes electric players in the most classic of Taylor ways. It’s a reminder that for all the visual and marketing claims that this is a guitar with an ‘old soul’, it’s still a Taylor guitar first and foremost, and that’s no bad thing from a playability perspective.

String spacing is a fairly generous 38mm at the nut and 55mm at the bridge, giving larger hands plenty of room to operate, while the slim neck and accommodating profile mean it’s comfortable enough playing cowboy chords as it is more deft fingerstyle maneuvering.

I’m not a small guy, but unquestionably the extra depth added to the body here makes the already imposing size of a Grand Pacific feel even more so. Personally, I don’t have an issue with that but it should go without saying that those with smaller frames and shorter arms might want to try one out before you pull the trigger.

Put side by side with the Dreadnought-adjacent Martin HG-28 that I happen to have on deck here at Guitar.com HQ, the 517e looks like something of a kaiju – certainly by the usual svelte standards of Taylor’s instruments.

The general finishing is pretty much flawless all over, though I did notice a small but uncharacteristically rough bit of finishing on the top brace. It’s the sort of thing that will have no bearing on the sound, and I likely wouldn’t have noticed if not for the fact that it was the brace sitting directly below the soundhole. It’s honestly nothing that couldn’t be fixed with 10 seconds of gentle sanding, but it’s also one of those things that once I did notice it, I couldn’t stop noticing it every time I picked up the guitar. It’s also in sharp contrast to every other bit of woodworking on the instrument which is utterly flawless.

Before we get into the sounds of the thing though, it is worth talking about the looks – spending time with a Gold Label guitar you can really get a sense of all the charming and unusual little touches that set these guitars apart from the regular Taylor line.

The subtle angled bevel of the headstock edge, the lovely matt-effect parchment of the pickguard, the appealing dark stain of the peghead and indeed the lovely thin application of the Blacktop finish, allowing the straight grain lines of the torrefied spruce top to catch the light in the way a proper old guitar does… it’s all rather lovely.

Taylor Gold Label 517e – sounds

So does this guitar have the sonic character that can win over non-Taylor fans? Well, before we get to the subjective stuff, a word about the wood choices here. Spruce/mahogany is of course an all-time classic acoustic guitar pairing, but one that brings certain qualities to the party that we have to consider.

Rosewood, the other option in the range, absorbs soundwaves quite differently to mahogany, and without getting too deep into the weeds of the physics of the whole thing, a guitar with a mahogany tends to have an open and more airy tonality versus the deeper and more complex nature of rosewood.

With that in mind, I sit down with the 517e and the extra power and projection offered by that extra body depth is immediately apparent. It’s a similar basic sonic character to the 817e in that it has a warmth and richness I’m not used to hearing from a Taylor instrument.

It’s not exactly vintage in the way an old Martin or Gibson is of course, but there’s something pleasantly old-school in the bass frequencies – the extra air inside and that long-tenon neck presumably giving them a bit more body than I might have expected. It also doesn’t have the roundness and complex overtones that you’d generally get from a rosewood guitar, but it has more depth to the lows than you might expect.

Mahogany’s natural glassiness is also a good fit for the more Taylor-y qualities of the guitar – that Taylor sheen is very evident upon picking, and the string and note separation is further enhanced by the always-impressive V-class architecture under the hood.

As you move partial chord shapes up the neck or take more elaborate fingerstyle excursions, the remarkable in-tune-ness of the V-Class concept really does show its hand wonderfully. Whether you’re in altered tunings or standard, this thing really does stay in tune impressively and offers wonderfully clear and well-intonated single notes all the way up the neck. I can see this being a very fine recording guitar indeed.

The Baggs Element VTC pickup is a tried and true option, and while it doesn’t offer the fancier pseudo-modelling stuff that some of the more high-end modern pickup systems do, as a quality under-saddle transducer it does a nice job of replicating the sonic character of the guitar without too much of the nasty stuff that nobody likes from piezo systems.

Taylor Gold Label 517e – should I buy one?

At this point I should probably confess that I am absolutely one of those people that Bob Taylor and Andy Powers was talking about earlier. I love everything about Taylor guitars – the playability, the craftsmanship, the innovation… the whole bag. But for whatever reason I’ve never truly managed to embrace the sound of them – though I’ll admit I’ve come close with a couple of instruments in the last few years.

From that perspective then, I’m the ideal target for these Gold Label guitars – and I can’t deny that this is the most sonically compelling Taylor guitar I’ve ever played. Part of me wonders if I might personally have preferred the extra warmth and bass response of the rosewood back and sides version, but there’s still plenty to love here for fans of more old-school acoustic guitar tones – and the way it weds that with the precision, clarity and definition that a Taylor V-Class guitar offers is hugely impressive.

Is it going to replace your well-loved old Martin in your arsenal sonically? Of course not, but the Gold Label Collection is still an important and intriguing avenue for Taylor to explore. Because it’s not just about winning over the doubters, though it does a very good job of that. Really, it’s about showcasing that Taylor’s ethos and craftsmanship defies the pigeonholes that we often put brands in, and expands the brand’s future horizons into even more exciting and broad territory.

Taylor Gold Label 517e – alternatives

The sub-$3k market is very much the heavyweight division when it comes to American-made acoustic guitars, so the Gold Label faces stiff competition from all the major brands. One prominent branch of the Bob Taylor coaching tree also occupying this space is Breedlove, and their Oregon Dreadnought Concerto CE ($2,999) – founded by ex-Taylor builders Larry Breedlove and Steve Henderson, the brand offers a smaller but similarly ethos’d approach to acoustic building. If you want a dreadnought guitar with a real retro vibe, Martin’s D-18 Standard Series ($2,899) is a spruce/mahogany monster with unimpeachable credentials. Another 50-year-old acoustic guitar company with a penchant for doing interesting things with bracing, the Larrivee D-44 ($2,899) is a spruce/mahogany dread that’s made in Oxnard, California – a couple of hundred miles up the coast from Taylor.

The post Taylor Gold Label 517e review – “this is the most sonically compelling Taylor guitar I’ve ever played” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Legendary rock journalist Steven Rosen was friends with Eddie Van Halen for a long time. And in this time, he learned a thing or two about his relationship with the guitar. Now, in a new interview with Igor Paspalj, Steven recalls how it all began for the “guitarist’s guitarist”, who was only a “local Hollywood phenomenon” when the two first met in July 1977.

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Steven has written a new book Tonechaser on this friendship, providing deep insights into just how far the Van Halen guitarist’s musical obsessions went. It also looks at some of his personal quirks. “[Eddie] was a pretty complex person”, Rosen recalls, and that “the longer I sort of knew him and hung out with him, I realise there were more facets to his personality.” 

“Music was first and foremost and everything for him. I mean, I know you’ve heard it before, but with him, it was everything.”

Steven was able to get to know Eddie on such a personal level because of their proximity: the two only lived eight minutes away from each other. Eddie lived in the luxurious Coldwater Canyon, while Steven lived in the comparatively “funky cheap rent part of Hollywood”. Because of this, it “wasn’t long before he would just sort of come over… Or I’d drive over to his place in Cold Water”, where Eddie lived with his future wife, American actress Valerie Bertinelli.

Whenever Steven would visit Eddie’s Coldwater Canyon home studio, “He was always sitting in the chair and having a talk. He was playing, he was changing strings. It was always about the guitar.”

It was through these studio encounters that Rosen realised that his more musical side was intensely private: “When he was in the musician mode and he needed to work, he needed to be by himself. It was almost an unspoken thing. I mean, I could sense it. He’d kind of be playing, and you kind of look over, and I just knew it. ‘Hey man, I’ll see you later.’”

Because of this key moment, he also discovered how important it was to Eddie that people respected this part of him: “And if you disrespected him, he held on to that for a very long time.”

In other recent Van Halen news, a recently unearthed interview with Ed from 1991 revealed that far from being enamoured with the rise of shred guitar in the 1980s, he seemed to be quite disdainful of the idea – “what’s important to me now isn’t how fast I can solo. It’s the whole picture,” he explained.

The post “There was never a single moment when he did not have the guitar in his hand” Eddie Van Halen’s friend remembers how obsessed he was with guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

There’s nothing quite so cumbersome and unweildy as a real, honest to goodness rotary speaker cabinet – it’s probably why most guitarists who appreciate the unmistakable sound tend to use some sort of pedal-based alternative. And now Boss has brought its most compact version ever to the party.

• READ MORE: “We just looked at each other in awe” the truth behind why Jimi Hendrix started smashing guitars on stage

Boss’s original RT-20 Rotary Ensemble pedal was discontinued in 2019, despite its classic replication of the Hammond organ rotary speaker effect. But fans of the original pedal can rejoice, since the Japanese pedal giant has revisited the concept now in classic compact pedal form.  It also comes with a very fun rotating LED screen that emulates the movement of a classic rotary cab. 

Like other rotary ensemble pedals, BOSS’s own seeks to replicate some of the original 1940s combo organ voice sound, based on rotary speakers that create their signature modulation effect. As Boss says, this effect creates “depth and movement” in your recorded and live sounds.

A rotary speaker sound is probably not something you’re going to use for every song of course, but that’s what makes the dinky size of the RT-2 so compelling – you can introduce the effect into your sound without taking too much real estate on your pedalboard. 

According to the Boss website, the pedal comes with a plethora of classic effects like: “A vintage rotary sound and two modified tones with enhanced spatial effects, virtual rotor display with lights that indicate treble and bass rotor speeds, fast/slow rotor speed control, drive knob to add vintage tube saturation, and a Rise/Fall Time switch [for adjusting] the transition time between rotor speeds” alongside saturation control and volume balance between treble and bass rotors via the Drive/Balance Switch.

The pedal also has four selectable pedal switching modes, making this an even more versatile piece of kit to have with you live, also particularly in its support for controlling external footswitches and expression pedals. 

The RT-2 Rotary Ensemble is available this month and is currently retailing at $239.99.

The post BOSS’s RT-2 Rotary Ensemble pedal offers classic rotary speaker sounds in a compact footprint appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Rare guitar seekers search high and low for guitars owned by the greats, in the hope that they can capture some of the same magic. But for Joe Satriani, working in a guitar shop “disillusioned” him to these collectables, simply because they don’t always sound as good as their price tag suggests.

• READ MORE: “Playing as fast as you can doesn’t really hold much water for me”: Eddie Van Halen pours scorn on shredding

Having exclusive access to some of the “most expensive, the most valuable, rare guitars”, Satriani tells D’Addario, he discovered what they sounded like. And while a dream job to many, the experience made the scales fall from his eyes. “There’s nothing special about it”, Satch admitted.

Satch believes that players should “connect with the guitar” rather than chasing after vintage instruments for the sake of it. It becomes special to them, and the hallmark of their own sound. Unfortunately this would mean that buying a guitar previously owned by a guitar god doesn’t mean that you’ll get much out of it yourself.

This realisation encouraged Satriani to build custom guitars instead, but “it was really to get by week to week” he says, “and to do the gig I was doing at the time.” Outside his “disco band playing around the East Coast”, which was “going nowhere’, his solo music career was beginning to grow. Satch began realising this after receiving a short-but-sweet review of his debut solo album Not of this Earth in Guitar Player.

Despite this, Satriani still has an appreciation for unique guitars, such as the see-through Ibanez Y2K Crystal Planet prototype, designed by Junji Hotta in 1999 to coincide with his Crystal Planet album. Alongside some other gear, he sold this guitar on Bananas at Large to collectors. Even though he’s disillusioned with vintage guitars himself, he still recognises them as artefacts that people love to collect.

In the same interview, Satriani also talks about how he struggles with being extroverted on stage. “I don’t ever feel like myself” he says about the experience of playing to his fans – certainly a surprising thing for someone with as many massive gigs on his CV as Stach.

The post Joe Satriani on why he doesn’t rate vintage guitars “The musician has to connect with the guitar for it to become special” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Wilco guitarist and frontman Jeff Tweedy has just announced he’ll be releasing a 30-track triple album this September – and if that seems excessive to you, well, he doesn’t really care.

Speaking in the latest issue of Mojo, Tweedy explains that Twilight Override is a “special” magnum opus of a record. “It’s a really beautiful evolution,” he says. “I’m not holding back or protecting myself, and I don’t care if people think a triple record’s too long.”

For anyone who thinks it is too long, he has one thing to say: “I mean… Fuck you!” he laughs. “You don’t have to listen to it…”

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Twilight Override sees Tweedy yet again working with his children, vocalist Sammy and drummer Spencer, as well as the rest of his usual touring band. So far, only four tracks have been shared from the record; Enough, One Tiny Flower, Out in the Dark, and Stray Cats in Spain explore a plethora of the Illinois’ rocker’s sides, from his harmonica-loving alt-country to his charming cerebral indie rock reflections.

Tweedy notes that Stray Cats In Spain in particular was “written with [his band’s] gift for vocal harmony in mind”, while the yet-to-be-released Feel Free is a seven-minute ode to self-expression. “It’s saying forget yourself, be unburdened by yourself,” he tells Mojo.

The seven-minute tune is another example of Tweedy not caring about how long a record or a track is. In fact, he wishes it was even longer: “I’d like for people to add their own couplets to it and make it the world’s longest song.”

Elsewhere, Tweedy has explained that his upcoming record is a testament to the magic of creativity. “When you choose to do creative things, you align yourself with something that other people call God,” he explains in a press release [via NME]. “When you align yourself with creation, you inherently take a side against destruction. You’re on the side of creation. And that does a lot to quell the impulse to destroy. Creativity eats darkness.”

“Sort of an endless buffet these days – a bottomless basket of rock bottom. Which is, I guess, why I’ve been making so much stuff lately. That sense of decline is hard to ignore, and it must be at least a part of the shroud I’m trying to unwrap. The twilight of an empire seems like a good enough jumping-off point when one is jumping into the abyss.”

“Twilight sure is a pretty word, though. And the world is full of happy people in former empires, so maybe that’s not the only source of this dissonance. Whatever it is out there (or in there) squeezing this ennui into my day, it’s fucking overwhelming. It’s difficult to ignore.”

“Twilight Override is my effort to overwhelm it right back. Here are the songs and sounds and voices and guitars and words that are an effort to let go of some of the heaviness and up the wattage on my own light. My effort to engulf this encroaching nighttime (nightmare) of the soul.”

Tweedy is set to embark on a solo tour in support of Twilight Override later this year. Things will kick off in Michigan on 8 October, before hitting Europe in February.

Twilight Override is out 26 September. Tickets for Tweedy’s solo tour will go on sale at 10am this Friday (18 July).

The post “F”**k you! You don’t have to listen to it”: why Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy doesn’t care if you think his albums are too long appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.