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Wolfgang Van Halen has reflected on the time he and his late father Eddie Van Halen jammed on a song that would appear years later on his band Mammoth’s latest album, The End.

Guitar legend Eddie Van Halen tragically passed away in 2020 before the release of any music under his son Wolfgang’s band, Mammoth. The band’s first song, Distance, arrived a month after Eddie’s death, and served as a touching tribute from Wolfgang to his father.

But ideas that would later become Mammoth songs were in the works years beforehand, and as it turns out, Wolfgang even jammed one song in particular with Eddie way back in 2014.

• READ MORE: Billy Corgan thinks rock has been “purposely dialled down” in culture: “All I know is I saw the gravity shift”

Answering a fan’s question in a new edition of SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk, Wolfgang remembers [via antiMusic] : “Actually in December of 2014 when I was getting ready to track what would be the beginning of Mammoth – it was January 2015 that we started the original tracks.

“I actually have a video – it’s a really terribly filmed video because it’s right next to my hi-hat on my cell phone, so it’s just all hi-hat, total noise.

“But on a song that actually ended up on The End – Selfish – I have a video of my dad and I jamming on that song in 2014, which is crazy to think that it came out last year. That’s how long that idea has been around.”

Wolfgang explains that the pair jammed the song through “a couple of times”.

“I taught him how to play it on guitar, and I got on drums… That’s a video I hold very close. I love that.”

He says the only reason he’s never shared the video with the world is because of the poor audio quality due to the camera placement.

“I don’t know, you can barely hear it,” he says. “I probably should have put the phone camera somewhere else. But yeah, we did. I don’t think it ever got out how stoked Dad was about it. He loved the music so much. And he heard a lot of what would end up on the next few albums, because the 28 songs I wrote at the very beginning of Mammoth in 2015, kind of got spread out because certain ideas weren’t done yet.”

While Wolfgang appears to be in a good spot now, he admits he still has moments of sadness when thinking about sharing his newest musical ideas with his father.

“It’s a tough, emotional thing,” he continues. “Every positive thing that happens to me has a tinge of sadness because it’s like, ‘Dang, I really wish I could have shared this with Dad. I wish he could have seen it. He would be stoked.’”

The post Wolfgang Van Halen reveals he and his dad jammed a song on the new Mammoth album before he died: “I taught him how to play it on guitar, and I played drums” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

David Bowie producer Tony Visconti has shared new behind-the-scenes stories from the making of Heathen, including a blistering one-take guitar performance from Pete Townshend that left the Who legend with bleeding fingers.

In a new interview with Spin, Visconti revisits the 2002 record, his first full-album collaboration with Bowie since 1980, and the musicians who contributed to its sessions.

• READ MORE: Guitarist from Canadian pop punk band loses two fingers in construction accident

“As for working side-by-side in the studio, we both played many instruments, and I was singing backing vocals with him since the earliest albums,” Visconti says of his time with Bowie. “He was impatient. If we wanted a guitar part, we didn’t want to phone for a player and wait until that guitarist was free. David and I shared guitar duties frequently. We were a two-man band.”

Occasionally, outside musicians were brought in. One such cameo was Pete Townshend, whose appearance on Heathen happened largely by chance.

“Townshend dropped in for a visit when we were recording in Philip Glass’s studio, Looking Glass. They had a long chat, and I could see camaraderie between old friends,” the producer recalls. Before long, Bowie invited him to pick up a guitar.

“David asked him to play. He did, but we asked him to play a bit more aggressively, and he said, ‘Oh, do you mean Townshend Windmill Chords?’ He nailed it in one take. Two of his right-hand fingers were bleeding afterwards,” says Visconti.

Another contributor to the album was Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, who played acoustic guitar on Bowie’s cover of Neil Young’s I’ve Been Waiting for You.

“The Grohl story is interesting,” Visconti says. “He played acoustic guitar, remotely from California, and sent us a file. His drumming would’ve been better, but that didn’t happen.”

The session also came with a price tag Visconti still finds hard to believe.

“Afterwards he sent David an invoice for $10,000. Sure, he was on top of his game, but that was ludicrous,” the producer says. “I don’t know if David actually paid him that much.”

The post “Two of his right-hand fingers were bleeding afterwards”: Tony Visconti on Pete Townshend’s one-take David Bowie Heathen session appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Nothing proves humans have free will quite like Japanese jazz fusion virtuoso Masayoshi Takanaka’s ridiculous red surfboard guitar.

Weighing around six kilograms and looking more like beach equipment than a stage instrument, the larger-than-life guitar will return to the spotlight this March. Takanaka’s first UK solo shows were originally booked for London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire, but overwhelming demand saw them upgraded to two nights at Brixton Academy, where nearly 10,000 fans are expected to watch the 72-year-old shred his psychedelic surf classics with the lifeguard-board-turned-guitar in hand.

Created in collaboration with luthier Takeda Yutaka, the surfboard guitar was designed to capture the breezy, beachy essence of Takanaka’s psych-surf sound. It also doubles as a tribute to a late friend – an experience that prompted the guitarist to reflect on life’s fleeting nature.

• READ MORE: Megadeth On Ice: Watch Teemu Mäntysaari play Let There be Shred while ice skating

“You can do what you like while you’re alive. When you’re dead, you can’t do anything. So I decided to make a surfboard guitar,” Takanaka says in an interview with Surfer Today. “I’m jumping the gun a bit, but I was thinking, ‘Oh, come to think of it, surfing was popular around the time of the Bubble Era… I have a summer song that goes well with it…’ and then I thought it would be interesting to make a surfing guitar. I heard it was hard to make.”

After exploring several options, Takanaka and Yutaka hollowed out a real surfboard to house a playable guitar inside.

“I made it with realism in mind,” the luthier explains. “The surfboard itself is hollow inside, so you can’t attach the neck or parts directly to it. So I attached the neck to a small wooden body and screwed it in from the back of the surfboard. In order not to sacrifice playability, we made sure it wasn’t too heavy and left enough clearance around the neck. Considering maintenance, the guitar part is removable.”

The surfboard guitar originally debuted in light blue on Takanaka’s 2004 and 2005 tours before being repainted bright red. Its complexity made the luthier vow never to attempt another, and its monstrous weight meant Takanaka could only play it for a few songs per show.

“It’s hard to play, as expected. I just play this because I wonder if people watching me will find it fun, but I wonder if some percentage of them think I’m stupid,” Takanaka admits. “So if I play two songs with this guitar at a concert, I will get a little more exhausted. So, I think it would be better to use it only occasionally.”

Fans hoping to see the surfboard guitar in action are in luck. Takanaka says he’d given the instrument away after years of touring with it in Japan, but managed to get it back for his upcoming world tour.

“Actually, I gave it away after using it at a lot of my shows in Japan,” the guitarist tells The Guardian. “I thought I didn’t need it any more. But life is short, and you have to do what you really want to do while you’re still alive – that was why I made the guitar in the first place.”

The post “I made it with realism in mind”: Inside Masayoshi Takanaka’s ridiculous six-kilogram surfboard guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Former Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland has opened up about his early years with the thrash icons, recalling the intense musical chemistry – and often chaotic bond – he shared with frontman Dave Mustaine.

In a new interview with the Heavy Metal Mayhem radio show, Poland looks back on life with Mustaine in Megadeth’s formative days [via Blabbermouth]: “Me and Dave lived together in a rehearsal studio. We took ‘bird baths’ with cold water in a sink for a year. And then we toured repeatedly. We were together all the time. We were a real band when Megadeth first started. And once that happens, everybody kind of becomes brothers.”

• READ MORE: Dave Mustaine says he wants to move into acting after Megadeth’s retirement – and would even cut his hair to do it, but only for a “big part”

“I know Dave said terrible shit about me [in the later years], but I don’t hold a grudge. And I understand,” the guitarist adds. “I know how Dave is. I know Dave. That’s how he is. He says stuff off the top of his head, and I’m sure regrets it later.”

Poland played on the band’s first two albums, Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good! and Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?, and returned as a guest on 2004’s The System Has Failed.

“When [Dave] asked me to play on The System Has Failed, I was, like, ‘Yeah, I’ll play on that. Of course I will,’” Poland recalls. “[It had] the same vibe that I got from the first two records. There’s something about when he writes riffs and I play over ‘em – there’s some kind of weird magic, man.”

On creative freedom in the early days, he explains, “The way it was with Dave was if you played something and he didn’t tell you not to play it, then you could play it. So when I did the descending harmonies on Peace Sells or I added some kind of minor note in a chord here or there, and he didn’t say, ‘Hey, don’t play that,’ then I’d play it.”

“But as far as writing, Dave wrote everything. All I did was play with a note here and there, or a harmony. But that’s the thing about Mustaine – I mean, he’s still writing riffs today that are fucking good. [Laughs] He’s the riff master.”

Reflecting on the musical style that drew him to Megadeth in the first place, Poland says, “The way I looked at [Megadeth’s music] was, ‘This is fast Led Zeppelin.’ I had a decent idea of how to get a good distorted sound, and so when the pedaling got involved, I just adapted to it. And then, of course, his spider chord thing – I learned a lot from Dave.”

The post “He says stuff off the top of his head, and I’m sure regrets it later”: Chris Poland says he “doesn’t hold a grudge” against Dave Mustaine over the “terrible s**t” he said about him after he left Megadeth appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Billy Corgan feels rock was purposely dialled down within culture, so that rockstars didn’t have as much of a voice.

The Smashing Pumpkins frontman shared his thoughts during his The Magnificent Others podcast, where he even mentions his theory of the supposed involvement of the CIA. In the video, Corgan argues that rock was replaced by rap in late 1990s, and now a similar shift is occurring with pop being “completely dominant”.

• READ MORE: Billy Corgan believes The Smashing Pumpkins were the first grunge band “that started to grow up” musically

He says [via MusicRadar], “I think, and I will say it overtly, I think that rock has been purposely dialled down in the culture. Again, this gets ‘wizard behind the curtain,’ right? Somebody’s gonna say, ‘Well, how do you know who was the wizard behind the curtain?’ All I know is I saw the gravity shift.”

He continues, “If you were at MTV or around MTV in 1997 or 1998, suddenly they decided rock was out when rock was still very, very high up. And it was replaced by rap… Their standards and practices immediately shifted, so now things that weren’t allowed were suddenly allowed.

“People were waving guns. Some people assert that the CIA was involved in all that. Again, above my pay grade, but I saw it happen. I did witness it happen. Of course, great music came out of it,” he clarifies. “Qualitative things and great artists came in, but there was this overt shift. I saw it happen. And then now, rap seems to be waning in terms of its cultural influence.

“Pop is completely dominant. Rock is probably the most dominant ticket-selling thing in the Western world, and yet there’s almost no representation of rock in culture. So, why do we have that schism? I think they purposely dialled down the ability of rock stars to have a voice in the culture.”

Another hot take from Corgan comes from a recent Guitar World interview, in which he argued that technical proficiency when it comes to guitar isn’t as impressive as it used to be.

“If you’re going to play a lead in an alternative rock band in 2025, what are you trying to say? No-one’s going to care that you can play good, because there’s fifty 10-year-olds playing Eruption on YouTube,” he said.

“There’s nothing actually that impressive about somebody being able to play the guitar at a decently high level anymore, so I think it’s the expressive quality that makes it interesting. So I’m more interested in creating a feeling than showing off.”

The post Billy Corgan thinks rock has been “purposely dialled down” in culture: “All I know is I saw the gravity shift” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

John Mayer has opened up about his early days playing with Dead & Company, including the healthy dose of nerves he felt sharing a stage with his idol, Grateful Dead legend Bob Weir.

Despite being a Grateful Dead fanatic long before he joined Dead & Co. in 2015,, stepping into the band’s sprawling, improvisational world – and doing it next to one of its founding members – was a different challenge altogether.

• READ MORE: “I have so much more connection with my guitar now than I think I ever had”: John Mayer on playing with Dead & Company

Speaking to Rolling Stone about those first tours, Mayer admits he struggled to resist filling every gap in the music.

“As much as I want to lean back at the very beginning when I’m playing, I couldn’t help overplaying in some of those first few tours. You just do,” he says. “Even if I knew not to overplay, I’m still going to overplay. It’s going to be wordy. I have to adjust my way into the 10-ring on the target.”

Part of that, he explains, simply came down to nerves.

“You could tell yourself not to get nervous, you know exactly why you shouldn’t be nervous, and your hands are going to shake,” says Mayer, describing it as a “natural, physiological moment you have to break through to get comfortable through experience.”

The musician also reflects on his relationship with Weir, who passed away earlier this year, and how their onstage chemistry evolved over time. As the tours went on, the two guitarists gradually developed an almost unspoken understanding onstage – the kind that comes from playing night after night together.

“It changed over the years, because we both got to know each other and trust each other,” Mayer explains. “How did I read his signals? I just knew the way his head moved – we all do – and had an understanding of what his instincts were night after night.”

Eventually, their musical back-and-forth became second nature.

“It got to the point where, in those last few tours, he knew when I would step forward and really hit the gas. And because I’d figured it out by then, I knew when to step back, look at Bobby and say, ‘It’s yours again.’”

That comfort didn’t come immediately, though. Mayer admits that during the early shows he often found himself wondering whether Weir approved of what he was doing onstage.

“I’d think: ‘I hope he’s happy. He might not be. Oh, he just went and turned his guitar amp up. Does that mean he thinks I’m too loud? Is someone going to come into my [dressing] room and say, ‘Hey, can you turn your guitar down?’ Then one day, you walk up onstage and there’s plexiglass between the amps and you go, ‘I have a feeling I’m a little too loud.’”

Looking back, Mayer says those early tours were about earning his place – both with fans and with Weir himself.

“The first couple of tours were proving to the audience that I had a right to be there. And the rest of the tours were proving to Bobby that I meant well for everything I was trying to do.”

“I think whatever conversations Bob had on the bus about me in the very beginning changed over the years,” he adds.

The post “I couldn’t help overplaying”: John Mayer on nerves during first Dead & Company tours appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The discourse online about real amplifiers versus modelling and emulation is just that: discourse. While it’s healthy to explore different avenues, the conversations bring up points that may not matter as much as you may think.

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Realistically, an amp modeller can never replace an amp, but I’m here to say that modern amp modelling is good enough to consider, the pros of portability, reliability, form and function outweighing the difference between a real amp and a modeller. Even that statement might ignite some fiery discussion, so let’s get down to brass tacks.

Better Than The Real Thing

An emulation of an amplifier can never really sound like an amplifier, but that doesn’t mean they sound bad. Older amplifiers and boutique designs alike are often hand-wired, meaning while the quality control might be higher, they’re more susceptible to characterful imperfections. These are ironically why we love our own amps so much – or lust after someone else’s!

Digital reproductions of amps will perform exactly the same in every condition, there’s no imperfection. Real amplifiers, especially those equipped with valves, are heavy, cumbersome and require consistent servicing. While digital modellers may require software updates or repair from time to time, the wear-and-tear is minimal.

The reason an emulator can’t really replicate an amplifier in a room is because of how a speaker cabinet and its speakers push air after being amplified by a circuit. The size, arrangement and layout of speakers in a cabinet change how sound and air is pushed in every direction, adding different layers of frequencies in front (and behind!) the amplifier that also bounce around the room.

Here’s the kicker: even a real amplifier is often mic’d up, either in the studio or on the stage. The crowd won’t really be hearing your amp in an ambient space, they’ll be hearing the mic’d sound, often digitised, mixed and amplified through a PA. Hell, even at bigger venues you’ll be hearing this mic’d sound in your monitors or in-ears, and in a recording it’ll (usually) be a digital version of your mic’d amp. So the difference between a real amp and a modern emulation? Negligible.

Modern amp modelling has come a long way. Early incarnations of amp modelling left a lot to be desired, the presence, heft and nuance of an amplifier’s circuit being lost in the capture. Today, amp modelling seems to be about as good as it can get, seemingly really tough to pick in a blind test, and it continues to improve. Digital solutions allow guitarists to access plugins intended for use in mixing, as well as a growing number of increasingly accessible and affordable options. Early adopters of professional-sounding emulations and modellers were expected to fork out thousands, and the modern day sees world-class sounding solutions in increasingly tidy, pedalboard friendly packages.

Pedal Power

What’s more, how rare is it these days to see a guitar player that doesn’t have a fairly substantial pedalboard at their feet? It’s almost a given that someone is going to be using multiple pedals that can be used to subtly shift and shape our sounds, or overtly process them for more special effects like chorus, delay and abrasive distortion.

The problem though, is that sometimes we’re required to turn on or off multiple pedals at once, requiring either compromise or tap dancing maneuvers to engage multiple pedals at once. The system offered by most modellers allows you to create and toggle between different patches, i.e. multiple settings saved as a single patch, allowing you to create different patches, either with a base tone and multiple effects or for totally different tones.

For example, a single stomp on a pedal can switch an effect-laden patch to a dry one, or even switch to a whole new amp between sections of a song. The digital effects are all available inside the modellers so you require a smaller pedalboard, the units themselves being set up in a way that you require less footswitches depending how your patches are set up.

Speak The Truth

Another huge part of improved amplifier emulators are the leaps and bounds that cabinet emulation has taken via impulse responses, microphone emulation and even detailed nuance of speakers and cabinet construction. Cabinets and speakers play a huge part in the low end of a tone, your choice helping palm mutes to bloom, adding dynamic and weight to your playing, further helping to develop a realistic feel to emulations, instead of just a great tone.

Multiple ‘mic’ options give you more control over that end of your sound than the mics used at a venue, and you’re less susceptible to mics on cabinets getting bumped and changing your tone dramatically. Anyone who’s tried their hand at recording will know that movements of mere millimeters of a microphone can shift your tone from weighty, balanced bliss to fizzy, grating buzz.

What’s more, amplifier emulators bring emulations of mics that are often relegated to the safe confines of a studio, like big tube condensers, vintage ribbons and more. In this instance you’d likely set up your sound, cabinets and microphones and all, and send your tone direct to front-of-house (FOH).

The risk here is that you’re still at the mercy of the front of house engineer to treat and mix your sound, but this is no different than a real amp mic’d up!

Perfect Balance

Another thing to keep in mind when choosing to make the switch to digital is if you’re in a two-guitar band. It can sometimes sound unbalanced when only one guitarist in the band has gone digital, especially so when sending sound directly to FOH. The ambient sound of a cabinet in the room, especially smaller venues, can leave a digital rig feeling thin and lacking air and space, despite all the huge advancements in cabinet emulation.

All of this is to say that digital amplification and modelling has come a long, long way since the early days of stock plugins, kidney-shaped digital modellers and the like. While the emulation of pre-amp sections has come a long way, the technology to emulate the sound of an amp in a room helps us to more accurately recreate our favourite tones, all recallable at the touch of a single button – no tapdancing!

Writing off a technology only serves to ensure you’re left behind. There’s nothing to lose as an amp devotee, you’ll either confirm your commitment or find a new avenue for tone!

The post It’s time you ditched your tube amp for a modeller: this is why you should do it appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

If a riff is worth playing, it’s worth playing 25 times while you widdle ineptly over the top of it. And that is one very good reason for the current popularity of loopers… but it’s by no means the only one.

A looper is your pathway to instant multitracking. Most of them use the same basic principle of operation – stomp once to start recording, stomp again to end the cycle and start overdubbing – and that’s putting a uniquely powerful tool at your feet. If you want to slap down rough backing tracks for writing new melodies, build elaborate soundscapes of layered harmonies, or just have a virtual band to jam with, there’s going to be at least one pedal on this list that will make your life easier than it was before. And while some of them are both complex and pricey, the good news is that plenty are neither of those things.

Incidentally, there’s a certain ginger-mopped troubadour who’s probably done more than anyone else to popularise the art of looping – and, naturally, not everyone is a fan. But if you’re hoping to get to the end of this guide without seeing him mentioned, that’s going to be rather difficult… as his name is on one of the products.

At a glance:

• Best simple looper: TC Electronic Ditto 2
• Best do-it-all looper: Boss RC-600 Loop Station
• Best two-channel looper: Pigtronix Infinity 2
• Best multi-memory looper: Electro-Harmonix Nano Looper 360
• Best soundscaping looper: Chase Bliss Audio Mood MkII
• Best combined looper and delay: Keeley Eccos
• Best practice looper: DigiTech Trio+
• Best looper for busking: Sheeran Looper +
• Best compact looper: Boss RC-5 Loop Station
• Why you can trust Guitar.com

Best simple looper: TC Electronic Ditto 2

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It was a different world before the original TC Ditto came along – think caves, loincloths and saber-toothed tigers. This was the pedal that kickstarted the looping craze, simply by being so much simpler than what came before it. The Ditto 2 isn’t quite as basic as its predecessor (which, by the way, is still being made), but it retains that ethos of putting user-friendliness first.

So again you get a single footswitch – which is now more rugged, to withstand relentless repeat stomping – and a knob for loop level. But there are also a few handy added features, including a LoopSnap mode that automatically corrects slightly mistimed taps of the switch. And the price difference from the old version is minimal.

Need more? Read our TC Electronic Ditto 2 review.

Best do-it-all looper: Boss RC-600 Loop Station

This is pretty much the opposite of the Ditto 2, in the same way that an Airbus A380 is the opposite of a paper aeroplane: not simple but elaborate, and not tiny but absolutely hee-yooge. Because this is the flagship of the Loop Station line, and it’s a very powerful piece of kit.

With the RC-600 you’re getting six stereo tracks, 13 hours of storage and a suite of on-board effects, with an LCD screen to help you navigate it all. But don’t be intimidated: Boss knows how to keep things accessible, and you can easily begin with straightforward Ditto-style looping before you begin to explore the advanced capabilities of this floor-hogging beast.

Need more? Read our Boss RC-600 Loop Station review.

Best two-channel looper: Pigtronix Infinity 2

This one’s been around since 2020, and there’s since been an Infinity 3 model launched, but it remains a solid choice if you want to be able to loop on two independent tracks… and yes, it’s every bit as intuitive to use as it looks.

Record a loop on track 1, record another on loop 2, then flip freely between the two to overdub more parts – it automatically times these jumps to happen at the end of the currently playing cycle, so you don’t need to worry about messing things up with sloppy transitions. Again there are bonus features – notably an octave-down effect that has numerous uses – but again you can have a lot of fun without them.

Need more? Read our Pigtronix Infinity 2 review.

Best multi-memory looper: Electro-Harmonix Nano Looper 360

In spirit, the Nano Looper 360 is another entry in the ‘simplicity first’ category: if it didn’t have that right-hand knob it would be more or less a clone of the original TC Ditto. But that knob is a secret weapon that opens up all sorts of possibilities.

Well, actually, what it opens up is one particular possibility: that of recording a whole bunch of backing loops at home – up to 11 of them – and then calling them up whenever you need them. This means it can be used as a handy notepad for song ideas, or even as a live backing band with a built-in set list.

Best soundscaping looper: Chase Bliss Audio Mood MkII

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All the loopers described above are really good at recording whatever you play into them and then repeating it back to you in pristine audio quality – clean, pure and unaltered. The Mood really, really doesn’t want to do that.

In my review of this pedal I summarised it as “a cinematic loop-scaping leviathan”. It has delay and reverb on one side, randomised micro-looping on the other, and a ‘clock’ control for messing with the fabric of space and time in the middle. It’s always listening, even when it’s switched off, and you have no control over which of your notes it will fire back at you… so yes, the Mood is a looper, but it’s way more creative and unpredictable than anything else on this list.

Need more? Read our Chase Bliss Audio Mood MkII review.

Best combined looper and delay: Keeley Eccos

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In a sense, a looper is just a digital delay pedal with ideas above its station – so why not stick the two effects in one unit? The Keeley Eccos does this brilliantly, and crams an impossible amount of functionality into one compact enclosure.

The looping side works just as it should, with the usual footswitch operation and the added bonuses of reverse and half-speed modes. But the delay part goes off on its own path, colouring the repeats with a nice touch of flangey modulation – or more than a touch if you go mad with the knobs’ secondary functions. You even get three slots for storing user presets… and just to really blur the line between the two effects, you can record a loop and set it to gradually decay.

Best practice looper: DigiTech Trio+

Bandmates all walked out on you because of your excessive perfectionism and/or poor personal hygiene? Neither of those things will be a problem if you replace them with DigiTech’s ‘band creator and looper’ – because it never makes mistakes and it doesn’t have a nose. What it does have is the power to listen to what you play and respond by adding drums and bass.

With 12 musical genres to choose from, 12 song styles within each genre and up to five parts for each song, it’s quite the sophisticated arranger – and you get separate level knobs for the guitar, bass and drum loops. Obviously this is never going to sound or feel the same as playing with real musicians, but it’s a heck of a home practice tool.

Best looper for busking: Sheeran Looper +

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Considering how many young strummers must have been inspired to buy a looper after seeing him play, you can hardly blame Ed Sheeran for grabbing his own slice of the pedal pie by launching a signature brand. This is the entry-level model, but it still offers two tracks, instrument and microphone inputs, a full-colour LCD screen and – most crucially if you’re planning to take it busking – the ability to run off four AA batteries when you don’t have access to mains power.

There’s even a battery-powered PA speaker, the Sheeran Busker, to complete your street-ready rig. Just add a guitar, a mic and maybe a smidge of talent.

Best compact looper: Boss RC-5 Loop Station

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Some loopers are simple and small; others are complicated and expansive. The real challenge is to mash those two worlds together without making a mess all over the floor. Boss has plenty of history in that kind of smart engineering, and has been building loopers for longer than most – its influential RC-20 came out in 2001. So who better to make a genuinely compact pedal that can do it all?

The RC-5 follows the classic Boss design format that goes all the way back to the 1970s, yet it somehow packs in 57 backing rhythms, 13 hours of stereo recording time for up to 99 separate loops, and an unrivalled array of connectivity options including MIDI, expression pedal control and USB backup. It’s a big looper hiding in a small box.

Why You Can Trust Us

Every year, Guitar.com reviews a huge variety of new products – from the biggest launches to cool boutique effects – and our expert guitar reviewers have decades of collective experience, having played everything from Gibson ’59 Les Pauls to the cheapest Squiers.

That means that when you click on a Guitar.com buyer’s guide, you’re getting the benefit of all that experience to help you make the best buying decision for you. What’s more, every guide written on Guitar.com was put together by a guitar obsessive just like you. You can trust that every product recommended in those guides is something that we’d be happy to have in our own rigs.

The post The best looper pedals for all needs and budgets appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Fender is celebrating 30 years of its hugely popular 40-watt Hot Rod Deluxe combo amp with a limited-edition 30th Anniversary version.

In keeping with the 30th Anniversary aesthetics also boasted by the company’s Blues Junior IV relaunch that arrived last year, the 30th Anniversary Hot Rod Deluxe features a Western-style covering, along with a vintage ‘50s brown and gold grille cloth.

• READ MORE: Megadeth On Ice: Watch Teemu Mäntysaari play Let There be Shred while ice skating

Tweaks haven’t only been made in the aesthetics department, though; the 30th Anniversary version of the Hot Rod Deluxe swaps out the original’s 12-inch Celestion A-type speaker for another ceramic Celestion speaker, the 12-inch G12M-65 Creamback. 

The amp’s circuitry has been modified on the original, too, with tweaks to the preamp section for “increased overdriven note definition”, plus a “smoother” spring reverb.

Elsewhere, the 30th Anniversary Hot Rod Deluxe sports a pine cabinet, polished stainless steel faceplate, black Chickenhead knobs and a leather handle, and comes with a two-button footswitch and cover.

Still 40 watts, the amp is fitted with three channels to choose from – Normal, Drive and More Drive – and is powered by a trio of 12AX7 tubes in the preamp section and two 6L6’s in the power section.

Often touted as a great pedal platform for its high headroom, the Hot Rod Deluxe also features an effects loop, in which you can place modulation, delay and reverb pedals after the preamp and prior to the power amp.

Price-wise, you can get your hands on the 30th Anniversary Hot Rod Deluxe for the princely sum of $1,299 / £1,269 / €1,489.

Learn more at Fender.

The post Fender celebrates 30 years of the Hot Rod Deluxe with limited-edition version – here’s how you can get one appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Megadeth guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari has just shared a rather cool video of him playing Let There Be Shred while ice skating.

The Finnish guitarist, who joined the band in 2023 following Kiko Loureiro’s departure, says making the video was “so much fun” and combines his two favourite things: guitar and ice hockey. Let There Be Shred marked the third single to arrive from their final album, which landed in January.

• READ MORE: Dave Mustaine claims Megadeth would have been less successful if not for the motivating factor of Metallica “trying to hold me back”

Though the video doesn’t use the raw audio, Mäntysaari masters this ice cold shred-through smoothly, even when moving backwards, and close up shots show him tearing through the fretboard. Take a look in the video below:

The final, self-titled album from Megadeth marks their 17th studio record. It is also their first and only record featuring Mäntysaari since he joined the band. In 2024, Mustaine said having on board made them feel more united: “We are a band again,” he told Loudwire Nights. “It doesn’t feel like me and some side players or session guys… I feel like Kiko did us a really huge courtesy by helping us find Teemu.”

The band’s final record features their own rendition of Metallica’s Ride The Lightning, which frontman Dave Mustaine originally helped to craft during his time with Metallica. At first, people believed the track to be middle-finger to the band that fired Mustaine back in 1983, but their decision to record the track came with intentions much more wholesome.

Mustaine helped write a number of Metallica songs before his firing, including a selection from the band’s debut album, Kill ‘Em All, and decided to record Ride The Lightning as a mark of respect to his first real band. Though Megadeth are retiring, it does seem that Mustaine has his sights set on other projects, with one possibly being acting.

Megadeth are currently on their farewell tour. You can view the full list of scheduled shows via their official website.

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Eddie Van Halen wasn’t just about music, he also had an impressive collection of classic cars and was passionate about all things automotive.

In 2023 after his passing, Lamborghini paid tribute to the guitar icon during a special 60th anniversary event for the luxury car brand, after restoring Eddie’s custom Miura. The model made its public debut in 1966, was the first to be coined a “supercar”.

• READ MORE: “Was it a total, Excalibur-level experience? I don’t even know how to articulate that”: Myles Kennedy on holding Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstein guitar

The vehicle’s revving engine can also be heard on Van Halen’s Panama right after the guitar solo. According to a 2023 article from Van Halen Newsdesk, Eddie sold the car in 2019 to Curated Motors in Miami.

As newly shared by Ital Passion, John Temerian, founder of Curated Motors, sent the Miura to Italy to be restored by Lamborghini’s historical division. The restoration should have taken around two years and ended up taking almost four due to COVID-19.

Eddie’s Miura was originally gifted to him as a wedding present from his wife Valerie Bertinelli, and featured custom changes that made it a special model, including a custom number plate bearing their wedding date, “APR 11”, and a red finish instead of green.

It was decided they would not restore an idealised version, but would reinstate the car’s unique character, just as it was given to the musician. The refurbished car was officially unveiled at the anniversary event while Van Halen’s music played out, and then taken for a stunning drive around Northern Italy.

You can hear more about the story and check out the refurbished car in the videos below:

In other Van Halen news, a recently unearthed 1978 interview with rock journalist, author and Eddie’s close friend, Steve Rosen, shows the legendary guitarist recounting his experience stumbling across his famed tapping technique.

“I really don’t know how to explain it. I was sitting in my room at the pad at home, drinking a beer. I remember seeing people just stretching one note and hitting the note once… Anyway, it’s just one note like that, and they popped the finger on it real quick to hit one note and I said, ‘Well, fuck nobody is really capitalising on that.’ I mean nobody’s really doing more than just one stretch and one note real quick,” he said.

“So I started dicking around and said, ‘Fuck, this is a totally new technique that nobody really does.’ ‘Cause it is. I really haven’t seen anyone really get into that as far as they could because it is a totally different sound. A lot of people listen to that, and they don’t even think it’s a guitar.”

The post How Eddie Van Halen’s treasured Lamborghini Miura was restored and unveiled as a touching tribute to the guitar legend appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Metallica’s third album, Master Of Puppets, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and bassist Cliff Burton helped it soar to success.

During the making of the record, which would be Burton’s last before his tragic death during its supporting tour, the other band members began to embrace Burton’s more melodic ideas, opening them up to new ways to experiment.

• READ MORE: “Is this yours?”: Watch the wholesome moment James Hetfield meets a 10-year-old fan – and signs his ESP LTD Iron Cross guitar

In an archival interview republished in Classic Rock magazine, drummer Lars Ulrich says, “Most of the record was written in May and June of 1985, from the best ideas that were kicking around on our riff tapes.

“Cliff had been in the band for a few years and he brought in a lot of harmonies and melodies. It took a little while for James [Hetfield] and I to open up to some of Cliff’s ideas about harmony and melody, because we’d never played stuff like that before. But after a while we got it and that’s when we started experimenting more.”

Guitarist Kirk Hammett adds, “James would show Cliff and me the riffs, and we’d build the songs from there. Some I’d already be familiar with. The main riff in Battery, for instance. The first time I heard James play that was in England, on his acoustic guitar. We were watching The Young Ones, and all of a sudden he started messing around with this sort of galloping rhythm. I said: ‘Wow, that’s cool.’”

Ulrich describes this young iteration of the band as “snot-nosed punks trying to do something different from everyone else,” before Hetfield then adds, “I remember writing the chorus to Master Of Puppets in our living room and thinking it was too commercial, too obvious. ‘If it’s too easy, something’s wrong’ was kind of the Metallica mantra.”

In other huge Metallica news, the band are due to take up residency at the Las Vegas Sphere across October and November of 2026, and into January 2027. The residency will continue their ‘no-repeat’ weekend tradition, with unique set lists for each night.

The post “It took a while for James and I to open up”: Lars Ulrich admits not being receptive to Cliff Burton’s musical ideas when he first joined Metallica appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Tour antics can sometimes get out of hand, and that was nearly the case for Suzi Quatro, when she very nearly broke Alice Cooper’s nose.

Quatro supported Cooper on his 1975 Welcome To My Nightmare tour, which was a colossal run that saw the shock rocker kick things off in March that year and wrap in December. The tour was turned into a concert film, and took place in a multitude of venues across the USA, as well as Canada and parts of Europe.

• READ MORE: The Genius Of… Quatro by Suzi Quatro

Speaking to Classic Rock for the new edition of its print magazine, Quatro recalls, “I was friends with so many acts from Michigan – MC5, Amboy Dukes, Grand Funk Railroad – and I’ve known Alice for years and we always had a connection. I supported him on the Welcome To My Nightmare tour in 1975, 85 dates. We called him Vinnie The Boss.

“We were on a turboprop and making at least one flight a day, if not two. Back then I was a terrible flyer, so it was white-knuckle time. But it was wonderful because there was a lot of Detroit people around, musicians who I’d known forever. A lot of blackjack was played. On a big tour like this you get a little crazy. In one hotel we decided to have a rubber dart-gun fight before a show,” she says.

“We hid behind mattresses in the hallway, and it got serious, dark… Who was going to win? Alice hid in a room. Then I saw his rather large nose poking out from behind a television set, and I went [mimes shooting a pistol] ‘boink!’ I didn’t break it, but it was pretty close. His first words were: ‘Ouch!’ and then ‘Good shot!’ That night, on stage he wore my tour T-shirt out of respect.”

Last year when Cooper was on tour, guitarist Nita Strauss also became the centre of one of Cooper’s stunts, as she shared a close encounter with a boa constrictor during a live show. In a video shared to her Instagram, the snake could be seen licking her face as she continued to play through Cooper’s 1991 hit, Snakebite.

Alice Cooper is playing shows across the globe this year. Suzi Quatro will play across the UK in April. Find out more via her official website.

The post “I didn’t break it, but it was pretty close”: Suzi Quatro recalls the time she nearly broke Alice Cooper’s nose on tour appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

While Joe Satriani and Steve Vai’s SatchVai project has been touring for the last couple of years, the pair of guitar legends are still in no rush to release a full album. Instead, they’ve been drip-feeding their fans, sticking to one collaborative release a year – and it’s finally time for another single.

Dancing comes as SatchVai’s third track to date. It joins the 2024 release of I Wanna Play My Guitar and 2025’s The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1 – and it’s a vibrant burst of playful guitar tones. The riffy reimagining of Paolo Conte’s 1981 track of the same name sounds like it could soundtrack a bombastic cartoon heist, unfolding in a chaotic slew of bright, bouncy grooves.

• READ MORE: Dave Mustaine says he wants to move into acting after Megadeth’s retirement – and would even cut his hair to do it, but only for a “big part”

“Dancing really captures the playful side of what Steve and I discovered on stage together last summer – that push-and-pull of melody and energy,” Satriani explains in a press release. “The video also gave us a chance to show that spirit in a completely different way.”

Directed by Satriani’s son, ZZ Satriani, the Dancing music video is brilliantly goofy. The surreal narrative sees Satriani and Vai trying to please an over-the-top manager (played by comedian Brendon Small) who insists that their live show isn’t entertaining enough. To up their gave, the SatchVai pair need to start doing backflips, grow bigger fingers… and start Dancing, of course.

“This band thrives on surprise – musically and visually,” Vai says. “Dancing is a perfect example of that. It’s melodic but relentless, and the video turns that energy into a kind of surreal comedy. It’s a glimpse into the personality of this band before we even hit the stage.”

While there’s no telling what ‘surprises’ the duo have in store next (perhaps the second half of The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1?), the SatchVai project will be embarking on a US tour this April. The Surfing With The Hydra tour will run up until 30 May, with support from prog-metalers Animals as Leaders.

Head to satchvaiband.com for more information and tickets. 

The post Joe Satriani and Steve Vai are “Dancing” and letting loose on latest SatchVai single appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Last month, Sharon Osbourne hinted that she was in talks with Live Nation to revive Ozzfest. Now, Sharon claims that there will “absolutely” be an Ozzfest revival next year.

In a recent appearance on the RIFFX podcast, Ozzy Osbourne’s widow and ex-manager since 1979 confirmed the news. When asked if Ozzfest would return in 2027, she said: “ Yes, absolutely – we’re gonna do it.”

• READ MORE: “Maybe he felt my part was getting bigger than a band member should be”: Jake E. Lee on contract negotiations for Ozzy’s The Ultimate Sin

First held back in 1996, Ozzfest served as an annual festival celebrating the metal and hard rock scene. From nu-metal to dark gothic metal, the line-up was an eclectic representation of the metal genre. It halted its run in 2008, with a few one-off events before a solid run of annual events between 2015 and 2018.

As Sharon explains, that three year run wasn’t meant to end in 2018. In her words, her and Ozzy always wanted to revive Ozzfest – but, unfortunately, that’s when Ozzy fell ill. “It was just a month before Ozzy got sick, and that was at the Forum in L.A…. there were no plans to stop it,” she says. “We were still gonna do it, but Ozzy couldn’t.”

However, Ozzy didn’t want his illness to put a permanent halt on Ozzfest. “Ozzy and I would talk about it, and he’d say, ‘Do you think Ozzfest would work without me?’” she recalls. “And I’m, like, ‘Yeah, it’s a brand. It will work without you.’ And he said, ‘We should do it!’”

In January, Sharon revealed in a Billboard interview that she was in discussions with Live Nation about Ozzfest. “It was something Ozzy was very passionate about: giving young talent a stage in front of a lot of people,” she explained. “We really started metal festivals in this country. It was [replicated but] never done with the spirit of what ours was, because ours was a place for new talent. It was like summer camp for kids.”

In the interview, she also shared plans to include some new flavours in the Ozzfest revival line-up. “I’d like to mix up the genres,” she said.

Despite Ozzy’s name being slapped on the festival, Sharon played an equal role in Ozzfest’s creation. In fact, Sharon is the reason the festival even exists; she brainstormed Ozzfest to spite Lollapalooza, since the festival refused to book Ozzy to perform. So it’s safe to say fans are in safe hands. “All of the creative direction for visuals at Ozzfest was mine,” she told Billboard. “I can’t sing a note – I’m tone-deaf – but I can be creative, and I like to create things.”

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After over 40 years, the end of Megadeth is in sight. And while frontman Dave Mustaine wouldn’t be surprised of their farewell tour lasts “three to five years” – via an interview with Kerrang! – he’s already making plans for life post Megadeth – and he’s got his sights set on Hollywood.

As he tells Classic Rock in a new interview, he plans to use his retirement to pursue new avenues of interest, like expanding his acting portfolio. “I wouldn’t mind studying acting,” he says.

• READ MORE: Dave Mustaine claims Megadeth would have been less successful if not for the motivating factor of Metallica “trying to hold me back”

While he’s not a very seasoned thespian, Mustaine has had a handful of small acting gigs in the past. Perhaps his most serious role was a one-off appearance in the TV series Black Scorpion. The 2001 show followed the titular superhero fighting crime, and Mustaine played villain Torchy Thompson. More recently, he did some voice acting in the 2017 horror/musical Halloween Pussy Trap Kill Kill.

That being said, Mustaine is adamant he wants to fine-tune his skills. “I’ve already done a ton of stuff on TV – hosting game shows, appearances in small sitcoms and movies – so I’m very accustomed to being in front of the camera,” Mustaine explains. “I think that might be fun to do.”

And he’s serious about it; he’s even willing to chop of his iconic ginger mane to land the right gig. “If they asked me to cut my hair, I’d be willing to do it!” he adds. “But it would have to be for a guaranteed part – and a big part, to make that kind of a commitment!”

As well as his acting dreams, Mustaine also notes that he’d be interested in helping other artists. If anyone is keen to learn some guitar from one of the best, he’s more than willing to pass down some advice. “I really want to share my gift with younger musicians,” he says. “Actually, it doesn’t even have to be a younger musician. It it’s somebody that’s a little bit older and they want to learn what it is that makes Dave tick, I don’t care about their date of birth, I just want to be able to share.”

He goes on to note that sharing his gift is only fair – considering it was a generous “gift from God”, in his words. “I’ve been gifted,” he emphasises. “I wouldn’t be this good on my own.”

Recently, Mustaine revealed that ex-Megadeth members wont be involved in the band’s grand farewell tour. It’s a decision that ex-bassist David Ellefson has criticised. Speaking on Argentinian rock radio station UnDinamo, he said: “I have always said that I am available for that. And I would do it because I think any reason that I’m not there now is unfounded… I would hope and even pray that any misunderstanding or any bitterness would be removed, that that would somehow be dissipated.”

Megadeth are currently on tour in support of their self-titled final record. See the band’s official website for dates and tickets.

The post Dave Mustaine says he wants to move into acting after Megadeth’s retirement – and would even cut his hair to do it, but only for a “big part” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

They say distance makes the heart grow fonder, and that was certainly the case for Chris and Rich Robinson. Famous for being “at each other’s throats”, The Black Crowes brothers claim that their 2015 split was crucial to heal their relationship. Of course, a few rounds of therapy also helped.

In a new interview with Classic Rock, Rich claims that his relationship with Chris is “night-and-day better” than it once ways. “It’s so much healthier,” he insists. “Making records is so much cooler. Touring is so much better. We call and talk about the day-to-day shit… just stuff like brothers do, you know?”

It’s a healthy, brotherly bond that wouldn’t have been possible without their six year split between 2015 and 2021. “When we got back together, we had grown a lot,” Rich explains. “We’re both in our fifties now! So we said: ‘Look, we don’t want to do some bullshit money grab, going on tour and fighting and have it be shitty.’”

• READ MORE: “You all can stop asking me if I am buying it now!”: Joe Bonamassa weighs in on the sale of Norman’s Rare Guitars

As well as generally maturing, Chris notes that therapy was also played a massive part in healing old wounds. “Rich and I are mid-century products of the Deep South; our emotional vocabulary was not vast,” the brother notes. “To be where we are today, we had to mature, and that meant going through what we went through.”

Speaking to Howard Stern in 2019, Chris expressed his remorse over how he’d ended things with his brother. “I said some horrible things. I was in a negative place, but you know what, I’ve apologised to Rich about that,” he said. “A lot of things have changed for me in the last two years. I was in a relationship that was failing, I was in a negative place, I was dealing with depression. And I’m sitting over here, like, ‘Why am I saying bad things about my brother?’”

It would be two more years until the pair finally made amends in 2021 – and they’re glad they waited. Despite plenty of enticing offers to tour across that period, the brothers knew they had to patch up their relationship before working together again. By 2021, the pair were ready – and it was just in time for the 30 year anniversary of their debut, Shake Your Money Maker.

“We needed to strip everything back, and put our relationship first,” Rich tells Classic Rock. “We needed to listen to each other… and so Chris and I have been really adamant about that, and it’s helped our relationship tremendously.”

Nowadays, the pair are thick as thieves. In the interview, the brothers even recall an interaction with the late Todd Snider; when the guitarist visited the Robinsons, he marvelled at how in-sync they were. “What’s going on with you two?” he apparently exclaimed. “Are you wizards? You don’t even say anything to each other!?”

Since their reunion, the brothers have been churning out some great work together, from 2024’s Happiness Bastard, and their latest record, A Pound Of Feathers, is set to drop 13 March. It’s an impressive feat for a pair who, at one point, couldn’t stand being in the same room as one another.

The post “Our emotional vocabularies were not vast”: Black Crowes brothers Chris and Rich Robinson on how they put their legendary feuding behind them and reinvent the band appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Looking to add a Tele to your collection? Sweetwater is currently offering a $200 price drop on Fender’s American Professional II Telecaster.

The Professional II line was unveiled in 2020, offering a line-wide revamp of the brand’s flagship American Professional series of electric guitars and basses. The launch followed rumours that the series was due its first revamp since it was originally launched back in 2016.

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This Butterscotch Blonde model features several improvements and upgrades that enhance the classic Tele design. Namely, this model is fitted with V-Mod II Telecaster single coil pickups designed by Fender’s pickup guru, Tim Shaw. They’re described as offering a vintage voice with modern clarity.

• READ MORE: These Custom Shop ‘57 Fender Strats with matching painted necks are sure to get guitar purists talking

The model also has a roasted pine body, a choice steeped in Fender history, as pine was one of the woods Leo Fender experimented with when he was first developing the Telecaster. Other key specifications include a maple neck with a satin finish, a Deep C neck profile, and a contoured heel joint. The model also has a maple fretboard with 22 narrow tall frets, plus an upgraded cut three-saddle top-load/string-through bridge for enhanced flexibility for setting individual string tension.

Find out more below:

At the time of its launch, Fender’s Justin Norvell said of the series: “Over the past few years we have refined and elevated the American Professional series as a result of ongoing conversations with our artist partners.

“With their feedback and innovation a priority, we reviewed every element across the series, incorporating specs like a new sculpted neck heel, new pickups, supernatural neck finish, and various aesthetic refinements including bold colourways, tonewoods like roasted pine and tortoiseshell guards on select models.”

Shop this deal and more over at Sweetwater.

The post Get a Fender American Professional II Telecaster for $200 less right now in this tasty deal at Sweetwater appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

“I’m more obsessed with guitar now than I’ve ever been in my life,” professes Finn Keogh. Although Keo’s frontman and rhythm guitarist has been toying around with his dad’s Yamaha acoustics, banjos and mandolins since primary school, his first true love was songwriting, not his six-string. “I know it sounds mad, but I’m going through a Hendrix phase right now. It took me all this time…”

The ying to Keogh’s yang is lead guitarist Jimmy Lanwern, dubbed the “final fit” for the London alt-rock quartet after many had attempted the role. Gripped by Hendrix, Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis and all sorts of 90s alt-rock, Lanwern’s “conventional guitar heroes” route explains why you’ll generally catch him with a Jazzmaster or Jaguar. “I don’t know if it’s quite obvious,” he jokes through his dark mop of hair, “but Jonny Greenwood was a huge influence on me.”

Although Keo had been slaving away on the London gig circuit for a couple of years, Lanwern’s introduction sparked a significant shift in their fortunes. By his third gig, they’d secured an agent, manager and played at Scala, as mutterings of the capital’s next great guitar act intensified while they consciously held back music. Closer in age than their bandmates, Keogh and Lanwern’s friendship is key to their synchronicity with the guitar.

“I actually saw his pedalboard before anything, because I was fed up with playing with guitarists [who] would turn up without a pedalboard,” Keogh explains. “If you invite someone to rehearsal and they plug their Les Paul into the fucking black Boss Katana, they might be able to shred….” He politely declines to finish that sentence, but in Lanwern, he found a player who had substance to his style. “I was more serious about tones than I was about my playing, and I think that’s the reason it works,” Lanwern tells Guitar.com.

The Sound Of Sirens

After breaking the deadlock last March with debut single I Lied, Amber, Keo’s debut EP Siren followed in June. Every strum of the guitar feels intentional and raw, finding a moody middle ground on songs like Hands and Thorn. Rarely driven by catchy riffs and hooks, there is a sense that Keo are steadily curating their own wall of sound, albeit with much more of an indie twang than the haze of The Smashing Pumpkins and My Bloody Valentine.

“We definitely think more about soundscaping,” explains Keogh. “Not just throwing on an overdrive and going, ‘This is the scale and this is a lick.’ [Creating] an atmosphere more than anything, that’s what I love about Jimmy’s playing.” In conversation with Keogh today, his charismatic but pensive nature resembles a bandleader who cares deeply about each moving part within that atmosphere.

Perhaps destined to become a frontman, Keogh admittedly resonates with lead singers more than guitarists, picking up playing habits from friends and peers. “My old friend used to really aggressively swing his neck after every chord, and it’d have this nice vibrato,” he explains – a trait that he’s transferred onto Lanwern. “Not only did it look cool, but you’re changing the pitch – ever so slightly – of that chord. It’s almost like shaking the slide on a fret.”

Admitting he fell in love with Ben Howard’s “percussive” pick-and-go technique and early Keo songs attempted to recreate Pearl Jam’s Daughter, the framework for Keo clicked into place when he stopped looking to other artists for inspiration. While he also writes solo material – and has recently penned a global publishing deal with Universal – he’s realised any rules for what defines a Keo song are made-up.

“Every band starts by looking for [their sound], and it takes them a long time to not,” he elaborates. “You’ll get two years down the line and always drop those songs. The best songs, for me, you’ve got everyone in the room after going, ‘Where does that come from?’ Almost like trying to figure out your ancestors or giving it a DNA test. ‘Why did that sound like that?’ The best influence naturally comes out, rather than thinking about it.”

The Kids Are Alright

TikTok has aided Keo’s early buzz, despite their alt-rock serving as the antithesis to the commercial sounds you’d expect to go viral. At their shows, you’ll find rooms dominated by teenagers, a characteristic shared by bands like Fontaines D.C. and Wunderhorse in recent years. Keo’s sound has drawn unavoidable comparisons to the latter, and there’s a sense they are next in line to follow them through to academies and arenas. On this month’s upcoming UK tour, they’ve shifted 3,000 tickets in London alone.

“I think we get an unfair amount of criticism for jumping on some bandwagon with Wunderhorse and Fontaines,” muses Keogh. “But I can wholeheartedly say that since the dawn of time, I wanted to make a band that was Pearl Jam-esque, Nirvana-esque, Radiohead-esque. I will give kudos to Wunderhorse and Fontaines, because when I saw them very early on, it was quite reassuring to see how people were doing guitar music in a new fashion. We definitely took a lot of influence from those bands, but we were already on our way to figuring out how to make something new.”

“I remember a period of time where I was really frustrated, that I was into all this old music, and no one else I was mates with seemed to really be into it,” recalls Lanwern. “Meeting Finn and the boys and seeing bands like Wunderhorse and Fontaines, it does reassure you.” At their gigs, both Keogh and Lanwern see snippets of their younger selves in the audience: the fan undergoing that eureka moment, finding others who love good old-fashioned rock music.

“You can see them coming to your shows, it’s like they’ve had this secret on their chest for their whole lives,” says Keogh. “They discover our band, and they’re like, ‘Fuck, I get this, and maybe only I get this,’ and I think that makes it more valuable to them. Everyone else that comes to the shows feels the same, and then suddenly you’ve got all of those people in a room, a bit of a scene going, and a community.”

At the time of writing, just four guitar bands are on the Reading & Leeds 2026 line-up, a festival that has always existed as a pillar of youth. They are Fontaines D.C., Florence and the Machine, Geese and Keo. Having already performed on its BBC Introducing Stage, do Keo feel the pressure of the festival’s guitar-rich heritage, as if they’re flying the flag for the next generation of guitar bands?

“To say we’re carrying the torch is quite a big thing to claim, but it is quite a surreal thing for it to be growing so quickly, and I feel like we’re almost trying to catch up with it,” responds Lanwern. “It’s hard to accept, mentally, where we are,” adds Keogh. “When you’re coming up, there’s this imposter syndrome here and there, but within Keo now, we’ve honed our craft so much and truly put in the hours. There is also now this confidence of, ‘We are the real deal,’ because we’ve fucking gone through everything we needed to go through.

“When we go to Reading, the mindset is that we are competing for that ‘spearheading band.’ We do feel like we’re on the tail of those bigger bands, and we’re putting everything we fucking have into this band. If you put enough effort into something, you feel like you’ve gained enough knowledge and earned your stripes, essentially. The shows give you adrenaline. You want those shows where all eyes are on you – where it freaks you out.”

With just one EP to their name, everything about Keo’s attitude, sound and decision-making points towards a band destined for greatness. Such is the confidence in their live show that only last month, they released their Live At Village Underground film in independent cinemas around the UK. Now, speaking to Guitar.com in between studio sessions, they are readying their next move.

“A band gets to a certain point where you almost start referencing yourself, and you’re not thinking about other bands,” concludes Keogh. “It takes years to get to, but in the last six months, there’s no need for [explanation]. Keo has got its own blueprint now, it’s going down its own lane, and that really fucking excites me.”

Keo will tour the UK from 5-15 March 2026.

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There’s nothing like a great deal on guitar gear to cure the early-week blues, and this time Positive Grid is delivering the goods.

For a limited time, guitarists in the US and Canada can take advantage of this sweet deal on the brand’s Spark NEO Core modelling amp headphones, and get them for just $135, down from $159. Meanwhile, players all over the world can get Positive Grid’s AI-powered BIAS X amp and effects suite at a massive 25% discount.

• READ MORE: I tried using an AI-powered amp and effects suite to create my guitar sound for me – here’s what happened

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Arriving in September last year, BIAS X is the next iteration of Positive Grid’s industry-leading amp modelling and effects software, BIAS FX. While it came with plenty of new amp and effects models, the biggest talking point was the addition of an AI assistant right within the software, which can turn ideas in the form of simple text prompts into fully working signal chains. While some guitarists love tinkering with the settings of their chain on a granular level, some of us just want a solid tone so we can start playing. BIAS X takes a lot of the guesswork – not to mention the time it takes – out of the tone-shaping process.

The team here at Guitar.com all had a go, and were thoroughly impressed by the range of awesome sounding virtual gear available, plus the reliability of its AI-powered features. And for a piece of software that’s so useful – and may very well change the way you craft guitar tones – you can get it right now at 25% off, for just $111. Alternatively, there’s a number of upgrade options available for existing Positive Grid customers too, in which you can also save 25%. So don’t wait to have a go at AI-powered tone creation yourself.

Positive Grid’s Spark NEO Core headphones, meanwhile, offer a formidable headphone amp solution for guitarists, pairing a suite of powerful amps and effects with AI-powered tone generation, plus high-quality 40mm drivers tuned for guitar and bass. Simply download the Spark app and plug the cans straight into your guitar, and you can enjoy high-energy practice sessions without the fear of disturbing your neighbours, family members, or anyone else who might put a premature stop to your best riffs ever.

Shop Positive Grid’s full product range now.

The post Save big on Positive Grid’s AI-powered BIAS X and Spark NEO Core smart guitar headphones appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.