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Orange beer? Legendary guitar amp brand launches its own IPA with Special Brew
British amp brand Orange has partnered with London brewery Signature Brew on a special edition of Backstage IPA, one of its core beers.
Available exclusively at independent music venues on draught and in specially designed cans, profits from the sale of the Orange Backstage IPA will be donated to the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), the UK representative body for music artists.
Specifically, proceeds will support the UK Artist Touring (UKAT) fund, which, launched in March 2026, supports artists through the “cost of touring crisis” and helps them continue on the road.
Backstage IPA is described as a “bold and punchy” modern IPA which blends East and West Coast styles, with passionfruit, tangerines and berries with pine and crisp citrus notes.
Credit: Signature Brew/Orange
“In an increasingly digital world, taking time to come together and experience something live, unique, and curated by and for the community is precious and worth protecting,” says Tom Bott, Founder and Managing Director of Signature Brew.
“Grassroots venues are where scenes are built, artists are developed, and culture moves forward. This collaboration is about backing those spaces in a meaningful, practical way.”
Credit: Signature Brew/Orange
“By partnering with Signature Brew and the FAC, we hope to create tangible help for artists,” adds Managing Director of Orange Amps, Sarah Yule. “We also hope this collaboration rallies the broader industry to come together, and do what they can to protect our grassroots and emerging music scenes in the UK and beyond. If we can help just one more artist make touring viable, I’ll raise a pint to that!”
Gus Unger-Hamilton, alt-J & FAC Director says: “This an incredibly powerful gesture from Signature Brew and Orange Amps. We are extremely grateful for the recognition of our work protecting and supporting the UK’s artist community through initiatives like the UK Artist Touring fund.
“The UK’s live music ecosystem is in a precarious place right now, but we know that UKAT’s targeted investment into artists’ touring activity is one of most effective ways to help the sector. If artists can sustain themselves on the road, it means more musicians and live professionals will be employed, more venues get booked and more audiences experience live music.”
Credit: Signature Brew/Orange
The beer will be subject to a coordinated launch across venues and festivals throughout summer, with artist ambassador shout-outs and an autumn celebration show at Signature Brew.
Learn more at Signature Brew.
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DragonForce have a new frontwoman: Alissa White-Gluz, formerly of Arch Enemy
In what’s safe to say a pretty unexpected announcement, power metal juggernaut DragonForce have announced their new frontwoman as Alissa White-Gluz, former singer of Arch Enemy.
Arch Enemy announced the departure of White-Gluz in November last year, ending a 12-year tenure with the band, and promising “big news” to come in 2026. And now, she’s certainly delivered on that promise.
It doesn’t look like White-Gluz’s introduction into the DragonForce brood means the departure of longtime vocalist Marc Hudson, though, as it seems that the pair will serve as co-lead vocalists. Hudson has sung on five DragonForce albums: The Power Within (2012), Maximum Overload (2014), Reaching into Infinity (2017), Extreme Power Metal (2019), and Warp Speed Warriors (2024).
“In a momentous union of two storied and unstoppable forces, the preeminent pioneers of extreme power metal will now be joined by one of metal’s legendary vocalists, unleashing both an intrepid evolution of the genre and the start of a seismic year ahead,” reads a press release confirming the news.
“Alissa joining the band is an expansion of everything we’ve done up to this point,” says DragonForce co-founder and lead guitarist Herman Li.
“Twenty years is a long time to do anything, let alone survive the music industry and still be so inspired to continue doing what we love. Together we will honor what made Inhuman Rampage matter, while showing people exactly where we’re going next.
“Having Alissa in the room changes everything. She doesn’t just sing, she makes all aspects of our music better. And she sounds incredible live! I can’t wait for the fans to see her and hear what we have been working on.”
“I am beyond excited to be bringing such iconic music to life with these amazingly skilled musicians in such a fun and inspiring environment,” says Alissa White-Gluz. “It feels great to showcase all the colours of my voice and utilize all my singing styles in technically challenging, deeply energising, highly addictive songs.
“I am so thankful for the amazing support I have been lucky enough to receive from the metal world over this wild career I’ve built; I want to keep pushing my boundaries and delivering exceptional music and live experiences to the fans that I cherish so much.”
After stepping down from Arch Enemy in November, Alissa White-Gluz launched a solo career, recruiting guitarists Alyssa Day and Dani Sophia for her solo band, Blue Medusa. What the new announcement means for Blue Medusa remains to be seen.
DragonForce – with Alissa White-Gluz in tow – are set to perform at two upcoming dates. Check them out at the band’s official website.
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“Brian said we’d frightened the life out of them. I thought: ‘Good, we’ve done our job’”: The time Queen thought Iron Maiden – their support act – had upstaged them
![[L-R] Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, Freddie Mercury and Brian May of Queen](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Steve-Harris-Queen-hero@2000x1500.jpg)
Nowadays, they’re one of the biggest metal bands – nay, artists – in the world. But Iron Maiden are where they are after 50 years plus of hard graft, which has included supporting some of the biggest names on the planet.
And in a new interview with Classic Rock, founder and bandleader Steve Harris comments on the unspoken and somewhat healthy rivalry that often occurs between headliners and support acts.
Over their multi-decade career, Iron Maiden have supported a who’s who of rock and roll’s elite, including Kiss, Judas Priest and Queen. And the biggest lesson Harris learned from supporting the former two? “Be nice to people,” he says.
“I’m not naming names,” he says. “But there [were] a lot of things going around, with headline bands worrying you were going to go down better than them. I’ve always felt you should give up if you’re worried about support bands.”
He continues: “Any band supporting us, their job is to go out there, push us hard and try and take our audience.”
Harris recalls an interaction at the inaugural edition of Rock in Rio in 1985, which found Iron Maiden supporting headliners Queen. As he remembers, following their set, guitarist Brian May tracked him down before Queen’s set.
“Brian said we’d frightened the life out of them. I thought: ‘Good, we’ve done our job.’ Of course it didn’t make any difference to Queen, they still went down amazing. But it’s good to ruffle feathers.”
Iron Maiden’s members are now all in their late 60s and early 70s, but there remains a strong sense of physicality to their live shows.
“In the early days when we had frontmen that didn’t move so much, I had to cover the stage more. It was my job,” says Steve Harris. “After Bruce arrived, I didn’t need to be in the middle of the stage – despite what he says!”
“But I always wanted to keep moving. These days it takes more effort to get across the stage, without slipping over in my own sweat. I’ve always done a lot of sports, though. I still do a lot of running and I just played tennis this morning.”
Iron Maiden have a string of tour dates planned for the remainder of 2026. For a full list of shows, head to their official website.
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The best analogue guitar preamps and pedalboard amps
Here’s an idea: instead of carting around an amp that’s both as bulky and as fragile as a manosphere influencer, why not use a backpack-friendly analogue preamp instead?
These powerful, neatly sized boxes of tone are catching on. They do the same job as the first part of an amplifier that your guitar’s signal would hit, boosting and shaping the signal before it is amplified (by the next part of the signal chain) to your chosen volume.
Tweak the preamp’s settings – which typically include volume, EQ and various other parameters – then plug it into a powered cab to hear your signature sound. It’s like using an amp head with a cabinet in a stack, but the power stage that amplifies the signal is not included (in most cases). The advantages of a guitar preamp over a head would typically be better portability and the possibility to tap into completely different amp sounds on the go. Some of these options do include a power amp, but this list focuses mainly on pure preamps – which you can then make louder with a dedicated power amp, the FX return on another amp, or by going into a cab sim if needed, and then straight into headphones or the PA.
Digital preamps are also available, but there’s a specific appeal to an analogue preamp that magicks the sonic character (and key components) of a cumbersome transistor or tube amp into a portable package. Perhaps tellingly, the leading brands in this space are not the usual suspects – so instead of the likes of Fender, Blackstar and Orange, we’re looking at pre-amps from lesser-known brands including Victory, EAE and Solar Guitars.
The potted reviews below will introduce you to some of the best analogue preamps on the market, with models to suit a variety of genres and budgets. Let’s find your solution to fill a venue with sweet, analogue sound, without filling the car boot.
At a glance:
- Our pick: Victory V4 The Kraken
- Best transistor preamp: Electronic Audio Experiments Model feT
- Best high-gain preamp: Solar Guitars Chug Pedal
- Best versatile preamp: Science Amplification Mother
- Best boutique preamp: Milkman x Benson The Amp
- Best valve preamp: Two Notes ReVolt
- Vest vintage preamp: Victory The Copper
- Best advanced guitar preamp: DSM & Humbolt Simplifier X
- Best preamp for beginners: Tubesteader Magnezium
- Best retro preamp: Tone King Imperial Preamp
- Why you can trust Guitar.com
Our pick: Victory V4 The Kraken
Valve preamp meets cab simulation in this monstrously good unit from boutique amplification brand of the moment, Victory Amps.
Unlike many of the best guitar preamps, this model includes a power stage (solid state, up to 180W). Combined with your choice of ten virtual Victory cabinets, this means you can plug straight into an unpowered speaker cabinet and play – loud.
Of course, for analogue aficionados, the big draw to the V4 Kraken is its valve preamp stage, driven by a trio of CV4014s and one EC900. With two gain channels on-board, there’s scope to quest for your own Atlantis of harmonic scuzz. That’s quite a long way to travel without leaving your pedalboard.
Best transistor preamp: Electronic Audio Experiments Model feT
Powerful and replete with EQ and brightness settings, the Model feT is a fantastic homage to the Model T. And no, we’re not referring to the car.
You might know the Sunn Model T amp head for the high-gain sounds that have been cranked out of it by the likes of Josh Homme and Buzz Osborne – or you might be more clued into just how good the Model T sounds clean. The Model fET from Electronic Audio Experiments spans that night-and-day divide in a pedalboard-friendly package.
Like the Model T, the Model feT sounds superb with a distortion or overdrive pedal ahead of it in your chain. Unlike the Model T, it doesn’t cost a small fortune.
Best high-gain preamp: Solar Guitars Chug Pedal
Want to make just about any amplifier or guitar sound chuggy? As its name suggests, this analogue preamp from Solar Guitars will help you do it. It even made a Jazzmaster sound gnarly during our hands-on review.
A true preamp, the Chug Pedal needs to be plugged into a power stage or cab sim. All of the many controls crammed onto the top of the pedal basically give you different shades of chugginess, covering EQ, noise gating and, of course, gain. It’s incapable of sounding even remotely clean, so consider this your dedicated preamp pedal for heavy sounds only.
Best versatile preamp: Science Amplification Mother
If you’re shopping for a preamp that’ll give you great sounds in just about any situation, this versatile, dual-channel model based on the Mother MKIII amplifier would be a great pick. Whether you work it into your pedalboard or plug it straight into your amp or recording interface, it’ll give you the best of tube-like FET transistor tone.
One of the keys to this preamp’s versatility is its choice of two outputs: one that’s made for hooking up to a normal amplifier, and another that provides a full-range response to feed into a neutral power amp. It’s designed to sound great with both electric guitar and bass.
Best boutique preamp: Milkman x Benson The Amp
This pedalboard-friendly collaboration from Milkman and Benson puts analogue at the heart of everything, with tube-driven preamplification and EQ. There’s a fine balance of classic tone and contemporary convenience here, with options to send your signal straight out to your big, old cab, or through a new and immaterial cab sim via XLR.
Above all, what you need to know about this preamp is that it sounds exceptional. Plugged into a cab, it delivers glorious dynamics and chime, and our reviewer was pretty besotted with the on-board reverb. You won’t get much change out of a grand when you buy The Amp – but you will get something special for the money.
Best valve preamp: Two Notes ReVolt
Three-channel, fairly priced and packed with adjustable parameters, the Two Notes ReVolt could well be the ultimate accessible option for valve amp sounds. The 12AX7 vacuum tube behind its little window on the enclosure might look a bit like a museum artefact, but it makes itself heard in the ReVolt’s natural overdrive and crunchy, Marshall-like valve sounds.
Whether you’ve plugged the preamp into your amp’s effects loop or sent its signal out via the headphone or XLR outputs, you’ll find power, warmth and nuance in the ReVolt’s sound. We see it as a full-blown amp substitute; not just an addition to your pedalboard.
Vest vintage preamp: Victory The Copper
For guitarists on the prowl for vintage character in a practical package, the Copper from Victory is a surpassingly classic-sounding option. It’s all-valve with two CV4012s and two CV4014s, and the sounds at your disposal range from chiming cleans to raucous overdrive.
There are plenty of settings to play around with, including a standout, footswitch-operable treble boost that’s ideal for playing spiky lead parts or solos, a la Dave Davies in ‘You Really Got Me’. You can feed it straight into your amp, although we’d tend to plug it into the effects loop input for a more focused sound.
Best advanced guitar preamp: DSM & Humbolt Simplifier X
Touted as the most advanced analogue amp simulator ever, the Simplifier X builds impressively on the legacy of earlier DSM & Humboldt gems including the Simplifier DLX (which is still worth considering pre-owned). It boasts an assignable AUX input (either for your headphones or output to PA), true stereo sound and standout multi-stage reverb.
A preamp-lover’s preamp, the Simplifier X gives you granular control over your sound, with two separate, switchable channels incorporating preamp, power amp and cab sim stages. There’s an abundance of knobs to get your head around, but the layout is intuitive – and the analogue sounds on offer merit the exploration.
Best preamp for beginners: Tubesteader Magnezium
If there were such a thing as a guitar preamp for beginners – and that’s debatable – then the Tubesteader Magnezium could be it. There are two channels delivering Fender-like and Marshall-like overdriven sounds respectively, and tapping into them is as simple as selecting your channel and tweaking the gain and EQ to your taste.
Proudly analogue, this preamp celebrates its 12AX7 valves with a peek-a-boo design. Just be careful if using it while wearing stilettos. There are two output modes tailoring the signal to different setups, so you can plug straight into a regular amplifier, or send a beefier signal to a power amp or cab sim instead.
Best retro preamp: Tone King Imperial Preamp
This preamp looks and sounds straight out of the 1950s, serving up a soda fountain of classic sounds powered by three 12AX7 preamp tubes. It’s based on the Tone King Imperial MKII combo amp, and that’s pretty much what you’re getting (minus a few elements like, erm, a speaker) in a pared down, large format pedal.
The sounds on offer are decidedly vintage, paying homage to ’50s and ’60s Fender amplification classics, as well as 1970s British rock tone – and the on-board tremolo and reverb complete the mood perfectly. Something decidedly more contemporary is the Imperial’s power amp simulation, which enables you to plug it straight into the PA or recording interface.
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.
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Marshall has unveiled its new mascot – and we’re a little scared
Marshall has unveiled its new mascot. It’s simply a Marshall stack with a somewhat dopey looking smiley face on the amp head, and as unsettling as it may be, we kinda love it.
The amp giant has let its mascot loose upon unsuspecting Londoners in order to spread the word and raise the hype around the fast-approaching UK festival season.
The only thing is, the mascot is yet to be officially named. And Marshall has put it to its fanbase to come up with suggestions.
“I don’t know what to call them but they [look] like they’ve already hot boxed their tent and I love that for them,” one fan writes. “He looks fucking high,” adds another.
Another suggestion we love – as does Marshall – comes from one fan: “Lexi the Plexi.” There’s a number of “Jim” suggestions, too, in honour of Marshall Founder, and the “Father of Loud”, Jim Marshall.
You can watch the mystery mascot dance around London and interact with fans and members of the public in the wholesome video below:
It’s been a strong few months for Marshall. Just last month, the company teamed up with Steve Jones on a 50th Anniversary Sex Pistols JCM800, outfitted in the bright pink and yellow colour scheme of the punk pioneers’ landmark album, Never Mind the Bollocks.
And as seen by its wacky new mascot, Marshall is never afraid to have a laugh, either. In November, it celebrated the release of Spinal Tap II with the “loudest amp ever made”, with knobs that go to 11 and a master volume that goes to infinity.
And for this year’s April Fool’s Day, the brand unveiled its foray away from the world of audio and into the world of gym supplements, launching its first protein powder, Marshall Gainz (not really).
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“It’s my dumb ass for being involved in this stupid industry. It’s evil”: The Black Keys reflect the reasons for their 2024 tour cancellation
![[L-R] Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/The-Black-Keys-new-hero@2000x1500.jpg)
The Black Keys have reflected on the cancellation of their entire 2024 North America tour, commenting on the “poisonous” nature of the modern-day music industry.
When the duo – comprising guitarist and singer Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney – announced the cancellation of their 2024 tour supporting Ohio Players, many speculated it was due to poor ticket sales. Carney later expressed dissatisfaction with the band’s management, saying they had booked “rooms they shouldn’t have been in”.
- READ MORE: Fender Godzilla Distortion: imbue your pedalboard with the “sonic might of the King of Monsters”
“Everything went tits up,” Carney tells The Times, elaborating further on the reasons for the tour’s cancellation.
“Live Nation owns a piece of almost every management company, and they own Ticketmaster, and they even scalp their own tickets – which they just got sued for [by the Federal Trade Commission in September 2025].
“So I’m an artist managed by Live Nation, trying to negotiate with Live Nation, being promoted and ticketed by Live Nation? It’s insane, man!”
The situation ultimately led the duo to have to fire their crew months before the trek was scheduled to start.
“We had to fire our whole crew. Why? Because Live Nation cancelled four months before the first show without a single call,” Carney continues. “It’s my dumb ass for being involved in this stupid industry. It’s evil.”
Guitarist Dan Auerbach chimes in: “Poisonous.”
Elsewhere, the duo speak on the current state of social media, and how artists are somewhat required to play the social media game.
“When you get famous real quick, you’re suddenly surrounded by people who seem like they’re your buddies but they’re not,” Carney says.
“That’s when you start asking yourself, what does it all mean? I don’t want to be a content creator. I don’t think it’s cool to be on Instagram all the time. We’re interested in the natural state of things, which you can hear on the first album – and the last.”
“Junior Kimbrough [legendary blues musician] never made a TikTok video,” Auerbach adds.
View a full list of upcoming Black Keys tour dates via their official website.
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Blackstar’s Beam Mini is available now – and it packs a mighty punch despite its portable size
After making its grand debut at January’s NAMM show, Blackstar’s Beam Mini desktop amp is finally available to the public. The tiny DSP-powered amplifier boasts massive tone, as well as cramming a whole host of digital amp models, ISF control and TONE3000 NAM compatibility into its portable size.
Regardless of whether you’re performing with an acoustic, bass or electric guitar, the Beam Mini offers 12 different amp models to experiment with. The selection varies from six Blackstar amps, to six recreations of classic amps crafted by Ampton. There are also three specialised bass amps, as well as a pair of acoustic voices and an acoustic simulator thrown in for good measure.
Despite its smaller scale, Blackstar has assured that the Beam Mini doesn’t sacrifice on tone. That means that you can take that diverse selection of amps anywhere and know it’ll still sound cracking. That’s also aided by the amp’s two 60mm full-range drivers, its pair of passive bass radiators and Blackstar’s Super Wide Stereo technology, all designed to offer an “expansive, room-filling sound”.
Users can also fine-tune their sound thanks to Blackstar’s ISF controls, as well as morphing their tone with any of the 35+ effects in the amp’s library. Users can navigate their way through any personalisation on the amp’s SpeedDial and Light Beam Display, removing any need to navigate through long, bloated menus.
However, if there is any interest in delving a bit deeper, the amp can be controlled via the Beam app. The app allows for further editing of tones, as well as allowing access to an online library of amps, cabs, mics and pedal models – as well as any artist-uploaded patches and tone settings, which can be uploaded and shared amongst the app’s community.
Alongside the tone editing and modelling abilities, the amp also boasts Blackstar’s IR-driven speaker and mic simulation, CabRig. The addition allows the amp to extend beyond a mere tool for performing and instead allows for recording – be that guitar parts or vocals, thanks to its studio-quality microphone input.
The amp is even planning to introduce Moises AI down the line in August, which should allow users to separate stems from your recordings. Blackstar plan to add the additional AI tool in a software update.
If that already sounds up your street, there’s also the guarantee of it being weatherproof, dust-tight and rechargeable. With 18 hours of potential playtime, it’s a strong option for musicians wanting to practice or record on the go, keeping things light but still offering a nice selection of tone to play with.
For more info, head to Blackstar.
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Fender Godzilla Distortion: imbue your pedalboard with the “sonic might of the King of Monsters”
Following the roaring success of Fender Japan’s Godzilla-themed Stratocasters last year – which we labelled, and still believe to be, some of the coolest guitars we’ve ever seen – the guitar titan has now unleashed its Godzilla Distortion pedal upon the world.
The distortion pedal was first unveiled along with the Godzilla-themed Strats in October 2025, but like those, was exclusively available in Japan. Now, those who sit in the intersection of the guitar player/Monsterverse fan Venn diagram all over the world can get their hands on one.
They’re subject to “limited stock”, though, so you’ll have to be quick…
Described as a “powerhouse pedal” capable of transforming your rig into a “heat-ray-breating beast”, the Godzilla Distortion is designed for the range of distortion use cases, from “thick rhythmic chugging” to “soaring lead tones that cut through any mix”.
Credit: Fender
The unit itself is powered by an op amp-based distortion circuit, with active Treble and Bass controls for crafting the perfect EQ curve for your tone.
Visually is where the pedal really shines, though; there’s a striking Godzilla-themed wraparound artwork, with “Godzilla” emblazoned on the bottom of the unit.
Credit: Fender
It’s pedalboard-friendly, too, of course, with top-mounted jacks plus a road-ready aluminium enclosure. There’s also true-bypass switching, so when the pedal is switched off, you know your signal is clean and unaltered.
Credit: Fender
So if you want to “unleash sonic might as legendary as the King of Monsters himself”, you’d better get on the Godzilla Distortion quick, as we imagine these will sell out fast.
Price-wise, the Godzilla Distortion clocks in at a totally reasonable £145. Get yours at Fender.
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“Those touring years are dog years”: Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted believes the “accelerated lifestyle” of touring contributed to his throat cancer diagnosis
Last year, bassist Jason Newsted was diagnosed with throat cancer, and kept it a secret from fans. Though he has already had treatment to fully cure it, he chalks the cancer up to the “accelerated lifestyle” of his time touring with Metallica.
In a new interview with the Let There Be Talk podcast, Newsted explains that he received a cancer diagnosis last February. While he’d been suffering with earaches and a sore jaw, he had simply written it off as minor ailments that were only slightly impacting his ability to sing. When he finally noticed a lump on his neck, he decided it was time to get checked up. “The doctor calls [back] and he says, ‘You need to come in’,” the bassist recalls [via Blabbermouth].
The 63-year-old initially thought “there’s no way…”, before remembering how chaotic his years in Metallica had been. “I expected [a diagnosis like that] maybe 20 years from now… but then I started thinking about it,” he says. “Our accelerated lifestyle [in Metallica]… with the big tours, you’re doing a couple of hundred shows a year… Those touring years are dog years.”
He goes on to explain how, due to the intense touring schedule, one Metallica year is the equivalent of “four or five” normal years. In his opinion, its a lifestyle that has taken its toll. “If you put the math down, that’s taxing on your cells, three flights a day… that kind of shit, it’ll get you,” he says.
Newsted underwent surgery for this cancer last May, a procedure he describes as the doctor taking “a bunch of shit outta [his throat]” with lasers. “The cavern inside my head is different than it was, but we got it early,” he explains. “And I got my ‘free and clear’ about three weeks ago! So I beat it.”
While Newsted is happily celebrating his cancer-free future, he advises his rock and roll peers to seriously be cautious and conscious of their own health moving forward. “There’s 550 cancers that we deal with… and there’s no telling when it’s going to come,” he reflects. “I wanna be an advocate, of course, for everyone to be aware of things like that. It can happen to anybody.”
To further prove his point, he name-drops peers that have also suffered from mouth, tongue and throat related cancers, pointing to Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson, Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine and Social Distortion’s Mike Ness. “It’s the most prevalent cancer now for males over 40,” Newsted explains.
Despite the lifestyle taking its toll on his body, Newsted doesn’t regret his time in Metallica. The bassist parted ways with Metallica back in 2001 after 15 years, and continues to be a massive supporter of the thrashers.
Regardless of his diagnosis, the bassist hopes to carry out his North American headline tour with his Chophouse Band project this summer. The tour comes a full year after his cancer surgery, so Newsted is ripe and ready to roll. “I promised myself I was going to rest [after my surgery], and that was the first time I’ve done that in my life,” he says.
Jason Newsted and the Chophouse Band will be playing an eight-date headline tour this July, before supporting country rockers Blackberry Smoke for a further 10 dates.
For tickets and more information on Jason Newsted and the Chophouse Band’s summer tour, head to the band’s website.
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Have Greta Van Fleet broken up? Fans speculate over meaning of “thanks for the wild ride” social media post
Greta Van Fleet have sparked rumours of a breakup following a cryptic social media video “thanking” their fans.
The video in question was shared yesterday (4 May), and shows clips of the band throughout their 14-year-tenure. After flickering through multiple videos from across their career, the video closes out on a message reading: “Thanks for the wild ride, love, Josh, Jake, Sam [the Kiszka brothers] & Daniel [Wagner].”
Prior to sharing the video across their social media channels, the group had been keeping a low profile. On their Instagram, the band hadn’t shared anything since July 2025. Even then, the post was simply an anniversary post to mark two years of their last record, 2023’s Starcatcher. Before that, they’d not posted since March 2025.
While the reflective video seems like a farewell, some fans aren’t entirely convinced. Some have noted that the music in the clip is unfamiliar, hinting that there is new Greta Van Fleet music on the way. If that is the case, the message could simply be thanking fans for the “wild ride” touring their last album, waving off the era to welcome in the next one.
As well as that, the new video has been edited in a way that is reminiscent of other clips throughout the Starcatcher album cycle, particularly the fuzzy, film-strip-like overlays.
Over the years, Greta Van Fleet have had a tough time earning their place in the rock world. At first, many wrote the band off by labelling them as “derivative”, due to their similarities to Led Zeppelin. However, the band went on to gain a huge fanbase and even earn the Grammy for Best Rock Album for their 2017 EP, From The Fires.
Currently, the band has neither confirmed nor denied whether they will be breaking up. However, if the outcome does see the end of Greta Van Fleet, the members aren’t entirely abandoning music; brother Jake Kiszka has been working with Ida Mae’s Chris Turpin on new Mirador music, with the duo set to release their The Gathering EP in June.
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Former Turnstile guitarist Brady Ebert could face life in prison following alleged hit-and-run
Former Turnstile guitarist Brady Ebert is facing life in prison after striking his ex bandmate Brandan Yates’ father William with his car.
Upon arriving to William Yates’ home on 29 March, Ebert is alleged to have struck down the 79-year-old with his vehicle, leaving him severely injured with a broken leg.
News of Ebert’s alleged hit-and-run first hit the press back in April, with the Baltimore Banner reporting that the guitarist considered his actions to be of “pure self-defence”, claiming that “they’re the attackers”. Despite pleading his innocence, a Montgomery County grand jury has now formally indicted a charge of attempted first-degree murder – a significant upgrade from the Montgomery County police’s original charge of attempted second-degree murder.
The more serious charge comes with potentially more severe repercussions for Ebert; now, if the guitarist is convicted, he could be handed a life sentence.
According to the Baltimore Banner, Ebert’s alleged hit-and-run was preceded by the guitarist driving by William Yates’ home, honking his horn and yelling “obscenities” at William Yates, his daughter and his son-in-law. However, Ebert allegedly then escalated the situation and drove back around to the house.
Surveillance footage provided by the Montgomery County police allegedly shows William “warning” his daughter and her partner to get away. However, the 79-year-old wasn’t so lucky; according to the police, Ebert struck Yates while he was trying to run away, yelling that he “deserved it”.
Back in August 2022, Turnstile parted ways with Ebert. While the guitarist had been a founding member, the group explained in an Instagram Story: “We are deeply grateful for our time together. Our love for him continues and we wish him nothing but the best moving forward.”
Turnstile confirms guitarist Brady Ebert has left the band
byu/papo96 inindieheads
However, in a statement shared with Rolling Stone last month, the band clarified that Ebert’s removal from the project had been triggered by his self-destructive behaviour and increasingly “violent” nature. “Turnstile cut ties with Brady Ebert in 2022 in response to a consistent pattern of harmful behaviour affecting himself, the band, and the community,” the band explained.
“After exhausting every available resource to support his access to help and recovery, a boundary ultimately had to be set when healthy communication was no longer possible and he began threatening violence.”
“In the years since, his baseless tirades have continued in public. We never addressed it. We chose to protect his privacy and the circumstances around his departure, even when he did nothing to be deserving of that protection. Over the past few months, his threats only escalated further… We have no language left for Brady.”
In recent years, the ex-Turnstile riffer joined a new band, The S.E.T. (Self Evident Truth). However, his new bandmates also ended up kicking him out back in February, following some erratic social media posts criticising Turnstile.
According to NME, Ebert publicly accused his former bandmates of “misusing funds from a benefit gig”, forcing his new band to cut ties with him. “Brady is no longer a member of The S.E.T.,” the band wrote on Instagram. “We will not stand by his ridiculous comments and behaviour toward the members of our band and our community.”
The criticism of his old band came shortly after Ebert had criticised them in January. According to Vice, the guitarist had slammed Turnstile for posting an “abolish ICE” post, labelling it a performative move: “Lmao, no one in Turnstile cares at all about ethics or social issues in general, they’re just pandering to their audience.”
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“We figured we needed to do it as good or better than the original”: Dave Mustaine on Megadeth’s Ride the Lightning cover
One of the biggest headlines in the leadup to the release of Megadeth’s final album was the announcement that a cover of Metallica’s Ride the Lightning was set to appear.
As the story goes, Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine co-wrote the track when he was still a member of Metallica in the early ‘80s, alongside James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Cliff Burton. Mustaine ended up being fired in 1983 before the release of the band’s debut album, Kill ‘Em All, and Ride the Lightning first appeared as the title track of Metallica’s second album the following year.
- READ MORE: Dave Grohl says Foo Fighters still make music “like a band that plays in a f**king garage”
When Megadeth’s cover of Ride the Lightning was confirmed, Dave Mustaine described his intention to make it a full-circle moment, saying: “I wanted to pay my respects to where my career first started.”
And while Mustaine says he “put [his feud with Metallica] to sleep many years ago” in a new interview with Brazil’s Ibagenscast [via Blabbermouth], it seems there was at least a small competitive streak to Ride the Lightning cover.
“I’ve always thought that James was an excellent guitar player, so when we set out to do the song, we figured we needed to do it as good or better than the original,” he says. “And we figured, how are we gonna do that? Metallica’s an amazing group.
“So we sped it up just a little bit, made it a little bit more frantic, and then we kind of spiced up the solo a little bit. And then, at the end, there’s some drum fills that the Metallica guys had played, and I told Dirk [Verbeuren, Megadeth drummer], I said, ‘Have fun there. Just have fun.’
“So he did a drum fill at the end in the four spots that there’s drum fills. And I think that they’re really stunning drum fills. They may be similar to the original stuff, but I’m not sure how similar. And he recorded his parts, and I love it.”
Also in the interview, Mustaine touches again on his desire to complete the circle of his career, so to speak.
“Going back to why we did that song,” he explains, “it’s kind of closing the circle, paying my respects to the band that I was a founding member in. And love me or hate me, they’ll never be able to erase me.
“And I think that when people can look with acceptance and fondness of the two bands and not try and keep something that I don’t wanna keep going. I don’t wanna have a feud. I’ve put that to sleep so many years ago.
“So, yeah, I wanted to do something that was — just show some respect, ’cause it doesn’t matter to me if he cares, if he likes it; it matters what I do and that I show respect and close the circle.”
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Heidi Curtis’ destiny is intertwined with guitar music: “It’s a craft that has to be chipped away at”
Imagine if you told teenage Heidi Curtis, as she learnt Florence & The Machine’s Dog Days Are Over on guitar, that she’d be announcing tour dates with Florence a few hours before having coffee with Guitar.com.
Having already played with Ben Howard and Paolo Nutini, Curtis’ list of co-signs is already undeniably stacked – despite having just three released songs to her name. Across the hour we spend with her in Newcastle city centre, we learn how her story is six years in the making.
“I was doing mic nights at Lola Jeans for £40 a week, I was buzzing!” she recalls, running us through jobs at Newcastle United and a Mexican restaurant. “I stayed at home, I honed my craft… my mam and dad are really supportive. It’s good to see artists put out music [quickly], but I also think it can be dangerous, the change of pace in how music’s released. It takes so long to actually perfect your live performance. It’s a craft that has to be chipped away at.”
After multiple iterations, Curtis’ live band has been solidified for three years, a constant while her songwriting took many shapes and sizes in her background life in North Shields. Raised on piano, which she learnt mostly by ear, she was soon ‘borrowing’ her older brother’s Telecaster and amassing guitars of her own, notably a 1978 Gibson Dove acoustic, which reminded her of the “white-winged dove” from Stevie Nicks’ Edge Of Seventeen.
Disengaged with the Ableton-heavy music production course at Newcastle College, Curtis was instead drawn to the “privacy” of playing guitar in her room, the playing style of Johnny Marr, and the purity of live production with her bandmates. “It’s a puzzle – and I love puzzles,” she smiles. “I never have that tyrannical leadership… I want my band to have the same status as session musicians in the 70s: very revered and honoured. I want to preserve that, because their musicianship is incredible.”
Image: Jay Davison
Bide Your Time
In November, the mystical, heart-throbbing riff of her debut single Undone revealed what she’d been building. Next came the magical duality of Siren – a modern-day successor to Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain – before the raw downstrums of What Am I Missing? announced her debut EP, Hollow Heart (due 29 May). She has two albums’ worth of music ready to go. While Curtis tugs at folk-rock, indie and grittier rock threads, it’s evident that the guitar is at the centre of her identity.
“I can’t believe how much love that Undone riff got!” she beams. “Originally, it had this massive Tube Screamer on it, and it was a bit ridiculous. It’s the rumble and hit of the strings, everything about the guitar gives so much life to a track. I’ve been able to manipulate guitars to work with me, via going down an alternate tuning route. When I came back to standard, I knew what my style was. Trying to find your own style in standard is tricky.”
That case study, surrounding DADF#BE and DADDAD tunings, exemplifies the crux of Heidi’s songwriting journey. Before she could share her music with the world, she had reach a level of self-assurance in her artistry, taking no shortcuts. While many artists wrestle with that in the public eye to feed the music and content machine, Heidi was determined to do it her way.
She was afforded that space after her talent was spotted by Owain Davies, who, in tandem with her older brother Tom, co-manages Heidi alongside Ben Howard and Sam Fender. Hailing from the same town, Curtis has watched on in real time as Fender shot to fame, now arguably the biggest British guitar act of the decade.
“Being around him, and that level of quality, made me dedicated to stick with this process,” she says, pointing out how he also started releasing at 24, having written since the age of 16. “I’m in a really privileged position in that regard.”
Trusting the journey, Curtis learned how to channel her gut instinct and write with a degree of self-assurance. “You’ve got to meditate on the practice of not allowing others’ opinions to get involved,” she says. “Have you ever played Zelda? You’ve got to tame these horses. I see songs as these spirit-like pieces. You’ve got to really tame [them], ‘No, this is going this way.’”
Particularly after an active year of gigging in 2022, the self-inflicted pressure to ready her music did weigh on Curtis, “but it made me dig so much deeper,” she continues. “When my nana passed away. I would have never reached that point of emotional depth if I hadn’t [felt that] genuine heartbreak. You’ve got to dig for those [moments], to be honest with your emotions. It’s definitely made me understand and honour the time and the effort.”
Image: Jay Davison
One Step Back And Three Steps Forward
In 2023, What Am I Missing? catalysed the wave of songs we hear on Hollow Heart – and beyond. Frustrated by writer’s block, she turned to her guitar, on holiday in Cyprus, and allowed the truth of feelings to come to the surface, instead of aimlessly seeking out answers. You can feel the urgency of her predicament in the track, a headspace she had to re-enter when it came to recording.
“It’s exactly the same as acting,” she suggests. “Every song is a lesson. If you don’t confront those issues, it blocks the other ideas from being able to migrate. As an artist, you’ve got to be on the move… mentally. Writer’s block is a sign that you’ve stood here for too long. The patch of sun has moved, and you’re still standing there. I now know whenever I get writer’s block, I’m not confronting something properly.”
Although Curtis is finally emerging into the public spotlight, behind the scenes, she’s always been on the move. Her taste has changed – from Bob Dylan to Girls Aloud to Metallica and Hendrix – and so has her live show, a muscle she’s kept strengthening, “like going to the gym”. Now, there is room for ambition to enter the fray, as the fruits of her labour finally come to life, proving that the long, old-fashioned march was the right course of action. While she’s watched from the sidelines, the success of guitar acts like Fender, Fontaines D.C. and Wolf Alice “gives [her] so much faith” in her methods.
“Now, people will sniff around and I’ll think, ‘You were at my gig four years ago and had no interest,’” she laughs. “It takes a bit longer to get people knowing you, but when the moment happens – and I believe it will – a really solid fanbase that are buying tickets and invest in your art [is important]. I see artists with thousands of followers that are struggling to sell out an academy show. If the music is good enough, and your artistry’s good, it’s gonna be fine.”
Hollow Heart is out 29 May via AWAL
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Dave Grohl says Foo Fighters still make music “like a band that plays in a f**king garage”
They may be one of the biggest rock bands in the worlds, but Foo Fighters still operate and make music “like a band that plays in a fucking garage”, according to Dave Grohl.
Speaking to Radio X’s John Kennedy about the band’s latest album Your Favorite Toy, the frontman explains that despite decades of success, the group’s creative process hasn’t strayed far from their roots.
“The way we function as a band… I know that all of this is much different than it was when we were young and playing in bands in a garage, but we still function like a band that plays in a fucking garage,” he says. “It’s the same thing! It’s like, ‘Hey, I’ve got a riff,’ and we show it to everybody.”
“Maybe people would imagine that we’re a lot more professional than we actually are,” Grohl adds, “but really the way that we function… it’s really similar to [Dave’s previous punk band] Scream.”
Describing Your Favorite Toy as a good example of how this works, Grohl says he typically brings in rough guitar parts and lets the track evolve organically with the rest of the band.
“Usually I’ll put down a rhythm guitar and then maybe a sort of melodic bit above that, almost for reference,” he explains. “Like, I’ll double the rhythm guitar, and then I’ll have some sort of melodic line that goes above it. But the funny thing is that nobody knows what I’m going to sing until I sing it.”
“So, I don’t go to the band and say, ‘Hey guys, listen to this song idea.’ I don’t do that. We record the instrumental and nobody’s really sure what the vocal melody is going to be. And there have been times where everyone lays down their tracks, and then I’ll be inspired by what they do, and change the vocal melody from things that they’ve done. So it’s always kind of a bit of a mystery.”
Asked how the band manages to balance its three-guitarist lineup, Grohl says, “As far as guitarists in the band… I’m sort of like a rhythm guitar player. Chris [Shiflett] is very much a lead guitar player and Pat [Smear]… Most bands, like the guitar players have a pedal that they step on for distortion. We just have Pat.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Grohl also shared a behind-the-scenes detail about the band’s latest album title. He originally wanted to call it For Good, inspired by a lyric in Your Favorite Toy – until another release threw a wrench in his plans.
“I wanted to call the record For Good, because that song, Your Favorite Toy, at first I called it For Good. In that song, Your Favorite Toy, it says, ‘Get back, hear that boy, someone threw away your favorite toy for good.’”
“And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a good not only title for the song, but also for the album.’ They could have more than a few meanings, but I’m like, ‘That’s kind of nice – For Good.’ And then that Wicked movie came out, and it’s called Wicked: For Good. And I was so pissed! So, then I changed the title of the song, and then it just became the title of the album.”
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Randy Bachman calls Paul Reed Smith a “legend” of modern guitar making: “I said, ‘You’re the new Leo Fender. You’re the new Les Paul. You’re the new Orville Gibson’”
Randy Bachman has praised the genius of Paul Reed Smith, hailing the PRS founder as a “legend” of modern guitar making and placing him alongside the likes of Leo Fender, Les Paul and Orville Gibson.
Speaking in a new interview with Guitar World, Bachman recalls meeting Smith at a Christmas party hosted by producer Kevin Shirley last year, where the conversation quickly turned from mutual admiration to Smith’s impact on the guitar industry.
“I was in Nashville at a Christmas party for Kevin Shirley, the producer,” says the Bachman–Turner Overdrive guitarist. “He’s a really good friend of mine, and he produced my Heavy Blues album [2015]. At his party, I got to meet Paul Reed Smith, who says to me, ‘You’re a legend.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding? You’re a legend. You’re the new Leo Fender. You’re the new Les Paul. You’re the new Orville Gibson.’”
“Two legends get together, what are you going to do?” Bachman quips.
While the exchange reflected the kind of mutual respect you’d expect between two guitar heavyweights, Bachman says that the meeting also led into something more practical.
With ongoing health issues making heavier instruments increasingly difficult to manage, he has been actively searching for a lighter guitar setup.
“I said to Paul, ‘I’m looking for a lighter guitar, even lighter than my ’57, because I’ve got a back issue,’” says Bachman. “I had my left knee replaced. I’m a cancer survivor. I had four cancers, and I can hardly stand up. I’m learning to walk and balance again.
“Standing on one foot and operating your pedals is like tap-dancing, and I can’t do that yet. I’m still building up. I work out every day in a pool with weights. And he said, ‘I’ve got a new guitar. It’ll be under 4 lbs.’ So I got his number. I’m typing him a letter right now.”
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Finneas on why he thinks singing live “is just infinitely harder than strumming a guitar”
Finneas has argued that singing live is “infinitely harder” than playing the guitar on stage.
Speaking on a recent episode of On Film…With Kevin McCarthy, the producer, musician, and singer-songwriter breaks down how he views live performance dynamics when he’s on stage with his sister and longtime collaborator Billie Eilish.
“I always think of my role as the guy holding the trampoline while the acrobat is flipping,” says Finneas. “So it’s like they’re doing the hard thing, but I could kill them.”
Expanding on that comparison, particularly in contexts like Saturday Night Live, where the pair often perform together, he adds, “If Billie and I are playing SNL or something, I’m like ‘Billie’s doing the hard part’. Billie is singing, which is just infinitely harder than strumming a guitar.”
“If I fuck up my guitar part, she’s in the open ocean,” he explains. “And that to me is like, I am locked in. I’m right there.”
“The other part is like if Billie wants to take an extra beat because she’s feeling the significance of a line… that would be such a failure if I’m like [hits imaginary keyboard] and I step on the beat.”
Finneas traces this sensitivity back to his early musical training, noting that he “grew up singing in choirs” where “watching the conductor” was essential.
“You better be watching the conductor,” he says. “Even if you are learning the song as you’re singing it, you better be looking up and back ‘cause they’re going to cut you off and bring you in.”
“And also that is the fun of it,” the producer continues. “but that would be so embarrassing to be like, ‘Oh my god, she was taking a pregnant pause and I blew through it ‘cause I was too relaxed or whatever.’”
Watch the full interview below.
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Strymon Fairfax review – an old-school drive pedal with plenty of rough edges
$199/£199, strymon.net
Strymon, renowned purveyor of hi-tech reverb and delay pedals using advanced digital signal processing, apparently has a team known as “our analog guys”. Presumably they spend most of their time making coffee for everyone else, but every now and then they are allowed to design something. That’s the origin of the Fairfax overdrive… and on this evidence, it’s time for the digital nerds to start making their own coffee.
- READ MORE: Twilight Pulse Audioworks Konstante review – a dual dirt pedal that’s faster than the speed of light
In fact, the best way to appreciate this fully analog dirt machine might be to cover up the name at the bottom and pretend it’s made by some ultra-hip indie brand. Because the sounds it makes are about as far from Strymon’s usual fare as you can get.
Image: Press
Strymon Fairfax – what is it?
There’s a sort of reverse arms race going on in the stompbox world, with makers rifling through the archives in search of ever more old and obscure kit to recreate. In this case, the inspiration comes from the Canadian-made Garnet Amplifiers Herzog – a tube-driven preamp built in the 60s for Randy Bachman of the Guess Who. He used it on the band’s biggest hit, American Woman, and throughout his subsequent career with Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
The Herzog is, in a word, large – it’s designed to be stacked on top of an amp, not stomped on. The challenge for Strymon, then, was to capture all of its rich valve tones – without using DSP, remember – in a compact pedal. So the Fairfax has a preamp, a power amp and “an ingenious custom circuit that emulates the saturation characteristics of the output transformer”.
There’s also a real transformer – in the power supply, converting your standard adapter’s 9v into 40v – and you get controls for drive, output level and ‘sag’. This dials in extra compression and spluttery gating as the biasing of the JFETs is pushed out of whack. There’s no tone control, just a toggle switch for bright mode.
Image: Press
Strymon Fairfax – sounds
The sound of the Fairfax is sweet and chunky, with a gently crumbly texture. Basically it’s vanilla fudge in stompbox form. And while it’s not the first overdrive pedal to produce that kind of tone, it’s among the best of its type.
With drive at halfway and sag at minimum, you get a medium-gain crunch tone that’s pretty much uncoloured in pure EQ terms but with a ‘sticky’ feel that sets it well apart from the average transparent overdrive. There’s an element of gurgly scuzz involved, but it’s addictively pretty and responds nicely to variations in pick attack.
As you crank the drive, all the good stuff just gets bigger. It doesn’t go quite as fuzzy as, say, a Land Devices HP-2 or Hudson Broadcast (two pedals with which it has some tonal similarities), but it will do a fine impression of a small tweed combo at full volume – and adding some sag just makes it feel even more amp-like. There’s some wonderfully squishy compression available before things turn properly splatty, and it’s only towards the top of the dial that the gating effect starts to properly pinch.
The bright switch has been well judged, letting you decide whether or not to let all the high frequencies through unchecked, and I never found myself wishing for more control over the voicing of the Fairfax. You might feel differently if you’re using extra-sizzly single-coils, though.
Strymon Fairfax – should I buy it?
For me, there are two reasons to buy this pedal. The first, and most obvious, is that it’s awesome – smartly designed, unexpectedly versatile and bubbling over with musical character.
The second is that, the better the Fairfax sells, the more likely it is that Strymon’s bigwigs will let those analog specialists loose on a load of other Series A projects. The second entry, the recently announced Canoga, looks like a fairly unremarkable vintage-style fuzz; but after a debut like this, who knows what else they’re capable of?
Strymon Fairfax – alternatives
Other compact overdrive pedals with the emphasis on chunky warmth include the Supro Drive ($219/£189) and Beetronics Fatbee ($189/£199). But then again, why mess about with silly little stompboxes when Garnet Amplifiers is still going and you can order a reissue Herzog for CA$695?
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D-style Overdrive Special tones go digital in Universal Audio’s new UAD Enigmatic ‘82 plugin
Universal Audio has unveiled the UAD Enigmatic ‘82 Overdrive Special Amp, a new native plugin designed to emulate some of the most coveted D‑style amplifiers in guitar history.
Available now for Mac and PC, the Enigmatic ‘82 Overdrive Special Amp captures the authentic D-style amp sounds favoured by legendary players like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton and more.
“These are tones you associate with uniquely great players,” says UA Senior Product Manager James Santiago. “We modelled more than four different era D‑style amps, from early Santa Cruz builds to later LA studio favourites… because no two were exactly alike.”
The plugin delivers three distinct amp voicings – Rock, Jazz, and Custom – covering essential eras of the fabled Overdrive Special sound in a single package. Built on Universal Audio’s amp modeling and component-level circuit analysis, Enigmatic ‘82 aims to bring those tones into a versatile, in-the-box format for modern players and producers.
Credit: Universal Audio
Users can mix and match power sections and tone stacks, as well as add the legendary Hot Rubber Monkey (HRM) mod, creating a D‑style amp circuit that’s uniquely theirs. The plugin also includes nine curated cab and mic setups designed for mix-ready tones, along with more than 40 presets from artists including Joey Landreth, Megan Lovell and Daniel Donato.
“Whether you favour intricate chord work or expressive lead playing, you’ll instantly find that classic ODS sound that responds to every nuance of your playing and cuts right through the mix,” says Universal Audio.
The UAD Enigmatic ‘82 is available as a native plugin, either as a standalone purchase or as part of Universal Audio’s UAD Spark subscription. The plugin is priced at $99, with a launch discount of $49 available through 25 May.
Learn more at the Universal Audio website.
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“The guitar is so much more personal”: Former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford on why he’d always pick a good guitar over a good amp
Ahhhh, the great guitar vs amp debate. Unless you’re totally new to the guitar gear community, you’ll be aware of the perennial debate over what’s better: a great guitar with a sub-par amp or a great amp with a cheap guitar.
Both sides have strong voices. Math rock legend and Covet guitarist Yvette Young went on record a year ago to extol the virtues of an expensive amp, saying going for a bad amp is like “ruining a really nice audio file with something that’s going to degrade it a lot”.
- READ MORE: Richie Sambora reveals he hired a private detective to track down his stolen Gibson Explorer
Meanwhile, the opposing camp has adherents in Lita Ford and Whitesnake’s Doug Aldrich, who said last year: “You can get a great sound out of any amp that works.”
And it’s the second camp that former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford finds himself in, as he explains in the new issue of Guitarist.
“I’d buy the guitar. Shit, these days, half the time I’m playing through a rented amp,” he laughs. “But the guitar is so much more personal. You’re physically touching the thing and, in a perfect world, it becomes a part of you to where you don’t even think about it any more.
“It becomes just a way to get your insides out, since your fingerprints are literally on it. There’s direct contact and that’s gonna exchange your subtleties way more than an amplifier will, I think.”
So there you have it, if you’ve got some budget and you’re deciding whether to spend more of it on your amp or guitar, you know which direction Marc Ford would steer you in…
And if you do opt to zero in on the ideal guitar, Ford has a few buying tips to orient you in the right direction.
“The ultimate guitar tip for guitars – and really, any guitar, though it’s more obvious on acoustic and maybe less so with electric – is that it’s got to sound good when it’s not plugged in,” he says. “There has to be a tone that catches your ear. And it probably needs to be unique compared with other guitars.
“Obviously, feel is important. It’s gotta feel good to you. But if it doesn’t sound good when it’s not plugged in, there’s no way that you’re ever gonna get it to sound good through the electronics.”
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“The next thing you know I’m a full-time mechanic”: Rob Dukes reflects on his 2014 Exodus firing
Though some musicians are able to make a living from their playing for the duration of their careers, others, by various circumstances, often find themselves working back working ‘normal’ jobs once their time in the spotlight is over.
Take Rob Dukes, for example. Exodus singer between 2005 and 2014, the Florida native ended up spending his time fixing up old cars, as he explains in the latest issue of Metal Hammer. And he wouldn’t have taken that path were it not for his firing from the Bay Area thrash outfit.
- READ MORE: Richie Sambora reveals he hired a private detective to track down his stolen Gibson Explorer
As he recalls, his dismissal from Exodus came as a surprise: “When I got fired from Exodus in 2014, I didn’t see it coming. I felt betrayed, angry and resentful. I was fucking scared – my livelihood was gone. Fear caused me to lash out. I hadn’t done anything in 10 years other than sing, so what the fuck was I gonna do? I was in no man’s land.”
But after the sting had worn off and he’d picked himself up and dusted himself off, Dukes started looking for his next calling, which came in the form of fixing vintage cars.
“I sucked it up and said, ‘I’m gonna get a job.’ The only thing I knew I could make a living from was working on cars. I found a place in Arizona through Roger [Miret] from Agnostic Front. I got hired and the next you know I’m a full-time mechanic restoring old ‘50s and ‘60s Volkswagens – I became the restoration guy.
“I gained a whole new life. I learned things by reading books and watching YouTube. I’m a fucking master welder now! I love fabricating stuff, I just love making stuff out of metal.”
In the end, though, the world couldn’t take the music out of Rob Dukes, and as of last year, he’s now back in the Exodus lineup. “We are beyond stoked to have Rob back ripping up the stage with us and he’s looking forward to crushing everything like only he can,” the band wrote in January 2025, following the departure of vocalist Steve “Zetro” Souza.
Exodus guitarist Gary Holt has been praising the band as the frontrunners of modern day thrash metal lately. “Metallica were the best of all of us,” he said in March. “I mean, I don’t think so anymore – I think Exodus crushes them, but that’s my own humble opinion.”
He also said last month that he and his bandmates “carry the world’s biggest chip on our shoulders” that Exodus don’t get the same recognition as their thrash metal counterparts like Metallica and Megadeth.
Check out a full list of upcoming Exodus dates via the band’s official website.
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