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Steve Vai and Joe Satriani first started jamming together as teenagers, but their musical partnership gone on to span over 50 years. Now aged 65 and 69 respectively, the pair are still going strong – but they still feel like a pair of excitable teenagers when working together.

In a new interview with Thomann’s Guitars & Basses, Vai explains that his musical bond with Satriani still feels as exhilarating and fruitful as when the pair were young. “We’re kind of frozen at 14 years old,” he smiles. “You know, the way [we’re so] enthusiastic about the shows and playing together… it’s like being a teenager again.”

• READ MORE: Joe Satriani on why he doesn’t rate vintage guitars “The musician has to connect with the guitar for it to become special”

While the pair have toured together over the years on Satriani’s G3 tours, their collaboration for the SATCHVAI band is the first time the pair have properly worked as a pair. “We tag team, you know,” Vai explains. “I would say it’s my favourite co-creative guitar extravaganza, because we started doing it when we were teenagers. We’ve developed ears for each other.”

The idea for the band came when Eric Johnson wasn’t able to continue touring with G3. “We wanted to extend the tour… So Joe and I went out as Joe Satriani and Steve Vai,” Vai recalls. “Then we [had a call and decided], ‘well, why not just create some new music [together]?’”

Before Vai had even “hung up the phone”, Satriani has already sent ideas over. “I get these two tracks from Joe, and they’re The Sea of Emotion [Part 1 and Part 2], which is a place that we used to go and hang out when we were kids,” he says.

Inspired by Satriani’s enthusiasm, Vai got to work, adding in his own ideas for The Sea of Emotion Part 3. The third movement really embraces that teenage spirit – and Vai even used a genuine recording from the pair’s younger. “So there’s, like, six or seven seconds or so of Joe and I as teenagers,” he grins.

The original recording is from when Vai was 12 and Satriani was 16. “I started lessons with Joe when I was like 12, and I’d go to his room and he had this Sound on Sound tape recorder,” Vai recalls. “And I was just so attracted to this thing, because I loved the idea of recording, I loved the idea of engineering… I said, [Joe], tell me about that thing. He goes, ‘Well, let’s try it.’”

“So he showed me this riff, and he was playing these chords, and we recorded it. We got like, eight minutes, you know, as long as the tape was. And then many years later, Joe sent it to me, and I transferred it to digital, and I thought, I’m going to take a piece of this and actually put it at the beginning of the song.”

While only two tracks have been released, including The Sea of Emotion Part 1 and Glenn Hughes’ feature track I Wanna Play My Guitar, the rest is still being pieced together. “A lot of it is kickback to our youth with mature ears and fingers,” Vai says. “I Wanna Play My guitar is so representative of that time.”

The post “We’re kinda frozen at 14 years old”: Steve Vai explains why he and Joe Satriani are still so enthusiastic about playing guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$3,599/£3,799, martinguitar.com

How many times have we been told that the Dreadnought acoustic guitar was originally created for country stars, folkies and singing cowboys? Chris Martin IV himself is at pains to put this misconception to bed because – as he explained to me in a recent conversation for the Martin Journal – everything actually started in Hawaii.

• READ MORE: Furch Pioneer MM Review: “the biggest compliment that you can give to a travel guitar is that it doesn’t feel like one”

The resonator guitar, lap steel and even the earliest electric guitars were created for Hawaiian music – the first dreadnoughts made by Martin under the Ditson brand name were no exception. So why don’t we talk about it more?

Martin O’ahu HG-28 – what is it?

This new Martin guitar – named the O’ahu HG-28 – is a Hawaiian koa and spruce beauty designed to go some way towards correcting that imbalance. As well as being the first guitar from Martin’s new O’ahu sub-brand, it also celebrates the significant impact that the tiny Hawaiian archipelago has had on popular music since the explosion in popularity that followed the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. After this World’s Fair event was held in San Francisco, suddenly aloha shirts, ukuleles and slack key tuned guitars were popping up everywhere.

This particular guitar would not exist without a surreal moment of serendipity when Chris Martin IV found an unusual instrument in an online auction and couldn’t resist giving it a home.

The guitar in question was one of the more improbable Gibson models of the time – the HG-2O which featured among its bizarre specs, an internal resonating chamber and additional F-holes in both the upper and lower bouts. Utterly bonkers and ultimately an evolutionary dead end for the flat-top acoustic.

But when CFMIV checked out his new vintage purchase – complete with a soundboard that had all but collapsed over the years – he realised that the guitar was essentially a round- shouldered dreadnought for Hawaiian music.

It set Chris to imagining what a similar Martin guitar might look like – an evolutionary missing link between those original Ditson dreadnoughts and the all-conquering Martin models that would come along in the 30s. This was the spark of inspiration that led – after much research and development – to the O’ahu HG-28 I am now holding in my hands.

But the HG-28 is more than just an interesting alternative history lesson – it has plenty of intriguing qualities on its own merits for those who maybe don’t quite get on with Martin’s most famous and influential design.

Despite the majestic power that typifies its voice, some will tell you – with a straight face! – that the traditional Martin dreadnought design is too boomy. The body is too big, it is uncomfortable, they will claim.

Well, thanks to the HG-28, dreadnought-curious players can now enjoy a more ergonomically svelte experience. The gently slope-shouldered body is no deeper than a Martin 000 and feels good when seated. The guitar is built around a shorter 24.9” scale length too which promises added warmth and intimacy if that’s what you’re looking for.

Koa is an interesting wood – it was a traditional choice for ukuleles (it only grows in Hawaii after all) – and Martin pioneered its use for acoustic guitars in the 1920s. Nowadays it’s often seen as an attractive, if pricey, alternative to rosewood or mahogany – one that has seen heavy use in recent years by Martin’s great modern rival, Taylor.

Koa is loved for its beautiful figure and timbral properties that mean it pairs very well with good spruce. As luck would have it the lid of this box is made from a slice of pale Sitka – a classic choice that looks striking against the top’s herringbone purfling and cream binding.

Some might raise eyebrows at a £3.5k guitar shipping without a hard case, but the softshell gigbag included still feels very premium with generous padding, a robust neck support and a rather fetching woven fawn-coloured outer covering.

Martin O’ahu HG-28 – feel and sounds

Pulling the HG-28 out of said gigbag, and it’s instantly a very welcoming experience. The neck features Martin’s Low Oval High Performance Taper and is made from what Martin frustratingly vaguely describes as ‘Select Hardwood’. In this case it certainly looks like something mahogany-coded with some spectacular grain accentuated with dark pore filler. It’s an immediately comfortable squeeze – fast and familiar. The 1.75” nut width offers enough room for fingerstyle too.

While a short-scale slope-shoulder dreadnought could feel very like a Gibson J-45, the whole vibe of the O’ahu HG-28 is reassuringly Martin from the arm position on the lower bout to the balance point at the waist. Time to make some noise!

I honestly hadn’t planned to stay in standard EADGBE for very long with this guitar – I was extremely keen to get involved with some of the naughtier slack key tunings I’ve encountered over the years. However this is actually a very workable little dreadnought in missionary tuning and it could prove a useful alternative to a D-18 or D-28 – especially in the studio.

With bare fingers the HG-28 has a sweet voice – Martin supply the guitar with uncoated strings so there is an element of extraneous string noise, but the koa back and sides are more forgiving than a rosewood instrument might be.

Taking a medium flatpick to the guitar certainly wakes it up. The bass response – though definitely present – is not quite the full 25.4” scale bark of a D-28 but there is more than enough punch for a convincing G-run and the trebles are smooth and balanced all the way up the fretboard.

Easing the O’ahu HG-28 into DADGAD reveals a woody, fundamental quality to the voice – this helps prevent the sympathetic resonances typical of that tuning from getting muddy or indistinct and the short scale makes wider vibrato and bends a genuine pleasure.

The guitar has played a fascinating role in the history of Hawaiian music and kī hōʻalu or slack key playing is at the heart of it. Taro Patch tuning – known to the rest of the world as Open G – reveals a lot about the character of this instrument – that koa shimmer across the shorter scale length, the slightly metallic transient to the note that is so typical of sitka spruce. These are subtleties but there is no denying that this is an instrument with its own distinct personality.

Martin O’ahu HG-28 – should I buy one?

With the new O’ahu HG-28 Martin has a very interesting proposition on its hands. Whether you’re into the Hawaiian vibe or not – where else are you going to find a koa slope-shoulder short scale dread at this price point?

It is evident that a lot of thought has gone into this instrument – but more than that – the O’ahu HG28 represents an acknowledgement of the role of Hawaiian culture in modern popular music. There is a beautiful Hawaiian concept of ‘pono’ – the word means righteous, balanced, good. From beautifully figured koa to the palm trees on the label and the correct reverse apostrophe in O’ahu this is a very pono guitar.

Martin O’ahu HG-28 – alternatives

The HG-28 is very much doing its own thing in terms of design and sound, but there are some fine koa-based acoustics out there that show off this fine wood for various budgets. Taylor’s Academy 10e LTD ($999) is a Mexico-made dreadnought that apes the HG’s blend of spruce top with a Hawaiian koa back and sides. Dana Bourgeois is one of the world’s finest acoustic luthiers and his transnational Touchstone series brings his wares to slightly more accessible price points. The limited edition Hawaiian Country Boy D ($3,149) utilises koa back and sides with a spruce top tuned and selected in Main. If money’s no object and you really want to go all out, Turnstone’s TD Koa and Sitka (from £8,500) is pretty much as good as it gets.

The post Martin O’ahu HG-28 review: “this is an instrument with its own distinct personality” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ever feeling yourself needing a boost? And not the C-tier Cadbury’s chocolate bar? Boost pedals can really help make your rig performance-ready, adding a lot of dynamics to both your level of gain and your actual volume. But how to use them and what they ultimately do can be a little confusing – so let’s explore how they can fit in a rig, and some great options you can buy today.

• READ MORE: How much headroom do you need? Pedal platform amplifiers explained

So, what does a boost pedal do? While you may think this question has a stultifyingly self-evident answer, the reality is a little more complicated. In short, though, a boost does increase the level of your signal – that much, hopefully, you knew already. But there are lots of different ways in which different pedals achieve this signal increase, and lots of different ways to use the resulting sound, ranging from a totally linear uplift in level to a dirty, nasal, midrange spike.

The rest of your rig matters!

Other than the variation in circuitry, the other complicating factor in what a boost does is the rest of your rig. In short, it’s important to remember that a lot depends on your sonic goals and where you’re putting a boost within the larger context of your guitar, pedals and amplifier. The ideal type and placement of a boost depends on whether you want to push your gain a bit harder, shape the sound of a dirt pedal, or give yourself a clean volume lift for solos.

We’ve already explored headroom in more depth when looking at pedal platform amplifiers, but it’s worth a quick refresh here. If you increase signal into any amplifying device, there’s going to be a certain point where the output only gets more distorted rather than louder. Boost pedals will often mean you’re going to have to contend with your amp’s headroom. If your amp has run out of headroom, putting on a clean boost will not make it louder – it will just make it more distorted.

You can solve this by putting a boost in the effects loop, although get some earplugs in before you do that! And even then, you might still run out of power-amp headroom. This is also why pedal order is important more generally. If you put a boost before an overdrive or a distortion, you’re likely just going to make that pedal distort harder – if you place it after one and your amp has the headroom to handle it, then you’ll be able to get a cleaner level increase.

Both cases have their uses – putting a boost in front of a drive is conventionally done when the boost has its own shaping EQ character. For instance, a Rangemaster-style treble boost in front of a Big Muff compensates for the midrange scoop and reduces the amount of low-end being distorted for a tighter, more cutting sound. But if you want a simple volume increase for a solo, then it’s a better idea to put a cleaner boost after your distortions. But what makes a clean boost a clean boost?

Clean boosts

When people talk about clean boosts, this normally means two things – firstly, these pedals impart as little extra compression/distortion as possible, and any EQ controls are working with a flat, neat palette rather than shaping any extra “character”. These are the kinds of pedals that excel at simple volume increases for solos – but they can also be used to drive amp preamps and overdrive pedals harder. there are countless options out there, but here are just a few for a range of budgets:

MXR Micro Amp, Micro Amp+

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The MXR Micro amp is a great example of this style of boost. Its circuit is a simple op-amp, dialled in with enough headroom to give a big boost of signal without any extra clipping. The Micro Amp+ variant adds a clean, active two-band EQ for extra shaping.

Keeley Katana Mini

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The Keeley Katana Mini is a very clean and a very transparent boost pedal made with cascading FETs. There’s a huge range of volume available, and the full-sized Katana’s Pull Boost mode for a little bit of extra push has been integrated into the upper ranges of the volume knob here.

TC Electronic Spark and Spark MINI

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These two pedals are some of TC Electronic’s most well-regarded, up there with the Ditto as very long-standing, standard parts of the range that are great for guitarists on a bit of a budget. There’s nothing crazy going on circuit-wise – they’re just reliable, loud and clean, with the added bonus of an EQ control for the full-sized pedal.

Dirty boosts and character boosts

Here I’m collating some modern pedals that aim to add in a specific sonic character, while still avoiding being either ultra-linear, ultra-flat clean boosts. A lot of the time these take from the Rangemaster playbook (more on that in a moment) without exactly recreating the topology – that is, providing an all-important midrange kick to give you some extra oomph – while others are just a little too dirty to call clean, while still obviously being boosts rather than drives.

EarthQuaker Arrows

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The EarthQuaker Devices Arrows is an awesome boost pedal with a great upper-midrange character – it’s cleaner and tighter than your typical Rangemaster-derived thing, and makes an absolutely excellent pairing with Big Muffs and/or gainy amplifiers to add some tightness and clarity for faster rhythm playing or soloing.

Electro-Harmonix Screaming Bird

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A modified version of the LPB-1, the EHX Screaming Bird features altered input and output capacitors to offer quite a harsh high-end boost. While in some rigs it can be a bit like jamming knitting needles into your ears, in the right context it’s fantastic – if you want to evoke a vintage Brian May-style sound with a lot of high end, it’s a great option when paired with the right amp.

ZVEX Super Hard On

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The ZVEX Super Hard On, despite its somewhat juvenile evocation of tumescence, is not messing about. It’s a JFET-based boost that offers frankly insane volume. It’s not totally clean, but it’s bright and punchy, and so loud the rest of your rig is unlikely to cleanly handle its absurd levels of output – in the best way possible. While it can be used to completely obliterate an amp’s front end, more subtle settings are also a great way to give life to a slightly dull set of pickups, thanks to that brightness.

JHS Haunting Mids

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The JHS Haunting Mids is part EQ pedal and part boost. The parametric midrange is really good for dialling in exactly what frequency you want to boost – making it a really powerful pre- or post-overdrive shaper.

Benson Germanium Boost

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The Benson Amps Germanium Boost is designed to be an ultra-clean take on the format – rather than the Rangemaster’s ragged, spitty sound, this pedal uses some interesting tech tricks to keep the headroom as high as it can be. It’s definitely a ‘boutique’ take on the format with a price tag to match, but it’s got some serious fidelity to match.

Rangemaster-style pedals

The Dallas Rangemaster was arguably the first boost pedal. It’s a similar circuit to an early fuzz, although uses only one transistor – and so that cascading gain structure that gives something like a Fuzz Face oodles of distortion is gone. However because of the design, and the ragged, slightly compressed sound of a single germanium transistor with little surrounding circuitry, it does still add a bit of grit by itself.

The main thing that makes a Rangemaster sing, though, is the midrange response. Despite being called a “treble booster”, it’s really giving you a big boost in the upper midrange – this sound is all over Tony Iommi’s early Black Sabbath work, and basically everything Brian May has ever done. Because of its old, germanium design and the fact the original isn’t technically made anymore, there are plenty of very pricey boutique clones out there. But here are some of the more accessible options:

Laney Black Country Customs TI Boost

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A signature pedal for none other than Tony Iommi from Laney’s own pedal brand, the Black Country Customs TI Boost adds a two-band EQ, a mids switch and separate volume and drive controls for a very tweakable take on the classic boost.

Catalinbread Naga Viper

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Like the TI Boost, the Catalinbread Naga Viper aims to update the Ragnemaster for a modern approach – here we’ve got silicon transistors for some more stability, as well as discrete volume and gain controls for dialling in treble-booster grit at more manageable output levels. There’s also a bass control for classic vintage thinness or a bit more doomy grunt.

Mythos Pedals Cestus

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The Mythos Cestus is one of the more accessible “authentic” takes on the pedal, with only one knob – but there is still a voice switch for a range of, well, frequency ranges. The germanium transistor is also out, replaced by a 2N2222A silicon transistor for a bit more consistency – and, rather than something loaded with an original OC44, it means this boutique treble-booster is relatively affordable.

The post Boost pedals explained – from overdrive-shapers to simple volume lifts appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Boss has unveiled the PX-1 Plugout FX, a shapeshifting stompbox designed to put the company’s historic pedal catalogue at your feet. Launching with 16 faithfully modelled classics and the promise of more on the way, the PX-1 gives you the flexibility of a pedalboard without the sprawl.

Since 1977, Boss compact pedals have been a fixture underfoot, with over 140 different models produced and more than 19 million sold. From the workhorse DS-1 Distortion to the elusive Slow Gear, these little enclosures have defined the sound of countless records. Now, the PX-1 condenses that legacy into a single unit – one that’s expandable via the Boss Effect Loader app for iOS and Android.

• READ MORE: BOSS’s RT-2 Rotary Ensemble pedal offers classic rotary speaker sounds in a compact footprint

Backed by newly developed BOSS algorithms, each effect in the PX-1 delivers the genuine sound and response of the pedal it’s based on. Every detail is modeled with stunning accuracy, thanks to a powerful DSP engine dedicated to recreating the sound of a single effect at a time. The control layout stays familiar too: we’ve got the classic Boss knob interface along with an onboard display for current parameters and internal settings so you can dial in tones quickly.

Connectivity is equally future-proofed. The PX-1 offers external control with one or two footswitches or an expression pedal. A handy Swap function lets you flip between two effects on the fly, while almost any parameter can be assigned for real-time tweaks mid-performance. Stereo I/O provides flexible connectivity and enhanced sound for models with stereo operation, while tap tempo and MIDI clock support are provided for time-based effects.

At launch, players get 16 effects, including eight permanently installed “1” models and eight that can be loaded into the pedal’s eight user memories:

• OD-1 Over Drive
• SP-1 Spectrum
• PH-1 Phaser
• SG-1 Slow Gear
• CS-1 Compression Sustainer
• TW-1 T Wah
• SD-1 SUPER OverDrive
• DS-1 Distortion
• CE-2 Chorus
• BF-2 Flanger
• PN-2 Tremolo/Pan
• OC-2 Octave
• PS-2 Digital Pitch Shifter/Delay
• VB-2 Vibrato
• DD-2 Digital Delay
• DF-2 SUPER Feedbacker & Distortion

Roland has also sweetened the deal with a six-month Roland Cloud Ultimate membership. That unlocks not only the PX-1 effects in plug-in form, but also heavy-hitters like the JC-120 Jazz Chorus and RE-201 Space Echo.

Priced at $249.99, the Boss PX-1 Plugout FX ships this September. The company also plans to expanding the library of effects on offer through the companion app, with the first new tranche due in January 2026 – these pedals can be auditioned for free, and then can be purchased for $9.99 each.

Learn more at Boss. 

The post One pedal to rule them all: Boss’s new PX-1 Plugout FX puts 16 classic effects at your feet appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Pete Townshend has long been synonymous with the violent poetry of smashing guitars on stage. But in a new interview, the Who guitarist suggests the act was perhaps less about spectacle than resentment – specifically, the sting of a father who didn’t believe he was “worthy of a decent instrument”.

• READ MORE: “One of the difficulties Roger had was Zak jumped straight into Instagram and started to mouth off”: Pete Townshend reveals the real reason why The Who fired Zak Starkey

“I was a geeky young kid with a big nose who wanted to be an artist or a journalist, not play in a rock band,” says Townshend in a recent chat with the New York Times. “My father, a brilliant musician, didn’t believe in me and allowed my grandmother to buy me a [expletive] old guitar that I couldn’t play.”

“Some of my guitar-smashing antics probably started because it had become a symbol for me of the way my father had not considered me worthy of a decent instrument.”

The admission also sets the tone for the rest of the conversation, where Townshend’s candor stretches beyond family wounds and into the very business of rock and roll. Asked if pop music itself is a swindle, the guitarist replies: “The swindle starts when you become a property and don’t belong to your fans anymore.”

“You belong to record companies, to promoters, to managers. The audience worships you for what you’ve done years before. They’re not interested in anything new. For Roger and I, it’s difficult to do anything other than feel like we’re a Who tribute band.”

Still, Townshend says he hopes to keep working with Roger Daltrey in some capacity, even if the Who as an entity winds down. “If he doesn’t want to do a Who album, I’d love to write songs for him for a solo project.”

That possibility hangs over the band’s farewell tour, which is set to conclude on 28 September at Las Vegas’s MGM Grand Garden Arena. Beyond that, the future of the Who, Townshend admits, is “in Roger’s hands.”

“I’m 80, I don’t like being away from my family, my studios, my dogs and my friends. I’m not looking to spend the next five years of my life waiting to [expletive] drop dead on the stage,” he says. “The end of the tour could give Roger and I permission never to call each other again. I hope that doesn’t happen.”

The post “My father, a brilliant musician, didn’t believe in me”: Pete Townshend attributes his guitar-smashing antics to feelings of rejection from his father appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Cradle Of Filth guitarist Marek “Ashok” Šmerda has quit the band, citing “low pay”, high stress and “years of unprofessional behaviour from people above us”. His wife, keyboardist Zoe Marie Federoff, also announced her departure mid-tour, alleging “dishonest” and “manipulative” management practices and “psychopathic” contracts.

Šmerda, who joined Cradle in 2014, initially said he would finish the group’s current tour before leaving, but frontman Dani Filth later announced that the musician had been fired with immediate effect. He also dismissed Šmerda’s comments as an attempt “to illegally defame and derail the band”.

• READ MORE: Jason Richardson leaves All That Remains to focus on “new opportunities”

The split escalated quickly after Šmerda and Federoff – who had both announced their decisions within days of each other – began sharing details about life inside the band. In his statement, Šmerda said, “We simply do not feel like Cradle can provide for our future, and in fact hinders it. Among other reasons it is a lot of work for relatively low pay, the stress is quite high, and we haven’t felt for a while like this band actually prioritising/caring about members. It has been years of unprofessional behavior from people above us that led to our decision.”

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Federoff, who joined in 2022, claimed management were “dishonest” and “manipulative” and alleged they attempted to withhold advance payments for the group’s new album. The keyboardist also said she was branded “cancer” and a “dead horse” and threatened with termination when she challenged them.

“Our lawyer called it the most psychopathic contract a session musician could ever be handed,” Federoff wrote alongside screenshots of her contract, noting that she and Šmerda refused to sign.

She also broke down their earnings, saying the couple made around “£150/day currently and £25K a year roughly in this band.” The pay, combined with the stress and alleged hostility, had left them disillusioned.

“[Filth] might not get his hands dirty, but in the end, he directs them,” Federoff said. “The atmosphere he creates is threatening and abusive, and he constantly exploits us for very low wages, yet always demands exclusivity to Cradle’s schedule. It is madness to keep people locked in poverty for the ego of one person.”

Meanwhile, Dani Filth has hit back at the accusations against the band’s management, calling them “completely unjust and unfounded.” He added that while the rest of Cradle were “taken aback” by the couple’s departure, they would continue touring as planned.

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The post “It has been years of unprofessional behaviour from people above us”: Cradle of Filth guitarist is the latest to quit band over “low pay” and “psychopathic” contract appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The sound that helped define heavy metal is back. Gibson has revived the Tony Iommi Signature Humbucker, the brand’s very first signature pickup from the late 1990s, putting the Black Sabbath legend’s searing tone back within reach.

Few guitarists have left as indelible a mark on heavy music as Tony Iommi. More than just spark a genre, his pioneering riffs with Sabbath set the blueprint for metal that countless bands still chase today.

Originally released in the late ‘90s as Gibson’s first-ever signature pickup, the Tony Iommi Humbucker quickly became a cult favorite. Originals are now scarce, but the new reissue brings it back to the masses – all for the price of $229.

• READ MORE: “I think he really just held out to do that show”: Tony Iommi speaks on Ozzy Osbourne’s death just weeks after Black Sabbath’s final farewell

Inside the pickup lies a unique mix of ceramic and Alnico 2 magnets along with custom windings, delivering all the rumble you need while maintaining crystal clarity. Fully wax-potted and epoxied, the humbucker is built to resist unwanted feedback, while its 4-conductor wiring allows for series, parallel, and split coil operation.

“I’m really excited that Gibson’s bringing back my signature humbucker; they were getting pretty hard to find!” says Iommi. “This pickup came about after a lot of time spent in Nashville, just experimenting with different setups to get that perfect tone and sustain from my favorite guitars.”

“We had to make sure it worked with my light gauge strings and low tunings, but still pack a punch, and the result has got some serious output. They’re on my signature guitars too, and I couldn’t be more pleased with how they turned out.”

Gibson CEO and President Cesar Gueikian adds, “I’d personally installed these on one of my Gibson guitars 15 years ago, and I was blown away with the distinct Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath sound I was able to get out of them. They have such a great, clean look with the unique pickup cover, and we are excited to bring the Riff Lord’s signature humbucker back as we continue to pay tribute to Tony.”

The Tony Iommi Signature Humbucker is available now at the Gibson Pickup Shop.

Learn more at Gibson.

The post The riff lord’s tone lives again: Gibson revives its first signature pickup, the Tony Iommi signature humbucker appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

It takes effort to sound alive – the kind of sweat-broiled effort that’s laced throughout the Beths’ new record, Straight Line Was a Lie. Here, in the New Zealand band’s latest collection of seemingly weightless, effortless power-pop jams, you will find bare-bones honesty, both sonically and thematically, driven by real grit, graft, and intent.

• READ MORE: Meet Boko Yout: Sweden’s most interesting new band who approach guitar chaos with the mindset of a cinematographer

While writing, guitarist-vocalist Liz Stokes pulled apart her process in the face of anxiety, medication and chronic illness, delving into life experiences that had previously been balanced on a shelf by turning to mechanical processes, whether that was clacking out pages on a typewriter, reading books on the craft, or boarding a flight from Auckland to Los Angeles in search of synapse-firing stimulation.

“It was really useful to be making something,” she says. “When I was struggling to make music, it was nice to be pulling something out of my brain and putting stuff in: books and movies and shows to feed the machine. Maybe you can’t get it to spit out what you want it to spit out, but you can hopefully spit out something else.”

Straight Line Was a Lie is home to songs that turn over living in a body that’s out to stymie you – Stokes discovered that she had Graves’ disease, an autoimmune condition that leads to hyperthyroidism – alongside reflections upon the complexity of her relationship with her mother and analysis of the way she navigates the world in comparison to the way she’d actually like to do it.

Every step of the way, these knotty, heavy emotional beats are carried by the sort of daring melodic work that has made the Beths such a unique proposition in indie-rock. But, more so than in the past, there’s also a keen appreciation for woody textures and a spotlight that’s always seeking out moments of chemistry and camaraderie.

While much of the record was made at guitarist-producer Jonathan Pearce’s studio in central Auckland, the band also decamped to the “winterless north” of New Zealand for a retreat that sounds pastoral and restorative. They surfed and hung out. “It was a real cheat code,” Pearce says. “I think getting everyone out of the city and making a record full time, it kind of gives you your twenties back.”

Stokes’ push for candour found a reflective surface in Pearce’s desire to stage a record that felt similarly documentarian. It isn’t an accident that you can hear the air moving as Tristan Deck’s kick drum sparks No Joy – a song about becoming washed out by antidepressants – into life, while Roundabout’s jangle feels like it’s only getting to you after it’s done a lap of the place. “Without wanting to get too intense about it, I do have the belief that these days you have to really work to put the space and the human beings in the recording,” he says.

“Music libraries, let alone AI, are getting so good. If you can’t hear people shuffling around in the room, the specific room that the performance is happening in, then it could be anything. “It could be anywhere. On previous albums, we’ve pursued that power-pop sensation that the music is happening right at the very front of the speaker. There’s nothing behind it, it’s right there in front of you. This one, it felt like there was lots more space. We really went looking for it.”

A core element of the record’s make up is Stokes’ Martin 00-15M, one of two “fancy new guitars” that became go-tos while in the studio, reflecting a greater interest in pensive pieces that play like the title track from 2020’s Jump Rope Gazers with the dream-pop dialled down in favour of something more plainly spoken. “I had always hated playing acoustic guitar because it was really hard,” she says with a laugh. “You have to be very clean and you can hear your fingers, which is a pro and a con, right? You can really hear the humanity in it.”

The other fancy new guitar was made for Stokes by Elliott Trent, the Poole-based luthier who’s also assembled instruments for Wet Leg’s Hester Chambers and California folkie Madison Cunningham. He contacted Stokes through the Beths’ Discord and was, initially, filed away as probable spam. “No one’s out here offering free guitars,” Stokes says. “That’s crazy. But Jon was like, ‘I think you should talk to him, he’s trying to help us.’”

Stokes eventually went with Trent’s M2 model, which arrived with two sets of pickups – mini humbuckers and hand-wound P90s. The original plan was to run with one of each, mirroring the G&L Fallout that had underpinned earlier Beths records, but both humbuckers are still in place. “They just sounded so good,” she says. “He makes all the hardware,” Pearce adds. “He’s not just finishing a body and sticking parts on it. He’s doing beautiful work.”

Pearce’s ‘78 Goldtop Les Paul Deluxe, meanwhile, continues to be foundational to his sound, which, as always, veers from nimble leads to sparky, fuzz-corrupted soloing. “It just shits on other guitars,” he says. “But I did get a Burns Double Six, a ‘60s one, and it slays. It’s got the Tri-Sonic pickups. It was in really rough shape, covered in mould and with a hugely bent neck. The guy who sold it to me said, ‘I think my brother played it in his punk band in the 1980s.’ That is a ridiculous story, right? What kind of punk band plays a 12 string from the 1960s? That is a band that I wish I could hear.”

The task of bringing it back from the brink fell to David Parker, whom Pearce describes as “the genius who sets up all our guitars here in New Zealand.” Parker had to get creative given the state of the Double Six and some of the more esoteric aspects of its engineering, including making his own key to adjust a truss rod that had been assumed to be pushing up daisies. “I completely stripped it down, cleaned it, and then I sent it to David,” Pearce continues. “Somehow, the truss rod was still working, it was just all the way backed off. He could straighten the neck over time. He made a new bridge for it, and it’s awesome. It’s all over Metal and Till My Heart Stops and has inspired a lot of parts.”

Next up, in the spirit of keeping things transparent, Stokes picks five records that speak to her as being particularly honest. They come from her peers in New Zealand’s indie scene and generational writers who have shaped the tastes of millions of listeners, but she was struck by one detail in making her selections. “I feel like in trying to assess other people for their authenticity or something, it makes you look for a brain that’s similar to yours,” she says. “I’ve been like, ‘Well, maybe when people are singing about being happy, they are just lying because obviously everybody is a ball of anxiety.’ I just can’t relate to that.”

The Goon Sax – We’re Not Talking (2018)

“I guess you can hear that the songwriting feels very earnest, and it’s extremely early twenties. It’s like being inside the brain of somebody that age. I feel like I thought half those thoughts and felt all those feelings. Hearing them stated so plainly, that would be a really scary thing to do. It feels like a very brave album to put out there.”

Pickle Darling – Bigness (2019)

“They’re an artist from New Zealand. All of their albums are great but Bigness is the first one I heard from them. It has extremely bedroomy, home recording vibes. It’s very lo-fi but I find Lukas [Mayo] always plays really interesting little guitar parts – the melodies really flow over each other in a way that I find really addictive. The lyrics feel a little bit stream of consciousness and the way that they string ideas together is a little bit collagey, I think. All these little thoughts feel very real, and they feel very unstudied because of that.”

Hans Pucket – No Drama (2022)

“This is a friend’s band from New Zealand. Oliver Devlin is the main songwriter. I fell in love with their first EP Jalapeño when I heard it on Bandcamp, and I was like, ‘Who is this? They’re from Wellington? Dammit!’ I’ve put down No Drama, which is their most recent album. They have a song called Kiss The Moon, which I’ve talked to Ollie about. I think it’s very brave to write about domesticity, that’s something that feels very honest. And because it’s more specific and less generic, it hits home very closely. It’s like being inside of a relationship in a very real way.”

Rilo Kiley – The Execution of All Things (2002)

“Jenny Lewis is one of my all time favourite songwriters and musicians. She’s been so influential on an entire generation of millennial women, and younger. The best example on that album is A Better Son/Daughter, which I think is this iconic song. It’s so raw, and it’s extremely honest. Anything that is dealing with the relationship with your parents feels like hallowed ground. We saw them play at Just Like Heaven and I was bawling the entire time. Hearing everybody screaming, ‘Sometimes when you’re on, you’re really fucking on,’ was really great.”

Tiny Ruins – Ceremony (2023)

“It’s a beautiful record all the way through. It’s a slow burn. You keep coming back to it because there’s something about it – the feeling of it just pulls you in. It’s quite a quiet record. Hollie [Fullbrook] has a real way with words and melodies. It can feel cryptic, or like it says not a lot, but it creates a whole world. There’s a lyric that I really like from a song called Earthly Things. The line is just, ‘The weather’s been so wild this week.’ It’s a thing that you would say, put in a really beautiful song.”

The Beths’ Straight Line Was A Lie is out on August 29 through Anti-.

The post The Beths Pick Their Five Most Honest Guitar Records Of All Time appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The Police frontman Sting is reportedly being sued by his former bandmates, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland, over lost royalties from their biggest hit, Every Breath You Take.

The news is being reported by The Sun, while People has found documents relating to the suit in the London High Court’s database, pertaining to “general commercial contracts and arrangements”.

• READ MORE: “It’s happened before, people thought it was a patriotic ditty to wave the flag”: John Fogerty explains why Trump has misunderstood Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Fortunate Son

According to a source, per The Sun, Summers and Copeland are claiming “substantial damages”, saying “they are owed millions in lost royalties”.

The dispute has been ongoing for some time, according to the source. “Lawyers tried repeatedly to reach an out-of-court settlement but hit a stalemate,” they say. “Andy and Stewart decided there was no alternative than court, so [they] pressed the button.”

Sting is named as a defendant in the suit under his real name Gordon Matthew Sumner, as well as his publishing firm, Magnetic Publishing Limited.

According to the Daily Mail, Sting earns around £550,000 per year in royalties from Every Breath You Take alone. And per Guitar World, PRS For Music records state Sting is the sole composer and author of the song.

Formed in 1977, The Police later split in 1984 – before reuniting several times in later years – having sold over 75 million records worldwide. Every Breath You Take is by far their biggest hit, and was the best-selling single of 1983, and fifth best-selling single of the ‘80s overall.

Andy Summers hinted at legal action against Sting back in 2023 over royalties for Every Breath You Take, saying of his contributions to the track: “That song was going in the trash until I played on it.” He later said, apparently of forthcoming legal action: “Watch the press. Let’s see what happens in the next year.”

Also in 2023, Summers admitted he found Every Breath You Take corny at first, saying it felt “a million miles from The Police”.

The post “They are owed millions”: Sting sued by Police bandmates Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland over lost Every Breath You Take royalties appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

US president Donald Trump has ruffled the feathers of a growing list of artists for using their music at his political rallies and within campaign videos, with many taking legal action – John Fogerty is one of them.

Trump has previously used Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Fortunate Son to soundtrack his rallies, causing the band’s guitarist and prime songwriter to issue a cease and desist order to put a stop to its use. Fogerty has no idea why anyone would want to use the track at a political rally, but especially Mr. Trump.

• READ MORE: John Fogerty says this thing is more important to musical success than being a good guitar player: “Even if your playing is kind of average, you can go far”

Back when Fogerty issued the cease and desist, he wrote a statement and explained that the song exists because “as a veteran, I was disgusted that some people were allowed to be excluded from serving our country because they had access to political and financial privilege”. You can read his original post below:

pic.twitter.com/XFCwiOadr2

— John Fogerty (@John_Fogerty) October 16, 2020

Now, in an interview with Vulture, Fogerty selects the track as the most misunderstood song from his catalogue. He explains, “That’s misunderstood by a small percentage of people – people who seem to be conservative, right-wing, and probably Republican or some other ‘ism’ in that category, and most notably by Mr Trump.

“It’s happened before where people thought it was a patriotic ditty to wave the flag and all that, not really understanding the cynicism and absolute defiance I had in the song. I mean, even if you don’t hear the rest of it, you should at least hear, ‘It ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate son’. But if you don’t, then I guess you’re able to see the song in a different way.”

He adds, “How can I say this? I can’t imagine using that song as a political rallying theme, particularly when you seem to be the person who I’m screaming about in the song on all three counts. It’s hilarious to me. Maybe I’m the one that misunderstands it, who knows?”

John Fogerty released Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years on 22 August, featuring re-recorded versions of the band’s classics. You can find out more via his website.

The post “It’s happened before, people thought it was a patriotic ditty to wave the flag”: John Fogerty explains why Trump has misunderstood Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Fortunate Son appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Norman Harris of Norman’s Rare Guitars has shared the “biggest mistake” he’s made during his career – turning down an offer to buy George Harrison’s Gretsch Country Gentleman.

Harris’ legendary vintage guitar business has become the subject of a documentary, which is streaming on Netflix in the US. The documentary dives into the world famous reputation of the business, and features interviews with artists who treasure the shop including avid collector Joe Bonamassa, and even the late Taylor Hawkins.

• READ MORE: “We’ve just written this one but we’re not sure about it…” How The Beatles turned to the Shadows legend Hank Marvin for advice about an iconic song

In a new interview with The Guardian, in which Harris himself reflects on the shop’s humble beginnings and its legacy, he explains how the surprising visit from The Beatles guitarist sent his career “stratospheric”.

Back in 1973, he received a phone call from a friend. “He said he was with someone who needed a Les Paul,” he says. “But he wouldn’t tell me who it was. I went over to meet them and it was just my friend there. I said: ‘You made me ride all the way down here? You made it sound so important.’ And then in walked George Harrison with Mal Evans [The Beatles’ former road manager].”

At the time, Harrison was looking for a replacement for Lucy, a one-of-a-kind 1957 Goldtop Les Paul, refinished in red, that had been stolen earlier in the year. The guitar was given to Harrison by Eric Clapton, and had been used on The Beatles’ While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

After it was stolen, it was sold to a musician in LA. Harrison managed to track it down, but the new owner argued that he had “purchased Lucy in good faith”. He gave Harrison an offer: he would hand over Lucy if Harrison could get him another 1950s Les Paul and a Fender Precision bass in exchange.

As The Guardian reports, a mutual friend became involved who knew that Harris had three 1950s Les Pauls. When Harrison visited, he purchased two 1958 Les Paul Standards – one for the trade, one for himself.

“We actually spent the day together. I then went to this place he was renting in the Hollywood Hills. Ravi Shankar, the Indian sitarist, was there. To me, The Beatles were bigger than the pope or the president or whoever. I just kept looking at him – I couldn’t believe it was happening,” recalls Harris.

Also during his visit, Harrison offered Harris his Gretsch Country Gentleman, used in his Beatles days. Harrison owned two Gents, and one of them was reportedly smashed to bits in 1965 after it fell out the back of a car (though this has been disputed).

Harris regretfully passed on the offer, which he says is “the biggest mistake he ever made”: “I’m not a huge Gretsch fan, and more importantly, I didn’t think anybody would ever believe that I’d spent the day with George and bought his Beatles guitar,” he explains.

Find out more about the Norman’s Rare Guitars documentary, or head over to the shop’s website to dig into its history or view its current product lineup.

The post Legendary guitar dealer reveals his “biggest mistake” – turning down George Harrison’s offer to trade in his Beatles Gretsch Country Gentleman appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Though for decades one of the world’s top guitar amp brands – it still is, of course – recent years have seen Marshall foray further into the world of consumer audio, with products like headphones and bluetooth speakers becoming a staple of its product lineup.

Now, the company is once again pushing into new territory, as it unveils its first-ever “party speaker”, the Bromley 750.

• READ MORE: Marshall sells majority stake to China’s HSG for €1.1 billion

Perhaps the unit’s most intriguing feature isn’t its sound at all, but rather the integration of “stage lighting” on its front panel, which is sure to set the Bromley 750 apart from other similar standalone or party speakers.

These lights have three presets: the first creates an ambient feel in the room, while the second and third “gradually up the energy” by syncing with the music being played through the speaker.

“Inspired by stage lighting, we’ve incorporated lights in a new way, enhancing  the atmosphere and elevating the entire experience” says Ella Renneus, Senior Manager Design at  Marshall Group.

But how do the Bromley 750’s other specs measure up? The unit is housed in a tactile, premium enclosure, with a brushed metal control panel, water-based PU leather wrap and stamped metal grill. Oh, and it also has an IP54 rating, meaning it’s safe from dirt and rain, if your party is subjected to such elements.

Elsewhere, the Bromley 750 features 360° True Stereophonic sound, with an integrated Sound Character control which can be adjusted to fit the mood or setting.

It also sports 40+ hours of unplugged play time courtesy of its onboard battery – which gets charged when plugged in using an AC cable. There’s also a backup battery, meaning you can vastly extend your unplugged play time.

The Bromley 750 also features a host of inputs so you can connect mics, instruments, and even turntables – everything you need for a good party.

The Bromley 750 weighs 23.9kg and measures 652 x 413 x 355 mm, so you’ll also be pleased to know its fitted with a set of wheels for lugging it around an airport, the sidewalk, or, well, anywhere.

“When we first considered entering the party speaker category, we saw an opportunity to bring something different to a uniform market. By staying true to our identity and what we are great at – prioritising iconic design and superior acoustics – we’ve created a standout product that brings something fresh to an otherwise homogenous category,” says Hanna Wallner, Product Manager at Marshall Group.

“We designed Bromley 750 to be something you want to keep out and show off – a speaker that becomes part of your home and interior. The design is rooted in our heritage, with ‘party’ at its core. It’s bold and straightforward, with every material chosen for a reason – to both look good and withstand countless parties to come,” adds Ella Renneus.

The Bromley 750 will be available from 23 September for £899.99. For more info, head to Marshall.

The post Marshall launches the Bromley 750 – its first-ever “party speaker” complete with integrated stage lights appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Fender’s approach to being a guitar company includes having a Fender-branded thing in nearly every stage of the musical creation process. You know, patch cables, pedal power supplies, wireless systems, clocks that look like amplifiers – the essentials. In support of this goal, and following on from the 2021 acquisition of PreSonus, Fender now offers its own DAW – Fender Studio. It’s a barebones, beginner-friendly program that’s available on any platform you like, all for the low, low price of zero dollars. But is it any good?

• READ MORE: Walrus Audio Mako Series MkII ACS1 review: “this is as good as digital amp and cab simulators get”

What is Fender Studio?

The fact that it’s a free app that supports mobile platforms ties into Fender Studio’s generally beginner-friendly approach. On top of this, the central selling points are a range of Fender-designed guitar amp sims and effects, and a library of pre-mixed jam tracks you’re free to use in your social media content, or play around with to learn the basics of a DAW.

Being made by many of the same team, there’s a lot of crossover with PreSonus’ Studio One’s UI and feel. There is also a native way to export full projects straight from Fender Studio into .DAWproject files, a relatively new open-source format that’s currently supported by a handful of paid DAWs, including Studio One.

What can’t Fender Studio do?

On the surface, Fender Studio seems like an answer to an entry-level (but relatively fully-featured) DAW like GarageBand. In reality, it is even more stripped-back as a proposition – the term DAW suggests MIDI, software instruments and support for third-party plugins, but as of June 2025, Fender Studio doesn’t have any of those. It also only supports a total of 16 audio tracks, which won’t be enough for complex ‘full song’ mixes. It is perhaps more useful to think of it as an elevated voice notes app, and indeed that’s how Fender pitches it – there’s a reason that one of the four options presented upon launch is a big red button that instantly starts recording.

It’s a reasonable approach in theory as, realistically, most beginner guitarists don’t need to get their head around four different Hammond organ VSTs before they start sharing their riffs on Instagram. The pitch is that there’s less of that extraneous stuff but more guitar-friendly features built right in, namely that aforementioned library of amps and effects.

In use

But before I get to the guitar sounds on offer, I have to contend with Fender Studio’s UI design. The good news is that there are a lot of elements that are pretty self-explanatory. While I obviously can’t completely Eternal Sunshine my general DAW experience to gauge just how intuitive things really are for beginners, many other visual elements of the program are minimalistic enough to be easy to figure out with a quick bit of experimentation.

With that said, there are a few things I want to call attention to as more than a little obtuse. One thing I have trouble with when I dive in is working out how to pan a track left or right – having not used Studio One before, I’m unaware that the little blue handle below the mute and solo buttons is called the “panner” – so I lose a quarter of an hour fruitlessly searching for a knob somewhere, anywhere, that matches the style of the delay and reverb controls.

Having failed to find any way to pan, I search the manual. Searching for “pan” and “panning” doesn’t return any results, and for a moment I ponder if panning has been excluded on purpose. However to find info on the “panner” within the manual you need to type in “panner” explicitly, introducing the fun extra challenge of convincing your autocorrect that you’re not looking through the Fender Studio manual for a hard cheese common in South Asian cooking.

In some ways this shared design language is understandable. But regardless of whether I’m familiar with Studio One, I’d wager that Fender Studio’s target audience of DAW-inexperienced recording beginners aren’t going to intuit things like this. I cannot for the life of me think why this isn’t a big, obvious knob labelled “L/R” or “pan”. It’s also a pretty fiddly control on both desktop and mobile, and has no way to double-click or tap to type in a specific value.

A shortcut to nowhere

Given that the express goal of the software is to get you recording as quickly as possible, it’s not ideal that my next issue crops up as I go to start actually recording. Hitting the ‘R’ key doesn’t, as I am used to from some other DAWs, start rolling. Instead it just toggles whether the selected track is armed to record. That’s fine, but I’m used to ‘R’ as the record key, so I head into the settings menu to change the shortcut…

…and am surprised to find that the settings menu doesn’t really exist, beyond some basic layout tweaks and the audio setup. There’s no way to remap the keyboard shortcuts. This is less than ideal, as the default key to start recording is ‘*’ on the numpad, a key that does not exist on my laptop. So I’m stuck clicking on the record button with my mouse.

This may not sound like a big deal, but dexterity is at a premium in the case of a DAW that’s meant to be used while also holding a guitar. Maybe this is the result of the platform-agnostic, beginner-friendly approach, but changing keyboard shortcuts is hardly power-user hacking. There are a couple of other incompatibilities with the default layout, too – the backspace key does nothing on Mac, for instance. You need to press fn+backspace to delete a region, which turns it into a two-handed operation – again, not ideal when you’re also trying to keep a guitar neck from knocking your coffee over.

Exporting woes

I have one more gripe on the design side of things. Having recorded some stuff I press cmd+S to save my project, and nothing happens. I go to the top window to see where the ‘file>save’ menu is, but it isn’t anywhere, because it doesn’t exist. So where’s my project file being saved? It turns out Fender Studio is autosaving all the time (fine) to a deep system folder (less fine). There is no native way to save full projects to a location of your choosing.

The on-board export function either bounces out audio, or bundles the whole project into a .DAWproject file – but there’s no import function for .DAWproject files. Exporting is a one-way street to the DAWs that currently support the format. As of 2025, that’s Bitwig, Cubase and (all together now) Studio One. To move your project between devices but keep it in Fender Studio, you have to root into Fender Studio’s app folder and bundle up the full project yourself. Not exactly intuitive, and obviously a bit trickier on mobile.

I can only speak to the Android experience; however Apple isn’t particularly forthcoming with users’ deeper app folders, so best of luck to the iPhone users. It takes me some time to find where Fender Studio is saving its projects on my phone’s disk, and once I do, I have to use my phone’s file system UI to zip it and send it to my desktop.

Fender Studio has been explicitly designed for desktop and mobile. Surely the process of moving projects between platforms – and not just exporting out to a ‘full’ DAW – should be built right into it? The mobile app uses the OS share functionality for seamless exporting to a cloud service, or anything that can be shared to – DMs and socials included. So it’s a shame that it’s such a complex operation to move the actual Fender Studio project about.

The sounds

Yes, the UI and UX whinges are finally over. It’s time to talk sounds. Fender Studio’s cabinet of virtual guitar gear includes an overdrive, a fuzz, a chorus, a tremolo, a mono delay, a stereo delay, a hall reverb and a room reverb. The four amps are a ‘59 Bassman, a ‘65 Twin Reverb, a Bassbreaker combo and a Super Sonic. That’s it for the guitar effects block – but you can also load up a separate set of effects for bass and vocals. The bass module keeps the ‘59 Bassman and the majority of the effects, but also adds a bass-specific overdrive, a compressor and a flanger, plus three more bass amp models. There’s a set of vocal effects too, including a de-tuner, a ‘transformer’, a ring mod and a vocoder.

The tonal fidelity on display here is pretty damn good. The effects and amps have been ported over from the GTX series, so despite the superficial resemblance to the Tone Master Pro’s UI, these models aren’t quite as powerful. However, they still do offer some more in-depth controls for further sonic tweaking, such as tube bias and sag.

There’s a lack of touch-responsiveness that means they’re not going to ever make you question owning a real tube amp – but the tones are absolutely release-worthy for the kinds of things you’re going to use a free DAW for. The preset library is pretty broad, too, and demonstrates some creative combinations of effects to hopefully spark some inspiration.

In a very Fender way, the focus remains on the clean and mid-gain sounds, with the occasional preset for blown-out vintage fuzz or indie wobble. I do want to note the rather odd omission of anything geared towards modern metal – the gainiest amp is the Bassbreaker, which has quite a loose, old-school-Marshall voice. Getting a tight, chuggy modern metal sound is all but impossible with the virtual gear here. Given Fender Studio’s self-proclaimed beginner focus, and the current glut of modern heavy bands with huge, young fanbases, this is a bit of a headscratcher. Maybe in a future update…

In a jam

To give the guitar sounds a test within a context, I open one of the jam tracks – these are multi-track recordings that, as well as providing a bed for some noodling, let you experiment with muting/unmuting elements, adding effects to different tracks and doing some rudimentary mixing. Most of them have bass and drums, and then a few rhythm guitar tracks or synth parts depending on the genre of choice.

The quality of the tracks themselves is fine – they’re generic by design, providing a bland musical slate on top of which you can add your own playing. The EULA for these tracks stipulates not to actually release them as full tracks onto, say, Spotify – but you can still jam over them on social media. Fender Studio can also natively time and pitch-stretch the tracks to bring them to your key and tempo of choice, which is a very neat feature. However, since the tracks aren’t software instruments, things can sound a little artefacted the further you stray from the original key/tempo.

Running into limitations

The main issue with having no software instruments, however, is that it’s actually pretty hard to write using Fender Studio. You’re stuck with the deliberately generic parts in the jam tracks – unlike a DAW with even a rudimentary drum sampler, it’s not really capable of letting you actually create a ‘full song’ in the box.

If you’re a bedroom guitarist and you want to write a full song with an original drum pattern, you’re going to need a way to make your own beats in an audio format and then import them in – a hardware drum machine, access to a drummer who can record their own parts, extremely convincing beatboxing skills, that sort of thing. This is a far cry from GarageBand’s auto-drummer, which can instantly provide fairly alright drum parts in-the-box that will at least get you started, and can be edited.

This is a good time to remind ourselves of what Fender Studio ultimately is. When considering it as an elevated voice-memo app, the ‘full DAW’ editing features that like panning, mixing, compression, EQ, reverb and so on do seem a little overwrought – what’s the point of EQing a guitar to sit in a full mix if the software doesn’t have an easy way to create a full mix?

The answer to that is to practice using a ‘full’ DAW without the time and financial investment. Which is ultimately a pretty good thing to exist – a good baseline understanding of DAWs is a pretty good skill for a guitarist, given the prevalence of self-recording in 2025. Fender Studio lets you frog-in-the-water your DAW experience from the very beginning of your playing journey, a good alternative to having to learn a more in-depth program after years of just using a voice notes app.

Final thoughts

So overall, I do really respect the goals of Fender Studio, and I can only knock a free piece of software so much. However, my time with the version of the app as of June 2025 was still a bit of a mixed bag. It really feels like a baseline version of the software at the moment, with things like a more diverse amp lineup and some rudimentary software instruments being potential inclusions in future updates.

Right now, there’s a good bit of fun to be had with the jam tracks and the creative tones – and given that it’s free, I do encourage you to check it out, especially if you’ve not had to get your head around a ‘real’ DAW before. And if Fender Studio doesn’t seem up your street at the moment, as well as noting the obvious alternatives here of BandLab and GarageBand, I’d also like to say that it may well look very different in a year – maybe come back and check out what’s been added in a spell.

The post Fender Studio review: a barebones DAW with promise – and teething problems appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

First introduced in 1961 – initially as the Les Paul SG – the Gibson SG has since been adopted by guitarists across a wide range of rock subgenres, notably including AC/DC’s Angus Young, Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi and more recently, Jake Kiszka of Greta Van Fleet and Mirador.

So besides its rockier looks courtesy of its double-horn body design, what exactly sets the SG apart from other classic Gibson models like the Les Paul, Explorer or Firebird?

• READ MORE: Greta Van Fleet guitarist Jake Kiszka says his bandmates are “very critical of guitar things” and have rejected some of his best riffs for the band

According to Jake Kiszka, it’s that its design allows the player to feel “every nuance” of the notes they play.

Asked what a good SG should be in the latest issue of Guitarist magazine, Kiszka explains: “The early ‘60s ones – which were [branded] Les Pauls at first – with the thinner neck are highly microphonic.

“If you tap anywhere on the body and it’s making that sound, it’s just very thin lacquer. Mine’s basically been sanded off [by playwear] entirely.

“So the thing about an SG that differentiates it from other Gibson guitars is that it’s really microphonic, and you can feel every nuance of the guitar.”

Kiszka explains that this nuance is “highly important” to him as he likes to play guitar as if it’s a “full-body thing”.

“I really like to play with my body,” he continues, “and even pulling the neck slightly back and moving things and tapping on it. It’s responding in more than just one way. It’s not just the strings and the connection between that and the pickup.”

While Greta Van Fleet’s sound has been compared extensively to that of Led Zeppelin, Ghost frontman Tobias Forge recently leapt to their defence, urging fans to embrace GVF as the modern-day flag-bearers of rock music.

“I don’t wanna hear anything about Greta Van Fleet now, because I think that their intentions are true,” he insisted. “They just happened to sound like someone else, but that’s not their fault! So, stop it.”

The post “You can feel every nuance of the guitar”: Jake Kiszka on what sets SGs apart from other Gibson guitars appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Frank Zappa once gave a rather huge compliment to a young and budding guitarist, who went on to become a guitar legend in his own right – Steve Vai.

According to Vai, who played in Zappa’s band for a brutal stint during the 1980s, the late musician usually refrained from commenting on other artists and their skills, so his one-off compliment took him by surprise.

• READ MORE: “I always described it as the battle between the chicken and the spider. It’s not a comfortable way to play”: Dweezil Zappa on his father’s strange guitar playing style

Speaking to the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan on his Magnificent Others podcast (via Ultimate Guitar), Vai says, “There was only one time he ever commented on my future, and I’m reluctant to mention it… We were in the studio, just him and me. We’re playing Sleep Dirt. It’s just two guitars, it’s an arpeggio, and I was brand new.

“Frank would look for special things in a musician; something that they could do that’s kind of quirky, interesting. He would find something. The great thing about Frank was, he had this intuitive ability to recognise your potential even better than you did. And then, he would pull it out of you, and use it as a colour in his palette. That’s why all of his records sound so different. And for me, I was into the weird abilities [needed] to play these hard melodies.”

He goes on to recall that very jam session with Zappa, sharing, “I remember just stopping, because I was stunned. He started playing rhythm, and I was starting to solo. And just some months before that, I was in my bedroom in Long Island, listening to his records. I had a moment of, ‘What’s going on?’ It was almost like an existential crisis or something…

“He goes, ‘You okay?’ I said, ‘Frank, I don’t know what I’m doing here. How did I get here?’ And he said, ‘Well, how many Tommy Marses [Zappa’s keyboard player], are there?’” Zappa went on to list further examples, including his drummer Vinny Colaiutas, before asking, “‘Well, how many Steve Vais do you think there are?’

“I didn’t understand that, because I didn’t see myself as anything special whatsoever. I thought about it, and then he said, ‘I think you’re a genius in ways that have yet to be discovered.’ And I just thought he was being nice,” says Vai. “I think he saw my potential to do something obscure. But everybody is a genius when they find what they love and they throw themselves into it without any excuses.”

You can check out the full podcast below:

The post The guitar legend that Frank Zappa claimed was “a genius in ways that have yet to be discovered” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Session guitarist Brent Mason believes there are two core things that players should master in order to make it as a successful session player.

Mason is one of the most recorded guitarists in history, and has played guitar on over 1000 records. Having been discovered by Chet Atkins, who invited him to play on his Stay Tuned album, Mason is certainly the kind of guitarist worth taking advice from.

• READ MORE: “I realised if the drums and the bass are not right, even if my guitar is right, it’s gonna suck!”: Mateus Asato on the difference between session work and making his own album

Though not the most exciting or glamorous elements of playing guitar, Mason believes that timing and dynamics matter most if you want to become an esteemed session player. He tells Guitarist, “When I first started doing sessions in Nashville, you needed to have a great sense of timing.

“I remember a lot of times, I was working up things and didn’t have a metronome – and we all hate metronomes [laughs]. It’s just clicks that are uninspiring. But now, you can set up in your hotel room and practise, so it’s about timing.”

He adds, “When I first started doing sessions, I found out that I was speeding up a little bit, and guys would go, ‘Hey, you’re on top of the beat, man.’ I always heard that and now I know that it’s about timing and dynamics. Those two things, timing and dynamics, without even bringing up melody or notes, it’s about those things.”

Asked about common pitfalls that session players usually come up against, he replies, “You gotta watch out when you go in there. Studio musicians like to play a song, jam and get loosened up to check and see if everything is clicking. But sometimes you can play too much.

“You’ve really gotta listen to the vocalist and mark down on your chart where the fields go, make sure you’re off the vocal point and make sure you understand what the artist wants.”

To find out more about Mason – including his gear, virtual lessons, and his history as a player – head over to the Brent Mason website.

The post Veteran Nashville session guitarist on the “two things” that are most important in the studio – and neither are the melody or notes appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Producer Andrew Watt has worked with a growing list of legends, and even managed to get Paul McCartney to play on The Rolling Stones’ latest record.

Watt – who has also worked with Elton John, Lady Gaga, Ozzy Osbourne, and more – landed his production gig on the Stones’ 2023 album Hackney Diamonds thanks to McCartney, who recommended him to Ronnie Wood.

• READ MORE: “We’ve just written this one but we’re not sure about it…” How The Beatles turned to the Shadows legend Hank Marvin for advice about an iconic song

Watt and McCartney had bonded over tea following his Producer Of The Year Grammy Win in 2021. The pair also jammed together, and Watt picked his brains over his favourite Beatles song, Blackbird. Speaking to Mojo for its latest print issue, Watt says of their bond, “Paul McCartney got me the gig for The Rolling Stones! I mean, that sounds like a fake-ass dream.”

As sessions began for the record, Watt ended up playing bass on a number of tracks as well as co-writing three: Angry, Get Close, and Depending On You. Of his bass contributions, he explains, “It’s not me pushing in and just inserting myself. Sometimes there wasn’t a bass player present.”

Though former Stones bassist Bill Wyman famously made a return to contribute to the record, Watt also enlisted some external contributors, including Gaga and his good friend Macca, who played bass on the track Bite My Head Off.

“He got to just be the bass player in the band, and he fucking loved it,” shares Watt. “As I was walking Paul out of the studio, he said, ‘I just fucking played bass in The Rolling Stones, and I’m a fucking Beatle!’”

Listen to the track below:

Last year, Watt explained how he manages to work with so many of his heroes: “Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Elton John, Eddie Vedder – they’re fully capable of producing an album by themselves,” he told Variety. “They understand song structure, mix, a good snare drum sound, they’ve done this forever. So none of them need a producer – but they are choosing to hire a producer.”

On how he’s managed to attain such an impressive list of collaborators, he added: “Just ask. When I asked Paul McCartney to play bass on a Rolling Stones song: silence for 10 seconds, then ‘Yeah, I’d love to.’ Just ask the question! The worst that can happen is no.”

The post “He got to just be the bass player in the band, and he f**king loved it”: Why Paul McCartney loved playing bass on The Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds album appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Do vintage guitars always sound and feel objectively better than their affordable counterparts? Not necessarily, as many high-profile guitarists have discovered.

Back in 2021, Mike Rutherford revealed he was using a $200 Squier Bullet Tele while playing live with Genesis, saying: “I just love it. It’s got a life to it.” Naturally, a band of Genesis’s calibre would have been able to get their hands on pretty much any instrument they desired, so Rutherford’s evangelism of his affordable Squier was even more potent.

• READ MORE: Why Harley Benton’s new DNAFX AmP20 is the “perfect practice amp”

Now, former Steely Dan guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter has voiced his love of cheap guitars, reflecting on the time he spent $140 on a Squier Telecaster which he thought sounded better than its ‘58 vintage counterpart.

In a new interview with Guitar World, he recalls the Squier Tele being the most recent guitar he bought for himself.

“I buy a lot of guitars for veterans’ charities and stuff like that,” he explains. “But let’s see… the last guitar I bought for myself, I think, was a Squier Telecaster that has a Jazzmaster pickup installed for rhythm. It’s a great guitar. I bought it just for the hell of it.”

He continues: “I saw it and thought, ‘Wow, a Jazzmaster pickup,’ and it was put in at the factory. I played it and really loved it, so I told the guy at Guitar Center, ‘Pull down that ‘58 Telecaster you have up there,’ which cost about a bazillion dollars, and I spent about an hour setting up the [Squier] guitar.

“They had a guitar repair guy there, and I asked if I could use his tools and set up the guitar myself. And very quickly, I compared the two, and the $140 Squier Telecaster, to me, sounded better, so I bought it. I said, ‘Yep, gonna have one of these,’ so I think that’s the last guitar I bought.”

You might think $140 is a solid deal on a guitar in any case, but Baxter also notes how he recorded his parts for Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff on a $35 six-string.

“In terms of value for money, that would be a Burns Baby Bison guitar that I bought for 35 bucks. I ended up using it on the Donna Summer album and also started playing it in the studio as well as playing it live. It was a hell of a deal.”

Vintage guitar collecting tends to be a rich person’s game, with many instruments commanding thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands. So the availability of far cheaper budget versions of these guitars – which sound and feel high-quality for their price point – means more guitarists are discovering they don’t need to spend loads to get a solid instrument.

And even vintage guitar enthusiasts often emphasise that there’s no need to shell out more money than you can afford to get a great guitar setup.

Recently, blues maestro Joe Bonamassa – a big-time vintage gear collector – said guitarists don’t need to spend loads on an amp to get a great sound.

“You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get a great sound, and it doesn’t have to be overly complex,” he said.

The post “I compared the two, and the $140 Squier Telecaster, to me, sounded better”: Jeff “Skunk” Baxter on the time he chose a budget Squier over its ’58 vintage counterpart – which cost “about a bazillion dollars” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Before the Beatles came along and forever shifted the cultural landscape later in the decade, The Shadows were one of the most influential and important British bands of the 60s – certainly the most important instrumental group.

Hank Marvin’s guitar playing was hugely impactful on a whole generation of guitarists that came after him. Everyone from Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck to Brian May and Tony Iommi has heralded the influence of Britain’s original Strat-slinger.

• READ MORE: The Gear Used by Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti

Another band that felt Hank’s influence and acknowledged his impact were The Beatles themselves, and in particular guitarist George Harrison. The band celebrated the Shads in all manner of overt musical ways.

Cry for a Shadow which was recorded in June 1961 by a pre-fame Beatles, was the fab four’s tribute to the British instrumental masters, though the track didn’t see the light of day until it was released as a single in 1964.

The Beatles’ early live performances during their stints in Hamburg included a cover of The Shadows most iconic track, Apache in their setlist. Even The Beatles’ own Here, There and Everywhere was initially offered to The Shadows by Paul McCartney before the band decided to keep it for themselves. Marvin would later record an instrumental version of the song for 2007 album, Guitar Man.

Stand Up Advice

But The Beatles also sought help from the Shadows on occasion. Paul McCartney and John Lennon were known to have turned to Marvin and Shadows rhythm guitarist Bruce Welch for guidance. One particular piece of advice that the fab four took onboard was in regards to The Beatles live concert gear set-up.

“In 1962, Brian Epstein [Beatles manager] had brought Paul and John to our show at the Liverpool Empire,” explains Hank Marvin today. “They’d just come from playing in the Star Club in Hamburg which was a very pub, sort of rough atmosphere. And Brian told them, ‘I want you to see how a real professional band looks on stage and how they present themselves to an audience’.

“We had our Vox guitar amplifiers on stands, and the reason was that having the amplifiers off the floor, we could hear them a bit better. Because when you had them on the floor, a lot of those theatres, because they had a wooden stage with a cellar underneath, it would emphasize the bottom end of the amp. So, by lifting it up, it made the amp sound much clearer. And also, obviously we could hear it better as it’s pointing more up towards our hearing. And they saw that and they too went out and got the same things from Vox, from Jennings Musical Instruments who were the Vox makers at the time, and also placed them on stands.”

From Me To You

A year later after having returned from a Shadows tour abroad, both Marvin and Welch went to see The Beatles perform a concert in London. After the show, the pair paid McCartney and Lennon a visit backstage before all headed out to a party together.

“We’d just come back from a tour in South Africa and saw that their second single release, Please Please Me (1963) was number two in the charts,” recalls Marvin. “We thought it was a brilliant record. And we saw that they were on tour with a guy called Chris Montez, who at that point had the current number one single in the UK. Tommy Roe was second on the bill and The Beatles were third. So, we thought, ‘let’s go and see these guys.’ We went along and the place was half empty, and at that point, no one was screaming.

“The Beatles were very raw, but there was a lot of energy in the way they played and the way they sang. And they were also fooling around a bit on stage. So, we went backstage to see them, and went up the stairs and John [Lennon] was standing and leaning against the drawer of the dressing room, wearing his black glasses because he was shortsighted like me. As soon as he saw me, he whipped them off and put them in his pocket.

“After that, all of us went back to Bruce’s [Welch] house that same night, and we got the guitars out, and we’re all playing rock and roll songs and everything. I have to say, the songs that they played were a few of their own songs; one they’d written for Billy J. Kramer, Do You Want to Know a Secret and From Me to You, which was the follow up single to Please Please Me. Then they turned to us and said, ‘Oh we’ve just written this one but we’re not sure about it. Do you think it’s too long? We think verse is too long’. And that song was, She Loves You! And we listened to it and said, ‘Nah, it sounds great and the chorus is brilliant’.

Fast forward a couple years to 1965 and Marvin and George Harrison end up crossing paths again, but this time it was the Beatle himself offering up some friendly advice to The Shadows, after the group had recently released a single that featured a lead vocal by Marvin. “We had just released Don’t Make My Baby Blue which had vocals and I bumped into George at Abbey Road Studios,” he says. “George said, ‘oh, I love your new record, it’s great. Stop doing the instrumentals, and do more vocals! You, and Bruce can sing so do some more vocals’ And, unfortunately, we didn’t take his advice and we went straight back to instrumentals. And honestly, at that point, realistically, instrumental popularity was waning. Unless you came up with something I like a big film theme or something. And so, his advice was good, but unfortunately, we didn’t follow it.”

In 1978, McCartney would again seek out Marvin, this time inviting him to be part of the guitar ensemble on the recording of Rockestra Theme, a track that appeared on the final Paul McCartney and Wings studio album, Back To The Egg.

The post “We’ve just written this one but we’re not sure about it…” How The Beatles turned to the Shadows legend Hank Marvin for advice about an iconic song appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Why buy multiple pedals and amps when one small combo can cover it all? Harley Benton’s new DNAFX AmP20 brings eight amp models, a host of effects, and preset storage into a tidy, 20-Watt practice amp that won’t break the bank.

Priced at just $116/£103, the DNAFX AmP20 is a 20-watt Class D combo designed to give guitarists a versatile setup in a single, compact unit. Built around an 8” full-range custom speaker, the AmP20 delivers eight amp tones spanning Clean, Country, Blues, Rock, Lead, Brown, Ultra, and Metal. Whatever your style, this little amp has you covered.

• READ MORE: 5 reasons why the Harley Benton EX-84 Modern is the perfect budget metal guitar

Adding to the flexibility are six programmable user presets, a 3-band EQ, as well as Drive and Master Volume controls. LED indicators make dialing in settings a breeze, even at a glance.

Onboard DSP effects include modulation options – Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo, and Chorus – as well as time-based effects like Spring, Delay, Delay+Reverb, and Hall. There’s even a tap tempo for delay, letting you sync effects perfectly to your playing.

Despite its friendly price tag, the AmP20 doesn’t skimp on practicality: you get a built-in digital chromatic guitar tuner with multicolored LED display, Bluetooth for playing along with backing tracks, a line-in for external sources, and a headphone out for those late night practice sessions. An optional footswitch (sold separately) lets you toggle between your six stored presets without missing a beat.

Measuring 33 x 346 x 202 mm and weighing just 6 kg, the DNAFX AmP20 is compact enough to move around easily but packed with enough features to feel like a full rig.

The Harley Benton DNAFX AmP20 is available now at Thomann. Check out the amp in action below.

Learn more at Harley Benton.

The post Why Harley Benton’s new DNAFX AmP20 is the “perfect practice amp” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.