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A Brief History of the Undersung Requinto Romántico

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I was recently in Mexico on business, traveling through a few states. While I was there, I was thinking of Premier Guitar and this article I was going to write. I have so many instruments in my head that I want to share with you, and I thought, “Why not start with one from Mexico?”


But which one? There are so many instruments that come from Mexico, and part of what I am striving for is to help educate people on not only the instruments, but the genres, too. Oftentimes, Americans hear music sung in Spanish over a guitar, and they just assume it is all mariachi. That would be similar to someone visiting the United States and assuming everything they hear was either rock or hip-hop. Fortunately, most guitar players have a deeper understanding of the rhythmic patterns of various genres, and can recognize the stylistic differences.

With that in mind, let’s discuss the stringed instrument used in one of the most romantic genres of Mexico: the requinto romántico, which was the first style of guitar I ever built at age 12. Even the name tells you it’s romantic. While the term “requinto” is used to describe instruments from Spain, Portugal, and other Hispanic and Latin countries, the 6-string requinto romántico originated in Mexico and was made popular by trío romántico ensembles like Los Panchos. Like other tríos románticos, Los Panchos were known for three-part vocal harmonies and featured two nylon-string classical guitars accompanied by a requinto romántico. You can hear a whole spectrum of rhythmic styles within the trío romántico genre, like vals (waltz), pasillo (Colombian and 19th-century styles), bolero (from east Cuba), and Mexican ranchera. Los Panchos in particular featured the great Alfredo “El Güero” Gil, who was born in Teziutlan, Puebla, not far from the Veracruz border and the great city of Xalapa.

Requintos have smaller bodies than regular classical guitars, and their tuning is unique, too: A2–D3–G3–C4–E4–A4, one fourth higher than the standard classical. The shorter scale, ranging between 530 mm and 540 mm, facilitates the higher tuning without warping the top or neck, or causing worry about strings breaking. Traditionally, requintos have between 19 and 22 frets, and, like classicals, the 12th fret is located where the fretboard meets the body of the guitar. Their tops are typically made of spruce or cedar, while the bodies implement mahogany, cedar, Palo Escrito, or East Indian rosewood. Some older models made by my family were made with Brazilian rosewood. (My grandfather, Porfirio “Pilo” Delgado, is even credited with making the first cutaway requinto romántico.) Requintos have historically been strung with either nylon or gut strings—made from lengths of animal intestine—and wound bass strings. So, playing a requinto romántico is like playing a classical guitar with a capo on the fifth fret, but you still have the full scale and a brighter tone thanks to the body design.


“Oftentimes, Americans hear music sung in Spanish over a guitar, and just assume it is all mariachi.”


Originally, requinto románticos were built with a smaller body—not quite as small as a baroque guitar body, nor quite as long as a parlor guitar body. Today, the body size is shorter in length than a classical, but the width is often comparable, with some bodies ranging up to five inches in depth. In 1991, the Korean-owned, American-based manufacturer Tacoma came out with a steel-string version of the requinto romántico, claiming it to be the first of its kind. This is like claiming the ukulele to be a complete original, not recognizing the Portuguese machete that precipitated its creation. Plus, early on, string-maker El Cometa had a steel-string option for players who played requinto románticos.

“Sabor a Mí” by Mexican composer and singer Álvaro Carrillo, “Historia de un Amor” by Panamanian songwriter Carlos Eleta Almarán, and “Bésame Mucho,” a bolero song written in 1932 by Mexican songwriter Consuelo Velázquez, are just a few of the more popular trío romantico songs. If you’re a fan of great guitar playing, I encourage you to go down the rabbit hole and listen to some of these artists. With no effects pedals and no distortion to hide behind, these players are true.… Wait, what’s the Spanish word for “shredders?”

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“I’d not played for 17 years. I put all my guitars in the loft and never touched them. I didn’t think I knew how to play anymore”: When Happy Mondays split, Mark Day gave up guitar – and was surprised to find he could still play when he returned

Guitar World -

Happy Mondays were one of the architects of the Manchester scene that gave birth to Oasis. Armed with basic gear, most of which he can’t remember, their genre-splicing guitarist is finally proud of the influential music he helped create

“Jeff Pilson called me and asked if I would play some solos. I had no idea it was for Dokken – I was still in a suit and tie from work that day!” Jon Levin has been shredding with Dokken since ’97 – and has to tackle George Lynch’s scariest solos

Guitar World -

After 25 years with the heavy metal stalwarts, Dokken's longstanding guitarist details his surprise induction into the group, why you'll find a Danelectro on most of his recorded tracks, and how he captured “lightning in a bottle” on the band's first album in 11 years

Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner: “I’m not gonna be playing KK Downing licks – it would be inappropriate and disrespectful to him and myself”

Guitar.com -

[L-R] Richie Faulkner and KK Downing

Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner has spoken about the importance of creating his own voice in the band, saying it would be “disrespectful” to simply copy the style of his predecessor KK Downing.

The guitarist speaks in a new interview with Ernie Ball, where he discusses some of his musical influences as well as the evolution of his playing style since joining Judas Priest.

“Stylistically, it was always a conscious thing to honour what came before, but also, I was aware of being my own person,” Faulkner says. “They always were – both Ken [KK Downing] and Glenn [Tipton], and all the icons; they had their own thing. So, I came in sounding like Zakk Wylde, Michael Schenker, and Dave Murray rolled into a ball.”

“You get into a [high] profile band like this – the spotlight’s on you, so you can’t do that,” he adds. “You know, what are you gonna say? You’ve got the platform to carve your own voice, so what are you gonna say?”

“So, there was a part of me that respected what came before, but now I’ve gotta think about what I’m gonna say as well. And it’s a continuing journey till this day: the more you create, the more thought goes into the evolution of your own voice.”

Of the band’s forthcoming album, Faulkner says: “On the new record, I’m not gonna be playing KK Downing licks – it would be inappropriate and disrespectful to him and myself. After three records in, I should be creating my own voice by now.”

“It is a conscious thing, purely because it’s always been a challenge for me to have my own voice on the instrument. I’ve played in cover bands, so you copy, emulate… So, it’s always been a challenge to find [my voice], but one that’s, I think, a healthy challenge.”

Judas Priest’s new album Invincible Shield is due out 8 March next year.

The post Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner: “I’m not gonna be playing KK Downing licks – it would be inappropriate and disrespectful to him and myself” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

“Andy brought something to the table – money was to be made”: Original Police guitarist on getting fired in favour of Andy Summers

Guitar.com -

Andy Summers and Henry Padovani

Original Police guitarist Henry Padovani has opened up about getting fired from the band after the arrival of Andy Summers.

Padovani – who was dismissed from The Police less than a year into their run – told Guitar World that the members were split on their vision for the band after Summers had entered the picture.

“It became apparent that there was a Stewart-and-me camp and a Sting-and-Andy camp, both going in different directions,” he explains.

Recounting his last gig with the band, Padovani says, “Things had been good; now there were arguments. At the last gig we did in Mont-de-Marsan, Andy and I argued about an amplifier and who would use it. I let it go and let Andy use the ‘good’ amp.”

“After that gig, we found ourselves in the studio with [Velvet Underground’s] John Cale, recording Visions of the Night. John had an argument with Andy about the solo because John wanted me to do it, but Andy argued that he was a better player. And then John let Andy do it, but insisted that Andy do it with my guitar and use my amp. It was horrible.”

Padovani adds that he was notified about his dismissal after the session with Cale: “Sting and I went to my place, and he told me the next gig in Germany would not include me.,” he recalls. “But such is life. Everything had a good end, and The Police went to blow away the world. It was all for a reason.”

Asked if it was true that Summers had issued an ultimatum for the band to choose between him or Padovani, the guitarist replies: “Perhaps he did, perhaps he didn’t. But the split cannot be boiled down to a problem between Andy and me. Those three became the biggest band in the world, and so whatever happened was the right thing to happen.”

“All that happened is part of that success. I always felt I was part of it in a positive way, but all I know is what Sting told me that night after the John Cale session. Andy brought something to the table: money was to be made, and Sting told me the concept. I got it right away and went back to see my family.”

“If there was an ultimatum, it wasn’t made to me. But maybe Andy didn’t want to confront me. Maybe it wasn’t for him to do. I never held resentment. With The Police, Andy found a great sound that he never had before.”

And while one might wonder what a Padovani-Summers Police would have sounded like, the musician says that he’s not one to dwell on what-ifs: “Things happened the way they did, and that’s perfectly fine,” he says. “I never felt like I missed out. I did what I did, and I’m pleased with how things turned out for me.”

The post “Andy brought something to the table – money was to be made”: Original Police guitarist on getting fired in favour of Andy Summers appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Chase Bliss Lossy review – dial-up internet never sounded so good

Guitar.com -

Chase Bliss Lossy

$399/€469, chasebliss.com

Most of the people reading this will be old enough to get a bit nostalgic about the early 2000s – or as you might remember it if you’re over the age of 35 ‘yesterday’. Yes, from baggy jeans and sweepy haircuts to dial-up internet and Limewire, the 2000s nostalgia is back and it’s cool again, grandpa.

It’s the perfect moment then, for two of the most innovative companies in their respective fields – pedal geniuses Chase Bliss and plugin savants Goodhertz – to make the ‘bad’ audio artefacts of our youths into something musical. Have they achieved it? Let’s find out.

Is the Chase Bliss Lossy easy to use?

Before we begin, a reminder that Chase Bliss is peerless as a modern and defiantly different effects brands that has got to where it is today by creating pedals that will push you to think outside of the box.

To do that, things tend to get a little weird, and the desire to maximise the creative experience comes at the expense of and plug and play considerations. Simply put and if you didn’t know already, this is a pedal that will require a fairly hefty amount of manual reading and experimentation to get the best out of – as is the case with most Chase Bliss pedals.

With that in mind then, and presuming that you’re the sort of person prepared to sign up to the above, let’s get to know Lossy.

Chase Bliss Lossy frontChase Bliss Lossy front

What is the Chase Bliss Lossy?

Remember those low-quality, sketchy mp3s I was talking about up top? Well, in essence that’s what we’re talking about here. The original Lossy started life as a plugin released back in 2015 by Goodhertz, and its stated mission was to allow you to imbue your sounds with all the digital low-fidelity imperfections that came when crushing a waveform small enough to fit the 64kbps codec, or of a degraded video call in the earliest days of Skype.

Goodhertz’s main goal with this plugin was to “make it easy to recreate the sound of a bad mp3 in real-time, without having to bounce a track to and from an mp3.” Lossy has been used by various artists in the years since, most notably by Phoebe Bridgers on the track Savior Complex from her Grammy-nominated Punisher LP.

For most guitar players, having something in plugin format is all well and good – but what happens when we want to create that effect in real-time? Enter then, Chase Bliss. The Lossy pedal not only encapsulates everything that people loved about the original’s lofi sound, but also adds a bunch of new features to enhance the real-time experience, such as a built-in limiter, evolving spectral freeze, and two new modes – all-wet and slow.

What does the Chase Bliss Lossy sound like?

While I mentioned that a certain degree of manual consultation is needed to really get the best out of the Lossy, you shouldn’t let the trademark rack of dip switches on the top scare you – like all Chase Bliss pedals, it’s not as daunting as that might make it seem.

The trick to getting the best out of Lossy is to understand the ebb and flow between the three different Modes (inverse, standard and phase jitter) and the Packets, which “introduce unpredictability and motion”.

Being the millennial that I am, I decided to use my Squier Classic Vibe Starcaster plugged into my Fender 68’ Custom Deluxe Reverb to channel Kid A era nostalgia. Starting with everything at noon, I set the Mode control to ‘phase jitter’ and the Packet to repeat and I was instantly greeted with a sound akin to Jonny Greenwood being channelled through dial-up modem.

Chase Bliss Lossy close-upChase Bliss Lossy close-up

As with most Chase Bliss pedals, even controls that seem straightforward aren’t – as typified by the Verb control. You might assume that this is just a reverb, and you’d be correct… but also not. It doesn’t sound like a typical reverb – the sort you’d hear in any real-life situation – instead it’s more like the ugly echo you’d hear trailing out on a bad Zoom call. It’s not for everyone, but for creating these lo-fi digital soundscapes, it’s absolutely perfect.

Lossy’s new freeze function is the crowning achievement of the pedal format however – it’s the place where I find myself getting lost in a world of sonic exploration. Though a freeze mode is quite a common one that you see on a fair few pedals now (not least EHX’s pedal of the same name) but Lossy’s take – affectionately dubbed ‘Slushy’ – is something else entirely.

Slushy updates and adapts the frozen sound to your playing in real-time, allowing you to create beautiful synth-like pads that constantly evolve and adapt without ever overshadowing what you’re playing. It’s that classic ‘you could use this pedal to start an entire band’ thing.

Chase Bliss Lossy dip switchesChase Bliss Lossy dip switches

Is the Chase Bliss Lossy worth it?

Other brands have tried to put a plugin in pedal form and the results are often left feeling exactly that – a strange marriage of two worlds that don’t entirely work together. The Lossy is different. It’s a testament to Chase Bliss’s engineering team and its willingness to collaborate with others that this feels like its own thing, both a faithful replication of the original plugin but at the same time every bit a guitar pedal.

It’s also a reminder that Chase Bliss pedals are far more than just impressive technical exercises – they are inspirational musical devices that push you into new and previously uncharted musical territory, far beyond the boundaries of Y2K.

Like this? Try these

The post Chase Bliss Lossy review – dial-up internet never sounded so good appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

If You Can Say It, You Can Play It | Rhythm Guitar Lesson

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Scott Goldbaum teaches Say It & Play It! Rhythm Guitar Lesson
Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Unlock the potential of the often-underestimated metronome—an invaluable tool that can transform your playing. Elixir® Strings Artist Scott Goldbaum shows you how to use a metronome to build strong rhythm habits with a quick, easy-to-follow exercise you can apply to all of your favorite songs. Scott uses Elixir Strings Acoustic Phosphor Bronze with […]

Podcast 442: Matt Sweeney

Fretboard Journal -


Matt Sweeney downplays his success as a guitarist and producer to the fact that he simply says “yes” to a lot of projects. Whatever the case; it’s working. After playing in Chavez, he performed as Superwolves with Will Oldham and served as a guitarist-for-hire on numerous acclaimed albums, including Cat Power’s ‘Covers’ record and the Rick Rubin-produced Johnny Cash ‘American Recordings V’ and ‘VI.’ He’s also an in-demand producer.

Matt also happens to be one of the greatest guitar interviewers around. His Guitar Moves series, originally produced for Vice’s Noisey channel in 2013, set a high bar for how to interview artists. Matt is like a musician’s Anthony Bourdain: He’s total rock & roll, but also approachable, funny and curious. Most importantly, he gets his subjects – including Keith Richards, Blake Mills, and Billy Gibbons – talking.

After a long hiatus, Matt has decided to take ownership of Guitar Moves, share old installments, and record new episodes. On this week’s episode, we talk about how it’s all about fingerpicking (thanks to his friend Sam Dylan of Supreme Dicks), his plans for Guitar Moves going forward, the old Richard Thompson instruction video (YouTube link) that served as the show’s inspiration (and that Richard himself hated), and so much more.

Be on the lookout for a feature on Matt in early 2024 in the pages of the Fretboard Journal.

Watch Guitar Moves: https://www.youtube.com/@guitar-moves

Subscribe to the Fretboard Journal and get our new 53rd issue with Ben Harper, Joanna Sternberg and much more: https://shop.fretboardjournal.com/products/fretboard-journal-annual-subscription

Registration is now open to attend our 2024 Fretboard Summit: https://fretboardsummit.org/

If you enjoy this episode, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and consider joining the Fretboard Journal’s new Patreon page.

Thank you to our sponsors: Mike & Mike’s Guitar BarPeghead Nation (use the promo code FRETBOARD and get your first month free or $20 off any annual subscription); and Stringjoy Strings(get 10% off your order with the FRETBOARD discount code). This episode is also sponsored by iZotope. Use the discount code FRET10 to save 10% off of your Izotope order.

The post Podcast 442: Matt Sweeney first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

The post Podcast 442: Matt Sweeney appeared first on Fretboard Journal.

The final guitar in Adam Jones’s Epiphone Les Paul Custom Art Collection features Mark Ryden’s Queen Bee

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Epiphone Adam Jones Les Paul

TOOL guitarist Adam Jones has unveiled that Mark Ryden’s ‘Queen Bee’ will grace the final guitar in his Les Paul Custom Art Collection.

Serving as the seventh piece in his uniquely curated collection, the ‘Queen Bee’ model is the first model to have art on the front of the body as well as the back.

The series, combining Jones’ love of guitars and his appreciation of gorgeous fine art, comprises 7 unique Les Paul Custom Silverburst models. Each model boasts a mahogany body, maple top, three-piece maple neck and ebony fretboard, with an intricate art piece on the back of each guitar.

Epiphone Adam Jones Les PaulCredit: Epiphone

Jones has selected five unique artists for the series. Two models feature work by Mark Ryden and Julie Heffernan, with the remaining three pieces featuring art by Frank Frazetta, Korin Faught and Ernst Fuchs.

Speaking on what drew Jones to Ryden’s work, Epiphone explained that Jones was attracted to Ryden’s penchant for “blending themes of pop culture with techniques of the old masters.”

“Mark Ryden blurs the traditional boundaries of high and low art in a new genre of ‘Pop Surrealism’,” Epiphone stated.

Epiphone Adam Jones Les PaulCredit: Epiphone

Each piece holds its own unique charm, ranging from Frazetta’s Armageddon fury of ‘The Berserker’ to Fuchs’ modern twist on the Greek myth of a trio facing the wrath of Poseidon with ‘Anti-Laokoon 1965’. From spiritual musings to pieces pondering Virgil’s epic Aeneid, each artwork reveal has been a stop-by-stop tour of fine art history old and new. The series is sure to allow music lovers to understand what draws Jones to art.

The series serves as a brilliantly diverse collection, giving a perfect glimpse into the eclectic creative brain of Adam Jones. The series is limited to 800 of each model, with prices ranging from £1,299 to £1,449.

The post The final guitar in Adam Jones’s Epiphone Les Paul Custom Art Collection features Mark Ryden’s Queen Bee appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

ZZ Top to tour UK and Europe for first time in 5 years in 2024

Guitar.com -

[L-R] Elwood Francis and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top

ZZ Top have announced they’re finally returning to the UK in 2024 after five years.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been able to check in with our European fans, so it goes without saying that we’re excited about coming back this summer,” frontman Billy Gibbons enthused in a press release.

The grand return comes two years after the passing of ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill, and the show is sure to honour him. “We’re looking forward to a good time,” Gibbons says. “That goes for both those in the audience and on stage.”

The band will be hitting the UK just once to play the OVO Arena Wembley on 11 July, as well as a plethora of European countries in June and July, starting in Sweden before moving to Norway, Denmark, Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

While the group haven’t released a fresh album officially since 2012, ZZ Top have been powerfully revisiting their roots. Their Grammy nominated 2019 documentary, ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas, highlighted the true charm of the band, a heart-warming foray into their history.

Soundtrack RAW saw the group re-recording classic tracks, breathing a breath of fresh life into them. Gibbons noted that the sessions were “a return to [ZZ Top’s] roots.”

“It was just us and the music, no audience of thousands, no concession stands, no parking lot social hour, no phalanx of tour buses,” he reflects. “Just us.”

“The Director suggested we find a way to illustrate the early style from the start of our five-plus decades run,” he continues. “Gruene Hall, the oldest dance hall in Texas, was selected as a fitting backdrop to replicate the look of the band’s very beginnings. When we arrived… we picked up the instruments and commenced an unplanned jam session. Fortunately, our stage engineers were on hand with tape machines in place to capture the performances that went down. That became, in essence, the soundtrack to the film and now it’s also an audio document of ZZ Top’s early beginnings.  Still going strong today.”

Tickets for ZZ Top’s will go on sale on 15 December. For more info, head to the band’s official website.

The post ZZ Top to tour UK and Europe for first time in 5 years in 2024 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

BilT Rele Review

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The folks at BilT guitars and I share a lot of design influences and affinities, so I might be a little prejudiced. But I can’t think of many small builders who bring more fun to the non-major manufacturer market than BilT. They are reverent about quality and customer collaboration, but often irreverent about mixing, matching, and deviating from the forms, shapes, colors, and details that inspired their core models. Take a quick look at the company’s gallery and you’ll see mutant variations on Fender, Ampeg, and Rickenbacker themes, sparkle paint, Fender Antigua-style finishes mixed up with Gibson Trini Lopez details, and pickup combinations of every conceivable stripe.


The new, short-scale Rele is, in its simplest guise, BilT’s most accessibly priced instrument—starting at just $1,799. In typically irreverent BilT style, however, they sent a review version with thousands of dollars in upgrades, from the deep burst finish to the built-in fuzz and filtering switches. But the fancy Rele reviewed here is representative of the creative potential that BilT offers the customer if you have the vision and means. There isn’t much they won’t do to build the guitar of your wildest, weirdest dreams. Our review Rele also reveals what solid, well-made guitars BilTs are at their core. Sure, you can run up quite a bill working with the mad scientists in their guitar-building lab. But you can also get a great USA-built custom guitar at a fair price if you exhibit a little restraint.

Short-Scale Roots Shall Skyward Shoot


The Rele clearly takes a great deal of inspiration from Fender’s Mustang. But the extra-offset waist and extended bass-side horn also hint a bit at Kurt Cobain’s Jag-Stang and the Ernie Ball Music Man StingRay. It’s a lovely, balanced twist on well-worn offset motifs that feels compact and comfortable in hand while making a statement and creating a blank slate for the many options that appear on our review instrument.

On a bare-bones Rele, you can choose between a series of solid colors, an unbound rosewood or maple neck, and Mustang- or Jaguar-style pickups. Clearly, our review guitar stacked a lot of options on top of that formula. The Fralin Hum Cancelling P-90s, Duesenberg Diamond Deluxe vibrato, fabulous dispade assassin supershift pearl finish, built-in fuzz, and filtering switches all ran the total for our guitar to $3,499. This is a highly individual, and perhaps one-of-a-kind, instrument. Yet BilT makes putting one together pretty effortless.

Shortscale guitars aren’t for every player. But if you’re inclined to dismiss them out of hand, it might be worth checking out BilT’s 24.62" scale. On our review instrument, the short scale is combined with a chunky C-style neck, which makes the guitar feel much more substantial. The guitar feels more playable still for the 9.5" radius and medium jumbo frets. Ordinarily, I’m a fan of vintage Fender-style specs (7.25" radius and smaller vintage frets), but I cannot argue how fast this guitar feels under the fingers. The thicker neck fights hand fatigue and makes chording easy. String bending is fluid and precise. And while the action is quite low, the guitar is free from fret buzz and never feels less than responsive. It’s not an exaggeration to say this Rele feels like it’s wired a little more directly with your body and brain. It’s just a joy to play. The natural ease of the instrument also makes more room to experiment with the lovely Duesenberg vibrato, which, with its ability to swing freely toward the bass strings, combines some of the best attributes of Jazzmaster, Stratocaster, and Bigsby units.

A Marauder Loose in Mission Control


Most BilT customers will probably not order a Rele with this many onboard tone-altering features. But as a vehicle for showcasing what BilT can do in cooperation with a player ready to dive in whole hog, this Rele could not be more fun. Visually and functionally, it owes a debt to Fender’s long-lost, mid-’60s Marauder, and the onboard effects recall Vox’s Starstream and Cheetah. Apart from the 3-way pickup toggle, it can be hard to discern exactly what the rocker switches do at times—at least if you aren’t a frequent Jaguar user. Even if you are, some of the differences between the filtered and dark sounds you can get with the switches and the tone wheel can feel subtle—at least until you turn on the BilT Fuzz, which makes these controls feel much more powerful and flexible.

BilT’s fuzz circuit, which is activated by the push-button volume knob and regulated by the slider on the treble horn, owes much, in a sonic sense, to the Jordan Bosstone, Mosrite Fuzzrite, and ZVEX Fuzz Factory. It’s perfect for Davey Allen- and raw, garage-psych-style buzz and malevolence, and works phenomenally well with the Fralin Hum Cancelling P-90s, which are savage or sonorous depending on the combination. But the BilT fuzz also features an oscillator (activated by the push-button tone control) that produces maniacal, pitch-shifting whistles that can be altered via the slider. All of these tones can be dramatically recast by the filter and tone controls. Together, they make this Rele an addictive platform for experimental psychedelic performance.

The Verdict


At its core, our review Rele, with its beautiful neck, impeccably smooth playability, and sweet Fralin P-90s, is reason enough to investigate the possibilities of a more basic and affordable variation on the theme. But it also highlights the possibilities that arise from working with a builder as free spirited, fun, and committed to high quality as BilT. Your own Rele may not be quite as extroverted and insane as this gem, but it is so cool to know you can get there—and many points in between—very easily when you put an instrument together with this creative builder.

A Short-Scale Offset with Onboard Fuzz?! The BilT Gutiars Rele Demo | First Look


“Guitarists cannot merely publish a spontaneously produced video of their playing, yet neither can they afford to release anything less than perfect”: New study sheds light on demands on modern guitarists

Guitar.com -

Man filming himself playing guitar

A new study has been published examining the evolution of the guitar virtuoso and attempting to understand the demands placed on modern guitarists in 2023.

Rock Guitar Virtuosos: Advances in Electric Guitar Playing, Technology, and Culture has been published by UK-based academics Jan-Peter Herbst and Alexander Paul Vallejo via Cambridge University Press and offers a deep dive into the role of the modern guitar hero. It is available for free download for a limited time.

Herbst and Vallejo’s study grapples primarily with the changing nature of the role of the guitar hero since the 1960s and takes a particular interest in the modern guitarist’s relationship to the notion of authenticity, especially when it comes to playing guitar on social media.

“Guitarists appear to be caught in a paradox,” note Herbst and Vallejo [via Guitar World]. “They cannot merely publish a spontaneously produced, seemingly authentic video of their playing, yet neither can they afford to release anything less than perfect. If performances are perfect, guitarists must prove authenticity or be accused of cheating.”

The study points to 2019 allegations that Instagram guitarists were faking their technique, with names including Manuel Gardner Fernandes and Syncatto’s Charlie Robbins facing – and denying – accusations.

Herbst and Vallejo also observe a new trend emerging among a new generation of online guitar heroes such as Mateus Asato – they don’t need to release albums to build momentum.

The study also acknowledges the demands on artists to do more than ever beyond just turning up and performing.

“Guitarists write, arrange, record, and produce their music in a DIY manner, often adding extra elements such as electronic beats, live electronics, and other forms of contemporary sound design,” the authors write.

“They create artwork and animated videos for their songs. They run websites and sell their music, tablature, lessons, and merchandise on other platforms. They regularly produce videos for their social media channels.

“What once was delegated to labels, managers, or other support staff is now carried out by artists themselves. They have become ‘cultural entrepreneurs’, defined by the ‘hyphen’: virtuoso-guitarist-composer-innovator-producer-promoter-YouTuber-teacher-entrepreneur.”

The post “Guitarists cannot merely publish a spontaneously produced video of their playing, yet neither can they afford to release anything less than perfect”: New study sheds light on demands on modern guitarists appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

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