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The Gibson Custom Shop has honoured late guitarist Mick Ronson with a faithful recreation of the Les Paul he played while part of David Bowie’s band.

Described as an “extraordinary, ultra-limited recreation of the legendary guitarist’s most iconic instrument”, the Mick Ronson 1968 Les Paul Custom Collector’s Edition celebrates Ronson’s “indelible mark on modern music”, with only 100 available worldwide from authorised dealers, physical Gibson Garage locations and via Gibson’s website.

• READ MORE: Metallica Sphere residency CONFIRMED

In terms of specs, the Mick Ronson 1968 Les Paul Custom Collector’s Edition features a mahogany body with a plain maple cap – with an Ebony finish and Gibson’s Murphy Lab aging for an authentic-looking worn-in feel – as well as a mahogany neck with an authentic ‘68 Medium C profile.

Elsewhere, the guitar features an ebony fingerboard with mother-of-pearl block inlays, an ABR-1 bridge, Grover tuners and a worn Stop Bar tailpiece. Electronics come by way of a pair of aged ‘68 Custom humbuckers with Alnico 2 magnets, with era-specific CTS 500k potentiometers and Black Beauty capacitors.

The guitar also comes in a Gibson Custom case with a recreation of Mick Ronson’s signature, as well as a replica strap and certificate of authenticity booklet.

“I think Mick would be totally astonished that he’s still being talked about in such a positive way,” says Ronson’s widow, Suzi. “I think this guitar just adds sparkle to an already legendary life.”

“Mick Ronson is a true musical legend, and his impact – delivered in far too short a time – cannot be overstated,” says Lee Bartram, Head of Commercial and Marketing EMEA at Gibson. 

“The world misses Mick Ronson more than it likely knows. We hope that this project advances the broader recognition he so richly deserves.”

As well as playing alongside David Bowie, Mick Ronson also played with Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Roger Daltrey and more.

The Mick Ronson 1968 Les Paul Custom Collector’s Edition is priced at $9,999. For more information, head to Gibson.

The post Gibson Custom Shop recreates Mick Ronson’s David Bowie-era Les Paul with super limited run appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Following months of relentless rumors and fever pitch speculation, it was announced today that Metallica will debut its Life Burns Faster residency at Sphere in Las Vegas. The highly-anticipated eight show run will take place on October 1 and 3, 15 and 17, 22 and 24, and 29 and 31, 2026 — and will continue the No Repeat Weekend tradition that began with the 2023 kick-off of the band’s M72 World Tour, with no songs repeated on each Thursday and Saturday throughout the course of the run.

Two-night No Repeat Weekend tickets and single-night tickets will go on sale March 6th at 10am PT. To register for tickets or for further information regarding pre-sales, enhanced experiences, travel packages and more, visit metallica.lnk.to/MetallicaSphere

Metallica’s standing at the vanguard of new and unique live experiences has seen the band play to millions of fans across all seven continents in every shape and size of venue imaginable. Their current M72 World Tour has played to more than 4 million fans from Europe and North America to the Pacific Rim and Middle East since its spring 2023 kick-off, its performances and production universally hailed as among the best of Metallica’s 40+ years of traversing the globe.

The band’s Sphere residency will see live staples and surprises spanning the Metallica catalog enhanced by the venue’s immersive technologies that will allow fans to experience the sound and fury of the band’s live performance in new experiential dimensions. Whether you’ve seen Metallica from the upper reaches of a stadium or arena, at an intimate club or theater gig or from the famed Snake Pit surrounded by the 360-degree M72 stage, Sphere’s technology, including the world’s highest resolution LED display that wraps up, over and around the audience; Sphere Immersive Sound, which delivers audio with unmatched clarity and precision to every guest; and multi-sensory 4D technology, will present a wholly unique and entirely new Metallica experience for all who attend — including James, Lars, Kirk and Robert.

Metallica co-founder/drummer Lars Ulrich commented, “About 12 seconds into the opening night of Sphere with U2 back in ‘23, I thought ‘We have to do this, it’s completely uncharted territory!’ This residency gives us another chance to reinvent how we interact with our fans in a live setting. We are beyond excited to share this with the world in six months time, and way fuckin’ psyched to go next level!”

Metallica Life Burns Faster at Sphere is produced by Live Nation and presented by inKind. inKind rewards diners with special offers and credit back when they use the app to pay at thousands of top-rated restaurants nationwide. inKind also provides innovative financing to participating restaurants in a way that enables new levels of sustainability and success. Metallica fans can learn more at inKind.com.

For updates and further information, stay tuned to metallica.lnk.to/MetallicaSphere

George Harrison may have been known as ‘the quiet Beatle’, but he much preferred making music with others rather than as a solo performer.

Harrison released several albums as a solo artist, including Wonderwall Music for the accompanying 1968 film, which marked the first solo release from a member of The Beatles. But in 1988, Harrison longed to be part of a band again, and he co-founded the supergroup the Traveling Wilburys.

• READ MORE: Paul McCartney reveals he nearly played on a Bob Weir record before his death: “Unfortunately it never came to pass”

The group consisted of Harrison alongside Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty, and came together as a result of Harrison and Lynne dreaming up a new band during the sessions for Harrison’s 1987 album Cloud Nine. In a 2007 Uncut interview, which has recently been republished online, Petty, Lynne, and more looked back on the magic of the supergroup.

“George had those intense moments in his career when it was absolute bedlam, so there were times when he craved solitude, but he also loved being with friends,” said his widow, Olivia Harrison.

Lynne added: “We were three-quarters of the way through Cloud Nine, and every night, as we were relaxing with a few drinks after mixing a big epic or whatever, George and I had the same conversation: ‘We could have a group, you know?’ ‘Yeah, we could.’ He didn’t like the idea of being a solo guy – that’s what he told me. He was never comfortable with it. He wanted a group, and, of course, George could do anything he wanted.”

The group became dormant in the early ’90s. They released their final album – named the Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3, despite it being their second record – in 1990, which they completed after the death of Orbison in 1988.

Looking back on the whole experience in the 2007 Uncut interview, the late Tom Petty added: “It was great having George Harrison as our lead guitarist – very convenient. Thank you, God. He was just the best fellow we ever met. We got into an incredible run of music there, and we were havin’ a blast doin’ it. Not one day was like work. It was all just very natural.”

The post “He was never comfortable with it. He wanted a group”: Why George Harrison wasn’t keen on being a solo artist appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

After considerable speculation, Metallica have confirmed their residency at the Las Vegas Sphere, which will comprise eight shows across October 2026.

Continuing the band’s ‘no-repeat’ weekend tradition – which sees them perform two shows in each city with entirely unique setlists on each night – the residency will take place October 1 and 3, 15 and 17, 22 and 24, and 29 and 31.

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

Brought to the Sphere in partnership with Live Nation and inKind, Metallica’s Life Burns Faster – taken from the lyrics to Master of Puppets, of course – will see the metal titans harness the venue’s high-resolution LED light display for the first time, which spans the entire spherical roof and consists of over 1.2 million LED pucks. 

A band already known for their elaborate and immersive stage setups, one can only imagine what they have in store for their Sphere residency…

Metallica co-founder/drummer Lars Ulrich commented, “About 12 seconds into the opening night of Sphere with U2 back in ‘23, I thought ‘We have to do this, it’s completely uncharted territory!’ This residency gives us another chance to reinvent how we interact with our fans in a live setting. We are beyond excited to share this with the world in six months time, and way fuckin’ psyched to go next level!”

Both full no-repeat weekend tickets and single-night tickets will go on sale 6 March and 10am PT.

To register for tickets, or get further information on pre-sales, enhanced experiences, travel packages and more, you can head to Metallica.com.

Credit: Metallica

 

The post Metallica Sphere residency CONFIRMED appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Whether it’s voice memo recordings, videos on your phone, hastily scrawled tabs or a combination of the three, guitarists each have their own ways of documenting riffs and song ideas. As a solo musician, I found Guitar Pro to be the best tool to turn those ideas into songs. Having discovered it just a couple of years into playing guitar, it was also a crucial tool that helped build my music theory understanding.

In this series of guides, I hope to share what I’ve learned in the 15+ years I’ve been using Guitar Pro. Today, I’ll be introducing you to the basics of tabbing out a riff in Guitar Pro as well as giving an overview into the theoretical side of your compositions and how you correctly tab those out.

If you don’t own Guitar Pro, you can download a free 7 day trial for Guitar Pro 8 (the latest iteration at the time of writing) for Windows or macOS and follow along. I’ll be using v7.6 for this guide, but all the features I’ll be talking about will apply to the latest version.

You can apply this guide to an original composition, but you can also use a riff you’ve learned from another artist. It’s how I learned a lot of Guitar Pro’s features in those early days when my own riff ideas were limited (i.e. rubbish).

1. Creating a new file in Guitar Pro

Opening Guitar Pro will bring up the projects screen. As you save more projects, add tabs of your favourite artists, etc. your recent files will begin to populate and allow you to jump right back in where you left off.

For now, we’re just going to click ‘new file’.

2. Choosing your guitar type

It’s now time to choose your starting instrument. You can see there are four tabs: Stringed, Orchestra, Drums and MIDI. We’ll be looking solely at ‘Stringed’ for this guide and will explore the other instrumentation options in future guides.

When ‘Stringed’ is selected, you’ll see two columns with your ‘master’ instrument on the left and the different permutations of that instrument on the right:

• Acoustic – Nylon, 12-string, Steel, Resonator
• Electric Guitar – Overdrive, Distortion, Sitar, Clean, Jazz, 12-String
• Bass Guitar – Acoustic, Fretless, Electric, Synth, Upright
• Other – Banjo, Ukulele, Mandolin

Once you’ve settled on your guitar, you’ll have four further settings to tweak:

• Instrument track name
• Notation type, e.g. tablature, standard and slash notation
• The number of strings and tuning
• The sound of your guitar that you’ll hear during tabbing and playback

All of these settings can be changed after this point, so don’t feel like you need to agonise over them. I’ll show you how to do this in the next step.

For this guide, I’m going to use the following settings:

• Information: Jazz Guitar, jz.guit.
• Notation: Tablature and Standard Notation
• Upper Staff: 6 strings, standard tuning
• Sound: Jazz ES

3. How to tab out a riff in Guitar Pro

Before starting, familiarise yourself with the layout of Guitar Pro. Below is an example of a ‘full screen’ view where you’ll find ‘Edition Palette’ which includes a lot of your note and effect tools; the ‘Global View’ where you’ll find all your instrument tracks and each bar of your song; and the ‘Inspector’ view where you can change the song information and edit your instrument type, amp, effects and playing style.

To begin tabbing out your idea, you need to input the corresponding fret number(s) on the string(s) being used in your riff.

Bar one will show our two staffs; the upper for standard notation and the bottom for our tablature, which represents the 6 strings of our guitar, with the highest line being the high ‘E’ and the bottom being the low ‘E’.

A new project will default to highlighting the lowest string, signified by the yellow square. You can use your mouse or directional keys to change the string you’re on or move to the next beat in the bar.

Below are two tabbed examples, an E Minor chord arpeggio and an eight-note riff across the low E and A strings.

Guitar Pro will default to a quarter note duration on a new file. Use the (+/-) keys to increase and decrease the note duration while highlighting the chord/note based on how it’s played. Use the space bar to begin playback and hear what you’ve tabbed out and refine the note durations where needed. If it’s still sounding a little too fast or slow, double click the tempo at the top of the page and adjust until it feels right.

If your bar is highlighted in red when moving to a new bar, this means there are too few or too many to fill the bar. 4/4 is the default for all new projects in Guitar Pro and means that a single measure/bar is made up of four quarter notes worth of music.

When tabbing out your idea, it’s important to make sure that your note durations add up before moving to the next bar. It’s easy to get the hang of when you’re writing in 4/4, but becomes trickier when writing in odd time signatures.

Here’s an easy way to visualise how different notes fill a bar of 4/4:

If your riff is an odd time signature, fear not! I’ll be talking a little more about that in the next section of this guide.

4. Understanding the notation behind your riff and how to tab it out

Your riff should now be sounding familiar to you, but it might still be missing something. Here are some techniques to get your riff sounding as accurate as possible.

Time signature

When I first started tabbing out ideas in Guitar Pro, I wasn’t all that knowledgeable about time signatures, so much so that I beat my head against the wall trying to understand why my arpeggio crossed a bar and a half of 4/4 long before realising what 6/4 was.

If you think that’s the case with your riff, record a voice memo of you playing your riff and then tap along and count out the time.

The top number in a time signature relates to the number of times a note is played, the bottom the speed of those notes. For example, 6/4 is a measure made up of six quarter notes.

If your riff starts in an odd time signature, you can double-click the symbol in the first bar and change it. If your riff has multiple time signature changes, use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD+T (Windows/macOS, respectively) in the respective bar to change it.

Rests, ties and dotted notes

Along with ensuring each note of your riff is the right length, there are some things that can’t be done with just the (+/-) keys.

Rests

There may be a gap in your riff where no notes are being played. In notation, this would be marked as a rest, which can be inserted into Guitar Pro using the (R) key on your keyboard. Use the (+/-) keys to set how long your rest lasts for and make sure it sounds right when you playback.

Ties

Similarly, your riff may hold a note across two bars, e.g. played on the final beat in bar one and held on the first beat of bar two. For example, it may be that the note needs to last for two quarter notes, but your bar of 4/4 on has one quarter note remaining. You can’t notate it as a half note, because that adds up to five quarter notes or 5/4. To notate this, tab out the first note and then move to the next beat in the bar/next bar and press the (L) key. If you’re using a tie on a chord, press (L) on each string that the chord is fretted.

Dotted notes

When a half note is too long, but a quarter note too short, you need a dotted note. A dotted note is when you add half the value of your chosen note duration, e.g. a dotted quarter note is a quarter note plus an eighth note. To notate a dotted note, use the ‘period/full stop’ key on your keyboard on the note you wish to change. The next note you tab will also be dotted, so be sure to remove this if not needed.

Note articulation

The final thing to discuss is how you articulate the notes in your riff. I’m just going to highlight the most common articulations for now, but we will look at more intermediate ones in the next guide.

Legato slides

Press (S) on the first note and then tab out the following note. The two (or more) notes will be linked and play as a legato slide transition during playback. This applies to slides up and down the neck.

Hammer-on/Pull-off

Press (H) to link multiple notes where you’re performing hammer-ons and pull-offs.

Palm muting

Highlight the note(s) that you want to be played with a palm mute a press (P).

Let ring

If you want the notes in your riff to ring out together rather than ending once the next note plays, use (i) on your keyboard to enable the ‘let ring’ function. You’ll be surprised how effective this is at taking your riff from sounding robotic to natural.

Dead Notes

If you use dead notes as part of your riff, you can press (X) on any given string and set the note duration. Different strings with a dead note will produce different sounds so try out a combination that works for you.

Bends

Press (B) on the note you want to bend and then tweak the force and duration of the bend to your desired effect.

Next time, we’ll build on what we’ve learned here and start to build a complete song in Guitar Pro as we explore customising your guitar tone, adding additional instruments and utilising repeating sections and automation.

The post How to tab a basic riff in Guitar Pro – the essential guide appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Alex Van Halen has confirmed that he’s working on a project involving archival Van Halen material, and the band’s former bassist believes it should remain purely instrumental.

The forthcoming project will feature a bunch of Van Halen demos, but it’s not yet clear if it will go out under the Van Halen name. With Eddie Van Halen having passed away in 2020, the idea of a new album being released today is a sore subject for both fans and artists linked to the band.

Alex has already suggested that he originally wanted Free’s Paul Rodgers to take on vocal duties, who was eventually unable to take on the job, but he’s now “looking for somebody else”. Michael Anthony, who played bass for the band between 1974 and 2006, thinks they should go forwards without one.

• READ MORE: Wolfgang Van Halen thinks rock music is “perfectly great where it is”: “There’s room for everything”

In an interview with Matt Spatz of WNCX, he says [via Ultimate Classic Rock]: “The way I personally feel about it is, if they wanted to do it justice, [the best idea would be] to just finish it up as a great instrumental nod to Eddie.

“You know, because getting a new singer in there, we’re not forming a new band, and then you’ve got to work on lyrics and all that stuff. And who knows when anything would be put out at that point,” he explains.

Speaking on the project, Alex recently told Brazilian journalist Gastão Moreira for KazaGastão that the record’s tracks will feature reworked versions of songs that he and his brother never finished.

“Many people have asked, ‘What about releasing unreleased stuff?’ Well, we’re not gonna release it in its embryonic form because it wouldn’t make any sense. But I’ve been fortunate enough to have Steve Lukather [involved], who was a good friend of Ed’s, and we’re working on putting a record together.”

Steve Lukather has so far been rather elusive about his role within the project. He has already denied doing any guitar work on the record. In a comment under one of his Instagram posts about Eddie, he said: “For the record: Ever since Alex Van Halen dropped some [hints] we were gonna work together I think there is a huge misunderstanding. I will NOT EVER play a guitar note on a VH song ever!

View this post on Instagram

“Al asked me to help him go [through] a ton of unfinished recordings of Al and Ed writing and recording that never saw the light of day. As of now that’s all I got. The fact that ANYONE would think for even a second that I would play anything on this is ridiculous. I have too much love and respect and … I play nothing like Ed… More as a co-producer or something. I am honoured Al would ask me though. Let’s see…”

The post Michael Anthony thinks Alex Van Halen’s archival Van Halen album should be purely instrumental, “if they wanted to do it justice” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Whether you fingerpick or flatpick, dropped-D tuning adds depth and texture, and can anchor a melody with a strong, pulsing bass.

When you think of the most quintessential electric guitars, the Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul invariably come to mind. But as Jack White explains in a new interview with Reverb, their ubiquity turned him off the idea as a young guitarist.

Instead, the White Stripes man was attracted to less conventional guitars at the time, like Silvertones and Airlines.

• READ MORE: “The guitar that started it all”: T-Bone Walker’s 1949 Gibson ES-5N is up for sale on Reverb for over $2M

“[In my late teens], I decidedly hated anything to do with Stratocasters, Les Pauls – any of the common instruments that you see everybody use,” White says. 

“I just thought it’s so overused, and so indicative of ‘white boy blues’ if you had a Stratocaster, or you’re heavy metal if you use this kind of guitar. 

“It just seemed like, I would rather try to find something that didn’t have any connotations already thrown on it. So I was attracted to Silvertones and Airlines and things that you just didn’t see on TV or on videos.”

The guitarist does admit, however, that the popularity of a particular guitar model depends heavily on the time period.

“In the ‘90s in general – if I had a Silvertone guitar, to me, in Detroit, I never saw anybody use that guitar,” he continues. “I never saw anybody on TV, definitely nobody playing shows or anybody I knew that owned one. So when I was using it, it felt very unique. 

“But then you start talking to older people, and it’s like, ‘When I was a kid, that’s all anybody had, was Silvertones. Nobody had enough money to pay for a real guitar.

“[It’s] different time periods, you know – now you can obviously see everything, but in your own zone, it’s just [about] trying to find a uniqueness; a new voice for yourself. I didn’t wanna use the same tool that everyone else was using. 

“I’m glad I did that. I’m glad I had that desire to carve something out. Because once you do that, then you can rewind, and put on one of those more common guitars and get something out of it.

Watch the full Reverb interview below:

The post Jack White never wanted to use a Stratocaster because they were “overused” and “indicative of white boy blues” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Death By Audio’s new Destroyer Series pedals, which include the Dream Station reverb, Moonbeam phaser, and Thee Treble Overload treble booster, are smaller than most DBA wares. But that very practical decision doesn’t herald a retreat to convention. There is abundant weirdness in the two pedals reviewed here. And what is satisfying about them is how easy it is to tap into both the strange and the familiar. They are very fluid-feeling creative tools.

Station to Station

Of the two pedals, the Dream Station digital delay and reverb is the most expansive, and in that sense, the most traditionally DBA-like. The range of available tones is enormous, straddling subdued echo and reverb and deep ambience. As a delay/reverb combo, it’s a practical way to save space and reduce pedal count, much like EarthQuaker’s more streamlined Dispatch Master. But the Dream Station’s three voice modes and stereo capability make it much more than a simple mashup of essential time-based effects.

At their essence, the Dream Station’s most basic sounds are versatile and lovely. The reverb is simple, offering only a reverb time control. But its voice is adaptable, living somewhere between spring and plate reverb tonalities depending on where you set the pedal’s 3-way voice switch. The bright voice tends to summon spring-like clang, while the full tone setting is softer around the edges, if still a bit metallic, and gives a sense of greater mass and body. The dark-voiced reverb is hazy and, at times, just a bit trashy and gritty at the corners.

“Paired with longer delay times and the reverb, the Dream Station's full voice sounds big enough to be measured in astrophysical terms.”

The delay lives within very analog-like delay time constraints, spanning 2 and 500 ms. But it’s surprisingly resistant to analog- and tape-style runaway oscillation, which enables useful near-infinite repeat beds. These working parameters might seem conservative on the surface. But in true DBA spirit they conceal a deeper capacity for mayhem.

Deeper Down the Vortex

A nerd’s confession: I’ve been hoovering ’70s Doctor Who episodes lately, marveling at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s resourceful, inspired, and fantastic sound design for the show. When you talk about guitar effects and Doctor Who, you’re usually talking about ring modulation (the effect behind the voices of the evil Daleks, among other things). Dream Station isn’t a modulator in a formal sense, but its capacity for tight, comb filtered delays at super-short echo settings generates sounds much like ring modulation bouncing around a tunnel—a texture few echo or delay units bother with. Dream Station excels at another vintage sci-fi effect: spiraling flying saucer take offs and landings. That’s thanks to knobs that are spaced and arranged to facilitate simultaneous manual sweeps of the echo time and mix, evoking the sounds and functionality of the Roland Space Echo and EHX Deluxe Memory Man. If you’re a guitarist who dabbles in tabletop synthesis or uses guitar pedals for mixing, this capability extends the Dream Station’s utility and fun quotient in a big way.

Some of the Dream Station’s most unique effects—the comb filter/ring mod effect among them—are attributable to the 3-position filter mode switch, which activates a high-pass filter, low-pass filter, or a full-frequency setting. Use of the high-pass filter, which makes echoes extra prominent, lends a sort of metallic dew-drop quality to repeats at high feedback and a sharp, tile-like attack in slapback settings. The dark voice is predictably analog-like. But its slurred, cloudy repeats take on very different personalities depending on where you situate them using the wet/dry mix knob. At high mixes, they have a spooky, hollowed-out, almost gamelan-like essence that sounds extra haunted with heaps of reverb and long repeats. At more modest mixes, these repeats are a delicious match for drive generated by picking dynamics, contributing satisfying, blurry distortion when you hit the strings hard, and more bell-like sounds when you kick back and chill. The full-spectrum voice is the Dream Station at its most open and sprawling. Paired with longer delay times and the reverb, the full voice sounds big enough to be measured in astrophysical terms. And if you’re a fan of grand-scale ambience without the sugary addition of octave voices, it’s hard to imagine the Dream Station coming up short in terms of space or size.

The Moonbeam: Phase Beyond the Dark Side

I don’t know about you, but I seem to reflexively subject any analog phaser to a “Breathe” test. I don’t consciously compare every phaser to the sound of David Gilmour’s swooshy Uni-Vibe. But the lazy, time-stretching phase that colors those sleepy opening chords is like catnip to me. The Moonbeam’s name may or may not be a cheeky nod to Pink Floyd’s mega-selling classic (DBA’s Interstellar Overdriver pedal suggests they are more squarely in the Syd Barrett camp) but it excels in that context. And just as the real dark side of the moon conceals secrets from us here on Earth, the Moonbeam’s three knobs belie great depth, complexity and, yes, lunacy.

The Moonbeam’s earthy-to-insane sonic range is, at the fundamental level, made possible by two phase engines, which can be used in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6-stage modes. But the richness and weirdness are compounded as much by the range in the frequency and depth controls, both of which go beyond the conventions of more pedestrian phasers.

At the risk of oversimplifying, phase stages are all-pass filters. These filters don’t affect the amplitude of a given frequency, but they can be used to delay a signal relative to another, creating the phasing effect. Odd-numbered phase stages are not intrinsically, well, odd. But compared to even-numbered phase stages they produce fewer of the symmetrical notches in phase-shifted waveforms that make a phaser sound chewy, rich, and all those other yummy phase descriptors. In practical terms that means the Moonbeam’s 1-, 3-, and 5-stage phaser modes all sound thinner and more “snorkely” than their even-numbered counterparts in a way that’s analogous to a wah parked in a fixed position. DBA makes effective, if perverse, use of these odd-numbered phase stages. In 3-stage mode I uncovered cool unique auto wah sounds and weird variations on volume swell effects. In the 1-stage setting, the more binary, less vowel-inflected phase pulses could sound like vintage practice-amp tremolo. And in all three odd-numbered phase stages, weird harmonic peaks lent a quirky attitude to Nile Rodgers funk.

“In all three of the Moonbeam's odd-numbered phase stages, weird harmonic peaks lent a quirky attitude to Nile Rodgers funk.”

The Moonbeam sounds great in the even-numbered stages, too. The 4-stage mode sounded nearly equivalent to a favorite script-style MXR Phase 90. Except, of course, the Moonbeam’s 4-stage mode was capable of that and much more. Minimum depth settings, for instance, make the Moonbeam ideal for players who rarely switch their phasers off—generating subtle animation that enlivens arpeggios, leads, and the simplest strumming. Higher depth control settings also helped the Moonbeam approximate a Small Stone’s color switch mode, as well as a fast-pulsing Leslie speaker.

The Verdict

Death By Audio pedals always feel like a bit of an investment, as they should—these stompboxes are handmade in New York City by creative people that give a damn. They look fantastic and come with a lifetime warranty. If you were ever concerned that the esoteric nature of some DBA pedals could mean less return on your investment, you needn’t worry here. The Dream Station and Moonbeam can work in service of utility or in pursuit of the demented. They sound beautiful in stereo (which requires appropriate TRS cabling), and have a low noise floor that makes them suitable for mixing or artists working in quieter settings. In terms of pure value, I have to give the nod to the Dream Station for its range. But both pedals are full of potential for any player keen to use these effects beyond their most basic applications.

Danelectro, known for their irresistibly iconic guitars, launches their new DANO guitar line.

Borrowing styling cues from the company’s storied past, while adding modern playability and new sonic options, the DANO line was one of the biggest highlights at the recent NAMM show, grabbing attention with three new series:

• Golden 50s: The show-stopping body/headstock graphic is borrowed from an authentic 1950s kitchen table top and combined with a pair of hot Lipstick® pickups

• The Dan O. Cool series, sporting rare and evocative vintage colors from the 1950s with a pair of higher output Lipstick® pickups

• The Dan O. Mano series, armed with a pair of P-90 style pickups providing a dynamite match for the DANO's hollow inner body and rosewood bridge

With their Atomic Age styling – drawing heavily upon Danelectro’s boldly original 1950s roots – and turbocharged retro vibe, the DANO line might be the company’s most true-to-the-spirit guitars ever. Key features include:

• Full Bell Headstock, a Danelectro original design dating back to 1954
• Rosewood Saddle Bridge, another feature from 1954 prized by generations of players for its warm tone
• Skate Key Tuners, gloriously recapturing the Danelectro vibe from 1958 with smooth, modern tuning accuracy
• Ultracool vintage colors – all of them authentic to the 1950s
• And every DANO® guitar comes with a FREE 8-page collectable reproduction of a Danelectro catalog from the 1950s!

The new DANO® line brings modern playability to the vintage-inspired lineup. An adjustable saddle bridge is included free in the box with every guitar. It mounts with the same three screws as the stock rosewood bridge. Now, each player can enjoy their preferred bridge: vintage-style rosewood or modern adjustable saddles.The DANO line’s electronics offer a perfect bridge between old-school tone and contemporary tastes. The new Lipstick pickups (available on the Golden 50s and Dan O. Cool series) are made exactly like vintage gems from the 1950’s but are 30% hotter in the bridge and 20% hotter in the neck for sweet, harmonically rich tone. And the Dan O. Mano series’ P-90 style pickups (a first for Danelectro!) pair beautifully with the guitar’s rosewood bridge.The new DANO® instruments carry street prices ranging from $599 to $649. For more information visit danelectro.com

For decades, the Gibson Custom Shop has set the global standard for craftsmanship, authenticity, and artistry in the world of electric guitars. Each instrument is built with uncompromising attention to detail, honoring the legacy of the world’s most iconic players while inspiring the next generation of musicians.

Gibson Custom is proud to announce the release of the Mick Ronson 1968 Les Paul Custom Collector’s Edition, an extraordinary, ultra‑limited recreation of the legendary guitarist’s most iconic instrument. Long celebrated as a producer, arranger, songwriter, multi‑instrumentalist, and one of rock’s most distinctive guitar voices, Mick Ronson left an indelible mark on modern music—and his stripped‑finish 1968 Les Paul Custom became a defining part of his sound, style, and legacy. Only 100 of the Mick Ronson 1968 Les Paul Custom Collector’s Edition from Gibson Custom are available worldwide at authorized dealers, Gibson Garage locations, and on www.gibson.com.

One of rock music’s most distinctive and quietly influential guitarists, Mick Ronson was far more than David Bowie’s right-hand man during the most transformative years of Bowie’s career. He was a producer, arranger, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and a guitarist whose dramatic, melodic, and unmistakably aggressive style helped define an era. His work as an arranger shaped recordings for artists such as David Bowie, Lou Reed, Pure Prairie League, Ellen Foley, and Roger McGuinn, and he contributed to the arrangement of John Mellencamp’s “Jack & Diane.”

Ronson was instrumental in shaping “Perfect Day” for Lou Reed’s 1972 album Transformer, acting as co-producer, pianist, and string arranger helping shape its glam-infused sound world with a craftsman’s precision and a showman’s flair. His work provided the song’s signature lush, melancholic, and dramatic feel, a sweeping emotional landscape that contrasted beautifully with Reed’s simple, intimate vocal performance. Ronson’s piano on “Perfect Day” is one of his finest and most sublime productions—restrained, elegant, and quietly devastating. His broader contributions to Transformer—from arranging its iconic string parts to playing guitar and piano—were central to the album’s enduring character.

His collaborations with Ian Hunter, his session work with Bob Dylan, Roger Daltrey, and Van Morrison, and his production for artists including Morrissey and Roger McGuinn showcased a rare musical versatility.

Ronson’s own solo career included five studio albums, among them Slaughter on 10th Avenue, which reached the UK Top 10. Yet it is his work with Bowie on The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and Aladdin Sane that cemented his place in rock history.

Central to Ronson’s sound was his beloved 1968 Les Paul Custom, an instrument he famously stripped of its original Ebony finish, giving it a raw, distinctive look that became inseparable from his identity. Its tone—shaped by Ronson’s use of a parked wah pedal, fuzz, and echo—was as bold and expressive as his stage presence. Now, Gibson Custom honors that legacy with a faithful recreation that captures the soul, character, and unmistakable aesthetic of Ronson’s original Bowie-era guitar. The Mick Ronson 1968 Les Paul Custom Collector’s Edition has been handcrafted with extraordinary attention to detail, using ultra-precise Murphy Lab aging techniques to replicate every nuance of the original instrument’s wear, feel, and sonic personality.

“Mick Ronson is a true musical legend, and his impact—delivered in far too short a time—cannot be overstated. As a writer, producer, singer, and one of the most influential guitarists of his generation, Mick helped shape the very sound of the 1970s through his work with David Bowie, Lou Reed, Mott the Hoople, Elton John, and countless others” says Lee Bartram, Head of Commercial and Marketing EMEA at Gibson. “His solo records and wide-ranging collaborations continued to inspire fans and peers up to his untimely passing in 1993, and they still do today. The world misses Mick Ronson more than it likely knows. Our hope is that this project advances the broader recognition he so richly deserves. For Gibson, it’s an honor and a privilege to help celebrate the legacy he left us.”

This limited-edition model features a mahogany body with a plain maple cap, a mahogany neck carved to an Authentic ’68 Medium C profile, and an ebony fretboard adorned with mother-of-pearl block inlays. The aged gold hardware, including Grover tuners, an ABR-1 bridge, and a heavily worn Stop Bar tailpiece, mirrors the exact look of Ronson’s road-tested guitar. Even the mismatched volume and tone knobs have been faithfully reproduced. The unpotted, aged ’68 Custom humbuckers with Alnico 2 magnets and no covers deliver the aggressive, expressive tone that defined Ronson’s playing, while CTS 500k audio taper potentiometers and Black Beauty capacitors ensure vintage-accurate response. Every Murphy Lab detail—from the stripped top to the precise wear patterns—captures the essence of Ronson’s original instrument.

Only 100 of these exceptional guitars have been built by the expert luthiers of the Gibson Custom Shop and Murphy Lab in Nashville, Tennessee, making this a rare opportunity for collectors and musicians alike. Each guitar ships in a Custom case featuring a reproduction of Mick Ronson’s signature, along with a replica strap and a Certificate of Authenticity booklet that also bears his signature. The Mick Ronson 1968 Les Paul Custom Collector’s Edition is more than an instrument; it is a piece of music history, lovingly recreated to honor one of the world’s most iconic and influential guitarists

Outer space awaits in two new pedals from DBA that span pedestrian and bizarre sound worlds.

The Dream Station is like two Death By Audio pedals in one! It’s an instant mood creator, blending DBA-style reverb and delay to plunge your signal into a vivid fantasy hallucination. Three filter settings let you radically shape the tone and character of the effects, opening up a myriad of soundscapes at your fingertips and exploding your sound into super-wide stereo.

From shimmering, lush pads to wild slapback insanity, ping-pong comb filtering, and swirling atmospherics, the Dream Station delivers a full palette of sonic reflection for bending reality and dreams alike. In this compact package, you can create any combination of echo and reverb with the Dream Station’s easy-to-use interface and feel the power of a full-stereo ambience in our smallest reverb ever. With the three filter settings, you can explore different spaces from airy and bright, dark and moody, and full-range digital. And when you really want to go crazy, crank the ECHO F-BACK to blow your bandmates away.

Part of Death By Audio’s Destroyer Series, the Dream Station sports the line’s signature look: a compact footprint, glowing vintage-style LED display, and minimal controls that conceal a world of sonic madness. Each Destroyer pedal delivers a distinct, over-the-top effect in a smaller, stage-friendly box - together forming a family of beautifully chaotic tone machines in stereo.

The Moonbeam Phaser has landed. A stereo, multi-stage phaser like no other, the Moonbeam Phaser lets you completely reshape your sound by choosing between one and six stages of phase shifting for any modulation occasion. With its expansive range of controls, you can instantly explore everything from classic swirling movements to ultra-gooey bends, resonant filtered tremolos, and textures yet to be discovered. Take a trip through the world of tones from beyond the exosphere.

At its core, the Moonbeam Phaser houses two fully analog 6-stage phase shifter engines. You can tap into each stage individually and hear its unique movement as the display morphs through a spectrum of colors that mirror the sound. To unleash the full potential of this unique circuit, we supercharged the FREQ control far beyond the usual range. Drift slowly through 2-minute phase sweeps, dive into liquid swirls, or blast off into ring-modulated frequency shifts. Combined with the DEPTH control, the Moonbeam Phaser opens a vast spectrum of refracted phasing tones- from shimmering rotary-style warbles to deep, resonant bends. And if one phaser wasn’t enough, we’ve packed two phasers in one, letting you bring your guitar, bass, synth, or anything you can imagine into mesmerizing stereo with the click of a stomp.

Part of Death By Audio’s Destroyer Series, the Moonbeam Phaser sports the line’s signature look: a compact footprint, glowing vintage-style LED display, and minimal controls that conceal a world of sonic madness. Each Destroyer pedal delivers a distinct, over-the-top effect in a smaller, stage-friendly box - together forming a family of beautifully chaotic tone machines in stereo.

“Let’s define ‘music’ for a second,” says Deftones guitarist Stephen “Stef” Carpenter. “To me, music is the performance of sound. That sound could be anything, and it becomes musical if I can recreate it. So if there’s a sound I can make, and I can do that with intent every time—to me, that's music.”

This ethos essentially sums up how Carpenter has helped shape Deftones’ densely heavy and alluringly atmospheric music over the past 35 years. Because for Stef, it’s always been less about playing blindingly fast licks or complex riffs and more about coming up with unusual sounds, textures, and chords that enrich and intertwine with the songs that he and his bandmates create together.

“I’m not a technical player,” he says. “I play guitar, and I play it very simplistic; I’m not complicated at all—I leave that for all the players that want to do that. That’s not to say I don’t love math-y, complicated guitar riffs; I absolutely do. It’s just that none of that has been my focus. I absolutely love players that can do phenomenal things. I’m just not interested in doing that myself.

“As a band, we are all very interested in how it sounds,” he continues. “When it comes to why it sounds that way, we don’t talk about it or go into all those things in any great depth. But the thing I think we would all agree on is that we want the sound; we are all about listening for and hearing the little nuances. We’re very much into all the little nuances of things.”

Those “little nuances”—as well as Carpenter’s gigantic power chords—can be heard throughout Deftones’ catalog, including last year’s Private Music, their 10th album. The band’s first new studio full-length since 2020’s Ohms, the effort, co-produced by the band with Nick Raskulinecz, was released in August, 2025, to massive critical acclaim and commercial success, giving Deftones their first-ever #1 on Billboard’s Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart. “My mind is a mountain,” the album’s lead single, also became the band’s first song to reach #1 at U.S. radio, topping Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs and Mainstream Rock Airplay charts.

Stef Carpenter’s Gear

Guitars

• ESP LTD SCT-607B Stephen Carpenter Signature 7-string Baritone
• ESP LTD Stephen Carpenter SC-608 Signature 8-string Baritone
• Kiesel Vader 8-string Baritone

Amps, Cabs, Emulators, Routers, & Receivers

• Bogner Uber Ultra
• Bogner 2x12 UberKabs
• Bogner 4x12 UberKabs
• Soldano SLO-100 Super Lead Overdrive
• Fractal Axe-Fx II
• Rivera Mini RockRec Power Attenuator
• Radial JX44 V2 Guitar & Amp Signal Manager
• Shure AD4Q Digital Wireless Receiver

Effects

• Boss FZ-1W Fuzz
• DigiTech Whammy Ricochet Pitch Shift
• Dunlop DVP4 Volume (X) Mini Pedal
• Eventide H9 Harmonizer
• Line 6 Helix
• Pigtronix Gatekeeper Noise Gate
• Strymon BigSky Multidimensional Reverb
• Strymon Mobius Multidimensional Modulation
• Strymon TimeLine Multidimensional Delay
• TC Electronic 2290 Dynamic Digital Delay
• TC Electronic PolyTune 3 Noir
• Voodoo Lab HEX True Bypass Audio Loop Switcher
• Xotic SP Mini Compressor
• ZVEX Fuzz Factory
• ZVEX Machine (custom)

Stef’s signature 7- and 8-string ESP baritone guitars, long a central element of the Deftones sound, lent significant sonic heft to Private Music tracks like “milk of the madonna,” “cut hands,” and “i think about you all the time.” But the album also marked the first time that Stef employed headless Kiesel Vader 8-strings in the studio, which he acquired shortly before the sessions began.

“We have a friend, Chrys Johnson, who’s the A&R person for Kiesel,” Stef explains. “He’s done A&R for other companies as well, so we've known him through other endorsers throughout the years. And he had asked if I was interested in trying a Kiesel. At the time, I had just received one of their guitars from Marc [Okubo] of Veil of Maya; I had randomly asked him about why he switched from Jackson to Kiesel, and I guess he was having some guitars made at the time, so they sent me one of his guitars that he was getting made. I was very shocked and blown away by that—I had never received a guitar from anybody.” Carpenter laughs. “And then I was talking to Chris after that, and he’s like, ‘If there’s anything on the website that you’re interested in, just let me know, and I’ll have something put together.’”

“I absolutely love players that can do phenomenal things. I’m just not interested in doing that myself.”

Stef found himself especially intrigued by the company’s headless Vader model, which was available in 6-, 7-, and 8-string editions. “I wasn’t even seeking out a headless guitar,” he shrugs. “I’d never played one, but there was something about the Vader that really attracted me. And I wasn’t trying to get with a different guitar company; that had never been anything I was ever interested in. But I decided I really wanted a headless guitar, and ESP doesn’t make one.”

Stef continues, “It turned out that Jeff Kiesel was already a huge Deftones fan, and he built me a Vader himself. He’s super dope, just an awesome person, and he’s become a friend. I was moved by their generosity—and, well, it’s a headless guitar!” (Kiesel has since released a limited-edition 8-string Stef Carpenter Signature Model in all-white and all-black iterations, both outfitted with the same Stef Carpenter Signature Fishman Fluence pickups used in his ESP signature models.)

The Kiesels have become an integral part of Stef’s live arsenal as well. “When it comes to performing most of our songs, I can use either my ESPs or my Kiesels to play them,” he says. “It won’t make a difference.” The band’s 2000 effort, White Pony, he says, “is our only record where I have to use my ESPs versus using my Kiesels, because there’s some songs from that where I play the little bits above the nut on the headstock, as well as below the bridge on the strings as they’re going into the body.”

Of course, Stef always brings a veritable platoon of 7- and 8-string guitars with him on the road, due to the various alternate tunings that he began using on the second Deftones record, 1997’s Around the Fur. “Had I not done all that in the past, I could learn all the old songs on the 8-string, which I didn’t start playing until [2010’s] Diamond Eyes,” he says. “But they would be new versions of the songs—they wouldn’t sound the same, and keeping everything consistent is what I go for.

“Every day, I was just shy of crying from pain that was in my right arm; I couldn’t even move it.”

“On this record, I went back to what I was doing on the Koi record [2012’s Koi No Yokan], which is standard 8-string tuning—F#–B–E–A–D–G–B–E—with the top [low] string dropped to E [low to high: E–B–E–A–D–G–B–E]. And I did that because, at the time, I had met Tosin [Abasi] from Animals As Leaders, as well as the guys from Periphery and the Contortionist. They were all amazing dudes and amazing players, and they were all like, ‘We’re playing drop E!’

“So I went to drop E for the Koi record, and I went back to that for this record, because Koi is our record that I enjoy playing the most; I have the most fun playing those songs, physically speaking. But whether it’s the F#-standard tuning or the drop E, they inspire me to do different things on the 8-string; I feel like I can get things out of each one that I can’t get out of the other.”

Stef also switched things up, amplifier-wise, on Private Music. An early adopter of amp modelers, he’s unfortunately had some well-documented difficulties with his digital equipment over the years. “That’s when my struggle began, really, when I left the analog world,” he reflects. “When I initially started using the Fractal Axe-Fx Ultra, I didn’t have any problem with it, because I was just kind of treating it like a preamp. And then I got the Axe-Fx II when they became available. What had really drawn me to them initially was the tone-matching capability; that’s why I got really sucked in. Because, for me, I was like, ‘Oh man, I’m gonna be able to get all the sounds from all the records, so I’ll be able to bring that kind of audio to the live sound, where I can have each song sounding similar to how the record sounds!’ I was so excited about that.”

He continues, “It wasn’t until we got out of the studio, and we started actually living in the real world as a band again, that I started having all the problems with trying to make the digital world sound like it did to me in the analog world. Sitting in front of some recording monitors, you can do that a lot easier, but in the jam room, where we’re actually performing as a band, I did not understand how to make that become a reality, and it never did, the way I had it set up. The thing that I was lacking was just simply the thing that a real amp gives. There’s a certain feeling; you just play on them enough and you’ll feel it. It’s not an audio thing, it’s not something my ears were recognizing. It was just the way it feels, the overall experience. A tube amp is alive, just as you are, but we don’t often recognize—or we take for granted—the fact that there’s this living piece of machinery that’s interacting with you, as well as you with it.”

“I wasn’t even seeking out a headless guitar. I’d never played one, but there was something about the [Kiesel] Vader that really attracted me.”

To reconnect with that feeling, Stef had his collection of high-gain tube heads brought into the studio when it came time to record his parts on Private Music. “I’ve been collecting them over the last 10 years,” he explains. “I didn’t know how they would sound or anything, but I decided I’d at least throw them in the mix and see what happens. I’ve got an entire collection of Bogners; those are my preferred and my favorite, but they weren’t the only ones I brought down. I brought Fryettes, I brought out my Orange amps, my Rivera, my Diezel, my Soldanos. The Soldano SLO-100, man, that amp is amazing! We busted that thing out on many little bits throughout the record.”

The experience of recording with the tube heads inspired Stef to have his live rig entirely rebuilt by Dave Friedman and Greg Dubinovskiy, Stef’s guitar tech, with his Bogner Uber Ultra heads at the center of his setup. “There’s nothing wrong with the digital equipment, whatsoever,” Stef insists. “I mean, for what it does, what it has to offer and what it provides people? That shit’s amazing. But ultimately, I just had so much fun in the studio with the tube amps. My guitar tech, Greg Dubinovskiy, set all my gear up; he was dialing shit in as I tracked. I didn’t turn a knob—I didn’t even plug in,” he laughs. “I was just playing, and enjoying the moment of being there and being able to actually contribute physically.”

Indeed, there were points during the creation of Private Music where Stef’s ability to contribute seemed worryingly limited, largely due to the physical and psychological effects of what was finally diagnosed as Type 2 diabetes. “I had no clue what I was going through,” he says. “I’d just been so out of it for the past four or five years—all the things that go with poor diet and poor exercise, that’s what I experienced.

“During the whole writing process, I was just tired, but I was not connecting how I felt to what I was doing,” he recalls. “When we went in to start tracking the music, thankfully we got all of our scratch tracks done, because shortly after that, something had got me all messed up. Like, every day, I was just shy of crying from pain that was in my right arm. I couldn’t even move it. I did what I could to just take care of myself—at least as best as I understood what I was going through. And thankfully, when it was time to actually track my guitar parts, my body was feeling better, and I was able to physically do what I had to do.”

But rather than get to the root of his physical challenges, Steph simply chalked it up to the aging process. “I just thought it was old-man life shit,” the 55-year-old guitarist says now. It was only after experiencing more difficulties while performing with Deftones at Coachella in 2024 (“I was just trying not to fall over,” he says) that his bandmates successfully convinced him to seek medical help.

“I was self-medicating, hoping I was doing the right thing, and always hoping things would get better so I wouldn’t have to do any of that,” he admits. “But unfortunately, you can only kick a can so far down the road before you run out of road.”

“The sounds those [MRI] machines make are so wild. The techs were like, ‘You can listen to music while we’re doing it.’ And I'm like, ‘No—I want to listen to the machine!’”

Now markedly slimmed down after changing his diet, Carpenter seems to be doing much better, both physically and mentally. “I’m very glad I got help,” he says. “Type 2 diabetes was affecting me on a number of levels for a long time, and I’m grateful to have that information now and be able to deal with it. I’m also really grateful to everyone else in the band—their positive energy really carried me through that period of time, and really carried us through the making of the album.”

If there’s a silver lining to Stef’s medical odyssey, it’s that his health challenges may have inspired him to chase some new sounds for the next Deftones record. “I’ve had two MRIs in the last year,” he says, “and each time, I found myself thinking, ‘Man, how can I bring a recorder in here and record it?’”

Carpenter laughs. “The sounds those machines make are so wild. The techs were like, ‘You can listen to music while we’re doing it.’ And I’m like, ‘No—I want to listen to the machine!’”

He may now have his own signature guitar with Schecter, but Aaron Marshall hasn’t forgotten the rig that started it all.

In a new interview with D’Addario, Marshall revisits his early musical journey – including the humble high school setup he claims would “still smoke most rigs these days”.

Like many players, Marshall’s obsession with music came before the instrument itself.

“As a kid, the first thing I fixated on or latched onto was certainly music. Guitar entered the picture after hounding my parents for drums, funny enough, which did happen,” says the Intervals guitarist. “But the pivotal moment was.. our first DVD player.” More specifically, Carlos Santana’s Supernatural Live on DVD.

• READ MORE: “I committed to poverty for that”: Whitesnake’s Joel Hoekstra says you have “a hole in your head” if you get into music for money

“Watching that at home in the living room was kind of a crazy experience,” Marshall recalls. “I was probably blown away by how enamoured my parents were with it, so I actually gave it some attention. And it made me wanna explore music. That was probably the catalyst for my dad taking me to a pawn shop and we got my first acoustic guitar. ‘Oh, okay, well, we’ll start with that. See if you like it. See if you commit.’”

As with many first acoustics, it felt enormous.

“I could barely get my arm over it,” he says. “And did that for a while, and then it became a Stratocaster. I learned everything from Blink-182 to Slipknot on that thing.”

Not long after, Marshall found himself in his first band: “[It] was not too long after discovering the guitar. I’d say ninth grade. I remember a friend who was a drummer who’s a couple grades ahead of me. I guess there weren’t a lot of options… and they wanted someone to come play guitar in their band, and it was like the first time anyone had given me a shot.”

What followed was, in his words, “your quintessential first emo band” – and a rig that still earns his respect.

“The rig was the midnight blue made-in-Mexico Stratocaster into a [Fender] Hot Rod Deluxe with a [Boss] Metal Zone. That’ll still smoke most rigs these days too,” Marshall insists. “I was in like a progressive metal band, kind of like Between the Buried and Me, Protest the Hero. And I did that up until I left those guys and started doing Intervals like 15 years ago.”

Check out the full interview below.

The post Aaron Marshall says his old Strat-Metal Zone setup from ninth grade would “still smoke most rigs these days” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

With an often-cited collection of over 600 instruments, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry is as prolific a guitar collector as he is a riff writer.

And in a new interview with Guitar World, Perry highlights some of his favourites from his collection, including the custom Gibson BB King Lucille he had designed to celebrate his longtime wife, Billie Paulette Montgomery. The guitar – which features a painting of Billie’s face on its lower bout – has attracted considerable attention when he has brought it out on stage over the years.

• READ MORE: “The fact Wolfgang trusted us to come in and not totally ruin the legacy meant a lot”: Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti on recording the new Alter Bridge album at 5150

“I got that in the ‘90s,” Perry explains. “The main reason for that guitar is that I love history, and I was looking back and fascinated by what they call ‘nose art’. Pilots would have artwork on the nose of their planes in World Wars I and II, and it would be pictures of their favourite movie starlet or their wife, and they’d name the plane after them.

“I thought, ‘Why not do that with my guitar?’ That was the main reason I picked that body style – the BB King Lucille body. It doesn’t have F-holes; I wanted something with plenty of room for the artwork.”

The artwork – designed and painted by Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer’s drum tech John Douglas – was inspired by a number of polaroid photos Perry took of Billie, who the guitar came as a massive surprise to when it was first revealed to her.

“She had no idea this was going on!” Perry continues, reflecting on the moment she saw it. “Billie just stood there for a second, and they came out with this guitar case and said, ‘Close your eyes.’ We opened it up, and she turned beet red. 

“Long story short, she wouldn’t come out when I’d put the guitar on; she’d kind of leave the side of the stage because she was so embarrassed about it. She’s not somebody who looks for the spotlight, but she got used to it.”

Perry continues: “Sometimes I would stand out at the end of the ramp, and the girls in the crowd would point to the picture on the guitar and want to know who it was. I’d point to my wedding ring, and they would melt. They thought it was so romantic!”

The guitar wasn’t just a DIY job, though; it came as an official collaborative work between Joe Perry, John Douglas and Gibson.

“I took some pictures of Billie with a polaroid and got the guitar from Gibson, who were in on the plot,” Perry recalls. “I had them paint it pearl white but without the final touches so that John could paint it.

“There’s a picture on the front of the guitar and on the back, and I picked white because I thought the artwork would stand out. Again, I was driven by the visuals. [laughs] After John painted it, it went back to Gibson, and they put the neck and their touches on it and finished it with the electronics… That happened in Nashville, where I got to go to the factory and check out the stuff at the Custom Shop.

The post “Girls in the crowd would want to know who it was. I’d point to my wedding ring and they’d melt!”: Joe Perry on his custom Gibson BB King “Billie” Lucille appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Press Release

Source: National GUITAR Museum

The National GUITAR Museum announced that Ritchie Blackmore, the esteemed guitar legend whose vast career spans more than 60 years, has received its annual “Lifetime Achievement” Award. Blackmore is the sixteenth recipient of the award.

Ritchie Blackmore joins previous award winners including Honeyboy Edwards, Jeff Beck, Bonnie Raitt, Liona Boyd, Jose Feliciano, and B.B. King. Recipients are recognized for a lifetime of contributing to the legacy of the guitar and having a singular historical importance to the development and historical appreciation of the instrument.

According to HP Newquist, NGM executive director “Most people know Ritchie from being the driving creative force behind two of the defining hard rock bands of all time—Deep Purple and Rainbow. But before starting those bands, he had a long career as a London session musician, performing on records by numerous artists, including The Outlaws. And then—after helping to define hard rock guitar in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s—he formed Blackmore’s Night, incorporating medieval and Renaissance acoustic music into his immense repertoire.”

Said Blackmore, “I’m rather thrown by the magnitude of this honorable award. I am grateful to accept this award and this recognition.”

Blackmore’s guitar playing has inspired countless numbers of musicians to follow in his wake, and very few guitarists can match his lifetime of achievements. His influence is pervasive amongst players in a wide variety of genres, from blues-rock and heavy metal on to neoclassical and pop rock. It is conceivable that every electric guitarist on the planet has learned how to play the riff Blackmore came up with for “Smoke On The Water.”

Added Newquist, “It’s difficult to find any modern guitarist who has incorporated so many diverse styles into their playing—and then fused them all into something recognizably their own over their entire career. Ritchie was one of the first electric guitarists to add classical melodicism to his playing, along with classical speed and finesse. I think that most of the early ’80s guitarists who played lightning fast riffs and claimed to be learning from Bach and Mozart were, in fact, borrowing from Ritchie.”

Ritchie Blackmore joins previous Lifetime Achievement Award recipients:

2010: David Honeyboy Edwards

2011: Roger McGuinn

2012: B.B. King

2013: Vic Flick

2014: Buddy Guy

2015: Tony Iommi

2016: Glen Campbell

2017: Bonnie Raitt

2018: Liona Boyd

2019: Jose Feliciano

2020: Eddie Van Halen (in memoriam)

2021: Al Di Meola

2022: Jeff Beck

2023: Tommy Emmanuel

2024: Alex Lifeson

2025: Ritchie Blackmore

• More on Ritchie Blackmore

https://www.blackmoresnight.com/

• About The National GUITAR Museum

The National GUITAR Museum is the only museum in the world dedicated to the history, evolution, and cultural impact of the guitar. Its touring exhibitions have been featured in more than 60 museums worldwide.

In the coming year, those exhibitions will become the basis of The National GUITAR Museum and its permanent home.

For more information, contact The National GUITAR Museum at director@nationalguitarmuseum.com

Alter Bridge guitarists Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti have reflected on the honour of recording their latest album at Eddie Van Halen’s legendary 5150 Studios.

The band’s self-titled eighth album arrived in January, and saw Kennedy, Tremonti and co enter the hallowed ground of 5150 in Los Angeles, California. And in a new interview with Guitar World, the guitarists reveal how the opportunity came about.

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“Wolf was incredibly kind enough to bring that offer up with our manager,” Kennedy says. “We were like, ‘Really?’ We knew the history of all the incredible music that had been made there. Just the fact that he trusted us enough to come in and not totally ruin the legacy really meant a lot. When we all showed up, we were very cognisant of that, and we wanted to honour the situation.

“If you know you’re going into this sacred ground where all these incredible riffs have been constructed and recorded, the last thing you want to do is show up empty-handed. It was definitely fuel for the creative fire.”

Asked whether a Van Halen flavour worked its way into the songs on Alter Bridge, Tremonti says, “We by no means sound like Van Halen in any way or form. But you can feel the spirit of the band and Eddie in that room.”

“The riff for Silent Divide has definitely got an ‘80s vibe. Mark kept comparing it to an old Judas Priest riff, but with the way I keep coming back to that chugging on the low D, I think of a riff like Unchained.

“Those were such important riffs for me. Does it sound like Unchained? No, but there’s definitely that element there.”

“I try to explain to people that 5150 Studios isn’t some sterile environment where they’re cleaning up for the next band to come in. It was pretty much left the way [Van Halen] used it last. Wolfie has a great Neve console in there now, but it’s pretty much the same letters on the kitchen fridge; there’s the 5150 necklace hanging over the door – all the cool stuff that was there when those guys were there.”

Listen to Alter Bridge’s new album below:

The post “The fact Wolfgang trusted us to come in and not totally ruin the legacy meant a lot”: Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti on recording the new Alter Bridge album at 5150 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Things have taken a strange turn in the CKY camp. Last week, bassist Mike Leon announced his departure from the band, citing what he describes as a toxic and increasingly unworkable environment driven by frontman Chad I Ginsburg.

Ginsburg has since publicly disputed the claims, insisting Leon was actually fired for entirely different reasons, including an alleged dislike of touring with dogs.

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Taking to Instagram on Friday (20 February), Leon confirmed he would not be joining the band for its upcoming shows. The bassist – formerly of Soulfly – says his stint in CKY began as a dream opportunity but ultimately unravelled behind the scenes.

“I want to let you know that my time with CKY has come to an end. Growing up, I was a huge fan of the band, and getting the opportunity to play with them was a dream come true. I genuinely enjoyed my time there, and it was fun… until it wasn’t.”

“For full transparency, I will not be participating in the band’s upcoming shows,” says Leon. “As unfortunate as this is, given the circumstances, I believe this was the right move to make. The differences regarding logistics and business decisions, primarily driven by the actions of the band’s leader [Ginsburg], created internal issues that made an already stressful environment increasingly difficult to work in.”

The bassist also alleges long-standing issues within the band’s leadership, saying “this unprofessionalism and lack of accountability was known well before I joined, and persisted throughout my time with the band, making day-to-day operations a constant challenge. The love I had for the band blinded me to the red flags my peers and the band’s previous history had warned me about, especially surrounding the frontman, yet I chose to believe things would be different.”

“In all of my years of working in this industry, I have never experienced this level of toxicity from an individual, and it stings extra having been perpetrated by the very band that first inspired me to start my career as a musician,” the statement continues.

“Music should be a source of joy, but the environment became a source of stress that ultimately outweighed the positive aspects of being part of the band I grew up loving. I will continue creating music, and I sincerely thank all of you for your unconditional support.”

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Ginsburg has since responded via Instagram Stories [via Stereogum], flatly rejecting Leon’s version of events.

“I don’t know what Mike Leon is talking about in his post. However, I do know the facts and the facts are, Mike, and you know them too, is that we fired you last night because you hate dogs and you didn’t want to tour with the dogs and you wanted more money and you weren’t happy with anything ever. So unfortunately it’s not working out, Mike. But what you wrote is fucking crazy, dude. Like, prove any of that fucking shit.”

The musician then posted requests for bassists from Nashville to DM their auditions to the band.

The public fallout adds to a turbulent chapter for CKY. In 2024, Alien Ant Farm frontman Dryden Mitchell kicked the band from a tour after Ginsburg reportedly punched him during a backstage altercation.

The post “We fired you last night because you hate dogs”: CKY frontman makes bizarre claim over bassist’s exit appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Getting into music with dreams of dollar signs dancing in your head? Well you might want to think again. Such is the advice of Whitesnake guitar hotshot Joel Hoekstra, who likens the music industry to the “Wild West” – chaotic, unpredictable, and with no guaranteed path to fame or fortune.

Now 55, Hoekstra – who also logs arena miles with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra – says he never imagined a life on the big stage. Raised in the blue-collar suburbs of Chicago, the odds weren’t exactly stacked in his favour.

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“We were poor, quite frankly. We had no money. We grew up in a blue-collar area, the suburbs of Chicago, where none of this was supposed to happen for me, like literally none,” he tells Guitar World [via Blabbermouth]. “So, for me to get to the point where, through hard work and, I guess, a bit of luck, you find yourself able to do some great things.”

“And then, in a way, I’m playing with house money, but in a way, I wanna see how far it can all go. So I just keep pushing and hope for the best. But that being said, I know my limitations as a guitar player and I know my fortes, I suppose. I just try to work at music every day and see where it all takes me.”

If there’s a master plan, it’s a simple one: making a living with his instrument.

“I’ve never really had any grand plan beyond being a professional guitar player,” Hoekstra admits. “As funny as that sounds, for the guy that ended up on stage with Whitesnake throwing shapes with the long hair and everything like that, the most important thing for me was to make a living with my guitar. That’s what I set out to do as a kid. And I committed to poverty for that. I went, like, ‘Okay, I’m probably gonna be poor the rest of my life.’”

That willingness to accept instability, Hoekstra stresses, is part of the job description.

“You have to have that ability, I think, to get into music,” says the guitarist. “If you’re getting into music to make money, man, you have a hole in your head, man, ‘cause you could get any other job and work much, much easier hours and have a nice, clear path to do so, where music is like the Wild West, I think. It’s, like, anything can happen at any point in time.”

Still, it’s not all caution tape and tumbleweeds. If the industry is unpredictable, it’s also more accessible than ever. Hoekstra points out that players today are armed with tools he could only dream of when he was starting out: affordable home studios, and direct access to audiences and collaborators across the globe at the click of a button.

“It’s possible through hard work. And I think that should definitely ring true for any younger players out there now,” he says. “Especially with the Internet, the world has shrunk. You can get your music out to anybody, and home recording has gotten to the point where you can make a professional record right there where you are.”

“So I don’t care where you are – if you’re located in a more rural area, if you still have the ambition to reach out to name players and try to expand your name, and obviously things being in the digital domain like they are, you never know where that can take you.”

The post “I committed to poverty for that”: Whitesnake’s Joel Hoekstra says you have “a hole in your head” if you get into music for money appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Canadian pop-punk band Victories revealed that its lead guitarist has lost two fingers following what was described as a “horrible” work accident.

“Hello everyone. Following a horrible accident, our Victories brother and lead guitarist Steph has lost 2 fingers,” the band shared via Instagram.

“Playing guitar and performing is his life,” the post continued. “We simply cannot imagine the pain that he is going through right now. He is, and will always be, a core part of the Victories family. Though he isn’t personally taking messages, please keep him in your thoughts during this very difficult time.”

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Fans have since flooded the comments section with support, offering encouragement and well-wishes.

“He is very brave … prayers to him,” one user commented. “Just focus on recovery then hopefully you will find a way back to music somehow. God bless.”

Another added, “I can’t imagine the pain he’s in, both physical and mentally… sending love to him and everybody else.”

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It isn’t clear which fingers Stephane lost, though further details were later shared by the band’s bassist, Christopher, who explains that the accident took place on a construction site, where Stephane works outside of music.

“A little over a week ago, Steph was on a job site, he works in construction, and there was an accident, and he lost two-and-a-half of his fingers,” he says in a video update.

“Had it not been for the quick reaction of his brother Pat, I would be telling a eulogy right now instead of answering questions.”

According to Christopher, the guitarist lost a “tremendous amount of blood” and spent more than a week in intensive care. “He’s lucid. He’s in a lot of pain.”

“We don’t know what his road to recovery is going to look like,” Christopher says. “There is two things he loves in life and it’s his son and playing music and what happened put both of those in jeopardy.”

That said, the band remains determined to keep Stephane’s musical contributions front and centre. Before the accident, the musician had tracked guitar parts for six unreleased songs. Victories plans to release the material in stages across the coming months, with the first having arrived on 13 February.

Christopher also explains that the band’s singer, Marc, will take on Stephane’s parts for upcoming live shows. However, he makes clear that the guitarist’s place in the band remains unchanged: “Stef’s spot is his,” he says.

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