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First, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has spent time reading, sharing, and supporting Guitar Lifestyle over the years. What started as a simple place to talk about guitars, players, and gear turned into a community of like-minded people who love the instrument. Your comments, emails, and conversations have meant more than you probably realize. I’ve met a number of people I now call friends from this site.

Today I’m excited to share something new.

Introducing Steady Strum

Going forward, all new posts and updates will live on Steady Strum.

Steady Strum is more than just the next version of the blog — it’s an evolution of the idea behind Guitar Lifestyle. The goal is to create a place that doesn’t just talk about becoming a better guitarist, but actually helps you practice, stay consistent, and grow as a player.

Alongside the new site, I’m also launching the Steady Strum web app, designed to support guitarists in building real practice habits and making steady progress.

This is a tool that I built for myself as much as for anyone else. I started playing guitar a long time ago (longer than I care to admit!), but there are still plenty of gaps in my knowledge and ability. That’s where Steady Strum comes in.

A Quick Look at the Steady Strum App

The Steady Strum app is built around a simple idea: consistent practice is what makes better guitarists. The app helps make that easier with features like:

• Structured practice tools to help guide your sessions
• Progress tracking so you can see how your playing improves over time
• Practice reminders and streaks to help build daily consistency
• Learning resources and exercises designed for real-world guitar growth
• A growing library of content for players at different stages of their journey

It’s still early, and I’m just getting started, but the vision is to build something genuinely useful for guitarists who want to get better.

If you’ve been following Guitar Lifestyle for a while, I hope you’ll come along for this next phase.

Looking Ahead

I have a lot of excitement around what Steady Strum can become — not just a blog, but a platform and set of tools that genuinely help guitarists stay motivated and keep improving.

Thank you again to everyone who has supported Guitar Lifestyle over the years. Your support made this next step possible.

Welcome to Steady Strum.

Gretsch isn’t the first brand that comes to mind when you think ‘metal’. Hell, you could argue several other brands under the Fender umbrella – Charvel, Jackson and EVH – already have that sector covered.

But the good folks at Gretsch seem keen to get in on the drop-tuned, heavy riffing action, too, as they unveil a pair of new baritone models, which aim to bring “essential Gretsch power and fidelity at sub-sonic levels”.

• READ MORE: First a Godzilla Strat, now a PAC-MAN Tele…

Arriving in the brand’s mid-priced Electromatic series and adopting the Jet and CVT blueprints, the new guitars come with extended scale lengths (baritones, duh), plus coil-splittable Twin-Six Alnico humbuckers.

The Electromatic Jet Baritone lands with a massive 29.75” scale length, along with a Performance “C” maple neck and bound rosewood fingerboard, a chambered mahogany body with Comfort Contours and a bound carved maple top.

Meanwhile the CVT – a gretsch design touted by the likes of Rory Gallagher, Jimi Hendrix and Josh Homme – aims to “expand players’ sonic palette and help them descent into uncharted depths”, with a 27” scale length, mahogany body with beveled contours, and like the Jet, a Performance “C” maple neck and bound rosewood fingerboard.

These two guitars are far from the first baritones in the Gretsch lineup, but judging by the demo video below – for which the brand has tapped Loathe guitarist Erik Bickerstaffe – it seems its leaning heavily into the heavy metal angle with this launch.

Price-wise, the Electromatic Jet Baritone clocks in at £609 / €719 / $699, while the Electromatic CVT Baritone is priced at £599 / €709 / $599.

Learn more at Gretsch.

The post Gretsch is metal now? Legendary guitar maker unveils two new baritone models begging for downtuned riffs appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The truss rod might be one of the most misunderstood components on a guitar when it comes to DIY setups. A lot of players think it’s some delicate mechanism that’ll explode if you look at it wrong, while others treat it like a universal fix for every setup issue. The reality sits somewhere in between, and getting it right makes a massive difference in how your guitar plays. So let’s take a look at what a truss rod is and what it actually does.

• READ MORE: What’s the point of a guitar’s pickguard anyway? This is what it’s actually there for…

What a Truss Rod Actually Does

A truss rod is a metal rod running through the length of your guitar neck, and it has one very specific job: counteracting the pull of your strings and contributing to neck stability. That’s really all it does. Your strings create somewhere between 100 and 180 pounds of combined tension pulling on the neck, trying to bow it forward. The truss rod provides resistance against that force.

Picture your neck like a diving board with weight on the end. The strings are that weight, making it curve. The truss rod is what lets you control how much it flexes. When you tighten the rod, you’re pulling the neck backward, reducing the bow. When you loosen it, you’re allowing more forward bow.

As an aside, there are dual-action truss rods, which can bend the neck in either direction, but the vast majority of guitars use standard single-way truss rods. Some guitars and basses use two truss rods to do the same thing, but for the sake of simplicity here we’ll just talk about single-action ones.

This is where the confusion starts. The truss rod doesn’t directly raise or lower your action. It doesn’t fix fret buzz on its own. It won’t help your intonation. It controls one thing: the amount of curve in your neck, which is called “relief.” That relief is the intentional bow you want in the neck to give strings room to vibrate without smacking into frets.

Understanding Relief

Most guitars play best with between 0.005” and 0.012” of relief measured at the center of the neck. You check this by fretting the low E string at both the first fret and where the neck meets the body (typically around the 17th fret), then looking at the gap between the string and the fret around the 7th or 8th fret. That small gap is your relief.

Too much relief makes the middle of the neck feel like it has high action. Playing in that 5th-to-9th fret range becomes harder than it should be. Too little relief – or a back-bow where the center of the neck is actually higher than the ends – causes fret buzz, especially on the lower frets when you’re playing with any real attack.

The right amount depends on your playing style. Light players who mostly strum chords can run less relief. Aggressive pickers and lead players who really dig in need more space for the strings to move around without buzzing out.

Common Mistakes

The most frequent error is using the truss rod to adjust action height when the real problem lies elsewhere. Action is primarily set at the nut and bridge. The truss rod only matters if your neck relief is off.

Another common issue is being overly cautious. Yes, you can damage a truss rod, but it’s not nearly as fragile as people think. These components are designed to be adjusted regularly. The key is making small changes, giving the neck time to settle, and checking your work. A quarter turn, waiting several hours or overnight, then reassessing – that’s the process.

Then there’s adjusting without actually measuring. Some of you out there might have laser eyes, but all it takes is a capo and a feeler gauge to be precise, so why not just measure? In my experience (gained from millions of mistakes), guessing leads to problems.

Finally, people adjust too quickly after changes. Brand new strings, different string gauges, major temperature swings – necks need time to adapt to these changes before you start making adjustments. Give it a few hours at least.

The Correct Approach

Start with your guitar tuned to pitch. Relief changes with string tension, so you need accurate tension to get an accurate measurement.

Check your current relief using the method described earlier – fret at both ends, observe the gap at the middle. Need more bow? Turn the truss rod nut counter-clockwise to loosen it. Need less bow? Turn it clockwise to tighten. Standard threading rules apply here and the truss rod adjustment will normally be at the headstock of the guitar (sometimes beneath a truss rod cover) – but on some models, they are at the base of the neck, where it attached to the neck pocket.

Begin with a quarter turn. That’s 90 degrees of rotation. Retune your guitar since changing neck shape affects string tension slightly. Then wait. Check it the following day. Make another small adjustment if necessary.

If you keep tightening without seeing changes, or if the nut becomes genuinely difficult to turn, stop immediately. You’ve either reached the rod’s adjustment limit or there’s a structural problem that needs professional attention. Truss rods can strip out or seize up depending on their construction, and if that’s the case, it will require an experienced tech to do some surgery, which can require removing the fretboard to access the truss rod.

When the Problem Isn’t Relief

High action uniformly across the entire fretboard points to bridge or saddle height, not relief issues. Buzzing only on the first few frets suggests nut slot problems before relief problems. Buzzing everywhere might mean you need fret leveling work.

The truss rod is one component in a complete setup, not a magic solution. A proper setup involves nut height, truss rod relief, bridge height, intonation adjustment, and sometimes fret work. These elements work together as a system.

Knowing what the truss rod actually controls – and equally important, what it doesn’t control – prevents you from chasing solutions in the wrong direction. Once you understand its actual function, setting up your guitar becomes much more straightforward, and you’ll stop making adjustments that create more problems than they solve.

The post This is how your guitar’s truss rod actually works – and here’s what you’re doing wrong with it appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Palace Skateboards. Supreme. Jameson Whiskey. Godzilla. It’s generally pretty difficult to know where Fender is heading next in terms of its collaborations, but I bet you didn’t see this one coming.

The guitar giant has just announced its new partnership with Bandai Namco, proudly unveiling its new Limited Edition PAC-MAN Player II Telecaster, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the Telecaster and the 45th anniversary of the legendary arcade game.

The iconic PAC-MAN maze is unmistakable, and it’s emblazoned in all its glory across the front face of the new Player II Telecaster. We all remember the peril we felt as kids as PAC-MAN’s arch rivals, the ghosts Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde were never far behind… And they’re all featured on the guitar’s eye-catching retro design. There’s also a Fender x PAC-MAN logo on the back of the guitar.

• READ MORE: Fender Godzilla Distortion: imbue your pedalboard with the “sonic might of the King of Monsters”
  

In terms of specs, the Limited Edition PAC-MAN Player II Telecaster features an alder body, Modern C neck profile, 9.5”-radius, 22-fret rosewood fingerboard with rolled edges, a pair of Alnico V single-coil Tele pickups, ClassicGear tuning machines and a six-saddle string-through-body Tele bridge.

The pickups are controlled by three-way blade switch, as well as singular volume and tone controls.

“Teaming up with Bandai Namco isn’t just a partnership, it’s a collision of two cultural forces that have shaped generations,” says Justin Norvell, Chief Product Officer at Fender. 

“Fender and PAC-MAN share something rare: the ability to make people feel something profound, decade after decade. Our new offering honors that legacy with the uncompromising craftsmanship Fender is known for, wrapped in the unmistakable iconography of one of gaming’s greatest legends – a natural expression of two icons that have never stopped inspiring, built for the fans who grew up with both, and for the players who carry that spirit forward.”

“As we celebrate our milestone anniversaries, our PAC-MAN collaboration with Fender captures the endearing legacy of two global icons  that have created memories across generations, and done so in the hands of people who have been able to experience joy and showcase their skill,” adds Susan Tran, Sr. Director of Brand Development for PAC-MAN at Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. 

“Seeing and holding the PAC-MAN Player II Telecaster, it just feels right, as if this is exactly how these two timeless brands were meant to come together, in something exquisite that conjures nostalgia, feels familiar, and inspires creativity the moment it is in your hands.”

In addition to the PAC-MAN Tele, the two companies have also unveiled a line of clothing exclusive to Japan under Fender’s F IS FOR FENDER line. Available at Fender’s flagship Tokyo store, and at the F IS FOR FENDER website, the collection includes three retro-inspired premium cotton T-shirts in a range of colours, and two “nostalgia-infused” baseball caps.

The Limited Edition PAC-MAN Player II Telecaster is available now, priced at £949 / $1099.99 / €1099.99.

Learn more at Fender.

The post First a Godzilla Strat, now a PAC-MAN Tele… appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Session bassist Guy Pratt has revealed how his headless bass was stolen from a music store in London in the 1990s, which remains missing to this day.

Pratt, who has played with Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Madonna, and many other huge artists, shared the story during an episode of his Rockonteurs podcast, hosted alongside Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet. His bass was taken as part of a string of thefts at the time, when a thief used the headless design to their advantage.

• READ MORE: The intriguing history of Steinberger guitars

Pratt recalls (via Guitar World), “I had this bass, and I gave it to the Bass Centre [in London, England] to sell. They called me up one day and said, ‘Really sorry, Guy, but someone’s nicked your bass.’ And it turns out they’d had a raft of thefts of headless basses.

“Eventually, this guy got caught. They went round to his place, and he’s got a flat full of headless basses for the simple reason he’d figured out a way he could nick them, because they don’t have a head, if you had a big carrier bag, you could put the body in the bag and have the neck go up your arm. So he stole about 50 basses.”

The podcast clip has been highlighted by content creator Danny Sapko, who has also shared Pratt’s appeal to locate the missing guitar in return for a reward. The bass you’re looking for is a Steinberger L2, serial number 712.

Speaking of stolen bass guitars, Ian Horne, a former sound engineer for Wings, recently recalled how remarkably relaxed Paul McCartney was when he broke the news to him that his 1961 Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass had been stolen.

While Wings were working in a recording studio, Horne had parked a truck full of their gear on a West London street, which was broken into. The stolen bass became the focus of a BBC Two documentary film, McCartney: The Hunt For The Lost Bass. It has since been reunited with McCartney.

“All these things go through your head,” said Horne in a Radio Times interview. “I must have looked like a beaten man when I knocked on the door. I just came out with it: ‘I’ve got some bad news, Paul. Our truck was broken into and the bass was stolen.’ I expected him to go ballistic, but Paul was lovely about it. He said, ‘It’s all right, I’ve got another one.’”

The post “If you had a big carrier bag, you could put the body in the bag and have the neck go up your arm”: How a prolific guitar thief stole 50 headless bass guitars in the ’90s appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Despite Angine de Poitrine initially landing on their microtonal sound as a joke, the polka-dotted papier-mâché-headed duo have taken the rock world by storm. Now, guitarist Khn de Poitrine’s wonky, double-necked bass/guitar started out as an experimental Frankensteinian hack job is being sought after by guitarists across the globe – and Eastwood Guitars has recreated it for the masses.

Upon sharing a Guitstarter campaign for the Microtonal Doubleneck 4/6, fans flocked to pre-order and back the model. While Eastwood Guitars only needed 12 backers to make the guitar a reality 36 customers have since bought the $1,299 axe.

• READ MORE: “The guitar gets funny questions because it looks like a dead body”: Angine de Poitrine have to transport their double-necked guitar in a sleeping bag – which causes problems at airport security

The Microtonal Doubleneck 4/6 appears to boast 38 frets on its guitar neck, coming in at 24.75” in scale, while the bass neck has 28 frets and sits at 30.5”. Alongside the bolt-on maple necks with rosewood fingerboards, the guitar features an alder body and Gotoh-style nickel and chrome hardware. It also weighs in at around 11 lbs.

While the model isn’t an official collaboration with Angine de Poitrine, Eastwood explains that there had previously been talks of collaborating with the band’s luthier, Raphael Le Breton. There had been discussion of authentically recreating guitarist Khn de Poitrine’s iconic instrument – but Khn “ultimately decided he would prefer not to have a signature replica of his guitar made available for purchase”.

The company goes on to claim that the decision was one they “fully respect”. However, Eastwood was still keen to release something inspired by the group. “Many years ago, Khn had approached us with a request to build a white, microtonal version of our Eastwood 4/6 Doubleneck featuring black appointments,” the company explains. That old request has finally been brought to life.

There’s still 18 days left to pre-order a model, if you’re interested. Though, be warned – the signature Angine de Poitrine polka-dots are not included.

Though the anonymous Canadian group have kept things pretty private, last month saw them speaking to Cult MTL and explaining that the project is “a culmination of a lot of years of inside jokes”. Even their bizarre names are tongue-in-cheek, with Khn saying: “The names were our alter egos in a 10-minute free jazz project, where I was just fooling around on saxophone and [Klek] was on drums.”

Drummer Klek also forged his partner’s strange, alien guitar as a joke. “I took two guitars, and I took the frets from one board, which was kind of rusty and fucked up anyway, and I put them on a second fret board,” Klek said. “We thought it would look fucking sick, and for 15 seconds, we were like, ‘Oh, that’s a funny joke.’ But it became clear that it was a good idea.”

“The whole idea of the band was to assume a bit of a satirical approach to rock music in general,” Khn added. “We wanted an exaggeration, so the double-neck guitar was the perfect choice to kind of make fun of guitar heroes.”

For more information, head to Eastwood Guitars.

The post Eastwood Guitars unveils an Angine de Poitrine-inspired double neck guitar/bass – polka-dots not included appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

After NAMM President John Mlynczak this week said Donald Trump’s tariffs are “tilting the playing field against American manufacturers, American retailers, and the American children and families who depend on affordable instruments”, EarthQuaker Devices CEO Julie Robbins has announced she has joined a delegation of NAMM members to meet with congress to urge tariff relief on musical instruments.

In a press release shared with Guitar.com by EarthQuaker, it’s revealed that Julie Robbins joined the 20th NAMM Washington DC Advocacy Fly-In, representing the state of Ohio – where EarthQuaker is based – alongside 100 music business leaders and professionals representing all 50 states.

The delegation argued that tariff relief would benefit music retailers, manufacturers, educators and students across the US.

• READ MORE: Taylor Next Generation 324ce review: “this could easily be your forever acoustic”

“EarthQuaker Devices has spent more than $100,000 in tariffs since April 2025,” Robbins says. “That’s money that could have gone toward good jobs for Ohioans and provided our team with more resources to innovate.”

Julie Robbins has been a longtime advocate for tariff relief, and testified on Capitol Hill before the Senate Small Business committee in May 2025 about the harmful effects of tariffs on the musical instruments industry, specifically smaller, family-operated businesses.

“Today, I asked Ohio’s Congressional Representatives to stand up for their constituents,” she said. “And I will continue to advocate for relief as long as I have to in order to get them to join the fight in earnest.

In John Mlynczak’s latest statement on the devastating effects of Trump’s tariffs, he argued that they threaten the flow of new musicians into the industry, on which it so heavily depends.

“[These tariffs] will price beginners out of the market, which will hurt the American students, retailers, and manufacturers that depend on today’s students becoming tomorrow’s customers…” he said. 

“The American professional instrument market is only as strong as the student market that feeds it.”

Learn more about the NAMM Advocacy D.C. Fly-In at NAMM.org.

The post EarthQuaker Devices CEO says the brand has spent “more than $100k in tariffs since April 2025” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Not many guitarists out there have the bragging rights to say they’ve played one of Jimi Hendrix’s guitars, but My Chemical Romance’s Ray Toro can, and the experience, he says, was “mind blowing”.

MCR recently put out a teaser post on Instagram in relation to the 15th anniversary of their 2010 album, Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys. The album turned 15 back in November, but now the band have posted a graphic with the roman numerals XV and the famous spider graphic from the album’s artwork.

In a recently republished 2011 Guitar World interview about the album, Toro and fellow guitarist Frank Iero shared what guitars they were playing at that time, when Toro said he’d managed to get hold of a Strat that once belonged to Hendrix.

• READ MORE: “You ain’t gonna hear nothing”: Buddy Guy admits that when he first saw Jimi Hendrix play live he thought he was “too loud” – but the Brits were next level

He said, “I’m still a Les Paul player, but recently I had the chance to play one of Jimi Hendrix’s Strats. Totally mind blowing! This guy, Jimmy, from Mates Rehearsal Studios in California, had one. I had shown up at the studio, and I didn’t have a guitar to play, so Jimmy let me play this Hendrix Strat that he got from Jimi’s old guitar tech.

“The thing was beat to shit, but it was the best-playing guitar ever. I played it for a year – Jimmy let me use it in the studio. Man, I loved that.” He added, “Live, I’m still a Les Paul guy, but playing Jimi Hendrix’s Strat really got me interested in Strats and other guitars. In fact, I’m in desperate search for the ultimate Tele to play. If I can find one, I’m there.”

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In other Hendrix-related news, Marshall is marking 60 years since he first played through one of its amplifiers by launching a unique gear drop featuring three items with designs inspired by Hendrix’s style, sound, and interest in science fiction.

The drop includes a reskinned Acton III Bluetooth speaker, a 1959 JMH Half Stack, and a limited-edition Fuzz Face pedal, all featuring nods to his love of velvet, the jewellery he wore, and his unique sound.

More news about MCR’s Danger Days anniversary celebration is set to arrive imminently. Head over to the My Chemical Romance website for further updates, or to check out their full list of tour dates.

The post “The thing was beat to shit”: The time My Chemical Romance’s Ray Toro got to play one of Jimi Hendrix’s Strats appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

When you think of the forefathers of thrash metal, the likes of Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax and Exodus spring to mind. Whether the genre’s origins can be traced to a single person is the subject of much debate, but Megadeth drummer Dirk Verbeuren thinks the creator of thrash is clear: Dave Mustaine.

In a new interview with Brazil’s TV Braba, Verbeuren looks back on his 10 years to date with the band, and waxes lyrical on the musical legacy Dave Mustaine has carved out.

• READ MORE: “A Beatle knows who I am? Ridiculous”: Peter Frampton’s response when George Harrison invited him to play on All Things Must Pass

“To be in the band for 10 years and to kind of continue the legacy with great music – obviously everything Dave has done is iconic, but also the amazing drum work of Nick Menza, Gar Samuelson, Chuck Behler [former Megadeth drummers], all the guys that have been in the band since then, it’s truly an honour. In metal music, you can’t really go much higher than that legacy

He goes on: “And to me, Dave is the guy who invented thrash metal. He wrote a lot of the iconic early stuff that kind of defined what that genre sounded like, and you can recognise his riffs among a million riffs. He has such a unique style of playing to this day on the guitar that, to me, Dave is the ultimate rock god. Absolutely.

Elsewhere in the interview, Verbeuren remembers being a fledgling rock fan, and Megadeth being one of the first live shows he ever saw in 1990.

“It’s still surreal to this day to be part of such an iconic band. You have to know that I went to see Megadeth live in 1990, so I was like 15 years old at the time. It was one of the first shows I ever saw. I only saw two other shows before that.”

Dave Mustaine doesn’t pull any punches over how influential he has been on his thrash metal genre-mates, either.

“Kerry [King, Slayer guitarist] and I played together [during the early days of both bands], and I showed him how to play Megadeth songs, which was before [Slayer] started having all their pivotal records. Kerry and I had a really great time together,” he said in a recent interview.

“And I wrote music in Metallica and I wrote music in Megadeth. So I’ve been very influential with the guitar with these three bands.”

“And when I met Scott [Ian, Anthrax guitarist] and the guys in Anthrax out in New York,” he goes on, “the same thing happened. Their first record was very different from the record they made after they met me and the guys in Metallica. So I think that’s great. I love all those bands.”

Megadeth are currently on tour supporting their self-titled final album. Check out a full list of dates at their official website.

The post Megadeth drummer says Dave Mustaine “invented thrash metal” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Back in the ‘70s, the rock scene was a bit of a sausage fest. When Heart broke onto the scene, sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were in the midst of their 20s – and it could sometimes be a struggle to be taken seriously. In her new solo documentary, In My Voice, Ann has reflected on her career thus far, including how men used to belittle her and her sister.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Wilson admits that the predominantly male rock scene wasn’t very encouraging at first. “You would build yourself up and do something really great, and you’d feel really good about it – then you could get put down and squashed down very easily by the rest of the men,” she admits.

• READ MORE: “I wake up every morning thinking about what’s on my pedalboard” Adam Granduciel on his love of effects and the next The War On Drugs album

Despite her and her sister being branded as a ‘Little Led Zeppelin’ due to their buckets of guitar talent, men never seemed to judge them on their merit. Everything seemed to be pointedly attacking them just because they were young girls. “They could make you feel like you were really silly for even trying,” she adds. “We were lucky enough to have great people around us, but I know other women who were starting up close to our time that had to rebel as hard as they could to get anything happening at all.”

Prior to Heart’s formation, the sisters already had a sense of rock ‘n’ roll’s inherent sexism after walking out of a 1969 Led Zeppelin gig. In an interview with Premier Guitar’s 100 Guitarists podcast, Nancy recalled how appalled her and sister had felt while watching Robert Plant perform “scandalously” suggestive tracks at the Green Lake Aqua Theater in Seattle.

“The singer, he’s so suggestive,” Nancy recalled. “He’s got his shirt wide open, he’s got his bare chest, and his jeans were really low riders. He was moving in this way that was super-suggestive and we were kind of shocked. We’re like, ‘Oh, my God.’”

Aged 15 and 19 at the time, the pair weren’t very comfortable with the sexuality on display. “We were in a little folk band at the time,” she adds. “We were from the suburbs. So we were kind of square, square little hippie chicks to be unenlightened, let’s just say. And so, they were like, ‘Oh, they’re so loud. They’re just being so suggestive and loud.’”

“Then, he sang [the Lemon Song], saying ‘Squeeze My Lemon,’ and we’re like, ‘we must leave…’ because we were just shocked! We actually walked out… We were scandalised!”

Alongside the new documentary, Ann is releasing a new track, Nothing But Love. It’s a track she wrote back in the ‘90s, and will feature on the In My Voice soundtrack. “That track never saw the light of day until now,” she explains.

“I’ve always really liked it, but it didn’t fit with what was going on in the 1990s at all. It’s just so unlike what was going on at that moment, but it seems natural now. It’s got some soul to it. It’s something that I love hearing, and I love singing. I hope people really get lifted by it.”

The post “I know women who had to rebel as hard as they could to get anything happening at all”: Heart’s Ann Wilson recalls the sexism of rock and roll in the ’70s appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Peter Frampton has looked back on the time he received an unexpected invitation from George Harrison to record on the Beatles legend’s third album, All Things Must Pass.

George Harrison recorded the album predominantly at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios), but the now-defunct Trident Studios – located at 17 St Anne’s Court in Soho – was used for some overdubs, partly in order to utilise its 16-track recording technology.

• READ MORE: “It’s a little bit of a cheat”: John Mayer’s “critical take” on why country songs are always talking about drinking

As the story goes, Peter Frampton first met George Harrison through Terry Doran, Harrison’s personal assistant and a man heavily involved in organising the All Things Must Pass sessions.

And via a chance meeting at a pub between Frampton and Doran, Doran invited Frampton to Trident to meet George Harrison, who was producing a self-titled album for R&B singer Doris Troy.

After playing guitar in front of Harrison, the Beatles man was so impressed that he invited him to EMI Studios to play acoustic guitar on his album, including on tracks If Not For You and Behind That Locked Door.

Now, in a new interview with MOJO, Frampton recalls his interactions with George Harrison while recording the album.

“He was at Trident Studios. In the control room, there was George and he goes, ‘Hello, Pete’ – I thought Pete Townshend must have walked in behind me,” Frampton remembers.

“I mean, a Beatle knows who I am? Ridiculous. He said, ‘You want to play? Stephen Stills is downstairs.’ Klaus Voorman was playing bass, Ringo was playing drums, and George gives me this guitar, which I find out later was the guitar Eric gave him which he played on While My Guitar Gently Weeps. George said, ‘Here’s the chord, let’s go…’”

Elsewhere in the interview, Peter Frampton reflects on his Inclusion Body Myositis, which has progressively hampered his ability to play guitar in recent years.

“It’s become dangerous for me because if I fall I really do hurt myself, and going into a hundred hotels where everything’s different? Whereas I know every square inch of my house,” he says.

“But mentally, physically and otherwise, everything’s fine. It sounds weird but I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.”

Indeed, in another recent interview with the New York Times, the 76-year-old musician also commented on how he stays in a mentally good place despite his diagnosis. “If I don’t accept what I have, I’m going to be mad for the rest of my life,” he said.

Elsewhere, Peter Frampton is set to release his new album Carry the Light this week on 15 May. It marks his first collection of songs since his IBM diagnosis. Listen to Lions at the Gate, a track from the album, below:

The post “A Beatle knows who I am? Ridiculous”: Peter Frampton’s response when George Harrison invited him to play on All Things Must Pass appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

By Carlos Martin Schwab

If we divide a semitone into 100 cents, the average human ear can hardly perceive variations of less than 5 cents in a musical context. A standard pedal tuner (such as the BOSS TU-3) has an accuracy of ±1 cent. A strobe tuner has an accuracy of 0.1 cents. Let’s take a closer look at this.

The fundamental difference between a strobe tuner and a conventional tuner lies in the nature of their measurements. While a standard tuner (needle or LED) averages the note’s frequency and displays a visual approximation with an accuracy of 1 or 2 cents, the strobe tuner operates in real time without processing latency.

Instead of interpreting the signal, a strobe model allows the input signal to interact directly with a light or wheel pattern, revealing minute harmonic discrepancies with an accuracy of up to 0.1 cents.

For a musician, this means that the conventional tuner is useful for quick adjustments during live performances, but it may overlook slight detunings that affect intonation. In contrast, the strobe tuner is indispensable for octaving instruments and professional recordings, as its display only stops when the frequency is mathematically exact, offering a level of sound fidelity that a standard digital sensor simply cannot achieve.

These tuners are extremely precise—so much so that they are used more for adjusting the technical intonation of the guitar than for a quick tune-up between songs.

Peterson StroboStomp HD

This strobe tuner is widely regarded as the gold standard in the world of tuning, offering unmatched accuracy of 0.1 cents. This pedal is not just an accessory, but a professional-grade tool that ensures every note is mathematically perfect, thanks to its true strobe technology in a compact and extremely durable pedal format.

Key Features

Configurable High-Definition Color LCD Screen: Features a large screen with customizable LED backlighting, making it easy to view in any lighting environment. The user-selectable colors can be used to personalize the tuner or to improve display visibility in varying ambient lighting conditions, depending on the usage environment. The vibrant screen colors can also be assigned to stock or user presets to significantly reduce menu navigation time and increase on-stage tuning confidence during a gig.

“Sweetened” Tunings: Includes 135 exclusive presets that optimize tuning intervals for specific instruments (guitars, basses, banjos, and even wind instruments). Its low-frequency note detection algorithm (such as for 5-string basses) is the most stable in the industry.

Signal Management: The integrity of your signal is vital, especially if you have many pedals. This tuner offers 3 pop-free operating modes: True Bypass, Buffered output (to maintain tone integrity over long cables), and a Monitor mode (tuning always visible) by setting the mode switch located in the battery compartment.

Power: 9V battery or DC jack. It can power other 9V pedals on your board via the power-through jack.

Professional users unanimously praise its ease of use, noting that the stroboscopic wheel is much more intuitive for fine-tuning than traditional needle meters. They also highlight its versatility, as it allows for firmware updates and the loading of sweetened tunings via USB. Although it requires a brief learning curve, it is the ultimate pedal for those seeking maximum harmonic fidelity both in the studio and on international tours.

Fender Strobo Sonic Pro

This is a high-end strobe tuner that redefines precision on stage. Sharing many features with its predecessor, this device stands out for its impressive accuracy of 0.1 cents, positioning itself as one of the most reliable tools on the market for ensuring perfect intonation, even in demanding studio setups.

Key Features

Its rugged aluminum design houses a 2.3-inch LED display with automatic brightness adjustment, ensuring full visibility in both dark stages and broad daylight. It offers two display modes: strobe (for maximum precision) and needle (for quick visual reference). A significant technical advantage is its bypass versatility, allowing you to choose between True Bypass, Buffered Bypass, or an always-on monitoring mode. Additionally, it features space-saving top-mounted connectors and power via 9V or USB-C.

Professional users praise its response speed, which eliminates the annoying lag found in other digital tuners. It does not have sweetened tunings, but it does allow you to calibrate the reference pitch between 430 Hz and 450 Hz. Reviewers agree that it is a direct competitor to the industry standard (Peterson), surpassing it for many in terms of ergonomics and ease of use. Its high-definition color LCD screen, which is its most useful feature, is extremely smooth and offers different display modes (including one that mimics an oscilloscope). It is, arguably, the most beautiful tuner display on the market.

More info: www.petersontuners.com and www.fender.com

Carlos Martin Schwab would like to thank Bob Potsic (Peterson) and Gabriel Madera (Fender) for their help in writing this article.

Adrian Belew has looked back on the leadership of Robert Fripp after King Crimson was reignited in 1981 with new members, after seven years of lying dormant.

The original Crimson lineup disbanded after the release of 1974’s misunderstood record, Red. The new iteration consisted of Fripp, Belew, Bill Bruford, and Tony Levin, and was originally going to be called Discipline. It was Belew who suggested they go out under the Crimson name, and Discipline ultimately became the name of their comeback LP.

• READ MORE: “They’re booby-trapped!” Steve Vai recalls the difficulty he faced learning Robert Fripp’s guitar parts for BEAT

Speaking to MOJO, Belew explains, “I think I just wanted to tell people I was in King Crimson! Robert had already said our music had the spirit of Crimson, different as it was. So he went for it and that upped the stakes immensely – especially for him.

“Every decision went through Robert,” he adds. “If something wasn’t up to snuff he’d tell you. But he also gave me great latitude as a songwriter. Some of my own stuff had been a bit whimsical or personal, but I knew Crimson had to be less specific, more abstract.”

He goes on to explain: “I didn’t want to embarrass myself with these three highly intelligent guys. The only fairly straight-ahead love song was Matte Kudasai, which evolved out of this beautiful guitar instrumental Robert presented to me. That was when I thought, OK, I can write to this crazy music.”

Fripp has since reflected on the rocky release of Red. In a Guitar World interview released earlier this year, he said, “I would’ve stayed as an estate agent in Wimborne, Dorset, if I had known the grief that was coming my way. I would have stayed in real estate!

“My approach has been, if you read your press, you read all of it. And if you read all my press, there have been – by and large – as many people who hated it as who enjoyed it.”

Adrian Belew is now touring with the BEAT band, which plays ’80s King Crimson music and is composed of Steve Vai, Tony Levin, and Danny Carey. View their upcoming tour dates via the BEAT website.

The post “Every decision went through Robert. If something wasn’t up to snuff he’d tell you”: Adrian Belew on Robert Fripp’s leadership of King Crimson appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Wintergrass is one of the greatest bluegrass festivals on Earth. It also happens to be in our PNW backyard.

In what has become an annual Wintergrass tradition, the Fretboard Journal hosts a workshop where we gather as many rare and vintage instruments as we can, put them onstage, and have a few great players showcase their magic. No two workshops have ever been the same, and without fail, we always learn something and hear some great music.

This year’s session featured John Reischman and Caleb Klauder on mandolins and Patrick Sauber and Nina Gerber on guitars.

Huge thanks to Mark Demaray for emceeing and the Fretboard Journal readers and the Wintergrass community who let us borrow their instruments. Special thanks to Ear Trumpet for the microphones and D’Addario for all the strings.

Learn more about Wintergrass: https://wintergrass.com

We’ll be diving deeper into vintage acoustics at our 2026 Fretboard Summit in Chicago, taking place August 20-22, 2026. Register here: https://fretboardsummit.org

The post Watch: The Fretboard Journal’s Wintergrass 2026 Vintage Instrument Workshop first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

Steve Vai has revealed that Eddie Van Halen once played him a number of tapes containing unheard material at his own home, and that what he heard was “such great stuff”.

The news arrives amid reports that Eddie’s brother Alex Van Halen is compiling an album of unheard Van Halen material with the help of friend Steve Lukather. It’s not yet clear what Lukather’s involvement consists of though, as he has already said he would never play guitar on the record.

• READ MORE: “He doesn’t want to be Ed Jr”: Why Alex Van Halen is “proud” that Wolfgang Van Halen doesn’t play his father’s music
  

In a new interview with Guitar Player, Vai recalls: “I was up at Edward’s house once, in his studio. He had a room filled with tapes, and he was pulling them out, and we were listening. He would just sit, record, and play.

“I’ll tell you, nobody plays like they do when they’re sitting in their room alone,” he adds. “It was a whole library of tapes, and it was such great stuff.”

Vai also says that he asked Eddie if he’d consider turning these ideas into a solo album, but that his response was “he always felt that Van Halen was his solo records”. On the topic of the new record, Vai also said that Lukather is “the best guy to help” as he was so close with Eddie.

Alex has confirmed in an interview that the record will feature reworked versions of songs that he and Eddie never finished, rather than material in its “embryonic form”. Following reports that Alex was on the look out for a singer, former VH bassist Michael Anthony said they should go forwards without one and keep it purely instrumental.

In an interview with Matt Spatz of WNCX, he said, “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.”

The post Steve Vai recalls hearing unreleased material at Eddie Van Halen’s house: “Nobody plays like they do when they’re in their room alone… It was such great stuff” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Marshall is marking 60 years since Jimi Hendrix first played through one of its amplifiers by launching a unique gear drop featuring three cosmic-inspired items.

The drop includes a reskinned Acton III Bluetooth speaker, a 1959 JMH Half Stack, and a limited-edition Fuzz Face pedal, with each inspired by Hendrix’s sound, style and love of science fiction. The brand also hints that more Marshall x Hendrix surprises could be launching later this year.

• READ MORE: Ronnie Wood remembers living with “sweet man” Jimi Hendrix: “He’d just sit back and play right-handed or left-handed – that blew my mind”

The limited-edition Acton III’s design is influenced by Hendrix’s love of velvet, silver jewellery and his fascination with space. It’s coated in crushed velvet and has a silver control panel featuring purple knobs and purple LED lights. The all-seeing eye is stamped in silver onto the side of Acton III, “symbolising both clarity and vision”.

Taken from a selection of Hendrix recordings, including a rare instrumental version of Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland) from The Jimi Hendrix Experience deluxe box set, a new on-off sound also pays homage to the guitar legend.

As for the 1959 JMH Half Stack, these are made by hand in the Bletchley Marshall factory in the UK. A 1960 AJMH 4×12 Handwired Angled Cabinet combines with a 1959 Handwired Head to form Hendrix’s signature set-up.

It hosts a black and purple cosmic swirl across the fret and control panel and a purple LED indicator. Silver detailing inspired by Hendrix’s jewellery also features throughout, including on the knobs, handle, logo, grill and back panel. The all-seeing eye badge sits on the top and bottom of the stack.

Dunlop’s limited-edition Fuzz Face Distortion pedal features the same unique oil-on-water design, and is available exclusively with the stack.

“Jimi was a formidable musician, a real force of nature. He took everything to a new level and carried everybody with him. When he played, it was an emotional time for everybody because everyone was thinking, if he can do it, I could maybe do it. And he’s using Marshall, therefore we want Marshall. It was a really special time for us all and there’s no doubt that we grew with him and his fame, it was a natural tie-up. The rest is history as they say,” states Terry Marshall, co-founder of Marshall Amplification.

“From his fashion to his lyrics and of course, his music, there are so many different stories we could tell when it comes to Hendrix,” adds Emma Rydahl, Senior Industrial Designer at Marshall Group. “We started with materials and pattern exploration, looking at different fabrics and running test prints with a psychedelic track in mind. We spent a lot of time adjusting the final design to get it just right across the whole collection.”

Find out more or buy now via Marshall. The collection will also be available from select retailers from 14 May. 

The post It’s been 60 years since Jimi Hendrix first used a Marshall – now the company is celebrating with an array of cosmic-inspired guitar gear appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

In 1976, Miami’s Criteria Studios became a hotbed for massive rock albums, when both Black Sabbath and the Eagles converged on the facility to record their respective albums, Technical Ecstasy and Hotel California.

As the story goes, Black Sabbath caused considerable issues for the Eagles, mostly due to excessive noise, which would bleed through the walls and force the band to halt recording and wait for windows of quiet.

• READ MORE: “I like him, but he’s a bit pushy”: What Paul McCartney really thought of Andrew Watt during their early sessions together

But the Eagles themselves weren’t exactly squeaky-clean in terms of their professionalism, as hard drugs formed a large part of the day to day while recording Hotel California, an album now cemented as one of the greatest of all time.

Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler even once claimed [via MOJO in a new feature] that they once entered the control room the Eagles had vacated to find one of the faders “so clogged with cocaine it wouldn’t move”.

Indeed, one of the biggest songs on Hotel California, Life in the Fast Lane, was heavily inspired by the band’s drug use, with one lyric reading: “There were lines on the mirror, lines on her face.”

“Life in the Fast Lane turned into a celebration of what we were trying to warn people about,” says Eagles founding member Don Henley.

“I could hardly listen to that song when we were recording it, because I was getting high a lot of the time, and the song made me ill.”

Excess was a common thread for the Eagles in the ‘70s, and Don Henley recalled in a recent interview with Guitar World their habit of getting banned from their favourite hotels.

“Keith Moon [The Who drummer] and Joe [Walsh] were good buddies, and that, of course, led to some mischief,” he said.

“It was amusing for a little while, but it eventually became a very expensive hobby, and we were beginning to get barred from some of the hotels we liked to stay in. So after a while, the chainsaws got locked away in storage and other kinds of dramas replaced the ‘remodelling’ of rooms and hallways… But, at least Joe got a hit song out of it! [1978’s Life’s Been Good].”

The post The time Black Sabbath recorded in the same room as the Eagles and found one of the consoles faders “so clogged with cocaine it wouldn’t move” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.