Music is the universal language
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” - Luke 2:14
Norse Guitar Feeds
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- Size, Overlap, Pitch, Reverse, Delay, Regen, and Mix knobs allow you to sculpt every grain
- On-board reverb, filter, and vibrato FX add further depth and dimension • Deep parameter tweaks unlock randomization, effect fine-tuning, and tap tempo
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The MXR Textures Granular Synth Engine is available now at a $269.99 street price. For more information visit jimdunlop.com.
Textures Granular Synth Pedal
Stereo Granular Synth Guitar Pedal with 8 Presets, 3 Modes, Size, Overlap, Pitch, Reverse, Time, Mix, and Regen Controls, Second-layer Controls, Expression Input, and Split/Tap Compatibility
“There’s a difference between someone saying, ‘You’re in my thoughts and prayers’, versus somebody who goes into detail about his treatment”: The simple advice Bruce Dickinson gave Dave Mustaine as he faced cancer battle
Back in 2019, Dave Mustaine revealed that he had been diagnosed with throat cancer. In the limbo between his diagnosis and being declared cancer free in January of the following year, plenty of people reached out to the Megadeth frontman offering their support – but the wise words of fellow cancer survivor Bruce Dickinson were what really helped pull him through.
Just like Mustaine, the Iron Maiden frontman was also confronted with a throat cancer scare at the end of 2014. With Dickinson getting the all-clear in 2015, he was keen to share some advice with his heavy metal comrade. “Bruce had some fantastic stuff to say as a cancer survivor,” Mustaine explains to Metal Hammer in a new interview.
“There’s a big difference between someone saying, ‘You’re in my thoughts and prayers’, versus somebody who goes into detail about his treatment and tells you about the outcome,” he adds.
Considering Dickinson cam out the other side of his diagnosis, it felt like proof that Mustaine could come out the other side too. “I needed hope, and he gave me it,” he says. To keep spirits high, the Iron Maiden icon also encouraged Mustaine to “surround [himself] with good people” and to focus on “spending time with people who are upbeat and positive”.
Mustaine also reflected on Dickinson’s support in an interview with Forbes in 2020. As he puts it, Dickinson was one of the first people he wanted to talk to about his throat cancer experience. “After I was diagnosed, I thought, ‘I want to call Bruce,’” Mustaine said. “It’s not like I have a whole Rolodex of rock friends that sing heavy metal music that have throat cancer… so my choices were limited.”
“I was pretty proud of Bruce after speaking with him,” he added. “Although we’re not super close, I consider him to be someone I look up to… When you’re a frontman in one of the biggest bands in the galaxy, you don’t really have to tolerate the frontman of the other bands very much, but he’s always been super kind to me.”
With Megadeth releasing their final record and currently in the swing of a grand farewell tour, Mustaine is feeling reflective. In fact, he is set to drop a new memoir, In My Darkest Hour, later this year in September.
For news on Megadeth’s final tour, head to the band’s website. Mustaine’s upcoming memoir, In My Darkest Hour, will also drop on 24 September.
The post “There’s a difference between someone saying, ‘You’re in my thoughts and prayers’, versus somebody who goes into detail about his treatment”: The simple advice Bruce Dickinson gave Dave Mustaine as he faced cancer battle appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Captured by a drama student who snuck onstage, new rare footage of Jimi Hendrix’s legendary 1969 Woodstock show has surfaced online
Nearly 60 years after his death, Jimi Hendrix remains one of the most iconic and influential guitarists to ever live. Over the course of a relatively short career – with his heyday lasting between his breakthrough in 1966 and death in 1970 – Hendrix performed hundreds of shows, notably including his Monterey Pop Festival set, which saw him famously set his Fender Stratocaster ablaze.
Indeed, there are a few Jimi Hendrix shows that make a claim for his most iconic, but perhaps the most legendary of all was his closing set at Woodstock on August 18, 1969.
The set included some of the guitarist’s biggest hits, including Purple Haze, Voodoo Child and Hear My Train a Comin’, as well as his landmark rendition of US national anthem The Star-Spangled Banner, which later became a defining symbol of the anti-war movement at the time the US was heavily involved in the Vietnam War.
Though one of the most iconic rock shows in history, good-quality extended footage of Hendrix’s Woodstock set is notoriously hard to find. But one of the best clips of the show yet has just surfaced…
It was captured by 22-year-old drama student Albert Goodman, who successfully snuck onstage shielded by a friend carrying a guitar, according to Guitar World. He managed to set up his camera just 15 feet across the stage where Hendrix was set to perform.
Now, the footage has been uploaded to the official Jimi Hendrix YouTube channel for all to see. In the footage, Hendrix can be seen playing his biggest hits – plus his fiery version of the US national anthem, alongside his newly formed Band of Gypsys.
The band’s lineup consisted of guitarist Larry Lee, bassist Billy Cox, Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, and percussionists Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez. Check out the footage below:
“Goodman was left alone, assumed to be just one member of the sprawling film crew who had surrounded the stage for the entire event,” reads the video’s description. “Armed with just two previously recorded, open reel videotapes, Goodman settled in behind percussionist Juma Sultan and prepared to document history.”
But that’s not the end of the story. After sneaking onstage to capture the awe-inspiring footage, as luck would have it, Albert Goodman was later given a ride by a driver who was friends with people working at the house Hendrix was renting nearby. One thing led to another, and legend has it Jimi Hendrix himself watched Goodman’s footage and approved.
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This D’Angelico could be your first semi-hollow – and it’s now just $500
[Editor’s note: Please note that this deal is only available to US customers. If you’re reading from outside the US, you’ll be shown similar deals.]
If you’ve never owned a semi-hollow before, D’Angelico’s Premier DC makes a pretty compelling case for being your first. It’s versatile, comfortable and built to handle everything from jazz and blues to rock – and right now, it’s priced at just $499.99.
That’s $250 off its usual $749.99 price, making this a particularly tempting way to dip your toes into the world of semi-hollows without blowing your entire guitar budget.
Semi-hollows are popular for good reason. You get that unmistakable warmth and resonance, but with the right pickups and some gain, they can also get surprisingly punchy and aggressive. That makes them a handy choice if you want one guitar that can cover a lot of ground.
That’s exactly what D’Angelico is going for with the Premier DC. It’s a double-cutaway semi-hollow with a 16-inch-wide laminated maple body and a solid centre block, giving it plenty of sustain while helping keep unwanted feedback under control when you turn things up.
The tonal flexibility continues with a pair of Seymour Duncan Designed humbuckers, which can cover everything from warm, jazzy cleans to searing distortion. They’re paired with a familiar two-volume, two-tone setup and three-way pickup selector, giving you plenty of control over your sound.
It’s a remarkably comfortable guitar to pick up, too. The Premier DC features a maple neck with a slim C profile, a 24.75-inch scale length and a 14-inch-radius Ovangkol fingerboard with 22 medium vintage nickel silver frets. The set-neck construction and smooth heel transition also make it easier to reach the higher frets.
Visually, it nails that classic D’Angelico vibe without looking over the top. The Sky Blue finish really pops against the Tortoise pickguard, while the pearloid block inlays and ebony knobs give it a clean, premium look up close.
Players also get a chrome Tune-o-Matic bridge, stopbar tailpiece and Grover tuners with Stairstep machine, rounding out a solid hardware package for the price.
At $499.99, the Premier DC is an appealing option if you’ve been curious about semi-hollows but don’t want to spend a fortune on your first one. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to give semi-hollows a try, this could be it.
Learn more at Sweetwater.
The post This D’Angelico could be your first semi-hollow – and it’s now just $500 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Session legend Chris Spedding – known for work with Elton John and Paul McCartney – diagnosed with lymphoma
Chris Spedding – a legendary session guitarist who has played alongside the likes of Elton John, Paul McCartney, Tom Waits and Roxy Music – has been diagnosed with lymphoma, it has been revealed.
The 82-year-old guitarist has now begun a nine-month process of chemotherapy, which will render him unable to work and tour, so his wife Jody and campaign organiser Eden Cale have set up a GoFundMe to cover his essential living and medical costs during this time.
At the time of writing, nearly £25,000 has been raised of the campaign’s £50,000 goal with 314 donations.
“For over six decades, Chris Spedding has been bringing magic to stages and studios across the world with his inimitable guitar work with Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, Elton John, John Cale, Jack Bruce, Tom Waits, Paul McCartney and Robert Gordon,” the GoFundMe reads.
“Chris’s genius as a musician, session guitarist and producer has touched generations of music lovers. But to our family, he’s just been Uncle Chris.”
It continues: “Anyone who knows Chris knows he is a kind, generous soul who would step up for anyone in need. For decades, he has given us unforgettable music. Now, it is our turn to rally around him to show our appreciation of him during this challenging time.”
You can make a donation now at the official GoFundMe page.
The post Session legend Chris Spedding – known for work with Elton John and Paul McCartney – diagnosed with lymphoma appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Right now you can save $300 on one of Ibanez’s best signature models – the seriously sleek Tim Henson TOD10
[Editor’s note: Please note this deal is only available for readers in the US. If you’re outside the US, you’ll be shown similar deals.]
If you’ve been thinking about adding a modern shred-focused guitar to your collection, Tim Henson’s Ibanez TOD10 is worth a look – especially now that it’s $300 off.
Over at Sweetwater, you can pick up the TOD10 for $1,299, down from the usual $1,599.99. That’s a saving of $300, or almost 20%, on one of Ibanez’s most distinctive signature models.
The TOD10 is Henson’s third signature model with Ibanez, following the TOD10N acoustic-electric and his earlier THBB10. Designed for modern technical playing, the guitar features an American basswood body paired with a roasted maple neck and Ibanez’s AZ Oval C profile.
The guitar’s neck is topped with a 24-fret ebony fingerboard and jumbo frets, giving you plenty of room for those higher-register runs. There’s also the distinctive Tree of Death inlay, carried over from the Polyphia guitarist’s TOD10N acoustic-electric signature model.
Soundwise, the TOD10 comes equipped with a pair of Fishman Fluence Tim Henson signature humbuckers. They’re wired to a five-way pickup selector, along with straightforward single volume and tone controls, giving you several pickup combinations without an overly complicated control layout.
The rest of the hardware is just as purpose-built. You get a T1502 two-point synchronised tremolo bridge, Graph Tech TUSQ nut and angled output jack, while Gotoh MG-T locking tuners use a thumb-wheel locking mechanism rather than the adjustable-height H.A.P.M locking tuners found on other AZ models.
And then there’s that Metallic Mauve finish, which adds a nice splash of colour to the otherwise sleek design of the TOD10.
At $1,299, it’s still a serious investment, but knocking $300 off the usual price makes the TOD10 a much easier guitar to consider – especially if you’ve had your eye on Henson’s signature model for a while.
Head over to Sweetwater to get yours today.
The post Right now you can save $300 on one of Ibanez’s best signature models – the seriously sleek Tim Henson TOD10 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Warm Audio Reamper review – the studio DI box to end all studio DI boxes?
$499/£431, warmaudio.com
Today we’re talking about a DI box – wait, where are you going? Come back! It’s interesting, I promise! The Warm Audio Reamper is not your average black box with a couple of transformers in it. It rolls a hell of a lot of functionality into its retro-styled enclosure, being at once a reamper, a variable-impedance DI box with a switchable preamp, a 50-watt load box capable of recording a direct power-amp signal from a tube amplifier, and a studio-ready conversion solution to go between instrument and line signals with ease. So can Warm Audio make a DI box sexy?
- READ MORE: Orange Outlowd ES3 review: is Ed Sheeran’s signature amp the best compact acoustic combo out there?
Image: Press
Build quality
Warm Audio has a (not uncontroversial) history of replicating other makers’ vibey hardware designs. This has, apparently, meant that it’s extremely well-poised to come up with its own in a similarly cool vein – the Reamper looks like something that you might find sitting in the corner of an RBMK control room, quietly monitoring röntgens. Its retro look is bolstered by an abundance of clicky toggle switches, and the pair of unique Bakelite-esque knobs for the line and preamp levels. It’s very pleasing to the eyes and ears – all the jacks and controls are sensibly laid out, and are clearly premium parts, emanating reassuring clicks and clunks upon use.
Another design point that’s good to see: power is delivered by a standard kettle (IEC) lead, ideal for both neatness and replaceability. The quirky design includes a handle on top of the unit, meaning it won’t slot neatly into a rack setup – but it will look extremely at home on the top of a tube head, which is one of the places you’ll want to put it anyway. It is a remarkable thing to have a DI box look anything other than purely utilitarian, and so hats off to Warm for that.
Image: Press
Usability
So, yes, this is ultimately a fancy two-way DI box that costs more than some amplifiers. Some of the price tag manifests in the above-described build quality and aesthetic beauty. The rest of it is evident in its extensive flexibility – the sheer number of actual ins and outs on the unit itself is a little overwhelming, so instead of just listing what every single jack does I’ll take you through a few use-cases that should hopefully demonstrate just how handy this thing is to have about.
First off – the titular reamping. This is done by using the line output to record a performance straight off your guitar’s pickups, with the variable impedance control ensuring the recorded signal stays bright and dynamic. The thru output lets you connect the rest of your rig as normal.
Switch a couple of cables around, and you can then send this dry audio back through amps and effects pedals to record the same performance, but with different tones. This allows you to get unique and layered sounds – but it’s also a good backup thing to have if your chosen tone doesn’t quite sit right in the mix, or anything else goes wrong. In essence – it gets you the flexibility of recording in-the-box, without having to lose the analogue joy of real, physical guitar amps.
Image: Press
In Use
The other thing this configuration allows is sending basically any other audio through pedals and amps, as the Reamper can convert a line-level signal to the instrument-level signal guitar gear is designed around. This opens up some great recording possibilities – during my testing I lose an afternoon running vocals through distortion pedals, and synths through an array of delays and reverbs.
You can also do the inverse, in a way – using the instrument input to connect a guitar to any rack gear that’s expecting a line-level signal, and then either record direct or loop the output back to the line input of the Reamper, and then use the instrument output to continue on to an amplifier. This is, of course, something you can achieve with other gear – but it’s remarkable to see it all done so extensively in just one place.
The Reamper also works with the speaker output of your tube amp. You can connect a speaker or other loadbox to the amp-thru as normal, but if you just connect a tube head, the Reamper provides its own 50-watt load to stop anything going boom. It then routes the raw power-amp signal to its line output, allowing you to load your own IRs/virtual cabinets within your DAW for manipulation at a later date.
This is a very cool thing to see and do – a sort of “re-speaker” box. It is a bit of a shame the internal load for silent recording tops out at 50 watts, though, particularly for the heavier crowd who might want to push the power tubes of a 100-watter without stripping the paint off the walls. It’s also not an attenuator – you can either run through the Reamper and pass the full power onwards to your normal speaker (or other loadbox), or use the 50-watt load for silent recording, using software monitoring to hear your amp through a virtual speaker. You can’t use it to lower the level of the signal that gets passed on to the speaker.
The resultant sound and feel is good, perhaps not quite as freakishly accurate as something like the Ox Box – however in that instance, the Reamper is actually the much more affordable option.
Image: Press
Should I buy one?
So the Reamper makes quick work of basically whatever routing trickery you might throw at it. Firstly and crucially, the sounds are all great, crackle-free and unmarred by any audible conversion losses. The optional preamp gain stage also sounds fantastic, and does a great job of adding a little life to your pure dry tone. Secondly, the actual process of reamping and/or doing any other routing is pleasing and tactile. While you might think the handled amp-top design would be annoying if you wanted to integrate it into a more permanent setup, it actually means that manipulating the Reamper as you re-route the required cables is a lot easier.
To answer the question of should you buy one – the answer is a resounding ‘probably’, unless you already have the pile of gear that the box itself replicates. Even then, having it integrated into this single package is still an undeniable quality of life improvement for home studio work. If you are a guitarist working out of a home studio with real, analogue pedals and amps – it’s more than worth its admittedly high price tag, given just how many things it can do. The dollar amount may be high, but the options-per-dollar make it far more appealing.
Alternatives
This is tricky – there aren’t really any single products that integrate quite as many routing functions as the Reamper. You could get something like the United Studio Technologies Replay Box ($299/£369) if you just wanted reamping, or explore the offerings from Two Notes and Universal Audio if you wanted the amp-loading capabilities – but to truly have an alternative, you’ll need a big pile of individual converters, preamps and loads.
The post Warm Audio Reamper review – the studio DI box to end all studio DI boxes? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Totally Guitars Weekly Update August 21, 2026
Well, I’m going to be honest with you – this week’s update almost didn’t happen. I’ve been sick. Really sick. The kind where brain fog sets in and even picking up the guitar feels like too much. We were in New York for a wedding – had a wonderful time – and somewhere over the […]
The post Totally Guitars Weekly Update August 21, 2026 appeared first on On The Beat with Totally Guitars.
Carr Trail Rider Review
When one thinks about 5-watt amps, it’s often in terms of compromise—things like consideration for the neighbors downstairs, or the houseplant that would flourish in the space where your Hiwatt stack lives. On one hand, Carr’s 5-watt, 1xEL84-powered Trail Rider offers a viable path to such compromises. And with an excellent attenuator on board, it can sound alive and characterful at volumes no louder than your TV. But with the brakes off, the Trail Rider also has the potency to blast a whole city block. And with so many beautiful sounds and colors available at full power, restraint can be difficult.
Bermuda Triangle Address
When you think of a 5-watt amp, you probably envision something about the size of a Fender Champ or Vox AC4. But the Trail Rider, at roughly 20" wide, 15" tall and 9" deep, is almost the same size as Carr’s much more powerful Bel-Ray. The dimensions might be less than ideal for some 5-watt amp shoppers looking to maximize space. Thankfully, it looks smashing. But the ace visuals, the expertly crafted plywood cabinet has a practical benefit—it accommodates a 12", 50-watt Celestion A-type speaker, which plays a major role in the Trail Rider’s overachieving performance.
The Trail Rider’s tube complement—two 12AX7s and a single EL84 (along with a 12DW7 for reverb drive and return)—suggests fundamentally English inspirations. And the spirit of the Vox AC4 definitely dwells within the Trail Rider. But like most Carr amps of more recent vintage, the Trail Rider’s vocabulary transcends oceans, borders, and boundaries. Two switchable voices make up the basic tone foundations here. The Voxier of the two is called V67, the other is T57. You probably won’t need three tries to guess that the “T” is for tweed.
Deluxes and Bassmans define tweed tone for most. But tweediness can be a lot of things. Fender’s amp designs in the mid- to late-’50s evolved quickly, and when designing the Trail Rider, Steve Carr homed in on the point at which the tweed amps went from a single tone control that governed the high end, to a 2-knob EQ that controlled bass and treble independently. That simple enhancement opened up a lot of tone shaping range in tweeds like the Pro, Super, and Bassman, and Carr uses that simple but magical formula to fantastic effect in the Trail Rider. Its EQ section is a powerful tool that lends the amp an expansive vocabulary.
Trails Less Taken
One shouldn't be afraid to experiment with radical, unconventional, even uncomfortable shifts in EQ settings on the Trail Rider. In fact, messing with convention is half the fun. Situating the treble and bass at noon reveals the essence of the two voices, but also the basic flexibility of the amp. At these EQ settings—and in either V67 or T57 voices—the first 25 percent of the amp’s volume range offers sweet, lively clean tones that shine on their own, but sound dynamite with drive and distortion pedals. With amp volume in the 30-to-50 percent range, the Trail Rider starts to growl on its own. These textures can be accented with pedals to very cool ends, and the Trail Rider, in spite of its low power, won’t flinch at the addition of fuzz. But it's the Trail Rider’s own beautiful organic breakup that really highlights the EQ’s transformative power.
Treble-down/bass-up settings, for example, worked with the 12" Celestion to coax thick, burbling, jazzy tones from a Telecaster. Meanwhile, cranking the treble generates lead and chord tones that’ll rip, white hot, through the thickest, most muddled mix, and conjures focused, overtone-rich, and very unique distortion textures. These extreme EQ settings are often revelatory and inspiring. They’re also all genuinely useful. Even at its trebliest settings the Trail Rider’s output is never abrasive, and the interactivity of the bass and treble lends a painterly measure of control that is fun, satisfying, and, in a stage or studio setting, immensely practical.
These rules also apply when you wind up the Trail Rider and let it rip. When you get into the upper reaches of the volume, the details and differences that separate the tweed and Vox voices become less discernible amid the natural compression. But at full-blast, playing the Trail Rider is like being drenched in honey. There’s no grating stridency, and the distortion has a smoothness, dimension, and sense of size that’s reminiscent of a black-panel Fender Bassman.
“At full-blast, playing the Trail Rider is like being drenched in honey.”
The Trail Rider feels immediate, too. It’s very dynamic, and sensitive to variations in guitar volume and tone input, which puts even more color at your disposal. You get a sense of incredible efficiency in this circuit—as if your signal is running a flawless baton race, picking up some thickness here, some gain and top end there, and never breaking pace. Tone suck in this circuit simply feels nonexistent.
The Verdict
Steve Carr’s designs are always a treat. And his knack for spinning something new and imaginative from familiar touchstones never fails to surprise. Tweed- and Vox-like flavors are here in abundance, and in many shades. Yet the Trail Rider never feels like an imitation, and it tends to be so sweetly immersive that everything outside the sound you make with it becomes incidental. It pairs beautifully with any guitar (though Telecasters and the ES-335-style designs were especially tasty matches). And the onboard spring reverb meshes seamlessly into the overall tone picture—often feeling like the only effect you’ll ever need.
If there is any compromise or let down involved with playing the Trail Rider, it’s that its attenuated voices, however sweet, can’t match the electric thrill of experiencing the amp at full power. Another sobering factor is the price: $2,900 for a 5-watt amp. But what you hear and feel from the Trail Rider makes the power rating a poor measure of its value. The heirloom-level build quality goes a long way toward justifying the cost.
Above all else, the Trail Rider’s expansiveness, versatility, and shape-shifting capacity to range from clean to crushing could make more than a few amps in your collection redundant and ripe for sale. Viewed through that lens, the Trail Rider’s price could well add up to math that makes sense.
Vivian Campbell confirms his cancer is back – but he’s continuing treatments and is “certainly not slowing down”
Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell has shared that his cancer has returned and that he is continuing treatment, but he’s staying resilient and “not slowing down”.
Campbell, who has also played for Dio, White Snake and Thin Lizzy, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2013, and reported that he was in remission in June of last year after receiving a donor stem cell transplant.
Unfortunately, Campbell now reports that the transplant “didn’t stick” and that he may have to do another in a few years. In the meantime, he says he is doing as much with his life as possible, including his work with Def Leppard and his Last In Line supergroup.
Asked how he keeps a positive mindset during his health battles, he tells Francisco Sigüenza of El Salvador’s Radio YSKL FM [via Blabbermouth], “Unfortunately, I have met people in my life who, when they’ve gotten a cancer diagnosis, they’ve only focused on that. They think, ‘I can’t do anything. I need to stay in bed…’ I’ve never felt that way. I’ve always felt like I’m gonna continue to live my life as much as possible. In fact, even more so… I also consider myself very fortunate because I caught my cancer early.
“There’s only been one time that I felt it was gonna kill me; in the winter of 2023, I got really scared about what was happening and the pace at which it was happening. And I realised at that point that I had to do a donor transplant. It was my only hope to survive. And that’s what I did. I did that in January of ’25. Unfortunately, it didn’t stick. So the cancer has returned. And I’m continuing treatments to manage it.”
He goes on to add, “In the meantime, I’m certainly not slowing down. I’m doing as much with my life as possible, not just with Def Leppard and with Last In Line. I’m also rally driving, ’cause I always wanted to do that. So I’ve been doing that more and more, ’cause I love cars and I love driving.
“Life is for the living,” he says, “and I encourage everyone to look after their own health. And if you are unfortunate enough to get a cancer diagnosis to overcome the fear. Fear is inevitable when you’re first told those words. But once you get over that, you gotta realise just how to manage it and how to deal with it as best as possible, and just don’t give in.”
Def Leppard are on tour in October/November this year. You can find out more via the band’s official website.
The post Vivian Campbell confirms his cancer is back – but he’s continuing treatments and is “certainly not slowing down” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Maisy Owen’s Mesmerizing Songcraft | Acoustic Guitar Sessions
Lzzy Hale’s dazzling new Epiphone Explorer Custom is “purpose-built for heavy music”
Halestorm’s powerhouse vocalist and guitarist Lzzy Hale has launched a new signature model with Epiphone – a sparkling Explorer Custom model designed for heavy music with an aesthetic sure to steal the spotlight.
Finished in a Black Diamond Holographic Sparkle exterior, fans may recognise its shiny good looks from her signature Kramer Voyager model from 2023. Epiphone describes it as a “commanding new addition” to her series of Epiphone signature guitars; you may remember her limited-edition Explorer from 2019.
This new guitar has a classic mahogany body and 7-ply top binding, with a single-ply mirror pickguard that reflects and shines under stage lighting in keeping with its sparkling looks. Its mahogany neck is shaped to Epiphone’s SlimTaper 60s C profile, paired with an ebony fretboard, 22 medium jumbo frets, and pearloid block inlays.
At the top of the model, the Explorer “hockey stick” headstock has a raised Epiphone 3D nickel logo, a Graph Tech nut, and Grover Mini Rotomatic tuners. Custom artist details include a black two-ply truss rod cover engraved with Hale’s signature and a black stinger on the rear of the headstock.
Tonally, the guitar is powered by a matched set of Epiphone ProBucker Ignite pickups, with each wired to its own volume control, with a shared master tone control topped by a silver Speed knob for shaping. It’s also got a three-way pickup selector, a LockTone Tune-O-Matic bridge and LockTone Stop Bar tailpiece, and you also get a hardshell case included.
Due to its premium features, this is a higher-end Epiphone model that comes in at $999. Find out more about its story below:
Aljon Go, Product Manager at Epiphone, says: “Lzzy has always brought a rare combination of power, precision, and unmistakable style to the stage. The Lzzy Hale Explorer Custom captures that same energy in an instrument that looks unforgettable, plays fast, and delivers the clarity and punch players need to own the moment.”
To find out more, visit the Epiphone website. Lzzy Hale is offering fans on Halestorm’s autumn 2026 North American tour the opportunity to own an autographed Explorer Custom played live on stage through a VIP experience.
The post Lzzy Hale’s dazzling new Epiphone Explorer Custom is “purpose-built for heavy music” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
How Chase Bliss’ Joel Korte Builds Effects That Push the Boundaries
If you type the name Chase Bliss into Google, the first thing that comes up—after the official website for the Minneapolis-based pedal maker—is a Reddit thread with a question: “What is special about Chase Bliss pedals?”
It’s a fair query. These days, Chase Bliss has an esteemed reputation among boutique guitar-pedal brands, lauded for their unique and innovative effects, high-end build quality, and tweakability that gives players virtually infinite possibilities.
At the same time, the brand can be polarizing. User experiences tend to vary. While Chase Bliss products are typically embraced by experimental players, studio geeks, and gearheads who spend hours dialing in a tone that’s just right, the sheer array of features stuffed into each stompbox can be overwhelming for some. Considering Chase Bliss pedals start at $399 and run up to $999, with some discontinued models going for well over a grand on the secondhand market, they’re not an especially easy sell.
So, what’s special about Chase Bliss? It depends what you mean.
There’s the ideology, described by founder Joel Korte as “digital brain, analog heart”—an electrical engineering concept that combines warm analog tones with digital control. There’s the novelty, with several one-of-a-kind pedals that do things that no other pedal does. And there’s the versatility, as Chase Bliss products are likely to reward users willing to make it over their steep learning curves.
“We make a huge effort to offer something new to the sonic landscape,” Korte tells Premier Guitar. “I never wanted to do just the same old thing. People who take a chance on us, they know they’re going on a bit of a journey. Hopefully they’ll be surprised and inspired.”
Passion for Pedals
In 2003, Joel Korte was a college freshman trying to decide what to declare as his major. He spent a lot of that year strumming his purple Stratocaster and fiddling with the on-board effects on his little practice amp, so he emailed some of his favorite gear manufacturers and asked what skills you needed to design audio equipment. They all said electrical engineering, so that's what he declared.
Five years later, though, things were going poorly. After graduating from college, Korte, then 24, settled for a corporate job that he hated, and lacked the motivation to pursue his real passion. A lifelong stutterer, he was going through a flare-up of the speech challenge that was making his life difficult. Above all, he was grieving the loss of his older brother Chase, who had been pursuing an acting career in California when he was killed by a drunk driver on Interstate 40 in early 2007. By his own admission, Joel Korte was headed toward an “unhappy life.”
“People who take a chance on us, they know they’re going on a bit of a journey.”
After taking a year and a half to mourn, Korte remembered how his brother’s approach to life was guided by American writer and philosopher Joseph Campbell’s mantra: “Follow your bliss.” That shook something in the young engineer, reigniting a fire that had been snuffed out.
Korte quit his job, enrolled in grad school, and doggedly pursued a new job at ZVEX Effects. After several emails and phone calls to founder Zack Vex, he landed a part-time gig at the Minneapolis-based workshop. At ZVEX, he learned everything he could about stompboxes—so much so that after four years, he left to start his own business. By 2013, he had developed the prototype for his first pedal and began operating out of the spare bedroom of his apartment in South Minneapolis. He named his new company in honour of his late brother and his ethos: Chase Bliss.
Infinite Possibilities
Whenever Korte played on his own or in bands, he found himself wishing the knobs on his effects pedals would go just a bit further, or for an extra switch that wasn’t there. “I wanted to be different,” he says. “There wasn’t that kitchen-sink approach [in other pedals] that I thought there could be. So, I just started to do things the way I wanted, as someone who loves guitar pedals. I wanted to create this blank canvas where someone could have infinite possibilities.”
Before leaving ZVEX, Korte had been put in charge of restructuring the Lo-Fi Loop Junky into a real-time version of the looper’s variable-voltage modulation and degradation. The result was the Instant Lo-Fi Junky, and it hooked Korte on the sound of lo-fi vibrato. By late 2013, he had developed the first Chase Bliss pedal, the Warped Vinyl, a vibrato-chorus hybrid designed to simulate the wavering, fluttering sound of a record that was left out in the sun for too long.
Korte wasn’t concerned with the Warped Vinyl’s marketability, but it was an immediate success, selling more than 500 within the first year. Encouraged by the critical and commercial response, Korte got back into the workshop and developed Chase Bliss’s second pedal, the Wombtone. Introduced eight months after the Warped Vinyl in August 2014, the Wombtone offered vintage, ’70s-style analog phaser tones with highly tweakable digital controls.
With the business taking off, Korte couldn’t keep up on his own (even with his parents’ help). In 2015, he hired his first employee, Zack Warpinski—who now serves as director of operations—and kept things rolling with two new products, the Gravitas tremolo and the Spectre flanger, along with updated MkII versions of the Warped Vinyl and Wombtone.
Over the next three years, Chase Bliss continued to expand its product lineup. The Tonal Recall arrived in 2016, giving players warm, sweet, vintage-style analog delay with digital-control amenities like tap tempo, expression/MIDI control, and patch saving, and tape-like saturation thanks to re-issued versions of the sought-after MN3005 bucket-brigade delay chips. Brothers was introduced in 2017, an overdrive pedal built with two independent JFET/IC analog channels that offered six unique boost, drive, or fuzz circuits in one package.
“I wanted to create this blank canvas where someone could have infinite possibilities.”
In 2018, Chase Bliss added Thermae, another delay that used the same MN3005s as the Tonal Recall but added pitch-shifting interval features so that players could create cascading, rhythmic harmonies. At the same time, they added their first overdrive pedal, the Condor, which also served as an EQ, filter, and preamp boost.
By that point, Chase Bliss had become one of the hottest names in guitar pedals. But that didn’t necessarily mean the business was on solid ground.
Turning Point
In 2019, Korte entered a long development cycle for two ambitious ideas. The first was a Kickstarter-funded collaboration with YouTuber Scott "Knobs" Harper that would eventually become the Blooper pedal, a multi-layer performance looper with a full suite of sound design. The second was a partnership with Benson Amps for a gain pedal called the Automatone Preamp MkII that would combine boost, EQ, overdrive, and fuzz.
As Chase Bliss and its collaborators started working on those pedals, Korte saw a big problem. It would take too long to push the new products through development and onto the market, and revenues from their existing lineup wouldn’t keep them afloat until then. One of the guitar world’s most critically acclaimed and sought-after pedalmakers was quickly running out of cash. “I was looking at the finances and I was like, ‘We're fucked,’” Korte recalls.
What he and his small team needed was something new that they could sell in the interim to fund the ongoing development of the Blooper and the Automatone. At the time, Chase Bliss had recently come out with its first fully digital effect, a reverb called the Dark World that was made in collaboration with Keeley Electronics and Cooper FX. Korte figured they could leverage the work they did on the Dark World into another all-digital offering that could generate interest—and money—while he worked on the Blooper and Automatone.
Chase Bliss linked up with Old Blood Noise Endeavors and Drolo Effects. Only six months later, they’d finalized the Mood pedal, a micro-looper and delay with two channels: one that samples and loops brief moments, and another that offers a full suite of spatial effects that let players stretch, slice, twist, and freeze those moments. The two channels pass audio back and forth to create otherworldly ambiences and weird, wonky soundscapes.
Korte summarizes the development: “You know how sometimes you’ll work so hard on a song and you’ll spend so much time on it? That was the Blooper and the Automatone. And then all of a sudden you’ll write a song in five minutes, and it just comes out of you. That was Mood.”
“The way that I loved to design, with the digital brain and analog heart … that was no longer feasible for us.”
Launched in June 2019, it was an instant hit and became the company’s best-selling pedal—a title it still holds to this day. By 2020, Chase Bliss had managed to push both the Blooper and Automatone to market, along with the CXM 1978 reverb, just in time to enjoy a massive sales boost brought on by pandemic lockdowns. “The direct orders from our website just exploded,” says Korte.
That allowed the company to not only secure its financial position but also expand significantly. In 2022, Tyler Devonald, who'd joined Chase Bliss five years earlier, opened an Amsterdam office with Liz Groshens to handle shipping, repairs, and distribution for European customers; it's since grown to three people. What used to be a one-man operation in a Minnesota basement is now a 23-person employer with a global presence. But the expansion hasn’t been without challenges, and it was Chase Bliss’ presence in Europe that forced Korte to change the way he had been making pedals for over a decade.
Digital Revolution
Two years ago, Chase Bliss arrived at another crossroads. A part used in several of its pedals made them noncompliant with sales regulations in the United Kingdom and European Union. The problem was with the light-dependent resistor, or LDR. A fairly common component in guitar effects, particularly modulators, it gets paired with an LED to form an opto-isolator that changes the level of resistance in an analog signal based on how much light is hitting it.
Since the beginning, that’s how Chase Bliss had achieved its “digital brain, analog heart” designs. By using a digital micro-processor to exert precise control over the LED, which then determined how much resistance the LDR would add to the clean signal, Chase Bliss could achieve smooth, organic-sounding analog tone with all of the versatility of digital mechanics. But the LDRs also contained cadmium sulfide, a toxic substance that’s not allowed to be sold in the UK or EU.
While Chase Bliss assured existing customers that any risk from the material was “incredibly low,” they were forced to discontinue five pedals: the Warped Vinyl, Condor, Thermae, Dark World, and Preamp MkII. For Korte, it meant that after more than 10 years of designing, he had to abandon his signature style. “The way that I loved to design, with the digital brain and analog heart … that was no longer feasible for us,” he says.
By then, Chase Bliss had already introduced a number of all-digital pedals that skipped the banned LDRs, and they quickly pivoted to working with digital potentiometers and voltage-controlled amplifiers (VCAs) to replace the troublesome resistors.
As of the writing of this article, Chase Bliss has a catalogue of nine pedals. That includes the Blooper, Generation Loss, the CXM 1978, the Mood MkII, and the Brothers AM, a collaboration with Analog Man that pays tribute to the latter’s King of Tone dual-circuit analog overdrive. It also features newer additions, among them: Lossy, an audio degradation emulator; Onward, a dynamic sampler pedal; Clean, a 2-stage stereo compressor; and Big Time, a stereo echo collaboration with Electronic Audio Experiments inspired by early-’80s rackmount delays.
Leap of Faith
Thirteen years ago, Korte was headed for an unhappy life and decided to do something about it. Since then, he’s turned a solo venture into one of the most well-known and highly regarded guitar-pedal brands. All these years later, Korte’s eyes well up when he considers how Chase Bliss’ success—and his entire career—stand as a lasting, heartfelt tribute to his late brother.
“I attribute so much of what’s happened to him,” Korte says. “When I had the finite nature of life presented to me in the way that it was when he died, it made me take some risks that I don’t think I ever would have. Back in 2013, I bet the farm, and then I bet the farm again, and then the farm got bigger, and I just kept betting the farm … And it worked out.”
“My hope is that someone with a regular job will be able to afford it. They’re not all tens of thousands”: Johnny Marr on his upcoming Christie’s auction
Johnny Marr has shared his thoughts on the bidding estimates for the guitars he’s selling through Christie’s auction house.
Announced in June, the Marr’s Guitars auction will take place on 17 September and features nearly 100 pieces from his personal collection. Though these items are definitely not cheap, Marr believes his collection will sell for a lot less than that of other pivotal players, and hopes the items will go to fans.
Consisting of almost 80 instruments, as well as amps and other bits of gear, price estimates range from £1,000 to £80,000. However, one of the items could potentially go for up to £150,000 – his 1960 Cherry Red Gibson ES-355, which he used to write The Smiths’ Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.
Speaking to Guitarist, he explains, “Well, compared with other auctions, the prices don’t look too horrible. The people who follow me might not necessarily be the same people who follow Mark Knopfler or David Gilmour. Two people I’ve got the utmost respect for. My appeal as a guitar player is coming from a different place and a different time. That’s the main reason I put a lot of my Jags in there, precisely because they’re not heritage antiques.
“My hope is that someone who’s got a regular job in Glasgow, who fancies a good guitar but wants one of mine, will be able to afford it. They’re not all tens of thousands,” Marr states.
“In the past, I’ve never regretted selling, like, one of the Playland guitars or something I used on The Messenger. Because I know it’s someone who really cares about [what I’ve done in] my career overall. It’s not just someone who wants to buy the How Soon Is Now guitar and stick it in a glass case. I want a fan to buy these guitars.”
He goes on to add, “It’s not really for me to control if someone wants to hang it up in a collection, but something tells me that isn’t going to be the case. Precisely because I come from a different culture from Jeff Beck and David Gilmour. And not to say that their fans aren’t [guitar fanatics]. But y’know, I’m an indie-rock musician and I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be an indie-rock fan who buys my guitars.”
It’s fair to say that these prices are still very high for the regular player, but Marr raises a fair point regarding the value of Gilmour’s instruments. The Pink Floyd guitarist’s famous Black Strat holds the title of the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction, nearly tripling the previous record by selling for $14,550,000 including fees.
The guitar was sold as part of the Jim Irsay Collection auction, also via Christie’s. It originally had an estimated price of $2-4,000,000.
Marr has promised to donate 100 percent of the profits from 10 lots of his auction to a pair of charities: The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and The National Autistic Society.
Find out more about the Marr’s Guitars auction via Christie’s auction house.
The post “My hope is that someone with a regular job will be able to afford it. They’re not all tens of thousands”: Johnny Marr on his upcoming Christie’s auction appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I was the f**kin’ guy, okay?”: Sebastian Bach says he was the reason for a spike in popularity of the name ‘Sebastian’ in 1989
If you happen to be named Sebastian, well it seems you might have Sebastian Bach to thank – or at least that’s what he thinks.
The Twisted Sister singer believes there was a spike in popularity for his name in the late 1980s, but prior to his music career taking off, he recalls never hearing of anyone else with the same name as his. He even says fans have approached him over the years to tell him that their parents named them after him.
- READ MORE: “They play too many notes”: Twisted Sister’s Jay Jay French on the problem with young guitarists
Speaking to Loudwire, he says, “There’s a lot of times people come up to me and say, ‘I was named after you, my parents named me after you.’ ’cause when I was a kid, I was born in 1968, so I was in grade school in 1975/76. Let me tell you something. There was no other kid named Sebastian in the ’70s.
“I would come home almost crying to my mom, ‘Why did you name me this name? Why couldn’t you name me Joe?’ I remember saying that. My mom’s like, ‘Listen, honey, you’re gonna like it [one day].’ When I got to be like 13 getting in bands, then it was a great name!” He shares.
“Back in 1989, some fan said, ‘Sebastian, do you know about this?’ And it was [one of] these polls of popular names for boys and girls. They showed me in ’89 the in the newspaper it had the most popular names and it said Sebastian, but the year before it wasn’t even in the chart! I was the fuckin’ guy, okay? Because ’88, nothing. ’89, Sebastian was one of the top names that people were naming their kids. You’re welcome!”
You can watch the interview below:
Bach joined Twisted Sister in 2023 in place of Dee Snider. Their guitarist, Jay Jay French, has been pretty outspoken in recent years about his thoughts on rock music and its future. In fact, he’d go as far as to say it’s “dead”.
Speaking with Sean P. McKenna on Rimshots With Sean for Barstools & Bandtalk earlier this year, French said: “People say to me, ‘What makes you say rock is dead?’ Well, here’s my take on that. When I was 17 years old back in 1969, all my heroes – Beatles, Stones, Who, Zep, Floyd, Hendrix, Dylan, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane; you name it, you name ‘em all – none of them were older than 27.
“Now think about this for a second. The greatest rock artists in the history of the world, when I was 17, were no older than 10 years [older] than me. Most of them were 25 to 27. Well, I say, name me a 27-year-old rock star right now. And nobody can name one.”
He went on to add, “I’m not saying that there are no rock bands. I’m just saying that the collective psyche that dictates current music trends and sociological impact of music, it’s not showing up in the rock world in terms of mass acceptance.”
The post “I was the f**kin’ guy, okay?”: Sebastian Bach says he was the reason for a spike in popularity of the name ‘Sebastian’ in 1989 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
This new Gretsch Penguin could be the most striking guitar of the year so far
Gretsch has added a new limited-edition Penguin model to its lineup, complete with a head-spinning Light Blue Pearl finish and a String-Thru Bigsby tailpiece.
2026 has been a big year for Gretsch so far, with new metal-ready baritone models landing in May, and limited-edition Emerald Night Falcon and Penguins arriving the month before. And continuing its hot streak, the brand has added a beautiful new Penguin model to its lineup.
Boasting a mahogany body with an arched maple top and vintage chambering, with a striking Light Blue Pearl finish, the G6134T-58 offers a truly eye-catching take on a classic Gretsch design.
Credit: Gretsch
Elsewhere, the guitar sports a mahogany neck with a 12”-radius ebony fingerboard, with 22 medium jumbo frets, mother of pearl Neo Classic thumbnail inlays and Luminlay side dots.
Tones come by way of a pair of TV Jones Ray Butts Ful-Fidelity Filter’Tron pickups, made according to Ray’s personal notes and designs. These pickups are said to produce a tighter bass response and slightly more top end than modern Filter’Tron pickups. “The absence of wax potting results in a more open, three-dimensional sound with truly unique sparkle and exceptional dynamics,” Gretsch says.
Other features include a Space Control bridge with a pinned ebony base and a String-Thru Bigsby B3CP tailpiece, Grover Imperial tuners and chrome hardware.
Credit: Gretsch
The G6134T-58 is priced at $3,799.99, and comes with a G6238XL Gretsch deluxe hardshell case as standard.
Learn more at Gretsch.
The post This new Gretsch Penguin could be the most striking guitar of the year so far appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Gibson Victory Floyd Rose review: “this is a fantastic addition to the Gibson line”
$2,799/£2,399, gibson.com
The 1980s were an interesting time for the guitar industry. The decade saw a new generation of players who demanded instruments that were quite a departure from the electric guitars that had been front and centre for most of the previous thirty-plus years. That in turn enabled small makers like Kramer, Charvel and Jackson to become the big-time brands they are today.
- READ MORE: Gretsch Electromatic CVT Baritone review – long-scale downtuned heaviness from Gretsch hits the mark
It was a trickier period for the established big guns, however. While Gibson had some guitars that were ready-made for this new, more aggressively styled era – notably the Explorer and Flying V most notably – both the brand and Fender understandably wanted to make some guitars that were designed for this new era.
Unfortunately, none of these new models really caught fire at the time, and you imagine that there was a collective sigh of relief in both Nashville and Corona when the 90s rolled around and MTV was replete with Golden Era guitars once again.
But time has a funny way of changing perceptions. And just like it took wider guitar culture a few decades to really appreciate the V and the Explorer, so it has been with some of the more unloved guitars from the 80s.
Image: Press
While nobody seems to be falling over themselves to demand a Corvus reissue (yet!), the Victory has long had a bit of a cult following. And looking at it with 21st-century eyes, you can see why – like so many underappreciated guitar designs, it was ahead of its time, offering a double-cut solid-body take on the Gibson recipe that has since become a huge part of the modern heavy guitar firmament.
All this meant it was a big deal when the brand relaunched the Victory into the core line back in 2024. Clearly this time around the concept has found a more receptive audience too, as it has been followed up two years later by this brand new version that puts it even more squarely in the wheelhouse of today’s technical guitar players.
What Is It?
Like its hardtail sibling, the Victory Floyd Rose is a solid-body, double-cut electric guitar with a pair of humbucking pickups, and – you guessed it – a Floyd Rose vibrato. Gibson says that the original Victory has been a big hit with its audience, but one of the most common bits of feedback was, “Can you add a Floyd Rose?” Request granted.
Other than that, it’s pretty much identical to the figured top version of the hardtail Victory. That means you get a solid mahogany body with a beautifully figured maple top, finished in either Deep Ocean Burst, Ebony Burst or the eye-catching Iguana Burst.
The neck is also mahogany, with a classic 80s hockey stick headstock. Despite its super-S-type-adjacent origins, there are no bolts here – this is a through-neck, glued-in neck construction, and interestingly the Victory comes with a longer-than-usual 25.5-inch scale length – most Gibson electrics ship with a 24.75-inch scale.
The neck itself has a shred-ready 10-14-inch compound radius, with Gibson’s SlimTaper profile, and you’ll find 24 medium jumbo frets on its mahogany fingerboard. Above the locking Floyd Rose nut are a set of Grover Mini Rotomatic tuners, not that you’ll be needing to mess around with them too much.
In terms of the noise-making stuff, the Victory ships with a pair of zebra-bobbin’d 80s Tribute humbuckers, and these both have coil-splits – pull up on the volume pot to engage the split on your selected pickup, and pull up on the tone to select whether you want the inner or outer coil.
Image: Press
Build quality and playability
Gibson has upped its game considerably in the years since the brand was reborn out of bankruptcy in 2018, and so it’s perhaps no surprise that upon pulling the Victory Floyd Rose out of its (very cool blacked-out) hard case I was very impressed with it from a build and finishing perspective.
Iguana Burst isn’t going to be to everyone’s tastes, but it’s also the sort of colour that doesn’t give any hiding place to overspray or sloppy finishing. And yet every inch of the body, neck and headstock is finished expertly, and there’s a really inviting three-dimensional quality to that figured top that really pulls you in.
Picking the guitar up, I’m immediately impressed by the offset double-cut body – it really hugs the player from an ergonomic perspective, and invites you to explore the full length of its neck. At just under 7lbs, it’s lightweight and balanced, too.
That extra scale length does make this a different kind of ride to a Les Paul – it has a little more resistance when you’re bending, for one – but this is still a very slick player that’s set up low and fast, and encourages you to blaze up and down that neck.
Speaking of the neck, I found the combination SlimTaper profile and compound radius to be slim, but not too slim. A baseball bat this obviously ain’t, but it’s not so skinny that it feels insubstantial either – a nice middle ground.
The Floyd does what a Floyd does – giving you smooth and expressive control of your vibrato while keeping perfect pitch. The less said about restringing it, the better, of course, but that is the rub when it comes to a locking trem.
One slight bone of contention might be the frets. The playability is top notch, and I found the fretwork excellent throughout – there are no dull frets or rough patches to be seen. That said, many more technically minded modern players won’t get out of bed for anything less than stainless steel these days, and jumbo ones at that. It’s not a deal-breaker for me, but others may see it as an opportunity Gibson should be taking, following the move towards stainless steel frets in its Epiphone Futura line.
Image: Press
Sounds
Gibson knows a thing or two about making great dual-humbucker guitars, and even in an unconventional format here, there’s some real Gibson magic to be found in these Alnico V-magneted 80s Tributes.
As befits their name, these are not ultra-high output modern humbuckers that are full-send all the time. There’s a nuance here – obviously these are great-sounding pickups that come ready to play with heavier rock and metal genres, but they’re not so lacking in subtlety that they don’t have character when you roll the volume off.
Ultimately though, these are pickups that are born to be distorted, and so that’s my first port of call. They sound absolutely fantastic as you dial the drive up, delivering warm harmonics and sustain with a depth that I haven’t heard from a new guitar in a while.
It’s hard to imagine too many people picking this guitar up and going for a crystal clean tone, and so it’s not a surprise that its un-gainy tones are perfectly fine, if unlikely to become the bedrock of anyone’s John Mayer tribute.
Equally, while the coil-split modes aren’t going to convince anyone that you’re playing a bona fide SSS or HSS guitar, they will do a solid job – especially in a live situation. Having the flexibility to select the inner-coils sounds is great, as they’ll do a passable out-of-phase sound, further enhancing your sonic options. This is a guitar that can cover a lot of bases without needing too much tweaking.
Image: Press
Should I Buy One?
If you’re a hard rock or metal guitarist who wants to stand out from the crowd, it’s very easy to see why the Victory is proving such a popular option. The heavier end of the spectrum doesn’t lack for weird guitar shapes, but there’s something timeless and refined about the Victory that makes it feel much more palatable. Perhaps the Gibson inlay on the headstock speaks volumes here.
Because you know what you’re getting with a Gibson guitar, and it must be said that even by modern standards, this feels like a very well-built and well-thought-out instrument. It has a level of fit and finish that I would have expected from the Custom Shop a few years back, but at a price that makes it very competitive in the world of US-made hard-rocking guitars.
Okay, it might look a little weird if you trot out with it for an Eagles cover at your next gig, but there’s a lot to be said for a guitar that understands what it is and doesn’t try to be all things to all people. You probably already know if the Victory is for you just by looking at it, and this Floyd Rose version simply puts the icing on the cake of a shredder’s delight.
Image: Press
Alternatives
It speaks to the impressive value proposition the Victory offers that to get a similar US-made guitar from a rival brand will cost you a lot more. Closest of all is perhaps the Jackson USA Signature Chris Broderick Soloist 6 ($5,549/£4,779) – which sports a mahogany body with a maple cap, twin DiMarzio humbuckers and a Floyd. When it comes to twin-humbucker mahogany-bodied electric guitars with flame-topped finishes, it would be remiss not to bring PRS into the conversation, though the Core line Custom 24 Floyd model is not cheap at $4,940/£3,999. More in the ballpark of the Victory is Mark Lettieri’s Fiore HH ($2,649/£2,499), though it’s just got a non-locking vibrato. ESP’s E-II Horizon FR ($2,789) is another guitar that dukes it out with the Victory in terms of build, spec and vibe. It’s made in Japan, not the USA, but that’s more a question of geography than guitar-making ability at this level.
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Musicians and Their Thompson Guitars
Axes Follow Me
I took these downstairs and showed them to my wife, she proceeded to laugh and said, "I guess axes just follow you around! They always find you!"
Now, get out into your shop and make something!
Taylor Guitars Introduces Next Generation 512ce and 712ce
Taylor Guitars continues to evolve the acoustic guitar experience with the introduction of the Next Generation 512ce and 712ce, two new Grand Concert models that bring a powerful combination of tonal character, player-focused innovation and effortless playability to one of Taylor’s most comfortable body shapes.
At the heart of both guitars is Taylor’s Next Generation platform, which brings together three key innovations: scalloped V-Class bracing, the Action Control Neck and the Claria Acoustic Pickup System. Together, these features represent the latest evolution of Taylor’s approach to acoustic guitar design, enhancing warmth, resonance, sustain, adjustability and plugged-in performance while preserving the clarity and balance players have come to expect from a Taylor.
Both models feature the compact Grand Concert body shape, Taylor’s smallest full-scale body design. Its comfortable contours and responsive nature make it particularly well suited to players who value intimacy and control, while its balanced voice makes it remarkably versatile across playing styles.
The Next Generation 512ce pairs solid mahogany back and sides with a Western Red cedar top, creating a warm, woody voice with exceptional touch sensitivity and a clear fundamental focus. The cedar top responds readily to a light touch, while the scalloped V-Class bracing adds volume, open-string resonance and sustain, giving the compact body surprising depth and presence.
The Next Generation 712ce takes a different tonal path, pairing solid Indian rosewood back and sides with Western Red cedar. The combination produces a warm, sweet character with lush harmonic texture, rich overtone bloom and enhanced low-end presence. The result is a distinctive voice that remains clear and balanced while offering a more expansive tonal palette.
Underneath both models is the new Action Control Neck, which combines Taylor’s familiar slender neck profile with a long-tenon neck joint for enhanced tonal transfer, warmth and sustain. Its innovative adjustment system allows string height to be changed quickly and precisely without the need for traditional neck shims, giving players and technicians an easier way to dial in the feel of the instrument.
Both guitars also feature Claria electronics, Taylor’s new acoustic pickup system designed to deliver clean, natural and usable amplified tone. Developed with input from players and live sound professionals, Claria combines a new under-saddle piezo pickup with a proprietary preamp and onboard controls for shaping the amplified sound.
Visually, the 512ce and 712ce share an elegant full-body gloss finish, white binding, black/white/black top trim, green abalone rosettes and faux-tortoiseshell pickguards. The 512ce features Meridian Italian acrylic inlays, while the 712ce receives Reflections mother-of-pearl inlays, gold tuning machines and abalone-dotted ebony bridge pins.
With the Next Generation 512ce and 712ce, Taylor brings its latest acoustic innovations to two compact, highly responsive instruments, offering players a choice between the woody warmth of mahogany and the lush harmonic character of Indian rosewood. Both demonstrate how much musical expression can come from a comfortable Grand Concert body when traditional tonewoods meet Taylor’s newest generation of acoustic guitar design.
712ce
With its distinctive voice, comfortable contours and sleek appointments, the Next Generation 712ce promises an inspiring musical experience across playing styles. This compact Grand Concert acoustic-electric features back and sides of solid Indian rosewood paired with a Western Red cedar top, a unique combination that generates a warm, sweet character overflowing with harmonic texture and overtone bloom. Inside, our scalloped V-Class bracing dials up more low-end presence along with enhanced volume and sustain, adding up to a potent response that remains balanced and clear across the frequency spectrum. A slender Action Control Neck offers relaxed fretting while letting the player dial in the perfect feel in minutes, while our Claria electronics ensure clean, usable amplified tone whenever you need to plug in. This model sports a natural full-body gloss finish, white binding with black/white/black top edge trim, a green abalone rosette, Reflections peghead and fretboard inlays in mother of pearl, gold tuning machines, abalone-dotted ebony bridge pins, and a faux-tortoiseshell pickguard.
512ce
Sure to entice players who love the compact, accommodating feel of the Grand Concert body shape, the Next Generation 512ce serves up a beautifully warm, woody voice to complement its articulation and fundamental focus. Back and sides of solid mahogany pair with a top of Western Red cedar to produce a sweet character with remarkable touch sensitivity and balance across the frequency spectrum, while the scalloped V-Class bracing inside adds more volume, open-string resonance and sustain. Other Next-Gen features include the Action Control Neck for smooth fretting and fast string height adjustments as well as our new Claria electronics, which delivers clean, usable plugged-in tone for live performance and recording applications. Visual details include pristine white binding with black/white/black top purfling, a single-ring green abalone rosette, a faux-tortoiseshell pickguard, Meridian fretboard and peghead inlays in Italian acrylic, and a full-body natural gloss finish.
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