Norse Guitar Feeds



Today’s podcast episode is with songwriter and guitarist Alex Amen, who has a new album out today on ATO Records.

https://alexamen.com

In this conversation, we talk about Alex’s Texan roots, mountaineering, living on a California commune, and the musical influences found on his new album.

Above image: Jackie Domi

Join us at our 2026 Fretboard Summit in Chicago (August 20-22, 2026) for three days of guitar demos, concerts, workshops and live podcasts with some of our favorite artists: https://fretboardsummit.org

This year’s Summit has over 80 luthiers and brands showcasing their new and prototype gear! 2026 speakers include Josh Scott (JHS), Mark Stutman (Folkway Music), Chris Martin IV (Martin Guitars), Fender historian Terry Foster, and many other fretted instrument luminaries.

Join us at our 2026 Fretboard Summit in Chicago for three days of guitar demos, concerts, workshops and podcast tapings with some of our favorite artists: www.fretboardsummit.org.

This year’s Summit has over 80 luthiers and brands showcasing their new and prototype gear!

Subscribe to the Fretboard Journal’s quarterly print magazine: https://shop.fretboardjournal.com/products/fretboard-journal-annual-subscription

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(Get your first month free or $20 off any annual subscription with the promo code FRETBOARD at checkout).

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The post Podcast 554: Alex Amen first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

From the Summer 2026 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine There’s a certain kind of guitarist whose influence becomes so embedded in the acoustic guitar world that it can be easy to forget how fresh and unusual they once sounded. Jorma Kaukonen is one of those players. Long before stylistic openness became commonplace in acoustic guitar […]

Death Angel guitarist Ted Aguilar believes that modern metal has an identity problem. He argues that while today’s players are more technically gifted than ever, many bands struggle to stand out from one another.

Speaking in a new interview with Pipeman, Aguilar says that unlike bands of the past, contemporary bands often lack the distinct identities that once defined the genre, even if the scene itself is more active than ever.

“There’s nothing against the metal bands of today, and the good thing about it is there’s a lot of them – maybe a little too much sometimes. It’s oversaturated. And they’re keeping it alive. They’re carrying the torch,” he says [via Blabbermouth]. “But I grew up in a time where thrash metal, Anthrax sounded different from Overkill, Death Angel sounded different from Testament.”

• READ MORE: Converge’s Kurt Ballou on “disappointing the gear heads” by choosing digital gear live: “It makes it about the songs”

“They had their own sound, but it was thrash. Of course, they were all influenced by the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and punk rock, and, of course, Metallica; everyone was influenced by Metallica and Exodus, ‘cause they were in the forefront.”

“But everyone just said, ‘We want that aggression, but our style.’ For example, [Death Angel singer] Mark [Osegueda] doesn’t sound like [Testament singer] Chuck Billy. Chuck Billy doesn’t sound like [Vio-Lence frontman] Sean Killian, and no one sounds like [former Exodus vocalist Steve Souza] Zetro.”

According to Aguilar, the difference isn’t a lack of talent. If anything, he says the technical ability of today’s musicians is “next level” compared to previous generations.

“My gripe about today’s metal, and this is just me and it’s no diss to these bands, I can’t tell who from who,” he says. “And I think metal nowadays, there’s some incredible players – like, oh my God, they could run circles around us, and they’re very talented.”

Unlike in the past where members of a band were often “figuring it out together”, many modern players arrive already fully formed individually, shaped by online learning and solo practice.

“[Back] then it’s just, like, you figured out your instrument together as a band: ‘Let’s write songs. Let’s do covers,’” he says. “In this day and age, and, again, there is no diss, ‘cause there’s amazing musicians out there. Incredible, like, oh, man, I wish I could do it. What’s in the water today that you could run circles around everyone? But it’s just the YouTubers and the influencers or whatnot, where then it’s just, like, you had to figure out, you had to be a band together.”

“There’s something about being in a room together, with everyone learning from each other, bouncing ideas,” says Aguilar, as opposed to players today who “are so used to being by yourself, you don’t know how to click with another musician.”

“That’s the organic way back then,” he continues. “It’s just, like, you get in a room, ‘let’s play’, and you go home and you kept playing. You write, you come back, ‘Hey, guys, I got this idea,’ and you work on it together.”

“Now… There’s pros and cons to everything. Like anything in life. You have the technology where you could write riffs and send it to somebody, they learn it, and you could record. But you still gotta get in a room… There’s a synergy where a human contact – you get to see someone’s face, how they feel about it, what they contribute, and maybe the disagreements or whatever.”

The post “I can’t tell who from who”: Death Angel guitarist on the problem with metal bands today appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Sammy Hagar has said that Eddie Van Halen “saved guitar players”, and was, in his view, a “music god” whose talents extended far beyond the guitar.

The comments come as Hagar prepares to bring his Best of All Worlds tour – featuring Joe Satriani, bassist Michael Anthony and drummer Kenny Aronoff – back for a limited summer run.

In a recent chat with Guitar Player, the singer reflects on his years working with Van Halen and the guitarist’s enduring influence on rock music and his own musicianship.

“I can’t imagine where guitar players would be without Eddie,” Hagar begins. “He just took a fuckin’ hard left, man, and we’re going to outer space. There were great guitar players before him: Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, David Gilmour, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix.”

• READ MORE: “Eddie Van Halen ruined rock guitar”: The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Jim and William Reid think “guitar players should never learn scales” because it gets in the way of making music

“I mean, Hendrix kind of did the same thing – he got that whammy bar in there and changed everything. But Eddie took the whammy bar and the hammer and the frickin’ tapping.”

“But it wasn’t just the innovation of what he did; he was a great musician. He was a master. He was fuckin’ Beethoven – he was that unique. He belongs in that category.”

Hagar also argues that Van Halen’s impact wasn’t limited to his guitar playing alone.

“People call him a rock god – he’s a music god, in my opinion,” says Hagar. “When I bring keyboard players into the band now and they have to learn Right Now and some of his keyboard parts, they’re holding their heads in their hands and saying, ‘Fuck! This guy played keyboards just as unique as he played guitar.’ And on guitar, Joe [Satriani]’s going, ‘Wow, this chording!’”

“So I can’t imagine where guitar players would be without Eddie,” he continues. “I think they probably would’ve come and gone and we’d be listening to electronic music. I think Eddie saved guitar players – he saved us so we could continue and compete with those damn keyboards and electronic instruments and Pro Tools and all that crap.”

The singer also credits Van Halen for making him a “better musician” and expanding his “lyrical abilities”.

“I just loved working with him,” Hagar says. “Like when he was playing Love Walks In on piano – stuff came out of my mouth I would never have sung. The way his playing inspired a lyric and the words that fit melodically, rhythmically within the song, just writing with him was crazy.”

“I remember when we wrote Black and Blue – it’s the most syncopated lyric/guitar thing I’ve ever heard in my life. I would never write a song like that without Eddie.”

While early Van Halen records are often cited as the guitarist’s defining work, Hagar believes some of Eddie’s most ambitious writing came later.

“So many people think the early stuff was his best stuff,” he says. “Well, no, that was just the first time you heard him. It was so fresh and new when you heard Eruption or Spanish Fly or these intros on these songs.”

“Was that the best stuff? It was his simplest stuff.”

Pointing to Can’t Stop Loving You from 1995’s Balance as an example of Van Halen’s later writing, Hagar adds, “When we play that song now, Joe looks at me and goes, ‘Wow, what a piece of music! Every single bar is different. It just keeps changing.’ And this is Joe Satriani. This isn’t some kid that’s just learning how to play guitar.”

“It was an honour being able to play with Eddie,” he concludes. “It made me a better musician. It made me a better writer. It made me a better singer, without a doubt. I did my best vocals ever with Van Halen.”

The post “I can’t imagine where guitar players would be without Eddie. We’d be listening to electronic music”: Sammy Hagar says Eddie Van Halen “saved” guitar players appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

From £1,800 (£2,200 as reviewed), madocguitars.com

All the way back in 2012, I reviewed the Fender FSR Thinline Jaguar for this very publication. It was gorgeous, and left me asking myself why there weren’t more offset-type guitars with semi-acoustic bodies.

• READ MORE: Eastman Fullertone Offset ’62 review – “it has a unique sonic voice and retro feel all of its own”

Now I’m reviewing the Madoc Guitars Wyre Semi Hollow, it’s even more gorgeous, and I’m no longer asking myself that question – I’m yelling it at the sky like a maniac demanding answers from God.

Strictly speaking, this isn’t even an offset – the waist of the body is more or less symmetrical, rather than being swept forward on the top side like a Jaguar or Jazzmaster – but it is a two-pickup guitar with Fender-style construction and a Mastery vibrato, so that’ll do for me.

What really matters, semantics aside, is the ‘even more gorgeous’ bit – because that’s pretty good going for a new UK maker that most people have probably never heard of.

Image: Adam Gasson

Madoc Guitars Wyre Semi Hollow – what is it?

Come with me to the beautiful English county of Worcestershire, famed for its gently rolling hills and unpronounceable (if you’re American) sauce. This is where Luke Roberts builds his guitars under the Madoc name.

The Wyre is his only model for now, but it’s all about custom orders and the spec options are wide open – starting at an undeniably reasonable £1,500 for a one-pickup solidbody with a hardtail bridge.

Not everyone is going to love the distinctive body shape, which has a hint of “Look what the shark did to my surfboard”, but I find it strangely appealing… aided by the fact that my review instrument is finished in the king of all guitar colours: burgundy mist.

That’s just the ash top, though – the sides and back of the chambered mahogany body have been left with a natural oiled finish, along with the roasted maple neck. Completing the main specs in timber terms is an unbound ebony fretboard with a 25.5-inch scale and 12-inch radius.

But it’s in the hardware that this premium-specced sample really stands out – the Mastery tailpiece/bridge combo is a mighty expensive indulgence, adding £400 to the price. Still, it is a proven game changer in terms of tuning stability and reliability.

And that just leaves the pickups, which have the unmistakable look of Filter’Tron types. These are made by Manchester-based Green Pickups – another fairly new name but already one with a certain amount of pedigree, as the Tele pups fitted to the Ancoats Granada I reviewed last year were excellent. These humbuckers promise “definition, dynamics, and that classic Gretsch sparkle” – and who doesn’t want that?

Image: Adam Gasson

Madoc Guitars Wyre Semi Hollow – build and playability

One spec detail I didn’t mention above is the compound neck profile: the Madoc site says it morphs from a modern V at the 1st fret to a modern C at the 12th. The effect is subtle, but what you’re getting is a moderately rounded neck that feels slimmer on the upper frets even though it isn’t.

That might be one reason why this guitar is so luxuriously playable; the other is its impeccably high standard of fret work and general build quality.

There are a couple of cosmetic details that could be considered imperfections – a visible join in the binding just above the bridge pickup, and a headstock decal that looks greyly opaque when it catches the light – but you might just as easily call those evidence of authentic artisan construction.

The important thing is that it’s a pleasure to hold and even more of a pleasure to play. Now all it needs to do is sound good.

Image: Adam Gasson

Madoc Guitars Wyre Semi Hollow – sounds

There are two build factors pulling this guitar in opposite tonal directions: on the one hand, you’ve got the inefficient bridge design that gives offsets their fast, twinkly response; and on the other, you’ve got a semi-hollow body slowing everything down and adding airy warmth.

I’m pretty sure that combination was the secret of the Thinline Jaguar, and here the longer scale length and beefier pickups just make the tone even fuller and smoother.

Mind you, ‘smooth’ is hardly the word for the bridge pickup through a clean amp. I’ve got a Godin hollowbody with TV Jones Filter’Trons and the Wyre actually out-twangs it – the tone is unashamedly bright, with oodles of surfy character.

The neck pickup, in contrast, is pure jazz – albeit still with more treble than most humbuckers in this position – while the middle setting does a sterling job of combining the best of both, and sweetens the whole thing up with some classic phasey chime. The responsiveness to playing dynamics, with either pickup or both, is sublime.

The tone control doesn’t do much until it’s down to at least halfway – which is about as close to a disappointment as I can find in this guitar – but not to worry, because knocking back the volume a notch or two instead is extremely effective at softening down the edges when required.

That’s unlikely to be on your mind once you stomp on the nearest overdrive pedal, though: with high gain, that trebly response translates to a nicely articulate attack for expressive lead work… which is made all the more appealing by the speedy smoothness of the neck.

And of course, a chambered body with humbuckers plus a supremely well-behaved whammy bar is the perfect recipe for controlled feedback. Wannabe alt-rock guitar heroes will be in heaven with this thing – and yes, that is coming from a wannabe alt-rock guitar hero.

Image: Adam Gasson

Madoc Guitars Wyre Semi Hollow – should I buy it?

For readers in the UK at least, it’s hard to think of many reasons not to buy a Wyre Semi Hollow – because even if there’s something about the specifications of this one that you don’t like, all you have to do is change it.

Personally I’d love to try a guitar exactly like this – including the burgundy mist finish, obviously – but with slightly less feisty pickups.

If the price is out of your range, the hardtail and solidbody options will bring it down… but then you’re talking about a quite different guitar. Mind you, if all Madocs are put together as well as this example, then you’re still going to be getting a pretty fantastic instrument.

Image: Adam Gasson

Madoc Guitars Wyre Semi Hollow – alternatives

You’ll notice that the prices below all start with the word ‘from’ – bear in mind that the numbers will go up once you specify semi-hollow construction and a whammy bar. British alternatives include the Trent Model 1 (from £2,095) and Ancoats NQ (from £1,099), while a highly rated American contender is the Jennings Voyager (from $2,845/£2,399). Or you could just go for a factory standard model like the Duesenberg Starplayer TV (€2,599/£2,399).

The post Madoc Guitars Wyre Semi Hollow review – “wannabe alt-rock guitar heroes will be in heaven with this thing” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.



Before talking amps, we talk life! Longtime friend of the show John Vanderslice (Tiny Telephone) joins us to talk about moving to the Netherlands, the life of an expat, the equipment that he moved to Europe (and didn’t), staying curious with your gear, and so much more.

Around 50 minutes in, we get the answer to last episode’s Baffler, field various questions and do the usual TAVA amp troubleshooting.

Thank our sponsors: Grez Guitars; Emerald City Guitars; and Amplified Parts / Mod Electronics.

Some of the topics discussed this week:

:00 Special guest: John Vanderslice!

50:28 Our sponsors!

51:47 What’s on Skip’s bench: A Supro Galaxy

1:01:19 The O.W. Appleton guitar (link)

1:02:33 The answer to episode 155’s baffler: Two types of hum

1:07:03 The high and low power switch on a Music Man HD150

1:10:34 How can I swap the speaker on my 1949 Spiegel 79-C, pre-heating cast iron

1:14:35 Ranch Style beans, Herdez guacamole salsa, Electro-Harmonix 12AY7 mic-pre, Peavey Valverb, using an iso cabinet, using both jacks in a Princeton

1:24:37 Terry Foster at the 2026 Fretboard Summit 

1:26:11 How many speakers can a Silverface Champ drive safely? Why did Fender keep changing the Princeton schematic?

1:31:13 Skip at the Fretboard Summit?

Above and below: Listener Bernie’s Spiegel amplifier. 

Want amp tech Skip Simmons’ advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Want to share your top secret family recipe? Need relationship advice? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com! Include a photo, too.

Want to support the show? Join our Patreon page to get to the front of the advice line, see exclusive pics, the occasional video and more.

Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal.

The post The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 166 first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

Charvel has unveiled the American Neo-Classic San Dimas series, comprising two guitars based on the brand’s classic San Dimas blueprint, and built in Corona, California.

First introduced in 1979 after Jackson founder Grover Jackson bought out Wayne Charvel’s guitar business in the late ‘70s, the San Dimas later became a defining guitar of the ‘80s hard rock and heavy metal scenes. 

Now, Charvel’s new American Neo-Classic San Dimas series pays homage to one of heavy metal’s most enduring guitars, while bringing a number of performance upgrades for the modern player.

• READ MORE: This new range of guitar cleaning products has everything you need to keep your instrument in pristine condition

The American Neo-Classic San Dimas series features two guitars: San Dimas SD1 HH FR MPL, and the San Dimas SD1 HH HT MPL. The naming convention of electric guitars is notoriously difficult to follow, but there’s actually pretty little that separates the guitars in this case.

Credit: Charvel

Both models sport a classic versatile Seymour Duncan JB/59 double-humbucker pickup configuration – for a warm tone in the neck position with the ‘59 and a high-output in the bridge position courtesy of the JB. Controls are kept streamlined, with a singular volume control and a five-way blade switch.

They also feature stainless steel jumbo frets for a smooth playing experience across the length of the neck.

Crucially, what sets both guitars apart is the bridge; as the keen-eyed amongst you may have noticed, the SD1 HH FR MPL features a Floyd Rose bridge, while the SD1 HH HT MPL sports a Charvel Hardtail bridge.

Each guitar comes in four distinct colourways: the SD1 HH FR comes in Robin’s Egg Blue, Ivory Blitz, Gloss Black and Racing Red; while the SD1 HH HT comes in Gloss Black, Racing Red, Velvet Midnight and Ivory Blitz.

To celebrate the launch, Charvel has tapped Dweezil Zappa – son of the legendary Frank Zappa – to take the American Neo-Classic San Dimas for a spin in a California skate park. Check it out below:

“Charvel was born in California and so was this guitar,” says Jon Romanowski, VP of Product at Charvel. “The American Neo-Classic San Dimas is a direct line back to where it all started, the shop, the craft, the obsession with making instruments that players actually want to play.

“Building it in Corona feels like coming full circle. The JB/59 pickup pairing delivers on every level, and the finishes feel as iconic as the guitar itself.”

Go behind the scenes at the Charvel factory to see how the new American Neo-Classic San Dimas is built:

Price-wise, the American Neo-Classic San Dimas Style 1 SD1 HH FR MPL clocks in at $2,799.99 / £2,399, while the San Dimas SD1 HH HT MPL is priced at $2,749 / £2,249.

Learn more at Charvel.

Credit: Charvel

The post San Dimas returns to its roots: Charvel introduces the made-in-California American Neo-Classic San Dimas series appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Nashville-based string manufacturer Stringjoy has unveiled a sprawling new line of guitar cleaning and care products, designed to keep your instrument in tip-top condition.

After its founding in 2014, Stringjoy has become a big player in the guitar strings market, and its String Conditioner has for years been a choice for guitarists looking to maximise the longevity of their strings. Now, the brand expands into a full range of guitar care products, including a fretboard conditioner, guitar polish, all-in-one instrument cleaner, and a cloth for wiping away all that stubborn fingerboard grime.

• READ MORE: Epiphone celebrates Rush’s return to the stage with a faithful recreation of Alex Lifeson’s legendary 1976 ES-355

 “For years, customers have trusted our String Conditioner to help extend the life and performance of their strings,” says Scott Marquart at Stringjoy.

“Expanding into complete instrument care was a natural next step, but we knew we had to do it the right way. From the beginning, we weren’t interested in taking an existing automotive polish or generic cleaner and simply putting a guitar on the label. We wanted to create products specifically for guitars, from the ground up.”

Marquart reveals the team at Stringjoy “worked closely” with guitar techs, repair shops, and working musicians to land on a range of guitar care products they’d use themselves.

“The result is a complete care lineup designed to clean, protect, and maintain guitars without compromise. We’re excited to finally share it with players everywhere.”

You can view details and prices for all the products in Stringjoy’s new guitar care range below:

• All-in-One Instrument Cleaner ($13.99): Erases fingerprints, dust, sweat and other buildup
• Guitar Polish ($11.99): Deep-cleans and restores clarity to finishes and hardware
• Fretboard Conditioner ($11.99): Cleans, restores, and rejuvenates unfinished fretboards
• String Conditioner ($14.99): Cleans, protects, and prolongs strings’ vibrance and playability
• Microfiber String Cleaning Cloth ($4.99): Instantly removes oil, grime, and buildup

Learn more at Stringjoy.

The post This new range of guitar cleaning products has everything you need to keep your instrument in pristine condition appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Kurt Ballou of Converge has opened up about his use of digital modelling gear on stage and the reaction it sometimes gets from gear enthusiasts expecting more traditional rigs.

Speaking on the Garza podcast with host Chris Garza, the metalcore guitarist discusses his use of the Line 6 Helix Stadium, explaining how it helps streamline his approach to tone and keep the focus on the band’s performance.

• READ MORE: Outlowd by Ed Sheeran: Orange officially partners with Ed Sheeran on the megastar’s first-ever line of signature amps

“I kind of love it when people show up expecting me to have JMPs and V4s and other vintage stuff, or boutique amps,” he says. “I played Bad Cat for a long time. I still do play the cabinets. I love that company.”

While he acknowledges the appeal of traditional amp setups, Ballou says going digital helps remove distractions and keep the focus where he wants it: on the song itself.

“There’s something about disappointing the gear heads with using this modeler, “ says the guitarist. “I don’t necessarily want to disappoint them, but it’s cool that it makes it about the songs, is what I’m getting at.”

“I think this thing sounds sick. It lets me focus on the song,” Ballou continues. “All the gear in the world – that’s cool and stuff, but how many times have you gone to see a band and watched them set up their full stacks and massive pedalboards, and then they just suck? Or everything is breaking all the time and it’s detracting from the show?”

“Let’s just get to the songs, because that’s the thing that I really care about,” says Ballou. “This lets me do that.”

He adds that using a modeller also brings practical benefits when touring, particularly in maintaining consistency across different venues.

“This thing lets me go to a festival and plug into whatever they have as house backline and get my stage volume that way,” he explains. “I can have my sound that I’ve worked hard to craft in my studio every single night. It’s consistent.”

Ballou is far from alone in his support for digital gear. While once seen as a divisive alternative to traditional tube setups, digital modelling is now increasingly finding its way into the arsenals of players who built their reputations on analogue gear.

Vintage amp and gear collector Joe Bonamassa is one such example. Known for housing one of the largest private collections of classic tube amps across his Nerdville East and West studios in Nashville and Los Angeles, the blues guitarist might not seem like an obvious candidate for digital adoption.

But Bonamassa has recently been exploring Fender’s Tone Master range on tour – a fully digital line designed to replicate classic tube amp tones.

“It’s honestly really amazing what they did digitally,” he said, revealing in April that he has been “beta testing” the amps on the road.

The post Converge’s Kurt Ballou on “disappointing the gear heads” by choosing digital gear live: “It makes it about the songs” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

For every musician who can’t wait to dust off a forgotten deep cut, there’s a fan who just wants to hear the song that changed their life.

Paul Stanley has little patience for bands who grow tired of their most famous songs, arguing that live shows should prioritise audience expectations over an artist’s desire to reinvent familiar material.

In a new interview with Vulture, the Kiss frontman dismisses the idea that playing a band’s biggest hits should ever feel like a burden.

Asked to name a song his guitar has a “love-hate relationship” with, Stanley replies: “This may sound corny, but I’ve never, ever found playing any of those songs a chore. They made me what I am and I love them all dearly.”

• READ MORE: Answered: Even More Technical Guitar Questions You Were Too Afraid To Ask

Stanley’s latest comments feed into a long-running debate over what fans should expect from live shows. While some artists use concerts as an opportunity to reinvent older material or spotlight deep cuts, others argue audiences are primarily there to hear the songs that defined a band’s career.

For Stanley, moving too far from those original versions risks undermining the experience.

“When I would go see a band and they were bored and would rearrange a heavy rock song and do it as a reggae tune, I was terribly disappointed and felt minimised,” he says. “I paid to hear the song that I loved, the way I loved it.”

He adds that personal boredom should never take precedence over the expectations of a paying audience, particularly when it comes to the songs that built an artist’s career.

“The idea of going up on stage with a sold-out audience and showing disrespect by fulfilling some need in me, or boredom, is unimaginable,” Stanley says. “Play it the way people know it, the way it became famous, and show the respect you had for it when you wrote it.”

“You’re only deviating because you’re bored and that’s irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. The worst I can say is if you win the lottery, you shouldn’t complain about taxes.”

That said, not everyone agrees with the sentiment. Metallica frontman James Hetfield has previously spoke about the importance of “challenging” fans with deeper cuts from the band’s catalogue, while Avenged Sevenfold’s M. Shadows has argued that leaning too heavily on hits can leave artists feeling creatively stagnant.

“There’s bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden that continually play new stuff and reinvent themselves,” Shadows said. “And it pisses people off, but it allows them to be interested in what they’re doing.”

By contrast, Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx has voiced support for hit-heavy setlists as a way of meeting audience expectations. Speaking to Utah’s 103.5 The Arrow, he explained that audiences generally want to hear the songs they already know.

“I hate it when a band goes out and doesn’t play their hits,” Sixx said. “I just remember [David] Bowie doing that, and I was like, ‘He’s one of my favourite artists. I don’t want to go hear a bunch of C and D tracks off of records that I love. I want to hear songs like Rebel Rebel.”

The post Kiss’s Paul Stanley says bands should play hits “the way it became famous” and not ‘minimise’ fans: “The idea of going on stage with a sold-out audience and showing disrespect by fulfilling some need in me is unimaginable” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Armadillo Enterprises, parent company of Dean Guitars, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, following a turbulent few years for the company.

• READ MORE: Gibson denied opportunity to appeal court ruling that its ES body shape is generic – but the final terms of its legal victory over Dean have been laid down

Court filings made yesterday (9 June 2026) reveal that both Armadillo and its investment partner Concordia have filed jointly. Armadillo has estimated its assets to be between $1 million and $10 million, however its liabilities range up to $50 million. The bankruptcy petition indicates that Valley National Bank – which had previously threatened Armadillo with foreclosure over millions in unpaid debt – now holds an unsecured claim of around $3.3 million – the largest claim held by a creditor.

The filings come after several years of legal trouble for Dean and Armadillo, most notably a high-profile and lengthy trademark lawsuit brought by Gibson regarding several guitar shapes. Armadillo was found to have sold infringing guitar designs, and was ordered to stop marketing and selling its V and Z instruments. After a lengthy appeal, a similar verdict was found.

Given the scope of the gulf between Armadillo’s assets and liabilities, the future of Dean Guitars again is unclear. It has already been hit with a string of losses and internal challenges. Following the legal loss to Gibson, the jury found that Dean must pay Gibson just $1 in damages – but also around $170,000 in legal fees. On top of this, the ruling also stated that “all costs of court spent or incurred in this cause are adjudged against Armadillo” – it’s unclear just how much this second figure could be, or what the full effect of yesterday’s bankruptcy filing may be on the final stages of this case.

In a statement released today, Armadillo CEO Pamela Keris-Rubinson remains optimistic, saying: “This is a proactive step to strengthen our financial foundation and position these iconic brands for long-term success. Resolving the financial pressures of recent years allows us to focus fully on growing what we’ve built. We remain fully committed to our customers, our dealer network, and our employees. Dean, Luna, and ddrum are strong brands, and this process will allow us to emerge as a more resilient organisation.”

The statement also notes that “Armadillo wishes to assure both its retail and consumer partners that all existing orders, dealer relationships, and customer commitments will continue to be honored without interruption.”

In other news,  Dean was awarded a victory in a trademark filing from the estate of late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell, relating to the alleged unlawful use of guitar designs Darrell made in collaboration with Dean. Darrell’s estate announced its intention to appeal the ruling just this week.

The post Dean Guitars’ parent company Armadillo files for bankruptcy appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Epiphone has partnered with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson on an Inspired by Gibson reissue of his Alpine White 1976 ES-355.

Described as a “stage-ready, Custom Shop-inspired recreation” of the prog rock legend’s famous white guitar – which appeared on every Rush record and during countless Rush shows, before being sold at auction in 2022 for $384,000 – the Alex Lifeson 1976 ES-355 Reissue arrives right on time for Rush’s highly anticipated Fifty Something reunion tour, which kicked off Sunday, 7 June at LA’s Kia Forum. 

• READ MORE: Outlowd by Ed Sheeran: Orange officially partners with Ed Sheeran on the megastar’s first-ever line of signature amps

Featuring a five-ply semi-hollow body constructed from layers of maple and poplar, along with a multi-ply binding on the top and back, the guitar also sports a solid maple centerblock for enhanced sustain the reduction of unwanted feedback.

Credit: Epiphone

Meanwhile, the instrument boasts a three-piece maple neck which mirrors Lifeson’s original ‘76 ES-355, with a Slim C neck profile, 22-fret ebony fingerboard with mother-of-pearl large block inlays, and a Gibson-style open book headstock with premium die-cast tuners and a Graph Tech nut. A stylish aesthetic touch comes via a truss rod cover engraved with Alex Lifeson’s name.

Elsewhere, the guitar features gold-finished hardware, a Tune-O-Matic bridge and gold pickup covers, which cover a pair of USA-made Gibson T-Type humbucker pickups, wired to individual volume and tone controls with CTS potentiometers and Mallory capacitors, and a three-way toggle switch.

The tonal palette is further expanded by a mono Varitone switch, while a dedicated mini toggle allows the Varitone circuit to be engaged or bypassed as desired.

The guitar ships in a custom hardshell case with a black exterior and a reproduction of Alex Lifeson’s signature, with a plush red interior and gold hardware.

Credit: Epiphone

“The ES-355 has always been a really special guitar for me – it’s got this incredible balance of elegance and power,” says Alex Lifeson. 

“What I love about this Epiphone ‘Whitey’ recreation is how faithfully it captures that original spirit while still feeling fresh and alive in your hands. It’s a guitar that invites you to explore, to take chances, and to find your own voice. I’m genuinely thrilled that players everywhere will have the chance to experience it and make it part of their own musical journey.”

The Inspired by Gibson Alex Lifeson 1976 ES-355 Reissue is available now for £1,199.

For more information, head to Epiphone.

The post Epiphone celebrates Rush’s return to the stage with a faithful recreation of Alex Lifeson’s legendary 1976 ES-355 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

After teasing his brand-new signature Orange amp during an impromptu busking gig in his hometown of Ipswich last week, Ed Sheeran has officially launched his new Outlowd by Ed Sheeran ES Series range of guitar amps and Bluetooth speakers.

The launch arrives as part of Play It Home, a new global initiative by Sheeran and Orange to celebrate grassroots musicians, emerging talent, and giving something back to the communities from which they hail.

Ed Sheeran busked a six-track setlist at the Ipswich harbour on Friday 5 June to a crowd of around 2,000, alongside local musician and songwriter Lianne Kaye. The megastar teased the gig just a day before by posting a Google Maps pin for location on Instagram, tagging Orange Amps in the post.

• READ MORE: Höfner has reportedly been saved from bankruptcy by Thomann and GEWA music

A heartwarming moment came when Sheeran gifted a nine-year-old boy named Felix the signature Orange amp he used during the set. Orange also reveals Felix’s next 12 months of music lessons will be fully funded as part of the initiative.

Credit: Orange

The Play It Home initiative will now travel globally via a series of sessions hosted by Orange Amps and a selection of their retail partners, with towns and cities including Guildford, Toronto, Paris, Sydney, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Bamberg. Each city will enjoy local music initiatives through equipment donations, youth music programmes, rehearsal space support and other direct funding for community projects.

So what about the new Outlowd by Ed Sheeran amp line? It consists of three models in total, the flagship 100W ES100, the 60W ES60 and the smaller, practice amp-sized 3W ES3.

The ES3 is, as you’d expect, the smallest and most portable model in the lineup, with a USB-C rechargeable battery, reverb control, full-range 4″ speaker, Bluetooth playback and a leather carry strap.

At the other end of the spectrum sits the ES100, a “fully professional acoustic solution” made for “larger performances and demanding live environments”. It features a 12″ Celestion full-range neodymium driver paired with a neodymium Celestion HF tweeter.

“Music doesn’t start in arenas or on streaming platforms,” says Ed Sheeran. “It starts in bedrooms, youth clubs, pubs, schools, parks, living rooms and street corners. That’s where I found my voice. I think tiny venues are super important to learn how to perform and busking teaches you not to sweat the big stuff.”

He goes on: “I wanted this project with Orange to feel honest to that – celebrating local musicians, local communities, and the idea that anyone can start somewhere.

“Playing music is a really fun thing to do and it should always be fun. It should feel like an escape. Now I’m in my 30s, I just want to do things that I enjoy and get excited by. With this collaboration, it was like, would I use this? Is this something that I need in my life as a musician? And the answer was yes.”

Credit: Orange

“What made this collaboration feel right from the beginning was that it came from a very real place,” says Sarah Yule, Managing Director of Orange Amplification.

“Before streaming numbers and stadium tours, Ed’s music started in community spaces and street corners. That’s still true for others today and is an important beginning – that with nurture – feeds the whole music ecosystem. The ES Series was designed around that journey; products that feel approachable, inspiring and genuinely useful for musicians at different stages of their musical lives.”

“It’s a real pleasure to work with Ed,” adds Cliff Cooper, Founder and CEO of Orange Amps. “He is such a talented and caring person who does so much to introduce people into music.”

Pricing for the Outlowd by Ed Sheeran ES Series is as follows:

• ES3 – £149 / €179 / $199
• ES60 – £499 / €599 / $699
• ES100 – £1,099 / €1,299 / $1,499

Both the ES3 and ES60 are available now, while the ES100 is available now for preorder, and will ship from 10 September.

All three amps are available directly from Orange and from selected retail partners.

Learn more at Orange Amps.

The post Outlowd by Ed Sheeran: Orange officially partners with Ed Sheeran on the megastar’s first-ever line of signature amps appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

In this lesson, you’ll learn to make creative choices in reharmonizing a simple eight-bar melody, discovering methods that may open new doors in your own songwriting.

The world of extended range guitars is no mystery here at Guitar.com, having previously taken a detailed look at baritones and seven-string guitars. Believe it or not, there are more strings to be had – although an essential guide to nine-string guitars is not (currently) on our features idea board, as eight is really the limit before you get into completely niche djent oddities.

Much like our guide to seven-string guitars, the applications of an eight-string guitar are overwhelmingly stacked towards the metal world, so a big proportion of the guitars we’re highlighting will be geared towards that genre. That’s not to say that a lot, if not all of them, couldn’t be used for other genres, but some of the hardware will be chasing tones that are very metal-centric.

Is an eight-string guitar right for me?

Progenitors of the eight-string guitar movement like Meshuggah and Deftones have been bolstered in the last 10-15 years by the likes of Periphery, Animals As Leaders and the explosively popular Sleep Token. Hell, even Muse entered the ring with 2025’s Unravelling. Regardless of your route to eight-string guitars, it’s important to make an informed choice before adding one to your collection.

We’ll start by saying that “I just want to go lower,” is not the best reason for an eight-string, especially if it’s one string stuff you’re primarily playing in that register. Baritones and multi-scale fretboards across six and seven-string guitars can help achieve the low tunings you’re craving. Equally, pitch shifting down has gotten so good, that many bands use it on six and seven-string guitar, while also automating downtuned sections/songs using MIDI when touring live.

As well as your needs, there’s also your comfort. The jump to an eight-string can be incredibly jarring. The shift in ergonomics, most notably the wider fretboard and profile of the neck can be a big roadblock, especially if you skipped playing a seven-string guitar.

That being said, an eight-string can be a fantastic creative tool, allowing you access to another register of bass notes to create new voicings and change the flow and feel of a composition. While the leap from a six-string can be daunting, that challenge and leaving your comfort zone is very appealing to a lot of players, and can often result in some previously untapped inspiration.

As always, our best advice is to play as many as you can before making a purchase and really hone in on what you want from an extended range guitar before assuming an eight-string is the answer.

What is a multi-scale guitar?

As most of the guitars in this guide are multi-scale, it’s worth giving a little refresher on what this means before continuing. A multi-scale neck ‘fans’ the frets so that each string has a different scale length; applying heavier tension to the lower strings, allowing extreme detuning without sacrificing intonation, while applying lower tension to the higher strings, allowing for easier playability. It can look intimidating, but actually takes very little time to get used to.

When you look at a multi-scale guitar, you will notice they all have a ‘neutral’ fret – a position in which the fret is level across all strings. The location of the neutral fret changes how extreme the fret fanning is across the fretboard. If your playstyle is centered on low, chuggy riffing, a neutral fret around the 7-9 mark is the sweet spot, whereas a neutral fret at 12 is more comfortable for shredding higher up the neck. This is by no means a universally accepted opinion, but it’s another aspect to be aware of and research when shopping for an eight-string guitar.

Our favourite budget eight-string guitars

Our first recommendation is Harley Benton’s R-458 BK, especially if an eight-string is something of an experiment for you. It’s available with either a 26.5” straight-scale length (£156) or 25.5-27.2” multi-scale (£175). We favour the multi-scale, as it ensures those low tunings sound full, without sacrificing playability on the higher strings. Yes, you’ll want to change out the stock pickups and do a proper setup, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find an eight-string guitar that does this much for so little.

For £100 more, Gear4Music offers their very own eight-string, the 529 Pro (£279). While it does suffer from some build quality/finish issues and not the most expressive pickups, it plays like a £500+ guitar. Clean and distorted tones perform well with a little dialing in of effects (pedals or digital signal chain), and the multi-scale fretboard and single saddle bridge mean consistent tuning and intonation. One word of warning, you may need custom strings for the low end as regular eight-string sets aren’t quite long enough for the level of tension required for those lower tunings.

Our favourite midrange eight-string guitars

Starting at the low end of the price scale is the Ibanez RGMS8-BK. Costing less than £600 and rocking the iconic RG shape, this is an excellent entry point to the world of eight-string guitars. While the neutral fret at 12 can be a little uncomfortable for certain playstyles, the stock pickups perform fantastically across distorted, overdriven and clean tones. A more colourful version is available – the Cosmic Blue Stardust – however, it’s almost £150 more and the hardware is exactly the same.

Just under £800, Cort’s KX508MS packs a punch, both in high gain and clean tones, thanks in no small part to the Fishman Fluence pickups, and remains the 9/10 we gave it in our review back in 2022. “Even though the KX508 is not in the current entry-level price range for eight-string models, it rivals guitars three times the price and as such represents a great investment for newcomers and beyond,” said Darran Charles in his review. “You can now satiate any extended range fantasies you’ve been harbouring at a relatively affordable price for the quality this delivers.”

At the top end of the scale, we have the Schecter Omen Elite-8 MS (£869). We recommended the Omen Elite-7 in our last guide, and the Elite-8 features the same excellent Diamond Heretic pickups, poplar burl top and eye-catching colour options. However, the addition of the multi-scale really elevates this into a supremely versatile guitar.

Our favourite premium eight-string guitars

We’re into the big leagues now and we mean that literally with our first recommendation; Ibanez’s M80M Meshuggah (£1,399). This mammoth eight-string has a 29.4” scale length rather than a multi-scale neck, so it’s more like playing a Bass VI. While that scale length may take a little getting used to, it means you can use a lighter gauge string and still intonate well on these low tunings. You will however need to hunt down a special set of strings to meet the scale length. The Lundgren M8P Humbucker is super clear and bright, so even at your lowest, the notes are clearly articulated. The fixed bridge and nut make restringing and custom tuning changes unnecessarily fiddly, but it’s the only real downside of this guitar.

Sticking with signatures – and enormous necks for that matter – there’s Stephen Carpenter’s signature SC-608 Baritone from ESP LTD (£1,899). Drenched in supercar yellow, there’s heaps of diversity in tones here, thanks to Steph’s updated 3-voice signature Fluence pickups. This is really bolstered by neck-thru construction and really elevates the playability and delivers fantastic resonance. It’s a massive guitar, so definitely try it out before buying if you can, even if you wouldn’t consider yourself to have small hands.

Lastly, we have Strandberg’s Boden Standard N2.8 (£1,859). Immediately recognisable, Strandberg’s dedication to ergonomics is what drives their striking appearance, and for the most part those design choices pay off. The EndurNeck may not be to everyone’s tastes, but if you gel with it, it’s a pretty special instrument to play. The resonance and haptic feedback from the titanium rods in the neck is like nothing we’ve experienced before. While the neck is chunky, it’s one of the less ‘out there’ multi-scale fretboards – of this list and eight-strings in general. We really love the passive Seymour Duncan Pegasus/Sentient pickups, which are fantastic for both heavy and clean tones.

The post The best eight-string guitars for all styles and budgets appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Following the news in December that Höfner, the maker of Paul McCartney’s iconic Violin Bass, had filed for bankruptcy, it appears the company has been rescued, according to a press release obtained by YouTuber and guitar industry journalist KDH.

While few details about Höfner’s financial woes were made public when it was revealed it had filed for bankruptcy at the Fürth District Court in Bavaria in December, it was revealed that an insolvency administrator had been appointed, tasked with rectifying debts over a three-month period.

Beatles legend Paul McCartney – with whom the Höfner brand became most commonly associated – called the news of the company’s bankruptcy “very sad”

• READ MORE: Gibson unveils shred-ready Victory Floyd Rose – and it “excels with drop tunings”

Now, YouTuber KDH has apparently uncovered big news regarding the company’s future.

Upon discovering that the contact information on the Höfner website had recently been updated to Thomann’s contact details, KDH reached out to the German retail giant for further information. He says the company sent him back a statement apparently confirming it had acquired the storied musical instrument brand.

If the press release obtained by KDH is legitimate, it confirms a “successful investor solution”, which will ensure the “continuation” of Höfner’s headquarters in Baiersdorf, Germany.

“The transaction not only secures the long-term preservation of the globally renowned brands Höfner and Paesold, but also the preservation of the Baiersdorf site and 24 jobs,” the statement continues.

The document reveals Höfner “most recently employed a staff of 52 producing stringed instruments, bows, guitars and basses and marketing them internationally”, so if the details are legitimate, that could mean the layoff of 28 employees.

It is revealed that GEWA music GmbH took over the operational business operations of Höfner’s Baiersdorf headquarters on 1 April, 2026. Meanwhile, Streetlife GmbH, a subsidiary joint investment company of Thomann’s and GEWA’s has taken over and acquired the trademark rights for Höfner and Paesold.

“This ensures that both brands will survive and be further strategically developed in the long term,” the document reads, adding that distribution rights for the Höfner brand in Europe will be “held exclusively” by Thomann GmbH, and outside of Europe by GEWA music. GEWA holds distribution rights for the Paesold brand.

“Höfner instruments, including the legendary Beatle basses, string instruments and bows, will continue to be manufactured in Baiersdorf,” the statement goes on.

“As part of the transaction, 24 jobs were also preserved at the Baiersdorf site. In addition, it has been possible to place some of the remaining employees in new positions. All in all, this represents a very pleasing result – especially against the backdrop of the challenging market situation in the musical instrument industry.”

“In a complex and demanding process, we have succeeded in reaching a solution that ensures both the continued existence of the Baiersdorf site and the future viability of the Höfner and Paesold brands in the long term,” says insolvency administrator Dr. Hubert Ampferl.

“The [fact] that operations can be continued seamlessly and jobs are preserved at the same time are an important signal for the location and the region.”

Founded by Karl Höfner in 1887 in the then-Austrian-Hungarian town of Schönbach – now Luby in the Czech Republic, Höfner grew to one of the largest suppliers of stringed instruments in the region in the following decades. Operations were scaled back during World War II, when its facilities were repurposed for making supplies for the German army.

Germany’s postwar reconstitution meant Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia, and Höfner relocated to West Germany, opening a new factory in Bubenreuth in 1950.

While the brand has manufactured countless different instruments throughout its nearly-150-year history, it’s undoubtedly most known for the 500/1 bass guitar – the Violin Bass – long championed by Paul McCartney.

Guitar.com has reached out to Thomann to verify the legitimacy of the press release provided to KDH.

The post Höfner has reportedly been saved from bankruptcy by Thomann and GEWA music appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Electro-Harmonix has expanded its lineup of mini pedals with the pocket-sized Pico Shimmer Cosmic Reverb.

Boasting a tiny footprint that’ll be at home on even the most crowded pedalboards, the Pico Shimmer Cosmic Reverb is inspired by the Shimmer settings on EHX’s much-loved Canyon Delay and Oceans 11 Reverb, and offers three settings: Intergalactic, Off-World and Etherdust.

• READ MORE: EHX Pico Intelligent Harmony Machine review: impressive tracking hampered by inevitable compromise
  

Each of these combines a different blend of reverb, delay and modulation effects, as well as an octaves and string synth engine, EHX says.

Intergalactic is described as a “classic shimmer” made up of polyphonic octaves, reverb, modulated delay and compression, plus a string synthesis engine. “Morph between plate reverb, classic shimmer, and ethereal strings to create cinematic atmospheres beyond time and space,” the brand says.

Meanwhile, Off-World is a more mellow shimmer effect with enhanced delay modulation, while Etherdust is a glitch shimmer effect in which the delay time is randomised, offering stutters ranging from “short granular sparkles to distinct glitch echoes”.

Credit: Electro-Harmonix

Controls on the pedal include a Blend knob for setting the overall wet/dry mix, a Tone knob sets the brightness of the effect, Time, which controls decay time, a Voice knob for morphing the reverb character, and a Scene mode button for toggling between the pedal’s three main settings.

The Pico Shimmer Cosmic Reverb ships with a standard EHX 9V power supply, and is available now for $149.

Learn more at Electro-Harmonix.

The post “Otherwordly reverbs in a compact package”: Meet the Electro-Harmonix Pico Shimmer Cosmic Reverb appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Chances are none of us really know as much about guitar as we think, or that we’d like to. That being said, it can still be awkward or embarrassing to ask our bandmates, friends, guitar techn or local shop assistants about stuff that we feel like we should know by now but don’t.

• READ MORE: Answered: more technical guitar questions you were too afraid to ask

If that’s you, don’t fret – after rattling through two full articles of common guitar queries already, we’re back with another tranche from you, the reader. Read on and learn!

How often should I change my guitar strings?

Does the gunk keep the funk? For many guitarists, the question of when is an appropriate time to change your strings is a key one to their overall sound. Answers can range from “as often as you can afford” to “when they break,” and both are valid answers. But from a tone perspective, there is a certain sound that you get from old strings, and it works really well for certain genres of music.

James Jamerson – the Motown bassist whose fingerprints are on more classic records than most people realize – used to go absurdly long stretches without changing his strings. His whole explanation was four words: “gunk keeps the funk.” Whether that’s a philosophy or just a guy who couldn’t be bothered, you can’t really argue with the catalog he built on those nasty strings. Jeff Tweedy has basically said the same thing about his preference to record with old guitar strings.

What’s happening physically is pretty straightforward. New strings are bright – they have lots of overtones, lots of sustain, very alive. Then you sweat on them, dead skin cells fill up the windings, they stretch out and stop holding tension evenly, and eventually the whole thing just kind of… settles into itself. Less sparkle, more thud. For some genres of music, that sort of sound works very well.

Funk bass is a good example. You want a tight, punchy fundamental – overtones and ringing sustain are actually in the way. Dead strings aren’t a flaw in that context; they’re doing exactly what the music needs. So, sometimes not changing your strings isn’t laziness. Sometimes it’s just the right call.

What Makes a Guitar Feel “Fast”?

I hear a lot of people use the term “fast” to describe a neck and as far as I can gather, a “fast neck” is a neck that feels effortless to play. Again, this is something that is the result of several different factors, and since we’re talking about “feel” different necks will feel different to different players. That being said, there are a few factors that universally result in effortless playing for the vast majority of hands.

One major factor is string action. Lower action means the strings sit closer to the fretboard, so your fingers don’t have to press as far to fret notes. That alone can dramatically change how effortless a guitar feels.

Neck shape also plays a role. A thinner or flatter profile may feel quicker to some players because it allows the hand to wrap around the neck more easily. Others actually prefer chunkier necks because they provide more support for the thumb.

Fret size can influence the sensation as well. Larger frets reduce the amount of fingerboard your fingertip touches when you press down a note, which can make bends and vibrato feel smoother.

Finally, the fingerboard radius affects how chords and single-note lines feel across the neck. Flatter radii often make bending easier, while rounder ones can feel more comfortable for chord playing.

Put all of those factors together and you get something players loosely call a “fast neck.” But in practice, what feels fast to one guitarist might feel awkward to another.

Do Heavier Guitars Have More Sustain Than Lighter Guitars?

The short answer here is no. While there might be some heavy guitars that sustain very well, correlation does not equal causation. There are plenty of light guitars that sustain as well if not better than their heavier counterparts. The real determining factor in a guitar’s sustain is far more complex than just overall weight. It has much more to do with the wood itself, the neck and body stiffness, neck joint design, bridge and hardware, and pickups and amplification.

If sustain the most important quality you’re looking for in an instrument, the best way to test it is to simply play the guitar before you buy it – something I would always recommend anyway. You can always record a guitar into a DAW and watch the waveform, but I find it much more fun to just play it and see if you like the way it feels and sounds.

What’s The Best Way To Power Your Pedalboard?

Power adapters are one of those things that seem simple until they’re not. The basics: an adapter takes AC power from your wall outlet and converts it to the lower DC voltage your pedals run on. Most pedals use 9V DC, though some require 12V, 18V, or higher – and that difference matters more than people think. Some pedals don’t come with an adaptor, or if you’re buying used pedals, it’s worth knowing a bit about adaptors before plugging things in.

The plug itself has a polarity, either center-positive or center-negative, which just refers to whether the inner or outer contact carries the positive charge. Grab a random adapter from the hardware store and you’re gambling – wrong voltage, wrong polarity, or AC instead of DC and you’ll likely kill the pedal outright. Too little voltage and the pedal may not turn on, or will run noticeably degraded. It’s not a forgiving system.

The other variable worth understanding is current draw, measured in milliamps (mA). Digital pedals tend to pull more than analog ones, sometimes significantly more. To figure out what your board needs, just add up the mA rating for each pedal – usually printed on the bottom or in the manual, and easy to look up if not – and make sure your power supply can handle the total. If you’ve got a tuner pulling 35mA, a fuzz at 5mA, an analog delay at 150mA, and a few other pedals in between, you might be looking at 300mA or more just for a modest board. A supply rated above that total gives you headroom and keeps everything running cleanly. Match the voltage, match the polarity, and give yourself enough current – and you’ll mitigate the risk to your pedals, which, as we all know, are expensive.

The post Answered: Even More Technical Guitar Questions You Were Too Afraid To Ask appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

June 5, 2026 This week I planned to do more playing than talking but ran into an unforeseen obstacle when I picked up the guitar this morning to test out some Hot Tuna and Jorma Kaukonen tunes. After an extended warm up routine, a little physical therapy, and nail work I was about ready to […]

The post Totally Guitars Weekly Update June 5, 2026 appeared first on On The Beat with Totally Guitars.

Editor’s Note: Jazz, funk and blues guitar legend James “Blood” Ulmer passed away on June 3, 2026 at the age of 86. We profiled Ulmer in a lengthy Fretboard Journal 50 profile penned by contributor John Kruth (with photos by Stan Schnier). To pay tribute, we’re sharing the story here in its entirety. 

Tuning to Your Head

Free language with James “Blood” Ulmer

The eldest of nine children, James “Blood” Ulmer was born in 1942 and raised in rural St. Matthews, South Carolina. Brought up in the church, Ulmer’s father, a Baptist preacher, showed him his first guitar chords at the age of 4.

“My daddy played guitar and good harmonica and would sing to me and put my fingers on the guitar strings. When I was a kid, the only instruments around were an organ and a guitar,” Blood recalled. “We had a pump organ that was maybe a hundred years old. Somebody would be down on the floor, pushin’ the pedals while someone played the bass keys and somebody else played the high part.”

In elementary school, young James joined his father’s gospel group, the Southern Sons, and traveled the South over the next seven years, where he was inspired by vocal groups like the Five Blind Boys of Alabama and the Dixie Hummingbirds. “There were four of us,” Blood said. “And we got pretty good…playing church songs.”

While the Carolina Piedmont region is famous for its distinct brand of fingerpicked blues and rags, played and recorded by guitar masters Blind Boy Fuller, Reverend Gary Davis and Brownie McGhee, Blood claimed to be unfamiliar with their music. “I don’t know nothin’ about that music!” he groused. “We didn’t have no records and nothin’ to play ’em on. Even if I did, my mama would’ve whipped my ass if it wasn’t a record about Jesus. We came from the church. We couldn’t play no stuff like that. They were playing that music in order to survive and make an identity for themselves. So, I didn’t play like that. Copying another man’s style could get you killed,” Blood stressed. “You were messing with their livelihood.”

Ulmer’s lifelong relationship with the instrument began with his “first real guitar, a Stella.” When I mentioned that Lead Belly also played a Stella, Ulmer replied: “Lead Belly! It was a damn shame the way people treated him. Those musicians never could travel anywhere without somebody making a threat on their life…made them ride in the back of the bus. They could have done so much more. They mostly played what record companies wanted them to play, what they thought would sell. The business has crushed the real American music. They don’t want you to know where it came from. Their idea of what music is supposed to be comes from Europe! Those musicians never got the chance to express themselves and play the real American music. I couldn’t put up with that kinda shit. I woulda been dead if I had to live like that.

“After I graduated high school, I wanted to get outta South Carolina. My father told me, ‘I can’t send you to college, but you can go into the army, and they’ll put you through school. So, I went downtown, and flunked every test they gave me ’cause all those questions were made for people living on a farm. I didn’t live on no farm! All I had to do was go to school and church and sing!”

Classified 4F by the Selective Service, Ulmer headed north to Pittsburgh and lived with his aunt. “She told me to get a job. ‘I’m gonna charge you six dollars a week for rent and I don’t want you stealing!” Blood’s cousin found him work at a local hospital cleaning pots and pans. “And that’s where I met my first wife. She was a cook,” Blood said, chuckling. But after receiving a check for a lousy 15 dollars after two weeks of work, Ulmer made a solemn vow to never live as a wage slave.

“Damn! That’s the last time I looked for a job! At the time, there were all these doo wop groups singing all over the streets on each corner and they were making some money. So, I went up and asked, ‘Y’all need a guitar player?’ They said, ‘Yeah!’ I said, ‘But I ain’t got no guitar!’ They got me a Silvertone guitar and a Silvertone amp! I went to the rehearsals and right then and right there—boom! [claps his hands loudly] I had a gig with the Savoys! I stayed with them for a while and then got me a gig playing with the Del-Vikings [one of the few racially integrated doo wop groups at the time, best known for their hits “Come Go with Me” and “Whispering Bells”]. That was 1958. I was 18 years old when I started playing guitar for my living. Been doin’ it all my life!”

Around this time, Blood crossed paths with a young George Benson playing guitar in front of his house in Pittsburgh. “George Benson was a bad motherfucker! He played like any guitar player you could name when he was 13 or 14 years old. You’d say ‘Gimme Wes,’ and he’d do it. He could play like anybody, but he could only copy somebody else. He didn’t have his own song!” Ulmer emphasized. “He was giving lessons, but you only needed one to get it. Then he went on the road with [jazz organist] Jack McDuff.”

Blood recalled playing an early prototype Fender Stratocaster around the same time. “When I was 18 or 19, they were just about giving them away, just to get people to play them. But it’s the way you got the guitar tuned that makes a guitar a guitar. It’s got six strings and frets. Does it feel right in your hands? Does it play smooth? It don’t matter what name is on top. The important thing is to play music!”

In 1965, Blood got a gig playing in organist Hank Marr’s group at The 502 Club in Columbus, Ohio. By the end of the 1940s, Columbus had transformed into a red-hot boiling pot for R&B and jazz. Saxophonist Rusty Bryant, who sold a million copies of the funky, chugging “Nite Train,” and jazz diva Nancy Wilson were regarded as local royalty. The city was a regular stopover for the touring big bands of Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Lionel Hampton as well as Miles Davis, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Dizzy Gillespie’s groups. Lights from theaters, restaurants and nightclubs illuminated the Ohio night sky like a small Las Vegas. Nightclubs like The 502, The Regal and The Cadillac Club were the hot spots where the musicians played for keeps and the crowd dressed to kill.

Hitting the road with Hank Marr’s band, Blood toured the States and Europe, while making his recording debut on the organist’s 1967 release Sounds from the Marr-Ket Place. Built on Marr’s soul grooves, the album features a slinky guitar lead from Ulmer and a robust tenor sax played by George Adams, best known for his work with Charles Mingus. While echoes of Wes Montgomery can be heard in Ulmer’s playing, the choppy, angular phrases that would soon define his style added fire to a set of otherwise cool lounge vamps.

“When I first heard Wes, I thought, wow! He’d really found something on the guitar! I wasn’t a copycat or trying to figure out how to play like him. I just liked the sound he made! It was just like somebody talking,” Blood said.

Ulmer eventually crossed paths with his inspiration one night during a week-long gig with Marr at The Hubbub Club in Montgomery’s hometown of Indianapolis. “We played two sets and Wes walked in and stood at the bar all night long.” Meanwhile on the bandstand, Ulmer grew anxious, hoping Montgomery would complement his guitar playing. When the band took their break, Blood strolled past his hero a few times and even deliberately stood beside Montgomery at the bar, but Wes never uttered a word. “He never said anything. And after that gig, I just made a left turn and stopped trying to play that way [in the typical style of jazz guitarists of the day].” Montgomery’s silent snub inspired Blood to no longer look towards others for encouragement or inspiration but to develop his own voice. “After that, I didn’t follow other men. I just followed the guitar!” he said.

In 1967, Blood headed for Detroit, spending the next five years there. “That’s a baaad town—full of great music! I got a job teaching at a guitar workshop for about two or three years.” While best known for the Motown sound of the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder, the Motor City also had a great jazz scene, providing venues for Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon and John Coltrane. The Jones Brothers—Hank, Elvin and Thad, multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef, pianist Alice McLeod (Coltrane) and guitarist Kenny Burrell—all called Detroit home.

At a session for Blue Note Records in August 1969, Blood could be heard comping choppy chords and adding snaky, fiery licks to the cool groove of organist Big John Patton’s album Accent on the Blues. Around this time, Ulmer was jammed with a crew of wild musicians at The 20 Grand club who later become world-known as Funkadelic.

Following a six-month gig at the Bluebird, the club owner kindly staked Blood the bread to go to New York in hopes of meeting and playing with Miles Davis.

“When I came to New York, I was 31 years old, and never thought nobody could make no money playing free music So, I always played structured blues and R&B and dance music. But then I abandoned it. I just totally went another way and got my own group together, ‘Blood and the Blood Brothers!’ Ulmer said with a chuckle.

Jamming with a cast of improvisers from Joe Henderson, Rashied Ali and Arthur Blythe to Paul Bley, he still kept one foot in the straight-ahead jazz world, gigging with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem. But his stint with Blakey’s band didn’t last long, not with the likes of their star trumpeter Woody Shaw scowling at him every time he soloed.

At the same time Miles Davis bent the heads of hippies at The Fillmore with the electric funk of Live Evil and On the Corner, and Sun Ra transported free-thinking jazz passengers to the outer reaches of Aldebaran, organist Larry Young (aka Khalid Yasin) mixed up some musical marmalade of his own with the help of Ulmer and free-jazz saxophonist Pharaoh Sanders on his 1973 album Lawrence of Newark. This obscure disc remains an unsung gem in the jazz canon while revealing aspects of Blood’s music to come.

While Ulmer never ran into jazz’s “Prince of Darkness” (as Miles was sometimes known), he did cross paths with Ornette Coleman’s drummer Billy Higgins in 1972, who introduced him to the enigmatic free jazz saxophonist. For six months, Blood lived at Ornette’s lower Manhattan loft, studying and playing harmolodics—Coleman’s unique philosophy of making music.

“With Coleman, I had to go through a whole lotta changes and think about the way I was playing the guitar, to figure out what the harmolodic theory was—the avant-garde way of playing. Then one night I had a dream that I was tuning the guitar… How ya gonna play it if you don’t dream it?”

Blood’s fortuitous dream would liberate him from all past musical conceptions. When he awoke, he began tuning to the notes he’d heard in his head while asleep.

“I was living with Ornette and couldn’t wait to show him what happened. So, I went to his room and woke him up and said, ‘Coleman, listen to this!’ and started playing the guitar with all my strings tuned to one note. He listened for a long time and said he never heard nothin’ like that before. The music was jumping out! He said, ‘Blood, you have moved the tonal center, making the treble clef a transposing note for the guitar.’ Then he picked up his horn and said, ‘Play B flat.’ I said, ‘I ain’t got one!’ He said, ‘Play E flat.’ ‘I said, ‘I’m not tuned to E flat!’ I said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ He didn’t know, ’cause he didn’t play no damn guitar! So, I had to figure out how to fit with what he was doing.”

Ornette considered Blood “a natural harmolodic player” and produced his album Tales of Captain Black, cut in one session on December 5, 1978, at RPM Sound in New York.

When I interviewed Ornette Coleman a year before his passing in 2015, he marveled at how Blood “scientifically broke down playing [notes] in unison. He knows that shit backwards!” Ornette enthused. “When he plays the blues, he can make you think what you’re hearing disappear.”

“Coleman was amazed. He made me feel like I graduated from his harmolodic school of music. But I just play the music!” Blood shrugged. “And that’s enough. Y’know, you can spend a whole lifetime just trying to get the timing right!”

So, what’s this mysterious system of harmolodic music all about? What are the secret ingredients behind Coleman’s sonic recipe? The word “harmolodic,” I should point out, is a mash-up of one part harmony, one part motion and one part melody, of which melody, as Blood stresses, is the key component.

“The harmolodic system is based on the e-lim-in-a-tion of chords and scales, so you can just play the music,” Ulmer stressed. “In harmolodic music, the instruments are all in the same key. We play all 12 notes at the same time, while European music is mostly chords and scales. The harmolodic tuning gives you a whole ‘nother structure of how to go. Y’know, I should be charging you for this lesson,” Blood said with a laugh.

“This one is tuned regular,” he said, reaching for his black 1954 Gibson Byrdland Custom (strung with medium-gauge flat-wound strings) and began firing off a series of rapid, splintered riffs and fractured phrases.

Blood plays hard and his instruments bear the beating they’ve taken over the years. On the cover of Ulmer’s 1981 breakthrough album Free Lancing, he’s seen playing a big beautiful blonde Gibson Byrdland. But after years of wear and tear from constant gigging, he had it painted black to cover the visible signs of distress.

“About eight or nine years ago, my wife bought me this guitar,” he says picking up his “new” 1962 blonde Gibson. “They’re both the same, but tuned differently,” he stressed, brushing the strings with his thumb. “This one is tuned harmolodic [and strung with medium-gauge wound strings].”

Over the years, Ulmer has employed various tunings, with both a low E or A as the root note. The A tuning, which this guitar was in, was tuned (from high to low): E A E A A A. Blood can be seen explaining the intricacies of “The Unwritten Theory of Guitar Harmolodics” on a YouTube clip where he also tunes his guitar in E (from high to low): E B E B E E.

The blonde Byrdland also boasts a big, brassy Bigsby tailpiece. “I never use that thing! Whadda ya call it?” he asked with a husky chuckle. “A whammy, a tremolo or a twang bar,” I replied. “Never use it. I don’t even know how you do it…it’s just there.”

“So, the tunings provide a couple of languages or set of directions to start from,” I reply, trying to break down Ulmer’s rootsy yet abstract theory. Blood laughs at my attempted analysis.

“Yeah, I hear you, but I don’t think about it like that. I just wanna make it through the night!” he said. “Y’know, it’s a fight to play the real American music, ’cause most people in America are playing European music. I don’t care what you’re playing. It all comes from the keyboard, from Europe. That’s what they respect. In America, our families all came from somewhere else. But this country has its own music without going to Africa or anywhere… And it’s guitar music! Not keyboard music. The Africans got their own tribal music and their own way of playing.”

Blood’s comment suddenly triggers something a Nigerian guitarist named Idowu Awe once told me back in 1978. He strode into my February-cold Berlin pad like he owned the place and laid his guitar case on the kitchen table. Pulling up a chair, he sat down, set his guitar on his lap and began tuning his guitar, starting with the low E string, which he loosened until it was slack. Then he began tightening it back up again. I wasn’t sure if he knew what he was doing or if he was messing with me. So I just sat there watching as he tuned his strings in what seemed to be a totally random fashion. While the E string was tuned to the lowest pitch, the rest of the notes didn’t follow any logical or conventional order.

“I tune to my head!” Idowu said, smiling. “That way, every time I play the guitar, it is fresh and new.” After finally settling on his latest tuning, Idowu began to chop a syncopated rhythm that I could find neither the top nor the bottom of. Once I tossed out any rational, Western approach to music, I picked up my mandolin and just fell into the groove, intuitively playing along. We wound up jamming happily for the next couple of hours.

“Music is not an instrument!” Blood emphasized. “It’s much bigger than that. You gotta figure out what it is. But you also gotta figure out what it ain’t. Don’t look down—look up! Look forward and get all the obstacles out of the way,” Ulmer said. “People want to hear music. They need music! But they don’t really know what it is. It’s not about a flat four or a flat nine!” he said with a laugh.

As Ornette Coleman often pointed out to his fellow musicians, “That’s not just a saxophone you’re playing—that’s music! That’s not a guitar! That’s music you’re playing!”

Blood also designed (and copyrighted) a chart of the harmolodic clef, which illustrates how the theory works. “He wrote it all down. It shows how each note relates in harmolodic law. I will find it for you,” Blood’s wife, Eva, said, returning a moment later with what looked like a cryptic treasure map comprising three intersecting angles with notes written on both sides, indicating how they interrelate with each other.

“That’s just harmolodic theory,” Blood said, shrugging. “You need to hear the sound. Music is a language. It’s information. Different people make different music. I’m different from you! So, why would my music sound anything like yours? [laughs] The instrument might help to break it down, but that ain’t music. If you can find it, then you can play it!

“You’ve got to remember, the instrument did not come first,” Blood emphasized. “That tells you something right there. Music came before instruments. People made instruments, but music was here before the instruments! Y’see, that’s the problem. You can play the instrument, but that don’t mean you’ll find the music.”

Ulmer’s unique system of tuning helped him to blow open doors of new possibility, inspiring him to stretch beyond the well-worn cliches and the pitfalls of patterns employed by most blues, jazz and rock guitarists. Blood’s harmolodic approach to playing gave him an incredible range of expression and the unique ability to construct harmonies as no other guitar player has, before or since. But what about the music he first learned to sing and play: gospel?

“Now gospel is something that don’t always come into you but comes out of you. They always want to teach you something to put it in your brain, without givin’ a damn about what was in your brain before.”

Speaking of shuffling the deck of your mind, Bill Frisell recalled seeing James Blood Ulmer play for the first time in Ornette Coleman’s group at the 1978 North Sea Jazz Festival. “It was wild…psychedelic…mind altering,” he enthused. A few months later Frisell caught Blood playing the small [now defunct Manhattan jazz club] Sweet Basil with saxophonist David Murray, and again with Arthur Blythe. “Any chance I could get,” he said. “With [his band] Odyssey, or solo. I love Blood. He changed the way I think and inspires me every time I hear him. He showed me a whole ’nother world. The past and the future. Deep, deep down into the earth and way, way far out into outer space at the same time. He is for sure one of the true one and onlys.”

Experiencing James Blood Ulmer live in New York punk clubs in the early ’80s was an intense and unforgettable experience. Onstage, the natty electric griot projected an imposing presence The music was loud and aggressive. Notes chimed and jabbed, blurted and shrieked from his amp (either a Roland Jazz Chorus 120 or Fender Twin Reverb), casting a spell over the crowd. For young, adventurous punk rockers exhilarated by Captain Beefheart’s fractured grunge and John Lydon’s edgy Public Image, Ulmer’s music connected all the dots, from Delta blues to free jazz to punk.

While Ulmer respected tradition, he had no use for convention. “My music came from a different direction,” Blood explained. “I call it modulating funk. We were the first black band [drummers Shannon Jackson and Calvin Weston, bassist Amin Ali, David Murray on sax and trumpeter Olu Dara] playing that kind of music at Hurrah and Danceteria. That shit was happening! But you don’t have those kind of gigs anymore.”

For better or worse, Blood was crowned the “New Hendrix” by a pair of reputable critics—the New York Times’Robert Palmer and Robert Christgau of the Village Voice, who appreciated his “catchy themes” and deemed Ulmer’s playing “the densest guitar improvisations anyone has put on record since Hendrix.”

Along with Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew’s innovative playing on King Crimson’s Discipline (released September 22, 1981), Ulmer was one of the few guitarists to extend the vocabulary of the guitar beyond Hendrix’s lexicon of sonic inventions.

It’s difficult for most folks to grasp harmolodics. It’s chaotic and revolutionary stuff. Metaphorically speaking, it’s like standing under a waterfall, a kinetic shower of notes and rhythms. If your brain doesn’t freeze in the headlights of analysis, you’ll be transported to another realm by the sound rushing over you as it scours your ears, mind and soul.

“People like art they understand,” the great American modernist composer Charles Ives once said. After an audience booed experimental pianist Henry Cowell [whose unique tonal clusters inspired Hungarian composer Béla Bartók], Ives allegedly leapt to his feet and shouted, “Shame on you! Sissy ears! Learn how to listen to real music!”

So, how does Ulmer feel about those folks that don’t get what he’s putting down? “I don’t give a shit,” he laughs. “I’d tell ’em to shut up and get out if they don’t like it!”

While Blood performed in various New York jazz clubs, it was the burgeoning downtown experimental No Wave scene that initially embraced his sonic onslaught. “I never did one thing at a time,” he explained. “I’d play one way and then another and another. I can get a blues gig, but…” Ulmer cracks up laughing at the notion of playing for the House of Blues crowd of musical tourists wanting to boogie and chow down on hand-crafted beer and high-rent plates of ribs.

“Look at the computer and you see some young fat kid singing old-time blues and people think that’s where it’s at!” Blood cackles with laughter. “That’s blues? Talk about the rise and fall of America’s music! What is music in America?” Blood asked rhetorically. “The only thing I can call it is prayer. That’s the music you take to the stage with you and play. That’s the music people will sit and listen to and like. But that’s the same damn reason you’ve got to take the music somewhere and change it. But if you make too many changes, it can’t exist. Nobody [record companies, radio or the media] will make room for it. I don’t hear no horn players that can play like John Coltrane anymore. John Coltrane was prayin’ so hard with that saxophone…but nobody will talk about that. A whole lotta horn players trying to play like Coleman or Coltrane, trying to sound like someone else they heard, thinking maybe they’ll make some money.”

“Absolutely no one sounds like Blood Ulmer on guitar, and I think we all know how near miraculous that is, especially in these times of tutorial homogeneity,” exclaimed Nels Cline (guitarist with Wilco and Plastic Ono Band). “But I must add that no one sings like Blood Ulmer either! Listening to him sing and play is like hearing an electrifying merging of past, present and future musics; front porch story songs, spiky iconoclastic improvisation, a whole other kind of blues.”

In 2001, Ulmer embarked on a series of blues-based albums produced by Living Colour’s Vernon Reid. Memphis Blood (recorded at Sun Studios) and No Escape from the Blues (recorded at Electric Ladyland) offered Ulmer’s reworking of Son House’s classic “Death Letter Blues,” and Willie Dixon and Lightnin’ Hopkins numbers like “Spoonful,” “Little Red Rooster” and “Trouble in Mind” (which featured this author on a droning tanpura).

Was it an attempt to simplify his music by playing something people were more familiar with, and not forcing them to think or listen too hard to understand and appreciate?

“I don’t play blues to get recognized. Blues is about language. It’s not about being a guitar player or a saxophone player,” Ulmer emphasized. “It’s scripture! Now, I don’t mean that it reads like or comes from the Bible. It’s a language that was taught to man. But I ain’t got no proof!” he said with a raspy laugh. “But I don’t like to talk about [that] because it don’t make sense.”

Speaking of not making sense, after two cutting-edge albums for Columbia in the early ’80s, the powers that be suggested Blood cover a Bruce Springsteen song in hopes of reaching a larger audience. Hare-brained as this scheme sounds, Ulmer’s cover of Neil Young’s “F*!#in’ Up” which he performed at Hal Willner’s Neil Young Project for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, was smokin’ hot and heavy as a steamroller on a July afternoon. Ulmer’s ferocious version was in part enhanced by employing a Steinberger guitar.

“I don’t like it. It’s too cold,” he groused. “If you weren’t playing one of them, you didn’t have an avant-garde gig back then. The Gibson is more like a woman. But that guitar—well, it’s easy to travel with,” Ulmer allowed, referring to the Steinberger’s trademark missing headstock. Then he chuckled and recalled an odd moment in Vancouver when Lou Reed showed up with a Steinberger over his shoulder and saw Blood playing one as well. “He went and got something else!”

Back to the Columbia debacle: After Ulmer handed in his third album, Odyssey, the label unceremoniously dropped him. “They wanted a hit, but I don’t play no E, A minor, B major kind of thing. They wanted some Springsteen, and I gave ’em an album with no bass player!” Blood said, laughing. Odyssey, the album and the trio named after it, featured Ulmer’s choppy, rhythmic guitar riffs contrasted by Charlie Burnham’s languid, gooey, wah-wah-laced electric violin and propelled by Warren Benbow’s muscular polyrhythmic drums. (If you need a reference point, think a black, rootsy version of John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra—but make sure to listen to the album!) But here’s the twist—Ulmer, who has a deep, soulful, bluesy voice, delivered a funky, foot-stomping rendition of his trademark song that asked the question “Are You Glad To Be in America?” three years before Springsteen’s smash “Born in the USA” in 1986. (Ulmer had previously recorded the song and titled his 1980 Rough Trade release after it.)

As Blood pointed out, there was no bassist on the session, as his detuned low strings covered the bottom end most effectively. In keeping with the freedom principle essential to the harmolodic creed, each instrument retains an equal voice and presence. The rhythm section is no longer forced to sit in the back of the musical bus, designated to serve the “lead instruments,” and are free to play and interpret the music as they feel.

More startling collaborations followed with Ulmer’s bands, Music Revelation Ensemble and Phalanx. ButBlood’s most unusual project came in 1993 with Harmolodic Guitar with Strings, which featured Ulmer’s voice and guitar a string quartet comprising violinist John Blake, Akua Dixon on cello with violinist sister Gayle Dixon, and Ron Lawrence on viola. Ulmer’s yearning, bleating vocals on “Maya,” buoyed by the transcendental strings, sounds like a lost song from Porgy and Bess.

“That was a wonderful session,” said Akua Dixon of Quartette Indigo. “My sister Gayle and I and John [Blake] had worked together before on sessions with [saxophonist] Archie Shepp and Ornette [Coleman] when he premiered a new piece at the Harlem Philharmonic. When you work with some people it’s about rehearsal, then hit the gig, and you don’t really absorb that much about the person and their music—and sometimes you’re glad you didn’t!” Akua laughed. “But in the case of Blood’s music, that was the only way you get to play it. It’s not about just what he wrote on the paper. Blood was very specific and unique. He didn’t write tunes, he wrote compositions. That whole album was a composition. It’s not a tune here and there. There are tunes within it and things you can take and make into a tune. It was all notated music, written by him. But it was written to a certain point, like a guide. It wasn’t like European music, with exact numbers of measures. But I understand it, because to keep the music growing, as a science, the system of notation that’s allotted in European classical music is no longer enough. Even on Charlie Parker with Strings, those were union musicians who got paid well, and were hired by the record companies for the gig. But they sure didn’t swing!” she emphasized. “But Blood? He is totally unique. His music is about moving on.”

As a composer, Blood translates the music playing in his head in various ways. Although he rarely plays flute live or on recordings, he uses the instrument for composing. On an earlier visit to his Soho loft, Ulmer sat on the couch, the sound off on his television, playing breathy melodies, silvery and blue. “I can write and read music faster on the flute than I can with the guitar,” he explained. “I don’t like to read music,” he grumbled. “I play music! I’ll read for hire! It’s hard to read someone else’s music. It’s just there to help you remember.”

So how has the 82-year-old iconoclast of harmolodic music fared during the dark days of the pandemic, holed up in his downtown loft?

“I mostly play in Europe now. They sat two here, two here…” Blood said, referring to the solo gigs he recently played in Holland, despite the threat of COVID, and by the time you read this, his band, Odyssey, will have returned to play Detroit for another epic harmolodic hoedown.

This article originally appeared in the Fretboard Journal 50, now sold out. Subscribe today and never miss out on a future issue.

The post Tribute: James Blood Ulmer (1940-2026) first appeared on Fretboard Journal.