Norse Guitar Feeds

The Nashville fixture shares his long journey from a bluegrasser in Mississippi to Music City fixture that's included studio time alongside Lainey Wilson, Luke Combs, and Carrie Underwood, touring in bands fronted by Vince Gill & Dierks Bentley. He tells John Bohlinger about his struggle from band member to band leader and details the ultimate honor when Vince Gill invited him to join the Grand Ole Opry in August 2026. Twenty years into his stay in Nashville, Charlie Worsham isn't going anywhere but up.

Sponsored by Stewmac: https://stewmac.sjv.io/APO2ED

Renowned pedal firebrand Mr. Black has introduced the CAT distortion pedal, a unique take on one of the world’s most beloved – and bruising – circuits.

One look at the CAT and you will see the inspiration; one look inside the CAT reveals an entirely new circuit, with some clever tricks slipped in to reduce noise, strengthen tone and push high-gain: hard.

The CAT Distortion doles out heaps of saturated harmonic-laden gain, while maintaining low noise, cleaning up via the guitar’s volume knob and pumping out powerful low-z output, very well equipped to drive long cables and large effects chains with authority.

Hand built one-at-a-time in Portland, Oregon U.S.A. the CAT Distortion doesn’t just growl, it hunts.

Key features:

• 100% pure-analog high-gain distortion
• Classic vintage tone with fully re-engineered circuitry
• Loads of volume on tap with tuned low-z output
• Powered by “Industry Standard” 9VDC or internal 9V
• Gentle 9mA current draw

Mr. Black’s CAT Distortion carries a street price of $149.95. For more information visit www.mrblackpedals.com.



Chris Holcomb specializes in making world-class resonator guitars in Santa Cruz, California.

Chris built a guitar in his teens and has pursued the craft ever since. In episode 118, Chris tells us this wasn’t a straightforward path, but one of persistence and dedication that ultimately paid off as he achieved his goal of making a life and living through his hands.

Link: https://www.cfholcombguitars.com

https://www.instagram.com/c.f.holcombguitars

Luthier on Luthier is hosted by Michael Bashkin of Bashkin Guitars and brought to you by the Fretboard Journal. This episode is sponsored by the Looth Group, Dream Guitars and StewMac.

Want to support Luthier on Luthier? Join our Patreon to get access to exclusive photos and content from Michael and his builds.

   

 

The post Luthier on Luthier: Chris Holcomb first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

Joe Satriani and Steve Vai have been in each other’s orbit for half a century—as teacher and student, tourmates, and friends. With The Sea of Emotion, they've finally made an album together.

The last song on Joe Satriani and Steve Vai’s first album together begins with the oldest thing on it, a recording made in a teenage Satriani’s bedroom in Carle Place, Long Island, sometime in 1973. More than 50 years later, neither of them can tell you who’s playing what on it.

“The recording is pretty flat,” Satriani says. “There’s no low end, there’s no high end. And there’s a lot of personality in those areas. You can tell the way people play. But it’s just this sort of midrange thing going on.”

The 1973 recording is called “Reflections on a Year and a Half,” the year and a half in question being how long Vai had been playing guitar at the time it was made. He was still turning up weekly for lessons from Satriani, a few grades ahead of him at Carle Place High and also his guitar teacher, in a bedroom that he describes five decades later with the reverence of a 13-year-old.

“It was a glorious teenage bedroom,” Vai says. “It had all the greatest posters and albums stacked up all over the place.” In one corner was a two-track, reel-to-reel tape machine. “I would just ogle at it.”

“I think it was a Sony,” Satriani says.

“It was a Sony,” Vai continues. “And then one day Joe said, ‘Hey, let’s record.’ So Joe showed me this riff, and he was playing with some chords…”

“…every time I hear it, I still can’t figure out who’s who,” Satriani says with a laugh.

Fifteen years or so after the fact, Satriani mailed the reel to Vai, who transferred it and then did nothing further with it for a very long time. What brought it back out was this new album, and specifically an email from Satriani containing two pieces of music, which eventually became two new Satriani-Vai songs, “The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1” and “The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 2.” Vai had an idea for a third. “I just got the idea, oh, I’m gonna take this little snippet of us both playing when we were kids, basically, and start the song and embellish the riff,” Vai says. “Try to make a song out of it.”

The song that resulted is “The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 3: Reflections on a Year and a Half,” and it closes the new record, which is also called The Sea of Emotion, and is officially credited to SatchVai. All of which means that an album made better than half a century into one of the most thoroughly documented friendships in the history of the instrument starts its final track with two Long Island kids and a tape machine that neither of them can identify himself on—and then builds the rest of the song out of what they were playing.

The Sea of Emotion is the first album Satriani and Vai have made together, which is a strange thing to consider given these two players’ careers have been entangled since one of them was 12 years old (the other was a ripe old 16). They’ve toured together, on and off, for three decades under the G3 banner, turned up on each other’s records, and shared magazine covers going back to the 1980s, but until the formation of the SatchVai Band—the two of them plus guitarist Pete Thorn, bassist Marco Mendoza, and drummer Kenny Aronoff—they had never actually been in a group together. And until now, they had never written an officially-released song together as adults.

While the SatchVai Band is a touring proposition, the record itself was cut with a rotating cast of musicians drawn from both players’ inner circles, with Gregg Bissonette, Jeremy Colson, Aronoff, Matt Chamberlain, and Mike Mangini trading off behind the kit and Billy Sheehan, Bryan Beller, Philip Bynoe, Matt Bissonette, Mendoza, and Henrik Linder handling the bass. The album takes its title from a field on the Carle Place school grounds where Joe and Steve used to go after dark to talk, memorialized in the suite that takes up the final three tracks. By the time The Sea of Emotion hits streaming services and store shelves, Satriani and Vai will have spent a spring playing a good deal of it live, on a 40-date North American run that also featured openers Animals as Leaders. (We’re talking backstage at one of the stops, in Durham, North Carolina, a few hours before doors open.)

Arguably, none of this would have happened without Satriani’s filmmaker son, ZZ, who called him a few years back about documenting what was then the 25th anniversary of the G3 tour, an idea that turned into a reunion tour with Satriani, Vai, and Eric Johnson—the same three who had headlined the inaugural G3 run in 1996. Afterward, Joe and Steve decided to keep going, with nothing more ambitious in mind at that point than maybe cutting a track together and playing some shows.

“We were so busy,” Satriani says. “We had finished the G3 reunion, and then we realized we weren’t going to be able to continue with G3, and we decided, well, Steve and I’ll go out. And the idea was to also do a track. But we still had work that was booked immediately, so we were either on the road with somebody else, or we were at home in our studios going, ‘I’ve got eight hours to come up with something and send it to the other guy.’”

Despite the time crunch, the ideas started flowing. To the point, eventually, where they found themselves working on an album. “We had probably 17 relatively roughed-out ideas,” Vai says. “And then it comes that time where you’ve gotta cut off one of your toes, you know? And you just start hacking at the songs. But it went very seamlessly. We kind of resonate similarly like that—’How does this record feel? What is it missing?’”

Before they could answer those questions, they hit the road together as SatchVai—first in America and then across Europe. These runs were, as far as the album was concerned, a hiatus. “I like a bit of solitude to get away from influences,” Satriani says. “And when you’re on tour, it’s just nothing but influences—especially our tour, because we’re improvising onstage every night. You can’t be locked into your own writing mode.”

“It’s remarkable to me how Joe has just been a profound figure in my life through my whole life.”—Steve Vai

Once they were home, they approached the material with fresh ears, and with the experience of having played together night after night. “We’re slowly going, ‘Oh, that song’s not gonna work. It’s the wrong character.’ That kind of thing,” Satriani says. “And then there were other songs that started to get written and sort of snowball, and you go, ‘Wow, that song that we didn’t think was a winner is just turning into this huge thing.’ So that was a nice surprise.”

Co-writing isn’t something Vai does much of, and he says so himself. “I usually don’t do that. I like being the master and commander of my own ship. But Joe has such a great ship.”

For 50 years he had been listening to Satriani’s playing as a fan, but what changed here is that there were now stakes attached. “Okay, we gotta get down to business,” Vai recalls. “We have to impress each other. And we have to raise our bar the best we can. And for us, that means better, more effective melodies. And of course you want to try to up the technique game. But the real fun for me was when the emails would come in…”

One song, “The Feeling I Know,” started as a voice memo on Vai’s phone of some chord changes he liked, which he sent over and got back with what he calls “this beautiful samba-esque Lydian thing” on top of it. “And then we went, ‘Oh, chop this up here.’ ‘What about a melody there?’ ‘Okay, you do that melody there, I’ll put the harmony and then I’ll do this here.’ And it was very seamless. I’ve never had an experience like that,” Vai says.

“And what I also noticed was, yes, we are different musically. We reach for different [sorts] of notes at times. But there was almost an intrinsic understanding—yes, this will work. No, this won’t work. It got to the point where I would go to think about doing something and I would have an instinct whether he was going to like it or not. And my only fear was that he would say yes to something that he actually didn’t like. But then, I know Joe better than that. He’s not that—”

“—nice,” Satriani cuts in.

“No,” Vai says with a laugh. “He’s not that guy.”

Which tracks, given that this is the same teacher who once sent a 13-year-old Vai home early from a lesson for not memorizing the notes on the fretboard—and still made Steve pay for the session.

At one point Vai sent Satriani a video of the Italian singer-songwriter Paolo Conte performing “Dancing,” a song the two of them went on to cut for the record. “That [song] is something I would never do,” Satriani says. “I’d probably hear it walking down the hallway somewhere and never stop to say, ‘Who is that?’ But knowing Steve, I thought, well, he wouldn’t be attracted to it unless he heard something really outrageous. And sure enough, when the session arrives and I hear 15, 20 guitars playing all those horn parts, that’s when I know—ah, he did have a vision. He’s not crazy.” Satriani laughs. “He’s not totally crazy.”

Vai also sent over “Bronco Freight Train,” but was unsure of where it was heading. Satriani had no such doubts. “As soon as I heard it, I thought, well, this has to be on the record,” he says. “And he sent it like, ‘I don’t know about this thing, this isn’t really a song yet.’ And I’m like, are you crazy? Don’t call me, ’cause I’m working on it right now.”

“I liked the core, I liked the guitar effect, and I liked the bridge,” Vai says. “And Joe just whacked the whole rest of the song and rebuilt the parts. I finally had somebody that I could really co-create with. And I’m sure there’s other people out there, but I never bothered to find them.”

The other key voice on the record belonged to producer and keyboardist Eric Caudieux, whose suggestions could be unusual, but tended to make the songs better. “He could just do the craziest things with these demos that we would send him,” Satriani says. “Changing whole passages that were in minor keys to major keys, and just assaulting our brains.” He was also the one who cut those guitar-generated horn parts out of “Dancing,” telling Vai they weren’t authentically him. Vai pushed back, but ultimately wound up agreeing it was better that way.

“Knowing Steve, I thought, well, he wouldn’t be attracted to it unless he heard something really outrageous.”—Joe Satriani

The rest of the record covers a lot of ground. Opener “Mayhem” came from Satriani, built on a riff he wrote in his home studio and sent over half-apologizing for how adolescent it was, and which Vai answered by doubling his own lines alongside Satriani’s solo. “Zoot Suit Riot,” with Mike Keneally on keys, was something of Vai’s that he thought had an “odd groove,” and had been sitting around for a while until Satriani helped finish it. The riff on “Old Sins Have Long Shadows” was Satch’s as well, with a groove inspired by Buddy Miles’ drumming on Hendrix’s “Machine Gun.”

Guitar-wise, Satriani primarily stuck to his signature Ibanez JS models on most of the record, while Vai’s workhorses were two signature Ibanez Jems: FLO, which is slightly scalloped and equipped with a Fernandes Sustainer unit, and REVO, which he says is wired similar to a standard Jem. Both are loaded with DiMarzio Evolutions in the neck and treble positions. Interestingly, Satriani cut all his guitars direct, via TONEX, SansAmp, and Brainworx SE100 plugins, and Vai used plugins for most of his parts, too—a variety of Neural DSP Archetypes, a prototype Neural DSP Vai plugin, and a SansAmp. The one exception in the amp department is “The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 3,” where Vai used his live touring rig.

On paper, what Satriani and Vai have in common is technique—fast, difficult, incredibly complex playing. But go back to the two kids in Carle Place and the thing they actually shared was composition. Both of them were writing music, and thinking seriously about writing music, at an age when most kids just want to play riffs and solos—and look cool doing it.

Both credit the same man for it: Bill Westcott, their music theory teacher at Carle Place High who, as Satriani puts it, could “make anything sound like Bach or Chopin or Gil Evans.”

“I have great memories of him just sitting down at the piano with me and saying, ‘Now, Joseph, listen to this,’” Satriani says. “And he put one hand here and he goes, ‘You hear those two chords? They can go together. And when they go together, you add up the notes, and then those are the notes you can use to play on top of the chords.’”

“Jazz was born,” Vai says.

Westcott also told them each something they still go back to. “He specifically said it to me one day, ‘Your brain will keep developing as a musician after all these points where you figure out that maybe your hands don’t do this, and your fingers won’t do that, and you’re not hitting these technical milestones that you thought you were gonna hit. Don’t worry about it. It’s all what happens up here [in your head]. So learn to write away from your instrument,’” Satriani recalls. “And we both got that. Whenever he told us separately, we both agreed and said, ‘He’s right, we’re gonna follow that.’”

There wasn’t much precedent for what the two of them would go on to do with any of it. Instrumental rock songs existed, but instrumental rock artists—players whose catalogs were instrumental and categorized as rock rather than, say, fusion—weren’t really a thing. The closest thing was Jeff Beck, and Beck had made his name in bands, playing three-minute songs. Vai dates the start of it precisely, and not to himself.

“It wasn’t until Surfing with the Alien,” he says. “And I wasn’t surprised when I heard it, because I knew that Joe had a pull toward pop, simple pop. I would listen to the Squares [Satriani’s late ‘70s/early ‘80s power-pop trio] tape that he sent me when he was in the band, and it was this intense, raging guitar being played in a pop format. There wasn’t anything to stack it against. And then when I heard [Satriani’s 1986 full-length solo debut] Not of This Earth, I said, ‘Okay, something is really forming here.’”

He continues. “And once Surfing came out, it felt like the perfect amalgamation between Joe’s polished, classical musical ear, the culmination of an evolution of guitar technique in the fingers, and a sense of the absurd coupled with pop sensibility. It was a perfect storm. And that was really, to me, the first instrumental rock guitar record.”

Vai also thinks some younger guitarists draw the wrong lesson from it. “A lot of young players feel that there was a time when instrumental rock guitar was popular and you could get signed, but it’s not now. ‘You were lucky, I’m not.’ But they’re missing the point. He created it. It’s not because it sits under the moniker of instrumental rock guitar. It sits under the moniker of inspired melodic energy.”

For Vai, all of it goes back to the field behind the school and the bedroom with the Sony in the corner. “It’s remarkable to me how Joe has just been a profound figure in my life through my whole life,” he says. “Joe always represented excellence. Just excellence. Like, this melody is written by an inspired person. Everything I hear, everything I see. Now, it could be from my perspective as a kid that was ogling at his teacher. But now it goes beyond that. I had many teachers. I’ve seen many guitar players, I’ve played with a lot.”

What’s most striking about The Sea of Emotion, in the end, are those inspired melodies. It isn’t the speed, it isn’t the near-impossible feats of agility, it isn’t the technical dazzle—it’s that the record is musical.

“It has to be,” Vai says. “If it isn't, you’re a novelty.”

Joe Satriani Gear

Guitars on The Sea of Emotion:

Ibanez signature JS Series models (JS1CR, GD, Paisley, MCR)

1958 Fender Esquire

Taylor 714ce-N nylon-string acoustic

Guild F-512 acoustic

Jerry Jones Electric Sitar

1972 Fender Precision Bass

Amps on The Sea of Emotion:

All guitars recorded DI with plugins:

IK Multimedia TONEX

Tech 21 SansAmp

Brainworx Suhr SE100

Effects on The Sea of Emotion:

Vox Joe Satriani JSWH Big Bad Wah

Roger Mayer Voodoo-Vibe

Live Amps and Effects:

3rd Power DRGN 100 Custom Shop heads

3rd Power DRGN 412 cabinets

Fender Tone Master Pro

Vox Joe Satriani JSWH Big Bad Wah

MXR EVH117 Flanger

Voodoo Labs Proctavia

TC Electronic Sub ’N’ Up

Strings:

D’Addario EXL110 and EXL120

Picks:

D’Addario Joe Satriani Satch Grip, Extra Heavy

Steve Vai Gear

Guitars on The Sea of Emotion:

Ibanez Jem “FLO” (slightly scalloped, older Fernandes Sustainer)

Ibanez Jem “REVO” (standard Jem spec, DiMarzio Evolutions in neck and treble positions)

Ibanez Jem “EVO”

PRS Dave Navarro signature (for rhythm tones)

Fender Custom Shop ‘57 Stratocaster reissue

Ibanez custom doubleneck “Glorious” (lower fretless neck with Sustainer; used for fretless part on “Old Sins Have Long Shadows”)

Amps on The Sea of Emotion:

All guitars recorded with plugins, except “The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 3: Reflections on a Year and a Half,” which was cut using live touring rig.

Neural DSP Archetype: Nolly X

Neural DSP Archetype: Gojira X

Neural DSP Archetype: Plini X

Neural DSP Archetype: Abasi

Neural DSP Vai (prototype)

Tech 21 SansAmp

Live Guitars:

Ibanez Jem “REVO”

Ibanez Jem “FLO”

Ibanez Universe UV7BK “J.R.” (drop A, .009–.056; for “Zeus in Chains”)

Ibanez Universe “Bruno” (drop A, .009–.056; for “Zeus in Chains”)

Ibanez JSM100, refinished and dipped by David Bonvillain

Ibanez PIA77BON2 Gold Filigree (black and gold baroque-style gold leafing)

Ibanez LACS (Los Angeles Custom Shop) PIA, Olympic White (slightly scalloped, Sustainiac)

Live Amps and Effects:

Synergy SYN2 preamps with Steve Vai VAI and BMAN modules

Fractal Axe-Fx III Mark II Turbo

Fryette LXII power amps

3rd Power 4x12 cabinets

Celestion Vintage 30 speakers

MIDI Solutions T8

Furman power conditioners

Dunlop 95Q Cry Baby Auto Wah

Ibanez Jemini Distortion

DigiTech Whammy DT

MXR Phase 90 (script logo)

Xotic EP Booster

Strings:

Ernie Ball Paradigm Slinky (.009-.042 and .010-.046)

Straps, Pickups, Pots, & Cables:

DiMarzio

Picks:

InTune GrippX (1.14mm and 1.5mm)

Guitar Center honored Paul Reed Smith, founder and managing general partner of PRS Guitars, with an induction into the famed Guitar Center Rockwalk on Saturday, September 26, during Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival 2026 in Austin, Texas. The honor recognizes Smith’s five decades of craftsmanship and innovation as a guitar maker, from his early work building instruments for artists including Carlos Santana and Peter Frampton to founding PRS Guitars in 1985 and building it into one of the world’s leading guitar manufacturers.

Founded in 1985, PRS Guitars has grown from Smith’s one-man pursuit into the third-largest electric guitar manufacturer in the United States, establishing a modern guitar company with its own unmistakable identity, design philosophy and following. Along the way, PRS instruments have become part of the musical identities of influential players across generations and genres, including Carlos Santana, John Mayer and Mark Tremonti. Smith remains actively involved in designing and developing instruments today, continuing to experiment and challenge assumptions about what a guitar can be.

Smith’s journey embodies what Guitar Center’s Rockwalk was created to celebrate: musicians, innovators and industry pioneers whose talent, ingenuity and contributions have changed the trajectory of music and made a lasting impact on music culture.

“Paul is obsessive about building the perfect guitar—and I mean that as the highest compliment. He has spent his life questioning every assumption about how a guitar should sound, feel and perform, and then doing the hard work to make it better. That obsession has materially moved the electric guitar forward and raised the bar for the entire industry,” said Gabe Dalporto, CEO of Guitar Center. “Paul is a living legend whose influence spans generations of musicians and instrument makers, and we’re proud to honor him with a place in Guitar Center’s Rockwalk.”

The induction took place at the Dell West Plaza on the Rockwalk Stage during Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival 2026, beginning with a live performance by Isaac Holmes. Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto opened the ceremony before John Mayer introduced Smith for his induction. Smith then addressed the audience and commemorated the honor by placing his hands in cement as part of Guitar Center’s traditional Rockwalk ceremony. Smith’s handprints will travel back to Hollywood, where they will be permanently installed in Guitar Center’s Rockwalk outside its flagship store on Sunset Boulevard.

Holding the induction during Crossroads celebrated the full ecosystem of guitar culture, bringing together builders, players and fans around a shared appreciation for the guitar and the people shaping its future. Smith’s career has been deeply connected to working musicians, from Carlos Santana’s early support of PRS to his longstanding collaboration with John Mayer and other influential players. Mayer’s role in the induction reflected that relationship and Smith’s approach to guitar making: listening closely to musicians and working with them to rethink what an instrument can be.

“This is a truly special day. I am thankful to Gabe and the entire team at Guitar Center for presenting this. The Rockwalk is an iconic part of our industry, and to be part of that history is an honor,” said Paul Reed Smith. “There are many hands that have been involved in the journey. I’d like to thank everyone at PRS Guitars, past and present, along with the extraordinary musicians that continue to inspire and drive us every day. To have our longtime collaborator John (Mayer) give such a moving speech just made it all the more exceptional."

Smith’s induction continues Rockwalk’s tradition of honoring not only performers, but pioneering builders and innovators including Les Paul, Jim Marshall and Robert Moog, whose innovations gave musicians new ways to create, alongside legendary artists such as Eric Clapton, John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Cash.

Founded in 1985, Guitar Center’s Rockwalk is dedicated to honoring the musicians and industry pioneers whose exceptional talent, innovation and creative ingenuity have shaped the evolution of music. Located at Guitar Center’s flagship Hollywood store, Rockwalk has recognized more than 150 legendary artists and innovators.

As a guitarist, have you ever felt not particularly motivated to practice? You’re not alone – in fact, you’re in the company of Radiohead lead guitarist and all-round six-string legend Jonny Greenwood, who confesses in a new interview that he hasn’t always been totally disciplined when it comes to guitar practice.

Greenwood – who also plays guitar in The Smile, a three-piece also featuring his Radiohead bandmate Thom Yorke – tells The Independent [via NME] that while he’s now “hooked” on guitar practice, that wasn’t always the case in the early days of Radiohead.

• READ MORE: How Jackson and Charvel broke new ground for Sleep Token’s double signature models: and created 2026’s biggest artist launch

“I will sit and play guitar every day now,” he explains. “It’s funny. It’s something I kind of never wanted to do. I used to distrust any sort of fluidity and think that was somehow part of that thing of technical playing. But now I just feel different about it. And it feels lucky that my fingers do these things.

“I’ve got a certain facility with it, so I’ve decided to accept it, and have realised that I really love playing the guitar.”

Despite helping pen some of British rock music’s most enduring hits alongside Radiohead, Greenwood admits he “always felt like a clumsy guitar player” who was “always lazy”.

“Now, just through repetition, I’ve got hooked,” he adds. “I’ve just got addicted and want to play all the time.”

Radiohead reunited last year to embark on a tour of the UK and Europe, their first shows since 2018. While the reunion led some fans to speculate about new material from the Oxfordshire five-piece, we’ve not heard anything to suggest new music is planned or on the way.

Speaking to The Times in February, Jonny Greenwood reflected that “it was great to revisit songs” on tour, but that he “found it strange not to be doing anything new”.

“I guess we are all doing new music elsewhere now so that’s where our creative energies are going.”

Asked about the possibility of a new album from the band, he replied, “I’ve no idea. I mean, I’m surprised that the tour actually happened and that we all enjoyed it so much. But venues get booked so far in advance. To do another we would have to decide now, and even then it wouldn’t happen for 18 months.”

Well, they’ve agreed to continue performing shows, and are scheduled to play 21 shows in 2027 across Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, Australia and Saitama, Japan.

Learn more at Radiohead.com.

The post “It’s something I never wanted to do”: Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood admits he was a “lazy” guitar player in the band’s early days appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

You don't need a stadium rack to sound like the Edge. PG Contributor ⁨@TomButwin⁩ breaks U2's guitarist down to the pillars of his sound: a cranked Vox, dual delays running into the amp's front end, a transparent overdrive, a Gibson Explorer, and a right hand that doesn't miss.

Instead of trying to clone The Edge's rig, which changes constantly and is far bigger than most of us will ever run, he builds the foundation.

The Vox AC15 Hand-Wired does most of the work, set to the top boost channel. The Eventide H9 Harmonizer Gen 2 handles both delays and runs into the amp's front end, the way the Edge does it. A Mr. Black Deuce Coupe drives the amp without coloring the tone, and it cleans up off the guitar's volume knob. Then Tom gets to the '70s Explorer, (thanks @sweetwater !) the accuracy the Edge's parts demand from your picking hand, and a pick trick you'll want to steal.

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Mudvayne frontman Chad Gray has taken aim at bands who lean on backing and click tracks on stage, arguing that pre-recorded guitars and vocals drain the spontaneity from a live show.

In an interview with Metal Hammer, Gray says Mudvayne have never played to a click, and while he doesn’t call out any specific bands, he does singles out stacked guitars and layered backing vocals as his main gripes.

• READ MORE: “If you can’t play your s**t, then why the f**k are you onstage?”: Mudvayne frontman Chad Gray voices opposition to live backing tracks
  

He says bands that sound exactly like their studio records because of backing tracks need to “keep it f**king real a little bit”.

His argument centres first on tempo. Without a click, he explains, a band drifts naturally, giving live music a sense of movement and life not achievable if using a click or backing tracks on a rigid musical grid.

“When you’re live, there’s an actual push and a pull that happens,” Gray says. “Say you’re playing a mellow verse and a heavy chorus is coming – by the third or fourth measure of that verse, the tempo naturally starts to speed up right before the chorus hits.

“It slowly slides into what’s coming. That builds anticipation and excitement for the crowd because they know what’s coming, and then bam! that shit hits.

“When you’ve got a click, you can’t create momentum because you’ve got a bunch of backing tracks running along with you.”

Gray isn’t calling for a blanket ban on backing tracks, though. He doesn’t expect a band with an orchestral bridge to tour with a full orchestra. His issue is with stacked guitars and backing vocals, elements which a band could already play or sing themselves.

This orchestral exception echoes a line drawn by Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor, who admitted to using orchestral tracks while performing some tracks from Stone Sour’s 2012/2013 double album House of Gold & Bones. He wasn’t a fan of the experience, though.

“Obviously, all the guitars were real, the drums were real, vocals were real, bass was real, but we used track for some of the orchestral stuff and some of the connector pieces,” he said. “‘Cause we were playing some of the stuff that would connect. And being a slave to that felt so stifling that I was like losing my… I was, like, ‘We’ve gotta get off this fucking shit.’”

Wolfgang Van Halen took a comparable stance that year, arguing that backing tracks should be kept to a minimum live and that he never does anything in the studio that he can’t do live.

The post “Tripled and quadrupled guitars? Let’s keep it f**king real a little bit”: Mudvayne frontman slams bands who use backing tracks live appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The biggest signature guitar launch of 2026 was for two musicians who have never said a word publicly, have never given an interview, and whose faces have never been seen. And yet within days of their Charvel and Jackson instruments being revealed to the world, they had completely sold out – despite the four figure price tag. Strange? Well…

Sleep Token signatures on the Guitar.com Cover. Image: Joseph Bishop for Guitar.com

And in truth, nobody was really surprised. The masked collective known as Sleep Token are, to put it mildly, a phenomenon – their huge, ever-growing presence has seen them bring death growls and djent-inflected riffs to staggering arena-sized shows, and become one of the newest bands to headline Download festival.

As well as a formidable listenership they’ve also crafted a whole universe of intricate mythology from behind their masks and bodypaint that has built a remarkably devoted and passionate following. This was never going to be a normal set of signature instruments, or a normal launch.

For starters, it was the first ever joint launch for Jackson and Charvel – with guitarist IV opting for a signature Jackson, and bassist III creating his own Charvel bass. The two brands have been under the wider Fender Musical Instrument Corporation brand for a long time now, but they’d never collabed like this before. But here’s where it gets really tricky…

Image: Joseph Bishop for Guitar.com

Within their music, Sleep Token offer up cryptic storytelling, hinting at but never overstating a deeply-imagined lore. But, remarkably for a band of their size, everything else is a mystery. Outside of their songs and their other “offerings”, the band maintain an anonymous, enigmatic presence – an approach that’s hardly forthcoming to the usual cycle of interviews and demos that would usually accompany a launch like this.

The total number of words said by bandleader Vessel in his extremely rare interviews could fit on about six post-it notes, and even then he presents the project pretty cryptically. Drummer II did a video with Drumeo in 2023. But for III and IV? Nothing – no rig rundowns, no tour diaries, no get-ready-with-me TikToks. The band members don’t even appear in music videos anymore.

So how do you go about launching not one but two signature instruments for Sleep Token, when the band’s non-music communication mostly consists of mysterious lore and runic symbolism? Tim Hillier-Brook is the artist marketing manager for Fender’s specialty brands, and helmed the collaboration between Sleep Token, Jackson and Charvel – and it was up to him and his team to find out.

“Guitar is one of the most exciting places it’s been in for a long time, Sleep Token are a really important part of that”

Old friends, new connections

Since he started in his role, a Sleep Token collaboration was always a goal for Hillier-Brook. Then a few years ago, the former Architects guitarist crossed paths with an old friend.

“By complete coincidence, their guitar tech is an old mate of mine from back when I played in bands,” he says. “He reached out to us, saying, ‘Hey, Sleep Token is growing, and we’re looking to get some more instruments’. I was delighted to hear that, particularly as it came through a friend – there’s a level of trust there.”

Image: Joseph Bishop for Guitar.com

“It quickly became all about getting them the perfect guitars for what they do,” Hillier-Brook adds. Things started with existing production models, such as Gretsch Baritones, but after around a year of discussions, it was time for some custom instruments. “We made an eight-string for IV, and there’s a four-string non-multi-scale for III – those let us troubleshoot some things, and find what was going to be the main instrument for both of them.”

Given how broad the Sleep Token sound is – going from expansive, cinematic pop to pummelling, brutal metal – it was going to be impossible for the signatures alone to cover everything III and IV needed. But the team took aim at the instrument that could work for the bulk of a given set. “It was about looking for something that would be what they needed for the most amount of time. So we landed on the specs from a lot of trial and error. III and IV are both exceptionally knowledgeable about gear and what sounds they need – they were very much like this is how it has to sound’, and it was always in a very positive, creative way.”

“Artists are not only being more creative with blending genres, they’re also being more creative with signature guitars”

A double offering

The collaboration has netted some truly singular guitars. “They’re both extremely bespoke to the music that the band makes and performs live,” Hillier-Brook says. “IV’s guitar is a 30-inch baritone, fitted with an EverTune and custom tension modules – tuned E-E an octave down, all wound strings. Essentially it’s a Bass VI designed for metal, and pretty much the first-ever production 30” baritone with those specs. There are other 30” guitars out there that players like to mod for metal, but this one is unique.”

III’s bass marks some firsts too – “it’s the first ever production reverse headstock Charvel has done, and it’s the only multi-scale Charvel bass, too – including custom. The prototype was literally the first time we’d done that. from has ever done,” Hillier-Brook says. “It’s a more gradual multi-scale, too – Sleep Token use a load of different tunings, and both of these instruments reflect the ability to switch between them. The way we’ve done the multi-scale helps with that.”

Those tunings are, as a rule, extremely low, and obviously a 30” scale helps keep things tight and percussive on the guitar side, particularly when tuning more than an octave lower than E standard. But it’s about more than sheer string length:

“For both of them, I think the main word is clarity,” Hillier-Brook says. “It’s obviously very easy when tuning that low for it to be an inaudible mess. So with the bass, it’s got the multi-scale, and the active Fishman pickups in it with multiple voicings which help things stay controlled.”

Image: Joseph Bishop for Guitar.com

“And for the guitar, it’s got a mahogany body, but with a maple cap on top alongside its quilted veneer. That’s a tonal choice to add a bit of that snappiness and brightness to things. It’s all about how those notes are going to cut through live. If you’re playing a big arena in those kinds of tunings, with those impactful and dynamic moments in the music, you need to hear every note.”

And despite those arena-ready sounds and specs, the guitars don’t sport custom-shop price tags. “That was really important to me, and the wider team, and to Sleep Token too,” Tim says.

“It can be a difficult thing when developing a signature model with an artist, to hit the specs where it’s something they will genuinely use live, especially in venues of that size, but still to make it attainable. That was definitely top of mind – getting the right specs while staying at a price-point where they’re obviously not cheap guitars, but they’re not an impossible thing for a fan to purchase.”

“III and IV are exceptionally knowledgeable about gear and what sounds they need”

Unmasking the signatures

“Anonymous” and “signature” may seem like antonyms, but that tension was something that ended up helping the designs have, weirdly, more personality. There are some literal signatures on the guitars, with a IV on the guitar’s headstock, a III on the bass’ fretboard – but for Hillier-Brook, the identity present within them comes from Sleep Token having “complete creative control” – something masked personas don’t really get in the way of.

So you don’t need to peruse their wild spec-sheets to have them stand out – these guitars will remain pretty recognisable even through a haze of fog and stage lights. “Obviously we do the Monarkh, and we do the San Dimas bass but there are little details about these that make them so unique,” Hillier-Brook adds.

“It’s not quite the same as doing a Soloist with a signature on the back of the headstock. That can be really cool, but these are something else. No matter where you see them, you’ll know exactly whose signatures they are straight away, without needing a big name on the headstock. And that all came from III and IV – they were really smart about the aesthetics as well as the specs.”

Image: Joseph Bishop for Guitar.com

A unique moment

The fact that the Sleep Token collection of guitars are so singular for Hillier-Brook reflects on where the wider world of guitars is at right now. “It’s in one of the most exciting places it’s been in for a long time,” he says, “and because of that, people are trying new things. One of the benefits of streaming is that every genre ever is in everyone’s phone – which has made people approach guitar very differently. Sleep Token are a really important part of that, where players are doing things sonically and stylistically that haven’t really been done before.”

When it comes to guitar themselves, we can see that approach reflected in other recent releases. Jack Antonoff and Lee Malia’s recent signatures, for instance, certainly garnered attention from beyond their respective fanbases thanks to their cool, genre-agnostic mashup vibes.

Image: Joseph Bishop for Guitar.com

“The name is the stamp of approval,” Hillier-Brook notes. “But it isn’t the thing about it. Lee [Malia]’s guitar doesn’t have ‘Bring Me the Horizon’ across the fretboard, and these don’t say ‘Sleep Token’ across theirs – and I think it’s linked to that trend. Artists are not only being more creative with how they’re blending genres, they’re also being more creative with guitars when the opportunity of a signature arises.”

Cynicism about signatures as a whole has also declined. “Some people used to be like, ‘I don’t want to play a guitar with someone else’s name on it’,” Hillier-Brook says. “I had it myself, years ago, when I played a Jim Root Tele in Architects! Like, ‘Oh, that’s someone else’s guitar, why are you playing it?’ – but I love Telecasters, and they’re designed for metal. Why wouldn’t I? – but there’s less of that.”

More players – particularly within the heavy world, seem keen to embrace the unique potential within the world of other artists’ signatures. “And I think we’ll see so much of that with these instruments,” Hillier-Brook notes. “Just because they do such a unique thing, and again that attitude of, ‘I’m not playing so-and-so’s guitar’ is less common. Some people might get annoyed about it, but if you are… don’t buy one. That’s fine too!”

“A lot of the positive response isn’t from Sleep Token fans – people are just excited about the guitars!”

Ready for launch

From the start it was pretty clear to the whole team that these guitars would land with a splash, no matter what happened. “Working on the whole campaign was very exciting, just because of all of the firsts,” Hillier-Brook notes, “so we had to work out how to make this the biggest thing. The run would have sold out anyway, really, because the guitars are incredible and Sleep Token are who they are, but it was so important for us to really amp it up to 11.”

The fan response to the guitars speaks for itself, and, yes, as predicted, the first wave of guitars sold out extremely quickly. But the impact went beyond units sold, particularly thanks to the fact that for the launch III and IV had finally appeared in a music video of sorts, performing a never-before heard instrumental version of Vore. For a band in such clear control of their audiovisual presence across, getting to contribute to a bonafide capital-O Offering is a pretty big deal.

Tim points towards the flipside of this, too. “A lot of the positive response isn’t just from Sleep Token fans – a lot of people are just excited about the guitars! Really, I’ve just been embarrassingly glued to my phone since the launch. The response has been unbelievable, more so than you might expect – and that’s extremely validating for us as a company, and for them as musicians.”

Image: Joseph Bishop for Guitar.com

Building worlds

In talking about these two instruments it’s easy to get caught up in a whirlwind of specs – but it’s good to remember that their uniqueness doesn’t just come from ultra-low tunings or any given set of pickups. It’s a reflection of the totally singular approach that’s made Sleep Token the band they are.

“In terms of artists that build worlds, whether you like them or not, they’re the best at it,” Hillier-Brook says. “And these guitars are just a symptom of them being so at the top of the game in terms of everything they do, from that world they’ve created, their aesthetic, down to every last tiny little detail of spec of these guitars.”

And for Hillier-Brook there’s one main takeaway from the craziness of the launch. “The way they’ve been received, the reaction from fans, artists and influencers to all of the things we tried to do with them – to see that come to fruition, as, really, just a positive thing for the whole guitar community? That’s the biggest success of these.”

Words: Cillian Breathnach
Photography: Joseph Bishop

The post How Jackson and Charvel broke new ground for Sleep Token’s double signature models: and created 2026’s biggest artist launch appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Graph Tech Guitar Labs has expanded its innovative Un-Lock Nut line with two new models designed specifically for 7-string electric guitars. The new Un-Lock Nuts replace traditional metal locking nuts with a pre-slotted, triple-lubricated Black TUSQ XL nut, eliminating the clamps, hex keys, added weight and everyday hassles associated with a conventional locking nut.

Designed for guitars equipped with double-locking tremolo systems, the 7-string Un-Lock Nut gives players excellent tuning stability while keeping the machine heads fully accessible. Players can tune normally, make quick tuning tweaks, and change a broken string quickly without unlocking clamps or reaching for an Allen key.

“Seven-string players often use different tunings and string gauges, so being able to tune at the machine heads and change strings quickly is a real advantage if they are using a tremolo stabilizer,” said Dave Dunwoodie, founder of Graph Tech Guitar Labs. “The Un-Lock Nut removes the unnecessary hardware and hassle at the headstock while giving players the tuning performance, tone and playability they expect from Graph Tech.”

The weight reduction is substantial: a traditional metal locking nut weighs roughly the same as four AAA batteries, while the Un-Lock Nut weighs about the same as one AAA battery.

Made from Graph Tech’s triple-lubricated Black TUSQ XL, the Un-Lock Nut features advanced slot geometry that helps the strings move smoothly through the nut. Its extended ramps distribute string stress more evenly, while the accurately matched radius and individually adjustable string heights allow for a precise setup. Players also benefit from smoother, easier string bending in the lower fret positions.

Both models are pre-slotted, accommodate most common string gauges and install without permanent modification to the guitar. As with any replacement nut, minor fitting and height adjustment may be required for the individual instrument.

The new Graph Tech 7-string Un-Lock Nuts are available now for $24.95 USD each through Graph Tech and authorized Graph Tech dealers.

King Buffalo releases Doomsayer, the Rochester-based band’s seventh album, on Dec. 4. via King Buffalo (North America)/Stickman Records (UK/EU).

A preview of the seven-song album arrives with today’s release of “The Slick and The Dead”

“Doomsayer originated in early 2026 out of many hours of jam sessions in our new studio space, playing around and seeing where it took us,” explains guitarist/vocalist Sean Roa, who also produced and mixed the album. “We didn’t really have an end goal in mind of what we were going for. We were simply exploring ideas and seeing what ended up speaking to us the most. So much has happened, both as a band and in our personal lives since our last record, that ended up becoming the inspiration to many of the lyrics on Doomsayer. I think as a result, this is some of our most upfront, direct and riff-driven work to date. We are incredibly proud of it and can’t wait for it to get out into the world.”

Four years on from Regenerator, King Buffalo returns with a record shaped by years of international touring and a deepening confidence in their own sound. Recorded in the new studio the band built themselves, Doomsayer finds the trio continuing to reach into the unknown, while bringing a greater sense of focus and intention to their sound. The experience they have gained on the road is evident throughout the album, both in the poise of the material and the confidence of their delivery. Like the pandemic trilogy that preceded it, Doomsayer was made at home, but the band’s new surroundings have given them the freedom to continue exploring and finding new ground, with a maturity they have earned one stage at a time.

Album pre-orders begin Friday, Sept. 25 at 12 noon eastern via Kingbuffalo.com. 50 test pressings of the 43-plus minute collection will be available, as well as a Deluxe Edition, limited to 750 copies on translucent emerald vinyl and including a hand-numbered insert, download code and polybag. The standard edition, limited to 1750 copies, arrives on purple opaque vinyl and includes a download code and polybag.

The band had previously announced a North American tour, kicking off on Oct. 29 in Boulder with support from L.A. Witch (Oct. 29 to Nov. 21, except Los Angeles), Doom Gong (Dec. 3 to 5 and Dec. 18), and Handsome Jack (Dec. 8 to 12). A European trek was announced this morning with Spirit Mother opening on all dates. The EU/UK leg is on-sale this Friday at 10 a.m. local time. Ticket links are available at Kingbuffalo.com/tour.

October 29 Boulder, CO Fox Theatre

October 30 Denver, CO Bluebird Theatre

October 31 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge

November 2 Portland, OR Aladdin Theatre

November 3 Vancouver, BC The Pearl

November 4 Seattle, WA Neumo’s

November 6 San Francisco, CA The Independent

November 7 Los Angeles, CA Lodge Room

November 9 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up

November 10 Phoenix, AZ Crescent Ballroom

November 11 Albuquerque, NM Sister

November 13 Dallas, TX AM/FM

November 14 Austin, TX Mohawk

November 17 Houston, TX Bad Astronaut

November 19 Nashville, TN Basement East

November 20 Asheville, NC The Grey Eagle

November 21 Cincinnati, OH Woodward Theatre

December 3 Detroit, MI El Club

December 4 Chicago, IL Thalia Hall

December 5 Cleveland, OH The Roxy

December 8 Toronto, ON The Mod Club

December 9 Montreal, QC Theatre Fairmount

December 10 Boston, MA Brighton Music Hall

December 11 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge

December 12 Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts

December 15 Richmond, VA The Broadberry

December 16 Durham, NC Motorco

December 17 Washington, DC Black Cat

December 18 Columbus, OH Skully’s

Doomsayer cover featuring artwork by See Machine

1.Battling The Mystagogues

2.The Slick and The Dead

3.Vagabond

4.Hell or High Water

5.Into the Foundry

6.Ether on the Dark Side

7.Doomsayer

PRS Guitars today announced the Silver Sky Defender Color Collection, a series of eight limited-edition guitars designed in collaboration between PRS Signature Artist John Mayer and the British 4x4 brand. The lineup includes four classic Land Rover Defender colorways on the US-made Silver Sky and four contemporary Defender colorways on the SE Silver Sky. The US-made guitars will be limited to 500 of each color. The SE guitars will only be available during a limited order window, ending midyear 2027. These guitars can be preordered now through Authorized PRS Dealers.

“Teaming up with Defender to offer the Silver Sky guitar in their legendary 4x4 colors is a dream come true. I’ve always chosen colorways based on objects and materials that inspire me in the world, and as a collector and lover of Defenders, this collaboration is the perfect crossover between two great passions of mine,” said John Mayer.

The idea began with Mayer’s own Defender in the heritage color Arles Blue, which he has owned for nearly two decades. His appreciation for the distinctive colors offered by the brand has grown over the years. That inspiration has now found its way onto the Silver Sky in some unexpected details. The guitars’ plastics were chosen to complement two Defender configurations, with contrasting black or white roofs. The result is a collection of Silver Skys with a distinctly Defender-inspired point of view, bringing together two designs in a way that feels natural to both.

The PRS Silver Sky and the Defender are made to inspire exploration, whether through music or through terrain. They are also meant to demonstrate that design and color can combine to be a powerful expression of identity, individuality and personal taste.

“Defender’s iconic color palette, spanning both heritage and contemporary finishes, translates beautifully to the PRS Silver Sky Defender Limited Edition guitars. I have no doubt that collectors, musicians and Defender fans alike will be eager to get their hands on one of these highly desirable instruments,” said Paula Gharizi, Brand Director for JLR North America.

The Silver Sky Defender Limited Edition is offered in Defender’s heritage colors (with white pickguards and control knobs), celebrating the brand's rich heritage and the optimism, individuality, and character that has defined generations of classic vehicles. This set comprises four classic Defender finishes, starting with Mayer’s own Arles Blue Land Rover Defender. These guitars will have exclusive hard cases boasting the Defender wordmark, neckplates with the brand logo and that instrument’s color name called out, and matching painted headstocks. Only 500 of each color will be available worldwide.

• Arles Blue is inspired by open skies, coastal roads, and the freedom to take the long way home. A color to match the horizon, it harkens back to when adventure in a Defender became a destination in its own right

• Willow Green is a nod to Defender's rural beginnings, where muddy lanes and stone walls were part of the daily landscape, reflecting the fields, hedgerows, and muddy lanes where Defender earned its reputation.

• Portofino Red is warm, confident, and full of character; a reminder that utility and personality have never been mutually exclusive. It is a statement color reflecting a generation of owners who chose Defender as much for its bold character as its capability
• Sandglow Yellow is the color of adventure, desert dust and distant horizons. It is inspired by iconic Trophy and Challenge events of the past and the spirit of expedition travel that helped define Defender for a generation.

The SE Silver Sky Defender Limited Edition is offered in four Defender contemporary colors (with black pickguards and control knobs – a first for any Silver Sky model) inspired by landscapes and destinations that embody the spirit of exploration. Like the US-made versions, this set of colorways will have neckplates with the Defender logo and the color called out on them. These guitars will also have an exclusive PRS/Defender gig bag. Although the number of the SE instruments made will not be capped, they will only be available for order until midyear of 2027.

• Petra Copper takes its name from the ancient Jordanian city carved into rose-colored rock, translating natural stone hues into a refined metallic finish.
• Sedona Red draws inspiration from Arizona's dramatic sandstone formations, combining rich earthy reds with warm copper undertones.
• Carpathian Grey references the Carpathian Mountains, conveying ruggedness, scale and sophistication through a deep, sparkling grey.
• Woolstone Green connects modern Defender to both place and heritage, named after the Oxfordshire village while reinterpreting Defender's iconic green color space through a contemporary metallic finish.

Introducing the guitars in the automotive world ahead of the official launch, Defender hosted a preview of the guitars for select owners of the 4x4 during their September 11- 13, 2026 Destination Defender event in Temecula, Calif., a weekend of curated outdoor activities, drive experiences, live music, and a vehicle museum.

In addition to these runs, PRS will produce a small run of Silver Sky Defender Limited Editions in classic British Racing Green. Not available for purchase, these will be used as part of fundraising efforts for both the Defender Service Awards and John Mayer’s charity focused on veterans’ health, The Heart and Armor Foundation.

For all of the latest news, visit www.prsguitars.com and follow @prsguitars on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, and YouTube.

For over a decade, the DigiTech Whammy has, more or less, owned foot-controlled pitch-shifting outright. There have been challengers. There have been contenders for the crown. But when the dust settles, in the imaginations of most, what one hears are Tom Morello’s dive-bombs, Dimebag’s squeals, and Jack White reminding everyone that a guitar pedal can also be a weapon. Boss, a company that can similarly dominate a category, is now dancing at the Whammy’s party. And it’s not messing around.

The XS-100 splits its personality in two. There’s a treadle-operated pitch bender that handles the Floyd-Rose-style dives and impossible upward screams, and a footswitch-operated transposer for down-tuning and virtual-capo duty. That’s a smart division of labor. You get expressive, real-time pitch-mangling under your toe, and instant, glitch-free re-tuning in an immediately adjacent position, without needing to choose which personality and functionality make the grade on your board.

When you add up the possible tones the XS-100 can span, the numbers are impressive. You can shift up to four octaves up or down via the rocker treadle. That’s eight octaves of total range, which I’d venture is more pitch-shifting range than most players will ever need. But if you’re inclined to experiment with the outer limits of your guitar, you’ll love having it. There are so many unusual, unexpected sounds here, in addition to scads of very musical, practical harmonizing and re-tuning capabilities too.

The sounds you can keep in memory are a huge asset too. Thirty slots are available, and can be scanned via the compact but practical LCD screen. MIDI and USB-C capabilities, meanwhile, extend the pedal’s possibilities for studio rats and committed pitch-shifting nerds to take the XS-100 to its furthest reaches.

Pitch in Practice

Here’s the thing about pitch shifters—the spec sheet is basically theater until you ask the real question: Does it track cleanly on chords? Polyphonic pitch-shifting has almost always demanded some kind of tone sacrifice in the shape of digital artifacts, and sustained leads and complex voicings tend to expose every weakness in an algorithm. Boss does its bit to solve the problem with what it calls Adaptive Focus—a fast processing method that uses high-resolution 24-bit conversion. In practice the payoff is pretty clear. The XS-100 preserves attack and tonal characteristics, even on full chords, without the warbly, seasick artifacts that plague lesser shifters. Whether you’re layering a full-step-up harmony under a lead line or dropping an entire chord progression down an octave for that “did the room just get bigger?” effect, the tracking stays glassy-smooth.

“The XS-100 preserves attack and tonal characteristics, even on full chords, without the warbly, seasick artifacts that plague lesser shifters.”

Does it top the Whammy? That depends what you’re after. The XS-100’s shifting often sounds cleaner and its range is wider. But it trades away some of the Whammy’s beloved knack for chaos and unpredictability. After all, the Whammy’s slight wildness is for many players a feature, not a bug. The XS-100’s detailed menu system also demands a bit more patience than the Whammy’s dead-simple stomp-and-go approach. The Boss is definitely a deeper tool, but that depth can come at the cost of intuitiveness. How you relate to those tradeoffs probably makes a trial run at your local shop a good idea. But with 30 presets, a genuinely sculptable balance control for blending dry and shifted signals, and that eight-octave range, the XS-100 gives serious players a lot more to work with once they’ve climbed the learning curve. With so much to explore, diving in blind could be a lot of fun for a lot of folks.

The Verdict

At $349, the XS-100 isn’t inexpensive. But it’s certainly not a novelty. It’s a legitimate, well-engineered challenger in a category where the Whammy stubbornly remains the standard. If you long for expressive dive-bombs, on-the-fly drop tuning, or harmonized leads that need to survive contact with a full chord voicing, the XS-100 can earn its keep. The Whammy cult is nothing if not loyal; the throne hasn’t necessarily changed hands. But for the first time in a long while, there’s a pitch pedal that can put up a real fight for it.

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Mad Professor Amplification has released the Milestone, a new germanium fuzz pedal inspired by vintage mixing consoles, reimagining the earliest fuzz sounds for the modern player.

The Milestone pedal is designed to stack well with other effects, with a dynamic and touch sensitive fuzz circuit and two band EQ for fine tuning your guitar tone. With its versatile EQ, the Milestone is also designed to sound great on bass guitar.

Milestone features a transformer circuit allowing the pedal to be placed after buffers or other pedals without changing the character of the fuzz or losing the touch sensitivity of the effect. This makes the Milestone the perfect fuzz for stacking with other pedals and opens the door for experimentation with unconventional pedal order.

• Germanium transistor fuzz pedal
• Dynamic and touch sensitive effect
• Two band EQ with Bass and Treble controls
• Transformer circuit to allow use after buffers or other pedals
• True-bypass switching
• 9-volt operation by external power supply (no battery compartment)
• Handmade in Finland

Milestone is part of Mad Professor’s handwired series handmade in Finland. The Milestone carries a street price of $370. For more information visit www.mpamp.com.

The longtime QOTSA multi-instrumentalist details and demos his new signature Squier Paranormal Troy Telecaster XII that's modeled after a Paul Waller Masterbuilt 12 he's had for a decade. In addition to recounting how a prototype survived a delivery truck rollover and riffing some of the quintessential 12-string Queens' songs, TVL explores the band's evolution resulting in their 9th album, Perfecth, releasing 10/30. Troy even dishes on the quintet's mission to age gracefully like Iggy Pop and share his surpringsly pragmatic reason for dressing dapper.

The longtime QOTSA multi-instrumentalist details and demos his new signature Squier Paranormal Troy Telecaster XII that's modeled after a Paul Waller Masterbuilt 12 he's had for a decade. In addition to recounting how a prototype survived a delivery truck rollover and riffing some of the quintessential 12-string Queens' songs, TVL explores the band's evolution resulting in their 9th album, Perfecth, releasing 10/30. Troy even dishes on the quintet's mission to age gracefully like Iggy Pop and share his surpringsly pragmatic reason for dressing dapper.

Cort Guitars has officially unveiled the Retro 304, a new short-scale bass guitar scheduled for June 2026 production. Developed for players seeking the specific feel and tonal character of a 30-inch scale instrument, the Retro 304 combines traditional material choices with streamlined controls. By focusing on reduced string tension and a deliberate vintage-voiced output, Cort aims to provide a serious tool for both long recording sessions and live performances where ease of playability is paramount.

The Retro 304 is built with a solid alder body, a choice intended to bring warmth and resonance to the instrument's fundamental character. The body is finished in a high-gloss coating available in two classic color options: Seafoam Green (SFG) and Candy Apple Red (CAR). This construction serves as the foundation for a bass designed to deliver a warm low-end and defined attack, ensuring the instrument holds up across a variety of playing situations.

The bolt-on neck is constructed from hard maple, featuring a comfortable "U" shape and a matte finish for a smooth feel. With a 30-inch (762mm) scale length, the instrument provides less string tension, helping reduce player fatigue during long practices or performances. The rosewood fingerboard has a 9.5-inch radius and houses 20 nickel silver frets, which are selected for their durability and wear resistance. Other neck specifications include a PPS nut with a width of 1 5/8” (41mm) and white dot position inlays.

At the heart of the Retro 304’s electronics is the Cort Voiced Tone VTB-TB pickup. This passive humbucker pickup is specifically voiced to avoid a generic sound, instead offering a deliberate vintage character that emphasizes a defined attack. To keep the player’s focus on performance rather than complex signal management, the control layout is intentionally minimal, featuring a single volume knob and a single tone knob.

Rounding out the specifications is a suite of chrome hardware, including the Cort Retro Bridge, which anchors the instruments sustain while keeping a consistent vintage aesthetic. Keeping with the retro vibe, the bass is equipped with open-gear tuners and features a 2-way adjustable truss rod with a spoke nut for easy maintenance. The Retro 304 comes factory-strung with D'Addario EXL170S strings.

For more information on the Retro 304 and to view more images, please visit www.CortGuitars.com

Whether it's Isa Burke's interview with Courtney Hartman, the luthier roundtable, or the transcription of Paul McCartney’s "Days We Left Behind," I hope enjoy spending time with this issue and find something in it that makes its way into your own music.

Though one of the most influential rock bands of all time, the Van Halen camp hasn’t been without its conflict through the years. Following the death of guitarist Eddie Van Halen in 2020, much talk was made about a potential Van Halen tribute tour. But in 2024, drummer Alex Van Halen claimed plans fell apart after David Lee Roth objected to an overt acknowledgement of Eddie during the shows. “The moment I said we gotta acknowledge Ed, Dave fuckin’ popped a fuse…” he said.

But tensions seem to have settled as of late, with both Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth putting aside their differences to sit down for a conversation thanks to TEDxFargo. The conversation itself actually took place on 30 July this year in Fargo, North Dakota, but has just been uploaded to YouTube.

• READ MORE: Joe Satriani recalls David Lee Roth’s “crazy” attempt to recruit him for a Van Halen cover band in the ‘90s: “I said, ‘But Dave, Ed’s still alive!’”

As David Lee Roth explains, during the Van Halen years, what seemed like a harmonious performance onstage would often mean chaos backstage.

“We never showed behind the kitchen,” Roth says. “These are the first times Al and I are discussing Hell’s Kitchen in the back…”

He continues, elaborating on the times he and Alex have come to blows behind the scenes: “There should be a star in front of three different clubs in Hollywood where we practiced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu over the setlist!”

Elsewhere, Sammy Hagar, who took over from David Lee Roth as Van Halen frontman in 1985, recently spoke of his desire to stop “being the Van Halen guy”, after years of touring his Best of All Worlds tour alongside Joe Satriani and Michael Anthony.

“I’m kinda done with being the Van Halen guy,” he said. While he vowed to “always keep some [Van Halen tracks]” in his show, he reflected on how the Best of All Worlds trek evolved into a bigger thing than he had originally planned.

“Originally, the Best of All Worlds tour with Joe Satriani was supposed to only be once in 2024,” he said.

Watch the full TEDxFargo conversation between Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth below:

The post “There should be a star in front of three clubs in Hollywood where we practiced Brazilian jiu-jitsu over the set list!”: David Lee Roth jokes about his tumultuous relationship with Alex Van Halen appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

New flagship of the Captor family is the company's most advanced amplifier control platform