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It’s the 170th episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps, the call-in show where amp tech Skip Simmons fields all of your guitar amplification questions (or at least the ones involving tubes).

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

Some of the topics discussed this week:

:32 What’s on Skip’s Bench: A Voice of Music 8810

2:40 Jason’s Fretboard Summit 2026 report

10:13 Recommended reading: Willie Dixon’s ‘I Am the Blues,’ ‘Bo Diddley: Living Legend,’ and ‘Buzz Busby: Father of Washington DC Bluegrass’

12:35 Is this Fender Super Champ safe to use?

20:06  Aotearoa New Zealand Amplifier History Project (support it here); New Zealand pop and punk; building guitars in the Congo (Fretboard Journal #56)

25:19 MusicMan HD130; Sun O))); a typewriter at the 2027 Summit?

33:34 Who made Rickenbacker amps? Talk to me about my Rickenbacker M11

41:14 Bix Beiderbecke’s birthday (August 6); conversing with your amp heroes; frozen udon noodles and mushroom stock powder; Red Norvo’s “In a Mist”; Donald Brosnac’s ‘Guitar Electronics for Musicians’

50:06 Warming up a two-pronged amp through a Variac; if a Jenson speaker has been re-coned, can I stop worrying about its value?

55:35 Listener recommendation: A cheap Amazon wall outlet meter (link)

57:36 Mark Bartel’s prototype line-out interface (see Instagram pic!)

58:24 The magic of purslane

1:00:29 Why a vibrator? (on old DC amps/PAs)

1:04:19 The Savage Croaker amp; Bloodstone’s “Natural High;” Mesa Boogie Mark I repairs and Jim Washburn

Want to be a part of the show? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com! Include a photo, too.

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

Above: Listener Bryan’s Fender Super Champ. 

The post Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 170 first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

You might not know his name, but you know Jim DeCola's work. The longtime luthier and influential industry staple sits down with John Bohlinger to discuss his repairman beginings (including an impactful fix for Randy Rhoads), to designing the Peavey EVH Wolfgang for Eddie Van Halen, and his lengthy career that includes both guitar giants -- Fender and Gibson. Plus, DeCola shares how his first love of skateboarding is a parallel to guitar building and explains why dropping into half pipes and empty pools fill his heart as much as working on guitars and play music.

TONE3000 has spent the last few years building what it claims is the world’s largest library of guitar tones. Now, instead of making you hunt them down one by one, it’s putting the whole thing inside a plugin.

The company has launched the free, open-source TONE3000 plugin, giving guitarists and bassists direct access to more than 700,000 Neural Amp Modeler (NAM) captures and Impulse Responses (IRs) from within their DAW – or through a standalone app.

• READ MORE: New firmware update lets HeadRush users tap into a world of open-source guitar tone captures

Until now, using a tone from TONE3000 involved a little more work than you might expect: find the capture online, download it, unzip it, organise the file and load it into a separate NAM plugin. Want to try another? You’ll have to do it all again.

The new plugin cuts out that faff. Musicians can now browse TONE3000’s library from inside the plugin, with captures covering amps, pedals, speaker cabinets, full rigs, outboard gear, acoustic spaces and even some weird experimental setups.

Log into your TONE3000 account and you can also access your saved favourites, recently used tones, your own creations and private tones without leaving the plugin.

And because the library is constantly growing, you don’t have to wait for a plugin update to get your hands on new sounds. Every new tone added to TONE3000 becomes available through the plugin immediately, with no additional purchase required.

Unlike the traditional amp-sim model, where you buy a plugin and get a fixed collection of sounds, here, the TONE3000 plugin acts more like a gateway to a library that keeps expanding as the community adds to it.

Under the hood, everything is powered by NAM A2, the latest generation of Neural Amp Modeler technology developed by TONE3000 with NAM creator Steve Atkinson. For the uninitiated, NAM is free, open-source technology that uses AI to model analogue gear by learning from recordings of physical amps, pedals and other equipment.

“Because the TONE3000 Plugin is open source, right now is the worst it will ever be,” says the company’s co-founder and CEO Stanley Vergilis. “We’re excited to see what the community does with it.”

“With A2 we made captures dramatically more accurate, but accuracy doesn’t matter if loading a tone is a chore,” adds TONE3000 co-founder and CTO Woodbury Shortridge. “The plugin is where the architecture, the community library, and players finally meet in one place. Every layer is open source by design. We’re betting the future of tone belongs to the people creating it, not to whoever owns the technology.”

The plugin also goes considerably further than simply being a tone browser. You can stack unlimited NAM A2 captures and IRs to build signal chains, run dual chains with branching and panning, create stereo images and apply EQ at different points in the chain.

The TONE3000 plugin is available now for macOS, Windows and Linux, with VST3, AU, AAX, CLAP and LV2 support, as well as a standalone version. It works with major DAWs including Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Pro Tools, FL Studio, Cubase, Reaper and Bitwig Studio.

And, importantly, it’s free.

Download the plugin today at TONE3000.

The post TONE3000’s new free plugin gives you access to over 700,000 guitar tone captures appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The Power of 3, the powerhouse new trio featuring acclaimed singer-guitarist Orianthi, drummer Cindy Blackman Santana, and bassist Rhonda Smith, announce their self-titled debut album today along with the release of their debut double single, “War In The Streets” b/w “Treat Me Like A Lady,” available now on all streaming platforms. The album is due out December 11th via She2Music, was produced by legendary producer Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, KISS, The Rolling Stones), and features a special guest appearance from Carlos Santana. Recorded entirely in analog, the album captures the raw chemistry of three world-class musicians whose collective careers have included collaborations with Michael Jackson, Prince, Jeff Beck, Alice Cooper, Beyoncé, Lenny Kravitz, Santana, and Pharoah Sanders.

Lead single “War In the Streets” is one of The Power of 3's defining statements. It’s a rousing rallying cry for unity in a time of unrest and division. Driven by a churning rock groove and a searing Orianthi guitar solo, the track reflects the chaos of the current moment while calling for people to come together. The chorus was penned by Mark Davis, owner of the Las Vegas Raiders and a longtime supporter of the band, and The Power of 3 wrote the verses and music before the song took shape in the studio with Kramer.

The double single also features “Treat Me Like A Lady,” a groove-heavy, feel-good track propelled by Rhonda Smith's bouncing Motown-inspired bass line. Sensual, playful, and empowering, the song showcases the band's soulful side while maintaining the confidence and firepower of three musicians at the top of their game.

The roots of The Power of 3 stretch back several years, when Raiders owner Mark Davis encouraged Orianthi to assemble a Band of Gypsys-inspired power trio. Orianthi turned to Cindy Blackman Santana, renowned for her work with Carlos Santana, Lenny Kravitz, and Pharoah Sanders, and together they recruited Rhonda Smith, whose legendary career includes performances with Prince, Jeff Beck, Beyoncé, and who currently plays with The Cletones, the house band for Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The trio has already performed twice at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, most recently before the Raiders-Cowboys game last November, and is now preparing to bring the project to audiences around the world.

“I know people all over the world want to see us,” said Orianthi. “And we can't wait. It'll be so much fun to get out there. Playing together with Cindy and Rhonda, this is like a powerhouse. It's not just me... this is a real band.”

The Power of 3 is out December 11th; preorder/presave HERE.

When King Crimson first disbanded in 1974, it seemed like Robert Fripp was ready to settle down in the Sherbourne countryside and withdraw from the limelight. However, David Bowie’s request for Fripp to feature on 1977’s Heroes put a halt to his temporary retirement – because, when Ziggy Stardust comes a-knocking, you can hardly turn him down.

While Fripp’s feedback-heavy, multi-layered guitar performance on Heroes is now iconic, Fripp thought that Bowie “took a chance” when he first enlisted him to feature on the track. “I didn’t view myself as a working player at that time, having just been in retreat for 10 months with no intention of going back to anything like that,” he admits in a new interview with Guitar World.

• READ MORE: Alex Lifeson reveals the Rush song he “really struggled with” learning to play again for the band’s reunion: “My hands are not operating like they once did”

Although the King Crimson frontman wasn’t too optimistic, Bowie was adamant that he wanted Fripp. “When David asked me to provide guitar, I just said, ‘Well, I don’t know… but if you’re prepared to take a chance, so am I,’” the guitarist recalls.

The recording session saw Fripp flying out to Berlin’s Hansa Studios with his Les Paul, no amplifier, and a small selection of pedals (a volume pedal, a wah and a fuzz box). Despite his stripped back arsenal, Fripp still impressed Bowie and his producer, Tony Visconti; in a January interview with Guitar Player, Visconti recalled Fripp’s innovative ability to utilise studio monitor feedback as an instrument in and of itself.

That’s right – the EBow-like effect on Heroes is Fripp utilising monitor feedback. “Fripp had a technique in those days where he measured the distance between the guitar and the speaker where each note would feed back,” the producer explained. “For instance, an A would feed back maybe at about four feet from the speaker… He had a strip that they would place on the floor, and when he was playing the note F sharp he would stand on the strip’s F sharp point. and F sharp would feed back…”

Needless to say, Fripp nailed the job. Bowie loved his work so much that he even tried to bag Fripp as his full-time live guitarist – but Fripp kindly turned him down. He had ran away to a country home to escape touring, and even Bowie couldn’t tempt him to return to the stage just yet: “I just said, ‘No… I’ve just come off the road after six years of touring!’”

Despite his rejection, Bowie was keen to work with him again, asking Fripp to perform lead guitar parts across his 1980 record, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). On their second collaboration, Bowie knew he could ask anything of the talented Fripp – even if that meant asking him to embody the energy of another player.

“I remember I asked David, ‘Any suggestions?’ because there’s any number of ways you can go,” Fripp recalls in conversation with Guitar World. “He said, ‘Think Ritchie Blackmore’. I didn’t expect that, but I understood what he meant.”

Rather than outright copying Blackmore’s tone, Fripp captured the same aura and swagger of the Deep Purple legend. “Did I sound like Ritchie Blackmore? No,” he admits. “But I’d seen Ritchie in the Outlaws in Poole when I was 17, and his playing was phenomenal! He had all the moves. So I’d seen Ritchie, I’d heard Ritchie, and I wasn’t going to play like Ritchie would… but I knew what David meant!”

The post “If you’re prepared to take a chance, so am I”: how working with David Bowie helped lure Robert Fripp out of an early retirement appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

After more than a decade away from the stage, even Alex Lifeson wasn’t sure he was ready to step back into Rush. The guitarist says the pressure of preparing for the band’s Fifty Something reunion tour became so intense that, at times, he found himself questioning whether he had made the right decision.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Lifeson opens up about the nerves and “self-doubt” that crept in during the final weeks of the band’s 14-month rehearsal period.

• READ MORE: Alex Lifeson reveals the Rush song he “really struggled with” learning to play again for the band’s reunion: “My hands are not operating like they once did”

“14 months of rehearsal, it was difficult,” says Lifeson. “In the last month of rehearsals, there were times I was sitting on the edge of my bed at two o’clock in the morning thinking, ‘Did I make the right decision? Can I do this? Can I play? Am I good enough?’”

As Lifeson explains, getting back to Rush wasn’t just about relearning the songs. After so long away from the stage, there was the physical challenge of playing a full show again, along with the pressure of meeting the standard he had set throughout his career.

Geddy Lee felt much the same pressure. The singer and bassist says the band’s return demanded more preparation than anything he had done before, with the full show being rehearsed 24 times in 27 days during the final month and a half.

“In my history as a musician, I don’t think I’ve ever rehearsed quite as much as an individual, and also as a band,” Lee says. “Of course, we needed to, because it was a monumental task.”

“Coming back at this age, your fear is that you can’t do it anymore, and you’re going to be a compromised version of yourself. And I don’t want that,” Lee continues.

Thankfully for Lifeson, those nerves finally gave way once the band actually stepped onstage.

“It wasn’t really until Sunday, when we played that gig, that it all kind of came down this funnel and spilled out,” he says. “It was at that moment that I thought, ‘Yeah, this has all been worth it. This is where I really am happy to be.’ I’m tired this week. But I’m really, seriously happy.”

Watch the full interview below.

The post Alex Lifeson on the self-doubt that crept in before Rush’s reunion tour: “There were times I was sitting on the edge of my bed at two o’clock in the morning thinking, ‘Can I do this?’” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

With decades of session work under his belt, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter is no stranger to unusual requests in the studio. The guitarist, best known for his work with Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers, recently recalled one particularly colourful brief from country legend Dolly Parton, who passed away last week at the age of 80.

Speaking to Guitar Player, Baxter looks back on the session for Parton’s 1978 song Baby, I’m Burnin’, where she asked him for “fireworks” on a guitar solo.

• READ MORE: Jeff “Skunk” Baxter on surviving the excess of the ’70s: “There was always something in the back of my mind that scared me. I didn’t want to lose my chops”

“Dolly Parton asked me to make fireworks one time,” he says. “I was working with my Roland guitar synthesizer, and she said, ‘Can you just make it, like, reds and greens and sparkles?’”

“So I thought about it for a second, and then with one hand I played as many notes as I could while the other hand was working the Roland’s [pitch] transposer, slapping it back up and down,” Baxter recalls. “She was going, ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s it. Whee!’”

As unusual as the request might sound, Baxter says this is simply part of being a session player. Artists don’t always explain what they want in technical terms, so it’s often up to him to work out what an abstract or non-musical description actually means in guitar terms – and turn it into something that works on the record.

“Sometimes you get requests like, ‘Can you make it more green?’ or, ‘I need it to ooomph more,’” he says. “So you say, ‘Okay,’ and think about all the times you’ve ever done sessions and people have said to you, ‘Boy, that really ooomphs,’ or ‘That sounds really green,’ and you start from there.”

“There have been a couple of dates like that. I enjoy it,” Baxter continues. “I get a lot of calls for steel guitar where they say, ‘Can you make it not sound like a steel guitar?’ That’s always a request. They want something different. They want a sound that has the fluidity of the steel guitar but doesn’t sound like Six Days on the Road.”

The post Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter recalls the time Dolly Parton asked for “fireworks” on a guitar solo: “She said, ‘Can you just make it, like, reds and greens and sparkles?’” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Mike Campbell may not be a fan of the Telecaster’s looks, but he’s got plenty of good things to say about playing one, calling it a guitar that “always works”.

In a recent chat with Guitar World, the former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist explains why the Fender classic has become one of his go-to guitars, particularly when he’s stuck trying to find the right part in the studio.

• READ MORE: Fender continues 75th anniversary celebrations for its Telecaster and Precision Bass – including a “meticulous tribute” to the Nocaster

“The Telecaster always works. It always seems to find a spot in the band that works, and it just sounds right,” says Campbell, who currently fronts his own band, The Dirty Knobs. “If I’m stuck in the studio, I can grab the Tele and I know it’s going to work – I’ll find something that’ll fit the track.”

He also likes the fact that the Tele is straightforward to play, comfortable to hold and tough enough to take a beating.

“They’re easy to play, and they’re not heavy. You pick it up, it sits on your lap and feels balanced. Then, when you stand up with it, it still feels balanced!” Campbell says.

“You can hit it hard, and it won’t go out of tune. And between the two pickups, it’s got a range of tones where you can get a really clear sound or you can get really nasty.”

It’s no surprise, then, that Campbell describes the Tele as a “workhorse”.

“It’ll do anything you want it to do,” he says.

His connection with the guitar also goes back to his earliest days as a player. Campbell’s first Telecaster was actually a Broadcaster, the name Fender used for the model before it was renamed the Telecaster.

“Actually, my first Telecaster was my Broadcaster, which is from a few years before they changed the name. That’s an irreplaceable guitar,” he says.

These days, Campbell has a couple more in his collection, including a ’59 and a ’56 fitted with a string bender. But his appreciation for the Telecaster wasn’t always quite so strong.

“Now I have a couple; I’ve got a ’59 and a ’56 that’s got a string bender on it. But to be honest, back in the day, I always thought Telecasters were kind of ugly,” he says.

“Strats had that great shape, and Les Pauls have those beautiful curves, but the Telecaster always looked like it was thrown together with leftover parts! [Laughs] Now, I think that’s kind of the beauty of it.”

The post Mike Campbell on why the Telecaster “always works” even though he once thought it looked “thrown together with leftover parts” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

“It’s having that confidence to be like, ‘I don’t care if this isn’t perfect’,” says Aziya with a shrug and a smile. The London-based artist and producer adjusts her large cat-eye sunglasses as she chats to Guitar.com among the buzz of cicadas in Athens, Greece. “If Gary from Surrey who’s 68 wants to say the intonation’s not right, I don’t care!”

Perfectionism doesn’t serve Aziya. Predominantly self-taught, her journey began to blossom as she shared covers and original songs from her bedroom on Instagram and TikTok across the early 2020s. She’s yet to release a debut record, but over a flurry of EPs – from 2021’s We Speak In Tides to 2023’s Lonely Castles, and a 2024 mixtape titled BAMBI – Aziya has set her stall out as a unique and interesting guitar artist borne of very contemporary circumstances.

Aziya on the Guitar.com Cover. Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com

Her artistry is not going unnoticed. Aziya can count Yungblud and Olivia Rodrigo as admirers (she played both the inaugural Bludfest and shared the bill for Rodrigo’s BST gig last year), landed a spot on Fender’s Next programme – whose alumni include everyone from Phoebe Bridgers and Sam Fender to Orville Peck and Omar Apollo – and signed a major label deal with Atlantic.

Now freshly independent and embarking on a new phase driven purely by an instinctive joy for music, Aziya’s craft as a player blends perfectly with her confessional lyrics of what it means to be flawed, complex and the self-sabotaging type.

“I borrowed my first electric from school, it was a Squier. I haven’t given it back yet”

Something Borrowed

Aziya got her first nylon-string acoustic at 10 years old – and while she knew the guitar would become her extra limb, she didn’t necessarily know she was on the path to becoming an artist.

“I didn’t know that what I was trying to do was be an artist. It’s always been something that’s a passion of mine and has evolved with me. When I got to 16, I knew that I wanted to discover who I was as an artist. That’s when I finally took it seriously,” she shares.

Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com

At the state school she attended in Hackney, music resources were limited and spread thinly to accommodate all children. Aziya was tasked with singing, but knew she was destined to play guitar too. Taking part in her first show at school, she got to sing Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir, which changed the trajectory of her future.

“That just relit this love I had of rock music, so I was like, I can’t not play the guitar, guys! I managed to borrow one from school, my first electric, it was a Squier. I haven’t given it back yet,” she admits, “but I will when I make it big…”

“I’ve gone back to why I first started doing this, and a lot of that reason is the guitar”

Locked In

Aziya attended the BRIT School of performing arts for the last two years of her education, following in the footsteps of Adele and Amy Winehouse. The prestige of the BRIT School means that you don’t get in without passing an audition. But as Aziya recalls, that’s pretty much the easiest part. It’s no machine churning out manufactured pop-stars, she assures us.

“You have the studios, you have the guitars, you have other great musicians, but it’s up to you to go and speak to those musicians, to use the studio, to hone your craft. There’s no one there saying to you, ‘This is what Adele did, so we’re all going to do this.’”

As it happens, Aziya’s moment to cut through happened in a very early 2020s kinda way. When the COVID-19 lockdown hit, she took advantage of her home set-up to begin sharing bedroom recordings on social media – a mix of original music and guitar-driven covers. One of them, which interpreted Grimes’ Oblivion with a wailing guitar solo and a punchy harmonic-laden riff, quickly racked up thousands of views and brought her to the attention of some big names.

Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com

Back in lockdown, Oscar- and Grammy-winning guitarist H.E.R. started a weekly livestream on Instagram called Girls With Guitars. The series welcomed artists as diverse as Willow, Lianne La Havas, Orianthi and Melissa Etheridge to talk about their shared love of the instrument. And one of those guests, being broadcast to the roughly 300,000 people watching, was Aziya.

“That was one of the solidifying moments for me of, ‘Honestly, it doesn’t matter that I’ve only been shredding for like a year,” she reflects. “Because people are acknowledging me and my work: great people.’”

“Every guitarist goes into it with the confidence to be like, ‘I’m going to be wrong and strong, and I don’t care’”

Strong Roots

Growing up on a wide catalogue of artists from My Chemical Romance to Patti Smith, as well as a palette of early punk, Aziya’s sound reflects all that she absorbed through osmosis in her youth; it’s a melting pot of pop, rock and romantic R&B. She also found courage in the examples set by women with guitars and founding Black female artists, including the Godmother of rock ‘n’ roll, Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

“It’s a shame that her flowers are only coming now. She definitely set the path for me,” she declares. “All my favourite guitarists, from Jimmy Page to Jimi Hendrix – even people that look like me, like Hendrix and Prince – they’re all men! I was like, where are the women? They’re there, but they’re hidden, from Sister Rosetta Tharpe to June Millington from this band called Fanny. There’s also Viv Albertine from The Slits. They are out there.”

Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com

Many of these women set the template that Aziya now continues to champion in her own craft: the brilliant defiance to be “wrong and strong”, to give things a go without worrying about being good enough. Playing an electric guitar is not brain surgery after all, it’s art.

Aziya points to something Albertine said about electric guitar in her memoir, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys. “She liked how obnoxiously loud it was and the fact that she didn’t know how to properly play, but she was being amplified. I think that’s how every guitarist goes into it, you go in with the confidence to be like, ‘I’m going to be wrong and strong, and I don’t care.’”

“I can’t ever lose my creative autonomy again”

Altar-d State

The days of an artist needing the heft of a major label and the resources of a massive studio to make their mark are long over, but Aziya embraces the bedroom aesthetic more than most. Her distinctive but distinctly DIY online backdrop has become a magnetic aspect of her art. It’s a wink to other budding artists that they can do this too. You could argue that for modern musicians, the bedroom is a creative altar – a place where they can grow as artists in safety and security, while still sharing their music with the world.

“Describing it as an altar is really interesting,” Aziya replies. “Because like an altar, like going to God and wrestling with things that are going on for you, it’s the same as when you’re in your bedroom [making music].

“There is sometimes the creative identity struggle of doing it from your bedroom, especially as a female producer. Sometimes it’s like, is this official enough? Will people take it seriously? But [there’s] a peace that comes through for me, the comfort of it being my space. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think there’s more female producers because of it as well.”

Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com

As for her setup, she’s “happily moved away from the Squier” these days, but still favours quality over quantity. Alongside her Novation Launchpad, you’ll mostly find her with a Fender Telecaster (affectionately named Dove by her fans), but she also uses a Mustang, a P-Bass, and one particularly special treasure she purchased on London’s iconic music retail district, Denmark Street.

“A guitar I always come back to is my 60s reissue Jag. It’s Japanese-made, and I use that a lot on quite a few of my songs. Wundagirl, that’s one where you can hear the Jag for sure,” she says. “I’ve also just got myself a [Neural DSP] Quad Cortex, it’s got every pedal you could desire and want. My usual setup with it is a lot of chorus, a lot of delay, reverb. And then occasionally my [Pro Co] RAT when I want to get a little heavier.”

“There is sometimes the creative identity struggle of doing it from your bedroom, but I wouldn’t have it any other way”

Self Sabotage

Guitar is woven through the DNA of Aziya’s songs. Even in tracks where it is less obvious, like He’s Mine, it’s there as a constant spine. Don’t expect that to change any time soon as she embarks on her new phase as an independent artist. Details are limited and her lips are sealed for now, but Aziya can confirm she is working on a new project, with the first taste being latest single Sabotage!.

“This one sets a precedent. A lot of the writing stems from reflection on being this saboteur type, but not to anyone else, just to myself. That’s what I wanted to do with this first song, lay that out and the direction of where we’re going in terms of what I’ve experienced this last year.

“This is probably the nicer, sweeter sounding of the songs. I love sitting in that world where it’s like rock meets hip-hop almost,” she reflects. “Sitting in that weird alternative space is something I love to explore. I think the deeper we will get into this project, the more stripped away things will get. There’s a lot of reference to Nirvana as well in there. There’s guitar in every song.”

Her forthcoming ‘Saboteur’ project is looking to be a significant mark in the sand for her independence. Being dropped by a major label is the sort of blow that would drive many artists to pack things in – especially so early on. But instead it lit a fire under her to create on her own terms. Whatever comes next, it will be wholly and truthfully Aziya.

Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com

“When I got dropped, the first thing I wrote down were the non-negotiables for me as a creative,” she explains. “The first was me saying I can’t ever lose my creative autonomy again or people-please, and I think that is sometimes an unfortunate byproduct of being an artist.”

Aziya has emerged through her early tumble through these weeds stronger and wiser. She’s got unapologetically big dreams, from scoring films to soundtracking fashion shows, not to mention a spot on Glastonbury’s famous Pyramid stage. She is wickedly smart and switched on, and there’s undeniably a quiet genius about the way she works.

Relaxing in her seat on her hotel balcony, there’s an assured energy about Aziya today. She’s certainly done her fair share of work to chase her dream, and this next era is all about attracting the success she’s duly earned.

“I feel the most ‘me’ whenever I’m playing guitar,” she smiles. “I’ve really gone back to my roots. Being independent now, the only voice that I’m listening to and that matters is my own, and the collaborators I’m in the room with. I’ve gone back to why I first started doing this, and a lot of that reason is the guitar.”

Aziya’s Sabotage! is out now

Words: Rachel Roberts
Photography: Danica Robinson
Location: The Shacklewell Arms

The post “I feel the most ‘me’ whenever I’m playing guitar”: Aziya on her rock journey and the beauty of being “wrong and strong” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Legendary musician, guitarist and songwriter Tom Morello has unveiled his latest full-length project, and first solo rock album, *Everyone Gets Everything They Want*, arriving September 25th via Mom + Pop Music. Further cementing his reputation for fusing high-octane rock with unwavering activism, the new collection confronts issues of fascism, immigrant rights, and global political turmoil. The record is anchored by Morello’s revolutionary fretwork, blending thunderous riffs, otherworldly solos, and an uncompromising lyrical vision. Production credits include Tyler Smyth, Carl Restivo, Zakk Cervini, Dan Carey, and Sam Nelson Harris.

Everyone Gets Everything They Want

The music spans a diverse array of styles and collaborators, reflecting decades of experience as a songwriter and performer. Serj Tankian, Kneecap and Beartooth all make appearances, and Morello’s fifteen year old guitar wiz son Roman, who has been startling audiences on tour with his dad the past three years, shares writing credits on five songs, contributing monster riffs and fiery solos.

Morello has released two songs so far from the album- the most recent being “Date Night”. The song tells the true story of three young Dutch girls who served as spies, saboteurs, and assassins against the Nazis during World War II. Sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen and their close friend Hannie Schaft used their youth and innocent appearances to slip through checkpoints, to smuggle weapons, to sabotage rail lines, and to help hunted Jewish children escape persecution. Most famously, they acted as underground assassins, seducing Nazi officers, luring them into the woods and killing them. Hannie was eventually captured, tortured, and killed by the Nazis, but she never snitched on her comrades.

Morello says, “I make anti-racist songs for anti-racists. I make anti-fascist songs for anti-fascists. And I make anti-Nazi songs for anti-Nazis. ‘Date Night’ is really a ‘which side are you on?’ song. If any of that offends you, do the math. Oh, and Roman Morello wrote the killer riff in this tune.”

Morello previously released the song “Adjourn It”. The track features Serj Tankian as well as Roman, and condemns the rising tide of racism and anti-immigrant bigotry. For the song’s video, clips from the film SALT OF THE EARTH (1954), are woven throughout the “Adjourn It” video to reflect the song’s theme of resistance in the face of prejudice and injustice.

Morello has a long history of organizing activism-oriented concerts, rallies, and events, and continues to be a leading voice for social justice causes and workers and immigrants rights issues across the country and around the world. In addition to his solo work with The Nightwatchman and his role in Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, Morello remains one of modern rock’s most influential guitarists, and outspoken activists.

Having just wrapped another run with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band on the “Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour”, as well as a blistering stop at this past weekend’s Newport Folk Festival, Morello will be performing at Louder Than Life in Louisville, KY on September 19th. In addition, Morello recently announced Power To The People Festival — a celebration of peace, justice, solidarity, music, and community action — taking place Saturday, October 3rd at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. The sold-out one-day festival curated by Morello, will feature special performances from an extraordinary lineup of artists and activists including Dave Matthews, Foo Fighters, Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Public Enemy, Killer Mike, Brittany Howard, Dropkick Murphys, Jack Black (featuring Roman Morello, Revel Ian, Yoyoka Soma and Hugo Weiss), Serj Tankian, grandson, The Neighborhood Kids, Taylor Momsen, Matt Cameron, The Linda Lindas, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, and a DJ set by artist Shepard Fairey.

TOM MORELLO TOUR DATES

9/18/26 - Cannery Hall - Nashville TN

9/19/26 - Louisville, KY - Louder Than Life 2026

9/20/26 - The Rave/Eagles Club - Milwaukee, WI

10/3/26 - Power to the People 2026 - Washington, DC

3/2/27 - The Esplanade - Medicine Hat, AB, Canada

3/3/27 - Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre - Camrose, AB, Canada

3/5/27 - Vic Juba Community Theatre - Lloydminster, AB, Canada

3/6/27 - Dow Centennial Centre Shell Theatre - Fort Saskatchewan AB, Canada

3/8/27 - E.A. Rawlinson Center For The Arts - Prince Albert, SK, Canada

When I was 15, I played my first “paying” gig. The event was a pool party at NAS Oceana in Virginia Beach, hosted by a classmate from school. We had a three-piece band, and we were paid $100. We had to rent a PA, which was $70. We equally divided up that last 30 bucks and smiled, as we could finally say we were getting a return on all the time and expense we put into our craft. Who am I kidding? At 15, $10 was like a pan of gold. I did feel a sense of real accomplishment, though, knowing I could make (some) money playing music.

I’ve been very lucky to have some great mentors. I was advised on many aspects of my musical journey, except for one thing: money. It seems that salaries and pay scales in the music world are akin to CIA secrets, known to only a privileged few. There is a delicate balance between the gig vs. the paycheck, and sadly, as musicians, I feel we routinely fall short in sticking up for ourselves.

Why is that? Why do we feel we can’t ask for what we need? We worry we’ll lose the gig, and we see a small fee as better than no fee at all. Then the cycle starts.

Before we start to break that cycle, let’s talk about reality vs. expectations. I understand there’s a wide range in pay and types of gigs, so let’s grab some basics. The local “bar” gig pay hasn’t changed in 50 years. One-hundred dollars per player has been some kind of standard for half a century, and bar owners are still hanging on to it. (Can we see this go up, please?) Some gigs, of course, pay more—and a lot pay less.

For these gigs (and any gigs), you must ask yourself what your goals are. Are you trying to make this a regular gig? Are you here for networking? Are you doing it for the love of the game? Once you figure these things out, you can set your personal goals and manage your expectations.

Now, the reality. Money in our business is difficult to gauge. We think we have a pretty good paycheck, then we hear of another band with less audience draw being paid more. The same happens on artist gigs. Every artist is different, but knowing the playing field is a great way to level it. Bar owners, managers, and promoters won’t just throw money at you because you have great hair. You have to ask for that raise, and have good data to back up that ask. And remember, you always have the option to leave if the situation doesn’t work for you.

“Management, venues, and artists are in business to make money. So are you.”

Let’s say you want to take the show on the road. What does that pay really look like? Again, this is that CIA-level anomaly with a wide variation of pay. Here in Nashville, expect different compensation levels when you tour, and decide what you’re comfortable accepting. A new artist can earn from $150-$300 a show, and a more established one can start at $300 and go up from there. Legacy acts can push to $600-$800 or more. It all depends on the number and size of the shows, as well as travel day pay, per diem, and hotel accommodations.

Something to remember is that you are not the artist. You’re a hired gun and paid to do your job. There will be financial disconnect, which for some is difficult—especially if the artist is making $2 million gross a night and the player $1,500 (these numbers are from a true story). Again, your name is not on the marquee, so manage your expectations and proceed.

Even though Nashville is the country music “hub,” a lot of people that tour in the rock world live here as well. Some have said they won’t go back to playing country music again, simply because of the general approach and difference in pay. Again, that all depends on the artist or act. I’ve heard of “legacy” rock acts paying below country new artist wages. Remember, the grass is always greener, but it’s just as hard to mow.

Management, venues, and artists are in business to make money. So are you. Remember that. I’m not trying to scare you away from being a musician; there are entities out there that will treat you fairly and pay you well. If you have a proven track record and real experience under your belt, you’re worth more than you think. You just have to remember that nobody loves you like you. Stand up for yourself.

Honest truth – I’m still not right. Trouble breathing. Trouble concentrating. Brain fog that makes playing feel like wading through something thick. Last week I told you about getting sick on the flight home from New York, and here we are a week later still fighting through it. But the guitar doesn’t really care about […]

The post Still Running On Fumes – But The Guitar Doesn’t Care appeared first on On The Beat with Totally Guitars.

S.I.T. Strings (Stay In Tune) has updated its flagship Power Wound Nickel Electric Guitar Strings with enhanced product protection, premium new packaging, and new Gold, Black, and Silver color-coded ball ends.

The company’s strings were first introduced in 1980, and the new redesign across the entire Power Wound family features a premium black carton, a sealed Vapor Corrosion Inhibitor (VCI) bag to help protect strings during storage and shipping.

Every set continues to be manufactured in Akron, Ohio, using premium American materials and S.I.T.'s proprietary Stay-In-Tune™ process, which reinforces the ball-end twist to help deliver the dependable tuning stability Power Wound is known for.

The Power Wound series features a hex-shaped, high-carbon steel core and precision-wound nickel-plated steel wrap wire, designed to deliver a bright, balanced tone with clear highs, tight lows, and smooth mids.

The updated Power Wound electric guitar line is available in a wide range of string gauges and custom sets, well-suited for almost any musical style including rock, metal, blues, jazz, and country.

Street pricing starts at $8.99 for 6-string sets. For more information visit https://sitstrings.com/product/power-wound-nickel-electric-guitar-strings/

If you’ve never played a Beetronics pedal, the company’s extroverted design ethos might seem like a style-before-substance exercise. Nothing could be further from the truth. For starters, Beetronics’ wares are genuinely substantial in terms of quality. The brand is also inventive—and more than a little irreverent at times—when it comes to sonics.

The Seabee Lite (the “lite” most likely refers to its relatively low weight rather than any reduced functionality) is an analog chorus/vibe and occasionally mutant flange-oid modulator. It might not be the company’s most radical offering, and in many respects, it's downright conventional and accessible. But it finds a unique way to walk that path, using an interesting basic chorus voice as a foundation—and in classic Beetronics fashion, offering many enticing ways to mangle it.

Arcade Acumen

While there are more complex modulators out there, the Seabee Lite is nevertheless not for minimalists or the faint of heart. None of the functions here are terribly esoteric. And the three knobs, three toggles, and two footswitches are, by some standards, positively streamlined. But their interactivity, which is a real creative asset here, can mean it’s easy to get a little lost at times.

The pedal’s preset capacity helps address the problem of a porous user memory, to some extent. There are eight factory presets and eight blank ones to make your own, which opens up all kinds of possibilities for texture shifts from song to song. (Presets can also be managed via MIDI.) But the preset functionality can be a minefield of its own if you tend to prioritize other facets of your performance. Because the Seabee Lite’s footswitches are the responsive soft-relay type, their placement makes it easy to accidentally move from live to preset mode. And if you then activate a preset, you’ll need to scroll through all of your presets to get back to live mode. Your results may differ based on your balletic capacity, concentration, and ease with dancing the preset two-step. Me? Well, I messed up a lot.

“Woblee and vibeee modes mixed together might inhabit pedal’s weirdest, most-seasick depths.”

The good news, of course, is that these complexities are the product of cool options. The Seabee Lite expands on a basic chorus’ usual rate-and-depth control set with a feedback control, which is typically seen on a flanger. It lends a given chorus setting a “vowellier,” more wobbly voice. But you can also alter the basic feel of the chorus by switching to flange or wobble mode. In the former, the sinewave that makes up the chorus is more angular and trapezoidal, and extra delay is added. The resulting tones don’t have the jet-phase intensity of a real flanger, but they can still be deeply strange, and some of the most authentically 1980s-style textures live in this hybrid mode. Wobblee utilizes an even greater delay time range—around 25ms—and features a drifting LFO that randomizes the wave peaks within that range, evoking a less-steady-on-your-feet sensation.

The flangee and wobblee voices also sound awesome with the vibee vibrato mode. Flangee can give the vibrato oscillations an almost tremolo-like pulse, which sounds extra cool in stereo. Woblee and vibee modes mixed together might conjure the pedal’s weirdest, most-seasick sounds. In both mode mixes there are lots of subtle shades to use, too.

Chorus Lane

Perhaps because the Seabee Lite’s basic voice has to accommodate so many accents and inflections, that voice is a little more open than some standard-bearing analog choruses. It’s not as syrupy, chewy, or deep as a Blue Hippo or CE-2, but there’s a lot of upside to that. Again, the airier voice allows more room for detail in the pedal’s more intense modulations. But those older analog choruses can be thick and watery to the point of dark, which doesn’t work for every guitar or amplifier voice. If the Seabee Lite’s voice is comparatively thin and toppy, it sure makes a good fit for a burly PAF’s output. And with the high-pass, bandpass, and flat frequency response toggle settings, you can tailor these sounds in even more specific ways.

The Verdict
How you relate to the Seabee Lite’s video-game riot of color and sound will probably depend on how much need for weird there is in your expression. But the Seabee Lite isn’t all bizarro indulgences. The fundamental analog voice is solid and versatile, even if some might find it lacking a touch of body. And while some features can seem clumsy and cluttered, the pedal also inhabits a real sweet spot between a modulator that creates decision fatigue and a 2-knob vintage-style unit. It’s a place you can live creatively without getting too bogged down, and that might be the Seabee Lite’s real magic.

CFG (Cable Free Guitar) has introduced SonikSphere NEO, its second-generation 5.8 GHz wireless system for guitar and bass. It adds important advances, such as under 2.5 ms latency, more than 10 hours of battery life, a -10 dB PAD for hot-output instruments, six color-coded channels, and visual battery bars.

The Gen-2 system operates at 5.8 GHz and is built for players who want to stay out of the heavily used 2.4 GHz space shared by Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other everyday devices, NEO keeps the clean 24-bit/48 kHz digital audio approach of the original SonikSphere and updates the parts players deal with in real use: response time, battery headroom, hot-signal control, and stage visibility.

SonikSphere NEO delivers under 2.5 ms latency and more than 10 hours of continuous use per charge. Six color-coded channel banks make channel selection easy to see, while a built-in -10 dB PAD gives active, piezo, and other high-output instruments additional input headroom when their signal is hot enough to cause digital clipping.

The system operates in the 5.8 GHz ISM band and uses frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS). Its specified frequency response is 10 Hz to 22 kHz, with a 110 dB signal-to-noise ratio and up to 100 ft / 30 m of clear line-of-sight range. Up to six NEO pairs can be used at the same time, with each pair assigned to a different color-coded channel.

Both the transmitter and receiver include a visual battery bar and PAD indicator. The transmitter is black and the receiver is silver for faster identification on stage. A 270-degree swivel plug helps the units sit cleanly against a wide range of instrument and amp jack positions. The system is designed for standard 1/4-inch mono instrument-level connections, with the receiver feeding an amp, pedalboard, modeler, or audio interface instrument input.

Key Technical Highlights:

• 5.8 GHz ISM wireless with FHSS
• 24-bit / 48 kHz digital audio, 10 Hz to 22 kHz frequency responseUnder 2.5 ms latency and more than 10 hours of continuous battery life
• Built-in -10 dB PAD for active, piezo, and other high-output instruments
• 6 color-coded channels, up to 6 NEO pairs at the same time
• Visual battery bars for monitoring power

Each SonikSphere NEO system includes one transmitter, one receiver, a USB-A to dual USB-C charging cable, and an owner’s manual. SonikSphere NEO includes CFG’s 2-year warranty. Street price in August 2026 is an introductory price of $139.99, compared with the regular $170 price. For more information visit https://www.cablefreeguitar.com/products/soniksphere-neo.

PRS Guitars today announced the Astryx Limited Edition, a Custom 24 turned signature model for Dany Villarreal, guitarist and lead vocalist in The Warning. The Astryx Limited Edition is her twist on a Custom 24, with a custom color fade, custom fretboard inlay (featuring paua, gold, and mother of pearl), her signature on the truss rod cover, and every guitar comes with an autographed backplate. The model will be limited to just 200 guitars in 2026. This is Villarreal’s first ever signature model.

“One of the most important things for me in a guitar is that it feels like an extension of my body and that I can trust it and just do my thing. Ever since I tried my first PRS guitar, it’s been an inseparable relationship. With PRS, I feel powerful and confident — and that’s a feeling that once you find, you don’t want to let go of,” said Dany Villarreal.

This guitar is an ode to Villarreal’s rise as a player and her journey toward finding her identity. The model name, Astryx, stems from the root word for “star,” alluding to divine guidance and a connection to something greater than ourselves. Visually, the guitar is personalized with a unique inlay featuring a sun on the twelfth fret, along with a striking new finish. Continuing the celestial theme while honoring her Mexican heritage, the inlay name – Solecito – translates to “little sun.” The finish, a beautiful fade of purple, pink, orange, and yellow, is named Ocaso, fittingly meaning “sunset.”

The core specifications stay true to the Custom 24: maple top, mahogany back, 24-fret, 25” scale length Pattern Thin neck, PRS Patented Gen III Tremolo, and a pair of DMO humbuckers with one notable difference being the ebony fretboard.

“It has such a beautiful sustain, which I really like,” continued Villarreal. “The neck also feels so comfortable, and it’s not that heavy. As the only guitar player in the band, I love how my PRS takes up a lot of space sonically. It does wonders for our three-piece band.”

The announcement aligns with The Warning’s new album “Everything’s Falling” out on August 28, and global headlining tour.

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



Bluegrass guitar hero Bryan Sutton joins us this week to talk about his brand-new album, From Roots to Branches, Vol. 1( Mountain Home Music Company).

The album features Sutton in duos with a bevy of friends, including Tommy Emmanuel, Billy Strings, Joe Bonamassa, Sierra Hull, the late Doc Watson, and others. As you’ll hear, the performances range from straight bluegrass to a rather rocking song with Billy Strings.

We also talk about his Blue Ridge Guitar Camp, session work, the joys of downsizing your guitar collection, and the secret studio weapon known as the Epiphone Seville (who knew?). We even brainstorm on a rather hilarious Fretboard Summit golf tournament.

https://www.bryansutton.com
https://www.blueridgeguitarcamp.com

We are brought to you by Peghead Nation: https://www.pegheadnation.com
(Get your first month free or $20 off any annual subscription with the promo code FRETBOARD at checkout).

Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar: https://mmguitarbar.com

Above photo: Ali Hasbach

 

The post Podcast 560: Bryan Sutton first appeared on Fretboard Journal.



Jamie Gale is one of the most influential and forward-thinking voices in the guitar world. He is the founder of the Boutique Guitar Showcase, but his perspective goes far beyond guitars. His work has taken him into areas like artificial intelligence and robotics.

For episode 117, we talk about the changing cycles of the guitar industry, the rise of the Boutique Guitar Showcase, and some hard-earned lessons in business. Most importantly, Jamie shares his thoughts on what it takes for an independent guitar maker to build a distinctive identity.

Link: https://www.jamiegale.net

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: Jamie Gale first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

PRS Guitars and Guitar Center today announced that the national retailer is inducting Paul Reed Smith into the Hollywood Rockwalk, the handprint-and-signature tribute outside Guitar Center’s flagship Hollywood store on Sunset Boulevard. This pedestrian path and industry-recognized music landmark is dedicated to honoring the musicians and industry pioneers who have made significant and lasting contributions to the growth and evolution of music, through an exceptional level of talent, outstanding innovation and creative ingenuity.

John Mayer will give the induction speech to honor Smith. The handprint ceremony will take place September 26th at the Dell West Plaza Rockwalk Stage at the Moody Center during the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Austin, Texas. The completed handprint will later be installed at Rockwalk outside Guitar Center’s flagship Hollywood store.

“The first time I saw a Rockwalk induction, Ted McCarty was getting inducted and Eddie Van Halen was one of the people in attendance to witness it. I was very pleased for Ted. That I’ll be in the middle of another induction is an honor and leaves me without words. I look forward to seeing everyone,” said Paul Reed Smith, Managing General Partner of PRS Guitars.

“There are very few people in the history of the electric guitar who have pushed the design and perfection of the instrument forward more than Paul,” said Gabe Dalporto, CEO of Guitar Center. “He has inspired generations of musicians and instrument makers and is a living legend in our industry.”

Since its founding in 1985, Rockwalk has celebrated some of the most recognized names in rock, blues, soul and popular music through signature and handprint ceremonies outside the Guitar Center Hollywood. More than 150 artists and innovators have been inducted, including gear pioneers Jim Marshall, Robert Moog and Les Paul, as well as music icons including Eric Clapton, John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Aerosmith, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Alanis Morissette, Black Sabbath, The Ramones, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. Located at the entrance of Guitar Center’s flagship Hollywood store on Sunset Boulevard, Rockwalk is a permanent public destination where fans and musicians connect with music history year-round.

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

Reader: Verne Andru

Hometown: Vancouver, British Columbia

Guitar: Mini Jaguar tuned in 5ths

I fell down the alt-tuning rabbit-hole by moving from guitar to mandolin, before landing on extended-range tenor guitar. I wanted a nice electric for that purpose, so I approached the Fender Custom Shop through my dealer for a 5-string Jaguar tenor but was told they couldn't do it. I let the idea slide. But then Fender released their Squier Mini Jazzmaster with a 22.75" scale. I realized it would be the perfect platform for tenor tuning—in 5ths—but across six strings. Making it more Jaguar-like would be up to me and Vancouver luthier Paul Iverson.

I found a used Mini Jazzmaster at Guitar Center, but the action was terrible and the fret ends needed attention. I pulled the neck to level the frets and was puzzled by the fret wire. It didn’t feel like the soft nickel I’m used to finding on inexpensive guitars, and it wasn’t stainless, either—but it still fought me. After leveling, I recrowned the frets, dressed the sharp ends, and polished them with 800- and 1,500-grit sandpaper. I’ve never gotten a fret job right on the first pass, but I can usually get it where I want over time as I get used to the feel of the instrument

While the bridge is nothing fancy, it was high quality and the saddles allow a wide range of adjustments. The bigger surprise was the pickups, which sounded great. Even so, I thought GFS’ lipstick humbuckers would be a better fit, and I love the simplicity of lipstick designs in general. With the style of a 1964 Jaguar in mind, I used a tortoise pickguard, but also painted a matching headstock, over which I laid a Jaguar decal. Cutting the pickguard for the Jaguar control plates took some time, but with the cuts made and the Jaguar plates in hand, I got to work on the switching.

I learned electronics from Gar Gillies of Garnet amp fame, so I was comfortable trying a few things. Each pickup’s coils can now run in series, in parallel, or as a single-coil, and a push/push volume knob puts the two pickups in series or parallel with each other. There’s also a zero-load switch that bypasses the volume and tone controls, a blend knob for the two pickups, and a phase switch where a Jaguar’s “bass strangle” switch would go.

The project came out well, and the guitar has become a reliable daily player. I added Wilkinson tuners with a 19:1 ratio for finer tuning. Their long posts have two string holes, and I use the upper one on the Bb so the string doesn’t kink over the nut and throw off the intonation. The lipstick humbuckers sound great, and the guitar is light and easy to play. Tuned in fifths—Bb–F–C–G–D–A—it covers an enormous range. The low string sits a semitone below the low B on a 7-string, and the top string climbs into mandolin territory. Best of all, the switching options give me that many more ways to work with that range. It’s a small guitar, but it does a lot.