General Interest

Wampler Pedals proudly announces the release of the MINI EGO 76, a studio-grade compressor pedal that channels the unmistakable spirit and tone of the legendary 1176 Peak Limiter. Designed by renowned pedal designer Brian Wampler, the MINI EGO 76 brings decades of recording studio magic to your pedalboard—without sacrificing dynamics, space, or signal integrity.

While many compressor pedals are known for flattening tone, the MINI EGO 76 takes a different path: it enhances, enriches, and elevates. Inspired by the iconic 1176—arguably the most celebrated compressor in studio history—this compact powerhouse captures the musical soul of vintage FET compression while offering modern controls designed specifically for guitarists.

A Studio Icon, Reimagined for the Stage

First introduced in 1967, the 1176 Peak Limiter was the first solid-state compressor of its kind, famed for its aggressive character and FET-driven sonic signature. The MINI EGO 76 borrows that DNA and reshapes it for a live performance context, giving players access to that same harmonic richness and dynamic control, all in a pedalboard-friendly format.

“At its core, the MINI EGO 76 is about tone,” says Brian Wampler. “It’s not just about compression—it's about adding character, feel, and response that you typically only get from the best studio gear. We set out to recreate the experience of using an 1176, not just the circuitry.”

Classic Tone Meets Modern Control

The MINI EGO 76 features three essential knobs—Level, Compress, and Parallel Clean Blend—allowing for precise tonal shaping. Two three-way switches provide selectable Attack and Release settings, based on classic studio configurations. The result is a pedal that gives players fast, intuitive control over how the compression reacts, from subtle sustain to punchy, expressive snap.

A standout feature is the Parallel Clean Blend, enabling players to mix in their uncompressed signal—an approach borrowed from high-end studio production techniques. This lets guitarists preserve articulation and dynamics, even while achieving that signature “glue” of compression.

Built for the Pedalboard, Inspired by the Control Room

Encased in a premium chameleon sapphire finish with aluminum knobs and rugged hardware, the MINI EGO 76 is compact enough to live comfortably on any pedalboard. Designed to be an “always-on” pedal, it delivers studio-level enhancement without adding bulk or complexity.

Key Features:

• High-grade components for superior tone and response
• Parallel Clean Blend for studio-style parallel compression
• Five controls: Level, Blend, Compress, plus Attack and Release switches
• Premium aluminum construction and finish
• Compact footprint: 1.6” x 3.9” x 2”
• 9V DC operation, 20mA draw
• Built in the U.S.A. with a limited 5-year warranty

More Than a Compressor—A Sonic Signature

Far from a simple emulation, the MINI EGO 76 is Brian Wampler’s tribute to the timeless sound of analog studio recordings. Whether it’s sweetening a clean rhythm track or adding punch to a lead line, the MINI EGO 76 becomes an extension of your tone—one you may never want to turn off.

The MINI EGO 76 is available now at wamplerpedals.com and authorized dealers worldwide.

Dragons! Wizards! Pedals? While a 20-sided dice is often reserved for fantastical roleplaying adventures, YouTuber Pedal Playhouse, AKA Joan Braga, has injected some D&D magic into pedalboard curation.

Braga’s brand new YouTube series, Pedal Quest, sees her and two guests, Science of Loud’s Colin Scott and 60 Cycle Hum’s Ryan Burke, embarking on a Dungeons & Dragons-inspired journey. The mission is to create the ‘perfect’ collaborative pedalboard, and the rules are simple: with each roll of your D20, you must add a pedal to the board.

• READ MORE: The guitar influences of Kurt Cobain

The D20 number reflects a certain category, with Braga splitting pedals into Distortion, Fuzz & Overdrive, Modulation Effects, and left-field ‘Wild Magic’ pedal categories… with one such option being the Miku Stomp by Korg.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Dungeons & Dragons without a few consequences and acts of trickery. For example, if you roll a one, and you’re doomed to add the infamous Boss Metal Zone MT-2 to your board. There is also a Deception round, which allows a chance for members of the party to swap out any pedals they’re unhappy with, or just adjust the general circuit set-up.

Plenty of pedals are in the mix, too. Braga’s selection spans from Mad Professor, to Universal Audio, to MXR, and more.

While it’s a fun way to mix up your pedal building process, it also looks like a great way to just have a laugh with your pals. It’s good to push yourself now and then – even if it means trying to miraculously make a ridiculous set-up work. “So we’ve got two reverbs, a delay, and a fuzz now… we’re done!!!” Burke jokes midway through the video.

At the end, every member of the party performs with the pedalboard setup. That’s when the creativity really comes into play, as Braga and the group try to conjure up what kind of D&D character the guitar tone might represent. Perhaps it’s a fried, chaotic evil burst of distortion because you rolled a one and have to use a Metal Zone. Or maybe it’s an otherworldly, god-like tone drowning in tremolo and reverb?

Regardless, Pedal Playhouse has cooked up a fun new approach to pedalboard building. It’s exactly what we’d expect from Braga, with the YouTuber emphasising the importance of ‘play’ wherever possible. “[In my videos], we’re looking at a pedal, but really it’s approaching things with the curiosity of a child again,” she told us back in 2022.

“The idea that, despite whatever else is going on in the world, there’s this thing with a sense of wonder and whimsy, and that anything is possible,” she smiled.

Check out the Pedal Playhouse YouTube channel.

The post “We’re going on a pedal quest!”: This YouTuber has created a Dungeons & Dragons inspired pedalboard game – and we wanna play… appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Back in August, it was revealed that Eddie Van Halen’s modded 1982 Kramer guitar – also used by Mick Mars to record Dr. Feelgood – was headed to the auction block.

Hosted by Sotheby’s, the guitar was expected to fetch between $2 million and $3 million. It seems researchers had done their homework, as the guitar sold for a cool $2,734,000 on Friday (24 October).

The guitar – often dubbed the ‘Kramer Ad’ guitar after an ad in the early ‘80s featured EVH holding it alongside the caption “It’s very simply the best guitar you can buy today” – was one of the first Kramer guitars Van Halen played and helped build.

Credit: Sotheby’s

The Kramer Ad guitar was modelled on Van Halen’s legendary Frankenstein six-string, bearing the same classic red-black-and-white striped aesthetic.

According to Sotheby’s, Eddie Van Halen built the guitar “to his own specifications” at the Kramer factory in 1982, “using the original Frankenstein guitar as a template”. Photos provided by Sotheby’s show EVH working on the guitar with an electric drill.

• READ MORE: Wolfgang Van Halen: “I’d rather fail at my own thing than succeed on my dad’s legacy”
  

“Van Halen was endlessly striving to create the ultimate guitar for tone, playability and dependability; this Kramer guitar personifies not only Eddie Van Halen innovative playing style but also his passion for design and engineering and was the culmination of Van Halen’s experience and research up to this time,” the auctioneer wrote on the listing.

The guitar was played on tour by Eddie in ‘82 and ‘83, in Philadelphia, Caracas, Sao Paolo and Buenos Aires. It was eventually sold by his guitar tech Rudy Leiren to Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars, who used it to record Dr. Feelgood among other cuts.

At a final sale price of $2,734,000, it’s hard to imagine many guitars commanding a higher price tag, but there have been a few…

• 5. John Lennon’s Framus Hootenanny 12-string ($2,857,000) – Famously used on the Beatles fifth album Help! (1965), the Hootenanny was thought lost for many years, until discovered in the attic of a British countryside house by its new owners in 2024.The guitar was also used by Lennon to record It’s Only Love, I’ve Just Seen a Face and Girl, and by George Harrison on Norwegian Wood.
• 4.  Eddie Van Halen’s Hot For Teacher Kramer ($3,932,000) – Guitar used by Eddie Van Halen in Van Halen’s classic Hot For Teacher video.
• 3. David Gilmour’s Black Fender Stratocaster ($3,975,000) – The Pink Floyd man’s most iconic guitar, his 1968 Black Fender Stratocaster was originally bought from Manny’s Music in New York, and was heavily modded over the years. Throughout the ‘70s Gilmour swapped between two ‘50s necks – one rosewood and one maple. It’s now part of the Jim Irsay Collection after selling for almost $4 million.
• 2. Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit Fender Mustang ($4,550,000) – Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit remains – and will always be – one of the landmark rock tracks of all time. And so the guitar used by frontman Kurt Cobain in its accompanying music video, predictably, commanded an astronomically high sale price. Like Gilmour’s Black Strat, it found its way into the Jim Irsay Collection after selling for over four and half million bucks.
• 1. Kurt Cobain’s Martin D-18E ($6,010,000) – Yep, Kurt Cobain’s selfish enough to steal both first and second place in the list of most expensive guitars ever sold publicly. Topping out the list is his Martin D-18E, which he used during Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance in 1993. The guitar was left to Cobain’s daughter Francis Bean, and ended up with her ex-husband Isaiah Silva as part of their divorce settlement. It was bought by RØDE Microphones founder, Peter Freedman in 2020 for just over $6 million – a figure which hasn’t been beaten since.

You can read more about Eddie Van Halen’s Kramer Ad guitar at Sotheby’s. You can also read more about the 15 most expensive guitars ever sold at auction.

The post Eddie Van Halen’s Kramer Ad guitar becomes the sixth most expensive ever sold at nearly $3 million – here are the five that sold for even more appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

There’s something beautifully paradoxical about Luther Dickinson’s new album, Dead Blues Vol. 1. It’s a collection of blues standards that were performed by the Grateful Dead throughout their career, yet it sounds like neither traditional blues nor Dead-style interpretations. Instead, it exists in some liminal space between the Mississippi Delta and the cosmos—a place where Blind Lemon Jefferson meets synthesizers and omnichords, and Willie Dixon’s words floats over funk grooves and ambient soundscapes.

“I would never claim to be a bluesman,” Dickinson says during a phone interview from the road, somewhere between Asheville and Nashville. For someone whose band, North Mississippi Allstars, has earned multiple Grammy nominations exploring roots music, it’s a surprising admission. “I’m more of a psychedelic folk rocker, you know? That’s what I claim, if anything.”

This perspective—reverent toward tradition but unbound by its conventions—defines Dead Blues Vol. 1. The album reimagines nine blues songs from the Dead’s repertoire, featuring the remarkable vocals of Datrian Johnson alongside contributions from Phil Lesh’s son Grahame Lesh, the Hold Steady’s Steve Selvidge, Dickinson’s brother and Allstars band mate Cody, and pedal-steel wizard Ray Ray Holloman.

The genesis of the record stemmed from two separate ideas colliding in Dickinson’s mind. In 2013, Phil Lesh invited Dickinson and his brother Cody to join Phil & Friends, the legendary Grateful Dead bassist’s rotating collective of musicians. As Dickinson studied up on the Dead catalog for rehearsals and performances, he and Grahame Lesh began performing casual Dead Blues shows focusing specifically on the blues songs in that band’s repertoire. “Grahame and I started doing the Dead Blues to do looser, easier shows outside of the Dead musician pool,” Dickinson explains. “We’d bring in musicians like the Black Keys, Alabama Shakes, Charlie Musselwhite—artists outside of Phil’s scene—to play with us. That was really fun.”

Around the same time, New West Records approached him about doing a Grateful Dead tribute. “I was like, man, I don’t know,” he admits. “My only in was like, ‘Well, I could do a Dead Blues thing.’ But that was years ago, and I didn’t really consider it. It wasn’t at the top of my to-do list, you know?”

The project might have stayed dormant had the pandemic not shifted Dickinson’s creative direction. When touring stopped in 2020, he found himself working on an instrumental record—and not only that, but one “where I didn’t play guitar,” he explains. Instead, he wrote the material on bass and keyboards during the lockdown, creating spacious, experimental soundscapes with no connection to the blues standards—"Who Do You Love,” “I’m a King Bee,” “Little Red Rooster”—they would eventually be paired with.

Then came the revelation. “I woke up one morning and I was like, ‘Datrian could sing the Dead Blues lyrics on top of this instrumental record!’ And sure enough, it just happened so easily. It was so fun that, within three sessions, we had the record done. And after the fact, I went in and overdubbed guitar on it as the last flavor.”

Which Dickinson actually does frequently. “Usually if I’m overdubbing guitars, I’ll do it at the last minute,” he says. The guitar work he added referenced the original blues melodies even when Johnson’s vocals didn’t directly follow them. “Even if Datrian isn’t singing it, the guitar work I added is more referential, a nod to the original melodies. My stance is the melody and the poetry is to be protected. All the trappings of production, the beats, the fashion of an interpretation—that’s malleable. But the melody and the poetry is what’s interesting to protect.”

Datrian Johnson proved to be the crucial element that transformed the project. Keyboardist John Medeski had introduced Dickinson to the Asheville-based vocalist a couple of years ago during work with The Word, Dickinson’s band with Medeski and Robert Randolph. The chemistry was immediate. “He’s one of the most moving vocalists I’ve ever worked with onstage,” Dickinson says. “I’ve worked with Mavis Staples, John Hiatt, Patty Griffin, Robert Plant, Chris Robinson—some of the best vocalists in rock ’n’ roll. But Datrian has this thing. People are like, ‘What the…?’”

Indeed, his delivery on tracks like “Little Red Rooster” and “High Heeled Sneakers” demonstrates an interpretive depth that honors the source material while completely reimagining it. “He’s such a humble, unassuming guy,” Dickinson continues of Johnson. “And then he starts singing … I just remember people’s reactions. I’ve never seen anyone make an audience gasp before.”

The album’s unconventional approach—featuring melodica, Wurlitzer, DX7 synthesizer, omnichord, and what Steve Selvidge calls “space-funk guitar”—reflects Dickinson’s philosophy about roots music. These blues standards may be traditional, some stretching back nearly a century, but Dickinson gives them a somewhat futuristic-sounding treatment. Which, to his mind, puts him in the same forward-thinking tradition as the bluesmen themselves. “Musicians that try to be old-timey—I’m not into it,” he says. “If you think about it, Charley Patton was revolutionary. He was forward-thinking. Howlin’ Wolf was forward-thinking. Little Walter, Robert Johnson … none of these guys were trying to be old-fashioned. Every great musician—Charlie Christian, Jimi Hendrix—they were all forward-thinking.”

“Every great musician—Charlie Christian, Jimi Hendrix—they were all forward-thinking. No one was trying to be old fashioned.”

That same spirit could be found in the Grateful Dead, though Dickinson’s relationship with the band came relatively late. “I didn’t grow up with it. I stayed away from it,” he says. That changed in 2013, with Phil Lesh’s invite. “We jumped at the opportunity and studied up on the catalog,” Dickinson recalls. The education deepened over years of performances, particularly at Lesh’s venue Terrapin Crossroads. “Most of our work was on the West Coast, but then when Phil took me to New York and I saw the East Coast Deadheads, I was like, ‘Holy shit.’ They were singing along to every word. It’s not just the parking lot and the dancing and the jamming. It’s the songs.”

That realization also deepened Dickinson’s appreciation for Robert Hunter’s lyrics, which he calls, “pure, classic Americana, on a par with Dylan, I think,” he says. “That generation, Garcia as well, they weren’t hippies, they were beatniks. They were older than the hippies. They grew up reading Jack Kerouac and listening to the radio. They remember before rock ’n’ roll. That generation of writers that grew up like Dylan and Hunter and my dad—they grew up listening to the radio before TV, and they had a way with words that will never come again.”

Dickinson dedicated Dead Blues Vol. 1 to Lesh, who passed away in October 2024. “Phil changed my life,” Dickinson says. “He welcomed me into his crew, taught me his repertoire, shared his improvisational approaches, and introduced me to a whole new community of musicians. This record reflects Phil’s wild musical spirit and approach to reinterpretation.”

“When Phil [Lesh] took me to New York and I saw the East Coast Deadheads … they were singing along to every word. It’s not just the parking lot and the dancing and the jamming. It’s the songs.”

That wildness manifests in bold instrumental choices and fearless reimagining. The omnichord, played by Paul Taylor, adds an otherworldly shimmer. Ray Ray Holloman’s pedal-steel work provides both traditional country blues flavor and sci-fi textures. Steve Selvidge’s “space-funk guitar” creates grooves that feel simultaneously vintage and futuristic. Selvidge has been in Dickinson’s orbit since childhood—their fathers played in a band together. “Steve is so multifaceted,” Dickinson says. “He can play country blues like his dad, he can play rock ’n’ roll—he’s my favorite rock ’n’ roll player of my peers. With the Hold Steady he’s straight rocket. But space funk, that’s the style he’s playing on this record.”

For his part, Dickinson discovered that synthesizers could intertwine with slide guitar in ways that feel both ancient and futuristic, which can be heard throughout the album, particularly on tracks like “Little Red Rooster” and “High Heeled Sneakers.” “I realized a synth can be as expressive as a slide guitar,” he says. “And I’ve never experimented with slide guitar and synths together before, which was really fun. I was like, ‘These sound cool.’”

Perhaps the track that best exemplifies the album’s aesthetic is “Who Do You Love,”—a Bo Diddley classic transformed by layers of funk guitar and bass, DX7 synthesizer, cajon, and omnichord into something that sounds like it could soundtrack a midnight drive through Mississippi on Mars. Yet Dickinson’s guitar work, added last, references the original melody, grounding the experimentalism in tradition. “That one worked really nicely,” Dickinson says, especially when we realized we could put the hook over that melody. And then Datrian made it so smooth.”

“I realized a synth can be as expressive as a slide guitar.”

For Dickinson, Dead Blues represents the next step in a significant shift in his approach to guitar. “During 2020, I sold most of my Gibsons,” he reveals. “I grew up playing Les Pauls and 335s, and I just got burned on that very sound I used to strive for—the neck pickup, midrange feedback, sustain, fat, oozy tone. It started hurting my ears. I think it was just too much of a good thing.”

Dickinson says there were “a lot of things” that led to him changing up his sound, but working with Phil Lesh was an important factor. “Playing with Phil, I was finally able to become comfortable playing clean as opposed to relying on distortion or fuzz. It really changed my life. My whole time I’ve been trying to make an electric guitar respond like an acoustic guitar. And what really turned me on was that Steve Selvidge gave me a guitar, a partscaster, with Lollar Regal pickups—Fender-style wide-range humbuckers. Man, those pickups are so cool because they’re a quiet humbucker, but they don’t sound like a PAF or whatever. They’re beefier than a Strat, kind of like a civilized gold-foil. Those pickups just changed my life. And then my friends and I started making guitars called Vibratone. Those two guitars are a lot of what you hear on the album.”

Even as Dickinson releases Dead Blues Vol. 1, he’s characteristically busy with multiple projects. North Mississippi Allstars are continuing to tour behind their recent album, Still Shaking, and also preparing for a new studio effort. Additionally, Dickinson reports he’s working on what he calls an “ambient blues” project—“like a folk film score. Instrumental modern acoustic country blues with organic drones.”

In this regard, Dead Blues Vol. 1 is of a piece with Dickinson’s restlessly exploratory approach—whether it’s ambient blues or Dead Blues, he’s always pushing boundaries while staying rooted in tradition. It’s about honoring and celebrating the past more than it is about attempting to preserve it. “American roots music as a whole is worthy of being protected,” Dickinson says. “When old-timers teach you the repertoire, you owe it to them to keep that repertoire alive. But if you can’t evolve and adapt, you won’t survive.”

Luther Dickinson’s Gear

Guitars

Partscaster with Lollar Regal wide-range humbuckers

Vibratone prototype

1970s Yamaha acoustic

Gretsch parlor acoustic

Amps

Category 5 signature LD50

Category 5 signature LD30

Strings & Picks

DR Strings (.009–.042)

Fender thin picks

Bonus Day Alert! Today’s #Stompboxtober giveaway throws two pedals into the mix: the Nobels CHO‑mini and the Nobels DEL‑mini. Whether you’re craving lush stereo chorus or vintage/modern delay textures, this combo has your modulation and echo needs covered.

Stompboxtober 2025 - Win Pedals All Month Long!

The new Nobels DEL-mini digital delay pedal combines an outstanding sound selection of legendary echoes, practical and simple switching and application options in a space-saving housing. Plus that little Nobels extra in the form of fold-out Mounty-P mounting plates or “Glow in the Dark” pointer knobs. Everything at an extremely attractive price! We hope you enjoy using this pedal!

The pocket-sized and featured packed Nobels CHO-mini delivers an outstanding selection of chorus tones at a budget-friendly price. With a heritage of building chorus units, Nobels has engineered this new pedal to offer maximum versatility, in a super compact package. Providing a selection of 3 curated timeless chorus effects, the CHO-mini delivers a wealth of sonic possibilities in either mono or spacious stereo image. The realized tones are far beyond the pedal’s modest footprint and is an excellent addition to any pedal board.

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.rbm-pick { display: grid; grid-template-columns: 160px 1fr; gap: 16px; align-items: center; border: 1px solid #e6e6e6; border-radius: 12px; padding: 16px; } /* Media box — no cropping, no edge kiss */ .rbm-pick-media { height: 180px; /* fixed height for consistency */ padding: 8px; /* breathing room to avoid flat-cut edges */ box-sizing: border-box; /* keep total height = 180px */ border-radius: 10px; background: #fff; overflow: hidden; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; } .rbm-pick-media img { max-width: 100%; max-height: 100%; width: auto; /* preserve aspect */ height: auto; object-fit: contain; /* never crop */ object-position: center; display: block; } .rbm-badge { display: inline-block; font: 600 12px/1.2 system-ui; padding: 4px 8px; border-radius: 999px; background: #111; color: #fff; margin-bottom: 8px; } .rbm-title { font: 700 18px/1.3 system-ui; margin: 4px 0 8px; } .rbm-blurb { font: 400 14px/1.5 system-ui; color: #333; margin-bottom: 12px; } .rbm-pick-buttons { display: flex; gap: 8px; flex-wrap: wrap; } .rbm-pick .rbm-btn { display: inline-flex; gap: 6px; align-items: center; border: 2px solid #b50000; /* Premier Guitar red */ border-radius: 999px; padding: 10px 16px; text-decoration: none; font: 600 14px/1.2 system-ui; color: #b50000; background: #fff; box-shadow: 0 2px 5px rgba(0,0,0,0.12); transition: background .2s, color .2s, transform .15s; } .rbm-pick .rbm-btn:hover { background: #b50000; color: #fff; transform: translateY(-1px); } .rbm-pick .rbm-btn .price { opacity: 1; font-weight: 600; } /* Responsive tweaks */ @media (max-width: 540px) { .rbm-pick { grid-template-columns: 1fr; } .rbm-pick-media { height: 160px; padding: 6px; } } @media (min-width: 900px) { .rbm-pick-media { height: 200px; } }

Keen to distort your tone but can’t afford any fancy pedals? Well, if you’ve got an amp and something sharp, you’re in luck; according to The Kinks’ Dave Davies, killer raspy tones can be achieved in a flash with just the slash of a scalpel.

In a new interview with BBC Radio 4, the guitarist provides fans with a handy tutorial on how to recreate his distinctive tone. When the host, The Membranes’ John Robb, presents Davies with a scalpel and asks “how do I slash the amp?”, Davies instantly dives in and hacks at the speaker cone.

“That’s basically it,” he says, nonchalantly. Within moments, he’s strumming on a Fender Strat, distorted, gritty chords floating out of the speaker.

• READ MORE: The Humble Gear Used By Kurt Cobain on Nirvana’s Nevermind

For years, fans of The Kinks have pondered why Davies would roll out a seemingly ‘broken’ amp for live performances. Back in 2022, he revealed that his slashed up gear was the secret ingredient to The Kinks’ distinctive sound – and it was all thanks to an impulsive outburst of anger.

“I’d had an argument with my girlfriend and I was full of rage and pissed off. Rather than slash my wrists, I thought I’d attack the speaker cone,” he told The Independent at the time. “I was quite surprised that it was still working, and it had this kind of raspy sound. I thought it was amazing, and I felt like an inventor!”

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A post shared by The Kinks (@thekinksofficial)

Davies’ decision to ‘attack’ a £10 amp with a razor blade proved to be the best thing he could have ever done. The sound went on to defines cuts like 1964’s You Really Got Me, and more.

As the clip of Davies shows, you hardly need a surgeon’s precision to achieve a Kinks-worthy tone. The guitarist isn’t the first rocker to bash up his amp while hunting for DIY distortion, either; ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Link Wray famously recorded the 1958 track Rumble with a Premier amp that had been repeatedly stabbed with a pencil.

Elsewhere, King of Rhythm’s Ike Turner totally changed the course of rock history when he recorded Rocket 88 in 1951. While the track was originally typical 12-bar blues arrangement, the band would get quite a shock when an amp tumbled out of their truck on the motorway.

While the amp suffered a damaged woofer and cone, it gave off a raw buzz – and the band loved it. The rest, of course, is history. Time Magazine even labelled the buzzy track as potentially the “first rock ‘n’ roll record” back in 2004.

With that in mind, pricy gear isn’t always the key to finding a unique guitar sound. There are plenty ‘happy accidents’ that could happen and provide you with tonal gold. So, go on – lob your amp down the stairs and see what it sounds like afterwards. Though, if it fully breaks, don’t blame us…

The post DIY distortion: Get Dave Davies’ Kinks guitar tone in seconds – you’ll just need a razor blade and an amp you don’t give a s**t about appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

With Eddie Van Halen as his father – and having served a stint as Van Halen’s bassist himself – it would have been easy for Wolfgang Van Halen to build a sustainable career rooted in the monolithic legacy Eddie left behind.

But he’s long been determined to carve out his own path, and with the recent release of his band Mammoth’s third studio album The End, it’s safe to say he’s built his own name through and through.

• READ MORE: Online games have been doing it for years – are guitar brands cottoning on to the lucrative nature of crossover collaborations?

And it’s very much an all-or-nothing mentality, too, as he explains in a new interview with Billboard: “I would rather fail on my own thing than succeed on my dad’s legacy.”

“I’m proud of the way that I’ve handled myself in this business,” he says. “I’m not sitting there playing Van Halen songs and trying to shack up in the legacy of my father. I’m trying to set out and do it on my own.

“Whether I’m successful at that is a subjective opinion, but I’m at least proud that I’m not sitting here going, like, ‘Hey, the only place you can hear a Van Halen play Panama is over here.’”

“Subjective opinion,” he says, but given his band Mammoth has amassed a considerable following of hundreds of thousands of listeners across the globe, toured with the likes of Guns N’ Roses and Dirty Honey, and released three albums in a span of four years, it’s safe to say he’s doing alright.

Elsewhere in the interview, he touches on his decision to drop the ‘WVH’ from his band’s name (until this year the band was called Mammoth WVH).

“I’ve wanted to be [Mammoth] from the beginning,” he says. “There’s a much higher chance of organic discovery when it’s just Mammoth. People have a lot of complicated feelings about me because of my family and how I started out, and I think a lot of people decided how they feel about me and my music before they even heard it.

“So I think now it’s a nice opportunity to get in that window of people just hearing something and get that unbiased reaction – and then they’ll see who it is and get pissed off, but before that it might be, ‘Hey, it’s actually good, but I still don’t like him!’”

We here at Guitar.com were lucky enough to catch up with Wolfgang Van Halen earlier this month to ask him about his five favourite guitar players.

Alongside Aaron Marshall of Intervals – who WVH has cited numerous times before as his favourite player – Van Halen names Adam Jones of Tool – who should also have their own “Mount Rushmore” – and his father Eddie, but notes despite his world-shattering talent, was a “terrible guitar teacher”.

The post Wolfgang Van Halen: “I’d rather fail at my own thing than succeed on my dad’s legacy” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Godzilla. Back to the Future. Hello Kitty. Is the guitar world taking a leaf out of the online gaming playbook, and are we about to see more crossover collaborations between guitar brands and fictional characters and franchises?

When Fender Japan unveiled three Godzilla-themed Stratocasters earlier this month, the guitar community went nuts. With unique artwork depicting the King of the Monsters – and one even sporting a button unleashing Godzilla’s mighty roar (hopefully without the Atomic Breath, to boot) – our article on these six-strings was one of the best-performing of the last few weeks. Readers loved them.

And when Gibson began teasing the imminent arrival of a Back to the Future Marty McFly-inspired Gibson ES-345 on social media – with glam photos of the guitar set against the film’s classic DeLorean time machine car – it sent gearheads’ pulses racing.

Those guitars – a $20,000 Custom Shop model, alongside a much more affordable Epiphone version – were officially launched last week, and our source at Gibson confirmed they’d sold out online in about an hour. Yep, a $20k guitar – 88 made (corresponding with the 88 miles an hour needed to time travel in the BTTF universe, of course) – sold through in an hour. You can do the maths on that one yourself…

Gibson and Epiphone Back to the Future ES-345s. Credit: Gibson

Such furore is not always immediate, however. When Fender partnered with Sanrio to launch its Hello Kitty Stratocaster in 2006, it went largely under the radar. That is, until YouTuber TheDooo began uploading videos of himself playing the guitar in the late 2010s, causing online searches for the six-string to tick dramatically upwards. Average listing prices on Reverb rose 254%, too.

There’s now a series of Fender x Hello Kitty guitars, accessories and merch, and even a range of child-friendly Loog x Hello Kitty guitars, too.

Online video games have been doing crossovers with fictional characters and franchises for years. Take Call of Duty and Fortnite, for example. With its Warzone platform, CoD regularly launches purchasable skins and weapons themed like classic characters and their fictional worlds. Some standout CoD crossovers have been with Saw, Rambo, The Terminator and Squid Game. But this is just a tiny sample. Godzilla is now a beast which has appeared both in the guitar world and Call of Duty universe.

Fortnite is even more prolific on this front. Epic Games’ massive cross-platform battle royale has seen crossovers with the likes of Marvel and DC Comics, Star Wars and Dragon Ball, and even regularly with real-life stars including Travis Scott, Daft Punk and Ariana Grande.

So what’s the insight to take here? Well, professional collaborations, fundamentally, are designed to maximise returns by allowing each party to tap into the audience already created by the other. And in the case of Call of Duty and Fortnite, they’re clearly working and are clearly lucrative, otherwise these companies wouldn’t continue to do them.

Such collaborations are also a way of maximising a customer’s lifetime value. A player purchases the latest Call of Duty title, and at this point their money stops funnelling to the game developer. That is until they see their favourite movie character playable in a downloadable content pack…

Map this onto the guitar world: a player – one who’s not a collector or a total gear head, at least – buys a guitar, and it covers everything they need. But they also happen to be part of Back to the Future’s huge cult following. And when Gibson launches an Epiphone Marty McFly signature model, they think, ‘Maybe it’s time to expand the collection.’

It’s argued by many that the guitar was perfected decades ago. Sure, there have been significant improvements in components, for example, but the triple-single-coil Stratocaster has remained largely unchanged since its invention.

Sure, all of us heavily involved in the guitar space love to wax lyrical on the latest in pickup design, glow-in-the-dark fret markers, or why wood sourced from some remote island in the Pacific means a 2.3% improvement in resonance.

But it’s important to remember there’s also a huge market out there for guitarists who aren’t absolutely obsessed with the minutiae. I’ve had friends not immersed in guitar culture – but still play – ask me on several occasions what’s changed with guitar design in the last 50 or 60 years.

For guitar brands, crossover collaborations may increase the likelihood these casual players will dip their toes back into the guitar market and make another purchase. And that’s a good thing for the rest of us, too, who simply want to see more people join the guitar community and have it thrive.

Whether Godzilla Strats, Back to the Future ES-345s and Hello Kitty Loogs mark the start of a new trend in the guitar market, or whether they’re just a spate of coincidental crossovers remains to be seen. But if the former, our minds are certainly racing as to what might come next…

The post Online games have been doing it for years – are guitar brands cottoning on to the lucrative nature of crossover collaborations? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Welcome to another review within our series that’s looking at the lineup from NotPedals.com – a unique marketplace for small-run, handmade boutique pedals. Today we’re checking out the Rippletron from Monkey Riot FX.

• READ MORE: Meet NotPedals.com, a marketplace that’s making boutique handmade pedals more accessible than ever

What is the Rippletron?

Let’s start on the outside of this thing – first things first, the screen printing is great – sharply-done, and with a Great Wave-esque design that evokes dark, swirling waters. A classic tack, if you’re a modulation pedal. Internally, things are all present and correct – this is an old-school through-hole board, and is very neatly done indeed.

The Rippletron is inspired by DOD Vibrothang, a unique combo of phase, vibrato and tremolo. There’s one master LFO speed control, as well as a depth, wave and filter control – these all tweak the intensity of the vibrato, tremolo and phase aspects of the effect respectively.

Monkey Riot Pedals Rippletron. Image: Press

In Use

Turning the Rippletron on (with a satisfying clunk – this is an old-school hardwired true-bypass switch, not a soft-switching relay), I immediately warm to it. With all knobs at noon the effect is surprisingly subtle – given the mutli-modulation nature of the effect, I’m half expecting it to be a crazy, swooshing signal destroyer – but it’s instead extremely musical and restrained.

Let’s go through the controls one-by-one. Speed is, as you’d expect, simply the speed of the LFO – ranging from helicopter-landing flutter to languishing sweeps. The speed is tied to a pulsing red LED – always a welcome addition on LFO controls, as it gives you an immediate visual cue of the sort of speed you should expect from a given setting.

Depth is tied to the intensity of both the pitch and the volume modulation. It goes from barely noticeable to a decent amount of wobble, however it’s worth noting that due to how the pitch vibrato is achieved, there’s not a massive amount of actual seasick pitching up and down here. Wave, on the other hand, adjusts the severity of the tremolo’s shape – at full, it’s a lot more of a choppy and aggressive, while on minimum, the amplitude modulation is basically removed from the equation. Combined with the relatively subtle pitch modulation, the wave control lets you dial in sounds quite reminiscent of a rotary speaker effect.

Filter adds a resonant, phasing aspect to the modulation. It’s again very subtle, but at maximum settings it adds a very pleasing tilt to the EQ as the LFO cycles.

After finding out what the extremities of all of these controls are, however, I actually find myself returning to noon for all of the controls. The Rippletron’s voice is best suited for a subtler approach, adding just the right amount of dynamic movement into an otherwise flat sound. You could only really achieve a similar sound by chaining together several other pedals, set even more subtly. But here we have a single pedal that can add a lot of interest to an otherwise flat tone – from fuzzy heaviness to sparkly, wobbling cleans – without totally overtaking your playing.

Overall the Rippletron is a very cool modernisation of a vintage DOD circuit. Relatedly, it’s worth noting that while the original Vibrothang is relatively attainable second-hand, it’s also housed within the rather bland-looking vintage DOD enclosure, which isn’t massively inspiring to look at, and has a reputation for being not the most mechanically reliable thing in the world. The Rippletron, then, becomes a great modern boutique alternative.

The post Monkey Riot Pedals Rippletron review: a gorgeous blend of phase, vibrato and tremolo appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

What price for a piece of bona fide rock ‘n’ roll history? Well, if that piece happens to be an iconic guitar used by an equally iconic guitar player, then the last few decades have demonstrated that price is ‘an awful lot indeed’ – especially if that guitar has been sold at auction.

• READ MORE: The Humble Gear Used By Kurt Cobain on Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’

In the decades since Eric Clapton’s iconic Blackie Strat was purchased by Guitar Center for just shy of a million dollars, more and more legendary guitar players have put their collections under the hammer, and it’s led to increasingly outlandish sums being paid for some of the most iconic guitars in rock.

The 2024 auction of Mark Knopfler’s guitars at Christie’s saw some practically every lot smash its estimate, but despite that the most iconic item of the day – a 1983 Gibson Les Paul Standard that the Dire Straits legend used to write and record Money For Nothing and Brothers In Arms – smashing its $19,000 estimate and selling for a whopping $753,231 (£592,200), it wasn’t enough to make it onto our list (in fact it wasn’t even the biggest seller of the day, with a Burst Knopfler bought in 1999 selling for a massive $880,186).

Even Blackie itself – once the benchmark for outrageously expensive electric guitars, no longer occupies a place in the top 15 most expensive guitars sold at auction, falling out of the list with the blockbusting sale of John Lennon’s Framus Hootenany in June 2024. It shows how wildly the market for rock star guitars has inflated in the last few years.

Another iconic instrument to fall off the list is Bob Dylan’s ‘Newport Folk Festival’ Strat. The guitar used when the folk messiah turned Judas with an electric band on 25 July 1965 sold for $965,000 in 2013. It was purchased by Indianapolis Colts owner and guitar collector Jim Irsay and now forms part of the ‘Jim Irsay Collection’ a travelling museum of pop culture memorabilia that tours the US.

Also in Irsay’s collection is David Gilmour‘s Martin D-35 – the guitar that appeared on Wish You Were Here – which had the dubious distinction of being the first million-dollar guitar to fall out of our top 15 entirely. Another guitar to fall off the list was Rory Gallagher’s iconic 1962 Stratocaster – which barely lasted three months on the list before being unseated in January 2025.

Another brief entrant into the list was Jeff Beck’s ‘Anoushka’ Fender Custom Shop Strat – it barely lasted 10 months on our list but holds the distinction of being a non-vintage instrument that cracked the million dollar mark. Made for Beck by Custom Shop legend JW Black in 1993, Anoushka became a mainstay for the guitarist on stage over the following decades, and was sold at auction in January 2025 and knocked Rory’s Strat off the list.

Also not making it into the list are some of the most iconic guitars of all time that never made it to auction. It’s almost impossible to confirm private sale figures, so the rumours that Kirk Hammett paid $2 million for Greeny – the 1959 Les Paul previously owned by Peter Green and Gary Moore – or that the late Microsoft founder Paul Allen paid $1.3m back in 1993 for Hendrix’s Woodstock Strat will have to remain just that: rumours.

No instead we’re dealing in hard facts and confirmed numbers – and these 15 guitars are the most expensive instruments ever to go under the hammer.

Editor’s note: all figures below are converted into US Dollars and were correct at time of auction and not adjusted for inflation. 

15 George Harrison’s Futurama $1,270,000

The most expensive Beatles electric guitar ever sold at auction is probably the most humble – but it might also be the most important. On 20th November 1959 a young George Harrison bought the Futurama for just £59 and used it throughout The Beatles’ formative years both playing at Liverpool’s Cavern Club and into their hugely important Hamburg period.

Without this guitar, who knows how the most important band in history might have been changed, but by the time it was supplanted by his famous Gretsch Duo-Jet in 1962, its place in the lore of pop music was assured. It was later given away as a competition prize by Beat magazine, and was expected to hit just $800k when it was auctioned in November 2024. Instead, it became the first Beatles electric to crack the million dollar mark.

14 Eric Clapton’s ‘Fool’ 1964 Gibson SG $1,270,000

Eric Clapton’s Fool guitar at the media preview for Julien’s “Played, worn, torn rock ‘n’ roll iconic guitars and memorabilia” in 2023. Image: Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images

Perhaps Eric Clapton’s most distinctive instrument also has the distinction of being the most expensive sold at auction when the Fool went under the hammer in 2023. Hailing from Clapton’s Cream era, the Fool is celebrated as an enduring symbol of the psychedelic era in music, the 1964 Gibson SG earned its name from the Dutch art collective that gave it its striking finish. Sunshine of Your Love, White Room, I Feel Free… Clapton’s iconic Woman tone is all this guitar. It was bought by another familiar face – Jim Irsay.

13 Elvis Presley’s ‘Sun Sessions’ 1942 Martin D-18 $1,300,000

Image: Gotta Have Rock and Roll

The King played many guitars over his illustrious career, but perhaps none is more important or iconic than the Martin D-18 he used between 1954 and 1956 when recording at Memphis’ iconic Sun Studios – That’s All Right (Mama), Blue Moon of Kentucky and Good Rockin’ Tonight were all recorded using this guitar, though it’s a rare one on this list in that it actually sold for less than its estimate. It was touted to go for as much as $3 million, but in the end sold for ‘just’ $1.3 million.

12 Jeff Beck’s 1954 ‘Oxblood’ Les Paul $1,329,335

The most expensive Les Paul on our list is the most iconic guitar of one of the most iconic and respected guitar players to ever walk the earth. Jeff Beck first got his ‘Oxblood’ 1954 Les Paul when he was on tour with Beck, Bogert and Appice in late 1972, and it would go on to become a constant companion over the following few years.

The Oxblood Les Paul was the guitar used when Beck recorded his thundering version of Superstition, and when he joined David Bowie and The Spiders From Mars on stage. It was also his number one guitar when he went into the studio to cut his legendary Blow by Blow album – including the majestic and timeless ‘Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers.

11 Kurt Cobain’s ‘Sky Stang 1’ 1993 Fender Mustang $1,587,500

Kurt Cobain’s custom-built left-handed Fender Mustang on display at Hard Rock Cafe in New York City in 2019. Image: Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

Not the most iconic Kurt Cobain guitar, but this custom-ordered Mustang was Kurt’s primary instrument on their final In Utero tour, and was heavily used for Nirvana’s final show on 1 March 1994 in Munich. The guitar was created for Kurt by Fender Japan luthier Scott Zimmerman in 1993 (the US Custom Shop didn’t make lefty necks in those days), and was sold to Japanese businessman Mitsuru Sato in late 2023.

10 David Gilmour’s 1954 Fender Stratocaster $1,815,000

The Pink Floyd man’s second most iconic Strat is the one steeped in the most controversy – for years people assumed that the serial number #0001 meant it was the first Strat ever made. Instead, it turns out that #0100 was actually first, but this is still one of the first pre-production Strat prototypes ever made. The fact that this guitar is also laying down the rhythm parts on Another Brick In The Wall Pt 2 only further adds to this guitar’s legend.

9 Jerry Garcia’s Wolf Guitar $1,900,000

Another completely unique creation for the Grateful Dead man courtesy of Doug Irwin, the Wolf is perhaps even more eccentric than the Tiger, with a body made of ultra-strong purpleheart, capped back and front with bookmatched maple. The guitar also features an innovative plate system for mounting the pickups, which allowed Garcia to swap them from their original SSS configuration to the HHS it currently sports. The Wolf was auctioned in 2017 with proceeds benefiting the Southern Poverty Law Center.

8 John Lennon’s 1962 Gibson J-160E $2,410,000

John Lennon tuning his Gibson J-160E during the filming of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’. Image: Max Scheler – K & K/Redferns via Getty Image

With its electric-like volume and tone knobs and the pole pieces of a P-90 pickup rather artlessly sticking through the top between the neck and soundhole, the J-160E wasn’t Gibson’s most elegant design, but it was the perfect instrument for young songwriters craving amplification in the early 60s, including a couple of cats called John Lennon and George Harrison. This particular J-160E can be heard on Love Me Do and continued to be a favoured acoustic for Lennon throughout his career.

7 ‘Reach Out to Asia’ Fender Stratocaster $2,700,000

Reach Out To Asia Stratocaster. Image: Fender Wiki

Something of a curio on this list, this guitar isn’t an iconic artist instrument at all, but rather a stock Mexican-made white Fender Stratocaster that just happens to have been signed by (deep breath) Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Brian May, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Mark Knopfler, Ray Davies, Liam Gallagher, Ronnie Wood, Tony Iommi, Angus and Malcolm Young, Paul McCartney, Sting, Ritchie Blackmore, Def Leppard and organiser Bryan Adams. The guitar was auctioned off to help the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and certainly did its job.

6 Eddie Van Halen’s 1982 Kramer $2,734,000

Image: Kramer

“It’s very simply the best guitar you can buy today”. If you’re a guitar player of a certain age, you probably remember flicking through a guitar magazine and being presented by a striking picture of Eddie Van Halen, guitar in hand, lit cigarette tucked under his E string alonside this quote. It’s one of the most memorable and iconic guitar ads ever, and one that certainly did the Kramer brand no harm in the early 80s when EVH was at his most godlike pomp – the brand briefly became America’s biggest guitar brand off the back of this in the middle of the decade.

The guitar used in that shoot was a custom Kramer modelled on Eddie’s iconic ‘Frankenstein’ guitar – but with a striped Kramer ‘hockey stick’ headstock – and was also used for various shows in 1982 and 1983. Then later on in the decade, he gifted the guitar to his tech Rudy Leiren, and it still bears the autograph “Rude – it’s been a great ten years – let’s do another ten. Eddie Van Halen”.

Leiren sold the guitar to Mötley Crüe’s Mick Mars, who would use the guitar extensively on the band’s Dr. Feelgood record.  The guitar would later come to be auctioned at Sotheby’s with a massive $2 million estimate – a sign that expectations for iconic artist instruments are catching up with demand – but it still smashed through that. It’s not the most expensive Van Halen guitar on our list however…

5 John Lennon’s Framus Hootenanny 12-string $2,857,000

Credit: Julien’s Auctions

The guitar that was famously used on Help! and its accompanying album was thought lost to the sands of time for decades, until it was found in by the new owners of a house in the British countryside when they were clearing out the attic. The guitar was given to Scottish guitarist Gordon Waller, half of the pop duo Peter and Gordon, and then later handed over to one of his road managers, but the guitar hadn’t been seen in public for over 50 years. The guitar, which is seen being used by Lennon in the Help! movie during the performance of You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, was also used by Lennon to record It’s Only Love, I’ve Just Seen a Face and Girl, and by George Harrison for the rhythm track of Norwegian Wood. Before the auction in May 2024, there was speculation the guitar might end up becoming the most expensive ever sold at auction, but in the end the Framus had to settle for being the most expensive Beatles instrument ever, eclipsing Lennon’s J-160E (above).

4 Eddie Van Halen’s Hot For Teacher Kramer $3,932,000

Credit: Sotheby’s

Eddie Van Halen’s guitar designs have become almost as iconic as the man himself, but with most of EVH’s most iconic gear still treasured by his family, it’s rare for a bona fide EVH guitar to make it onto the open market. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that interest in this guitar, used by Eddie in the Hot For Teacher video, was so high – and the price tag followed suit.

3 David Gilmour’s Black Fender Stratocaster $3,975,000

Image: Eleanor Jane

The Black Strat is David Gilmour’s most iconic guitar and is also one that’s been heavily modified over the years – bought from Manny’s Music in New York, this 1968 model was originally Sunburst but had been refinished in Black by the time Gilmour bought it in 1970. It originally had a maple neck with a late-60s big headstock, but throughout the 70s Gilmour frequently swapped between two 50s necks, one with rosewood and maple. That wasn’t the end – over the decades since the pickups, tuners, pots, trem and scratchplate have all been swapped, and in fact it’s now estimated that the only original parts of the guitar remaining are the body, selector switch and (maybe) the bridge plate. Despite this, the Black Strat remains Gilmour’s most iconic instrument – the sound of Money, Comfortably Numb and scores more. It’s now part of the Jim Irsay Collection.

2 Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit Fender Mustang $4,550,000

The Fender Mustang used by Kurt Cobain in the ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ music video on display at Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus, 2022. Image: Rob Pinney/Getty Images

What does an iconic moment in guitar history cost? About four and a half million dollars it turns out. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Smells Like Teen Spirit music video changed the world, and in it Kurt Cobain is playing a rather fetching but typically unconventional lefty Lake Placid Blue Mustang with a competition strip – 1.5 billion YouTube views and countless hours of MTV airtime later, its place in the pop culture firmament was assured. Ironically, the guitar wasn’t really one of Kurt’s favourites, only really getting a run-out live on a few other occasions but its place in the Teen Spirit video assured its place in rock history, and in the Jim Irsay collection in 2022.

Kurt Cobain performing with his Martin D-18E during Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged. Image: Frank Micelotta Archive/Getty Images

1 Kurt Cobain’s Martin D-18E $6,010,000

If there’s one Kurt Cobain guitar moment that’s become even more iconic than the Teen Spirit video, it’s Nirvana’s incredible, bittersweet performance on MTV Unplugged. Kurt bought the D-18E in 1992 at Voltage Guitars in Los Angeles, and it’s a rare bird for Martin guitars in that it came out of the factory with the DeArmond pickups, but Kurt disliked their sound and had it modded with a Bartolini 3AV soundhole pickup. The guitar was left to Kurt’s daughter Francis Bean, and then ended up with her ex-husband Isaiah Silva as part of their divorce settlement. The guitar was purchased by RØDE Microphones founder, Peter Freedman in 2020 – and it’s not been topped since.

Editor’s note: this article was first published on 1 February 2024 and most recently updated on 27 October 2025. 

The post The 15 Most Expensive Guitars Sold At Auction appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

On a recent tour through California, Clark stopped by the AG offices, Gibson J-45 in tow, to share three songs from her debut album.

Ready to consolidate your rig? Enter today’s giveaway to WIN the Line 6 HX One — a single‑stomp powerhouse with 250+ HX‑family effects, stereo I/O, MIDI, a Flux controller, and full preset power in a compact package.

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Line 6 HX One

Seeking that one elusive sound for your pedalboard? You will almost certainly find it in HX® One, a powerful and compact stereo effect pedal that is a great option for when you want to add more effects to your board but only have room for one! It features intuitive controls, options for 250+ effects taken from HX family processors, a unique Flux Controller, a jack for connecting an optional expression pedal or two footswitches, adjustable input impedance, MIDI capabilities, and a choice of true or buffered DSP bypass.

.rbm-pick { display: grid; grid-template-columns: 160px 1fr; gap: 16px; align-items: center; border: 1px solid #e6e6e6; border-radius: 12px; padding: 16px; } /* Media box — no cropping, no edge kiss */ .rbm-pick-media { height: 180px; /* fixed height for consistency */ padding: 8px; /* breathing room to avoid flat-cut edges */ box-sizing: border-box; /* keep total height = 180px */ border-radius: 10px; background: #fff; overflow: hidden; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; } .rbm-pick-media img { max-width: 100%; max-height: 100%; width: auto; /* preserve aspect */ height: auto; object-fit: contain; /* never crop */ object-position: center; display: block; } .rbm-badge { display: inline-block; font: 600 12px/1.2 system-ui; padding: 4px 8px; border-radius: 999px; background: #111; color: #fff; margin-bottom: 8px; } .rbm-title { font: 700 18px/1.3 system-ui; margin: 4px 0 8px; } .rbm-blurb { font: 400 14px/1.5 system-ui; color: #333; margin-bottom: 12px; } .rbm-pick-buttons { display: flex; gap: 8px; flex-wrap: wrap; } .rbm-pick .rbm-btn { display: inline-flex; gap: 6px; align-items: center; border: 2px solid #b50000; /* Premier Guitar red */ border-radius: 999px; padding: 10px 16px; text-decoration: none; font: 600 14px/1.2 system-ui; color: #b50000; background: #fff; box-shadow: 0 2px 5px rgba(0,0,0,0.12); transition: background .2s, color .2s, transform .15s; } .rbm-pick .rbm-btn:hover { background: #b50000; color: #fff; transform: translateY(-1px); } .rbm-pick .rbm-btn .price { opacity: 1; font-weight: 600; } /* Responsive tweaks */ @media (max-width: 540px) { .rbm-pick { grid-template-columns: 1fr; } .rbm-pick-media { height: 160px; padding: 6px; } } @media (min-width: 900px) { .rbm-pick-media { height: 200px; } }

Hello, and welcome back to another Dojo. Previously I mentioned that there are hundreds of reverb plugins (convolution, algorithmic, plate, and spring) out there, but the vast majority of them are either direct emulations of 6 classic reverbs—or derive a huge amount of inspiration from them, to say the least. I highlighted the EMT 140, the Lexicon 224, and the EMT 250 last month, and I’ll finish up this month by paying homage to the remaining classic trio. I’ll also give you some strategic advice on how to take better advantage of these, and even the reverbs that you already have as well. Tighten your belts—the dojo is now open.

The Bigger Picture

The Lexicon 480L Digital Effects System, introduced in 1986, easily stands as one of the most important reverbs in the history of studio recording. Conceived as Lexicon’s next step beyond the 224 (see last month’s Dojo) it employed 18-bit A/D and D/A converters, giving it a wet path dynamic range approaching 98 dB and either 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz sample rates.

Internally, it was essentially two powerful stereo processors, labeled “Machine A” and “Machine B.” These could be run independently, producing two separate stereo effects, or cascaded so that one fed into the other.

The sound of the 480L is where its legend was truly forged. The reverb tails were smoother and more natural than anything that had come before, while still carrying Lexicon’s trademark musicality. One of the most beloved algorithms was “Random Hall,” which added subtle modulation to the reverb tail, preventing it from sounding static and giving it a sense of living, breathing space. The 480L dominated mainstream pop, rock, film scores, and TV from the mid-’80s through the 2000s. While earlier reverbs like the EMT 250 or Lexicon 224 had charm and warmth, the 480L delivered polish and versatility. It was the professional standard against which all others were judged.

A studio spring?

The AKG BX20 spring reverb is another gem from the analog days. Unlike the small, twangy springs found in guitar amps, the BX20 was designed for studio use, housed in a (roughly) 4' x 2' x 2' wooden cabinet. Its dual spring system produced a reverb that was deliciously dark, smooth, and surprisingly versatile. It became beloved for its organic, almost smoky quality—perfect on guitars, keys, and even vocals if you wanted a touch of atmosphere without the sheen of a plate or the brightness of a Lexicon.

The Underdog from Burnley

By 1981, EMT in Germany had already unveiled the EMT 250, and Lexicon in the U.S. was about to shake the industry with the 224. But back in the U.K., a pair of aerospace engineers in Burnley, Lancashire, created a 3U rackable reverb that came to define the sound of 1980s pop and rock—the AMS RMX16 (admittedly, my favorite). Compact, rugged, and intuitive, with a sound that was bold rather than naturalistic, the RMX16 was the first microprocessor-controlled, full-bandwidth digital reverb with nine core algorithms—halls, plates, rooms, ambiences—but it was the ‘NonLin2’ (nonlinear reverb) preset that turned the machine into legend. The gated snare in Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”? The RMX16. Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”? The RMX16. Prince, Dire Straits, Hall & Oates, Bruce Springsteen—all embraced its punchy, present character.

The RMX16 influence has endured. AMS—now under AMS Neve—has since reissued it as a 500-series module and collaborated on official plugins with Universal Audio.

What’s in it for me?
Remember that a plate doesn’t sound like a spring, a spring doesn’t sound like a Lexicon, and an AMS doesn’t sound like an EMT 250. If you grab “any old reverb” from your DAW, you’re missing the point. These machines became prized not just for what they added, but for how they shaped the emotional character of music. Understanding the differences will leave you better equipped to make deliberate choices. Want your vocal to shimmer with vintage romance? Try a plate or spring reverb. Need drums to slam? That’s RMX16 territory. Looking for a reverb that’s lush yet unobtrusive? The Lexicon 480L is still king.

In the end, knowing your reverbs is like knowing your guitars. Each one has a story, a color, a legacy. These classics remind us that technology and artistry are forever intertwined. You’re not just “adding reverb”—you’re tapping into a lineage of sound that has shaped records for generations. And that, more than anything, is why these machines remain revered.

Khruangbin is a band that moves freely in negative space. They don’t deal in negative vibes, mind you, but the spaces in between objects—or in music, between notes and tones. In Khruangbin’s case, negative space isn’t quite as empty as it seems. In fact, a lot of it is colored with reverberated overtones, which is an aesthetic well suited to Mark Speer’s instrument of choice. Because if you want to color negative space without being a space hog, there are few better means than a Stratocaster.

Speer’s signature Stratocaster, is not, in the strictest sense, a classically Strat-like specimen. Its bridge and neck pickups, after all, are DiMarzio Pro Track humbuckers, with a design informed more by PAFs than Fender single coils. Nor is it modeled after a priceless rarity. Speer’s main guitar is a humble ’72 Stratocaster reissue from the early 2000’s. But the Speer signature Stratocaster is a thought-provoking twist on classic “Stratocaster-ness,” and one well-suited to the atmospherics that mark Khruangbin’s music, but also soul, reggae, jazz, and any other expression where clarity and substance are critical.

Mr. Natural Takes It In Stride

I have to admit—and no doubt some of you will disagree—for most of my life, as an early- to mid-1960s-oriented aesthete, an all-natural-finished Strat with an oversized headstock looked flat-out wrong. My opinion on the matter has softened a bit since. And I think the Speer Stratocaster is beautiful, elegant, and does much the flatter the Strat profile. The pronounced grain in the ash body is lovely, and it certainly doesn’t reflect the drop in ash quality that many feared when ash-boring beetles started to decimate swamp ash supplies. It also looks great against the milk-white single-ply white pickguard and all-white knobs (another nice study in negative space).

Elsewhere, many features are authentically 1972. The 1-piece, 3-bolt maple neck with a 7.25" fretboard radius boasts a micro-neck-adjust feature as well as the practical and cool-looking bullet truss rod. The tuners also feature early ’70s-styled machine covers. The neck itself feels great—slightly less chunky, perhaps, than early ’70s Strats I’ve played, and, oddly, not worlds apart from the neck on my Mexico-made ’72 Telecaster Deluxe, which has a much flatter 12" radius. Some of the similarities in feel may have to do with the jumbo frets, which here give the gloss urethane fretboard a slinky, easy touch. Less delicate players (like me) who tend to squeeze when chording should check out the Speer before purchasing to make sure they don’t pull everything sharp. The frets do make string bends feel breezy, though. Other details, apart from the jumbo frets, that deviate a bit from 1972 Fender spec include a bone nut and Graphtec saddles and string trees.

Warmth of the Sun

The DiMarzio Pro Tracks dwell in an interesting tone space. They’re built with ceramic magnets (vintage Strat and Gibson PAFS were made with alnico magnets) with a resistance of about 7.7 k ohms, which is in the range of a vintage PAF humbucker but hotter than most vintage Stratocaster pickups. In terms of tone signature, they sound and respond a little more like PAFs than Stratocaster pickups, too, which aligns with DiMarzio’s design objectives. But in the neck pickup in particular, the Strat-iness is very present. And when I switched back and forth between a Stratocaster and PAF-equipped SG as baselines for comparison, I marveled at how well the DiMarzios retained qualities of both. It’s hard to know how much Fender’s 25 1/2" scale factors into lending the extra bit of Fender color. But the sound is distinctly, authentically, Speer-like. (For the record, I replicated much of Speer’s circa 2018 signal chain for this test, including a Fender Deluxe Reverb, Dunlop Cry Baby, Boss PH-3 and DS-1, MXR DynaComp, and a Echoplex-style pedal).

The PAF qualities of the DiMarzios are most pronounced in the bridge pickup, which is much burlier and thicker than a Stratocaster single coil. The one single coil on the guitar meanwhile, the middle pickup, will sound and feel familiar to any old-school Stratocaster player. It’s also perfect for chasing Jerry Garcia tones if you’re selecting the Speer for its likeness to Jer’s “Alligator.” The real treat among the Speer’s many sounds, though, is the number 4 position, which combines the neck pickup and middle pickup out of phase. It’s snarky, super-focused, and just a little bit nasty, especially with overdrive and treble bump from either a wah, OD, or boost pedal.

The Verdict

For those players who fall in love with the comfort, feel, and looks of a Stratocaster, only to find it a bit thin-sounding for their purposes, the Mark Speer Stratocaster is an intriguing option. The humbuckers deftly thread the needle between Stratocaster and PAF tonalities, with a distinct lean toward the latter, and the out-of-phase number 4 position is a cool sound that lends the Speer Strat expansive smooth-to-nasty range. Like so many Mexico-made Fenders, the quality is superb. And while the $1,499 price tag represents a Signature Series bump compared to the similar $1,209 Vintera II ’70s Stratocaster, the Speer’s extra tone range and ash body do a lot to soften any sticker shock. If the options here fit your style, it could be well worth the extra dollars.

This time host John Bohlinger sits down. plugs in, and slides besides the musical Canadian chamaeleon who talks about embracing your influences, playing bold (and loud) onstage for maximize risk taking, and shaping the might Revv D20 and D25 amps. Plus, he notes the guitar star that gave him memorable compliment after Joey bombed a solo.

David Ellefson says Megadeth‘s music is the “most timeless” of all the big thrash bands.

In a new interview with Fox Rochester [via Blabbermouth], Ellefson – who served in the heavy metal outfit from 1983 until 2002, and then again from 2010 to 2021 – praises his former band for reaching audiences beyond listeners of the thrash genre itself.

“There was a benchmark we had when we started Megadeth, to write very epic-oriented music, stuff that could really be a soundtrack. And also stuff that was timeless. I think the music has really stood the test of time,” he says. “It doesn’t sound dated.”

• READ MORE: Death of Ace Frehley under investigation
  

“I think the Megadeth music, out of everybody in the thrash genre, I will go on record as saying, I think is probably the most timeless and will probably stand the test of time the most and be the most listened to by people that aren’t even just metalheads,” he goes on.

Ellefson adds that the band are not given enough credit for their “melodic” sound, adding: “It’s heavy, but it’s melodic. It’s listenable.

“So I think that’s jus the nature of rock and roll. The young generations are always the creators and they’re always pushing the envelope a little farther.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Ellefson notes how heavy metal became heavier after Megadeth with bands like Slipknot and Mudvayne.

“I remember when we were on tour with Ronnie James Dio, who is an icon – this was 1988 – talking with him one day on tour about how the next generation comes up. And our thrash metal was really heavy compared to what he was doing,” he continues.

“Then the masked bands come out – Slipknot, Mudvayne and all this stuff – so it gets heavier and heavier. Look, rock and roll has always been about pushing the limits, starting with Elvis [Presley]. That’s just the nature of what it’s supposed to be.”

Ellefson uses Kiss as an example of how thrash and heavy forms of metal from the 1970s and 1980s had become “family entertainment” by the 1990s. The change was clear, he says, because bands had “progressed” past what “our parents didn’t want us to listen to”.

He says: “I remember seeing the Kiss reunion in 1996. Me and [then-Megadeth guitarist] Marty Friedman went down, and I was looking at us going, as heavy and dark and daunting as this was, and our parents didn’t want us to listen to it, it was like family entertainment by then because of what had progressed past it.”

The post David Ellefson says Megadeth’s music is the “most timeless” of all the big thrash bands appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Last night something happened to me—I had a dream within a dream! Inception style! Here’s how it went down: I was dreaming that I had to unload a bunch of guitars from my car, and I was worried because I thought it was too hot outside and the guitars would get damaged. But when I went outside, there was snow everywhere! I wandered through the piles of snow and found my car buried. I remember looking down and I was walking on clear ice, and I could see little fish swimming around under there. I finally got into my car and I was freezing, but I still checked out the guitars to see if everything is cool. Suddenly, the ice started to melt extremely fast, and before long, I was floating in water! Right then, I started thinking about this one particular guitar because I thought it would make a good paddle.

Then, in the dream, I “awoke” and realized I was back in my bedroom, and it was all just a dream. The kicker is that I was still dreaming, because that “paddle” guitar was suddenly in my hands—then I woke up for real! How about that misadventure?

The next day (in real life), I went down to the basement to find this weird old bugger that, in my dream, would’ve made a good paddle. Apparently, this pancake-batter-shaped Steelphon is one of only a few known to exist, and I had forgotten that I still had it! Hailing from the mid ’60s, this Italian-made electric is a true oddity. Steelphon, which is an odd name in and of itself, was a company based in Turin, Italy, that was already making guitar-related items, primarily amps, but of course jumped into electric guitars during the boom years. The company seemed to contract out guitar production, because this one has all the characteristics of a Crucianelli-made guitar: the robust truss rod, the mini humbuckers, and the amazing bridge (which is like a steel brick) that would put any Gibson bridge to shame.

The amazing mini humbuckers are hot as hell and sound phenomenal—probably my all-time favorite pickups. The electronics feature a preset tone selector, pickup selector knob, and volume and tone knobbies. Playability is obviously weird because the body is so darn wide, and a little heavy. Plus, the neck is slightly thin so the whole experience is a little wonky. But again, the guitar sounds so good that it could be worth it for those looking for the “odd” factor.

“This pancake-batter-shaped Steelphon is one of only a few known to exist, and I had forgotten that I still had it!”

Back in the day, I coveted this guitar for a long time. There was a fellow in the Netherlands who collected and sold the strangest guitars, and this was on his site forever. Eventually, I ended up buying this and a few others from him, but when I got this guitar, it was a basket case. Playability was awful, the electronics were a mess, and the fret dots seemed to have been repaired by a kindergartener. The Steelphon also suffered from the dreaded Italian finish-shrinkage, which caused the guitar to have a lot of finish checking and splitting, kind of like a candy-coated finish that got cracked.

All in all, we were able to sort everything out, and now the guitar plays rather well. A hallmark of many guitars from the ’60s is that the electronics were overly complicated. Designers back in the day were trying to get a lot of preset tonal options, but the overall sound was always getting muddied. Once you dive in under the pickguard, it’s always best to wire point-to-point to get the best sounding guitar—especially with these pickups, which are just so aggressive. They sound dreamy!

As the falling leaves mark the start of autumn, Reverb is celebrating the changing of the seasons with a mega sale. With up to 60% off across guitars, pedals and amps, the Fall Into Gear sale could be the perfect chance to cop a bargain.

Reverb has sliced the prices on plenty of top brands, from Fender to Gibson. Squier in particular has a slew of mighty fine axes up for grabs, with a Limited Edition Paranormal Offset Telecaster SJ going for just £210.60. The Olympic White electric, complete with a laurel fingerboard and tortoiseshell pickguard, is 36% off and it’s in mint condition.

• READ MORE: Paul McCartney reflects on legendary Japan drugs bust that landed him in prison: “This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet!”

If you’re keen for a more vibrant Squier, there’s also a Shell Pink Sonic Mustang available. The sale has knocked 45% off the price, dropping it down to a very respectable £121.19. And who can argue with that classy pastel sheen?

In terms of stompboxes, the M173 MXR Classic 108 Fuzz pedal is currently 53% off. Now just £75.15, the MXR’s new pricepoint is befitting of its ‘70s crunch, perfect for the fuzz-loving garage rockers of the world. There’s also a mint Carl Martin PlexiTone Single Channel Distortion pedal available for £93.75. The simple-yet-effective stomper comes in its original packaging, ripe and ready to add some edgy distortion to your sound.

Elsewhere, a rare Marshall mixing desk is also included in the many sale offerings. Made in England back in 1978, the 8 Channel Marshall Mixer boasts 100 watts of power. It is also fitted with legit spring reverb, and can even go into overdrive – essentially offering the power of 8 head amps. It’s still in good nick, and it’s available for 20% off, costing £639.20.

Head over to Reverb to find more Fall Into Gear Sales Event deals. The sale runs until 3 November.

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The post Get up to 60% off guitars, amps and pedals in Reverb’s Fall Into Gear sale appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

While the matching bowl haircuts and boy-next-door charms might fool you, The Beatles were prone to their fair share of rock ‘n’ roll debauchery – need we mention 1967’s LSD-inspired Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? In fact, Paul McCartney very nearly earned himself a seven-year prison sentence back in 1980 for smuggling marijuana into Japan.

McCartney opens up about his prison scare in his new book, Wings: the Story of a Band on the Run. As he puts it, the weed was “excellent”, so it was worth the risk. “I was out in New York and I had all this really good grass,” the Beatles legend recalls [via The Sunday Times]. “We were about to fly to Japan, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get anything to smoke over there. This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet.”

• READ MORE: The guitar gear used by Tony Iommi on Black Sabbath’s Heaven & Hell album

Having just been in America, where President Carter was considering decriminalising cannabis, McCartney thought marijuana was “no big deal”. He’d also done plenty of ‘harder’ drugs in the past, notably “seeing God” on Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) during The Beatles’ heyday. The response from the Tokyo airport officials was a massive culture shock.

“It was the maddest thing [I’d done] in my life – to go into Japan, which has a seven-year hard-labour penalty for pot, and be so free and easy,” he recalls in horror. “I put a bloody great bag of the stuff right on the top of my suitcase. Why didn’t I even hide it in a pullover?”

McCartney’s daughters Stella and Mary were also present at the drugs bust. Mary chimes in with her own memory of the event: “I just remember them saying to Mum and Dad, ‘Whose is this?’… [then they looked] at each other, going, ‘Which one of us is going to do this? Because one of us needs to stay with the kids.’ Dad said it was him, and then they took him away.”

Though, Stella adds that “even a nine-year-old could have hidden skunk weed better” than her father had.

A customs officer inspects one of the plastic one of the plastic bags containing marijuana which hidden inside one of Paul McCartney’s luggages after he was arrested for illegal possession of marijuana at New Tokyo International Airport in Narita 1/16. Credit: Getty Images

The very same evening, McCartney confessed and was arrested for drug possession. “I apologised for breaking Japanese law,” he says. “It probably didn’t help that I had more than I could get through in a month… I had to go through my whole life story – which schools I went to, my father’s name, our address, my income. I even had to tell them about my MBE medal from the Queen.”

In the West, rockstars tend to be pretty open about their drug habits. Tony Iommi has gone on record admitting that Black Sabbath had a dealer show up “every day” during the recording on 1972’s Vol. 4, and The Rolling Stones were also prone to the odd acid trip. But, as McCartney puts it, the Japanese response was incredibly serious.

The musician had been travelling to perform in Japan with his band Wings. Overnight, every single tour poster was torn down. “Every hundred feet there had been a poster saying, ‘Wings – the greatest rock band in the world visits Japan 1980,’” Wings drummer Steve Holley notes. “They were everywhere… it was inestimable how many there were. And in the morning, they were all gone. The radio stations went silent, too. They wouldn’t play anything.”

Considering the severity, McCartney even thought his family would have to live in Japan to still see him behind bars. But he tried to remain positive. “I couldn’t sleep for the first three days…” he continues. “I had to share a bath with a bloke who was in for murder. I was afraid to take my suit off in case I got raped. But I’d seen all those prisoner-of-war movies and I knew you had to keep your spirits up.”

In order to “keep spirits up” McCartney did what he does best – he performed. “I’d organise singsongs with the other prisoners,” he admits. “There were guys in the next cell and we tried to communicate. I was trying to learn a few words in Japanese, and I could hear people saying konnichiwa (hello). So I turned that into “Connie Chua”. Like a high-school girl, Connie Chua. I could say arigato, thank you, but I couldn’t say much more.”

Despite only being in the prison for nine days, McCartney would write the book Japanese Jailbird reflecting on his experience. And, even though it was a stressful experience, prison guard Yasuji Ariga noted that McCartney remained “very polite and made a good impression on the guards”.

“I was happy to leave [after nine days], but I’d made a couple of friends in there so the parting was a little sad,” McCartney admits. “As I walked free, I was shaking hands with these prisoners through the letterboxes of their cells.”

However, the arrest didn’t seem to sour McCartney’s taste for marijuana. Following on from the arrest, McCartney would call for cannabis to be legalised four years later in 1984. Speaking to press outside of  a London Airport, he said: “I don’t believe [smoking cannabis] is a terribly harmful thing to do… cannabis is a whole lot less harmful than rum, whiskey, nicotine or glue – all of which are perfectly legal. I’d like to see it decriminalised, because I don’t think, in the privacy of my own room, I was doing anyone any harm whatsoever.”

McCartney’s new book, Wings: the Story of a Band on the Run, is out 4 November. McCartney will also be releasing a definitive collection of Wings tracks on 7 November.

The post Paul McCartney reflects on legendary Japan drugs bust that landed him in prison: “This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet!” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The world of amplifiers in 2024 is a wonderfully wide-ranging one, with tube amps, digital amps, floor amps, portable amps, practice amps desktop amps and more all promising brilliant tones at varying levels of volume. A little intimidated by the choice? Not to worry – we’ve put together this guide to the best amps no matter what you need, whether that’s a small home amp or a gigging powerhouse.

• READ MORE: The 10 best electric guitars for all styles and budgets

Digital amps continue to make excellent use of ever more powerful processing – from high-quality modelling units with endless amp sims and ins and outs, to stripped-back combos leveraging digital power for efficiency and reliability, digital amps have come leaps and bounds since those early days of fizzy direct sounds and tinny practice amps. And, of course, tube amp makers continue to find ways to make those classic circuits even more appealing to the modern player. There are plenty of excellent options out there, no matter what you want out of an amplifier. Let’s dive in.

The 14 best amplifiers, at a glance:

• Our pick: Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb
• Best solid state amp head: Orange Tour Baby 100
• Best affordable amp: Boss Katana 50 MkII EX
• Best tube amp: Bad Cat Hot Cat 1×12
• Best modelling amp: Fender Mustang GTX100
• Best desktop amp: Yamaha THR30II
• Best high-end amp: Marshall ST20H JTM Studio
• Best home amp: Positive Grid Spark Mini
• Best gigging amp: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV
• Best combo amp: Blackstar St. James 50 EL34
• Best amp head: Orange OR30
• Best amp pedal: Neural DSP Quad Cortex
• Best busking amp: Positive Grid Spark Live
• Best beginner’s amp: Blackstar Debut 50R
• Best metal amp: Victory The Kraken MKII
• Why you can trust Guitar.com

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Our pick: Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb

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Fender’s Tone Master amplifiers are pitched as modelling amps for those who hate modelling amps: no menus, no deep-editing, no complex multi-mode preamp selection. Instead, the modelling power is aimed squarely at a single amp – in this case, the Princeton Reverb. The result is a combo that sounds and looks basically indistinguishable from the real thing. Aside from that Tone Master badge, the best way to tell them apart is to pick them up, as this one’s literally half the weight of its bottle-fed counterpart.

The sounds are all there, and you can play it at home just as easily as you can on a stage. The power-reduction modes give you a consistent sound across all ends of the volume spectrum, and of course, achieve the awesome sound of a Fender combo breaking up without breaking any windows… or your relationship with your neighbours.

Need more? Read our Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb review.

Best solid-state amp head: Orange Tour Baby 100

Image: Press

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Digital modelling amps are all well and good, but analogue solid-state amps also have their advantages! And there’s perhaps no better example of that than Orange’s Tour Baby 100. It’s simultaneously a 100-watt powerhouse and a compact one-hand lift – while delivering a great sound thanks to its growling overdrive channel and sparkly clean channel. That built-in compressor helps you fast-track to a more interesting clean sound, too. And thanks to Orange’s general design ethos, it’s got a very versatile midrange-forward sound, great for many shades of rock and metal, and comes with a tour-ready gigbag for even more portability. Don’t trust anything less than bulletproof protection? Grab a rack-mount kit for it for even more ruggedness. It’s also pretty affordable at a hair under £500.

Need more? Read our Orange Tour Baby 100 review.

Best affordable amp: Boss Katana 50 MkII EX

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While the Tone Master Princeton Reverb is a very appealing prospect indeed, it’s still a relatively pricey amplifier. The Katana 50 MkII EX, however, is a good deal more affordable, and is just as happy on a stage as the Tone Master – but it can also provide excellent at-home practice sounds, through headphones, or its 12-inch speaker thanks to its power reduction switch. There’s a good range of sounds on tap here, with perfect cleans, chimey overdrive and full-bore metal all represented, plus a suite of effects thrown in, too. The EX version of the amp adds some extra footswitch control options, too – making going without a pedalboard a lot easier.

Need more? Read our Boss Katana 50 MkII EX review.

Best tube amp: Bad Cat Hot Cat 1×12

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Californian boutique brand Bad Cat has gone through, if not quite nine lives then several different iterations, but the current iteration was reborn in 2021 and overhauled the entire line of amps that had made the brand so sought-after in the first two decades of the 2000s. The Hot Cat is something of a statement of intent for the new Bad Cat – it might not be a hand-wired, super-high-end beast any more but it’s a classy combo for big cleans, edgy crunch and high-gain punishment, without you needing to remortgage your house. Arguably the most affordable way to get a slice of bona fide US-made boutique amp in 2023.

Need more? Read our Bad Cat Hot Cat 1×12 review.

Best modelling amp: Fender Mustang GTX100

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Loaded with a hefty 100 watts and a new custom-designed 12-inch Celestion speaker, the Mustang GTX100 is a very serious entry from Fender into the world of digital modelling combos. Unlike the Tone Master amps’ laser-focus, the Mustang GTX100 comes loaded with 39 amp models and 73 effects, which might just be more than you’ll ever need. It’s especially appealing as the GTX-7 foot controller is included in the price – this versatile bit of kit comes with a good number of footswitches, and makes using the GTX100 live without a pedalboard a breeze.

Need more? Read our Fender Mustang GTX100 review.

Best desktop amp: Yamaha THR30II

Image: Yamaha

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Arguably, the THR is the line of amps that invented this whole product category in the first place. There’s a good range of sounds, with 15 preamp models in total and effects ranging from subtle chorus to big reverbs. But this is all somewhat par for the course in 2024 – what gives the THR30II its edge are these two things: first, it looks like a cool retro radio and therefore can absolutely live on your coffee table without you having to plonk a big piece of obvious guitar equipment in the middle of your living room. Secondly, there’s a great range of I/O on offer, including direct USB recording and two quarter-inch line-outs.

Combine these two things with the sheer quality of the sounds, the THR30II nails what Yamaha has set out to do with the “third amp” approach. All of the sound and versatility of a “real” amp, none of the sacrifices of a practice amplifier. There’s also an acoustic version of the THR-30II, the THR-30IIA, which offers the voices of various microphones in lieu of a range of electric preamp modes, but just as much appealing good looks and versatile recording options.

Need more? Read our Yamaha THR30II review.

Best high-end amp: Marshall ST20H JTM Studio

Marshall ST20H JTM Studio. Image: Adam Gasson

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It’s no exaggeration to say that the JTM is part of the very fabric of rock music – after its introduction in 1962, it would shape the landscape of rock and blues by offering massive sounds to an exploding UK rock scene. This UK-made revamp of the JTM harkens back to the very earliest Marshall amps with that fawn cloth and ‘coffin’ Marshall badge. Sonically, the ST20H JTM Studio recreates all of the nuance of the original’s punchy, snarling take on a modified Fender bassman circuit, but there are some concessions to modernity, too. An effects loop and a power-reduction mode make this a very appealing prospect for the modern player indeed.

Need more? Read our Marshall ST20H JTM Studio review.

Best home amp: Positive Grid Spark Mini

Image: Adam Gasson

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The Spark Mini, Positive Grid’s adorable cube-shaped cousin of the full-sized Spark, is a massive acheivement in compact amplifier design. Because it doesn’t just sound good for a small practice amp. Nor does it just sound good for a modelling amp – it’s just a great sounding amp. Full stop. No qualifications. The passive radiator on the bottom of the amp – a similar thing to what you’ll find on a good modern bluetooth speaker – helps the pair of two-inch speakers create a lot more bass than would normally be possible. Combine this with quality modelling and an actually useful and intuitive companion app (it’s possible!), and you’ve got basically the perfect small amp for learning and playing around on at home.

Need more? Read our Positive Grid Spark Mini review.

Best gigging amp: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV

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If you know you’re going to be getting loud, then the Hot Rod Deluxe IV is an amazing option. It’s capable of moving more air than you could ever need, and its chewy tube overdrive sounds get even better if you bring some pedal friends along. If you need cleaner time-based effects, there’s an effects loop. Approachably priced, easily carriable from the boot of your car to the stage, reliable and versatile, there’s a reason the HRD is one of the most popular gigging workhorses around.

Need more? Read our Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV review.

Best combo amp: Blackstar St. James 50 EL34

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The pitch of the St. James series is this: a fully-fledged tube amp, but without the massive weight. A number of design changes to the regular tube amp format have been made, such as the use of a switching-mode power supply instead of a heavy transformer. The cabs and combos use a specially-made Celestion speaker with a lightweight frame and driver. The result is that the St James 50 EL34 is an easy one-hand lift – no mean feat for a fully-fledged 50-watt tube combo. That’d be all for naught if the sounds weren’t there, but luckily they are, with an excellent black-panel-style tonal palette that soaks up pedal tones amazingly. For an all-in-one combo package, it’s hard to argue with – and that’s not even mentioning the bevvy of smart features packed in, too!

Need more? Read our Blackstar St. James 50 EL34 review.

Best amp head: Orange OR30

Orange OR30

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From a lightweight tube combo with lots of smart features to a decidedly not lightweight tube head with zero smart features. Yes, the Orange OR30 is a made-in-the-UK tube head that promises old-school simplicity with just one channel. But that’s not to say it’s not versatile – the gain control has a frankly absurdly wide sweep, with everything from pristine cleans to the massive, roaring fuzziness Orange has become known for represented.

Combine that with built-like-a-tank construction, an effects loop and a low-power mode, it’s a great option for the modern player, despite its old-school approach. Notably, it’s also one of the loudest 30-watters out there – Orange claims it can kick out SPLs to rival 100-watt heads!

Need more? Read our Orange OR30 review.

Best amp pedal: Neural DSP Quad Cortex

Image: Neural DSP

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The world of amp-sim pedals is a wide and varied one, but for our money the Quad Cortex remains top of the heap when it comes to sheer modelling power and I/O capability. It might be magic, it might just be complex neural-net modelling – either way, the quality of the amplifier captures on offer here are astounding.

It’s not just their sonic fidelity – the models here also manage to capture that ever-elusive feel of real amplifiers. The unit itself is relatively compact, which, combined with its extensive I/O offerings, makes it a great option for gigging. You can replacing a whole complex amp and pedalboard setup with something the length and breadth of a laptop. The future is pretty neat, eh?

Need more? Read our Neural DSP Quad Cortex review.

Best busking amp: Positive Grid Spark Live

Positive Grid Spark Live. Image: Adam Gasson

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Not content with making an excellent small, low-volume home amplifier in the form of the Spark Mini, Positive Grid also wanted to create an equally innovative live tool. The Spark Live, rather than just being a larger Spark, is for all intents and purposes an entire live backline crammed into one compact enclosure.

It leverages the same smart tech that makes the Spark so easy to use, plus a few new bells and whistles, to cram a guitar amp, a bass amp and vocal processor all into the same enclosure, effectively a superpowered FRFR speaker that can easily support a small band. All very cool – even cooler is the fact that the rechargeable battery (sold separately) promises eight hours of performance time: absolutely perfect for busking.

Need more? Read our Positive Grid Spark Live review.

Best beginner’s amp: Blackstar Debut 50R

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What makes the Blackstar Debut 50R such an appealing prospect for absolute beginners is this: it’s simple. Not including a smorgasbord of digitally-modelled sounds on an amp aimed at absolute beginners is, for our money, a smart choice – as it’s all analogue, what you see is what you get.You’re already busy getting your head around an F barre chord – you don’t need the extra cognitive load of trying to remember how the preset recall button works. Instead, the Debut 50R does a great job of just letting you play the guitar.

That’s not to say it’s a totally stripped-back, old-school affair – there is a line-in for playing along to tracks, a fairly decent headphone out for direct recording and silent practice, a power-reduction mode for quietening things down. And when you’re ready to move from a bedroom to a stage, the Debut 50R can come with you. The 50-watt power section will be more than happy to keep up with a drummer. The rest is up to you!

Need more? Read our Blackstar Debut 50R review.

Best metal amp: Victory The Kraken MKII

Image: Victory Amplification

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The latest update to the Kraken, Victory Amplification’s flagship metal monster, refines an already great amp into an absolutely fantastic one. As well as an overall refine of the sound, major circuit additions come in the form of a new presence control – good for adding some cutting bite to things – and to a brand-new clean channel, acheived by attenuating the lower-gain, JCM800-based Gain I channel for a spongey, responsive clean sound woth bags of character. But, of course, the main appeal is the Gain II channel – a fire-breathing take on a modded 5150-style circuit.

The result is a near-perfect metal sound: plenty of crunch, more than enough gain, and it can be as aggressive as you like or as compressed as you like. That pretty much covers the metal guitar tonal palette, and the excellent performance at the other end of the gain scale makes this a very versatile offering indeed. Or, you know, good for that 10-second clean intro before 50 minutes of riffs.

Need more? Read our Victory The Kraken MKII review.

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