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Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian says touring with Pantera in the late 1990s was where he truly learned to drink and that Dimebag Darrell was his teacher in the trade…

Ian, 62, recalls the tour in a new interview with Metal Hammer, describing the 1997-98 run as “fucking chaos”. His clearest memory is of being sick after a night of heavy drinking, opening the bathroom door to find Dimebag waiting with another shot. When Ian pointed out that he had just thrown up, the Pantera guitarist brushed it off with a nickname and a piece of logic: “What are you talking about Baldini? Now you just have more room.”

• READ MORE: Gibson launches limited-edition Tom Petty Flying V guitars to mark the Heartbreakers’ 50th anniversary
  

Ian also remembers the tour buses. He would sometimes hop on the one shared by Dimebag and his drummer brother Vinnie Paul, which seemed a great idea at 3am. By 7am, he said, the party was still going and the pair had spent hours watching the same live Kiss videos on loop.

Dimebag’s reputation as a drinker was well established. He had his own signature drink, the Black Tooth Grin, named after a Megadeth lyric. In 2022, Machine Head’s Robb Flynn recounted a night when a very drunk Dimebag smashed one of his guitars into the floor, then went onstage and played a flawless show.

Dimebag was shot dead on stage in 2004, aged 38, while performing with Damageplan, the band he formed with Vinnie Paul after Pantera split.

The friendship between the two bands produced music as well as stories. Dimebag contributed guest solos to six Anthrax songs across three albums: Fueled and King Size on 1995’s Stomp 442, Inside Out and Born Again Idiot on 1998’s Vol. 8: The Threat Is Real and Strap It On and Cadillac Rock Box on 2003’s We’ve Come For You All.

Anthrax released their new album, Cursum Perficio, through Nuclear Blast last month. Parts were recorded at Studio 606, the California studio owned by Foo Fighter’s Dave Grohl. The band have no tour dates announced, having recently played a run of shows supporting Iron Maiden.

The post “What are you talking about, Baldini? Now you have more room”: Anthrax’s Scott Ian on how touring with Dimebag Darrell taught him “how to drink” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Gibson has released a limited run of 250 Flying V guitars honouring the 50th anniversary of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, alongside a lifestyle collection of apparel, accessories and collectibles developed with the Tom Petty Estate.

The guitars, dubbed the “Flying Five,” come in five gloss nitrocellulose finishes: Gainesville Gold, Graphite Metallic, Heartbreaker Red, Pearl White Metallic and Pelham Blue with only 50 made in each colour.

• READ MORE: “A whole new family of guitars”: PRS’s new Tekton series is aimed squarely at shredders
  

The design is inspired by the Heartbreakers logo from the band’s self-titled 1976 debut album. Adria Petty, the late musician’s daughter, said the logo has been a part of the brand’s identity since that first record and that the V was an essential part of the stage imagery for her father as the band rose to fame in the 1970s.

“The collection honours Tom and the Heartbreakers’ history while giving musicians and fans a new way to carry that spirit forward,” she said.

Specs

Each instrument has a mahogany body and neck, a SlimTaper neck profile and a rosewood fretboard with a 12-inch radius and 22 medium jumbo frets. Two 70s Tribute humbucker pickups are wired by hand with individual volume controls, a master tone control and a three-way selector. Hardwire is gold-plated and includes Grover Rotomatic tuners and a Nashville Tune-O-Matic bridge.

Commemorative touches include a Heartbreaker 50th truss rod cover and a reproduction of Petty’s signature on the back of the headstock. Every guitar ships in a Gibson hardshell case.

Apparel and collectibles

Made with Nashville-based apparel brand imogene + willie at the request of the Petty Estate, the line includes four American-made, screen-printed T-shirts, a patch-covered green military shirt jacket and a black “Backstage” work jacket. The most exclusive item is a black steerhide leather jacket, made with Schott N.Y.C., that reimagines the jacket Petty wore on the cover of the 1976 debut album. Only 75 will be made worldwide. Its striped satin lining nods to the black-and-white blazer Petty wore on the cover of the 1978 UK single Listen to Her Heart.

Other items include a Zippo lighter, a bandana, a snapback cap, a guitar strap, a pick tin, a sticker set and a Flying V mini guitar.

To develop the collection, Gibson sent a team to the Tom Petty Clubhouse in Van Nuys, California, to go through archived artifacts from the band’s history.

Learn more at Gibson.

The post Gibson launches limited-edition Tom Petty Flying V guitars to mark the Heartbreakers’ 50th anniversary appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

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Enjoy getting lost in the dreamy lullabies of Lord Huron? Get a thrill out of Gregory Alan Isakov’s guitar work? Then look no further than Yuben Grey, the chilled out folk artist from Rhode Island who makes music to soothe the mind.

Amid our ever quickening culture of information overload and shortening attention spans, his craft prioritises slowness and the value of space. We chat to Grey ahead of his next musical project to learn more about how he found his way to being the artist he is today, and how music has become an anchoring lifeline among some challenging personal experiences.

Hi Yuben! Tell us about your story with music. How did you find your way to guitar?

“Music is still my side gig. It was never really supposed to be the main thing, it was just a hobby. It started getting more serious about a year ago. My dad showed me [how to play when] I was seven or eight. I completely abandoned it for years and started making beats. I was making money being a producer but I [wanted] to be an artist, so I picked up my guitar again and was just messing around for a few years.

“I was married but I got a divorce, and that is actually how things started, really. It was the first time I was adjusting to having my son half the time so I didn’t really know what to do. I borrowed a guitar from my neighbour because she went out of town; it was broken so I stitched it up, and that’s when I recorded an album called The Moon Room. I guess it just hit the right people!”

What artists or guitarists in particular are you inspired by?

“I absolutely love Gregory Alan Isakov and Lord Huron. [Their] songs are so inspiring. I would play Red Dead Redemption, [have a] chill ride around with the horse, and I would have their music on in the background. They definitely inspire the music that I make big time; it’s very spacey, atmospheric, ethereal. It’s very relaxing.”

Your track Roman’s Song is a great example of that. Take us inside the track – what’s it about?

“When I was going through [my divorce], I had to fly home to go see some family because I had some problems. I was getting ready to go to the airport, and I remember feeling like I wasn’t really escaping my own home. It just surrounded me, the thoughts and the feelings I had about everything around me. I wrote [the song] within an hour. I kept imagining a ballroom, a dance that never ends; no matter what, you can’t leave. Originally it was called Crooked Hands. My son picked up that I was playing it and absolutely loved it. He wanted to hear it again and again. Eventually I was like, you know what? If I release this, I’m going to call it //Roman’s Song//, which is his name. It seemed like it would calm him down whenever he was crying.”

It seems like music’s been quite a lifeline for you. What guitars do you like to use to tell your story? What gear do you gravitate towards the most?

“Right now I use an Epiphone Hummingbird. It’s my go-to because it just sounds beautiful. I feel like I’m still learning, but I love a warm, soft sound. I signed my guitar’s body so I can remind myself of what I am doing, and why I first started doing it.”

Looking back on your music journey so far, what makes you feel the most proud of yourself and your craft?

“For years, I pressured myself into making what was ‘current’ all the time. The best thing for me was becoming authentic, making exactly whatever I imagined. That was the most freeing thought: I can just make whatever comes to mind.”

Have your early experiences as a producer informed how you make art? What skills have you carried across to how you build a song?

“Absolutely. I think being a producer first helped me so much because I make everything myself. I’ll sit for a few hours and I can build a whole track, but also make sure it sounds professional too. It helps me to be self-sufficient.”

You’re probably used to working collaboratively from your production work too. What artist do you dream of working with now?

“Oh my gosh, Gregory Alan Isakov. I think I’d cry… I would definitely cry.”

What has being a musician taught you about yourself as a person?

“When I create a song, I tend to build a world with it in my own head. I’ve realised how much I build stories, how much of a storyteller I am… I love storytelling, but I also love space [in a song]. When I was a kid, my dad used to play Beethoven and say, ‘Close your eyes and see what you can imagine. What can you understand from this? What can you picture?’ I love doing that with music now.”

Where do you recommend people start with your music? What song would you tell them to listen to first? 

“It definitely has to be within The Moon Room, I would say The Night You Came Undone.”

What else do you have lined up right now? Are you playing any shows or working on some new music?

“I currently don’t play any shows, I’m trying to build more before I start doing that. As for new music, I have been writing another EP, it’s gonna be named Paper Bones. It’s very folk-y and has fall, autumn vibes. Fall is my favourite time of year, so I’m in the time of my life right now!”

What do you hope people take from your music as a listener? 

“I feel like my music [provides] a chill vibe for when you’re alone and you’re reflecting, but relaxing. I struggle with really bad anxiety, so to be a safe space for somebody to reflect and think about their stuff without feeling anxious, I feel like that’s the biggest thing.”

Discover more from Yuben Grey on Spotify and BandLab.

The post Meet Yuben Grey: the folk artist using cosy guitars and spacey sounds to tackle anxiety appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ever felt like you need a boost? And not the slightly obscure Cadbury’s chocolate bar? Yes, these perhaps underrated pedals can really bring a pedalboard together, and despite their often simple operation, can offer surprisingly versatile shake-ups to your sound. Not all boosts are created equal, though, so let’s explore ten different excellent stompboxes that’ll give your tone a lift.

Why do I need a boost pedal?

So, before we dive in – what makes a boost a boost and not an overdrive? Essentially, a boost’s main purpose is to increase the level of your signal, without adding a significant amount of distortion. Overdrives will also include a stage (or stages!) that adds distortion in the process, which will limit the output level.

You’ll see a lot of boosts designated as “clean” boosts – these have the goal of linearly lifting the level of your signal across the board, with mostly a flat response across the bass, midrange and treble. If you have a the headroom for it, this can lead to a simple increase in volume (great for something like a solo boost). However if you use a clean boost in front of something that’s already limiting the signal, like an overdrive or a low-headroom amplifier, engaging it won’t lead to as much of a volume uplift – but it will increase the level of saturation. Using a clean boost right at the start of the chain isn’t always about getting more distortion, though – if you’re using two guitars over a set with vastly different output levels, a clean boost can help a quieter guitar play better with the rest of a rig.

Some boosts are more characterful than “clean” boosts, and will focus on certain frequencies. The Dallas Rangemaster is an early example of this approach, and it’s often cited as tonal inspiration for more modern pedals. It’s designated as a “treble booster”, but in reality a circuit like this often focuses on boosting the upper mids while cutting a little bit of bass. A boost like this can add clarity to a more distorted tone thanks to that bass cut, while also adding saturation to those pleasing midrange frequencies. (For tonal reference, Brian May and Tony Iommi’s early sounds both revolved around the use of one).

So, why not an overdrive? There are lots of reasons – overdrives themselves can work as great character boosts (TubeScreamers and Klons both do a commendable job here), but dedicated boost pedals are compelling in their simple operation (sometimes paired with a smaller footprint), and not every overdrive will put out the volume increase you need. So let’s dive into 10 fantastic pedals that’ll suit any budget or use-case!

At a glance:

• Best mini boost: TC Electronic Spark Mini
• Best budget boost: Electro-Harmonix LPB-1
• Best op-amp boost: MXR Micro-Amp
• Best Echoplex-style boost: Xotic EP Booster
• Best modern treble boost: CatalinBread Naga Viper MkII
• Best premium mini boost: Keeley Electronics Katana Mini
• Most aggressive boost: ZVEX Super Hard-On
• Best vintage-style treble boost: Vox VTB-1
• Best vintage-style preamp boost: Boss BP-1W
• Best multi-mode boost: Crazy Tube Circuits Super Conductor
• Why you can trust Guitar.com

Best mini boost: TC Electronic Spark Mini

If you need a flawless, transparent volume lift without coloring your tone, this $50 micro-pedal from TC Electronic is a steal. Built around a high-headroom op-amp architecture, it’s ideal for matching guitar outputs or kicking in a pure solo boost. Its momentary switching lets you accent certain phrases or short solos with ease, too.

Best budget boost: Electro-Harmonix LPB-1

This simple transistor-based boost is a reissue of EHX’s 1968 design – it’s great for fattening up single-coils and pushing vintage tube amps into thick saturation, with a little bit of a warmer, low-mid focused sound when compared with the more truly transparent Spark boost.

Best op-amp boost: MXR Micro-Amp

The MXR Micro Amp is one of those ‘industry standard’ pedals, with an op-amp-based design that incredibly reliable, flat-EQ volume. It works just as well as an always-on buffer and signal strengthener as it does as a massive solo boost. With just a single knob on the standard version (the Micro Amp+ offers bass and treble controls as well) and MXR’s solid-as-hell build quality, it’ll be a reliable and easy-to-use pedalboard companion for years to come.

Best Echoplex-style boost: Xotic EP Booster

Rather than offering a flat frequency response, this discrete JFET circuit from Xotic intentionally colors your signal with the magical, EQ-sweetening shimmer of a vintage Echoplex EP-3 tape echo. Lots of players favour it as an always-on sweetener, or a tool to add three-dimensional depth to sterile solid-state amps – but its preamp-esque character can do a great job of making a solo stand out too!

Best modern treble boost: CatalinBread Naga Viper MkII

Vintage Dallas Rangemasters are hard to come by, but CatalinBread’s modernised four-knob take on the format offers all of the upper-mid bite without having to shell out hundreds (or more!) for a finicky vintage original. It swaps the germanium for a silicon transistor tuned to emulate classic a Dallas Rangemaster’s character, and adds in an attenuator to bring out the pedal’s character without overloading it with hot modern pickups or gain pedals placed before it.

Best premium mini boost: Keeley Electronics Katana Mini

Achieving tube-like dynamics from a tiny enclosure is no small feat, but this $120 pedal from Keeley Electronics pulls it off using dual cascaded JFET transistors. It delivers an exceptionally transparent boost that preserves your core EQ while adding just a hint of harmonic richness, like a single. With internal micro-switches for added overdrive, it’s ideal for pristine soloing or pushing a clean amp into sweet saturation.

Most aggressive boost: ZVEX Super Hard-On

Don’t let the name fool you – this is more than just a juvenile allusion to increased power! With high impedance, high brightness and a staggering amount of volume, the ZVEX SHO is a discrete MOSFET circuit that can breathe brilliant life into dark or dull signals. Its explosive headroom and top-end sparkle make it an aggressive tool for pushing amps into natural overdrive or reviving complex pedalboards. The bias-based output may crackle when you adjust it, sure, but that musical quirk hasn’t stopped stadium-rocking guitarists like Matt Bellamy and J Mascis exploiting its massive, cutting clarity.

Best vintage-style treble boost: Vox VTB-1

Designed to capture the sound of Rangemaster-style treble boosters, this re-voices a silicon BC109 transistor to echo some of that germanium character. It is tailor-made for driving a Vox AC30 or AC15 into screaming, touch-sensitive British rock overdrive. While it is a modern release, it meticulously recreates the edge-of-breakup dynamics and volume-knob cleanup that saw the original used by legends like Rory Gallagher and Brian May.

Best vintage-style preamp boost: Boss BP-1W

Priced around $169, this   Waza Craft pedal is a highly versatile preamp boost. It authentically recreates the legendary, tone-sweetening analogue preamp circuits found in the CE-1 Chorus Ensemble and RE-201 Space Echo. With a level and a gain control, you can adjust how much light saturation and tonal colouration you want to add, and there’s also a third mode that offers a more natural flavour if the vintage preamps are a little too characterful. Thanks to being built in the ever-reliable Boss format, too, the pedal offers reliable silent switching and pretty bulletproof build quality.

Best multi-mode boost: Crazy Tube Circuits Super Conductor

Why settle for one circuit topology when you can have four? At roughly $180, this premium pedal from Crazy Tube Circuits packs a silicon Rangemaster, a JFET Echoplex, an op-amp Micro Amp-style circuit, and a discrete MOSFET boost into a single box. Offering adaptable EQ profiles and varying input impedances, it is perfect for players switching between vastly different guitars and amps. That doesn’t come cheap, as it’s quite a boutique offering, but the flipside is a broad set of voices that could mean it’s the last boost pedal you buy!

Why You Can Trust Us

Every year, Guitar.com reviews a huge variety of new products – from the biggest launches to cool boutique effects – and our expert guitar reviewers have decades of collective experience, having played everything from Gibson ’59 Les Pauls to the cheapest Squiers.

That means that when you click on a Guitar.com buyer’s guide, you’re getting the benefit of all that experience to help you make the best buying decision for you. What’s more, every guide written on Guitar.com was put together by a guitar obsessive just like you. You can trust that every product recommended in those guides is something that we’d be happy to have in our own rigs.

The post The 10 best boost pedals for guitarists 2026, from budget to boutique appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

€350, butterflyeffects.world

Musicians are creatures of habit. Time and time again, we find ourselves circling back to the same guitars, amps and effects that have been around for well over half a century. All of that to say, we don’t exactly have the best relationship with change. I mean, who doesn’t need another Klone to add to the collection?

• READ MORE: Walrus Audio Lüm review – one small box, three colossal reverb effects

However, in recent years, there’s been a growing trend with granular delay and reverb pedals, with musicians increasingly embracing the unpredictability and spontaneous creativity these effects can inspire. So much so, in fact, that it feels like you can’t turn around without another brand tossing its own interpretation of granular effects into an increasingly crowded market.

Enter Belgian newcomer Butterfly Effects and its first foray into the pedal world, Dobbo. A granular delay that has, as the kids say, officially entered the chat.
But it’s also entering a space where established pedal makers are already offering their own takes on granular processing. Does Dobbo bring something genuinely new to the conversation, or is it simply another voice in an increasingly crowded room?

What is it?

At its core, Dobbo is a granular delay pedal designed to spark curiosity through its various randomized textures. Now, if you’re unfamiliar with the term “granular delay” and wondering what exactly that means, here’s the brief explainer.

Much like a traditional delay, a granular delay stores your audio in a temporary buffer. The difference is that it then chops that signal into tiny sections, often referred to as “grains,” which can vary in length and timing before being rearranged and manipulated in different ways. The result can range from chaotic, glitchy textures to beautiful, constantly evolving soundscapes. Dobbo does both.

TL;DR: Dobbo takes tiny bits of your sound, rearranges them, and lets things get weird, but in a creatively fun way.

Build quality and usability

There’s a refreshing approach to colour in the design of the Dobbo – it’s bright primary-hued and in a strange way almost childlike. This clean and carefully thought-out approach feels very sensible considering just how integral color is to understanding how this pedal works (more on that later).

The minimalist graphic style is also welcome when you contrast the large number of controls on offer – seven knobs, five switches, and single soft switch. On paper, that sounds like a lot, but navigating it is an intuitive doddle thanks to the clever way that Dobbo has used colour instead of text to label the thing.

Each parameter has a corresponding color, making it surprisingly easy to understand what’s happening at a glance. For those of us who would rather dive headfirst into creating weird sounds than spend an evening curled up with an instruction manual, that’s a welcome surprise.

Elsewhere, Dobbo has the modern conveniences you’d expect from a pedal this ambitious. There’s USB-C for firmware updates, alongside high impedance stereo input and outputs, plus an expression/MIDI jack for all the cool nerds out there.

Couple that with eight onboard presets and tap tempo, and there’s quite a bit packed into Dobbo’s colorful enclosure. And if you’re already mentally rearranging your pedalboard, don’t worry: it’s roughly the same size as a Little Big Muff Pi.

Rather than turn this into a lengthy explainer of every knob and switch, let’s focus on the three controls that, in my opinion, are the most important to understanding Dobbo: Pitch, Chance and Space.

Pitch controls the pitch of your grains across four octaves, from two octaves below your original signal to two octaves above it. Just bear in mind that how it behaves is also determined by the corresponding Pitch mode toggle.

Chance is where things get really interesting. It controls the amount of randomization applied to four of Dobbo’s main parameters, with each one color-coded to its corresponding control with five LEDs laid out like the side of a die. It’s a clever visual language that makes something potentially complicated much easier to understand.

Finally, Space controls the spatial characteristics of your grains. In layman’s terms, it essentially adds reverb to each individual grain, giving those tiny pieces of your signal a greater sense of depth and, well… space. It’s a relatively simple idea on paper, but it becomes pretty important once you start using Dobbo in real time.

Sounds

Since I’m a self proclaimed experimental soundscape enthusiast who likes to get weird, I figured there were few tools better suited for the job than an offset guitar running into an amp capable of beautiful cleans and a little edge of breakup grit. Because realistically, what guitar is more strongly associated with experimental textures and soundscapes than the Jazzmaster?

Paired up with my beloved Marshall combo, I started messing around with a few of the presets included in the manual, beginning with Rich Chorus, arguably the safest place for newcomers to start. It takes advantage of the Pitch portion of Chance and essentially transforms Dobbo into a granular chorus. You still get the bleeps, bloops, and slightly unpredictable character you’d expect from a granular effect, but they’re joined by a warble that feels more like a traditional chorus and considerably less alien.

Strumming a few chords through it sounds a bit like Adam Granduciel’s chorus tones from The War on Drugs being filtered through the electronic weirdness of Radiohead’s Kid A. And yes, that combination is every bit as fun as it sounds.

Rate and Time also do a ton of heavy lifting here. Adjusting the two alongside Pitch, Space, and Chance quickly had me channeling my inner Pachuca Sunrise-era Minus the Bear, turning otherwise straightforward guitar leads into quick chops, stops, and almost synth like bursts of buttery stutter. Surprisingly, it all feels considerably more musically usable than I initially expected from something this unpredictable.

All of that sounds pretty cool, but I also don’t want to oversell Dobbo’s ease of use because, ironically, its accessibility is both one of its greatest strengths and one of its biggest shortcomings.

There’s a caveat however: it’s easy to use provided you already have some experience with granular effects. For players whose creative coloring tends to be a little more traditional, all of those grains, chops, pitch shifts, and randomization can become overwhelming pretty quickly, especially once Chance enters the equation.

The visual layout certainly makes the learning curve considerably less intimidating, but it doesn’t eliminate it altogether. This is still granular synthesis we’re talking about. If your idea of adventurous delay begins and ends with your grandpa’s DD-3, Dobbo is going to require a little more patience before the weirdness starts making sense.

Should I buy one?

With the granular effects category continuing to grow and more companies throwing their hats into the ring, you might be asking yourself: is Dobbo actually worth buying?

The answer is absolutely.

Dobbo is fun and creatively inspiring in a way that really has to be played to be fully appreciated. For anyone looking for a pedal capable of building glitchy ambient textures, unpredictable soundscapes, and wonderfully weird sounds, there’s a lot here that makes Dobbo worth exploring over some of the other options in an increasingly crowded category.

And the biggest selling point is undoubtedly Chance.

It’s the feature that gives Dobbo its personality and turns something as simple as a guitar part into something unexpected. Of course, that unpredictability also means Dobbo isn’t necessarily a pedal built around immediacy. If you want to plug in, turn a couple of knobs, and know exactly what’s going to happen, at a relatively affordable price point, this might not be the pedal for you.

But if you’re willing to embrace a little unpredictability and, quite literally, take a chance on Chance, there’s a wonderfully creative reward waiting for you on your next ambient endeavor.

Alternatives

With granular effects becoming all the rage nowadays, there are a few alternatives I’d recommend if you’re not quite ready to take a Chance on Dobbo.

First, for anyone just getting their feet wet in the world of granular effects, there’s the Walrus Audio Fable. At around three quarters of the price of Dobbo, it’s one of the most rewarding options out there for soundscape enthusiasts, offering plenty of experimental weirdness without feeling completely overwhelming.

For more of an all in one experience, there’s the brand new AC Noises Continua. It offers its own unique take on grains, bleeps, bloops, and unpredictable textures, while giving you plenty of room to venture into more traditional ambient territory as well.

Lastly, for anyone on a budget who isn’t quite ready to venture into the pricier side of granular effects, there’s the JHS 3 Series Glitch Delay. It’s considerably simpler than something like Dobbo, but that’s also part of its appeal. For ambient newbies looking to dip their toes into glitchy, chopped up textures without breaking the bank.

The post Butterfly Effects Dobbo review: “there’s a wonderfully creative reward waiting for you” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

PRS has announced an entirely new range of guitars, the Tekton series, and they’re aimed at the “most technical of modern players”.

Comprising four new models – the hardtail bridge-loaded Tekton, two-point trem-equipped Tekton T, Tekton Floyd and seven-string Tekton SVN – the series introduces a completely new body shape for PRS, plus a thinner neck and flatter fretboard for speed, plus longer scale lengths and PRS-designed pickups engineered to get the most out of digital rigs. 

• READ MORE: PRS Silver Sky x Land Rover Defender: an unlikely collaboration that goes kinda hard

PRS’s new Stylus pickups have been designed specifically for the Tekton series, and feature Alnico 5 magnets voiced for “clarity, articulation and character. Usable in split or full humbucking modes, these pickups are said to possess a flatter output than other humbuckers, with the objective of retaining character while catering more to digital gear.

Also notable is the fact that Tekton series guitars have the thinnest body and thinnest neck of any guitar in the standard PRS product lineup. It’s said to find a “middle ground” between the flagship Custom 24 and offset Vela models. Upper fret access is facilitated by an exaggerated scoop, while a comfortable belly carve ensures comfort during long shredding sessions.

In terms of build material, the Tekton Floyd has an alder body, while the other three have mahogany backs with highly figured mango tops.

The fretboard looks uber-sleek, with a 16” radius, stainless steel frets, plus a new simplistic inlay design with offset dots – another first for PRS. These guitars also feature Luminlay side dots for guidance in low light environments. Each fingerboard is made of Indian ebony, a material known to form mineral deposits as the tree grows. This leads to spots or streaks in the grain – known as “birthmarks” – which make every fretboard on each Tekton series guitar unique.

Every Tekton series guitar also sports a thin near “D shape maple neck, with a hormigo strength rod for support – similar to carbon fibre – and the same material found in PRS’s Chleo Herman Li signature model.

Any guitarist who has dabbled with higher speeds knows the importance of having the right string spacing. And PRS says this was a key part of the design process for the Tekton series. String spacing on the Tekton series is the same as the Silver Sky and the Fiore models, a little wider than PRS’s traditional spacing, catering to more advanced shred techniques like sweep picking, for example.

“This is not just introducing a new model. We are planting a flag for a whole new family of guitars. Since day one, PRS has been built around a combination of player feedback and our experience as guitar makers,” says Jim Cullen, Director of Sales at PRS Guitars. 

“Listening to musicians while continually refining our craft has helped us create instruments that serve as tools for a wide range of players. Over the years, we have heard a growing call for more modern spec’d PRS guitars. The Tekton is our answer to that call.”

Learn more about the Tekton series at PRS.

The post “A whole new family of guitars”: PRS’s new Tekton series is aimed squarely at shredders appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Irish carbon fibre guitar specialist Emerald Guitars has made the decision to abruptly discontinue its entire product range in order to make way for a new line of instruments.

While confirmed orders of previous-generation models will be fulfilled, all 16 are no longer available to purchase. They make way for four new next-gen X20 models, plus an all-new blueprint, the X20 Noir.

The four new next-gen X20 models – the X20, X20 Short-Scale, X20 12-String and X20 Nylon – are all highly customisable, with customers able to pick between different veneer types, colours and other specifications via an online 3D Guitar Builder. The core X20 range seeks to combine “acoustic performance with beauty and customisation”, Emerald says.

Meanwhile, the all-new X20 Noir has a more standard spec sheet. “A focused specification and streamlined production allow us to bring our carbon fibre craftsmanship to more players at a more accessible price,” the company says.

• READ MORE: We’re feeling positively fantastic about these Positive Grid deals at Guitar Center – save over $100 on a Spark amp and more!

The substantial new overhaul to Emerald’s product lineup coincides with a newly completed manufacturing facility which was built to cope with growing demand, and will see “improvements to the manufacturing process”.

Core to each new X20 model is a newly redesigned soundhole that flows across the top and side of each instrument, alongside an updated neck profile, and truss rod adjustment accessible via this new soundhole, meaning a tidier looking headstock.

Emerald’s new Noir blueprint introduces a “distinct” new identity for the brand’s product lineup. Aiming for a recognisable visual character with a “straightforward buying experience”, this one isn’t customisable, but features a sculpted carbon fibre body, offset soundhole and updated neck profile, along with a distinctive Crystal Ice carbon finish and an onboard pickup, preamp and tuner.

The streamlined buying experience and lack of customisation options on the Noir does mean it clocks in cheaper, though, at just $1,495 / €1,595 / £1,295, compared with the £4k-plus base price of the core X20 range models.

These models mark the first stage of a new chapter for Emerald Guitars, with the company eyeing up more redesigned models for “progressive introduction” throughout 2027 and beyond.

Emerald Guitars appeared on the Guitar.com Cover earlier this year, when founder Alistair Hay told us about how his previous career in Formula 1 powerboat racing and a chance purchase of a guitar magazine while waiting for a delayed flight in 1999 led him to map his expertise onto the world of acoustic guitars.

“A racing boat has to actually work with the vibrations of the water: to flex and move. That really is the essence of a really good quality acoustic guitar too,” he said.

Learn more about Emerald Guitars’ refreshed product lineup.

The post Emerald Guitars just discontinued its entire product range – but it makes way for an exciting new lineup of carbon fibre guitars appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The Taylor Swift of 2026 is a unique cultural force. A polarising pop billionaire whose chokehold on the modern music industry is pretty much unprecedented. In the last three years alone we’ve seen her Eras Tour redefine what an event tour could be. We’ve seen her Life Of A Showgirl album shatter records in sales, chart performance and streaming numbers. And her life has become such a matter of public interest she even managed to squeeze in the most talked about wedding of the century.

• READ MORE: These are Taylor Swift’s six biggest guitar influences

But 20 years ago this week, before she became this monocultural force – long before the term ‘Swiftie’ had entered the public lexicon – a young girl released an unassuming country-pop album that she’d written in her bedroom on an acoustic guitar.

Origin myths about Swift’s breaking into the music industry abound, but the one that we generally agree upon seems to be that she persuaded her whole family to uproot from a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania to move to Nashville to try to make it as a country singer. At age 14, she turned down a development deal with RCA in favour of signing with a brand new record label called Big Machine, and the rest is history.

In the twenty years since, Swift has reinvented herself and her sound many times over, and the guitar has remained a core part of her live artistry throughout many of these eras. Even so, it’s easy to forget how important her guitar was to her music and her identity in those early days.

Drop In The Ocean

Listening back to her debut in 2026, you’re struck by how central the guitar is to everything she does – to the point where it’s explicitly the fulcrum of the track, Teardrops On My Guitar.

The third track on her debut is an early mission statement, that uses metanarrative details to describe her own process of turning pain, in this case, romantic rejection, into art. If you’ve never listened to Taylor Swift before, brace yourself for this stunning and oft-overlooked early highlight of her career.

A melancholic country moment of teenage melodrama, Teardrops… captures everything about Swift’s creative process. In a recent interview with the New York Times, Swift acknowledged the fact that a large portion of her fanbase fixate on the “paternity test”, i.e. what the song is about and who inspired it.

But in the line “he’s the reason for the teardrops on my guitar”, she positions the man as the muse, while Swift’s pen and her own guitar create something beautiful and artistic out of hurt. At the centre of this image? Her trusty guitar was the only thing she could use to spin what she was feeling into a compelling story.

Now that she’s the most famous musician in the world, it’s easy to forget that Swift’s early success was hard-won, and based on real graft with her guitar. She’s spoken on several occasions about turning up to writing sessions with seasoned professional writers with a guitar in hand, songs half or fully written.

Practical too, was the guitar when showing off her music to impress industry folks. She handed out CDs, yes, but in the early days she’d literally play her music to anyone who would listen. The promotional cycle for her debut largely revolved around a mammoth in-person tour of radio stations where Swift would perform live on air, and she didn’t need a band or a backing track to do it.

This self-reliance helped build her brand as a young star with creative control, an important distinction which has carried through to the later years of her career.

But more so than just practicality, the image of the guitar represents something bigger and stronger in the wider Swift universe, especially in those early years. It is the instrument and her devotion to it, that allowed her agency, something which sets her apart from her peers.

Creative Control

We weren’t in the boardrooms; we will never truly know whether Swift was the first teenage girl popstar who was given full creative reign over her career, but it would be disingenuous to pretend that she was the first one sold to us as such.

Her most prescient predecessor, Avril Lavigne, was positioned as the anti-Britney and her attitude, her “I know who I am/anything but ordinary” stance, was a big part of that. Quite how much of that was just spine… well. The credits behind Lavigne’s smash debut Let Go have been contested in the years since, and Avril made no secret of the fact that it wasn’t exactly the album she wanted to make (sophomore goth-rock effort Under My Skin was much more in line with her actual tastes, and did not resonate as strongly)

Lavigne’s later career has been somewhat burdened by this, in a way that Swift’s early success and material hasn’t. There was something about the way Swift carried herself from the very beginning that made you think she knew exactly what she was doing, and what she wanted.

It’s the sort of confidence and artistic focus that made people want to take a gamble on her – an unwavering competency, dedication and self-belief which seemed to come from within, rather than a marketing campaign.

There was never any doubt that these were her songs, this was her career, and she was in charge of all of it. So much of this was communicated by her guitar, the symbol of authenticity, of ownership, of her songwriting prowess.

That realism – of being a confident, guitar-toting songwriter who wasn’t following the mainstream trends of that moment, resonated strongly with a generation of young people. It felt like we were watching our own stories play out in an authentic and relatable way.

Return On Investment

As someone who was a kid obsessed with pop music around this time, Swift’s agency felt revolutionary to me at that moment. You felt the authenticity of it, because it felt like she was in charge of her music, and in charge of how she wanted to be presented to the world – as a musician, not simply as a singer. That made it easy for teenagers to invest in her music not just in a passive, listening sense, but in more active ways as well.

The image of Swift on a bed with a guitar abounds, in the music video for Teardrops… and in countless early photoshoots and remains central to her iconography. That made it all the more natural for fans to make playing the guitar part of their own exploration of her work – there’s a reason why Swift is often cited as one of the most influential modern guitar players.

As Swift has ascended to the very top of the modern musical pantheon, her muse has regularly pushed the guitar out of the focal point. On Life Of A Showgirl the maximalist pop production of Max Martin and Shellback feels about as diametrically opposed to that enduring image of Swift as a young girl, shut up alone in her bedroom crafting songs straight from her journal entries as you can get.

Even when she leans back into moments that centre the guitar more overtly – such as the recent Toy Story 5-tie in I Knew It, I Knew You – it’s usually her more guitar literate producers like Jack Antonoff or Aaron Dessener actually picking up a six-string on record.

Yet the guitar remains an essential part of the Swift mythos to this day. The Eras Tour showed her relationship with the instrument remains strong – the carefully chosen guitars she used on stage are clear evidence of that. What’s more, Taylor’s signature Swift Baby Taylor model remains a constant part of the brand’s signature line-up, while her official store sells tie-in Epiphone acoustic guitars emblazoned with her album covers – reminding us all what an essential part of her artistry the acoustic remains.

The mixed reaction to Showgirl from fans and critics alike presents an interesting moment for Swift as she marks 20 years since she first charmed us as that girl in her bedroom with an acoustic guitar. Predicting her next move is never easy, but if her next Era finds her back with a guitar in hand again, it would be a canny move that would remind us of the innocence, but also the power and singularity which came with the early days of one of music’s most legendary and impactful careers.

The post How Taylor Swift’s debut album put the guitar at the heart of her artistry appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Chuck Berry was pretty damn protective of his instruments – in fact, he once punched Keith Richards in the face just because the Rolling Stones guitarist touched his guitar. However, despite his efforts fiercely defending his guitars, nothing could protect them from his love of Cadillacs.

You might be wondering how a convertible Cadillac could possibly pose a threat to Berry’s Gibson guitar babies. Well, the top of a convertible car doesn’t just disappear – it folds up into the boot. And, if you’re an absentminded guitarist, sometimes that boot contains your shiny new axe…

• READ MORE: Jackson’s new Legends Series celebrates the influence of Randy Rhoads, Marty Friedman, Scott Ian and David Ellefson on the brand’s legacy

In a new interview with Guitarist, Berry’s son, Chuck Berry Jr, explains how his father crushed at least two guitars in the boot of his Cadillacs. One poor victim was one of Berry’s Gibson ES-330s. “My dad had several Cadillac convertibles, and, one time, he forgot his guitar was in the boot,” he remembers. “He lets the top down and the mechanism crushes the case…”

“He did the same thing to a 345,” Berry Jr adds with a laugh.

Of course, Berry tried not to make a habit of breaking guitars. It’s a very different attitude to, say, The Who’s Pete Townshend, who apparently used to break and fix his guitar four times a day, even telling Jimmy Fallon that his axes ended up being “more glue and string [than anything else]”. Even Jimi Hendrix became a routine guitar smasher eventually, chasing the thrill of a theatrical act of vandalism. But, in the world of Berry, he had plenty of respect for his axe.

Despite the unfortunate loss of his Gibsons, Berry’s love of Gibsons is undeniable. While the rock and roll pioneer started out with a Kay and Silverstone, with his son asserting that 1959’s Maybellene (a track that, ironically, mentions Cadillacs) was recorded on a Kay, his legacy will always be tied with the Gibson brand.

The post Chuck Berry destroyed multiple guitars because he loved driving Cadillac convertible cars: “He lets the top down and the mechanism crushes the case” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Even the most refined guitarists can struggle from time to time. Hell, Metallica’s James Hetfield thinks Master of Puppets is tricky, and Brian May describes the Bohemian Rhapsody riff as “unnatural”. But that’s what separates the rookies from the pros – a pro won’t back down from a challenge.

Steve Vai and Joe Satriani in particular have made a point of pushing themselves in their joint project, SATCHVAI. Alongside challenging riffs, they also strayed far out of their comfort zone; for the track Old Sins Have Long Shadows, Vai braved it out with a fretless guitar. “They’re not my expertise… I struggle with them!” Vai admits in a new interview with Guitarist.

• READ MORE: Jackson’s new Legends Series celebrates the influence of Randy Rhoads, Marty Friedman, Scott Ian and David Ellefson on the brand’s legacy

Typically, Vai is known for his excellent fretboard tap dancing. Without the frets, though, he felt lost. In many ways, a fretless axe is the ultimate test for a guitarist, as scrapping the frets essentially throws all conventional chords out the window. It almost transforms an axe into an off-kilter violin. However, Vai knew that the track in questioned required a fretless guitar to capture a “ghostly” feel.

“[That was] one of the big challenges for me…” he says. “When I approached [that track] one side of me is thinking ‘My God what am I going to do?’ But to get that ghostly, weird, offbeat riff, it had to be [a fretless guitar], y’know? All the vibrato and little shakes – it doesn’t sound like a guitar. It sounds like a ghostly spirit.”

Other challenges took less intimidating forms – like opting for a nylon-stringed guitar instead of a bold electric. “The nylon string intro to The Sea Of Emotion Pt 2,” Satriani says. “When I first composed that, I had full distortion, stereo echo, chorus and I’m playing it on electric guitar… but the song made this journey from a grown man who still thinks like a 14 year old, sitting by his amplifier, having a rock ‘n’ roll moment, to seeing that I should play it on a nylon-string and leave space for what Steve did, which is that electric violin-type dreamscape.”

“It was a piece of cake on the electric, but not on the acoustic…” he laughs.

SATCHVAI’s debut, The Sea of Emotion, drops on 6 November.

The post “My god, what am I going to do?”: Steve Vai and Joe Satriani are two of the greatest guitarists of all time, but these instruments made them panic appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$279.99/£259, walrusaudio.com

The story behind the Walrus Audio Lüm tells us that guitarists are a bloody nightmare. Dammit, do we want a multi-mode soundscaping reverb pedal with presets in a compact enclosure or don’t we?

• READ MORE: Source Audio Pathways review: “a pedal that sits comfortably between the worlds of modernity and tradition”

When Walrus Audio decided to discontinue the Slötva because of poor sales, the answer to that question appeared to be a clear no. But then, finding itself with a bunch of leftover PCB assemblies for Slötvas that nobody wanted, it did a bit of firmware tweakage and came up with last year’s limited-edition Lüm – mostly to avoid chucking all that unused hardware away. This time, though, it did sell… so much so that the Lüm is now back as a permanent fixture of the Walrus range.

In truth, the words ‘a bit of firmware tweakage’ are probably understating the efforts that were made to turn a relative flop into such an in-demand pedal. Anyway, the Slötva is now consigned to the past – is the Lüm the future of stompbox atmospherics?

What is it?

There’s more to the story of this pedal – because before the Slötva came the Slö (similar but without presets), after it came the Slöer (excellent but far from compact), and along the way we also got a trio of more adventurous ambience generators in the Lore, the Fable and the madcap Melee. All of these, to one degree or another, have fed into the character of the Lüm.

So we’re not dealing with a simple spring-style reverberator here. The emphasis is on otherworldliness, and there are three different modes to take you away from this ghastly planet to somewhere more sublime: a ‘grain cloud’, a ‘grain verb’ and a forward/reverse reverb. That word ‘grain’ means we can expect some randomised stuff, as the reverb is chopped up into bits and spat out again.

Build quality and usability

The full-production Lüm has had one major enhancement from the original limited edition: it’s pink instead of blue. This is good news because pink pedals sound better, it’s a FACT, and I will hiss menacingly at anyone who says otherwise. Mind you, it’s also available in plain black, which you might prefer if you’re all about the doom.

A low-pass filter control means you can opt for full-frequency shimmeriness or something more moody, and holding down the right footswitch makes the reverb glide up to a secondary setting at one of three speeds: almost instantly, over a second or over five seconds.

Explaining exactly what the ‘X’ and ‘stretch’ knobs do is a little more tricky, so it might be best to just stomp away and see where the celestial winds take us. Getting started is easy enough because of the three editable factory presets – just hit both footswitches to scroll through them, and use each one as a starting point for exploring the modes.

Sounds

There’s one factory preset for each mode, which makes sense – and the first one uses mode 1, which also makes sense. It’s a big and dreamy reverb, with a nice bit of grainy fluttering that adds interest but feels tastefully embedded in the ethereal wash. In this mode the X knob makes those grains bigger or smaller – from bouncy to jittery – and this is very useful for getting the texture just how you want it.

The second preset – using, you guessed it, mode 2 – is not massively different, but here the grains have been softened up much more by the reverb, a bit like the rice in a well-cooked risotto, resulting in a noticeably smoother effect. And mode 3 is smoother again, combining a ‘regular’ reverb with one that swooshes around in rhythmic waves.

There’s plenty of blissed-out fun to be had with all three modes, either clean or with masses of distortion; but if you are about to fuzz things up, you have a big decision to make about pedal order. Distortion before reverb is ‘correct’, but how about the other way round? An interesting reference point here is the aforementioned Melee, which includes both effects and lets you switch them around. Here’s what I wrote about its reversed combination back in 2023: “There’s so much harmonic overload, even when playing single notes, that you end up with an almost glitchy feel to the snowballing surface roar, snatches of melody struggling to rise above the swirling morass.”

How I didn’t win some sort of award for that sentence I’ll never know. But anyway, all of that is equally true of the Lüm if you run it through something very gainy indeed. Heavy shoegazers (by which I mean My Bloody Valentine fans) will be extremely happy here.

So that just leaves the stretch knob. Its role is to alter the sample rate of the pedal, and in normal use this has a fairly minimal effect. Where it really becomes a feature, though, is as the source of the secondary setting reached by holding down the ‘moment’ footswitch: this adds a ramping pitch-shift to the wet part of the signal, which can be subtle or extreme.

I had some good times with this set to a slow rise of just a semitone or two, using my whammy bar to push the dry signal in the opposite direction for quasi-atonal strangeness… and then I had some not-so-good times trying to find any other uses for the function that didn’t feel a wee bit gimmicky. It’s a pity you don’t get more options here – say, an eternal freeze setting, or changes to multiple knobs instead of just one at a time – but as an emergency messer-upper it’s certainly worth having on board.

Should I buy one?

The Lüm is a fine pedal, sure enough, but it has rivals that are arguably even finer – and I’ve listed three of them below. The only thing is, one of them doesn’t do presets and the others aren’t compact – so that’s the gap in the market where this little pink stomper fits very neatly.

I don’t think it’s a perfect ambient soundscaping device by any means – there are compromises in its design that some players will find limiting, not least the fact that you only get three modes to play with. But if you’re looking for a simple and practical shortcut to astral mind-expansion, you might not need anything more than this.

Alternatives

Anyone willing to sacrifice presets for the joy of only having a single footswitch to worry about has a top-class alternative in the EarthQuaker Devices Afterneath V3 ($249/£225). If, on the other hand, you have a bigger chunk of pedalboard space to fill up, you might as well go for something truly cosmic like the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star Stereo ($329/£339) or Source Audio Encounter ($399/£369). Those two are both stereo.

The post Walrus Audio Lüm review – one small box, three colossal reverb effects appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Roger Waters has levelled some sharp criticism at Metallica frontman James Hetfield following his recent comments at the Sphere, where he told attendees the band was “not here to influence you with any bullshit”.

His comments appeared to address the recent spate of artists who have used their platform – including Hayley Williams and Macklemore, who was dropped from Ed Sheeran’s tour for doing so – to make political statements.

“Metallica is not here, like some other entertainers, to influence you with their bullshit,” Hetfield said. “Okay? We are here… no bullshit… we’re here to forget about all the outside shit, okay? “Metallica’s agenda is love, energy and heavy music, baby”

• READ MORE: Jackson’s new Legends Series celebrates the influence of Randy Rhoads, Marty Friedman, Scott Ian and David Ellefson on the brand’s legacy

His comments drew backlash from some, many of whom pointed out Metallica’s history of making political statements in their music, including in hits like One, Disposable Heroes and Don’t Tread on Me.

Now, in a new podcast appearance, former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters has made clear what he thinks about Hetfield’s comments. And when we say “made clear”, we mean made very clear…

“Can we stop talking about this prick? I’m so bored with him,” he says. “He’s just showing that he’s a complete prick. He’s got an IQ of about three, and why we’re talking about him, I honestly don’t know because he’s a nobody and he’ll always be. He may have a few hundred million dollars or whatever, but he’s a prick.”

Waters even goes as far as to question Hetfield’s musicianship, adding that he’s “no musician”.

“I heard them playing acoustic instruments and they couldn’t. It was appalling,” Waters says.

It appears to be a case of over-exaggeration and relying on shock factor in order to make a point, as Hetfield’s acoustic playing on the likes of Fade to Black and The Unforgiven is pretty solid…

Still, they are some pretty harsh words from Roger Waters, who does have a history of making brash statements and political messages. In 2023, he drew ire from German police and the US State Department after dressing in Nazi garb at a show in Berlin.

The post “He’s a nobody and he’ll always be”: Roger Waters levels bizarre rant at Metallica’s James Hetfield following recent Sphere comments appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

[Editor’s note: Guitar Center deals are aimed at US customers. If you’re outside the US, you’ll be shown similar deals.]

If you’ve ever been tempted by one of the many forward-thinking gear launches from Positive Grid, well now might be the best time to get your hands on one of its clever smart amps.

Right now at Guitar Center, there are loads of deals on offer across the Positive Grid product range – you can save over $100 on one of its Spark amps, or try out its wireless Spark NEO headphones for less.

• READ MORE: Five reasons why you need to try the new Spark Pedal

Positive Grid’s Spark GO 5W battery-powered combo amp is now under three figures at $99, saving you $50. This ultraportable smart guitar amp, integrated with the Spark app, provides pocket-sized access to amps, pedals, auto chords, a Smart Jam mode and over 50,000 tones in the cloud. We awarded it a solid 9/10 in our 2023 review.

You can also save $88 on the Spark CAB. This full-range, flat-response (FRFR) powered speaker cabinet was designed with amp sims and digital modellers in mind. It’s lightweight, portable, and ready for live performances, recording sessions, home practice and more.

If the Spark LIVE is more your thing, you can save over $100 on this four-channel smart amp & PA system right now. With four channels, a mixer and a wide collection of effects, it’s versatile for all kinds of live performances and was rated a flawless 10/10 by us.

Other offers include the Spark NEO headphones (now $199), Spark MINI amp (now $174), and the funky Spark MINI VAI version (now $188), made in collaboration with Steve Vai.

In other Positive Grid news, the brand launched its first ever floor-based amp modeller with the Spark PEDAL in September, which we awarded an 8/10. We said: “The Pedal is further proof that the Spark concept can be a fun and useful tool in almost any musical scenario, but there are some compromises here that eat into the great tones, easy usability and streamlined design of the ecosystem.”

View all of these Positive Grid deals and much more at Guitar Center.

The post We’re feeling positively fantastic about these Positive Grid deals at Guitar Center – save over $100 on a Spark amp and more! appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Longtime Trivium frontman Matt Heafy has revealed that he nearly quit the band last year.

Speaking to Metal Hammer in a new interview, the guitarist – who has led the Orlando metal outfit since 1999, when he was just 13 – explains how tensions led to a boiling point following a tracking session last year, likely for their upcoming album Crown in the Grave, which arrives next month.

• READ MORE: Jackson’s new Legends Series celebrates the influence of Randy Rhoads, Marty Friedman, Scott Ian and David Ellefson on the brand’s legacy

“[Our] chemistry starts falling apart a little bit,” Heafy says. “Not from one person, not from me, but it’s just the sum of its parts. Things aren’t going right. Quiet explosion.

“I’m tracking guitars. I stand up. I leave. I call [my wife] Ashley. I’m like, ‘I’m done with this fucking band. I can’t do this shit anymore. It’s 26, 27 years of this shit that just keeps happening.”

He continues: “[I was] at [our rehearsal space] the Hangar. I just start driving home, get home, turn my phone off. Like, ‘I’m not going [back] in.’ And then Ashley lets the dust settle, and she’s like, ‘You’re not quitting the band. You can’t quit the band. You’re part of this band. You’ve got to figure this out. Go back to the studio.’”

Thankfully Heafy decided to stay in the band, but personnel changes did take place shortly after, with drummer Alex Bent leaving Trivium in October 2025.

“Sometimes, when there’s a change, when your favourite married couple gets divorced, you break up with your girlfriend, you get fired from your job, you fire someone from your company, sometimes things have to happen for the survival of the ‘whole’, or the ‘whole’ will not survive any more,” Heafy continues.

Trivium are set to release their 11th studio album Crown in the Grave next month, the followup to 2021’s In the Court of the Dragon.

Matt Heafy says all the recent changes have Trivium feeling like a band reborn. “I stopped trying to be safe and perfect at every show,” he says. “Instead, I was actually enjoying the experience and living. If I messed up, it was okay because I’m human. With all of the changes Trivium went through, it’s like a brand new band.”

Check out the album’s lead single Dead Inside of Me below:

The post “I can’t do this s**t anymore”: Matt Heafy nearly quit Trivium last year – here’s what made him stay appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

£499/$589.85, dawnerprince.com

There are some pairs of words we use more or less interchangeably: ‘dial’ and ‘knob’, ‘delay’ and ‘echo’, ‘bassist’ and ‘disappointment’… and also ‘rotary’ and ‘Leslie’. But this last one is complicated, because not every rotary simulator pedal wants to sound like a Leslie.

• READ MORE: T-Rex FuzzTopia review – an unorthodox combo of raw fuzz and smooth distortion

While Donald Leslie might have invented the rotary speaker cabinet, other companies later came up with their own variations on the formula. And now, pedal makers are coming up with their own variations on the variations. The Dawner Prince Eclipsa is one of them: a tribute to the near-forgotten Yamaha RA-200.

What is it?

If there’s one guitarist who can bring out the unhinged tone-freak in any mild-mannered music listener, it’s David Gilmour. And among his legion of obsessive admirers is Dawner Prince founder Zoran Kraljevic, whose love of the Pink Floyd man’s tones has already been expressed through the Boonar delay and the Pulse – which is where our ‘alternative rotary’ story actually begins.

The Pulse is based on Gilmour’s Doppola rotating speakers from the 90s (a custom-built take on the Maestro Rover RO-1 design). So the Eclipsa is a logical next step – this time recreating the sound of the Yamaha cabs he was using at the end of the 70s, as well as the Alembic F-2B valve preamps that powered them.

If you are one of those Floyd obsessives, this means what you’re looking at here is the sound of The Wall (well, some of it). If you’re not, a more significant factor is probably the RA-200’s unusual configuration, with three vertically rotating horns at the top and four fixed drivers below. Either way, this is not just another Leslie sim.

Build quality and usability

The bit about build quality won’t take long: this is a Dawner Prince after all, made in Croatia to a reliably sky-high standard of workmanship. It’s fairly compact but weighty, with classy knobs and two soft-touch footswitches.

As with most rotary sims, one of those switches is for bypass and the other is for ramping between fast and slow spinning speeds. You can also hold that one down for a couple of seconds to bring the virtual horns to a stop (and then once more to wake them up again), but what happens when you hold down the bypass footswitch is more interesting: the LED changes from red to green, and this signifies that the Alembic preamp will remain active in bypass. Why? So you can use it as an always-on tone improver, and turn the rotary effect on and off without a noticeable shift in tonality or output level.

The preamp has four mini-knobs of its own – volume, bass, middle and treble – plus a bright switch. But the really important stuff is going on up top, where you’ll find the rotary controls: slow speed, fast speed, virtual microphone distance, inertia (up and down ramping speed) and blend. This latter gives you all rotary when fully clockwise, and all static when fully anticlockwise; it’s centre-notched for an even balance between the two.

Sounds

Yeah, sure, making sounds is great – but wouldn’t you rather spend the evening watching three little orange LEDs flashing on and off? These represent the three horns, and they’re not quite in sync – which makes them much more interesting to look at (alright, maybe not for a whole evening) and might also create some extra-complex modulation as they constantly shift in and out of phase.

First of all, though, the Eclipsa has absolutely got ‘the rotary thing’, simulating the uniquely fruity swirl that happens when moving sound sources create a layered Doppler effect. As with a good Leslie sim, the slow mode sounds better on the bridge pickup with some overdrive, carving out a swooshy arc that’s doubly immersive in stereo; the fast mode sounds better on the neck pickup for sweet and shimmery wibblage; and the stealthily ramping transitions are weirdly mesmerising.

The next question is whether it really does sound distinct from a Leslie type. My reference here is the Strymon Lex v2, and the difference in voicing is pronounced: while the Lex has a soft, almost watery quality in the midrange, the Eclipsa is less coloured and more solid. It’s not harsh but it can get metallic, in a way that could make you wonder if it’s been hanging out with some flangers.

This isn’t categorically better or worse, but it is its own thing – and it’s not the only unique feature the Eclipsa has to offer. At times you might also notice an added element of quivering fast modulation even when it’s in slow mode – a result, I’m guessing, of the aforementioned phase shifting between the not-quite-synchronised horns. It’s subtle, but it’s very cool.

And then there’s the preamp. This isn’t an extreme tone-mangler by any means, but the three-band EQ is plenty powerful and can easily be set up to thicken the lower mids or maybe give your top end a polish. What it won’t do is bring the scuzz: push the volume and it will get much louder, but with only a moderate amount of breakup. For the full-on rotary roar, you’ll have to stick a drive pedal in front.

Should I buy one?

The Eclipsa is another predictably excellent pedal from Dawner Prince, and the question of whether it’s worth getting is complicated only by its spit-yer-drink-out price. Its all-round quality is undeniable, and the sounds it makes are like nothing else out there, but if there’s only room in your life for one rotary sim pedal then you might have a hard time justifying it ahead of a cheaper Leslie-based model.

On the other hand, if you’re a serious Gilmour worshipper – or simply someone who wants all the best tones and can afford to pay for them – then you might consider this an essential purchase.

Alternatives

The Dawner Prince Pulse ($339.95/£286) is a simpler device with no preamp modelling, but its five-knob layout matches the Eclipsa. Back in Leslie land, the Strymon Lex v2 ($349/£319) and Neo Instruments Mini Vent II (€369/£295/$399) are both superb-sounding options, and the latter is also available in a more pedalboard-friendly Micro version.

The post Dawner Prince Eclipsa review – a new spin on the rotary speaker simulator appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

In the age of bands like Greta Van Fleet, modern listeners are yearning to experience the magic of yesteryear’s rock and roll. Even Dave Mustaine has noticed plenty of youngsters in the crowd at Megadeth’s final tour, keep to soak up some old school metal. And, if you ask the legendary thrash frontman, there’s a reason why: music nowadays has become less “genuine”.

In a new interview with Chris Jericho, Mustaine hints that the industry took a turn when the lines between genres began to become too blurry. In particular, Mustaine seems to take a jab at nu-metal. “Our generation of metal… I think that the music was more genuine,” he says. “I think that there came a time – not saying that any of these bands were responsible for it – but around the Linkin Park era… bands were doing metal with keyboards and stuff like that.”

• READ MORE: “People don’t know that I wrote that part”: Dave Mustaine on creating one of Megadeth’s most well-known bass riffs

He notes that Linkin Park’s influence on the charts is comparable to how Billboard Top 200 changing how they calculated their sales figures in the ’90s “ruined the charts”.

Mustaine has made his stance on nu-metal very clear in the past. Speaking to LifeMinute last year, he blasted 2000s nu-metallers, simply believing that they relied on keyboards and rapping as a way of disguising a lack of skill. As he puts it, they “didn’t do any solos” because they “couldn’t do any solos”.

“Thank God that genre went away – people started to learn how to do solos!” he added.

He also hinted at how he didn’t feel the acts were ‘genuine’. To him, the high reliance on tech and production was essentially cheating: “When people do things for their own art, that’s great, but when you start seeing these manufactured records that band members didn’t play on, that’s fraud!”

Nu-metal acts at the time certainly felt the sting of Mustaine’s distain. In 2011, ExploreMusic interviewed Korn frontman Jonathan Davis about opening for Megadeth on tour – and Davis clearly felt Mustaine’s cold shoulder. “It was hard touring with Megadeth because at that time Dave Mustaine was really mean and just had attitude,” Jonathan recalled [via Blabbermouth]. “It was scary being on there… I respected him and everything, but I kind of got my feelings hurt, because he was mean at times.”

However, Mustaine is by no means closed minded. While he likes to keep his metal more pure, he does reveal that his sound is a product of many different sounds. In particular, he tells Jericho about his love of German electro-synth innovators, Kraftwerk.

“Listening to that kind of music gave me a lot of ‘tangled creation’ in my head when it comes down to music,” Mustaine says. “Instead of making everything 4/4 – you know, a verse, a chorus, a bridge, an outro – I don’t think like that.”

His eclectic palette has served him well over the years, even slipping into some of his work with Metallica. While remembering bassist Cliff Burton, who passed away 40 years ago in a fatal tour bus crash in 1986, Mustaine recalls how Burton essentially brainwashed him into putting Sweet Home Alabama into Metallica’s 1983 track, The Four Horseman.

“Cliff was a very, very, very sweet man… there was only one thing that I couldn’t stand about him,” Mustaine says. “It was how much he listened to Lynyrd Skynyrd… one day, we got to rehearsal, and we’d been listening to that song, Sweet Home Alabama, over and over and over… Lars goes, ‘We need a slow part for The Four Horseman Man’, and I said, ‘Oh, really? Okay. And I picked up my guitar and I [basically played Sweet Home Alabama].”

For more info on Megadeth’s ongoing final world tour, head to Megadeth’s official website.

The post “Our generation of metal was more genuine”: Dave Mustaine on why youngsters take solace in old school metal appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Few guitar brands are as synonymous with heavy metal music as Jackson. Through the years, some of the genre’s top players have chosen Jackson guitars as their weapons of choice, and the brand has just honoured some of the most iconic with its new Legends Series.

Four metal players are honoured with the new Legends Series: Megadeth alumni David Ellefson and Marty Friedman, plus late Ozzy Osbourne sidekick Randy Rhoads and Anthrax veteran Scott Ian.

Each of the four guitars in the lineup are inspired by classic instruments built originally for these four players. “Jackson has translated these highly personal instruments into signature models built for today’s players – preserving the details that made each original distinct while making those ideas accessible beyond the artists who inspired them,” the brand says.

• READ MORE: So you’re buying a second-hand guitar: these are the things you need to know

The Legends Series starts with a recreation of Randy Rhoads’ white and gold Concorde V, which he built with Grover Jackson in 1980. The guitar – dubbed the CD1 – features an alder body, Seymour Duncan JB/’59 pickups, a compound-radius 12”-16” fingerboard, and a vintage-correct six-saddle tremolo with a whammy bar.

“The Rhoads family is so pleased to see this new Randy Rhoads CD1 model from Jackson,” says Kathy Rhoads D’Argenzio, Randy Rhoads’ sister. “Randy’s historic legacy has remained in the spotlight for over 40 years. There is no doubt Randy would be so honoured to know the impact he has had on Jackson Guitars and on the world of rock and metal guitar.”

Next up is the Marty Friedman KE-1 – a recreation of his late-’90s Jackson Kelly signature model which he used extensively across some of Megadeth’s biggest albums, including Rust in Peace and Countdown to Extinction. This one features an alder body with a three-piece maple neck, singular Seymour Duncan JB pickup, plus a Kahler 7330 fixed bridge for rock-solid tuning stability.

“My KE-1 represents living the dream to me,“ says Marty Friedman. “When I had the opportunity to create my own signature guitar, I went all out with Jackson to build the ultimate heavy metal guitar. No expense was spared, from the pickup and bridge to every detail and dimension. After thousands of concerts and countless recordings, the KE-1 remains a huge part of my journey and an iconic instrument that people associate with me.”

Next is the Scott Ian Rhoads RR22, which sports bolt “Not” body graphics which were central to Anthrax’s ‘80s era, plus a neck-through construction and a top-mount Floyd Rose 1000 Series tremolo.

“My Not Rhoads was such an important part of my journey,” Ian says. “I discovered my tone with it. It’s been used on every Anthrax record – it was the main guitar on those first five albums in the ‘80s. It’s the guitar that kind of made my life. I love that people connect with it.”

And finally, Jackson has recreated its first-ever five-string bass, which was built for the former Megadeth bassist in 1990. It features an alder body with a three-piece through-body quartersawn maple neck, EMG 40DC and CS pickups, a three-band EQ, a Jackson HiMass 5-string bridge, and Open-Gear Hipshot tuners.

“My Jackson Concert basses have always been the sleek, high-octane version of what I consider to be a great bass,” Ellefson says. “Their slightly smaller body and fast action made them perfect for my aggressive playing style. My original 1987 Concert Bass gave me the freedom to fully develop my playing without limitations from the instrument. Jackson basses have become an integral part of who I am and the music I’m known for.”

On the Legends Series as a whole, Jackson VP of Product Jon Romanowski adds: “Randy, Scott, David and Marty didn’t just play Jackson instruments – they helped define what Jackson became and pushed heavy music forward in the process.

“You can hear and see their influence in heavy music today, across generations of artists and increasingly across genres. Making these instruments available to players isn’t simply about recreating the past; it’s about putting them into the hands of the players who will take that influence somewhere new.”

Pricing for each of the four new Legends Series models is as follows:

• Randy Rhoads CD1 – $2,499
• Marty Friedman KE-1 – $2,299
• Scott Ian Rhoads RR22 – $2,199
• David Ellefson CB V Concert Bass – $2,499

Learn more about the Legends Series at Jackson.

The post Jackson’s new Legends Series celebrates the influence of Randy Rhoads, Marty Friedman, Scott Ian and David Ellefson on the brand’s legacy appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

You’ve probably noticed that the very process of existing is getting more expensive every week it seems. As the fundamentals of life become more and more of a drain on all our resources, we often cut back on luxuries and look for savings on our hobbies to relieve some of the pressure. Guitarists are not immune to this.

• READ MORE: Why guitar frets are made of different materials – and how it has a huge impact on your playing experience

But life without fun is hardly life at all, and there are ways in which we can still enjoy our favourite hobby (and the pull of GAS) in ways that still save us some cash. The most obvious way here is buying second-hand gear. While certain vintage guitars come with huge premiums, most used gear can be had with significant savings over buying new from a store or online retailer.

As long as you don’t mind a little wear and tear, you can easily find top-tier instruments with a lot of life left in them for a great price. But just how much life is left in your new-old guitar? And what should you look for when shopping, buying and even valuing your own guitar to sell?

Setups and playability

The setup of a used guitar is often a real problem, though easily fixed. Used or vintage guitars are often being sold because they’re underutilised or rarely played, sometimes relegated to the back of a closet, hopefully in a case or bag. Even guitars left safely perched on racks can slowly degenerate and affect the overall playability.

Things like high action, bad intonation, rusty strings and buzzy frets aren’t always a red flag, and can be easily remedied if you know what you’re looking for. When checking out the action of a guitar, a consistently high action along the fretboard is usually a sign of a bridge that is simply raised too high, an easy fix! Depending on your guitar’s design, there’s usually two screws at the bridge that can raise or lower the high and low side of the strings independently.

The Acoustic Questions

For an acoustic guitar, the action issue is a trickier one to fix. A flat-top’s bridge is often glued to the belly of the guitar, and string tension can slowly lift this over years, usually decades, of tension.

This will often create a bubble on the guitar’s belly, or the bridge itself can lift. Both of these will create high action, so a quick check can help you make a safe purchase. Neither of these are a total deal breaker, but definitely require big fixes, so tread lightly.

If the action is inconsistently high across the board, it can be for a few different reasons. Most likely the truss rod is improperly adjusted, or has been left untouched for a long time. This will be most obvious around the middle of the fretboard (by distance, not frets), usually the 8th or 9th fret.

This will result in either the strings being the furthest distance at this point if the neck is too bowed, or the closest point if the neck is adjusted with too much convex. Both of these are easily remedied as long as the truss rod is functioning correctly, so a quick adjustment with an allen key to check its effect on the neck’s straightness helps. A quarter turn should be enough to confirm the truss rod itself is working as expected!

Neck Warping

What’s difficult or impossible to remedy is a warped neck, meaning it’s more bowed on one side than the other. This can be easily checked by staring down the fretboard towards the bridge from the headstock, as imperfections will be much more obvious from this angle. You’ll easily be able to see how warped or bowed the neck is. Generally, a warped neck can’t be fixed without a lot of work, though if the price is right, a whole new neck could still yield a great deal!

Hardware Failures

All this talk of adjustments, fixes and setup is reliant on the hardware itself. Used instruments are often well used, as such have rusty components, screws, scratchy pots, seized threads or other damage from sweat, dirt and grime. Screws that secure things like input jacks, scratchplates and pickup selectors are easily replaceable and don’t have any great effect on the guitar’s playability.

Tuning machines, tremolo bridges, nuts and rusty electronics, however, greatly affect both sound and function of a guitar, so a little check can go a long way. Ensure tuning machines are secure, turn evenly, smoothly and are generally free of rust, especially where wound strings make contact with the machine head. Equally important is the guitar’s nut, as this area often chips when made of bone, plastic or other materials, and while it is an easy fix by a professional, it’s still a cost that’ll have to be factored in.

Tremolo systems like a Floyd Rose or Ibanez’s Edge Trem operate on a knife’s edge that pivots on two bolts that bold the bridge in place— this sharp edge wears over time, causing the bridge to skid on the bolts and wrangles the whole thing out of tune. Both tremolo and hard tail bridges take a beating, and tiny screws and threads often fill with sweat and rust. They can be taken apart and cleaned out, but making sure all the parts move smoothly is essential for setting up the guitar for the best playability.

Pots And Jacks

Another issue that is common with older guitars won’t reveal itself until you’ve plugged it in – namely issues with the pots of the input jacks.

Scratchy pots (where there’s an audible sound when you’re adjusting the pot) or inconsistent jack connections are, thankfully, easily fixable or replaceable without too much investment. A little soldering know-how will have you switching out or upgrading parts if need be, which brings me to my next point.

Customisations and modifications

Pre-owned guitars are often modified or customised to the owner’s needs, so when buying an electric guitar, a quick look around the control cavity can be a good idea. Modifications might have been DIY, and while signal might be passing from A to B, a rat’s nest of cables, solder and switches might be hiding beneath it all. While the guitar passing signal at all can be a good sign, it can require an overhaul if you want to return the guitar to factory specs!

All in all, a little know-how can help you safely and confidently get a great deal on a used guitar. Many problems arise from a lack of use, guitars and basses requiring regular servicing as the wood expands and wears, and as components wear in and wear out over time.

There’s absolutely some red flags like warped necks, rat’s nests of electronics and more, besides obvious problems like breaks, cracks and chips. However, even problem areas that need total replacement can still come in on budget, as long as you know what you’re signing up for. There’s a world of unique, inspiring and totally affordable instruments out there, so happy hunting!

The post So you’re buying a second-hand guitar: these are the things you need to know appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

In 1973, Black Sabbath, creatively spent and fresh from a failed writing stint in Los Angeles, returned to the UK and rented Clearwell Castle in the Forest of Dean to write their fifth album, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. After four albums in as many years, Tony Iommi had hit a wall. By his own account: “It just went dead.” The castle was supposed to fix that. And it didn’t hurt that it came with its own ghost.

One night, Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne were talking along a corridor when a figure came towards them and ducked left into an armoury room. Startled, they rushed in after him but there was no way out of the room and nobody inside. When they sheepishly told the owners, they replied: “Oh yeah, that’s the castle ghost. Don’t worry about him,” Iommi recalls in an interview with Uncut.

• READ MORE: “You killed it!”: Diamond Rowe just played Enter Sandman at an NFL game – and Metallica have given their seal of approval
  

Bill Ward, however, wasn’t taking any chances. “Why’ve you got that?” Iommi asked when he found a dagger in Ward’s bedroom. “Bill, you can’t stab a ghost!”

Whatever the ghost did, the effect was immediate. Iommi came up with the riff to Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and in his words, “the rest came fairly shortly afterwards”. Geezer Butler likened hearing it for the first time to seeing his first child born, and it marked the end of the band’s drought.

Not bad for a band who went to a castle to get away from it all and found paranormal inspiration instead…

In other Iommi news, the guitarist’s first solo album in 21 years, From the Dark is out on October 23 via BMG. The follow-up to 2005’s “Fused” features Norwegian vocalist Jørn Lande, Merciful Fate bassist Becky Baldwin and former Robbie Williams drummer Karl Brazil, with Iommi co-producing alongside longtime collaborator Mike Exeter.

The album’s lead single World Alone, delivers the kind of high-gain riffs and thunderous rhythm section you’d expect from the Black Sabbath legend, while other tracks promise more sinister territory.

The record will also feature Queen guitarist Brian May on Death Wake, while a deluxe edition will include expanded versions of Iomi’s recent solo releases Scent of Dark and Deified.

From the Dark is available to pre-order now.

The post “Bill, you can’t stab a ghost!” Black Sabbath’s run-in with the paranormal – and how a haunting helped end Tony Iommi’s writer’s block appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

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If you’re a guitar player, chances are you’ve spent more time than is entirely healthy thinking about your pedalboard, and specifically the endless game of Tetris involved in getting all the sounds you need onto the board you have.

A great way to get around this sort of issue is to use a compact multi-effects unit to expand the versatility of your board – adding a huge variety of sounds on tap without needing to have a board that looks like something that would be suitable for sending astronauts to Mars.

BOSS’s new EX-4 Effects Expander is an interesting new take on the formula – and it’s one that could transform your entire rig in a variety of ways. Let’s take a look at three different ways you could incorporate it into your pedalboard.

Building the ultimate fly rig

Most compact multi-effects pedals are effectively one-shot units – with a large number of sounds on tap, but limited to just one effect at a time. The EX-4 rips that whole rulebook by not only offering 120 premium BOSS effects in its library, but the ability to run up to four separate effects at once.

The benefits here are pretty obvious. While you can of course use the EX-4 to just provide one effect at a time should that be what you need, the ability to build out multiple mini-signal chains in one pedal means that it has the potential to replace not just one or two pedals on your board, but a whole host of them.

This is a game-changer for those who want to travel light for shows – especially touring musicians and those who do a lot of varied gigs. If you’re flying or using any kind of public transport to get to your gig, you’ll know that you want to keep things as streamlined as possible – but a limited load-out doesn’t mean you have to bring limited sounds.

By making the EX-4 the focal point of a small travel board, you have access to a broad palette of pro-ready sounds, and paired with your amp sim or IR pedal of choice, it enables you to have everything you want at your feet with minimal hassle.

The heart of a hybrid powerhouse

Scaling down your rig is all well and good of course, but what about going the other way? Yngwie Malmsteen didn’t teach us that “more is more” in order to watch us all streamline our guitar rigs down to the smallest possible option.

Thankfully, the EX-4 has everything that the most maximalist effects fan could want to make it the powerhouse behind a serious set-up. For starters, the EX-4 not only has 128 factory presets, but also the flexibility of 128 user-generated presets. That means that you don’t have to worry about scrolling through and swapping out sounds and settings between songs – you can simply program everything you need in beforehand, and then cycle through presets as you need them.

But what if you want a pedal to be the beating heart of a hybrid rig that pairs a classic no-messing tube amplifier with a switching system like BOSS’s own impressive ES-8 unit? Well, the EX–4 comes ready to add a broad palette of modulation, delay, reverb, filter, pitch, and speciality effects to this set-up, straight out of the box.

For one, thanks to a pair of space-saving TRS jacks, the EX-4 is fully MIDI controllable, meaning that you can hook it up to your switcher and be able to control everything you need without any need for tap-dancing.

What’s more, the EX-4’s stereo inputs and outputs also double as an effects loop, meaning that you can further enhance and expand your sonic options by adding a favourite dirt pedal or other go-to effect in the pedal’s loop, and then take advantage of the internal routing options to ensure that it sits exactly where you want it in the chain.

As if that wasn’t enough, the pedal’s two footswitches can be programmed for sophisticated custom operation – allowing you to switch or adjust individual parameters on the fly. Want to kick in that momentary effect or kick things up a gear for a solo? The EX-4 has you covered.

Expanding your sounds without expanding your board

If you’re an effects obsessive, you’ll know well the pain of having to try and squeeze all the sounds you might want into a limited footprint – invariably there are some sounds you’d love to have at hand for the rare occasion you need them, but you can’t justify the real estate to keep them on your board.

The EX-4 can solve all your pedal-picking headaches by offering a huge number of useful effects – including some really esoteric ones like the Slow Gear or Slicer – in a compact package that also includes loads of quality more common effects like delay, modulation and reverb.

The EX-4’s ability to run up to four effects at once means that most of the time it can sit on your pedalboard as a great-sounding option for everyday use, but with the flexibility to add those more occasional sounds into the mix as and when you need them.

If you’re a guitarist that loves finding new textures, the ability to explore these new sonic landscapes, safe in the knowledge that you won’t have to re-wire your pedalboard to make it work in a live environment, is priceless.

What’s more, the impressive level of internal and external routing options removes many of the compromises that pedalboard-based multi-effects can often necessitate. For starters, the stereo input and output jacks double as an effects loop, meaning that you can use it to build a reorderable signal chain with any external pedals you choose. The exp out also means that you can hook it up to an external footswitch or expression pedal and further add flexibility to your on-the-fly switching options.

The pedal itself also features a variety of useful utility features on board to enhance this further, including foot volume, two noise suppressors, send/return, and divider/mixer. And you aren’t limited to running the effects on the EX-4 in one direction either – with advanced series, parallel, and wet/dry options within the virtual chain itself, you can create complex effects configurations that maximise your tonal versatility.

Avoiding option paralysis 

A common drawback with mutli-effects units is that they have so many sounds on tap, and so many parameters to edit, it can be quite overwhelming knowing how to get a great sound out of each effect.

Thankfully, BOSS has taken the pain out of all this with the new Gear Suite function – tap this dedicated button while you’re selecting an effect, and you’ll be presented with a bunch of presets for each different effect type, and once you’ve found the sound you love, you can even save user presets for each effect and then use them across your global presets.

It all adds up to a pedal that takes away much of the pain of using a compact multi-effects unit, while expanding your tonal options to elevate it beyond a simple occasional pedal. Whatever your needs, the EX-4 adds a new dimension to your board.

Find out more about the EX-4 Effects Expander at boss.info

The post Why the BOSS EX-4 could transform your pedalboard appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.