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Fancy owning a piece of Black Sabbath history? Well, you’re in luck – Geezer Butler has hand-signed 15 amps amps used during Sabbath’s grand Back To The Beginning farewell show, and they’ll be available to buy on Reverb next week.

The 15 amps on offer are Butler’s very own Head of Doom Bass Magnifier created in partnership with Ashdown Engineering. The amps boast 600 watts of power, with a 9-band EQ, Sub-Harmonic generator, as well as the signature Doom control, which offers a 12AX7 preamp stage for rich harmonic distortion.

• READ MORE: Kirk Hammett says Tony Iommi uses “smart chords” – this is what he means

The amps also come with dual inputs for passive/active basses, as well as a pair of illuminated VU meters, footswitchable EQ settings. So it’s a quality amp… which also happened to be used during the most important show in Sabbath history.

As well as being signed by Butler, each amp will also come with its own certificate of authenticity.

If you don’t manage to get your hands on a genuine Back To The Beginning amp next week, don’t worry. Ashdown Engineering will also be offering a new speaker cabinet in line with Butler’s creative input. The Cab Of Doom will be a made-to-offer cabinet, handcrafted to the same specs as those used during Sabbath’s final show.

The Cab Of Doom cabinets will be 2×15” and 2×12” cabinets, with 300 watts RMS at 8 Ohms and a custom medal grill screen-printed with Geezer’s signature fallen angel artwork. The Cab Of Doom will serve as Ashdown’s third collaboration with Butler, joining the Head Of Doom amp and the Pedal Of Doom.

For those keen to know when the Head Of Doom amps officially go on on sale on 14 October, you can sign up here.

The post Geezer Butler to sell signed amps used at Black Sabbath’s final show appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

From 72-hour benders to knocking back four bottles of cognac a day, Ozzy Osbourne lead a wild life. In fact, in his posthumous memoir, Last Rites, the Black Sabbath frontman labels himself a “world-class” addict – he binged and smoked so much that he was left wondering just how his body managed to keep going for 76 years.

“If I were to go to bed tonight and not get up tomorrow, no one would be surprised,” he reflects in Last Rites. “Death’s been knocking at my door for the last six years louder and louder… At some point I’m gonna have to let him in.”

However, every passing day came with a bitter note of sadness. While he was managing to evade death, he was constantly aware of his peers who weren’t as lucky – namely his guitarist Randy Rhoads, who died in a plane crash in the ‘80s.

• READ MORE: Kirk Hammett says Tony Iommi uses “smart chords” – this is what he means

Rhoads would perform as Ozzy’s guitarist for three years up until his death in the fatal crash in 1982, which also saw the death of makeup artist Rachel Youngblood and the pilot. The pilot had been attempting to ‘buzz’ over Ozzy’s tour bus and wake him up, but a false move lead to the plane clipping the bus and crashing into a house.

From his 42-pill a day habit to admitting he was stoned during every episode of The Osbournes TV show, Ozzy was constantly haunted by how he was still living, while Rhoads was not.

“Not a day goes by when I don’t ask myself, why am I here not them?” Ozzy writes in his Last Rites. “I had 70 great years, which is a lot longer than I ever expected or probably deserved.”

However, in a statement announcing the memoir, Ozzy admitted he wouldn’t change anything about his life. “People say to me, if you could do it all again, knowing what you know now, would you change anything?” he said [via NME]. “I’m like, fuck no.”

“If I’d been clean and sober, I wouldn’t be Ozzy,” the statement continued. “If I’d done normal, sensible things, I wouldn’t be Ozzy. Look, if it ends tomorrow, I can’t complain. I’ve been all around the world. Seen a lot of things. I’ve done good… and I’ve done bad.”

Elsewhere in his memoir, Ozzy also recalls how the “unofficial leader” of Black Sabbath, guitarist Tony Iommi, first dealt with losing his fingertips. “He just invented himself a set of new fingertips using an old Fairy Liquid bottle, then re-taught himself how to play,” he writes.

Another section also sees Ozzy admitting that taking Van Halen on tour might have been a mistake. “You wanted your support act to be good, but didn’t want to upstage yourself,” he admits. “[We would go] back to our dressing room in silence and just sit there, staring at the fucking wall. [Every night],Van Halen just slaughtered us.”

Last Rites is out now.

The post “Not a day goes by when I don’t ask myself, why am I here and not them?”: Ozzy Osbourne’s posthumous book reveals he was haunted by Randy Rhoads’ death for the rest of his life appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

After Behringer launched the $69 Centaur Overdrive last year, Bill Finnegan – creator of the original Klon Centaur, sued the brand’s parent company Music Tribe over “blatant counterfeit”.

News of the suit spread quickly in the guitar world, and some Behringer Centaur Overdrive units were being listed on the second-hand market for up to $2,000, with collectors preempting a discontinuation and rise in scarcity.

In the following days, Behringer changed the name of the unit from Centaur to Centara, and made a number of visual changes, like putting the Behringer logo on the pedal’s front face, and changing the graphic design of the centaur. Quietly since, the name of Behringer’s pedal has again been changed to ‘Zentara’.

The dispute went quiet in recent months, but it’s now been revealed that the case has been dismissed by the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

A court document confirming the lawsuit’s dismissal is available to read on CourtListener – although it doesn’t provide much information other than the fact the case has been dismissed, and that there are no costs incurred to either party.

Though purely speculation, it’s possible Behringer/Music Tribe and Bill Finnegan reached an out-of-court settlement, either monetarily or through an agreement which stipulates the conditions upon which Behringer can continue to sell the Zentara.

Guitar pedal clones are very common, with brands issuing their takes on classic units commonplace. In terms of the legalities of pedal clones, it’s not possible in most cases to patent the design of an electronic circuit, so pedal makers protect their products via trademarks regarding their trade dress – effectively how a product looks.

In his lawsuit against Behringer, Bill Finnegan noted that “consumers expressed extensive actual confusion… with many rushing to purchase Defendants’ counterfeit pedal believing Defendants are delivering on a mass scale a discounted product licensed or endorsed by Plaintiffs”.

It’s worth noting, though, that – in the US – trademark laws are written so that if a company doesn’t enforce its trademarks, it marks it harder for them to fight future cases of infringement.

This formed the basis of Dean’s defence in its legal battle against Gibson, as it argued the guitar giant had taken too long to enforce its trademarks. In that case, Gibson’s award after triumphing was recently upped from $1 to over $168,000.

The post Klon Centaur maker’s lawsuit against Behringer has been dismissed appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ken Parker – legendary luthier and creator of the Parker Fly – has died aged 73, days after launching a GoFundMe to help pay for his cancer treatment.

A statement on Parker’s website confirms he passed away peacefully at his home in Gloucester, MA on October 5, 2025, with his life companion Susan Kolwicz by his side.

Ken Parker recently announced his retirement from luthiery, after revealing he was diagnosed with cancer in early 2023, and that the illness steadily eroded his ability to work.

“It hasn’t been easy living with this nasty disease, having chemo treatments that zapped my energy and slowly took away my ability to earn a living,” he wrote.

“Now, I’m on a breathing machine 24/7 and I’ve started to lose the use of my left arm. I humbly ask for your support to reduce the medical and personal debt that I’ve incurred and to help with my family’s expenses.”

Reflecting on his career, Parker added, “Throughout my life, I’ve done something that I love and am proud of – making guitars that advance the art, science and craft of building far beyond traditional methods. Most importantly, it has been a true joy and especially gratifying experience to see my guitars in the hands of all of you gifted and aspiring players, and I thank you for that opportunity.”

In a YouTube video posted earlier this week, Parker revealed he’d been spending much of the past year passing on his knowledge and expertise to his colleague Sam Krimmel.

“Sam has this gift which feels remarkably similar to the gift that I feel that I have that’s allowed me to do my work,” he said. “I’ve never had a deeper and more interesting work relationship on a daily basis than I have with Sam, and we work together very, very well.”

Born August 25, 1952, Ken Parker built his first guitar from wood and cardboard aged just 13, and later an electric bass for his brother Alan.

In the early ‘70s, Parker moved to Rochester, NY, to work with furniture maker Richard Newman, where he designed his first archtop guitar. He later began working at Stuyvesant Music on instruments for a number of high-profile musicians.

Parker opened his own shop in Connecticut in 1983, working with stringed instruments including violins, cellos, Renaissance lutes and vintage and contemporary guitars.

1990 saw the launch of Parker Guitars – co-founded by both Ken Parker and Larry Fishman. The brand would later launch the iconic Parker Fly in 1993, a radically innovative electric guitar featuring a composite material body and a hybrid pickup system.

Perhaps one of the most high-profile endorsees of the Parker Fly was former King Crimson man Adrian Belew, who had his own signature model.

Ken Parker’s GoFundMe is still active at the time of writing, having raised $134,000 of its $450,000 goal.

“Ken’s family is still faced with a great deal of debt,” a statement on the page writes. “So, please, continue your contributions in Ken’s honor… they will be greatly appreciated.”

Learn more at GoFundMe.

The post Ken Parker – iconic luthier behind the groundbreaking Parker Fly – has died at 73 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

As a guitar player of twenty years or so, there’s one instrument that I keep coming back to: the acoustic guitar. Graduating from the half-size classical guitar I started on, my eyes were set on a solid-body electric and a high gain amplifier that felt like a natural progression for me as a young rocker.

• READ MORE: More Unusual First Guitars That Rock Stars Started Their Careers On

Instead I was presented with a dreadnought acoustic, as primarily a test of my commitment to the instrument, but an unknowingly practice tool that I would come back to time and again. Much like walking with ankle weights or cardio in the swimming pool, the acoustic guitar can serve as a form of resistance training.

This makes movement and technique more difficult, and while it boxes you into building muscle, it’s also training you to listen to what sounds right at its core, i.e. tuning, fretting and timing for consistency and dynamic. For the hours of practice I spent on this guitar on those formative years of playing, I want to say thank you.

For any beginners reading, that acoustic guitar you’re struggling with is doing you a lot of good, and for more experienced players, it might be good to get back into the habit of acoustic practice to keep those chops up!

This is for a few reasons, the first being that while those of us who grew up aspiring to be amplified rock gods, the electric guitars we strived after often had smaller gauge strings, coupled with a lower action to make it easier to bend notes and jump around the fretboard. The acoustic guitar we had kicking around the house usually had some heavy and old strings, the higher action making it an overall more difficult beast to wrangle.

But here’s the kicker: having to get my practice routines right on an acoustic guitar gave me more dynamic ability in both my picking and fretting hand, as well as calloused fingers and muscles in my arms and hands that made my eventual flitting around the neck of an electric guitar feel like child’s play.

Harder to play

Conventionally, in E Standard, an electric guitar might be strung with .009 or .010 gauge strings, often nickel wound at the highest end, acoustic guitars instead using steel or bronze strings and often being .012 or .013 in size in the same tuning. This means it’s a little more difficult to fret, to bend notes and barre chords, but this can form an important part of your practice routine.

Improperly fretted notes can buzz and ring, requiring you to really push down and move between every note like you mean it. Lighter gauges allow a little more freedom for bending, but your bends on an acoustic really need to be bent right up to the intended pitch, an acoustic guitar often being played without additional effects or other processing to mask your imperfect playing. Bent notes might warble and ring until you get them right, and you best believe your acoustic guitar won’t let you get away with it like an overdriven electric guitar.

Can’t hide behind effects

This leads me to my second point, the acoustic guitar generally being a mostly unprocessed instrument, meaning there’s no distortion, delay or chorus to make you sound better than you are! Effects are good for augmenting a great performance, and what makes for a great performance? Consistent practice.

Distortion and drive will compress and attenuate your playing which might lead to inconsistent picking, but the acoustic guitar will leave your playing exposed, forcing you to focus on accuracy, consistency and tonality. You’re also forced to assess the relationship between your picking and fretting hand. Buzzing frets or scratchy picking are laid bare on your trusty steel string acoustic.

Campfire test

All of this is in the pursuit of practicing enough to sound good on an acoustic guitar, and this isn’t entirely unlike the renowned “campfire test” for songwriters. The “campfire test” is simple: a good song will work whether it’s performed with a full backing band or around a campfire with just an acoustic guitar and a vocal. While the additional layers and harmony are there to expand on the emotional and musical impact of your song, if they instead act as a crutch for your song, well, you might have some work to do.

Practicing on an acoustic guitar borrows from this same thought process, stripping away everything except your skills, timing and talent, and forces you to focus on your playing without augmentation. Your playing shouldn’t rely on effects as a general rule of thumb, though we’ll exclude players like Kevin Shields from this. As you were, shoegazers.

All of this is to say, that while I struggled, fumbled and cussed through hours of practice with my acoustic guitar, every minute has made me a better guitar player because at a foundational level it taught me to play every note like I mean it, bend right up to pitch and beyond, and gave me great dynamic control of my picking hand. Without distortion and overdrive hiding fumbled picking, or reverb and chorus clouding my timing, I was able to focus on my technique and playing, and you can ensuring you’re getting the most out of your practice. And hey, while there’s a case to be made for practicing with the gear you’ll play live, the acoustic guitar will always be there to go back to; and somehow it’ll never seem to get easier to wrangle.

The post A love letter to the acoustic guitar: thank you from my calloused fingers appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Rudolf Schenker asked Uli Jon Roth to agree to one last favour before he left Scorpions to pursue a project of his own.

Things were looking good for the band at the time of Roth’s departure, with them having released a number of successful albums including Fly To The Rainbow and In Trance, and their international fan base was growing. However, Schenker says Roth’s unhappiness became fairly obvious to him as time went on.

• READ MORE: “I was never really interested in great guitar playing if the other stuff wasn’t there”: Uli Jon Roth on why he never got in Van Halen

Speaking to Get On The Bus, Schenker recalls how Roth informed him of his decision to quit: “One day in the morning, on Sunday, he came. Uli Jon Roth came to me. I was living in a normal apartment in Hanover. And [he] said, ‘Rudolf, can I talk to you?’ I said, ‘Sure. Come in, come in.’ So [he said], ‘Rudolf, I want to quit.’”

He continues, “I said, ‘Yeah.’ [Roth replied,] ‘You don’t say anything more?’ I said, ‘No, because I was watching you. I could see that you, sooner or later, will move to your own project.’”

The project that Roth went on to pursue was his band Electric Sun, which formed in 1978. They went on to release three albums together, with their first being 1979’s Earthquake. But, before his exit was made final, Schenker wanted just one more thing from Roth.

“‘Do this Tokyo Tapes [live] album with us as a last piece, as a Last Testament for the Scorpions,’” he asked him. “We went to Japan. We played the Tokyo Tapes album. And then, Uli left.”

Interestingly, despite Roth’s time in Scorpions leading to him being cited as an inspiration for many great metal guitarists, Roth has said he doesn’t consider himself a metal fan.

“I’m not a metal guy,” he told the Scars and Guitars podcast back in August. “When I was in the Scorpions and the name heavy metal barely existed, we were considered, if you want to classify it, as a melodic hard rock band.

“So, metal, the name, came afterwards, and then it became something which is actually not my cup of tea. Most metal, for me, is just a little bit too hardcore, a little bit too distorted, and, for me, maybe a bit two-dimensional. And what I mean by that is the lack of dynamics.”

The post Rudolf Schenker reveals the “one favour” Uli Jon Roth agreed to before his Scorpions departure appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

In recent years it’s been heavily suggested that Rush was done and dusted, and that surviving members Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee would never head back out on the road.

Earlier this year, Lifeson said he wasn’t keen on tarnishing Rush’s legacy by reforming, saying: “I’d rather be remembered for that legacy than return as the top Rush tribute band”. “Some days I wake up wanting to go out and tour again and some days I don’t,” he added.

But now, in an announcement set to send Rush fans into overdrive, Lifeson and Lee have announced they are heading out on tour in 2026 – yes, as Rush – with 12 dates in seven cities across the US, Canada and Mexico.

• READ MORE: “I like grabbing something that I don’t think is the ‘right’ thing and seeing how that works”: Why Alex Lifeson still reaches for the $57 Japanese guitar his parents got him

The tour – dubbed Fifty Something – is described as a celebration of 50-plus years of Rush music, and of the legacy of late drummer Neil Peart. It also marks the first time Lee and Lifeson will tour together since the finale of Rush’s R40 tour in 2015 at the Forum in LA. In something of a full circle moment, the Fifty Something tour will kick off at the Forum.

Cities Rush will hit on the tour are: Los Angeles, Mexico City, Fort Worth, Chicago, New York, Toronto and Cleveland.

Filling in on drums will be Anika Nilles, a German drummer, composer and producer who has previously played with Jeff Beck.

“It’s been over 10 years since Alex and I have performed the music of Rush alongside our fallen bandmate and friend Neil,” says Geddy Lee. “A lifetime’s worth of songs that we had put our cumulative hearts and souls into writing, recording and playing together onstage. 

“And so, after all that has gone down since that last show, Alex and I have done some serious soul searching and come to the decision that we fucking miss it, and that it’s time for a celebration of 50-something years of Rush music. So in 2026 my BFF Lerxst (aka Alex Lifeson) and I are going to hit the road once again to pay tribute to our past and to Neil by performing a vast selection of Rush songs in a handful of cities. No small task, because as we all know Neil was irreplaceable.”

Of touring drummer Anika Nilles, Geddy Lee goes on: “Life is full of surprises, and we have been introduced to another remarkable person; an incredible drummer and musician who is adding another chapter to our story while continuing her own fascinating musical journey.

“Her name is Anika Nilles, and we could not be more excited to introduce her to our loyal and dedicated Rush fanbase, whom, we know, will give her every chance to live up to that near impossible role. Before we hit the stage, we also hope to add another musician or two to expand our sound a wee bit and free up Alex and I, in order to show off some of our new fancy dance steps.”

“Lerxst, Anika and myself, along with many of our longstanding crew members have been hard at work rehearsing and designing the kind of RUSH show you’ve grown accustomed to expect from us. We dearly hope you will come along and help us celebrate our history together.”

Speaking on the reunion tour, Carrie Nuttall-Peart and Olivia Peart, Neil’s widow and daughter, add: “We are thrilled to support the Fifty Something tour, celebrating a band whose music has resonated and inspired fans for generations, and to honour Neil’s extraordinary legacy as both a drummer and lyricist.

“Neil’s musicianship was singular. Compositions of intricacy and power that expanded what rhythm itself could express. As both a drummer and lyricist, he was irreplaceable…”

They conclude: “As the band enters this new chapter, it promises to be truly unforgettable. We are excited to see how their new vision unfolds, and to hear this legendary music played live once again.”

View a full list of dates on the Fifty Something tour below:

• Sun Jun 07                             Los Angeles, CA                                  Kia Forum
• Tue Jun 09                              Los Angeles, CA                                  Kia Forum
• Thu Jun 18                             Mexico City, MX                                   Palacio de los Deportes
• Wed Jun 24                           Fort Worth, TX                                      Dickies Arena
• Fri Jun 26                                Fort Worth, TX                                    Dickies Arena
• Thu Jul 16                               Chicago, IL                                         United Center
• Sat Jul 18                                Chicago, IL                                         United Center
• Tue Jul 28                               New York, NY                                      Madison Square Garden
• Thu Jul 30                               New York, NY                                      Madison Square Garden
• Fri Aug 07                               Toronto, ON                                        Scotiabank Arena
• Sun Aug 09                            Toronto, ON                                          Scotiabank Arena
• Thu Sep 17                            Cleveland, OH                                       Rocket Arena

Learn more at Rush’s official website.

The post “Alex and I have done some serious soul searching”: The wait is over – Rush are heading on tour in 2026 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Zakk Wylde has been reflecting on the final Black Sabbath show that took place in July, and has shared his awe at how Ozzy Osbourne managed to pull through despite his health struggles.

The band’s final gig took place at Villa Park in Birmingham, UK earlier this summer, and formed part of one giant celebration of all things metal, all while raising money for charity. Osbourne sadly passed away just a matter of weeks later, and his loss was felt deeply across the world by both fans and fellow artists.

• READ MORE: Kirk Hammett says Tony Iommi uses “smart chords” – this is what he means

Wylde, who joined Osbourne’s solo band in 1987, previously shared how challenging the final gig was to pull off. While his main concern was ensuring that Osbourne himself was doing okay, he also said that pretty much everything was pulled off on the fly.

Further looking back at the big day and his time spent playing for Osbourne in a new interview with Rock Feed, Wylde says the Prince of Darkness somehow always managed to tough out his shows.

“[With] Ozz, you’re talking about fortitude and persistence and just refusing… I mean, I even wrote to him after the show. I was like, ‘Ozz, so proud of you, man.’ He never quit. Like, never quit. I can’t tell you how many times his voice would be banged up,” he explains (via Ultimate Guitar).

“I’d be like, ‘I have to say a couple of prayers to John Paul II, Mother Teresa, and the big guy’, several times during the show… But he’d always end up pulling through these gigs. I mean, I’d always stare at him in amazement and just go, ‘That’s my hero, man,’ all the time.”

Another player who has since looked back on their last interaction with Osbourne is Nuno Bettencourt. Though now known for his stellar guitar work in Extreme, Bettencourt was offered a job with Osbourne in the 1990s, but turned it down as he was busy with his own band. He’d also previously auditioned to play for him as a teenager, but didn’t get selected.

“The last words we said to each other when we took the big group photo, I grabbed his hand, saying, ‘Thank you for everything, and thank you, Ozzy, for what you mean to me,’” Bettencourt told Page Six at the VMAs.

“He pulls me in by the hand. He goes, ‘You were the only guitar player who said no to me.’ But he laughed! He goes, ‘I love you and thank you for being here.’”

The post “I’d be like, I have to say a couple of prayers to John Paul II, Mother Teresa, and the big guy”: Zakk Wylde was scared Ozzy Osbourne wouldn’t get through Black Sabbath’s final concert appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Buckethead has responded to a complimentary Facebook post by Slash commending his guitar skills.

Buckethead – real name Brian Patrick Carroll – played with Guns N’ Roses between 2000 and 2004 following Slash’s departure, and appeared on the band’s long-delayed 2008 album Chinese Democracy.

• READ MORE: “It’s really important for guitarists to have something identifiable about the way they sound. In 2025 that’s getting lost”: Where can’t amp modellers compete with physical pedalboards? UK math rock guitarist weighs in

Reposting a video of Buckethead jamming with Primus’s Les Claypool on his social media, Slash wrote last week: “This is some of the funkiest music you’ll ever hear! Buckethead and Les Claypool of Primus creating pure magic together. The bass lines are absolutely insane and Buckethead’s guitar work is next level as always.

“If you love funk, progressive rock, or just incredible musicianship, this jam will blow your mind! Both legends pushing each other to new heights. Support Buckethead whenever you can!”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Slash (@slash)

To repay the favour, Buckethead has made a social media post of his own waxing lyrical about the genius of Slash’s playing.

“Just wanted to say that Slash is one of the greats of all time, as everyone knows” he writes. “He was involved in writing music and his playing transcends decades and to reach such a wide amount of people playing really incredible guitar is such a rare thing.

“In the time I was involved in attempting to play his parts, never really could I have captured the essence of him. So much of who he is comes from his playing. I’ll always be in awe of how great he is.”

Though Buckethead possesses otherworldly guitar talents – which match his similarly extraterrestrial aesthetic – it’s not all that surprising he found it hard to emulate Slash’s guitar playing, given their respective backgrounds. Slash’s musical identity is rooted in the rock ‘n’ roll excess of the ‘80s, while Buckethead is widely praised for his head-spinning shred capabilities, which he does while wearing a family-sized KFC bucket on his head.

The post “His playing transcends decades – I could never really capture the essence of him”: Former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Buckethead on the genius of Slash appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Floorboard amp modellers have sure made touring easier for a growing number of artists, but are they impacting our identities as players?

The small yet mighty power of gear like the Neural DSP Quad Cortex means bands no longer need to transport heavy and somewhat fragile gear across borders, but can rather chuck all the tones they need quite literally into a backpack. But without physical pedals and real life amplifiers, some artists are concerned that sonic identity and uniqueness could slowly fade away.

• READ MORE: Brian Wampler likens the rise of amp modellers to Napster’s impact on music: “I think it’s going to take a big chunk of the market”

This is a concern recently raised by Tom Peters of UK-based math rock band, Alpha Male Tea Party. In an interview with Guitar World, Peters likens the modeller’s impact on the creation and performance of music to Spotify’s vast effect on how we listen to it.

“Why do I insist on a massive physical board when modellers exist? Well, one, I’m quite stubborn; and two, I feel it’s really, really really important for musicians in bands to have something identifiable about the way they sound and what they do. And in 2025 that’s getting lost,” he explains.

“The heart of my board is the Boss ES-8 switching system. I used to hate doing all the tap dancing, so I’ve got a bunch of pedals set up on MIDI – you can look at it and say, ‘This is complex,’ but anyone with a Quad Cortex or your basic laptop freebie has more options in the box than I do on my board.

“For me, modellers are a bit like Spotify. I don’t connect with music in the same way I did when I went to a store to buy a CD. Back then I’d wilfully choose to buy something and add it to my collection. Spotify gives you all the music in the world, ever. People listen to it and go, ‘That’s a great record’ – and then move on to another one. Within two weeks of an album cycle people have moved on.”

To clarify, Peters doesn’t judge or shame anyone for using modellers, and notes that they do indeed work very well, “But I don’t think I’d ever get that excited about having a box that has literally every single tone in it, because I haven’t worked to get them,” he continues.

“Another thing we’re losing now is our interaction with tactile processes, and that’s so important to me. I don’t really like looking at menus. It’s just tedious: these dead-end neural pathways. A lot of it is about the response of it when I’m playing. People talk about convenience, but I don’t want to feel comfortable all the time. Convenience isn’t helpful to creativity; it’s a slightly inverse relationship.”

Artists who have used modellers on the road include Metallica, Foo Fighters’ Chris Shiflett, and Slipknot’s Jim Root. Though they proudly sing the praises of such tech, these artists also still argue that their love of traditional gear has not gone anywhere.

Like it or lump it it’s a market that is only getting bigger, with Line 6 recently launching its monumental Helix Stadium range, offering entirely new modelling technology.

The post “It’s really important for guitarists to have something identifiable about the way they sound. In 2025 that’s getting lost”: Where can’t amp modellers compete with physical pedalboards? UK math rock guitarist weighs in appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Devin Townsend has argued that bands like Mötley Crüe were the reason metal never got the credit it deserved in the industry.

In a new interview with D’Addario, Townsend opens up about the philosophies that shaped his music journey, and why he thinks the music business failed to take metal seriously.

The Canadian musician, known for his experimental approach to metal and sound design, says his fascination with music began as a way to express himself safely as a kid: “My fascination with music became more practical than anything else because I could express myself in a way that wasn’t gonna get me in trouble from my parents at least.”

• READ MORE: Devin Townsend says “90 percent” of the job for modern musicians is being a content creator

In particular, his obsession with echo and space began after hearing Judas Priest’s Victim of Changes. “I remember hearing Victim of Changes and KK Downing had the echo on the guitar,” he says. “And the thing I found so compelling about that… is echo made even the most profoundly wrong choices intentional, and it kind of forces the hand of it just by having it insistently repeat. And so Judas Priest, Motorhead, Bon Scott, that sort of era, I just loved it. And then Van Halen.”

Like many young metalheads, Townsend recalls finding belonging through the guitar.

“We’re all in the metal shop and we’d be making whammy bars and everybody passing around tablature for Eruption and everything,” he says. “There was a certain amount of social collateral that came with being able to play an instrument. I remember very specifically being in the band room in grade eight and you know, I‘m a super awkward kid and I got shit hair and like the whole works.”

“And I remember hearing these kids in the back room saying, ‘Well I think that kid out there knows how to play guitar.’So I came in and played a bunch of Judas Priest riffs and all of a sudden these dudes were like, ‘Okay, you can be our buddy now.’ And I was like, ‘That’s all you gotta do? Wow.’”

But for all his love of the genre, Townsend feels the wider industry never fully understood what metal could offer.

“Metal is a dynamic that I feel was undervalued by the music industry at large because it was tied to the aesthetic of Mötley Crüe and all that shit,” he says. “Because I was a very sensitive kid and consequently, a very sensitive adult, I do find that it’s visceral in ways that other music isn’t, and it managed to scratch an itch, but as a dynamic, as a texture.”

That sensitivity, explains Townsend, also came from his deep connection to the natural world growing up in Vancouver – a relationship that continues to shape his sound today.

“Being from Vancouver and up north there, my ability to recognise my own emotional process was tied to the weather. So if it was raining, I would be able to get a sense of what it felt like to participate in the rain through echo and suspended tonalities, you know, like a ninth or a second.”

“It always seemed to resonate with that. And also the mountains, you know, the Rocky Mountains up there. We used to go on family vacations up north, and we’d just drive for eight hours. The emotional component of the scale of that was something that, from a very young age, I felt like a compulsion to try and express, I believe.”

The post Devin Townsend says metal was “undervalued” by the music industry thanks to “Mötley Crüe and all that s**t” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

£899/$899, martinguitar.com

When it first arrived nearly a decade ago, Martin’s Dreadnought Jr was a real leap into the unknown for America’s oldest acoustic guitar brand. It was a smaller guitar that felt, well, big – with a scaled down version of Martin’s most famous body shape, it had the proportions and look of a classic acoustic guitar, and an impressively loud and layered sound to go with it.

• READ MORE: Martin D-X2E Billy Strings review – “you certainly don’t need to be a bluegrass phenom to appreciate its charms”

The Dreadnought Jr was a bona fide hit, bringing dread aesthetics and tonality to those with smaller frames or who wanted something more compact to take it on the road. It was such a hit that the Junior Series soon became a thing, with basses and 000 models added to the fold in the following years.

Now however, on the back of redesigning their hugely popular X Series entry-level guitars last year, it’s the turn of the Juniors – and this time they’re trying to make these small guitars feel bigger than ever.

Martin D Jr E StreetLegend – what is it?

The most striking difference between the new Dreadnought Jr and its forebear is an issue of scale. While the original guitars opted for a very compact 24-inch scale length, the new guitars up the ante to a ‘full-size’ 24.9 inches on their 14-fret necks. Now, that’s still some way short of a real Dreadnought’s usual 25.4-inch scale, but it’s on par with what you’d expect from some 000 and 00 guitars.

While this might not be an X Series guitar, it’s still made in Martin’s Mexican facility and like those models the Junior guitars feature playability-enhancing upgrades to the select hardwood neck, including bevelled fingerboard edges and ‘optimized’ string spacing.

You also get the same all-solid body woods that made the original Junior Series so well-liked – in this case you’ll find a spruce top paired with sapele back and sides. And there’s also the addition of Martin’s E1 electronics system to the package, meaning you can plug this in should you so desire.

The biggest departure for this particular Dreadnought Jr however, is in the looks department. While the original D Jrs were available in either classic natural or more recently a StreetMaster worn sunburst, this guitar adds Martin’s hugely polarising StreetLegend faux-relic’d option to the range.

Ever since Martin debuted the StreetLegend concept with the premium D-18 model a few years ago, guitarists have been divided about it. Effectively, Martin uses an advanced printer to ‘print’ the wear pattern of a real Martin guitar onto a brand new guitar’s top.

That original StreetLegend pattern (which is a dead ringer for ‘Grandpa’ – Kurt Cobain’s D-18 that probably not coincidentally lives in Martin’s museum in Nazareth) was on a natural-finished guitar… here it’s been applied to a sunburst. I guess there’s no point spending an extra $200 on a finish if you’re not going to draw attention to it, right? Regardless, it’s probably the most eye-catching finish Martin has ever put on a standard-line production guitar from the Mexico factory.

Martin D Jr E StreetLegend – build quality and playability

The impressive thing that the Dreadnought Junior does, just like its forebear, is to not immediately look or feel like a smaller guitar when you pull it out of its supplied padded softshell gigbag.

Its looks and dimensions are ‘right’ and not so much of a departure that you’d feel like Ed Sheeran should you strap it on and play out with it. This is in part because it’s not that much of a downsize – 360mm (14.2 inches) wide and 112mm (4.41 inches) deep as opposed to the full-size dread being 397mm (15.6 inches) by 124mm (4.88 inches).

That inch or so definitely helps it feel a little more comfortable played seated however, and the playability is further enhanced by the new scale length – you really get the sense that this is a proper, real, full-sized Martin guitar.

In terms of playability, I personally found the action a little high out of the box, but it is still perfectly playable as long as you don’t want something overly slinky. This is further enhanced by the nicely rolled fingerboard edging, string spacing that threads the needle for comfortable fretting and chord work.

In terms of the visuals, there’s no doubt that the StreetLegend burst definitely looks more impressive at a distance than it does up close. You can really tell that it’s been printed on when you’re sat playing it, and that illusion breaking is only enhanced by the fact that the back and sides are not only un-aged, but don’t have a burst/paint on them at all. It all feels a bit disconnected aesthetically, and I can’t say I’m in love with it – I certainly wouldn’t pay an extra $200 (almost a third of the cost of the natural version) to get it.

I understand why Martin wanted to go big on the ‘look at me’ effect of the StreetLegend… but I can’t help wonder if they’d have sold a lot more of them if they’d kept a natural finish instead of the burst – it certainly would have been less jarring with the back, sides and neck.

Martin D Jr E StreetLegend – sounds

The killer hook for the original Dreadnought Junior was its sound, and the way that it condensed so much of the classic Martin dread tonality into a more compact body. Obviously, you’re not going to get the same booming projection as you would a full-sized dreadnought here – that’s physics – but it’s a seriously impressive effort.

The sound is well balanced and warm, with the low-end softly permeating the high-end sparkle. There’s a lot of midrange to contend with here though, which can get a little overwhelming if you’re doing a lot of heavy strumming.

Tuning stability and intonation on the new neck was impressive and rock solid – the new open-gear tuning machines feeling really reassuring as you drop into DADGAD or other altered tunings.

The Martin E1 pickup and preamp system is a relatively simple affair, but that’s no bad thing – with a tuner, volume and tone controls, and a phase reverse switch for reducing feedback and increasing bass response. As an all-solid guitar, you also know that it’s only going to sound better with age, too, as the woods dry out over time.

The tuner has a useful muting function to ensure you don’t inflict the sound of a mid-gig tuneup on your audience and while the sounds aren’t going to win any awards, they do a nice job of replicating the instrument’s natural tonal profile.

Martin D Jr E StreetLegend – should I buy one?

The mid-price acoustic guitar market is one of the most brutal and competitive out there, so you have to take your hat off to Martin in some respects for doing something to try and stand out from the natural-finished pack with the StreetLegend finish option.

You’re always going to pay an extra premium for the Martin headstock logo at this price point, and there are clearly many guitars out there with similar specs and performance for a fair chunk less money than even the basic Dreadnought Junior. They don’t say ‘CF Martin & Co’ on the peghead though, and we’re all kidding ourselves if we don’t think that matters.

Putting an extra 200 bucks on the base price to get an artificially aged top though? That is a different gravy, and one that I’m personally not at all sold on.

The new Dreadnought Junior is undeniably an upgrade on the previous version, one that plays and sounds fantastic, and remains an accessible first rung on the ‘solid wood Martin’ ladder that sets itself apart from the X Series. For me though, I’ll be taking the natural version – I imagine most of you reading this will too.

Martin D Jr E StreetLegend – alternatives

The vast majority of players will be more than happy with the natural Dreadnought Jr ($699) though if you want a less unsubtle take on the artificial ageing idea, the StreetMaster version is $799. If you want an affordable all-solid dreadnought that’s also got some big brand associations, the Fender Paramount PD-220E ($699) is hard to beat, while if you’re not too bothered about all-solid woods, the Gretsch Jim Dandy Dread ($189) is a remarkably good value guitar with old-school vibes.

The post Martin Junior Series D Jr E StreetLegend review: “this guitar feels Junior in name only” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Fender’s Tone Master range is designed to offer guitarists digital amplifiers which replicate the look and feel of vintage tube models.

When we got our hands on the Tone Master FR-12 – a full-range, flat-response active cab unit with a 12-inch speaker – in 2023, we gave it a strong 9/10 in our review, citing its affordability and time-honoured aesthetics.

• READ MORE: Put your pedal to the metal with Gamechanger Audio’s new Motor Pedal

The Tone Master FR-12 essentially offers a solution to players dabbling with amp modellers, but who also don’t want to give up the look and feel of having an actual amplifier.

So the fact the Big F has just given the FR-12 a Tweed reskin is certainly going to pique the interest of the section of the Venn diagram interested in both modern amp modellers and vintage amps.

As stated, the Tone Master FR-12 Tweed boasts a full-range, flat response powered speaker, meaning it replicates faithfully “every detail of your amp simulations”. This time, though, it comes wrapped in a ‘50s-era tweed covering and brown-striped grill cloth.

Elsewhere, the unit features an integrated 1000-watt power amp, delivering the volume and headroom you need for a multiplicity of studio or stage environments.

There’s also an onboard three-band EQ and high-frequency cut control, meaning guitarists can fine-tune their tone beyond the amp modeller they’re running through.

The Tone Master FR-12 Tweed is available now, priced at £579 / $649 / €689.

For more info, head to Fender.

The post Fender gives its Tone Master FR-12 cab a vintage Tweed makeover appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Last month, Yungblud joined forces with Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt, and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry for a raucous Ozzy Osbourne tribute at the VMAs. However, it was met with some criticism – namely from The Darkness’s Dan Hawkins, who called the supergroup “nauseating”.

While Hawkins’ slammed the performance, labelling it “another nail in the coffin of rock and roll” on his Instagram, Yungblud is taking the criticism on the chin. In his own words, the impassioned performance of Crazy Train, Mama, I’m Coming Home, and Changes was an “organic” display of the “power” of rock music. “I think we were probably one of the only acts singing live there,” he reflects in a new episode of The Magnificent Others podcast with Billy Corgan.

• READ MORE: He brought the house down at Black Sabbath’s farewell gig, and once hilariously defied a no-moshing order at a Japan show. Like it or not, Yungblud is the star rock music needs
  

Elsewhere in his criticism, Hawkins noted that it felt like the group were jumping on a bandwagon “to further their own careers”. However, Yungblud doubles down on the authenticity of his love of rock and roll.

Thanks to his dad’s guitar shop, Harrison was raised around rock. “I’m a kid from a guitar shop whose education was T-Rex, Bowie, The Sex Pistols, The Clash… it’s truly in my blood, you know?” he explains.

Doubters aside, other rockers have gladly taken Harrison under their wing. Ozzy Osbourne was vocal about his appreciation of the young rocker, even gifting him a cross while filming the music video for Harrison’s 2022 single, The Funeral. Now Aerosmith are giving him the stamp of approval.

Harrison and Aerosmith are set to release a collaborative five-track EP, One More Time, this November. The first track, My Only Angel, serves as the first taste – and it sounds like a pretty strong pairing. And it was in the works long before the VMAs performance.

“Me, Steven [Tyler] and Joe [Perry] got together before the Ozzy thing was even about,” he tells the Smashing Pumpkins frontman. “We were just going to write together for fun… but when your heroes are like, ‘yo, do you want to get in the studio?’ you’re just like, ‘yeah!’”

“We heard our voices together, and Steven was like, ‘oh my God, you can get up to the places where I can go!’” he recalls. “There was almost this friendly competition between me and one of my all time vocal heroes, someone that I’ve sat in my room and studied.”

In terms of the EP, Harrison insists it’s “real fucking rock” to the core. “Like guitars, live drums, solos in every song, wailing, screaming,” he explains. “Me and Steven are just competing with each other [vocally] in the most beautiful way.”

Looking forward, the haters are going to have to suck it up, because Harrison’s rock and roll era is only just beginning. “I would love to be able to play stadium rock all over the world,” he insists. “Because I think that’s where I come alive as a frontman.”

One More Time is due to drop 21 November.

The post “We were probably one of the only acts there singing live”: Yungblud responds to criticism over VMAs performance with Aerosmith appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Gamechanger Audio has just released the Motor Pedal, the world’s first electro-mechanical synth pedal equipped with a DC electro-motor block core controlled via a gas pedal.

A unique meeting point between a fuzz, octaver and synth, the Motor Pedal’s musical motor oscillator is an opportunity to really find the ‘biting point’ of your sound. The pedal motor’s rotational speed will match the frequency of your performance in in real time, with the option of pumping on the gas to tweak your sound – and there are five unique modes to reshape its sound.

• READ MORE: “I think it’s important that I don’t restrict myself”: Flawed Mangoes is defying genre expectations and moving beyond ‘hopecore’

Whether you’re into the glitchy, raw feel of the standard Motor mode, or the resonant analogue vibrations of the Coil Mode, the Motor Pedal has plenty of creative potential. There’s also MXD mode, a cross-modulation of the motor with a digital waveform for harsher, metallic textures, as well as the pitch-locked M-Wave and Vocoder modes.

In terms of the physical gas pedal, you can also flick between different modes to tweak how the pedal plays with your sound. You can use it as an Accelerator to pitch shift, a Brake for downwards pitch-shifting or totally pumping the breaks to halt the motor, or a Clutch to create drones and disconnect the motor from its pitch-tracking. The pedal can also play with Volume and be used to Drift for some lovely vibrato.

Elsewhere, the pedal also has Tone Boost, a pair of independent volume knobs, Glide and Vibrato as well as an X-MOD Mode to use amplitude modulation to mix and cross-modulate across all the motor engines.

The pedal isn’t merely for guitar riffing, however. The pedal can tweak just about any sound, from singing to a harp, as YouTuber Emily Harpist showcases in a review of the Motor Pedal.

However, there is somewhat of a drawback to utilising an electro-motor block as your core sound engine – it wears down over time. Gamechanger Audio has managed to add in a pretty humorous way of making you aware of the state of your motor, however; an ‘engine light’ on the pedal will light up orange, before eventually turning red. According to Gamechanger Audio, the block should last you anywhere between 3000-5000 hours, with a replacement motor block set to cost under $30.

Gamechanger Audio’s Motor Pedal is available now for £299.

The post Put your pedal to the metal with Gamechanger Audio’s new Motor Pedal appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Those familiar with Led Zeppelin lore will know that the late Terry Reid was in the running to front the band – called the New Yardbirds, in its early stages – before Jimmy Page landed on Robert Plant.

In an interview with MOJO published after his death in August 2025, Reid reflected on his decision to pass up the opportunity, saying he didn’t necessarily turn Jimmy Page down, but rather had prior commitments with The Rolling Stones at the time.

• READ MORE: Legendary luthier Ken Parker – creator of the Parker Fly – launches crowdfund to pay for cancer treatment

And in a new feature, Record Collector recalls what Reid said in response to Robert Plant at a club gig in the 2000s, when he told Reid: “You could have had my life!”

“Robert also said I could have had all the women he had!” Reid replied. “Look, nobody is more glad of Robert having that success than me. I plugged him into it! Am I gonna say now, ‘I wish I’d never done that’? It’s like saying, ‘I could have owned HP Sauce… bought the whole company and really been something with my life.’ You know what I mean?”

Indeed, Terry Reid had a reputation for sticking to his guns on the gigs he decided to take. As the story goes, he also turned down an offer to play with Deep Purple in 1969. “It weren’t my thing,” he said. “Spandex gets up my arse.”

“I suppose I didn’t really want to be part of a band…” he said in his final MOJO interview. “I’ve lived my life the way I wanted,” Reid concludes. “Running around, chasing your tail, chasing after this, chasing after that, it’ll do one of two things: it’ll either drive you crazy, or it’ll get you in a whole load of trouble.”

“The only time I really considered it was with Jeff Beck. He had a sensitivity that was totally different [from] any other guitar player. But he was always going down his own path, too, so it never happened.”

The post “Robert Plant said I could have had all the women he had!”: Terry Reid reflects on his decision not to join the band that would later become Led Zeppelin appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

“Brain rot” – Oxford’s 2024 Word of the Year and now officially added to the OED – feels like a phrase made for the social media era.

Defined as “a perceived loss of intelligence or critical thinking skills… attributed to the overconsumption of unchallenging or inane content,” it’s a sign of the times. Even Jason Isbell admits that if TikTok and Instagram had been around when he was growing up, the constant “distractions” might have stopped him from becoming a musician altogether.

• READ MORE: “I want to be more myself, and get back to the real joy of playing guitar”: Sophie Lloyd to post simpler content due to social media pressures ruining the fun of playing music

Speaking on Alabama Public Radio’s APR Notebook podcast, the six-time Grammy winner explains how the absence of those platforms gave him the focus to dig deep into his music.

“It might be harder to nerd out in the way that I did and go back and study this music, if I could just constantly be scrolling through TikTok or Instagram or something,” says Isbell. “But at the time when I started making music myself, I got obsessed with it, and I spent hours and hours researching. You know, I would find an artist, and then I would say, Well, who are their influences, and who are their influences? And I would work my way backwards.”

Growing up around the Muscle Shoals area [where the iconic FAME studios resides] in Alabama, Isbell had a unique advantage. The city’s rich musical legacy meant that the local legends weren’t just names in liner notes, but players he could actually watch onstage.

“I could go to a lot of the places and talk to a lot of the people who had worked on these albums,” Isbell recalls. “And you know, the musicians from here in town, Spooner (Oldham) and David (Hood) and Donny Fritz, they would be playing in restaurants and bars, you know, covering a lot of the songs that they’d played on originally.”

“I would order an appetizer and stay for four hours and watch people play these songs. I got very, very lucky,” says the guitarist.

Despite Isbell’s doubts though, apps like TikTok and Instagram have become powerful launchpads for a new generation of musicians. Guitarists like Matteo Mancuso and Sophie Lloyd have built international audiences from viral clips, while countless bedroom players reach millions with inventive riffs and covers. For all its potential for “distractions”, social media platforms continue to serve as important gateways for the next generation of guitar talent.

The post “It would have been harder to nerd out like I did if I was constantly scrolling TikTok”: Jason Isbell doubts he’d have become a musician if he had the “distractions” kids have today appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Mesa/Boogie has dipped back into its archives to revive two fan favourites: the Mark IIC+ HRG tube amp head and the 1×12 Vintage Thiele Cabinet. Long associated with Dream Theater’s John Petrucci and countless high-gain players, the HRG now gets its first reissue on the IIC+ platform, alongside the cabinet that became its perfect match.

The HRG (Hundred-Watt/Reverb/Graphic EQ) was born in the firm’s Lagunitas Shop days, where founder Randall Smith crafted custom rigs from an expanded menu, offering the ‘Super Sixty’ Boogie as the base model platform to build upon. The format quickly earned a reputation for immense clean headroom, ferocious lead tones and tight-tracking low end – qualities that also made it a go-to for ‘crunch’ rhythm work in heavy rock and metal.

• READ MORE: Kirk Hammett co-founded pedal brand KHDK Electronics is now making guitars

Now back in production, the Mark IIC+ HRG brings 100 watts of power with onboard Reverb, Graphic EQ, and all the snarling bite players expect from the platform. Mesa/Boogie says the reissue can “play clean in Rhythm Mode at high volumes before clipping” while delivering “super-tight low end” and searing gain in Lead Mode.

Powered by four 6L6 tubes and a preamp section stacked with five 12AX7s, the head also features independent master controls, footswitchable Rhythm and Lead channels, and a half-power switch to tame the beast down to 60 watts.

Alongside the amp comes the return of the Vintage Thiele 1×12 Cabinet. Originally designed in the early ’80s for the Electro-Voice EVM12L speaker, the front-ported, compact cab became a secret weapon for players needing massive low-end punch from a portable rig.

This new edition comes loaded with Mesa’s proprietary Celestion C90 speaker, and is available in Black Vinyl or Wicker grille finishes.

Doug West, Director of Tone Lab at Gibson Amplifiers and MESA/Boogie, says: “This sealed and ported design became synonymous with huge tone in the ’80s, when players and artists alike discovered it was a secret weapon for delivering massive low end far beyond its physical footprint, along with a tight, punchy overall sound.”

The Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ HRG is priced at $3,599, while the Vintage Thiele 1×12 Cabinet lands at $799.

Learn more at Mesa/Boogie.

The post “Maximum headroom, tight-tracking low end”: Mesa/Boogie revives the mighty Mark IIC+ HRG amplifier head appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ken Parker, legendary luthier, founder of Parker Guitars, and creator of the iconic Parker Fly, has launched a crowdfund to raise money for his cancer treatment.

In a heartfelt note on his GoFundMe page, Parker shares that he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in early 2023, and that the illness has steadily eroded his ability to work.

“It hasn’t been easy living with this nasty disease, having chemo treatments that zapped my energy and slowly took away my ability to earn a living,” he writes. “Now, I’m on a breathing machine 24/7 and I’ve started to lose the use of my left arm. I humbly ask for your support to reduce the medical and personal debt that I’ve incurred and to help with my family’s expenses.”

• READ MORE: The history of the Parker Fly

Reflecting on his career, Parker adds, “Throughout my life, I’ve done something that I love and am proud of – making guitars that advance the art, science and craft of building far beyond traditional methods. Most importantly, it has been a true joy and especially gratifying experience to see my guitars in the hands of all of you gifted and aspiring players, and I thank you for that opportunity.”

In a video released earlier this week, Parker – who in recent years focused on building custom archtops – also announces his retirement from day-to-day guitar building to focus on his health. Aided by a breathing machine, a visibly frail Parker explains that much of the past year has been dedicated to passing his knowledge and techniques on to his colleague Sam Krimmel.

“Sam has this gift which feels remarkably similar to the gift that I feel that I have that’s allowed me to do my work,” he says. “I’ve never had a deeper and more interesting work relationship on a daily basis than I have with Sam, and we work together very, very well.”

Krimmel, who has an engineering background, has been apprenticing under Parker full-time for the past year, “learning the intricate details of assembly while simultaneously developing new production techniques to improve part quality and consistency.”

He’s now tasked with carrying on the innovations that defined Parker’s five-decade career.

“Ken’s mission has been to pass on physical design ideas to Sam to empower a brilliant new set of hands,” the video description notes. “Sam’s mission is to continue to share the stories of innovation, creation, and industry altering ideas that define Ken’s work.”

“To honor Ken’s unfathomable contributions to the guitar industry, let’s keep the band together.”

The fundraiser is now live, with USD $95,298 raised out of its $450K target at the time of writing.

Contribute to Parker’s campaign at GoFundMe.

The post Legendary luthier Ken Parker – creator of the Parker Fly – launches crowdfund to pay for cancer treatment appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$149, positivegrid.com

For the last few years Positive Grid has been busy redefining what we expect in terms of sound, usability and flexibility from our practice amps in the shape of the wildly popular Spark family of products.

However, before PG became the world’s foremost purveyor of tiny amps, there was BIAS – a powerful, great-sounding and hugely popular amp and effects plugin. BIAS has percolated away in the background for the last few years, getting regular updates and building a reputation as one of the best sounding and most user-friendly guitar plugins around. Now though, things are really getting interesting with the launch of BIAS X – a brand new platform that’s brings a lot more ahem, intelligence, to the party.

Positive Grid BIAS X – what is it?

BIAS X is an in-the-box (that’s on your computer, by the way) amp and effects suite – with a twist. Billing itself as the first AI-powered ‘tone creation platform’, BIAS X provides you with 30+ amps, 60+ effects, a whole bunch of cabs and the ability to combine those in any manner you desire. The twist is that you don’t have to do the tweaking – thanks to the AI Assistant built into BIAS X’s user interface, you can simply tell the AI what sort of sound you’re looking for (or even upload a snippet of a tone you want to emulate) and quick as a flash it’ll create a plugin catered to your requirements.

The idealised version of all this effectively casts you as a megalomaniacal 80s rock star at the height of their money-no-object studio excess. The concerns of regular guitarists who have to set up their own gear or tweak their setups to get the sound they’re after are, frankly beneath you – you have underlings for that.

In this scenario, the BIAS X AI Assistant effectively playing the role of an eager to please virtual studio engineer sat beside you doing all the hard work and catering to your every whim no matter how unreasonable. Except the AI doesn’t require constant cups of tea to keep functioning, and is unlikely to demand a writing credit on the album because they came up with a maraca part that’s buried so deep in the mix you’d need Jacques Cousteau to find it.

Taken at face value, that all sounds rather appealing doesn’t it? Especially if, like me, you’re someone for whom the world of in-the-box recording is approached with a mixture of reticence and outright disdain precisely because you find the thought of spending half an hour constructing a signal chain using a mouse and keyboard a special kind of torture.

Getting a LLM to do the lion’s share of the work for you seems like one of those ‘actually worthwhile applications of AI’ that I’ve been hearing about but seeing precious little evidence for. Let’s find out if it lives up to that expectation…

Positive Grid BIAS X – who is it for?

Now, before we get into the testing part of all this, it’s probably worth having a quick sidebar here for existing BIAS users. If you’re expecting BIAS X to be BIAS FX 2 with a shiny AI helper in there, you’re going to be disappointed – at least at launch.

Because some of the important stuff that you might be expecting just isn’t there in BIAS X. For starters you get barely a third of the number of amps and effects as you do in BIAS FX, and you also won’t find the nerdy component-level tweakery that made it such a popular platform for guitar players.

Instead, this feels more like a bridge between the casual nature of the hugely popular Spark platform and its companion app, and the more involved world of ITB guitar playing – it’s probably not a coincidence that Spark also has 33 onboard amps, for example.

That doesn’t mean that BIAS is underpowered or lacking in features and usability, however – it’s every bit a modern high-end amp and effects plugin, just one that’s a little more streamlined with its sounds out of the gate.

That means you can still create the most long and unwieldy chain of effects your processor can handle – complete with dual amp and cabs if you so desire. I finally got bored having created a chain of over 40 amps and effects, with my M2 MacBook Pro’s chip still only showing 43% use (this handy DSP readout in the top right corner will come in handy if you’re using a less powerful machine however). You can also upload your own IRs in place of the inbuilt cab options, and of course adjust the mic placement accordingly.

Positive Grid BIAS X – in use

Now, as mentioned up top, I am one of those people for whom the whole amp and effects software thing has been firmly placed in the ‘not for me’ category. Despite being a very techy person generally, when it comes to guitar I prefer things to be as simple and analogue as possible. That said, I have in recent years had my head turned by the simplicity and usability of Positive Grid’s Spark products in a practice scenario… maybe BIAS X can turn my head similarly?

I might be somewhat ITB-sceptic, but I’ve used enough amp and effects plugins in my time to know that it’s useful to have a basic play around to get a clean tone you’re happy with before taking the leap into the agentic unknown. If nothing else, this is about setting your input levels and other boring stuff to give the fancy stuff a better chance to work – and so I quickly jack into BIAS X’s interpretation of a Deluxe Reverb and make sure my levels are where they need to be and everything sounds good.

This is one thing to very much be aware of in all this before we get the AI involved – the software can only create something it thinks will work, but a big part of actually sounding good is what you’re plugging into it. While I did experiment with trying to cajole the AI into creating presets specifically for guitar types, I didn’t have a huge amount of joy here – expect to have to refine your EQ to your specific guitar and its pickups.

There are a bunch of factory presets in BIAS X that offer the full gamut of tones from crystal cleans to the heaviest chugs – but that’s not why we’re here is it? Let’s click that little diamond-shaped button on the bottom left of the interface and get chatting.

There are two ways to interact with the assistant – either you can put in a text prompt and let the AI make its own mind up, or you can drag and drop an audio file and it’ll do its best to match the tone onboard.

We’ll start with the text-to-tone option, and out of the gate it’s worth noting that, if you’ve had any previous experience trying to get something useful out of an LLM, you’ll know that it helps to be quite specific in the way you prompt it.

While the Assistant’s Quick Tips encourage you to ‘describe a mood, idea or favourite artist’ to get a sound you want, I quickly realised that it helps to add as much detail as possible. “Give me an Oasis tone” is going to provide a much more complex set of variables for the AI to work with than if you ask it to, “Give me a guitar tone similar to Oasis’s Supersonic – the saturated distorted tone of a cranked amp with lots of bottom-end and slight slapback delay”.

In truth the AI does a pretty decent job even with more basic prompts, but you’ll have to accept a certain degree of refinement is necessary here. Thankfully, the Assistant is more than happy to help make minor tweaks and broadly does a nice job of it – ask it to ease back the gain or take some of the top-end out of a sound and it’ll quickly present you with an updated preset to try out.

One slightly weird eccentricity I noticed in this regard was its predilection for chucking an EQ pedal into the chain willy nilly. If you ask it to roll off some of the top end or boost the mids, it will usually respond by chucking a six-band graphic EQ into the chain, when all that really needed to happen was a roll off of the tone stack on the amp. Quite often this also sounds bad, and is easily remedied by being more specific with the prompt, but it’s a good reminder that as with any AI agent, you are not in fact talking to a living breathing virtual tea boy, and expecting it to show initiative or common sense is not always a guarantee.

Where it was more impressive was when things get weirder – asking it to craft Jack White’s glitchy octave-overloaded Blue Orchid guitar tone yielded a very solid result out of the gate and with a couple of gentle prompts I was working with a much more usable and convincing recreation than I’ve ever managed with a bunch of fuzz and pitch-shifting pedals myself.

It should also be noted that these amps and effects sound exceptionally good across the board. Positive Grid boasts about the component-level circuit modeling that goes into their sounds, and while you may not be able to tweak them to taste here, the results are still remarkably faithful to the originals. Too often ITB amp and effects plugins are judged purely on their heavy tones,but I was pleasantly surprised with the crunchy lower-gain offerings here – they sounded rich and authentic. With that in mind, it was quite frustrating that the Assistant consistently seemed to default to higher gain options than I had specified, occasionally choosing woefully inappropriate amps or pedals in the service of more distortion that I had never really asked for – a system is only as good as the data it’s trained on I suppose, and the bulk of BIAS users are going to be leaning more towards heavy tones.

Positive Grid BIAS X – should you buy it?

There are of course other issues to consider when you insert the word ‘AI’ into any product – both environmental and ethical. It’s very hard to quantify how much BIAS X is contributing to Generative AI’s boiling of the planet – though I’d wager it’s a drop in the literal oceans compared to all those chronically unfunny ‘me as an action figure’ posts that were everywhere a few months back.

Less clear-cut is the issue of exactly how BIAS X has become quite so clever at building guitar tones. Positive Grid says that in addition to “component-level circuit modeling” of the amps and effects the AI Assistant was trained using over 1 million “guitar tones spanning eras, genres, and techniques.” Now, the question you may well be asking is where exactly did that massive data set come from? I posed this question to PG, who told me that while they will use anonymised user data from BIAS X to continue to train the Assistant to improve it over time, they were unable to provide any concrete information as to where the original dataset was compiled from.

It’s an unsatisfactory answer, to be honest – especially when there is huge controversy across the world right now over what is acceptable data to use to train a generative AI product on, and what isn’t. But ultimately, the importance of these issues is very much in the eye of the beholder. It will be absolutely critical to some, and utterly inconsequential to others – with many sat in the middle mainly concerned with whether it works or not.

And work it absolutely does. Granted, if you’re already a whiz at crafting your own presets, tweaking things at the granular level and knowing exactly what you need to get to the sound in your head, the utility of the AI Assistant is somewhat limited, handy as it undoubtedly is.

But I don’t really think that’s who BIAS X is for – in many ways it feels like a way to graduate people from one of the Spark amps into a more professional and advanced world, without the massive difficulty spike that usually comes with it.

With a really simple and easy to use interface, great tones across the board and a good spread of all the classic amps and effects you might need, BIAS X is the perfect amp and effects sim for people who don’t want to make it their entire personality.

In my time with BIAS X, I genuinely found myself having fun with a guitar plugin in ways that I never had before, and that’s all down to the power and usefulness of the Assistant. It’s a shame there’s not a demo version or a free trial really – while BIAS X looks good on paper, it’s only really in practice that you appreciate its game-changing potential. The more people they can get trying it, the more impactful it’s likely to be.

Positive Grid BIAS X – alternatives

The most famous name in the guitar plugin scene is IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube 5 – it was one of the very first bespoke amp and effects platforms and has evolved and grown over the last decade or so to become a hugely varied and good sounding product. It’s starting to show its age in terms of usability now however. If you want quality and huge choice in one package, it’s hard to look past Line 6’s Helix Native – if you can think of it in terms of amps, effects and such, it’s in there. Another simple to use and well-stocked option that’s perhaps a little on the elderly side now is Native Instruments Guitar Rig 7.

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