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We’ve entered into December proper. And, so, the herds of savings that stampeded around us across Black Friday and Cyber Week have completed their yearly migration, disappearing over the horizon as quickly as they came. But, deal hunters that we are, we move onto new pastures to find fresh savings to throw spears at and chase over cliffs. Metaphorically. And those new pastures are the pre-Christmas build-up sales, which are now in full swing at retailers like Sweetwater and zZounds. There are some awesome deals to be had on everything from stocking-stuffing pedals to dream guitars to reliable Boss classics – here are just a few.

Save $50 on the IK Multimedia ToneX One

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A pocket-sized pedal this may be, but there’s a whole universe of amplifier simulations within its miniscule enclosure. This bite-size pedal features 20 onboard Tone Model slots, allowing you to pick and choose from over 200 Premium Tone Models and more than 25,000 user-generated Tone Models via IK’s TONEX Librarian and ToneNET – that’s an unbelievable amount of flexibility, all for less ahead of the holidays.

Save $30 on the Boss RC-5

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This is my personal looper of choice – it’s a great balance between size and featureset, as it’s got an extensive set of on-board beats, storage options, and other nifty quality of life features, but it still functions just fine as a straight-ahead looper!

Save $310 on the PRS SE Hollowbody Standard Piezo Electric Guitar

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This innovative semi-hollow from PRS comes in the rather intriguing dog hair finish, which is a lot prettier to look at than you might think – with the accentuated, tight grain of the top providing an almost glittery effect. The guitar comes with all of the player-friendly ergonomics that you might expect from PRS, alongside a versatile set of sounds thanks to that unique piezo setup.

Save $30 on the Boss TU-3

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We don’t need to tell you why the TU-3 is great, and even greater at just under $80. It’s a fast, accurate, reliable tuner that’s housed in Boss’ ever-beloved compact series enclosure, and therefore will survive a direct hit from a nuclear missile, probably. No wonder it’s on so many professional and non-professional pedalboards alike!

Save $50 on the Boss Katana

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$299 for the Katana 50 Gen 3 is an extremely appealing deal. The Katana Gen 3 has excellent direct sounds, with a customisable signal path and effects chain thanks to robust software control. What’s more, it’s also more than capable of being used as a regular combo amplifier – the 50-watt version balances between power and portability, as it’s more than capable of all kinds of gigs thanks to its headroom and its direct capabilities, but it’s also a one-hand lift!

The post Guitar.com Deals Of The Week: pre-Christmas savings to stuff your stockings with appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ad feature with Lutefish

Remote jamming is a phrase that incites a certain degree of scepticism – with a lot of solutions, the latency is inevitably too high thanks to lengthy processing delays. But the Lutefish stream is a new solution that aims to get around the normal roadblocks and offer a super low-latency experience while you jam with musicians hundreds of miles away.

What is the Lutefish Stream?

The Lutefish Stream is a pretty straightforward unit. To some degree it resembles an audio interface, but it is by no means a traditional one. Each bandmate requires a Stream, and can easily connect their instrument either direct or via microphones – there are two mono combo XLR/¼” inputs with individual gain controls, two headphone outputs for your preferred connector size, an overall master volume and finally a talkback mic to communicate with your bandmates.

So, why a hardware solution as opposed to software that uses your own interface? Rather working like a traditional interface, the Lutefish Stream instead uses a direct ethernet connection, straight into your router – which is what lets it achieve such low latency. Going direct via ethernet means the minimum possible delay in sending the digitised audio stream – no lag is added by unstable WiFi connections or your computer’s audio processing path.

With a good connection, the Stream’s latency can be around 3ms. Sound travels through air at roughly one metre per millisecond – and so a 3ms delay is about what you’d get from just standing on the other side of the room to the rest of your band.

All of the audio is routed through this connection, including the talkback mic. This allows for seamless, lag-free chats alongside your practice session. The video call for a session is sent separately through your laptop or phone’s own connection, which keeps as much bandwidth as possible available for the audio stream.

To the test

I put the Lutefish Stream to the test with the help of my band Epimetheus. Gathered in different practice spaces, we connected everything up and joined the session. I was worried that remote jamming of any kind would be pretty obstructive to our music – we play downtuned shoegaze that occasionally veers totally off-piste, or at least I do, while the rhythm section keeps things grounded. We don’t play to a click or backing tracks, and we often rely on cueing each other back in for different sections – so we really need to be in sync!

However the Lutefish Stream handled it all with aplomb! Remote jamming is never going to feel exactly like you’re in the same room, mainly because you’re hearing everything through headphones – but the latency was so low it felt really great playing with my bandmates. Check out the video to see for yourself!

The benefits of a solution like this really speak for themselves – there are lots of reasons why you might not be able to all get into the same room and practice as often as you’d like. And thanks to Lutefish’s network of musicians, once you have a stream you can also start connecting with a load of other players and expand your musical horizons.

The Lutefish Stream is by no means a complete replacement for playing in a room together, however it’s a great solution for those of us who find life getting in the way of music. It lets you work to a more flexible schedule, and spend more time playing – and less time lugging gear across your city.

Find out more about Lutefish at lutefish.com.

The post The Lutefish Stream is a remote jamming solution that actually works appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Mateus Asato has been thinking about suggestions to add vocals to his instrumental pieces, and has concluded that the music alone is “enough”.

Asato rose to fame by sharing videos of himself playing online, and has toured with artists like Bruno Mars and Tori Kelly. This year, he began releasing music of his own with singles Cryin’ and The Breakup Song. Both tracks form part of his debut album, which is due for release in 2026.

• READ MORE: “Hurt yourself a bit”: Mateus Asato is one of the world’s best guitar players – and his latest practice tip is certainly unconventional

Neither song features any lyrical content, and fans of Asato have been suggesting different vocalists that should collaborate with him on his music. In a Story post on Instagram, he says he’s not offended by these suggestions, but plans to keep his music purely instrumental.

“If there’s a person who’s considered having vocals and lyrics on my songs, that person was definitely me,” he begins. “Now that I have been releasing my own music these days, it’s been a common thing to read something like, ‘I can picture [this artist] singing over this’. I don’t feel offended – actually, most of the time, I agree or even thought the same thing.

“But… let me explain this. I’m aware of how a human voice and words could be the closest bridge from a creator to the listener. The message doesn’t get any more clear than that. I am not a singer – and never wanted to be one. The only reason I make music today is because I fell in love with the sound of the electric guitar one day.”

Asato goes on to explain how for a number of years, he felt there was something missing from the music he was making, which he now puts down to external pressures from others: “That never started from myself, always from others. Former managers, family members and so on.

“After hearing their words, I’d come home and started to re-shape in my head the creation that made me proud and alive. Until the day I realised that I truly like these guitar pieces how they are. It’s meant to sound that way and it’s enough. For me, at least. And that’s what matters,” he says.

“The coolest thing of instrumentals is how SUBJECTIVE it could be. Like a painting with no description. And I’ve been enjoying the effect of it at this season of my life. It’s grown on me at a point that I finally decided to release these songs in an album that will be out soon. The time with songs with vocals and melodies might come, if my identity as a creator understands it needs some extensions. Right now there’s a lot of satisfaction where it is.”

Hear his latest single below:

You can learn more about Asato and find tabs for his new music via his official website.

The post Mateus Asato doesn’t mind you imagining vocals on his instrumental music, but this is why he’s not going to do it appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

John 5 has played for some huge rock artists, and unlike some guitarists, he doesn’t believe in putting his own spin on other artists’ songs.

John joined Mötley Crüe in 2022 after Mick Mars stepped down due to health reasons. As well as his own solo career, he’s played for David Lee Roth, Rob Zombie, and more, and says he only plays for artists whose music he enjoys so that he’s a better fit for the job.

• READ MORE: “It will never stop – thank God”: John 5 names three modern guitarists who are ensuring that the guitar will “keep evolving”

There are lots of guitarists out there who are set on putting their own spin on things when filling in the shoes of another player, with some arguing they want to leave that artist’s work and legacy alone out of respect, but John feels that nailing the parts as intended is more honourable.

Speaking to Metal Hammer for its new print issue, he explains, “[For every band I’ve played with], I have such respect for the music and the artist, and the person that I’m stepping in for. Be it Eddie Van Halen [with David Lee Roth], Mick Mars [with Mötley Crüe], or anyone like that, I have such respect for them.

“I show respect by playing the songs just as they were written. I’m not trying to do my own thing. As long as you play the parts directly and do a good job at it, everything will be OK, because that’s what people want. They love these bands that they’ve seen their whole lives.”

He goes on to add, “I do only join musicians that I’ve loved most of my life as well. It makes it easier on me. It’s easier for the audience, too, because there have been a lot of people who joined certain bands, and were like, ‘Oh, I never really even listened to them before’, and that idea is just so foreign to me.”

In other John 5 news, the guitarist was honoured with a birthday cake that replicated his Boss-heavy pedalboard earlier this year. After turning 55 in July, a fan named Merredith Mooth commissioned the cake, which was made by Angie Martinez Hrndz (Cakes from the Crypt). All six of his pedals were expertly recreated, from his CE-2W Chorus to his NS-2 Noise Suppressor, to his DD-8 Digital and DM-2W Delay pedals.

Find out more about John 5, or view the full list of dates for Mötley Crüe’s 2026 Carnival Of Sins anniversary tour. 

The post John 5 explains why he doesn’t improvise when playing other people’s songs: “I show respect by playing the songs just as they were written” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

€329/£299/$399, gamechangeraudio.com

I’m going to be very careful to avoid hyperbole here. The Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal is almost certainly the wildest, hairiest, scariest stompbox I have ever used. Now imagine what that sentence would have been like with the hyperbole left in…

• READ MORE: Warm Audio WA-TS Tube Squealer review: “it offers a great deal in a small enclosure”

To be clear, while the Latvian mavericks’ latest concoction very much comes under the ‘synth’ category, we’re not dealing with boops, bleeps, moving filters or emulated organ sounds here. This is a whole different kettle of piranhas.

Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal – what is it?

Okay, here’s the easy part: it’s a monophonic synthesizer pedal for guitar. More specifically, according to the manual, this is “the world’s first electromechanical synth engine in pedal format”. It’s built around a spinning motor oscillator with three rotating coils and a fixed electromagnetic pickup, driven by a pitch-tracking engine.

For anyone thinking that might as well be written in Greek, you’re not far off – it’s written in geek. And here’s what it means in basic English: the higher the note you play, the faster the motor spins, and that’s what generates the output signal. It’s an idea taken from the desktop Motor Synth, but now offered in much-simplified (and guitarified) form.

Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal – is it easy to use?

Ten knobs looks like a lot, especially when they’re crowded around a bamboozling display of multicoloured lights, but they’re ripe for picking off one at a time.

Begin with the ones at bottom left and right, which aren’t really knobs at all but five-way rotary switches: one for selecting the synth mode, and one for assigning the function of the built-in expression pedal. Between those two you’ve got plenty of housemate-horrifying power on tap even with everything else parked at halfway.

Let’s not forget the other controls, though. There’s a seven-way switch for setting a pitch-shift interval between one octave down and one octave up, dials for dry and wet volume plus tone and drive, and three more for tweaking the synthesized signal.

And then, of course, you’ve got the expression pedal. This looks and feels like a car’s accelerator, and I don’t think that’s a decision Gamechanger has made just to fit in with the automotive theme: push it down and it will spring back up when you let go, which is useful, and you can also squeeze it down harder to push through into ‘floor-it’ mode. Intriguing, no? Better buckle up…

Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal – sounds

Sure, the vroomy-vroom concept is cute and all – it’s even got racing stripes! – but if you pop it in the first mode and note-bend your way along the low E string, the Motor Pedal can sound uncannily like an F1 car going through the gears. It’s a ‘synth’ sound, yes, but with a grindingly atonal thickness that’s distinctive and exhilarating, if not exactly musical in any familiar sense of the word.

Some of the other sounds are more traditionally synthy – throw away your keyboards now, Gary Numan fans! – but you always have the feeling that unpredictable overtones are just waiting to grab the wheel and drag you into the crash barriers. The knob marked ‘mod’ can make this even more pronounced, while you also have the option of cranking the drive for maximum furiousness.

There’s a wonderfully wobbly vibrato on board, as well as adjustable sustain for softening the in-built gating effect – which is helpful, but can’t always stop it cutting off a hanging note when you really don’t want it to. This can be absolutely maddening, and will make you envy those key-prodders with their un-decaying notes.

For the real high-octane thrills, though, you need to step on the expression pedal. It can be set to go up or down an octave, engage infinite sustain, add momentary vibrato or serve as a volume pedal. Push down extra-hard in vibrato mode and it increases the speed; in either of the octave modes it will soar beyond its range like a satanically possessed Whammy. All of this happens without any distracting latency or tracking issues, and with the entertaining visual bonus of a spinning chequered wheel to distract you from all your mistakes.

Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal – should I buy one?

The Motor Pedal pushes at the boundaries of what a guitar stompbox can do before it becomes simply a generator of unpleasant noises. Its practical uses, unless you’re in some sort of neo-industrial electro-goth dada-brutalist ensemble, are limited. It’s large, heavy and somewhat expensive. Worst of all, it sounds better with keyboards than it does with guitars. Still with me after all that? Then yes, you probably should buy it.

Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal – alternatives

Nothing else will take you anywhere quite like this, but other unapologetically rebellious stompboxes for noisemongers include the Noise Engineering Dystorpia ($299/£299), Electro-Harmonix POG3 ($645/£599) and Mantic Flex Pro ($269/£230).

The post Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal review – a radical synth pedal for sonic extremists appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

YouTuber KDH has made name for himself calling out others – be they guitarists or brands – in the guitar space. And the latest to find themselves in his crosshairs is Brandon D’Eon, a popular YouTuber with over 800,000 subscribers.

It comes after KDH – who himself boasts over 110,000 subscribers on the platform – discovered an old video posted to Brandon’s channel which saw him approaching guitar brands stationed at the 2024 NAMM Show asking for free instruments.

• READ MORE: The story of Tom Morello’s ‘Arm the Homeless’ Guitar

KDH subsequently posted a video to his channel titled ‘The WORST Guitar YouTuber I’ve ever Seen”, listing the ways he felt Brandon had been rude in his approach to said brands.

While it’s not uncommon for brands to work with influencers in the guitar space – with many such deals seeing these influencers furnished with free instruments in exchange for publicity or exposure – KDH takes an issue with how Brandon communicated with the brands he approached. “The real problem is how it was executed,” he says.

“Instead of Brandon approaching people and brands with respect… he chose the option to just walk up and demand free stuff, thinking that everybody would recognise him as the big star that he thinks he is,” he continues.

KDH’s video has since gone viral, amassing well over 300,000 views in just six days, and the pair have since had a conversation to straighten things out. And lucky for us, that conversation was recorded, and can now be viewed on KDH’s channel.

“A lot of the things that you said in that video [were] very fair…” Brandon tells KDH. “I did act in a way that was not super polite. I was a bit of an ass.”

Brandon contends, however, that his more “aggressive” and inflated “ego” was a persona, and not a true reflection of himself. “In my head, I thought that I did have to act like a bit arrogant to create engagement,” he explains. “I’m not saying I was right to do that, but I’m just trying to explain where my head was at.”

But when Brandon notes that his “yelling” at brand reps was part of this persona and performance, KDH is quick to point out the difference between yelling at a camera for engagement and yelling at real people.

“If I record a video and I’m being aggressive or rude, it’s not directed at anybody,” he explains. “When you take that [performed aggression and] speak directly to one person, then it’s directed at them.”

KDH also raises the point that those working at NAMM have to contend with less-than-ideal conditions, purely by virtue of the nature of the show. “When you’re working NAMM you’re hearing 50 guitar players play 50 different songs at 50 different tunings [all at once] and it’s just horrible,” he explains. “Then they’ve got two cameras on them, they know that it’s going to go on YouTube. They have to just accept whatever is said, because it reflects on the company.”

Again, freebies in exchange for exposure is part and parcel of the guitar space – and indeed many other markets. But the backlash recently faced by Brandon D’Eon is a reminder that how you might approach brands as an influencer is still important, and blindly pursuing engagement metrics like views – and adopting abrasive personas in the process – might be counterproductive…

The post “I was a bit of an ass”: This YouTuber asked brands for free guitars at NAMM, and a viral video called him out – now Brandon D’Eon has set the record straight appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ad feature with the t.bone

While there are myriad effective and great sounding ways to record your guitar direct in 2025, there’s something about the classic recipe of sticking a microphone in front of your amp or instrument that can’t be beaten.

But what mic to use? For the uninitiated, the sheer variety of different types of microphones available – and the huge spread of prices they can cost – can put you off before you’ve even had the chance to experience the wonder of a properly mic’d acoustic or guitar amp.

But it doesn’t have to be this way – most mics can be grouped into three broad categories that offer utility for certain types of instruments and recording situations. In this guide, I’ll be running you through the three most common categories, and explaining how they can be used to make your at-home recording experience even better.

The other issue often putting people off is cost, but here the good folks at t.bone are here to help. The t.bone offers a wide selection of common mic types, often ones that channel the spirit of a classic mic at a fraction of the cost you might have seen elsewhere – each mic you’ll see us talk about below costs less than €200. Let’s dive in.

Dynamic Microphones

Also known as ‘moving coil’ microphones, dynamic mics are in many ways the easiest and most straightforward type of mic to understand, as they operate effectively like a loudspeaker in reverse. When sound waves hit the microphone, the membrane of the moves to the rhythm of the sound waves, and the magnetic coil on its back moves along with it, converting that movement into an electric signal.

In practice, this makes for a very simple and robust mic, which is part of their appeal – they also don’t require phantom power from your audio interface. Dynamic mics tend to have a more focused tone than other mic types, which means they’re less likely to pick up on external sound and background noise. If you’re recording at home in an environment without much acoustic treatment, having a dynamic mic might be the best option.

Two really great dynamic mic options in the t.bone range are the MB75 and MB75 Beta. The MB75 is inspired by a classic dynamic mic and offers fantastic feedback resistance and directional quality, making it perfect for mic’ing up guitar amps both live and in the studio, or for close-recording of acoustics in non-treated environments.

The Beta version keeps much of the 75’s character and usability, but offers a greater dynamic range (more high and low frequencies) while being even more directional – perfect for mic’ing up a noisy guitar amp.

Whatever dynamic mic you choose, they’re great all-rounders for whatever you want to put them in front of.

Ribbon Mics

Ribbon mics are technically a variation of the dynamic microphone, but such is their distinct sonic character, most musicians will treat them as an entirely distinct type in their own right. Like a dynamic mic, ribbon mics use electromagnetic induction to capture sound, but rather than moving a magnet, it uses a thin piece of aluminium foil that moves inside the magnetic gap.

In practice this means that ribbon mics are able to reproduce the sound more accurately and sensitively than a regular dynamic mic, though they tend to lack a bit of top end. This makes them best suited for mic’ing up guitar amps and cabs. One thing to be aware of, however, is that ribbon mics are very fragile, and have a natural ‘figure 8’ (ie they record sound both in front and behind, not the sides) recording pattern – so probably not the best option for quiet recording in untreated environments.

As you’d expect, the t.bone offers a wide selection of quality ribbon mics, but the standout is the RB 500 – a lovely microphone with a warm, natural sound that’s perfect for sticking in front of your amp and capturing its authentic tone.

Condenser Mics

The final type of microphone you might wish to consider for your home recording set up is a condenser. Condenser mics can capture a sound source in the most rich and accurate detail possible and work in a different way to dynamic mics – the mic capsule contains an extremely thin membrane (known as the diaphragm) that sits parallel to a charged metal plate. As sound hits this membrane, it vibrates and creates a current in the metal plate.

Condensers offer a detail and dynamic range not found in dynamic mics, and as such they’re perfect for capturing the nuances of acoustic guitars – though they’ll often also pick up a lot of other extraneous background noise, so might not be perfect for recording for non-treated environments.

There are two types of condenser mics – large diaphragm and small diaphragm. Large diaphragm condensers tend to generate less self-noise, and will impart their own sonic character to the recording, which is usually warm and lush. A great example of this type of mic is the t.bone SC 1100.

Small-diaphragm condensers offer a greater frequency range than their larger counterparts – meaning that you’ll have a more neutral and accurate depiction of the sound in the room. If you’re wanting to capture the full nuance of an acoustic guitar, it’s common to use a pair of small-diaphragm mics in ‘X/Y/ configuration positioned 6-12 inches from the 12th fret with the mics angled 45 degrees from the fretboard.

Thankfully, the t.bone SC 140 is an affordable small-diaphragm condenser that means it doesn’t cost much to grab yourself a pair. And don’t forget with condenser mics, you’ll need to run them into an audio interface or mixer with phantom power!

Choosing the right mic for your needs can be the difference between a good recording and a great one – thankfully, t.bone makes things so affordable that you can experiment with a minimal outlay, and find the perfect mic for you.

To find the right mic for you, shop now at tbone.audio

The post Choosing the right mic can transform your home guitar recordings – here’s how to do it on a budget appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

After sitting untouched for nearly half a century, Bob Myer’s long-lost dual Op-Amp Big Muff design has finally been brought to life as the EHX Big Muff 2.

Built in partnership with JHS Pedals, the new Big Muff 2 is described as “a sharper, louder, more aggressive take on the classic Big Muff voice.”

• READ MORE: “Legends never die”: Ross revived under Bud Ross’s grandson with new Era 6 pedals after failed JHS relaunch

In 2021, while digging through Big Muff inventor Bob Myer’s archives for the forthcoming Electro-Harmonix history book, Made On Earth For Rising Stars: The Electro-Harmonix Story, JHS founder Josh Scott unearthed something unexpected: a hand-drawn schematic labeled “BIG MUFF USING (2 DUAL OP AMPS)”.

It wasn’t a variation anyone had heard of, but rather, Myer’s own attempt to reimagine his landmark fuzz using the newer Op-Amp technology that had emerged in the 1970s.

“Once discovered, [we] breadboarded the circuit exactly as Bob drew it, and immediately knew they had something worth making,” says JHS. “We found that Bob’s design is unique when compared to the now famous late ‘70s Op-Amp Big Muff designed by Michael Abrams. Different clipping arrangement, an extra gain stage and various other elements that made this lost version extremely special.”

Where the original Big Muff is known for its “sweet violin-like sustain”, the Big Muff 2 is built to hit harder. It dishes out a sharper edge, significantly more volume, and what the companies describe as the “most pronounced low-end and midrange” of any EHX Big Muff ever released.

Controls remain reassuringly familiar – with the usual Volume, Sustain, and Tone knobs – on top of a classic big-box wedge enclosure.

Production is limited to 5,700 units, with the Big Muff 2 priced at $249.

The pedal’s launch also coincides with Made On Earth for Rising Stars: The Electro-Harmonix Story — a 500-plus-page archival volume chronicling the company’s history, created with JHS Pedals, Third Man Books and archivist Daniel Danger. The book is available to pre-order now via Third Man Records.

Order the Big Muff 2 today at JHS Pedals.

The post Electro-Harmonix and JHS Pedals revive Bob Myer’s forgotten circuit with the Big Muff 2 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

He may be the son of one of rock guitar’s greatest shredders, but Wolfgang Van Halen has argued that “shredding” is rarely the point – and that fans who expect him to play like his father Eddie are missing the bigger picture.

Speaking on the Song Cake podcast, the Mammoth leader addresses the fixation certain listeners have with his technique, and shares how reducing music to shred metrics does a disservice to what makes songs matter.

When host Phil Wilding notes that rock fans and critics often zero in on the playing rather than the writing, Wolfgang didn’t hesitate to agree.

• READ MORE: “It’s not about having a guy jumping around on stage… It’s about playing the f**k out of your instruments”: Wolfgang Van Halen on what really matters onstage

“I think that’s the big thing where people tend to lose focus,” he says. “Especially when it comes to be they just sit there and go, ‘Oh, he doesn’t play as well as his dad,’ or ‘It’s not as good as this Van Halen song.’”

“It’s all focused on the fact that I might not be tapping well enough in their opinion, or not playing well enough, rather than, ‘hey, isn’t it cool that I created this whole thing by myself with all these different pieces, all these different parts?’”

The guitarist also emphasises that his priorities are the same as his father’s were – even if listeners sometimes forget.

“It’s about the song construction at the end of the day, for me, as it was for Dad, even though people seem to focus on the playing,” Wolfgang explains. “It’s about creating the song. Because if you don’t have that, you have just shredding through scales. And there’s not really much soul on that.”

To stress the point, Wolfgang draws attention to megastar Taylor Swift, who was voted eighth best guitarist of the last two decades in a 2024 poll conducted by UK guitar retailer guitarguitar.

“Do you see Taylor Swift shredding scales?” he asks. “I don’t think so. She writes a song that makes you feel stuff. At the end of the day, if you’ve got a melody and a song that makes you feel things, makes you remember somebody you lost, makes you miss something, makes you think of being back home, at the end of the day, that’s what a song is about.”

While there’s “room for shreddiness and stuff,” Wolfgang concedes, “at the end of the day, like I mentioned, that’s what it’s about for me.”

The post “Do you see Taylor Swift shredding scales? I don’t think so”: Wolfgang Van Halen explains why fans who expect him to shred like Eddie are missing the point appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Seymour Duncan has teamed up with Fear Factory riff-machine Dino Cazares on the new signature Machete humbucker.

Long known as the secret weapon inside Cazares’ signature Ormsby guitars, the Machete now makes its standalone debut for players everywhere. Engineered for guitarists who demand articulation and low-end definition without sacrificing organic feel, this active pickup in a passive mount combines high-output coils with a custom preamp circuit to deliver ferocious attack and surgical precision.

• READ MORE: Is this the first relic’d Strat? Andrian Belew and Seymour Duncan’s chaotic ‘relic-ing’ session revealed: “He laid it in the grass, doused it with lighter fluid, and poof!”

“The Machete looks like a traditional passive pickup, but it’s actually an active pickup with a preamp hidden inside the housing, right underneath the pole pieces,” Cazares explains. “That design gives this pickup extra bite, precision, and clarity – built to cut through any mix like a blade.”

Built on the foundation of Seymour’s popular Retribution model, the Machete dials in a sharper treble edge and thicker low-mids, giving it an aggressiveness that’s perfect for machine-gun picking, tight chugs, and searing leads.

“I wanted the best of both worlds. The open, less compressed feel of a passive pickup combined with an aggressive bite and articulation of an active preamp,” says Cazares. “It delivers the raw clarity, but still hits with the force of an active pickup.”

“The machete pickup is an incredibly diverse pickup,” he adds. “I designed it to sound great for any style that I play, and for any type of player. It delivers beautiful, open, clean tones without that heavy, active compression, but it also gives you the precise, aggressive staccato attack that I would need for Fear Factory or Divine heresy, and anything in between.”

Hand-built in Santa Barbara, California, the Machete is available for six-string guitars in Black, White, and Red, and for seven-strings in Black, White, and Zebra. Prices come in at $149 for the six-string model and $159 for the seven-string version.

Learn more at Seymour Duncan.

The post “Built to cut through any mix like a blade”: Seymour Duncan launches the Dino Cazares signature Machete humbucker appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Kurt Cobain’s famed Martin D-18E, the guitar he played during Nirvana’s iconic MTV Unplugged performance and the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction, has been donated to the Royal College of Music in London.

Widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant guitars in rock history, the rare electro-acoustic was modified for Cobain’s left-handed playing style. After his death, the instrument was inherited by his daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, who stored it in a Seattle vault. It later became part of a divorce settlement and was ultimately sold by Isaiah Silva.

• READ MORE: The guitar influences of Kurt Cobain

In June 2020, the D-18E went under the hammer at Julien’s Auctions, fetching a staggering $6,010,000 (£4.51 million), a record-setting price that cemented its status as the world’s most expensive guitar.

The buyer, Peter Freedman AM – founder of RØDE Microphones and a founding supporter of the Royal College of Music’s Australia Commonwealth Scholarship Fund – has now donated the instrument to the conservatoire in memory of his father, Henry Freedman. The guitar will join the RCM Museum’s extraordinary collection, which includes what is believed to be the oldest surviving guitar in existence, made in 1581 in Lisbon by luthier Belchior Dias.

The Royal College of Music has also confirmed that Cobain’s D-18E will anchor a new international touring exhibition planned for 2026, following the success of Kurt Cobain: Unplugged, an in-house exhibition that drew more than 15,000 visitors.

“I am delighted to gift this iconic guitar to the Royal College of Music so that they might realise the guitar’s value and profile for the benefit of young musicians at the RCM and reach people around the world,” says Freedman. “This gift is dedicated to my father Henry who loved music and London, and it’s an honour for me to support the next generation of musicians.”

James Williams, Director of the Royal College of Music adds, “The Royal College of Music is deeply grateful to Peter Freedman for his incredible generosity in gifting the College Kurt Cobain’s Martin D-18E guitar.”
“This asset opens future opportunities to share the Kurt Cobain: Unplugged exhibition with an international audience; it is also emblematic of Peter’s unstinting support for the performing arts and his steadfast belief in the power of education to transform lives.”

The post Kurt Cobain’s $6 million MTV Unplugged Martin D-18E finds a permanent home at London’s Royal College of Music appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Few guitarists have had more of an influence on modern rock and roll than Eddie Van Halen. His playing was hugely inventive, technically astounding and perhaps most importantly of all, designed to elevate and enhance the songs he was playing on.

• READ MORE: The Gear Used By Eddie Van Halen on ‘Van Halen I’

But even the greatest musicians of all time had inspirations of their own, and EVH was no different – and there are a few peers and precursors who had a significant influence on the way he approached the guitar. Let’s take a look at the ones whose impact was most significant.

Eric Clapton

Van Halen himself stated that his biggest influence early on when it came to electric guitar was another guitar hero who needs no introduction — Eric Clapton.

“My main influence was Eric Clapton,” he told Guitar World. “I could play everything he did when I was 14. I would play the live version of Crossroads from the Cream album note for note. I was a big fan of Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore, and Allan Holdsworth, too. But Clapton was it. I knew every note he played. That’s what I was known for around home… Clapton was my favorite.”

Eddie and Clapton eventually did cross paths and become friendly, but the two never collaborated on any music. Given their very different but equally influential styles, that would have been quite a pairing – Slowhand meets the definitely-not-slow-hand.

Jimmy Page

A lot has been said about the origins of Van Halen’s legendary two-hand tapping technique – it was something that Eddie did not invent but certainly popularised to a huge degree. As a result, many have speculated who inspired Eddie to start tapping – Canned Heat’s Harvey Mandel being a common name mentioned. Van Halen himself insisted it came from something further back, however.

“I think I got the idea of tapping watching Jimmy Page do his Heartbreaker solo back in 1971,” he told Guitar World. “He was doing a pull-off to an open string, and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, open string … pull off. I can do that, but what if I use my finger as the nut and move it around?’ I just kind of took it and ran with it.”

Page was one of the most famous and influential guitar players on the planet when Eddie was coming of age, and so it stands to reason that he would have taken elements of Page’s technique and style and tried to evolve it.

It’s also equally plausible that he would have been familiar with contemporaries like Mandel, or the likes of Dave Bunker or Jimmie Webster – both of whom were tapping in their own ways long before EVH did.

Ritchie Blackmore

Like so many of us, Eddie was heavily influenced by the pioneers of heavy rock music like Pete Townshend and Jimi Hendrix. But Ritchie Blackmore seemed to affect Eddie Van Halen’s playing on a fundamental level. According to a conversation Eddie had with Classic Rock magazine in 1978, he pointed out that Blackmore got him “hooked on the whammy bar”. The whammy bar would come to be a big part of his signature sound in the years to come.

Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Eddie’s father, Jan Van Halen, was a professional musician who played saxophone and clarinet. He actually did record a song with Van Halen on clarinet on their 1982 album Diver Down. Eddie’s birthname, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, was given to honor Ludwig van Beethoven (Lodewijk is Dutch for Ludwig) and when Eddie had his son, he named him Wolfgang, in honor of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which is incredibly telling of his admiration for classical music in general. It’s fair to say that Mozart and Beethoven, two titans of classical composition, were both heavy influences on Eddie early on when he began learning to play the piano.

The lessons Eddie would learn on piano would have a direct influence on his understanding of music composition in general and when he picked up the guitar, his classical background would have informed his early development in learning guitar as well.

Tony Iommi

Early on in his career, Eddie would cover Black Sabbath songs on stage, even taking on vocal duties. As we know, the bands we idolize early in our guitar playing development have a lasting impact on us when we develop our own original sound. Like many of us, Eddie was drawn to the powerful riffs that Iommi is known for. In 1978, Van Halen toured with Black Sabbath, and Eddie may have gotten some direct guidance from the godfather of heavy metal himself.

Eddie also probably had influences on his playing style that he was perhaps not always forthright about – for example, George Lynch claims that he and Eddie both saw Mandel do neoclassical tapping on stage with Canned Heat long before he did it.

Similarly, the unique Frankenstrat paint job looks very similar to the paint job of a guitarist named Chip Kinman of a punk band called The Dils, who often played in Los Angeles. All of which is worth mentioning because it shows that it’s entirely possible that there are other musicians out there who influenced Eddie but never got directly acknowledged by the man himself.

What is interesting is that most of Eddie Van Halen’s influences are not uncommon or unusual – you probably have a lot of them in common with him. What made him such a game-changing guitarist was the way that he took those inspirations and added his own special ingredients and ingenuity that made him truly unique, and an inspiration to millions.

The post The Guitar Influences of Eddie Van Halen appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Back in 2006, the Arctic Monkeys parted ways with Andy Nicholson. Up until 2019, it was implied that the split was mutual – now, however, the former bassist has began sharing how getting fired by his “three best friends” left him feeling betrayed, devastated and even suicidal.

In a new interview with Mojo, the founding Arctic Monkeys member recalls the day that he discovered his bandmates had replaced him. Originally, the band’s current bassist, Nick O’Malley, was only intended as a temporary stand-in for Nicholson. “Towards the end of a European tour, I had some family stuff that I needed to be at home for,” Nicholson explains. “So we were like, ‘Why don’t we get Nick to fill in?”

• READ MORE: The story of Tom Morello’s ‘Arm the Homeless’ Guitar

It felt like an obvious choice – the band “grew up” with O’Malley, and he “wasn’t some stranger”. However, as Nicholson soon found out, he was also the perfect candidate to replace him. “We had a meeting in the manager’s office in Sheffield, and they said, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re gonna keep Nick now,’” he remembers. “My world came crumbling down right in front of me.”

“I’d gone from having the next year scheduled to not even knowing what I’m doing tomorrow, and my three best friends had done this to me,” he continues. “I can’t imagine it was easy for them either. I remember saying, ‘Best of luck with everything’. I shook all their hands, and I walked out.”

While Nicholson tried to keep things amicable, there were legalities to finalise. After all, the band had come a long way from the amateurs practising together in Alex Turner’s “dad’s garage”. “That same day, the other manager was like, ‘You’re gonna need a solicitor,’” Nicholson says. “My head was spinning… I would have died for that band, but, unfortunately, that band wouldn’t have died for me.”

While Nicholson played on the band’s debut record, 2006’s Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, he was thrown out before he could experience the skyrocket of stardom the debut would beckon in. “The band headlined Glastonbury the year after, and I’m sat on my own at home in floods of tears watching it [on TV],” he says. “I was thinking ‘That [was meant] to be me.’”

It’s an experience that left him in an incredibly dark place, even leading to him contemplating ending his own life. “It’s testament to my really close friends and family that I’m still here, to be honest,” he explains. “It probably took 15 years for me to finally digest it all, and to be at the point I’m at now.”

Nicholson first revealed that he had been fired from the Arctic Monkeys back in 2019. Speaking on The Michael Anthony Show, Nicholson described the experience as “one of the few soul-destroying moments of my life”.

To this day, Nicholson insists that he has “no idea” why his bandmates replaced him. “We’ve never had that chat and it feels like it doesn’t matter any more,” he tells Mojo. “But we had some distance and time between us, and we’ve got our relationship back now.”

Now that his relationship with his ex-bandmates has healed, it has allowed him to feel proud of his role in the Arctic Monkeys. “At first, the photos [in new book I Bet This Looks Good On Your Coffee Table] were really painful to look at, but now that time is something that I’m really proud to have been a part of and to celebrate,” he admits.

In a 2019 interview with NME, Nicholson also showed signs that there isn’t much bad blood nowadays. “When [the band are] back in Sheffield we go out for some food or if I happen to be in the same country as them then we try to meet up when we can and text,” he said.

“It’s one of those things when you grow up; they’re busy doing their thing and I’m busy doing mine,” he added. “It’s usually Christmases and birthdays when we exchange texts but we see each other when we can.”

Leaving the band also led to Nicholson being free to explore his passion for hip-hop, infusing it into indie rock project Mongrel as well as his latest work both producing and performing as GOLDTEETH.

The post “My world came crumbling down right in front of me”: Original Arctic Monkeys bassist reveals the moment he was kicked out of the band appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The world of acoustic guitars is vast and intriguing – here, materials and construction matter the most, and if you’re a beginner or moving to an acoustic guitar from an electric, it can be a little overwhelming. If you’re an experienced player with the right budget, a great acoustic can and should last you a lifetime – but if you’re just starting out or don’t want to break the bank, there are plenty of excellent budget options too.

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

We’ve dove deep into our review catalogue to find the best acoustic guitars for you, no matter your style or budget. Let’s dive in:

At a glance:

• Our Pick: Taylor 314Ce Studio
• Best acoustic under $1,000: Martin 000 Jr Sapele
• Best acoustic under $500: Guild D-320
• Best acoustic under $250: Cort Earth L60M
• Best high-end Taylor: Taylor Gold Label 814ce
• Best high-end Martin: Martin Inception GPCE
• Best hybrid guitar: Fender Acoustasonic Standard Telecaster
• Best smart guitar: Lava ME 3
• Best electro-acoustic guitar: LR Baggs AEG-1
• Why you can trust Guitar.com

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Our Pick: Taylor 314Ce Studio

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The Taylor 314ce is unique in that it’s essentially a flagship, but is priced just under $2,000 – it’s billed as the “lowest-priced gateway to the solid-wood experience in the Taylor line”, and really there aren’t many compromises compared to the full-fat version. The guitar’s tonal profile is divinely balanced, with a warm, woody low-end subtly punctuated by a crystalline sparkle, while boasting a punchy midrange bolstered in large part by the guitar’s torrefied spruce top – combine this with a truly inviting and comfortable neck profile, you’ve got one intriguing guitar.

Need more? Read our Taylor 314Ce Studio review.

Best acoustic under $1,000: Martin 000 Jr Sapele

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The Martin Junior Series has quietly been one of the most compelling acoustic guitar offerings at the affordable end of the market for nearly a decade now. For 2025, the Junior range has been overhauled with some new designs that are both sonically and aesthetically extremely intriguing. The 000 Jr Sapele comes with a very compact body, and with an all-solid construction and an ultra-thin open-pore finish – all together it makes for a lively and resonant instrument that belies its small size.

Need more? Read our Martin 000 Jr Sapele review.

Best acoustic under $500: Guild D-320

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Guild has long been one of those names that guitarists, especially acoustic players, hold in high regard. With a legacy stretching back decades and a list of notable players that include legends like Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley, Guild knows how to build guitars that sing. The D-320 brings that same old-school Guild magic into the budget-friendly realm, and it does so without cutting corners.

With a solid mahogany top and laminate mahogany back and sides, the D-320 delivers a warm, woody tone with a lovely midrange focus – perfect for strummers, fingerpickers, and singer-songwriters alike. The open-pore satin finish keeps the sound lively and responsive while giving the guitar a smooth, broken-in feel right out of the box.

Playability is spot-on, too. The C-shaped mahogany neck is super comfortable, and the rosewood fingerboard feels familiar under the fingers. Vintage-style open-gear tuners and a tortoiseshell pickguard round out the aesthetic with a nice nod to Guild’s heritage.

At just around £279, it’s kind of ridiculous what you’re getting here. Whether it’s your first acoustic or your next go-to beater, the D-320 is a standout pick for players who want timeless tone and quality on a real-world budget.

Need more? Read our Guild D-320 review.

Best acoustic under $250: Cort Earth L60M

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The Cort Earth L60M is an amazing instrument for beginners. Construction consists of an orchestra-sized OM body shape, satin-finished mahogany top, back and sides, a smooth-playing playable satin-finished mahogany neck and a 25.5” scale length. Given its sound and playability, it could easily cost several hundred pounds more than it does. While its strong sound and pleasingly natural aesthetic make it excellent value for money, for beginners in particular the out-of-the-box setup of very playable low action is the most inviting thing about it.

Need more? Read our Cort Earth L60M review.

Best high-end Taylor: Taylor Gold Label 814ce

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The Gold Label range as a whole is in some ways aiming to convert Taylor skeptics, those who are turned off by the ultra-hifi sheen of the brand’s signature sound. And the 814e is perhaps one of the most successful in that regard. It’s bringing a load of new features to the table, as well as a warmer and more inviting voice – the result is a guitar that’s likely to make even the most Taylor-averse players reach for their wallets. Of course, it’s not exactly affordable, but this is a premium guitar that looks, sounds and feels it.

Need more? Read our Taylor Gold Label 814ce review.

Best high-end Martin: Martin Inception GPCE

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Martin’s new Inception guitar makes no bones about being a completely forward-looking instrument, with a very unconventional collection of tonewoods and distinctly modern, fast-playing neck profile. But maybe the biggest change is the skeletonised bracing – one step further than scalloping, this keeps the strength of the top while increasing resonance and projection.

Despite the change-up on the design front, it still sounds like a Martin, however – albeit one with a little more pronounced mid- and high-end frequencies. While it may lack some characteristic low-end thump, this leads to an overall more balanced sound, and the bold innovation has paid off in spades when it comes to the overall sound, look and feel of the guitar.

Need more? Read our Martin Inception GPCE review.

Best hybrid guitar: Fender Acoustasonic Standard Telecaster

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Fender’s Acoustasonic range has long been the gold-standard for splitting the difference across electrics and acoustics. The Acoustasonic Standard Telecaster is a very affordable entry into the line, and while it lacks some of the bells and whistles of the higher-end models the core concept remains excellently executed. The guitar will likely be particularly intriguing from a performance perspective, as it allows for a really varied sound over a single set with no guitar changes.

Need more? Read our Fender Acoustasonic Standard Telecaster review.

Best smart guitar: Lava ME 3

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If you’re looking for traditional tonewood, well, look away. But it might feel a little weird to route out a spot for what’s basically a small android phone into Sitka spruce, so carbon fibre maybe makes a bit more sense here. The Lava ME 3 plays great for the price, but more importantly it comes with some incredibly innovative smart features that make it a brilliant learning tool: there’s a recorder, a looper and a chord analysis tool all embedded in the player-facing touchscreen, all going some way to help you understand what you’re actually doing on the instrument.

Need more? Read our Lava ME 3 review.

Best electro-acoustic guitar: LR Baggs AEG-1

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Does the world really need another electro-acoustic guitar design? Well, when the person getting involved in the design is Lloyd Baggs, perhaps the world’s greatest exponent of acoustic guitar electrification, and the instrument in question is a revolutionary thinline design that’s been percolating in his mind for decades, absolutely.

Simply put, the AEG-1 is the best sounding electro-acoustic guitar our veteran acoustic reviewer Eric has ever played – or heard – plugged into an amplifier. It’s also a wonderfully ergonomic and comfortable instrument to play either seated or standing, and while its looks are certainly not conventional, they’re unlikely to provoke the same kind of reactions that other ‘stage’ guitars might. A remarkable achievement.

Need more? Read our LR Baggs AEG-1 review.

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 acoustic guitars for all styles and budgets appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$149, warmaudio.com

Those loveable scamps at Warm Audio are back at it some industry disrupting manoeuvres and their latest rage-bait offering is a feature-laden take on the legendary green snarl of the Ibanez Tube Screamer.

• READ MORE: Warm Audio Throne of Tone review: “this pedal can be as simple or complex as you need it to be”

Warm Audio WA-TS Tube Squealer – what is it?

The irony of an American company (Warm Audio are based in Texas but “use modern manufacturing methods” i.e. overseas labour) cloning a classic Japanese design is not lost on me as I survey the single-berth ramped enclosure in a rich shade of Caliban green. At first glance this looks, if not like an original 808, very much like one of the recent posh hardwired versions.

A closer look reveals that the Tube Squealer contains not one but three iconic Tube Screamer voicings – the original 808 of the late 1970s, the TS9 of the early 1980s with its rejigged output stage and resulting jump in aggression, and the TS10 – which while it never made the same cultural impact as its predecessors – is appreciated for its upgraded buffer and clean boost voice.

Warm Audio have also packed a mix knob and a pickup voicing mini toggle into the main control panel. The mix knob can be completely switched off with a satisfying click and the pickup selector goes from the original single coil-loving voicing with its midrange emphasis of 88Hz to a humbucker friendly 2kHz which should help you slam through the mix with gusto regardless of your choice of instrument.

As if that wasn’t enough, the rear panel houses a brace of tiny slider switches which offer popular modifications amongst Screamer cognoscenti – a true or buffered bypass mode option and a voltage boost with an internal voltage doubler which will run the Squealer at 18 volts for that sweet sweet headroom. Squeal piggy, I mutter darkly.

Warm Audio WA-TS Tube Squealer – sounds

Slipping the Tube Squealer in-between a Gibson SG and an old Cornford Hurricane yields reassuringly familiar results. It’s a bit woofy to start with but the clouds part when I engage the humbucker voicing and set about the serious business of having a very nice nice time indeed.

In its 808 state, the Tube Squealer does that polite blues hound thing very well and as I wind up the gain it gets pleasingly belligerent while remaining grippy and expressive. The TS9 personality (my favourite of the Screamer iterations) is absolutely spot on, but in this day and age with TS clones saturating the market, it needs to be.

The gain stage is more than capable of backhanding a preamp stage into classic rawk territory and the TS10 – while not wildly different to the other voices – is a nice to have. Man of the match though, goes to the blend switch which allows for some really interesting and musical textures.

This is a very good pedal in a crowded market. It offers a great deal in a small enclosure and should be on your radar if you’re going down that long dark Screamer rabbit hole in search of tonal happiness.

Warm Audio WA-TS Tube Squealer – alternatives

There are as many Tube Screamer-derived pedals on the market as there are grains of sand on Waimea Bay here in 2025, the options are almost endless and cover pretty much every budget from the bargain basement Behringer T0800 Vintage Tube Overdrive (£19.90) to the real thing in the shape of Ibanez’s TS9DX Turbo Tube Screamer Overdrive (£140). There’s even a Screamer for those who want to spend “Nice weekend away with the missus” money, in the shape of the ultra-rare Vemuram x Ibanez TSV808 (£2000-ish)

The post Warm Audio WA-TS Tube Squealer review: “it offers a great deal in a small enclosure” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

While some musicians are picky about where their instrument is manufactured, Jason Isbell has no time for guitar snobs. In fact, the Americana star is taking a stand for Mexican-made guitars, arguing that anyone disregarding non-US guitars is missing out on quality instruments.

In a new interview with Guitar.com, Isbell discusses the latest additions to his Martin Road Series, the Jason Isbell 0-17 and the 0-10E Retro acoustics. The guitars are notably made in Martin’s Mexican factory – a factor that he is very proud of. “I think the guitar builders in Mexico get a bad rap,” he explains.

• READ MORE: Jason Isbell might have the strangest tip for breaking in an acoustic guitar we’ve ever heard

He goes on to insist that this “bias” against Mexico is unfounded, with people seemingly seeing a more affordable price tag and assuming that reflects a lower quality. However, this just perpetuates a culture of people are paying more for a lesser guitar simply because its ‘manufactured in the US’.

“I think people pay for their biases too sometimes,” he says. “Not necessarily with Martin, but with a lot of companies. I think people will pay more to reinforce the incorrect opinions that they already have.”

If you’re one of the people with a “bias”, Isbell explains that his Road Series could be the eye opener that you need. The premium Jason Isbell 0-17 model in particular serves as a replica of the pre-war 0-17 guitar heard across the entirety of his 2025 record, Foxes In The Snow, and Isbell insists it’s the real deal. “I could take this Mexican-made version out and play it on tour and nobody would know the difference,” he says.

“I don’t think anybody could have done a better job on a guitar at that price point at making it reminiscent of the pre-war Martin, for sure,” he notes. “It definitely has that vibe to it.”

It’s not the first time Isbell has opted to work with a Mexican factory. He points to his collaboration with Fender on the Jason Isbell Tele Custom 3CCB, which serves as another brilliant Mexican export. “Fender did a great job on that guitar,” he reflects. “I think it was the first double-bound Tele that they had made in the factory, and they knocked it out of the park.”

Jason Isbell’s new additions to the Martin Road Series come in a more premium Jason Isbell 0-17 model, sitting at $4,999 and limited to just 50 units, while the 0-10E Retro is a slightly more affordable $1,049.

Head to Martin Guitars for more information.

The post Jason Isbell thinks some guitarists are biased against Mexican-made guitars: “people will pay more to reinforce the incorrect opinions” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

When Dire Straits first emerged on the music scene back in the 1970s, their bluesy brand of roots rock was a sharp contrast to the ongoing craze of rough-and-tumble punk rock. In fact, Dire Straits’ sound was so palatable and technically precise that it actually pissed off some punks – including Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore.

In a new interview with NME, Moore reveals that, to this day, Dire Straits still awaken a sense of “political refusal” within him. He points to the 1978 hit Sultans Of Swing in particular, noting that it’s a song he can’t even listen to without wanting to run a mile. “Not to denigrate that song, because it’s a brilliant, repetitive earworm of a song,” he insists. “But, man, when it comes on… I just go running out of the room!”

• READ MORE: “It caters to mass popularity in a way Disneyland does”: Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore on why major festivals like Lollapalooza have abandoned rock bands

Despite praising the track, branding it a “new wave equivalent” of the Eagles’ 1977 hit Hotel California, he admits that Sultans of Swing “drives [him] a little bit crazy”. Even if he was sat in a “barber’s chair, [he’d] take the bib off and run” just to avoid hearing it.

His aversion to the track is all down to the petulant punk that continues to live within him. The track is great – and that was exactly what annoyed him about it back in the ‘70s. “Sultans of Swing brings me back to this feeling of political refusal towards playing well in the context of punk rock,” he explains.

The punk ethos was very much centred around giving a middle-finger to anyone who told you what to do; if someone thought your guitar tone was harsh or your music was abrasive, you doubled down. Dire Straits were the opposite of that; Sultans Of Swing sounds like London’s answer to Bob Dylan, a soft, musing burst of blues.

Moore’s refusal to be palatable has defined his entire career. Even in an interview with Uncut last year, Moore shared that some of his favourite advice; when The David Letterman Show tried to limit Sonic Youth’s performance slot, Neil Young told him to never let corporate “bastards tell you what to do”.

“I always took that advice – if somebody tells you to turn your amp down, just do the opposite,” Moore recalled.

To honour his punk roots, Moore also ensures he gives a nod to the Sex Pistols. He picks out God Save The Queen as a track he wishes he’d written. “As an American, there was distance in terms of relating to why a band would utilise this traditional title and reconstitute it for their own take,” Moore tells NME. “To me, that kind of linguistic theft was interesting.”

“It seemed dangerous, obviously, to espouse this anti-Royalist statement,” he continues. “To have the line ‘We mean it, man’ was them taking this long-in-the-tooth counterculture hippie-speak and being sardonic and cynical. I was like, ‘What a loaded, incredible, explosive line to melt down everything that comes before you.’ It was probably Johnny Rotten’s greatest moment, that line in that song.”

The post The Dire Straits song Thurston Moore says makes him “run out of the room” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The results are in, and Reverb has finally shared its best selling gear of 2025 – and a new guitar has seized the crown, taking over from last year’s top selling axe.

While 2024 was the year of the Fender Player Telecaster, this year another Fender has secured the top spot on Reverb’s best sellers list. According to their data, 2025 has been the year of the Strat, with the Fender American Professional II Stratocaster outselling the Tele and even the PRS SE Silver Sky, the site’s best seller in both 2022 and 2023.

However, the PRS SE Silver Sky has still been given its flowers, coming in as the second best seller. Gibson’s Les Paul Standard ’60s was the site’s third best seller, earning itself a bronze medal.

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

Across the board, it seems Fender was clearly a popular brand amongst Reverb’s customers this year. There are six Fender guitars in the top ten, with the Player Stratocaster in fourth place, the American Professional II Telecaster sitting at #6, Player II and Player Telecasters sitting at #8 and #9, while #10 is the Player II Strat.

The data also sheds light on Reverb’s top selling pedal, which was JHS’ Electro-Harmonix Nano Lizard Queen Octave Fuzz, a great bit of kit for those wanting high-gain distortion with blendable up-octave. TC Electronic’s PolyTune 3 Mini tuning pedal is the second top seller, while Boss’ GE-7 Equalizer is third.

In terms of Reverb’s best selling amps and modellers, the top dog this year was Neural DSP’s Quad Cortex – and we’re hardly shocked. We gave it a solid 10/10 when we first reviewed it, and the digital modeller continues to be a brilliant bit of gear. Line 6 has also secured second and third place with the Helix Floor and Catalyst 100 respectively.

Head to Reverb for more information. You can also check out Reverb’s full top 10 across guitars, amps and pedals below:

Best Selling Guitars

1. Fender American Professional II Stratocaster
2. PRS SE Silver Sky
3. Gibson’s Les Paul Standard ’60s
4. Fender Player Stratocaster
5. Gibson Les Paul Standard ’50s
6. Fender American Professional II Telecaster
7. PRS Silver Sky John Mayer Signature
8. Fender Player II Telecaster
9. Fender Player Telecaster
10. Fender Player II Stratocaster

Best Selling Pedals

1. EHX/JHS Nano Lizard Queen Octave Fuzz
2. TC Electronic PolyTune 3 Mini
3. Boss GE-7 Equalizer
4. IK Multimedia ToneX One
5. Keeley Compressor Plus
6. Hologram Electronics Chroma Console
7. DigiTech Drop
8. Boss BD-2 Blues Driver
9. Dunlop Cry Baby Wah GCB-95
10. Line 6 HX Stomp

Best Selling Amps and Modellers

1. Neural DSP Quad Cortex
2. Line 6 Helix Floor
3. Line 6 Catalyst 100
4. Positive Grid Spark 40
5. Line 6 Helix LT
6. Orange Micro Dark Head
7. Fender Mustang LT Combo
8. Fender Rumble V3 Combo
9. Positive Grid Spark Go
10. Boss Katana 50 Gen 3

The post Reverb shares its best selling gear of the year – and 2025 was the year of the Strat appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ad feature with t.akustik

Chances are if you’re reading this, you record yourself playing guitar at home. There’s absolutely no doubt that in the last decade, the quality and accessibility of making music in a spare room or bedroom has exploded to the point where it’s never been easier to make professional-sounding music without having to decamp to an expensive studio.

However, while direct solutions offer the flexibility and consistency that has powered much of this home recording boom, there’s nothing quite like sticking a microphone in front of your acoustic guitar or amplifier and capturing the real sound of moving air in a room.

But that, unfortunately, is where the drawbacks of home recording are most apparent. By the very nature of the way that sound moves, any microphone-based recordings of acoustic instruments, amps or vocals will feature some of the characteristics of the room they were recorded in.

Now, sometimes that’s a great thing. Led Zeppelin famously recorded John Bonham’s drums for When The Levee Breaks in the stairwell of Headley Grange because the natural reverb of the space made them sound massive. Plenty of other artists have used the harsh, reflective nature of a tiled bathroom to achieve unique sonic results.

But if you’re just trying to capture a good, organic and uncoloured sound at home, the dimensions of most home studio spaces – especially if they double up as a bedroom or living room – don’t really cut the mustard.

The layout of most professional recording studios are designed to control and minimise unwanted sound reflections that are often caused by the soundwaves bouncing off corners and other sharp angles.

Think about the room you’re recording in, and chances are it’s roughly square or rectangular with plenty of problematic corners. Another issue with recording at home that you’ll certainly also be aware of is the issue of extraneous noise.

Unless you’re lucky enough to be living in a house without close neighbours, chances are that any mic’d up recording you do is also going to have to battle with background noise that can ruin an otherwise wonderful recording.

Wall Of Sound

Thankfully, there is a solution that will enable you to get better results from your home recording without having to compromise things by going direct – acoustic treatment. Acoustic treatment is what happens in recording studios to make the sound more controllable in the live room, but it’s also something that you can take advantage of at home.

I know what you’re thinking, “My landlord/parent/significant other isn’t going to let me cover my room with acoustic panels and corner diffusers”. And fair enough – but there are mobile, temporary solutions that can do much of the job for you without you having to drill a single hole, and they can even be safely stowed away when not in use.

The t.akustik range is a fantastic option for this – offering a range of affordable mobile walls and absorbers that are designed to help you sound better at home for a very reasonable outlay.

For example, say you wanted to record your acoustic guitar with a condenser mic in your home studio space in a spare bedroom that doubles as an office. It’s unlikely you’re going to want to capture the natural character of that space, and if you’re recording a larger acoustic like a dreadnought, that thing is going to be bouncing off the walls like nobody’s business.

But if you were to set your mic up and acoustic up in front of something like the t.akustik Absorber Wall Modular 192, the absorbent hardened polyurethane soft foam surface of the wall would absorb a significant amount of those frequencies.

And because t.akustik’s absorber walls are modular, if you REALLY wanted to control your sound, you can even go further and combine several wall panels to create effectively a mini-recording booth in your own space, one that will absorb much of the extraneous sound from the room, and also minimise background noise.

And the best part is that when you’re not using it, the absorber can be broken down and stowed under a bed or in a cupboard – something that’s sure to go down well with anyone else using that space.

Even if your goals aren’t quite as ambitious, using something as small and contained as the t.akustik Desktop Absorber can make a significant difference to your recorded sounds – setting it up around your microphone as you play into it will still deaden the sound enough to elevate things significantly.

The great thing about the t.akustic range is that there are so many different acoustic treatment options – both temporary and permanent – to elevate your home studio space. If you’ve been wanting more out of your home recordings, these oft-overlooked but transformative pieces of kit are well worth a look.

Discover more at takustik.com

The post How to get better recorded guitar sounds at home with mobile absorbers appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

It’s late 1986 – possibly early 1987 – and a young Tom Morello is crestfallen. The young guitar player has just moved to LA having graduated from Harvard to pursue his dream of becoming a musician.

To aid him in his quest, he’s splurged on a proper professional musician’s tool – a custom guitar from LA’s own Performance Guitar USA. Luthier Kenny Sugai had made guitars for Frank Zappa, Joe Walsh and Steve Vai, and Morello envisioned his new instrument as the vehicle he could use to follow in the footsteps of his shred guitar heroes. But there was a problem with the finished article.

• READ MORE: The story of Tom Morello’s ‘Arm the Homeless’ Guitar

“It was the crappiest guitar I’d ever played!” Morello exclaims today. “Everything about it was terrible. It was devastating, because it was not inexpensive, and I had a very, very limited budget.”

Morello was understandably crushed that he’d invested so much time and money and ended up with a dog, but on reflection the Rage Against The Machine icon can shoulder some of the blame for the situation.

“I custom ordered but I had no idea what I was doing!” he admits. “But I had sort of a lack of humility? I thought, ‘Well, I guess it’ll be an ebony neck or whatever.’ I didn’t know what I was talking about! ‘What sort of fret size do you want?’ I was making these random guesses. So, in some ways, it’s no surprise that it ended up being a poor guitar.”

At this point, Morello didn’t even have a band, let alone a record deal – he was working various low-paid jobs (and even as an exotic dancer) to keep his LA dream alive. He didn’t have the luxury of simply buying another guitar – he had to try and make this one work.

“Over the course of the next couple of years, I changed everything except for the body wood,” he explains. “So it was multiple different pickups, different whammy bars, and so many different necks… Finally, the neck that I settled on is one that I found in a used neck bin in a store on Santa Monica Boulevard – it’s not any brand at all, it was just kind of an odd neck!”

But try as he might, Morello still couldn’t fully get the guitar to do what he wanted it to, and eventually he had to accept that no amount of tweaking and modding was going to change that.

“This was probably 1988 or so, and I was practising in my little rehearsal space in East LA,” Morello recalls. “I was so frustrated with my amp and with the guitar. It was really taking up a lot of my time swapping out necks, swapping out pickups and electronics and whatnot. Then one day I spent three or four hours trying to get the best out of it, and I could not get the sound I wanted. So, I just gave up and I said, ‘This is my guitar. I’m not going to think about it anymore. This is my sound. I’m just going to create with what I have. I’m going to stop whining and start making music.’”

The moment of acceptance would be transformative for both Morello and the guitar – instead of trying to force the guitar to be the shred-ready instrument he dreamed of, he evolved his approach to the instrument in a way that would change the course of guitar music.

“And that’s the sound that became my sound,” he reflects. “I stumbled into my signature sound in that way. And that guitar has ended up being a great ally for all these years. I’m confident that if I hadn’t made those mistakes, and then gone on that journey of Frankensteining this thing together, that I would have had a much more mundane 80s metal sound. Which is what I was looking for rather than this one.”

Arms Around The World

That “awkward stepchild” of a guitar would go on to become one of the most iconic instruments in rock. Morello would scrawl the words “Arm The Homeless” across the front of it and use it as his primary guitar as Rage Against The Machine became one of the most important and influential bands of their generation, with Morello’s radical approach to guitar virtuosity reaching heights of creativity and individuality that few have reached since.

Now, Fender has teamed up with Morello to create a meticulous replica of the Arm The Homeless guitar – it’s the second collaboration between the two, following the release of his Soul Power Strat in 2020. The Soul Power guitar was at least originally a Fender guitar that Morello heavily modified for use with Audioslave… the Arm The Homeless guitar is a dramatically more esoteric instrument.

“And the question was, could we do it?” Morello explains. “Because while the Soul Power guitar was made of component parts that existed in the world, and the Arm The Homeless guitar is a guitar from the island of misfit toys, y’know? It is an amalgamation of a bunch of BS parts and pieces that I put together through the years!”

Despite this, Morello was adamant that there was no point in creating an instrument that had his name on it but wasn’t a precise reflection of what he used.

“I challenged them,” Morello says of the artisans at Fender’s Custom Shop. “I said, we’re not going to do this unless we can make it exactly like the Arm The Homeless guitar. And after a lot of work, and after many, many iterations of it, they got it right. And it’s awesome.”

It ended up being such a process in no small part because of the endless tweaking, swapping and modding that a young Morello did to try and make it into something he could use – the parts bin graphite neck being perhaps the most unique and nebulous example.

“Because the feel of that neck is what led to a lot of the riffs,” he adds. “The Arm The Homeless guitar is the guitar. It’s the Bombtrack guitar. The Bullet In The Head guitar. Know Your Enemy, Fistful Of Steel, Bulls On Parade, People Of The Sun, Sleep Now In The Fire, Vietnam, Down Rodeo, Guerilla Radio… it’s the guitar that I’ve played at every show from 1987 to a couple of days ago. And so it was about getting every bit of it right.”

The guitar’s components were a different kind of challenge, in part because Morello exploited their eccentricities to make his unique sounds.

“The Gotoh whammy bar is the one that I finally settled on, in part because of its imperfections,” says Morello. “I liked how the bar loosened after a while. It’s not something you would normally look for, but it allowed me to create some of the helicopter effects. But the nut of the guitar doesn’t match the neck and the bridge in a way that it would on a guitar that was put together correctly!

“But the totality of the chemistry of all of those misbegotten pieces has led to the instrument that has been my companion in the studio and on stage for over 30 years. And I wanted to get it exactly right. And we did.”

Settle For Nothing

While it was important to capture the physical dimensions and visuals of the original guitar of course, the stuff that’s under the hood was equally – if not more – important to nail down. Like the original, the new Arm The Homeless guitar sports a pair of active EMG pickups, but while most assume that we’re looking at a pair of humbuckers, the neck unit is actually a stealth weapon.

“That neck pickup is a single-coil pickup, disguised as a humbucker,” Morello explains. “And that springiness and the elasticity of that sound – and how it matched with the ferocious rhythm section of Rage Against the Machine – is really kind of like the secret sauce to making those songs as heavy and as funky as they are.”

Another vitally important component is the toggle switch that Morello used to unlock so many revolutionary sounds – given the punishment that toggle takes, it had to be an aircraft-grade component.

“The toggle switch is key!” he exclaims. “Because if I’d had a regular Gibson toggle switch or whatever, it would wear out right away! So, we put the toggle switch that I use in these, which is kind of an everlasting toggle switch. It took quite a while to find something that was going to be able to put up with the beating that it takes.”

As with Morello’s previous Fender signature guitar, there’s also a charitable aspect to the Arm The Homeless – and a fitting one. Proceeds from each instrument will go towards supporting the work of Midnight Mission in Los Angeles, and Covenant House, a charity that helps homeless teenagers across the US.

“It was important that in making a guitar that has spent so many decades on the front lines, fighting for the oppressed and fighting for justice, that there be a justice component to this as well,” he adds. “While this guitar is made up of scraps and shards, to get it just right is not necessarily an inexpensive process. And so I want to make sure that there’s a Robin Hood component, where when you purchase this guitar it does filter back into people who really need it.”

Back In Black

It’s been a busy year for Morello on many fronts, but perhaps nothing was quite the logistical undertaking as Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s poignant Back To The Beginning farewell show in July. Morello took on the role of musical director for the remarkable occasion, which brought together an unprecedented line-up of heavy metal talent.

“It was such an honour to be asked to curate that show and be the musical director,” Morello enthuses. “Firstly, because of how much Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne have meant to me in creating the genre of heavy metal that made me love music. But secondly Ozzy introduced Randy Rhoads to the world. That was the poster that was on my wall when I was practising eight hours a day. I named my first born son Rhoads!

“So I owe a great debt, a great personal debt, not just a musical debt to Ozzy and Sabbath. The day was over a year in the making. And I really, I gave it my all. I was like, if I’m going to do this thing, we’re going to try to make it the greatest day in the history of heavy metal.”

Morello acknowledges that the sad and unexpected passing of Ozzy just weeks after the final show adds extra “resonance” to the experience, but reveals that the significance of the event was palpable even without its tragic post-script.

“It really felt like such a beautiful celebration of that band, that man, that music, those fans!” he reflects. “I don’t think that there’s any precedent for a band being able to be feted like that while they’re alive and be able to perform. They got to feel the love of all those bands who they created. They got to feel the love of all of the city where they were born. They got to feel the love of millions of fans around the globe who watched it. And then they got to give that love back and let people know how appreciative they were.

“Y’know, for a band whose origins were all this kind of evil doom and gloom. At the end of the day, the message of Black Sabbath was one of global love. So, it was really special and just was honoured to be a part of it and to be able to both play at it and to have a hand in creating it.”

Twin Peak

Morello was performing that day with the OG Arm The Homeless guitar in hand, but it turns out that such is the success of his signature model, that might become something of a rare occurrence going forward.

“I feel very comfortable using this guitar, in place of the real Arm The Homeless guitar,” says Morello. “This is the guitar I take out now. I love it. I feel very, very comfortable. The last Canadian run, this is the guitar that I played with. I played a couple shows around town lately, and it’s interchangeable.

“The real Arm The Homeless guitar, let me tell you, it has certainly done its duty. But it’s in the studio. It’s always ready – it’s still going to come out for special occasions.”

Morello admits that even his own son struggled to tell the difference between the original and Fender’s replica, but there is one very subtle telltale difference…

“If you look closely, you can tell,” he notes. “Because a dog chewed the headstock of the Arm The Homeless guitar at some point in the past. And we did not recreate because I did not think that was important to the sound! But you will always be able to tell the real one because it’s been chewed!”

With two Fender guitars under his belt then, the question turns to the potential of doing a third, with the guitarist’s famous “Sendero Luminoso” Telecaster an obvious choice. “There’s a Fender Telecaster that I played on a few songs that we might be looking at…” he says coyly – watch this space, then.

The evasiveness is perhaps not entirely about whetting appetites for future releases – more than most, Morello seems to take the responsibility of signature guitars very seriously.

“This is a real big deal for me,” he agrees. “For the entirety of my career, I never did any instrument or product endorsement. Because it always felt to me a little weird when I was a young guitar player, that with each new album cycle, some of my favourite artists would be hawking some new guitar that had nothing to do with the songs I liked! And so I was always a little shy of that process.”

With signature guitars, pedals and even plugins under his belt, that has obviously changed in recent years – but with a clear condition: “I want to be able to stand behind stuff and say, ‘This is exactly my sound’,” he insists. “This is exactly the thing. I care about it so much that it’s really real!”

The Arm The Homeless guitar is clearly a labour of love for all involved then, and while it’s by no means an affordable instrument, you sense that it had to be this way in order to capture the magic that still captivates Morello to this day.

“It is the guitar that, for me, opened brand new avenues of ways of looking at music, of creating sounds that I had never heard before,” he elaborates. “There’s a special magical power in that crazy combination of parts that should not have gone together, that I’m hoping people will be able to use to write their own new songs, their own new musical chapters.”

Find out more about the Tom Morello Arm The Homeless guitar at fender.com

The post “It was the crappiest guitar I’d ever played!” how a disastrous guitar purchase became Tom Morello’s most important instrument appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.