Music is the universal language
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” - Luke 2:14
Guitar.com
Yvette Young’s next signature model will showcase a major change – and she’s “kicking” herself for not getting into it sooner
Yvette Young has been working on a new signature Ibanez Talman behind the scenes, and as she tells Guitar.com in the latest episode of My Guitars & Me, fans should be able to get their hands on it some time this year.
The guitar also marks a major change for the Covet guitarist, as she embraces P-90 pickups on a signature model for the first time. As she admits when she visits the Guitar.com studio on London’s famous Denmark Street, she’s “kicking” herself for being “late to the P-90 game”.
Of course, Young already has two signature models with Ibanez – the YY10 and YY20 – both built upon the Talman blueprint but featuring a Strat-style and Tele-style pickup layout, respectively.
But P-90s are relatively new to Young’s tonal palette, and she’s so inspired that she’s opted to fit her newest signature model with a pair.
“We went through the YY10, which had the Strat-style pickups, and then I went through the Tele-style pickups, because I do like my SX Tele. I was like, I want to pay tribute to that. And now I don’t know why I’m so late to the P-90 game. I am kind of kicking myself because these are just so chunky.
“I feel like I’ve been into a lot of heavier stuff lately, kind of leaning into the more grungy sludgy stuff, a lot of fuzz tones, a lot of overdrive and things like that…”
“So these are Wilkinsons,” she continues, pointing to the pickups in her upcoming Pink Sparkle-finished signature model. “I tried out so many different P-90s from all these companies, and these Wilkinsons just knocked it out of them. I did a blind test, too.”
“I’m just over the moon to release this guitar, because I think, tonally, it’s really where I’m at right now. The Pink Sparkle is a tribute to my first guitar that I ever got, sent by Ibanez.”
She also confirms the production run models will feature “special art inlays” she drew, as well as rosewood fingerboards.
“I just got to do some guitar for the Superman soundtrack,” Young says. “This was all over that. Yeah, just again, I’m kicking myself for not getting into P-90s earlier!”
You can watch the latest episode of My Guitars & Me with Yvette Young above.
The post Yvette Young’s next signature model will showcase a major change – and she’s “kicking” herself for not getting into it sooner appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I think it helps to bring it in a little quicker”: Jason Isbell elaborates on his unorthodox method of breaking guitars in by playing Outkast for hours straight
Jason Isbell got the guitar world talking last year when he revealed his unusual method of breaking in his guitars, which involves blasting loud – and preferably bass-heavy – music in order to get the wood moving.
Sharing the unorthodox method while unveiling his fresh pre-war-inspired signature Martin 0-17 and 0-10E Retro acoustics, Isbell revealed Outkast to be the artist he generally opts to subject his fresh-out-the-box guitars to.
- READ MORE: This guitar has a bridge suspended in mid-air by magnets – and it sounds (and looks) insane
Now, in a new interview with Guitarist magazine, the Americana star says he continues to swear by the technique, despite not having “any real way of quantifying it”.
“When I take a new acoustic guitar out of the case for the first time, it sounds new to me,” Isbell says. “So I leave it in front of the speakers and play some music – something with a lot of bass, like Outkast – just to keep the wood moving.”
He goes on: “I think there are devices that do it now, where you can put them in the soundhole and they’ll just constantly keep the vibrations going. I used to set the guitar out on a table and prop an EBow up on either the D or G string and just leave it there until the battery ran out.”
“I’ve done no scientific testing,” he says, “but I think it helps to bring it in a little quicker.”
We all know the feeling of playing a guitar that’s been thoroughly broken in; somehow, through hours and hours of playing, it just feels more comfortable to play, and has more character in its tone. So we can totally buy that artificially vibrating the wood with loud music might have a similar effect in getting things on their way.
Elsewhere in the interview, Isbell reflects on his personal relationship with Martin guitars over the years.
“I’ve always held Martin in the highest regard,” he says. “When I was a kid, I had a lawsuit guitar – y’know, one of those from the late ‘70s when everybody was ripping Martin off. And then there was an uncle of mine who had a herringbone D-28 he would bring by, and everybody would pass it around and play it. I just remember feeling like, ‘Oh, this is as good as it gets. This is the best possible guitar you could play.’”
And speaking to us here at Guitar.com in December, Isbell shared a similar sentiment:
“I’ve never felt like I could do something that a Martin couldn’t do,” Isbell enthused. “You know, it’s kind of like my laptop. Especially with the really good old ones or the nice Custom Shop new ones. It’s like I’m doing emails on here, and this thing could operate a city or an automobile, y’know?
“And so I think that’s it – you don’t want your tools to create the ceiling. You want your creativity to create the ceiling and the tools should be able to follow you there. And that’s always been the case for me with Martins.”
The post “I think it helps to bring it in a little quicker”: Jason Isbell elaborates on his unorthodox method of breaking guitars in by playing Outkast for hours straight appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Johnny Ramone-backed brand Mosrite Guitars is back – with the Mark II model leading the way
Mosrite Guitars is officially back in business. Lap steel specialists Sho-Bud have acquired the storied guitar brand and are kicking off this new chapter with a revival of one of Mosrite’s most recognisable models: the Mark II.
Founded in 1956 in Bakersfield, California, Mosrite was the brainchild of luthier Semie Moseley, whose futuristic designs and ultra-slim necks set the brand apart early on. Those guitars went on to win over a diverse cast of players – Johnny Ramone famously wielded a Ventures model almost exclusively, Kurt Cobain recorded much of Nevermind using a Mosrite Gospel Mark IV, and Jimi Hendrix even owned a Joe Maphis 12/6 doubleneck.
After Semie Moseley and his business partner passed away in the early ’90s, the company was left in the hands of Semie’s daughter, Dana Moseley. Mosrite continued to operate on a smaller scale in the years that followed, with the brand’s website eventually going offline in 2020. Now, under Sho-Bud’s stewardship, Mosrite is stepping back into the spotlight.
- READ MORE: A Brief History of Mosrite Guitars
The reborn Mosrite Mark II sticks closely to the original recipe. It sports a 24 ⅝” scale length and a solid basswood or alder body, paired with a one-piece rock maple bolt-on neck and a rosewood fingerboard with 22 narrow vintage frets and a zero fret.
Credit: Mosrite
Pickup duties are handled by a Seymour Duncan single-coil in the bridge and a chrome-covered Seymour Duncan mini humbucker in the neck, wired to a simple control layout of one volume, one tone and a three-way toggle switch.
Hardware comes courtesy of a Tone Pros Tune-O-Matic bridge and tailpiece, along with Grover tuners, rounding things out with a healthy dose of vintage chic. Both right- and left-handed versions are available, and players can choose between White, Blue, Red, Gold and Black finishes. Each guitar also ships with a hard shell case and carries a price tag of $2,750.
“The Mosrite Mark II reissue represents more than the return of an iconic instrument,” says Sho-Bud General Counsel Fred Waid. “It is a continuation of a legacy shaped by an extraordinary luthier and innovator, Semie Moseley. Sho-Bud is committed to honoring Semie’s vision, with precision and consistency.”
“This is a personal project for us,” adds Sho-Bud co-CEO Dawn Jackson. “Semie Moseley wasn’t just a legendary builder. Sho-Bud and Mosrite had a close connection through our father, David Jackson, who collaborated on projects with Semie. They had a solid respect for one another and fostered a friendship between Nashville and Bakersfield, sharing one main passion: chasing tone. This fusion is a way of reconnecting those roots and carrying them forward with respect and intention.”
Learn more at Sho-Bud.
The post Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Johnny Ramone-backed brand Mosrite Guitars is back – with the Mark II model leading the way appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Joe Bonamassa admits an 80-year-old BB King once had to show him how to put songs on his iPod: “How sad is that? I was 28!”
After recently calling out anyone who would criticise BB King’s playing – calling him “one of the only guitarists you can identify with one note” – Joe Bonamassa has shared more insight into his close friendship with the blues legend, with a hilarious anecdote involving the trappings of modern-day technology.
You might assume it would be Bonamassa who would have to lecture the blues great on new technology, but it was actually the reverse – when BB King once showed the young guitarist how to properly work an iPod.
As JoBo explains in an interview in the latest issue of Guitarist magazine, after heavily inspiring him to pick up a guitar in the first place, BB King continued his mentor role when he showed him how to put his favourite tracks on his iPod.
“He showed me how to drag songs from a computer into an iPod when he was 80 years old!” Bonamassa says. “I didn’t know how to do that and he’s like, ‘Here, son, this is how you do it.’ How sad is that? I was 28 or something and he was 80. But he was a consummate professional.”
Elaborating on King’s professionalism, Bonamassa continues: “I remember one time in Charleston, West Virginia, there was a big snowstorm, and the governor of West Virginia called specifically to ask BB King to postpone the show and he wouldn’t do it.
“He goes, ‘I told them I’m going to be here in March and I’m here.’ They’re like, ‘But Mr. King, it’s unsafe.’ He said, ‘Well, I made it!’ So that was him, man.”
“He was always touring,” he goes on. “I mean, he would do those summer runs and then go right back on the road in theatres and he was very much a road dog and he loved it a lot. I mean, he always said, ‘I want to die on the road, doing what I love,’ you know? But he didn’t know any other life.
“You’re talking about somebody who started working that much in the early ‘50s and never stopped for anything.”
BB King died in 2015 at the age of 89 following an impressive 70-year career, in which he left an indelible mark on the world of blues.
Joe Bonamassa has a string of tour dates planned for 2026. For tickets and a full list of dates, head to his official website.
The post Joe Bonamassa admits an 80-year-old BB King once had to show him how to put songs on his iPod: “How sad is that? I was 28!” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
This guitar has a bridge suspended in mid-air by magnets – and it sounds (and looks) insane
Guitar innovation generally comes in small increments; small upgrades to specific components as opposed to radical new designs altogether. But this new guitar built by YouTuber Mattias Krantz may have just pushed the envelope significantly…
It’s essentially the hollowed-out frame of a guitar resembling something like a double-cut, but the magic really lies in how the strings are attached – mostly in the fact that, well, they aren’t.
Rather than having the strings fed through a bridge physically attached to the guitar – as is convention – Krantz, who boasts nearly two million subscribers at the time of writing, has conceived a design whereby magnets suspend the bridge in thin air, while providing all the tension required to make the strings playable.
“This guitar looks pretty normal, until you notice the strings aren’t attached to the body,” Krantz says. “They’re pulling tension by these extremely powerful magnets.”
He adds that the gap left between the two magnets “changes everything” about the way the guitar can be played, allowing for taps and movement of the floating bridge for subtle and emotive fluctuations in pitch. “Why does it sound so good?!” he says.
The guitar is certainly a radical concept, and as such, went through a number of design iterations before the final product was realised. First Krantz experimented with tying small magnets to each guitar string, but found they didn’t provide enough tension to actually make the strings playable.
He then tried bigger magnets, which offered enough tension for the open strings to produce a pitch, but it was still too low. “The forces needed are way higher than I expected,” he says.
After some further experimentation in pursuit of enough magnetic force to provide the right tension, Krantz posed the question: “What if I just put all the strings on the same magnet?” He ordered the right magnet for the job, one with 250kg of pull force. It even came in a box which warned: “Strong magnets. Handle with extreme caution.”
After some considerable trepidation about the safety of the build, Krantz finally came up with a playable design, and showcases it towards the end of his video.
You can watch the entire process Mattias Krantz undertook to put the magnetically hovering guitar together in the video below:
The post This guitar has a bridge suspended in mid-air by magnets – and it sounds (and looks) insane appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Sharon Osbourne as Birmingham’s mayor? Don’t rule it out
![[L-R] Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Ozzy-Sharon-Osbourne@2000x1500.jpg)
From Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath to Birmingham politics – it’s not the most obvious career move, but Sharon Osbourne has revealed she is “seriously thinking” about running to become the city’s next mayor.
The music manager, TV personality and widow of heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne made the comments during a red-carpet appearance at this year’s Grammy Awards, where a brief exchange unexpectedly drifted from music into local UK politics.
Speaking with Billboard, Sharon was told by host Leila Cobo that she was receiving praise for how well she had spoken at one of the Grammy-related events ahead of Sunday night’s ceremony (1 February). Sharon thanked her – then casually dropped the bombshell that those speaking chops might soon be needed elsewhere, adding that she was “seriously thinking about running for mayor of Birmingham”.
With the interview moving at red-carpet speed, Sharon didn’t go into detail about how serious those plans are or whether any formal steps have been taken. But the comment wasn’t entirely out of the blue.
In the days leading up to the Grammys, Osbourne had already hinted at political involvement in Birmingham after learning that someone with a terrorism conviction was allegedly seeking a seat on the city’s council. In comments reported by GB News, Sharon said, “This has nothing to do with racism. I think I’m gonna move to Birmingham and put my name down for the ballot to be on the council. I’m serious.”
The individual referenced is Shahid Butt, who was reportedly sentenced to five years in prison in 1999. According to GB News, Butt has claimed the charge against him was “fabricated” and that he was “falsely convicted”, and he continues to deny the allegations.
For now though, Sharon Osbourne’s political ambitions remain just that – ambitions. Should she decide to pursue the role and win, she would be required to serve as mayor for at least a year, taking over from Birmingham’s current Lord Mayor, Zafar Iqbal.
Elsewhere, the music manager also revealed she’s in early talks with Live Nation about bringing back Ozzfest, the legendary metal festival she co-founded three decades ago with her late husband.
“It was something Ozzy was very passionate about: giving young talent a stage in front of a lot of people,” she told Billboard.
The post Sharon Osbourne as Birmingham’s mayor? Don’t rule it out appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“The further I’m away from it, the more intense it is when I get with it”: Why Eric Gales rarely touches a guitar offstage
For most guitarists, the idea of not touching their instrument for weeks – let alone months – would sound like a nightmare. For Eric Gales though, it’s exactly the point.
In a recent conversation with Rick Beato, the blues-rock virtuoso explains why he almost never “engages” with a guitar unless he’s on tour or in the studio, and how stepping away actually makes his playing more powerful when it counts.
“The first and foremost thing that I do is completely get [my head] out of the way,” Gales explains. “The more that I don’t think about it, the more fluent and expressive it will be for me. There’s no pre-setup, no thought…”
That mindset also extends to how he prepares for shows – or, more accurately, how he doesn’t.
“A lot of artists, before the show, they’re backstage, finger warming up and this and that. I don’t do any of that,” he says. “If I’m not on tour or doing a session or anything like that, it’s very rare that I engage with a guitar at all. It could be weeks, months go by that I haven’t touched the guitar.”
On the rare occasions he does pick one up at home, it’s usually prompted by something he’s heard rather than any sense of routine. “I might have heard a commercial on TV that sparked my [interest],” he explains. “Or I heard somebody do a riff on social media.”
Those moments, he adds, aren’t about practice so much as self-challenge. “Can I mimic that?” says Gales. “Just to kind of challenge myself – to see if I still got the learning mechanism that I had when I was a kid. And only in those times it’d be when I would pick up a guitar or anything like that.”
In fact, Gales says he’s more likely to sit at a drum kit or keyboard than reach for a guitar in his spare time. While he admits some players may find that hard to believe, the distance, for him, is entirely intentional.
“The further I’m away from it, the more intense it is when I get with it,” says Gales, noting, however, that it’s not an approach he’d recommend to beginners.
For Gales, the source of his playing isn’t technical preparation at all, but something far deeper and more personal.
“I have a source that I tap into that I believe wholeheartedly that comes from a location far above my head,” he says. “I’m able to tap into [it] any time of the day, no matter what time zone, no matter what continent, no matter what place in time. It doesn’t matter.”
“It’s an intense, insanely deep amount of pain that I play from every single night,” Gales continues. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way, because if the result is there’s some person out there that has gained some sort of revelation or some sort of inspiration from something that I played through the pain that I’m playing it from – and it helped them out – then that was well worth the pain that I went through to make that happen.”
The post “The further I’m away from it, the more intense it is when I get with it”: Why Eric Gales rarely touches a guitar offstage appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Yungblud got the Changes gig just 48 hours before Black Sabbath’s farewell show
One of the most talked-about moments from Black Sabbath’s star-studded farewell show almost didn’t happen. According to Tom Morello, Yungblud wasn’t even meant to be the singer for Changes until just two days before the band’s historic final performance.
In a new interview with 98KUPD radio, the Rage Against the Machine guitarist opens up about his role as curator for Black Sabbath’s all-star Back To The Beginning farewell show – an event that marked Ozzy Osbourne’s final appearance on stage. While the event may have looked seamless to fans, Morello says the reality behind the curtain was far more chaotic.
Asked when he realised the show was “more than just a concert”, Morello replies [via Blabbermouth], “Well, I had that in my bullseye from the beginning. If we’re gonna do this, we have to aim to make it the greatest day in the history of heavy metal. Heavy metal is the music that made me love music. It’s in the DNA of 90% of my favourite artists. And so if we’re gonna do this, we really have to treat it with the gravity that it deserves.”
“I will say that once the actual day started, and, dude, it was thousands of hours of preparation and worry and anxiety and changing around stuff – changed in the last 24 hours, et cetera, et cetera – but once it actually started, I had to let go. I’m, like, ‘Okay, the bands are now gonna play their songs or they’re gonna fall off the stage. I can’t control it anymore.’”
That last-minute uncertainty extended to some of the night’s most powerful moments. Asked whether there were any “hard calls” fans didn’t know about, Morello didn’t sugarcoat it.
“2,000 calls,” he says. “One of the greatest moments of it was Yungblud singing [a cover of Black Sabbath’s] Changes. Well, 48 hours before, he wasn’t gonna be the singer of that song. Things were changing… I landed at Heathrow Airport and I got a call, like, ‘That’s not happening.’ So I’m, like, ‘Okay, let’s figure it out.’ And it turned out to be one of the highlights. But that’s the gig. That’s what the gig is.”
Elsewhere, the musician also shares his final memory of Ozzy from later that night. At the afterparty, Morello was playing pinball with his son when someone tugged on his shirt mid–multiball. That someone, it turned out, was the Prince of Darkness himself.
“[Ozzy’s son] Jack Osbourne comes back and goes, ‘Dude, that was my dad.’ I’m, like, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry.’ So anyway, I let the pinballs drop,” says Morello. “And I go over to him. And he was appreciative of everything that had gone on. I got to give him a kiss on the head one more time, thank him. And then this is the last words that Ozzy Osbourne said to me in person. He was, like, ‘Tell Sharon I wanna get the fuck outta here’ – in true Ozzy form and also sort of poetic in a way.”
The post Yungblud got the Changes gig just 48 hours before Black Sabbath’s farewell show appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Fender Vintera II Road Worn 50s Jazzmaster review: “vastly improves the overall Vintera II package”
$1,699/£1,399, fender.com
Back in the good old days – aka the early-to-mid 2010s – I was working for another sadly now defunct guitar publication (RIP Total Guitar) when I came across a model that would change my perceptions of the Jazzmaster.
Before then, I’d always been an outside observer of the offset. I’d always been enamoured with the shape ever since I saw Feeder’s Grant Nicholas strap one on back at the tail end of my teens, but as a dyed-in-the-wool Les Paul Guy I couldn’t mentally make the leap to a guitar with single-coil pickups and a weird floaty trem.
Then in the office one day landed the very first iteration of Fender’s Road Worn Jazzmaster. The very first Road Worn Strat and Tele – Mexico-made, nitro-finished and with factory-aged finishes – were the sort of guitars that looked great at a distance but up close you could really tell they were aged to a template and not by years of hard wear.
Sensibly then, when the Road Worn Jazzmaster arrived a year later, the wear and tear had been scaled back a bit to make it a bit less obvious, but that wasn’t the big deal for me. The looks still might not have fooled anyone, but the feel… man the feel.
The ‘old pair of jeans’ thing is cliché, but that’s the best way to describe it – here was a brand new electric guitar that felt in all the ways that mattered like it had been properly played in. It was a magical guitar that I still regret not buying on the spot (see also the very first MIM Cabronita Telecaster, IMYSM). One that fully turned my head to offsets, and now here we are a decade later and I can’t stop wanting the damn things.
All of which is to say that the 2020s redux – in the shape of the Vintera II Road Worn range – has a lot to live up to… let’s see how this goes…
Image: Adam Gasson
Fender Vintera II Road Worn 50s Jazzmaster – what is it?
You don’t need a Masters in cryptography to work out exactly what’s going on with the Vintera II Road Worn 50s Jazzmaster. It takes the original Vintera II 50s JM – the guitar that we called ‘the best Jazzmaster Fender has made in the last decade’, by the way – given it a coat of nitrocellulose lacquer and then gone all Time Team on the finish, the hardware and everything else.
Except, a decade or so on, and the factory-ageing landscape at Fender is a little different than it was back when the original Road Worns were a weird ol’ curio in a range of otherwise pristine shiny guitars.
Back then, the only way to get a Fender with a relic job was to spunk a small house deposit on something from Fender’s Custom Shop. Here in 2026, we have things like the American Professional Classic range – which adds very subtly aged lacquer finishes to Fender’s most expensive production guitars – and various one-offs from Fender Mexico (like the Mike McCready Strat) that set new benchmarks for what factory-aged guitars can do.
Which makes the vibe of this new Road Worn guitar rather interesting. In terms of the body, it’s a lot closer to those AmPro Classic guitars than the original Road Worns – there’s no faux-wear and tear to the finishes here at all aside from some very impressively done faux checking to the lacquer itself. You could argue whether the ‘Worn’ title really even applies anymore.
The rest is a bit more in keeping with the originals, however – the neck looks and feels very played-in, with some slightly artless grease and grime in the usual heavy traffic areas. The bridge, vintage-style tuners and trem also have a slightly grubby, dulled effect, which is again, on the artful side of ‘lost at the bottom of a lake for 50 years’.
It all has the vibe of a guitar that has been heavily used but still taken care of meticulously – potentially a bit of an anathema in the real world stakes, but the general vibe is very appealing in the flesh/alder.
Away from the cosmetics, this is every bit a Vintera II 50s Jazzmaster, complete with the love ’em or loathe ’em details therein. That means a 7.25″ radius, rosewood fretboard (with clay dots), vintage-style butt-adjust truss rod, and the vintage style Jazzmaster bridge with six threaded barrel-style saddles.
Image: Adam Gasson
Fender Vintera II Road Worn 50s Jazzmaster – build quality and playability
The thing that charmed me so much about that original Road Worn Jazzmaster was how comfortable it felt – and the new guitar captures that vibe once again. Removing it from its supplied hard case, it really does feel nicely played-in – something that’s further enhanced by the factory-rolled fingerboard edges and that nicely sanded C-shaped neck.
If I were being picky, I’d say that the fingerboard desperately needs a bit of lemon oil – the vintage tall frets are nicely installed and polished, but the ‘board itself feels a little dry, and while it’s not a playability-killer at this point, it would really would benefit from some refreshment.
The hardware might have some of the sheen taken off it, but it doesn’t impact its function – the tuners are smooth and stable, while the vintage-style floating trem has smooth and stable operation out of the box.
If you’ve spent enough time on the more offset-y corners of the internet, you’ll have heard knowledgeable and well-intentioned people explain that the stock Fender bridge with its threaded barrel saddles is perfectly usable and stable with a perfect setup and suitably heavy strings.
And maybe that’s true with vintage guitars, but I’m here to tell you that I’ve played a LOT of modern Fender Jazzmaster guitars with this hateful piece of hardware sat in the middle and not a single one has been fully immune from buzzing, rattling and strings constantly being pushed out of alignment.
Image: Adam Gasson
It’s absolutely bananas to me that Fender is persisting with this in the year of our lord 2026. I can just about forgive it in the obsessively vintage-accurate world of the American Vintage II line. But the Vintera range isn’t so slavishly tied to vintage specs, so you have to ask who is really asking for this bridge on a $1,500 guitar?
All it’s really doing is outsourcing the job of making your guitar usable in a real-world situation to you. Yes, replacing the bridge is an easy job – but why should we the consumer be on the hook for at least $50 for a Mustang-style bridge (or a lot more if you go down the Mastery/Staytrem route) just to not have the strings pop out of place whenever you strum a mildly robust E chord?
While I’m grumbling about this thing, a word or two about the aesthetics. Firstly, I don’t really understand why Fender seems convinced that everyone wants 50s-style Jazzmasters.
The company is surely aware that the definitive version of the Jazzmaster is the mid-60s version – they know it enough to make the AVII model a 1966 spec after all – so why can we not get a bit of that mojo in the Mexican range? We’ll even settle for ‘transitional’ guitars with Custom Colours and no block inlays or painted headstocks if it’s a cost thing, just save us from the underwhelming Fiesta Red/Sunburst Boomer dichotomy offered here.
Furthermore, as much as I appreciate a gold anodised guard on a Sunburst Jazzer, there’s no escaping that the scratchplate here feels shiny new to an illusion-breaking degree. Would a parchment or tortie guard not have worked better?
Okay, I’m really splitting hairs here, so let’s plug this thing in and have some fun.
Image: Adam Gasson
Fender Vintera II Road Worn 50s Jazzmaster – sounds
The sound of a Jazzmaster is one of life’s great pleasures, especially when plugged into a Fender amp with lashings of onboard reverb and tremolo – in this regard, the Vintera II lives up to the billing of its predecessor.
There’s warmth and clarity here courtesy of those big ol’ single-coil pickups, and with the brightness you’d expect from a good Fender guitar – but without the brittle nature that can plague some of its more popular siblings on the bridge pickup.
Take off the reins and add some fuzz or distortion to the party, however and that’s where things really get fun – it’s big, muscular and beefy, without ever veering into woolly territory (unless you accidentally hit the rhythm circuit, natch).
The much-maligned extra circuit on the Jazzmaster is often ripped out, but honestly, I think it does have a place – set the tone and volume controls correctly and it offers you an interesting fourth voice that can excel at well, rhythm, in the right context.
Image: Adam Gasson
Fender Vintera II Road Worn 50s Jazzmaster – should I buy one?
The big question with this Road Worn specimen is whether the cosmetic changes here justify the extra near-$400 outlay over the vanilla Vintera II. Personally, I think the overall improvement in both look and feel makes it worth the investment.
People will gripe and debate the merits of factory ageing until the heat death of the universe, but when it’s done as subtly and sensitively as this, the pros in terms of playing comfort vastly improve the overall Vintera II package.
What’s more annoying are the compromises you’re going to have to make along the way – the insta-swap bridge and the limited finish options being at the forefront of my mind in that regard. But these are minor issues in the grand scheme of things – this is an absolutely fantastic guitar, end of story.
[products ids=”UXwapbo8d1FF5n4EL48Tc”]
Fender Vintera II Road Worn 50s Jazzmaster – alternatives
If you can live without the nitro and the ageing, the regular Vintera II Jazzmaster ($1,309.99/£1,069) is a fantastic guitar for a lot less money, and has some serious discounts across the board at the moment – they’re regularly available for not much more than a grand right now. If you want something offset with more of a rock flavour, Epiphone’s new Futura Firebird looks a steal, while I’m very, very taken with Rivolda’s new stripped-down Mondata CC.
The post Fender Vintera II Road Worn 50s Jazzmaster review: “vastly improves the overall Vintera II package” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Billy Corgan believes The Smashing Pumpkins were the first grunge band “that started to grow up” musically
At the dawn of the 1990s, grunge was king. From Nirvana’s definitive 1991 record Nevermind to iconic releases from Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains, the first half of the decade was grunge-central. However, a sharp musicians always needs to be ahead of the curve – and Billy Corgan believes that The Smashing Pumpkins outgrew grunge just in time.
In a new interview with Classic Rock, Corgan explains how sonic evolution allowed his band to survive beyond the “grunge explosion”. Sensing that grunge was on the downturn, the Smashing Pumpkins made sure that their 1995 double album, Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, pushed beyond the adolescent pessimism of grunge. The focus was on exploring a more mature palette.
“We were the first band of our generation that started to grow up,” the frontman explains. “The band was coming off a golden moment, which was the grunge explosion. But all movements start to run out of gas.”
He notes that a final nail in grunge’s coffin came when “gatekeepers” began to infiltrate the scene. When grunge tops the charts, it lures in people who weren’t there from the start – and, ironically, those people tend to preach about what the genre “really means… when they had nothing to do with authoring it”. It’s often the first sign to jump ship.
“We made the move to grow up before anybody else,” Corgan reiterates. “Then we were sort of singled out for criticism as far as other people were concerned, either because the party needed to continue, or growing up was some sort of sell-out of something.”
Despite certain gatekeepers disliking the Smashing Pumpkins’ evolution, the rest of the world welcomed the release of Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness with awe. The record’s blend of art-rock, spellbinding prog riffs and glorious orchestral movements proved a hit, topping the US Billboard charts and proving that the band were no one-trick pony.
Aided by engineer Flood, who had worked with Nine Inch Nails and PJ Harvey, as well as The Jesus And Mary Chain/My Bloody Valentine engineer Alan Moulder, the record was a dynamic step up from the band’s grunge era.
However, the record still captured that same raw emotion and catharsis that had initially lured fans in. Elsewhere in the Classic Rock interview, Corgan explains how Fuck You (An Ode To No One)’s “cataclysmic ending” solo quite literally saw him lobbing his guitar into a studio cabinet. “Whether or not my fingers bled, I don’t remember,” he says.
The post Billy Corgan believes The Smashing Pumpkins were the first grunge band “that started to grow up” musically appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I cheated at school – I’ll cheat at guitar!”: Why Sophie Lloyd swears by fret wraps
Fret wraps can be an invaluable tool while recording and performing, but their ability to eliminate or diminish dud notes or mistakes have led some guitar purists to see their use as cheating. Those who make this argument say fret wraps alleviate the onus on the guitarist to make sure their playing is free of mistakes.
But in the case of YouTube shredder Sophie Lloyd, she’s more than happy to use fret wraps when performing live with Machine Gun Kelly, and even makes light of the fact some regard the practice as “cheating”.
In a new Rig Rundown video with Premier Guitar, Lloyd insists the “extra safety” fret wraps provide keep her performances clean and allow her to focus more on the fun of the performance. “I always have fret wraps on my guitars… I cheated at school, I’ll cheat a guitar!” she laughs.
Lloyd goes on to explain that the wraps are most useful when she’s tackling a solo, as it eases the fear of playing dud notes. “It’s loud as hell in an arena, so you wanna make sure you’re playing well,” she says.
Of course, even if you use fret wraps, you still have to possess chops and know what you’re playing. With her formidable skills, not only has Sophie Lloyd amassed millions of followers and earned a spot in Machine Gun Kelly’s band, she also earned herself a signature axe with Kiesel. “I was the brand’s first female signature artist for Kiesel,” she smiles. “That was crazy!”
The opportunity to collaborate with the brand came after Rob Caggiano of Anthrax and Volbeat fame told her to check Kiesel guitars out. It lead to Lloyd cold-emailing the brand and linking to her YouTube channel – and Kiesel ended up wanting to work with her. “I had, like, 20,000 followers or something…” she recalls. “Then they sent me [a guitar] that later became my Sophie Lloyd Signature Series.”
The chance to collaborate with Kiesel was the perfect opportunity for Lloyd to concoct the perfect guitar for her playing style. Namely, she wanted a guitar that was a little lighter so she could really let loose on stage. “I loved played Gibsons before, but they were kind of too heavy for me,” she admits. “Especially for a long two hour show. I like to be silly and throw things around and bend backwards… so [my Kiesel signature] is is a lot more lightweight compared to a Gibson.”
Just like chucking on a fret wrap, the ability to perform with a lighter axe just makes performing that little bit more enjoyable. Other female guitarists have also opted for lighter instruments in the past, like Olivia Rodrigo praising St. Vincent’s quirky, lightweight and boob-friendly St. Vincent’s Ernie Ball Music Man Goldie guitar.
Lloyd’s signature Kiesel is similarly considerate of those with a larger chest. “Tonally, the guitar was everything I wanted, and the shape fit me a lot better,” she explains. “Girls know, when you play something, it can be a little bit sore on the boob! But this one fit perfectly.”
Her rig also focuses on being portable. “My ideal rig is a Diesel amp in parallel to an EVH, but I can’t really transport that very easily,” she says. “But we’ve kind of built it into [a Kemper]. We’ve captured it a bit – you can’t get it exactly the same, but it’s still sounds great.”
The post “I cheated at school – I’ll cheat at guitar!”: Why Sophie Lloyd swears by fret wraps appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“It’s a sacred role”: Why Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy was “relieved” Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee didn’t ask him to be Rush’s new drummer
![Rush's Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee [main], Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy [inset]](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Rush-Mike-Portnoy-hero@2000x1500.jpg)
Though now back on home turf atop the throne in Dream Theater, Mike Portnoy has performed with many bands over the years, including Adrenaline Mob and Liquid Tension Experiment – two bands he co-founded – and even Avenged Sevenfold throughout 2010.
And in a new interview with Metal Hammer, Portnoy reflects on the rumours that he was even in the running to join Rush following the death of Neil Peart in 2020.
Last year, Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson reflected on being “bombarded” with offers from drummers offering themselves in the wake of Peart’s death. “After Neil passed, it didn’t take more than a few minutes before we started getting emails from all kinds of drummers who wanted to audition for the band, thinking that we were just gonna replace somebody that we played with for 40 years…” he said. “I don’t know what some of these people were thinking.”
Indeed, it didn’t look like a Rush reunion would ever be on the cards given repeated comments made by Lifeson and Geddy Lee. That is until they sent prog fans into a frenzy in October, and announced plans to head out on the road once again in 2026, with drummer Anika Nilles in tow.
Asked by a fan in the new issue of Metal Hammer whether it crossed his mind to try and put himself forward as Rush drummer should the prog powerhouse start the machine up again, Portnoy answers simply: “No.”
“I did send my condolences to Geddy and Alex after Neil passed, but I never tried to throw my hat in the ring for Neil’s gig,” he says. “It’s a sacred role that should only be filled if Geddy and Alex choose for it to be so. Sure enough, here we are with them choosing to finally do so [with Anika Nilles], which has been incredible.”
![[L-R] Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Rush-2026@2000x1500.jpg)
Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson photographed ahead of their reunion tour announcement in October 2025. Credit: Richard SibbaldBut Portnoy makes the distinction between offering himself up for the role, and how his stance would have changed if he had instead been asked by Lee and Lifeson.
“If they hypothetically ever approached me with it, of course, I would have done it with the utmost respect and honour,” Portnoy goes on. “But frankly, I’m relieved they didn’t. First of all, filling Neil’s shoes is going to be impossible. If anybody ever thought Mike Mangini filling my shoes was tough, try filling Neil Peart’s shoes!
“And I came back home to Dream Theater, which is where I belong. So if, hypothetically, they’d approached me with this reunion that they’re doing, it would have put me in an awkward position because of the timing of it all.”
Things have changed drastically in the Rush camp in recent years; Geddy Lee recently sent pulses racing when he hinted at potential new Rush music in the future, depending on the success of their upcoming tour.
“My intent, before we got into this celebration of Rush’s history, was to put some music together,” he said. “I assumed I would be doing that on my own, not with Alex. When we started jamming, I started seeing the possibility of doing something. But that went on hold, because there’s too much work.”
“If we manage to survive the tour, go back to Canada, and have a rest, who knows what will happen,” he teases. “But I suspect some music will eventually come out.”
Tickets are available for both Rush and Dream Theater’s respective 2026 tours now.
The post “It’s a sacred role”: Why Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy was “relieved” Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee didn’t ask him to be Rush’s new drummer appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“The jazz people were laughing when they saw me at the audition with my Telecaster”: Steve Morse reflects on his early guitar journey
Long before Deep Purple, Kansas, or the Dixie Dregs made him a household name among guitarists, Steve Morse was figuring out how to make music work – on his own terms.
In a new interview with Classic Rock, the guitarist reminisces about his early journey, including the very first time he picked up a guitar.
“[I was] about 10 or 11,” says Morse. “My brother brought home a guitar and was learning the three chords for his first lesson. Maybe I could get lessons too? There were group lessons at our music store for $1.50 each. The store rented me a guitar for $5 a month, a Gibson LG-O acoustic. I was left-handed, but the instructor said, ‘We don’t have any left-handed guitars. Try this’ – a regular right-handed guitar. So that’s the way I learned.”
That adaptability would go on to become a hallmark of Morse’s playing – and his career. At 16, Morse was admitted to the University of Miami, one of the only places in the US at the time where one could seriously study guitar. But his arrival didn’t exactly go smoothly.
“The music programme at Miami wasn’t ideal,” Morse recalls. “I was very interested in classical guitar. I wasn’t that interested in the jazz department, because I was playing Jimmy Page songs and weird, teenage angsty music. So I didn’t know how that was going to work out.”
“When I got there I didn’t fit in with the classical people. I wasn’t advanced enough. And the jazz people were laughing when they saw me at the audition with my Telecaster – that wasn’t the right presentation,” he says. “You were supposed to have an acoustic hollow body guitar with a pickup on it, like Wes Montgomery.”
“So they rolled their eyes and said, ‘Put him in the rock ensemble,’ which was really a Latin jazz group. There were only six of us in that programme; guitarists like me that failed the jazz audition. So Miami started off really bad, but being around all those other guitarists, suddenly I could relate to them.”
For Morse, that period also marked a shift away from “pure rock” and toward the eclectic style that would define the Dixie Dregs and his later work.
“During that year I wrote a lot and played with people. We did hybrid music, crossing between jazz and rock, using polychords. I ended up writing and presenting ideas that were closer to what Kansas were doing than to what Jimmy Page was doing,” he says.
Morse also admits that he first felt confident he could make a career as a professional musician when he accepted that the music he loved wasn’t destined to top the charts.
“I thought to myself that the music that I liked was never going to be big or achieve the big numbers, but if I worked hard I was going to be okay,” says the guitarist. “I knew I wasn’t destined to be a rich star [but] I knew I could come up with stuff that people would like to listen to. Although I never could come up with stuff that record companies wanted to listen to!”
“I felt like that people were reachable if I could get in front of them. I said to myself, ‘It’s going to be a modest existence, but it’s going to be possible. I have to work hard and be versatile, be ready to play lots of different kinds of gigs.’ And that’s exactly what happened.”
The post “The jazz people were laughing when they saw me at the audition with my Telecaster”: Steve Morse reflects on his early guitar journey appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Meryl Streep to star as Joni Mitchell in upcoming biopic
Could anyone capture the voice and vision of the legendary Joni Mitchell on screen? According to reports, Meryl Streep is about to try.
Producer and music executive Clive Davis apparently confirmed Streep’s casting at a post-Grammys party, and director Cameron Crowe has since referred to Davis’s comments, though neither Streep nor Mitchell has officially spoken on it.
The project has quietly been in development for several years, with the multi-time Oscar winner long rumoured to be involved. There have also been whispers (via Stereogum) that Anya Taylor-Joy could play a younger version of Mitchell, though those reports remain unverified.
Crowe has previously stressed how central Mitchell herself is in shaping the project. Speaking on The Late Show last year, he explained: “We’ve been working on it for about four years. We have regular meetings where I can ask her anything and she speaks with her heart about all kinds of stuff. It’s a movie that will be not from a distance… This is from her perspective, her life, looking out.”
He also hinted at the depth of material available for the production: “She’s kept all of her costumes, all of her clothes, all of her instruments. She’s even still the landlady of her famous house in Laurel Canyon. So this is a really personal, wonderful look at her life and music.”
Mitchell has always been protective of her story on screen. In 2014, she famously “squelched” a proposed biopic starring Taylor Swift, later remarking in a New York Magazine interview, “I’ve never heard Taylor’s music. I’ve seen her. Physically, she looks similarly small-hipped and high cheekbones. I can see why they cast her. I don’t know what her music sounds like, but I do know this – that if she’s going to sing and play me, good luck.”
The post Meryl Streep to star as Joni Mitchell in upcoming biopic appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
The art of the backwards guitar solo – and how Dream Theater’s John Petrucci nailed it
If speaking in reverse is the work of the devil, then playing a guitar solo backwards is just devilishly impressive work. Sure, modern digital techniques have made a backwards – or backmasked – solo as easy as the press of a button rather than having to manually reverse the tape, but the uniqueness and inventiveness of a well-positioned backwards solo still requires acute attention to composition. And a decent reverse mode on your delay pedal perhaps.
Debate surrounds exactly who did it first – while George Harrison’s solo in I’m Only Sleeping no doubt was the most important and impactful early example, Joe Walsh may have pipped him to the innovation first on Nancy Sinatra’s Sand recorded just a few months earlier.
Either way, those early experimenters were having to flip the physical tape to create the otherworldly sound, and it soon caught on with the likes of Jimi Hendrix (Are You Experienced?, Castles Made of Sand and Drifting), REM (What’s The Frequency Kenneth?), or Rush (Chain Lightning and Mystic Rhythms), The Beatles (I’m Only Sleeping, Tomorrow Never Knows, Rain), My Bloody Valentine, Red Hot Chilli Peppers (Give It Away, Slow Cheetah) and Garbage (Only Happy When It Rains).
Refining the Formula
But what does it take to truly nail the concept? Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci took a leaf from George Martin’s playbook and pursued the same method the Beatles’ visionary producer used decades earlier. On Dream Theater’s track Misunderstood from 2002, Petrucci went through the rigmarole of old-school steps to achieve an overall sense of unease the song demanded. Petrucci is on the line from his New York home, where he’s spending Christmas between a heavy touring schedule that began in October 2024 and continues from February through May 2026.
“It’s a pretty weird song, I think, as far as the sounds that were used and the arrangement of it,” he says. “So, if there are any songs to have a backwards guitar solo, that was the one. Also, lyrically, it kind of speaks to being displaced in your life, and the feeling that you have of a surreal disconnect.”
The inspiration was an interview with Billy Joel that Petrucci heard, where Joel recalled coming off stage, having played to a stadium of 60,000 people, and the next thing he does is return to his hotel room to eat his dinner alone.
“Having a guitar solo that’s backwards, I think, speaks to that, because it creates a disconnect. It’s like, ‘Well, this sounds normal-but-not’. You can’t tell what’s making it sound so weird. The backwards guitar solo is really appropriate for that song.”
The method, says Petrucci, is thanks to DT drummer Mike Portnoy’s Beatles fandom.
“Mike was aware of a technique that George Martin used, and so we tried that,” he explains. “And the technique is as follows: We were recording to tape at the time so, basically, I played the guitar solo the way I would normally do a guitar solo. I constructed it the way I wanted it to sound from front to back. Then, we flipped the tape so it was backwards, and instead of just playing that back in the master mix, I learned the backwards version, note for note, and then I recorded the backwards version myself, then harmonised it. And then we flipped the tape back over.”
It’s a lot of course, but the idea and the whole point of doing it backwards, is to create something that unsettles the listener.
“You get the original construction that I intended of the solo, but it sounds bizarrely backwards,” says Petrucci. “So, it’s not actually backwards. Doing it that way, the Beatles way, lets you construct the solo the way you want it front-to-back, which then gives you a sense of ‘normal but not’ and the harmony I added to it also made it sound strange.”
Performing the song live is a challenge, but Fractal Audio’s flagship Axe-Fx comes in handy.
“In the Fractal Axe-Fx are some backwards effects that don’t make what you’re playing sound backwards, but I can sort of emulate the backwards phrasing a little bit. The backwards delay just makes it sound a bit off-putting and surreal. That’s the closest I can get to the studio result in the live arena.”
Back To Basics
When the Beatles were experimenting with backwards sounds in 1966 however, they were having to essentially innovate the method from scratch. Initially, John Lennon had been experimenting with reversing vocal takes, but they soon branched out to trying it with other instruments.
In his book Sound Pictures: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, The Later Years, 1966-2016, historian Kenneth Womack recalls the recording of the Paperback Writer B-side track Rain in 1966 as epiphanous in the experimental recording sessions of the band. Harrison, Womack claims, “was ecstatic over the possibilities that backward recording entailed.”
Womack quotes Harrison as saying, “With Rain, George Martin turned the master upside down and played it back. We were excited to hear what it sounded like, and it was magic – the backwards guitarist! The way the note sounded, because of the attack and the decay, was brilliant. We got very excited and started doing that on overdub. And then there was a bit of backwards singing as well, which came out sounding like Indian singing.”
Whether it’s tape-flipping, studio effect, or post-production trickery, the backwards guitar solo remains a tool in the composition kit worthy of exploring, and between Dream Theater, The Beatles, Garbage and My Bloody Valentine, the effect evidently knows no genre boundaries.
The post The art of the backwards guitar solo – and how Dream Theater’s John Petrucci nailed it appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“Are you f**king kidding me? He’s one of the only guitarists you can identify with one note”: Joe Bonamassa’s brutal response to those who claim BB King “doesn’t play much on guitar”
The blues would look very, very different without BB King, and as such, Joe Bonamassa has strong words for anyone who would dare to criticise his playing.
Often nicknamed ‘The King of the Blues’, BB King was instrumental in shaping the blues genre over his 70-year career, playing hundreds upon hundreds of shows and releasing, honestly, nearly too many records to count.
In a new interview with Classic Rock, contemporary blues ace Joe Bonamassa waxes lyrical on King’s lasting influence, calling him a “total artist”, and “such an entity”.
“The singing, the playing, the songs. I think he made, like, 60 records over the years,” says Bonamassa, listing some of his favourites in Live at the Regal (1965) and Blues Is King (1967), as well as his top BB King studio albums Indianola Mississippi Seeds (1970) and Completely Well (1969).
“When people say: ‘Oh, BB King doesn’t play much on guitar,’ it’s like: ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’” Bonamassa adds.
“He’s one of the only guitarists to ever play that you can identify with one note. If you listen to BB’s playing, he actually had a lot of jazz in him; he had some Wes Montgomery and definitely Charlie Christian, but also some T-Bone Walker.
“But once you got into the ‘60s, his approach and phrasing were so uniquely him. I think, most of all, what he was able to do was time. Y’know, where he would place notes. He was never in a hurry. And I think one of the most overlooked things about BB’s playing is that every solo he took had a great story.”
Joe Bonamassa continues, recounting his first experience meeting BB King, and how it ended up shaping him as a player, as well as his general attitude towards the blues.
“When I first met BB [in 1989], I didn’t really grasp the gravity of it,” he says. “When you’re 12 years old, you know what I mean? But he was this larger-than-life personality and figure. I was blessed to know him for 25 years. He showed me the right way to tour, taught me about the professionalism. The band was always immaculately dressed, on time, respectful. And if you can live by that, then you got no worries.”
Joe Bonamassa released his last album Breakthrough back in July 2025. Back in November, he updated fans on an injury he suffered during a show, which saw him suddenly lose “80%” of his hearing’s high end.
He has since long been cleared, and has a string of shows booked all over the world for 2026.
For a full list of live dates, head to Joe Bonamassa’s official website.
The post “Are you f**king kidding me? He’s one of the only guitarists you can identify with one note”: Joe Bonamassa’s brutal response to those who claim BB King “doesn’t play much on guitar” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Orquidea: This radical headless model from FM Guitars “fits perfectly with the human body” – and offers some serious eye candy to boot
Suitable for all playing styles and genre preferences, it’s available as a regular six-string guitar, bass, or as a more typical “FM style” guitar or bass – think very wide fretboards and strings from seven and up.
The Orquidea (meaning Orchid), was designed as an alternative to FM Guitars’ Esphera model. It’s single cut, and a little bigger and thicker in general compared to its sibling. The body has unique curves and bevels designed for regular horizontal, classical and upright playing, according to the brand.
Orquidea also features a “guitar handle” and a lower horn design that allows access to the higher frets seamlessly, and balances the guitar in any position. Its neck profile is thin, and FM Guitars says it doesn’t “like to add extra wood where it’s not necessary”.
Due to the unique designs of these guitars, they’re not available through a simple purchase online. To get your hands on one, you’ll need to join a waitlist by emailing info@fmguitars.com. You’ll be informed when your order can be taken. Just take a look at some of the unusual finishes and variations made so far.
Image: FM Guitars
Image: FM Guitars
You can check out the six- and seven-string variations in the videos below:
In other news in the world of headless guitars, Strandberg has recently lifted the lid on the Arc TILT – a patent-pending tremolo design for “smooth motion, stable pitch control and a more intuitive playing experience”. The news arrives after the unveiling its MIDI-infused headless Chameleon guitar with Jamstik, and its design is said to reimagine how a tremolo responds to the player, with a pivot system and tremolo block engineered to move in sync with the bridge, “resulting in a fluid and controlled feel” while maintaining stability.
Find out more about the Orquidea over at FM Guitars.
The post Orquidea: This radical headless model from FM Guitars “fits perfectly with the human body” – and offers some serious eye candy to boot appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“It’s a flamethrower”: Mark Morton’s new Signature Les Paul Modern Quilt unites Les Paul heritage with metal-ready specs and aesthetics
Lamb Of God’s Mark Morton has teamed up with Gibson for the launch of a new signature model, the Les Paul Modern Quilt.
As the name suggests, the AAA quilted maple top is a real standout on this new model, which is set off by a smokey Translucent Ebony Burst Satin finish. Morton’s input doesn’t stop there of course, and its features have been designed with modern metal players in mind.
The Mark Morton Les Paul Modern Quilt has a mahogany body utilising Gibson’s Ultra Modern Weight Relief for comfort. Its mahogany neck with a SlimTaper profile and Modern Contoured Heel aids upper-fret access, while the ebony fingerboard offers a compound radius and 22 medium jumbo frets. Its aesthetic is complemented by chrome hardware, Grover Rotomatic locking tuners, black rings with chrome trim, and a truss rod cover bearing Morton’s signature.
Tones come of two exclusive Mark Morton signature humbucker pickups, which have been specially handcrafted by the Gibson Pickup Shop to deliver his tonal desires. While this model was in the making, Morton had been taking prototypes of these pickups with him on tour to try them out in his actual work environment.
The rhythm pickup features moderate, Patent Applied For-style windings with a ceramic magnet for clarity and punch, while the lead pickup offers higher-output windings and a ceramic magnet for added presence and power. Both pickups are wired to individual volume and tone controls with Orange Drop capacitors and a three-way selector switch.
“I wanted something that stayed classic to the heritage and the history of the Les Paul, and something that looked heavy metal. The quilt top and the trans black satin finish felt dark and metal to me, but not over the top,” says Morton.
“The 60s style knobs are a cool throwback to the John Sykes model that was done a long time ago. The way it is contoured at the heel allows me to reach the upper registers comfortably, and the ebony fretboard is really fast. This model has a slim taper neck which was very important for me, as it’s the most comfortable neck profile.”
Image: Gibson
Morton continues, “The pickups are unique to this guitar, it’s a brand new Gibson pickup and I worked closely with Jim DeCola (Master luthier at Gibson), and the Gibson Pickup Shop in designing them. The neck pickup [is] more conservative in terms of its output, which allows me to flip to the neck position and play clean, and roll back the volume to not hit the amp as hard. Switching to the bridge pick up, it’s just a flame thrower; it’s super high output.”
He concludes, “It’s an iconic guitar and an important piece of music history, and for me to be associated with the legacy of the Les Paul is one of the greatest honours of my career. I am thrilled with the process of developing this guitar, and I am immensely thrilled with the outcome.”
The Mark Morton Signature Les Paul Modern Quilt is available now for £2,699. Find out more via Gibson.
The post “It’s a flamethrower”: Mark Morton’s new Signature Les Paul Modern Quilt unites Les Paul heritage with metal-ready specs and aesthetics appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Family of Boston’s Brad Delp launch search for his More Than A Feeling Taylor 12-string – can you help?
A search has been launched on social media to help track down a missing 12-string guitar that belonged to Brad Delp, frontman of the rock band Boston.
The guitar is a 1976 Taylor 885 12-string acoustic, which the late musician used during the music video for the band’s hit song, More Than A Feeling, and treasured across his career. It was stolen in 2009, just two years after his death.
- READ MORE: The Genius Of… Boston by Boston
In a post on Facebook shared to the Taylor Guitars Owner Club group page, Delp’s ex-wife Micki writes: “Please help find Brad Delp’s Guitar – this one-of-a-kind 1976 Taylor Custom 885 (12-string, Serial #20173) was built for Boston singer Brad Delp. It was stolen in Los Angeles, California in 2009.
“We have not given up hope yet that it will find its way home someday. As you can imagine, it’s of great sentimental value to our family, Brad has a grandson now and it would mean so much just to see him holding Grampy’s favourite guitar.”
She continues, “He never got to meet his Grampy, but he is totally obsessed with music, writing, singing, producing and even making his own music videos. I would love for him to be able to play it. It may still be inside its black hard case!”
Timothy Dwelle, who is working with Micki and the rest of Delp’s family, hopes they may be able to track down the guitar after Paul McCartney’s Höfner bass was found after 50 years in 2024.
Dwelle tells Guitar World: “Given Los Angeles’ dense network of recording studios, vintage instrument shops, and private collectors, there is a strong possibility the guitar is still in the area, perhaps sitting unrecognised in someone’s attic, a hallway closet, or tucked away in a storage unit.
“Much like the McCartney bass, it’s possible the current owner has no idea they are in possession of a unique piece of the Boston legacy. While it’s the voice behind More Than A Feeling that the world remembers, this guitar was Brad’s personal favourite – the instrument he played at home and carried with him throughout his career.”
Any leads or information should be emailed to B.DelpGuitar@gmail.com, with no questions asked.
The post Family of Boston’s Brad Delp launch search for his More Than A Feeling Taylor 12-string – can you help? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I have this memory of throwing the guitar at the amp over and over to get the perfect cataclysmic ending”: Billy Corgan on the making of his classic Smashing Pumpkins hit
Smashing Pumpkins weren’t messing around when they recorded Fuck You (An Ode To No One) for their 1995 album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
Rumour has it that frontman Billy Corgan even drew blood when he recorded the guitar solo, and while he’s not so sure if that really happened, he does remember throwing his guitar at his amp to achieve a “cataclysmic ending”. Very rock ‘n’ roll.
In an interview in the new issue of Classic Rock magazine – which first appeared in the October issue of Guitar World – Corgan says, “I remember that we had a B-room, this very small production room. I had my cabinet in this really, really small room, about the size of a closet. Even when I would sit and play in the control room, the sound from the cabinet was so loud because it was right there.
“Somehow I got the idea that not only did I want to play the solo in front of the cabinet to get the right kind of feedback and resonant things looping through the guitar, but at the end of the solo I wanted to throw the guitar at the amp to make some sort of statement.”
He explains: “I would throw the guitar at the cabinet, which would knock it completely out of tune. Then I would go back and listen to the take and think: ‘Oh, that sucks. Do it again.’ I’d tune the guitar, go back in and blast it out. I have this memory of killing myself, blasting my head off, and then throwing the guitar at the amp over and over to get the perfect kind of cataclysmic ending. Whether or not my fingers bled, I don’t remember.”
In other exciting news for fans of Corgan, Laney recently unveiled the Supergrace Loudpedal – a floor-based dual-amplifier platform that puts his live rig within reach of any guitarist.
Developed in close collaboration with Corgan, Supergrace captures the core of Corgan’s touring sound, without the towering backline or $100k price tag. At its heart are two of Corgan’s essential amplifier voices: the high-gain Carstens Grace, and the iconic Laney Supergroup.
A 30th anniversary edition of Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness was released on 9 January. Find out more via the Smashing Pumpkins website.
The post “I have this memory of throwing the guitar at the amp over and over to get the perfect cataclysmic ending”: Billy Corgan on the making of his classic Smashing Pumpkins hit appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.