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“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.
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“I have so much more connection with my guitar now than I think I ever had”: John Mayer on playing with Dead & Company
In light of Bob Weir’s death last month, artists have posted tributes praising the late Grateful Dead guitarist. From guitar legends like Joe Satriani to contemporary stars like Maggie Rogers, Weir’s influence spanned far and wide – but his collaborative work with John Mayer was particularly impactful.
In an archival 2016 interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Mayer and Weir reflect on how they came to form Dead & Company in 2010. Throughout, Mayer’s respect for Weir is evident. “There has to come a moment where it’s time to play a guitar solo, and I’m just playing the solo [without] wondering what Bob thinks about it!” Mayer joked at the time.
Mayer went on to describe his first experience performing with Weir as “the only time [he’d] ever got nauseous with excitement”. However, instead of succumbing to his fanboy nerves, Weir deemed Mayer a worthy collaborator. “The first time I played with John-boy here, I ascertained that this guy can handle the chores,” he praised.
Of course, that first collaboration would be the beginning of a beautiful musical friendship. In fact, Mayer wilfully put his solo career on hold to tour with Dead & Co – and its an experience that utterly transformed his relationship with live music and guitar. “I have so much more connection with my guitar now than I think I ever had,” the younger guitarist explained.
He went on to explain how touring with Weir in Dead & Co “solidifies ‘musician’ over ‘celebrity,’” once again reminding him why he first started learning guitar. “[Performing with Weir] roots me in the thing I love the most… it’s the reason I wanted to be in this band,” he said. “It would be [similar to] an actor saying, ‘I really want to be in a scene with Al Pacino.’”
Rather than stopping there, Mayer also admired how Weir’s work with Grateful Dead created its own “style of music” by combining a slew of different technical styles and sounds. It was a musical collage that pushed him, as he had to “learn the accompanying styles”, which saw him having to learn “another style, and another style, and so on”.
Despite the intimidating amount of learning, Mayer notes that the experience was like being offered a “scholarship” to becoming a master guitarist and well-rounded musician. “If you were a guitar player and you could only learn music from one band, if you learned the Grateful Dead’s music, you would be a far better guitar player than if you picked any other band to learn from,” he insisted.
Alongside the diversity of the music, Weir’s passion for his sound was also surely a massive influence on Mayer. Elsewhere in the interview, Weir described his music is “alive”.
“Grateful Dead songs need to live – they need to live, and breathe, and grow, because they they’re they’re living critters, if I may wax hippie-metaphysical for you…” he said. “The characters in those songs are real. They live in some other world, and they come and visit us through the through the musicians, through the artists, who have dedicated their lives to that medium.”
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“Sober me was competing with drunk me to whoop my own ass”: Jason Isbell on why quitting drinking made him a better songwriter
Back in 2012, Jason Isbell realised that he’d never find the solution to his problems at the bottom of a bottle. Following a stint in rehab, the musician swore off booze for good – and made it his personal mission to conjure up a sober record better than anything his drunk counterpart had ever released.
By transforming his sobriety into a game of one-upmanship, Isbell was pushed to pen the best tracks of his career. That’s how 2013’s Southeastern, a record he describes as a “career highlight”, came to be. “I really wanted sobriety to improve my work. It became almost competitive – sober me was competing with drunk me to whoop my own ass at songwriting,” he told Uncut in 2023.
“When I was writing before, I’d get up at noon, have coffee, aspirin and some liquor, start writing at one and then at three or four it was time to go to the bar,” he admitted. “With Southeastern I was getting up, making a pot of coffee and working until it was done.”
Without the need to battle a hangover, Isbell’s output increased drastically. He’d work on more tracks in the day, and have more quality tracks to pick and choose between. “That meant that I had 12 great songs instead of just two [on the record],” he explained. “There were Cover Me Up, Elephant and Travelling Alone, but it was an entire record of the best I could do.”
When digging into Southeastern, plenty of tracks see Isbell tackling his boozy demons. For instance, Songs That She Sang In The Shower quite clearly sees him singing “so I pace, and I pray, and I repeat the mantras that might keep me clean for the day”.
Eight years on, Isbell would re-address those early years battling with sobriety with his 400 Unit band. Nearly a decade into his recovery, 2020’s Reunions record saw Isbell appreciating just how far he had come. “There was enough time behind me [and that version of me], so felt comfortable looking at the past on songs like It Gets Easier,” he said.
“I had worried there was risk in romanticising the way my life had been, but now I felt that risk had passed and I was stable,” he continued. “I wanted to look back at my life without romanticising it but also without beating myself around the head.”
In terms of Isbell’s most recent releases, he worked with Martin Guitars at the end of last year on two new signature models, the Jason Isbell 0-17 and the 0-10E Retro acoustics. Both were inspired by his beloved pre-war 0-17 guitar heard across the entirety of his 2025 record, Foxes In The Snow.
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David Ellefson shares his thoughts on the final Megadeth album: “I hear it and go, ‘This is a Dave solo record…’ It doesn’t sound like Megadeth”
David Ellefson has shared his thoughts on the final Megadeth album, and his main critique is that it feels more like a Dave Mustaine solo record.
Ellefson, who these days plays in a number of metal bands, was fired from Megadeth in 2021. Though he says he’s “not on the Megadeth hate train” and is busy focusing on his own work, he believes it doesn’t feel like Megadeth’s retirement, only that of frontman Mustaine.
The final and self-titled album from Megadeth was launched last month, and included their own rendition of Metallica’s Ride The Lightning. Mustaine was let go from Metallica in 1983 but received a writing credit on the song, and has previously said that he wanted to record his version of the song out of respect.
In the latest episode of his own podcast, The David Ellefson Show, Ellefson says he’s rather surprised by it [via Blabbermouth]: “Dave speaks about it now like they were all sitting in the room writing Ride The Lightning together. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know the details of it, but it seems to me if it was really a finished song, it would’ve been on [1983’s] Kill ‘Em All. But it wasn’t. It [came out a year] later. Did Dave have a participation? Yeah, but it seems to me more like that song was sort of put together after he was out of the group.”
He later adds, “I, of all people, am not on the Megadeth hate train. I know the fanbase is divided on this new album. I hear about it. Our singer, Chaz Leon from Kings Of Thrash, he’s a big Megadeth fan, big Dave fan, and he tells me the fanbase is a bit divided on it… I don’t care. I’ve really moved on from Dave, from Megadeth.”
Ellefson goes on to add some praise however, calling Megadeth’s guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari “a great player” and “the story of Megadeth right now”. But overall, he feels that Megadeth is not what it once was.
“I still look at it as Dave’s retirement because I still think of Megadeth as our band,” he shares. “I think it’s a sin to just go off and claim it as his own… I hear it and I go, okay, this is a Dave solo record. This is Dave and his new band, Dave and his new guys.
“It says Megadeth, so obviously it gets all the attention, but realistically, I hear it and to me it just doesn’t sound like Megadeth. It sounds like Dave doing what Dave does, but with a different set of guys. And this is Dave’s retirement.”
You can watch the full episode below:
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“Miming over technical stuff cause you can’t actually play it… I think that’s f**king s**t”: Rabea Massaad slams the “endless pursuit of perfection” that grips guitar culture
In the age of social media, one perfectly executed shredding clip can transform a guitarist’s life. In the cases of Machine Gun Kelly guitarist Sophie Lloyd and The Smashing Pumpkin’s Kiki Wong, going viral even has the potential to skyrocket some to rockstardom.
However, Rabea Massaad believes that the constant pursuit of success has lead to a rise in “fake” guitar playing in online videos.
“What’s the point in writing something so difficult that you can’t even play all the way through?” he asks. “Miming over the technical stuff because you can’t actually play it, I think that that’s fucking shit.”
While he doesn’t name any guitarists, he notes how plenty of online riffers have been exposed recently for “faking what they’re doing and getting a big name off it”, whether that’s earning followers, money or even signature guitars.
Of course, miming your way through a guitar solo has its time and place – top tier guitarists have been miming their way through music video shoots for years. However, the difference is when a social media star is pretending to be performing technical licks “off the cuff” live. “Playing insane guitar parts suggesting that it is in the moment… I think that that’s misleading,” Massaad says.
As more impossibly perfect clips circulate, it also raises the standards of guitar playing to unrealistic levels. He notes how this “unobtainable level of technicality that doesn’t really exist in the real world” could have dire consequences on the next generation of guitarists.
To illustrate his point, Massaad imagines a young guitarist watching a perfect viral clip, assuming they “have to reach that level” to be good. Little do they know, Massaad says, the guitarist on their screen hasn’t even “reached that level” of “unobtainable perfection” they’re pretending to perform.
However, that kid might not clock if someone is pretending, leading to them giving up at the first hurdle, thinking “it’s not worth the effort because they’re never going to get that good”.
“It feels shit to basically feel like you’re not good enough, that you have to [re-record something] so many times just to get it right for this one minute clip,” Massaad says. “It’s exhausting.”
As Massaad notes, some of the best guitarists fumble here and there. The imperfections are what add “soul” to your performing. He points to Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt as an example: “There are plenty of live videos out there of him making mistakes and playing bad notes and being a bit sloppy… but it’s cool because he’s performing and he’s loving it.”
“Just embrace the imperfections,” he says. “Some of the best solos and best performances out there have imperfections. It’s part of being human!”
Faking clips for social media has been a hot topic as of late. YouTuber Jacobra Records even released a 40-minute-long video alleging that viral Japanese guitarist Ichika Nito mimes in some of his online performance videos.
Considering Nito is a high-profile guitarist online, with Unprocessed’s Manuel Gardner Fernandes even picking him out as a viral shredder to check out last month, the claims sparked a frenzy online. Fellow YouTuber Charles Berthoud added his own video response musing over the allegations, reflecting on where miming can sometimes be acceptable.
He argues that it all comes down to intention. If you just want to share a track, or show off an interesting riff you wrote, that can be okay. However, if you’re miming and the video is focusing on how impressive your “live performance” is rather than your writing, Berthoud believes it is outright misleading.
“All of this complicated issue just comes down to ‘are you deceiving your audience?’” he says. “There are obvious ways of deceiving your audience, like labelling a video ‘live performance’ even though it’s not actually live.”
However, even if an artist doesn’t try to pretend something is performed ‘live’, they should still consider whether they could actually perform what they’re miming live. “You’ve gotta be very honest with yourself about this [and think] ‘could I play it 90-95% perfect most of the time?’” he says. “If the answer to that question is ‘no’, then I would say maybe don’t post that video, or at least don’t present the video in a way that makes it look like you could.”
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The Molotovs want to be the solution to the problem of “insular and wallowing” guitar bands – this is how they’re going to do it
Teenage sibling duo The Molotovs have taken the music world by storm over the last year. Despite their young ages, Matt, 17, and Issey, 19, have played more than 600 shows, both in their home town of London and around the world.
They’ve shared stages with Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter, Blondie and The Libertines, and last summer won support slots with Iggy Pop and The Damned in the US. Back in the UK, they will tour arenas with YUNGBLUD this summer.
“The name comes from the Molotov cocktail, which was used as a weapon of resistance,” Matt begins, likening the moniker to the raw energy they bring to the stage (they’re currently on a huge headline tour of grassroots UK venues) as much as their confrontational lyrics; “Do I frustrate you like chewing gum stuck in your hair?” from the intense Get A Life is just one example that stands out.
“The fact that it’s a ‘cocktail’ also represents all our diverse influences coming together to create our sound,” Matt goes on to explain of their frenetic riffs, which come from his Rickenbacker 330s and Issey’s Rickenbacker 4001.
Of the former he says, “I have a Special Edition Senior from 2003 – it’s a ‘road worn’ series and came with a Bigsby, but I don’t use it… it just goes out of tune too often.” Issey, meanwhile, says her bass of choice has “a great kind of punchy sound; because we’re a three-piece on stage, the bass parts need to seem like guitar riffs themselves, and this bass is perfect for that.” Paul McCartney used one, too, she points out.
Image: Derek Bremner
The New Wave
The combination of the two – as well as a rapid-fire live drummer – helps them to cross genres and appeal to different generations. “I don’t think we’re really surprised by it,” Matt says of their mixed-age fanbase.
“The older crowd, who were about in the 70s and 80s, remember the energy around punk and new wave and appreciate seeing that same fury and passion carrying on nowadays,” he suggests. “For the young people, it feels like something is really happening for them because it’s the first time they’ve ever seen it.” Taking all of this into account, Matt is confident that “they feel ownership over our group – and that’s exactly the way the gig-going baton is supposed to work”, he attests.
All of his and sister Issey’s hard work has culminated in the creation of their debut album, which has just been released on Marshall’s in-house record label. Rather than sitting down with a specific idea, Matt says the record has come together naturally over the past five years. “I’ve never been writing with an album in mind,” he says. “I was only writing for the band and for me, just songs to play live so that people would take us more seriously as a group.”
Nonetheless, the duo ended up with 11 songs that “summed up the environment I was growing up with”. Issey goes on to say that she wants people to have “a feeling of hope and optimism” when they hear Wasted On Youth. “We want them to feel as though their situation can be changed, that it’s malleable, and that change can come from yourself first.”
Solutions To Your Problems
While she and Matt have high ambitions for the album – they and the label are angling for a top-ten chart position – their goals run deeper than sales and streaming numbers. “We want to re-instill a sense of hope in young people and get them away from drudgery and apathy,” Issey offers…
“A lot of mainstream guitar bands now can be quite insular and more wallowing,” she suggests. “And while we’re still addressing the common problems and frustrations and anxieties of young people in our songs, we want to give them a solution as well, and a kind of way out.”
Despite feeling as though the guitar scene could do with a bit of a jolt, The Molotovs are nothing but positive about the live scene right now. “It’s thriving,” Matt says, adding that some of those who attend their gigs have gone on to pick up a guitar afterwards. “A couple of the old boys have brought their sons along, and they’ve told me they catch their son playing the guitar afterwards trying to learn some of our songs. It’s really nice to see that multi-generational thing.”
Image: Kane Layland
Issey goes on to say that the London scene in particular has “a real vibrancy”, suggesting that, post-lockdown, a lot of young people found the time to harness their craft. “Now what you’re seeing is this new wave of bands – this kind of third wave – with a huge surge of talent coming through. And where do The Molotovs fit into all this?
“We’re one of many bands going at it on the live circuit,” she says, “but we’ve managed to break free of just the London circuit and start to move abroad and to the rest of the UK.” Throughout January, The Molotovs have been storming grassroots venues up and down the country, showing their support for DIY.
As for the future, hers and Matt’s sights are set extremely high. “We’re looking for this album to go into the top ten,” Issey manifests, adding that their main focus will also be live performance. “We’re rooted in that, so we want to constantly increase our audience, meet more people, and play with more bands.”
Image: Aoife Hyland
For Matt, success means two things: growth, and community. “We want to get the gigs bigger, and to be able to spread our message – it’s all about youth, almost like a youth movement.”
“We also want our reputation to get to the point where we can work with other people who are on our same wavelength,” Issey continues, adding that they hope to “build a really good team around us that allows us to execute our creative vision as effectively as possible”. Matt adds: “And we want that team to be on board with the vision as it progresses.”
While there’s no doubt that Matt and Issey know exactly where they want to take the band, it’s also important to look back at the guitarists and bass players who helped shape them:
Steve Cradock
Matt: “It’s just his versatility. He’s played with everyone – Ocean Colour Scene, Paul Weller, Amy Winehouse. The way he rides the toggle switch on his Les Paul Goldtop live is amazing.”
Paul Weller
Matt: “He’s a really good guitarist, not just a songwriter, with a tasteful choice of notes and melodies. He never overdid it; he’s one of those melodic players. The thin Rickenbacker tone in The Jam suited his punky, slashing style perfectly.”
Image: Jeanie Jean
Chet Atkins
Matt: “This is my rogue one. His style is never something I’d play now, but I just really like listening to it.”
Norman Cook (The Housemartins)
Issey: “I love his melodic, quirky basslines that really push the track forward.”
Johnny Marr
Issey: “I love his work with The Smiths—he even wrote a load of Andy Rourke’s incredible basslines. I often play Bigmouth Strikes Again in soundchecks.”
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“It was hell”: Steve Lillywhite on producing The Rolling Stones at their most divided
Grammy-winning producer Steve Lillywhite has opened up about one of the toughest studio experiences of his career, describing his time working with The Rolling Stones as “hell”.
Speaking on the Word in Your Ear podcast, Lillywhite reflects on producing the band’s 1986 album Dirty Work – a record made during one of the most tumultuous periods in the Stones’ history.
According to the producer, tensions between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards at the time were running so high that the two barely interacted in the studio.
“I worked with Keith and Mick when they were not talking to each other at all,” Lilywhite recalls [via UCR], noting that the pair spoke to one another for “maybe one hour out of the whole time that we were making the record.”
“It was hell,” he adds. “They literally weren’t [in the same room].”
With the band’s two creative figureheads keeping their distance, Lilywhite found himself stuck in the middle, relaying messages back and forth between them: “I would have one come up to me go ‘blah blah blah blah. And I would go and say [the message] to the other one. And he would go, ‘You tell him, blah blah blah blah.’”
“I say I was [American diplomat] Henry Kissinger.”
Despite the challenges, the producer says the experience left a lasting mark on how he approaches recording sessions. One key lesson? Keep the studio doors open.
“I learned this from The Rolling Stones: Never stop people coming into the studio. Always have an open-door policy,” he says.
“When people come in, and they listen to something, I sort of hear it through their ears. So there might be something that I’m, subconsciously, I’m thinking it’s not quite right, but it hasn’t come to the conscious yet. Whereas when someone’s in there listening, and I’m playing them a rough mix, I go, ‘Got it. Now I know what we have to change.’”
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Sharon Osbourne in talks with Live Nation to revive Ozzfest: “It was something Ozzy was very passionate about”
Sharon Osbourne has revealed she’s in early discussions about resurrecting Ozzfest, the iconic metal festival she co-founded three decades ago alongside her late husband, Black Sabbath legend Ozzy Osbourne.
Speaking in a new interview with Billboard, the longtime manager – who guided Ozzy’s solo career for decades – confirms she is “talking to [concert promoters] Live Nation” about bringing the event back, with a tentative return pencilled in for 2027. While Ozzfest built its reputation on heavy music, Sharon explains that the revived edition could incorporate artists outside the traditional rock and metal sphere. “I’d like to mix up the genres,” she says.
“It was something Ozzy was very passionate about: giving young talent a stage in front of a lot of people,” she adds. “We really started metal festivals in this country. It was [replicated but] never done with the spirit of what ours was, because ours was a place for new talent. It was like summer camp for kids.”
Launched in 1996 after Lollapalooza declined to book Ozzy, Ozzfest began as a short run of dates in Phoenix, Arizona and San Bernardino, California. Ozzy headlined the inaugural shows, backed by a bill stacked with heavy hitters including Slayer, Danzig, Biohazard and Sepultura.
From there, the festival quickly evolved into a proving ground for the next generation of heavy acts. Slipknot, Limp Bizkit and System Of A Down were among the now-household names that appeared on the tour around the time of their debut releases.
Ozzfest eventually expanded beyond the US, spawning international editions in the UK, Germany, Belgium and Japan. Its last outing was a one-off event in Inglewood, California in 2018.
Sharon previously spoke about the festival’s disappearance in 2023, attributing its cancellation after over two decades to “greedy” management.
“We made a profit. But it was not like – we couldn’t retire on it,” she said on The Osbournes Podcast. “And managers and agents wanted more and more and more, and it just wasn’t cost-effective anymore. We stopped because it just wasn’t cost-effective.
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In pictures: the stunning, cool and downright weird guitars of the Grammy Awards 2026
While most people are tuning into the Grammy awards for the fashion, the celebrities or the chaotic potential for someone to go off-script in an acceptance speech, here at Guitar.com we’ve got our eyes peeled for one thing, and one thing only – guitars.
Despite the ever-present grumbling about the lack of overt guitar-centric artists in the big hitter categories, the ceremony itself is always a reminder that regardless of how prominent it ends up being in the studio recording, the guitar remains a uniquely potent weapon in the live arena – and there were plenty of eye-catching guitars on stage throughout the many superstar performances.
What was particularly interesting about this year’s crop was how many weird and leftfield instruments we noticed on the Crypto.com Arena stage across the evening – so often the ceremony is wall-to-wall Fender, Gibson and occasional Martin, but 2026 was certainly a little more diverse in that regard.
Let’s dive in to some of our most notable highlights from the show.
Justin Bieber’s Yamaha RGX
Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Where else can you start really than with the most eye-catching performance of the night, where Biebs himself decided to pair some blue silk boxer shorts with an… 1980s Yamaha RGX?!
Yep, it’s weird man. We certainly didn’t have Bieber becoming the world’s most notable standard-bearer for obscure Asian-made SuperStrats of the late shred era, but here we are. Nice colour too!
María Zardoya’s Fender Mustang
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
The frontwoman of bilingual indie-pop The Marías is usually seen wielding a Fender Duo-Sonic, but for the band’s performance – a celebration of their nomination in the Best New Artist category – she traded up for a seriously cool black Mustang.
Interestingly, the headstock looks like the ‘Mustang’ part of the decal has been worn or sanded off, implying that this might be a vintage or at the very least well-loved guitar.
Bruno Mars’ Gibson Les Paul Custom
Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Mars had the distinction of performing twice during the Grammy ceremony, including opening the festivities with the performance of his Record Of The Year-nominated duet with former Blackpink member Rosé, APT.
Despite being a honoured as a Fender signature artist just over a year ago, Mars opted to perform on the evening using a classic ‘Tuxedo’ Gibson Les Paul Custom – it certainly fit the vibe of the black tie performance nicely.
Leon Thomas’ custom mirror Strat
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Fender has some form for producing custom guitars for artists to use for the Grammys – remember H.E.R.’s transparent Strat for the 2019 ceremony? – and rising R&B phenom Leon Thomas clearly noticed as he traded in his usual sunburst Strats for something altogether more unique to celebrate his six nominations (and two wins).
While the lighting of the performance probably didn’t show it off to its full magnificence, Thomas rocked a custom mirror-finished HSS Strat, with matching headstock and pickguard. Good luck keeping the fingerprints off that one.
Slash’s flamey black Les Paul
Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Gibson’s most loyal and long-term endorsee playing one of the innumerable Les Pauls Gibson have probably sent to him over the years isn’t exactly headline news, but most of the Cat In The Hat’s current signature line-up sit squarely in the ‘autumnal’ colour palette.
The guitar he used to perform in the Grammys tribute to the late great Ozzy Osbourne was certainly not that – instead it was a dark, almost black, burst with a lovely flamed maple top underneath. A fitting guitar to pay tribute to the Prince Of Darkness, but might we see this being added to the Slash Les Paul line-up soon too? Don’t bet against it.
Andrew Watt’s Jaydee Custom
Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Over on the other side of the stage to Slash for the Ozzy tribute was Grammy-winning producer, guitar nut and veteran rock star whisperer extraordinaire Andrew Watt. But rather than go down the obvious path and pick up a Gibson SG for the performance, Watt came out using something that only true guitar nerds and Sabbath aficionados would recognise.
Back in the late 70s, a Birmingham-based guitar tech and luthier called John Diggins built Tony Iommi a guitar. That SG-shaped guitar – ‘Old Boy’ – would become one of Iommi’s most famous and beloved instruments, while Diggins would continue building guitars and basses under the Jaydee Custom Guitars brand for the next 40 years.
Diggins died suddenly in 2024, prompting Iommi to pay tribute to his skill, and call him “a very dear friend”. For the Grammy performance, Watt walked out with a white, relic’d Jaydee SG – paying guitar nerd tribute both to Iommi himself, but also the luthier whose work he relied on for so many years.
Lukas Nelson’s Gibson Byrdland
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Performing at the In Memorium segment alongside fellow country stars Reba McEntire and Brandy Clark (who was herself sporting a lovely battered old Martin 000), Nelson stole the guitar show somewhat with a suitably classy big Gibson.
The Byrdland is something of a rare duck in the Golden Era Gibson stakes. Introduced in 1955 as a thinner-bodied version of the L-5, it was the basis for the more stripped down ES-350T that Chuck Berry made his own, and then later got a Florentine cutaway and became Ted Nugent’s guitar of choice. Nelson’s black version has the original cutaway, and might be a 1970s version.
Wyclef Jean’s Taylor T5
Photo by Johnny Nunez/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
One of the highlights of the ceremony saw Fugees legends Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean reunite to lead an all-star tribute to two sadly missed musical legends we lost in 2025 – D’Angelo and Roberta Flack.
Jean was playing guitar as part of the performance and brought out a lesser seen but still revolutionary piece of guitar history – the hybrid electric-acoustic Taylor T5z.
Raphael Saadiq’s Minarik Diablo
Photo by Johnny Nunez/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
It’s not often that you write the words ‘Minarik guitars’ and ‘Grammy awards’ in the same sentence, but we have former Prince bassist and Grammy-winning producer Raphael Saadiq to thank for this one.
While Minarik’s bizarre shapes and gaudy visuals make the brand great fodder for ‘what the hell is that?!’ videos from the NAMM show floor, Saadiq’s choice to play this for the D’Angelo/Flack tribute was actually a very poignant one. D’Angelo was a fan of the Diablo model, and regularly used a pearled-out custom model on stage – Saadiq’s decision to rock this more demure one in tribute is a lovely way of acknowledging D’Angelo’s guitar impact.
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Justin Bieber played an obscure, cheap 80s guitar at the Grammy Awards 2026 for some reason
Justin Bieber probably isn’t the first name on your list when you think of celebrity guitar guys, but the pop star’s choice of guitar for his performance at the 2026 Grammy Awards might indicate he’s more One Of Us than you might expect.
The majority of the attention garnered by Bieber’s performance of his nominated-song Yukon focused on the fact that it was stripped down in pretty much every way you can imagine – the one-time teen heart throb performing the song solo wearing just a pair of silk blue boxer shorts – but our well-honed guitar sense was more interested in what he had slung over his shoulder.
The Grammys are prime real estate for the big guitar brands, who no doubt bend over backwards to ensure that artists performing at the globally televised event are using their gear – remember Fender producing a custom transparent Stratocaster for H.E.R to use in the Grammys (and later the MTV Music Awards) a few years back? – but clearly nobody told Biebs.
Because for this most high-profile performance, the lefty guitarist chose to use a… purple Yamaha RGX?! Yep, this obscure relic of the pre-Pacifica days of Yamaha courting the 80s shred market somehow ended up on stage at the Grammy awards in 2026.
It’s not like it’s an expensive guitar either – while there aren’t a lot of them still in circulation, you can currently find various examples for sale in other colours in various states of disrepair for sub-$500. It’s hard to fully tell what specific RGX model it is from the performance, but the pickup and knob configuration would imply it’s a RGX 612S.
Primarily made in Taiwan in the mid-to-late 80s – though some models for the Japanese market were made in Japan – the RGX 612S has everything you’d expect a pre-grunge SuperStrat to offer. That meant a HSS configuration (with coil split bridge bucker), bulky Yamaha RM-Pro locking tremolo system, basswood body with maple neck and rosewood board, and of course that eye-catching violet finish.
Bieber has been pictured playing guitars many times of course – but it’s always previously been fairly unremarkable fare from Fender, Martin or Gibson. The RGX 612S is the sort of leftfield curio that implies that he’s at least more of a considered guitar buyer than we might have otherwise expected. Or maybe he just likes the colour, who can say.
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
More evidence for Bieber’s guitar interest can also be found on the floor for the performance. In what is probably overkill for a performance where he loops a single 20-second guitar part, he’s got the big boy Boss RC-600 Loop Station – with its ability to playback six simultaneous stereo phrase tracks – holding things down. And as if that wasn’t enough, he’s got it all running into a first-generation Neural DSP Quad Cortex – did you not have time to upgrade to the QC Mini before the show, Justin?!
While playing a random and rare Yamaha guitar from the 80s by no means confirms Bieber as a Guitar Guy of course – but it certainly makes us wonder about it a lot more than we did before the performance. The colour is perhaps the most notable part of it – violet-finished RGX guitars from this era don’t appear very often, and there aren’t currently any for sale on Reverb. We did notice that one sold 10 years ago though that was in SSS configuration – has Bieber been keeping it in the stash all that time and routed it out for a full-sized humbucker?! We just don’t know.
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Watch: Slash, Duff McKagan, Andrew Watt, Chad Smith and Post Malone lead fiery Ozzy Osbourne tribute at the Grammys
The 68th Grammy Awards briefly turned into a metal arena last night, as an all-star lineup paid tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne with a thunderous performance of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs.
Taking the stage at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, Slash, Andrew Watt, Duff McKagan, Chad Smith and Post Malone joined forces for the Paranoid classic, complete with towering walls of pyro and an audience that included Osbourne’s wife Sharon and their children.
Guitar fans were treated to a particularly memorable moment during the solo section, with Slash and Watt trading licks side by side and Malong joining in to help Watt with a burst of finger tapping.
The chemistry onstage felt fitting, given that every musician involved had previously worked with Osbourne in some capacity. Malone famously duetted with the Sabbath frontman on Take What You Want and It’s a Raid; Watt served as executive producer on Ozzy’s final two albums – Ordinary Man (2020) and Patient Number 9 (2022) – while Slash featured him on 2010’s Crucify the Dead. McKagan and Smith also contributed to Osbourne’s later solo work.
As the band powered through the song’s closing section, screens behind them displayed images honouring other recently lost figures from the rock world, including ex-Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley, Mick Ralphs, Anthony Jackson and producer Roy Thomas Baker.
WAR PIGS
A tribute to Ozzy Osbourne – Slash, Duff McKagan, Chad Smith, Andrew Watt and Post Malone#GRAMMYSpic.twitter.com/d8ey3tWfzv
— Jen
(@TheGNRGiirl) February 2, 2026
Elsewhere in the ceremony, Osbourne’s legacy surfaced again when Yungblud picked up the Grammy for Best Rock Performance. He shared the award with Nuno Bettencourt, Frank Bello and Adam Wakeman for their rendition of Sabbath’s Changes, recorded at last year’s epic Back to the Beginning farewell concert.
Yungblud, who had formed a close bond with Osbourne in recent years, embraced Sharon Osbourne onstage before delivering an emotional speech.
“To grow up loving an idol that helps you figure out your identity, not only as a musician but also as a man, is something that I’m truly grateful for,” he said. “But then to get to know them and form a relationship with them, honour them at their final show and receive this because of it, is something that I and I think we’re all finding so strange to comprehend. We fucking love you, Ozzy!”
Osbourne died in July 2025 at the age of 76, just weeks after his final onstage appearance at Back to the Beginning.
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Strymon Olivera review – a notoriously lo-fi delay effect gets the hi-fi treatment
$259/£259, strymon.net
The beauty of modern digital effects is that you can recreate the sounds of arcane vintage devices without worrying about operating noise, reliability issues… or having to understand how those kooky old things actually work.
Take the Strymon Olivera: the online manual even includes an illustrated guide to the inner workings of a real oil-can echo, and I’ve studied it closely, but I still can’t fully get my head around what’s going on in there. What I do know is that, in the hands of Strymon’s engineers, a delay can be grubby and strange without being a pain to live with. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Image: Press
Strymon Olivera – what is it?
This much is clear enough: an oil-can echo is so called because it uses a spinning disc inside a metal can as its medium, lubricated by oil; the record/playback heads, meanwhile, are chunks of conductive rubber. Doesn’t sound like the last word in audio fidelity, does it? But, as with tape delay, it’s the imperfections that make it so appealing – and ripe for digital emulation.
Strymon’s effort follows the compact format of its Brig and EC-1 delays, with the same five knobs and three-way mode switch. In this case the switch is for selecting either or both of the playback heads, and the knobs include modulation rate and intensity. The added modern features include stereo output, MIDI and expression pedal control, plus a range of secondary functions – notably adjustable tone on the repeats, true or buffered bypass, and analogue or digital dry-through.
Incidentally, ‘oil-can’ is being used as a compound modifier here so I’m hyphenating it, if you don’t mind. We don’t have to abandon the basics of grammar just because Strymon has, do we?
Image: Press
Strymon Olivera – what does it sound like?
It’s well made, it’s easy to use and it isn’t unduly hissy – in other words, it’s a Strymon. The effect itself, however, will make you swear you’ve plugged into something cobbled together out of old dishwasher parts in a strange-smelling garage.
The ‘lo-fi’ aspect of this delay is comprised of three separate elements: tonal filtering, overlapping echoes, and a nice bit of wobble. So first of all, while the dry signal stays crisp, the repeats are decidedly dark. You can brighten them up to an extent, but Strymon has elected to stay within the bounds of authenticity here rather than really opening things up.
Some overlapping occurs even with only one playback head engaged, the effect beginning to trip over itself a little after the first couple of repeats. It’s rather nice, and surely won’t clutter up your sound because the attack is so soft. Engaging both long and short playback heads together adds more rhythmic complexity, with the repeats still starting out fairly clean and spaced out but then gradually dissolving into a reverby mush.
The modulation is a gentle pitch vibrato, which sounds more like chorus once it’s blended with the dry signal. This adds a tasty bit of depth to the sound, especially if you’re running the Olivera in a stereo setup using a TRS cable. The stereo picture isn’t hugely expansive, though, and there’s no ping-pong option for splitting the two heads left and right.
There is, however, an option for controlling as many knobs as you want with an expression pedal. The manual includes detailed instructions for setting this up – but I just plugged my Moog EP-3 straight in, maxed out the ‘regen’ knob with my toe down and let the saturated self-oscillating chaos begin. It’s a riot… but, this being Strymon, a thoroughly disciplined riot.
Image: Press
Strymon Olivera – should I buy it?
Let’s take a step back: is this effect different enough from tape delay that you need to own both? I’d say probably not, but it’s certainly a viable alternative with a character of its own. Beyond that question, what you are getting with the Olivera – impeccable audio quality aside – is a bunch of potentially handy added features that cheaper oil-can emulators can’t offer. So if you like playing in stereo, or creating ferociously snowballing squawks and screeches with an expression pedal, it could be a canny purchase.
Image: Press
Strymon Olivera alternatives
More affordable options than the Olivera include the Catalinbread Adineko ($209.99/£199.99) and JHS 3 Series Oil Can Delay ($99/£99); a more expensive one, with some soundscapey skills thrown in, is the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Black Fountain Stereo ($329/£299).
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Noah Kahan found global acclaim with his Stick Season album – and he’s just announced its followup
Singer-songwriter Noah Kahan has announced his highly anticipated fourth album The Great Divide, kicking things off with its first single and title track, out now.
Arriving 24 April via Island/Mercury Records, The Great Divide finds Kahan reflecting on his rapid-but-deserved rise to global acclaim in recent years, which was supercharged by his 4x Platinum 2022 album Stick Season. That album’s title track was a breakout single which earned him numerous Grammy nominations, billions of streams, and even sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden and Boston’s Fenway Park.
Produced by Kahan’s Stick Season collaborator Gabe Simon and Grammy-winning producer Aaron Dessner, The Great Divide was recorded at a secluded farm outside Nashville, Gold Pacific Studio in Nashville and Dessner’s famed New York studio, Long Pond.
“The last five years have been the single most challenging, complicatedly beautiful, and life-altering of my career,” Kahan explains.
“I was somewhere I understood, and suddenly I was somewhere completely foreign. I was living in the opportunity I always wanted but felt disoriented and unsure of whether I deserved it.
“Writing for this album was a balancing act of trying to go back in time and move forward in the same moment. Songwriting has always been the way I reflect on my life, and I hope these songs show you a glimpse of what this journey has looked like.”
You can listen to the album’s lead single and title track below. A music video will be premiering during Mastercard’s 2026 commercial break at the Grammy Awards, airing this Sunday, 1 February on CBS.
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Brian May says Queen won’t tour the US again: “It’s not what it was. Everyone is thinking twice about going there at the moment”
Queen wrapped their last US tour back in 2023, but guitarist Brian May says they have no plans to head stateside again any time soon on account of it being too “dangerous” to do so.
In a new interview with the Daily Mail, May explains the band’s decision not to tour America again for the foreseeable future.
“America is a dangerous place at the moment, so you have to take that into account,” May says. “It’s very sad because I feel like Queen grew up in America and we love it, but it’s not what it was.”
Queen have toured extensively in America throughout their career, performing hundreds of times in the mid-to-late-‘70s and early-80s, and with singer Adam Lambert since 2014.
But, Brian May adds: “Everyone is thinking twice about going there at the moment.”
May’s comments come amid heightened tensions in the US as thousands protest against ICE – United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement – following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE agents.
Many musicians have spoken out against ICE and Donald Trump in recent weeks, including Green Day, Neil Young, Moby, Duran Duran, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter and Bruce Springsteen, the latter of whom recently released a new single, Streets of Minneapolis, in protest against ICE and Trump.
Elsewhere, Brian May recently commented on the state of things, saying if people spent more time being creative, the world would be a better place.
“I feel despondent about the world of humans,” he said. “It keeps me awake at night. The cruelty, the ignorance, the lies, the rewriting of history. I think an understanding and love of art and music make it impossible to be the kind of person who wants to go out and be cruel to others.
“There’s so much suffering in the world, why would we want to add to it? We’ve lost the ability to discuss things and respect other people’s point of view, we have a horrendous polarisation. If people spent more time looking at the stars and making music, none of this would be possible.”
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Pat Metheny doesn’t believe there’s much difference between rock, pop and jazz: “It all seemed more about the dress code than the music”
There’s a certain preoccupation with the idea of genres; we all love to signify our adherence to rock music, jazz, pop, EDM or whatever else floats our boat. But should we care as much as we do about placing our favourite music into well-defined categories?
In an interview in the latest issue of Uncut magazine, Jazz ace Pat Metheny suggests people place too much emphasis on the idea of musical genres.
“It’s always been kind of mysterious to me,” he says. “What is rock? What is pop? What is jazz?
“If I think of the spectrum of all the sounds that human beings could possible make, it is interesting to me how it’s so tightly clustered around a very tiny part of that spectrum that has to do with somebody playing the root on one, somebody smacking the crap out of two, maybe something on three, and then somebody smacking that crap out of four. It all seemed more about the dress code than the music… And I don’t get that, man. I’ve never gotten that.”
Let’s be honest, genres aren’t going anywhere. Humans are tribal; it’s in our nature to seek out and form groups with those with similar interests to us. Not to mention it’s hella fun to be at a rock show surrounded by thousands of fellow heavy music lovers. But at a certain point, does being too boxed in with the genres we like prevent us from being open to new music which may move us? Something to think about…
Elsewhere in the interview, Metheny reflects on how it took him “a couple years” to get into Jimi Hendrix.
“I did hear Are You Experienced and I was like, ‘Well, this cat, at least he can really play the blues.’
“I liked it, but I was just in a different place at that time. So it took me a couple years, and then I got it. I more than got it. Everything on those first two records, it’s just the greatest. The guy was incredible. In some ways, his thing was transcendent of guitar, even.
“It’s a little like Trane [John Coltrane] for me: the guy was probably the greatest saxophone player ever, but that’s about the fourth thing you would talk about with him. That’s not really what it’s about, and I think it’s the same way with Hendrix.”
You can view a full list of Pat Metheny’s upcoming live dates via his official website.
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“I brought my guitar, there was Rick, an engineer and the guys from Run DMC. One was late because they towed his rental car!”: Joe Perry on the recording of Walk This Way
Joe Perry has opened up about the now-legendary collaboration between Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C. that turned Walk This Way into one of the most important crossover hits in rock history.
Speaking in a new interview with Guitar World, Perry shares how the unlikely team-up came together at a pivotal moment for both artists. By the mid-’80s, Aerosmith’s career had stalled, while Run-D.M.C. were rising stars in hip-hop. With some convincing from producer Rick Rubin, the two camps ended up in the studio together.
“It was a lot of fun and definitely a high point of our career,” Perry says of the 1986 remake, which not only reignited Aerosmith’s commercial fortunes but also helped introduced rap to a wider audience.
At the time, the guitarist was already getting an education in hip-hop at home: “My son, who was 11 or 12, was blasting it in his room. I dug the groove. It was really basic music; it’s all about rhythm and guys standing on a street corner with a boombox,” says Perry.
So when Rubin proposed linking up with Run-D.M.C., Aerosmith were game.
“Aerosmith was up for anything. That’s why our music goes from hard rock to almost heavy metal to blues to ballads. We thought, ‘Let’s try it!’”
The recording session itself, however, started off a little more chaotic than one would expect.
“We were, I think, in North Carolina,” Perry recalls. “They sent us plane tickets, and me and Steven [Tyler] went to Queens. I brought my guitar, and there was Rick, an engineer and the guys from Run-D.M.C., and one was late because they had towed his rental car. [Laughs] He was flipping out because he didn’t know what he was gonna do about it, but Rick kept saying, ‘Listen, you’ve got Aerosmith here. Focus. We’ll take care of the car later. Don’t worry about it.’ After that, everybody settled down.”
From there, the track quickly took shape: “We got the drum beat down, which was the common ground for the song – from our version and theirs. I think Rick said, ‘You’re using the drums to rap to anyway; you might as well take it all the way. Let’s try it.”
The guitarist also reveals how he ended up playing bass on the track, thanks to a surprise assist from some future hip-hop royalty.
“There were these three kids in the studio sitting on the couch… I didn’t know who they were, but they were cool guys and a little younger. We were listening to the mixdown, and Rick said, ‘I think we need to put a bass on it.’ We looked around the studio, and there were no basses, but one of the kids said, ‘My apartment ain’t too far, I got a bass there.’”
Those “kids” turned out to be the Beastie Boys: “He went to his apartment and was back in 15 minutes with a P-Bass or a Jazz. Anyway, I played the bass,” says Perry.
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“He took offense to that”: Dave Mustaine on why he and James Hetfield don’t talk anymore
Even decades later, the relationship between Dave Mustaine and former bandmate James Hetfield remains… complicated.
In a new interview, the former Metallica guitarist shares how a long-simmering dispute over songwriting credits on some of the band’s earliest material became a lasting “bone of contention” – and ultimately the reason he no longer speaks to Hetfield.
While Metallica has spent the last few years reissuing just about everything from Kill ’Em All through Load, one crucial piece of their history has mostly been left behind: the band’s first demo, No Life ’Til Leather. Recorded in 1982 by Hetfield, Mustaine, Ron McGovney, and Lars Ulrich, the tape has become the stuff of legend among fans – yet it’s only ever seen a small Record Store Day re-release in 2015, limited to just 10,000 copies.
Speaking to Classic Rock, Mustaine says the songwriting credits tied to the demo were never properly sorted out.
“I wrote all the music on Phantom Lord, all the music on Metal Militia, all the music on Jump In The Fire and The Mechanix,” he says. “And I wrote the lyrics for Jump In The Fire and The Mechanix. So do the math: if I wrote the music and James wrote the lyrics, then the credit is 50 per cent me, and 50 per cent James.”
“Well, that’s not what went down when I left. James and Lars figured out that they were going to give Lars some percentage of the songs he didn’t write anything on, and that happened on all four songs.”
The disagreement over credits became a “bone of contention” that affected Mustaine’s relationship with the band moving forward: “It just wasn’t fair. You guys got more money than God, why do you have to take my money?” says Mustaine.
And years later, when Metallica approached him about reissuing the demo, the conversation went south just as quickly.
“So James called me up, ‘Hey, man, we want to release this No Life ‘Til Leather thing, and we want to get all this publishing stuff straight, and, you know, we really don’t remember what went down,’” Mustaine recalls. “I said, ‘Well, that’s good, because I do. I remember what went down, and I can help with that.’”
“And then the conversation took a turn,” he continues. “James goes, ‘Well, that’s not the way that we remember it.’ And I went, ‘Well, James, honestly, there’s three ways to look at this: there’s your way, my way, and the truth, which is some combination of the two.’”
That remark, Mustaine says, shut down the discussion entirely: “That was the end of the conversation. He took offense to that, and we hung up, and I don’t remember speaking to him since then.”
Meanwhile, Mustaine and Megadeth are in the midst of what they’ve announced as the band’s final chapter. Following the release of their self-titled studio album last week, the group is set to embark on an extensive farewell tour running through 2026 and beyond.
View the full list of dates on the Megadeth website.
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“You never say never”: Zakk Wylde says new music with Pantera’s tribute lineup is possible
Could fans ever hear new music from Panetera’s touring tribute lineup? Possibly – but don’t expect it to arrive under the Pantera name, says Zakk Wylde.
The guitarist – who shares the stage with classic Pantera members Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown, alongside Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante – speaks in a new interview with Music Radar, where he addresses a question fans have wondered about since the lineup first hit the road 2022.
“Yeah, you never know,” says Wylde. “We could do something as like The Traveling Wilburys or something! [Laughs] Nah, you know what I mean, call it something different.”
Originally formed to honour the legacy of Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul, the tribute lineup has since taken in arena tours, major festivals and high-profile support slots with Metallica. With all four players juggling multiple bands and projects, though, finding time to create something in the studio together wouldn’t be easy.
“Well, I mean, Phil’s busy right now. He’s doing a Down thing, and then he has En Minor,” Wylde explains. “I think he’s doing a Scour thing, too. So Phil’s doing that. I think Rex is still writing, and he’s doing another Rex Brown record, and then, obviously, Charlie has Anthrax, so he’s been doing that, and then, obviously, we got the new Black Label [album], so I don’t know.”
Still, the door isn’t closed.
“I don’t know. But you never say never,” he continues. “Because it’s just like, we could all [be sitting there] one day, Philip might just call and go, ‘Guys, why don’t we get together, and we’ll do something, all of us – and we’ll get two other of our buddies in here, and then we’ll do a band.’ You know what I mean? So yeah, you never know.”
And if that hypothetical project ever did take shape, don’t assume it would stick to the current four-piece setup. Wylde imagines something looser – think rock supergroup as opposed to a traditional band.
“Like the Eagles or whatever!” he says. “They have six guys in a band or something like that, and everybody’s kind of singing or whatever, you know?”
In the meantime, Black Label Society’s US tour kicks off on 27 February in San Antonio, Texas, while Pantera’s next show is set for 24 May as part of a four-date European run supporting Metallica.
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Gretsch Professional Series Falcon Center Block LTD review: “it has the looks, the attitude and the sound that you’ve been dreaming of”
$3,789/£3,699, gretschguitars.com
The big-bodied outline of a single-cut Gretsch Falcon is one of the most recognisable guitar shapes out there. But even the kindest observer will admit that historic iterations of the double-cut Falcon have lacked the elegance of the single-cut – or indeed its double-cut rivals from other brands.
In recent years, however, the DC Falcon has enjoyed something of a resurgence – perhaps in part due to the benediction of the beatified Johnny Thunders, but also the success of the signature models of Guns N’ Roses man Richard Fortus. I can hand on heart say that those Fortus guitars are some of the best Gretsch guitars I’ve played in recent years.
Now then, fans of the form can enjoy a new “refined” take on the concept – and it all looks very promising indeed.
Image: Adam Gasson
Gretsch Professional Series Falcon Center Block LTD – what is it?
Professional Series guitars represent the top end of the Gretsch production instruments – they’re hand-crafted in Japan, and are the very best guitars the brand makes outside of the very limited number of USA instruments made by the Gretsch end of the Fender Custom Shop in Corona, California.
The “Center Block” bit of the model designation refers to the fact that while traditional Falcons were big, unrestrained hollowbody instruments, this is one of the semi-hollow designs that the company has been producing since 2013 in a concession to the demands of actual playing musicians.
The body shape here is, as Gretsch tells it, a “refined” version of the classic Gretsch DC design, and in practice this is a sleek instrument with tight curves. Seen in silhouette, the all-maple body is almost identical to a Gibson ES-355. This won’t be a coincidence.
There are other similarities here too; the most important being the 24.6” scale length – unusual for a Gretsch Falcon, which usually boasts a full fat 25.5”. This is halfway to a Fender Jaguar and a touch shorter than the Gibson standard. Whatever next?
It’s a limited edition beast, however, so if you’re keen to make friends with this particular bird of prey, you’ll have to be quick sharp about it.
Image: Adam Gasson
Gretsch Professional Series Falcon Center Block LTD – build quality and playability
Decanting the Falcon from its posh leather hard case, and a sigh of satisfaction is unavoidable. Let’s face it – the aesthetics of a Gretsch guitar are a large part of the story and will doubtless help prospective buyers decide if they want it, need it or can’t live without it.
This is a very grown-up guitar. Much like a midnight blue tuxedo looks better under lights than a black fabric variant, the Midnight Sapphire metallic finish, sparkly gold flake bindings and gold hardware are a definite statement of intent. It’s pretty fucking rock and roll to be honest.
That same gold hardware contains some very Gretsch flourishes. We have the bejewelled gold arrow knobs typical of a Falcon – in this case with a master volume on the treble side ear which has a treble bleed circuit, an individual volume knob for each pickup and a master no-load tone control with “Squeezebox” capacitor.
Premium appointments should be expected with a Professional Series guitar, and it doesn’t disappoint here.
For starters, we have a pair of bona fide TV Jones Filter’Trons bringing the noise – a Classic at the neck and a Classic plus at the bridge – this by itself is a reliable indication of an incoming good time.
Providing the wobble, we have the reassuring presence of a Bigsby B7, and praise be: it’s a string-through version, and therefore much less of a hassle to restring. The Adjusto-Matic bridge is pinned in place and while it lacks vibrato-friendly niceties such as roller saddles, Gretsch has provided stability with a set of locking Grover Imperial tuners.
Further professional accoutrements can be found in the shape of a set of gold strap locks tucked in the case pocket, and you even get Luminlay glow-in-the-dark position markers – which give you a much better chance of seeing what is going on under stage lights than a Gretsch Falcon usually affords the player.
Image: Adam Gasson
Gretsch Professional Series Falcon Center Block LTD – sounds
As a Gretsch enthusiast of many years, I have experienced the agony and the ecstasy of a Falcon on stage and in the studio. It has often been said – especially of vintage models – that if a Gretsch is the most reliable guitar in your arsenal then you need all the luck you can get. That’s why so many come with a horseshoe inlaid on the headstock.
Yes, they have their foibles, and as such I was pretty confident I would know what to expect with this guitar, but my expectations are blown out of the water with the first open chords.
There is magic to be found in a guitar built around a shorter scale length – the trebles are sweet, woody and expressive and if you get it right there should be no compromise in bass content or articulation. Gretsch has got this very right indeed.
The neck Filter’Tron is velvet smooth, complex and responsive. It makes even the simplest shell chords sound expensive and delicious. Add a touch of harmonic tremolo pedal, a gentle dip of the Bigsby and then bask in throbbingly joyful economy of style.
The middle position is a blender’s dream, which allows a little of the bite of the bridge unit to come through – hinting at delights to come. Okay, there’s only one tone control for both pickups, but the guitar is responsive enough to hand position and playing dynamics that this really doesn’t feel like a compromise.
The bridge pickup on its own is probably where these guitars will spend the majority of their time. From Neil Young-style rhythmic grumbling to Lana Del Rey sex riffs, this is an immediately nourishing sound – evocative and uniquely Gretsch.
But let’s face it, double-cut aficionados treading the path of Thunders, Fortus and Duffy will be just as intrigued to see how this Falcon handles the rough stuff. Backhanding it with a Crowther Hot Cake, I am immediately rewarded with a bellicose roar that would fit nicely in any genre that demands a more hooligan approach.
The scale length and rolled fretboard edges make for a grippy playing experience that encourages bends and double stops – the improved access to the higher end of the neck is also appreciable.
The humble chunk of maple inside the body is responsible for a huge amount of this guitar’s tonal identity. While there is ample “air” in the voice, the instrument remains immune to unwanted feedback at all but the highest volumes.
Wanted, longed-for, even cherished harmonic feedback however, is here in spades and there are few things more joyful than feeling that controllable surge under the fingertips – a touch of vibrato is all it takes to make the beast spiral off into a howl. Yum.
Image: Adam Gasson
Gretsch Professional Series Falcon Center Block LTD – should I buy one?
If you’re training your sights on spending the thick end of four grand on a semi-acoustic electric guitar, you expect something special to come of it. Thankfully, Gretsch knows exactly what those sorts of players require and have perfectly calibrated this bird accordingly.
It’s also an impressively versatile and responsive instrument, no matter what you throw at – within reason. Okay, it’s rubbish for Malmsteen covers but you knew that already. In fact, that’s probably a relief.
This is indeed a special instrument – it has the looks, the attitude and the sound that you’ve been dreaming of. The only question is, have you got the minerals?
Image: Adam Gasson
Gretsch Professional Series Falcon Center Block LTD – alternatives
You’re dealing with some true heavyweights at this price point, and you won’t go far wrong with any of the options at this point, really. I was very impressed with the Heritage Custom Shop Core Collection H-555 ($4799) I reviewed last year. If you really want to give it the beans, price-wise, the Collings L-235 LC ($6,925) is a truly superlative take on the semi-hollow concept. Finally, if money really is no object, a Gibson Custom Murphy Lab 1964 ES-335 Reissue ($8,099) is hard to beat.
The post Gretsch Professional Series Falcon Center Block LTD review: “it has the looks, the attitude and the sound that you’ve been dreaming of” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“Maybe he felt my part was getting bigger than a band member should be”: Jake E. Lee on contract negotiations for Ozzy’s The Ultimate Sin
![[L-R] Ozzy Osbourne and Jake E. Lee](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Jake-E-Lee-Ozzy-new-hero@2000x1500.jpg)
Six-string sidekick on landmark albums Bark at the Moon (1983) and The Ultimate Sin (1986), Jake E. Lee is an integral part of the Ozzy Obsourne story.
When hired by Ozzy in 1982 at the fledgling age of 25, he had limited experience, and as he explains in a new interview with Guitar World, his limited songwriting and publishing rights on Bark at the Moon led to him pursuing a more robust contract prior to the recording of The Ultimate Sin.
“They realised they got away with something on Bark at the Moon,” Lee explains. “They knew it was something that would never happen again.”
When it came time to discuss Ozzy’s Bark at the Moon followup, Lee says he was adamant on signing a contract before going any further.
“I told him, ‘I’m not doing anything until I get a contract,’ and so, that came pretty quickly…’” he says.
“It was something that lingered over the Bark at the Moon sessions. When those were done, I became unhappy, so with The Ultimate Sin, before I gave him my demos, I said, ‘I want a contract that says exactly what I’m gonna get out of this record. I need a songwriting credit. I want the publishing I deserve.”
Lee had a vision for The Ultimate Sin which he clashed with producer Ron Nevison over, and that vision ultimately shaped the sound of the record.
“I wanted to hear the guitar like an orchestra. Kind of like having violins on top, cellos on bottom and then having moving and melodic parts. It was about more than basic chords and one guitar sound. That wasn’t my vision…”
He goes on: “I remember we had a big band dinner, and Ozzy raised his glass and said, ‘This is a toast to Jake E. Lee, who practically produced this record and was a very important part of making it.’ Maybe he felt like my part was getting bigger than a band member should be.
“I don’t know; a lot of things came with that. We were writing for the next record; I was pushing boundaries and getting rejected. I was bored with the restrictions. I’m sure Ozzy didn’t like that. But as far as The Ultimate Sin, I stand by it.”
Jake E. Lee ended up being dismissed by Ozzy’s wife Sharon Osbourne in 1987, and was subsequently replaced by Zakk Wylde.
The post “Maybe he felt my part was getting bigger than a band member should be”: Jake E. Lee on contract negotiations for Ozzy’s The Ultimate Sin appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.