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With his mastery of the fretboard and unrivalled command of the pentatonic scale, you’d probably expect blues ace Jared James Nichols to have a similar skill in programming guitar gear. But there’s one area he readily admits he hasn’t been able to grasp yet: delay pedals.

In an interview in the latest issue of Guitarist magazine, Nichols explains his relationship with delay pedals – and pedals in general – and says he was inspired by the relatively simplistic setups of his guitar heroes as a young guitarist.

• READ MORE: “A Line 6 Spider III got me where I am today!”: Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Kiki Wong thinks it’s more important to have an expensive guitar than a pricey amp

“When I was younger, I’d watch videos of Stevie Ray Vaughan and [Jimi] Hendrix, any of the old blues guys, and I could see they had basic setups,” he recalls. “I quickly realised the difference was in how they were playing. I was inspired to learn all those little nuances through touch.”

Nichols, like all guitarists at some point, dabbled with pedals, but preferred leaning on the nuances of his playing to define his sound.

“I dipped my toes into pedal land, but I never went far because I’d feel like the pedal was controlling me, rather than the other way round,” he goes on. “To this day, I cannot use a delay pedal. I just can’t set them right. I don’t like it when the emphasis shifts from the notes I play to the gear I’m using.”

For many guitarists, having more gear on hand gives them more options to fine-tune their perfect tone. But for Jared James Nichols, “needing less gear sets me free”. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t dabbled in more complicated pedalboard setups in the past…

“When I first started touring, I’d build pedalboards with a wah, tuner, fuzz and various drives on there,” he says. “Things would go wrong, probably down to my own stupidity. So that pedalboard got smaller and smaller. 

“By the end of the tour, it would be just a Tube Screamer into the amp because I knew I could play a whole set without any problems. I didn’t need all the extra crap. Just give me a single-P-90 guitar and a Tube Screamer and I’m ready to play the Royal Albert Hall. It’s like sink or swim.

“I’ve started backing off the dirt because you get extra clarity with more volume and less drive. Some players don’t realise that – they stack a bunch of pedals, which is cool and I’ve done that myself, occasionally. But sometimes a good guitar and amp pushed to the limits will get you the fattest tones.”

The post “I just can’t set them right”: Jared James Nichols admits he doesn’t know how to use delay pedals appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Rock ‘n’ roll mythology tends to glamorise chaos – the impulsive jams, late nights, and lightning-in-a-bottle moments. But Tom Morello argues that the secret ingredient behind any lasting rock star legacy is something far less romantic: being relentlessly dependable.

It’s a belief only reinforced by his recent work with Måneskin’s Thomas Raggi on the guitarist’s new solo album Masquerade. Sitting down with Kerrang! to discuss their first fully-fledged collaborative project, Morello reflects on the quality he believes every successful rock musician needs: professionalism.

• READ MORE: “The guitar tones alone were worth the price of admission!”: Jon Bon Jovi claims Oasis’s tour reignited the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll

“Thomas is just a pro,” says the Rage Against The Machine guitarist, who’s also the producer of Masquerade. “I’ve been around a lot of bands in my life, and Thomas is a young man who is tremendously professional. He goes out there and he nails those takes.”

For all its mythology, Morello argues, rock ‘n’ roll still requires showing up and delivering when it counts.

“There’s an element to rock ‘n’ roll that should be wild and free and crazy, but eventually you’ve got to go to the studio and record your song,” he says with a laugh. “There’s creativity to happen, and there’s a job to get done, and Thomas was so great and dependable and reliable in being able in the takes. He’s able to harness his inspiration through the talent in his fingers in a way that made it a real pleasure.”

That balance became the heartbeat of Masquerade. Though released under Raggi’s own name, the album is far from a solitary effort and more a supercharged gathering of rock’s extended family.

The month-long sessions in Los Angeles saw a revolving door of legends: Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith and Guns N’ Roses’ Matt Sorum dropped in to track drums, Hama Okamoto handled bass duties, while vocal contributions came from Kasabian’s Serge Pizzorno, Jet’s Nic Chester, The Struts’ Luke Spiller, Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, The Prodigy’s Maxim and alt-pop standout UPSAHL. Morello himself picks up the six-string too, trading riffs with Raggi across the eight-track set.

As Tom explains, the project also serves as a chance to help usher the next generation of guitar fans into the fold.

“You know that the younger audience that Måneskin has have already been exposed to the glory, the power, the sexiness, the appeal of rock ‘n’ roll,” he says. “This project takes that even one step further in helping Thomas to forge a record that honours his influences and brings new, exciting rock into 2025 and beyond.”

“It’s an opportunity,” he continues, “to be a missionary for rock ‘n’ roll.”

Masquerade is due for release on 5 December.

The post “There’s creativity to happen, and there’s a job to get done”: Tom Morello says you have to be “professional” to be a successful rock star appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Kiki Wong is living proof that you don’t need boutique gear to make a big impact online – or to land the gig of a lifetime. In fact, she says her entire career was built on a humble Line 6 practice amp and a belief that the guitar itself matters far more than whatever you’re plugging into.

• READ MORE: The best affordable guitar amplifiers: perfect practice amps and gig-ready options

Appearing in the new issue of Guitarist, Wong – who landed a spot in the Pumpkins after a 2024 open call that drew over 10,000 applicants – is presented with the classic gear dilemma: if forced to choose, would she rather have a great guitar and a cheap amp, or a cheap guitar and a top-tier amp? Her answer is immediate.

“I am 1,000 per cent onboard with a great guitar and a cheap amp,” she says. “Now, this obviously applies to me being home and playing. I’ve been playing out of a Line 6 Spider III 15-watt amp that I purchased in 2007. I’ve made about half of my TikTok videos with that amp, which is essentially where it got me today.”

“People talk a lot of poo about my tone,” she adds. “But, honestly, it’s what I love and have loved since I was a kid. Now, on tour, it’s definitely a different story – you’ve gotta have all cylinders running. But, overall, I love a great guitar.”

When it comes to pickups, Wong’s stance is equally definitive. Asked whether she’d choose humbuckers or single coils for the rest of her career, she says, “1,000 per cent humbuckers. Again, it goes off of how much I like the dirty, grungy metal tone. You really can’t achieve it without those humbies.”

It’s a belief that places her firmly on one side of one of the guitar world’s oldest debates: does great tone come from the instrument itself, or from the amplifier behind it? Covet frontwoman Yvette Young, meanwhile, represents the opposite camp, arguing that a great amp is the true foundation of great tone.

Speaking to Guitarist, Young insisted that even an expensive guitar can sound lacklustre through a poor amplifier: “It’s like ruining a really nice audio file with… I don’t know… something that’s going to degrade it a lot,” she said. “There’s no point, right? I’d rather go for the expensive amp.”

The post “A Line 6 Spider III got me where I am today!”: Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Kiki Wong thinks it’s more important to have an expensive guitar than a pricey amp appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

As he launched into an improvised mid-show guitar solo during a recent sold-out performance at the Georgia Theatre in Athens, GA, Ty Myers confidently exclaimed, “Let me play this guitar!”

It was reminiscent of Prince’s iconic declaration from his legendary 2007 Super Bowl performance. Later, Ty will admit it was not an intentional homage, “but maybe it should have been,” he beams.

And this is why the young upstart from Dripping Springs, Texas is such an interesting and exciting young artist. On the one hand he’s a rapidly rising young songwriter with nearly five million listeners monthly on Spotify and very nearly 17 million likes on TikTok. But he’s also a guitar obsessive who holds up Stevie Ray Vaughan and John Mayer as his north stars – so much so that the Strat-toting teen even wears a jade necklace as a nod to SRV.

And in an era where social media often supplants the old-fashioned business of learning your craft in a live environment, Myers is also refreshingly committed to the grind. By year’s end, he will have played just over 100 shows in support of his debut album The Select, with the bulk of his 2026 already mapped out.

It’s quite some commitment for a kid who only turned 18 in July – but he’s no rookie. This writer first encountered Myers opening for country heavyweight Dylan Gossett when he was just 16 years old. And it should be no surprise he understands what it takes to make it in the business – his father Michael is a well-known musician in his native Texas, while his uncle Dean Sams is a member of the platinum-selling country outlet Lonestar, and his great uncle Ronnie Huckaby an integral member of George Strait’s ensemble.

“There’s a sense of culture, of importance, about the guitar player. I just care a lot about it.”

The Odyssey

It was only natural then, that Myers would find his way into the family business, but his guitar odyssey actually started out courtesy of another Texan guitar great. The fire that still burns bright for Stevie Ray began when an elementary-aged Myers encountered the legendary film Live at the El Mocambo.

“I can visualize it,” he says. “It was a smoky, small bar. Stevie’s sitting on a stool, smoking a cigarette, wearing a hat that’s casting a shadow half over his face, and starts playing the most complex, beautiful, melodic thing on the guitar. I was like, ‘This is it!’ It’s like he was hovering… sucking the power from the nicotine of that cigarette, and it came out in his fingers.”

It was only natural then that Myers chose a pair of Strats as his go-to electrics, plus a Gibson SJ-200 and a Gallagher Ragtime Special to handle acoustic stuff. His favourite Strat is a Custom Shop relic built by revered Master Builder Dennis Galuszka. It was a guitar that Myers first encountered at Nashville’s renowned Carter Vintage store – and he knew instantly it had to be his.

“I looked down this long aisle, and on this little stage, there’s a guitar sitting on a stand, and it was like doves flew out of it,” Myers recalls with a glimmer in his eye. “I didn’t even play it, I just knew I was going to get it.”

The Guitar Sceptic

Ty is selective about the guitars he plays, but even once an instrument earns his affection, he still finds himself constantly critiquing whether it’s doing the job for him.

“The first uptake will hit you or it won’t,” he explains. “Once I find the one I want, I’ll play it for a while and try to find imperfections. I’m kind of a sceptic. If you can criticise the guitar enough and still like it, it’s a good guitar.”

That doesn’t mean he’s a gear snob, however – despite owning a variety of high-end guitars, another of his favourites is a humble Squier that was passed down from a family member that he kept tinkering with until he managed to unlock the guitar’s magic.

“When someone compliments my guitar playing, I’ll never be happier.”

“It’s a Squier, it’s from a storage unit!” he exclaims with as much exasperated judgement as he can muster. “I picked it up six months ago… and I debated bringing it out on the road to beat it up a little. I almost tried to ‘relic’ it myself, but I didn’t.”

This approach to self-critique is equally applied to his own playing and performances – it’s something that’s helped Myers flourish and thrive at such a young age.

“That’s a rut a lot of guitar players get into,” he continues. “I critique my playing the same way I critique a guitar. It has caused me to get better. It’s because there’s a sense of culture, of importance, about the guitar player. I just care a lot about it. When someone compliments my guitar playing, I’ll never be happier.”

Undeniable Talent

Of course, Myers’ guitar skills are only part of the equation – he’s also a compelling and engaging singer and performer. It’s the sort of rare combination that has caused some of the older heads in the scene to take notice. Just last month, he collaborated with Marcus King on a rendition of Little Feat’s Two Trains. And to country crooner and fellow Texan William Beckmann, who is now friends with Myers, it was immediately apparent what a talent he is.

“The first time I saw him play, I was immediately impressed by him,” Beckmann tells us. “His ability to play guitar and weave unique melodies into his songs is rare for an artist at his age. Some people are just born with undeniable talent, and he is one of them.”

Those unique guitar melodies make their way into Myers’ recordings, though are extremely prevalent in his live set. He extends intros and outros at will, plays behind his head, and often lets his piercing notes linger in the air as he stares out into the crowd in a brooding, calculated fashion.

“A concert is supposed to be an experience,” Myers affirms. “It’s just as much a show as if you go to a Broadway play. I love to begin a song with a different musical element. That’s my favorite part of the show, cause I can escape my own mind. Sometimes I just keep going. It’s almost autopilot. I am thinking about what I’m playing… but I’m not sitting there thinking, ‘Okay, major third… use the scale.’ My fingers are just livin’ their own life.”

“A concert is supposed to be an experience… That’s my favorite part of the show, cause I can escape my own mind.”

Teen Idol

Perhaps the elephant in the room is if Myers’ youthful crowd are interested in, or able to identify with, the musicality occurring in front of them. There’s no escaping the fact that he has the looks and charisma of a pop star, after all.

“People comment, ‘People are going to forget about his music cause he’s such a…’” he begins, failing to come up with a definitive description. “People can think what they want, but I hope they don’t think of me as just some playboy. My musicianship isn’t going away.”

He does, however, understand his audience’s mentality. It was hard to escape it amid that Athens crowd, as the audience swayed with collective desperation during Myers’ performance Through A Screen – a prescient ballad about navigating romance via online communication. But Myers is keen to remind us that his audience’s youth and enthusiasm doesn’t make them any less authentic.

“Let’s say my audience is from age 15 to 25,” he explains. “The teenagers are in this angsty and emotional stage. It doesn’t make the feelings any less real because they’re young. Especially on a song like Through A Screen. That was a true story from my life that everyone my age has had.”

Business Brain

The stage is set for Myers to build on his current success even further – with new material likely in 2026, and a huge opportunity opening for Luke Combs on his upcoming stadium tour.

“My brain works faster than the music business,” he chuckles at the prospect of his next album, before revealing that he writes at least a song a week, but has “a problem” finishing the ones he doesn’t like.

“That’s amazing until you’re way ahead, but we’re releasing stuff from way back when. We finished recording the second album, and now I’m writing for another album that I definitely can’t say much about. I haven’t been this excited about writing new stuff in a long time.”

All the while, Myers seeks to pave his own lane. Not as, simply, a country artist, but beyond.

“We categorise things because it’s easy to comprehend,” he reflects when asked if he’s wary of being pigeonholed by genre. “It’s great for the audience, but not so great for the artist. The audience can find a special connection… when they can be like, ‘He’s my favourite country artist.’ As an artist, when you say, ‘I’m really passionate about this,’ then you go and try it and people say, ‘That’s not what you were playing before!’ It’s like… this is music!

“It’s hard to compare a rock song from 1950 with a new pop song by Olivia Dean. How do I pick which is better? I want people to think of me as a musician. That’s what I’m here for. I could care less about anything else than that the music I’m making is appreciated, and that people know that it’s my purpose.”

Words: Noah Wade
Photography: Chris Buck
Styling/Hair & Makeup: Kelly Henderson
Location: Telephone

The post “I want people to think of me as a musician. That’s what I’m here for” Country upstart Ty Myers is championing guitar for a new generation appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

From reimagining 1973 album Quadrophenia as a rock ballet to his role as The Who’s chief lyricist, Pete Townshend is always working on new projects. In fact, he admits he’s probably got 450 pieces of unfinished music lying around – and he’s not averse to using AI to aid his creative exploits.

Townshend has recently said that he wouldn’t shy away from using AI to help finish off tracks. “I’ve managed to wade through about half of [my unfinished music],” he tells The Late Show’s host, Stephen Colbert. “What’s interesting is… I don’t know what to do with it! I’m quite interested in AI [to see what it makes of it].”

• READ MORE: “One of the difficulties Roger had was Zak jumped straight into Instagram and started to mouth off”: Pete Townshend reveals the real reason why The Who fired Zak Starkey

While some artists are adamantly against the use of AI, Townshend is open to the idea. “I’m quite interested in [using it to rework] some of my old songs that didn’t quite work,” he explains. “I didn’t get them right first time round…”

“[If I put stuff] onto Suno or some AI music machine, [I could see] what it can make of it,” he continues. “There might be some hits!”

As intrigued as Townshend is by the new technology, Colbert then reminds us of the controversial side of using (and inadvertently training) AI software like Suno. He mentions music that’s “doing very well” that’s entirely “by robots” – an issue that has been detracting attention from genuine bands.

Recently, Welsh rockers Holding Absence have spoken out about AI’s impact on the industry. Back in September, singer Lucas Woodland posted on X to discuss AI band Bleeding Verse, which cites Holding Absence as one of its ‘inspirations. “So, an AI ‘band’ who cite us as an influence (ie, it’s modelled off our music) have just overtaken us on Spotify, in only two months,” he wrote.

“It’s shocking, it’s disheartening, it’s insulting – most importantly – it’s a wake-up call,” he continues, before urging listeners to “oppose AI music, or bands like us stop existing”.

So, an AI “band” who cite us as an influence (ie, it’s modelled off our music) have just overtaken us on Spotify, in only TWO months.

It’s shocking, it’s disheartening, it’s insulting – most importantly – it’s a wake up call.

Oppose AI music, or bands like us stop existing.

— Lu (@Lucaswoodland) September 30, 2025

It’s not the first time Townshend has entertained the possibility of using AI in his work. Speaking to The Times back in March, he said [via Guitar World]: “It is a tremendous irritation to Who fans that I don’t just stick to the old catalogue and do it until I die… If I told AI, ‘Write a load of Pete Townshend songs like he used to in 1973,’ a lot of fans would be really pleased”.

Back in 2023, however, the Who legend was far less enthusiastic about AI. While he did note that it could serve as a “helpful” tool, he feared its takeover. “With respect to AI, I’m hopeful… but I think, when it becomes what drives the machine, then we have to be careful,” he told the Broken Record Podcast.

He was particularly fearful of AI taking over the “artistic” realm. “I think, by this time next year, the landscape will be completely different,” he predicted. “We won’t know which way is up, we won’t know what’s been created by AI and what’s been created by humans.”

“Everything is going to get very blurred and very confusing, and I think we might look back on 2023 as the last year when humans really dominated the music scene,” he concluded. “I really think it could be that serious, and that doesn’t fill me with joy. It makes me feel apprehensive, and I’m preparing to feel sad about this.”

The post Pete Townshend admits he’s “quite interested” in getting AI to finish some of the hundreds of unreleased songs he’s written: “There might be some hits!” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

We’ve all heard that Black Sabbath’s grand farewell show raised a lot of money for charity, but it didn’t rake in nearly $200 million, despite some early claims. In fact, Sharon Osbourne has revealed the final figure to be closer to $11 million. Still not a drop in the bucket, mind.

While Ozzy Osbourne’s late wife called the inflated claims “ridiculous” from the start, the latest episode of The Osbournes Podcast sees Sharon sharing exactly how much money was raised. “It raised 11 million, [minus] the cost [to put on the gig],” she explains [via Blabbermouth]. “We paid the cost of bringing everybody in, the accommodation, everything.”

• READ MORE: The guitar gear used by Tony Iommi on Black Sabbath’s Heaven & Hell album

She also clarifies that, despite the amount of high-profile artists appearing, “no one got paid” to be there. “Nobody asked for a penny,” she explains. “They gave their time, their efforts, everything for free. People were just so generous.”

While Sharon notes that it would have been incredible to have raised $190 million, the team were more than pleased with the amount earned. “It was nowhere near [$190 million], and I wish that it was, but we are living in reality, in the real world,” she says.

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Of course, Black Sabbath’s final show would also serve as a farewell to Ozzy himself, with the metal legend passing away just weeks after. Elsewhere in The Osbournes Podcast episode, Sharon and her two children, Jack and Kelly Osbourne, reflect on how the world responded to Ozzy’s death. “So many people have reached out to us,” Sharon says. “It’s just been overwhelmingly wonderful… I just want everybody to know that everything that has been sent to us we’ve read, and we appreciate it.”

“The outpouring of love has been so helpful to us,” she continues. “I never could have even imagined it to be as helpful as it has been, knowing that we are not alone in our grief and our sadness. The rest of the world loved him as much as we did.”

“I haven’t seen an outpouring like that since Princess Diana died – I didn’t expect it!” Kelly chimes in. She later adds that the love truly came from everywhere, nothing “it wasn’t just the heavy metal community, it was the entire world” sharing their condolences and tributes to the Prince of Darkness.

You can watch the entirety of the latest Osbournes Podcast episode below.

The post Sharon Osbourne says Back to the Beginning raised just over £8 million for charity – far from the £140 million some quoted appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Joe Bonamassa’s guitar collection is the stuff of legends – so much so that he’s got two ‘museum’ locations – Nerdville East and West in Nashville and LA, respectively – housing hundreds of vintage guitars and pieces of gear.

It might not come as a surprise, then, that he’s had to adopt something of a poacher’s mentality to get his hands on the guitars he wants – even competing against one of his best friends, fellow blues maestro Joanne Shaw Taylor.

• READ MORE: “The heavy metal thing was not my first intention”: The creator of EMG pickups never meant for them to become the choice of metal guitarists

As Taylor notes in an interview in the new issue of Guitarist magazine, an Albert Collins signature Fender Telecaster she now proudly owns was once poached by Bonamassa under the guise he’d help her buy it.

Of the guitar – which was ultimately gifted to her by JoBo around 15 years – she recounts the hilarious tale of how it ended up in her hands.

“I flew to New York to see Joe for a few days,” Taylor recalls. “He was rehearsing for the first time with Black Country Communion. I went to, I think it was, Manny’s, and in there they had an Albert Collins signature model and it was signed by Albert. Other than Stevie Ray Vaughan, he’s my number one influence.

Upon seeing the guitar’s $5,000 price tag, Taylor consulted Bonamassa, informing him that she didn’t have enough money to buy the guitar outright herself.

“He’s like, ‘Okay, well what do you have?’ I said I could probably get together about four. He’s like, ‘Alright, well come back with me. They’ll probably want a photo of me, but I could probably get it for you for four.’

“So we go back to the guitar shop, he plays the guitar, and he’s like, ‘How much?’ And the guy goes, ‘Okay, four grand and a picture of you buying it.’ So we did the deal… and then he kept the guitar for himself! [laughs]”

The guitar remained under the custodianship of Bonamassa for about a year, Taylor says, until she informed his father Len, who then set out to make things right.

“About a year or so later, I talked to his dad and mentioned this, and Len was furious,” she says. “So Len must have phoned him and read him the riot act because I got a text the next day saying, ‘Remind me of your address,’ and then this was delivered in the post.”

The post “I said, ‘I don’t have $5,000,’ and Joe said, ‘They’ll want a photo of me but I could probably get it for you for four’”: Joe Bonamassa helped Joanne Shaw Taylor buy an Albert Collins Telecaster – and then kept it for himself appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The Smiths’ Johnny Marr has recently announced a new collaboration with with Fender: the Johnny Marr Signature Special Jaguar. While the Signature sits just shy of three grand, Marr insists the guitar is more than a “vanity project” – it’s his own attempt at making a versatile guitar for many different guitarists.

Marr’s latest Signature Special Jag comes as an update on his 2012 model, and the guitarist notes that it is designed with players in mind. “I’ve always got the idea of other musicians of all types in mind when I do it,” he tells Hero Magazine. “I’m thinking about my guitar comrades and whether they’re going to like it. It’s not a vanity project.”

• READ MORE: “Dear UPS, where are my guitars?”: Johnny Marr slams UPS over “lost” guitars ahead of tour

Marr has been involved every step of the way in designing his new Signature Special Jaguar. “I put a lot of time and energy into my Signature guitars – It’s something I get quite obsessive about,” he admits. “[My original Signature] came out after about three or four years of dedication and obsession.”

Despite having his previous Fender Signature under his belt, it was high time the old guitar learned some new tricks. “I’ve been using that original Jaguar for over a decade now, pretty much exclusively live and when I’m collaborating, because it’s got that perfect sound that’s become associated with me. The new one, the Signature Special, is a development of that.”

To develop the old model even further, Marr looked to other players for inspiration. “I thought a lot about other guitar players, whether they’re indie rock or more straight-up rock musicians,” he explains. “I changed the radius of the fingerboard so it’s a bit flatter – better for soloing – and added another pickup for more variety. It gives you the option to be a little more aggressive, a little more rock, whilst still keeping everything that made the original Jaguar what it was.”

This time around, Marr’s Signature features a flatter fingerboard, an extra pickup, and an extended range of tonal flexibility. However, above all, Marr insists that his guitar isn’t restricted to Smiths-esque noodling. “You don’t have to want to sound like me,” he emphasises. “It’s just that what’s useful for me tends to be useful for other musicians. My original guitar already did a lot. But, with these changes, it now covers even more ground and opens up new sounds.”

Looking forward, Marr’s Signature Special Jag will surely feature on his upcoming releases. Elsewhere in his conversation with Hero Magazine, he teases that plenty of new tracks are raring to go. “I’ve got a collection of new songs, and we’ve been playing some of them on tour in America recently,” he says.

It’s been three years since Marr’s previous release, Fever Dreams Pts 1-4, and the guitarist hopes that his new tracks will kickstart a whole new era. “I’m hoping this next record is the start of the next long chapter,” he notes. “That’s the way it feels… it feels like we’re moving into a new phase.”

He even teases a pair of potential collaborators. “I still see Hans Zimmer quite a bit – I hang out with him a lot,” he says. “And me and Nile Rodgers have been talking about doing something together, so I’d quite like to do that. That’d be good.”

The post Johnny Marr insists his latest $3,000 signature guitar isn’t a “vanity project” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$749/£749, martinguitar.com

For nearly a decade now, the Martin Junior Series has quietly been one of the most compelling acoustic guitar offerings at the affordable end of the market. What started out as a slightly slimmed-down version of the venerable dreadnought has become an entire family of instruments that blend smaller stature with all-solid tonewoods to create an impressive bang for buck equation for those looking to get a ‘proper’ acoustic guitar for not a lot of money.

• READ MORE: Martin Junior Series D Jr E StreetLegend review: “this guitar feels Junior in name only”

For 2025, the Junior range has been overhauled – continuing the focus on improving that initial Martin experience that began with the Remastered X Series last year. Of course, unlike the sometimes-maligned X guitars, the Junior series was already very well thought of – blending as it does all-solid construction with classic looks and affordable Mexico build. So what’s new here?

Martin 000 Jr Sapele – what is it?

The 000 Jr Sapele is very much what it says on the tin – this is a 14-fret 000-style instrument with top, back and sides all made of sapele. Sapele is often used as a mahogany substitute in more affordable instruments, because both tonally and materially they occupy a very similar territory.

As a result, this Junior has been stained brown in the tradition of all-mahogany Martins, and it certainly looks the part with this ultra-thin open-pore finish. Woodie Guthrie called his all-mahogany 0-15 “the people’s Martin” due to its affordability and stripped-down aesthetic, and this feels suitably in that lineage.

The body itself is a scaled-down version of the classic 000 shape – as seen previously on Martin’s Shawn Mendes signature. It’s closer in dimensions to a classic 0-size guitar in the flesh – 14 inches across the bottom bout and 18 inches from top to bottom, with a 3.1-inch depth – but still feels very much like a ‘real’ guitar in the hands. This is no travel guitar, and it’s all the better for it.

That grown-up feel is helped by the most notable new addition to this Junior series refresh – a full 24.9″ scale length compared to the previous 24 inches. This brings the guitar on par with a proper 000 in terms of scale, giving you a fair bit more room to manoeuvre.

The neck and fingerboard itself is Martin’s always frustrating ‘select hardwood’ – which could be anything from mahogany to cedar. Looking at the grain here, if I had to guess I’d say this was also sapele on this model, but part of the reason Martin uses that nebulous term is to enable them to switch out similar woods depending on supply.

This is an all-solid instrument with one exception – the peghead has a Brazilian rosewood-patterned HPL cap on it, and man, I wish it didn’t. It’s a minor thing, but the elaborate figure of the faux-Braz really does jar with the rest of the ‘people’s Martin’ vibe of the instrument.

While we’re up here, I’m not sure why on earth they decided to take the lovely open-gear butterbean tuners and slap some ugly black plastic buttons on them – aside from presumably wanting to make sure people can tell this is actually a cheap guitar. If this was my guitar I’d be swapping them out for some normal chrome button ones in a heartbeat.

Electronics are provided by Martin’s trusty E1 system, which has a built-in tuner plus a two-band tone control and phase switch.

Martin 000 Jr Sapele – playability and sounds

Pulling the 000 Jr out of its case and the reputation of Martin’s more affordable guitars to leave a little to be desired on the QC side of things is at the forefront of my mind. Thankfully, this is a very well sorted instrument – everything is tight and clean and nicely executed. A gander inside with a phone camera shows that the spruce scalloped X bracing and internal purfling is all very neat and tidy.

If I was splitting hairs, I’d say that the fingerboard and bridge look like they’ve been baking in the Sonoran heat for a bit too long and desperately need a bit of lemon oil, but that’s mainly an aesthetic concern.

Less positive is the presence of a fair bit of glue residue around the frets themselves – quite significantly so on the top side 14th, 15th and 16th frets. Again, this is something that a bit of cleaning and gentle wire wool application will easily sort (and what the hell would you be doing up at the 16th fret on a 14-fret non-cutaway guitar anyway?), but really an instrument at this price point with Martin on the headstock shouldn’t be leaving the factory like this.

A first strum of the guitar is a much more reassuring experience, and it’s enough to make those QC foibles quickly recede into the memory.

The High-Performance Taper neck is a nice crossover palmful for those more used to electric playing, and the string spacing is just about comfortable at 38.2mm at the nut and 40mm at the 12th fret.

It’s probably going to feel a little tight for those wanting to really lean into intricate fingerpicking, but for basic strumming, picking, and noodling it’s a nice balance that is clearly made to ease beginners into the world of acoustic guitar.

The action is similarly forgiving, low enough to not give your fingers undue punishment but without any discernible string buzz. It’s a really lovely guitar to have on your lap and idle your time away on – something that’s helped by the slightly more compact body size.

Of course, a nice playing guitar won’t count for much if it doesn’t sound good, but it’s here that the 000 Jr really makes you stand up and take notice.

The all-solid construction and ultra-thin open-pore finish have combined to make this an impressively lively and resonant instrument that belies its small size. While you won’t get the sparkling highs that you’d find from a spruce/rosewood instrument, it has an aptly sonorous low-end and rich midrange that you’d expect from a small-bodied all-mahogany Martin guitar.

It’s a guitar that probably suits pickers and gentle strummers more than it does full-on beaters – the Dreadnought Jr is probably a better fit there – but it remains an impressively versatile and sonically compelling instrument. The solid timbers mean it’s likely going to sound even better as it gets older, too.

Martin 000 Jr Sapele – should I buy one?

There are so many options for anyone shopping for an acoustic guitar in this price point – plenty of which have better specs on paper at least. But what they don’t have is that Martin name on the headstock. And unlike the X Series guitars, which while being good sounding and playing instruments have always felt like a compromise, the Junior series somehow skirts that.

Maybe it’s the aesthetics, maybe it’s the solid woods, maybe it’s a combination of the two, but you really get the sense that far from being an entry-level instrument to be discarded in time, this is a guitar that could easily become a lifelong companion. There can be no higher compliment for any instrument.

Martin 000 Jr Sapele – alternatives

At this price point, take your pick – literally everyone in the budget acoustic guitar game is offering something compelling in its own way. If you want a proper all-solid mahogany guitar, you could do a lot worse than Fender’s Malibu Special ($735/£679) – which also sports a premium Fishman Flex Body preamp system. If your tastes veer a little more modern, then Taylor’s 24ce ($599/£499) – with mahogany top and sapele back and sides – is a really solid option. If you want a bit more brightness from your sound, Eastman’s E1OM ($699/£599) has a vintage-tinted spruce top paired with sapele back and sides.

The post Martin 000 Jr Sapele review: “a guitar that could easily become a lifelong companion” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The impact Motörhead had on the rock world cannot be understated. Most rock artists can trace their influences back to Lemmy and co in some way. Let’s be honest, we can all remember the first time we heard that smouldering intro riff of Ace of Spades.

Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett remembers it well; and says his mind “exploded” when he heard Lemmy’s Ace of Spades vocals enter for the first time.

• READ MORE: “The heavy metal thing was not my first intention”: The creator of EMG pickups never meant for them to become the choice of metal guitarists

“Lemmy was the real deal, right to the fucking end,” Hammett tells Metal Hammer. “I saw that Ace of Spades cover and was like, ‘I’ve gotta buy this album.’ I got home and put it on… Oh, my god. Lemmy starts singing, my mind fucking exploded. It was like he’d got a distortion box in his throat. It’s so dirty and aggressive, so real!”

Indeed, Metallica owes a great debt to Motörhead for the band’s influence on their music. Following Lemmy’s death on 28 December, 2015, his ashes were dispersed far and wide (with some finding their way behind the bar at London’s Stringfellows strip club, no less).

A small portion of his ashes, though, found their way under James Hetfield’s skin, after he got a tattoo of the ace of spades using ink mixed with Lemmy’s actual ashes.

“With the steady hand of friend and tattoo artist Corey Miller, this tattoo [is] a salute to my friend and inspiration Mr. Lemmy Kilmister,” Hetfield wrote in an Instagram post at the time. “Without him, there would be NO Metallica.”

He added: “Black ink mixed with a pinch of his cremation ashes that were so graciously given to me. So now, he is still able to fly the bird at the world.”

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Kirk Hammett’s answer was part of a new feature by Metal Hammer charting the greatest Motörhead tracks as chosen by a number of metal artists. Naturally, Ace of Spades is a common favourite among rock fans, but other classics like Overkill, Hellraiser and Killed By Death also deserve their praise.

“Killed By Death is one of my favourite songs ever, not just Motörhead songs,” says Mastodon’s Brann Dailor. “Whenever they would launch into that live it was like, ‘Oh boy, here we go!’ Killed, by death. Can you imagine?! Death gets us all, but this makes it personal… and badass.”

“Tracks like Hellraiser really shaped how I play guitar,” says Halestorm leader Lzzy Hale. “Growing up, my dad was a bass player, so my first real experience playing ‘guitar’ was on his bass. My dad was like, ‘Think about Lemmy from Motörhead! He plays bass like a guitar!’”

The post “I got home and put it on… My mind f**king exploded”: Surprise, surprise – this classic Motörhead song is Kirk Hammett’s favourite appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ad feature with BOSS

For 30 years, pedal-based pitch-shifting pedals have been utilised by some of the greatest and most influential guitar players of the modern era to create unique and interesting sounds that simply didn’t exist before.

But so impactful has the venerable Whammy been in this sphere, it’s been a long time since anyone has offered something truly new in that world – until now. It’s fitting that BOSS, would be the one to bring something new and exciting to the table in the shape of the XS-100 Poly Shifter and it’s little brother the stompbox-sized XS-1. Bringing five decades of bleeding-edge expertise to bear, the Poly Shifters have been years in the making – and it’s more than worth the wait.

The Poly Shifters are more than just pedals, they’re advanced pitch-shifting workstations that reimagine pitch shifting for the modern player – courtesy of advanced technology that offers a more natural, precise and smooth tracking than ever seen before.

The full-sized XS-100 lets you glide a whopping four octaves up or down with ease, while the pedal itself offers deep customisation to ensure the sound is all your own. You can program the pedal switches to enable momentary drops or rises. The dedicated retune switch also enables you to digitally change the tuning of your instrument in a heartbeat, with a wealth of drop tuning and simulated capo options. All with the natural and precise note tracking the likes of which has never been seen on a pedal before.

And the best part is, once you’ve found the sound that inspires you most of all, you can save it to one of the 30 onboard memories to recall at your leisure, and thanks to the clear and concise built-in display you never need to worry about what’s gonna happen when you step on it in the heat of battle.

The Artist’s Choice

Given the game-changing evolutionary leap that the Poly Shifter represents, it’s hardly surprising that just weeks after its launch, artists are already starting to take advantage of its remarkable capabilities to push them into new musical territories.

“I’ve tried out a few popular choices in the market, but they’ve always had trouble tracking the note, and seem limited to doing only one thing.” explains Jonathan Jourdan, guitarist in Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth band. “With the XS-1 I feel like the tracking is immediate and just inspires me as I play.”

Another artist to extoll the Poly Shifter’s virtues is Night Verses’ Nick DePirro. “I’ve used several forms of pitch shifters as part of my playing for a long time, some with expression pedals and some without,” he explains. “I’ve always liked how they allow you to extend the range of your notes by adding more octaves and harmonies, as well as being able to make sounds you wouldn’t be able to do without an expression pedal.”

For Nick, the XS-100’s treadle-based pitch-shifting is a dream, and has immediately carved out a place as its own thing.

“The travel distance from up to down position on the expression seems shorter than others, which gives it its own feel,” he observes. “Also, having both the effect and drop switch right next to each other in that amount of space is nice. Sound wise, I think the pitch sounds very clean between both low and high octaves – it has a bit of its own pitch tone to it in that regard.”

The transposition effects on the Poly Shifter is something that really appeals to Snarky Puppy guitar maestro Mark Lettieri, who’s been having fun with the XS-1.

“It does a pretty stellar job at transposing in half-steps,” Mark tells us. “Where I’ve found it really shines is in its harmonization features – particularly in 4ths and 5ths – which can be used to create some cool, almost synth-like chords.”

It’s not just heavy guitarists who are finding the XS-100 a remarkable and inspirational new tool – modern blues virtuoso Eric Gales has spent some time with the pedal and has come away suitably impressed.
“I love how clean it is being able to shift keys and not have that computerized sound like others do,” he reveals. “I’ve been so blown away by that feature alone.”

Another unique feature of the XS-100 that DePirro has already made use of is the ability to set the pitch travel in increments of half a step.
“My favorite thing is that you can specifically set the pitch in increments of half step, single note movements, which provides a very smooth and consistent bend/expressive motion,” Nick reflects. “While there is some nuance and character to discovering those positions manually, it’s nice to have a consistent, more guaranteed option as well.

I’m currently working on a new Night Verses record and so far, that half step incremental option has inspired me quite a bit. I like to bend harmonics and chords with pitch effects, and having the ability to do it in a way that I can repeat consistently, especially when double tracking guitars with the same riff, makes it pretty inspiring.”

Transposition is another key part of any pitch-shifting pedal worth its salt, and the XS-1 has already excelled for Nick in this regard as part of his Mammoth touring rig – and he admits he’s barely scratched the surface.

“I think there’s a lot to unpack with XS1,” he enthuses. “I currently use it as a lower octave blend, but the detuning options are out of this world and extremely accurate compared to other options I’ve tried. I can see myself exploring new tunings with that feature.”

There’s something exciting and reassuring about seeing a name as storied, trusted and innovative as BOSS bring something truly new to the pitch-shifting world, and it’s clear our artists felt the same having spent some time with the Poly Shifter in both its forms.

“I think BOSS have always put out quality and well executed effect pedals, built like tanks on top of that,” DePirro explains. “It’s exciting to see them create a new pitch effect in this form.”

If you’re curious about how the Poly Shifter can shift your perceptions of what a pitch shifter is capable of, don’t listen to us – listen to the artists using it, and check one out now.

Find out more about the XS-100 and XS-1 pedals at boss.info

The post “It just inspires me as I play” how BOSS’s XS-100 is inspiring a new generation of pitch-shifting guitar wizards appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Gibson has announced the return of two legendary solidbody models: the Les Paul Junior Double Cut and the Les Paul Special Double Cut. First released in the 1950s, these guitars helped define rock ’n’ roll with their raw tone, playability, and unmistakable P‑90 grit.

• READ MORE: Kirk Hammett is auctioning his silver Gibson CEO4 SG from Black Sabbath’s farewell show – plus more than 150 guitars from his collection

The Les Paul Junior Double Cut was first introduced in 1954 as a no-frills student model, quickly earning praise for its “stripped-down simplicity” and “surprising versatility”. The guitar’s double-cut mahogany body, SlimTaper mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets make it fast and comfortable, while a single Dogear P‑90 pickup delivers tones from sweet and clean to snarling overdrive.

Controls are straightforward, with a single volume and tone knob with an Orange Drop capacitor for added tonal flexibility. Meanwhile, a wraparound bridge, Graph Tech nut, and Vintage Deluxe tuners with white buttons keep tuning stable for all your gigs.

The Les Paul Special followed in 1955 as an upgraded version of the Les Paul Junior, adding a second P‑90 pickup, dedicated volume and tone controls, fretboard binding, and a mother-of-pearl headstock logo. It moved to a double-cutaway body in 1958 for better upper-fret access and received a SlimTaper neck update in 1960.

Today’s Special Double Cut retains that classic design with a double-cut mahogany body, SlimTaper neck, bound rosewood fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and acrylic dot inlays, and hand-wired P‑90s for maximum tonal versatility.

Three-way pickup selection and Orange Drop capacitors add further sonic flexibility, while the wraparound bridge and Gibson Vintage Deluxe tuners keep the instrument stable and expressive.

The Gibson Les Paul Junior Double Cut is priced at $1,699, while the Les Paul Special Double Cut comes in at $1,999. Both models are available in Ebony, Vintage Cherry, and TV Yellow finishes, and come shipped with a protective hardshell case.

Learn more at Gibson. 

The post Gibson revives two well-loved student models from the 50s: The Les Paul Junior Double Cut and Les Paul Special Double Cut appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

At this year’s Guitar Summit in Mannheim, Kris Barocsi and Guillaume Chenin from Thomann sat down with EMG founder Rob Turner to talk about the company’s early days – and how his studio-minded designs unexpectedly became a cornerstone of heavy music.

“The heavy metal thing was actually not my first intention,” Turner admits. “When we started making product, we were more into the studio sort of aspect of it – for cleanness of the signal. You could record it direct, you could play it through an amp… and that was the primary intent.”

• READ MORE: Kirk Hammett is auctioning his silver Gibson CEO4 SG from Black Sabbath’s farewell show – plus more than 150 guitars from his collection

He adds that EMG’s design brought several unexpected benefits. “You didn’t have to ground the strings of the instrument anymore. It sounded the same wireless as it did through a cable. It was very predictable in that sense.”

But as Turner explains, that clarity and consistency also made the EMGs irresistible to the growing heavy metal scene of the 1980s. “The heavy metal crowd adopted it because I believe the cleanliness was part of a necessity,” he says. “The passive humbuckers were a little too muddy. And when you wanted to mix them in, it was very difficult to find a spot in the mix. And we just happened to become a part of it. It was not an intention by any means.”

That unexpected rise to prominence was helped by a serendipitous early encounter with one of metal’s biggest names: “Kirk [Hammett] was the first one to actually… he called up and said that he wanted to do an instrument, but I had no idea who he was. I don’t think he knew who he was, actually,” Turner recalls with a laugh.

According to Turner, Metallica were still trying to secure a record deal at the time: “He was in a band and they were trying to get a record deal and all of that,” he says. “But he had this purple Stratocaster that he brought up… it had two single coils and a humbucker in it, and we just simply, you know, did an installation for him while he waited. He took it back with him, and it kind of went from there.”

That modest installation would go on to help define the sound of a generation. By the late ’80s and early ’90s, EMG’s active pickups had become synonymous with heavy metal – prized for their powerful tone, surgical clarity, and noise-free performance.

Watch the full interview below.

Browse the latest product lineup at EMG.

The post “The heavy metal thing was not my first intention”: The creator of EMG pickups never meant for them to become the choice of metal guitarists appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ad feature with Sweetwater

Black Friday is almost here! And it’s the perfect time to grab a holiday gift for the guitarist in your life, or save big on your dream instrument. Sweetwater’s Cyber Week sales mean substantial discounts on everything from essential accessories to some seriously impressive guitars – there are over 400 deals in total, with new savings added daily, and fast, free shipping included. We’ve picked out some highlights to get you started on your deal-hunting journey – let’s dive in.

Save $300 on a Strandberg Boden Essential 6 in Astro Dust – was $1099, now $799

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This headless wonder brings Strandberg’s wild design philosophy to a more affordable price-point – even more so this Cyber Week thanks to a hefty $300 discount. If you’ve ever wanted to dive into the world of ergonomic, headless guitars, this is an amazing starting point – there’s a standard non-fanned fretboard for some degree of familiarity, but you still get access to Strandberg’s innovative neck profile and versatile humbuckers.

Save $194.9 on a Electro-Harmonix Soul POG – was $324.8, now $129.90

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Want some polyphonic octaves but with a little more grit than the standard POG? There’s a huge discount of 50% to be had on this Electro-Harmonix Soul POG, a dual pedal that mashes up the Klon-inspired drive sounds of the Soul Food with the multi-octave pitching of the POG, allowing for some awesome overdriven octave sounds – and for only $129.90, you’re effectively getting two amazing effects for the price of one!

Save $170 on a PRS Sonzera 20 combo amp – was $1099, now $929

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There’s an awesome saving to be had on this versatile combo amplifier from PRS. This 20-watt 1×12 tube amplifier can handle everything from the most pristine of cleans to thick, saturated crunch. You also get all of the bells and whistles you might need from a modern tube amplifier, including footswitch control, an effects loop, and multiple speaker outputs to expand your sound. However, the included 12-inch celestion speaker and 20 watts of tube power will still do a great job at projecting you over most drummers!

Save $10.63 on a GHS GBL-6 Guitar Boomers Electric Guitar Strings – was $37.62, now $26.99

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A great stocking stuffer for the guitarist in your life? This six-pack of GHS Boomers is now even better value thanks to a discount down to just $26.99. Breaking a string without a backup is any guitarist’s worst nightmare – one that can be avoided if you stock up!

Save $18.75 on a RockBoard by Warwick Tres 3.1 Pedalboard – was $124.99, now $106.24

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The Rockboard Tres 3.1 Pedalboard is a great mid-sized option for guitarists of all stripes. With a lightweight build and easily cable-managed design, you also have the ability to add a Rockboard Mod module to expand the board out with a patch bay or other utility connections – perfect for easy setups and teardowns, while keeping things neat!

Save $200 on a Taylor x MLB GS Mini Acoustic Guitar – Los Angeles Dodgers – was $799, now $599

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This is one for the Baseball fan in your life, who also happens to love top-quality compact acoustic guitars. With sapele back and sides and a torrefied Sitka spruce top, the Taylor GS Mini punches well above its size class – and thanks to Taylor’s signature neck carve and an ebony fingerboard, you’ve got great playability to boot. It’s not just an LA Dodgers collab too – other MLB teams are available!

Save $124.5 on a Tech 21 SansAmp Character Plus – was $249, now $124.5

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Tech 21’s Character Plus series celebrates iconic amp-and-pedal combos from history. These compact pedal units provide three different combos of drive pedals and preamp circuits, allowing for some classic tones right at your feet, with versatile switching arrangements to boot.

Save $100 on a Exclusive Olive Green Line 6 HX Stomp – was $699, now $599

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The HX Stomp is one of the most powerful modelling units out there, packing tons of different tones into a pedalboard-friendly unit that leverages Line 6’s decades of digital experience. For Black Friday you can save $100 on a Sweetwater-exclusive Olive Green variant – perfect if the only analogue pedal in your rig is a Sovtek Big Muff, and you want to keep a consistent colour scheme!

Save $300 on a Epiphone Dave Grohl DG-335 in Pelham Blue – was $1299, now $999

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Foo fans finally have a standard production model of Dave Grohl’s otherwise hard-to-find signature Trini Lopez 335 – and for Black Friday you can save a substantial $300 on the guitar. This premium Epiphone model replicates Grohl’s ultra-rare Gibson Custom DG-335 signature model, with the same unique aesthetic appointments, and the very same Gibson USA Burstbucker pickups for that signature dynamic and punchy PAF tone.

The post The Ultimate Guitarist’s Holiday Gift Guide – brought to you by Sweetwater appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

He may be one of the most inventive guitarists to ever stand beside Ozzy Osbourne, but Jake E. Lee has long felt overlooked when it comes to the Prince of Darkness’s storied career.

Now, the 68-year-old musician admits that taking part in Osbourne’s farewell show, Back to the Beginning, made him feel “special” after years of being treated like a “forgotten footnote”.

• READ MORE: “Not a day goes by when I don’t ask myself, why am I here and not them?”: Ozzy Osbourne’s posthumous book reveals he was haunted by Randy Rhoads’ death for the rest of his life

Speaking on Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, Lee reflects on the emotional week leading up to the star-studded event.

“It was a great week for me,” says the guitarist, whose stint in Osbourne’s solo band lasted from 1982 to 1987. “Maybe one of the best weeks of my life. I came in there feeling kind of like a footnote, maybe even an almost forgotten footnote: ‘Oh, yeah, we’ll throw him in there too.’ But everybody treated me so respectfully and [there was] encouragement and support from everybody. It made me feel special.”

Lee says that for decades, his contributions to Osbourne’s catalogue – most notably on Bark at the Moon and The Ultimate Sin – have often gone unacknowledged: “I’m not mentioned much in documentaries and things about Ozzy,” he notes. “At the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, you know, not a photo.”

Which was why the invitation to join Back to the Beginning came as a pleasant surprise. According to Lee, the call came from none other than Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello, who served as the event’s musical director.

“When Tom called, I didn’t know why,” Lee recalls. “I’d never met him before, but when he called me he said, ‘I can’t imagine doing this without you.’ Hmm, really? Cool! I’m in! I mean, if for no other reason than just to be there for Black Sabbath: all original [members], final show. I’d do it just for that. I’d go tech for somebody!”

Besides being a reunion of legends and Ozzy’s final show before his death just weeks later, Back to the Beginning also marked Lee’s first major public performance after he was shot outside his Las Vegas home in October 2024. Three bullets struck him during the attack – one passing through his right forearm – and the guitarist spent time in intensive care recovering. Now, months later, Jake reveals he’s still rebuilding strength in his picking hand.

“I went to physical therapy, where they build up the muscles and make sure they’re stretched and not as bad,” he explains. “It used to be that I couldn’t open doors. That would hurt… Now, it doesn’t really hurt. I get some discomfort after I play guitar for a couple hours, but not a lot: just enough to guide me towards re-training my right hand on how to pick.”

The post “I’m not mentioned much in documentaries and things about Ozzy”: Jake E. Lee felt like a “forgotten footnote” in Ozzy Obsourne’s legacy – until Back to the Beginning appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The pursuit of guitar tone is seemingly endless, new pedals arriving on the scene that rehash (in)famous sounds and circuits, albeit with their own unique stamp on it. But if you look at the pedalboard of practically any famous guitarist you can mention, you’ll likely see not one dirt pedal but several – and often they’re all on at the same time.

This is because there’s a certain magic that happens when you run one circuit into another – it clips and shifts the tone in certain ways that wouldn’t be possible going direct, and sometimes the results are greater than the sum of its parts.

• READ MORE: The best effect pedals for all styles and budgets

This is what’s known in the guitar world as ‘gain stacking’ and it’s become an incredibly popular way of getting the best out of your tone. But what’s actually going on here? Well, let’s see if we can break it down…

Different pedals do different things to our presence, frequency response and dynamics, and as such they’ll affect how our tone arrives, and clips, at a distortion or overdrive stage. Do you want a cleaner, more refined and crisp drive sound arriving at a dirtier pedal, or do you want overdriven, gritty tone to be sculpted by a cleaner circuit after the fact?

The way distortion clips the signal can be drastically different and is dependent on what part of the frequency spectrum hits that threshold of distortion first. An overly bright tone might have the attack and crispness subdued as the higher frequencies might be distorted first, and the same is true for mids and lows.

Similarly, drastic EQ changes might allow us to distort those highs, for example, without the mids and lows clipping. In this sense, stacking pedals to clip, distort and drive differently is a form of multi-band processing. A little aside as we are discussing gain stacking here, but EQ pedals are a great way to utilise this!

If you’ll indulge me further, I spend a lot of time as a music producer encouraging bands to pursue their own sound. We all want to sound like those who inspire us, but there’s a few reasons that it’s really important for us to also sound unique. Firstly, replicating a sound or tone can really date your music, either recorded or live, and it’ll easily get lost in the mire of countless other bands.

Secondly, it’s difficult, nigh impossible, to recreate a tone exactly, and clients and myself are often left focusing on what a sound isn’t, rather than what it is. Finally, and possibly most important of all, is that no one can sound like you, and that’s what makes your sound (and the sounds of our heroes) really cool. Pull influence from everywhere you can, but remember that the sum of all parts is what makes something unique, so throw all those sounds in a melting pot and see what you come up with.

What pedals are good for gain stacking?

A few common tone stacking options are the Ibanez Tube Screamer and Way Huge Swollen Pickle drives, used to shape tone before another drive is used for the main drive. The Tube Screamer, usually a TS9 specifically, tightens up the sound by subtly rolling off low end for a more focused attack and less mud. Without pushing the gain, this can be a great option for tightening tone before it hits another drive.

The Swollen Pickle does a similar job but in the opposite fashion, it bolsters the tone, adding heft and weight to it, even without touching the gain. Again, this can be used before another drive for a totally unique sound. Pedals that affect dynamic and presence are a great candidate for this kind of work, so things like the Boss Blues Driver, MXR Micro Amp+ or EHX Soul Food are all pedals that come immediately to mind.

Series vs Parallel Gain Stacking

Mostly when players talk about gain-stacking they’re talking about doing it in series – running one pedal into another, with the signal from one circuit being fed into the next. However, there is another option – you can run those drives in parallel (with each pedal in an independent loop in your chain), and then blend them together after the fact.

This is, of course, much tricker to do in a live environment than a studio. It’s easy enough to blend the sound of multiple amps or gain pedals together in a mix, but to do it live you’ll need a bit more thought.

The Boss LS-2 Line Selector is one solution, as is the EHX Switchblade and Earthquaker Swiss Things. These pedals boast the ability to send and receive two loops at a time, summing and blending them at output.

For example, the LS-2, when set to ‘A+B Mix’ mode, could be used to loop one drive into Loop A, another into Loop B, blended independently to taste before being summed at the pedal’s output and moving onto an amp. This makes more extreme pedals like fuzz and HM-2 style pedals entirely more usable to every guitar player.

For example, the HM-2, while often used at extreme settings, imparts a drastic EQ curve as well as some pretty wild distortion to your tone. The iconic ‘chainsaw’ signature can be blended in a little (or a lot!) to taste, and when combined with another drive, adds that chuggy, driving energy to whatever other drive you have in the second loop.

Or maybe you love the sound of something like a RAT, the aforementioned HM-2 or a fuzz, but it’s just too much. These line selector/mix pedals allow you to blend in those drives, and simply loop one side back on itself, allowing you to use these as a wet/dry blend, for a clean tone alongside whatever drive you decide on.

Much like the rabbit hole of opinions on pedal order on your pedal board, stacking gain is about listening for the signature that each stage imparts. Some offer heaps of gain on tap, but their subtle shift to dynamic can help refine your tone before a different distortion, summing to something new and wonderful.

Some pedals benefit from a bit of nip and tuck after they add gain, and some work best blended in with your clean sound, adding a hint of grit but retaining the clarity that your hands and pickups work so hard to manifest.

Different pedals are great for a variety of sounds, but combining them, blending them, looping them and stacking them are where really unique sounds begin to appear, and unique tone is the coolest tone of all. Get stacking!

The post An idiot’s guide to gain-stacking – how to master the dirt pedal trick that every pro uses appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

When picking a guitar, what matters most to you? It could be electronics, tonewood, or even weight. For Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale, shape is also important, and the pointy lightning bolt zig-zag of the Gibson Explorer makes it her go-to guitar.

Hale is the first female ambassador for Gibson, and has an affinity for pointy, rock ‘n’ roll shapes. She also has a very sharp looking signature Voyager model with Kramer – part of the Gibson family of brands – which is covered in a Black Diamond Holographic Sparkle finish that dances under stage lighting.

• READ MORE: Halestorm pick their five most underrated rock and metal bands

In a new video interview with Guitar World off the back of Halestorm’s appearance at Black Sabbath’s final show and following their album launch for Everest, Hale explains why she loves her trusty and worn-in Explorer so much.

“My guitar here is my first signature model that we ended up doing back in 2011/2012. And [it has a] mahogany body, mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard. It used to be Alpine white; I don’t smoke, but it’s definitely got that cigarette yellow thing going on. All of the dark grey is just from all the leather over the years. It’s been loved to death,” she says.

“Originally I was a Les Paul girl and then I fell in love with the Explorer shape while we were making our first album out in California. I ended up getting my first Explorer off of Craigslist. This poor guy, he had to sell it because of medical bills. I went to go see him and he was so incredibly excited that it was gonna actually get played and go out on the road.

“What I love about the Explorer shape is that it doesn’t matter whether you’re front row or in the nosebleed section [at a show]. You see that shape and it’s undeniable. It’s like, ‘okay, this isn’t going to be country, this probably isn’t going to be pop. This has to be rock.’”

Fellow Halestorm guitarist Joe Hottinger adds: “There’s three great shapes for hard rock and heavy metal: it’s the V, the Explorer, and the SG.”

Watch the interview below:

Halestorm’s sixth studio album Everest is out now. The band are currently touring across Europe – you can get tickets via the Halestorm website. 

The post “You see that shape and it’s undeniable. It’s like, ‘This isn’t going to be country or pop’”: Lzzy Hale on her love of the Explorer appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Jack White’s Third Man Hardware has teamed up with JHS Pedals on a new delay pedal, the Troika. It’s not just a guitar pedal, though – it’s also designed to work with “microphones or any instrument you want to use”.

Designed for both desktop use and in professional recording studios – as well as on stage, the Troika is described as a “horse-powered” instrument and microphone delay product “unlike anything else on the market”.

• READ MORE: Eventide Third Man Hardware Knife Drop review – “This Jack White pedal is outrageously great fun”

Available in a standard black colourway and a yellow version exclusive to Reverb, it’s equipped with both XLR and ¼” inputs and outputs. It utilises a hi-grade Lundahl transformer on the mic input, as well as a secondary output transformer, enabling it to work well with other effects.

It’s also been handily designed with sliders so it looks like a mini mixing console, which White opted for to give him greater real-time control of the unit in a live setting. The bypass switch is found above the sliders to keep it out of the way.

“The Troika Delay comes to you from the thundering minds of JHS Pedals and Third Man Hardware like a chariot over the Russian tundra. This is a multi-purpose, studio-grade delay device like you’ve never seen before,” says a message on the Third Man Records website.

“Jack White loves using delay pedals on his voice, but the process can cause lots of problems, including noise, volume drops, and loss of clarity. When Jack brought this idea to Josh, we immediately gave it the same care and attention we gave to the Colour Box and the Pulp N Peel [from JHS]. The Troika is more than a pedal… If you want to use a delay that’s different from everything else on the market, look no further!”

Hear it in action and find out more below:

Both versions of the Troika delay are available now. The standard black version is priced at $349, while the limited-edition yellow comes in at $369.

Shop the standard version of the Troika via Third Man Records, or head over to Reverb to bag the exclusive yellow colour. You can also find out more about JHS Pedals.

The post Third Man Hardware and JHS Pedals’ new Troika delay is “more than a pedal” – you can use it with microphones, guitars, “or any instrument you want” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

As guitarist in The Smiths and co-songwriter alongside frontman Morrissey, Johnny Marr lays claim to some of the greatest guitar riffs to come out of English rock music – just listen to This Charming Man and How Soon Is Now? for a taste of his guitar genius.

And in a new interview with MOJO, Marr’s Smiths bandmate, drummer Mike Joyce, reflects on the guitarist’s hot streak of writing killer guitar riffs throughout the band’s five-year tenure between 1982 and 1987.

• READ MORE: Marshall partners with Spinal Tap on the “loudest amp ever made” – with knobs that go to 11 and a master volume that goes to infinity

“Just watching the way that his fingers were moving on the fretboard. The chords were so incredible and so strange,” Joyce remembers. 

“The top end, the picking, it sounded like there was a bass line incorporated within it. It was magical but it looked so natural to him.

“You think of incredible riffs, like Layla, that are just part of music history. Johnny was doing that three times a day for four years. [Rough Trade label owner] Geoff Travis actually said: ‘Stop writing A-sides! Throw in a bit of filler!’

Johnny Marr has long been synonymous with the Fender Jaguar, and just yesterday launched his latest signature model based on his prized 1965 Jaguar.

Spec highlights include an enhanced neck profile inspired by Marr’s own original 1965 Jaguar, a Jaguar bridge with Mustang saddles and a vintage-style floating trem, and custom-wound Johnny Marr-designed single-coil Lipstick pickups in the bridge, middle and neck positions. The guitar also sports a custom gloss nitrocellulose black lacquer finish and 22-fret fingerboard with ivory dot inlays.

“The Jaguar has been central to my sound and style for nearly 15 years,” Marr said. “With this new model, I wanted to create an instrument that feels classic but also pushes players to explore new tones and possibilities.”

“Johnny Marr’s legacy as one of the most inventive guitarists of the last four decades is undeniable,” added Max Gutnik, Chief Product Officer at Fender.

The post “You think of incredible riffs like Layla… Johnny was doing that three times a day for four years”: The Smiths’ Mike Joyce on the guitar genius of Johnny Marr appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Jacob Collier‘s playing style is anything but conventional, so it should come as no surprise that he champions unconventional instruments. The multi-instrumentalist and all-round music whizz has played five-string guitars for some time now, and even released a number of signatures, including headless models with Strandberg, and a signature five-string with Taylor last year.

Now, Collier’s five-string repertoire is expanding, with the addition of two new acoustics in collaboration with Taylor.

• READ MORE: “Exploring the guitar more fully than ever before”: Jacob Collier’s forthcoming album is all about the acoustic guitar

Collier’s new Academy 22e and GS Mini acoustic guitars are just as unique as the star himself. Binning off a sixth string, the guitars are tuned to Collier’s preferred DAEAD set up – and the result is a pair of guitars straight from his “dreams”.

“I dreamed of this guitar tuning for many, many years before it existed,” he explains. “I asked Taylor, ‘how would you feel about putting five-strings on a six-string neck, tuned in a very strange way, with exactly the same range as a normal guitar, but with a different set of intervals?’ They said yes, which changed my whole life.”

In a 2024 interview with Guitar.com, Collier explained his love of a five-string over a six-string. “Back in 2016, I figured out a way for guitar to make sense to me – it was by ripping one of the strings off a six-string guitar and leaving only five,” he recalled. “And I tuned it in a very unusual way. I did this for the first time on the day of a gig, and then I played it on the gig, which was a very funny experience.”

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“I sat there and found this language in front of all these people,” he continued. “It felt like they were holding me to it. It was like, ‘Okay, Jacob. If you’re going to do that, do it right.’ But it was actually an amazing experience.”

The Academy 22e boasts a walnut Grand Concert body, as well as a comfortable bevelled armrest to take off some pressure. The bridge and fretboard adopt a smoked eucalyptus bridge and fretboard, and it comes with Academy Series bracing and Fishman Presys VT electronics. This one serves as the pricier of the pair, sitting at £1,099.

On the flip side, the GS Mini boasts a more colourful design. It feels like the essence of Collier is trapped within the spruce top, with its vibrant, geometric rosette. This model boasts a mahogany and West African ebony neck and fretboard, with no electronics for a truly natural sound and a lower price point of £749. Each guitar comes fitted with a custom Jacob Collier label.

Of course, both models sit at a far more accessible price than Collier’s original Taylor Signature, which costs £2,799.

“Each guitar is so distinct in [its] own right,” Collier notes in a press release. “For them to be accessible to more people, while maintaining the same spirit that inspired the original designs, is a wonder. I’m so looking forward to more folks having the opportunity to discover this 5-string world and make their own magic with it.”

The introduction of these new Jacob Collier 5-strings is also notable in that they now make up what’s a pretty small signature guitar lineup from Taylor, only with other models from Taylor Swift and Jason Mraz.

To find out more, head to Taylor Guitars.

The post Jacob Collier champions the five-string guitar revolution with two new Taylor signature models appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.