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Two Octobers ago, on Friday the thirteenth, Creeper released their third album, Sanguivore, a sprawling, electrifying glam-rock concept record centring on vampires. This Halloween, they’re following it up with Sanguivore II: Mistress of Death. Writing a sequel was new territory, especially for a band who, much like their chosen subject matter, tends to kill off and rebuild their artistic iterations after each record. “I imagine Creeper like American Horror Story,” guitarist Ian Miles tells Guitar.com. “It’s the same cast, but a different theme per season. And this is Season Sanguivore.”

• READ MORE: The Last Dinner Party’s Emily Roberts on why she decided to embrace her most “outrageous” guitar impulses on new album From The Pyre

Sanguivore II doesn’t continue the first record’s storyline, but instead pivots to exploring a different set of characters within this fictional universe. Set against the backdrop of the Satanic Panic, Sanguivore II follows a hedonistic vampire rock band, played by Creeper, as they’re chased by a vampire hunter called the Mistress of Death. Bodybuilder Sarah Page takes on the character of the “anti-hero,” as Miles calls her. “We were very typical cliché rock stars, and so it’s the Mistress’s job to hunt us down and end our reign of terror,” Miles elaborates. “Will [Gould, frontman] was really keen on the idea of it being a powerful female to turn that role on its head.”

Creeper often play with conventions – particularly regarding gender and sexuality – in their music and visuals. “We’re not a serious political band, but we like to challenge when we can,” Miles explains. That comes from the hardcore scenes they grew up in. “Ethics has always been deeply ingrained in everything we do. But that’s not what we’re telling you,” Miles laughs. “What you’re getting is silly gay vampires dressing up and running around and drinking vials of blood like they’re cocaine.” He’s referring to the music video for Blood Magick (It’s a Ritual), which subverts rock’n’roll excess.

In the opening of Blood Magick, after the swaggering guitars, and before the verse kicks in, “There’s that little motorbike revving guitar part, and then a squeal,” guitarist Lawrie Pattison details. It allowed him to tap into a particular sound. “I just have a lot of fun doing that kind of shit,” Pattison explains. “That’s where the virtuosos I got into when I was a teenager – like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani and Frank Zappa – that’s where those guys come into my playing style a little bit more. That’s what works really well for this record, because it’s that eighties metal vibe.”

Sanguivore II leans into that era and embraces bigger, pop-style singalong choruses than its predecessor. “We wanted to make this record more anthemic, more of a hard rock record,” Miles says. It also marks a shift in tone between the two Sanguivores. “We’ve gone from a jack-o’-lantern to a plastic pumpkin,” Miles laughs.

They’ve dialled up the humour, which has always been integral to Creeper. “In this band, we’re a bunch of goofballs, aren’t we?” Miles asks his bandmate. “We’re a bunch of idiots.”

“When the six of us are together, it’s just chaos, but very silly,” Pattison agrees. “It sounds like a bunch of kids in a playground.”

Pattison had been a session player for Creeper since 2021 and joined the band full-time shortly after the release of Sanguivore. “After touring Sanguivore I with Lawrie fresh in the band, we felt like we unlocked a new part of Creeper with dual guitar work,” Miles says. “We never really had that before.”

They were then able to take Creeper’s guitar playing to another level. “We’ve worked on harmonized parts together purposefully built for the live setting, to try and put fucking those big guitars back in rock music,” Miles enthuses.

Having two guitarists opened up a lot of new possibilities, whether it’s playing at the same time or more of a back-and-forth, like for the solo on blistering single Headstones. “It feels like a question-and-answer, that classic call-and-response thing,” Pattison adds.

For Sanguivore II, and playing live with Creeper, Pattison has stuck to Charvels. “The first time I played the Charvel, must have been a couple years back now, [I] just had a quick little go on one in the music shop, and was just like, ‘Man, I feel like it’s been custom built for me,’” he elaborates.

Miles alternated on his choice for guitar. “There was something about holding that white Gibson James Hetfield Explorer in the studio, and lots of the rhythm, the big chuggy parts, I was just like, ‘Oh, this feels just right,’” Miles says. He opted for his Gordon Smith on the lead parts.

And the album does feature some intense lead parts. The nearly six-and-a-half-minute epic album closer, Pavor Nocturnus, showcases Creeper at their most expansive – it has an interlude that runs close to two minutes, going from sweeping piano accented by strings to a wailing guitar solo to dramatic choir vocals. “The outro was going to be shorter, and then we were both just like, ‘We need more time for our solos,’ because we felt like we were rushing them,” Pattison recalls. “Initially, we just went once around the chord progression each and we were both like, ‘Nah, we’re gonna have to double this,’ double both of the guitar solos, double the piano solo as well.’”

It’s a suitably grand conclusion for the album, capturing the band’s all-out approach to music, as well as narrative and worldbuilding. In the same spooky blood-soaked vein, we asked Miles and Pattison to pick their five favourite scary records for Halloween:

Misfits – Famous Monsters (1999)

Miles: “The first visual representation [of Misfits] I saw when I was younger was the video for Scream! which is obviously massively Halloween-coded. It’s the first video I ever saw with blood in it. So that was a big first look into… horror music in general. And seeing that video when I was younger, I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is like all the B movies that I grew up watching secretly away from my mum’s eye.’”

Slipknot – Iowa (2001)

Pattison: “I remember seeing Slipknot videos on TV when I was a kid, and it was before I really knew their music, and this was when some of their videos could only be shown past 10 p.m.

“I turned the TV down a little bit because, you know when you’re watching a horror movie, and you’re like, ‘If I turn the sound down, it’s not scary anymore’? I don’t know what age I would have been, but I remember seeing it and being kind of freaked out… It’s just so hectic, visually. To be fair, that was probably before I’d really gotten into horror movies in general. It’s weird to think that it was probably bands more so than movies that became a gateway into horror movies for me.”

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Murder Ballads (1996)

Miles: “That flips what we’ve been talking about on its head in terms of, aesthetically, it’s just some dudes wearing suits, but the music on that record – you don’t need a visual… It conjures up the image in your head, and it lets your imagination do the work. And the content of the songs is scary. I remember [the] first time, listening to that record. I just had to stop and sit and listen to the words and be like, ‘Oh my God. He’s getting away with writing lyrics like this? They’re literally all about killing people.’ And some of them are so beautifully subtle as well. That record is aggressive, scary, dark and timeless.”

AFI – All Hallow’s EP (1999)

Miles: “They just opened my eyes to a whole new view of music, rather than it just being something that I would sit and listen to and enjoy sonically, it added a new element of visuals to it for me, which has become, obviously, super important with where we are as a band… Marrying the image and the audio is something that resonated with me from being a big movie nerd as well and it’s like, ‘Oh, people do that with music.’”

Honourable Mention: The Cramps – Off the Bone (1983)

Miles: “I listened to The Cramps [for the first time], and I was like, ‘This is fucking sick.’ And I could see why the likes of Tiger Army and AFI reference The Cramps, because you can hear it in their music, the more psychedelic surf-rock and the fucking punk rock attitude that The Cramps have.”

Creeper – Sanguivore II: Mistress of Death (2025)

Pattison: “I think the stuff that I do like about Halloween is the stuff I liked about Halloween when I was a kid, and it is the more kitsch, silly, fun things, rather than the really horrific horror stuff. And I think that’s the cool thing about this record, is that it’s just fun… The video for Prey For The Night does that so well, because it’s fun and it’s silly, but you can still see the horror elements in there. It’s still a vampire story.”

The post “We’ve gone from a jack-o’-lantern to a plastic pumpkin:” Creeper on the best horror-themed albums appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Dragons! Wizards! Pedals? While a 20-sided dice is often reserved for fantastical roleplaying adventures, YouTuber Pedal Playhouse, AKA Joan Braga, has injected some D&D magic into pedalboard curation.

Braga’s brand new YouTube series, Pedal Quest, sees her and two guests, Science of Loud’s Colin Scott and 60 Cycle Hum’s Ryan Burke, embarking on a Dungeons & Dragons-inspired journey. The mission is to create the ‘perfect’ collaborative pedalboard, and the rules are simple: with each roll of your D20, you must add a pedal to the board.

• READ MORE: The guitar influences of Kurt Cobain

The D20 number reflects a certain category, with Braga splitting pedals into Distortion, Fuzz & Overdrive, Modulation Effects, and left-field ‘Wild Magic’ pedal categories… with one such option being the Miku Stomp by Korg.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Dungeons & Dragons without a few consequences and acts of trickery. For example, if you roll a one, and you’re doomed to add the infamous Boss Metal Zone MT-2 to your board. There is also a Deception round, which allows a chance for members of the party to swap out any pedals they’re unhappy with, or just adjust the general circuit set-up.

Plenty of pedals are in the mix, too. Braga’s selection spans from Mad Professor, to Universal Audio, to MXR, and more.

While it’s a fun way to mix up your pedal building process, it also looks like a great way to just have a laugh with your pals. It’s good to push yourself now and then – even if it means trying to miraculously make a ridiculous set-up work. “So we’ve got two reverbs, a delay, and a fuzz now… we’re done!!!” Burke jokes midway through the video.

At the end, every member of the party performs with the pedalboard setup. That’s when the creativity really comes into play, as Braga and the group try to conjure up what kind of D&D character the guitar tone might represent. Perhaps it’s a fried, chaotic evil burst of distortion because you rolled a one and have to use a Metal Zone. Or maybe it’s an otherworldly, god-like tone drowning in tremolo and reverb?

Regardless, Pedal Playhouse has cooked up a fun new approach to pedalboard building. It’s exactly what we’d expect from Braga, with the YouTuber emphasising the importance of ‘play’ wherever possible. “[In my videos], we’re looking at a pedal, but really it’s approaching things with the curiosity of a child again,” she told us back in 2022.

“The idea that, despite whatever else is going on in the world, there’s this thing with a sense of wonder and whimsy, and that anything is possible,” she smiled.

Check out the Pedal Playhouse YouTube channel.

The post “We’re going on a pedal quest!”: This YouTuber has created a Dungeons & Dragons inspired pedalboard game – and we wanna play… appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Back in August, it was revealed that Eddie Van Halen’s modded 1982 Kramer guitar – also used by Mick Mars to record Dr. Feelgood – was headed to the auction block.

Hosted by Sotheby’s, the guitar was expected to fetch between $2 million and $3 million. It seems researchers had done their homework, as the guitar sold for a cool $2,734,000 on Friday (24 October).

The guitar – often dubbed the ‘Kramer Ad’ guitar after an ad in the early ‘80s featured EVH holding it alongside the caption “It’s very simply the best guitar you can buy today” – was one of the first Kramer guitars Van Halen played and helped build.

Credit: Sotheby’s

The Kramer Ad guitar was modelled on Van Halen’s legendary Frankenstein six-string, bearing the same classic red-black-and-white striped aesthetic.

According to Sotheby’s, Eddie Van Halen built the guitar “to his own specifications” at the Kramer factory in 1982, “using the original Frankenstein guitar as a template”. Photos provided by Sotheby’s show EVH working on the guitar with an electric drill.

• READ MORE: Wolfgang Van Halen: “I’d rather fail at my own thing than succeed on my dad’s legacy”
  

“Van Halen was endlessly striving to create the ultimate guitar for tone, playability and dependability; this Kramer guitar personifies not only Eddie Van Halen innovative playing style but also his passion for design and engineering and was the culmination of Van Halen’s experience and research up to this time,” the auctioneer wrote on the listing.

The guitar was played on tour by Eddie in ‘82 and ‘83, in Philadelphia, Caracas, Sao Paolo and Buenos Aires. It was eventually sold by his guitar tech Rudy Leiren to Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars, who used it to record Dr. Feelgood among other cuts.

At a final sale price of $2,734,000, it’s hard to imagine many guitars commanding a higher price tag, but there have been a few…

• 5. John Lennon’s Framus Hootenanny 12-string ($2,857,000) – Famously used on the Beatles fifth album Help! (1965), the Hootenanny was thought lost for many years, until discovered in the attic of a British countryside house by its new owners in 2024.The guitar was also used by Lennon to record It’s Only Love, I’ve Just Seen a Face and Girl, and by George Harrison on Norwegian Wood.
• 4.  Eddie Van Halen’s Hot For Teacher Kramer ($3,932,000) – Guitar used by Eddie Van Halen in Van Halen’s classic Hot For Teacher video.
• 3. David Gilmour’s Black Fender Stratocaster ($3,975,000) – The Pink Floyd man’s most iconic guitar, his 1968 Black Fender Stratocaster was originally bought from Manny’s Music in New York, and was heavily modded over the years. Throughout the ‘70s Gilmour swapped between two ‘50s necks – one rosewood and one maple. It’s now part of the Jim Irsay Collection after selling for almost $4 million.
• 2. Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit Fender Mustang ($4,550,000) – Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit remains – and will always be – one of the landmark rock tracks of all time. And so the guitar used by frontman Kurt Cobain in its accompanying music video, predictably, commanded an astronomically high sale price. Like Gilmour’s Black Strat, it found its way into the Jim Irsay Collection after selling for over four and half million bucks.
• 1. Kurt Cobain’s Martin D-18E ($6,010,000) – Yep, Kurt Cobain’s selfish enough to steal both first and second place in the list of most expensive guitars ever sold publicly. Topping out the list is his Martin D-18E, which he used during Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance in 1993. The guitar was left to Cobain’s daughter Francis Bean, and ended up with her ex-husband Isaiah Silva as part of their divorce settlement. It was bought by RØDE Microphones founder, Peter Freedman in 2020 for just over $6 million – a figure which hasn’t been beaten since.

You can read more about Eddie Van Halen’s Kramer Ad guitar at Sotheby’s. You can also read more about the 15 most expensive guitars ever sold at auction.

The post Eddie Van Halen’s Kramer Ad guitar becomes the sixth most expensive ever sold at nearly $3 million – here are the five that sold for even more appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Keen to distort your tone but can’t afford any fancy pedals? Well, if you’ve got an amp and something sharp, you’re in luck; according to The Kinks’ Dave Davies, killer raspy tones can be achieved in a flash with just the slash of a scalpel.

In a new interview with BBC Radio 4, the guitarist provides fans with a handy tutorial on how to recreate his distinctive tone. When the host, The Membranes’ John Robb, presents Davies with a scalpel and asks “how do I slash the amp?”, Davies instantly dives in and hacks at the speaker cone.

“That’s basically it,” he says, nonchalantly. Within moments, he’s strumming on a Fender Strat, distorted, gritty chords floating out of the speaker.

• READ MORE: The Humble Gear Used By Kurt Cobain on Nirvana’s Nevermind

For years, fans of The Kinks have pondered why Davies would roll out a seemingly ‘broken’ amp for live performances. Back in 2022, he revealed that his slashed up gear was the secret ingredient to The Kinks’ distinctive sound – and it was all thanks to an impulsive outburst of anger.

“I’d had an argument with my girlfriend and I was full of rage and pissed off. Rather than slash my wrists, I thought I’d attack the speaker cone,” he told The Independent at the time. “I was quite surprised that it was still working, and it had this kind of raspy sound. I thought it was amazing, and I felt like an inventor!”

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A post shared by The Kinks (@thekinksofficial)

Davies’ decision to ‘attack’ a £10 amp with a razor blade proved to be the best thing he could have ever done. The sound went on to defines cuts like 1964’s You Really Got Me, and more.

As the clip of Davies shows, you hardly need a surgeon’s precision to achieve a Kinks-worthy tone. The guitarist isn’t the first rocker to bash up his amp while hunting for DIY distortion, either; ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Link Wray famously recorded the 1958 track Rumble with a Premier amp that had been repeatedly stabbed with a pencil.

Elsewhere, King of Rhythm’s Ike Turner totally changed the course of rock history when he recorded Rocket 88 in 1951. While the track was originally typical 12-bar blues arrangement, the band would get quite a shock when an amp tumbled out of their truck on the motorway.

While the amp suffered a damaged woofer and cone, it gave off a raw buzz – and the band loved it. The rest, of course, is history. Time Magazine even labelled the buzzy track as potentially the “first rock ‘n’ roll record” back in 2004.

With that in mind, pricy gear isn’t always the key to finding a unique guitar sound. There are plenty ‘happy accidents’ that could happen and provide you with tonal gold. So, go on – lob your amp down the stairs and see what it sounds like afterwards. Though, if it fully breaks, don’t blame us…

The post DIY distortion: Get Dave Davies’ Kinks guitar tone in seconds – you’ll just need a razor blade and an amp you don’t give a s**t about appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

With Eddie Van Halen as his father – and having served a stint as Van Halen’s bassist himself – it would have been easy for Wolfgang Van Halen to build a sustainable career rooted in the monolithic legacy Eddie left behind.

But he’s long been determined to carve out his own path, and with the recent release of his band Mammoth’s third studio album The End, it’s safe to say he’s built his own name through and through.

• READ MORE: Online games have been doing it for years – are guitar brands cottoning on to the lucrative nature of crossover collaborations?

And it’s very much an all-or-nothing mentality, too, as he explains in a new interview with Billboard: “I would rather fail on my own thing than succeed on my dad’s legacy.”

“I’m proud of the way that I’ve handled myself in this business,” he says. “I’m not sitting there playing Van Halen songs and trying to shack up in the legacy of my father. I’m trying to set out and do it on my own.

“Whether I’m successful at that is a subjective opinion, but I’m at least proud that I’m not sitting here going, like, ‘Hey, the only place you can hear a Van Halen play Panama is over here.’”

“Subjective opinion,” he says, but given his band Mammoth has amassed a considerable following of hundreds of thousands of listeners across the globe, toured with the likes of Guns N’ Roses and Dirty Honey, and released three albums in a span of four years, it’s safe to say he’s doing alright.

Elsewhere in the interview, he touches on his decision to drop the ‘WVH’ from his band’s name (until this year the band was called Mammoth WVH).

“I’ve wanted to be [Mammoth] from the beginning,” he says. “There’s a much higher chance of organic discovery when it’s just Mammoth. People have a lot of complicated feelings about me because of my family and how I started out, and I think a lot of people decided how they feel about me and my music before they even heard it.

“So I think now it’s a nice opportunity to get in that window of people just hearing something and get that unbiased reaction – and then they’ll see who it is and get pissed off, but before that it might be, ‘Hey, it’s actually good, but I still don’t like him!’”

We here at Guitar.com were lucky enough to catch up with Wolfgang Van Halen earlier this month to ask him about his five favourite guitar players.

Alongside Aaron Marshall of Intervals – who WVH has cited numerous times before as his favourite player – Van Halen names Adam Jones of Tool – who should also have their own “Mount Rushmore” – and his father Eddie, but notes despite his world-shattering talent, was a “terrible guitar teacher”.

The post Wolfgang Van Halen: “I’d rather fail at my own thing than succeed on my dad’s legacy” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Godzilla. Back to the Future. Hello Kitty. Is the guitar world taking a leaf out of the online gaming playbook, and are we about to see more crossover collaborations between guitar brands and fictional characters and franchises?

When Fender Japan unveiled three Godzilla-themed Stratocasters earlier this month, the guitar community went nuts. With unique artwork depicting the King of the Monsters – and one even sporting a button unleashing Godzilla’s mighty roar (hopefully without the Atomic Breath, to boot) – our article on these six-strings was one of the best-performing of the last few weeks. Readers loved them.

And when Gibson began teasing the imminent arrival of a Back to the Future Marty McFly-inspired Gibson ES-345 on social media – with glam photos of the guitar set against the film’s classic DeLorean time machine car – it sent gearheads’ pulses racing.

Those guitars – a $20,000 Custom Shop model, alongside a much more affordable Epiphone version – were officially launched last week, and our source at Gibson confirmed they’d sold out online in about an hour. Yep, a $20k guitar – 88 made (corresponding with the 88 miles an hour needed to time travel in the BTTF universe, of course) – sold through in an hour. You can do the maths on that one yourself…

Gibson and Epiphone Back to the Future ES-345s. Credit: Gibson

Such furore is not always immediate, however. When Fender partnered with Sanrio to launch its Hello Kitty Stratocaster in 2006, it went largely under the radar. That is, until YouTuber TheDooo began uploading videos of himself playing the guitar in the late 2010s, causing online searches for the six-string to tick dramatically upwards. Average listing prices on Reverb rose 254%, too.

There’s now a series of Fender x Hello Kitty guitars, accessories and merch, and even a range of child-friendly Loog x Hello Kitty guitars, too.

Online video games have been doing crossovers with fictional characters and franchises for years. Take Call of Duty and Fortnite, for example. With its Warzone platform, CoD regularly launches purchasable skins and weapons themed like classic characters and their fictional worlds. Some standout CoD crossovers have been with Saw, Rambo, The Terminator and Squid Game. But this is just a tiny sample. Godzilla is now a beast which has appeared both in the guitar world and Call of Duty universe.

Fortnite is even more prolific on this front. Epic Games’ massive cross-platform battle royale has seen crossovers with the likes of Marvel and DC Comics, Star Wars and Dragon Ball, and even regularly with real-life stars including Travis Scott, Daft Punk and Ariana Grande.

So what’s the insight to take here? Well, professional collaborations, fundamentally, are designed to maximise returns by allowing each party to tap into the audience already created by the other. And in the case of Call of Duty and Fortnite, they’re clearly working and are clearly lucrative, otherwise these companies wouldn’t continue to do them.

Such collaborations are also a way of maximising a customer’s lifetime value. A player purchases the latest Call of Duty title, and at this point their money stops funnelling to the game developer. That is until they see their favourite movie character playable in a downloadable content pack…

Map this onto the guitar world: a player – one who’s not a collector or a total gear head, at least – buys a guitar, and it covers everything they need. But they also happen to be part of Back to the Future’s huge cult following. And when Gibson launches an Epiphone Marty McFly signature model, they think, ‘Maybe it’s time to expand the collection.’

It’s argued by many that the guitar was perfected decades ago. Sure, there have been significant improvements in components, for example, but the triple-single-coil Stratocaster has remained largely unchanged since its invention.

Sure, all of us heavily involved in the guitar space love to wax lyrical on the latest in pickup design, glow-in-the-dark fret markers, or why wood sourced from some remote island in the Pacific means a 2.3% improvement in resonance.

But it’s important to remember there’s also a huge market out there for guitarists who aren’t absolutely obsessed with the minutiae. I’ve had friends not immersed in guitar culture – but still play – ask me on several occasions what’s changed with guitar design in the last 50 or 60 years.

For guitar brands, crossover collaborations may increase the likelihood these casual players will dip their toes back into the guitar market and make another purchase. And that’s a good thing for the rest of us, too, who simply want to see more people join the guitar community and have it thrive.

Whether Godzilla Strats, Back to the Future ES-345s and Hello Kitty Loogs mark the start of a new trend in the guitar market, or whether they’re just a spate of coincidental crossovers remains to be seen. But if the former, our minds are certainly racing as to what might come next…

The post Online games have been doing it for years – are guitar brands cottoning on to the lucrative nature of crossover collaborations? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Welcome to another review within our series that’s looking at the lineup from NotPedals.com – a unique marketplace for small-run, handmade boutique pedals. Today we’re checking out the Rippletron from Monkey Riot FX.

• READ MORE: Meet NotPedals.com, a marketplace that’s making boutique handmade pedals more accessible than ever

What is the Rippletron?

Let’s start on the outside of this thing – first things first, the screen printing is great – sharply-done, and with a Great Wave-esque design that evokes dark, swirling waters. A classic tack, if you’re a modulation pedal. Internally, things are all present and correct – this is an old-school through-hole board, and is very neatly done indeed.

The Rippletron is inspired by DOD Vibrothang, a unique combo of phase, vibrato and tremolo. There’s one master LFO speed control, as well as a depth, wave and filter control – these all tweak the intensity of the vibrato, tremolo and phase aspects of the effect respectively.

Monkey Riot Pedals Rippletron. Image: Press

In Use

Turning the Rippletron on (with a satisfying clunk – this is an old-school hardwired true-bypass switch, not a soft-switching relay), I immediately warm to it. With all knobs at noon the effect is surprisingly subtle – given the mutli-modulation nature of the effect, I’m half expecting it to be a crazy, swooshing signal destroyer – but it’s instead extremely musical and restrained.

Let’s go through the controls one-by-one. Speed is, as you’d expect, simply the speed of the LFO – ranging from helicopter-landing flutter to languishing sweeps. The speed is tied to a pulsing red LED – always a welcome addition on LFO controls, as it gives you an immediate visual cue of the sort of speed you should expect from a given setting.

Depth is tied to the intensity of both the pitch and the volume modulation. It goes from barely noticeable to a decent amount of wobble, however it’s worth noting that due to how the pitch vibrato is achieved, there’s not a massive amount of actual seasick pitching up and down here. Wave, on the other hand, adjusts the severity of the tremolo’s shape – at full, it’s a lot more of a choppy and aggressive, while on minimum, the amplitude modulation is basically removed from the equation. Combined with the relatively subtle pitch modulation, the wave control lets you dial in sounds quite reminiscent of a rotary speaker effect.

Filter adds a resonant, phasing aspect to the modulation. It’s again very subtle, but at maximum settings it adds a very pleasing tilt to the EQ as the LFO cycles.

After finding out what the extremities of all of these controls are, however, I actually find myself returning to noon for all of the controls. The Rippletron’s voice is best suited for a subtler approach, adding just the right amount of dynamic movement into an otherwise flat sound. You could only really achieve a similar sound by chaining together several other pedals, set even more subtly. But here we have a single pedal that can add a lot of interest to an otherwise flat tone – from fuzzy heaviness to sparkly, wobbling cleans – without totally overtaking your playing.

Overall the Rippletron is a very cool modernisation of a vintage DOD circuit. Relatedly, it’s worth noting that while the original Vibrothang is relatively attainable second-hand, it’s also housed within the rather bland-looking vintage DOD enclosure, which isn’t massively inspiring to look at, and has a reputation for being not the most mechanically reliable thing in the world. The Rippletron, then, becomes a great modern boutique alternative.

The post Monkey Riot Pedals Rippletron review: a gorgeous blend of phase, vibrato and tremolo appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

What price for a piece of bona fide rock ‘n’ roll history? Well, if that piece happens to be an iconic guitar used by an equally iconic guitar player, then the last few decades have demonstrated that price is ‘an awful lot indeed’ – especially if that guitar has been sold at auction.

• READ MORE: The Humble Gear Used By Kurt Cobain on Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’

In the decades since Eric Clapton’s iconic Blackie Strat was purchased by Guitar Center for just shy of a million dollars, more and more legendary guitar players have put their collections under the hammer, and it’s led to increasingly outlandish sums being paid for some of the most iconic guitars in rock.

The 2024 auction of Mark Knopfler’s guitars at Christie’s saw some practically every lot smash its estimate, but despite that the most iconic item of the day – a 1983 Gibson Les Paul Standard that the Dire Straits legend used to write and record Money For Nothing and Brothers In Arms – smashing its $19,000 estimate and selling for a whopping $753,231 (£592,200), it wasn’t enough to make it onto our list (in fact it wasn’t even the biggest seller of the day, with a Burst Knopfler bought in 1999 selling for a massive $880,186).

Even Blackie itself – once the benchmark for outrageously expensive electric guitars, no longer occupies a place in the top 15 most expensive guitars sold at auction, falling out of the list with the blockbusting sale of John Lennon’s Framus Hootenany in June 2024. It shows how wildly the market for rock star guitars has inflated in the last few years.

Another iconic instrument to fall off the list is Bob Dylan’s ‘Newport Folk Festival’ Strat. The guitar used when the folk messiah turned Judas with an electric band on 25 July 1965 sold for $965,000 in 2013. It was purchased by Indianapolis Colts owner and guitar collector Jim Irsay and now forms part of the ‘Jim Irsay Collection’ a travelling museum of pop culture memorabilia that tours the US.

Also in Irsay’s collection is David Gilmour‘s Martin D-35 – the guitar that appeared on Wish You Were Here – which had the dubious distinction of being the first million-dollar guitar to fall out of our top 15 entirely. Another guitar to fall off the list was Rory Gallagher’s iconic 1962 Stratocaster – which barely lasted three months on the list before being unseated in January 2025.

Another brief entrant into the list was Jeff Beck’s ‘Anoushka’ Fender Custom Shop Strat – it barely lasted 10 months on our list but holds the distinction of being a non-vintage instrument that cracked the million dollar mark. Made for Beck by Custom Shop legend JW Black in 1993, Anoushka became a mainstay for the guitarist on stage over the following decades, and was sold at auction in January 2025 and knocked Rory’s Strat off the list.

Also not making it into the list are some of the most iconic guitars of all time that never made it to auction. It’s almost impossible to confirm private sale figures, so the rumours that Kirk Hammett paid $2 million for Greeny – the 1959 Les Paul previously owned by Peter Green and Gary Moore – or that the late Microsoft founder Paul Allen paid $1.3m back in 1993 for Hendrix’s Woodstock Strat will have to remain just that: rumours.

No instead we’re dealing in hard facts and confirmed numbers – and these 15 guitars are the most expensive instruments ever to go under the hammer.

Editor’s note: all figures below are converted into US Dollars and were correct at time of auction and not adjusted for inflation. 

15 George Harrison’s Futurama $1,270,000

The most expensive Beatles electric guitar ever sold at auction is probably the most humble – but it might also be the most important. On 20th November 1959 a young George Harrison bought the Futurama for just £59 and used it throughout The Beatles’ formative years both playing at Liverpool’s Cavern Club and into their hugely important Hamburg period.

Without this guitar, who knows how the most important band in history might have been changed, but by the time it was supplanted by his famous Gretsch Duo-Jet in 1962, its place in the lore of pop music was assured. It was later given away as a competition prize by Beat magazine, and was expected to hit just $800k when it was auctioned in November 2024. Instead, it became the first Beatles electric to crack the million dollar mark.

14 Eric Clapton’s ‘Fool’ 1964 Gibson SG $1,270,000

Eric Clapton’s Fool guitar at the media preview for Julien’s “Played, worn, torn rock ‘n’ roll iconic guitars and memorabilia” in 2023. Image: Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images

Perhaps Eric Clapton’s most distinctive instrument also has the distinction of being the most expensive sold at auction when the Fool went under the hammer in 2023. Hailing from Clapton’s Cream era, the Fool is celebrated as an enduring symbol of the psychedelic era in music, the 1964 Gibson SG earned its name from the Dutch art collective that gave it its striking finish. Sunshine of Your Love, White Room, I Feel Free… Clapton’s iconic Woman tone is all this guitar. It was bought by another familiar face – Jim Irsay.

13 Elvis Presley’s ‘Sun Sessions’ 1942 Martin D-18 $1,300,000

Image: Gotta Have Rock and Roll

The King played many guitars over his illustrious career, but perhaps none is more important or iconic than the Martin D-18 he used between 1954 and 1956 when recording at Memphis’ iconic Sun Studios – That’s All Right (Mama), Blue Moon of Kentucky and Good Rockin’ Tonight were all recorded using this guitar, though it’s a rare one on this list in that it actually sold for less than its estimate. It was touted to go for as much as $3 million, but in the end sold for ‘just’ $1.3 million.

12 Jeff Beck’s 1954 ‘Oxblood’ Les Paul $1,329,335

The most expensive Les Paul on our list is the most iconic guitar of one of the most iconic and respected guitar players to ever walk the earth. Jeff Beck first got his ‘Oxblood’ 1954 Les Paul when he was on tour with Beck, Bogert and Appice in late 1972, and it would go on to become a constant companion over the following few years.

The Oxblood Les Paul was the guitar used when Beck recorded his thundering version of Superstition, and when he joined David Bowie and The Spiders From Mars on stage. It was also his number one guitar when he went into the studio to cut his legendary Blow by Blow album – including the majestic and timeless ‘Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers.

11 Kurt Cobain’s ‘Sky Stang 1’ 1993 Fender Mustang $1,587,500

Kurt Cobain’s custom-built left-handed Fender Mustang on display at Hard Rock Cafe in New York City in 2019. Image: Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

Not the most iconic Kurt Cobain guitar, but this custom-ordered Mustang was Kurt’s primary instrument on their final In Utero tour, and was heavily used for Nirvana’s final show on 1 March 1994 in Munich. The guitar was created for Kurt by Fender Japan luthier Scott Zimmerman in 1993 (the US Custom Shop didn’t make lefty necks in those days), and was sold to Japanese businessman Mitsuru Sato in late 2023.

10 David Gilmour’s 1954 Fender Stratocaster $1,815,000

The Pink Floyd man’s second most iconic Strat is the one steeped in the most controversy – for years people assumed that the serial number #0001 meant it was the first Strat ever made. Instead, it turns out that #0100 was actually first, but this is still one of the first pre-production Strat prototypes ever made. The fact that this guitar is also laying down the rhythm parts on Another Brick In The Wall Pt 2 only further adds to this guitar’s legend.

9 Jerry Garcia’s Wolf Guitar $1,900,000

Another completely unique creation for the Grateful Dead man courtesy of Doug Irwin, the Wolf is perhaps even more eccentric than the Tiger, with a body made of ultra-strong purpleheart, capped back and front with bookmatched maple. The guitar also features an innovative plate system for mounting the pickups, which allowed Garcia to swap them from their original SSS configuration to the HHS it currently sports. The Wolf was auctioned in 2017 with proceeds benefiting the Southern Poverty Law Center.

8 John Lennon’s 1962 Gibson J-160E $2,410,000

John Lennon tuning his Gibson J-160E during the filming of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’. Image: Max Scheler – K & K/Redferns via Getty Image

With its electric-like volume and tone knobs and the pole pieces of a P-90 pickup rather artlessly sticking through the top between the neck and soundhole, the J-160E wasn’t Gibson’s most elegant design, but it was the perfect instrument for young songwriters craving amplification in the early 60s, including a couple of cats called John Lennon and George Harrison. This particular J-160E can be heard on Love Me Do and continued to be a favoured acoustic for Lennon throughout his career.

7 ‘Reach Out to Asia’ Fender Stratocaster $2,700,000

Reach Out To Asia Stratocaster. Image: Fender Wiki

Something of a curio on this list, this guitar isn’t an iconic artist instrument at all, but rather a stock Mexican-made white Fender Stratocaster that just happens to have been signed by (deep breath) Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Brian May, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Mark Knopfler, Ray Davies, Liam Gallagher, Ronnie Wood, Tony Iommi, Angus and Malcolm Young, Paul McCartney, Sting, Ritchie Blackmore, Def Leppard and organiser Bryan Adams. The guitar was auctioned off to help the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and certainly did its job.

6 Eddie Van Halen’s 1982 Kramer $2,734,000

Image: Kramer

“It’s very simply the best guitar you can buy today”. If you’re a guitar player of a certain age, you probably remember flicking through a guitar magazine and being presented by a striking picture of Eddie Van Halen, guitar in hand, lit cigarette tucked under his E string alonside this quote. It’s one of the most memorable and iconic guitar ads ever, and one that certainly did the Kramer brand no harm in the early 80s when EVH was at his most godlike pomp – the brand briefly became America’s biggest guitar brand off the back of this in the middle of the decade.

The guitar used in that shoot was a custom Kramer modelled on Eddie’s iconic ‘Frankenstein’ guitar – but with a striped Kramer ‘hockey stick’ headstock – and was also used for various shows in 1982 and 1983. Then later on in the decade, he gifted the guitar to his tech Rudy Leiren, and it still bears the autograph “Rude – it’s been a great ten years – let’s do another ten. Eddie Van Halen”.

Leiren sold the guitar to Mötley Crüe’s Mick Mars, who would use the guitar extensively on the band’s Dr. Feelgood record.  The guitar would later come to be auctioned at Sotheby’s with a massive $2 million estimate – a sign that expectations for iconic artist instruments are catching up with demand – but it still smashed through that. It’s not the most expensive Van Halen guitar on our list however…

5 John Lennon’s Framus Hootenanny 12-string $2,857,000

Credit: Julien’s Auctions

The guitar that was famously used on Help! and its accompanying album was thought lost to the sands of time for decades, until it was found in by the new owners of a house in the British countryside when they were clearing out the attic. The guitar was given to Scottish guitarist Gordon Waller, half of the pop duo Peter and Gordon, and then later handed over to one of his road managers, but the guitar hadn’t been seen in public for over 50 years. The guitar, which is seen being used by Lennon in the Help! movie during the performance of You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, was also used by Lennon to record It’s Only Love, I’ve Just Seen a Face and Girl, and by George Harrison for the rhythm track of Norwegian Wood. Before the auction in May 2024, there was speculation the guitar might end up becoming the most expensive ever sold at auction, but in the end the Framus had to settle for being the most expensive Beatles instrument ever, eclipsing Lennon’s J-160E (above).

4 Eddie Van Halen’s Hot For Teacher Kramer $3,932,000

Credit: Sotheby’s

Eddie Van Halen’s guitar designs have become almost as iconic as the man himself, but with most of EVH’s most iconic gear still treasured by his family, it’s rare for a bona fide EVH guitar to make it onto the open market. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that interest in this guitar, used by Eddie in the Hot For Teacher video, was so high – and the price tag followed suit.

3 David Gilmour’s Black Fender Stratocaster $3,975,000

Image: Eleanor Jane

The Black Strat is David Gilmour’s most iconic guitar and is also one that’s been heavily modified over the years – bought from Manny’s Music in New York, this 1968 model was originally Sunburst but had been refinished in Black by the time Gilmour bought it in 1970. It originally had a maple neck with a late-60s big headstock, but throughout the 70s Gilmour frequently swapped between two 50s necks, one with rosewood and maple. That wasn’t the end – over the decades since the pickups, tuners, pots, trem and scratchplate have all been swapped, and in fact it’s now estimated that the only original parts of the guitar remaining are the body, selector switch and (maybe) the bridge plate. Despite this, the Black Strat remains Gilmour’s most iconic instrument – the sound of Money, Comfortably Numb and scores more. It’s now part of the Jim Irsay Collection.

2 Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit Fender Mustang $4,550,000

The Fender Mustang used by Kurt Cobain in the ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ music video on display at Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus, 2022. Image: Rob Pinney/Getty Images

What does an iconic moment in guitar history cost? About four and a half million dollars it turns out. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Smells Like Teen Spirit music video changed the world, and in it Kurt Cobain is playing a rather fetching but typically unconventional lefty Lake Placid Blue Mustang with a competition strip – 1.5 billion YouTube views and countless hours of MTV airtime later, its place in the pop culture firmament was assured. Ironically, the guitar wasn’t really one of Kurt’s favourites, only really getting a run-out live on a few other occasions but its place in the Teen Spirit video assured its place in rock history, and in the Jim Irsay collection in 2022.

Kurt Cobain performing with his Martin D-18E during Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged. Image: Frank Micelotta Archive/Getty Images

1 Kurt Cobain’s Martin D-18E $6,010,000

If there’s one Kurt Cobain guitar moment that’s become even more iconic than the Teen Spirit video, it’s Nirvana’s incredible, bittersweet performance on MTV Unplugged. Kurt bought the D-18E in 1992 at Voltage Guitars in Los Angeles, and it’s a rare bird for Martin guitars in that it came out of the factory with the DeArmond pickups, but Kurt disliked their sound and had it modded with a Bartolini 3AV soundhole pickup. The guitar was left to Kurt’s daughter Francis Bean, and then ended up with her ex-husband Isaiah Silva as part of their divorce settlement. The guitar was purchased by RØDE Microphones founder, Peter Freedman in 2020 – and it’s not been topped since.

Editor’s note: this article was first published on 1 February 2024 and most recently updated on 27 October 2025. 

The post The 15 Most Expensive Guitars Sold At Auction appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

David Ellefson says Megadeth‘s music is the “most timeless” of all the big thrash bands.

In a new interview with Fox Rochester [via Blabbermouth], Ellefson – who served in the heavy metal outfit from 1983 until 2002, and then again from 2010 to 2021 – praises his former band for reaching audiences beyond listeners of the thrash genre itself.

“There was a benchmark we had when we started Megadeth, to write very epic-oriented music, stuff that could really be a soundtrack. And also stuff that was timeless. I think the music has really stood the test of time,” he says. “It doesn’t sound dated.”

• READ MORE: Death of Ace Frehley under investigation
  

“I think the Megadeth music, out of everybody in the thrash genre, I will go on record as saying, I think is probably the most timeless and will probably stand the test of time the most and be the most listened to by people that aren’t even just metalheads,” he goes on.

Ellefson adds that the band are not given enough credit for their “melodic” sound, adding: “It’s heavy, but it’s melodic. It’s listenable.

“So I think that’s jus the nature of rock and roll. The young generations are always the creators and they’re always pushing the envelope a little farther.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Ellefson notes how heavy metal became heavier after Megadeth with bands like Slipknot and Mudvayne.

“I remember when we were on tour with Ronnie James Dio, who is an icon – this was 1988 – talking with him one day on tour about how the next generation comes up. And our thrash metal was really heavy compared to what he was doing,” he continues.

“Then the masked bands come out – Slipknot, Mudvayne and all this stuff – so it gets heavier and heavier. Look, rock and roll has always been about pushing the limits, starting with Elvis [Presley]. That’s just the nature of what it’s supposed to be.”

Ellefson uses Kiss as an example of how thrash and heavy forms of metal from the 1970s and 1980s had become “family entertainment” by the 1990s. The change was clear, he says, because bands had “progressed” past what “our parents didn’t want us to listen to”.

He says: “I remember seeing the Kiss reunion in 1996. Me and [then-Megadeth guitarist] Marty Friedman went down, and I was looking at us going, as heavy and dark and daunting as this was, and our parents didn’t want us to listen to it, it was like family entertainment by then because of what had progressed past it.”

The post David Ellefson says Megadeth’s music is the “most timeless” of all the big thrash bands appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

As the falling leaves mark the start of autumn, Reverb is celebrating the changing of the seasons with a mega sale. With up to 60% off across guitars, pedals and amps, the Fall Into Gear sale could be the perfect chance to cop a bargain.

Reverb has sliced the prices on plenty of top brands, from Fender to Gibson. Squier in particular has a slew of mighty fine axes up for grabs, with a Limited Edition Paranormal Offset Telecaster SJ going for just £210.60. The Olympic White electric, complete with a laurel fingerboard and tortoiseshell pickguard, is 36% off and it’s in mint condition.

• READ MORE: Paul McCartney reflects on legendary Japan drugs bust that landed him in prison: “This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet!”

If you’re keen for a more vibrant Squier, there’s also a Shell Pink Sonic Mustang available. The sale has knocked 45% off the price, dropping it down to a very respectable £121.19. And who can argue with that classy pastel sheen?

In terms of stompboxes, the M173 MXR Classic 108 Fuzz pedal is currently 53% off. Now just £75.15, the MXR’s new pricepoint is befitting of its ‘70s crunch, perfect for the fuzz-loving garage rockers of the world. There’s also a mint Carl Martin PlexiTone Single Channel Distortion pedal available for £93.75. The simple-yet-effective stomper comes in its original packaging, ripe and ready to add some edgy distortion to your sound.

Elsewhere, a rare Marshall mixing desk is also included in the many sale offerings. Made in England back in 1978, the 8 Channel Marshall Mixer boasts 100 watts of power. It is also fitted with legit spring reverb, and can even go into overdrive – essentially offering the power of 8 head amps. It’s still in good nick, and it’s available for 20% off, costing £639.20.

Head over to Reverb to find more Fall Into Gear Sales Event deals. The sale runs until 3 November.

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The post Get up to 60% off guitars, amps and pedals in Reverb’s Fall Into Gear sale appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

While the matching bowl haircuts and boy-next-door charms might fool you, The Beatles were prone to their fair share of rock ‘n’ roll debauchery – need we mention 1967’s LSD-inspired Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? In fact, Paul McCartney very nearly earned himself a seven-year prison sentence back in 1980 for smuggling marijuana into Japan.

McCartney opens up about his prison scare in his new book, Wings: the Story of a Band on the Run. As he puts it, the weed was “excellent”, so it was worth the risk. “I was out in New York and I had all this really good grass,” the Beatles legend recalls [via The Sunday Times]. “We were about to fly to Japan, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get anything to smoke over there. This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet.”

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

Having just been in America, where President Carter was considering decriminalising cannabis, McCartney thought marijuana was “no big deal”. He’d also done plenty of ‘harder’ drugs in the past, notably “seeing God” on Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) during The Beatles’ heyday. The response from the Tokyo airport officials was a massive culture shock.

“It was the maddest thing [I’d done] in my life – to go into Japan, which has a seven-year hard-labour penalty for pot, and be so free and easy,” he recalls in horror. “I put a bloody great bag of the stuff right on the top of my suitcase. Why didn’t I even hide it in a pullover?”

McCartney’s daughters Stella and Mary were also present at the drugs bust. Mary chimes in with her own memory of the event: “I just remember them saying to Mum and Dad, ‘Whose is this?’… [then they looked] at each other, going, ‘Which one of us is going to do this? Because one of us needs to stay with the kids.’ Dad said it was him, and then they took him away.”

Though, Stella adds that “even a nine-year-old could have hidden skunk weed better” than her father had.

A customs officer inspects one of the plastic one of the plastic bags containing marijuana which hidden inside one of Paul McCartney’s luggages after he was arrested for illegal possession of marijuana at New Tokyo International Airport in Narita 1/16. Credit: Getty Images

The very same evening, McCartney confessed and was arrested for drug possession. “I apologised for breaking Japanese law,” he says. “It probably didn’t help that I had more than I could get through in a month… I had to go through my whole life story – which schools I went to, my father’s name, our address, my income. I even had to tell them about my MBE medal from the Queen.”

In the West, rockstars tend to be pretty open about their drug habits. Tony Iommi has gone on record admitting that Black Sabbath had a dealer show up “every day” during the recording on 1972’s Vol. 4, and The Rolling Stones were also prone to the odd acid trip. But, as McCartney puts it, the Japanese response was incredibly serious.

The musician had been travelling to perform in Japan with his band Wings. Overnight, every single tour poster was torn down. “Every hundred feet there had been a poster saying, ‘Wings – the greatest rock band in the world visits Japan 1980,’” Wings drummer Steve Holley notes. “They were everywhere… it was inestimable how many there were. And in the morning, they were all gone. The radio stations went silent, too. They wouldn’t play anything.”

Considering the severity, McCartney even thought his family would have to live in Japan to still see him behind bars. But he tried to remain positive. “I couldn’t sleep for the first three days…” he continues. “I had to share a bath with a bloke who was in for murder. I was afraid to take my suit off in case I got raped. But I’d seen all those prisoner-of-war movies and I knew you had to keep your spirits up.”

In order to “keep spirits up” McCartney did what he does best – he performed. “I’d organise singsongs with the other prisoners,” he admits. “There were guys in the next cell and we tried to communicate. I was trying to learn a few words in Japanese, and I could hear people saying konnichiwa (hello). So I turned that into “Connie Chua”. Like a high-school girl, Connie Chua. I could say arigato, thank you, but I couldn’t say much more.”

Despite only being in the prison for nine days, McCartney would write the book Japanese Jailbird reflecting on his experience. And, even though it was a stressful experience, prison guard Yasuji Ariga noted that McCartney remained “very polite and made a good impression on the guards”.

“I was happy to leave [after nine days], but I’d made a couple of friends in there so the parting was a little sad,” McCartney admits. “As I walked free, I was shaking hands with these prisoners through the letterboxes of their cells.”

However, the arrest didn’t seem to sour McCartney’s taste for marijuana. Following on from the arrest, McCartney would call for cannabis to be legalised four years later in 1984. Speaking to press outside of  a London Airport, he said: “I don’t believe [smoking cannabis] is a terribly harmful thing to do… cannabis is a whole lot less harmful than rum, whiskey, nicotine or glue – all of which are perfectly legal. I’d like to see it decriminalised, because I don’t think, in the privacy of my own room, I was doing anyone any harm whatsoever.”

McCartney’s new book, Wings: the Story of a Band on the Run, is out 4 November. McCartney will also be releasing a definitive collection of Wings tracks on 7 November.

The post Paul McCartney reflects on legendary Japan drugs bust that landed him in prison: “This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet!” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The world of amplifiers in 2024 is a wonderfully wide-ranging one, with tube amps, digital amps, floor amps, portable amps, practice amps desktop amps and more all promising brilliant tones at varying levels of volume. A little intimidated by the choice? Not to worry – we’ve put together this guide to the best amps no matter what you need, whether that’s a small home amp or a gigging powerhouse.

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

Digital amps continue to make excellent use of ever more powerful processing – from high-quality modelling units with endless amp sims and ins and outs, to stripped-back combos leveraging digital power for efficiency and reliability, digital amps have come leaps and bounds since those early days of fizzy direct sounds and tinny practice amps. And, of course, tube amp makers continue to find ways to make those classic circuits even more appealing to the modern player. There are plenty of excellent options out there, no matter what you want out of an amplifier. Let’s dive in.

The 14 best amplifiers, at a glance:

• Our pick: Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb
• Best solid state amp head: Orange Tour Baby 100
• Best affordable amp: Boss Katana 50 MkII EX
• Best tube amp: Bad Cat Hot Cat 1×12
• Best modelling amp: Fender Mustang GTX100
• Best desktop amp: Yamaha THR30II
• Best high-end amp: Marshall ST20H JTM Studio
• Best home amp: Positive Grid Spark Mini
• Best gigging amp: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV
• Best combo amp: Blackstar St. James 50 EL34
• Best amp head: Orange OR30
• Best amp pedal: Neural DSP Quad Cortex
• Best busking amp: Positive Grid Spark Live
• Best beginner’s amp: Blackstar Debut 50R
• Best metal amp: Victory The Kraken MKII
• Why you can trust Guitar.com

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Our pick: Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb

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Fender’s Tone Master amplifiers are pitched as modelling amps for those who hate modelling amps: no menus, no deep-editing, no complex multi-mode preamp selection. Instead, the modelling power is aimed squarely at a single amp – in this case, the Princeton Reverb. The result is a combo that sounds and looks basically indistinguishable from the real thing. Aside from that Tone Master badge, the best way to tell them apart is to pick them up, as this one’s literally half the weight of its bottle-fed counterpart.

The sounds are all there, and you can play it at home just as easily as you can on a stage. The power-reduction modes give you a consistent sound across all ends of the volume spectrum, and of course, achieve the awesome sound of a Fender combo breaking up without breaking any windows… or your relationship with your neighbours.

Need more? Read our Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb review.

Best solid-state amp head: Orange Tour Baby 100

Image: Press

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Digital modelling amps are all well and good, but analogue solid-state amps also have their advantages! And there’s perhaps no better example of that than Orange’s Tour Baby 100. It’s simultaneously a 100-watt powerhouse and a compact one-hand lift – while delivering a great sound thanks to its growling overdrive channel and sparkly clean channel. That built-in compressor helps you fast-track to a more interesting clean sound, too. And thanks to Orange’s general design ethos, it’s got a very versatile midrange-forward sound, great for many shades of rock and metal, and comes with a tour-ready gigbag for even more portability. Don’t trust anything less than bulletproof protection? Grab a rack-mount kit for it for even more ruggedness. It’s also pretty affordable at a hair under £500.

Need more? Read our Orange Tour Baby 100 review.

Best affordable amp: Boss Katana 50 MkII EX

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While the Tone Master Princeton Reverb is a very appealing prospect indeed, it’s still a relatively pricey amplifier. The Katana 50 MkII EX, however, is a good deal more affordable, and is just as happy on a stage as the Tone Master – but it can also provide excellent at-home practice sounds, through headphones, or its 12-inch speaker thanks to its power reduction switch. There’s a good range of sounds on tap here, with perfect cleans, chimey overdrive and full-bore metal all represented, plus a suite of effects thrown in, too. The EX version of the amp adds some extra footswitch control options, too – making going without a pedalboard a lot easier.

Need more? Read our Boss Katana 50 MkII EX review.

Best tube amp: Bad Cat Hot Cat 1×12

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Californian boutique brand Bad Cat has gone through, if not quite nine lives then several different iterations, but the current iteration was reborn in 2021 and overhauled the entire line of amps that had made the brand so sought-after in the first two decades of the 2000s. The Hot Cat is something of a statement of intent for the new Bad Cat – it might not be a hand-wired, super-high-end beast any more but it’s a classy combo for big cleans, edgy crunch and high-gain punishment, without you needing to remortgage your house. Arguably the most affordable way to get a slice of bona fide US-made boutique amp in 2023.

Need more? Read our Bad Cat Hot Cat 1×12 review.

Best modelling amp: Fender Mustang GTX100

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Loaded with a hefty 100 watts and a new custom-designed 12-inch Celestion speaker, the Mustang GTX100 is a very serious entry from Fender into the world of digital modelling combos. Unlike the Tone Master amps’ laser-focus, the Mustang GTX100 comes loaded with 39 amp models and 73 effects, which might just be more than you’ll ever need. It’s especially appealing as the GTX-7 foot controller is included in the price – this versatile bit of kit comes with a good number of footswitches, and makes using the GTX100 live without a pedalboard a breeze.

Need more? Read our Fender Mustang GTX100 review.

Best desktop amp: Yamaha THR30II

Image: Yamaha

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Arguably, the THR is the line of amps that invented this whole product category in the first place. There’s a good range of sounds, with 15 preamp models in total and effects ranging from subtle chorus to big reverbs. But this is all somewhat par for the course in 2024 – what gives the THR30II its edge are these two things: first, it looks like a cool retro radio and therefore can absolutely live on your coffee table without you having to plonk a big piece of obvious guitar equipment in the middle of your living room. Secondly, there’s a great range of I/O on offer, including direct USB recording and two quarter-inch line-outs.

Combine these two things with the sheer quality of the sounds, the THR30II nails what Yamaha has set out to do with the “third amp” approach. All of the sound and versatility of a “real” amp, none of the sacrifices of a practice amplifier. There’s also an acoustic version of the THR-30II, the THR-30IIA, which offers the voices of various microphones in lieu of a range of electric preamp modes, but just as much appealing good looks and versatile recording options.

Need more? Read our Yamaha THR30II review.

Best high-end amp: Marshall ST20H JTM Studio

Marshall ST20H JTM Studio. Image: Adam Gasson

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It’s no exaggeration to say that the JTM is part of the very fabric of rock music – after its introduction in 1962, it would shape the landscape of rock and blues by offering massive sounds to an exploding UK rock scene. This UK-made revamp of the JTM harkens back to the very earliest Marshall amps with that fawn cloth and ‘coffin’ Marshall badge. Sonically, the ST20H JTM Studio recreates all of the nuance of the original’s punchy, snarling take on a modified Fender bassman circuit, but there are some concessions to modernity, too. An effects loop and a power-reduction mode make this a very appealing prospect for the modern player indeed.

Need more? Read our Marshall ST20H JTM Studio review.

Best home amp: Positive Grid Spark Mini

Image: Adam Gasson

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The Spark Mini, Positive Grid’s adorable cube-shaped cousin of the full-sized Spark, is a massive acheivement in compact amplifier design. Because it doesn’t just sound good for a small practice amp. Nor does it just sound good for a modelling amp – it’s just a great sounding amp. Full stop. No qualifications. The passive radiator on the bottom of the amp – a similar thing to what you’ll find on a good modern bluetooth speaker – helps the pair of two-inch speakers create a lot more bass than would normally be possible. Combine this with quality modelling and an actually useful and intuitive companion app (it’s possible!), and you’ve got basically the perfect small amp for learning and playing around on at home.

Need more? Read our Positive Grid Spark Mini review.

Best gigging amp: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV

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If you know you’re going to be getting loud, then the Hot Rod Deluxe IV is an amazing option. It’s capable of moving more air than you could ever need, and its chewy tube overdrive sounds get even better if you bring some pedal friends along. If you need cleaner time-based effects, there’s an effects loop. Approachably priced, easily carriable from the boot of your car to the stage, reliable and versatile, there’s a reason the HRD is one of the most popular gigging workhorses around.

Need more? Read our Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV review.

Best combo amp: Blackstar St. James 50 EL34

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The pitch of the St. James series is this: a fully-fledged tube amp, but without the massive weight. A number of design changes to the regular tube amp format have been made, such as the use of a switching-mode power supply instead of a heavy transformer. The cabs and combos use a specially-made Celestion speaker with a lightweight frame and driver. The result is that the St James 50 EL34 is an easy one-hand lift – no mean feat for a fully-fledged 50-watt tube combo. That’d be all for naught if the sounds weren’t there, but luckily they are, with an excellent black-panel-style tonal palette that soaks up pedal tones amazingly. For an all-in-one combo package, it’s hard to argue with – and that’s not even mentioning the bevvy of smart features packed in, too!

Need more? Read our Blackstar St. James 50 EL34 review.

Best amp head: Orange OR30

Orange OR30

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From a lightweight tube combo with lots of smart features to a decidedly not lightweight tube head with zero smart features. Yes, the Orange OR30 is a made-in-the-UK tube head that promises old-school simplicity with just one channel. But that’s not to say it’s not versatile – the gain control has a frankly absurdly wide sweep, with everything from pristine cleans to the massive, roaring fuzziness Orange has become known for represented.

Combine that with built-like-a-tank construction, an effects loop and a low-power mode, it’s a great option for the modern player, despite its old-school approach. Notably, it’s also one of the loudest 30-watters out there – Orange claims it can kick out SPLs to rival 100-watt heads!

Need more? Read our Orange OR30 review.

Best amp pedal: Neural DSP Quad Cortex

Image: Neural DSP

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The world of amp-sim pedals is a wide and varied one, but for our money the Quad Cortex remains top of the heap when it comes to sheer modelling power and I/O capability. It might be magic, it might just be complex neural-net modelling – either way, the quality of the amplifier captures on offer here are astounding.

It’s not just their sonic fidelity – the models here also manage to capture that ever-elusive feel of real amplifiers. The unit itself is relatively compact, which, combined with its extensive I/O offerings, makes it a great option for gigging. You can replacing a whole complex amp and pedalboard setup with something the length and breadth of a laptop. The future is pretty neat, eh?

Need more? Read our Neural DSP Quad Cortex review.

Best busking amp: Positive Grid Spark Live

Positive Grid Spark Live. Image: Adam Gasson

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Not content with making an excellent small, low-volume home amplifier in the form of the Spark Mini, Positive Grid also wanted to create an equally innovative live tool. The Spark Live, rather than just being a larger Spark, is for all intents and purposes an entire live backline crammed into one compact enclosure.

It leverages the same smart tech that makes the Spark so easy to use, plus a few new bells and whistles, to cram a guitar amp, a bass amp and vocal processor all into the same enclosure, effectively a superpowered FRFR speaker that can easily support a small band. All very cool – even cooler is the fact that the rechargeable battery (sold separately) promises eight hours of performance time: absolutely perfect for busking.

Need more? Read our Positive Grid Spark Live review.

Best beginner’s amp: Blackstar Debut 50R

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What makes the Blackstar Debut 50R such an appealing prospect for absolute beginners is this: it’s simple. Not including a smorgasbord of digitally-modelled sounds on an amp aimed at absolute beginners is, for our money, a smart choice – as it’s all analogue, what you see is what you get.You’re already busy getting your head around an F barre chord – you don’t need the extra cognitive load of trying to remember how the preset recall button works. Instead, the Debut 50R does a great job of just letting you play the guitar.

That’s not to say it’s a totally stripped-back, old-school affair – there is a line-in for playing along to tracks, a fairly decent headphone out for direct recording and silent practice, a power-reduction mode for quietening things down. And when you’re ready to move from a bedroom to a stage, the Debut 50R can come with you. The 50-watt power section will be more than happy to keep up with a drummer. The rest is up to you!

Need more? Read our Blackstar Debut 50R review.

Best metal amp: Victory The Kraken MKII

Image: Victory Amplification

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The latest update to the Kraken, Victory Amplification’s flagship metal monster, refines an already great amp into an absolutely fantastic one. As well as an overall refine of the sound, major circuit additions come in the form of a new presence control – good for adding some cutting bite to things – and to a brand-new clean channel, acheived by attenuating the lower-gain, JCM800-based Gain I channel for a spongey, responsive clean sound woth bags of character. But, of course, the main appeal is the Gain II channel – a fire-breathing take on a modded 5150-style circuit.

The result is a near-perfect metal sound: plenty of crunch, more than enough gain, and it can be as aggressive as you like or as compressed as you like. That pretty much covers the metal guitar tonal palette, and the excellent performance at the other end of the gain scale makes this a very versatile offering indeed. Or, you know, good for that 10-second clean intro before 50 minutes of riffs.

Need more? Read our Victory The Kraken MKII review.

Why You Can Trust Us

Every year, Guitar.com reviews a huge variety of new products – from the biggest launches to cool boutique effects – and our expert guitar reviewers have decades of collective experience, having played everything from Gibson ’59 Les Pauls to the cheapest Squiers.

That means that when you click on a Guitar.com buyer’s guide you’re getting the benefit of all that experience to help you make the best buying decision for you.What’s more, every guide written on Guitar.com was put together by a guitar obsessive just like you. You can trust that every product recommended to you in those guides is something that we’d be happy to have in our own rigs.

The post The 14 best amplifiers for all styles and budgets appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

An investigation into the death of KISS guitarist Ace Frehley has been launched.

The veteran musician died in Morristown, New Jersey on October 16 at the age of 74. A statement shared by Frehley’s family confirmed the guitarist – also known as Spaceman – died “peacefully surrounded by family” following “a recent fall at his home”.

Medical examiners in New Jersey confirmed they would be opening an investigation into the death. Frehley’s cause of death will be finalised in the next few weeks pending a toxicology report, according to a Morris County Medical Examiner who spoke to TMZ.

The medical examiner added that, while no autopsy was done, external examinations and a toxicology report are currently being carried out.

Credit: Gary Miller/Getty Images

A statement from Frehley’s family, released at the time of his death, reads: “We are completely devastated and heartbroken. In his last moments, we were fortunate enough to have been able to surround him with loving, caring, peaceful words, thoughts, prayers and intentions as he left this earth.

“We cherish all of his finest memories, his laughter, and celebrate his strengths and kindness that he bestowed upon others. The magnitude of his passing is of epic proportions, and beyond comprehension. Reflecting on all of his incredible life achievements, Ace’s memory will continue to live on forever!”

Tributes were also made in an official statement from Kiss. A post to the band’s social media hailed Frehley as a crucial part of the group’s history.

Kiss’s tribute read: “We are devastated by the passing of Ace Frehley. He was an essential and irreplaceable rock soldier during some of the most formative foundational chapters of the band and its history.

“He is and will always be a part of Kiss’s legacy. Our thoughts are with Jeanette, Monique and all those who loved him, including our fans around the world.”

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Frehley would found Kiss in 1973 alongside singer Paul Stanley, bassist Gene Simmons and drummer Peter Criss. He left the band a decade later to pursue a solo career but rejoined the group in 1996. Frehley would leave again in 2002, and did not rejoin the band for their 2022 farewell tour.

Further tributes were made by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and progressive metal band Opeth. Ex-Kiss member Bruce Kulick also hailed Frehley as an “iconic guitar player” who had an “undeniable role in the creation and success of Kiss”.

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A post shared by Tom Morello (@tommorello)

The legendary guitarist, who once said he was an “anomaly” of a musician [via The Guardian], would help Kiss write hits like I Was Made for Lovin’ You, Detroit Rock City, and Love Gun. Frehley would also achieve success as a solo artist. He released his final album, 10,000 Volts, in 2024. It peaked at 72 on the US Billboard 200 chart.

The post Death of Ace Frehley under investigation appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$419/£499, gretschguitars.com

As this week’s cover story explained in more detail than I’ve got room to go into here, the Gretsch Corvette is something of a unique proposition in the world of electric guitars. Here we have a solidbody electric design that was created during the Golden Era of American electric guitar manufacturing, by one of the most beloved and famous brands of that time that hasn’t been done to death.

• READ MORE: From vintage oddball to alternative classic: the Gretsch CVT’s remarkable journey

Let that sink in – despite the Corvette having found its way into the hands of literal icons like Jimi Hendrix and Rory Gallagher, this is a guitar that’s still under the radar. We live in a time guitarists are so desperate for the big brands to offer them something – anything – outside of the same half a dozen shapes that we’re seeing 70s landfill like the RD Artist and Starcaster get revived to huge fanfare.

Which is all to say it’s remarkable it’s taken Gretsch so long to get here. It’s been nearly 20 years since Gretsch first added an Electromatic Corvette into the line-up, and half a decade since it was discontinued. In that time, however, we’ve seen multiple signature models that speak to the design’s enduring appeal and outsider chic – for Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, guitar-toting rapper G. Love and most importantly Bleachers frontman and Taylor Swift mega-producer Jack Antonoff.

That guitar – technically branded a Princess, the Corvette’s short-lived little sister – is perhaps the most important piece in that puzzle. When that guitar dropped last year, people promptly lost their collective shit – as did I, frankly – and I don’t doubt that the resounding reception that guitar was given has fed into the revival of the Corvette into the line proper, albeit with a new name: the CVT.

Image: Adam Gasson

Gretsch CVT – what is it?

Pithily, it’s a Corvette without the vowels, innit? But on closer inspection there’s actually a fair bit here that explains why Gretsch felt the need to give it a new name altogether. For starters, when you put a classic Corvette next to the CVT, you’ll notice that the body has been subtly tweaked for reasons of both form and function.

Most notably the body is about a centimetre thicker than the original, while the carve on the sides has been lessened – you don’t get those SG-like edges here. The top horn has also been made a little stubbier than the original design, which makes the guitar look a little more stocky and aggressive – personally I think it’s a bit of a glow up, but your mileage may vary.

And there are more big changes outside of the cosmetic stuff. Most notably, the CVT is a bolt-on design rather than a set-neck – something that Gretsch says was done to take some of the low-end fuzziness out of the guitar’s all-mahogany build. The scale length is the same 24.6 inches as all the Gretsch Jets – so it’ll feel a little more compact than a Gibson but not really noticeably so. The headstock has also been tweaked – swapping the paddle-like original for a pointy ‘Falcon’-style option. The best compliment you can give it is that you’ll instantly assume it’s always been like that, as the shape compliments the body’s lines much more naturally.

Elsewhere you’ll find a pair of Gretsch’s Twin Six humbuckers and a no-fuss intonatable wrapover tune-o-matic-style bridge. As someone who absolutely loves Filter’Trons, I always think it’s a shame when Gretsch puts more generic humbucking pickups in its affordable guitars, but given the CVT’s hard-rocking target market, it probably makes sense. The humbuckers eschew any Gretsch switching eccentricity in favour of a simple three-way toggle with shared volume and tone controls.

Image: Adam Gasson

Gretsch CVT – build quality and playability

Even if you weren’t aware of the changes to the CVT’s body depth, you’d probably notice it when you heaved the guitar out of its box. This is no Les Paul in terms of its weight, but my example tipped the scales at very nearly 8lbs. Now, for most people, that’s perfectly acceptable, and you probably wouldn’t have a sore shoulder after gigging this all night. However, it was still heavier than I expected, and heavier than it looks like it should be – something that’s exacerbated somewhat by a lot of that weight seemingly focused on the bottom of the guitar. It’s not enough to make it feel unbalanced, but I still felt a pull to that end more than I’d like on the strap. It’s probably not helped by the baffling choice to stick the top strap button under the horn – just put it on the back!

That asides though, you really do have to remind yourself that this guitar barely costs $400. The build, fit and finish is absolutely flawless all over – I couldn’t find a single mark, rough edge, oversprayed finish or untidy assembly anywhere, and removing the scratchplate reveals a very tidy and unfussy wiring job too.

The neck profile is what Gretsch calls a ‘Performance C’ and it’s very comfortable if a tad generic. It won’t please the baseball bat aficionados, but it strikes a nice balance between giving you something to grip onto when you’re chugging away at the bottom end, without compromising the performance when you want to get a bit widdly up top. Speaking of which, the carve on the heel, while not removing the inherent chonk of a bolt-on arrangement, definitely makes those upper-fret excursions more comfortable than it would be otherwise. With very little to go wrong here, it’s perhaps no surprise that the tuning stability is rock solid, but you should never take it for granted – many a great guitar has been hampered fatally by an inability to stay in tune, and given this guitar’s rock-oriented persuasion, it needs to be able to take some heavy handed punishment and stay the course.

Image: Adam Gasson

Gretsch CVT – sounds

Unplugged resonance is always a great bellwether of an electric guitar’s overall performance, and again things are really encouraging here – it’s bright, snappy and lively. There is some minor string buzz on the D string when played open, but it’s probably a price worth paying for an action that is low and slinky.

In addition to its famous signature adherents, Gretsch is clearly aware of the brand’s growing popularity with artists at the heavier end of the spectrum and it’s hard not to see the CVT as a direct response to that.

That’s certainly the case when you plug in – these Twin Six humbuckers are pokey, to say the least. They will snarl with almost any encouragement and positively lap up gain – be that smooth overdrive, glitchy fuzz or indeed heavier slabs of crushing distortion. What’s really impressive is that they don’t ever get muddy or wooly with this – the extra midrange bump offered by that bolt-on is clearly doing its job here.

The bridge pickup is a riff monster, with power and clarity that makes short work of heavy chugs, arpeggiated chords and rapid powerchords. The neck pickup has that chewy, thick quality that a mahogany solidbody neck humbucker should have – adding some delay and reverb to a driven tone offers impressive sustain and clarity, again without ever getting too dark and messy.

You’ll notice I started talking about the gained-up sounds out of the gate and there’s a reason for that. When you’re dealing with a sub-$500 twin-humbucker solidbody, you know it’s likely to not be the most inspirational instrument for cleans, and so it is here. These aren’t bad sounds – there’s still that clarity and midrange punch to make them perfectly usable, especially if you’re running it into some good reverb and delay pedals – but there’s a definite lack of character to the unvarnished tonality.

Image: Adam Gasson

Gretsch CVT – should I buy one?

The most exciting thing about the budget end of the guitar market in recent years is how interesting and diverse it has become – gone are the days where if you wanted something with a pair of humbuckers in it for under $500, your choices were Les Paul, SG or maybe something pointy.

The CVT slides into this market with a confidence and focus that befits a design that has technically been around almost as long as some of the icons that its rubbing shoulders with here. It’s easy in the guitar world to naturally equate old with good, but there’s something authentic and classic about the Corvette shape, modified though it is here, that gives the CVT an extra bit of kudos and credibility.

It looks good, plays good and – provided you’re not buying it purely for the clean sounds – it sounds great, too. A new heavyweight contender in the budget rock guitar world has arrived.

Gretsch CVT – alternatives

If you want a Gretsch guitar that sounds a bit more, well, Gretsch-y then the G5220 Electromatic Jet ($579) sports more classic Broad’Tron pickups. If you want an affordable hard-rockin’ electric that’s a little more lightweight, Epiphone SG Standard ($599) is lot of guitar for the money – it’s not hard to imagine that the SG was on the mood board when Gretsch was designing the original Corvette too. Yamaha’s Revstar Element ($599) is another twin-bucker double-cut solidbody that stands out from the crowd – they’re killer guitars for the money too.

The post Gretsch CVT review: a cult classic reborn as a stripped down rock machine appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Remember how we said Loog just partnered with Sanrio on a range of Hello Kitty-branded child-friendly guitars? Well, the Hello Kitty hype must be in full swing, as Fender has just expanded its own Hello Kitty Collection.

The lore behind Hello Kitty guitars is rich, but let me try to quickly clue you in: Fender first launched its Hello Kitty Strat back in 2006, notably to little reception. 

However, after YouTuber TheDooo began uploading videos of himself playing the guitar in the late 2010s, searches for the six-string dramatically ticked upward, with average prices on Reverb rising 254% from $275 to $700.

Ever able to spot an opportunity in the market, Fender relaunched the Hello Kitty Strat last year, also coincidentally on Hello Kitty’s 50th-anniversary year.

Now, the Big F is keeping the Hello Kitty love alive, with a slew of new additions to its Hello Kitty Collection, not least a new white-finished Squier Stratocaster, priced at £439.99.

Beyond its white finish and unmistakable Hello Kitty decals across its body, the Fender Hello Kitty White Stratocaster boasts an easy-playing C-shape neck, contoured body, Fender humbucking pickup with volume control, and vintage-style tuning machines. A Deluxe Hello Kitty gig bag also comes included.

And if repping a Hello Kitty-branded Strat just wasn’t enough, the collection now includes a Hello Kitty fuzz pedal (£99.99), with an op amp-based circuit offering fuzz flavours from “overdrive-like grit to full-on ripping fuzz”.

There’s also a Hello Kitty pink and white woven guitar cable (£25.99), Hello Kitty White Poly Strap (£30.99), as well as two new T-shirt designs and a crewneck sweatshirt.

Learn more about Fender’s updated Hello Kitty Collection.

The post A range of Hello Kitty-branded Loog guitars just hit the market, but don’t worry – there’s a new full-sized White Hello Kitty Strat from Fender, too appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Looking for the perfect gift for the budding guitarist in your life? Loog Guitars has teamed up with Sanrio on a new collection of kid-sized Hello Kitty guitars designed to help beginners pick up the guitar – and to make first riffs look ridiculously adorable.

• READ MORE: Loog is branching out to larger-sized instruments for adults and teens

The new Loog × Sanrio collaboration centres on a trio of compact, beginner-focused instruments: a mini three-string version of the cult favourite Hello Kitty Strat, complete with pickup and jack and two Loog Mini Acoustics in pink and white, each dressed in Hello Kitty artwork.

Every instrument also comes shipped with educational flashcards and access to Loog’s learning app, giving young learners everything they need to turn curiosity into actual chord progress.

“Cute, colourful, and totally beginner-friendly, these guitars are the ultimate first-instrument gift for kids ready to strum their very first songs!” says Loog.

The release follows Fender’s own Hello Kitty Stratocaster reissue last year, launched in celebration of the character’s 50th anniversary. That drop reignited the frenzy surrounding one of Fender’s most unexpected cult hits.

Originally introduced in 2006 as the Squier Hello Kitty Stratocaster, the model went largely under the radar at first, until YouTuber TheDooo began featuring it in viral Omegle jam videos in the late 2010s. According to Reverb, searches for the six-string skyrocketed, and resale prices followed suit, jumping from around $275 to an average of $700 – a 254 percent increase.

Fender’s 2024 relaunch offered two versions: the Squier Limited Edition Hello Kitty Stratocaster priced at $499, and the premium Made in Japan Fender Limited Edition Hello Kitty Stratocaster, exclusive to Tokyo’s flagship store and priced around $2,145.

Now, Loog’s partnership with Sanrio brings that same pop-culture energy to a younger audience, trading full-scale nostalgia for smaller frets and beginner-friendly fun. With the Hello Kitty craze alive and well, these new Loog guitars might just inspire the next generation of players (or collectors) one adorable riff at a time.

Learn more at Loog Guitars.

The post These Hello Kitty-branded Loog guitars are the most adorable instruments of all time appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Between Jake Kiszka and Ida Mae’s Chris Turpin, Mirador sounds like the guitar dream team you didn’t know you needed. But Turpin admits he was once worried fans might think he was “defiling” the Greta Van Fleet guitarist by starting the band with him.

The pair first crossed paths backstage in Detroit in 2018, when Ida Mae were opening for Greta Van Fleet. And now, with their self-titled debut album out last month, they’re reflecting on those first impressions in a chat with Classic Rock.

“Chris was this Zorro-like figure,” Kiszka says. “Like Strider sitting at the end of the bar. I was immediately struck by his playing. It was really incredible. And some of that earlier blues and folk stuff, it’s really rare to find players who can do that.”

• READ MORE: “We knew there was going to be quite a bit of scrutiny”: Jake Kiszka felt “pressure” at what Greta Van Fleet fans would think of his Mirador side project

Turpin, meanwhile, was equally impressed by Kiszka. “I’ve grown up with those hyper-classic guitar heroes; I loved Cream, Hendrix, Paul Kossoff from Free,” he explains. “And all of a sudden this… prick was there, going to the front, the guitar behind the head, and to these screaming people. I remember catching him topless backstage and being like: ‘Where the fuck have you guys been?! I’ve been waiting for a band like you for ten years!’”

Their first Mirador gigs only confirmed the chemistry. As Kiszka puts it, “it was like a nuclear reactor going off!”

“It’s incredibly exciting,” says the guitarist. “Because when you play in a band for years and years, there comes a point where the change in evolution becomes a bit more incremental. But what’s really exciting about this band is that everything is so fresh. Every single night is drastically different. There’s constant change, constant growth, constant communication.”

For Turpin though, that excitement came with its own set of anxieties.

“It was sink or swim,” he says. “Like: ‘Are these Greta fans gonna love this? Or are they gonna think I’m Beelzebub taking their precious baby away, breaking their hearts and defiling him?!’ But to see them get invested in it has been amazing. Tickets went so quickly. Mainly Jake fans. Ida Mae fans aren’t that quick off the mark. And there aren’t as many.’”

For now, despite ongoing commitments to their respective groups, the pair remain drawn to Mirador, describing the band as a creatively exciting project that will likely demand significant time and energy.

“This is such a time of creative excitement that I’m drawn to Mirador as often as I can,” Kiszka says. “It’ll be interesting to see what we develop as time goes on, and how we pace this thing.”

“Mirador feels like it’ll turn into this raging beast that’s going to take up a lot of time,” Turpin adds.

The post Mirador guitarist was worried Greta Van Fleet would think he was “defiling” Jake Kiszka by starting a band with him appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Warren Haynes says there’s no need to panic about the state of guitar music. The Gov’t Mule bandleader believes the instrument’s popularity comes in waves – and right now, it’s in a “pretty good place”.

Speaking on Andy Frasco’s World Saving Podcast, the Allman Brothers legend shares his thoughts on the supposed “death” of rock and the cyclical nature of public taste.

• READ MORE: “People who say rock is dead just wanna listen to Kiss”: Why Wolfgang Van Halen believes guitar music is still thriving

Asked if he thinks the guitar is dying, Haynes replies, “I think it, intermittently, kind of goes away for a while, and comes back. I kind of feel like it’s always going to come back. And I think we’re in a pretty good place right now. There’s a lot of good guitar music out there. It usually is about the music, or an artist, or band that comes along and kind of brings it back.”

Haynes adds that talk of rock’s demise has been around for decades, but history keeps proving the doubters wrong.

“People have been asking that question for decades,” he says. “I think going back to the early ‘90s, when people were saying rock ‘n’ roll was dead, and bands like The Black Crowes came along and proved that it wasn’t. So, yeah, I think it’s kind of a sine wave. People get tired of whatever it is they’re hearing, and something fresh comes along and kind of changes their palate for a while. But I feel like guitars are here to stay.”

Elsewhere in the chat, Haynes also names some of the newer acts he enjoys, noting that “there’s a bunch” even though he doesn’t ‘stay as on top of it as he probably should’.

“That band Robert Jon & the Wreck is cool. Of course, Marcus King is making a lot of headway, but I think there are a lot of young kids who are hearing like Derek Trucks playing open E, like this guy, Johnny Stachela, who plays with The Allman Betts Band. And there are a lot of people breathing new life into that these days.”

The guitarist also shouts out Dirty Honey for carrying the torch of old-school rock energy.

“This band, Dirty Honey, that I heard recently, it’s kind of a rock band in the traditional sense of the word,” says Haynes. “And I think it’s fun to see people [from] a generation that didn’t grow up here in all this music that we heard, and they’re discovering it for the first time and discovering bands that keep that music alive as well.”

“You know, it’s so odd because we get these young kids at Gov’t Mule shows occasionally, and they’re 14 and 15, and they’re just now discovering Gov’t Mule, but they’re also just now discovering Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, you know, so and Warren and that.”

The post “It’s a sine wave. Guitars are here to stay”: Warren Haynes says the cyclical nature of guitar music is normal appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Less than a year after Kerry King swore that Slayer were finished for good, the thrash metal legends have announced a 2026 headline slot at the brand-new Sick New World Texas festival.

Set for 24 October, 2026, at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, the inaugural edition of Sick New World Texas festival will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Slayer’s landmark album Reign In Blood. The stacked lineup also includes System of a Down, Deftones, Evanescence, The Prodigy, Marilyn Manson, Knocked Loose, AFI, Ministry, Mastodon, and Power Trip.

Fans can sign up now at SickNewWorldFest.com/Texas for presale access starting 24 October at 10AM CT, with remaining tickets available to the public later that day.

• READ MORE: This is the likelihood Slayer will release a new album, according to Kerry King

The announcement comes not long after Slayer’s string of high-profile reunion performances in 2025, including Louder Than Life in Louisville, Hersheypark Stadium in Pennsylvania, and Festival d’été de Québec, plus UK appearances at Cardiff’s Blackweir Fields and London’s Finsbury Park. The band, which officially disbanded in 2019, also played a six-song set at Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning farewell concert in Birmingham this July.

King, who now runs his own band and just last year released his first solo album From Hell I Rise, previously insisted that 2025 would be Slayer’s final run.

In an interview with Australia’s Metal Roos last December, the guitarist said that Slayer were officially done: “We’re never gonna make a record again. Mark my word: we’re never gonna make a record again, we’re never gonna tour again. Because that was the last thing. We said [back in 2018], ‘This is our final tour.’ It took five years for us to come and say, ‘Hey, here’s a couple of shows, five-year anniversary.’”

Fans might now be taking those words with a pinch of salt – or perhaps a full devil-horn salute. Either way, it looks like Slayer’s “final” chapter isn’t quite over yet.

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JHS Pedals founder and self-confessed gear obsessive Josh Scott has opened up about the origins of the NOTAKLÖN – the DIY stompbox kit that blends the legendary Klon circuit with the simplicity of flat-pack furniture, all for under $100.

Speaking to Guitar World, Scott reveals how the do-it-yourself spirit of the Swedish furniture giant inspired the design of the modular overdrive pedal, which debuted in 2023.

• READ MORE: Klon Centaur maker’s lawsuit against Behringer has been dismissed

“It came from me loving the Klon,” he says. “But there are so many good replications or clones of the circuit, and I wanted to do something unique. After several years of wrestling with that dynamic, I had an epiphany at an IKEA.”

That moment led him to think about what psychologists call the “IKEA Effect”: the idea that people value things more when they assemble them themselves.

“That’s a big piece of IKEA’s success,” says Scott. “And it felt like a really fun idea. I saw a product where parents who love the JHS brand could do something as a craft with their kids. That’s how we filmed the video and marketed the product.”

While there’s no shortage of Klon-style pedals or DIY kits on the market, Scott says the NOTAKLÖN stands out for its playful and approachable design.

“There are clones of the Klon circuit, even DIY kits, but there’s nothing as simple, modular, intuitive and almost Lego-like as the NOTAKLÖN,” he explains. “I don’t have vast ideas about changing or reshaping the market, but I do think it’s a truly innovative way to make a pedal.”

Not everyone, however, shared in the fun.

“It even irritated a few people,” Scott admits. “I saw a couple of other pedal builders who seemed to be annoyed by how toy-like and fun it was. And to me, that was the whole point. I wasn’t trying to change the world – I was trying to create a product that got parents to build something they love with their kids.”

Since then, JHS has followed up with the NOTADÜMBLË, released earlier this year. And while some might see the company as leading a new DIY pedal trend, Scott is quick to put things in perspective.

“There have always been DIY kits – JHS is not special in that,” he says. “[But] I do think that our product line is less intimidating and more satisfying to build for most customers. Not everybody wants to solder; not everybody feels like they can, and that’s okay. We give them a product they feel comfortable with. To me, that’s how it changes the game.”

The post “I had an epiphany at IKEA!” This JHS pedal “annoyed” some builders because of how “fun” it was appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.