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The power of change: why Taylor’s Gold Label guitars are getting bigger, and why you should be excited
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Andy Powers wants to make Taylor fans a little uncomfortable, sort of. “Well not uncomfortable,” the ever-affable Taylor CEO quickly corrects himself. “But I think it does feel like a bit of a surprise. Like, ‘Where are we going with this? I did not expect that sort of change from you’.”
Powers is talking to us about the Gold Label series of instruments – a totally new line for Taylor that debuted back at the NAMM Show in January 2025… and quickly became some of the most talked about guitars to come out of El Cajon in a very long time.
Because anyone who knows and loves Taylor Guitars knows that there’s a pretty successful formula – the look tends to be clean, sleek and modern, the bodies tend to prioritise player comfort with cutaways and contours, the sound tends to be pristine and hi-fi, and the playability is slinky and inviting. But the first Gold Label instruments broke with at least a couple of those conventions – with radically different looks and a wealth of under the hood innovations that made them, in some ways, the most un-Taylor guitars the company has ever made.
Or to quote our review of the Gold Label 814e, “A guitar that melds vintage warmth with the precision and clarity we’ve come to expect from a V-Class guitar – if you’ve been left cold by Taylor guitars in the past, this might make you take another look.”
And to hear Powers himself talk about it, that was very much the point: “This is a different flavor altogether,” he explained to us ahead of launch. “Equally good, equally interesting, but probably speaks to a different musician – or different use case at least. And so this will be interesting to watch expand. There’s a lot that we can do with this coming in the future.”
Plenty of players have clearly already got the message when it comes to the Gold Label Collection, because that future is already here. Barely six months after the initial launch, part two of the Gold Label Collection might be its most exciting development yet.
Image: Taylor
Pushing Power
The original Gold Label 814e guitar also debuted a brand new Super Auditorium body shape that was designed to take advantage of two revolutionary Andy Powers creations – a Fanned interpretation of V-Class bracing, and the brand new long-tenon Action Control Neck
. The result was a warmer, rounder and more robust tone that felt dramatically different from any other Taylor guitar that had come before it, and also more traditional and vintage at the same time.
The Super Auditorium felt like a more classic take on the traditional Taylor formula, but anyone who played a Gold Label guitar knew instantly that this could be used in a variety of different ways. But the non-cutaway 814e was already a pretty big guitar – few would have expected the next evolution of the Collection would be to go even bigger. Enter the Gold Label Grand Pacific.
The Grand Pacific body shape was already the big brother of the modern Taylor line – a slope-shouldered design that’s pretty much the exact same width, length and depth as a classic Dreadnought guitar. But for the Gold Label, Powers decided that the sonic qualities of the design meant he could go even bigger than a dread.
The Gold Label GP retains the beautiful dimensions of the original, but this thing is an extra 3/8-inch deeper – making it a whopping five inches deep at the soundhole. That’s deeper than a dread, that’s deeper than a Super Jumbo… but Taylor is known for making smaller and more compact bodied acoustics still sound fantastic… why would the good folks in El Cajon suddenly want to go in the other direction?
The answer is “lung capacity” – the extra body depth in the Gold Label Grand Pacific gives the guitar more low-end expressiveness, a deeper resonant frequency, and of course, a little more ‘sonic push’ when it comes to volume. In practice this translates to a guitar that combines the wonderfully in-tune and clear high-end characteristics of a V-Class guitar with an expanded low-end expressiveness – giving your notes and chords articulation and clarity wherever you play them.
It can also shout with the best of them. While the onboard LR Baggs Element VTC means you’ll sound great when plugging in, the sheer power and volume available with the Gold Label GP will mean you’ll have no problem being heard should you choose not to.
Image: Taylor
Colour & The Shape
The look of the original Gold Label 814e was head-turning, and that was entirely intentional, “With that sound in hand, I needed to appoint the guitar appropriately.” Powers explained. “And this does feel like such a radical change for us.”
Powers drew on his love of vintage banjo and archtops of the pre-war period, plus the acoustic guitar-making language of the 1930s, to inform the radically classic look of the Gold Label guitars.
But the new spruce/rosewood 717e and spruce/mahogany 517e also add another striking look to the palette to go with the eye-catching sunburst options of the 814e. The 717e and 517e Blacktops do exactly what it says on the tin – painting the spruce top black for a strikingly vintage and old school appearance. If Taylor had been making guitars during the Great Depression, they might very well have looked like this, and it’s a stunning prospect.
It all adds up to demonstrate why the Gold Label concept is such an exciting one for Taylor – whether you’re a devotee of their guitars or not. This is a company boldly stepping out of their comfort zone and trying different things, but alloyed to the precision and innovation the brand is synonymous with.
The obvious and safe thing to do would have been to follow up the Gold Label’s initial success with something safe and more traditionally Taylor – a cutaway guitar or one with a Grand Auditorium body shape, for instance. Neither of those options would have been wrong of course, but it shows the commitment of Powers and his team to use Gold Label to broaden the brand’s horizons. They’re pushing into the unknown here, and that’s by design.
“I don’t have it entirely mapped out,” Powers explained of the grand plan for the Gold Label Collection. “That would be tremendously boring, because then it might as well be done! I like there to be a little bit of adventure in life. It’s the kinds of things that I remember made me excited with guitars, and still make me excited with guitars. Let’s do something that when we pick the instrument up and play the same open-position chords, we go, ‘Wow, I hear this in a new way’. That feels inspiring. That’s worthy of living.”
Find out more about the Gold Label 717e and 517e at Taylor Guitars.
Image: Taylor
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Jack White is looking for the Gibson guitar he sold as a teenager – can you help?
Jack White has launched an online plea for fans to help find the Gibson ES-120T he sold as a teenager.
In a new post on Instagram, the White Stripes man showcases a similar ES-120T, before announcing he’s looking for the model he originally sold.
“I sold this model guitar as a teenager and have regretted it for many years now,” White writes in the post’s caption.
“It was given to me by my cousin Paul Ossy who is a multi-instrumentalist (who also played electric violin on the Stripes album De Stijl). I sold it at Gordy’s guitar show in Detroit in the early ‘90s so I could buy a two-pickup Silvertone amp in-case model.
“I etched something under the truss rod cover that only I know, if anyone out there finds it, let me know. And it’s not a red burst version, it’s the black burst version like this one I’m holding over at Carter Vintage, Nashville. Please excuse my filthy hands and arms as I was in the shop painting boxes all day.”
The comments on the post offer some promising leads, including from one person who claims to have a guitar “just like it”.
“The truss rod cover has something etched,” they write. “Tried to send you a picture but can’t before you accept the message. Send me a PM and you’ll get a picture of the guitar and truss rod.”
While the whereabouts of White’s original guitar are currently unknown, the White Stripes guitarist is hoping someone out there will be able to help. Might it be you?
In other news, Jack White recently joined a hotly debated topic over whether guitarists should know every note on the fretboard.
The conversation was sparked by jazz-funk maestro Cory Wong, who insisted every guitarist should seek to become fluent with every note on their guitar’s ‘board. His comments provoked some to push back, but he embraced the controversy. “Didn’t know this would trigger so many folks – I’m here for it,” he said.
In a hilarious response, Jack White responded: “Ok it’s a deal; I’ll find the C, but I’m not learning all those other notes!”
The post Jack White is looking for the Gibson guitar he sold as a teenager – can you help? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“He really is the daddy of shredding”: Sophie Lloyd picks her five favourite guitar solos of all time
Guitarist Sophie Lloyd has tackled plenty of solos in her time, boasting a whole YouTube channel of shred covers. Now, she’s revealed her five favourite guitar solos.
In interview with Metal Hammer, Lloyd kicks her list off with an “obvious choice”, albeit a total classic – Eruption by Van Halen, specifically the Live in New Haven version. “Eddie Van Halen is just the biggest inspiration for me,” she explains. “That tapping lick is something I think pretty much all guitarists learnt when they were growing up… I actually used it in my solo I played today!”
While Lloyd praises Eddie’s technique, she does admit she has a “love-hate relationship” with the song sometimes. “It was my alarm while I was at university,” she says. “It was kind of traumatic for me when I had to wake up early for lectures. But it’s still one of my favourite solos to this day – and he looks so cool when he takes his cigarette and puts it in his guitar. I aim for the day I can be that cool.”
Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd is another pick. “This one has a special place in my heart,” Lloyd begins. “Because I did a shred version of this one on my YouTube channel and I did the original solo. Before this I was very much, you know… let’s shred like crazy! [When] I had to learn this, I really had to adjust my playing style.”
“I think studying the way David Gilmour bends, the way he puts licks together and stuff, just really kind of opened my eyes to playing with feeling and telling a story through your solos,” she continues. “I really credit that as a turning point in my kind of soloing journey.”
Another challenging solo that would help define Lloyd’s style was that of Beast and the Harlot by Avenged Sevenfold. “When I was growing up, I remember thinking and listening to that solo in the car thinking ‘When I can play that, that’s when I’ll finally admit I’m a good guitarist,’” she recalls. “I still won’t admit it, but I can play it!”
“The techniques that Synyster Gates uses are just fucking incredible,” she adds. “His little chromatic runs at the end… he really is the daddy of shredding to a lot of people! And I think he just comes up with such cool, creative ideas. The harmonies with Zacky Vengeance [are also] really cool and really inspiring to me. [Gates is] definitely a guitarist that I look up to. And I think you can see that in my playing.”
Lloyd also gives a nod to Ozzy Osbourne with Crazy Train – quite fitting, considering this weekend saw the Prince of Darkness’ final ever performance with Black Sabbath. “Randy Rhoads, of course, recorded this solo,” she explains. “[It’s just a] masterclass in good rock metal soloing. It’s got so much feeling in it… you feel like you’re on the crazy train with the way he uses his techniques, uses the whammy bar in the solo and does his tapping down. It really kind of portrays that craziness.”
“Again, that was another one [where] I was like, ‘when I can play that, I’ll admit I’m a good guitarist,’” she notes. “And I still won’t admit it! Randy Rhoads is such a big inspiration for me. Like his little techniques and tricks he does, like his finger slides on the fretboard.”
The final pick is November Rain by Guns N’ Roses, a track Lloyd notes as an “all-round beautiful” song. “It’s amazing,” she praises. “They kind of switch up from the slow song to suddenly having this build into this epic solo at the end with the epic bends! And everyone knows that scene with Slash in the wind, everyone wants to recreate that. And I think it’s just something that really stands out in people’s minds as a solo.”
Like most guitarists, Lloyd notes Slash as a standout inspiration. “He’s one of my biggest inspirations of all time,” she says. “I couldn’t not put a Slash solo in there! Again, I did a shred version of that [track], and learning that solo really taught me so much about emotion and putting different notes into different scales to make it sound good according to the backing track and everything.”
Check out the full clip below:
The post “He really is the daddy of shredding”: Sophie Lloyd picks her five favourite guitar solos of all time appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
The cheapest Fender guitar on the market is even cheaper this Prime Day
Fancy a brand-new electric guitar for 100 quid? This is easily one of the best Prime Day guitar deals we’ve seen yet.
For a limited time only – Prime Day lasts until 11 July – you can grab this Fender Squier Debut Collection Telecaster in either Seafoam Green or Dakota Red for just £109.99. As an entry-level model in the Fender lineup, the guitar normally boasts an affordable price tag, but right now you can get it even cheaper.
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An ideal beginner guitar – or indeed a vibrant addition to any existing guitar collection – the Squier Debut Collection Telecaster features a lightweight poplar body, comfortable slim “C”-shaped neck profile, 21-fret laurel fingerboard and two single-coil pickups for that timeless Tele sound in a package that’s wallet-friendly, to say the least.
Elsewhere, the guitar offers three-way switching for a healthy palette of tones to explore, as well as a hardtail bridge for reliable tuning stability, and sealed-gear tuning machines for smooth, accurate tuning adjustments. It also sports chrome hardware for a premium look which far belies its price point.
Credit: Amazon
When in the market for your first guitar, it’s hard to know where to start. There are a plethora of affordable options available on the market, so choosing the right one can be a little daunting.
But with Squier – a budget brand owned by Fender, one of the world’s best and most reputable guitar companies – you know quality is assured. And for a little extra piece of mind, this guitar comes with a two-year warranty, too.
Does the deal still need sweetening? Okay, fine. If you grab this guitar for just £109.99 this Prime Day, you’ll also get a free subscription to Fender Play, Fender’s own learning platform which includes thousands of instructional videos to build your skills.
In terms of value for money, Prime Day guitar deals don’t come much better than this. Grab the Squier Debut Collection Telecaster for just over £100 right now.
Learn more at Amazon.
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Blackstar’s new ID:X advanced DSP modelling amplifiers go “head-to-head with the current market leader”
Blackstar Amplification has announced the launch of ID:X, a new line of advanced DSP modelling amplifiers.
Available in both 50 Watt and 100 Watt models, the ID:X is built on the foundation of Blackstar’s ID:Series, Silverline, and AMPED models. It “goes head-to-head with the current market leader” of the modelling world, according to the amplification brand, and is built to offer a streamlined user experience.
The ID:X introduces a discreet, user-friendly OLED display that provides instant visual feedback and deep access for editing settings and effects. It also features six voices, including both cleans and signature Blackstar high-gain, all of which are shaped by a four-band EQ section.
Of course, ID:X also includes Blackstar’s latest IR-based CabRig speaker and mic simulation technology, and additionally features new In The Room tech – able to create the experience of standing next to an amp while you play, rather than the “studio focussed tones” of traditionally captured IRs.
Players can create and store up to 99 patches, with easy recall via the front panel or using a compatible FS-12 or FS-18 footswitch, and the amp is fully integrated with Blackstar’s Architect software for further editing, patch management, and more. You’ll also find over 35 effects directly on board (overdrive, delay, reverb, etc.), and each can be edited straight from the amp for convenience.
Image: Blackstar
This new amp is suitable for both stage and studio, and has selectable power modes including a 1W setting for quiet playing. The 100 Watt model includes a balanced XLR out plus MIDI in and thru, while both models host USB-C for recording, a 1⁄4-inch line out, headphone output, and an aux input.
The 50 Watt ID:X is available for £292.99, while the ID:X 100 is priced at £379.99. You can find out more via Blackstar.
The post Blackstar’s new ID:X advanced DSP modelling amplifiers go “head-to-head with the current market leader” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“The electric guitar is an American cultural export” NAMM CEO John Mlynczak on why Fender, Gibson, PRS and others joined forces to lobby congress over wood tariffs
Since President Donald Trump took office for the second time in January, his administration has used executive orders to enact sweeping changes to the way the USA trades with the rest of the world – most notably by using hefty tariffs on the import of goods into the United States from countries around the world.
While the impact of these tariffs has been felt across the American economy, the guitar industry seems to be especially keenly impacted.
Over the last few weeks on Guitar.com we’ve been covering the devastating impact these new tariffs have had on America’s thriving boutique effects industry. Dozens of makers told us how their businesses were teetering on the brink of collapse as a result, and explained why the long-term goals of bringing certain industries to America from China and elsewhere would come too late to save them.
But what about the guitars themselves? On the surface US-made guitars are less keenly impacted by the tariffs on electronic components from places like China, but what about wood? The awkward reality is that a huge amount of the tonewoods that are used in the construction of US-made guitars come from outside of the US.
That’s a significant problem for the American guitar industry as a whole, and it’s led NAMM CEO John Mlynczak to spur his organisation into action. Mlynczak has spoken out several times about the threat these tariffs pose to the industry and called for musical instruments to be exempted from tariffs, but he’s also been working behind the scenes.
Back in May, Mlynczak and NAMM went with a delegation of key figures from the US guitar industry – representatives from Fender, Gibson, PRS, Martin and Taylor – to Washington DC. The aim was meet with congressional representatives and try to help them understand the situation.
John Mlynczak. Image: Press
It was an unusual and striking move to see the biggest players in the American guitar industry move as one, so now that the dust has settled, we caught up with Mlynczak to find out why he felt the mission was an important one.
“We talk so much about the NAMM show, but we are first and foremost, an association [NAMM is an abbreviation of National Association of Music Merchants – Ed],” Mlynczak explains. “And so that was a big thing we got from talking to members – what can we do for you year round?
“We have amazing companies, we have innovators, we have incredibly resilient people in our industry that are out there fighting the good fight every day. But what is it that only the Association can do? Particularly in DC, only the Association, in partnership with members, can go lobby.”
Mlynczak describes the tariff situation as “scary and unfortunate” for the guitar industry, but it was also a chance for NAMM to provide leadership, organisation and direction – and to show its members that it is going to bat for the US music industry at the highest level.
“We can now show our industry that we’re not just the big trade show of the past,” he explains, animatedly. “We’re out there.”
John Mlynczak and Jon Batiste at The 2025 NAMM Show at Anaheim Convention Center on January 24, 2025 in Anaheim, California. Image: Daniel Knighton/Getty Images
Story Tellers
You might well ask what an organisation like NAMM, or indeed the brands associated with the delegation can really do to impact US government policy given the comparatively small size of the guitar industry in relation to something like consumer electronics or the garment industry.
But Mlynczak believes that there’s power in putting human faces and real-world testimonials into the hands of lawmakers.
“Members of Congress, we hear it time and time again – they desperately need stories when they go debate in committees and they go debate on the floor,” he affirms. “If you ever watch C-Span – and I was a C-Span junkie for a while – they’re focusing on stories from their district.
“That’s what they’ve told us, ‘We need stories from our district. How do I make the case to the other side or to my committee?’ So when we bring members and we’re arming them with data. It’s super necessary work.”
Regarding the specific issue of tariffs on tonewoods, Mlynczak clearly believes that the proactive stance that NAMM and its members took in DC was the best route.
“The tariffs are incredibly nuanced and complicated,” he admits. “But there are various Section 232 investigations [an investigation by the Department of Commerce on the impact of certain imports on national security – Ed] on various industries happening right now.
“One of them is on imports of timber. And so the high level ask that we wanted to work on, was making sure that we submitted letters to congress, and we submitted investigation letters through the process.
“But we also met with high-level members of Congress just to follow up and say, ‘Hey, we’ve done this… and by the way, American made brands can’t make these products unless they get wood from overseas. We don’t grow these species of wood in the United States!’”
Time will tell how effective this lobbying effort was on US government policy, but Mlynczak feels like there’s a clear and obvious case for the exemptions he’s previously called for.
“Our industry does have American manufacturing,” he insists. “I mean, you think about it, what’s more iconically American, what’s more apple pie… than the electric guitar? Man, come on, there’s nothing more American than that!
“The electric guitar – that is an American cultural export. And so if we were going to fight for anything in this climate of prioritising American manufacturing, that was the one.”
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Save £100 on Universal Audio’s excellent Flow and Brigade pedals at Thomann
Summer’s officially here! And to celebrate, Thomann’s making your holidays a little louder with its Music Days sale, meaning now’s your chance to grab a premium Universal Audio UAFX pedal for less than £90 – a saving of £100 on each!
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Both the UAFX Flow and Brigade are heavily discounted over at Thomann until 22 July. These two are part of UAFX’s more compact range of effects launched back in 2023. Rather than UAFX’s own original platform, these pedals are much more like your standard single-stomps, with smaller footprints, a mono signal path and no need for a control app.
Flow and Brigade joined the range last year, and when we reviewed them on launch we were mightily impressed. Despite a little bit of a shaky start from the rest of the range, the Brigade and the Flow were impressive effects, and garnered an 8/10 and a 9/10 from us respectively.
Both effects are digital recreations of classic analogue effects. The Brigade recreates a bucket-brigade chorus/vibrato, and can operate in either mode for your preferred flavour of wobble. On top of that, you also get a choice of true or buffered bypass, as well as a preamp recreation engaged on your dry tone. Flow recreates three discrete analogue tremolo effects, including two vintage amp tremolo effects and a choppier squarewave optical tremolo.
Both units come with excellent build quality, too – making use of a rugged smooth-edged steel chassis, a soft-touch footswitch and three chunky knobs with great travel and resistance.
These pedals both launched at £189, making their current sub-£90 prices at Thomann absolute steals. Check out the deals now!
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Should phones be banned at the Oasis reunion tour? Average attendee to watch 12 minutes of each show on their phone, per new research
Should phones be banned at music gigs? It’s a debate with growing interest, with some arguing phone-free shows make for a better atmosphere, and others viewing such bans as an encroachment on their rights.
And after bans from the likes of Ghost and Jack White – and even global superstars like Sabrina Carpenter mulling over the idea – the conversation is really starting to pick up traction.
As it stands, phones are not banned at Oasis’s widely anticipated reunion tour – which kicked off last week in Cardiff – but new research suggests maybe they should be.
According to a study conducted by phone company Compare and Recycle, fans are set to collectively miss over 17 million minutes of Oasis performing across the tour as they’ll be watching the shows while recording on their smartphones.
That figure is 17.3 million minutes, to be specific – equivalent to more than 33 years of non-stop Oasis performances.
The study – which saw 1,100 UK smartphone-owning, gig-going adults surveyed between 7-11 June, 2025 – also found that, perhaps unsurprisingly, over one in four (28%) admit they never rewatch videos recorded during concerts.
Elsewhere, 41% say they have missed key parts of shows because they were too busy filming, and over a third (38%) say they find it annoying when other people film during events.
In another staggering statistic, Compare and Recycle estimates the digital documentation of Oasis Live ‘25 will consume nearly 1.7 million gigabytes of storage space – enough to fill 13,266 128GB-capacity smartphones completely.
“While it’s tempting to record moments from live music events on your smartphone, our new research highlights a growing concern amongst concert-goers about doing so,” says Antonia Hristov, Head of Marketing at Compare and Recycle.
“Not only is a huge amount of phone storage wasted on never-to-be-rewatched footage, but many fans are also missing out on the very experiences they came for. Artists like Chris Martin and Bob Dylan have already championed phone-free shows, and we may see more acts follow suit.
“Recording a clip or two of your favourite track is fine. But for the sake of your memories, and your phone’s storage, consider enjoying the rest of the night through your eyes and ears, not your screen.”
When Swedish rock band Ghost announced they’d be banning phones for Skeletour – the tour supporting their latest album Skeletá, fans online were divided.
“I don’t mind not being able to use your phone,” one fan wrote. “I’ve been to a few concerts, including Ghost, where you had to put them in a locking pouch during the show. What I really don’t care for is the fact that these pouches are rather large and won’t fit in your pocket. So now you have to carry this useless thing around with you during the whole show.
Another highlighted the logistical implications of banning phones entirely. “People rely on their phones,” they wrote. “You may be on call for your job, have childcare concerns or many reasons why you need to be contactable. Plus, don’t forget lots of people in the audience may not be fans. They are just there with their friends or kids etc.”
While Oasis certainly don’t need any extra publicity for their reunion tour – which was likely the most highly anticipated reunion tour of all time, anyway – there’s an argument against phone bans for smaller bands, in that fan-filmed clips act as a sort of UGC (user-generated content), helping promote their tours on social media.
As it stands, the phone ban debate continues. And those attending Oasis Live ‘25 will be able to film to their heart’s content.
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Noel Gallagher debuted a P-90-equipped Gibson Les Paul at first Oasis comeback gig – here’s everything we know
The first Oasis Live ‘25 gig kicked off in Cardiff on 4 July, and Noel Gallagher was spotted with a new Gibson Les Paul in hand.
The reunion tour marks the first time both Noel and Liam Gallagher have played together since Oasis called it quits back in 2009 following a falling out between the two brothers backstage at a gig. The tour continues on throughout the year and wraps in November in Brazil.
With their return so highly anticipated, all eyes were on Cardiff at the weekend, and some may have spotted Noel’s new Les Paul as it made several appearances across the night. The guitar has a Murphy Lab aged body, aged hardware, and P-90 pickups. It’s complete with Les Paul Custom-style binding, but a non-bound headstock.
The guitar made an appearance for the first song of the night, Hello, and appeared regularly throughout the rest of their set among other axes including a Cherry Sunburst Les Paul Standard, and his beloved ES-335.
Lee Bartram, Head of Marketing & Cultural Influence EMEA at Gibson, has shared a close up of the new model to his Instagram page – you can check it out below:
Other guitars from the opening night worth spotlighting are also Gem Archer’s Trini Lopez’s. Two of them appeared to be used across the evening (as documented by The Chief’s Guitars), one in black and a second red version. Archer’s black Trini Lopez is a recent Gibson Custom Shop reissue, equipped with a Bigsby B-7.
In other Oasis news, Gene Gallagher, son of Liam and frontman of indie band Villanelle, recently shared his opinions on guitar music, noting that a resurgence could be credited to the Britpop bunch’s comeback: “People have been deprived of guitar music,” he told W Magazine. “But now it’s coming back, and everyone’s getting excited about it.”
To view the full list of Oasis Live ‘25 tour dates, head over to their official website.
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“F**k off you’re not marrying my daughter”: Ozzy Osbourne’s hilarious reaction when Slipknot’s Sid Wilson proposed to his daughter Kelly during Black Sabbath’s final show
For a 76-year-old Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath’s last show was the culmination of his life’s work and influence, with tens of thousands of fans of the genre he helped create descending upon Birmingham’s Villa Park stadium to see the metal legend and his original bandmates bow out one last time.
For Ozzy, it would have been a highly emotional evening. On more than one occasion, as guitarist and original rifflord Tony Iommi treated the crowd to distortion-soaked classics like War Pigs, Iron Man and Paranoid, Ozzy looked visibly sentimental. Who wouldn’t be?
But that sentimentality extended to Ozzy’s personal life, too, when the evening saw Slipknot’s Sid Wilson – partner of his daughter Kelly – finally popping the question.
In hilarious backstage footage shared by Kelly on Instagram – captioned, “Oh, and this happened yesterday!” – Sid can be seen psyching himself to ask that all-important question.
“Kelly, you know I love you more than anything in the world,” he begins. However his speech is quickly interrupted by his father-in-law-to-be, who quips: “Fuck off, you’re not marrying my daughter!”
As you’d expect, the hilarious remark paired with the anticipation of the situation leads to rapturous laughter from those present, including Kelly’s mother and Ozzy’s wife and manager, Sharon.
“Nothing would make me happier than to spend the rest of my life with you,” Wilson continues. “In front of our family and all of our friends, Kelly, will you marry me?”
Kelly doesn’t spend much time deliberating, before putting on the engagement ring and jumping into Wilson’s arms. Watch the adorable moment below:
Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning final show at Villa Park was a triumph, which saw a pantheon of metal’s elite gather to celebrate the band without whom the genre wouldn’t exist.
The evening saw performances from the likes of Lamb of God – who just released their own official cover of Children of the Grave – Metallica, who wrote on Instagram “Ozzy. Tony. Geezer. Bill. We love you so, so much”, and many, many others.
In another clip posted to Metallica’s Instagram, a who’s who of heavy metal’s A-list can be seen mingling during the show, with James Hetfield taking a photo with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, and even Billy Corgan showing Sharon Osbourne a funny video on his phone (the pair famously had a feud back in the late ‘90s, so it’s safe to say they’ve now buried the hatchet).
“It’s like a heavy metal summer camp!” remarks Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich.
The post “F**k off you’re not marrying my daughter”: Ozzy Osbourne’s hilarious reaction when Slipknot’s Sid Wilson proposed to his daughter Kelly during Black Sabbath’s final show appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Chase Bliss Brothers AM review: “it could easily be the last drive pedal you ever buy”
$399/€469, chasebliss.eu
In the guitar world you tend to find that there are people who obsess over drive pedals, and those who don’t. For some, one TS-derived pedal sounds much like another, while others will care about every nuance of the EQ curve and devote a huge amount of time and energy into getting their gain sounds just so.
Even if you’re in the former camp, however, you’ll have probably heard about the legendary Analog Man King Of Tone. The famous purple box is one of those holy grail circuits that played a huge part in making the boutique pedal scene what it is today.
It’s also one of the hardest to get hold of, because each pedal is made by hand to rigorous and hard-to-find components. To put how hard it is to get one in perspective, the folks who ordered their pedals before the pandemic are still waiting to receive them here in 2025.
But what happens when one of the most famously fastidious analogue purists around decides to work on a project with Chase Bliss – creators of some of the most sonically ambitious pedals on the planet? Well, you get the Chase Bliss Brothers AM.
Image: Adam Gasson
Chase Bliss Brothers AM – what is it?
Let’s get this out of the way first of all… despite that tell-tale colour scheme, this is not simply a Chase Bliss version of the King Of Tone without the two-year waiting list. The Analog Man himself Mike Piera has already done that with the MXR Duke Of Tone, and it’s a lot cheaper too.
It’s also not not a Chase Bliss version of the King Of Tone either, though. It’s complicated.
“There’s no way to truly replicate Mike’s process, everything is simply too personal and hand-crafted (and made with finite, vintage NOS components),” says Chase Bliss main man Joel Korte. “So we decided to focus on the aspects of the King Of Tone that we could expand and take further. Instead of labouring over a perfect recreation, we decided to make an expanded counterpart.”
What that means in practice is that you get a pedal that has the same basic layout as the original Chase Bliss Brothers pedal from 2018, but with insides designed from the ground up with Analog Man to offer more sounds, more functionality and more control than ever before.
That means you get the legendary overdrive and distortion sounds from the original King Of Tone, plus an all-new addition – a dual-mode treble boost inspired by Analog Man’s Beano Boost.
Image: Adam Gasson
Like the original Brothers, the AM functions as effectively two identical but separate pedals, each controlled by its own footswitch. Using the three-way toggle for each channel, you can decide which of the three sounds – distortion, overdrive or boost – you want each one to use.
There’s also a switch to determine the flavour of your boost – flipped one way, it gives you added brightness and high-end sparkle; flipped the other, it delivers a classic Rangemaster-style tone with a strong emphasis on the upper mids.
As if that wasn’t enough, you’ll also find the usual Chase Bliss bank of dip switches on the top of the pedal. For the AM, these give you the option to turn on the ‘hi-gain’ mode for each channel (adding about 25% to the gain of everything), allow you to use the footswitches in momentary mode for that quick boost of signal when you need it, and the option to link the presence control (which is selected via a secondary function on the pedal itself) to the overall tone control.
There are also four onboard presets, plus full MIDI control (with 128 presets), and expression pedal control over any of the parameters (again determined via the other bank of dip switches on top) – this is a Chase Bliss pedal after all.
Finally, if this pedal is a team-up worthy of the Avengers, then we also get an end-credits scene. Pop off the back cover and you’ll find, in classic Analog Man style, some internal trim pots to tweak the impedance, output and bias of the boost circuit.
And if you feel like you need to take a break after processing all that information, I don’t blame you – it’s a lot. But all that clever stuff won’t mean a lot if it doesn’t have that sound.
Image: Adam Gasson
Chase Bliss Brothers AM – in use
The thing that scares a lot of people off Chase Bliss pedals is the complexity that all those knobs, toggles and dip switches imply – but in my experience the genius of them is how easy and user-friendly they are in practice.
I think with the Brothers AM, there’s been even more of an emphasis on making this an intuitive experience. This is a drive pedal after all, and the patience/knowledge floor of those trying it out will be much lower than one of the brand’s usual glitchy, ambient, loopy designs.
In truth, if you never want to look at those dip switches, if you never want to contemplate a preset, or be in the same room as an expression pedal, you can still have an exciting, inspirational and fulfilling experience with the Brothers AM.
It helps that the Chase Bliss Field Notes-style manuals it ships with pedals are so very good – and here it really does walk you through everything you need to dial in your basic sounds in just a minute or two. Even if you’d never played something more involved than a Tube Screamer in the past, you’d be up and running in a heartbeat.
And in truth, even the deeper editing is pretty easy to understand once you’ve flicked through the short and picture-heavy user guide. Want more gain on one of your sounds? Just flip the hi-gain dip switch… there’s not much in the way of hidden functions, complex button press combos here – it’s all right there on the pedal.
Image: Adam Gasson
Chase Bliss Brothers AM – sounds
For those wondering out of the gate whether it sounds like a King Of Tone… let me just get that out of the way. It really does – it nails the vibe of the original and captures even more of the little nuances than the impressive MXR Duke Of Tone did.
Is it identical to the real thing? Your ears will have to be the judge, but it certainly did everything I wanted it to do in that regard – and more.
Oh yeah, the more – that’s is kinda why we’re here, isn’t it? So with my trusty Jazzmaster and my Matchless Laurel Canyon in hand, I figure the best place to start here is the new thing – the boost.
And instantly, I’m hugely impressed. When you need a bit of extra gusto for leads, the boost settings on both modes cut through like a chainsaw. Each one also has a distinct character you don’t fully appreciate until you set them to each respective footswitch and put them side by side.
On the one side, you get a sound that retains all the nuances of the original signal but adds just a touch more treble. The other is a bassier, darker boost that’s still loud and dynamic, but with more low-end coloration. Both sound great, it’s a case of choosing which one best interacts with the sound you’re using on the other side.
I have pretty specific expectations of how a dirt pedal responds to the dynamics of a Jazzmaster’s single-coil jangle, and the overdrive portion of the AM does not disappoint.
It perfectly nails that edge-of-breakup sound, pushing any clean tube amp to its limits. Especially with the treble booster engaged, it gives you a wonderful ‘Tube Screamer pushing beyond the edge of breakup’ sound. But with a few tweaks you can find a much darker and more brooding sound – it’s soulful, smokey and very distinctive.
Moving into the distortion and again the breadth of what’s on offer here is hugely compelling – you can get subtle, you can get chaotic, and you can get strident, full distortion sounds all at the twist of that gain knob.
And then when you switch the hi-gain mode it’s another level of nastiness altogether, pushing the Brothers AM into almost metal territory. But the real magic is how the two sides of this pedal work together. The push and pull between the hugely varied sounds on offer lets you sculpt almost any drive or distortion tone you could imagine, and then mercifully save it as a preset so you never have to worry about dialling it in just so again.
What’s almost more impressive is the consistency of the pedal – whether it was being run through single-coils or humbuckers, it still retains that King Of Tone DNA… but with a dynamic range that lets you dial things in perfectly every time.
Image: Adam Gasson
Chase Bliss Brothers AM – should I buy one?
There’s no escaping that 400 bucks is a whole lotta beans for a drive pedal – alongside the dip switches its the criticism you most often hear about Chase Bliss pedals. But then you look at the work, and the craft and the ingenuity that’s gone into it – this isn’t just some lazily rehashed clone circuit.
You also have to take it in some context. For starters, you really are getting two incredibly versatile and great sounding dirt pedals in one compact unit. It also costs half of what a King Of Tone will cost you on Reverb today if you don’t fancy waiting half a decade to own it.
But again, this isn’t a King Of Tone – it’s heavily inspired by it of course, but the Brothers AM is very much its own thing – think of it as the Dolby Atmos version of the original, if you like.
It’s also by some distance the easiest Chase Bliss pedal I’ve ever used – the sort of thing that makes you marvel at how cleverly and intuitively designed a very deep and very tweakable pedal can be in the right hands.
Above all though, it’s inspirational. As with anything that has Chase Bliss or Analog Man attached to it, the online hype around this pedal has been intense, but it more than lives up to it in my experience.
With my hand on my heart I can say it’s one of the most tonally gratifying pedals I’ve ever used. Yes, it’s not cheap – but it could easily be the last drive pedal you ever buy.
Chase Bliss Brothers AM – alternatives
The obvious elephant in the room here is of course the MXR Duke Of Tone ($149/£169.99) – the last collaboration that Mike Piera did with another effects brand. It’s effectively one-half of the KoT’s dual circuits, and punches well above its pricetag sound-wise.
There aren’t many actual King Of Tone imitators, but one such budget option is the Tone City King Of Blues ($79/£69.99) – it’s not gonna get you as close as even the Duke does to the real thing, but it’s a passable ballpark impression for under a hundred bucks. Another take on the dual overdrive format is the Browne Amplification Protein V4 ($349/£349) – like the KoT one half of the Protein is derived from a Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal, but the other half is different, being inspired by the Nobels ODR-1.
The post Chase Bliss Brothers AM review: “it could easily be the last drive pedal you ever buy” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
The ’70s rock guitarist The Kinks’ Dave Davies calls the “great and underrated guitar player of the time”
The ‘70s played host to no shortage of guitar heroes. But there’s one, Dave Davies says, who stood head and shoulders above the rest.
In a new conversation with Uncut, The Kinks guitarist breaks down some of the albums that have shaped his musical journey, and highlights Mountain’s Nantucket Sleighride (1971) as one such record.
- READ MORE: “I hope we did Rory right”: Joe Bonamassa reflects on “emotional” Rory Gallagher tribute gigs
“Mountain were a great influence,” he says. “They made heavy tones heavier and their sound was innovative: great production and bass by Felix Pappalardi, Corky Laing on drums and Steve Knight on keyboards – all cool.
“Plus Leslie West was a great and underrated guitar player of the time and he really stands out on this album. The song Nantucket Sleighride in particular is a momentous piece of music, a powerful blend of hard rock and melody.”
He goes on: “I never saw Mountain play live, but I did play on a bill with Leslie West in 2001. I didn’t get to know him well and I feel sad about that, but he was very nice during our short meeting. I was sad to hear of his death in 2020. He was rock ‘n’ roll to the roots.”
Last year, Dave Davies made clear his thoughts about AI-generated music, when he caught wind of one such track made to sound like a Kinks song.
“What the fuck is this?” he wrote on X. “This Kinks AI cover is like a horror show, sounds fucking horrible.”
The post The ’70s rock guitarist The Kinks’ Dave Davies calls the “great and underrated guitar player of the time” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I did it the old-fashioned way”: Herman Li squashes the assumption that DragonForce only became successful because of Guitar Hero
![[L-R] Herman Li and Sam Totman of DragonForce](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Herman-Li-Sam-Totman@2000x1500.jpg)
The inclusion of Through the Fire and Flames in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock brought DragonForce legions of new fans. But according to guitarist Herman Li, it’s a misconception that the band’s success is entirely attributable to Guitar Hero.
In a new conversation with Lee Anderton on the Andertons YouTube channel, Li recalls the journey DragonForce – which he founded in 1999 alongside co-guitarist Sam Totman – had prior to Guitar Hero catapulting their fame to new heights.
“I did it the old-fashioned way,” he asserts. “So, my demo CD, I would go and harass record label people backstage at festivals – at Wacken [Open Air] festival – I did it the old-school way.
“And we did our shows, and I would show videos of our live shows. Because you [still had to] show that part back then.
“So in 2004, on our first album, we got to Japan already for Halloween. It was like, ‘Wow, this show is my dream come true, I can’t believe it. I’m playing Japan, doing a tour!’
“It kind of went pretty quickly. In 2004, we did an Iron Maiden tour in Europe. And we did our own headline shows, too, playing in front of 200-300 people.
“And then when the third album came out [2005’s Inhuman Rampage] – about a year before Guitar Hero, probably a year and half actually, it kind of already blew up. We did the Ozzfest on the main stage – first time ever.
“Before that we had sold out a US tour without ever releasing an album. So it was kind of blowing up, and then they wanted to put us in Guitar Hero.”
The interview also sees Herman Li showcasing his brand-new PRS Chleo signature model – an ultra-limited design loaded with Fishman Fluence pickups, dragon inlays in place of the classic PRS birds, glow-in-the-dark side dots and a range of voice options.
Limited to only 200 units worldwide, the Chleo is said to be the result of four years worth of R&D.
Learn more at PRS.
The post “I did it the old-fashioned way”: Herman Li squashes the assumption that DragonForce only became successful because of Guitar Hero appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Tony Iommi is signing two Gibson SG Standards backstage at Back to the Beginning – here’s how you can get one
How would you like to be the proud owner of a new Gibson SG Standard, signed by Tony Iommi backstage at Black Sabbath’s forthcoming Back to the Beginning farewell show?
Well, you’ll probably be competing with thousands of others, but with a new auction – the proceeds of which will go to charity – you’re in with a chance.
- READ MORE: “I hope we did Rory right”: Joe Bonamassa reflects on “emotional” Rory Gallagher tribute gigs
The guitars – donated by Gibson – will be signed by the Godfather of Heavy Metal backstage at Sabbath’s swansong show, which will take place tomorrow (5 July).
Along with the last ever performance from the original Sabbath lineup – Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – Back to the Beginning will see support from a who’s who of metal’s elite, including Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Alice in Chains, Gojira, Lamb of God and many more.
The guitars – one in black and one in Cherry Red – are being auctioned via ozzyauction.co.uk until 10pm UK time on Sunday, 6 July. All proceeds will go to three charities chosen by the Osbourne family: Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorns Children’s Hospice.
Credit: Gibson
“It’s an honour to pay tribute to Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath, and it’s back to the beginning for me as well,” reflects Gibson CEO Cesar Gueikian.
“I started playing guitar because of Black Sabbath and Tony’s riffs. Tony is ‘the rifflord’ and the bands paying tribute to Black Sabbath on this epic day owe a great deal to them for paving the way for heavy metal.
“I am deeply honoured to call Tony my friend, my adopted godfather, and to have had the chance to collaborate with him at Gibson and on the single Deconstruction, co-written with [System Of A Down’s] Serj Tankian.”
He concludes: “I wouldn’t be at Gibson without that moment when I was 10 years old, when after discovering Black Sabbath, my life in music unfolded from that point onward.
“All of us at Gibson are proud to be playing a part in this epic last show and going back to where everything began for Black Sabbath!”
Alongside the guitar auction, Gibson will be present backstage at the event with a selection of guitars and interactive experiences, including a photo booth with Indian Motorcycle “as part of the unforgettable backstage environment available for the performers, VIP guests and industry legends.
Learn more at ozzyauction.co.uk.
The post Tony Iommi is signing two Gibson SG Standards backstage at Back to the Beginning – here’s how you can get one appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I hope we did Rory right”: Joe Bonamassa reflects on “emotional” Rory Gallagher tribute gigs
Joe Bonamassa has just wrapped up a trio of shows in Cork, Ireland paying tribute to guitar hero Rory Gallagher, and has shared his thoughts following what he recently called “the biggest honour and greatest challenge of my musical life”.
In a new post on Instagram, the blues legend and guitar collector – who recently picked up his own sunburst Fender Strat in preparation for the gigs – reflects on the “many emotions running through my head right now”.
- READ MORE: “S**t, what did I just sign up for?” Joe Bonamassa reveals fears over Rory Gallagher tribute gig
Bonamassa says the prevailing emotion he’s feeling after wrapping the shows is “gratitude”.
“I am so grateful to have had this opportunity and to have conquered my own self-doubt in accepting this incredible honour and responsibility,” he writes.
“I hope we all did Rory right and played these shows in his spirit. I hope he would have been proud to see the love from his hometown carrying his legacy on.
“An honour of a lifetime for that I will never forget. Thank you Donal, Daniel, Eoghan and the entire Gallagher family for your trust.”
JoBo goes on to thank his backing band, and the “15,000 strong that came out for the three nights”: “Still processing it all and it might take a while.”
Last year after the shows were announced, Bonamassa expressed his apprehension at paying tribute to Gallagher, one of his all-time musical heroes.
“When they reached out I said: ‘You had me at hello.’ Then I thought about it and went: ‘Shit, what did I just sign up for?’” he explained to Classic Rock in December.
He went on: “I told [them]: ‘I’m not Rory; I don’t want to be a tribute act that replicates all the little glitches and mistakes. I’m going to be myself. And they said that’s exactly what they want. Having heard that, I could relax. It’s proven very popular, and from two shows it became three.”
He concluded: “It’s like all of the tribute shows I’ve done, with The Three Kings [blues legends Freddie, Albert and BB] and the one to Clapton, Beck & Page, you just have to go in there with conviction and show the fans how much the music means. But that’s me, I’ll never back down from a challenge.”
Rory Gallagher’s iconic 1961 Fender Stratocaster sold for nearly £900,000 at auction last year, and was described by auction house Bonhams as “one of the world’s most recognisable guitars”.
The post “I hope we did Rory right”: Joe Bonamassa reflects on “emotional” Rory Gallagher tribute gigs appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Fender Player II Modified Stratocaster HSS Floyd Rose review: “you may have just found your soul mate”
$1,189/£1,049, fender.com
It’s been 30 years since a Floyd Rose vibrato was first seen on a production Fender Stratocaster. And for many of us, a locking nut in such close proximity to a Fender logo can feel just as alien as it was back then.
- READ MORE: Fender Standard Stratocaster review – “I can’t shake the feeling it should be better than this”
And it shouldn’t really. After all, the whole idea of a ‘SuperStrat’ would not exist without well… a Strat. Perhaps this is because back in the 80s, when every brand under the sun was taking an S-type body and sticking a humbucker and a Floyd in there, Fender held firm with the classic synchronised tremolo. That’s why there are vanishingly few images of back-combed guitar heroes sporting genuine Strats with Floyds.
But that was a long time ago, and Fender is a brand much more open to giving the public what they want now. Indeed that’s broadly the entire point of the Player II Modified range – to cater to the needs of pro players not met by the core line.
Image: Adam Gasson
Fender Player II Modified Stratocaster HSS Floyd Rose – what is it?
So what exactly do those ‘needs’ entail in this day and age? Well, the Modified series is effectively a replacement for the Player Plus – Fender’s first foray into creating upgraded instruments for those who wanted things like noiseless pickups, flatter radiuses, enhanced switching options, and some pretty out-there finishes.
The Modified guitars have carried most of that over, though the finishes are much more reserved this time. You can have this Floyd Strat in black, sunburst or this Olympic Pearl option. What price a Tequila Sunrise or Belair Blue?
In terms of player comfort on this HSS Strat, the main differences between this and a regular Player II are a slim ‘C’ neck profile and a flatter 12-inch fretboard radius to eliminate string choking. As with Player II you get the factory-rolled fingerboard edges.
In terms of hardware, there’s the Floyd Rose Special double-locking trem of course, and you’ll find locking tuners up beyond that locking nut, too. In terms of tuning stability, that won’t make any difference here of course, but it should at least speed up string changes.
In terms of actual noise-making power, you get a pair of Fender’s Player II Noiseless Strat pickups paired with Player II Modified Humbucker in the bridge. It’s all controlled by a standard five-way plus a trio of push/pull pots – giving you access to a treble bleed, neck and middle pickups in series, and a coil-split on that humbucker.
Image: Adam Gasson
Fender Player II Modified Stratocaster HSS Floyd Rose – feel and sounds?
With its chunky Floyd Rose hardware, it’s not the lightest Strat in the world, weighing in at 8.3lbs. What must be said however is that the rosewood ‘board is deliciously dark and an indication of the quality of woods used – as with the Player II it’s a welcome return from the pau ferro days.
One thing that is a little disappointing is the lack of any kind of chamfering or sculpting on the heel of this guitar. Given that it’s so clearly aimed at those of a more technical bent, it would have been nice to see, but I suppose generations of Strat players have got by without finding the standard four-bolt square heel too much of an impediment.
Upon getting it out of its box, I lower the action a little – it’s the most straightforward part of setting up a Floyd Rose bridge, and the 12” radius allows me to get it quite low. In conjunction with the slim C neck we are now ripe for ripping.
Image: Adam Gasson
I plug into my Mesa Mark IV on a saturated setting. On the bridge setting I’m met with a full-throated rock sound that in its essence is Strat-like (plenty of snap and bite) but with a focused low end and an enhanced midrange.
Quick legato lines sound fluid and, as is the strength of the Floyd Rose, all our harmonic-driven dive bombs return to pitch nicely. The bridge comfortably handles any heavy riffage I throw at it, too – it’s firmly of the medium-high output category.
The single coil neck pickup will forever remain a go-to location on a Strat and through a slightly overdriven rhythm channel, Hendrix-style doublestop licks sound wonderfully authentic, retaining the character of a single-coil but minus the hum. I’ve not had great experiences with noiseless single-coils in the past, but these are a very pleasant surprise.
Image: Adam Gasson
Fender Player II Modified Stratocaster HSS Floyd Rose – should I buy one?
The mid-price SuperStrat is one of the most oversaturated areas of the guitar market, but the reality is the Player II’s biggest competition is from Fender’s subsidiary brands: Charvel and Jackson.
That being said, Fender is shrewd enough to believe that there is a market out there for rock and metal players who want to play a Strat, and they’re probably right. The iconic model will always prove alluring to guitarists and at one point they will inevitably become embroiled in a showroom tryst with one.
“Once you play Strat, you never go back” may sound like a threat but it’s true – the design is so timeless and comfortable, you’ll soon realise that it can do anything. If the only thing that has stopped you flirting with a Strat until now is the lack of a double-locking bridge, then you may have just found your soul mate.
Fender Player II Modified Stratocaster HSS Floyd Rose – alternatives
Charvel were one of the first producers of the SuperStrat and the Charvel Pro-Mod So-Cal Style 1 HSS FR ($1,099.99/£969) features a set of medium-high output Seymour Duncans, rosewood neck, and black hardware, all in an instantly recognisable classic design.
The Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder (£1,049/$899) offers quite a bit of bang for your buck and firmly aimed at those who require a little more output in the gain department, featuring the uber-powerful EMG Retro Active Hot 70 in the bridge and a Sustainiac in the neck.
A cheaper alternative would be the Jackson X Series Signature Adrian Smith SDX ($629.99/£569), which is the Chinese-manufactured version of the Iron Maiden’s guitarist signature guitar.
The post Fender Player II Modified Stratocaster HSS Floyd Rose review: “you may have just found your soul mate” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Joe Satriani struggles with being “extroverted” on stage: “I don’t think I ever feel like myself”
Despite performing countless shows over the years – not to mention his enviable skills as a guitar virtuoso, Joe Satriani has revealed he doesn’t consider himself a natural-born performer.
In an interview with D’Addario, Satch explains the disconnect he feels between his onstage persona and who he is in his personal life.
“I don’t think I ever feel like myself on stage,” he explains [via Ultimate Guitar]. “I think that’s the problem. You walk out on stage and you go, ‘Oh, they’re gonna know it’s just me.’
“I think the history of performing live has been a recurring subject nightmare for me, because I’m not really a kind of a people person.
“I don’t seek out to be in a crowd and be in front of an audience, but I love music and I want to share it. So there’s the typical artist conflict right there.”
Satriani explains that this internal conflict between being naturally introverted and the requirement to be extroverted onstage is why he adopted the alter ego Shockwave Supernova, a name taken from his 2015 album of the same name.
“My son made a documentary about it, and we decided that Shockwave Supernova was the character that I invented to become that person who could be extroverted on stage.”
But having been in the business of performing for decades, the guitarist has learned a few things along the way. Playing with Mick Jagger during his 1988 solo tour helped Satriani discover some important ways to open up creatively as a performer. In a 2007 interview with Guitar Player, he recalled a time the two jammed together during a rehearsal.
“I’ll never forget how I would just be noodling around on the guitar in the rehearsal room, and he’d come right up next to me and just start singing,” Satch recalls. “That made me relax, and say to myself, ‘Man, I shouldn’t be so guarded about my creativity. Mick Jagger isn’t guarded. So why am I?’
“When he hit the stage, you learned the meaning of ‘projection’ real quick. The joke was that you could stand next to him, light yourself on fire, and the audience would still be watching Mick. He has that power.”
Satch is also well aware that it’s not uncommon for professional touring musicians to have stage nerves. In another interview with Inc. in 2020, he explained: “I met Joan Baez at a benefit show. She’s incredible. She sings and plays guitar and never screws up. Later I learned she threw up right before she went onstage.”
He also found out that “Red Rocker” Sammy Hagar wore sunglasses onstage to get rid of the feeling of nervousness during performances. Satriani said to Hagar that he seemed born to front a band, but the ex-Montrose and Van Halen singer replied: “No, we’re all the same. Do you know how embarrassing it is to grab a microphone and sing in front of people?”
Based on these experiences, Satriani has come to realise that: “You don’t have to be extroverted. You just have to find a way to do what you want or need to do.”
The post Joe Satriani struggles with being “extroverted” on stage: “I don’t think I ever feel like myself” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“Every decision that could mess up that song was done”: M. Shadows on the mistakes made releasing this classic Avenged Sevenfold single
![[L-R] Synyster Gates and M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold performing live](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/A7X-new-hero-1@2000x1500.jpg)
Avenged Sevenfold’s 2007 self-titled album sits as a diamond in their discography, playing host to some of their most standout tracks and sporting RIAA-certified platinum status in the US.
But frontman M. Shadows has some thoughts about how the album was rolled out, and the decisions made regarding some of its singles.
In a new interview with Ryan J Downey of FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), Shadows – real name Matt Sanders – recalls the heightened level of involvement their at-the-time label Warner Bros. had in the album’s release schedule compared to previous records.
“I love Tom Whalley [former Warner Bros. CEO who helped sign A7X in the early 2000s]. I think he did amazing things for our career,” Shadows says. “He’s still a friend – a close friend – [A&R executive] Andy Olyphant as well.
“But we brought them in to hear the white album [the self-titled record], and we thought, Afterlife, no brainer, this is a massive song. This is a huge single. This is where we wanna roll.
“We played it for Tom Whalley and he turned around and he said, ‘That’s a little Warped Tour isn’t it?’
“And so, that just took everybody else in the room, everyone in the label, off of it. You could see it shift. Then it started going to these other things that were clearly not the right play.”
He explains that while the band were insistent on the big singles from their previous two records Waking the Fallen (2003) and City of Evil (2005) being Unholy Confessions and Bat Country, respectively, the self-titled album was the “first time we said, ‘Alright, what else is there?’ We were like Almost Easy, then we went to something else and we were all over the place”.
He continues: “But if you actually have the macro of time, Afterlife and A Little Piece of Heaven are the two that sit atop that record, and they’re just the lights.
“And then when we finally did get around to Afterlife – it was the fourth single – they cut the solo out. And so it’s one of those things where it’s like, every decision that could be wrong to completely mess up that record and that song was done.”
Of course, the full version of Synyster Gates’ Afterlife solo remains on the album version of the track, but the single version, which is heard in the music video, features a trimmed down version with several bars at the beginning cut.
Avenged Sevenfold have a series of live dates scheduled in North and South America for the rest of the year.
Visit avengedsevenfold.com/tour for more info.
The post “Every decision that could mess up that song was done”: M. Shadows on the mistakes made releasing this classic Avenged Sevenfold single appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I feel a bit exposed, talking about it”: Pete Townshend reveals the Oasis song that brought him to tears
The Who’s Pete Townshend was once moved to tears by one Oasis track, and feels their ability to delve into normal life is far more magical than their “swagger” at times.
Oasis will kick off their Live ‘25 reunion tour on 4 July in Cardiff. It will mark the first time the band have played live together since their infamous split in 2009, following a backstage dispute between brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher. Their debut album, Definitely Maybe, also celebrated its 30th anniversary in August last year.
Ahead of the monumental tour, which spans across the globe and concludes in November this year, Townshend – among many other artists – has reflected on how their music impacted him, selecting Half The World Away as an especially poignant track.
The song was originally released as a B-side to Whatever, and later featured on The Masterplan album. It was also used as the theme tune to the British sitcom, The Royle Family, which captured working class life through the living room of a family in Manchester – a show which Townshend was also a fan of.
“The thing that got me about Oasis was Liam’s voice, not so much the attitude. It took me a while to get used to the attitude, and I felt Noel was the one with the most edge,” Townshend tells The Times.
“Liam used to come to Who gigs with his girlfriend and he was always charming. And despite the fact that it was intended to be threatening and to have no emotion, it was loaded with emotion,” he says.
“The songs were inspired not just by The Beatles, The Who and The Kinks, but also had this feeling of coming from an entirely new place and I don’t really know where it is. I feel a bit exposed, talking about it now, but the song that brought me to tears is this one. I’ve heard it again and again because I’m such a fan of The Royle Family, and it moves me. Beyond the swagger is an incredible view of normal British life they seem to tap into.”
Oasis will play at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on 4 July. You can view the full list of Oasis Live ‘25 tour dates via their official website.
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“Maybe it’s not for you!”: The awkward advice Noel Gallagher gave his daughter after hearing her early musical endeavours
![[L-R] Noel Gallagher and his daughter Anais](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Noel-Anais-Gallagher-hero@2000x1500.jpg)
Is a penchant for music hereditary? If you’re the child of the Oasis Gallagher brothers, you’d certainly expect so…
But in a new interview with W, Noel Gallagher‘s daughter Anaïs recalls giving music a go as a child, and her father’s brutal response to her musical potential.
She says she had a “brief stint playing the cello at 11”, but during some of her early recitals, she recalls her father telling her: “Maybe it’s not for you!”
Of course, Noel Gallagher has a reputation for not being shy with his opinions, but Anaïs says he was reasonably delicate about his thoughts on her musical skills. She remembers noticing his “comedic knowing looks at the camera” during a rewatch of some old home videos.
While music ultimately wasn’t for her, Anaïs took a different yet still creative path: photography, modelling and filmmaking. Her work includes the music video for Inhaler’s My Honest Face, and she recently documented her father’s tour with his solo band, High Flying Birds.
Like Anaïs, her cousin, Liam Gallagher‘s daughter Molly also doesn’t consider herself a musician; she says that she “honestly couldn’t think of anything worse than being onstage in front of an audience”.
Liam’s other two children – Lennon and Gene – have picked up the musical baton, however. Lennon plays with his alt-rock band Automotion, while Gene’s band, Villanelle, plays heavier riff-tinged indie music.
Lennon’s Automotion sees his taste for ’70s German progressive rock creeping in as an influence. He says his dad has “always been supportive” of the project, adding: “Dad has given me some great pointers. One of the best ones is: Don’t think about what you’re doing when you’re getting onstage. Just get up there and belt it out. It’s a pretty perfect piece of advice, because if you ever think too much, you’ll just get locked in your shell.”
Oasis’s massive comeback tour is set to commence tomorrow (4 July) at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.
For a full list of dates, head to Oasisnet.com
The post “Maybe it’s not for you!”: The awkward advice Noel Gallagher gave his daughter after hearing her early musical endeavours appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.