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“I feel the most ‘me’ whenever I’m playing guitar”: Aziya on her rock journey and the beauty of being “wrong and strong”
“It’s having that confidence to be like, ‘I don’t care if this isn’t perfect’,” says Aziya with a shrug and a smile. The London-based artist and producer adjusts her large cat-eye sunglasses as she chats to Guitar.com among the buzz of cicadas in Athens, Greece. “If Gary from Surrey who’s 68 wants to say the intonation’s not right, I don’t care!”
Perfectionism doesn’t serve Aziya. Predominantly self-taught, her journey began to blossom as she shared covers and original songs from her bedroom on Instagram and TikTok across the early 2020s. She’s yet to release a debut record, but over a flurry of EPs – from 2021’s We Speak In Tides to 2023’s Lonely Castles, and a 2024 mixtape titled BAMBI – Aziya has set her stall out as a unique and interesting guitar artist borne of very contemporary circumstances.
Aziya on the Guitar.com Cover. Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com
Her artistry is not going unnoticed. Aziya can count Yungblud and Olivia Rodrigo as admirers (she played both the inaugural Bludfest and shared the bill for Rodrigo’s BST gig last year), landed a spot on Fender’s Next programme – whose alumni include everyone from Phoebe Bridgers and Sam Fender to Orville Peck and Omar Apollo – and signed a major label deal with Atlantic.
Now freshly independent and embarking on a new phase driven purely by an instinctive joy for music, Aziya’s craft as a player blends perfectly with her confessional lyrics of what it means to be flawed, complex and the self-sabotaging type.
“I borrowed my first electric from school, it was a Squier. I haven’t given it back yet”
Something Borrowed
Aziya got her first nylon-string acoustic at 10 years old – and while she knew the guitar would become her extra limb, she didn’t necessarily know she was on the path to becoming an artist.
“I didn’t know that what I was trying to do was be an artist. It’s always been something that’s a passion of mine and has evolved with me. When I got to 16, I knew that I wanted to discover who I was as an artist. That’s when I finally took it seriously,” she shares.
Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com
At the state school she attended in Hackney, music resources were limited and spread thinly to accommodate all children. Aziya was tasked with singing, but knew she was destined to play guitar too. Taking part in her first show at school, she got to sing Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir, which changed the trajectory of her future.
“That just relit this love I had of rock music, so I was like, I can’t not play the guitar, guys! I managed to borrow one from school, my first electric, it was a Squier. I haven’t given it back yet,” she admits, “but I will when I make it big…”
“I’ve gone back to why I first started doing this, and a lot of that reason is the guitar”
Locked In
Aziya attended the BRIT School of performing arts for the last two years of her education, following in the footsteps of Adele and Amy Winehouse. The prestige of the BRIT School means that you don’t get in without passing an audition. But as Aziya recalls, that’s pretty much the easiest part. It’s no machine churning out manufactured pop-stars, she assures us.
“You have the studios, you have the guitars, you have other great musicians, but it’s up to you to go and speak to those musicians, to use the studio, to hone your craft. There’s no one there saying to you, ‘This is what Adele did, so we’re all going to do this.’”
As it happens, Aziya’s moment to cut through happened in a very early 2020s kinda way. When the COVID-19 lockdown hit, she took advantage of her home set-up to begin sharing bedroom recordings on social media – a mix of original music and guitar-driven covers. One of them, which interpreted Grimes’ Oblivion with a wailing guitar solo and a punchy harmonic-laden riff, quickly racked up thousands of views and brought her to the attention of some big names.
Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com
Back in lockdown, Oscar- and Grammy-winning guitarist H.E.R. started a weekly livestream on Instagram called Girls With Guitars. The series welcomed artists as diverse as Willow, Lianne La Havas, Orianthi and Melissa Etheridge to talk about their shared love of the instrument. And one of those guests, being broadcast to the roughly 300,000 people watching, was Aziya.
“That was one of the solidifying moments for me of, ‘Honestly, it doesn’t matter that I’ve only been shredding for like a year,” she reflects. “Because people are acknowledging me and my work: great people.’”
“Every guitarist goes into it with the confidence to be like, ‘I’m going to be wrong and strong, and I don’t care’”
Strong Roots
Growing up on a wide catalogue of artists from My Chemical Romance to Patti Smith, as well as a palette of early punk, Aziya’s sound reflects all that she absorbed through osmosis in her youth; it’s a melting pot of pop, rock and romantic R&B. She also found courage in the examples set by women with guitars and founding Black female artists, including the Godmother of rock ‘n’ roll, Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
“It’s a shame that her flowers are only coming now. She definitely set the path for me,” she declares. “All my favourite guitarists, from Jimmy Page to Jimi Hendrix – even people that look like me, like Hendrix and Prince – they’re all men! I was like, where are the women? They’re there, but they’re hidden, from Sister Rosetta Tharpe to June Millington from this band called Fanny. There’s also Viv Albertine from The Slits. They are out there.”
Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com
Many of these women set the template that Aziya now continues to champion in her own craft: the brilliant defiance to be “wrong and strong”, to give things a go without worrying about being good enough. Playing an electric guitar is not brain surgery after all, it’s art.
Aziya points to something Albertine said about electric guitar in her memoir, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys. “She liked how obnoxiously loud it was and the fact that she didn’t know how to properly play, but she was being amplified. I think that’s how every guitarist goes into it, you go in with the confidence to be like, ‘I’m going to be wrong and strong, and I don’t care.’”
“I can’t ever lose my creative autonomy again”
Altar-d State
The days of an artist needing the heft of a major label and the resources of a massive studio to make their mark are long over, but Aziya embraces the bedroom aesthetic more than most. Her distinctive but distinctly DIY online backdrop has become a magnetic aspect of her art. It’s a wink to other budding artists that they can do this too. You could argue that for modern musicians, the bedroom is a creative altar – a place where they can grow as artists in safety and security, while still sharing their music with the world.
“Describing it as an altar is really interesting,” Aziya replies. “Because like an altar, like going to God and wrestling with things that are going on for you, it’s the same as when you’re in your bedroom [making music].
“There is sometimes the creative identity struggle of doing it from your bedroom, especially as a female producer. Sometimes it’s like, is this official enough? Will people take it seriously? But [there’s] a peace that comes through for me, the comfort of it being my space. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think there’s more female producers because of it as well.”
Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com
As for her setup, she’s “happily moved away from the Squier” these days, but still favours quality over quantity. Alongside her Novation Launchpad, you’ll mostly find her with a Fender Telecaster (affectionately named Dove by her fans), but she also uses a Mustang, a P-Bass, and one particularly special treasure she purchased on London’s iconic music retail district, Denmark Street.
“A guitar I always come back to is my 60s reissue Jag. It’s Japanese-made, and I use that a lot on quite a few of my songs. Wundagirl, that’s one where you can hear the Jag for sure,” she says. “I’ve also just got myself a [Neural DSP] Quad Cortex, it’s got every pedal you could desire and want. My usual setup with it is a lot of chorus, a lot of delay, reverb. And then occasionally my [Pro Co] RAT when I want to get a little heavier.”
“There is sometimes the creative identity struggle of doing it from your bedroom, but I wouldn’t have it any other way”
Self Sabotage
Guitar is woven through the DNA of Aziya’s songs. Even in tracks where it is less obvious, like He’s Mine, it’s there as a constant spine. Don’t expect that to change any time soon as she embarks on her new phase as an independent artist. Details are limited and her lips are sealed for now, but Aziya can confirm she is working on a new project, with the first taste being latest single Sabotage!.
“This one sets a precedent. A lot of the writing stems from reflection on being this saboteur type, but not to anyone else, just to myself. That’s what I wanted to do with this first song, lay that out and the direction of where we’re going in terms of what I’ve experienced this last year.
“This is probably the nicer, sweeter sounding of the songs. I love sitting in that world where it’s like rock meets hip-hop almost,” she reflects. “Sitting in that weird alternative space is something I love to explore. I think the deeper we will get into this project, the more stripped away things will get. There’s a lot of reference to Nirvana as well in there. There’s guitar in every song.”
Her forthcoming ‘Saboteur’ project is looking to be a significant mark in the sand for her independence. Being dropped by a major label is the sort of blow that would drive many artists to pack things in – especially so early on. But instead it lit a fire under her to create on her own terms. Whatever comes next, it will be wholly and truthfully Aziya.
Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com
“When I got dropped, the first thing I wrote down were the non-negotiables for me as a creative,” she explains. “The first was me saying I can’t ever lose my creative autonomy again or people-please, and I think that is sometimes an unfortunate byproduct of being an artist.”
Aziya has emerged through her early tumble through these weeds stronger and wiser. She’s got unapologetically big dreams, from scoring films to soundtracking fashion shows, not to mention a spot on Glastonbury’s famous Pyramid stage. She is wickedly smart and switched on, and there’s undeniably a quiet genius about the way she works.
Relaxing in her seat on her hotel balcony, there’s an assured energy about Aziya today. She’s certainly done her fair share of work to chase her dream, and this next era is all about attracting the success she’s duly earned.
“I feel the most ‘me’ whenever I’m playing guitar,” she smiles. “I’ve really gone back to my roots. Being independent now, the only voice that I’m listening to and that matters is my own, and the collaborators I’m in the room with. I’ve gone back to why I first started doing this, and a lot of that reason is the guitar.”
Aziya’s Sabotage! is out now
Words: Rachel Roberts
Photography: Danica Robinson
Location: The Shacklewell Arms
The post “I feel the most ‘me’ whenever I’m playing guitar”: Aziya on her rock journey and the beauty of being “wrong and strong” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
John Mayer honours Dolly Parton with instrumental I Will Always Love You cover
John Mayer has paid tribute to Dolly Parton with an emotional instrumental rendition of I Will Always Love You.
The guitarist performed the country classic during his SiriusXM concert at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, New York, on 26 August, a day after news broke of Parton’s death.
Mayer worked the song into the intro of Gravity, playing Parton’s familiar melody on his PRS Dead Spec Silver Sky and giving it a bluesy spin of his own before moving into his own song.
Before the show, Mayer also reflected on Parton’s death and the extraordinary reaction to her passing, particularly the way her music brought people together.
Credit: Rick Diamond/ Getty Images
“I think Dolly would be really happy to see that on the day of her passing, the world came together in a way that it hadn’t in a very long time to celebrate someone,” he says.
“I don’t know that there are many people in this world [that are] left that can galvanise a very fractured world to come together and share love for one person. When everyone’s loving one person at the same time, it is everybody loving at the same time, which has this sort of side effect of feeling each other’s love when that happens.”
“This is what a life well-lived looks like, feels like, and sounds like,” Mayer continues, describing her career as a “brilliant, classy, talented, full artistic rendering”.
“This is how you give your life to the thing you love.”
Parton, who died aged 80, was one of the most celebrated songwriters and performers of her generation. I Will Always Love You was written and recorded by Parton in 1973, becoming one of her signature songs before taking on an entirely new life through Whitney Houston’s hugely successful 1992 cover for The Bodyguard.
Watch Mayer’s tribute below.
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“It changed my career”: Joe Bonamassa pays tribute to Tim Curry and recalls their “perfect” connection
![[L-R] Joe Bonamassa and Tim Curry](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Joe-Bonamassa-Tim-Curry-hero@2000x1500.jpg)
Blues legend Joe Bonamassa has paid tribute to actor Tim Curry, who died earlier this week at the age of 80.
Curry is well-remembered for his roles as Pennywise the Clown in the original IT movie, as well as in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Clue, and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Bonamassa posted a tribute to Curry on Instagram yesterday (August 26).
He wrote: “Rest in Peace Tim Curry. Many do not know that Tim cut the original version of Sloe Gin on his debut album Read my Lips in 1978. The song was composed by Bob Ezrin and Michael Kamen.
“20 years ago Kevin Shirley rang me and said he found the perfect desperate blues song for me. He was right and our version changed my career trajectory forever. Tim’s version was bold, beautiful and featured the mastery of Dick Wagner on guitar.”
Alongside the written tribute is a video of Bonamassa performing Sloe Gin. The song remains one of Bonamassa’s biggest hits to date. He once told Total Guitar: “That song initially came to me via [producer] Kevin Shirley who was born in South Africa. It was a hit there but nowhere else.
“I have to give a special shout out to Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner who played on the original version. They were basically Bob Ezrin’s ringers… What you hear on the record and how we play it live are two different things. That song’s got a life of its own. I’m thrilled with that… sometimes we just have to play it!”
Curry’s 1978 release included not only the Ezrin and Kamen track but also featured covers of work by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, Roy Wood, and Joni Mitchell.
The post “It changed my career”: Joe Bonamassa pays tribute to Tim Curry and recalls their “perfect” connection appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
The baritone hype is real – and Gibson’s getting in on the action
Baritones seems to be all the rage in 2026, with a particularly eye-catching model recently coming from Jackson in partnership with Sleep Token.
It’s been a while since Gibson dipped its toes in the baritone pool – the last time extended-scale guitars among its product catalogue being the early 2010s, with the SG Baritone, Explorer Baritone and Les Paul Studio Baritone.
And while it’s not as radical a model as the new Jackson Monarkh for Sleep Token’s guitarist IV – which ships tuned an entire octave down – Gibson has revived its baritone offering once more, with the all-new Victory Baritone.
Shipping with a B-to-B tuning, made possible and more stable by a longer 28″ scale length (typically, Gibson guitars measure up 24.75″), the Victory Baritone features a double-cutaway mahogany body with “updated Victory contours for enhanced comfort, balance, and stage-ready performance”, as well as a glued-in mahogany neck, and compound-radius ebony fingerboard with 24 medium jumbo frets and acrylic dot inlays.
Credit: Gibson
An extended-scale guitar sort of calls for high-gain, drop-tuned riffs, so the Victory Baritone is equipped with a pair of newly designed Gibson ELEV8 humbuckers, which are said to offer “powerful tone with unmistakable Gibson character”, with alnico 8 magnets and custom-gauge wiring. These electronics also include push-pull controls for coil-splitting as well as inner-outer coil selection.
Credit: Gibson
The new Victory Baritone is just the latest addition to Gibson’s cult classic Victory line, which received a significant revamp back in 2024. We recently got our hands on the line’s Floyd Rose equipped model, and gave it a near-perfect 9/10 review.
Available in British Racing Green and Graphite Metallic, the Victory Baritone is priced at $2,499/£2,149.
Learn more at Gibson.
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Tom Morello’s “Arm the Homeless” guitar pickup combo is now available as an EMG signature set
Want to get a little closer to Tom Morello’s guitar tone without, you know, actually being Tom Morello? EMG has just made the pickup combination behind his legendary “Arm the Homeless” guitar available as a signature set.
The new Tom Morello TM Set pairs an EMG 85 in the bridge with an EMG H in the neck, recreating the exact setup that has been at the heart of Morello’s sound for decades.
And this isn’t just a pickup pairing the Rage Against the Machine guitarist happened to like. The EMG 85 and H have been the foundation of Morello’s “Arm the Homeless” guitar since the late ’80s, with the iconic axe appearing on every recording and live show he has played since then.
So, what are you actually getting? For starters, the set comes with the throwback EMG logos found on the pickups in Morello’s original guitar, along with a commemorative “ATH” Tom Morello guitar pick.
At the bridge is the EMG 85, an active humbucker designed to deliver plenty of output, punch and low-end heft while keeping its highs controlled and articulate. Morello says he chose it specifically for the “hard metal sound” he wanted from his riffs and solos.
The neck pickup is where things get a little more interesting. The EMG H is essentially an EMG S single-coil tucked into a humbucker housing. That means you can drop it into a guitar routed for humbuckers while still getting the kind of single-coil character associated with a Strat.
For Morello, that single-coil character is a big part of what makes a “heavy” guitar sound work. As he puts it: “Some of the greatest riffs of all time are done on a Telecaster with a single-coil pickup.”
“A lot of times, guitar players think they have to have the most manly, alpha, distorted sound in order to be heavy. That’s not the trick,” says Morello. “It’s the tone, and the chemistry of the people you play with. And so with this pickup, there was a springiness to the tone, a funkiness to the tone with the way that I played. It has made fields of people bounce up and down over the course of the last three decades.”
The EMG Tom Morello TM set is available now for $249. Like all EMG products, this set includes the solderless wiring system for simple installation.
Learn more at EMG.
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Tony Iommi wanted Brian May to play on more of his new solo album: “But he went, ‘Oh no, it’s your album!’”
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi is gearing up to release his first solo album in more than two decades, From The Dark, with longtime friend and Queen guitarist Brian May among its guest contributors.
In a new interview with Loudwire, Iommi opens up about how May ended up on the record – and reveals that he’d actually asked his old friend to play on more than one track.
The collaboration came together pretty casually, with May dropping by Iommi’s house and the two guitar legends doing what they’ve apparently been doing for decades: picking up guitars and having “a little fiddle about”.
“He brings a guitar or I’ve got one here and he’ll use that,” says Iommi. “I said, ‘Oh, bring your guitar when you come,’ he brought his guitar and I said, ‘You’re going to be playing on this track here.’ He’s great.”
May ultimately contributes to Death Wake, the sixth track on From The Dark. Iommi, however, had hoped to get a little more out of his old friend.
“I said to him, ‘Play on some other tracks,’ but he went, ‘Oh no, it’s your album,’” Iommi recalls. “That’s the relationship we’ve had with each other for all these years. We’ve played a lot together. He is a great friend.”
Iommi says the pair have known each other for “56, 58 years” and describes May as his best friend, alongside another legendary guitarist – Eddie Van Halen.
“We’ve known each other for 56, 58 years. He’s my best friend. And of course, Eddie Van Halen was. We always stayed in touch a lot. They were the only two I really did stay in touch with.”
Beyond May’s contributions, the rest of From The Dark came together just as smoothly. Despite being his first solo album since 2005, Iommi says there was little pressure in the studio to force things.
“It’s been good fun, there’s no pressure,” he says. “If nothing happened, nothing happened, then we’d do it the next time. But it did, every time we come to record something, it’d work.”
From The Dark is due out on 23 October. Listen to the lead single World Alone below.
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“You hang with Ed, you’re not going to be talking about life in general. It’s about gear!” RATT’s Stephen Pearcy on the lessons he learned from his neighbour Eddie Van Halen
If you only lived half a mile up the hill from Eddie Van Halen in the ’80s, there was probably only one sensible thing to do: let him come over and talk guitars.
That was the case for RATT frontman Stephen Pearcy, whose house was close enough to Van Halen’s that the guitarist would regularly cruise over on his motorcycle when he knew Pearcy was home.
Speaking on the Mighty VH Podcast, Pearcy recalls how his “three-level, high-tech” house – jokingly dubbed the White House – became something of a hangout for the legendary rocker.
“I had a house we called the White House. It was a three-level, high-tech house. And I was never there. I was always on the road,” Pearcy says. “But when Ed would know I was home, he’d cruise over and, you know, go back up the hill on his motorcycle and get busted for being at my place.”
When Pearcy headed up the hill to return the favour, he’d often find himself in Van Halen’s studio, where the conversation inevitably turned to guitars.
“I’d go up there and check out the studio and hang a bit. I mean, we were trading guitars. It was all about Charvels and guitars,” he recalls.
Pearcy admits he wasn’t particularly interested in Van Halen’s obsession with the whammy bar at first. That changed when he started bringing some of his San Diego friends along, including RATT guitarist Robbin Crosby.
“I wasn’t really into his kind of trip, the whammy, this and that. But the minute I brought Robbin up there – I started bringing my San Diego guys up with me to check Van Halen out – Robbin and Ed became friends.”
That friendship came with a pretty useful perk: one-on-one guitar lessons from Eddie Van Halen.
“We’d literally go to his house, Ed’s house, and he’d have a little workshop in his bedroom or somewhere and he’d tell Robin how to keep in tune with the whammy. There were no lock bars back then,” Pearcy says.
Van Halen’s lessons didn’t just stop there. He also shared tips on keeping strings fresh and getting the most out of the guitars they were constantly tinkering with.
“A lot was going on. How to keep your strings fresh and new,” Pearcy says. “And I’m just taking notes, and these two guitar dummies are taking notes too.”
“You go, you hang with Ed, you’re not going to be talking about, you know, life in general. It’s about gear,” he continues. “Unless he wants to tell you something else.”
Watch the full interview below.
The post “You hang with Ed, you’re not going to be talking about life in general. It’s about gear!” RATT’s Stephen Pearcy on the lessons he learned from his neighbour Eddie Van Halen appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
T-Rex TwinBlaze review – one tube-driven pedal to cover all your rocking needs?
€299/$289/£249, t-rex-effects.com
The T-Rex TwinBlaze is the kind of stompbox that might just save the world. Okay, a piece of guitar gear isn’t going to do much about climate change or global conflict, but it takes an issue that’s just as polarising – single pedals versus multi-effects processors – and finds a way to combine the best aspects of both sides.
In spirit, this is a proper old-school dirt pedal for the purists, made in Europe and powered by a real preamp tube… but it also brings the simplicity and efficiency of having three effects in one: two switchable overdrive/distortion circuits plus a separate clean boost. Maybe that means everyone will love it, and the human race can live in harmony again?
Image: Adam Gasson
What is it?
Proudly bearing the words ‘handcrafted in Denmark’, the TwinBlaze is part of an expanding range of homegrown pedals from a company that used to be pretty much all-in on Chinese production. I’m a big fan of the Danish-made reissue of the Mudhoney distortion, which has been around since 2018, so this neatly designed green metal box certainly has pedigree.
It’s billed as “a tribute to the 1980s golden era of rock” – and while you might struggle to match the word ‘golden’ to the bulk of the music of that decade, you can’t ignore the enduring appeal of the (mostly Marshall) amps that powered it. So what you’re getting here is two channels of old-school rock drive, plus a boost circuit to give it a kick up the jacksy on the way out.
Each channel has a control array that follows the Marshall JCM800 template – preamp gain and output level plus bass, middle, treble and presence – plus a toggle switch for ‘crunch’ or ‘lead’ mode. Both channels are voiced the same, so if you match up the settings there’ll be no difference when you flip between A and B.
As with the new T-Rex RoomMate D’Luxe reverb, a 12v power supply is included in order to supply enough juice to get the JJ ECC83S properly cooking – and again that valve has a slightly silly LED at its base, just in case you feel shortchanged by the low-key orange glow of the real thing.
Image: Adam Gasson
Usability
Look at the control panel of the TwinBlaze when it’s in bypass and you’ll see two rows of six unmarked knobs – what is this, Russian roulette for tone-tweakers? Luckily, once a channel is engaged its corresponding row of markers lights up for easy visibility – in yellow for crunch mode, or orange for lead. It’s a smart system, just as long as you don’t need to make changes while the pedal is off.
The boost circuit gets its own orange light, and beyond that the functionality of this unit is as simple as it could possibly be. Just make sure you use the right output: there’s a second one with speaker cab emulation for plugging directly into an audio interface.
Image: Adam Gasson
Sounds
The obvious place to start is with channel A in crunch mode and channel B set to lead. That gives you a total of five sounds accessible by footswitching alone: crunch, crunch plus boost, lead, lead plus boost, and boost on its own. Nice, although I can’t help wondering why the two channels haven’t been voiced differently – say, Marshall on one side and Fender on the other – for even more flexibility.
Anyway, that JCM-style voice is a pleasing one – and, running through a clean black-panel amp, uncannily accurate. Start chugging away on palm-muted power chords and within a few seconds you’ll feel your hair starting to perm: it is that 80s sound, kicking out plenty of raspy midrange but with enough saturation and compression to avoid any harshness.
In crunch mode you can go from light breakup to moderately hairy overdrive, while the switch to orange lighting brings a corresponding fieriness that sounds superb on attention-grabbing solo runs. The boost switch can prove really useful here, giving a tonally neutral lift of up to 20dB – and it works pretty well on its own if your amp is running anywhere close to the crunchy zone itself.
If anything, it seems T-Rex has copied the classic Marshall template too closely in terms of the EQ controls: they work OK, but somehow never quite as emphatically as you want them to. Don’t expect total tone-sculpting power, then – but if you just need to dial in the right amount of treble and bass for your rig, and maybe give the mids an extra shunt for the heavy stuff, they’ll do the job.
I did give the speaker-emulated output a spin, just to see if this pedal could also serve as a standalone recording preamp, and the results were… well, alright. My guess is there’s nothing more than a simple EQ treatment going on in there, which keeps things balanced but doesn’t stop it sounding DI-ish.
Image: Adam Gasson
Should I buy one?
If you’re still trying to get your head around that “1980s golden era of rock” thing, let it go. Yes, the haircuts were unforgivable, but for guitar tones that rocked harder than the sounds of the 70s, without yet going to the ultra-high-gain extremes of the 90s, this was indeed a perfect moment – and T-Rex has captured it.
For most players, a simpler pedal that can create one or two sounds in that tonal area will probably be enough; but if your idea of classic rock is more Def Lepp than Led Zepp, and you want one unit to cover all levels of dirt, the TwinBlaze is a persuasive candidate.
Image: Adam Gasson
Alternatives
A high-class option that flips the formula by having one drive and two boosts is the Dinosaural Cogmeister (£359.99/$399). If you’re just after a dual overdrive with a Marshall-ish flavour, try the Browne Amplification Protein ($299/£349) or Warm Audio Throne of Tone ($229/£219).
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“By far the most meaningful record we’ve ever made”: Polyphia announce new album Be Not Afraid – listen to the first single now
Polyphia has announced their new album, Be Not Afraid, which will be released later this year. The band has not put out a studio album since 2022’s Remember That You Will Die and spent the last two years heading down “pretty dark rabbit holes” to come up with material for their fifth release.
The album announcement also saw the release of lead single, Power in the Blood. Polyphia worked on the album throughout 2024 and 2025 in Miami, Los Angeles, and Dallas.
Guitarist Tim Henson confirmed the composition of the album changed massively, initially singing lines out loud and then translating them to guitar. He said: “Instead of going wide on Be Not Afraid, we went as deep as we could. There are so many layers to pull back. Every time you listen to it, you’ll notice something new. Thematically, it’s by far the most meaningful record we’ve ever made.”
Guitarist Scott LePage added: “We physically can’t make the same album twice. We have a yearning to evolve. It was so much fun to write this one together too – the writing sessions for past Polyphia records typically looked like us gathering our ideas separately first and bringing them to each other second, so we took a different approach with Be Not Afraid by treating the sessions like an opportunity to create with everybody in the room first before getting into the separate writing.
“It was a much more communal approach that led to us having so much fun making it that the fun itself was the magic being captured.”
Henson added: “The album takes you through the extremes of two different worlds / moods: one being very uplifting and triumphant, the other being spine-chilling and terrifying. There are moments on the record that legitimately scare me when I listen to them.”
Tim Henson, who has been in the band since its founding in 2010, added that the band headed into darker territory and is their response to feeling “disgusted, demoralised, and completely powerless”.
He said: “During the making of this record, we went down some pretty dark rabbit holes. We kept coming across things that were so depraved they sounded insane when you said them out loud. Then some of the very things we had been talking about started appearing in documents released to the public. You can read that stuff and feel disgusted, demoralised, and completely powerless.
“Be Not Afraid is our response to that. Rather than allowing the ugliness of the world to paralyse us, we put everything we had into making something beautiful. We weren’t afraid of whether something was too different or whether people were going to understand it. We just followed what excited us and made what I believe is our best record to date.”
Dates for the band’s European tour, which starts on November 17 at the Halle 622 in Zurich, can be found below:
- Nov 18 – Zurich, CH – Halle 622
- Nov 19 – Lyon, FR – Le Radiant
- Nov 20 – Toulouse, FR – Interference
- Nov 22 – Barcelona, ES – Razzmatazz
- Nov 23 – Madrid, ES – Sala La Riviera
- Nov 25 – Milan, IT – Alcatraz
- Nov 27 – Munich, DE – Zenith
- Nov 28 – Prague, CZ – SaSaZu
- Nov 29 – Warsaw, PL – Progresja
- Nov 30 – Leipzig, DE – Haus Auensee
- Dec 2 – Hamburg, DE – Docks
- Dec 4 – Copenhagen, DK – Amager Bio
- Dec 5 – Berlin, DE – Tempodrom
- Dec 6 – Oberhausen, DE – Turbinenhalle
- Dec 7 – Brussels, BE – Ancienne Belgique
- Dec 8 – Amsterdam, NL – AFAS Live
- Dec 9 – Paris, FR – Zenith Paris
- Dec 11 – Birmingham, UK – O2 Academy Birmingham
- Dec 12 – Manchester, UK – Manchester Academy
- Dec 15 – Leeds, UK – O2 Academy Leeds
- Dec 16 – London, UK – O2 Academy Brixton
Learn more at Polyphia’s official website.
The post “By far the most meaningful record we’ve ever made”: Polyphia announce new album Be Not Afraid – listen to the first single now appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Neural DSP makes “the biggest CorOS update in the company’s history”
Finland-based audio developer Neural DSP has expanded its flagship operating system, CorOS. Quad Cortex and Quad Cortex Mini users will now enjoy compatibility with five of Neural’s classic artist signature Archetype X plugins.
These include: Archetype: John Mayer X, Archetype: Petrucci X, Archetype: Misha Mansoor X, Archetype: Rabea X, and Archetype: Tim Henson X. In total, this includes over 70 amps, cabs and effects catering to everything from metal shredding to smooth, easy-listening strums. Moreover, with these additions, CorOS and Cortex Control can now work with every single X-updated plugin throughout Neural DSP’s arsenal.
Those who have Quad Cortex, Neural DSP’s flagship floorboard amp modeller, also now have access to the brand-new feature, Device Presets. As simple as it sounds, the Quad Cortex can save the precise settings on an individual device it is modelling. Amps, cabinets, drives, effects, and utility blocks can be instantly pulled up with all the knobs exactly where they were before. Plus, the new CorOS adds 2,000 device presets to try out.
“CorOS 4.1.0 represents a major milestone for the Quad Cortex ecosystem,” says Francisco Cresp, Neural DSP CPO and Co-Founder.
“With Plugin Compatibility now spanning every X-updated plugin in our lineup, alongside powerful new workflows like Device Presets, we’re giving musicians even more freedom to create, experiment, and move between software and hardware without compromise.”
As if that wasn’t enough, Quad Cortex and Quad Cortex mini users also get eight new virtual devices: Multivoicer harmonizer, Glitch granular delay, Ring Modulator, Arpeggio Delay, Crystal Delay, Vintage Digital Reverb, Douglas Shining Comp, and Plugin Parametric-4 EQ.
Last but certainly not least, the new Cortex Control has Multiple Device Management to adjust settings on multiple Quad Cortex and Quad Cortex mini units simultaneously. Now the monitor mixer can have a laptop side stage at gigs and change everyone’s settings with a click of a button when the next song arrives.
You can learn more at Neural DSP.
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The Warning’s Dany Villarreal on her guitar collection: “I have them stored in a very special place in my basement… and in my heart”
The Warning were just kids when their cover of Metallica’s Enter Sandman went viral. In the decade-plus since, they’ve released four albums, been nominated for a Latin Grammy and toured with Evanescence, Foo Fighters, Halsey and Yungblud.
But before all that, they were just three sisters playing the Rock Band video game at home in Monterrey, Mexico. “I actually started with a plastic guitar,” Daniela “Dany” Villarreal, vocalist and guitarist for the band, says.
From there, she moved to the acoustic guitar, starting with a Taylor GS Mini. Her first electric guitar was a semi-hollow Ibanez, but Villarreal was still quite young, and the guitar was too unwieldy for her small size, so she ended up switching to a Stratocaster.
“My relationship with guitars throughout time was a process of me finding the right sound, the right guitar,” she explains. “Since I started at a very young age, I didn’t quite necessarily get into the specifics from the get-go. I was just focused on learning guitar, but not finding my guitar, what I wanted to sound like, what I was comfortable with.”
That changed when The Warning went into the studio to work on their 2022 album Error, with producer David Bendeth, and he recommended Villarreal try a PRS guitar. “We just clicked,” she says. “It was so comfortable. It just felt completely right. And the more I played it, the more I found quirks in the sound, what I wanted to be, what I wanted to evolve into, and it became my teammate for sure.”
Dany Villarreal performing with a PRS guitar. Image: Press
Double Duty
The Warning are gearing up to release their fifth album, Everything’s Falling, on August 28, which sees them incorporating pop elements (Bloodsport), metal-style screams (Ego) and reggaeton beats (Bruises), into their signature hard rock sound, defined by blaring guitars. The band is rounded out by Villarreal’s younger sisters Paulina “Pau” Villarreal on drums and Alejandra “Ale” Villarreal on bass, and while all three sisters contribute vocals, Dany is the lead vocalist as well as the sole guitar player.
With dual duties comes additional challenges, one being differentiating the guitar melodies from Villarreal’s vocals, since they often occupy the same range. This has pushed her guitar playing into the lower end. “I’ve fallen in love with low-key trying to play the bass on a guitar,” she laughs.
There was another function Villarreal had to juggle on this record. “We’ve applied a new pedal to this album, sound-wise, that made the album what it is, I think,” she says. “It’s a very unique pedal. It’s called The Noise pedal [by Tallon Electric – Ed]. It’s a very indie pedal, but it just makes noise.” But it does mean that on top of singing and playing guitar, Villarreal also now has to operate a pedal with her foot, like on the groove-filled track Bruises.
It took several different guitars to achieve the dynamic, electrifying sounds of Everything’s Falling. Below Villarreal talks Guitar.com through the most treasured and meaningful guitars in her collection, , including her brand spanking new PRS signature model:
Dany Villarreal with her signature PRS Astryx. Image: PRS
PRS Astryx
Announced just this week is Villarreal’s very first signature guitar, created in partnership with PRS. The Astryx is based on the iconic Custom 24 model, but with a variety of visual and spec flourishes. For example, the fretboard is ebony instead of the usual rosewood, while an inlaid sun adorns the twelfth fret. The sun theme continues with the guitar’s striking purple, red and orange top finish, which is intended to evoke a sunset. “I had never had the experience of trying to put myself, my personality into a guitar, and having that be me,” she says. “I’m completely in love, and it’s my favorite guitar.”
It took about a year of production, with Villarreal even going to the PRS factory in Maryland to watch how the guitar was made. “I feel like it’s a very big step as a guitar player, and it’s gonna be one of the highlights in my timeline as a guitar player,” she says. Just 200 of these unique instruments will be made for sale, with each one featuring an autographed backplate.
Dany Villarreal with her signature PRS Astryx. Image: PRS
Gibson Les Paul
Early in her career, Villarreal got her hands on a Les Paul. “[It] is one of my very first guitars ever that I had a hard time letting go of,” she says. “Once I found a Les Paul, it was just like, ‘I love this guitar.’ It eventually became a problem for my back as a growing child because it was very heavy.”
The Les Paul didn’t make it into her touring set, but she held onto it. “I always invite my Les Paul over to the studio because I do feel a strong connection with it,” she adds. “It’s more of a nostalgia thing to have it with me there. We didn’t use it that much but there’s something about maybe playing a basic rhythm, strum-out chords with a Les Paul that just hits right.”
Dany Villarreal performing with a Fender Stratocaster Baritone. Image: Press
Fender Stratocaster Baritone
This custom twin-humbuckered beast, and other Fender baris, have helped Villarreal reach those lower tones, which have shaped The Warning’s sound. “I have been loving the baritone feel and mid-range that it gives me between the bass and a guitar,” she explains. “It just makes the songs feel so powerful. So I’m really having so much fun exploring that baritone world.”
When it was time to work on Everything’s Falling, the baritone guitars played a key role. “I think I was even surprised how much we used baritone guitar in this album because I started using baritone guitars more as a layer than as a main guitar, and that was not the case for this album,” she says. “We went fully with the main guitars being the baritone guitars.”
They weren’t the only Fenders she used in the studio. “With little arrangements and things where I wanted to be a little bit more delicate, I went with a Telecaster, which is not something I usually use on tour – it’s mainly studio vibes,” she laughs. “And we would figure out at that point what the song was asking for guitar-wise.”
But for writing, she prefers the Fender Acoustasonic. “I usually go full acoustic, which is weird because [we play] rock and roll, but it’s my comfort guitar, and I keep that in my room…. But whenever I have an itch, I just [go for the] Acoustasonic, and it’s my favorite guitar to… explore with,” she says.
Manson Oryx VI
The Warning are big fans of Muse and in 2023, they got the opportunity to support them on tour. While playing a show in Mexico, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy asked Villarreal her favourite colour. “I didn’t know what he was talking about,” she recalls, but she answered with mustard yellow. The Warning ended up joining Muse for a few dates on the United Kingdom leg later that year. On the last show they played together, Bellamy surprised Villarreal by knocking on her dressing room door with a guitar in hand.
“I actually had a time where I played Manson guitars a lot because of him, and I couldn’t believe I was being gifted one by him,” she says. “I played it that very same day. I was just like, ‘I’m gonna test this out on stage, see how it goes,’ and I love it so much.”
But Villarreal’s reluctant to bring it on the road. “We had a jump scare,” she explains. “I took it out on tour, and it did not arrive [at] the final destination. It got lost in some of the airports, and I was like, ‘You know what? This is the only guitar I have gifted [to] me from Matt Bellamy. I’m gonna stop touring with it. I’m gonna keep it safe.’” She keeps it in her home studio. “I take very good care of it now because it really is very very special to me,” she says.
Dany Villarreal with a Gibson Explorer. Image: Press
Gibson Explorer
In The Warning’s music video for the brash, swaggering single Ego, Villarreal’s holding a white Gibson Explorer with a similar story behind it. The Warning were playing in Texas in 2022 – on a bill that included Halestorm, The Pretty Reckless and Lilith Czar – when Halestorm frontwoman Lzzy Hale walked onstage with a white Gibson Explorer. “And she kneels down [as] if she is asking for my hand in marriage,” Villarreal remembers.
Villarreal assumed Hale was letting her borrow one of her guitars for that set, but when she went to return the guitar after playing, Hale told her to keep it. Hale had herself previously been gifted a guitar by Shinedown’s Jason Todd. “She felt super inspired, and she wanted to keep that tradition going,” Villarreal adds. “And seeing me so young and being a woman on stage, rocking out, and specifically in rock and roll, she felt it was the right moment to give one to me.”
Villarreal’s looking forward to following Hale’s example. “I love each and every one of [my gifted guitars], and I hope I can be that person too,” she says. “I would love to be a gifter of guitars that I like to guitar players that inspire me and want to inspire.”
But, like the Manson, Villarreal doesn’t road-test her gifted guitars. “I have them stored in a very special place in my basement and in my heart,” she says.
PRS Orianthi
Villarreal once mentioned in an interview that she admired Orianthi’s signature PRS guitar. It just so happened that Villarreal and Orianthi, both PRS artists, ended up sharing the stage as part of PRS’s 40th anniversary event last year. “After the performance was done, she just handed it to me,” Villarreal remembers. “I was like, ‘No way, this is insane!’ And it’s even [the] cherry on top that it was the guitar that she played that night with me on stage.”
While she’s been hesitant to take her gifted guitars for a spin live, she did make an exception. “It had to have a moment on stage, so I did play with it for one of the biggest shows in our career, which was Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City,” she explains. The three sold-out shows last year were recorded and the concert film was even screened in movie theatres. “It’s forever now there as the day I played with the Orianthi guitar,” she says.
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Mysterious masked metallers Sleep Token get their first signature guitars courtesy of Jackson and Charvel
In just ten years, Sleep Token have marked themselves as A-listers in the metal world, releasing several studio albums, most recently 2025’s Even in Arcadia, and even securing a headline slot at last year’s Download Festival, all while keeping their identities officially secret.
Yep, the mysterious masked musicians have become one of the most talked-about acts in metal music, so a line of signature models was perhaps overdue.
To that end, the band have partnered with both Charvel and Jackson on two metal-ready signature models…
The first, the Jackson Pro Plus Series Signature Sleep Token IV Monarkh SC, ships tuned down a whole octave, and is designed to let players tap into the distinctive signature crushing riffs of guitarist and backing vocalist IV.
Credit: Jackson/Charvel
To support that fiendishly low tuning, the guitar features a 30” scale length and precision-engineered EverTune 6 bridge for unshakable tuning stability, alongside a bound mahogany body with a quilt maple veneer, three-piece caramelised maple set neck and compound-radius ebony fingerboard with 22 stainless steel frets.
It’s powered by a pair of Fishman Fluence Open Core Classic humbuckers, and also features pearloid teardrop inlays, Luminlay side dots for visibility in dimly lit environments, and a matching headstock.
Meanwhile, the Charvel Sleep Token III Signature Pro-Mod San Dimas Bass V is a five-string bass for bass player III. It features a resonant poplar body, caramelised maple neck and fingerboard with a 12”-16” compound radius, Luminlay side dots, 34.4” to 35.5” multi-scale fanned fret design, Fishman Fluence soap bar pickups with three distinct voicings, an onboard Fishman 2-band EQ, Ultra Lite open-gear tuners, locking strap pins, and a reverse licensed Stratocaster headstock. In a sweet visual touch, it also dons a question mark inlay spanning the 11th to 13th frets.
“Sleep Token’s sonic and visual identity is so distinctive, and the Jackson and Charvel signature models are a huge part of shaping that sound,” says Justin Norvell, Chief Product Officer at Fender, which owns both Jackson and Charvel.
“These instruments let players tap directly into that tone: the Jackson features a whole-octave-down tuning paired with an EverTune 6 bridge for rock-solid stability in that lower register, while the Charvel is a five-string bass built with custom Fishman pickups for added clarity and punch in the mix.
“We’re always looking for artists who redefine what a signature instrument can be, and Sleep Token does exactly that.”
Credit: Jackson/Charvel
Price-wise, IV’s new Jackson signature Monarkh clocks in at $2,199.99 / £1,949, while III’s signature Charvel Bass V is $1,599.99 / £1,399.
Learn more at Jackson and Charvel, respectively.
Credit: Jackson/Charvel
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Johnny Marr reacts to Andy Burnham playing the Smiths with Ukrainian soldiers: “It’s a victory for the guitar”
![[L-R] Johnny Marr and Andy Burnham](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Johnny-Marr-Andy-Burnham-hero@2000x1500.jpg)
Johnny Marr has reacted to a clip of UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham playing a Smiths song on guitar with Ukrainian soldiers during a recent trip to Kyiv.
The British PM recently made the trip to the Ukrainian capital to reaffirm the UK’s support for the country amid its ongoing war with Russia, and found himself among the Ukrainian military’s Cultural Forces division playing the Smiths’ Rusholme Ruffians with soldiers, in a video that has since gone viral.
Reacting to the video in a new appearance on Absolute Radio, Smiths guitar legend Johnny Marr praises Burnham, calling it a “victory for the guitar”.
“I think it’s an amazing thing. In all honesty, for me it’s like a victory for the guitar,” he says. “Just the way I’m wired, I always think like that. I can’t quite get my head around it. I don’t know whether pride is the word, but it probably is.
“It’s kind of beyond me to process it really, because it could be massive, that. But I just sort of go, ‘How great is the guitar?’ I think, what an amazing tool the guitar is.
“My overwhelming feeling was that it was a victory for the guitar. I know that this being political and obviously with the plight of Ukraine. The more I think about it the more I think about how insignificant I am in it, really. Marr concludes: “Good on him.”
Rusholme Ruffians appeared on 1985’s Meat is Murder. Andy Burnham has made no secret of his love of guitar music during his time as a politician, and has touted his love of classic guitar bands including the Beatles, the Stone Roses, Radiohead and more.
During his jam with Ukrainian soldiers, the prime minister donned a T-style guitar from local Kyiv guitar company WM Guitars, but Burnham has previously displayed his love of Gretsch and Gibson guitars.
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“Instant sainthood”: Tributes pour in from the music world and beyond as country icon Dolly Parton dies at 80
Legendary country singer and music icon Dolly Parton has died at 80, following a short battle with cancer.
The news was confirmed by Parton’s nephew Bryan Seaver in an Instagram video posted yesterday (25 August).
“Hey everyone, my name is Bryan Seaver, son of Cassie Parton, and I am representing the Parton and Owens family today, announcing the passing of my Aunt Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean. Sister, sis, Aunt Granny to one generation and Gigi to the next. This video announcement is something that Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality.
“As her head of security for more than two decades, a role my father Larry held before me, I have imagined the heaviness of this moment, but haven’t truly felt it until now. It is an honour, an honour that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness. But sadness lies with us, not with Dolly. Dolly has lived in the light, and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by Carl, her parents, and countless others who have watched her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens.”
Seaver goes on: “Dolly opened doors not just for me, but for her entire family to reach the potential we didn’t even know was possible. Dolly also opened doors for generations of singers, songwriters, musicians, and dreamers from every walk of life.”
Indeed, few musicians get to count themselves as influential as Dolly Parton. Born in Tennessee in 1946, the fourth of 12 children, Parton – often dubbed the “Queen of Country” was surrounded by music from a young age, and it very quickly manifested, as she reportedly wrote her first song at just six years old, and was performing regularly on TV at just 10.
A prolific songwriter, Parton is said to have written more than 3,000 songs over the course of her lifetime, but a few stand out as her most enduring. They include I Will Always Love You – the 1973 hit later sent into the stratosphere by Whitney Houston – 9 to 5, a proud anthem of women’s equality in the workplace, and perhaps her biggest hit of all, Jolene. Parton is said to have sold more than 100 million records throughout her career.
She was known for her seismic impact on the music world as much as she was her one-of-a-kind fashion sense; she apparently had a collection of more than 350 wigs, and became somewhat synonymous with long, colourful fingernails. In an interview with The Guardian last year, she remembered composing the now-legendary Jolene lick before she truly adopted her iconic long fingernails.
“I was playing guitar pretty serious back then, before I had all the long nails,” she said. “I remember all the guys learning to play it and everybody thinking how cool a rhythm it was. It was a little out of the norm for the things we’d been doing up to that time. I remember everybody in the studio just loving that song.”
Since the news of her passing was announced yesterday, tributes have been pouring in from the music world and beyond, remembering the enduring impact Dolly Parton had on everything.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham – who recently visited Kyiv and played a Smiths song on guitar with Ukrainian soldiers – called himself a “huge” Parton fan, noting her “great music that people will treasure forever”.
Meanwhile, superstar Taylor Swift said in a statement shared with The Hollywood Reporter and Rolling Stone: “A world without Dolly doesn’t feel possible, real, or right. But because of the eternally generous way she spent her time on this earth and the countless lives she changed for the better, her legacy will be an everlasting one. She was truly the gift that kept on giving.”
Elsewhere, Beatles legend Paul McCartney called Parton a “magnificent star”, writing on Instagram: “Thanks Dolly for the beautiful music you gave me and the whole world. We will always love you, god bless and rest in peace. You were the best.”
Gary Holt remembered Parton as “one of my father’s favourite singers”, while Jack White called for the country legend to receive an “instant sainthood”.
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Newly unearthed Beatles recording showcases Day Tripper without its iconic guitar riff
It’s one of the most iconic guitar riffs of all time, but a new previously unheard recording has revealed exactly what The Beatles’ Day Tripper sounded like before John Lennon and Paul McCartney game up with the iconic intro guitar part.
As part of the build-up to the release of the new Special Edition of Rubber Soul, which is coming out in October, a new ‘work tape’ of Lennon and McCartney working on Day Tripper in a more embryonic form has been released – and it’s a real treasure trove for Beatles fans and guitar fans in general.
The tape, which was recorded during a writing session undertaken at Lennon’s home Kenwood, in the lead up to what would become Rubber Soul, paints a fascinating picture of how such a timeless song can come together.
In amongst the bonhomie and joking you can hear between Lennon and McCartney, you can see that Day Tripper is mostly there – it has the melody, the harmonised vocal lines between the pair, and the basic song structure.
It’s clear, even in this more acoustic-driven, folky form, that it’s an incredible song. What it doesn’t have, however, is a killer riff to make it truly legendary.
That riff, those 11 notes, would come together in the studio later, with Lennon taking credit for coming up with it – though he later reflected that the song was crafted in the studio “under pressure” and felt that, “It was very hard going, that, and it sounds it.”
It seems likely that George Harrison played the iconic riff in the studio – most likely on his Gibson ES-345 or a 1963 Gretsch Tennessean – though Lennon in typically blunt style, claimed responsibility for writing it, even if he was somewhat blase about its brilliance. “That’s mine. Including the lick, the guitar break and the whole bit. It’s just a rock ‘n’ roll song,” he told interviewer David Sheff shortly before his death.
But it was a lot more than “just a rock ‘n’ roll song” for millions of guitarists and musicians. Day Tripper’s riff is important not just because it is a profoundly great guitar part – it’s significant for what it represented for the band and for music in general.
Because the concept of a ‘guitar riff’ in the manner we now regard it was something relatively new in the world of rock ‘n’ roll. The Kinks’ You Really Got Me had only arrived in 1964 and by 1965 the riff was taking over pop music – from (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction to For Your Love by The Yardbirds.
Over in the States, a place where the Beatles were always more interested in drawing musical inspiration from, Motown was putting riffs at the centre of things in a different but no less impactful way with the likes of My Girl and The Tracks of My Tears.
While the Beatles had many memorable guitar parts before, and had dabbled in the relatively new concept of a ‘guitar riff’ previously – notably on Ticket To Ride earlier in 1965 – Day Tripper was arguably the first time that the band had made a truly riff-driven song, and in typical Beatles style, it was one that raised the bar.
By the end of the decade, guitar riffs would be everywhere in popular music – Purple Haze, Smoke On The Water, Sunshine Of Your Love – and across the Beatles later work as well.
Without Day Tripper, it’s hard to imagine we’d have had some of The Beatles’ most iconic guitar moments – from Taxman to Yer Blues, from Revolver to And Your Bird Can Sing. By the end, The Beatles were crafting some of the most iconic and enduring guitar riffs the world would ever know – and it all started with Day Tripper.
This impact means that it remains a constant inspiration for guitar players so many decades later, and it’s something McCartney acknowledges himself. “You still often hear it played when you walk into guitar shops,” he wrote in his book, The Lyrics. “It’s one of those songs that revolves around the riff. Some songs are hung onto a chord progression. Others, like this, are driven by the riff, and it does that.”
All of the above makes it all the more fascinating to hear Day Tripper in its nascent form – still a great song of course, but one that showcases the enduring and vital power of a brilliant guitar riff to elevate a song into something truly special.
The Beatle’s Rubber Soul Special Edition is out on 2 October, and is available to preorder now.
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Fender Custom Shop releases a “painstaking” recreation of George Harrison’s Bass VI
The Fender Custom Shop has launched a limited-edition George Harrison 1967 Bass VI, which it describes as a “painstaking” recreation of the Beatle’s original.
The model has been crafted in Corona, California, capturing the look, feel and character of Harrison’s model, which he acquired in 1967 and used as an integral part of his work with the band at Abbey Road Studios.
This limited model is priced at $9,500.00 (£8,599), is built to the same specifications by the Fender Custom Shop luthiers, and is finished with Relic aging to give it a worn-in look. It has a two-piece select alder body to deliver warmth and a balanced midrange, with a thin nitrocellulose lacquer finish.
The neck is shaped to match the profile of Harrison’s Bass VI, featuring a bound 3A rosewood fingerboard and white pearloid block inlays. The 7.25” radius and 21 vintage frets provide a period-correct playing surface across a 30” scale length. This shorter scale produces lower string tension, lending a “supple, elastic feel that invites both bass lines and guitar-style phrasing”, according to the FCS.
A bone nut ensures “precise” intonation and open-string sustain at the headstock end. As for tone, the instrument comes loaded with three period-correct Custom Shop Hand-Wound Jaguar pickups, and individual on/off slide switches for each pickup so players can sculpt their signal path on the fly.
Another personal touch and nod to the original is on the switch plate, where etchings made by Harrison on his original to note his preferred settings can be found. Other premium features include a 6-saddle vintage-style adjustable bridge with “floating” tremolo tailpiece and Bass VI mute, a 4-ply brown shell pickguard, and vintage-style tuning machines with the Fender logo. A deluxe hardshell case, strap and certificate of authenticity are all included.
“George Harrison’s Bass VI holds a unique place in Fender history. It played a defining role in some of the most influential recordings ever made while showcasing the remarkable versatility of the Bass VI itself,” says Chase Paul, Director of Fender Custom Shop.
“With this Limited Edition release, our Custom Shop team has faithfully recreated George’s original instrument with extraordinary attention to detail, honouring its legacy and giving players and collectors the opportunity to own an extraordinary piece of music history.”
To find out more, visit the Fender Custom Shop.
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Watch as UK PM Andy Burnham plays a Smiths song with Ukrainian soldiers in Kyiv: “You can take the man out of Manchester…”
UK prime minister Andy Burnham has made no secret his love of guitar music, proclaiming back in 2022 his love of The Beatles, The Stone Roses, Radiohead and others.
But he’s not just a fan of guitar music; he’s also a longtime guitar player, and has been captured on video on numerous occasions playing both guitar and bass, and showing an affinity for Gretsch and Gibson guitars.
And his guitar skills have been showcased once again during his recent visit to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, as the UK pledges its continued support for the country amid its ongoing war with Russia.
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Burnham – who was mayor of Manchester – joined soldiers in a mobile recording studio, part of Ukraine’s military and artistic unit, which routinely performs on the front lines and in hospitals to boost morale.
Equipped with a silver T-style electric guitar, the British prime minister can be seen in a video posted to his official Instagram page playing a rendition of Rusholme Ruffians by Mancunian legends the Smiths.
The guitar he plays is in fact a hand-built model by Kyiv’s WM Guitars. It also features the emblem of the Ukraine military’s Cultural Forces division. Check out the clip below:
Andy Burnham isn’t the first guitar-toting politician to have flexed his six-string skills in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in 2022. Back in 2024, then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital after the United States signed a new aid package, during which he performed a cover of Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World.
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How Taylor Guitars captured a whole new audience by putting the musician at the heart of everything
Ad feature with Taylor Guitars
Taylor Guitars has always been a brand that listened to the player. But when Andy Powers became Taylor’s Master Guitar Designer over a decade ago, this mindset became even more central, evolving Taylor into something remarkable: a global guitar brand with the mindset of a bespoke luthier. Now a brand new Guitar.com Presents film gets to the heart of what this really means.
In Taylor Guitars: Crafted To Inspire we head to Taylor’s HQ in El Cajon, California, and sit down with both Powers and other members of the Taylor team to explore exactly what it means to bring the in-depth, player-centric mindset of a one-of-one luthier and how that can be scaled up to make better instruments for thousands of guitarists all over the world.
“I’ve never lived in a world where there was a separation between the builder and the player,” Powers explains. “Whether it was building an instrument for myself, or building an instrument for someone that I’m sitting across from, or even building an instrument for somebody who’s half a world away, we speak the same language, and we’re seeking the same kinds of things, which is musical inspiration. ”
This mindset has reached new heights with the Gold Label Collection – a range of radical new guitars launched just last year that showcases the bold and unconventional way that Taylor is responding to the needs of musicians like never before. And the proof of this is not just in the instruments themselves, but the artists who have embraced them already, from signature artists Trey Hensley and Ben Harper, to Nashville musicians who would previously have never picked up a Taylor.
“But I have a lot of long-time traditional guitar player, pre-war guitar players who are knocking down our door to get their hands on one of these,” explains Jay Parkin, Taylor’s director of artist relations and partnerships. “Andy had the foresight to create guitars that sound and look incredibly familiar, yet they have the playability of a modern Taylor, which is like none other.”
But the real magic of Powers’ design genius can be found in the way that the innovations that he uses to make guitars that have a particular sonic and visual style can be redeployed to enhance and evolve other guitars in the Taylor range. This is seen most strikingly in the evolution of Taylor’s classic Grand Auditorium and Grand Concert Next Generation guitars – which utilise many of the innovations found in the Gold Label, but result in a sound that is much more classically Taylor.
“I love that musicians don’t all sound alike,” Powers explains. “We have different interests. We have different influences, different inspirations, and I enjoy that. I don’t want instruments to all be just the same thing.
Watch Taylor Guitars: Crafted To Inspire at the Guitar.com YouTube Channel.
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Phil Collen says Mutt Lange is “the best producer in the world” – this is how he helped Def Leppard rise to success
Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen says producer Robert ‘Mutt’ Lange was “about 99 percent” responsible for the band’s success in the 1980s.
Lange has produced huge hit records for a large number of successful artists, with a pivotal example being AC/DC and their Highway To Hell album, but also for artists like Shania Twain, Bryan Adams, Muse, Britney Spears and Lady Gaga.
Lange worked with Def Leppard on their 1981 album High ‘N’ Dry, 1983’s Pyromania, and their fourth studio album, 1987’s Hysteria. In an interview with Meltdown of WRIF radio station, Collen is asked just how much Lange impacted their triumph back then.
“Probably about 99 percent. [He taught us] everything,” Collen says (via Blabbermouth). “He taught us how to sing, he taught us how to play guitar. He sings on every song we’ve ever done [with him]. He does backing vocals. He’s got the best singing voice out of all of us put together. And he sings on everything he does.
“I mean, I even hear him on Highway to Hell. His backing vocals are on that, and all the Bryan Adams stuff, Shania Twain stuff. Obviously, all of our stuff. And, yeah, you hear him on Foreigner, I think on The Cars. He’s got a great voice. It’s just amazing.”
Collen goes on to explain, “[Mutt did] everything. He’s the best producer in the world, [and a] songwriter as well. You’d come to him and you go, ‘I’ve got this chorus.’ He’d go, ‘Okay, well, that’s not strong enough for a chorus. We could use that for a middle eight or a bridge or something like that, but we need a stronger chorus.’ And he’d come and he’d write with us as well. So that was a great thing.”
Looking back on the making of Hysteria, Collen shares how Lange came up with the main hook of Pour Some Sugar On Me: “We’d got 11 songs, and [Mutt] heard Joe [Elliot] play an acoustic, and he’s like, ‘What’s that?’ [Joe] goes, ‘I don’t know.’ He [starts going], ‘Pour some sugar on me…’
“We went in, took about 10 days to do that song. We stopped everything, and Mutt just kind of orchestrated the whole thing. So he was very active in everything we did. And most of the bands that he worked with, he did that kind of thing with everyone.”
Watch the full interview below:
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Wolfgang Van Halen claps back at old comment saying he’d be playing his father’s music by now: “Don’t ever let anyone tell you what you’re capable of”
Wolfgang Van Halen has responded to an old hate comment he received in 2021, in which someone suggested he would be playing his father’s music by now.
In a gloriously petty post, the Mammoth frontman reflects on his success over the past half a decade, and has quoted the words of his own father, Eddie Van Halen, about the importance of playing your own music.
On Instagram he shares a screenshot of the comment, along with the caption: “August 24 2021. The first Mammoth record just came out, we had just started touring, when this kind fella (along with many MANY others) said this. I jokingly responded, threw it in my calendar and forgot about it. Today is that day.
“Five years later. What a trip. And yeah, this guy is a dickhead, but I just wanted to say thanks for listening and sticking with me. I’m very proud of what we’ve built here and I intend to keep going until the wheels fall off.”
He adds, “I never planned on playing VH in any capacity when it came to Mammoth, and five years later I feel exactly the same. As my dad once said, ‘I’d rather bomb on my own than succeed with someone else’s music.’ Don’t ever let anyone tell you what you’re capable of. That’s for you to decide.”
Wolfgang has of course received a lot of support in the comments, notably from Phil Demmel who writes, “Receipts kept!” and Nita Strauss, who says: “Big fan of a spite calendar reminder.”
Check out the full post below
Wolfgang has always been clear about his decision to not play any Van Halen material at his shows. Just a couple of months ago he said during an interview with 105.7 The Point, “If anybody’s been really paying attention, they know that I wouldn’t do anything like entertaining to play a Van Halen song,” he says. “I’ve been very forthright about not wanting to play Van Halen songs.
“I’d rather bomb playing my own stuff than succeed by shacking up in my dad’s legacy and playing Panama every day. It’s just not what I’m interested in doing. I like to have a little bit more artistic and personal integrity than that.”
Find out where you can catch Wolfgang Van Halen live on tour via the Mammoth website.
The post Wolfgang Van Halen claps back at old comment saying he’d be playing his father’s music by now: “Don’t ever let anyone tell you what you’re capable of” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.