Guitar.com

$179/£189, earthquakerdevices.com

What do you do when the ‘current climate’ makes things incredibly difficult for small US-based pedal brands to actually make ends meet? Akron’s own EarthQuaker Devices has been candid about the potentially devastating impact that current US economic policy is having on American builders like them. It all doubtless makes every new product launch even more of a risk – when the margins are smaller than ever and distribution is hampered by tariffs on all sides, making a new launch a success becomes ever harder.

• READ MORE: EarthQuaker Devices Rancho de la Luna Dirt Transmitter review – heavy fuzz tones with a voltage-starving twist

Perhaps that’s why EQD has leaned into its Legacy Reissue programme in recent months? While the brand is still putting out new pedals, it’s notable that we’ve also seen them bring back some discontinued classics from the catalogue – the Dirt Transmitter in new clothes last month, and now a straight revival of a beloved octave fuzz in the shape of the Fuzz Master General.

Earthquaker Devices Fuzz Master General – what is it?

If you know anything about fuzz and the history of effects in general, you’ll be aware of the Univox Super-Fuzz – beloved of everyone from Pete Townshend to Kurt Cobain, it’s one of the proper foundational pedals in the history of guitar.

As is always the way with guitar however, it didn’t take long for rivals to start making their own copies and iterations on the form, and a notable early example of this is the Ace Tone FM-2 Fuzz Master, which first appeared in around 1967.

The FM-2 is a very similar circuit to the Super-Fuzz, and it’s this design that EQD based the original Fuzz Master General on back in 2015. There are of course some important differences between the FMG and its inspiration, designed to deliver a much broader range of octave-fuzz loveliness, as well as make it more suited to the needs of a modern guitar player.

Perhaps the most striking difference is a three-way toggle switch that selects between germanium, silicon and no diode clipping. In addition to the voice switch, the FMG dispenses with the tone switch of the original for a full variable tone control to add greater tonal flexibility, and you also get much more output and much lower noise than you would have in the original 60s unit.

Earthquaker Devices Fuzz Master General – sounds

With everything set to 12 o’clock and the voice switch sat in the middle third voice (yes for some reason the modes run 1-3-2 from left to right on the switch) and you could forgive yourself for ever assuming that this was any kind of vintage reissue. With no clipping to speak of here, there’s none of the buzzy, nasal-y sound that you might get with an old-school fuzz circuit, just lashings and lashing of brutal, devastating angular octave fuzz.

It still has something of that classic Super-Fuzz octave tonality however, it’s just presented in a much more forward, modern, band-centric fashion. There’s also a bit of a ‘hidden’ fourth mode here if you drop the fuzz control all the way down with no clipping, you get a clean octave sound that borders on a ring mod overtone – but a little more usable than that infinitely polarising effect.

Switching over to the first voice and the germanium clipping, and instantly this is more like the classic sound of a Super-Fuzz that I’d been expecting – it’s brash, cutting and a little nasal at times, especially when you push the knobs further to the left. A note of caution, while the tone knob here is really useful and allows you to really run the gamut of vintage fuzzy tones, the tightly compressed sound inherent to the circuit does mean you’ll likely want to have your fuzz up high to really cut through. All this means that when you nudge that tone control up to its higher reaches, feedback can be an issue – be warned before you attempt such a maneuver in a high-volume setting.

The germanium side is also much more responsive to picking dynamics and the setting of your guitar’s volume – it makes for a pretty wild ride all things considered, but it feels all the more authentic with it.

Switching over to the silicon mode, and it’s instantly a more forgiving experience, giving a more even response if you dig in – though we are dealing with an octave fuzz here, so it’s all relative in that regard. Chords can still sound pretty mushy and if you’re a bit haphazard with your picking it’ll certainly let you know about it. The distortion curve isn’t as smooth as on the germanium mode, but it gives a nice spread from mildly scuzzy to full-on wig-outs.

Earthquaker Devices Fuzz Master General – should I buy one?

Collectively, the three modes offer pretty much the full gamut of vintage-adjacent fuzz tones you could ask for in one pedal – it won’t veer off into the excesses of glitchy bit-crush-y wildness, but how often are most of us needing those sounds anyway? It’s such a versatile and well-rounded fuzz in fact, it’s a bit of a shame there isn’t an option to turn off the octave – while it sounds absolutely killer with them, it does somewhat limit the utility.

Ultimately, however, you can only judge this thing on what it is rather than what you want it to be. If you want a vintage octave fuzz with a greater spread of tones and a more reliable and consistent character than a vintage unit, this is pretty much everything you’d want in one. With just 1,600 units of this reissue being made however, you’d better act fast – it won’t be around for long.

Earthquaker Devices Fuzz Master General – alternatives

If you want a more eccentrically-authentic recreation of a different Super-Fuzz clone, then Warm Audio’s velvet-clad Foxy Tone Box ($149) is a wonderfully weird take on the Foxx Tone Machine. A personal favourite in the octave fuzz stakes is the Beetronics Vezzpa ($199) – which gives you thick, sputtery fuzz with the option of an octave up. Finally, Danelectro’s 3699 Fuzz ($199) is another Super-Fuzz-adjacent design that features footswitchable octave control.

The post Earthquaker Devices Fuzz Master General review – “the full gamut of vintage-adjacent fuzz tones” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Back in 1984, Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel shattered the limits of rock and roll with an amp that cranked all the way up to 11. Now, over 40 years later, he’s back for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. The (mock) documentary sees the group reuniting after 15 years – and Tufnel’s got some advice for guitarists everywhere.

Speaking to Guitar World, the now 77-year-old fictional rocker insists that the secret to keeping your chops in order is consistency. “I play two hours a day,” he says. “Three is too much, isn’t it? I like to take a walk in the morning with Moira [his partner]. I come back, have a little breakfast, and then I sit down and play. It’s not exactly two hours, but it’s normally two hours. Then I go to the cheese shop.”

• READ MORE: Eddie and Alex Van Halen thought This Is Spinal Tap “wasn’t funny” because it was too true to life

While the legendary Tufnel now runs a cheese ship, he insists he still plays his instrument “every day” and he’s still “learning” new tricks, too. “I play differently than I once played, and I’m learning,” he explains. “I used to play a lot of fast solo things, but now I’m listening in a different way to a spacious way of playing, which is more long notes.”

It’s quite a reserved approach to the instrument, considering some of Tufnel’s peers. In a recent chat with The Smashing Pumpkin’s Billy Corgan, Steve Vai recently admitted that he’d play for 9 hours every day if he could. “It becomes sort of like an addiction,” he said. “My schedule back [when I was young]… I was happy if I got nine hours a day. I was very neurotic, very myopic.”

“It just had such a pull, such an attraction, such an interest. Such a joy,” he continued. “The funny thing was, it didn’t feel like discipline… It was a passion. Passion is a much more powerful engine of creation than discipline.”

Two hours works just fine for Tufnel, however. And he’s still advancing as a guitarist, learning to work with new effects and advancements in technology to aid his approach to guitar. “There are lots of pedals that people have done in the last years that are quite extraordinary,” he reflects. “I do a little work on them… I take them apart, and I do a little fooling around with wires and stuff like that to get the sound I’d like.”

“Lots of times I break them because I don’t really know how to do that work,” he admits. “I haven’t been trained, but it’s interesting to open things up, see all the wires and move them about a bit.”

One of the most significant shifts over the last 41 years comes in the form of Tufnel’s new infinity Marshall amp. “Marshall has made for me an amplifier, the head, and if you look at the dials, it now goes to Infinity. Just think about that for a moment. Think about infinity – oh, my God, that’s literally infinity,” Tufnel says.

“Lots of times I break them because I don’t really know how to do that work. I haven’t been trained, but it’s interesting to open things up, see all the wires and move them about a bit.”

The new Spinal Tap II: The End Continues follows the group’s reunion for one final blow-out gig – and it even featured the likes of Elton John, the legend singing on a live rendition of 2009’s Stonehenge.

The decision to document the final show came after a “long discussion” with the band and director Marty DiBergi. “Marty made a case that it made sense for us to do this new thing, which is us coming together again for a reunion,” Tufnel explains. “I haven’t seen the lads for 15 years… and besides that, we had a legal obligation to do one more show.”

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues lands on 12 September.

The post “I play two hours a day. Three is too much, isn’t it?”: Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel on the secret of guitar practice appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Al Di Meola has become the latest guitarist to get his hands on Greeny – the iconic 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard once owned by Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green – courtesy of its current owner, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett.

And to return the favour, the jazz fusion maestro has let Hammett have a go on his legendary Black Beauty Gibson Les Paul.

• READ MORE: “Anything that’s nicked, you want back!”: A new documentary will recount the hunt for Paul McCartney’s stolen Höfner 500/1 bass

Kirk Hammett and Al Di Meola recently both attended the Hamptons launch party for Metallica’s SiriusXM radio station, and the event saw Di Meola get the chance to get his hands on Greeny for the first time.

The event also saw Beatles legend Paul McCartney attend to watch Metallica perform.

In footage posted on social media, Di Meola can be seen examining the iconic LP, asking “Was [Fleetwood Mac’s Oh Well] done on this guitar? Oh, shit!” before playing the track’s classic pentatonic riff.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Al Di Meola (@official_aldimeola)

And after being granted the honour of playing one of guitardom’s most revered instruments, Di Meola was determined to repay the favour, and later let Hammett have a go on his 1971 Black Beauty Les Paul.

“After Kirk introduced me to Greeny last week, it felt only right to return the favor by introducing him to my 1971 Black Beauty,” he writes in a new Instagram post. “That’s the guitar you hear all over [his 1977 album] Elegant Gypsy.” The Black Beauty Les Paul also featured on Al Di Meola’s 1976 album, Land of the Midnight Sun.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Al Di Meola (@official_aldimeola)

Having existed for decades, the Greeny Les Paul has passed through the hands of a plethora of high-profile guitarists. Once owned by Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green, the instrument is now owned by Kirk Hammett, who is impressively charitable with regards to who he lets play it.

Recently, former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee revealed Hammett gave him the opportunity to play Greeny at Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning farewell, and admitted that he’s “missed it since”.

And earlier this year, Hammett revealed he had let White Stripes hero Jack White play the guitar onstage.

The post “It only felt right to return the favour”: Al Di Meola is the latest guitarist to play Greeny – so he let Kirk Hammett play his ‘71 Black Beauty in return appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

While Birmingham City University estimates that Oasis’ reunion will bag the britpop brothers around £50 million each, the rest of the music industry is struggling. The financial strain of touring has impacted countless musicians – and Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell insists that pumping money into nostalgia acts instead of supporting new artists isn’t helping the situation.

In a new interview with The Fader, the frontwoman notes that, while “people love band history”, the imbalance of attention smaller acts are receiving will be dire for the future of music. If people solely support established artists, smaller acts will fall at the first hurdle. “Just look at Oasis… that’s not gonna happen any more unless people invest in bands,” Rowsell says.

• READ MORE: “The most talked-about guitar of the summer”: Noel Gallagher’s Oasis reunion Gibson Les Paul is getting a limited-run release – here’s how you can get one

Even Wolf Alice have struggled to make ends meet in the past. “It’s really hard to be in a band,” Rowsell admits. “It’s extremely expensive and even if you’re backed by a label, people don’t know that you’ve got to split everything.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the rest of Wolf Alice voice similar sentiments. Drummer Joel Amey speaks about how “lucky” the band feel, especially considering “how expensive it is to be in a band”. Bassist Theo Ellis also notes how even the “initial investment” when starting a band is “enormously more expensive than it used to be.”

“The problem is though, people still make it work,” he continues. “If you have that kind of environment, it will only be privileged people that will make it work. And that kind of sucks for everyone.”

Ironically, Oasis’ very own Noel Gallagher has previously spoken out about the phenomenon of privileged middle-class musicians taking over the scene. Speaking to The Star in 2022, he said: “There’s lots of singer-songwriters, loads of middle-class bands… wearing guitars as oppose to playing them. But four or five guys from a council estate can’t afford guitars.”

“I’ve actually read that in Britain since 2008, with the increase in kids who are privately educated who are in the charts, there’s barely any kids who aren’t privately educated who are successful in the music industry in my country,” he continued.

From Devon Townsend to Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, plenty of musicians have mourned the hiking costs of touring. Last year, former Longpigs and Pulp guitarist Richard Hawley even told NME that rock ‘n’ roll is a “very much a middle-class thing now”, which entirely “pisses [him] off”.

Wolf Alice’s latest record, The Clearing, is out now.

The post “That’s not gonna happen anymore unless people invest in bands”: Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell on why the Oasis reunion phenomenon shows what’s wrong with the music industry appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Back in July, Yungblud stole the show at Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning final concert. His performance of Changes has gone on to amass over 8 million views online, with countless metalheads leaving the gig as Yungblud converts. However, The Darkness’ Dan Hawkins remains unconvinced.

On 7 September, Yungblud (AKA Dominic Harrison) took to the stage at the VMAs to perform yet another tribute to Ozzy Osbourne. Joined by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt, Harrison performed Osbourne solo cuts Crazy Train and Mama, I’m Coming Home, and, of course, Black Sabbath’s Changes.

While Ariana Grande seemed to enjoy the show, Hawkins has taken to Instagram to criticise the performance. “What a bunch of bellends,” he writes.

• READ MORE: “My father always thought you were a c**t”: Jack Osbourne slams Roger Waters for saying he “couldn’t give a f**k” about Ozzy Osbourne’s music

“Another nail in the coffin of rock n roll,” his post continues. “Cynical, nauseating and more importantly; shit. Makes me sick how people jump on this shit to further their own careers.”

While Hawkins’ has since limited comments on his post, NME documented a number of responses from Instagram users. “Spot on Dan,” one user reportedly wrote. “This was the least rock n roll thing I’ve ever seen. Looks like a scene from [children’s Nickelodeon show] iCarly.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dan Hawkins (@danhawkinsofthedarkness)

Another user reportedly slammed Harrison for his display of “fake, contrived emotion”.

However, not everyone was on Hawkins’ side. “I don’t understand what pisses you off here,” another user wrote. “All of these dudes performed with and for Ozzy at his Back To The Beginning concert and are friends of his […] The VMAs wanted to honour Ozzy and his legacy! I love you, dude, but I don’t get it!”

While some may feel cynical about Harrison’s seemingly newfound interest in Sabbath and Ozzy, the young rocker has had a personal relationship with Ozzy over the last few years. Back in 2022, Ozzy and his wife, Sharon Osbourne, featured in the video for Yungblud track The Funeral.

In a behind the scenes clip, Ozzy even gifts Harrison a cross with a hope that it “brings [Harrison] luck”. Later down the line, Harrison returned the favour by gifting Ozzy a gold cross before the Back To The Beginning show.

Harrison’s relationship with the Osbourne’s seemingly continued after the video shoot, too. Last year, Harrison even featured on The Osbourne’s YouTube channel for an interview with Sharon and daughter Kelly Osbourne. Throughout, the pair were stunned by how similar Harrison was to Ozzy. “I can’t believe it,” Sharon repeatedly said. “Ozzy’s the same…”

Regardless of Hawkins’ cynicism, Harrison is committed to honouring Ozzy forever. “I promise you with all my heart I will try my best and make it my life’s journey to keep the sprit that you started and what you have taught me alive,” the Doncaster singer wrote in a recent social media post. “I will give it my best shot.”

“To sing [Changes] for you at an event surrounded by legends inspired by you to a crowd that loved you was truly my life’s greatest honour and I vow to play this song every night for the rest of my life,” he promised.

Since, former Guns N’ Roses member Matt Sorum has branded Yungblud as a sign of “hope in the world of rock ‘n’ roll”. Sabbath’s Geezer Butler has also called one of Harrison’s recent US gigs the “best show [he’s] seen in years”.

I’m trying to compute the last couple days and honestly I’m absolutely fucking shattered.

You have been my North Star for everything for as long as I can remember from when I was misunderstood as a child to the way people thought I was just a little “too much” or “strange” in… pic.twitter.com/8MlV4fPXN5

— YUNGBLUD (@yungblud) July 24, 2025

The post The Darkness guitarist slams Yungblud’s VMAs Ozzy tribute as “nauseating” and “s**t” – but what’s the problem? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Last February, the “Holy Grail of Rock ‘N’ Roll” was finally found; Paul McCartney’s stolen 1961 Höfner 500/1 left-handed bass was found and returned to the Beatles legend after 52 years. A new documentary is set to recount the lost bass’s journey over the pass five decades.

The Beatle and the Bass will document the global hunt for the bass, from its disappearance on 21 January 1969, while the Beatles were filming the Get Back/Let It Be sessions, to its eventual discovery. “I think anything that’s nicked, you want back, especially if it has sentimental value,” McCartney tells the BBC. “It just went off into the universe and it left us thinking, where did it go? There must be an answer.”

• READ MORE: Legendary guitar dealer reveals his “biggest mistake” – turning down George Harrison’s offer to trade in his Beatles Gretsch Country Gentleman

In many ways, the left-handed bass is one of the most significant instruments in Beatles history. It was McCartney’s ticket into the band; when bassist Stuart Sutcliffe dropped out of The Beatles, McCartney was asked to fill in for him at a show in Hamburg in 1961. McCartney, however, didn’t have a bass. Panicked, he bought the cheapest quality bass he could afford – a sunburst Höfner 500/1 for £30.

The bass would go on to feature on iconic tracks Love Me Do, She Loves You, Twist and Shout and more before being stolen in 1972.

The new documentary will explore just how The Lost Bass Project managed to track down the bass. Spearheaded by a team of journalists, researchers and Höfner aficionado Nick Wass, the project was founded in May 2023 before the team put out a global call in September the same year. The bass was eventually found up in an attic in Suffolk.

When the bass was found, the Fab Four’s official Facebook account announced the news. “Rauidhri Guest inherited the bass from his dad who recently passed away and the bass had been previously sitting in his attic in Hastings, England apparently restrung right handed, and he not knowing who it once belonged to for all these years,” the post explained.

“Sources said the family – who found the Höfner in a loft while clearing a house – approached Sir Paul and reps at his home. The guitar has been inspected and authenticated as genuine. When it was found, the family had no idea about the treasure in their attic.”

The bass made its official return to the stage last December on McCartney’s Got Back Tour. The Höfner was used during a performance of Get Back alongside The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood. A worthy track to mark its return, considering it did indeed ‘get back’ to its rightful owner.

The post “Anything that’s nicked, you want back!”: A new documentary will recount the hunt for Paul McCartney’s stolen Höfner 500/1 bass appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

On the cover of their latest record, The Hives Forever Forever the Hives, the Swedish unit are depicted wearing crowns and robes. It’s most likely due to The Hives being garage punk royalty – and one of the few punk bands continuing to carry the torch of proper punk aggro.

In a new interview with The iPaper, frontman Pelle Almqvist argues that modern punk has lost its edge. “A lot of punk is pretty sanitised these days,” he frowns. “I guess Californian punk did that. You have rappers saying they’re making a punk album. It takes more than that to impress me!”

• READ MORE: Five times the Hives were the best band in the world (according to the Hives)

While Almqvist doesn’t namedrop any artists, the phenomenon of rapper-turned-punk rocker is widespread. Machine Gun Kelly (mgk) is one of the biggest names to do so, his 2020 record Ticket To My Downfall notably marking his shift to from hip-hop to pop punk. But there’s also acts like Denzel Curry and Rico Nasty that are melding punk and rap with gusto.

The issue of punk feeling “sanitised” isn’t solely rooted in the sound, however. With more “likeable” punk acts surfacing, it has had an impact on the image of punk overall. In Almqvist’s mind, the watered down punk acts have transformed the genre into something more palatable rather than a parent’s worst nightmare.

If the Hives frontman had it his way, he’d almost prefer for less people to enjoy his music. “My view is maybe I think our music is more extreme than it actually is, because I meet people in the supermarket all the time and they’re like, ‘You guys are the best!’ – I respond like, ‘Oh, you like it?’” he disappointedly admits. “I didn’t know it would be that likeable. Apparently, it is.”

“I was a born contrarian,” Almqvist proudly states, discussing his band’s latest album. “Which was exhausting until we formed the band and I found a place to put all that stuff. Maybe there’s some vague evolutionary advantage to that, but it came at a pretty heavy price.”

In his latest chat with Guitar.com, the frontman asserts that Bad Call is his favourite cut from the latest record. “There are a lot of great riffs on [the new record] – Hooray Hooray Hooray has a great riff, Paint a Picture has a great riff, but I think my favourite is the verse to Bad Call,” he explains. “It’s the drums that are the star in that one, the chords accent the drums and then travel through the song. If it was just the drums, maybe you’d get a bit bored on your journey towards the chorus.”

The post “You have rappers making a punk album. It takes more than that to impress me!”: The Hives frontman calls modern punk “pretty sanitised” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

When it comes to weird and wacky, off-the rails epic guitar solos, it’s hard to beat Billy Duffy’s wildcat lead on the Cult’s 1987 hit Love Removal Machine, from their Rick Rubin-produced album Electric. It’s big and bold in all the ways a rock solo should be, but it zigs where other solos zag. It simply doesn’t behave – there’s a messiness to it in ways that recalls Jimmy Page’s fireball solo to Led Zeppelin’s Heartbreaker.

• READ MORE: Five times the Hives were the best band in the world (according to the Hives)

“I take that as a compliment,” Duffy says. “Most people like it for what it is, but there were a few people who slagged it off.”

He points to one such criticism from a friend, Dweezil Zappa. “It was quite funny, actually,” he says. “We were backstage at some arena, and he went, ‘Dude, that solo is out of tune.’ I said, ‘I know.’ Dweezil was totally floored because he couldn’t comprehend why somebody would try and make a rock ’n’ roll record and not be as concerned with perfection and timing as they were with spirit and attitude.

“I mean, we were making a rock and roll record,” he continues. “We wanted something authentic, and we didn’t get caught up in details. That solo was okay with Rick Rubin, who as far as I know, is the coolest man alive. If Rick was fine with it, I was happy to let it stand.”

Peace Sells?

Originally, Rubin wasn’t tapped to produce the Cult’s follow-up to their breakthrough 1985 album, Love. The band had spent the better part of the summer of 1986 working with producer Steve Brown (who had produced Love) at the Manor Studio in Oxfordshire recording an album to be called Peace that sound-wise (lots of guitar effects, multiple layers of overdubs) didn’t stray from hits like She Sells Sanctuary and Rain.

“The general idea was that Love had been a hit and we became a known band, so logically we didn’t want to completely change course,” Duffy says. “We were just looking to add a bit more muscle to our sound and rock more. We had already done punk rock, which became a bit restrictive, so now it was the mid-‘80s and we thought, ‘Maybe we should explore early Zeppelin.’”

Before sessions with Brown had commenced, however, the band hit a bit of a snag when, as Duffy recalls, singer Ian Astbury, had “a bit of an episode.” “It was sort of a creative crisis that led to a blowout in Italy in which Ian threw out his lyrics,” Duffy says. “We went into the studio without spending much time on the music. Ian wasn’t engaged enough, and we overcompensated with production and layering. There were too many guitars, but that was just how I normally do things. I write melodies by layering guitars.”

Dissatisfied with the results, the band decided to contact the New York-based Rubin, who had already established himself as a shining star by combining rock and hip-hop on hits by the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC (particularly their rock-rap mash-up Walk This Way with Aerosmith), and have him remix Love Removal Machine, which had already been viewed as a potential single.

Idle Hands

Rubin made his feelings known to the band in no uncertain terms. “He thought what we recorded was too busy,” Duffy says, “Although his actual words were less PC. He thought it was too messy and complicated. It didn’t hit hard enough for him. He wanted something simple and direct.”

Before remixing Love Removal Machine, however, Rubin made the proviso that he would do so only if he and the band would recut a song they liked the least on the record, Peace Dog. After doing so, the decision was quickly made to toss away all existing tracks and redo everything, with Rubin producing the band as he saw fit.

“Rick talked about AC/DC, Zeppelin and a little bit about Aerosmith,” Duffy says. “He asked, ‘Do you like those records?’ and we said, ‘Hell yeah.’ I saw AC/DC when Bon Scott was in the band, so I was very much on board. At that point, we were open to somebody who had a different vision. We weren’t precious about things at all. Rick made a lot of sense to us, and he took us on a bit of a journey. He later said something once that I quite liked – that he didn’t so much produce the Cult as he reduced us. In that way, Electric is sort of an outlier for me.”

The band traveled to New York to work with Rick. You recorded at Electric Lady Studios.

“Right. We were in the big studio downstairs – in the back of my mind, it’s where AC/DC did Back in Black. Rick had a great team – Andy Wallace was the engineer, and George Drakoulias was there. Rick had the vision.”

Rick hadn’t yet worked with a lot of full bands.

“This might have been before he produced Slayer – I’m not sure. He was very confident, but in a nice way. He believed in what he felt. He believed in the band. He got us.”

As a guitar player who had established a sound, was it hard for you to give in to Rick’s approach and let go of your effects?

“Sure. It was quite a shock. I don’t think anybody else realized or cared that I was literally flying by the seat of my pants. I was reaching back to being a teenage boy, pre-punk, listening to Mott the Hoople and Bad Company and Led Zeppelin, et cetera, et cetera. The other thing was, all the gear on Electric was rented – every stick of it.”

Before you did any recording, even for what was supposed to be the Peace album, did you play any of the material live, just to test it out?

“That’s a very good question, and I don’t think we did. No, wait – we played one song called Electric Ocean because we tried to cut it for a movie soundtrack. I know there’s a live version of it from a festival in Finland. But Love Removal, none of that was played live.

Set the scene in the studio. Rick tells the band, ‘Great song, but you’re doing too much. We’re gonna take it down to bare bones.’ Did he get you all there to rehearse as a band to make the song lean and mean?”

“Absolutely. Originally, it was three guys in the room – Ian wasn’t there because he didn’t sing with us when we were doing the backing tracks. But I remember Rick telling him, “You’re the singer, right? Go and sing!” Ian jumped in and we cut every track from the floor. Which was great because the singer is part of a team. The vocals are essential. If you’re taking away all of these guitar layers, you won’t be left with much if you don’t have any singing.”

As you mentioned, the gear was rented. That included your guitars?

“Yeah. There’s no Gretsch guitar on the song or the album, which will break everybody’s hearts. I used two rented Les Pauls.”

Your go-to guitar had been a Gretsch White Falcon. Did you feel naked without it?

“Absolutely. It was scary at first. Now, I should say that prior to the Cult, I had played Les Pauls. I got into Gretsches around 1981. So I’m playing Les Pauls through rented Marshalls – no delay or chorus or echo. I was used to having an overdriven sound, because the more saturation you have, the easier it is to play. Rick and Andy had this thing where they backed off the overdrive, and I was panicking a bit, but they found that if you backed off the gain, the amp sound became bigger. It was that sweet spot.”

Let’s get into that solo. Did you plot it out beforehand, or was it spontaneous?

“I’m a gut guy. I’ve always felt my role as a guitar player would be to serve the song, and playing a good guitar solo is part of that service. Because I had a punk rock background, I didn’t like perfection. I wanted soul, passion and guts.”

You start the solo out on this crying, sustained note. Did you at least have that planned?

“My thing with a guitar solo is, you need to know how you’re going to get in and how you’re going to get out. What happens in the middle isn’t quite as important. I did have the idea to start the solo because of a song called Violence by Mott the Hoople. There’s a break where Mick Ralphs hits a note with a wah-wah and he sustains the note while the music moved around it. I just always felt that the more you can say with the less notes, the better. There’s time to do a lot, and in some spots I went a bit mad. I was just trying to help out and do my job. It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, look at me!’”

Even so, it is a very “look at me” guitar solo.

“Well, it’s set up that way. It’s presented on a platter, isn’t it? It’s a bit of a pig with an apple in its mouth. Rick had us reconstruct the songs, and that was part of it – you needed the payoff.”

Did you play the solo live with the rest of the band?

“I honestly can’t remember how I did it. I don’t know whether I would’ve done a solo without rhythm guitar, if you know what I mean, because it would’ve just been drums and bass. It’s likely that I did it as an overdub. But the solos on that record were not really chopped together.”

The middle part of the solo – the part that Dweezil Zappa said was out of tune – it’s completely mad. It’s great, but it’s totally weird. What was running through your mind as you played it?

“I can’t recall. I wasn’t as caught up in the detail because it was a bit of a rush job. There was a lot of pressure because we knew we’d eaten up all the budget and we were on borrowed time. So my mindset was more like, ‘If everybody else is into it, I’m into it.’”

Toward the end of the song, the band goes into a full-tilt boogie and you do another solo – more of a spitfire run. None of that was on the earlier version you had cut.

“I think what had happened was, we were a live touring band and we were looking for a song to be a set ender, something quite dramatic. It was just one of those crazy “go for it” rock and roll solos. I always felt it was in the spirit of Toys in the Attic – this explosion of energy.”

After you had finished cutting everything and you listened to a playback with Rick, what were you thinking? After all, this was a pretty stark difference in the band’s sound.

“I was a little nervous. I was aware that it was certainly going to upset a bit of a gothic apple cart. But Ian was totally committed, while in the back of my mind it was like, ‘Wow, this is going to really upset people.’ With She Sells Sanctuary, I intuitively knew it was the right thing to do.”

“People are like, ‘Why don’t you make an album like that again?’ Well, because we’re not 25 anymore, living this young man’s pirate lifestyle. Electric is kind of a cartoon album of our lifestyle at that time, and it’s very important in that context. We were naive and having a lot of fun misbehaving. It was the soundtrack to sort of a misspent youth.”

There was Dweezil Zappa’s reaction, but as you said, you’ve heard the opposite from a lot of people.

“The general reaction to the Electric album is, it’s sort of a timeless rock sound. Warts and all, it’s honest. It’s a few blokes playing to their best of ability without a lot of smoke and mirrors. From Rick all the way down to the band and everyone involved, we put the hours in. We believed that good, honest rock had gotten a bit of trodden under foot with punk rock. We just believed in what we were doing.”

We should talk about the riff to Love Removal Machine. At any point, did anybody in the band say, “Oh, shit, this sounds a bit like Start Me Up”?

“No. That’s a very interesting question because it’s kind of haunted the track. Hand over heart, I never thought it was influenced by that at all. Now, does it sound like it? Well, yeah, I can see that. I didn’t know it the time. I know the version that I wrote didn’t sound like it. It wasn’t intentional.

“I don’t know where it came from. It certainly didn’t come from me owning an album with Start Me Up on it. I’ve never really owned a Stones album – I know that might horrify people. But they did write one of my favourite songs ever, Gimme Shelter. I was just never a Stonesy guy.”

The post “I didn’t try to play a guitar hero solo, but it sounds like it” The Cult’s Billy Duffy reveals his ultimate guitar solo appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The aches and pains of ageing are unavoidable – but that doesn’t mean you have to quit performing. Jake E Lee is the latest musician to admit his arthritis has impacted his chops, but he’s determined to keep playing.

In a new interview with Guitar World, the former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist admits that his arthritis has gotten worse. “The cartilage is basically gone,” he explains. “I can’t feel it; it’s bone on bone… The only operation they had available was to fuse the bones together. My wrist would be pretty much locked in. I didn’t want that.”

However, he’s learning to adapt his playing style to “keep the wrist movement down to a minimum”. His approach has been focusing on the elbow; “I’ve had to adjust my playing style to where I’m using mostly the elbow on the right hand, trying to use as much elbow movement as I can.”

• READ MORE: “It was like juggling chainsaws while being on a skateboard”: Zakk Wylde on the pressures of playing with Ozzy Osbourne at Black Sabbath’s final gig

“It’s made it interesting,” he continues. “In a way, it’s like learning to play guitar again, even though I know how to play it. I’m having fun. Mentally – and as far as theory – I know exactly what to do, but I have to teach my left and right hands to accommodate me.”

To aid his new style, Lee has also switched to slightly lighter plectrums and strings. “I usually use a heavy pick, but I went to a lighter one,” he says. “It forced me to have a lighter touch with my right hand, and that’s been interesting. My left hand is also a little bit weak, so lately I’ve been playing with seven [gauge strings] to force myself to have a lighter touch.”

“And it’s interesting because Billy Gibbons uses sevens, and that’s what Tony Iommi and Brian May use,” he adds. “They don’t have a problem with getting a good tone!”

While Lee is learning to adjust to his arthritis, it has limited him from tackling some of his tougher riffs. At Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning show, he was unable to play guitar on Bark At The Moon, instead allowing Travis Barker, Nuno Bettencourt, Vernon Reid, Rudy Sarzo and Adam Wakeman handle the track with Tobias Forge on vocal duties.

“I know people are expecting Bark at the Moon, but I don’t know,” he told Guitar World in the lead up to the gig. “Right now, with my wrist, the arthritis and everything, that would be very challenging. I have a couple of months to get up to it, so I’ll practice it just in case. But that’s going to be pretty challenging for me physically.”

Right now, however, Lee is just focusing on improving his new approach to guitar. “It’s a lot of strengthening, stretching, and steroid shots,” he says.

He also notes that it’s hardly the worst pain he’s had to deal with in his life – hell, he was shot in the arm three times last year while walking his dog. “I’ve had back issues forever, and wrist pain isn’t anything compared to that,” he insists.

The post “I can’t feel it. It’s bone on bone”: Jake E Lee admits arthritis struggles have caused him to totally “relearn” how to play guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

From Jane’s Addiction to Metallica, Lollapalooza has had some iconic rock acts fronting it over the years. However, the last decade has seen a shift towards rappers and popstars, with the 2025 lineup only having one single rock-adjacent headliner in the form of Korn.

So why has Lollapalooza turned its attention away from rock music? In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore insists it’s because society just doesn’t care about rock music any more. “This is the advent of the single popstar surrounded by production, whether it’s dancers and lights and films and stage sets,” he says. “It’s become very sort of Disneyfied, in a way, and it caters to mass popularity in a way Disneyland does.”

• READ MORE: The Beths Pick Their Five Most Honest Guitar Records Of All Time

The focus is on what’s the most ‘entertaining’ to the average, mainstream music consumer. It’s easier to sell tickets if the line-up is less niche and more broad. Moore notes how the festival is more of a mixed bag nowadays, catering to “the core rock & roll audience that would see Led Zeppelin or Pearl Jam” as well as “people who aren’t that invested in rock music at all, but are invested in entertainment as a broader kind of concept”.

“It has a broader appeal than, say, the standardised rock band,” he notes. “There are still rock bands, but they’re not just playing Lollapalooza.”

He also notes that, right now, rock bands “aren’t the success stories they once were”. Of course, society’s fascination with rock music comes and goes; Beatlemania saw a spike in rock ‘n’ roll buzz, while the early 2000s saw the likes of Linkin Park topping the charts.

Right now, the masses are just loving pop – which, according to Moore, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. “I think all of those musicians are completely credible,” he notes. “Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan are great artists.”

“I just went to see Lana Del Rey, and it was kind of amazing!” he adds. “There was a stage set of a farmhouse, and she was walking in and around it and had dancers everywhere… It was something to see. I liked it. I like her music, and I like what she’s up to aesthetically.”

The mass success of pop acts isn’t negative, either – in fact, Roan and Rodrigo are great role models. “It’s not just crass entertainment,” Moore says. “More power to them. It’s not really my kind of music. And I certainly don’t strive for that kind of mass acceptance at all. I know it would be great for my pocketbook, but other than that…”

However, Moore does believe that the pendulum will swing back. While high-production pop is ‘in’ right now, audiences will soon be craving some gritty and organic. “My predilection is to hear music in a much more intimate setting,” he says. “I like seeing the interaction between musicians that’s very organic. You know, a musician playing guitar that’s plugged into an amp…”

And, of course, underground scenes are still thriving. “There’s still a demographic of young people interested in experimental rock music and anything that comes out of punk culture,” he says. “It’s not Olivia Rodrigo huge… To me, it was always cooler to have a modest kind of existence in that respect.”

While underground scenes might not be given their flowers on the big stages, he does note that a smaller scale of success is sometimes what suits rock ‘n’ roll best. “The big business of rock & roll was a bit of a conflict for somebody like Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain to all of a sudden be in a band that was so massive,” he reflects. “He dealt with it in his own way, and then he didn’t deal with it in his own way.”

Last year, Moore surprised Sonic Youth fans by reuniting with his former bandmates Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley for an hour of improvised music at the New York club The Stone. However, there isn’t any serious Sonic Youth ‘reunion’ on the cards. “That was about as much of a reunion as us having dinner together or something,” he laughs.

Outside of his musical work, Moore is also working on his debut novel. Rolling Stone reports that the book is set in the early ‘80s and will navigate the New York music scene. “It’s characters and incidents I certainly felt like I could write about,” he explains.

The post “It caters to mass popularity in a way Disneyland does”: Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore on why major festivals like Lollapalooza have abandoned rock bands appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

After decades of leather, eyeliner, and world tours, Nikki Sixx has decided being a rock star isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Mötley Crüe bassist recently took to social media to share his outlook on the future, including how the whole rock star schtick is now “overrated”.

• READ MORE: “Are you crazy? You’re a rock star”: Ozzy Osbourne’s baffled reaction when Randy Rhoads told him he was going to quit his band shortly before his death

“Looking forward to these 10 shows with Motley but also extremely excited about all the other projects I have planned for the future not involving being in a band,” Sixx reportedly wrote, according to Ultimate Classic Rock.

The 66-year-old explained that while he still loves performing the band’s catalogue, his priorities have shifted.

“Love playing the songs and honestly most of them are very personal to me but being on the road is not for me for too much longer,” Sixx said. “I have a six-year-old girl to raise and five wonderful older kids and a granddaughter to spend time with.”

The ten shows Sixx referred to are Mötley Crüe’s rescheduled Las Vegas residency, originally slated for March and April this year but pushed back so singer Vince Neil could recover from a medical procedure. The new dates will now run between September to October at Dolby Live at Park MGM.

But while the Crüe still have plenty of unfinished business, Sixx insists the road is no longer central to his life.

“The good news is all these new projects all involve music,” he wrote. “Music will always be my life but the road is old. Being a rockstar is overrated. Being a creative is where it’s at. The future is exciting and the past was a blast.”

Speaking of the past, Mötley Crüe’s upcoming compilation album From the Beginning is scheduled for release on 12 September. The record features a selection of the band’s biggest hits, plus a fresh remix of their 1985 classic Home Sweet Home featuring Dolly Parton.

Check out the full list of rescheduled Las Vegas residency dates at the Mötley Crüe website.

The post “Music will always be my life but the road is old”: Nikki Sixx thinks being a rock star is “overrated” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Chris Holmes knows exactly where he stands in the Eddie Van Halen versus Randy Rhoads debate, and it’s certainly not on the fence.

The former W.A.S.P. guitarist has been accused of having beef with Rhoads – who came up with Quiet Riot in the same LA metal scene in the 70s and 80s – sets the record straight in a new interview, making it clear that while he doesn’t “hate” him, Van Halen will always come out on top in his book.

• READ MORE: “Are you crazy? You’re a rock star”: Ozzy Osbourne’s baffled reaction when Randy Rhoads told him he was going to quit his band shortly before his death

Speaking with The Metal Voice, Holmes addresses rumours that he disliked the late Ozzy Osbourne guitarist [via Blabbermouth]: “There’s a lot of people [who] say that I hate Randy Rhoads. No, I don’t hate the guy. I like the guy, actually,” he says.

“I think he is a good guitar player. I’ve read on the Internet, a lot of people say I hate him. I don’t hate him. Okay?! He comes from my era, from my age of playing guitar and stuff. I’ve never said I hate the guy.”

Holmes explains that his preference simply comes down to growing up with Van Halen and the energy that Eddie brought to the guitar.

“I grew up with Van Halen,” he says, “so I look at him, who’s better? To me, Van Halen smokes him. So if I go with the Van Halen side of [things]. Van Halen didn’t wear a little bow tie and polka dots. Quiet Riot did. I didn’t like that.”

“I’d rather go to a Van Halen party, drink Schlitz malt liquor and get your teeth knocked out in the mud than go to a Quiet Riot party and smoke Sherman cigarettes and drink Perrier. That ain’t my bag,” Holmes continues. “So it’s different sides of [things].”

“But anyway, yeah, I don’t hate Randy Rhoads. He’s played some good stuff. It’s sad that he died.”

Watch the full interview below.

The post “I’d rather go to a Van Halen party, drink Schlitz malt liquor and get your teeth knocked out”: W.A.S.P guitarist on why he prefers Eddie Van Halen to Randy Rhoads appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$449/£445, walrusaudio.com

It’s quite possible that people will come to know the Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer as ‘the Yvette Young pedal’. Especially people who don’t know how to pronounce ‘Qi’. But let’s make one thing clear: this is not an artist signature product.

• READ MORE: DigiTech HammerOn review – will this ‘instantaneous pitch shifter’ hit the nail on the head for enhanced creative playing?

With her band Covet, Young has become known for her intricately melodic and fluid playing, high on clarity and low on atmospheric excesses. Which means the Qi – combining chorus, delay and reverb with grain-based glitch effects and epic stereo soundscaping – is pretty much the opposite of anything you might call her signature sound.

Okay, so let’s just go along with Walrus and call it a ‘collaborative creation’. But that still leaves the question of why the Yvette Young pedal doesn’t sound like, well Yvette Young?

Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer – what is it?

The best person to explain this contradiction is surely Young herself – which she did back in January when m’colleague Josh Gardner collared her at the NAMM Show, where the Qi (it’s pronounced ‘chee’, by the way!) was launched.

“My overall vision for the pedal was to have something that was an idea generator, an instant vibe,” she said. “I’ve been doing a lot more producing and film-scoring stuff, so I got interested in abstraction. As guitar players, I think we all go through things where it’s like, ‘Oh well, I have my style, I play my riffs…’ I needed something that pushed me and challenged me creatively. And I feel like the granular stuff pushes me in an abstract direction and makes me think in a more painterly way with sound.”

It’s not all about leftfield larks: the reverb and chorus are straightforward enough, while the delay is a simple digital type with no modulation or filtering. But the grain effect is properly radical; there are multiple options for holding down a footswitch to create sustaining beds of sound, and all of this happens in full stereo. Technical math-rockers, brace yourselves: things are about to get bigly ambient.

Tell you what, though… this pedal comes in two finishes: plain black, and a sort of fudgy hue with what appears to be a freshly electrocuted corpse on it. Seeing as Young’s two signature Ibanez guitars come in vibrantly sparkly green or orange, I think we’re allowed to be a teeny bit disappointed with those options.

Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer – in use

First of all, is it easy to turn the individual effects on and off with your feet? No, it is not. In fact it’s virtually impossible – holding down a little push-button is the only option for manual bypass – so bear that in mind if you were thinking of using the Qi as a conventional multi-effects stomper. Actually, there’s so much twiddlability in this 12-knob unit that, unless you enjoy playing the guitar while hunched over like William Blake’s Newton, you might want to consider popping it up on a desk.

And what are those 12 knobs? They’re best understood as four separate columns, each controlling one effect. So, starting on the right, the chorus has mix, rate and depth then the aforementioned push-button, which also lets you switch between tri-chorus and stereo modes; the delay has mix, time and feedback then three time-division options on the button; and the grain has mix, ‘X’ (basically the length of the chopped-up sound slices) and a five-way switch for playback speed, while the button flips between two modes: ‘grain cloud’ (for short glitchy repeats) and ‘phrase sample’ (for longer randomised loop effects).

Same kind of deal with the reverb, then? Not quite – the left column has just a single ‘space’ control for that, and the others are for the pedal’s overall output: wet/dry mix, wet tone, and a button for series or parallel routing.

Now we come to the footswitches… and it’s good news for people with three legs, because there’s a lot going on here. On the left is the master bypass switch, but you can also hit this and the middle one together to scroll through three presets plus manual mode. The right switch is for tap tempo but you can also hold it down to ramp up the delay to maximum feedback; hold down the centre switch to do the same with the reverb, or bop it once to freeze the grain effect.

Can you have the delay, reverb and grain all maxed out at once? Yes. Does this sound vast, spectacular, mystical, magical and potentially hallucinogenic? Also yes. But that’s far from the whole story.

Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer – sounds

You know when you buy a digital pedal and it comes with 200 presets and 196 of them sound like crap? When I am World King, this will be banned. Or maybe just tariffed at 75 per cent, I haven’t decided yet. Anyway, it won’t be a problem for the Qi, because there are only three factory presets (created by Young herself) and they cover the basics very well.

So that’s probably a good place to get started if you’re new to this sort of thing, but for the purposes of this review the first step is to jump straight into manual mode – helpfully indicated by a white LED – for a methodical exploration of each effect.

The chorus gets things off to an extremely promising start, with a sweetly wobbly core sound and lots of flexibility from those three knobs as well as the welcome bonus of the mode button. The stereo effect is suitably luscious, but in a mono setup you might just find the tri-chorus more appealing.

The delay hardly needs discussing, as it’s completely straight and unfiltered unless you choose to attack it with the master tone control – more on that in a sec – while the grain effect is suspiciously similar to the new algorithm on the Walrus Mako Series MkII D1 delay, with the same five options: standard, octave up, octave down, reverse and random (which hops freely between the other four). As on the D1, it’s all quirky but clean and loads of fun.

Finally, the reverb leans towards hugeness and has a tendency to eat everything you put in front of it – even at halfway it will mush out fairly strong delay repeats. Well, this is an ‘Etherealizer’ after all… even so, in the name of balance it’s good to have the parallel option, whereby the four effects are processed separately then summed together at the end.

But the best part of this section of the Qi is the tone knob. It might not look like much, but this is a synth-style resonant low-pass filter with a whole lot of sound-shaping muscle. It’s best left fully open to start with, then yanked down for dramatic shifts in and out of darkness – particularly effective when you want to add some movement to an endlessly looping ambience. Speaking of which… let’s start freezing stuff.

Hold down the tap footswitch and the delay takes a few seconds to properly snowball, which it does in a nicely saturated way; it won’t soar and swoop like an analogue type when you start messing with the time knob, but it will make some interesting thwocky noises.

Freezing the grain has a quite different effect, instantly creating a hypnotic loop of pure texture, while maxing out the reverb takes the edge off the granular glitching and turns that loop into a galaxy-sized stereo wash. As a shortcut to ambient nirvana it feels, if anything, too easy – am I still a musician here, or just the pedal’s supervisor? – but where the Qi really excels is in the freedom it gives you to set up a bed of sound and then play around with it.

I mentioned the power of the tone knob earlier; you can also change the grain speed (try going from double to reverse then back again!) and even flip between ‘cloud’ and ‘sample’ modes. Every move adds a new evolution to the soundscape, and brings the kind of unpredictability that might just save you from pseudo-spiritual self-indulgence.

Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer – should I buy it?

In the nicest possible way, this feels more like a toy than a tool. Set up in stereo with a good pair of amps, or a two-channel preamp and headphones, it will eat up whole days of your life as you find yourself creating magical realms of rolling sonic wonder just by picking a few notes and tweaking a few knobs. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a pedal that does this so well, especially in terms of the ability to modify and layer soundscapes once they’re already in flight.

The only caveat, of course, is whether anyone else will ever want to hear these semi-automated creations. I think the answer to that comes down to how you use the Qi – that is, preferably in moderation. The four effects all sound great in normal operating mode, so there’s plenty to explore here without always jumping straight into lushness overload. Please bliss out responsibly.

Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer alternatives

Is this a multi-effects pedal or an ambient soundscape generator? It’s somewhere between the two, in a zone where you’ll also find the Hologram Chroma Console ($399). For pure brain-swamping reverb you won’t find better than the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star Stereo ($299/£299).

The post Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer review – chorus, delay, reverb and glitchy ambient soundscapes all in one pedal appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Former Machine Head and Vio-lence guitarist Phil Demmel has partnered with Jackson on a new Polka Dot-finished signature King V model, which pays tribute to the first-ever Jackson guitar he owned.

That guitar – an early Randy Rhoads signature model – was acquired via some “sketchy means”, as he explains.

• READ MORE: PRS SE NF 53 review: “it might look like PRS’s Telecaster, but this is its own guitar”

“It was the Randy model, the first Randy Rhoads model, the white one, and there was one available,” Demmel recalls. “We did a trade, but evidently he owed some money or something.

“So I ended up [playing a] sold-out show in Oakland [with] Vio-lence. I get called off the stage, and the guy whose guitar it was had the cops pull me off and get his guitar back.”

He goes on: “My dad, who was a cop back in the day, came up to see what had happened. The kid got his guitar back, they let me go, the band is already playing without me, they don’t care. I stage dive, get back on, grab a guitar and finish the set.”

While Demmel lost possession of that white Randy Rhoads model, he later acquired another, the RR1 in black, which he says he still owns to this day. I’ll never forget my first Jackson,” he says.

As for the specs of his new Jackson signature model – the Phil Demmel KV King V – the guitar features a mahogany body with a three-piece through-body maple neck with graphite reinforcement, a 12”-16” compound radius ebony fingerboard with 24 jumbo frets, a Floyd Rose double-locking bridge and a set of EMG 81/60 humbuckers.

Other features include pearloid sharkfin inlays and a black-and-white Polka Dot finish which wraps the entirety of the body including the neck and headstock.

“I’ve always been a King V guy,” Demmel says. “The departure into the Fury was something super cool. Creating the tribute to Randy Rhoads with the polka dots back in 2009 was something special, so it’s nice to be able to pay homage with this limited series to share that with everybody.”

The Phil Demmel KV King V has an MSRP of £1,499. For more information, head to Jackson.

The post Phil Demmel’s first-ever Jackson guitar has a hell of a backstory – and he’s just honoured it with a Polka Dot King V signature model appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Even before his 1967 debut, Jimi Hendrix was already stunning crowds across the globe. In fact, when Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour caught Hendrix performing in East London club Blaises in ‘66, he knew Hendrix was destined for greatness.

In a new interview with Rick Beato, Gilmour recalls walking into South Kensington club Blaises one fateful evening – when a significant number of high-profile rocker were in attendance. “One night, I went in there, and it was rammed with people,” he says. “All the Beatles and all the Stones were there. I thought, ‘This is a bit unusual…’”

Of course, everyone was there to catch Hendrix, the hopeful American newcomer who was starting to cause a stir overseas. Gilmour, however, had no clue what to expect. “A kid came in with a guitar case, got up on the stage, opened his guitar case and put [his guitar] on the wrong way round,” he says. “He plugged into an amp and started… The entire place’s jaws just dropped. It was absolutely extraordinary!”

• READ MORE: “It was a bit of a disaster”: Why John McLaughlin had to use a cheap acoustic during a jam with Jimi Hendrix

Don’t just take Gilmour’s word for it; journalist Chris Welch was also there on the same evening, and he gave Hendrix a dazzling review in Melody Maker magazine. “The fantastic American guitarist blew the minds of the star-packed crowd”, he wrote [via Classic Rock]. “Hendrix has great stage presence and an exceptional guitar technique which involved playing with his teeth on occasion and no hands on others.”

The impact of the Blaises set left a mark on Gilmour; he knew that Hendrix was a very special talent. Hooked, the Pink Floyd legend went hunting for more of Hendrix’s work – but, unfortunately, he was a year too early to find Hendrix’s Are You Experienced debut in stores. “I went out the next day trying to find records by this character, Jimi Hendrix,” he explains to Beato. “He didn’t exist.”

This would mark the beginning of Gilmour’s patient wait for a Hendrix debut. Speaking to BBC Radio 2’s Tracks Of My Years back in 2006, he also recalled his wild goose chase trying to get his hands on more Hendrix content back in ‘66. “I went to record shops and I said ‘You got anything by this guy Jimi Hendrix?’, and they said ‘Well, we’ve got a James Hendrix?’” he laughed [transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage].

“He hadn’t yet done anything!” he said. “So I became rather an avid fan waiting for his first release.”

Thankfully, he only had to wait one year. When Hendrix finally did unleash his music onto the world, Gilmour was first in line, telling Beato: “As soon as it came along, I thought, ‘Yes, Jimi!! I want a slice of that.’”

Gilmour was such a fan that he would do anything to work alongside Hendrix. While the pair never released any music together, Gilmour helped mix Hendrix’s set at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. “Not a lot of people know that,” Gilmour told Prog back in 2019. “[I was working] side stage with WEM Audiomasters with Charlie Watkins.”

“I went down to go to it and I was camping in a tent, just being a punter,” he continued. “[The sound team] were very nervous, because they were going to have to mix Hendrix’s sound. I did some mixing stuff in those days and they said ‘Help! Help!’ So I did.”

The post “He plugged into an amp and the entire place’s jaws just dropped”: David Gilmour recounts the first time he saw Jimi Hendrix performing in a tiny East London venue appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Atlanta police say Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds was at fault for the crash which took his life on 20 August, after he was found to have been travelling between 63 and 68 mph at the time, around twice the speed limit in the area, according to Atlanta News First. 

A police report released shortly after the accident noted how the driver of an SUV failed to yield while making a turn at an Atlanta intersection, leading to a collision with Hinds, who was riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

• READ MORE: “A bottle rocket of creative spirit” and a “motherf**ker on six strings”: The guitar world pays tribute to Mastodon’s Brent Hinds

A responding officer said Hinds was “breathing and moving with visible injuries to his head, arms and torso”, but was later transported to Grady Memorial Hospital, “where he perished from his injuries”.

In a new police report, investigators say that Hinds was “at fault for the crash” due to his excessive speed. Using video footage of the intersection, investigators estimated that the guitarist was travelling between 63 and 68 mph, roughly twice the speed limit at the intersection. “Hinds was at fault for the crash,” police say.

In a previous report uploaded online, the Atlanta Police Department said the driver of the SUV which collided with Hinds’ motorcycle remained at the scene and spoke with investigators. 

She said she was “positive the light was green” as she proceeded, however a witness claimed her light was red. The same witness and another both said Hinds was “driving fast” at the time of the crash.

As a founding guitarist of Mastodon, Brent Hinds remained a member of the band for 25 years since its formation in 2000, until his departure earlier this year. While the split initially looked to be amicable, Hinds later came out with some criticisms of his former bandmates, even going as far as to call them “horrible humans” and “incapable of singing in key”.

Hinds’ sudden and tragic death rocked the guitar and wider music world, with his former bandmates saying they were in a “state of unfathomable sadness and grief”.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mastodon (@mastodonrocks)

At their first concert following his death, Mastodon noted how their relationship with Brent Hinds was “not always perfect, but we were brothers till the end”.

Tributes to Hinds also came from Opeth, Slash, Zakk Wylde, Trivium’s Matt Heafy and many others.

The post Police say Brent Hinds “at fault” for crash which took his life – as he is found to have been travelling twice the speed limit appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ad Feature with Sweetwater

September is Guitar Month at Sweetwater! Until the end of the month, there are some serious savings to be found on electrics, acoustics, basses, pedals and amps. Plus, alongside the big deals, there’s also some cool new and exclusive gear landing, and some special financing offers available. We’ve picked out five of the coolest discounts you can find at Sweetwater this Guitar Month, with hundreds of dollars to be saved on some great pieces of kit.

$500 off a Guild Starfire III Hollowbody Electric Guitar

[deals ids=”5heGbkfnifoMBDs9A9fjlp”]

Looking for your next jazz hollowbody or wanting to do a rockabilly deep-dive? You can’t go wrong with a Guild hollowbody for either. The Starfire III is a really cool combination of old-school style with some modern design tweaks – the LB-1 “Little Bucker” humbuckers provide a focused sound, just as ready for some warm, jazzy cleans as they are for fire-breathing rock and roll – plus the thinner hollow body will handle higher volume a little better than a full-sized jazz box. There’s also a Bigsby-style vibrato if you need a little wobble.

For guitar month it’s also almost half off. There’s a huge saving of $500, with the price slashed down to $699 from $1,199. For such a premium instrument, that’s a fantastic saving.

$600 off a Gibson Les Paul Standard ’60s Plain Top Electric Guitar in Sparkling Burgundy

[deals ids=”12u1WkoI96ghoPM8Gwzo7u”]

The Gibson Les Paul Standard – one of the most iconic guitar designs ever, of course, with all the Les Paul trimmings you might expect from a USA-made Gibson. There’s a mahogany body with a maple top and a slim-taper mahogany neck, as well as two ‘60s Burstbucker pickups for some authentic PAF tones. A little less authentic – but all the better for it – is the absolutely gorgeous Sparkling Burgundy finish

And this Guitar Month, a USA-made Gibson doesn’t have to totally break the bank – this guitar is down from $2,599 to $1,999, a generous saving of $600.

$500 off a Heritage Standard H-535 Semi-hollowbody Electric Guitar

[deals ids=”2guDsJ5TJRWyVkPIx7w2jC”]

Don’t fancy a hollow guitar or a solid-body? Why not split the difference! The H-535 is a take on the classic double-cut semi-hollow electric, drawing on Heritage’s Kalamazoo DNA. The guitar comes finished in a gorgeous Original Sunburst – it’s also a thin nitrocellulose that’ll age and wear just like a 60s guitar.

It also comes loaded with a set of Seymour Duncan ‘59 Humbuckers – these are prized for the PAF impression, capturing the touch sensitivity and transparency of Seth Lover’s 1955 design.

For Guitar Month, there’s a huge saving of $500 – down to $1,999 from $2,499, saving $500.

$800 off a Breedlove Oregon Concert CE

[deals ids=”5ePduhtgOsGi7s3YoFL6Mf”]

This beautiful and unique acoustic from Breedlove is made with solid myrtlewood, a unique tonewood native to the Pacific northwest. The sound is described as a blend of the maple, rosewood and mahogany, with a balanced character

Alongside this unique acoustic sound there’s also the fantastic LR Baggs Element system to provide a realistic translation of the guitar’s character on stage or when recording direct.

All of these premium features are at less of a premium this guitar month, too, with a discount of $800 from its usual price of $2,799 – grabbing a guitar like this for just under $2,000 is not to be sniffed at!

$484 off a Victory Amplification V40 The Duchess

[deals ids=”5iJXsaBKGgf9dNlFqo6FKE”]

The Victory Duchess splits the difference between what we know and love from both the British and American approaches to tube amp voicing. While it has just a single channel, there’s an awesome Voice switch to leap across the Atlantic for bright and restrained US sounds or midrangey, chaotic British sounds.

Plus your sound on stage will thank you – 40 watts of tube power is more than enough to keep up with even the most aggressive of drummers, and a midrange-push switch will let your overdriven tones stand out amidst a mix.

For Guitar Month, The Duchess has been placed in an entirely different price category – it’s reduced by $484, down to $945 from $1,429.14

The post It’s Guitar Month at Sweetwater! Here are the five best deals from the event appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$979/£979, prsguitars.com

Paul Reed Smith hasn’t got to where he is today by being afraid of ruffling a few feathers. The Maryland guitar maker’s success over the last 40 years has been built on finding new and innovative ways to evolve the electric guitar while always being inspired by its iconic heritage.

• READ MORE: Five times the Hives were the best band in the world (according to the Hives)
  

Sometimes it’s meant that PRS has attracted its fair share of criticism – remember the outcry when the Silver Sky was first launched? Well, now the ‘PRS Strat’ regularly outsells its inspiration, and the naysayers have gone very quiet.

It was a very similar scenario when Alter Bridge’s Myles Kennedy started being spotted with a noticeably T-style PRS guitar on stage a few years back. Sections of the internet were widely incensed by the guitar’s very existence, and weren’t shy about letting people know this fact when the guitar, dubbed the NF 53, and its Kennedy signature sibling launched just over two years ago.

Some people loved to hate on the NF 53 and MK. Especially in their unconventional ‘doghair’ finishes – which uses contrasting-colour grain filler to give a striking effect. But then PRS revealed that the guitars were the brand’s top two best-selling USA guitars in 2023, despite only being launched in June of that year.

Again, the naysayers went quiet, and the stage was set for the NF 53 to follow the Silver Sky into the SE range, where the ‘PRS Telecaster’ could truly become a disruptive force in the T-style market. And here, two years on, is the result.

PRS SE NF 53 – what is it?

The first thing to be aware of is that this is not simply a Telecaster with a PRS headstock. Smith’s reputation as one of the most important and innovative minds in the history of electric guitar design is based on his ability to take something and evolve and iterate on it to create a modern instrument that’s more versatile and more reliable.

So yes, on the surface the SE NF 53, like its US-made forebear, is a single-cut, swamp ash-bodied guitar with a bolt-on maple neck that sports 22 frets and a 25.5” scale length. At the other end you’ll find a plate-style steel bridge, a pair of pickups and a control layout that comprises a shared volume and tone controls and a three-way blade selector switch. So far, so Fullerton.

But, this is where the PRS magic so often resides – because a closer look will see that this is not your grandaddy’s T-type in almost every way that matters. That swamp ash body has a more rounded feel than the original, with some well-considered contours on the back and around the cutaway to make it sit a little better.

That bridge I mentioned? It’s Smith’s own design, and sports a pair of adjustable brass saddles – one for the treble strings and one for the bass. Then there are the pickups that give this guitar its name.

Instead of traditional single coils, here you’ll find a pair of PRS’s Narrowfield DD (Deep Dish) “S” units. These differ significantly from the traditional with taller bobbins to fit more winds and extra metal pieces in between the magnets for a focused, powerful tone – this is every bit a noiseless humbucker, but one designed for twang as well as rock.

The one notable difference between the SE version and its US counterpart is the pickguard – the dinky option on the original has been replaced with a sweeping Custom-style plate that holds the pickups and all the controls.

The obvious reason for this is to make this guitar easier and cheaper to build. Instead of having to individually mount each pickup and pot to the body (which involves both front and back routing), you can simply borrow a lesson from the Strat and mount everything on the ‘guard, meaning a much more straightforward assembly at scale.

And, whisper it, but I think the guitar actually looks better with the larger guard – sometimes mass production can have unintended benefits…

PRS SE NF 53 – build quality and playability

Pulling the SE NF 53 out of its included gigbag and the first thing you have to remark on is the finish. I have the ‘White Doghair’ option – which is probably the most polarising of the three offered at launch. It features an off-white base coat with black filler in the grain, giving a striking presentation of the grain of the swamp ash.

Many will probably prefer the flat white option, or indeed the less overt Black Doghair option, but I dig it – it reminds me of a meerschaum pipe in some ways. It’s certainly a conversation starter. It’s also gloss-finished so you won’t get the tactile feel of the wood grain, even if it might look it from a distance.

PRS’s SE line has been the benchmark for build quality and consistency for import guitars, and nothing about the NF 53 challenges that reputation. The finish is expertly applied and every screw, joint and part feels solid, snug and reliable.

One thing that’s also hard to ignore is the weight. Swamp ash is a wood in increasingly short supply, and so you have to expect that the stuff being used for a sub-$1,000 guitar isn’t going to be the absolute cream of the crop. Still, it was an eyebrow raiser to see this guitar tip the scales at around 8.5lbs/3.8kgs. While I’ve played other SE NF 53s that weigh considerably less than this, I’ve also seen some that weigh even more.

Some people will not have an issue with this kind of heft, of course, and if it pays you back with more sustain than you’d normally expect it could be a worthy trade-off. But a T-type that’s verging on Les Paul territory weight-wise is still something you’ll want to be aware of.

Strapping it on and those extra body contours make an instant case for themselves, making the guitar sit in a way that feels comfortable and ergonomic. It’s helped by a very welcoming but still characterful playing experience. It’s a very full neck shape, but thanks to the immaculately applied satin finish, it’s still very comfortable. What’s more, due to the 25.5” scale length strings bend more easily, almost like it is a tremolo guitar instead of a hardtail. The neck shape is very full, but it doesn’t feel it thanks to the satin finish.

PRS SE NF 53 – sounds

The NF 53 has a bright and resonant unplugged quality – perhaps not as lively as its US-made brethren but it still feels alive in the hands. The bigger test is to come of course – the plugged in T-style sound is iconic and distinctive, but is that even what we’re going for here?

In short: no. Putting the NF 53 into an amplifier and it becomes instantly clear that while this guitar has a bevvy of sounds at its disposal, it’s not a Telecaster in the traditional sense. The overall tonality is cleaner and less brittle or biting.

These Deep Dish pickups have a sound that’s very much their own, but that’s no bad thing at all – if pushed I’d say they sit somewhere between P-90s and mini-humbuckers. In practice, it gives you a very full tonality played cleanly, but adding some gain is where this guitar really comes into its own.

With overdrive and distortion, the pickups really fill out – adding body and beef, and a very impressive amount of sustain and grit. But that’s not all – shape the tone of your amp and controls to extract a nice helping of T-style twang from the NF 53, too. It’s perhaps not quite as spanky as the classic, but it’s nice to be able to go there when you need to.

PRS SE NF 53 – should I buy one?

The NF 53 might look like PRS’s Telecaster, but this is very much its own guitar. The sounds are beefy and muscular, and it definitely loses a little bit of the T-type character as a result of that. But you can argue that what we gain here is probably more useful and usable for today’s musician anyway.

Because that’s the thing, this isn’t a PRS take on a classic – that’s not the way Paul Reed Smith operates. He’s reinterpreting the bolt-on singlecut for the needs of the modern player – and in doing so he’s departed from many of our traditional notions for what this type of guitar should be.

You can also make the argument that there are plenty of great traditional T-style guitars in this price point with Fender on the headstock, and so what would be gained from adding another? Again, this is not PRS’s style.

Instead what we get is a guitar that evokes that lineage but adds something different to the pot – all while adding a level of build, fit and finish that continues to set the SE line apart from the rest of the (rapidly improving) Asian-made pack.

Be careful though, plug one in, and you might find yourself going home with it – it’s just that good. In fact, it might be the best SE PRS yet..

PRS SE NF 53 – alternatives

It would be rather silly to talk about T-type alternatives and not start with Fender’s own of course. The Mexico-made Player II and Player II Modified range offer an upgraded and more pro-ready take on the traditional recipe, and its Telecaster ($1,049/£949) is very impressive. If you want another affordable T-type that is sonically on another plane, Manson’s MBM-2H (£569) sports a pair of high-output humbuckers and a killswitch.

The post PRS SE NF 53 review: “it might look like PRS’s Telecaster, but this is its own guitar” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

If you were to think of the best rock song ever, you’d probably start by casting your mind back to something truly classic, but for Brian May, one of the greatest tracks ever made was released in the 2010s.

The Red Special-wielding Queen legend says The Struts’ Could Have Been Me is one of the greatest, and wishes he could have heard its inspirational lyrics at a young age. May has recently teamed up with the band to release a new version of the song, which features him on guitar.

• READ MORE: “There is hope in the world of rock ‘n’ roll”: Matt Sorum hails Yungblud as rock’s next great star after Hollywood Palladium show

Released in 2013, Could Have Been Me was originally the leading single from the band’s debut album, Everybody Wants. Speaking of his love for the song, May tells Classic Rock, “I wish I’d heard that song when I was a kid. It’s a classic.

“It’s one of the best rock songs ever,” he continues. “It was actually bigger in America than it was in Britain: it passed people by over here, and it shouldn’t have done. I’m hoping that this is an opportunity for the song to really connect all around the world.”

He adds, “It’s a very inspirational song. ‘I don’t want to look back and think I didn’t live my life and take all the opportunities that were in front of me’. I love that sentiment. You can say it in words, of course, but you really feel it in the song. Could it be me? It says everything that a kid needs to know when they’re growing up.”

As for the band’s vocalist, Luke Spiller, May thinks he actually has a lot in common with Freddie Mercury: “Working with Luke, I’m often thinking of Freddie. There are a lot of similarities. They both have this unstoppable belief. They have incredible voices, they’re great songwriters, but they have that extra ingredient: ‘I’m going to do this, I’m going to let the world come to me.’ That’s what Freddie had, and that’s what I see in Luke.”

Check out the song below:

Could Have Been Me by The Struts and Brian May is out now on streaming services. The Struts are due to head out on tour later this September – find out where you can catch them live via their website.

The post “I wish I’d heard that song when I was a kid”: Brian May says this modern track is “one of the best rock songs ever” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

During the lead up to Back To The Beginning, it was looking like the organisation of the event was going to be pretty hectic. According to Zakk Wylde, that was certainly the case on the big day, as he likens the experience to “juggling chainsaws”.

Of course the madness all turned out to be worth it, with the event drawing in millions in ticket sales that will go on to support Ozzy Osbourne’s chosen charities. The final gig also brought a beautiful close to the Black Sabbath story, with Osbourne sadly passing away just a matter of weeks after.

• READ MORE: “My father always thought you were a c**t”: Jack Osbourne slams Roger Waters for saying he “couldn’t give a f**k” about Ozzy Osbourne’s music

Back in early July before the event took place in Birmingham, England on the 5th, Wylde shared that plans for the event were still up in the air: “Nobody knows what’s going on”, he said, and likened it to “Ozzfest on steroids”. Even now, he tells Guitar World (in its print magazine) just how chaotic it continued to be on the day itself.

“I was just more worried about making sure Oz was okay for the whole performance, you know? So, with Mama, I’m Coming Home, when we got the acoustic out, I had to be like, ‘Keep the guitar away from the microphone so I can sing,’ because Oz’s voice was having trouble at certain notes.

“I was just like, ‘I need to make sure I’m always there so I can double him,’ and I was three feet away from the microphone when I started playing the song,” he continues. “I started, and I go, ‘Wait, hold on a second, I’m like three, four feet from the friggin’ microphone.’ [Laughs] I was like, ‘I gotta gear near the microphone,’ so I had to almost stop playing, lift the guitar up and put it over the mic.”

Wylde concludes, “It was like juggling balls or chainsaws while being on a skateboard. It was actually pretty funny, but it was business as usual. But yeah… It’s supposed to be the most important show ever, and everything’s on the fly.”

Though the total amount of money Back To The Beginning has made has been disputed, namely by Sharon Osbourne herself, a group of economists at the University of Birmingham have suggested that they have a better estimate of the actual numbers from ticket sales.

According to Dr. Matt Lyons of the University of Birmingham, tickets for the monumental Villa Park show brought in a total of £33.8 million. The money raised is going to Cure Parkinson’s, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorns Children’s Hospice.

The post “It was like juggling chainsaws while being on a skateboard”: Zakk Wylde on the pressures of playing with Ozzy Osbourne at Black Sabbath’s final gig appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.