Music is the universal language
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” - Luke 2:14
Norse Guitar Feeds
The Lowdown: Why Do We Never Take Lessons as Professional Musicians?
In late 2015, I basically quit playing bass and spent a year traveling with the Bryan Brothers as their fitness coach. For those not familiar with the tennis world, they’re the most successful doubles team of all time, with 119 titles as a team, 16 Grand Slams, an Olympic gold medal, and a record 438 weeks (including 139 consecutive) at number one in the world.
Much like I’m an amateur tennis player, they’re amateur musicians. We met through music, specifically through our mutual friend James Valentine from Maroon 5, who is also way into tennis.
I was going through a divorce and needed a change of scenery. They had just lost early in the US Open and were back in California, so we started training together. They asked if I wanted to come out on tour with them—initially to make a bit of a documentary, as their career was going to wind down in the not-too-distant future. As we trained more, that morphed into going to the world tour finals in London, me becoming part of the team, working the off-season with them at the end of 2015, and then getting on a plane to Australia to start the 2016 season.
“I realized very early on that any serious tennis player on the modern tour doesn’t step foot on a court or into a gym without a coach or trainer. Ever.”
Early in the season, I woke up to my phone melting down in Australia because Bob had given an interview with The New York Times and mentioned me joining the team: “…Janek Gwizdala, an accomplished jazz musician turned fitness guru.” I didn’t realize how many of my music friends were into tennis until that moment, but they sure let me know about it double-quick. Most didn’t believe I was actually on the tour until I was getting them tickets to come see our matches.
All this is to say, I got to see the real day-to-day workings of professional athletes—not just at the top of their field, but at a historically important and legendary point in their careers. We practiced alongside Nadal and Federer regularly, did cryotherapy with Djokovic, and shot the shit in the physio room with Andy Murray. As a tennis fan, it was off the charts.
But when I eventually returned to being a musician and got back into the swing of my musical career, I carried a lot of priceless information with me from my time running around the world on the ATP Tour.
Most importantly, I realized very early on that any serious tennis player on the modern tour doesn’t step foot on a court or into a gym without a coach or trainer. Ever.
And what do we do as musicians? If—and that’s a big if—we go to some sort of music school between 18 and 22, we leave, we’re flat broke because it cost a fortune, and we might never take another lesson for the rest of our careers.
Not once in my 20s, having quit Berklee and moved to New York City, did I have anyone consistently guiding my playing, my mental capacity to deal with what it takes to break into the New York scene, my choices of gigs, sessions, tours—anything. I had friends, sure. We’d talk and commiserate over certain things. But they had no more experience than I did, for the most part.
Sometimes you’d be lucky enough to make friends with a far more senior musician in the scene, and you’d hang on every word and story like a kid getting to stay up late watching TV you shouldn’t see that young. But as amazing as those stories were, they were stories from a bygone era that bore little relevance to where I was at.
What I’ve made a conscious effort to do over the past decade—since that incredible experience of being in a completely different, intense professional scenario—is seek out advice, mentorship, lessons, and coaching whenever possible. Sometimes that’s been for my music, sometimes for business, other times for health or fitness when I’m trying to add something to my routine and want to get the most out of it.
If you’re a beginner or a pro—especially a pro—get a local teacher. Find someone you trust, someone you respect, and take a lesson once in a while. It’s amazing to have someone to talk to, to gain confidence from, and to help you remember you’re not alone in so many of the things we struggle with as musicians.
The Sounds of 2025: 25 Must-Hear Albums
Totally Guitars Weekly Update December 31, 2025
December 31, 2025 It has been a fun year at TG, and I hope everybody is enjoying the Holiday Season. Today I started with a couple tunes you should recognize, and catch the connection. I also ended with a couple of my seasonal favorites. In between there were just a few thoughts about practicing and […]
The post Totally Guitars Weekly Update December 31, 2025 appeared first on On The Beat with Totally Guitars.
“I’ve learned so much from classical music”: Marty Friedman on why every rocker should study classical music
On the surface, the worlds of rock and classical music couldn’t be further apart. However, former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman insists that listening to classical music could teach all rock and metal musicians a trick or two.
Speaking with interviewer Tobias Le Compte, Friedman reveals that he listens to classical music “all the time”, because he is constantly “learning” new skills from it. “I’ve learned so much from classical music and have played classical music, as a soloist, with many big orchestras,” he explains [as transcribed by Blabbermouth].
Rather than restricting yourself to the conventions of one genre, Friedman insists that all musicians should explore different worlds of sound. Rather than simply thinking “the grass is greener on the other side”, classical artists should allow themselves to “rock out, shake their asses and bang their heads”, just as Friedman is allowing himself to embrace the “big crescendos of classical music”.
The difference can sometimes be a challenge, but it’s worth it. He notes that even the nature of a classical performance can push you to your guitar limits. He recalls a recent performance with Antonín Dvořák, which saw him performing non-stop for a solid 25 minutes. “All the cues are so different from a rock band,” he explains.
“It takes so much work to do; it’s a whole different lifestyle,” he adds. “It took a lot of practising, rehearsing and learning in a different way. So I learned a ton from it, and I’ve done that several times now… it’s such a thrill.”
Plenty of other rock and metal guitarists have also cited classical music as a huge inspiration. Tim Henson in particular was classically trained in violin, which has massively informed Polyphia’s expansive, progressive sound. Elsewhere, Randy Rhoads’ complex solos are also classically informed.
Yngwie Malmsteen also praises the influence of classical music on his guitar playing. He has previously claimed that listening to German composer Johann Sebastian Bach had a far greater impact on him than, say, Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore. “I based my guitar playing on classical violin, not guitar,” he revealed at Hellfest in 2024.
“I love Ritchie Blackmore, no doubt about it, but my playing is nothing like his,” he said. “It sounds a bit old fashioned to me when people tell me I was influenced by Blackmore: just listen to how we play!”
On the more experimental end of things, Polish guitarist Marcin Patrzałek’s unique Flamenco-tinged percussive fingerstyle approach to his instrument is also massively influenced by his classical training.
The post “I’ve learned so much from classical music”: Marty Friedman on why every rocker should study classical music appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
The Sounds of 2025: Guitars and Gear that Carried the Acoustic Tradition Forward
“That track was about as metal as it gets!”: Robert Fripp argues that this King Crimson track laid the foundations of heavy metal
Black Sabbath’s 1970 self-titled debut famously changed the face of metal forever. Without it, we wouldn’t have heavy metal – but, if you look further back, other artists were also beginning to explore heavier sounds. In fact, Robert Fripp believes that King Crimson’s 1969 debut helped lay the foundations of metal’s heavier sibling.
In a new interview with Guitar World, Fripp notes that King Crimson’s influence on heavy metal is often ignored. He argues that the band’s In the Court of the Crimson King record, and particularly the track 21st Century Schizoid Man, was “about as metal as it gets”.
“I saw a recent video on YouTube on the 10 precursors to heavy metal, and 21st Century Schizoid Man wasn’t among them,” Fripp says. “That’s absurd!”
While Crimson are often branded as a prog unit, the essence of metal has always rumbled beneath the surface. “The powerful, metallic element has always been there in Crimson,” the guitarist insists. “For me, it became increasingly articulated in the simple question: What would Jimi Hendrix have sounded like playing a Béla Bartók string quartet?”
“In other words, the sheer power and spirit of the American blues‐rock tradition speaking through Hendrix’s Foxy Lady or Purple Haze,” he adds.
Don’t just take Fripp’s word for it – even the Prince of Darkness himself paid tribute to the track 20 years ago. Ozzy Osbourne’s cover of 21st Century Schizoid Man features on his 2005 solo record, Under Cover, and is comfortably suits Osbourne’s heavy metal edge. “[Ozzy] was always generous enough to acknowledge Crimson,” Fripp notes.
Elsewhere, The Who’s Pete Townshend also acknowledged the track’s heavier textures back in 1969. “21st Century Schizoid Man is everything multitracked a billion times, and when you listen, you get a billion times the impact,” he wrote in a teaser ad prior to the release of Court of the Crimson King [via Rolling Stone].
“Has to be the heaviest riff that has been middle frequencied onto that black vinyl disc since Mahler’s Symphony No. 8,” he added.
While Crimson’s experimental sound has taken on many forms, Fripp argues that the band’s “metal voice” can be found everywhere. From their debut, to 1973’s Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, metal has always played a small part in the Crimson formula.
The post “That track was about as metal as it gets!”: Robert Fripp argues that this King Crimson track laid the foundations of heavy metal appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Boss XS-1 Poly Shifter review – all the magic of the XS-100 in a smaller, smarter format
$209.99/£198, boss.info
Hey, have you ever considered that maybe you’ve got too many effects pedals? One answer might be to sell some of them – ha, imagine! – but another way to make more space is simply to get smaller ones. Boss knows this, and that’s why the XS-1 Poly Shifter exists.
Launched alongside the powerful but slightly enormous XS-100, this is the same kind of multi-function pitch-shifter, powered by the same all-new algorithms, but offered in the standard Boss form factor that’s been ruling stages since the 1980s. So… perhaps you’ve got room in your life for one more pedal after all?
Image: Press
Boss XS-1 – what is it?
By all means have another quick read through my review of the XS-100, because the basics are unchanged (plus I really like the line about the elephant). But here’s a mini-recap anyway: with these two pedals, Boss is making a play for the market currently dominated by DigiTech and its Whammy range of pitch-manipulators. You can shift up or down, from a single semitone to a multi-octave interval, you can blend that sound with your dry signal, and you can also select ‘detune’ mode for more subtle chorus effects.
Obviously the bigger unit has an expression treadle, plus a screen for navigation (including presets) and the option of stomping between two different intervals – none of which is present here. For the record, the maximum interval has also been cut from four octaves to three; but seeing as a three-octave leap is still more than any human could possibly find a genuine use for, that hardly qualifies as a compromise.
Image: Press
Boss XS-1 – is it easy to use?
This being a Boss pedal with two knobs and two switches, it couldn’t be any easier to use unless it had arms that stuck out of the sides and played the guitar for you. We’re talking real ‘don’t bother with the manual’ stuff here, and that’s quite a change from the logical but multi-layered operation of the XS-100.
The first knob controls the balance of the output signal, from all dry to all pitch-shifted; the second controls the shifting interval, which can be anywhere between one and seven semitones (ie: a fifth), or one, two or three octaves. The little toggle switch below that selects up, down or the detune option, while the one on the left lets you set the footswitch to latching or momentary mode. And that really is everything.
Image: Press
Boss XS-1 – what does it sound like?
When it comes to the sounds, it’s all about the algorithms – and so this part of the review could almost be a direct copy of what I wrote about the XS-100. The crucial part is that the latency is impressively low and the processed tones are impressively pure, with barely a hint of the digital scratching and crackling that you might associate with pedals of this type.
The available effects can be divided into four broad categories: down-tuning for baritone-style metal riffing; up-tuning for a virtual capo and/or impossibly high widdling; blending in an up-octave for an approximation of a 12-string sound (you’ll want the balance at around 10 o’clock for this); and blending in any interval for tight-tracking harmonies. Oh, and that’s not counting the detune effect, which is much easier to access here than on the bigger unit thanks to that dedicated switch. It sounds really rather nice in an 80s kind of way, and can be adjusted using the two knobs.
The one thing you can’t do, of course, is Whammy-style soaring and swooping, which depends on foot control… but there is an input for an expression pedal, so even that isn’t completely off the table. Make sure you’ve got one that’s Boss-friendly, though: my Moog EP-3 normally gets on great with every stompbox it sees, but it sounded all sorts of wrong with this one.
Image: Press
Boss XS-1 – should I buy it?
By now the reasons to buy into Boss’s new XS range should be clear: put simply, it’s got the best algorithms. So if you’re after purity and realism above all, then this has to be the first name on your shopping list.
That just leaves the question of which model to get. The XS-100 is a chunk of fun for sure, but I like the XS-1 a lot more. It’s got all the features you need – compatible expression pedal permitting – plus it’s far cheaper, it’s easier to use and it takes up much less space. Just don’t blame me if you end up buying three more pedals to fill the gap.
Image: Press
Boss XS-1 alternatives
The DigiTech HammerOn ($299/£219) is one of three compact pedals in the Whammy family, and offers up/down shifting plus lots more besides. A simpler option is the Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork ($198/£169), and a more complicated one is the full-size Boss XS-100 ($349.99/£299).
The post Boss XS-1 Poly Shifter review – all the magic of the XS-100 in a smaller, smarter format appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Top 10 Rig Rundowns of 2025
This year was a big one for the Rig Rundown crew! John, Perry & Chris traveled to Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee, and even a cave in Tennessee, while of course foraging in their home base Music City, to gather the biggest, brightest (and loudest) setups touring the world. Find out the most-popular episodes and behind-the-scenes adventures the tres amigos encountered in 2025.
Rig Rundowns supported by D'Addario
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Rig Rundown: Jeff Tweedy
The Wilco frontman’s ’90s pawn shop raids are paying off decades later.
Rig Rundown: Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives
The legendary country musician and his right-hand man, guitarist Kenny Vaughan, prove that Fender guitars through Fender amps can still take you a long way in this world.
THE TOP 10:
10. Marty Friedman Rig Rundown
Marty Friedman and his trusted tech, Alan Sosa, who handles all effects switching manually during the show, showed us the goods.
9. The Who Rig Rundown
The Who need no introduction, so let’s get to the good stuff: PG’s John Bohlinger caught up with the band’s farewell tour at Fenway Park in Boston, where guitarist Pete Townshend’s tech Simon Law and bassist Jon Button’s tech Joel Ashton gave him a look at the gear that the infamous British rockers are trusting for their goodbye gigs celebrating 60-plus years together.
8. Fontaines D.C. Rig Rundown [2025]
The Irish post-punk band’s three guitarists go for Fairlane, Fenders, and a fake on their spring American tour.
7. Steve Stevens Rig Rundown
The Billy Idol guitarist rides his Knaggs into Nashville.
6. Dann Huff Rig Rundown
The all-star producer invites John Bohlinger to his home studio for a glimpse of his most treasured gear.
5. Queens of the Stone Age Rig Rundown with Troy Van Leeuwen
Fresh off a substantial break and a live acoustic recording from Paris’ infamous catacombs, hard-rock titans Queens of the Stone Age stormed back to life this spring with an American tour, including back-to-back nights in Boston at Fenway’s MGM Music Hall.
PG’s Chris Kies snuck onstage before soundcheck to meet with guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and get an in-depth look at the guitars, amps, and effects he’s using this summer.
4. Keith Urban Rig Rundown for High and Alive Tour 2025
Down Under’s number one country guitar export—and November 2024 Premier Guitar cover model—Keith Urban rolled into Cincinnati’s Riverbend Music Center last month, so John Bohlinger and the Rig Rundown team drove up to meet him. Urban travels with a friendly crew of vintage guitars, so there was much to see and play. In fact, so much that they ran out of time after getting through the axes! Later, Bohli and Co. met up with Urban tech Chris Miller to wrap their heads around the rest of the straightforward pedal-free rig he’s rockin’ this summer.
3. System of a Down's Daron Malakian Rig Rundown
The metal giants return to the stage with a show powered by gold-and-black axes and pure tube power.
Except for two new singles in 2020, alt-metal icons System of a Down haven’t released new music in 20 years. But luckily for their fans, System—vocalist Serj Tankian, guitarist/vocalist Daron Malakian, bassist Shavo Odadjian, and drummer John Dolmayan—took their catalog of era-defining, genre-changing hard-rock haymakers on tour this year across South and North America.
2. Linkin Park Rig Rundown
Linkin Park went on hiatus for seven years after lead vocalist Chester Bennington’s death in 2017, but last September, the band announced that they were returning with new music and a new lineup—including vocalist Emily Armstrong and drummer Colin Brittain. A new album, From Zero, was released in November 2024, followed by the single “Up From the Bottom” earlier this year, and this summer, the band tore off on an international arena and stadium comeback tour. Founding lead guitarist Brad Delson is still a creative member of the band, but has elected to step back from touring. And so on the road, Alex Feder takes his place alongside founding guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, DJ Joe Hahn, and bassist Dave Farrell.
1. Deftones' Stephen Carpenter Rig Rundown
California metal giants Deftones returned this year with Private Music, their first album in five years. In support of it, they ripped across North America on a string of headline shows and support slots with System of a Down.
We linked with Deftones guitarist Stef Carpenter for a Rig Rundown back in 2013, but a lot has changed since then (and as Carpenter reveals in this new interview, he basically disowns that 2013 rig). Back in August, PG’s Chris Kies caught up with Carpenter again ahead of the band’s gig in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the guitarist gave us an all-access walkthrough of his current road rig.
Acoustic Soundboard: The Ethics and Practice of Revoicing Flat-Top Guitars
Revoicing flat-top steel-string guitars is something I’ve practiced for decades. In the early days, once I discovered what scalloping was and how it affected tone, I began reaching inside instruments and carving braces in hopes of improving their sound. The problem was that I had no real idea what I was doing, no sense of targets, and certainly no clear understanding of purpose. Fortunately, I didn’t attempt this on many guitars, and never on anything of real value.
As time went on and I began building my own instruments, I developed the ability to tune tops through scalloping or tapering braces. This gave me valuable insight into what to look for when approaching revoicing later in my career. The process became more disciplined; it included setting air resonance, balancing top and back frequencies, and measuring deflections.
But the question remains: Should we even be revoicing guitars at all?
In the violin world, revoicing is standard practice. Instruments are designed to be disassembled and worked on, and re-graduating tops is one of the most common procedures performed on vintage violins, violas, and cellos. These repairs are done routinely, even on valuable vintage instruments, and often multiple times across their lifespans. This tradition also extends to historical pitch change, such as the move from A=340 Hz to A=440 Hz, where instruments had to be physically altered to remain functional. Violin makers are trained from the very beginning to understand instrument revoicing and the practice is widely accepted.
“For those with the training and experience, revoicing can transform a lifeless guitar into something inspiring and enjoyable to play.”
Flat-top steel-strings are different. We now have guitars, pre-war Martins in particular, that are considered the Stradivari of the flat-top world. These instruments already sound extraordinary, and carving on their braces would not only be unnecessary, but destructive. Still, not all guitars share this level of excellence even within vintage Martin examples. Over the years I’ve encountered many instruments that simply missed the mark, where the relationships between air, top, and back resonances were poorly balanced.
Take, for example, a Guild D-40 from the 1980s that recently came into my shop. Guilds of that era were well-built, sometimes even overbuilt. This particular guitar measured an air resonance of 101 Hz, a top resonance of 200 Hz, and a back resonance of 207 Hz. The problem was obvious: The top was so tight at 200 Hz it had restricted musicality, and its frequency nearly sat on top of the back, only separated by 7 Hz. Worse, the air resonance, at 101 Hz, was far too high for a large-body guitar, which typically falls around 95 Hz or lower.
This guitar was crying out for a revoice. My plan was simple: reshape and scallop the accessible braces on the top, drop the top resonance into the 170 Hz range, and allow the air resonance to settle near 95 Hz. Step by step, I carved, restrung, measured, and repeated until the targets were met. The top gradually dropped: first to 190 Hz, then 180 Hz, and finally 173 Hz. The air resonance followed, landing at 95 Hz. The results were dramatic. The instrument opened up, resonances began to couple, and its musicality increased significantly.
Of course, there are caveats. Any revoicing work voids a warranty, and on a new instrument that can be a serious consideration. In this case, the Guild was decades old, had changed hands multiple times, and carried no warranty concerns. More importantly, the guitar was so overbuilt that there was little danger in loosening the top.
So, what are the ethics of revoicing? Should you attempt it? The answer is clear: Unless you thoroughly understand resonance, frequency targets, deflection values, and how they interact, you should not. For those with the training and experience, however, revoicing can transform a lifeless guitar into something inspiring and enjoyable to play.
In restoration, the golden rule is to enter and exit an instrument without leaving a trace. But sometimes, as with this Guild, the only way forward is to make meaningful change. Done carefully, with respect for the instrument and for the physics of sound, revoicing is not only ethical; it can be a gift to both the guitar and its player.
“Eddie would have taken over”: why Gene Simmons rejected Eddie Van Halen’s request to join Kiss
Back in the ‘80s, tensions between David Lee Roth and the rest of Van Halen were steadily rising. In 1982, Eddie Van Halen was even prepared to jump ship and abandon Van Halen altogether, begging Gene Simmons to let him join Kiss. However, Simmons rejected the guitar legend’s proposal.
We know what you’re thinking – who would say no to Eddie Van Halen? While the rejection might seem like a slight on Eddie’s talent, it was actually an admission that the Eddie’s guitar playing was a little too bold for Kiss to contain. “There wouldn’t be room for Eddie in Kiss,” he admits in an interview with MusicRadar.
Eddie proposed the idea of joining Kiss in 1982, following the release of Van Halen’s Diver Down record. At the time, Eddie was unsure whether he could continue working with frontman Roth. Aware that Kiss were on the hunt for a new guitarist to replace Ace Frehley, he approached Simmons and asked to join the band.
“Eddie told me, ‘Roth is driving me nuts – I can’t take it!’” Simmons recalls. “He said: ‘I gotta leave. I know you’re looking for a lead guitar player. Do you want me in the band?’”
Despite Eddie’s desperation, Simmons was firm. He gave the Van Halen guitarist some vital advice: “I said, ‘Eddie, a band is worse than a marriage. You’re going to have ups and downs and stuff. But with Van Halen, everything begins and ends with you – it’s all about the guitar. Those riffs, that’s the backbone of what it is. That’s the sound.”
Simmons went on to note that those “backbone” riffs were “not necessarily the point of view of Kiss”. As he puts it, Eddie joining Kiss would have been like “putting Jeff Beck or Jimi Hendrix in AC/DC”.
“Hendrix would suck up all the oxygen,” he explains. “He needed just one bass player and a drummer so he’d got that room without a rhythm guitar player there. Eddie was like Hendrix in that sense. He needed a lot of room.”
While Van Halen had been created with Eddie Van Halen’s riffs in mind, Kiss didn’t have enough space for such gargantuan solos. “With Van Halen, it [allowed] a lot of room for the guitar player to take up,” Simmons notes. “There just wasn’t that room unless we wanted to gut what Kiss was all about. Eddie would have taken over.”
Although we’d love to have seen Eddie Van Halen storming the stage in Kiss makeup, Simmons’ rejection forced Eddie to persevere with Van Halen. And it’s good he did, because the band’s next album, 1984, featured some of Van Halen’s most iconic cuts, including Jump and Panama.
“Morally, I think I did the right thing,” Simmons concludes. “[I told] Eddie, ‘You’ve got to stick it out. No matter what the problems are in the band, you’ve got to hang in there.’”
“It’s never easy! You take a look at Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who had their ups and downs, or John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who were childhood friends. But you don’t let the band break up, even if it means switching lead singers. And in the end, that’s exactly what Eddie did.”
The post “Eddie would have taken over”: why Gene Simmons rejected Eddie Van Halen’s request to join Kiss appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Mayones Duvell DT-7 Giveaway!
Win a Maynoes Duvell Dt-7, a 7-string built around clarity, control, and directed tone. Enter by January 30 ,2026.
Mayones Duvell DT 7 String Giveaway
Duvell DT-7
Duvell DT was created with the “Directed Tone” concept in mind. It’s about mastering simplicity and letting the core of the music resonate deeply with both the performer and the audience.
The “evil plan” that led the Haim sisters to start playing music together
Globe-trotting can come with a hefty price tag – but what if you got paid to travel the world? That’s exactly what inspired the Haim sisters to pack up their lives and pursue a career in music.
Speaking to The Times, Haim reveal what first inspired them to bind together back in 2007; the trio wanted to break out of Los Angeles and see the world. “It was our evil plan,” Este Haim reveals. “Growing up, we hadn’t seen much of anything. We wanted to discover the music scene in the UK, to visit Japan, but how the fuck are we going to afford it? If we start writing songs together, maybe we can.”
From an early age, Haim were weaned on all things musical, aiding in the efforts of their singer of a mother and drumming father. This meant that the trio shared an innate musical connection – something that deserved to be explored. In 2005, sisters Danielle and Este joined with pop group Valli Girls. but it quickly became clear that there was a missing link – their younger sibling, Alana.
When the trio finally joined forces in 2007, everything fell into place. They were adamant they’d be able to take on the world. “Starting Haim, we had blind optimism,” Alana admits. “We just thought it was going to work. Not to be too ‘LA’ about it but it was a form of manifestation.”
Of course, success didn’t come overnight. However, nothing could deter them. “For the first five years we were playing to three or four people,” Danielle recalls. “But something about getting on a stage together made us happy.”
Eventually, Haim would get their big break supporting The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas on his solo tour in 2010. Danielle was performing double duties, performing with her sisters before going out and playing guitar in Casablancas band. Thereon out, it seemed like everything clicked into place.
Their true breakout moment would come in 2013, when the sisters were seemingly everywhere at Glastonbury Festival. They performed sets on both the Pyramid and Park stages, as well as joining Primal Scream onstage as backing vocalists.
With their newest album, I Quit, up for a Grammy for Best Rock Album, its clear that Haim were absolutely correct – they are stronger together. Looking back, the sisters are proud of themselves for committing to the grind. Though Este admits that “when you’re 13, being forced to be in a band with your parents and little sisters is not the coolest thing”, now she fully embraces it. “I think it’s cute,” she notes.
The post The “evil plan” that led the Haim sisters to start playing music together appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
I was wrong: I’ve been building my own guitars for over a decade, and here’s the most important lessons I’ve learned
About ten years ago, I started building my own guitars in my garage. I did it in an effort to better understand the instruments that I love so much – and it certainly did that, though perhaps not in the way that I anticipated.
Over many years and many builds, I have realized that I was wrong about a lot of things when it came to guitar construction prior to starting to build my own. These were common preconceptions and misunderstandings, I think – but learning about them the hard way has helped me to understand the gear I own better, and enabled me to make better choices when I’m buying new guitars. Hopefully it can help you too, even if you never have any intention of picking up a fret file!
Image: Justin Beckner
“Hand Built” Is More Complex a Term Than Many Realise
I had always believed that “hand-built” guitars were superior to standard production line guitars that were carved out using CNC machines. When you build a guitar by hand you get an appreciation for hand-built guitars because of the focus and literal sweat that goes into it, but you also realise that consistency is difficult to achieve, even with using jigs. Over the years, I have developed an appreciation for CNC Machines as they take a lot of the rough cutting work out of guitar building – work that is not all that fun to do.
I’ve learned that the machines used to industrialise the guitar-building process are just as impressive as the instruments they create. Plek machines, for example, are able to level frets down to such an impressive degree that it makes the prospect of doing them by hand seem rather archaic. Even touring the Gibson factory and seeing the old custom hand-built machines and tools that were used to streamline the building process helped me to embrace the idea that hand-built is a more complex term than I had previously imagined.
Gibson factory. Image: Justin Beckner
Everything Matters
Claiming that a guitar is simply the sum of its parts ignores the interplay between those parts. This is a topic that can get really deep into the weeds, but mastering the art of constructing an instrument with a certain sound is a science that I am far from mastering. However, building your own guitars does give a healthy respect for builders out there who carve bracing, chamber specific sections of a body, or use certain metals in the bridge that are designed to create very specific sympathetic frequencies, giving each guitar its own voice.
I’ve learned that when you pluck a string on a guitar, the entire instrument vibrates; those vibrations can sometimes feed back into the string, giving it those sympathetic resonances. A high-end instrument that is tailored to a certain playing style will take every aspect of construction into account when trying to achieve that sound. After building my own guitars, I believe that tonewood matters, I believe that the glue we use to glue the body matters, and I believe that how the neck fits in the neck pocket matters. Everything matters.
I’m certain someone will claim they saw a guitar made out of corkboard that sounds just as good as a vintage Stratocaster, simply because they saw something on YouTube. But I have to ask those people, did you hear it with your own ears, or did you hear it through some computer speakers?
The only way to do such a comparison is to play both with your own hands and listen to it, live, with your own ears. And I’m not going to say that all vintage guitars sound good – they certainly don’t. They were incredibly inconsistent, as anyone who has played a lot of them will tell you.
Some will say that a guitar’s tone is all about the pickups and not much more, but I have learned that is not true either. A guitar is more than the sum of its parts and sometimes the smallest details can be just as important as the “main” features of a guitar. For example, we spend so much time talking about how certain pickups sound, but we far too often ignore that those pickups are subject to the wiring within the guitar, the pots that we use, the wire itself, the shielding, the output jack.
If one of those components is sub-par, then the overall sound of the pickups will be sub-par. Building your own guitars forces you to focus on these small details that casual guitar players overlook when discussing tone. It will force the realization that a guitar’s tone is not the result of one certain thing.
Image: Justin Beckner
Let’s Talk About Money
When I first started thinking of building my own guitar, I was under the impression that it would be cheaper than buying my own version of that guitar. For the cost of the tools needed to build a guitar alone, one could purchase a pretty nice production-line guitar.
When you start thinking of all the tools needed to build a guitar; routers, sanders, fret saws, files, levelers, drills, bits, sandpaper, fret press, sanding blocks, clamps, various jigs and templates, it can add up very quickly. Just to give you an idea, if you want to do binding on your guitar, you’ll need a router bit and a series of bearings.
Image: Justin Beckner
StewMac sells this kit for $160-$206 (depending on how many bearing sizes you want), which is about as much as I spent on my router itself.
I was fortunate enough to have a lot of these tools before I started building my own guitars, but there are always some tools that you’ll find makes the job so much easier. A fret slot miter box would be a good example.
Good quality fret files would be another. If you are anything like me, you will try to buy some cheap ones on eBay that suck and end up buying quality files from a reputable company anyway.
I’ve found guitar building to be an incredibly enlightening and rewarding hobby and I encourage anyone who loves guitars to give it a try. As one of my childhood heroes, Red Green, used to say, I’m pulling for you. We’re all in this together.
The post I was wrong: I’ve been building my own guitars for over a decade, and here’s the most important lessons I’ve learned appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Luthier on Luthier: Juha Rukangas
For episode 109 of Luthier on Luthier, we’re joined by Juha Rukangas, a Finnish guitar maker pushing the boundaries of instrument design.
We dive into his innovative Valve Bucker pickup, the Captain Nemo guitar prototype, and his use of local Arctic Birch and wood torrification to create unique guitars. Juha shares his journey from student to professional luthier and his vision for the future of guitar making, blending tradition, technology, and artistry.
Link: https://ruokangas.com/
Luthier on Luthier is hosted by Michael Bashkin of Bashkin Guitars and brought to you by the Fretboard Journal. This episode is sponsored by the Looth Group, Dream Guitars and StewMac.
Want to support Luthier on Luthier? Join our Patreon to get access to exclusive photos and content from Michael and his builds.
The post Luthier on Luthier: Juha Rukangas first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
Question of the Month: Is the Vintage Juice Worth the Squeeze?
Question: Is expensive vintage gear really worth the price?
Guest Picker
Iyad Moussa Ben Abderahmane, a.k.a. Sadam (Imarhan)
A: In terms of music gear, I’m not a big collector. But I’ll always pick vintage over newer stuff. I’m a fan of old Gibson guitars—I actually own an SG from the late ’70s, either ’78 or ’79. It sounds amazing and is really easy to play.
Obsession: My current obsession is figuring out how I can help keep the Tamasheq language alive. I’m thinking about writing a book so my kids can learn it, and maybe even finding a way to connect the language to tourism in southern Algeria. I believe we need to develop tourism around Tamanrasset—it could play an important role in safeguarding our culture.
Reader of the Month
Derek Rader
A: My answer … maybe. What motivates you to play and perform is worth the money within a person’s means. If a vintage guitar price isn’t unobtanium, and it has the feel, sound, and mojo, then it’s an emphatic yes! However, a myriad of luthiers and custom shops can provide a similar experience with modern production methods, materials, and electronics, at a lower cost, and the comfort of a warranty. There isn’t a wrong choice if the purchase is motivated by what drives you to play and write music that created the spark to pick up your first guitar.
Obsession: Music theory! A definite area for improvement, and I’m working with the talented Mr. Cris Eaves to improve as a player. Amazing journey!
Contributing Editor
Ted Drozdowski
A: I used to be dismissive about vintage gear until Ronnie Earl let me play his ’64 Strat years ago. I instantly sounded and played better. Now, I treasure my vintage instruments: a ’68 Les Paul, a ’58 Special, a ’72 Super Lead, a ’64 Supro Tremo-Verb, and an original Maestro Fuzz-Tone. Nothing sounds quite like these originals. That said, I can’t imagine spending six digits on a guitar—even if I had that much cake—unless I was also giving a lot to charity.
Obsession: EHX’s new Pico Atomic Cluster Spectral Decomposer. It’s full of sounds I’ve been looking for!
Gear Editor
Charlie Saufley
A: Vintage-or-not is a completely case-by-case thing, and there is no one criteria by which to judge the worth of an old instrument. Depending on your musical needs and manner of expression, some old things that have since been digitized don’t cut it in compact form. For instance, I’m tired of paying to fix my Echoplex EP-3, but I haven’t found a digital alternative that I can physically manipulate in the same way. Three little clustered dials just aren’t going to work or feel like the EP-3’s record-head slider/lever and the perfectly spaced sustain and volume knobs—not to mention the tape irregularities.
Vibes are a real thing too, though. I’m no less psyched when I play something I like on a brand-new Squier. But I also know that engaging with my old guitars and amps is a different kind of fun. It’s just like driving a car from the 1950s or 1960s. The right ones—in addition to feeling as comfortable as old, worn baseball gloves—exude a sense of history and travel and secret stories that appeal to a sentimentalist like myself, and those sensations spark my imagination in ways I can’t put a price on.
Obsession:
Inventing a melody, slowing it down—way down—and fitting a new melody in the spaces in between.
Home Front’s Post-Punk Call to Arms
When he was 10 years old, Graeme McKinnon walked into a pawn shop near his home in Edmonton, Alberta, and bought his first guitar for $50. It was a sharp-angled, all-black axe made by the Japanese company Profile as a low-cost imitation of a Jackson, with a knife-like headstock that jutted curiously upward.
“It looked like a reaper’s scythe,” McKinnon says, recalling the way he’d carry it around town in an awkwardly shaped gig bag. “Everyone thought I had a hunting rifle.”
It was the early ’90s, in the thick of the Seattle grunge movement, and McKinnon’s older cousin would often come over and play him Pearl Jam songs, which he didn’t really like. But when his guitar teacher showed him the Ramones, something unlocked in the youngster. As he improved his chops, McKinnon and his older brother, a bassist, would jam Dead Kennedys and Beastie Boys songs together. McKinnon was hooked on punk rock. “That’s how I cut my teeth,” he says. “The downstrokes from the Ramones stuck with me forever. I always practiced my right hand.”
Fast forward 30 years, and today McKinnon is one half of the post-punk duo Home Front, one of the most hyped-up bands to emerge from Canada in recent years. And the outfit’s new album Watch It Die should earn them a spot on the Mount Rushmore of the current post-punk revival, alongside other breakouts like Fontaines D.C., Idles, and Viagra Boys.
In 2021, McKinnon’s hardcore punk band No Problem was on hiatus and he was looking for a new outlet. That’s when his childhood friend Clint Frazier, previously a member of the electro dance-punk outfit Shout Out Out Out Out, asked him to start a synth-driven band.
“The downstrokes from the Ramones stuck with me forever. I always practiced my right hand.”—Graeme McKinnon
The style that they created combines the jangly sheen of synth-pop, the sneering attitude of old-school punk rock, and the hard-stomping force of oi! and hardcore. The band nicknamed it “bootwave,” a reference to the distinct sound of winter boots marching on ice-crusted snow or the cold concrete of the streets of Edmonton. “Our sound has this duality,” McKinnon says. “There’s the punk side, there’s the synth side, and it’s always these two forces.”
“We’re just trying to find enough space in the songs to do both of them well,” adds Frazier. “I’ve been trying to do that for over 20 years.”
Graeme McKinnon’s Gear
Guitars
Fender Classic Series ’72 Telecaster Deluxe (with new humbucker and graphite saddles)
1979 Gibson Marauder (with P-90 pickup and kill switch)
Hagstrom Viking
Basses
Fender Steve Harris Precision Bass
Fender Bass VI
Guitar Amps
1979 Marshall JMP
Hiwatt Custom 50
Marshall 4x12 cabinet
Bass Amps
Peavey Super Festival Series F-800B
Peavey Roadmaster Vintage Tube Series
Ampeg 6x10 cabinet
Effects
Roland SDE-3000
MXR Carbon Copy
EHX Holy Grail
Van Hall fuzz
MXR Analog Chorus
Various Pro Co RAT models
MXR Blue Box
Strings & Picks
Ernie Ball Regular Slinky (.010–.046) (Telecaster)
Ernie Ball Power Slinky (.011–.048) (Marauder)
Ernie Ball Regular Slinky (.045–.130), unchanged since 2019 (bass)
Dunlop .73mm picks
Watch It Die follows Home Front’s full-length debut, 2023’s Games of Power. That album earned them positive press from some of the indie-rock scene’s key tastemakers, and it was longlisted for the Polaris Music Prize. The band hit the road hard to support it, embarking on multiple tours of the U.S., the U.K., and mainland Europe, including dates with punk veterans like Dillinger Four and Cock Sparrer, as well as fellow newcomers the Chisel and High Vis.
Like its predecessor, Watch It Die is a record that posits that life is hard, the world is cruel, and it’s easy to feel powerless to make any difference. It’s a headspace that stops just a few yards short of nihilism. But this time around, McKinnon and Frazier are channeling something else, too: hope.
“Our sound has this duality. There’s the punk side, there’s the synth side, and it’s always these two forces.”—McKinnon
“I was using a metaphor of a flower being picked and becoming an ornament in someone’s place, and it’s slowly dying,” McKinnon says. “The secret, the bit that brings a little bit of hope, is that the seed is still in the ground. They can’t see it and they can’t steal it. You watched this part die, but underneath, there’s something else.”
With his previous bands, McKinnon had approached his instrument in much the same way he had since he was a kid: Ramones-style power chords and fast-and-furious downstrokes on his trusty Fender ’72 Telecaster Deluxe. With Home Front, McKinnon had to rethink his playing so that it could coexist with Frazier’s ordnance of analog synths and drum machines.
He looked for inspiration from bands he had always loved but hadn’t previously channeled: England’s ’80s post-punk and new wave exports like New Order, Joy Division, Depeche Mode, the Cure, A Flock of Seagulls, and Blitz. But he wasn’t just looking to do what they did; instead, he wanted to bring his hard-nosed punk style to the mix. “If the electronics are covered, then maybe the play is to bring that punk attack to the guitar to accent the synths,” he says.
On Watch It Die, McKinnon played almost everything through a 1979 Marshall JMP, giving him bright, saturated power chords that tracked well whether he was palm muting or fully strumming. The main exception was a cigar box amp made by a friend who works at an auto shop. It was miked close and cranked, giving them the trashy ’70s punk sound on “Young Offender.”
McKinnon used his Telecaster for most of the record, but he also brought out a 1979 Gibson Marauder with a swapped-in P-90 pickup, which he coupled with a German-made Van Hall fuzz pedal to find the nasty, scooped-out tone that appears on some of the record’s more straight-ahead punk songs like “Young Offender” and “For the Children (F*ck All).” On the new wave jams “Kiss the Sky” and “Between the Waves,” he pulled out a Hagstrom Viking that engineer Nik Kozub recorded by miking the semi-hollow body itself, giving the songs a thin, percussive jangle without having the low end of a proper acoustic muddying the mix.
For McKinnon, it was important to get his palm mutes sounding clean and punchy, and to have them perfectly aligned with the synth arpeggiators—even when he’d add swirls of reverb and delay in his chain. Enter his secret weapon: an old Roland SDE-3000 digital delay that he got from the TV studio where he works. McKinnon and Frazier used its BPM-sync function to dial it in to precisely match the tempo of the drum machines.
McKinnon also records all of the bass lines for Home Front. That, of course, comes with its own military-grade arsenal. On “Empire,” he pulled out all the stops. For the grand finale, he chained the Van Hall into a fully cranked Pro Co RAT, into the MXR Blue Box octave fuzz, and finally into a dimed-out Peavey Super Festival F-800B. It was “the nastiest fuzz bass I’ve ever played,” he says, creating a wall of sound inspired by My Bloody Valentine. Frazier accentuated that enormous gain-fest with eighth-note Roland 808s that he painstakingly tuned, note by note, so that each kick would follow the bass line, creating a pulsating effect that makes rhythmic sense of McKinnon’s fuzzed-out chaos.
That is, fittingly enough, the thematic throughline of Watch It Die: making sense of the madness. “Our lives are chaos all the time,” says McKinnon. “We have jobs that are going to end at any moment. The rent is too high, the groceries are too expensive, all these stresses, and then every time you open up your phone, there’s atrocities in the world. There’s shit your government’s doing, police breaking families apart, this is stuff you’re constantly thinking about, and it’s always hitting you.”
But Home Front aren’t just going to wallow in their sorrows. “On this record, I didn’t want to sound like, ‘Shit’s bad. I’m just gonna be kicking rocks,’” McKinnon continues. “It’s more like, ‘Shit’s bad, but this is how we’re gonna work through this, by having outlets that allow us to form like Voltron to terrorize the oppressors.’” PG
Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine reveals hand condition making it “really painful to play”
Dave Mustaine has revealed that a hand ailment that makes playing “really painful” is the main reason behind Megadeth’s decision to call it quits after their final album and farewell tour.
Earlier this August, the thrash metal legends announced plans to release a final self-titled record in early 2026, followed by a global farewell tour that will take the band across North America, Europe, and back.
Speaking with MariskalRockTV about his condition, Mustaine says that he noticed growing discomfort in his hands while working on the band’s new record.
“I just said one day to my management, ‘You know, I don’t know how much longer I’m gonna be able to do this,’” the Megadeth leader recalls. “I didn’t say, ‘Hey, I wanna retire right now.’”
The 62-year-old explains that Dupuytren’s contracture – a condition that causes a thick cord of tissue to form in the palm, bending one or more fingers toward the center of the hand – is affecting his hands to the point where playing the guitar has become extremely difficult.
Holding up his hand for the interviewer, Mustaine showed how the disorder is already affecting him. “It’s gonna make my finger come down like this,” he says. “It’s already started, where it’s kind of bunching up a little bit. And then if you look at the tips of my fingers, they’re severely arthritic. So all those bumps make it really painful to play.”
While he plans to undergo surgery to address the condition, Mustaine is waiting until after the farewell tour to avoid any setbacks.
“If I wait until my hands are causing a problem and I try it and it doesn’t work, well then I’ve toured everywhere, I’ve said farewell everybody and am not leaving stuff unsaid or unfinished,” he says.
Check out the full list of tour dates at the Megadeth website.
The post Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine reveals hand condition making it “really painful to play” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Wolfgang Van Halen on stepping out of his father’s shadow: “I’m happy that people are beginning to take me seriously as my own artist and separate me from my family history”
Carving out your own identity in rock is tough – even more so with the Van Halen name hanging over your head.
Wolfgang Van Halen has spent years stepping out of one of rock’s biggest shadows, and in a recent interview with Chile’s Radio Futuro, the Mammoth leader slash Van Halen alum opens up about the challenges and freedoms of forging his own path, and the satisfaction of finally being taken “seriously” as an artist in his own right.
Asked what it feels like to be recognised for his own musical accomplishments, Wolfgang says [via Blabbermouth], “It’s pretty great. I’m very lucky and happy that people are beginning to take me seriously as my own artist and separate me from my family history. ‘Cause at the end of the day, that’s all I would really like to do, is be taken at face value for what I represent and not for what my family represents. And I think that’s why I’m trying to do something different.”
“I don’t play Van Halen music at my shows,” he adds. “I would rather fail on my own than succeed by playing Van Halen music. So I think it just shows the work that I’ve been putting in and people beginning to see the person I am on my own. So I’m very grateful.”
Still, the musical connection to his father runs deep. As Wolfgang explains, both he and Eddie “started on the drums”, which gave them a “great sort of rhythmic background to the foundation of being a musician”.
“And so I think we both attack guitar playing from a rhythmic perspective,” says Wolfgang. “And so I think that’s a really great thing that my dad and I have in common. And I’m very happy to have that in common with him.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Wolfgang also praises the growing presence of women in rock, saying “It’s awesome… I think it’s an archaic mindset to think that women can’t be in rock and roll.”
“I mean, I think one of my favorites out there right now is a very close friend of mine, Lzzy Hale of Halestorm. I think what she’s doing is incredible, and she’s one of the best singers out there. And also, yeah, the drummer that they’ve got for Rush [Anika Nilles] is incredible. I can’t wait to see what the shows are gonna be like. I remember I watched some of her videos on Drumeo, on the YouTube channel, and she’s just absolutely insane. No wonder they picked her… [Linkin Park’s Emily Armstrong], she’s badass as well,” says Wolfgang.
Mammoth is currently riding the wave of their third album, The End, which they celebrated with a headline tour that wrapped up earlier this month.
The post Wolfgang Van Halen on stepping out of his father’s shadow: “I’m happy that people are beginning to take me seriously as my own artist and separate me from my family history” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“It was rough being bullied by our favourite bands”: Matt Heafy opens up on their rough early touring experiences
Breaking into metal can be brutal, as 39-year-old Matt Heafy will tell you from experience. Long before Trivium settled into their role as one of the genre’s most reliable headliners, the band’s early success made them a target, drawing hostility not just from fans, but from some of the very bands they grew up idolising.
- READ MORE: Trivium’s Matt Heafy names the five up-and-coming metal bands everyone needs to watch in 2026
Speaking to Guitar.com in a new interview, Heafy looks back on the period surrounding 2005’s Ascendancy, the breakout album that positioned Trivium as metal’s next big thing. Despite the magazine covers and blockbuster tours, the band quickly learned that success came with its own harsh lessons.
“It was rough being bullied by our favourite bands, and by their fans,” Heafy recalls. “We got bottles thrown at us [while onstage]. People tried to accost us by our van.”
He adds, “We were on tour with Lamb of God, Machine Head and Gojira in 2006, and we had our sound guy walk out on us. I was going to our bus and some guy said [sarcastically], ‘Good show,’ and flipped me off and walked off.”
Those early battles left Heafy determined to do things differently. Rather than perpetuating the same hazing culture, the frontman is now a vocal supporter of new metal acts, regularly inviting younger bands out on tour with Trivium and using his radio show to spotlight emerging talent.
It’s a mindset that shapes how he views the scene today – and why he believes it’s in a healthier place for newcomers.
Reflecting on the current state of metal, he told Metal Hammer: “It’s a good time to be playing heavy music, man. It’s a good time to be a younger band, too. You’re not having to deal with as much of the bullshit that we had to deal with: there’s not this intense ostracisation, this intense cliquiness.”
The post “It was rough being bullied by our favourite bands”: Matt Heafy opens up on their rough early touring experiences appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
The pop-punk band Good Charlotte’s Benji Madden claims will be “the next Rolling Stones”
Good Charlotte’s Benji Madden believes pop-punk’s biggest chapter is still being written, and according to the guitarist, there’s one band with the power to follow in the enduring, stadium-filling footsteps of the Rolling Stones.
After seven years away, Good Charlotte returned this year with Motel Du Cap, their first new album since 2018’s Generation Rx. It marks the end of a long quiet stretch for the Maryland pop-punk veterans, who had largely stepped back from releasing music after that record and its accompanying tour.
Speaking to Guitar.com in a new interview, Madden shares his thoughts on what it takes for a guitar player to leave a lasting mark and why he doesn’t believe the era of pop-punk stadium bands is over just yet. When asked to name the most important guitarists in the genre, his number one choice came without hesitation.
“If I have to go number one, it’s Billie Joe from Green Day,” says Madden. “They’ve taken pop-punk all the way from clubs to stadiums and now a bunch of pop-punk bands have done – or will do – stadiums. You haven’t seen the last pop-punk stadium band. Green Day will be the [next] Rolling Stones, as they continue on and play stadiums all over the world.”
For Madden, Joe’s influence goes far beyond guitar tones or technical showboating. Instead, it’s about songs – and the ability to write music that embeds itself into culture.
“Again, it goes back to, ‘How can I become a guitar hero? How can I become a guitar player that’s remembered in time?’ It’s all about the songs,” Madden continues. “Billie Joe has his own feel, and his own journey, too. That would be the poster child to me, because they are a fixture in the culture of what people love and remember and associate with. That makes him a really important pop-punk guitar player.”
Good Charlotte’s latest album, Motel Du Cap, is out now. The band is also set to appear at the Slam Dunk Festival next May.
The post The pop-punk band Good Charlotte’s Benji Madden claims will be “the next Rolling Stones” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Pages
