Norse Guitar Feeds

On a fall Nashville evening, This Will Destroy You are minutes from performing 2014’s classic Another Language album in full. Backstage in the green room there’s laughter, small talk, and the familiar pre-show rhythm. But underneath it all, there’s something heavier – the quiet awareness of a band rediscovering itself.

• READ MORE: How Women Are Giving Metal Guitars A Mainstream Moment

Back in 2024 the band made what was certainly an unconventional announcement. The statement said that founding guitarists and the band’s only constant members, Chris King and Jeremy Galindo, were ending their working relationship to “pursue their own creative endeavors, focusing on solo, collaborative, and compositional work”.

So far so normal, bands break up all the time… but there was a kicker. Rather than call time on This Will Destroy You as a touring act, the King and Galindo announced plans to share the name for the foreseeable future. Each would have their own distinct line-ups, tours and setlists, but both would remain officially This Will Destroy You.

It’s a unique and rather equitable approach to a band breaking up, by any measure – but one that has certainly left outsiders somewhat bewildered. To try to get to the bottom of what this might mean, for the band and for the individuals involved, we sat down with King and multi-instrumentalists Jesse Kees to talk gear, new music, and the strange beauty of finding your way back through one of the worst moments of your life.

Image: Jason Mays

Drama Minor

When we ask King about the events surrounding the unconventional dissolution of his creative relationship with Galindo, it’s clear he doesn’t want to go into too much detail or air too much dirty laundry in public, but the emotion is clearly still raw.

“I was kicked out of my own band… and it broke me,” he reveals.

“I was sticking up for someone really close to me, and it resulted in me being kicked out of my own band,” he repeats quietly. “It took years to get back on social media and sort my head out. But now, I feel lucky. The energy’s different. I didn’t enjoy touring for a long time — and I finally feel things again.”

He smiles when he says it, but the words still hang heavy. Sitting beside him, Jesse Kees – a longtime bandmate but also a friend – nods in agreement, but he doesn’t add anything. It’s clearly not a tale that anyone really wants to get into, and maybe that’s fine.

Because today, King, Kees, Robi Gonzalez, Masaru Takaku, and multi-instrumentalist Emily Xander are having a great time representing the heavier, doomgaze-centric side of This Will Destroy You – and clearly they’re having a blast.

When questioned if the dual-lineup setup is permanent, King replies, “For now, that’s not up to us…We’ve been playing together for a while – this is how it’s going to go until it changes. The only thing I care about is that fans are happy.” King replies.

Kees adds, “We’re prioritizing mental and emotional health on tour. That’s not something we’ve always done. It feels good to finally make that part of the work.”

Image: Jason Mays

No Backing Tracks, No Shortcuts

Part of what makes this version of the band so vital again is how alive it sounds. Another Language is a dense record – layers of drones, sub-bass, and reverb-drenched delay that would usually demand a laptop to pull off. But this lineup refuses to fake it.

“After the [2009 LP] Tunnel Blanket run, I was covering two roles on a Bass VI,” Kees explains. “This time, we wanted every sound performed in real time. No backing tracks. That’s why Emily’s here. She handles synths and keys, and on the heavy parts, she’s on another Bass VI. When everything hits — bass, Bass VI, and sub — the whole room shakes.”

“Memory Loss feels like an airplane taking off,” King laughs. “People up front do that hair-blown-back face. It’s the best part of the night.”

For a band that helped define post-rock’s dynamic extremes and then spent years trying to outrun them, this moment feels like a reclamation of sorts.

Image: Jason Mays

The Sound of Feeling Again

If you’ve followed This Will Destroy You, you know the gear isn’t just aesthetic – it’s the architecture of emotion. King’s main guitar these days is a stripped-down Jazzmaster fitted with a Fishman pickup and a single knob. “No frills,” he says. “Heavy strings, almost a baritone feel. I got the idea years ago while tracking with John Congleton – he had this Thurston Moore Jazzmaster with just one knob, and it stuck with me.”

On the subject of gear, King doesn’t shy away. His pedals of choice have become a museum of TWDY textures and sounds: a Strymon El Capistan, a Vongon Polyphrase run in a feedback loop (“total game-changer”), a Pittsburgh Downward Spiral, and a vintage EHX Memory Man with the Japanese-chip mod that gives it a three-dimensional sheen.

Kees’s setup revolves around the Expandora. “It’s my secret weapon,” he says. “It’s not distortion — it’s how I shape touch and clarity. That crisp, fingerpicked attack that still feels human.”

The set thrives on drones, the band’s secret language since Young Mountain. “When people say ‘doomgaze,’ I think of drone plus emotion,” Kees says. “It’s closer to what post-rock originally meant — a hundred different ideas living under the same roof.”

Solo Ventures

One quirk of the This Will Destroy You split is that both band members agreed that the future music they produced would be released separately as independent new projects – not under the TWDY banner.

For King and Kees, that new thing is Dreamage – a project born of necessity but also friendship, that released its first album last year.

That first record felt intimate – made in a cabin, mics propped on stacks of toilet paper, the sound of the room bleeding into every take. “We didn’t even know we were starting a band,” Kees says. “We were just making what made sense to make in that moment.”

The next release, already finished, is bolder: full-band arrangements, real drums, vocal harmonies. “It’s the same DNA,” King says, “just a wider lens.” Dreamage doesn’t chase post-rock tropes; it lets them dissolve into ambience, electronics, even pop. “If This Will Destroy You is the cathedral,” King says, “Dreamage is the side chapel – smaller, but maybe closer to the heart.”

They’re also collaborating with Shed Project, the New Mexico collective founded by chef Johnny Ortiz, where meals and music intertwine in ritual. “It’s not really a venue,” Kees says. “It’s a living piece of art. You eat food grown on the same land you’re sitting on, served on plates made from local clay. We’re playing unplugged sets there – filmed, one-of-a-kind. It’s about connection.”

There’s no doubt that This Will Destroy You’s new two-band phase is novel, and fans will understandably wonder why they didn’t just call it a day and start fresh. But bands aren’t companies, they’re groups of people – and nobody involved was quite ready to put This Will Destroy You to bed.

“More than anything, there’s unity again,” King says of the new era. “Intent. The stuff that actually matters when you play music. Every show, I’m excited. I don’t take it for granted.”

Kees nods. “The past was heavy. Now it feels lighter. We’re chasing something honest.”

And for now, that’s enough — because no matter who’s on stage, This Will Destroy You is still an auditory experience that more than delivers on its namesake while remaining unequivocally steady and human. That’s all fans can really ask for.

The post How post-rock heroes This Will Destroy You split into two separate touring lineups – and rediscovered themselves in the process appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

After decades of playing guitars bearing the Washburn logo, Nuno Bettencourt has launched a line of instruments under his own name. But Nuno Guitars isn’t just about slapping a famous name on a headstock, and it’s not merely another signature line. The new venture is a hands-on operation that lets him oversee everything, from tonewood selection and hardware choices to the way each model is built and brought to market.

The brand is launching with three distinct ranges. At the top sits the Thoroughbred Series—Masterbuilt guitars hand-crafted by longtime N4 builder Chris Meade in his Cincinnati shop. This series consists of the Dark Horse and White Stallion models, featuring exotic wood combinations chosen by Bettencourt. “I wanted to switch it up,” Bettencourt says. “I didn’t want to just go, ‘Well, here’s a Washburn with the Nuno logo on the headstock.’” The Dark Horse boasts an alder body with a ziricote top, while the White Stallion has a three-piece avodire (white mahogany) body and a curly maple top. The ziricote caught his eye, he says, because it creates the illusion of a paint job while being entirely natural wood, with each guitar’s grain pattern being completely unique.

Adding to the arresting visuals on the Dark Horse and White Stallion is the wood striping across the body. Inspired by the B.C. Rich Mockingbird Nuno’s older brother Luís owned growing up, these aren’t painted stripes, but rather actual contrasting woods, ebony and maple, inlaid into the instrument. On the Masterbuilt models, these stripes run completely through the body. “When I drew the design, I really connected with it because of what I remembered from my childhood,” Bettencourt says. “It felt like me, and it felt like a great way to go into this new era of guitars.”

The second range, the Stable Series, represents the U.S. production line built in Oxnard, California. This series offers the Dark Horse, White Stallion, and N4 models, all maintaining premium quality—alder bodies with wenge (Dark Horse) or swamp ash (White Stallion) tops, genuine Floyd Rose bridges, and the same U.S.-made Nuno signature pickups found in the Masterbuilts. The differentiator isn’t quality, but exotic versus traditional materials. “The Masterbuilt is like the Ferrari of the guitars,” Nuno says. “But still, you’ve gotta be able to jump into a Mercedes, and take that thing onstage and say, ‘I could play this all day.’ That’s the U.S.A. guitars.”

“I didn’t want to just go, ‘Well, here’s a Washburn with the Nuno logo on the headstock.’”

The Colt Series rounds out the line as the import offering, manufactured in China. All three models—Dark Horse, White Stallion, and N4—are available in this series with woods including alder and swamp ash for the bodies and rock maple for the necks. While these guitars also use budget-friendly components—licensed Floyd Rose-style hardware rather than genuine Floyd units, Korean-made Nuno pickups—Bettencourt stresses that they are not mere entry-level instruments. “With the stuff that’s coming from overseas, everybody’s always like, ‘Yeah, those are beginner guitars, whatever.’ No. It was like, who are the best of the best [builders], where they can fool you into going, ‘Wait—this was made where?’”

All electric models feature the Extended Cutaway neck joint—a 5-bolt design that’s been Nuno’s signature for decades and provides exceptional upper-fret access—as well as Floyd Rose tremolo systems: Original Floyd Rose units on the Masterbuilts, genuine Floyd Rose bridges on the U.S. production models, and licensed Floyd Rose-style systems on the imports.

A point of interest is the fingerboard options, which include a flamed maple offering on the White Stallion—Nuno’s first maple board in many years. Limited signature runs with Washburn occasionally featured maple fretboards, and he famously played one in Extreme’s 1990 video for “Decadence Dance.” “That was an N3,” he recalls. “And stupidly, in the last shot in the video, I dove into water. You see me splashing around like an idiot.” He laughs: “I think I ruined the guitar, but then it got stolen, anyway.” Years later, just the body resurfaced at a Hard Rock Cafe in Asia—the neck was gone, but the shadow of the N3 sticker remained.

While all White Stallions feature flamed maple boards, the Dark Horse models and N4s stick with ebony fretboards. All models maintain the 25.5" scale length, 22 frets, and dot inlays that have been Nuno hallmarks. The necks themselves are birdseye maple on Masterbuilt models, hard maple on U.S. production guitars, and rock maple on imports.

Nuno’s classic N4 tone came from a Seymour Duncan ’59 in the neck paired with a Bill Lawrence L-500 in the bridge, and the new guitars feature custom Nuno signature humbuckers designed to capture that trademark sound. U.S.-made versions of these pickups appear in both Masterbuilt and U.S. production models, while Korean-made versions populate the import line. All models feature the same minimalist control layout Nuno has always preferred: one volume knob, a 3-way toggle, and no tone pot.

The N4 itself remains in the line, and since it was always Nuno’s design—and one that he controls—it has come over to Nuno Guitars virtually untouched. Notably, the N4 is the only model that features chrome hardware; the Dark Horse and White Stallion models all sport black hardware regardless of production level.

“I didn’t want anything super extravagant. I didn’t want a ton of guitars. I just wanted ‘mine.’”

Additionally, Nuno Guitars will offer an acoustic model—the Lusitano, which features a grand auditorium body with a solid spruce top and mahogany back and sides, with custom f-holes alongside a traditional soundhole. It’s fitted with a soundhole-mounted preamp and an under-saddle Piezo pickup system, chrome hardware, ebony fretboard, and 20 frets, with a 12th fret inlay of the Portuguese national emblem, a nod to Nuno’s heritage. “It’s full black, with white trim all around,” he says of the Lusitano. “We also do some different things with the neck, because I’ve always wanted an acoustic that plays more like an electric. Why wouldn’t you?”

Across all three electric series, and the acoustic, the quality approach remains consistent. From the Masterbuilts with their exotic woods and premium finishes to the U.S. models to the imports to the Lusitano, each guitar has its place. “I didn’t want anything super extravagant,” Nuno says. “I didn’t want a ton of guitars. I didn’t want a big line. I just wanted ‘mine.’”

Getting to that point wasn’t easy. “It was really hard for me to do this,” he admits. “The main reason was because of my name on the headstock. It felt really, really egotistical and self-serving.” But after a lifetime of playing, he realized it was time. And that means being involved in and fully committed to every aspect, from Chris Meade’s Cincinnati workshop to the factories in Oxnard and overseas. It’s the same philosophy he brings to the stage—the work ethic doesn’t change whether it’s a small club or a stadium, and it extends from his playing to the instruments themselves. “I’ve never done anything but be all in on everything,” Nuno says. “It’s either you’re that or you’re out. And when it comes to that passion for the instrument, I’m all in. That’s why I did this.”

PG brings you a hands-on look at some of the gear that the late Skynyrd guitarist used to change rock history.

While our Rundown team was in Chicago in November, they spent some time at Chicago Music Exchange with CEO Andrew Yonke and vintage inventory and purchasing manager Daniel Escauriza. In 2023, they were contacted by Gary’s daughter Mary Rossington to help manage the gear that belonged to her late father, the legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington. With the help of friends and crowd-sourced knowledge, Yonke and Escauriza embarked on a months-long saga to learn about Rossington’s guitars and amps.

PG’s John Bohlinger met up with Yonke and Escauriza inside CME’s Vault to learn about the adventure, and to get up close and personal with some of Rossington’s most treasured pieces of kit. Check out some of the highlights below, and after the photos, we have an exclusive interview with Mary Rossington, so keep scrolling!

Brought to you by D’Addario.

Rossington’s Reds

Rossington’s iconic Gibson SGs, some of which he owned from high school, were among the most prized and recognizable instruments in his arsenal. They’re gathered together on display now at CME.

Bernice’s Twin

This is the first prototype of Gibson Custom Shop’s Gary Rossington '59 Les Paul Standard, a replica of his infamous 1959 LP named “Bernice,” dated to the early 2000s.

Southern Sounds

When word got out that Rossington’s rig had resurfaced, Yonke fielded calls from dozens of guitarists wondering one thing: Were his Peavey Maces going to be going on the market? These old Mississippi Marshalls were a cornerstone of Rossington’s tone.

A Bit of British

This Hiwatt Custom 100 and non-master-volume 1959 Marshall Super Lead head were also key components of Rossington’s sound.

We spoke with Gary’s daughter, Mary Rossington, about her father’s legacy, the importance of honoring his influential impact through the Collection, and how Chicago Music Exchange became the ambassadors to this awesome musical history.

Did Gary ever speak about what he’d want done with his instruments after he was gone?

Rossington: Gary never spoke about what his wishes were as far as his collection. These were his tools he used and was as humble a man as there ever was. I don’t think he really even grasped how truly special he was and how impactful his contribution to the music was (and always will be). He was just doing what he loved and knew how to do it.

Gary was known for valuing guitars as tools rather than trophies. How did that philosophy shape your decisions when evaluating how to preserve his gear? I know Rickey Medlocke made the suggestion/introduction, but when did CME seem like the right fit for your vision?
Rossington: Two weeks after dad’s passing we asked Rickey following the CMT tribute what on earth were we to do now? He directed us to Andrew Yonke and the CME family having every faith they would be the one to guide us in the next steps. Upon speaking with Andrew, which honestly is a blur for us due to the timing, we went about setting up the first meeting for Andrew and Daniel to come down to Atlanta and go through the collection with us. We had no idea where we wanted to go with anything but knew we needed help in every way.

We instantly fell in love with their passion and energy for the project. We just stood in the doorway and watched as they meticulously and carefully opened each and every case and examined each guitar. At times we didn’t have a clue as to what they were saying, and at one point after about two pots of coffee, they paused and said ‘Ok, we're really trying to be cool but this is blowing us away!’

Mom and dad had sat down a few years prior and wrote a little note for each one describing where each guitar came from and the story behind it. Their enthusiasm for what we could potentially do with all these instruments and their knowledge made us feel so comforted and we trusted them. All dad ever wanted to do was keep the music alive for his brothers that passed and we feel the need to do the same for him.

We want to share his legacy with the world and that starts with the instruments that made the music come alive. They had met dad over the years and respected him as not only an artist but as the amazing man he was—that was all we needed to know to this was the right fit. Andrew never made mention of money or selling anything, so we knew he was in this to assist in preserving his legacy and it was not about a payday for him.

What part of the process brought you the most comfort?

Rossington: We knew very little about dad’s collection, but it was very apparent they knew exactly what they were talking about. We prayed on it and knew this was God putting us with exactly who we were meant to be paired with. Their dedication, knowledge, and enthusiasm to preserve the pieces and further dad’s legacy meant the world to us. Many people would’ve only been interested in selling the collection and that’s never been a concern with Andrew, Daniel, and CME.

Allowing other players to use these instruments is a powerful gesture. How did you arrive at that decision?

Rossington: We again just want to keep his music and legacy alive and by allowing others artists to touch a piece of history while furthering his name and contribution to music that has shaped and inspired generations. I'll never forget how excited dad was when he got to hold Duane's guitar and we want that for other musicians as well.

Was there one guitar that symbolized Gary to you more than any other? Why?

Rossington: Of course Bernice was the standout guitar and dad thought it was the coolest thing ever that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame would want to not only house the piece, but that it was displayed right next to Duane's. It blew his mind!

All of his Les Pauls were so special and the SGs were the sound of “Freebird.” Every time we hear the guitars played it resonates in our hearts and souls.

Were there any specific guitars that Gary insisted should continue to be played? Why?

Rossington: Dad never really discussed his instruments with us. When he was home it was all about the family and he kept most of that knowledge to himself.

You’ve mentioned hoping younger musicians feel inspired when they hold or hear these guitars. What do you hope they learn about Gary from this collection? Is there a message Gary tried to pass down to the next generation that CME is helping carry forward?

Rossington: Our hope is that through the continued exposure of his collection and hearing the guitars onstage that those experiences will inspire others to explore not only what an amazing musician and songwriter he was, but what a humble and beautiful man he was. He would have given the shirt off his back to anyone in need. He would’ve said to always work hard and never give up no matter what life may throw your way.

He tried every day of his life to honor and further the music the guys wrote together when they were so young. Those songs were written from the heart and performed with such accuracy and dedication that they will stand the test of time.

Do you envision the CME vault becoming a long-term home, or is it the beginning of a larger legacy project—documentaries, books, exhibitions?

Rossington: For now we are so very pleased that his collection survived the early days in the Hell House in Florida and everything that happened, and they are protected, secure, and in loving hands. We have hopes in the future for documentaries and are exploring the possibility of an exhibition in the future.

We would love to see a portion of his collection travel the world so more people could enjoy them and feel that they were a piece of this amazing history, too. It will come down to logistics and safety ensuring that the instruments remain in their current condition so there’s peace of mind for everyone.

The guitar showed up first in an Instagram video. Nuno Bettencourt in the back of a cab on his way to Villa Park in Birmingham, England, for Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning benefit concert on July 5, playing the solo to Ozzy Osbourne’s “Bark at the Moon” on an instrument nobody recognized. Dark wood body with light stripes running through it. And on the headstock: NUNO.

Then he brought it onstage at the event in front of 45,000 people, serving as one of the MVPs in an all-star supergroup that tackled Ozzy and Sabbath classics. The instrument was clearly visible in videos that hit the internet immediately afterward, and the guitar community began speculating about what they’d just seen. But Bettencourt stayed quiet.

A few months later at the MTV Video Music Awards, where he appeared alongside Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Yungblud in an Ozzy tribute, he performed with two versions of the unidentified model—the dark one for “Crazy Train,” and a blonde variant for “Changes.” Another high-profile moment, more online chatter, but no further details on the guitars.

Finally, on September 30th, the speculation ended. Bettencourt announced the launch of Nuno Guitars, his own company, marking the end of a 35-year partnership with Washburn. The brand included the Dark Horse and White Stallion—the mystery models from the taxi video and the shows—along with the N4, his signature design that has defined his sound since the early ’90s. For the first time, the N4 would carry his name instead of Washburn’s. (For Bettencourt's full rundown of the Nuno Guitars line, head here.)

It’s a significant move for a guitarist whose influence has stretched across multiple generations. Bettencourt first turned heads in 1989 with Extreme’s self-titled debut album and 1990’s Pornograffitti, albums that showcased both his funky, acrobatic playing and his songwriting versatility. While the latter’s “More Than Words” became an acoustic phenomenon, it was his electric work that made him a guitar hero. He was an explosive guitarist who recalled the best of Eddie Van Halen—incredible rhythm chops, lightning-fast technical dazzle, and genuine melodic songcraft. He could blend funk grooves with shred-level technique, throwing in tapped runs, off-time phrases, and blistering alternate picking lines without ever losing the pocket. He could match any virtuoso, but had the taste to know when to serve the track and when to let loose.

Decades later, that guitar-hero status was reaffirmed when Extreme released Six, their first album in 15 years. The opening track, “Rise,” featured a solo that stopped the guitar universe cold—not an easy thing to do in 2023. YouTubers analyzed it, guitar legends called to congratulate him, and forums lit up with players trying to decode the insane runs that capped the performance. It wasn’t just technical—it was emotional, physical, and undeniably fun. Once again, Bettencourt had reminded people what guitar playing could be.

Through it all, the N4 was his constant. Introduced in the early ’90s, it became one of the most recognizable and longest-running signature guitars in the industry. The design was distinct: a Strat-inspired body with a unique curved cutaway neck joint, fitted with dual humbuckers and a no-frills control layout. It was a workhorse—a term Bettencourt used repeatedly over the years—built for players craving versatility, speed, reliability, and tone. The N4 wasn’t just his guitar; it became the guitar for countless players who grew up idolizing his sound and style.

Which makes the move to his own company significant. The N4 has been in production for over three decades, and walking away from the Washburn partnership means taking full responsibility for everything: design, production, quality control, and the relationship with guitarists who’ve played his signature instrument for years.

The new brand is structured around three lines: the Thoroughbred Series (Masterbuilt guitars with exotic woods and custom shop-level craftsmanship), the Stable Series (U.S.-made instruments), and the Colt Series (import models). Currently, it’s a direct-to-consumer operation, cutting out traditional retail in favor of a model that lets Bettencourt communicate directly with the people buying his guitars. And he wants every one of those guitars, regardless of price point, to feel like something he’d play himself.

At 59, after four decades of playing, touring, and recording—from Extreme’s platinum records to Generation Axe tours with Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Zakk Wylde, and Tosin Abasi, from the Super Bowl halftime show with Rihanna to Black Sabbath’s final concert—Bettencourt is, in one respect, starting over. Not out of necessity, but because he wants to pursue his unfiltered vision and foster a closer connection to the people playing his instruments.

What follows is an exclusive conversation—Bettencourt’s first about Nuno Guitars—about why he finally made the leap, what went into designing these instruments, and what it means to put your name, literally, on what you believe in.

Let’s start with that moment everyone noticed—you were in the cab on the way to the Sabbath show, playing a guitar nobody had seen before. Was that part of a planned rollout?

Nuno Bettencourt: Not at all. To be honest with you, it probably wasn’t a good idea to play that guitar at all. I’d been thinking about this for a long time, and Washburn didn’t know I was leaving. So for them to see not only a guitar they’d never seen, but then to see not their name on the headstock—to see mine—was probably a really fucked up thing to do. [laughs]

But I didn’t really have a contract with them. It was more of a gentleman’s agreement that had been up for so long. After a while, especially after Six came out, I just felt nothing from them. Guitars were back ordered, no press, nothing.

“When someone buys one of these guitars, I want them to feel like it’s something that’s directly from me.”

But the reason I pulled the guitar out that day is because when I got it, I played it and was like, this feels like the best N4 I’ve ever played. I was super excited. I just wanted to play it onstage. It wasn’t marketing or teasing. I was just authentically excited. I was blown away by how the neck felt. It just felt right.

Even if you were leaving Washburn, you could have gone to another established company. What made you decide to start your own?

I’ve always wanted to do it. When Washburn first called, I stayed loyal to them because nobody else gave a shit about me when I first came out. It was only after “More Than Words” that other companies started asking.

But I didn’t want to endorse. I love Les Pauls, I love Strats. I sat down with B.C. Rich, many companies through the years, and it wasn’t because they weren’t great—it just never felt like “me.” So it felt natural to do my own thing now. And without sounding like a hippie, it was time. Everything was happening organically—the Six album, the attention with “Rise,” that solo, the Back to the Beginning concert—all these dominoes were tipping. I felt like the universe was saying, “Here are a few opportunities for you. You’ve worked your ass off, you’ve hustled for 40 years. This is it.”

Walk us through the different lines you’re offering—the Thoroughbred Series, the U.S.-made Stable Series, and the import Colt Series.

I’ve always played lighter woods—alder mostly, which I’ve always had in the N4. But with the Masterbuilts, which we’re calling the Thoroughbred Series, I wanted something fresh. I started searching for woods that looked cool, especially darker woods. I found ziricote, and the cool thing about ziricote is every guitar can look a little different. Very personalized. But the wood happened to be really heavy. So we did it as a top. And so the Dark Horse is an alder body, black stained, with a ziricote top. The White Stallion is a white mahogany body with a curly maple top.

And you know, once you get involved in your own company, you’re not just like, “Okay, put out my guitars, good luck.” I’m actually going to these factories. I got sent Stable Series guitars, the U.S. models, and I have to tell you, if you hand me that guitar on stage, no problem. Obviously, once you go into the Thoroughbred Series, yeah, okay, I feel that difference of why it costs this much and not that much, but man, it’s close. It’s so well done.

So even in the Stable Series, I still want it to feel like the Masterbuilts. Don’t fuck around. Don’t give me frets that are all jaggedy. I want it to be smooth. I’m going in and tweaking. I’m not trying to set a world record of selling as many guitars as possible. I don’t want anybody to be bummed and think, “Ah, I gotta pay an extra thousand bucks just for the frets to not hurt my fingers.”

How about the Colt series?

The same thing. I wanna believe that if I’m playing at Back to the Beginning and my guitars don’t make it, and somebody has one of the imports, I better be able to bring that up on stage and still sound like me. That neck better feel like me. That’s the bar. I don’t want it to be like, “Oh, Nuno is just using those expensive ones and the rest are garbage.” That is not the case. And if anybody knows me and the way I work, they know that’s not the case.

“It felt natural to do my own thing now. And without sounding like a hippie, it was time.”

The N4 is part of this new chapter as well. What does that model mean to you now?

I really want it to be what it always was for anybody who wants that guitar. I want people to be able to say, “I want the one that Nuno played, the one that got him everywhere.” I don’t want that to go away.

The Stephen’s Extended Cutaway, which allows greater access to the upper frets on the neck, has always been a signature feature of your guitars. Will it still be present on the N4 and new models?

Yes. We actually reached out to Stephen [Davies, the original designer] about it, and he told us he’s not doing it anymore. The patent, everything about it—he’s moved on. But we asked, “Are you okay if we use the cutaway?” And he said, “Have at it.” So it won’t have his logo or his name or his patent on it, but it’s there as part of the guitar.

One of the things you’re doing with Nuno Guitars is going direct to consumer. What’s the thinking behind that?

I feel there’s a disconnect when you go through traditional channels. There are these platforms and people talking about the guitars amongst themselves. I felt like an outsider. I’m like, I want to get in on that. It’s my guitar. I want to hear what people are talking about. I want to put something up on the website where I can hear what they think. I want them to post videos of them playing—the good, the bad, the ugly.

I’ve always wanted to engage more. I used to ask Washburn, why am I touring all over the world and there are no music stores I’m going to, to play or talk or meet dealers? I always loved having conversations with people, and I felt like nobody else was interested.

“With the Masterbuilts, which we’re calling the Thoroughbred Series, I wanted something fresh.”

Eddie Van Halen has always been one of your idols, and he made his name with a guitar that he built himself, one that became almost an extension of his creative being. While you’re not literally hand-building every Nuno guitar, you are forging a more direct line between your ideas and the guitars themselves.

You actually just made me realize something about Edward. Like him, I did make my first guitar. I put it together from parts. I didn’t buy a company guitar. It was Warmoth parts, and it had a Bill Lawrence pickup that was just a blade. So in a way, you’re right. It’s come full circle where I’m like, “Well, I want to be involved in putting the pieces together.” That’s what I did from the beginning. That’s what I’ve been selling from the beginning, even though somebody else has been manufacturing it. It’s always been Nuno guitars. Now it just has a cool logo. [laughs]

Chris Meade built your Washburn signature model for years, and he now handles your Masterbuilt line. Why was he the guy for this?

It had to be him. The good news was, I didn’t steal Chris from Washburn. Chris was a third-party hire, and all he made was my guitars. I just said to him, “Man, I’m leaving Washburn, and I think that means you might not have a chunk of work anyway.” And Chris is the best. He’s meticulous. He makes guitars that players want to play, not just guitars that look good. It’s like an old baseball glove you put on.

So I’m so excited that he agreed to continue working with me. When I sent him my ideas and I got the guitar back, he surpassed what I imagined. When you get that guitar and it’s not only visual, but the playing and quality are there, you’re like, “Oh, hell yeah.” Chris is amazing. I wouldn’t want anybody else there. It would’ve been hard to find somebody as mental as I am about detail.

“I don’t want it to be like, ‘Nuno is just using those expensive ones and the rest are garbage.’ If anybody knows me and the way I work, they know that’s not the case.”

When you first saw your name on the headstock of these guitars, how did it feel?

It was wild. I felt like, you play Gibsons, you play Fenders—you don’t play your own. I felt uncomfortable with it for a while. Because everybody was like, “Well, what are you gonna call it? Is it gonna be Bettencourt guitars?” And I thought, yeah, maybe it should be Bettencourt Guitars. I almost felt better about that, because that didn’t feel so first-person. That feels like a guitar company. We could write it in cursive, like Fender and Gibson. But then everybody looked at me and said, “No, no, your name is Nuno. There’s nobody else named Nuno. It’s gotta be Nuno.”

What did you think about that?

It took me a minute to wrap my head around it. But then I was like, you know what? You’re 59 years old. Everybody knows who’ve you played with and what’s been going on with you. It should be Nuno. It felt right. It felt like me. And when someone buys one of these guitars, I want them to feel like it’s something that’s directly from me.

2025 is almost over, and so arrives year-end list season, clattering through the swing doors of journalism right after everyone gets bored of sharing their Spotify wrapped. Is there anything more festive than curling up in front of the fire with a mulled wine and several hundred year-end lists? For my sake, I hope not, because here comes another one.

• READ MORE: How Women Are Giving Metal Guitars A Mainstream Moment

Year-end lists are great opportunities to look back over emerging trends, and identify where the strongest innovations lay across the year. And this year I was pleased to see that, while the digital side of things continues to grow in power and usability, the world of analogue amps and bespoke pedals was actually a pretty damn dynamic one this year. My personal gear preferences tend towards the messy, loud and, yes, inconvenient universe of real analogue kit – so without further ado, let’s see what I was impressed by this year.

My favourite guitar of 2025: Jackson Lee Malia LM-87

Jackson Lee Malia LM-87 guitar. Image: Press

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Is it a metal guitar for offset nerds? Or an offset guitar for metal nerds? Who knows, but either way, Jackson’s new Lee Malia signature is absolutely my top pick of 2025’s new guitar releases. Firstly: it looks cool as hell, but manages to keep it relatively classy. This is not the kind of heavy guitar that screams “mettuuull”, shotguns a beer and stage-dives into the moshpit. Instead, its dark, open-pore finish, the offset shape and the weird tune-o-matic nabbed from Malia’s love of vintage Gibsons make it appealingly minimalist but nevertheless mean looking. Sonically, the combo of a subtle P90 in the neck and an absolute jackhammer of a bridge humbucker makes it great for doing textural things as well as drop-A chugs, and ergonomically, the thing is built for speed and comfort – a boon in any genre.

The LM-87 also shares what’s compelling about the Jack Antonoff and Diamond Rowe signatures: Lee Malia’s personality is here, but it’s definitely a guitar that transcends his and Bring Me’s influence. It’s a minor trend, but a trend nonetheless, for signature guitars to feel a little more like the artist is an honest part of the design process, and less like the guitars are very expensive, playable merch. The side effect is that I still feel drawn to the instrument despite the fact that, and Bring Me The Horizon’s kind of metal is very much not what I’d choose to listen to. Long may this approach continue, basically, where artists of all stripes can contribute to the wider world of cool gear, beyond appeals to their fanbase!

Read the full review.

My favourite amp of 2025: Orange Tour Baby

Image: Orange

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It’s no secret I love Orange amps, and I’ve recently been having a very good time with the brand’s solid-state offerings. Late last year I bagged myself a used Super Crush 100, which is essentially a JFET version of the Rockerverb preamp running into a Pedal Baby power amp. It’s a great amp and I love how it sounds and looks, but I was really impressed with one of Orange’s more compact solid-state offerings this year – the Tour Baby.

The Tour Baby is the same size as the Pedal Baby, but adds two preamp channels and a built-in compressor for the cleans. Given its miniscule size but beefy 100-watt power stage, it’s a really compelling option for gigs where you don’t want to load the boot of your car to bursting but still want to kick out some serious dBs on stage. Its overdrive sounds are great too, and it took dirt pedals amazingly – the mid-gain character of the dirty channel was an excellent combo with thick fuzzes. In all, it’s a very Orange take on the compact-solid-state thing, with some added versatility and portability, all for under £400. What’s not to like?

Read the full review.

My favourite pedal of 2025: Old Blood Noise Endeavours Bathing

Image: Press

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A lot of guitar gear is rooted in what was. Innovation may not quite be a dirty word, but there’s a lot of gear that arrives every year – particularly in the pedal universe – that’s retreading old ground. Maybe with pretty carbon comp resistors and unique enclosure designs, but retreading is retreading – but it’s hard to level that accusation at Old Blood Noise Endeavors’ Bathing. It’s a delay with a totally unique signal chain that shunts the feedback through a variable-stage and variable-LFO phaser – which is a whole lot of jargon to say it sounds utterly unique, totally gorgeous and, true to OBNE’s stated goal, very ‘liminal’.

While it’s by no means for everyone, it’s hard to think of a pedal release I was so intrigued by this year, and I have a lot of respect for the approach of aiming for a totally new, uncharted feeling with a pedal – the art of the thing is in the driving seat, and it’s the sort of thing I’d love to see more pedal companies do.

Read the full review.

The post A compact 100-watter, some liminal ambience and a metal offset: this is my gear of the year 2025 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Neural DSP has announced what could be the biggest plugin collaboration of all time – Archetype: John Mayer X, a digital version of the Mayer’s recognisable and sought-after tone.

• READ MORE: Neural DSP Archetype: John Mayer review – is this the Mayer tone plugin we’ve been waiting for?

Archetype: John Mayer X takes a similar approach to the brand’s other Archetype plugins, in that it sonically captures Mayer’s favoured analogue bits of kit. On the amps side, you get some digital replicant of his three most beloved and commonly used tube amps – a 1964 Fender Vibroverb, John’s #002 Dumble Steel String Singer, and the prototype of his signature Two-Rock head.

On the pedal side, you get versions of the pedals that you’d expect if you’ve ever even dipped a toe into Mayer tone scholarship: a Keeley Katana, an EHX Q-tron, a Way Huge Aqua-Puss, a combined Bluesbreaker/TS-10 Tube Screamer, and, of course, a Klon Centaur. Alongside this you get a huge variety of speaker cab simulations as well as the usual boatload of microphones that come with any given piece of Archetype software. That makes for a pretty compelling collection of sought-after vintage gear, even outside of the Mayer connection!

Neural DSP head Doug Castro said about the launch in a statement: “John’s sound has inspired guitarists around the world, and it was a privilege to work with him directly to recreate the rig that anchors his tone. “There’s an intimacy to the way his rig responds – it breathes, it opens up, it carries emotion – and capturing that behavior was one of the most meaningful projects we’ve taken on.”

The collaboration is notable as it’s one of the few non-heavy plugins Neural DSP has made, although certainly not the first, as it was preceded by Archetype: Mateus Asato and Archetype: Cory Wong.

And, in case you’d wondered if I’d started putting kisses at the end of my headlines – I haven’t. The ‘X’ in this case indicates an expanded approach to the Archetype software, which is understandable given the scope of the gear captured. Perhaps relatedly this is one of the pricier Archetype offerings from Neural, coming in at €199.

Want to know more? Check out our review of the software, or indeed the 14-day free trial is available from Neural DSP.

The post Neural DSP launches Archetype: John Mayer X appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

€199, neuraldsp.com

Back in the early 2000s, I was a woefully underqualified student on a music college guitar course, powerfully unenthused by the guitar heroes I was encouraged to emulate. In truth, I was probably struggling to see myself in the Mount Rushmore shredders because well, I was and remain a witheringly average guitar player. But a few months into the first semester, one of the tutors switched us onto this new young American lad who was taking an unconventional route to guitar success.

• READ MORE: Poly Effects Trails review – probably the world’s most inspiring multi-effects pedal

This kid had landed himself a spot on the Billboard top 40 with a fairly dreadful song about someone’s body being a wonderland. But, listen to his new album, Room For Squares, we were told – there’s a serious guitar player lurking underneath the radio-friendly pop songs.

I’m telling you this not to flaunt my John Mayer credentials – as if such a thing exists – but to explain that I am something of a greybeard when it comes to Mayer tone chasing. But obviously, I’m not alone.

Mayer is probably the most influential guitar player of the last two decades, with some of the biggest artists on the planet citing him as a huge inspiration on their tone, technique and artistry. There are whole websites devoted to analysing every piece of gear in an attempt to emulate his sound. This then, is a big ol’ deal.

Because while Mayer has had signature products before – the wildly popular PRS Silver Sky being the most notable – he’s often been quite secretive about his actual signal chain. Now however, he’s pulling the curtain back and presenting any guitar player with a laptop and an audio interface the opportunity to experience a high-end emulation of his guitar amps and pedals, and presets to show you how he puts it all together.

Whisper it, but this might be the most asked-for new artist-related product the guitar world has seen in a very, very long time.

Image: Press

Neural DSP Archetype: John Mayer – what is it?

Archetype: John Mayer is the latest in Neural DSP’s – maker of the Cortex pedals and a bunch of other high-end digital guitar stuff – series of wildly popular artist-focused guitar plugins.

For the most part, these Archetypes have focused heavily on the shredder, metallic end of the guitar spectrum – John Petrucci, Gojira, Tim Henson and the like – with the occasional flirtations with non-heavy guys like Mateus Asato and Cory Wong.

Landing a bluefin tuna of a fish like Mayer then, is a big deal not just for guitar fans who have been crying out for an official Mayer plugin, but also for Neural DSP. While the Quad Cortex has become hugely popular with fans and artists across the musical spectrum for its remarkably realistic amp profiles (including Mayer himself), the company has struggled to fully cater to the non-heavy audience at times – this is quite the statement of intent that they’re going to change that.

So, what actually is it? Well it’s a guitar plugin, which will work standalone or with your DAW of choice, that offers a bunch of amps and effects exhaustively modelled on Mayer’s own gear, plus a bunch of presets for that gear created not only by the man himself but by a boatload of other artists, too. Yep, if you’ve ever wondered what John Petrucci, Lee Malia or Plini would do if they were plonked down in front of John Mayer’s rig – wonder no more.

Specifically, what we get here are replications of John’s three most beloved and commonly used amps – a 1964 Fender Vibroverb, John’s #002 Dumble Steel String Singer, and the prototype of his signature Two-Rock head. All three come with corresponding cabs, and there’s an interesting fourth option, “The Three-In-One Amplifier”, which combines all three together as Mayer himself would do, under one streamlined control panel.

You can run each of the amps through any of the connected speaker options – and there are a boatload of mic options, both in terms of type and placement, as you’d expect with any high-end guitar plugin.

Image: Press

Effects-wise, the signal chain offers 11 effects in total, split up into various stages in the chain. And if you ever doubted that Mayer was both extremely online and extremely aware of the internet’s feverish obsession with his signal chain, the fact that all the pedals here are rendered as if clumsily covered in black paint – a nod to Mayer’s habit of ‘blacking out’ certain pedals on his real ‘board to throw off the tonehounds – should remove them conclusively.

In terms of actual pedals, we have five Mayer staples in the pre-effects slot – a Keeley Katana, EHX Q-tron, Way Huge Aqua-Puss, Klon Centaur and a combined Bluesbreaker/TS-10 Tube Screamer. At the other end we also have a Providence Chrono Delay and the reverb bit of a Strymon Flint, and there’s also a studio EQ and compressor after the amp stage.

The most interesting part of the rig, however, is the ‘Gravity Tank’ a Neural-designed hybrid harmonic tremolo and spring reverb tank that puts together the sound of John’s favourite units in a bespoke unit that sits between the pre-effects and the amps.

You also get a transpose function that enables you to go up or down 12 full steps, a noise gate, doubler, plus a built-in tuner, metronome and all the MIDI jiggery you’d expect.

There are 18 built-in Mayer-designed presets, plus multiple presets from over 40 different artists, and a shedload from Neural itself – you can of course, create and save your own too.

Image: Press

Neural DSP Archetype: John Mayer – usability

Neural’s Archetype platform is a mature one at this point and if you’ve used any of Neural’s plugins before the basic setup is as you’d expect. Even if you’ve never used one before however, the interface is extremely straightforward and intuitive.

Across the top of the interface, no matter what you click on, you have the five editable parts of the signal chain – pre-fx, verb & trem, amp, cab, EQ and comp, and post-fx. Below that you have another permanent bar with the input and output level, noise gate, transpose, doubler and a menu to select presets. At the bottom you have an outlined depiction of the four amp and cab options so you can see at a glance what you’re playing through anywhere, while the big space in the middle is devoted to a suitably WYSIWYG depiction of whatever it is you’re currently editing.

Each effect and amp is clearly laid out in the manner you’d expect from the originals, though the blacked-out thing isn’t the most helpful at a glance. The coloured labels don’t exactly pop with their slightly washed-out colour palette, while the labels for the controls are scrawled in what you assume is Mayer’s fair hand. Again, it’s not the most legible thing I’ve ever seen, and from an accessibility standpoint it would be helpful to be able to alter the font to something more legible – but they’re hardly the first pedals, virtual or otherwise, to put form over function in that regard.

Speaking of pedals, as is the nature with all other Archetypes, the signal chain is fixed to Mayer’s preference in terms of both the overarching chain and the individual components therein. That means if you wanted to move, say, your Aqua Puss to your post fx bank, it’s a no-go – it’s sat at the end of your pre fx slot and that’s where it will stay.

Image: Press

The fixed chain has other limitations too – not least the decision to have an either/or situation with the TS-10/Bluesbreaker pedal – and then there’s the amps. Each amp has its own tone stack when selected independently, but it defaults to whatever Mayer’s preferred option for the three-in-one option. In this mode you also only get the ability to tweak the level of each amp, a master gain, plus output and room send.

What’s more, each amp only offers a single channel, and the tone stack is obviously condensed quite considerably from what’s on the front of the real thing – for example, the Vibroverb only has four controls (volume, bass, treble, output) and a bright switch.

This is less of a criticism than it is a note of caution – if you’re buying this expecting to get a fully realised replication of a Steel String Slinger or a Two-Rock, you’ll be disappointed. Instead, think of it more like what Mayer considers the most important bits of each amp – and this is an artist plugin at the end of the day. If you’re buying something for its endlessly editable and configurable sonic options, plenty of options exist.

Image: Press

Neural DSP Archetype: John Mayer – usability

Booting up the plugin on my 2022 MacBook Pro, I naturally reach for the USA Strat that has been a faithful companion for over 20 years – it’s only as I go to plug it in that I recall that both the guitar and its finish choice (sunburst with a tortie pickguard) were the direct result of me spending too much time poring over Mayer’s Any Given Thursday live DVD in a grubby Coventry student house in 2004. The past is nothing if not cringe. Anyway!

The presets are obviously the right place to start for any signature product like this. While Mayer can be a cantankerous character at the best of times, it’s good to see that he hasn’t been totally obtuse here – there are no less than five presets here that have the word ‘Gravity’ in their name. Give the people what they want, John.

I start with ‘Gravity Clean’ because of course I do, with my Strat’s in-between position selected, and well… there it is. Taking into account the fact that Mayer is many dozens of forces of magnitude better at playing guitar than I am, and that my well-loved old Strat is far from a ’64, all it takes is those first five notes to raise the eyebrows at how close this sounds to the man himself.

The presets run a nice gamut of the sort of tones Mayer has become associated with, from meaty Hendrix and SRV-adjacent leads to tastefully restrained bluesy cleans, through to more raucous affairs. The ‘Just Plain Dumb’ preset is frankly, far from it – chaining all three dirty options in the pre effects into a cooking Dumble is certainly a wild ride, but one that is bags of fun.

Isolating all three amps really shows the effort and time that has clearly gone into capturing the sounds, as they really do have distinct and enjoyably authentic characteristics. The Vibroverb is like a warm hug no matter how you set it, while the Steel String Singer certainly lives up to Alexander Dumble’s reputation for creating amps that will show off exactly how good a player you are for good or for ill – forgiving this thing ain’t.

The three-in-one is obviously meant to be the headline event here though – it’s the one that most of Mayer’s presets make use of, but it’s a truly enjoyable experience regardless. The best part is the way you can use the three level controls to precisely tailor how much of each amp you want in your particular sonic gumbo – and the three are different enough that you can easily compensate for anything you don’t like about one with an extra dollop of something you do.

The effects are very impressive across the board, but the star of the show is that Gravity tremolo/reverb tank. The tremolo, in particular, throbs with a wonderfully organic and warm tonality that you rarely find in digital recreations.

And as silly as they might seem from the outset, some of the non-Mayer artist presets – looking at you John Petrucci – do a nice job of showing that there’s utility here beyond Mayer’s bluesy heartlands.

Image: Press

Neural DSP Archetype: John Mayer – should I buy it?

The good thing about Neural’s Archetypes is that you don’t really need me to answer that question for you – a 14-day free trial is available for you to download and let your ears be the judge.

If you’re a seasoned user of plugins and in-the-box guitar stuff, boot it up and have a go. The sting in the tail is that it’s quite a bit more expensive than other Neural artist Archetypes – but you are getting a lot for your money.

The other thing to weigh on is the fact that, despite being a longtime user of various digital guitar solutions – including Kemper, Fractal and Neural – Mayer is often held up by the guitar community as a bit of an analogue messiah.

As a rule, he’s all about big amps, real effects pedals, and putting them together to make massive sounds – can a digital plugin really come close to that? Well… yes and no. Within the scope of some headphones and a laptop, you’re not going to capture the full majesty of playing through several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of boutique and vintage gear on a giant stage.

But you can feel the care and attention to detail that’s gone into this from a sonic point of view – it really does capture the essence of those sounds you hear on stage and on record in a way that I’ve not heard from other plugins, and presets that claim to offer you some of that Mayer magic in digital form.

I have no doubt that the man himself would never claim that this is going to replace his analogue rig – this is a guy who built mini isolation boxes for his amps so he could use them at The Sphere for Dead & Co this year, don’t forget. But what it offers him, and all of us, is the ability to capture some of that magic in a much more affordable, accessible and replicable way. Arguably, it’s what Mayer fans have been asking for for decades.

Image: Press

Neural DSP Archetype: John Mayer – alternatives

Not down with the digital thing? Well Fender don’t currently make a Vibroverb but the ’68 Custom Vibro Champ Reverb ($1,049/£899) is a smaller and quieter substitute. Mayer’s Two-Rock signature has been discontinued for a while, but a Silver Sterling signature will set you back the thick end of $7,000/£6,399. Dumbles? Most clones emulate the Overdrive Special as opposed to the Steel String Singer, but the Overtone SSS 100 from Ceriatone ($2,000) is one option. Alternatively, if you just want a very high-quality suite of guitar amps and pedals in plugin form, without the Mayer endorsement, Paradise Guitar Studio from Universal Audio ($149) is well worth an audition.

The post Neural DSP Archetype: John Mayer X review – is this the Mayer tone plugin we’ve been waiting for? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Hull reveals how mandolin and guitar work together to power her songwriting and creativity.

Guitar and bass brand Höfner has filed for bankruptcy in Germany, a new filing in the Fürth District Court in Bavaria reveals.

Few details about the insolvency have been made public, however the filing does reveal that “provisional insolvency administration” has been ordered for Karl Höfner GmbH & Co as of 10 December. An insolvency administrator has been appointed, who will proceed to attempt to rectify debts over the next three months. Höfner has been contacted for comment.

The company has a long and storied history. It was founded by Karl Höfner in 1887, in what was then the Austria-Hungarian town of Schönbach, and is now Luby in the Czech Republic. Over the next few decades, the company grew to be one of the largest suppliers of stringed instruments in the area and for export. Operations were unsurprisingly scaled back during World War II, and its facilities were put to use making supplies for the German army. Germany’s postwar reconstitution meant the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia, and Höfner relocated to West Germany, opening a new factory in Bubenreuth in 1950.

The company would go on to expand its facilities across the 50s, 60s and 70s. Höfner was acquired by the Boosey & Hawkes group in 1994, which led to further expansion. In 2003, Boosey & Hawkes sold its musical instrument division, including Höfner, to the Music Group as part of a rescue buyout. In December 2004, Höfner was sold to long-time general manager Klaus Schöller and his wife, finance director Ulrike Schrimpff.

The brand has made countless different instruments across its history, but one remains perhaps the most recognisable: the 500/1 bass guitar, AKA the Violin Bass, made most famous by Paul McCartney, who was seldom seen playing anything else while he was in the Beatles. The bass remains Höfner’s most recognisable instrument, and has seen many other notable users since McCartney. McCartney’s first 500/1 bass has its own unique history – it was stolen in 1972, only to be found in an attic in suffolk after nearly five decades of hunting.

Stay tuned for updates on this developing story.

The post Höfner files for bankruptcy appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

In one of the many ways that I am crushingly unoriginal as a guitar player, Back To The Future is a Very Big Deal for me. To call those three movies formative on me probably understates things somewhat.

• READ MORE: Does it matter that Marty McFly used the ‘wrong’ guitar in Back to the Future? According to Michael J. Fox, it makes “little difference”

Among the guitars and sports memorabilia that clutter up my home office, an ‘OUTATIME’ license plate sits proudly on my desk, while an Enchantment Under The Sea Dance poster sits framed over my shoulder. So unabashed is my love of BTTF in fact, that when I left Guitarist magazine a decade ago, the traditional ‘leaving cover’ given to departing staff as a farewell saw me expertly photoshopped into the red body warmer of Marty McFly, stepping out of a DeLorean.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that when, earlier this year, Gibson and Epiphone announced their partnership with the movie to release a pair of commemorative instruments modelled on the mythical ES-345 used by Michael J Fox in the movie, I was paying attention.

The cold financial realities of being a guitar journalist meant that I was never going to be in for one of the 20 grand Gibson models, but the Epiphone version? That might well be in reach… or so I thought.

Because in reality, I would have needed a time machine built out of a DeLorean to get one – by the time I’d umm’d and ahh’d about whether I really needed it (I didn’t, by the way) all 1,985 of them had sold out.

I wasn’t really surprised by that– I doubt you were either. I am far from alone in being a guitar player for whom Back To The Future was hugely important to them. I’ve interviewed a lot of musicians who were born between 1970 and 1990, and by and large it’s more notable when one of them doesn’t cite Marty McFly as a musical touchstone.

And yet in the back of my mind, I knew it wasn’t just that. Plenty of genuine fans were buying the guitars, sure – but as the brand new instruments started popping up on Reverb and eBay with vastly inflated price tags in the following weeks, it was clear that plenty of people had simply bought them to flip for a profit. And it was even worse with the Gibson version.

Obviously, I wasn’t surprised by this. Scalpers are a fact of life in a culture that has become more and more obsessed with limited-edition drops and artificial scarcity. Whether it’s trying to cop the latest Palace x Nike collab, a Snoopy Moonswatch or god forbid, a Labubu, there will always be people trying to profit in these situations at the expense of people who would just quite like to own the thing in question.

Image: Epiphone

The Scale Of The Problem

But how big is the problem in the guitar world? It’s always been quite hard to quantify – it certainly felt like something that was a growing issue, but how big was it exactly. Well, thanks to Reverb, we can now get a sense of the full scale of it.

As you may be aware, every year Reverb crunches the vast amount of data it holds on the buying and selling of new and used music gear across the globe to provide a list of the best selling products in various categories. 2025 was no different, but as I was perusing the lists this year I saw something that made me do a double-take.

At the top of the best-selling new electric guitars for 2025 was, you guessed it, the Epiphone Back to the Future ES-345. This guitar, which was offered for sale exclusively via Gibson’s own website and a few select dealers – and as a reminder, was limited to just 1,985 units – beat every other new guitar launched in 2025.

And let’s not forget, while Reverb may have got its start as a used gear marketplace, it’s now a place where a huge chunk of the gear sold is new – often by retailers. Don’t be under any illusions – a significant proportion of all the gear sales in the US, Europe and beyond now goes through Reverb.

For this guitar to beat out every single non-limited run new guitar made by Fender, Epiphone, Gretsch, PRS and everyone else this year… try and wrap your head around that. How many of those guitars that were bought must have been flipped for profit to have the BTTF Epiphone standing alone on the podium? It’s mind-boggling.

A glance at the other categories shows some similar red flags – if not quite as brazen. JHS’s troubled NOTADÜMBLË – a 15,000-run pedal kit that was sold exclusively via the brand’s website and discontinued after a month – is sitting pretty at number three in the overall pedal category. Elsewhere, Joe Bonamassa’s 500-run MXR Deep State sold out in a day, but still somehow made the top 10. A quick search of both sees them mainly listed for twice the amount they cost a few months back.

Image: Epiphone

Spoiling Our Fun

But does it really matter? You can argue that it’s capitalism working as it’s supposed to, I guess. But I can’t shake the sense they’re ruining the entire point of releasing products with limited production runs – the fun and excitement of trying to bag one.

Obviously, this isn’t a guitar-specific problem – practically every leisure activity you can think of has to deal with scalpers in some shape or form. StockX exists, for crying out loud. I don’t blame the brands, retailers or marketplaces for this – nobody’s managed to fix this problem for shoes, trading cards or anything else, so expecting guitar to lead the way seems a tad unreasonable.

There’s also nothing wrong with buying something, using it for a bit and then selling it on, of course. If you make a profit on it along the way, good for you. But what I hope we can push back on, collectively, is the normalisation of flipping in guitar culture.

Image: Epiphone

It’s that active desire to buy something with no intent to do anything more than stick it on Reverb for double what you paid for it – that feels quite gross to me. And looking at forums and social media, it seems like a lot of the guitar community agrees.

Perhaps the only way to fight back is to stop giving in to the price-gougers – ask yourself, do you really want that thing so much that you’re prepared to give some chancer double what it should cost to get it?

If we all decided to not play the game, the prices would start coming down because nobody wants a guitar they’re not playing kicking around the house long-term. In the end, that’s what I decided to do.

I was disappointed, sure, but in the months since I can’t honestly say I’ve missed it. Maybe in a few years the prices will come down and I’ll pick one up, maybe I won’t – but whatever happens, I won’t let the scalpers turn something that’s suppose to be fun into something so… heavy?

The post Scalpers are ruining the fun for real guitarists – and now I have the data to prove it appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

When billionaires throw holiday parties, expectations tend to rise well above lukewarm wine and a dutiful covers band.

That was the case last Thursday (11 December), when Eldridge Industries chairman Todd Boehly hired out New York’s Capitol Theatre and turned what was ostensibly a corporate holiday party into a full-blown all-star rock showcase.

• READ MORE: Justin Hawkins takes another brutal swing at Yungblud: “if the future of rock comes from musical theatre and Disney, if this is Ozzy’s heir, we’re in trouble”

The 1,800-capacity venue in Port Chester reportedly played host to an in-house band led by Slash and Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, alongside Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and producer-guitarist Andrew Watt.

Performing under the name The Dirty Bats, the group was joined throughout the night by a rotating parade of guest vocalists including Bruno Mars, Eddie Vedder, Yungblud, Brandi Carlile and Anthony Kiedis, who donned a cowboy hat for his cameo – because why not.

The setlist leaned heavily on rock canon, with covers of Motörhead’s Ace of Spades and Iggy and the Stooges’ Search and Destroy sitting alongside covers of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana. Mars, in particular, made a strong case for himself as the night’s wildcard, strapping on a Fender Stratocaster for Whole Lotta Love, Fire, and a ferocious take on Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Slash, meanwhile, stuck to familiar territory, wielding a sunburst Gibson Les Paul in front of a line of his signature Magnatone amps, while a selection of Fender combos sat ready for guest guitarists to plug into.

The night closed with everyone piling onstage for Johnny B. Goode and Rockin’ in the Free World – a fitting finale to a holiday party where money is no object and the guest list plays arenas for a living.

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The post Billionaire’s holiday party brings Slash, Bruno Mars and a ridiculous lineup of rock royalty appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Still stuck chasing the perfect rig? Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer says he’s long since stopped worrying about “magic guitars” and his latest album is proof of that.

Speaking to MusicRadar about his newly released EP Bombshell, Thayer says some of its best sounds came from gear he barely remembers using – including a Gibson SG he never thought much of previously.

• READ MORE: “I really don’t find either of those guitars particularly comfortable”: YouTube star Bradley Hall on classic guitar designs like the Stratocaster and Les Paul

The EP reunites Thayer with longtime friend and collaborator Jaime St. James of Black ’N Blue. Describing the process as “super organic”, Thayer says of the project’s start: “Jaime and I got together simply because we’re so close and thought it would be fun to record again. We sat down intending to revisit a few old tracks we liked, but Jaime happened to show me two new ideas he had, and I loved them.”

“So, we just dove in – writing, finishing the songs, and working out arrangements right there in my living room with an acoustic guitar and recording the ideas on my phone.”

Once the material was ready, the pair headed into a Portland studio with producer Rob Daiker, who Thayer says took the reins when it came to gear and tones.

“It’s funny – people have asked me about the gear and guitars I used to record with Jaime on our new EP, and honestly, this is the truth – I’m not totally sure!” Thayer admits.
“Rob Daiker isn’t just an amazing engineer and producer. He’s also a guitar player and a fantastic musician in his own right. So he had a whole arsenal of guitars and amps ready to go, and he set me up completely.”

Still, one instrument did leave an impression. An old Gibson SG he’d brought along almost as an afterthought ended up making its way onto the record.

“I did bring along an SG I’d had hanging around for years, which I never thought was a particularly good-sounding guitar,” he says. “It was just something I happened to have with me in Oregon. But when we plugged it in at the studio, it ended up sounding great, so I used it a bit. Beyond that, Rob had everything dialled in.”

For Thayer, the experience reinforced a lesson that’s only become clearer with time – that gear matters far less than the people using it.

“Back in the old days, we all had those special guitars or amps you had to bring into the studio because they were the ‘magic’ guitars or instruments you couldn’t do without,” he says. “But over time I’ve realised it doesn’t really matter as much as I used to think.”

“What makes the difference is having someone in the room who knows what sounds good and understands the tone you’re aiming for. After that, it’s in your hands – literally in your hands. That’s what truly makes a great sound. With that, you can make almost anything work.”

The post “It doesn’t really matter as much as I used to think”: Kiss guitarist Thommy Thayer on recording his new EP without “magic guitars” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The Rolling Stones have reportedly cancelled plans for a UK and European tour in 2026, after Keith Richards admitted he “didn’t think he could commit” to the demands of another full-scale stadium run.

According to The Sun, the Stones had been exploring a return to Europe following the success of their Hackney Diamonds tour in the US last year. The band – whose 2024 tour grossed an estimated $235 million – were said to be weighing up dates at major stadiums across the UK and mainland Europe, after earlier touring plans for 2025 were quietly shelved.

• READ MORE: Ronnie Wood celebrates 50 years as a Rolling Stone with new paintings of bandmates Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts

Had it gone ahead, the run would have marked their first live shows since the 2024 Hackney Diamonds tour, which sold close to one million tickets across North America. But those plans now appear to be on ice, with guitarist Keith Richards reportedly reluctant to sign on for another lengthy stretch on the road.

The news was first reported by The Sun, citing an American music critic familiar with the situation: “The Rolling Stones had all the big promoters throwing loads of ideas and dates at them for next summer,” the critic said. “But when they properly sat down to discuss the tour, Keith said he didn’t think he could commit and wasn’t keen on a big stadium tour for over four months.”

A spokesperson also added: “The band were looking to tour earlier this year but couldn’t make it work either. It’s hard for their fans but The Stones will get back onstage when they’re good and ready.”

Despite the uncertainty around touring, the band’s creative engine hasn’t stalled. Speaking to The Sun in September, Ronnie Wood confirmed he was still waiting on the green light for 2026 dates, while producer Andrew Watt revealed that the Stones have been back in the studio working on new material.

“You will be getting new music from the Rolling Stones with an album next year,” Wood said at the time. “It is almost done.”

The band’s most recent release, Hackney Diamonds, arrived in 2023 and marked their first album of original material in 18 years.

The post Is Keith Richards finally slowing down? Rolling Stones cancel tour plans as guitarist “didn’t think he could commit” to the gruelling schedule appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

December 12, 2025 This week I started with a few bits of some Christmas instrumentals, talked about our special deal on the Christmas Sing-Along Bonus Pack (15 accompaniments and 6 solos), talked about reconnecting with Mike Walker and his new book of John Renbourn pieces, threw in a little theory and broke down a couple […]

The post Totally Guitars Weekly Update December 12, 2025 appeared first on On The Beat with Totally Guitars.

In this column, I’d like to focus on one of the fundamental guitar tones, the sound of a Fender Telecaster plugged into a vintage Fender amplifier. I’m most interested in the sound of a Telecaster’s bridge pickup and the bridge/middle position. For me, these are immediately recognizable. I like how the relatively hot-wound pickups and the metal bridge construction make single notes sound strong and stingy while chords and licks involving multiple strings are “creamy” and saturated.

Let’s start with a simple live stage scenario with a single guitar amp. Let’s assume the venue and stage is large enough for us to crank the amp. I’d like to nominate the Fender Vibrolux Reverb as a great Telecaster match. The strong mids from the Telecaster’s bridge pickup pair nicely with the scooped Fender black-panel tone from the two 10" speakers. At 35-watts, it’ll deliver both firm lows and enough sparkle to cut through, which is critical for the mid position to not sound muddy. It’s essential that we can set the volume high enough to achieve beautiful dynamics, compression, sag, and hairy, distorted tones when we hit the strings hard. Depending on the treble response from the speakers, guitar string gauge, pickup-style, and proximity to the strings, I carefully decide if the amp’s bright switch needs to be enabled. By disabling it, I can turn up the treble knob and get more upper mids, which is essential for clear rhythm chords. For solos and lead guitar parts, I sometimes use a delay and an OD pedal that adds a little more volume, treble, and dirt.

Let’s take it up a notch and add a second amp. A 2x12" Pro Reverb is a nice complement to a Vibrolux Reverb. I recommend warm-sounding speakers and flipping the bright switch off.

A well-known mod with the Pro Reverb is to install a 25k mid pot mod for more distortion and mids. I would dial the 25k mids high and the bass to zero, and if the volume gets too loud, I’d disengage one of the speakers. The role of this amp is to provide warm, sustaining cranked tones with burning mids and just a little reverb. The Vibrolux will be dialed into clean operation to provide clarity and attack with firm, modest bass and clearly pronounced treble. If the song requires reverb, it comes mainly from the Vibrolux.

“The strong mids from the Telecaster’s bridge pickup pair nicely with the scooped Fender black-panel tone from the two 10" speakers.”

For recording, the first problem is: What you hear in the room is not necessarily how the guitar sounds on tape. You therefore need to dial in your amp(s) based on how the guitar track will sound on tape and not in the room. Second problem: The guitar will sound different depending on your listening device. And problem number three: What sounds good on its own does not necessarily sound good in the mix. I am often surprised how narrow, trebly, and nasal a well-mixed guitar tone sounds on its own. Given all those obstacles, you need to listen to the final end result, and then go back and change what needs to be changed, pedals, amp EQ, microphone techniques, mixing, effects, compressors, EQ, and mastering. Since you can never re-create something that wasn’t there from the beginning—for example a clean tone, a particular overdriven tone, attack or nuances from finger tips—my strategy is to have amps that provide enough of these things.

My primary Telecaster amp for studio purposes is my 1966 Princeton Reverb with a bright cap mod. The added 47–100 pF bright cap brings back the top-end frequencies that I want for clean fingerstyle tone. On recordings, my Princeton Reverb’s clean tone sounds like a big 4x10" Super Reverb but with the practicality and breakup level of a small 12-watt amp.

As a second amp for cranked tones, I bring my Pro Reverb with only one speaker enabled. I spend some time EQing and mixing the guitar tracks in the entire mix. It’s important to be careful with high bass settings on the amp, because it can lead to muddiness that’s impossible to clean up afterwards. Same goes with reverb—I use only a little from the amp. It’s better to add more reverb and delay afterwards. The amps are traditionally miked up in front and further away and above for ambience. Having different amp tracks, clean and dirty, I can tweak the balance and tone afterwards. If I want more dirt I increase the level of the dirt amp track, or vice versa.

I hope this was inspiring for you to find your favorite Telecaster tones with Fender amps.

PG contributor Tom Butwin demos the new Fishman Fluence Acoustic multivoice pickups, breaking down the nondestructive design, dual-voice control, and three distinct models built for everything from solo fingerstyle to full-band stages.

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Mandolin hero John Reischman joins us this week to talk about his new album, The Salish Sea.

We chat about the influence the Pacific Northwest has had on his music-making, discuss his famed Lloyd Loar-signed Gibson F-5 mandolin, and so much more.

Check out ‘The Salish Sea’ here or on your favorite streaming platform.

Our next Fretboard Summit takes place August 20-22, 2026, at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. https://fretboardsummit.org

Our 58th issue of the Fretboard Journal will mail later this month. Subscribe here to get it.

We are brought to you by Peghead Nation: https://www.pegheadnation.com (Get your first month free or $20 off any annual subscription with the promo code FRETBOARD at checkout).

Stringjoy Strings: https://stringjoy.com

The post Podcast 529: John Reischman first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

The Aqueous Chorus is our take on the best of both worlds — vintage bucket brigade character andmodern watery tones” says Chris Van Tassel. Chris continues, “We wanted a chorus that didn’t just soundgood, but felt good to play. With added controls for EQ and gain makeup, it gives players a huge palette ofsounds from subtle vibe textures to full-on rotating speaker effects, vintage and modern chorus soundsthanks to its tilt EQ.”

Aqueous Chorus Features:

• Vintage to modern chorus tones with Tilt EQ shaping (wet signal only)
• Preamp section for gain makeup and added feel not typically found in modulation pedals
• Mix control blends chorus and vibe modes, with vibe-only in the last 1/4 rotation
• Depth and Speed controls for subtle movement to extreme modulation
• Rotary-style sounds and lush modulation effects are available with creative settings
• Built with rugged construction and vintage-inspired looks Specifications:
• 9VDC Negative Tip Power (no internal battery option)
• 28mA Current Draw

The Aqueous Chorus will be available November 6th, 2025 via select dealers for $229.99

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While the Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul are, by most accounts, the two most popular guitar designs ever – and have very much shaped the world of music as we know it today – some modern players aren’t entirely convinced, and prefer builds with more modern spec sheets to suit their playing styles.

Take YouTube star Bradley Hall for example, a formidable player who has built a loyal following of nearly 600,000 subscribers for his comedic takes on guitar culture. He’s also a guitarist for Swedish power metal outfit Twilight Force.

• READ MORE: “If you come up to the factory and draw it with me, I’ll do it!”: Mark Tremonti reveals how Paul Reed Smith challenged him to design his “coolest” custom guitar

Asked in a recent Q&A for his thoughts on classic guitar designs like the Strat and Les Paul, Hall explains: “I really like the sound of classic guitars like Les Pauls and Strats. They’re amazing guitars for recording, but they’re just not very practical, in my opinion.”

He goes on: “I really don’t find either of those guitars particularly comfortable, especially traditional Strats. I love the sound of a Strat, but man, those guitars are just so uncomfortable to play…

“Les Pauls are a bit more comfortable, but they just feel horrible, especially when playing standing up. They’re just not very ergonomic at all, and I hate the pickup switch being up here. Sucks ass.”

Les Pauls have long gained a reputation for being heavy, which can make them more uncomfortable to play for long periods standing up than other, lighter guitars. And as Bradley Hall points out, a Les Paul’s pickup selector switch is located above the pickups rather than below, which can make on-the-fly pickup switching less seamless.

Bradley Hall’s comments are sure to spark a response from guitar purists who swear by either the Strat or the Les Paul, but a bit of healthy debate in the guitar world never hurt anyone, now, did it?

The post “I really don’t find either of those guitars particularly comfortable”: YouTube star Bradley Hall on classic guitar designs like the Stratocaster and Les Paul appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Of all the guitars in Mark Tremonti’s arsenal, there’s one he regards as his numero uno. And that’s Stella, a bold design the Creed and Alter Bridge man worked on personally with PRS head honcho Paul Reed Smith.

If you’ve been lucky enough to catch Creed at one of their 2025 shows, you’ll have seen Tremonti donning the Explorer-esque build throughout the set. And in a new interview with Revv Amps recorded before the band’s Edmonton, Alberta show in August, he recounts how the guitar became a reality.

• READ MORE: “I took it to my hotel room and played it all afternoon!”: How Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith got his hands on the legendary Greeny Les Paul

“I was talking to Paul about doing a new guitar design, and he was like, ‘You know what, if you come up here to the factory and draw it with me, I’ll do it,’” Tremonti says.

“So I went up there, we got on the dry erase board and started drawing shapes, and once we got kind of close I was like – when Paul started getting close – I said, ‘What about these lines here if they did this,’ and he just gave me the pen and let me draw what I envisioned. And between the two of us we came up with a design.

Next, Tremonti recalls, Paul and his team transferred the drawing to a computer programme which allowed them to visualise the guitar in three dimensions.

“It looked amazing, and they built me two of them,” he goes on. “The first was a black one, the second one was brown. The brown one was my favourite for years until they made this one… 

“This is one of the best-sounding and -playing guitars I own. I absolutely love it. I named it Stella before I had my baby girl. We always planned on naming our daughter Stella, so I was like, we haven’t had a daughter yet, so I named it Stella before my daughter was born.

“[It’s] definitely one of my most talked about guitars, one of my most played guitars. Of all the guitars I’ll play tonight I’ll probably play this the most.”

Elsewhere, Mark Tremonti showcases his #2 guitar, a Charcoal Burst single-cut PRS with a Dimebag Darrell sticker on its lower bout.

“When Dime passed, a fan was handing out stickers at a House of Blues show we were at,” he says. “So I just immediately put it on here. Vinnie [Paul] even came up to me and thanked me because he had heard I had put this on there. This is my tribute to Dime.”

Watch the full interview below:

The post “If you come up to the factory and draw it with me, I’ll do it!”: Mark Tremonti reveals how Paul Reed Smith challenged him to design his “coolest” custom guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.