Norse Guitar Feeds

Few guitars have quite the same legendary status as Greeny, the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard once owned by Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green, and now under the custodianship of Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett.

As the story goes, Peter Green played the guitar while with John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers before selling it to blues ace Gary Moore in the early ‘70s for around £120 – a sum no higher than Green had originally paid for it.

• READ MORE: “It doesn’t work!”: Gojira’s Joel Duplantier explains why he doesn’t like bands playing albums in full live

Moore played the guitar for three decades – both in Thin Lizzy and throughout his solo career – before selling it in 2006 for a sum between six and seven figures. The guitar passed through the hands of several private collectors before Hammett bought it in 2014.

And a chance encounter at a hotel in Canada presented Iron Maiden legend Adrian Smith with the opportunity to get his hands on Greeny, and naturally, he jumped at the offer.

“Kirk’s a great guy,” Smith says in a new interview with eonmusic [via Ultimate Guitar]. “He’s a lovely guy, and I bumped into him in a hotel in Canada. We were just waiting for the lift. We’re just checking in, and Metallica were there, and the first thing I said to him, I said, ‘Oh, you bought Greeny.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I’ve got it. You want to play?’ I said, ‘Yeah!’”

“So I went to his room. [Photographer] Ross Halfin was there as well, because he’s a mutual friend, although I know Kirk a little bit, and we sat, and he gave me the guitar and a little practice amp, and of course, I did [Fleetwood Mac’s] Oh Well. And then he says, ‘Look, I’ve got to go out.’”

Smith explains that Hammett and Halfin were busy taking photos, so Hammett suggested Smith take Greeny back to his hotel room and play it to his heart’s content.

“I took it to my hotel room and I had a little practice amp in there, and I just played it all afternoon,” Smith goes on. “It plays great; it’s the intonation, the feel, the sound. I mean, it’s just a wonderful, great guitar. I’m glad somebody’s using it, and it’s not on a wall in somebody’s air-controlled, climate-controlled guitar locker. It’s out there being played, as it should be.”

Kirk Hammett regularly plays Greeny onstage with Metallica, and you can watch him do so yourself at any of Metallica’s upcoming 2026 tour dates.

Check out the band’s official website for more info.

The post “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 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

There are some rules of guitar that most of us stick to. Rock bands play Les Pauls, Jazzmasters and Telecasters are for indie kids (and country stars). Strats are for everything. And pointy guitars? Well… they’re just for metal, right?

• READ MORE: The Guitar Influences of Eddie Van Halen

Well, if you cast your eye across the biggest festival stages over the last few years, however, you’d have noticed something rather unprecedented happening. From Glastonbury to Coachella and beyond, a new generation of guitar-playing women have reclaimed the most aggressive and angry looking guitar shapes for a new generation. And for styles of music that have never seen such pointy and angular instruments before.

We can probably trace this back to Phoebe Bridgers. The Grammy-winning guitarist triggered an entire generation of angry guitarists when she smashed a BC Rich Warlock – a model more associated with Mötley Crüe, Slayer, and Guns N’ Roses than with indie’s resident sad-girl laureate – at the end of a Saturday Night Live performance in 2021, but it was clearly more than a stunt.

The guitarist began using Warlocks almost exclusively in the coming years, including as part of the cultural phenomenon that was Boygenius, but she would by no means be the last.

Phoebe Bridgers performing with Boygenius at Oyafestivalen in 2023. Image: Per Ole Hagen/Redferns via Getty Images

At Glastonbury this year, Wet Leg ditched the prairie dresses and neutral-toned Fenders for a new and more confrontational stage presence. This shift was epitomised by frontwoman Rhian Teasdale, who ditched her trusty Telecaster for an even weirder BC Rich curio – a lime green transparent acrylic-bodied Warlock.

And that wasn’t the only pointy guitar around the neck of a guitarist at Worthy Farm that weekend. Fellow Wet Leg guitarist Hester Chambers was rocking the pointy headstock of the none-more-80s Kramer Jersey Star.

Elsewhere, Turnstile’s Meg Mills was helping reinvent hardcore for a mainstream audience with her trusty pink Jackson Soloist in hand, while over on the Pyramid Stage, Olivia Rodrigo’s co-guitarist Arianna Powell was another guitarist propelling the set forward with a Soloist in hand.

By the end of the festival, it became clear that this isn’t just a gear shift, but a key change away from the age-old archetypes.

Meg Mills of Turnstile performing at Alcatraz in 2025. Image: Sergione Infuso/Corbis via Getty Images

Silver. Glittery. Crazy.

So why is it that more and more women in pop are reaching for pointy metal-adjacent guitars, and what does that say about gender, genre, and the evolution of our modern-day guitar heroes?

Originally a P-bass player, Emily Smith from rapidly rising Welsh upstarts Panic Shack never expected to pick up the Silvertone Apocalypse bass — the four-string version of KISS guitarist Paul Stanley’s early 2000s signature model — let alone be seen with it.

“I remember typing in Google, ‘Silver. Glittery. Crazy’,” she laughs from her home in Cardiff. For Smith, the shift isn’t just about aesthetics: it’s about subversion. “If you’re a woman, people assume you’ll gently play an acoustic guitar, shy away, and not take up space. I love that these artists are like, ‘No, I’m gonna get that crazy guitar. I want to stand out!’ It’s not all dainty, cutesy guitars. It’s ‘look at my minging rock guitar’. It’s disgusting and I love it.”

Young women are no longer being put into a Daisy Rock-shaped box when it comes to guitar inspiration. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying that of course, but a generation of new players are having their FYPs filled up with female musicians who aren’t ashamed to break with conventions.

Emily Smith of Panic Shack. Image: Press

It’s why you’ll see Willow Smith rocking a Jackson King V at Coachella, or you’ll see Halsey’s pop pyrotechnics backed up by seven-string Warrior-toting guitarist Vixen. A Jackson artist, Vixen has definitely noticed a shift in who uses the pointy stuff.

“These instruments were traditionally designed for men’s bodies, so I’m seeing a lot of offsets and shorter-scale options,” they explain. But for the skilled session musician, this shift is something deeper than gear choice. “Why try to be a slightly worse version of someone? Just do your own thing.”

For Vixen, the use of out-there shape guitars like the Warrior and the King V is key to that “thing”. “The pop scene requires drama,” they explain. “It’s about dynamics, ups and downs – so let’s bring out the white V, you know?”

Willow Smith performing at Coachella in 2023. Image: Presley Ann/Getty Images for Coachella

Full Circle

In some ways, this return to the pointy, the dramatic, and the genre-agnostic is a full-circle moment. In the 70s and 80s when many of these weird and wonderful guitars were first designed, shred and metal had yet to claim them.

Take a few minutes and look up Latin-pop legend Jose Feliciano posing in a suit and open-collar shirt with his custom Soloist with ‘Jose’ written in the Jackson font on the headstock – it’s wonderfully incongruous, and can be filed alongside a similarly amazing shot of Wrecking Crew legend Carol Kaye playing a BC Rich Warlock in while dressed a chic 70s housewife.

But as Tim Hillier-Brook, who heads Artist Marketing manager for Fender’s Specialty brands (Jackson, Gretsch, Charvel, and EVH), puts it, today’s revival isn’t about irony; it’s about reclamation.

“Men have had thirty years of playing guitars because they could,” he insists. “The idea that you need a bullet belt to play pointy guitars doesn’t exist anymore.”

Rhian Teasdale of Wet Leg performing at the Royal Albert Hall in 2025. Image: Chiaki Nozu/WireImage via Getty Images

Rejecting the pressure to perform on a “correct” instrument resonates strongly with Smith, especially when confronted with purist opinions.

“If anybody said anything to me about using an instrument that’s metal, I’d be like, ‘Oh, fuck off!’” he exclaims. “It’s just a guitar at the end of the day; it’s not that deep.”

Vixen is equally unfazed by this sort of mindset. “It no longer has to be, ‘If I’m playing this genre, I have to play this guitar.’ It’s cool to play something different and to make it work.”

And women are making it work – everywhere. Fender’s 2019 study famously found that women made up 50 per cent of new guitar players. Their 2022 follow-up revealed that many bought guitars online to avoid the intimidation of traditional stores.

As Danielle Haim puts it on the band’s Women In Music Pt. III track Man From The Magazine: “Man from the music shop / I drove too far / For you to hand me that starter guitar.” And if the chart-topping LA sisterhood is still fielding that kind of prejudice, what chance does a new, fresh-faced player have?

Arianna Powell performing with Olivia Rodrigo at BST Hyde Park in 2025. Image: Lorne Thomson/Redferns via Getty Images

Screen Idols

With physical stores still feeling fraught in some cases, thankfully, digital spaces have become a lifeline. Just as Ableton has equipped a whole new generation with access to studio gear and home recording opportunities, social media has made discovery democratic.

“Artists with huge followings like Willow Smith and Phoebe Bridgers,” continues Hillier-Brook. “People will see them and go ‘Cool, I’m going to buy that.”

Now, if someone is curious about picking up a guitar, they can simply find the model they want online, without being subjected to a character assassination.

New players without that traditional knowledge curve through dad-focused guitar mags and gatekeeping open mic nights are coming to guitar, thinking less about their forefathers and more about how the instrument fits with their identity and lifestyle.

When Vixen caught millennial musician Nai Palm of Aussie outfit Hiatus Kaiyote, they were intrigued to find her picking up a Randy Rhoads to play out the band’s sultry sounds. “Not only was it bad ass to have that guitar anyway, but to play it in a neo-soul way is like you really don’t give a fuck,” they explain.

Nai Palm of Hiatus Kaiyote performing at Coachella in 2023. Image: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Coachella

Panic Shack’s Smith agrees about her role within her brash and bold foursome, who recently brought their high-kicks and hotpants to the BBC’s Later…with Jools Holland.

“We’re all very out there,” she agrees. “It makes sense to have a guitar that represents your style and personality.” And in pop – a genre built on the razzle dazzle – that matters more than ever.

“It is a conversation piece,” adds Hillier-Brook. “The aesthetic of a show is arguably more important than it’s ever been. You want people to leave thinking that was a complete spectacle!”

Perhaps that’s why earlier this year, after a decade-long legal battle with producer Dr Luke, Kesha returned to the stage as an independent artist, wielding a Jackson Rhoads.

It was, in many ways, the ultimate guitar power move: reimagining a guitar designed to be played with the Prince Of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne, as a vehicle for a pop artist to celebrate her independence.

Emily Smith performing with Panic Shack. Image: Press

“If you’re a woman playing guitar, you’re already doing something against the grain,” Vixen agrees. “So why not lean into that?”

For Smith, the empowerment goes beyond the stage. Picking up that gleaming Silvertone every night means seeing herself – loud, unapologetic – reflected back.

“The whole industry is intimidating as a woman or someone who’s not a guy,” she admits. “I know that the other girls in the band, Romy and Meg, only now feel confident to say ‘I’m a guitarist!’”

It takes more than talent to stand out; it takes courage. Because underneath the outrageous shapes, the bold finishes, and the sneers from traditionalists, most players want the same thing: to be heard.

“Just because you’re standing there gurning doesn’t make you look like a more serious musician,” Smith says. “If you listen closely, we’re doing the same thing as you are.”

The post How Women Are Giving Metal Guitars A Mainstream Moment appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

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To celebrate the late great Space Ace, we called up PG’s favorite Kiss fan, Chris Shiflett.

On at least one of your 100 Guitarists hosts’ favorite episode of Shred with Shifty, the Foo guitarist sat down with Ace to talk about his guitar playing on “Shock Me.” It’s a fun interview with lots of great anecdotes and killer vibes. But Shiflett has a lot more perspective on Ace, going way back to meeting the members of Kiss without their makeup as a kid.

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All it takes is a minute or so of listening to Just Mustard’s music—a bewitching and unruly blend of fuzzy, guitar-driven post-punk and shoegaze-y noise rock—to make one thing abundantly clear: They’re not exactly aiming to challenge Taylor Swift for chart supremacy. “No, we’re not really interested in having pop singles,” says David Noonan, who, along with fellow guitarist Mete Kalyon, delights in creating cavernous, atmospheric walls of sound for the Irish quintet. “We’ve always been trying to make music that’s more avant-garde. I know it’s a cliché, but we like to push boundaries.”

He pauses for a second, then adds, “Which isn’t to say that we don’t want to be popular, because that would be great. We just want to do it our way.”

Just Mustard (which also includes singer Katie Ball, bassist Rob Clarke, and drummer Shane Maguire) have a doozy of an album with their new We Were Just Here, which builds on the strengths of its predecessors, 2018’s Wednesday and 2022’s Heart Under. Like those records, it’s an immersive sonic extravaganza, brimming with walloping, cavernous soundscapes and gnarly, twisted guitar lines that dart off in all kinds of directions. At the same time, it ventures into warmer, friendlier territory. Lead single “Pollyanna” is one of the band’s most cheerful efforts to date—Ball’s enchanting, ethereal vocals float though its feedback-laden textures—and the propulsive, synth-like title track has an irresistible early-’80s peppiness to it.

“It’s interesting—people have said that song reminds them of early New Order, which isn’t what we were going for,” Kalyon says. “I think when you try to make guitars sound like synths it actually works sometimes. But I never want to disguise the sound of the guitars entirely. I’d rather have people say, ‘Wow, that’s a cool guitar sound,’ not ‘Are you playing a synth there?’”

Unconventional as they may be in their guitar approaches, both Noonan and Kalyon came by their love of music by way of bands like the Beatles, Queen, and Led Zeppelin. “I wanted to be a saxophone player and a drummer at first, but they were too loud, so my parents got me a guitar,” Noonan says. His first guitar—a Squier Strat—practically became firewood when he discovered Nirvana. “The music was so exciting, and I thought that’s how you were supposed to play guitar, by throwing it around your bedroom and breaking things,” he says.

"I think when you try to make guitars sound like synths it actually works sometimes. But I never want to disguise the sound of the guitars entirely."—Mete Kalyon

It was also Nirvana that ignited the spark for Kalyon. “I used to listen to their greatest hits album, and that made me go, ‘All right, I need to learn how to play guitar,’” he says. “I got a crap guitar and played the hell out of it.” However, Kurt Cobain wasn’t the only Seattle guitarist who excited him: “I used to play loads of Jimi Hendrix’s stuff on guitar, but I can’t do it anymore,” he says.

Noonan laughs and says, “The first thing I remember about Mete was that he could play Hendrix’s ‘Little Wing.’ We were so impressed that he could break something like that out.”

Gear

David Noonan’s Gear

Guitars

Fender Jaguar Special HH

Fender Player II Jazzmaster (live)

Amp

Fender Hot Rod DeVille 212 IV

Effects

Fender Expression pedal

JHS Electro-Harmonix Soul Food with “Meat & 3” Mod

Electro-Harmonix Cathedral stereo reverb

Z.Vex Fat Fuzz Factory

Crowther Audio Hot Cake

DigiTech X-Series DigiDelay

Montreal Assembly Count to 5 delay/sampler

Hologram Effects Dream Sequence

Strings, Picks and Cables

Ernie Ball Super Slinky

Dunlop Max-Grip nylon .60mm

Fender cables

Mete Kalyon’s Gear

Guitar

Fender Telecaster

Amp

Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus

Effects

Pro Co Turbo RAT distortion

Way Huge Swollen Pickle Fuzz

Z.Vex Machine Oscillator

Electro-Harmonix Cathedral stereo reverb

DigiTech Polara Reverberator

Boss DD-7 Digital Delay

Moog MF Moogerfooger Ring Modulator

Montreal Assembly Count to 5 delay/sampler

Strings, Picks and Cables

Ernie Ball Super Slinky

“Whatever picks I can get my hands on”

“I haven’t a clue what cables I use”

Noonan met Kalyon in the college town of Dundalk, where he and pal Clarke, enthralled by electronica and groups like the Pixies and Sonic Youth, had moved in the hopes of starting a band. Hooking up with Ball put things in motion, but they soon realized they needed a second guitarist to fill out their sound. “It wasn’t quite an abduction, but I guessed they had heard that I played guitar and was into their kind of music,” Kalyon recalls. “I just remember David grabbing me off the street and saying, ‘Quick—you’re joining our band.’ It was quite shocking, really. Just like that, I was in.”

After a few jam sessions, it became apparent to both guitarists that their experimental approaches to sound complemented each other perfectly. “We grew up with traditional rock and blues, but we did away with that once we formed the band,” Noonan says. “The idea was to sound like electronica, but with guitars making all the noise.”

“The idea was to sound like electronica, but with guitars making all the noise.”—David Noonan

Over the course of their first two self-produced albums, the duo created abrasive sheets of pedal-driven textures—loud then soft, continuing the Nirvana template—with Noonan driving home sparky lead lines wherever they seemed to fit. But the two insist that there’s no dedicated “lead player” in the group. “We’re quite capable of swapping roles,” Kalyon says. “If I’m making one sound, David does the other, and vice versa.”

Noonan graduated to producer on We Were Just Here, and his basic approach involved recording the band live and then adding numerous guitar tracks—Noonan on a Fender Jaguar, Kalyon on a Fender Telecaster—to heighten the overall impact. “Silver” is an unnerving yet wondrous full-frontal assault on which Noonan piles tracks of pitch-shifting noise, enhanced by a Hologram Effects Dream Sequence. He and Kalyon ratchet up the chaos on “Endless Death”—its engulfing sonic boom is spiked with jagged melody lines that seem to escape at random times, shrieking and sputtering from all ends of the frequency range.

“We kind of came at that one with everything we had,” Noonan says. “There was a lot of tinkering that went into that song, and now we have to figure out how to play it live.”

The matter of transferring their new material to the stage is a task that the band is now pondering, and Noonan admits that it’s going to be a harder nut to crack than before. “On some level, we just have to do what feels right at the moment, which is what we’ve always done,” he says. “Here’s a guitar melody that sounds right, but then you’ve got to slip back into the sonic happening and play something that’s not necessarily a lead part.”

He continues, “When we’re in the studio, there’s a lot of constructing bits that can make everything sound overproduced, but we don’t want to get to the level with some bands where you go to see them live and they have to have backing tracks or add these session musicians who go on tour with them. When you come see us, we want you to experience what you’re hearing on the record, which is us playing everything.”

Back in September, The Darkness’ Dan Hawkins labelled Yungblud’s VMAs Ozzy Osbourne tribute as “nauseating”. In the months since, Justin Hawkins has backed his brother up, revealing just why the pair are critical of the Doncaster rockstar.

The point of contention is how some are heralding Yungblud as Ozzy Obsourne’s “heir”. However, Justin thinks Harrison is just too squeaky-clean to be the next generation’s Prince of Darkness. “If the future of rock comes from musical theatre and Disney, if this is Ozzy’s heir, we’re in trouble,” Justin tells Classic Rock in a new interview.

• READ MORE: The Darkness guitarist slams Yungblud’s VMAs Ozzy tribute as “nauseating” and “s**t” – but what’s the problem?

For those unaware, Yungblud, AKA Dom Harrison, previously starred as on Disney Channel show, The Lodge. The show ran between 2016 and 2017, with Harrison taking on the role of Oz, a cheeky, boy-next-door rocker – arguably a watered down, PG version of what he’s up to nowadays.

Despite Harrison moving on from his Disney days, most recently collaborating with Aerosmith for the One More Time EP, the Hawkins brothers can’t detach Harrison from his past. Harrison’s career has certainly been a bit more family-friendly than Ozzy Osbourne’s rampage of bat-chomping and drug-addled benders, that’s for sure.

With that in mind, The Darkness just can’t see him being Ozzy’s “heir”. Previously, Justin has also told Classic Rock that Harrison’s recent metamorphosis has felt like “101 School of Rock stuff”. But who can blame Justin for his caution; rockers are going to be critical of anything that threatens to encroach on Ozzy Osbourne’s legacy.

While Justin insists his and his brother’s opinion was never intended to start a “spat”, he did throw a slight dig at Harrison elsewhere in his chat with Classic Rock interview. Namely, he criticised Harrison’s use of auto-tune during the VMAs. “We said [called it a] ‘bit shit’ [because of the] auto-tune that was being run in real time,” he says. “If the future of rock needs auto-tune to carry a song, then we are in trouble.”

However, Harrison has previously proved his worth at Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning show. His performance of Changes showed some real vocal skills, and his performance has been repeatedly praised as an unsuspected standout of the event.

While the Hawkins brothers aren’t set to accept Yungblud as “Ozzy’s heir” any time soon, the Osbourne family have repeatedly expressed feelings that Harrison is similar to Ozzy. In a new interview with Piers Morgan on his Uncensored talkshow, Ozzy’s wife, Sharon Osbourne, seemed fond of the idea of Harrison portraying her late husband.

After revealing there was a “deal” agreed upon and that the job now was to “look for people to work on the movie”, Morgan asked “do you have any idea who you want to play him?”. After Sharon admitted she has someone in mind, she refuses to name anyone – but, when Morgan suggests “Yungblud?”, she lets out a small smile. While she doesn’t deny the suggestion, she simply says: “I’m not saying a word.”

The post 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” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

As we all get older, so do our favourite rock albums. As a result, an increasing number of bands are embarking on milestone anniversary tours to perform their most iconic records in full; last year, Slipknot toured their debut record to celebrate its 25th anniversary, while Liam Gallagher embarked on his own solo tour to mark 30 years since Oasis’ debut.

However, French metallers Gojira aren’t too fond of a cut-and-dry anniversary tour. Despite 2026 marking 20 years of From Mars To Sirius, frontman Joe Duplantier insists the album’s anniversary tour will offer more than a back to front performance of the record.

“We already tried it in rehearsal, and it doesn’t work,” he explains of the concept. His reasoning is rooted in how a live show differs from the intimacy of listening to a record. “For me, listening to an album is about lying on a bed, headphones on, following a story,” he explains in a new issue of Rolling Stone France.

• READ MORE: The Gear Used By Eddie Van Halen on ‘Van Halen I’

Duplantier notes that performing the record in full might even be a disservice to the original record. With all the “crazy things happening”, the intricacy and beauty of a record would simply get lost in the chaos of a live environment. He adds that “moments of calm” might also lose their magic, as quieter tracks wont translate as well in a massive arena.

In the end, the result is a diluted version of what was originally put to record. With that in mind, Duplantier would much rather breathe new life into From Mars To Sirius to honour its anniversary. “It’s the album that propelled us to international success,” he reflects. “We already tried [playing it in full] in rehearsal, but it doesn’t work!”

“We want to shake things up to give it a boost,” he explains, noting that the shows are set to have plenty of “surprises” for fans. One of which has been a massive flying whale, in honour of the album artwork and track Flying Whales.

The idea of giving old tracks a “boost” has been a staple of Gojira’s work as of late. Earlier this year, Gojira performed at Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning show, putting their own spin on Sabbath ‘s 1972 classic, Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes.

As Duplantier explains, the band “reshaped”, “modernised” and “shortened” the track, transforming it into something more in-line with Gojira’s style. While the frontman notes the track wasn’t the band’s “usual groove”, he embraced the challenge to pay his respect to Sabbath’s legacy.

Despite the challenge, Gojira pulled their cover off without a hitch. They even made a point of knocking it back out on 22 July, the day Ozzy Osbourne passed away, to honour the heavy metal legend. “We were informed [of Ozzy’s passing] in the middle of the concert. When we played Under the Sun/ Every Day Comes and Goes, everyone was overwhelmed with emotion; people were crying in the audience.”

The post “It doesn’t work!”: Gojira’s Joel Duplantier explains why he doesn’t like bands playing albums in full live appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

While 1994’s Parklife served as Blur’s breakout record, the band only began to understand the gravity of their newfound fame the following year. Thirty years on from The Great Escape, drummer Dave Rowntree recalls how 1995 marked Blur’s shift from a humble indie group to a chart-topping “boyband”.

In a new interview with Classic Pop, Rowntree notes how The Great Escape saw the band’s main demographic of fans totally change. “We’d gone from indie kids to screaming girls,” he recalls. “Some members of the band found that wonderful, others regretted it.”

• READ MORE: The Gear Used By Eddie Van Halen on ‘Van Halen I’

While Blur have never been a boyband – they play their own instruments, for a start – they were a group of charming young lads in their 20s. Once their Britpop and indie tunes hit the mainstream, girls quickly took a shine to them, covering their walls with posters and dreamily obsessing over Damon Albarn.

“It had never occurred to me that we could fit into the boyband mould,” Rowntree laughs. “We knew Take That reasonably well, and of course they consciously played up to it, [but] we never had. To have it suddenly coming our way was interesting.”

While Rowntree notes that the hysteria “didn’t last” for too long, the group experienced their own mini version of Beatles-mania. One such incident happened in Spain, when the lads were escorted from a radio station, while another saw bassist Alex James and frontman Albarn being locked inside of a shop in Florence while police sent away crowds of rabid fans.

“It was very exciting, as every band wants to be The Beatles,” Rowntree notes. “We weren’t the first or the last band that happened to, but those were hairy, crazy times.”

Regardless of the new mania that surrounded them, the band were more excited about the doors that the fandom was opening for them. More fans meant selling more tickets, which meant bigger, more ambitious shows. “We worried if we could fill these stages just by being ourselves,” Rowntree admits as he reflects. “[But] we loved building stage sets that Damon could interact with in interesting ways.”

Rowntree picks out one of the band’s more ambitious ideas, which took place during Dan Abnormal. “We came up with some pretty berserk ideas,” he explains. “For example, ‘McNormal burgers’ were hid in the rafters, before they were lowered over audiences… We wanted everything as big and bold as possible!”

The Great Escape (30th Anniversary Edition) is out now.

The post Blur drummer reveals that some of his bandmates loved them becoming a “boyband”: “We’d gone from indie kids to screaming girls” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The Electro-Harmonix story is long and complex with more untold stories beneath the surface than most could imagine. Part of that untold story is all of the pedal ideas that never got made for one reason or another. EHX aficionados Josh Scott and Daniel Danger had been digging through all of the EHX’s history when they came upon an old schematic at the home of original Big Muff Pi designer, Bob Myer. Initially passed over by EHX Founder, Mike Matthews, for what would become the Op-Amp Big Muff Pi back in the late 70’s, this schematic serves as a window into that untold story of forgotten pedals, so Josh went to work to bring this circuit to life in collaboration with Electro-Harmonix. The result, a Dual Op-Amp fuzz that’s very much Big Muff with its own character dubbed the Big Muff Pi 2.

The Big Muff Pi 2 is a slight detour from the usual Big Muff tone. Slightly lower gain, slightly less refined edges with a unique feel, but with the signature sustain and full-bodied BMP tone known and loved by countless players. Housed in EHX’s Nano-sized chassis in a vibrant refinish with graphics by Daniel Danger, the pedal features the familiar SUSTAIN, TONE, and VOL controls. SUSTAIN controls the amount of distortion from heavy crunch to full speaker pounding saturation. The TONE knob is a classic BMP-style tone control, boosting treble and cutting bass as it’s turned up, from wooly to searing. VOL adjusts the overall output of the effects.

This lost piece of the pi ships a 9 Volt battery (power supply optional), is available now and has a U.S. Street Price of $122.00.

J Rockett Audio Designs announces the release of the Aqueous Chorus, a versatile chorus pedalthat can live in both the vintage era and the modern era with its unique features.

“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)
• Pre-amp 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

Still looking for last-minute Christmas gifts? You’re in luck, because Thomann is offering one of the most treasured Electro-Harmonix pedals for less than £50.

The EHX Bad Stone was originally launched in the late 1970s and was reissued by the brand in 2015. It remains faithful to the original circuit design and three-knob control layout, but features up-to-date enhancements for today’s players, and can now be yours for just £47.

• READ MORE: Guitar.com Deals Of The Week: pre-Christmas savings to stuff your stockings with

The Bad Stone delivers six stages of phase shifting, and also hosts a manual mode that lets players freeze the phase. Its Rate knob controls the phase shifting speed – which goes from very slow to a rapid, oscillating warble – while its Feedback knob determines the depth of the phase effect. A toggle switch is also onboard for selecting Auto or Manual modes.

All controls are super simple to use, and the pedal is housed in a compact, rugged die-cast package that shrinks down the original Bad Stone to a more typical modern pedal size. To hear how it sounds and find out more, you can watch the video below:

In other EHX news, the brand has teamed up with JHS Pedals to revive Bob Myer’s long-lost dual Op-Amp Big Muff design as the EHX Big Muff 2, described as “a sharper, louder, more aggressive take on the classic Big Muff voice.”

But that’s not all from the EHX camp, as it also recently informed the subscribers of its email newsletter that the company has a plan to solve an AI-induced energy crisis by harvesting a near-infinite supply of energy that’s hiding out in the planet’s magnetosphere.

To shop this deal on the EHX Bad Stone, head over to Thomann.

The post One of the most iconic pedals ever for under 50 quid? Grab this incredible Thomann deal while you can appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The Guild Polara is an ultra-light, rock-ready machine with simple yet effective controls, and you can now get your hands on it for less than $500.

Launched at NAMM in 2024, this Polara range followed on from the success of Guild’s 2023 collaboration with Kim Thayil. This standard version is the most affordable of the lot – among the Deluxe, Artist Signature, and USA versions – and you can now get a further 20 percent off it via the zZounds Reverb shop, knocking it down to $439.95.

• READ MORE: The 10 best acoustic guitars for all styles and budgets

We reviewed the Polara shortly after its launch, and awarded it a glowing 8/10. While its no frills layout means it’s not the most versatile guitar, we loved its striking aesthetics and described it as a “tone-packed rock machine” that will “remind you exactly why you fell in love” with guitar in the first place.

A brilliantly accessible model, the standard Polara offers uncovered HB-2+ pickups, described as “modern extensions” of the coveted Guild HB-1 oversized humbuckers built in a traditional size with Alnico V magnets. A diagonal string layout matches Guild’s compensated stop bar design first introduced in the early 1970s, and its string-through body design delivers glorious sustain.

This double cut dream offers plenty of access to the upper frets for soloing and classic rock shredding. It has an ultra-light ergonomic Mahogany body, making it an ideal workhorse guitar, and a mahogany U-shaped neck hosting a rosewood fingerboard. Its uber sleek and simple design is completed with basic controls for master volume and tone.

Infallible for players of all abilities, this standard Polara is sold brand-new through Reverb and comes in a vibrant Voltage Yellow colour. Hear it in-play in the video below:

You can shop this deal now via Reverb.

The post We said this Guild “reminds you exactly why you fell in love” with guitar – and you can get an incredible 20% off it at Reverb appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

As much as we love it, and while guitarists themselves have continued to evolve, there’s no escaping the truth. The electric guitar is an instrument rooted in technology from the early 20th century, with a playing technique that predates the printing press.

But what if we took all the technological innovation the last seven decades have afforded us, and approached this wonderful thing of ours with fresh eyes? The Circle Guitar is one answer.

The Circle Guitar on the Guitar.com Cover. Image: Andy Ford for Guitar.com

If you’ve seen it, you will no doubt have an abiding memory: the disc. The spinning wheel that gives the guitar its name, covered in tiny plectrums, strums the strings in a way that no human could – freeing both hands up to create sounds, effects and textures that even the greatest guitarist couldn’t create on their own with a conventional instrument. With the rhythm aspect controlled by the guitar (the rhythm and pattern of which is determined by MIDI), you can interact with the guitar in new ways: create impossible chord shapes, experiment with new types of string muting and string bending, work the onboard volume faders to precisely bring in each note at the right moment.

Creator Anthony Dickens describes the circle as “an electro-mechanical guitar that uses a MIDI-enabled physical sequencer to strum the strings”. Sounds straightforward, right? But to see it, to hear it, to play it is like nothing else you’ve ever experienced with six strings. It’s dizzying, confronting and exhilarating all at once.

Image: Andy Ford for Guitar.com

Pushing The Envelope

The man who designed this guitar from a cyberpunk future is an unassuming, down-to-earth chap from the South West of England. Anthony Dickens’ first experience of the instrument was some rapidly aborted classical guitar lessons at school. He didn’t give the guitar much more thought until he was flicking through his dad’s record collection a few years later. The 12-year-old happened upon a cellophane-wrapped sample single given away with Smash Hits magazine, celebrating some artist he’d never heard of by the name of Jimi Hendrix.

“For two years, I listened to nothing else apart from every single thing Jimi Hendrix did,” Dickens explains today. “I was just obsessed from that moment on with music and guitars.”

“The thought was a simple one really – what if I could strum a guitar, but that strum never ends?”

Dickens’ obsession expanded: Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Rage Against The Machine. Rave music was also everywhere in the UK in that period, but Dickens struggled to really connect with it until he heard the uniquely experimental sounds of Aphex Twin – it was like a light had been turned on.

“When I discovered Aphex Twin, the first thing about it was that he was sort of an enigma,” Dickens says. He adds, tellingly: “And then I heard that he made his own instruments, and I was like, fucking hell, that is cool! That is the ultimate freedom, isn’t it?”

Dickens’ cousin taught him the basics of sampling on his Atari ST, and he was off making his own ‘esoteric’ electronic music. The logic went: “I’m not in a band, so I’m gonna try and do it myself!”

Image: Andy Ford for Guitar.com

Design For Life

Dickens also had a passion for making things, and went to university to study furniture design. That said, he planned to pursue music as a career once he was done with his degree. But a final-year exhibit in London complicated matters.

“I ended up winning these awards!” Dickens explains. “Instead of going to Brighton with my three other mates, to go head first into writing music and probably set up a label, I had to ring them up and go, ‘I’ve won this design award. I’ve got to stay in London and I’m going to work.’ It’s a sliding doors moment because it started me on a design career… but the tension has always remained.”

As a designer, Dickens has since worked with everyone from Red Bull to Audi – but he never stopped thinking about ways his two passions could combine. Around 1996, he started to seriously contemplate how music could influence design and vice versa.

“For me, it’s always about: how can I find a new way of expressing myself that nobody else has done before? It’s about people exploring new ways of communicating, and progressing that historical lineage of creativity.”

“It’s almost like the guitar has been left behind. Look at the evolution of music technology – and yet the guitar is the way that it is, and that’s all it should be”

After considering and discarding various ideas over the years, true inspiration struck in 2018. “I was trying to think about how I could change the way that I interacted with a guitar,” Dickens recalls. “The thought was a simple one really: ‘What if I could strum a guitar, but that strum never ends?’ No matter how fast your hand is, there has to be a moment where your downstroke ends and you have to bring it back up for the next one. But I thought, ‘What if it never ended?’”

Dickens landed on the idea of sticking a wheel onto a guitar, putting a load of plectrums onto it, and spinning it by hand. So he made his first prototype – using a cheap acoustic guitar with a hole drilled into it, skateboard ball bearings, a laser-cut piece of plastic, the cheapest, thinnest plectrums he could find, and a doorknob off a kitchen cabinet.

“I started spinning it around, and it sounded amazing – you could make it sound like a swarm of bees, this incessant, endless thing. Immediately I thought, all right, there’s something there.”

Image: Andy Ford for Guitar.com

On Your Ed

Dickens began pursuing the Circle Guitar project in earnest shortly before the pandemic. At Somerset House’s Makerversity space, he connected with people who could fill in expertise gaps, such as the coders and engineers who helped develop the motorised spinning wheel and the MIDI control that could accurately and consistently keep time. Dickens eventually also added a hex pickup to enable each string to be treated as an independent signal, with onboard volume faders for each one.

As he continued to tinker, Dickens needed some validation that he was on track. “I thought I had to put some videos on social media. Just to see: are we being absolutely mad? If I’m finally going to put my love of design and music together into something, I need to find out if it’s really worth pursuing.”

Some thought the Circle Guitar was madness, while others thought it was genius. But one particular cosign pushed the project forward.

Dickens had watched a That Pedal Show episode with Ed O’Brien, where the Radiohead guitarist insisted that searching for new sounds and textures was more important than any kind of technical virtuosity. It struck a chord, and so he dropped O’Brien an Instagram message about the Circle Guitar. “Within an hour, he got back to me going, ‘Wow, this is amazing. I’d love to come and play it,’” Dickens remembers. “And a week later he was in my house!”

“Every single guitar hero was an agitator, because they were doing something that hadn’t been done before”

O’Brien would later characterise the Circle Guitar as “extraordinary”, telling Reuters it was “almost like playing a different instrument”. “It’s like learning a new language, really. I want to spend a lot of time with it.”

Chances are your first encounter with the Circle Guitar was a direct result of that meeting in August 2020. While at Dickens’ house O’Brien recorded a short phone video of him using the Circle Guitar to create some otherworldly sonic textures, and shared it on Instagram. It quickly went viral, and before long Dickens was fielding queries from artists and producers keen to try it for themselves.

In the five years since that video, the Circle Guitar has changed dramatically both inside and out – and Dickens is ready to share his vision with the world. The first batch of production instruments have been completed, each one custom-tailored to the requirements of the artists and innovators who ordered them.

Image: Andy Ford for Guitar.com

O’Brien will take delivery of one of them, Phish bassist Mike Gordon another, as will A-list producers Paul Epworth and John Congleton. True innovation doesn’t come cheap – the Circle Guitar costs £7,995 – but guitarists as diverse as Muse’s Matt Bellamy and Idles’ Lee Kiernan have been wowed by the Circle Guitar’s potential.

The faith these artists have placed in Dickens has empowered him to assemble a small team of investors and collaborators to help him achieve the Circle Guitar dream. US-based software engineer David Ashman is responsible for coding the guitar’s firmware and designing the internal electronics, while respected UK luthier Manson Guitar Works – which is owned by Bellamy – produced the necks and bodies for the first batch. [Editor’s Note: Meng Ru Kuok, Founder & CEO of Caldecott Music Group is a part owner of Manson Guitar Works. Guitar.com is part of Caldecott Music Group.]

Another key figure in helping the project move forward is Freddie Cowan, former guitarist in indie-rockers The Vaccines. When Dickens moved to the quiet Somerset village of Frome to work on Circle in earnest, he discovered that Cowan was his neighbour, and he became a hugely important voice in the development – if you’ve seen a Circle Guitar demo online in recent months, Cowan is likely the man playing it.

Image: Andy Ford for Guitar.com

The Future of Guitar

Even with a formidable team behind him, Dickens still toils away in his workshop to assemble each and every Circle Guitar. There are some who see his brainchild as some sort of technological interloper, transgressing on the pure and good world of electric guitars. It’s a position he understands, even if he hasn’t got much patience for it.

“It’s almost like the guitar has been left behind,” he argues. “Look how the evolution of music technology has exploded – and yet for some reason the guitar is the way that it is, and that’s all it should be. Some people get annoyed because they see the Circle as cheating, because you don’t have to play it like a normal guitar – but you can still buy the old ones! And the intention was never to create something to shortcut learning; it was about exploring new ways to play the guitar. But,” he adds with a wry smile, “it’s also quite fun winding people up as well.”

The unique venn diagram of Dickens’ interests made him the perfect man to conceive of the Circle Guitar. But it still comes back to that maverick creativity and expression that Jimi Hendrix captivated him with all those years ago.

“The beauty of innovation is that it’s deep within us – we’re compelled to find something new”

“For the purists out there, every single one of their guitar heroes was an agitator when they first came out,” Dickens explains. “Because they were doing something that hadn’t been done before, and it probably pissed off a load of other musicians too! This is what humans do. We are always pushing things. The beauty of innovation is that it’s deep within us – we’re compelled to find something new.”

With batch one completed and deposits for the second batch now being taken, Dickens is ambitious about the future of the Circle Guitar. He has plans for new devices, and intends to use feedback from batch one’s owners to refine the concept and better cater to the needs of artists – something that remains at the heart of the Circle ethos.

“The thing that [guitarists] always tell me is that Circle forces you to think differently,” Dickens says. “And for a musician, that’s their job – they’re constantly trying to reinvent themselves. They’re trying to find different ways of responding to their instrument. So that’s what I’m hoping that Circle as a brand is going to keep doing – giving these tools that allow them to open new doors of sonic exploration.”

Words: Josh Gardner
Photography: Andy Ford
Location: Distillery II Studios, Bristol

The post The Circle Guitar is the most revolutionary new guitar in half a century – and artists are queuing up to be part of it appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Big Muff Pi 2 has been resurrected from long-lost hand-drawn schematics

Andy Timmons' own one-stop reverb shop gets expansive with spring, plate, and more ethereal sounds.

Developed in collaboration with Andy Timmons, the NOCTURNE showcases a brand new reverb space based on our unique Halo delay algorithm. From subtle ambience to cinematic space, the NOCTURNE allows players to create that same expressive, touch-sensitive bloom that trails effortlessly behind every note, without the cross-talk rom echoes.

The NOCTURNE pedal gives you three new reverb modes — Nocturne, Spring, and Plate — each designed to be the guitar and amp’s perfect companion. The Plate reverb is based on our extensive analysis and modeling of the stereo tube plate reverb that was in Austin City Limits studio since the mid-1970s. The Nocturne’s Spring reverb features our finest sounds based on both stand alone reverb tanks and tube amplifier combos. The simple four-knob layout of Tone, Level, Decay, and Modulation makes it easy to shape each gorgeous reverb space. Each reverb mode can be made a preset so you can store your favorite sounds. Alt features include our first pre-delay time control, allowing you to create slapback echo effects.

The NOCTURNE offers a flexible signal path with True or Buffered Bypass, Expression Pedal control, Remote Switching, and MIDI compatibility for up to 72 presets. Whether you’re running mono or stereo, wet/dry, or full wet for parallel rigs, the NOCTURNE adapts easily to any setup. Built on Keeley’s award-winning Core architecture, every component and line of code is tuned to make this reverb feel musical and alive. Operation is easy with the Nocturne – if the indicator LED is blue then it's 'wysiwyg'; the knobs set the tone or level of each reverb mode. If the LED is red, each reverb is a favorite or preset, where you can save the settings for each reverb mode.

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Effects pioneer Robert Keeley and guitar adventurer Andy Timmons reveal their newest collaboration.

Keeley Electronics’ new Nocturne reverb marks the latest chapter in an ongoing and expanding partnership between Andy Timmons, Robert Keeley, and the Keeley Electronics design group. They first teamed up in 2020 and have since developed effects such as the HALO Dual Echo (which captured Timmons' dual delay sound in a compact pedal) and Timmons’ signature Mk3 Drive. The new Nocturne reverb represents a fascinating new direction in the collaboration.

At its core, the Nocturne offers three distinct reverb modes in a single unit. Its Plate and Spring reverbs are based on bona fide classic sounds, while its titular Nocturne mode takes a fresh approach to reverb and delivers an otherworldly playing experience. It’s incredibly user-friendly, with a simple four-knob control set—Tone, Level, Decay, and Modulation—that makes it easy to shape your reverb space. Each reverb mode can be saved as a preset, so you can store your favorite sounds.

It’s an approachable, powerful pedal that offers instant gratification for just about any guitarist… even players who don’t normally use reverb. And that’s the biggest plot twist in the Nocturne story.

You see, Timmons doesn’t even consider himself a “reverb guy.”

“I've always used echo and delay instead of reverb. That's my ambience, that's my space,” Timmons admits. “Until now, there was never really a reverb that worked for me. I would use delays and try to curate them in the right way. But I had a different sound in my head, and I approached Robert to see if we could make it a reality. Now, my wall has come down for reverb. I just had to wait for the ‘Mr. Right reverb’ I guess,” he laughs.

Timmons’ “Mr. Right” reverb has arrived, and its calling card is the Nocturne reverb mode.

Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

Amid the pedal’s offerings, many players will view the Nocturne mode as the belle of the ball. It’s an immersive, almost heavenly reverb that sounds great when used sparingly—and sounds even better when it’s generously applied to clean, arpeggiated phrases or textural chords.

The brand-new reverb space is based on Keeley’s unique Halo delay algorithm. From subtle ambience to cinematic space, the Nocturne allows players to create that same expressive, touch-sensitive bloom that trails effortlessly behind every note, without the cross talk from echoes. It features a pre-delay echo that transforms into an expansive and engulfing reverb space. It’s difficult to describe—it simply sounds like it’s from another planet.

As Timmons says, “it creates a reverb from a different perspective. It’s not a usual reverb algorithm. It’s a fresh and different angle. I just want to sit and play in this dreamlike sound all day.”

Not surprisingly, Timmons has immediately put the pedal to creative use: “I've got a collection of songs that I've written—solo pieces called ‘The Outlier Nocturnes’—so I was basically waiting for this pedal. I'm already using it in the studio now that I have the right sound.”

Spring Fever

In designing the Nocturne, Robert Keeley and his team were determined to create a pedal that could satisfy a broad range of tastes. And for many guitarists, the first thing that comes to mind when they think of reverb is the classic reverb-drenched amp tones of the 1960s.

That includes Andy Timmons himself. “I’ll admit that I'm a closet surf guitarist,” he laughs. “I even have a surf record that's been in the can for years… I just haven't released it.When I run the Nocturne in spring mode into my dual showman and a 2x15 Fender cab, it’s just got that sound, man. It’s Dick Dale incarnate.”

Timmons’ personal passion for spring reverb and surf music helped spur the design process—but spring reverbs are fickle beasts, and notoriously difficult to replicate. To fine-tune the pedal’s Spring mode, Keeley worked closely with Aaron Pierce, a key partner in Robert’s design team at Keeley Electronics, and relied on modern technology to capture the vintage spring reverb mojo. “Aaron and I purchased a spring reverb or two and we put them through our audio analyzer. We worked hard to make it sound realistic and very drippy, just like the originals. When it comes to the iconic reverb sounds that we were searching for, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make it happen. But we finally got some awesome drip going with one, and that's the one I'm most in love with.”

Having harnessed the elusive, authentic spring reverb sound he had been seeking, Keeley and his team were determined to capture another essential reverb flavor for the Nocturne’s third mode: vintage tube-driven plate reverb.

The chase led them to Austin, Texas….

Keeley Electronics Nocturne Reverb with Robert Keeley and Andy Timmons | A REVERB YOU’VE NEVER HEARD BEFORE! 

Join Robert Keeley, Andy Timmons, and Aaron Pierce for a deep dive into the creation of the Keeley Electronics Nocturne Reverb—a design shaped by collaboration, experimentation, and a completely new approach to ambient space. In this panel-style conversation, the team breaks down the ideas, sounds, and engineering choices that led to a reverb unlike anything in the Keeley lineup.

Hear the stories, explore the process, and discover why the Nocturne truly is a reverb you’ve never heard before.

A Plateful of History

Tube-driven plate reverb is one of the defining sonic characteristics of classic recordings from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Beginning with the 1957 introduction of the EMT 140 by the German company Elektromesstechnik (EMT), plate reverb quickly became ubiquitous in popular music. Each individual plate reverb has its own subtle flavor—a unique sonic fingerprint. If you’re going to create a modern digital effect based on a vintage unit, it’s crucial to find a great-sounding original specimen.

“The plate is a really exciting part of the story for me,” Keeley admits. “My plate is (based on) the one that they used at Austin City Limits since the mid-’70s. About 10 years ago (Mike Daane) got a hold of it. They (ACL) decided to stop using it to go to a digital system and it was at that point in time where we got to go down with our audio analyzer, the APX 515B, and we could study its frequency response and measure the reverb trails. We modified the frequency response of our reverb so it more closely matched the Austin City Limits plate reverb. Reverbs have a certain resonance. And if you play something percussive like a tom or a snare, you can hear the resonance in the Austin City Limits reverb—it’s a lower frequency than typical.”

This particular plate reverb boasts its own historic provenance. Beginning with an October 1974 performance by Willie Nelson, the Austin City Limits TV program has hosted the crème-de-la-crème of blues, rock and country music artists for decades. Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King, Johnny Cash, Lyle Lovett, George Strait, Emmylou Harris, Wilco, Los Lobos, and Dolly Parton are just a few of the artists whose performances were channeled through this very reverb unit.

Timmons was enthused that the Austin City Limits reverb provided the basis for the Nocturne’s plate mode. “Every stereo tube plate reverb is gonna sound a little different, and it’s such an amazing opportunity to have the specific plate that was used on all the Austin City Limits shows for so many years. The design team could do a molecular level study of it with the amazing gear that Robert's got. I think that’s the one that took the most effort and revisions. But once Aaron [Tackett] figured out how to approach the plate, it was really exciting to hear how it turned out.”

HALO AND NOCTURNE—TOGETHER

For all of the technology and analysis that went into creating the pedal, the Nocturne is dead-simple to use: just three easily selectable reverb modes, four control knobs, plus some alt functions if you’re inclined to use them.

“And I'm not one of those that's inclined to do much tweaking,” Timmons admits. “I just want to turn something on and have it inspire me really quickly. That's what this format does so eloquently. It's encouraging, not daunting, and you feel it as soon as you plug in.”

Even though it’s an outgrowth of the Halo delay that Timmons and Keeley collaborated on earlier, Timmons says the Nocturne is designed to be used in conjunction with the Halo. “It's not meant to replace my Halo, but they work incredibly well together. I basically keep the Nocturne always on and I'm blending in the Halo occasionally. I was in the studio three days ago: I’m playing through my Keeley Mark 3 drive, the Halo, then the Nocturne into 2 vintage Marshalls. All the effects are being printed, and I'm listening back to the monitors and thinking, this is the best sound I've ever had! It's such a wonderful place to be, to be that happy with what's happening sonically. So now all I have to do is try to play to the level that the sound is allowing me to play. It's a dreamscape that I have never heard before.”

DIVE DEEPER IF YOU WANT TO

For players that do enjoy tweaking their settings, the Nocturne offers a flexible signal path with True or Buffered Bypass, Expression Pedal control, Remote Switching, and MIDI compatibility for up to 72 presets. Whether you’re running mono or stereo outputs, wet/dry, or full wet for parallel rigs, the Nocturne adapts easily to any setup.

Operation is intuitive with the Nocturne. If the indicator LED is blue then it's “wysiwyg”; the knobs set the tone or level of each reverb mode. If the LED is red, each reverb is a favorite or preset, where you can save the settings for each reverb mode. You can store and recall presets with a dedicated footswitch, and turn trails on/off.

Ultimately, Keeley and his team get the greatest satisfaction from seeing a player focus on playing, rather than tweaking. “These pedals are really near and dear to my heart,” he notes, “especially when it becomes a new platform like the Nocturne. We put a lot of time and effort into making sure that you could just walk up to this unit and not feel intimidated. just go out and have fun making music.”

With the arrival of Keeley’s Nocturne, you might have finally found your own “Mr. Right” reverb. Hear it and feel it for yourself. Plug into a Nocturne, turn up your amp and get inspired.

Keeley Electronics NOCTURNE Reverb Developed in collaboration with Andy Timmons, the NOCTURNE showcases a brand new reverb space based on our unique Halo delay algorithm. From subtle ambience to cinematic space, the NOCTURNE allows players to create that same expressive, touch-sensitive bloom that trails effortlessly behind every note, without the cross-talk from echoes.

The NOCTURNE pedal gives you three new reverb modes — Nocturne, Spring, and Plate — each designed to be the guitar and amp’s perfect companion. The Plate reverb is based on our extensive analysis and modeling of the stereo tube plate reverb that was in Austin City Limits studio since the mid-1970s. The Nocturne’s Spring reverb features our finest sounds based on both stand alone reverb tanks and tube amplifier combos. The simple four-knob layout of Tone, Level, Decay, and Modulation makes it easy to shape each gorgeous reverb space. Each reverb mode can be made a preset so you can store your favorite sounds. Alt features include our first pre-delay time control, allowing you to create slapback echo effects.

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The NOCTURNE offers a flexible signal path with True or Buffered Bypass, Expression Pedal control, Remote Switching, and MIDI compatibility for up to 72 presets. Whether you’re running mono or stereo, wet/dry, or full wet for parallel rigs, the NOCTURNE adapts easily to any setup. Built on Keeley’s award-winning Core architecture, every component and line of code is tuned to make this reverb feel musical and alive.

Operation is easy with the Nocturne – if the indicator LED is blue then it's 'wysiwyg'; the knobs set the tone or level of each reverb mode. If the LED is red, each reverb is a favorite or preset, where you can save the settings for each reverb mode.

Like every Keeley pedal, the NOCTURNE Andy Timmons Reverb is designed and manufactured in Oklahoma, USA. Engineered for the working musician, and voiced for inspiration.

Features

• A Brand New Reverb -’Nocturne’ based on the Andy Timmons’ signature HALO sound
• Three reverb modes: Nocturne, Spring, Plate
• Intuitive four-knob control layout: Tone, Level, Decay, Modulation
• Store and recall presets with dedicated footswitch
• Trails on/off, True or Buffered Bypass selectable
• Expression and MIDI control with up to 72 preset locations
• Stereo outputs with Wet+Dry or Wet-only operation
• Made in the USA
• $269 USD

Dealer Contact:

Danny Black, Sales Director • Phone: 1-405-341-2025 • Email: dealer@rkfx.com Visit the Keeley Electronics website, on YouTube and on Facebook and Instagram.

What makes you want to buy a guitar? It could be a visual aspect like shape or colour, or maybe it’s the electronics or wood. For Keith Urban, it needs to pull an unusual riff out of him.

Urban, who has just launched his first ever live album, High And A(live), has been sharing his best tips for buying guitars, including what is most important to him. It doesn’t matter if a guitar is expensive or cheap, if he manages to play something entirely brand new on it, he’ll likely buy it.

• READ MORE: “She was always willing to confront her inabilities and work on them”: Keith Urban explains why he saw Taylor Swift’s huge potential when she supported him in 2009

He tells Guitarist in its new print issue, “I think maybe it’s about bonding with something. That’s all it is for me. l usually base it on if I pick it up and play it, and a riff or something comes out of the guitar that I’ve never played before, I get very excited about that particularly.

“It happens on really cheap guitars, too. I’ve walked into stores and found fairly cheap guitars, you know, for a couple hundred bucks, and kind of gone, ‘Wow, l’ve never played that riff before.’ Then maybe another riff comes out of it, and I go, ‘This guitar’s got some stuff in it.’ So l’ve bought guitars based on that,” he explains.

Asked if he’d rather buy a cheap guitar and an expensive amp, or vice versa, Urban responds, “The guitar comes first, but… Man, that’s a great question. I was going to try to give an answer, and I was like, ‘You don’t believe that, Keith’ [laughs]. Because, really, either one works.

“To me, ‘good’ is something that pulls something out of me that feels and sounds really good. Regardless of how much it is, what brand it is or anything about it, to me, that’s a good guitar. That beats tone,” he concludes. “Because the tone could be shitty and that’s actually part of the character of the guitar you just played.”

Keith Urban will go on tour in 2026. You can find out more via his official website.

The post Keith Urban says this is the best way to tell if you should buy a guitar: “I get very excited about that particularly” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Steve Stevens has recalled how Eddie Van Halen “shook up the world” when he rose to success, as shredding became an obsession – but with some unintended consequences for the rest of the guitar scene.

Stevens kicked off his own career in the 1980s, just as Van Halen were soaring, and remembers how record labels were looking to sing players who could tap and shred in the same style.

• READ MORE: The Guitar Influences of Eddie Van Halen

Stevens has worked with artists like Michael Jackson, Vince Neil, and prominently Billy Idol, as well as having worked on his own solo music. In an interview with Guitarist, he says he never gave into the pressure of shred-sanity, and still prefers “having a dialogue” with other band members on stage.

“I wasn’t from LA. I didn’t grow up watching Van Halen thinking, ‘Oh shit, what do we do now?’ A lot of guys did. Eddie shook up the world, no doubt. I became friends with him later, but I never wanted to play like him.

“Record labels were signing anyone who could tap and shred. The good ones, like Warren DeMartini and George Lynch, found their own voices, unlike guys that were just Eddie clones. But, really, my true love is collaborating on a good song.”

He continues, “I’m definitely not looking for my moment of glory three minutes into a song, waiting for the guitar solo. I enjoy being part of the band more than anything and having that dialogue with the guys on stage, playing and locking in with the drummer.”

Another guitarist who has recently reflected on the impact of Eddie Van Halen’s work is Steve Lukather, who was also a good friend of his. Speaking to Forbes, he said that Ed “changed the world”, but not everybody understood what he was about.

“People mistook him for a parlour trick because he did the tapping thing. He actually stumbled upon it by accident. It had been around for a while. He was in a trio, and filling up the sound is hard. Think Cream [with Eric Clapton],” Lukather said.

“Ed’s rhythm-playing and solos were like one fluid movement. I don’t think he ever played the same thing twice, and that used to drive the guys in the band crazy.”

You can find out more about Steve Stevens’ work via his official website.

The post Steve Stevens claims 80s guitar music suffered due to the obsession with finding “clones” of Eddie Van Halen: “Record labels were signing anyone who could tap and shred” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

We’ve entered into December proper. And, so, the herds of savings that stampeded around us across Black Friday and Cyber Week have completed their yearly migration, disappearing over the horizon as quickly as they came. But, deal hunters that we are, we move onto new pastures to find fresh savings to throw spears at and chase over cliffs. Metaphorically. And those new pastures are the pre-Christmas build-up sales, which are now in full swing at retailers like Sweetwater and zZounds. There are some awesome deals to be had on everything from stocking-stuffing pedals to dream guitars to reliable Boss classics – here are just a few.

Save $50 on the IK Multimedia ToneX One

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A pocket-sized pedal this may be, but there’s a whole universe of amplifier simulations within its miniscule enclosure. This bite-size pedal features 20 onboard Tone Model slots, allowing you to pick and choose from over 200 Premium Tone Models and more than 25,000 user-generated Tone Models via IK’s TONEX Librarian and ToneNET – that’s an unbelievable amount of flexibility, all for less ahead of the holidays.

Save $30 on the Boss RC-5

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This is my personal looper of choice – it’s a great balance between size and featureset, as it’s got an extensive set of on-board beats, storage options, and other nifty quality of life features, but it still functions just fine as a straight-ahead looper!

Save $310 on the PRS SE Hollowbody Standard Piezo Electric Guitar

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This innovative semi-hollow from PRS comes in the rather intriguing dog hair finish, which is a lot prettier to look at than you might think – with the accentuated, tight grain of the top providing an almost glittery effect. The guitar comes with all of the player-friendly ergonomics that you might expect from PRS, alongside a versatile set of sounds thanks to that unique piezo setup.

Save $30 on the Boss TU-3

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We don’t need to tell you why the TU-3 is great, and even greater at just under $80. It’s a fast, accurate, reliable tuner that’s housed in Boss’ ever-beloved compact series enclosure, and therefore will survive a direct hit from a nuclear missile, probably. No wonder it’s on so many professional and non-professional pedalboards alike!

Save $50 on the Boss Katana

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$299 for the Katana 50 Gen 3 is an extremely appealing deal. The Katana Gen 3 has excellent direct sounds, with a customisable signal path and effects chain thanks to robust software control. What’s more, it’s also more than capable of being used as a regular combo amplifier – the 50-watt version balances between power and portability, as it’s more than capable of all kinds of gigs thanks to its headroom and its direct capabilities, but it’s also a one-hand lift!

The post Guitar.com Deals Of The Week: pre-Christmas savings to stuff your stockings with appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.