Music is the universal language
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” - Luke 2:14
Norse Guitar Feeds
Learn to Setup Your Acoustic Guitar with MusicNomad’s Keep It Simple Setup Method
PRS Chleo SE Herman Li Signature Guitar Demo
DragonForce shred wizard’s signature SE is specialized but built for lightning speed.
The SE Chleo is the result of an intimate collaboration between PRS Guitars and award-winning guitar player Herman Li. Best known for his work as one of the lead guitar players in the power metal band DragonForce, Li is a demanding guitarist known for his fast and precise playing style. Based on the exclusive 2025 PRS Chleo Limited Edition, this SE signature model is a unique guitar in the PRS lineup designed with the modern metal guitarist in mind. The SE Chleo boasts the same Fishman Fluence Signature Series Omniforce Herman Li pickups as the Limited Edition that preceded it. With three distinct voices and a versatile switching system, the guitar offers up to 13 unique tone combinations.
“With the PRS SE Chleo, we set out to create the best affordable guitar that delivers a unique combination of effortless playability, outstanding craftsmanship, and versatile tonal range. It combines modern innovations with classic style, giving players the tools they need to create everything from classic tones to cutting edge new sounds. The SE Chleo proves that a world-class instrument doesn’t have to break the bank—it’s a guitar that brings high-end performance within reach for everyone,” said Herman Li.
In addition to the Charcoal Purple Burst and Orchid Dusk that the Limited Edition models were offered in, the SE Chleo introduces a third color, Mantis Burst.
The Hidden Cost of Your Guitar
How much does a hotdog cost? There really isn’t much to it. Have you ever looked at something and wondered why it costs what it does? How can a single Diet Pepsi from a convenience store cost $1.99? Why is a large coffee at Dunkin’ $3.00? You can pay almost $2.00 for a jug of that clear stuff that comes out of the tap at home—why is that?
I’m not suggesting that everything should be free, but I often hear guitarists complaining about how expensive gear is, with little understanding of why. On the other hand, I know there are those who revel in telling everyone how much their custom shop or vintage guitars are worth. Yes, it’s true that I make instruments that some feel are pricey—but my customers think the investment is worth it.
In both cases, and in the marketplace at large, musicians base their opinions on what? Market values? Emotional reaction to advertising? Some folks add up what they believe the cost of all the components is, but rarely understand what it actually takes to turn raw materials into products. A few of these people are the builders themselves—but that’s another story.
Of course, the answer is going to vary widely between big outfits churning out hundreds of guitars a day, and the neighborhood guitar hobbyist who builds a few instruments for friends and the occasional Instagram customer. The big ones are receiving thousands of board feet of lumber on 18-wheelers, or might even have their own railway sidings. Vendors can offer big discounts when the orders get large, or factories can reduce costs by making their own pickups, cases, and hardware. Small builders don’t have all these options, which affects the end cost. Still, it seems counterintuitive that some of the brands that benefit from economies of scale are also at the top of the price point. So what are you actually buying?
There are a lot of costs when an operation grows. Administrative costs balloon as a company expands. They’ve got to manage a lot of things that the backyard builder doesn’t. Employees mean paperwork and management headaches. Tax expertise, customer service, shipping, purchasing, accounting, and legal costs mount up. Once a business gets to a certain size, human resource acumen is required. OSHA and the EPA have thresholds above which a company is subject to more oversight and regulation. Naturally, this means even more management and cost.
“Prices for a lot of parts, services, and raw materials have increased—or even doubled since pre-Covid levels. Importing goods has become costlier lately, too.”
I’m not even going to get into the weeds about accounting stuff—like carrying costs, that include warehousing, labor, insurance, and capital costs. High carrying costs can negatively impact a company’s cash flow and profitability. Staying too lean might leave you exposed to supply chain snags.
At this point, it becomes even more essential to market your product. Sales staff are expensive—lots of travel and commissions. There’s a saying in business that a funny thing happens when you don’t advertise—nothing. So while a small shop might be kept busy with a steady stream of social media posts, the large outfit has to cast a big net. Now you’ve got a huge ecosystem to support, and a big ship is hard to maneuver if sales hiccup. A midsize shop might be able to do some of the required advertising production, but when campaigns get bigger—like worldwide—things get complicated and costly. Some large companies have in-house advertising departments, but others farm it out to ad agencies. Endorsers gravitate to small builders at the beginning of their careers, but often are enticed by more lucrative arrangements with prestigious brands once they become well-known or highly influential. Yes, big companies have artist relations departments, too. All that promo racks up costs.
The micro business—one that sells up to $1 million USD of goods at wholesale and typically has 20 or fewer employees—has a hard time competing. Larger firms that have the resources to buy at steep discounts can often out-market and out-sell them. Another factor for everyone is that prices for a lot of parts, services, and raw materials have increased—or even doubled since pre-Covid levels. Importing goods has become costlier lately, too.
What it comes down to is that it’s pretty expensive to be in manufacturing, no matter what size the company. The little guy has to be scrappy and watch every penny, but the big boys have the burden of a large nut to crack. I don’t believe that companies are out to gouge customers at the risk of losing them, but there is cost-cutting going on to entice musicians on tight budgets. All of this is invisible when you’re looking at a guitar on a website or hanging on the music shop wall, trying to decide if the object of your desire is worth the price. In the end, you’re gonna spend what you’ve got to spend.
NN Electric Guitars Unveils the IB Guitar
NN Electric Guitars, the independent workshop of luthier Nils Nord, announces the debut of the IB, a new handcrafted electric guitar model now available worldwide directly from the builder. Designed and built by Nord in his converted carpentry workshop—once an old pigsty—the IB reflects his lifelong fascination with restoring, repairing, and ultimately crafting guitars from scratch. The new model embodies his mission: to create instruments that offer an exceptional playing experience while looking and sounding equally impressive.
The IB features a body made from reclaimed old-growth pine, chosen not only for its age and character but also for its resonance and lightweight feel. It is finished in traditional nitrocellulose lacquer. The maple neck is paired with a smoked oak fretboard, offering a visually distinctive contrast and a naturally smooth playing surface. Built to a 24.75" scale length, the neck incorporates Dunlop 6105 jumbo frets and a 12” fretboard radius for confident bending and articulation.
The IB-model is available to customize with any pickup configuration, the electronics on the basic IB-model are centered around a single Lundgren P-90 pickup, delivering a broad dynamic range and characterful midrange response. Control is straightforward and traditional, using CTS pots and classic 50’s wiring to preserve purity of signal and touch sensitivity.
The guitar is fitted with a Faber compensated wraparound tailpiece for stable intonation and sustain, complemented by Grover open-gear tuners. Every IB is built, finished, wired, assembled, and detailed by hand by Nils Nord. Customization is available.
For more information about the IB or other instruments from NN Electric Guitars, visit www.nnelectricguitars.com
Price: €1850 EUR/$2150 USD
D’Addario Launches Neoprene Comfort Straps
D’Addario expands its strap lineup with the all-new Neoprene Comfort Strap, designed for musicians who need top-of-the-line instrument support and comfort for their heaviest guitars and basses. Featuring an ergonomic design and soft, breathable neoprene material, this strap molds seamlessly to the player’s body for a secure, customized fit, making it ideal for longer gigs and demanding performances.
Built for Support, Designed for Performance
The 3.5-inch-wide padded neoprene band is designed to evenly distribute the instrument's weight, significantly reducing shoulder load during long rehearsals or gigs. Its ergonomic curved profile promotes natural posture and stability, ensuring optimal back support whether standing or seated.
Players can choose between two adjustable options:
Leather End Version: Adjustable from 45” to 55” long.
Auto Lock® Version: Adjustable from 43” to 55” long, offering secure, quick-release performance.
Key Features
- 3.5” width for maximum comfort during standing performance
- Soft, breathable neoprene padding for superior weight distribution
- Ergonomic curve for added shoulder and back support
- Perfect for heavier instruments and extended sessions
- Available with standard leather ends or D’Addario’s Auto Lock system
Availability & Pricing
The D’Addario Neoprene Comfort Straps are available now through daddario.com and authorized retailers.
- Neoprene Comfort Strap (Leather Ends): $39.99
- Neoprene Auto Lock Strap: $49.99
For more information, visit: ddar.io/neoprenestrap-pr
The Wildest (& Versatile) Tone Bender Fuzz Yet?
A kingly serving of powerful, varied fuzz tones explode from this enhanced riff on the classic Tone Bender MK III template.
Sitting between the original vintage vibes of a 2-transistor fuzz and the over-the-top wall of sonic mayhem that is that 4-transistor Big Muff is the humble 3-transistor Tone Bender-style of fuzz known for being punchy with a unique sonic texture. The EHX Bender Royale is Electro-Harmonix’s new take on the Germanium MkIII version of the circuit with a ton of added flexibility to bend your tone even further. From thick and smooth to brash and spitty, the Bender Royale has a range of sounds all its own.
Housed in EHX’s Nano-sized chassis, the Bender Royale builds on a standard control set of VOL, FUZZ and BASS (originally Treble / Bass) controls for an authentic, familiar feel. The FAT switch adds bass and low-mids for tonal thickness. Use the BIAS knob to dial in a sweet spot for the perfect amount of rip or leave the circuit starving for voltage. Switching the CLIP switch from Ge to LED re-biases the final germanium transistor to produce a rougher edge on the fuzz tone. The TREBLE control is an active treble shelving filter used to rein in high frequencies. The BLEND knob mixes between your wet and dry signals and can be especially useful for maintaining clarity when using bass or stacking other drive pedals.
The Bender Royale employs mechanical relay true-bypass switching on a soft footswitch with selectable latching/momentary functionality. Tap the footswitch for normal latch switching function or press and hold for momentary blasts of fuzzy goodness.
The EHX Bender Royale comes equipped with a standard EHX 9 Volt power supply. It is available now and features a U.S. Street Price of $149.00.
Bender Royale Germanium Fuzz Pedal
Fuzz Guitar Pedal with Treble, Bass, Blend, Bias, and Fuzz Controls, Clip Switch, and Fat Switch
Who's the best? Who cares??
Guitarists are a funny lot, taken as a group. "Civilians" i.e., our spouses and friends will agree; my wife sure does. We tend to be VERY opinionated on just about everything music-related and even more so (if that's even possible!) when it comes subjects like: What is the best guitar? Is learning a song note-perfect really necessary or even worth the time and effort? But nothing comes close to the real biggie: Who is the "best" guitarist? After a while most guitarists realize there are way too many variables to answer that question definitively but it still gets asked.
That's only natural. Take sports, for example. It's easy to drown in an ocean of statistics. It's a great way to back up one's argument because most statistics in sports are beyond dispute. How those statistics are interpreted, that's where things get sticky. Music is a totally different beast. Sure, there are statistics like how many recordings are sold by a particular artist or how many times a song has been downloaded or streamed; how many weeks a song is popular based on those metrics, how many times it's been covered by other artists. Pre-orders of soon to be released recordings, selling out huge concert venues, appearances on TV. To an avid fan who is not a musician it would be natural to draw a line between popularity and expertise.
Is that fair, or even correct? From where I sit I must answer with a resounding NO. Last March and April I volunteered at a wonderful place, Fogartyville Community Media and Art Center in Sarasota, Florida. I will put in a link below and if you are going to be in the Sarasota area and are interested in learning more about this wonderful place I promise you will be impressed. I mostly checked in audience members and showed them to their seats at evening shows. The experience was all I'd hoped it would be and then some! The folks who run Fogartyville are warm and friendly; the place is truly a treasure. I'll most likely do it again this coming March and April, if they'll have me back ;~)
https://wslr.org/fogartyville/
The music I heard there was incredibly good, played by touring musicians and locals who were passionate about putting their craft in front of an audience. As you would imagine I was mostly listening to and watching the guitarists and wow, did I hear some good ones! Applying some metric about how well known they were relative to the quality of their playing would have been downright silly. Sure, most of them would probably like being more widely known and that was certainly one reason they were on the road.
But I would venture a bigger reason is something that non-musicians might not understand. For most professional musicians, putting yourself out there is really the only way to truly test yourself or put another way, determine just how "good" you really are.
We can practice diligently in the safety of our homes and there are ways to measure our progress. I encourage my students to use the memo app on their phones to make short recordings of what they are currently working on and save them in a file. BUT....do NOT listen to them! Wait at least a couple months, maybe more, then give them a good listen. In most cases you will hear some measure of improvement and regardless if that improvement is substantial or small you have a legit reason to pat yourself on the back. And no matter how much we may want to deny it, there are times when a good pat is just what we need.
Another quantitative way to measure our progress is using a metronome. For the last few years I've been urging all my students to use one. A metronome clicks and/or flashes and is set by selecting a beats-per-minute setting. Start slowly - considerably slower than what you hope the finished product will be. Fifty or even 40 beats per minute is a good place to start. Important: do NOT turn it on and just start playing in hopes of connecting with the beat, which is much more difficult than it may sound. Let the thing click away and begin counting sequences of beats. You'll most likely be in 4/4 time (4 beats per measure) and you will want to try sequences of three beats if the music is in 3/4. Count at least two measures before diving in. If you've never used a metronome before there will be moments when you want to throw the thing at the nearest wall. But with a bit of practice you'll get the hang of it. Beyond the fact that practicing with one will make you a better player if you want to play with others there is a more important benefit: You now have a solid way to measure your progress. Starting slow but after a practice session or two when you feel confident you can "lock in" at that slow beat, start increasing the speed gradually, something along the lines of just two to five bpm. Just like doing those recordings and listening to them much later you have a solid way to judge your progress.
But getting back to The Big Question: Who is the best player? I will give you my thoughts on that and I fully expect there will be those who disagree. A better question is: Which player makes me go - wow, I sure would like to be able to play like that! In the jazz world my favorite player is Martin Taylor (best guitar name ever!) who is generally considered to be the best finger-style jazz player on the planet. In blues, Keb' 'Mo is by far my favorite player. Keb can play any blues style and does it with grace and class and passion, plus he is a great singer. Among modern steel string acoustic players the late, great Tony Rice has been my favorite for decades and while there are many younger players who have learned that style very well (Billy Strings being the current champion) I will always admire Tony because he was the first to bring elements of jazz into the bluegrass realm along with the great David Grisman on mandolin. I don't really have a favorite among finger-style acoustic guitarists, which is strange as that style is what I mostly play.
On the other side of the coin.....Although he certainly has monster chops, Tommy Emmanuel is just a bit too over-the-top for me with his percussive style that sometimes seems like he's challenging his guitar to stay in one piece as he wails away on it. But I can see his appeal, especially to younger players who impressed by flashy playing. In the world of electric blues, Joe Bonamassa pretty much reigns supreme these days but to me he subscribes to the same rule book as Tommy E. in that he would much prefer to play a hundred fast notes where some might feel (me) that half as many played with deep feeling and phrasing might serve him better. I felt the same about the late Stevie Ray Vaughn. Repeating, though - I don't doubt for a second any of those guys have massive talent.
So.....see what I mean? Answering the question of who's the "best" I will leave to others. One thing is for certain. Bringing up that question among guitarists will surely spark some lively conversations!
Peace & good music,
Gene
Fender celebrates 50 years of Iron Maiden with new signature guitar collection – including an $11,000 Masterbuilt Strat for Dave Murray
As heavy metal legends Iron Maiden celebrate 50 years in the game after their formation in East London in 1975, Fender is celebrating the band’s Golden Anniversary with a new range of signature instruments for guitarists Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers, and bassist Steve Harris.
Specifically, the collection features a Fender Custom Shop Dave Murray Stratocaster, two limited-edition Fender Strats for Dave Murray and Janick Gers, a vintage-inspired Jackson for Adrian Smith and a new P Bass for Steve Harris.
- READ MORE: I’m finding the best Cyber Monday guitar deals in the US and UK across Thomann, Sweetwater and more
Custom Shop Masterbuilt Dave Murray Stratocaster – $11,000
Heading up the collection is the Fender Custom Shop Dave Murray Stratocaster, which celebrates his longstanding place in the band and contributions to all 17 of the group’s studio albums. The guitar is the result of close collaboration between Murray and Custom Shop Masterbuilder Andy Hicks.
“Dave Murray has always been my favourite guitar hero. Not only is his style absolutely brilliant but he also proved to me long ago that Fender absolutely belongs in the world of heavy metal,” says Hicks.
“It was an absolute honour to build this guitar for him and I will never get over the excitement of seeing my favorite player from my favorite band playing one of my guitars.”
In terms of specs, the ultra-high-end guitar – which will set you back a princely $11,000 – features a two-piece select alder body with an NOS Olympic White finish, oil-finished ‘60s-style Oval “C”-shaped walnut neck, flat-laminated 9.5”-14” compound radius rosewood fingerboard with 21 frets, with Seymour Duncan Hot Rails bridge and neck pickups and a JB Jr. middle pickup.
Other premium features include a Dave Murray signature neck plate, vintage-style tuners, a Fender Custom Shop strap and a certificate of authenticity.
Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Dave Murray Stratocaster – $1,799.99
If you’re a massive Maiden fan but don’t have 11 bands to drop, Fender has also unveiled the Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Dave Murray Stratocaster, which bears a far more manageable $1,799.99 price tag. This guitar features a trio of Seymour Duncan pickups, a compound-radius fingerboard and Floyd Rose R2 double-locking tremolo, and comes in a black finish and with a rosewood ‘board.
Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Janick Gers Stratocaster – $1,699.99
Celebrating the “technical precision and melodic sensibilities” Janick Gers has brought to Iron Maiden since joining the band in 1990, this 50th Anniversary Strat features a 7.25” radius rosewood fingerboard with vintage tall frets, as well as Seymour Duncan JB Jr. neck and bridge pickups, and a Fender Vintage-style synchronised tremolo with bent steel saddles. Finishing touches include a 50th Anniversary neck plate and Gers’ signature on the back of the headstock.
50th Anniversary Adrian Smith Jackson Pro Signature SC1 – $1,799.99
Dave Murray and Janick Gers have new signature guitars, but what about Adrian Smith. Well, he’s not been left out, and proudly shows off a new Jackson signature SC1. The guitar sports DiMarzio DP100 Super Distortion and Fender Noiseless Sumerian Cobalt pickups, a 12”-16” compound radius fingerboard, and a top-mounted Floyd Rose double-locking trem.
Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Steve Harris Precision Bass – $1,699.99
Fender calls Steve Harris “one of the most influential metal bassists alive”, and it’s hard to argue with such a declaration. To celebrate his enduring contributions to the genre, Fender has endowed him with a new signature P Bass, which sports a Satin Black finish, all-maple neck and body with a mirrored pickguard, as well as a split P Bass pickup, Fender Vintage Precision Bridge, Fender round-wound strings and Harris’s signature on the back of the headstock.
What does Fender say about Iron Maiden’s 50th Anniversary Guitar Collection?
“Honoring Iron Maiden’s fifty years of pushing heavy metal forward, this collection brings together the signature instruments that helped define their unmistakable sound,” says Max Gutnik, FMIC’s Chief Product Officer.
“From Dave Murray’s high-performance Stratocaster models and Janick Gers’ energetic, vintage-leaning Strat to Steve Harris’ unmistakable Precision Bass and Adrian Smith’s versatile Jackson SC1, each instrument carries the tone, feel, and power behind Maiden’s multi-guitar attack.
“These anniversary models are more than tributes; they are stage-ready tools built to inspire today’s players and the next generation.”
Learn more at Fender.
The post Fender celebrates 50 years of Iron Maiden with new signature guitar collection – including an $11,000 Masterbuilt Strat for Dave Murray appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
FMIC Celebrates Iron Maiden’s 50th Anniversary with New Signature Collection
In celebration of Iron Maiden’s landmark 50th Anniversary, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC) today announces new releases from the Fender Custom Shop, Fender® and Jackson® - series of instruments set to honour the iconic band’s influential and enduring legacy. Since forming in East London in 1975, the trailblazers, often credited with having pioneered the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) movement with their genre-defining sound and theatrical live performances, garnering a dedicated cult fanbase and selling more than 100 million records to date worldwide.
“Honoring Iron Maiden’s fifty years of pushing heavy metal forward, this collection brings together the signature instruments that helped define their unmistakable sound,” said Max Gutnik, FMIC’s Chief Product Officer. “From Dave Murray’s high-performance Stratocaster models and Janick Gers’ energetic, vintage-leaning Strat to Steve Harris’ unmistakable Precision Bass and Adrian Smith’s versatile Jackson SC1, each instrument carries the tone, feel, and power behind Maiden’s multi-guitar attack. These anniversary models are more than tributes; they are stage-ready tools built to inspire today’s players and the next generation.”
Across the group’s five-decade spanning career, guitarist Dave Murray has been a mainstay on Iron Maiden’s 17 studio albums; with climactic solos, galloping riffs, and the band’s renowned multi-guitar harmonies cementing Murray as one of heavy metal’s most legendary guitarists. Celebrating the artistry and talent that has remained instrumental in defining the group’s signature sound, Fender Custom Shop (FCS) Masterbuilder Andy Hicks teamed up with Dave Murray to create a stunning new incarnation of his favorite Fender guitar in the Limited Edition Masterbuilt Dave Murray Stratocaster®.
“Dave Murray has always been my favorite guitar hero. Not only is his style absolutely brilliant but he also proved to me long ago that Fender absolutely belongs in the world of heavy metal,” said Andy Hicks,Fender Custom Shop Masterbuilder. “It was an absolute honor to build this guitar for him and I will never get over the excitement of seeing my favorite player from my favorite band playing one of my guitars.”
To create the incredible Limited Edition Stratocaster®, Hicks worked closely with Murray to devise a high-performance guitar that could keep up with the rigors of global touring. Powerful, punchy and versatile, it boasts 21 medium jumbo stainless-steel frets and an oil-finished ‘60s-style Oval “C”-shaped walnut neck, offering exceptional comfort and effortless playability. Coupled with Murray’s tried and true combination of Seymour Duncan® Hot Rails® bridge and neck pickups and a JB Jr.™ middle pickup, it perfectly handles galloping rhythms and soaring leads. With premium parts upgrades, the unique and stylishly tasteful Stratocaster is flawlessly finished in NOS Olympic White.
Custom Shop Limited Edition Masterbuilt Dave Murray Stratocaster
($11,000.00 USD, £10,399.00 GBP, €12,199.00 EUR, $18,999 AUD, ¥1,790,800 JPY). The 2-piece select alder body is flawlessly finished in NOS Olympic White and is paired with an oil-finished ‘60s-style Oval “C”-shaped walnut neck for an incredibly comfortable, high-performance Strat®. With a flat-laminated, 9.5” to 14” compound radius rosewood fingerboard and 21 medium jumbo stainless-steel frets, this guitar plays effortlessly. Loaded with Murray’s tried and true combination of Seymour Duncan® Hot Rails® bridge and neck pickups and a JB Jr.™ middle pickup, this Strat is powerful, punchy and perfect for intricate, galloping rhythm parts and soaring leads. To keep up with the rigors of global touring, Murray and Hicks landed on a combination of premium parts upgrades ranging from the addition of an AxLabs® Tone Claw Locking Spring Claw and Heavy Duty Noiseless Springs to suite of FU-Tone components (42mm Big Brass Block and Tremolo Stopper, Titanium String Lock Screws, Saddle Mounting Screws, Nut Clamp Screws, Lock Nut Blocks, Saddle Inserts and Bridge Posts). After road-testing this latest incarnation of his favorite Fender, it’s easy to see why the Limited Edition Masterbuilt Dave Murray Stratocaster® is his new #1. Other premium features include Dave Murray signature neckplate, vintage-style tuners, Fender Custom Shop strap and certificate of authenticity.
Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Janick Gers Stratocaster
As Iron Maiden celebrate their landmark 50th Anniversary, they remain one of heavy metal’s most influential and enduring forces. Defined by galloping bass lines, multi-guitar harmonies, operatic vocals and the ever-evolving presence of their iconic figurehead “Eddie,” the band’s unmistakable sound has inspired generations of fans around the world. With 17 studio albums and more than 100 million records sold, their legacy continues to shape the evolution of metal five decades on.
($1,699.99 USD, £1,449 GBP, €1,749 EUR, $2399 AUD, ¥220,000 JPY) Janick Gers joined Iron Maiden in 1990, bringing his explosive energy and dynamic playing style to the band’s distinctive multi-guitar attack. Known for his energetic stage presence—featuring dramatic spins and guitar-flinging showmanship—Gers has contributed technical precision and melodic sensibilities to Iron Maiden’s sound for over three decades. The 50th Anniversary Iron Maiden Janick Gers Stratocaster comes in a classic Black finish and includes a 7.25” radius rosewood fingerboard with vintage tall frets and Seymour Duncan® JB Jr.™ neck and bridge pickups. Other features include a Fender® Vintage-style Synchronized Tremolo with bent steel saddles, 50th Anniversary neck plate and Gers’ signature on the back of the headstock. Offered in Rosewood Fingerboard, Black finish. Fender.com online exclusive guitar.
Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Dave Murray Stratocaster
($1,799.99 USD, £1,499 GBP, €1,799 EUR, $2,999 AUD, ¥291,500 JPY) Dave Murray’s iconic Stratocaster models have part-shaped the band’s distinctive multi-guitar attack for decades. Combining the best features of Dave’s favorite Fender guitars – three Seymour Duncan® pickups, compound-radius fingerboard and a Floyd Rose® R2 double-locking tremolo – the 50th Anniversary Iron Maiden Dave Murray Stratocaster delivers legendary tone, superb feel and an iconic look that has been center stage throughout the band’s historic career. Offered in Rosewood Fingerboard, Black finish.
Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Steve Harris Precision Bass
($1,699.99 USD, £1,699 GBP, €1,999 EUR, $2,799 AUD, ¥275,000 JPY) Steve Harris’ dynamic basslines have made him one of the most influential metal bassists alive. Harris has stayed true to his battle-hardened Fender® Precision Bass® over the years, and his new 50th Anniversary signature model now comes in an elegant Satin Black finish with an all-maple neck and body with complementing mirrored pickguard. Other ironclad features include a powerful Precision split P Bass® pickup, Fender® Vintage Precision Bridge, Fender® round-wound strings and Harris’ signature on the back of the headstock. A set of Rotosound® Steve Harris Signature flat-wound strings are included in the gig bag. Available in Maple Fingerboard, Satin Black finish.
50th Anniversary Adrian Smith Jackson SC1
Adrian Smith’s guitar legacy spans Iron Maiden’s most defining eras, from the band’s breakthrough albums in the 1980s through decades of global touring that have anchored their place in metal history. As the architect behind some of metal's most memorable solos and a master of the band's signature multi-guitar harmonies, Smith's deep understanding of tone and performance drives every aspect of this instrument's design. For this 50th Anniversary tribute, Adrian personally selected his favorite guitar elements from Jackson's extensive lineup, creating an instrument that embodies the tonal versatility and performance reliability he demands both in the studio and on stage.
($1,799.99 USD, £1,499 GBP, €1,799 EUR, $2,999 AUD, ¥264,000 JPY) Adrian Smith’s iconic SC1 has shaped the band’s distinctive multi-guitar attack for decades. Combining the best features of Adrian’s favorite Jackson guitars – DP 100 DiMarzio® and Fender®’s Noiseless™Sumerian Cobalt pickups, 12-16” compound-radius fingerboard and a top mounted Floyd Rose® double-locking tremolo – the 50th Anniversary Iron Maiden Adrian Smith Jackson SC1 delivers legendary tone, superb feel and an iconic look that has been center stage (or stage right!) throughout the band’s historic career.
Ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist didn’t enjoy performing Whiskey in the Jar with Metallica: “They said, ‘When we do this, we tune our guitars a whole tone down.’ I thought, ‘A whole tone? The guitar is going to sound like a f**king banjo!’”
Former Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell apparently did not relish the time he joined Metallica onstage for Whiskey in the Jar, the very song he helped turn into a hard-rock staple decades earlier.
Whiskey in the Jar began life as a traditional Irish folk tune, and it wasn’t until 1972 that Bell electrified it with Thin Lizzy, reshaping the song into a swaggering rock anthem complete with its now-iconic guitar solo.
More than twenty years later, Metallica reimagined the track for their 1998 covers album Garage Inc., giving it a heavier, grittier edge and introducing the song to a new generation of fans around the world.
Speaking with Guitar World, Bell revisits the unexpected moment he found himself performing the song alongside James Hetfield and co in Dublin – and shares why the whole experience never quite clicked for him.
“I didn’t know anything about Metallica. I’m not into that kind of music, really,” Bell begins. “But it was funny; they got in touch with me. Someone from their setup phoned me and said, “I work with Metallica. We’re doing a world tour. Would love to have you come along to play with us in Dublin and do Whiskey in the Jar.”
“I said, ‘Can you email me what’s going on?’ He said, ‘Have you heard Metallica’s version of Whiskey in the Jar?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘What planet are you living on?’ I said, ‘Jupiter.’ [Laughs] Anyway, this courier arrived on a motorbike about two days later, and he had quite a few records, cassettes and DVDs of Metallica doing Whiskey in the Jar.”
Recalling his reaction to the material, the guitarist says, “It was okay. But once we got to Dublin, the thing that threw me was, I was trying out this Marshall amp, and Metallica walked in sort of like cartoons. They said, ‘Hey, man, when we do this, we tune our guitars a whole tone down.’ I thought, ‘A whole tone? The guitar is going to sound like a fucking banjo…’ But I don’t know; I didn’t really know them.”
When asked whether he actually enjoyed the performance, Bell admits that the moment never sat comfortably with him.
“No. I mean, it was okay,” he says, noting that the tuning mismatch threw him off throughout the song. “I just felt a bit out of place, especially as my guitar was in standard tuning and I was playing along in F instead of G. That’s the only thing that was in my head because I didn’t tune my guitar a whole tone down. If I had the chance again, I’d tune it down because it was tricky playing it in F!”
The post Ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist didn’t enjoy performing Whiskey in the Jar with Metallica: “They said, ‘When we do this, we tune our guitars a whole tone down.’ I thought, ‘A whole tone? The guitar is going to sound like a f**king banjo!’” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I thought I could just give all my problems away and start over”: John Fogerty recalls giving away his prized ‘ACME’ Rickenbacker guitar to a 12-year-old after Creedence fell apart
John Fogerty has looked back on the time he gave away his legendary ‘ACME’ Rickenbacker electric guitar to a 12-year-old kid during the darkest days of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s breakup, in hopes it might help him start afresh.
Speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Fogerty reflects on the emotional spiral that followed the band’s split – and how giving away the guitar felt, at the time, like a way to shed the weight of everything falling apart.
Reflecting on the guitar’s origins, Fogerty explains that he bought the Rickenbacker in early 1969 and immediately began modding it into something uniquely his own.
“It was a Rickenbacker, but I made a bunch of changes to it because I found some things lacking with the standard model,” he says [via Ultimate Guitar]. “The most important thing was, I put a humbucker pickup from a Gibson Les Paul.”
“I’d heard about these fellas over in England; there was quite a mystique. They were Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton… And it really helped. And when I got done, I changed the nameplate and hand-painted ‘ACME’ right there.”
By the early ’70s, CCR’s internal tensions had reached a breaking point.
“So the Credence Clearwater Revival thing had its run, and then, I guess, fellas just didn’t know how to have fun or something,” Fogerty recalls. “I wrote a song called Have You Ever Seen the Rain. That was about the band breaking up. It just seemed like I was certainly pushing to achieve these heights of the music business, and everybody was getting more and more miserable. Don’t ask me why. Maybe it’s human nature.”
When the band finally dissolved around 1972, Fogerty found himself emotionally gutted: “I was pretty forlorn,” says the musician. That’s when a young kid – about 12-years-old – approached him at the band’s headquarters and asked if he could have one of Fogerty’s guitars.
“He comes to me one day, says, ‘John, can I have one of your guitars?’ And I suppose, thinking that I could just give all my problems away and start over, I took this guitar and gave it to that kid,” says Fogerty. “I didn’t see it for a long, long, long time, 44 years.”
Fogerty was eventually reunited with the Rickenbacker thanks to his wife, Julie, who quietly set out to find it after decades away.
“Unbeknownst to me, just a few years ago, my beautiful wife Julie went searching far and wide for this guitar,” he says. “She finally found it in Ohio, and she got it home, put it under the Christmas tree, and that’s how I got it back.”
Watch the full interview below.
The post “I thought I could just give all my problems away and start over”: John Fogerty recalls giving away his prized ‘ACME’ Rickenbacker guitar to a 12-year-old after Creedence fell apart appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“Legends never die”: Ross revived under Bud Ross’s grandson with new Era 6 pedals after failed JHS relaunch
After last year’s short-lived and turbulent JHS revival, Ross is officially entering a new chapter. The brand has resurfaced with the announcement of its upcoming Era 6 pedal line, and this time, the company is back in family hands.
Cameron Ross, grandson of founder Bud Ross, has taken over the reins, bringing the storied effects name back under the Ross lineage. “I am the Captain now,” Cameron writes in a post on Ross’s official Instagram page.
The message goes on to thank players, collectors, and fans for shaping the return through years of passion and honest critique, adding that Ross Era 6 pedals have been rebuilt with “modern engineering” while staying true to the “warmth and character of the originals”.
“We’re starting with the core line you know and love – Compressor, Distortion, Chorus, Phaser, Fuzz – each rebuilt with player-driven improvements and the exacting standards of modern pedal design. Expect refined circuits, rugged builds, and updated features that make them more versatile and gig-ready than ever,” the post continues.
The Instagram announcement also confirms a Cyber Monday perk: all email subscribers will receive 10% off their first Era 6 preorder when the window opens.
Responding to comments, Cameron confirms that the pedals’ classic colours will remain untouched (“all colours will stay the same as the originals”). The new units will also be smaller to better fit pedalboards, with “internal enhancements” (“We listened to all the critiques and have implemented them in the new design”) and additional features to be detailed on the upcoming website.
This reboot follows the abrupt end of the JHS-led revival last November, when the company pulled the plug just 18 months after reviving the Ross line. Despite an explosive debut – 4,500 pedals sold in August 2023 – sales collapsed in 2024, with only 333 units moved all year.
JHS founder Josh Scott later described the project as a “leech” on his time and energy, announcing JHS would step away from legacy brand revivals entirely and return full focus to its own pedals.
The post “Legends never die”: Ross revived under Bud Ross’s grandson with new Era 6 pedals after failed JHS relaunch appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I’ve never felt like I could do something that a Martin couldn’t do” Jason Isbell on the magic of Martin guitars
“It’s been a good week!” Guitar.com is catching up with Jason Isbell just days after he’s celebrated some pretty important milestones. Firstly, he’s been honoured with a pair of new Martin signature acoustic guitars (more on that later) but the 46-year-old musician has also just received a trio of Grammy nominations for the album that inspired said instruments, Foxes In The Snow. A very good week indeed.
But despite Isbell’s Grammy nomination total now reaching a whopping 11 overall (with six wins) he’s keen to dismiss any notion that it’s any less special to receive the nod than when he was first nominated a decade ago.
“Oh, no – no!” he repeats for emphasis. “It’s always really exciting, but I’m kind of one of those people who think like, if you’re not going to get upset when those things don’t happen, you can’t get too excited when they do, y’know? It’s a wonderful thing. And it makes me feel really good, very excited. It gives me a reason to go to the Grammys, which I love. But it can’t be a fundamental thing because if it ever stops, then you don’t want to get down on yourself.”
Isbell has a shelf fairly stacked with various kinds of awards of course, but he admits that there’s something about a Grammy nod that feels special.
“It’s great because it’s like everybody knows the Grammys, you know?” Isbell adds. “There are other awards that make you just as excited, but then your cousins don’t know what that means. And your girlfriend’s family doesn’t care. But when you get nominated for a Grammy, everybody knows that. So they all reach out! That’s really nice. And once you’re a ‘Grammy-nominated songwriter’, you’ll always be that. If you have one, then they can say that before you go on stage!”
Image: Press
Snow Business
Foxes In The Snow is an album that strips Isbell back to the bare necessities – him, his voice, and a 1940 Martin 0-17. For the last decade Isbell’s work has primarily been presented alongside his band, The 400 Unit – it was a contrast that presented its own challenges to Isbell.
“It is different,” he admits. “I love working with other people and I love a level of collaboration. I normally do better if I’m calling most of the shots or if I’m being told what to do – anything in between can be difficult. But it is different because there’s a risk there.
“You don’t have a lot of people that are going to say what they really think about the work when it’s just you and a guitar and one or two other people in the studio. So I relied a lot on Gena [Johnson], who helped me produce this record and engineered it. She did a beautiful job with that.”
We wonder if the acclaim and awards nods mean a little bit more because of that – because this is Isbell at his most distilled.
“A big part of it is just believing in the work that you’re doing and trying to sort of hold back too much self-criticism,” Isbell observes. “And I think for that reason, yeah, it is nice to get that sort of affirmation from the public at large or from the Academy.”
Image: Press
Perfectly Formed
The story of Foxes In The Snow is inextricably linked to the 0-17 he used to record it – a guitar that has provided the basis for the two new signature models he’s produced with Martin.
That the guitar is an all-mahogany small-bodied affair is interesting in and of itself. Isbell’s first signature with Martin was an unapologetically loud Dreadnought, while he’s been a fan of spruce-topped OMs and 000s in the studio recently.
The shift to an all-mahogany smaller-bodied instrument was originally one of convenience – he wanted a guitar to keep in his girlfriend’s New York apartment that would neither take up too much space or disturb her neighbours. It became much more than that however.
“I think it’s easy for us to defer to a spruce top and a bigger guitar,” he reflects. “But if you take everything else away and you’re just playing one instrument, the small mahogany body will really do everything that you need. As long as it’s comfortable enough to play, then you can get all the dynamics that you want out of a guitar that size.”
Still, the plan wasn’t always to make the 0-17 the voice of the record – it just ended up being perfect regardless.
“When I went into the studio, initially, I didn’t know that I was going to use this guitar for the whole record,” Isbell recalls. “I brought some other guitars. I brought an old D-18 in there. And the other guitars just didn’t work as well. They just sort of ate up all the frequency range.
“I think if I was making a guitar-driven record that was instrumental or really just meant to be listened to by guitar players, I think that it might have worked better to have a bigger, louder guitar. But, since I was trying to come at it from a singer-songwriter perspective, this guitar sat in the mix perfectly.”
Image: Press
Step Brothers
The new guitars that Martin has made with Isbell lean heavily into the magic that was revealed in that 0-17 on Foxes In The Snow – “if you want to know what a good Martin 0-17 sounds like, I don’t know that you’re going to find a better mic’d example,” the guitarist proudly declares – but from very different ends of the spectrum.
The 0-17 Jason Isbell spares no expense in its attempt to replicate the 1940 original – even going so far as to spec the guitar with a genuine Brazilian rosewood bridge and fingerboard just like the original. A production guitar – even one limited to just 100 pieces – using genuine Braz here in 2025 is a special and rare thing indeed, making the $4,999 pricetag seem rather reasonable considering.
The guitar also uses Sinker Mahogany (from trees that were originally logged in Belize in the 1920s) for the body to get even closer to the materials that would have been used to make this guitar in the Golden Era, while also meticulously recreating the original’s unique and somewhat unconventional neck profile.
All this was done, says Isbell, to ensure that the guitar would give its prospective owners (and himself) a guitar that replicated the feeling he gets when he holds a good Martin guitar in his hands.
“I’ve never felt like I could do something that a Martin couldn’t do,” Isbell enthuses. “You know, it’s kind of like my laptop. Especially with the really good old ones or the nice Custom Shop new ones. It’s like I’m doing emails on here, and this thing could operate a city or an automobile, y’know?
“And so I think that’s it – you don’t want your tools to create the ceiling. You want your creativity to create the ceiling and the tools should be able to follow you there. And that’s always been the case for me with Martins.”
The added benefit for Isbell himself, of course, is that the new guitars give him the freedom to alter them in ways that suit a working touring musician in a way that he’d never dream of doing to a Golden Era guitar.
“I take the same care of them, whether they’re new ones or old ones,” he reveals. “But I’m not going to drill holes in a pre-war Martin and start putting electronics in it and stuff. And so, I’ve actually had both of these, the 0-10 and the 0-17 out on tour with me some, and they held up really well. They did a good job, and I still take them out and use them, and will for a long time, I’m sure. If you’ve got some songs and a good way to deliver them you could make a living just with this guitar and a set of car keys.”
Image: Martin Guitar
The Affordable Alternative
It’s not all about high-end instruments though, the 0-10E Jason Isbell is part of Martin’s Road Series and as such is much more of an accessible option for those wanting to get some of that mahogany mojo. The decision to go for two options comes from Isbell’s experience with his original dreadnought, which was priced above the means of most fans.
“This time around, I felt like a version that was more accessible would be a good idea because I didn’t want to split the difference,” Isbell explains. “I feel like there wouldn’t be as much of a purpose in making one that was sort of in the middle of the road. I wanted one version that was as close to the old guitars we could get and then, one version that sort of had the spirit of that guitar, but was a lot more affordable.”
The Road Series are made at Martin’s Mexican factory, and while some purists might turn their noses up at a non-US guitar, Isbell gives such snobbery short shrift.
“Working with somebody like Martin makes that a whole lot easier,” he explains. “Because they have a big skilled workforce. And I think the guitar builders in Mexico get a bad rap. I worked with Fender on a Telecaster that was made in Mexico. And they did a great job on that guitar. I think it was the first double-bound Tele that they had made in the factory, and they knocked it out of the park. Those are great guitars!
“So I think part of that is bias, and I think people pay for their biases too sometimes. Not necessarily with Martin, but with a lot of companies. I think people will pay more to reinforce the incorrect opinions that they already have.
“But, this guitar, I’ve got both of them sitting here next to me right now. And, you know, there is a difference. The finish is clearly a little bit different. The neck is a little bit different. But, I think that comes down more to preference than it does to quality, because the neck on the 0-10 is faster! It’s a slimmer neck, and it plays a little bit faster to me. I think it would be more comfortable for someone who wasn’t as used to playing bar chords on a big round neck.
“I don’t think anybody could have done a better job on a guitar at that price point at making it reminiscent of the pre-war Martin, for sure. It definitely has that vibe to it. I could take this Mexican-made version out and play it on tour and nobody would know the difference.”
The through-line for both of these instruments is understated elegance – they are not ‘look at me’ guitars, and that’s very much the point.
“When somebody performs, you want to be able to immerse yourself in the experience,” Isbell asserts. “And I think either one of these guitars does a really, really good job of contributing to the experience, but not becoming the main character, y’know?
“And I like that. I like a guitar where non-guitar players think is ‘that’s a guitar’ y’know? I don’t want them to think, ‘What the hell is that? That guitar looks crazy!’ I don’t want that – I’ve got business to attend to. I want to sing songs. If you came to the show, I would just like you to only know, I’m up there, playing a guitar, y’know?”
Find out more about Jason Isbell’s Martin collection at martinguitar.com/jasonisbell
The post “I’ve never felt like I could do something that a Martin couldn’t do” Jason Isbell on the magic of Martin guitars appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
My Latest Guitar - A Concert Size Stella Guitar
The top is Sitka spruce, the back and sides are black cherry from Missouri and the neck is Port Orford cedar.
Unlike my old guitar, this guitar will have a slotted head stock, I have made too many classical guitars to make a neck any other way! Cutting out the headstock slots with a vintage coping saw.
A very simple rosette adorns this guitar top!
The Autumn Defense: Sons of the Triangle
The Autumn Defense was in the zone. They had permanent smiles on their faces all night as they played on a chilly October evening at the Barns at Wolftrap, just outside Washington, D.C. It didn’t hurt that the venue’s PA, in the house and onstage, sounded terrific. However, what may have been more critical was the fact that, for Pat Sansone, John Stirratt, and their rhythm section, comprising Jim Haggerty on bass and Greg Wieczorek on drums and vocals, the band was playing music from their first new record in 11 years. Their joy was palpable, and the crowd soaked it up.
Stirratt and Sansone may be best known for their contributions to Wilco. John Stirratt is the group’s founding bass player and the only musician in the lineup to stood alongside Jeff Tweedy throughout the band's entire history. Pat Sansone joined Wilco in 2004 as a multi-instrumentalist, but he’s most fun to watch and listen to when he straps on an electric guitar. Sansone strikes rock poses, swirling around the stage like a fencer, his guitar slicing through the air like a riposting foil as he solos. These moves aren’t an affect. Legendary music producer Bob Johnston once chuckled as he said of Bob Dylan: “He can’t help what he’s doing. He’s got the Holy Spirit about him; you can look at him and tell that!” That’s Sansone with a Telecaster slung over his shoulder.
“I was affected by the proximity of cool guitars right in my house.” —John StirrattFew recall that Autumn Defense actually predates Sansone’s arrival in Wilco. They debuted this duet project in 2000 (Stirratt’s first name for the band was April Defense, but Sansone redirected). Their latest record, Here and Nowhere, is the band’s seventh.
From the Byrds to the Beach Boys, Stirratt and Sansone have long drawn on Southern California pop as a reference point. At Wolftrap, they encored with Love’s “A House Is Not a Motel,” from their 1967 album, Forever Changes. It may be surprising, then, that these two men actually hail from deep inside what music journalist James L. Dickerson coined the Mojo Triangle: a swath of the Deep South that birthed nearly every form of American music, including blues, jazz, country, gospel, and rock ’n’ roll. These invisible boundaries —from Nashville to Memphis, down into Mississippi, over to New Orleans, then northeast up to Muscle Shoals, Alabama —form the cradle of the country’s entire musical heritage. Pat is from Meridian, Mississippi, and John was born and raised in New Orleans. As I learned when I hopped onto Zoom for a ninety-minute chat with them, they were both steeped in musical families.
Stirratt’s parents played music together around the Crescent City until they started raising children. Throughout Stirratt’s life, his father was a banjo player who gigged in Dixieland-style bands across New Orleans. “As a seven- or eight-year-old, I remember crawling around in my parents’ closet with my twin sister,” Stirratt recalls, “and they had amazing guitars in there, like an old Kay from the ’40s and a Gibson LG-0 from the late ’50s. I can still recall opening the cases and that musty smell drifting out of them. There was definitely a moment of discovery there that turned into an obsession for us. So, I was affected by the proximity of cool guitars right in my house.”
Stirratt and his sister, he continues, “started playing in bands very early, in junior high school. My mom stopped playing out at some point, shortly after we were born, but our dad played his whole life, up until the week he died. Our whole lives, there was music everywhere. My dad had big fake books filled with Dixieland jazz tunes, and our mother was deep into country music. I recall a lot of Emmylou Harris playing in our house—mid-period, like Roses in the Snow. That was like a primer for me for country music. Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton were on that record, and Willie Nelson, too.”
“As a teenager in the 1980s in Meridian, in my head, I was really living in London in 1967.” —Pat Sansone
Up in Meridian, Mississippi, just west of the Alabama border and 200 miles from Stirratt, Sansone was raised in a Mojo Triangle family simmering in a cauldron of music. “Show business and performance were just central to my family's life,” he says. “Meridian is the home of Peavey Electronics and Jimmie Rodgers,” he remembers. “My mother had a great voice. When she was pregnant with me, she was doing some singing on demos for some of the studios in Muscle Shoals, and she also sang jazz. My grandmother had an incredible voice and a great ear; she could sit down and play anything after hearing it once. She was a regular on several radio shows doing Western swing and pop songs. And my dad was a concert promoter in town. One of our close family friends was Chris Etheridge, who played with the Flying Burrito Brothers and Willie Nelson.”
He continues, “I suppose every city has music in it, but Meridian had a real musical spirit about it, and I grew up in a unique situation where music and performance were celebrated. I never really questioned it; it was a normal way of life. But to really see it, I had to leave and come back. Because as a teenager in the 1980s in Meridian, in my head, I was really living in London in 1967. That was my dream world.” Sansone laughs. “The irony of that is in my career as a professional musician, I’ve met some British rockers from the ’60s who were dreaming that they were from Mississippi.
Sansone continues reflecting: “As a young kid, as soon as I could walk, I was in the Temple Theater with my dad while he was working. So it seeped inside of me from the very beginning. I have memories of standing in the wings as a child watching Ray Charles rehearse his band, and moments like Jerry Reed and Carl Perkins trading licks at a soundcheck. I do remember the first time I ever put a Stratocaster around my neck. I was onstage as Helen Reddy was getting ready to play, and her guitar player could see that I was eyeing his Fender. He was kind enough and patient enough to let me try it; I could play ‘Twist and Shout’ by that point. And when I heard and felt the power of a D chord come out of an amp, that’s a moment I’ll always remember.”
Their early days of acquiring gear were a very local affair. “My teen years were the glory days, when you could walk into a pawn shop and pick up a Marshall or a Peavey very cheaply,” Stirratt remembers. “There was no vintage market yet. My first amp was a Peavey Musician with the silver knobs; it was loud and powerful.”
Sansone concurs, “My dad took me down to Peavey in Meridian and I picked out a Peavey guitar and a Peavey Renown amp straight from the factory floor. My dad knew Hartley Peavey. When dad first started promoting shows, he had purchased one of Peavey’s first PA systems out of Hartley’s garage. Here’s the funny thing: I was such a Who freak that I recall a photograph of Townshend when he was recording Rough Mix with Ronnie Lane, and it looks like Pete is playing through a Fender tweed Bassman, but it’s actually a Peavey amp. Supposedly, one of Townshend’s main studio amps at that time was a Peavey. When I discovered that, I just about shouted with joy. I couldn’t believe it.”
“I have memories of standing in the wings as a child watching Ray Charles rehearse his band, and moments like Jerry Reed and Carl Perkins trading licks at a soundcheck.” —Pat Sansone
That passion carries over into the guitars they play. Sansone is quick to tell me that Autumn Defense doesn’t set out to make ’70s-sounding music. But they don’t shy away from it either, especially because it fits their voices and writing styles. That means old guitars, too. “We have an appreciation for the past musically and sonically,” Sansone says. “So using vintage guitars and mics has always been part of that process.”
On the road, Stirratt travels with his trusty 1967 Gibson Hummingbird. “I bought it in 1995 at Gruhn’s in Nashville the week that Wilco’s first record, AM, came out,” he tells me. “I love the sound of a Gibson. It’s been my mainstay, and since I mostly only play acoustic in this band, it fits nicely into the mix. We can sculpt it so it doesn’t have too much bottom end like a J-200 might.”
Sansone mainly uses a 20-year-old Breedlove for his acoustic work during Autumn Defense shows. “It’s based on a Martin OM that Breedlove built to my specs, and we kept it super simple. It’s a great all-purpose guitar; it just kind of does everything, perfect for fingerpicking, and it’s a great strummer. In Autumn Defense, we don’t have roadies or even a tour manager, so we have to travel light and keep our live situation pretty tight. So that’s the one [acoustic] guitar I take.”
For an electric, Sansone travels with a Bill Nash T-Style that he has owned for about 15 years, featuring a rosewood fingerboard and a sonic blue finish. “It’s based on a 1961 neck,” he says, “like a soft V shape. It feels nice and the pickups sound nice, it just does what I need it to do.”
The recording studio is where the vintage gear really matters. Stirratt didn’t want to bring any of his old guitars from his home in Maine to Tennessee, so he recorded with axes already in the Nashville studio where they laid down the tracks. “That’s the thing about Nashville,” quips Sansone, who lives in Music City. “They’re everywhere. My HVAC guy has great guitars!”
Since Sansone is a local, he brought his 1956 Gibson Country Western and a vintage Martin D-18, both of which “record wonderfully.” There’s a lot of nylon-string guitar on Here and Nowhere, and it comes courtesy of “a $150 Takamine that I bought 15 years ago,” Sansone says. “I have some other, more expensive nylon-string guitars, but I keep coming back to that Takamine. It sounds incredible.”
The musicians draw a straight line between the kind of guitars they first discovered during their childhoods and the sonic vibe they strive to capture in Autumn Defense. “Our big influences came from sitting around playing songs from Love, America, Scott Walker, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and David Crosby’s first solo album,” Sansone says. “That kind of stuff is the sonic framework that we love. It’s specific, but it’s also very broad. We want to be authentically expressive in our songwriting and our record-making.”
Stirratt jumps in, “Those records all have a shared atmosphere. And listening to that stuff, that’s generally when I’m inspired, and want to pick up an old guitar and try to write a song. I may not be actively chasing what those records are doing, but it’s where I’m going to go—into a warm atmosphere of, perhaps, potential longing or something. That’s the zone I’m looking for whenever I pick up a guitar.”
The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 156
It’s the 156th episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps, the call-in show where amp tech Skip Simmons fields your questions on all things tube amps. This week: Special guest Jack Weston joins us with a great Allman Brothers story.
Thank our sponsors: Grez Guitars; Emerald City Guitars and Amplified Parts.
Some of the topics discussed this week:
:43 What’s on Skip’s Bench: a Fender Princeton with reversed input jacks
5:41 Special Guest: Jack Weston, author of ‘The Allman Brothers Band: Classic Memorabilia, 1969-1976’ (Amazon link)
46:17 The Magnatone Triplex; ultralinear output stages, redux; Bob Wills’ The Tiffany Transcriptions
47:35 Raising kids and running a small business; tractor rollovers
51:13 A cooking baffler: Potatoes cooked in resin
52:30 Will my Airline 9003 amp kill me?
55:11 Traynor YGL-3A amps
56:43 Is it possible for a fuse to blow when the amp is fine? Best-case scenarios for a speaker mismatch? Jerry Portnoy’s autobiography, ‘Dancing with Muddy’ (Amazon link)
1:03:02 Movie recommendations: Come See Me in the Good Light; The Lost Bus
1:05:28 The greatest Thanksgiving side dish of all-time? A corn-bread concoction; the 2026 Fretboard Summit (www.fretboardsummit.org); the TAVA Cookbook (Dropbox link)
1:07:37 Good goo: Oxalic acid/wood bleach (Amazon link); Permalac sealer
1:10:43 Using a 6SL7 as a long tail pair
1:13:03 Amps made with 6N2P pre-amp tubes and 6N6P power tubes? Ashen amps
1:15:16 The resurrection of Australia’s GoldenTone amps? https://goldentone.com.au/
1:18:39 What should I do with this West Mini IR combo amp?
1:23:37 Hopefulness and despair with a reissue Twin Reverb and a Silverface Champ
1:31:06 What should I do with my Wilcox Gay Recordio recorder
1:38:31 A Califone SP-30 powered speaker; chili
Want amp tech Skip Simmons’ advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Want to share your top secret family recipe? Need relationship advice? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com! Include a photo, too.
Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal.
Don’t forget, we have a Patreon page. Support the show, get behind-the-scenes updates and get to the front of the line with your questions.
The post The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 156 first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
Mod Garage Guitar Makeover: Optimize Your Electric Guitar’s Body
Hello, and welcome back to Mod Garage. Let’s wrap up work on the body of our Telecaster.
Usually, the string grounding connection on a Telecaster is a piece of wire that’s routed under the bridge plate to the electronics compartment, where it is soldered to ground. This is the original design from Fender’s very early days, and it’s still the method used today. I like to call it the “cowboy version.” Or, for you Trekkies, this is the version James T. Kirk would have chosen if he were into guitar-circuit soldering. But there is a “gentleman version,” that Jean-Luc Picard would have taken. So, what’s bad about the original design? There are two downsides, and therefore two good reasons for not doing it this way:
1. The spot where the bare wire meets the bridge will damage the paint on the body, which is not a real problem because you can’t see it anyway. But this is also the spot where the bridge plate will not be attached firmly to the body, which can cause unwanted feedback. (We discussed this in a previous column.)
2. You will have to run another wire to the electronics compartment and solder it to ground to properly ground the strings. This can be avoided, and we’ll come back to this when we talk about the wiring of our guitar.
Let’s remove this wire and close the hole with a toothpick and some wood glue. This is not mandatory because you can’t see the hole with the bridge plate installed but, you know ... my inner monk. Simply put some wood glue on the toothpick and push it into the hole. After some drying time, you can chop off the toothpick with a knife, a small chisel, or something similar. You can also clearly see where the bare wire damaged the paint.
A tip from the shop: Standard toothpicks are usually made out of any soft wood like birch and are not a good choice for closing holes on a guitar, especially if you need to drill into them later on. Such soft toothpicks can be stabilized by using some super glue, but the much better choice is using toothpicks made from hard bamboo. They are usually a bit thicker in diameter, and much harder compared to standard toothpicks.
All you need now is a small strip of self-adhesive copper foil. Cut it to size and stick it to the position where the wire used to be. I like to place it underneath one of the screw holes of the bridge plate, making a perfect connection; the foil is very thin and will not interfere in any way with the bridge plate.
The routing for the neck pickup is strange: It’s very big and deep, but the measurements are a bit wonky. It can host a Telecaster neck pickup as well as a Stratocaster pickup, but it isn’t big enough for a standard or mini humbucker. Sure, it would be easy to enlarge the routing, but why someone chose such measurements is a mystery to me. Larger routes are good for reducing weight, and if you want to go to the limit, this is the perfect spot to do so. Simply route away as much wood as possible at this spot—it’s covered by the pickguard so no one will see. You can also use a Forstner drill bit to remove the wood, giving it a Swiss-cheese look. If you don’t mind roughing up the finish for a rakish, outlaw look, you can reshape the body to mimic a Stratocaster’s contours—with the familiar belly cut on the back and the armrest on the front. This will result in a very comfortable and lightweight body, but the finish will be destroyed, exposing the bare wood.
When transforming the Telecaster to single-pickup Esquire specs, the routing for the neck pickup is no longer needed; we’ve talked before about how this configuration can create possible feedback problems. Acoustically, closing all unpopulated support routings with foam, Styrofoam, cotton wool, and similar fillers is a perfect method to prevent unwanted feedback without increasing the body’s weight. I decided to use some foam for this, and the process is very easy:
1. Get some cardboard and cut it a little bit larger than the routing you want to close; I usually use cat food boxes for this. I made three pieces for the routing of the bridge pickup, the neck pickup, and the support channel of the neck pickup.
2. Get some self-adhesive transparent foil and stick it over the routings.
3. Use a black Sharpie to mark the outline of the routings.
4. Peel off the foil, put it on the cardboard, and cut it to size, giving you three perfectly fitting templates.
5. Use the templates to cut the foam to size and put it into the routings. There’s no need to attach the foam; the pickguard will hold it in place.
For the bridge pickup routing, use a thinner piece of foam or foam rubber for cushioning the pickup as described in the column linked above.
We are almost done with the body. The last step is to soften the shine of the finish to give it a little bit of a vintage appearance, without damaging the body. This is a super easy task: Simply rubbing the lacquer with some 0000 steel wool and an abrasive cloth will break its high-gloss appearance. It takes time to do this evenly, but it’s worth the time and work. It will look much better afterwards, and the outcome on this test guitar was awesome. If you ever decide that you want to go back to a high-gloss finish, this process can easily be reversed by simply polishing the body until it shines again. There’s so much paint on the body that you can play this game several times without permanently damaging the finish. Here’s a comparison of the original high-gloss and the now-matte look of the body.
Now that we’ve finished work on the body, next month we’ll start to work on the hardware and electronics, with the pickguard as our first task. The good news: Our $340 budget is still untouched and left for future investments, so stay tuned.
Until then ... keep on modding!
Nylon Strings, Endless Possibilities
We are all familiar with the nylon-string guitar or the Spanish guitar or the gut-string guitar or the folk guitar or the concert classical guitar. Wait, are we talking about the same instrument? Yes!
Perhaps with exception of the title “folk,” all the instruments are the same: a nylon (or gut) string, concert classical, Spanish guitar. The history of this instrument can be read about with a simple Google search, so I will not take you down that road, but for those of us of a certain age, we have seen the evolution of this guitar and its transformation, especially in the past 30 years. I love to tell clients how in the past, a player had to conform to the instrument, whereas today, the instrument has conformed to the variety of players. Offering thin bodies, cutaways, hybrids, and more, the classical guitar is anything but “classic.”
I was raised on the classical guitar. I began studying when I was five and although I never stuck with it to the point where I would consider myself even close to virtuoso, it still remains my music of choice. Much like the guitar continues to evolve, so too does Delgado Guitars. My grandfather and great uncle were able to build for some of the world’s most renowned concert performers: Andres Segovia, Celedonio Romero, Narciso Yepes, and Vicente Gomez to name a few. We also have clients in the folk, jazz, mariachi, and Americana genres.
I have taken the skills passed down to me and offer variations on this instrument. While I still love to play and build traditional concert classical guitars, I also enjoy creating modified versions of the instrument for clients who have different musical needs or expressions. One of my favorite country artists is Jon Byrd. When I listen to Jon’s music, it feels like a forgotten time we all want to return to, like something familiar that I felt, but couldn’t put into words. I know part of this is because he plays on a nylon-string guitar, like Willie Nelson. And if you think Willie’s guitar, “Trigger,” has seen some rough days, Jon’s guitar, affectionately named “Mi Amiga de Cuernavaca,” was actually run over and put back together again. You can see some photos of the instrument here.
“Offering thin bodies, cutaways, hybrids, and more, the classical guitar is anything but ‘classic.’”
Another of my favorite artists was Charlie Byrd (I seem to like the name Byrd), who was a jazz guitarist. In 1954, he spent time studying under Andres Segovia in Italy. I love his style of jazz and bossa nova, and I hear the classical influence in his playing. He has some great albums and collaborations with other players. “The Great Guitars” was a supergroup formed in 1973 by jazz guitarists Charlie Byrd, Herb Ellis, and Barney Kessel. Give it a listen and you will hear the style of each player and how they complement one another. While my heart is and will always be with the classical guitar and the traditional music of the greats of the past, I also love these hybrid styles that have been created. I have seen it most of my life with artists who purchase our traditional instruments and use them in a non-traditional way. You may be surprised when you learn some of the great hits you grew up on had an odd instrument that snuck in there—one that had no place being there were it not for the creative musicality of some amazing artists with an ear for something different.
We owe so much to the Spanish guitar that found its way to us via the lute of Mesopotamia 3100 B.C., now modern day Iraq, Kuwait, and parts of Syria, Turkey, and Iran. Just as the lute still remains, it evolved when it arrived in Spain and we see how the Spanish guitar endures and evolves. Even the Hawaiian steel guitar is rooted in the Spanish guitar and its introduction by Europeans and Mexican vaqueros (cowboys), which led to the steel-string guitar. All this to say that as long as artists have breath in their lungs, they will continue to find new ways to express themselves with the stringed inspirations they use when words cannot say what needs to be shared.
From a luthier’s vantage point, I continue to be inspired to create both traditional and hybrid instruments for the simple reason of wanting to hear more musical styles and offerings. To have had the blessing of creating instruments for over four decades and still be enjoying new music (and an occasional surprise of styles) is something I am grateful for and encouraged by. So please, continue your ingenuity or creativity or cleverness or artistry or genius. Wait, am I talking about the same thing? Yes!Buddy Guy once saw Eric Clapton in the crowd at one of his gigs and assumed he was a cop
Buddy Guy has been looking back on the early days of his music career, noting how things began to change for him when his music found its way to British artists who were flawed by his guitar work.
Guy juggled a number of jobs to pay the bills as a young man, and eventually worked as a session guitarist while playing gigs of his own. For a long time, he was overlooked by radio stations, mistaken for other Black artists, and suffered racial abuse.
A new cover feature from Rolling Stone documents how the cognac that he’d drink at shows needed to be sealed in order for him to actually drink it, as he’d gotten sick before due to people urinating or spitting in it if it had been opened.
It was in the 1960s, however, that his music began to be much more appreciated. Guy began to be embraced by British artists like Jeff Beck, Keith Richards, and Jimmy Page. Culture was shifting, and it was the ‘hippies’ that fell in love with his skill. He tells Rolling Stone that he once saw “a white face” at one of his shows and assumed it was a cop, but he laughs, “It was Eric Clapton!”
He continues, “I saw the [Rolling] Stones coming with the high heels on, almost looked like a woman. I’m saying, ‘What is this?’ I got to San Francisco, and I said, ‘Man, look at this.’ I didn’t know what a hippie was. I saw men with long hair. But they were going crazy [for my music], man: ‘What do you got in that amp?’”
Also in the interview, Guy talks about the importance of keeping the blues alive and kicking. He notes how thankfully, young musicians like Christone “Kingfish” Ingram are helping to do so. He also celebrates the 2025 film Sinners, in which Guy played an older version of the character Sammie Moore.
“It seems like every time I go to the grocery store, I hear, ‘That looks like that guy in Sinners.’” He goes on to add, “I’m the last old man still walking and playing the blues. That’s what we talked about with Muddy [Waters] and Howlin’ Wolf before they died. They said, ‘Buddy, please keep the blues alive.’ And I’m tryin’.”
Buddy Guy released his 20th album, Ain’t Done With The Blues, back in July. You can stream or buy now via his official website.
The post Buddy Guy once saw Eric Clapton in the crowd at one of his gigs and assumed he was a cop appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
UA Introduces Paradise Guitar Studio
Native UAD plug‑in gives guitarists a dream recording environment with classic amps, cabinets, mics, pedals, and studio effects.
Universal Audio Inc. (UA), a worldwide leader in audio production tools, is proud to introduce Paradise Guitar Studio, a new UAD plug‑in that combines acclaimed UAD guitar amp emulations with classic cabinets and mics, pedals, and studio effects built upon UA’s world‑class analog modeling.
“We built Paradise to make any guitarist feel like they’re playing in a dream studio," says James Santiago, Senior Product Designer at Universal Audio. “It’s the most complete ‘end‑to‑end’ virtual experience we’ve ever built, with hand-picked tube amps and essential recording gear, all in a single plug‑in.”
Paradise Guitar Studio
$199 USD MSRP | $149 Intro Price
Built upon UA’s renowned analog modeling, Paradise Guitar Studio gives guitarists and producers instant record‑ready tones from jangly cleans and natural overdrive to rare boutique sounds. Its intuitive interface lets producers craft professional guitar tracks all in one place, entirely in‑the‑box.
Key Benefits
- Get an entire pro guitar recording chain — complete with classic amps, cabs, mics, pedals, studio effects, and more
- Explore 11 hand‑picked vintage and modified tube amps — a “golden unit” collection of essential clean, crunch, and boutique tones
- Capture perfect sound in minutes with curated speaker cabinets and expertly-placed studio mics
- Sculpt tracks with studio effects like 1176 compression, vintage tape echo, spring and plate reverbs, EQ, and more
- Get over 300 inspiring presets spanning rock, blues, indie, metal, funk, pop, and beyond
- Integrated tuner and input gate for precise performance and creative flow
- Intuitive interface similar to a classic pedal board workflow
- UAD Native format — available to purchase separately or with a UAD Spark plug‑in subscription
Paradise Guitar Studio is available for $199 (USD) through authorized UA retailers and at uaudio.com starting December 1, 2025. For a limited time during the UAD Holiday Sale, customers can enjoy special introductory pricing of $149 (USD).
Learn more about Paradise Guitar Studio:
https://www.uaudio.com/products/paradise-guitar-studio
Learn more about UAD Spark:
https://www.uaudio.com/products/uad-spark
Learn more about UAD Plug‑Ins:
uaudio.com/collections/uad-plugin
Download images and press materials:
https://u.audio/paradise-guitar-studio-2025pr
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