Norse Guitar Feeds

Joe Bonamassa’s guitar collection is the stuff of legends – so much so that he’s got two ‘museum’ locations – Nerdville East and West in Nashville and LA, respectively – housing hundreds of vintage guitars and pieces of gear.

It might not come as a surprise, then, that he’s had to adopt something of a poacher’s mentality to get his hands on the guitars he wants – even competing against one of his best friends, fellow blues maestro Joanne Shaw Taylor.

• READ MORE: “The heavy metal thing was not my first intention”: The creator of EMG pickups never meant for them to become the choice of metal guitarists

As Taylor notes in an interview in the new issue of Guitarist magazine, an Albert Collins signature Fender Telecaster she now proudly owns was once poached by Bonamassa under the guise he’d help her buy it.

Of the guitar – which was ultimately gifted to her by JoBo around 15 years – she recounts the hilarious tale of how it ended up in her hands.

“I flew to New York to see Joe for a few days,” Taylor recalls. “He was rehearsing for the first time with Black Country Communion. I went to, I think it was, Manny’s, and in there they had an Albert Collins signature model and it was signed by Albert. Other than Stevie Ray Vaughan, he’s my number one influence.

Credit: Frank Hoensch/Redferns

Upon seeing the guitar’s $5,000 price tag, Taylor consulted Bonamassa, informing him that she didn’t have enough money to buy the guitar outright herself.

“He’s like, ‘Okay, well what do you have?’ I said I could probably get together about four. He’s like, ‘Alright, well come back with me. They’ll probably want a photo of me, but I could probably get it for you for four.’

“So we go back to the guitar shop, he plays the guitar, and he’s like, ‘How much?’ And the guy goes, ‘Okay, four grand and a picture of you buying it.’ So we did the deal… and then he kept the guitar for himself! [laughs]”

The guitar remained under the custodianship of Bonamassa for about a year, Taylor says, until she informed his father Len, who then set out to make things right.

“About a year or so later, I talked to his dad and mentioned this, and Len was furious,” she says. “So Len must have phoned him and read him the riot act because I got a text the next day saying, ‘Remind me of your address,’ and then this was delivered in the post.”

The post “I said, ‘I don’t have $5,000,’ and Joe said, ‘They’ll want a photo of me but I could probably get it for you for four’”: Joe Bonamassa helped Joanne Shaw Taylor buy an Albert Collins Telecaster – and then kept it for himself appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The Smiths’ Johnny Marr has recently announced a new collaboration with with Fender: the Johnny Marr Signature Special Jaguar. While the Signature sits just shy of three grand, Marr insists the guitar is more than a “vanity project” – it’s his own attempt at making a versatile guitar for many different guitarists.

Marr’s latest Signature Special Jag comes as an update on his 2012 model, and the guitarist notes that it is designed with players in mind. “I’ve always got the idea of other musicians of all types in mind when I do it,” he tells Hero Magazine. “I’m thinking about my guitar comrades and whether they’re going to like it. It’s not a vanity project.”

• READ MORE: “Dear UPS, where are my guitars?”: Johnny Marr slams UPS over “lost” guitars ahead of tour

Marr has been involved every step of the way in designing his new Signature Special Jaguar. “I put a lot of time and energy into my Signature guitars – It’s something I get quite obsessive about,” he admits. “[My original Signature] came out after about three or four years of dedication and obsession.”

Despite having his previous Fender Signature under his belt, it was high time the old guitar learned some new tricks. “I’ve been using that original Jaguar for over a decade now, pretty much exclusively live and when I’m collaborating, because it’s got that perfect sound that’s become associated with me. The new one, the Signature Special, is a development of that.”

To develop the old model even further, Marr looked to other players for inspiration. “I thought a lot about other guitar players, whether they’re indie rock or more straight-up rock musicians,” he explains. “I changed the radius of the fingerboard so it’s a bit flatter – better for soloing – and added another pickup for more variety. It gives you the option to be a little more aggressive, a little more rock, whilst still keeping everything that made the original Jaguar what it was.”

This time around, Marr’s Signature features a flatter fingerboard, an extra pickup, and an extended range of tonal flexibility. However, above all, Marr insists that his guitar isn’t restricted to Smiths-esque noodling. “You don’t have to want to sound like me,” he emphasises. “It’s just that what’s useful for me tends to be useful for other musicians. My original guitar already did a lot. But, with these changes, it now covers even more ground and opens up new sounds.”

Looking forward, Marr’s Signature Special Jag will surely feature on his upcoming releases. Elsewhere in his conversation with Hero Magazine, he teases that plenty of new tracks are raring to go. “I’ve got a collection of new songs, and we’ve been playing some of them on tour in America recently,” he says.

It’s been three years since Marr’s previous release, Fever Dreams Pts 1-4, and the guitarist hopes that his new tracks will kickstart a whole new era. “I’m hoping this next record is the start of the next long chapter,” he notes. “That’s the way it feels… it feels like we’re moving into a new phase.”

He even teases a pair of potential collaborators. “I still see Hans Zimmer quite a bit – I hang out with him a lot,” he says. “And me and Nile Rodgers have been talking about doing something together, so I’d quite like to do that. That’d be good.”

The post Johnny Marr insists his latest $3,000 signature guitar isn’t a “vanity project” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$749/£749, martinguitar.com

For nearly a decade now, the Martin Junior Series has quietly been one of the most compelling acoustic guitar offerings at the affordable end of the market. What started out as a slightly slimmed-down version of the venerable dreadnought has become an entire family of instruments that blend smaller stature with all-solid tonewoods to create an impressive bang for buck equation for those looking to get a ‘proper’ acoustic guitar for not a lot of money.

• READ MORE: Martin Junior Series D Jr E StreetLegend review: “this guitar feels Junior in name only”

For 2025, the Junior range has been overhauled – continuing the focus on improving that initial Martin experience that began with the Remastered X Series last year. Of course, unlike the sometimes-maligned X guitars, the Junior series was already very well thought of – blending as it does all-solid construction with classic looks and affordable Mexico build. So what’s new here?

Image: Adam Gasson

Martin 000 Jr Sapele – what is it?

The 000 Jr Sapele is very much what it says on the tin – this is a 14-fret 000-style instrument with top, back and sides all made of sapele. Sapele is often used as a mahogany substitute in more affordable instruments, because both tonally and materially they occupy a very similar territory.

As a result, this Junior has been stained brown in the tradition of all-mahogany Martins, and it certainly looks the part with this ultra-thin open-pore finish. Woodie Guthrie called his all-mahogany 0-15 “the people’s Martin” due to its affordability and stripped-down aesthetic, and this feels suitably in that lineage.

The body itself is a scaled-down version of the classic 000 shape – as seen previously on Martin’s Shawn Mendes signature. It’s closer in dimensions to a classic 0-size guitar in the flesh – 14 inches across the bottom bout and 18 inches from top to bottom, with a 3.1-inch depth – but still feels very much like a ‘real’ guitar in the hands. This is no travel guitar, and it’s all the better for it.

That grown-up feel is helped by the most notable new addition to this Junior series refresh – a full 24.9″ scale length compared to the previous 24 inches. This brings the guitar on par with a proper 000 in terms of scale, giving you a fair bit more room to manoeuvre.

The neck and fingerboard itself is Martin’s always frustrating ‘select hardwood’ – which could be anything from mahogany to cedar. Looking at the grain here, if I had to guess I’d say this was also sapele on this model, but part of the reason Martin uses that nebulous term is to enable them to switch out similar woods depending on supply.

This is an all-solid instrument with one exception – the peghead has a Brazilian rosewood-patterned HPL cap on it, and man, I wish it didn’t. It’s a minor thing, but the elaborate figure of the faux-Braz really does jar with the rest of the ‘people’s Martin’ vibe of the instrument.

While we’re up here, I’m not sure why on earth they decided to take the lovely open-gear butterbean tuners and slap some ugly black plastic buttons on them – aside from presumably wanting to make sure people can tell this is actually a cheap guitar. If this was my guitar I’d be swapping them out for some normal chrome button ones in a heartbeat.

Electronics are provided by Martin’s trusty E1 system, which has a built-in tuner plus a two-band tone control and phase switch.

Image: Adam Gasson

Martin 000 Jr Sapele – playability and sounds

Pulling the 000 Jr out of its case and the reputation of Martin’s more affordable guitars to leave a little to be desired on the QC side of things is at the forefront of my mind. Thankfully, this is a very well sorted instrument – everything is tight and clean and nicely executed. A gander inside with a phone camera shows that the spruce scalloped X bracing and internal purfling is all very neat and tidy.

If I was splitting hairs, I’d say that the fingerboard and bridge look like they’ve been baking in the Sonoran heat for a bit too long and desperately need a bit of lemon oil, but that’s mainly an aesthetic concern.

Less positive is the presence of a fair bit of glue residue around the frets themselves – quite significantly so on the top side 14th, 15th and 16th frets. Again, this is something that a bit of cleaning and gentle wire wool application will easily sort (and what the hell would you be doing up at the 16th fret on a 14-fret non-cutaway guitar anyway?), but really an instrument at this price point with Martin on the headstock shouldn’t be leaving the factory like this.

A first strum of the guitar is a much more reassuring experience, and it’s enough to make those QC foibles quickly recede into the memory.

Image: Adam Gasson

The High-Performance Taper neck is a nice crossover palmful for those more used to electric playing, and the string spacing is just about comfortable at 38.2mm at the nut and 40mm at the 12th fret.

It’s probably going to feel a little tight for those wanting to really lean into intricate fingerpicking, but for basic strumming, picking, and noodling it’s a nice balance that is clearly made to ease beginners into the world of acoustic guitar.

The action is similarly forgiving, low enough to not give your fingers undue punishment but without any discernible string buzz. It’s a really lovely guitar to have on your lap and idle your time away on – something that’s helped by the slightly more compact body size.

Of course, a nice playing guitar won’t count for much if it doesn’t sound good, but it’s here that the 000 Jr really makes you stand up and take notice.

The all-solid construction and ultra-thin open-pore finish have combined to make this an impressively lively and resonant instrument that belies its small size. While you won’t get the sparkling highs that you’d find from a spruce/rosewood instrument, it has an aptly sonorous low-end and rich midrange that you’d expect from a small-bodied all-mahogany Martin guitar.

It’s a guitar that probably suits pickers and gentle strummers more than it does full-on beaters – the Dreadnought Jr is probably a better fit there – but it remains an impressively versatile and sonically compelling instrument. The solid timbers mean it’s likely going to sound even better as it gets older, too.

Image: Adam Gasson

Martin 000 Jr Sapele – should I buy one?

There are so many options for anyone shopping for an acoustic guitar in this price point – plenty of which have better specs on paper at least. But what they don’t have is that Martin name on the headstock. And unlike the X Series guitars, which while being good sounding and playing instruments have always felt like a compromise, the Junior series somehow skirts that.

Maybe it’s the aesthetics, maybe it’s the solid woods, maybe it’s a combination of the two, but you really get the sense that far from being an entry-level instrument to be discarded in time, this is a guitar that could easily become a lifelong companion. There can be no higher compliment for any instrument.

Martin 000 Jr Sapele – alternatives

At this price point, take your pick – literally everyone in the budget acoustic guitar game is offering something compelling in its own way. If you want a proper all-solid mahogany guitar, you could do a lot worse than Fender’s Malibu Special ($735/£679) – which also sports a premium Fishman Flex Body preamp system. If your tastes veer a little more modern, then Taylor’s 24ce ($599/£499) – with mahogany top and sapele back and sides – is a really solid option. If you want a bit more brightness from your sound, Eastman’s E1OM ($699/£599) has a vintage-tinted spruce top paired with sapele back and sides.

The post Martin 000 Jr Sapele review: “a guitar that could easily become a lifelong companion” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Photo by Steven Perlin

Today, contributor and FJ56 subject Cameron Knowler has released a covers EP, East of the Gilas (Lagniappe Session). In honor of his new EP, we are giving online readers an exclusive look into the pages of our print magazine by publishing Philippe Custeau’s profile of Knowler from our 56th issue. We also recently put out a live video of Cameron performing “Sunflower River Blues” on our YouTube. 

Sonoran Gothic

Yuma-born, Nashville-based Guitarist Cameron Knowler

By Philippe Custeau

“Who is your favorite guitar player?” Cameron Knowler asked.  It was a blustery January morning in 2022, and we were meeting for the first time.  My interest had been piqued by “Guitars Have Feelings Too,” a book he’d recently released, part instructional manual and part flatpicking manifesto. I had sent him a message to inquire about his teaching schedule, and he’d promptly suggested we convene on a video conference to see if we could be a good fit.

I was initially taken aback when he appeared on screen. He looked to be in his early 20s, and so, by all measures, I’d already been playing guitar for longer than he had been aware of their existence Knowler sat upright, almost stiffly, his long thin hair battling some imperceptible wind.  He came off as so unassuming and soft-spoken that the bluntness of his query also caught me off guard, and I wondered if we would be able to find any common ground there.  I considered this for a moment. “Probably Robert Bowlin,” I replied, “and John Fahey.”  Knowler’s eyes widened. “Robert Bowlin?” he repeated, visibly surprised. “I wasn’t expecting that.” He then added, “Never heard him and Fahey brought up together.” I told him I thought that, oddly, there were elements connecting the two. He nodded in approval. “I couldn’t agree more. I think we will be just fine.”

Photo by Micah Matthewson

Knowler laughs when I bring this up as we sit down again two years later, this time to discuss CRK, his latest collection of tunes. “That’s right!” he says, lifting a finger and flashing one of his characteristic Native turquoise rings. His large denim shirt is draped loosely over his shoulders, framing a squash blossom pendant necklace. It would have been impossible for either of us to divine the sequence of events that occurred in the intervening time, and which resulted in the aforementioned Bowlin playing piano and guitar on a few tracks of the record. And yet, this also seems to be a recurring motif in his story.

Knowler was born in Yuma, Arizona, a small town on the Colorado River just a few miles from the California and Mexico borders. “The sunniest place on earth,” he adds, though, I quickly find out, the narrative of his formative years there is anything but that.

His mother, a young woman looking for an escape from Manhattan, settled in the desert outpost hoping to carve out a pastoral life framed by a set of fringe ideologies — most notably a systematic distrust of the formal educational and medical systems. She met Knowler’s father at a counseling session soon after her move, and even a few years and two kids later, her resolve wouldn’t soften.  So, Knowler explains, neither he nor his older brother attended school.  “Not home-schooled,” he quickly adds, “but un-schooled.” When I press the matter further, trying to get a sense of what that means, he shrugs as if to indicate there wasn’t a very rigorous philosophy informing any of those decisions. “We basically spent our days riding dirt bikes and digging holes in the backyard.”

If Knowler’s candor weren’t so immediately palpable, one could suspect him of having a flair for drama, or of gleaning bits and pieces from Western novels and maybe even a Coen brothers’ movie or two — his parents gifted him a gun at age 10 — when he paints a portrait of his childhood. “So from zero to 11, basically I’d never seen anyone my own age because I was living in a retirement community. The foothills area of Yuma is where the snowbirds go — retirees that have a house in Idaho, it gets really cold there in the winter, and they go to Yuma and then they get their dental work and their cigarettes.”

The family traveled very little, and the aridity of their surroundings was mirrored in their social life. Knowler’s recollection of that period is a kaleidoscopic series of images centered around the desert, isolation, but also the quality of the light in Arizona, and the colors of the Navajo and Zuni art being sold in the market.

Unexplainedly, he attended middle school for a single year at 11 and thrived academically, rising to the top of the class against all expectations. On the last day before summer vacation, his mother met him at the bus stop, and announced that they would be moving to Texas without her husband. That night Knowler witnessed his father being carted away by the authorities, and that was the last he would see of him and of Yuma for the decade and a half that followed. Instead, his first years in a Houston suburb were again spent in aimless wandering through the city on his skateboard, smoking cigarettes with his brother while his mother’s health began steadily declining.

Knowler is a gifted storyteller, and he paints a vivid portrait of the first half of his life with the studied detachment of someone who’s spent years trying to assemble it into a coherent narrative.  I have to remind myself to steer the conversation back to guitar.

When asked if he has any musical memories of that period, he takes a cinematic pause to reflect, as if to indicate that we have now entered consequential territory. He began by learning drums, then moved on to electric guitar, and quickly realized dexterity and technique came easily to him. He would play Guns N’ Roses and study the prototypical metal riffs without any real sense of direction initially. That is, until he took an organized group bus trip with his grandparents at 14.

On an overnight stop in Cody, Wyoming the travelers were given a choice between attending a rodeo or a bluegrass concert. The majority chose the obvious, but Knowler, on a whim, insisted on seeing the concert.  There he witnessed a family band playing some fiddle tunes, and one of the titles, “Whiskey Before Breakfast,” stuck with him.

Knowler is not predisposed to hyperbole, and yet he makes it plain that this experience would change the course of his life. Having returned home from the trip, he looked up the aforementioned number online and the first video that came up was an excerpt of Norman Blake’s first Homespun tape.  “I saw his right hand and told myself: I want to do that,” he says pointedly, “the looseness, the studiedness.” He would subsequently sell his Les Paul copy, his Parker Nite Fly and a few Ibanez guitars and buy a Japanese D-28 copy, and eventually cobble together the money for a new, 2012 D-18. He began studying Norman Blake’s music, videos — and hands — obsessively.

Knowler laughs when I inquire whether he had an inkling that this would turn into a career. “It was a total hobby, and I started making YouTube videos, like I had anything to say. Like a year into seriously playing flatpick guitar, I made tutorial videos where I didn’t know anything.  And I would teach the wrong chord progression, but I loved teaching.  It was basically a visual journal. I have journal books filled with like, ‘What is a triad? What is a major six?’ asking myself these very fundamental questions.”

If this doesn’t make it plain that Knowler was a preternaturally precocious teenager, the fact that he then enrolled in a community college at 16 to study music appreciation — without having gone to high school — should. “It was a battle,” he says. “Every single day it was a battle. I had to come up with fake paperwork for a homeschooling group and pretend like it had collapsed and they no longer had copies of my academic records. And then doing these entry exams and acing the writing portion and the critical thinking stuff, but my math was multiple years behind, so I had to do accelerated courses and got up to speed in about three to six months.”  He would eventually move on to the jazz studies program at the University of Houston, where, incredibly, he started writing a book which he intended as a “method for rural guitarists” — a 230-page instructional manual, treatise on and analysis of the backup guitar stylings of players such as Jim Baxter, Norman Blake, Maybelle Carter and Riley Puckett.

Despite his steadfast dedication to the craft, Knowler still had planned to follow in the footsteps of some of his relatives, and enrolled in law school after having completed his jazz degree. He went so far as to take the LSAT, get accepted, and move near the campus. But before the start of the semester, after a long boozy evening spent playing tunes with a friend, he finally admitted to himself that his heart wasn’t actually in it. He was drawn to the challenge of higher education more than to an actual career in law. “I realized that, to me, the best thing about being a lawyer was just being able to say you’re a lawyer,” he quips. His friend mentioned his graduate work in archives. “And at that moment,” Knowler recounts, “I was like, I’m going to do that. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to do a Master’s in archives. I love archives.”

He spent a lot of time alone in that small apartment next to the law faculty building at the start of the pandemic. “I started having these vivid hallucinations of moving to Los Angeles,” he recalls. “Many came true when I finally did.” Some of them consisted in meeting a few of his musical heroes, Norman Blake included, having his favorite guitar players join him on CRK, and eventually moving to Nashville, where he currently resides.

Photo by Annabella Boatwright

Knowler’s guitar playing itself is certainly worthy of its own dissection, and it highlights the sentiment brought forth by the title of his instructional manual. While unquestionably dexterous, he doesn’t rely on speed or volume to convey virtuosity. Knowler has a sophisticated, delicate touch on the instrument and balances melody and rhythmic movement with a poise that belies, or at least transcends his youth. He is a distinctly nuanced player, but also surprisingly restrained.  When I ask how he conceives of his own style, he replies modestly, “I think of it as modern, from unlikely, very disparate sources. Basically it’s a collage of American music and it’s modern.”  He ponders this for a second. “I think it’s traditional to modernists and modern to traditionalists.”

When he speaks of archival work, Knowler describes the process as a reorganizing of the past in new ways, and it’s easy to see how it dovetails with his playing. On this new record, he surveys the vernacular of traditional dance music from the South, and while one can glean some of Knowler’s source influences, he manages to always sound distinctly like himself. When I mention it to him, he thanks me bashfully and explains that he re-recorded the album four or five times while moving between cities.

I ask him whether he had set out to write a collection of tunes that were either sonically or thematically connected, and Knowler nods before explaining that CRK is a portrait of his life the past few years. Harrison Whitford and Dylan Day, two of Knowler’s favorite guitarists whom he met serendipitously in Los Angeles contribute parts on the album. The same goes for drummer Jay Bellerose. The actor Jack Kilmer, who also grew up in the Southwest, narrates a poem written by Knowler. And Robert Bowlin even makes an appearance on piano and guitar on a few tracks.

I push the question of a unifying theme further, and Knowler confesses the album was a way for him to process his past experiences with hindsight, to be both the anthropologist and archivist of his own life and filter them through a brighter lens. He even went back to Yuma and experienced it with a newfound sensibility. He mentions Proust, and distance having afforded him the possibility of romanticizing his past, or at least that town.

The importance of his own experience as source material was brought to light in a convincing way when Knowler reached out to the famously private Norman Blake after having mailed him a copy of “Guitars Have Feelings Too,” and subsequently received an invitation to visit his hero at home in Georgia. “I go to Rising Fawn where Norman has been writing about Sulphur Springs (…) and going to the cemetery and seeing the last names of the people he writes about.  And then his next-door neighbor is Castleberry. And having learned “Castleberry’s Hornpipe,” I realized he’s a 100-plus-year-old figure who lives right next door to Norman. I got slapped in the face almost as if I were visiting John Steinbeck, and I had seen the grocery store he went to or something like that. It’s like, ‘This is really serious. This is really the life that he leads.’ And it just changed everything on a fundamental level. I have this impulse to be the art, but I didn’t have the courage to do so because I never had someone so creatively stable in my life. But then meeting him, I just opened up the doors and I said to myself, ‘I’m just going to do this, and this is what I need to do right now’.” Knowler told Blake that his music had saved his life by giving him direction. He left that encounter with his now most-cherished instrument, the 1933 Gibson L-Century of Progress that appears on the cover of Blake’s “Be Ready Boys: Appalachia to Abilene” album. The L-Century can be heard on “Christmas in Yuma,” CRK’s first track, played by Dylan Day.

Knowler resolved that everything he would write for the rest of his life would be about, or inspired by the 100 or so mile stretch of land between Gila Bend and Yuma; a map that will unfold with each subsequent record.

“It’s like building a ship in a bottle,” he reflects, before bringing up another one of his incredible chance meetings in David Rawlings, whose approach to his own music Knowler feels a profound kinship for. He too is an apt “reorganizer” of archival material. The two met in East Nashville at a house party. Knowler picked up a guitar, played a few notes and Rawlings immediately said: “Norman.”  That was all they needed to hit it off.  “Dave has a good quote,” Knowler continues, “that ‘the smallest things make the biggest difference.’ (…) It’s about innovating within an existing framework.”  He also means this literally in how small or unusual guitars can sound the biggest in front of a microphone. Case in point: Knowler plays a 1935 Epiphone Olympic that he acquired through Rawlings on “Mohave Runs the Colorado.” “I’m interested in the anthropology of an instrument,” he adds.

More recently, Knowler acquired a Mario Martello classical that used to be one of Bola Sete’s main recording guitars.  I am curious to find out whether instruments themselves have an influence on his writing.  “The beautiful thing about guitar is that it supports so many viewpoints,” Knowler answers.  Referring back to the Rawlings quote, he explains that with solo guitar, you are really working in miniature, while much has been made about “sounding big” in the guitar world. He brings up the Dreadnought, which was named after a war vessel, and the Mastertone banjo as examples. “I don’t need a guitar that’s loud,” he reflects, “I need a guitar that’s introspective.” Knowler even likes what he calls uniquely unbalanced instruments that may have unusual ringing overtones, such as the 1936 Martin 00-28 he borrowed from Chris Eldridge for the track “Yuma Ferry.”  “Some guitars are like a skatepark. You have to pick your tricks,” he adds, chuckling. And those proclivities even extend to recordings themselves. “In a way, I like bad-sounding records. For this medium specifically I like early Fahey records. I like what a cassette recorder does. I like what a field recorder does to the compression of a guitar.”  In this as in other things, what Knowler is seeking is authenticity.  In his words, he aims to cultivate depth. “Instrumental music allows you to posture yourself between photography and poetry,” he adds. It is a through line to feelings.  Like photographs, they are both immediate.  But words can fortify their meaning, which is why titles are so important to him.

It is certainly no coincidence that the musicians he cites as being the most influential on his playing are also unique voices whose lineage nonetheless come through in their sound.  Knowler’s eyes brighten when he talks about this. “In Fahey you hear Elizabeth Cotten, and you hear Debussy. In David, to me, you hear Neil Young, and you hear Norman.  And in Norman you hear Mother Maybelle Carter, and you hear Grandpa Jones, and you hear Riley Puckett.” All those people, all of us, really, are filters through which the past gets shuffled and reinterpreted.  Then archived. “There is bravery in self-expression,” he concludes, “regardless of talent.”

It is getting on in the evening, but before we end our conversation I tell Knowler how impressed I am with everything he’s managed to accomplish in such a short amount of time and with very little guidance from the outside. He often refers to his stumbling upon Norman Blake’s music as a turning point in his life, but I tell him that it certainly takes a rare individual to set that kind of standard for himself as a beginner. Like a kid with a vague interest in science who would resolve to model himself after Richard Feynman without truly grasping how impossibly high he would be aiming, but also being buoyed by that naïveté instead of weighed down by expectations. And in trying to convey this, I stumble and fall short of what I intend to express. I’m still hung up on the simple fact that he managed to get into college with a year or two of schooling, never mind the rest of what he’s succeeded in doing so far — and he is still years away from turning 30.  I tell him I really like the record and admire his playing.  “Aw, thanks man,” he demures. “I would just like this to serve as a thank you card to Norman.”  I nod and tell him I hope it reaches Blake and does that for him.

We leave on that note, and I immediately think that, more so than a card for anyone, Knowler’s story should be subsumed in his own archives as a testament to the transformative power of resilience, dedication and the story we all tell ourselves about ourselves. That there is so much more there than perhaps even he himself realizes.

But, I can already hear him say, brushing a strand of hair from his face, “Nah, that’d be like trying to take the whole ship out of the bottle.”

The post Cameron Knowler Releases New EP East of the Gilas (Lagniappe Session) first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

Sponsored by Shubb: Music transcends boundaries, connecting hearts across cultures and continents. In 2025, Shubb Capos is proud to present the Pathfinder Series, a celebration of groundbreaking artists who have elevated solo fingerstyle acoustic guitar into a universal language of expression.  Individually designed for each artist, these capos embody their unique style, passion, and legacy. They […]

Fender offsets are the ultimate indie guitar. They coax players towards textural, chordal playing, angular melodies, ringing open strings, and often a lot of extra noises, clatters and clangs thanks to that entertainingly unique tremolo system. It seems weird in retrospect that indie guitar icon Johnny Marr wasn’t a Fender Jaguar player until picking one up in Modest Mouse in the 2000s. Now it almost feels strange to see him without a Jaguar. 

Marr’s latest signature model takes the majority of its cues from his existing model, which is among my favourite Fender guitars. The biggest difference, and it’s a huge one, is the addition of a trio of lipstick pickups in place of the Jaguar’s regular two single coils. But let’s back up a bit and break it down. 

We’ll start with the overall features. We’ve got an alder body with a gorgeously deep custom gloss nitrocellulose black laquer finish and a 22-fret maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. The fingerboard radius is 9.5”, a slightly flatter board than you would expect on a Jaguar (where 7.25” is more common). The back of the neck is carved to Marr’s specific preferences, inspired by the neck on his ’65 Jaguar. The 24” Jaguar scale is present and correct, and while the vintage tremolo initially looks pretty standard, there are a number of tweaks to the spec. The vibrato itself is a classic vintage-style floating Jaguar unit but it employs a nylon sleeve insert and a taller tremolo arm, while the bridge uses a Jaguar base with Mustang saddles and speclialised nylon post inserts (and the radius differs from the standard Marr model in order to match the flatter neck of this version). There’s also a removable bridge cover in the same style as the ashtray covers found on Strats, Teles, Jazz Basses etc. Cool touch. 

But what makes this particular Marr model stand out is its electronics setup. First up and most obviously we have those three lipstick pickups. They’re made by Kent Armstrong to Marr’s specs, and represent his continued search for tone and versatility. In addition to the typical master volume and master tone controls, there’s a four-way pickup selector switch to give you bridge, bridge+neck in parallel, neck, and bridge+neck in series modes. 

An extra three-way switch on the top control plate flips between the wiring of the original Marr Jaguar model (complete with muted middle pickup in keeping with said original model’s two-pickup layout); a version of the same but with the middle pickup added to every setting; and a middle-only option that bypasses the four-way switch. There’s also a brightness switch which really takes the low end out of the signal if you need it. Then there’s a secondary brightness switch which only operates on the neck+bridge series mode. Fender and Marr have figured out how to get a huge amount of variety out of this circuit. To me it doesn’t feel too complicated but I’m sure there are players who think there’s too much going on here. 

Sonically, this guitar is supremely versatile. The in-between settings afforded by the middle pickup create a texture that we’re just not hearing from a Jaguar: clearer, snappier, slightly hollow, definitely gritty. Then flip back to the two-pickup mode and you’re locked in to a new take on the classic Jag vibe, edgier and twangier but no less bold and powerful. The tone is almost a little Telecaster-like looser, darker within the middle frequencies, but you can zap that darkess straight to heck with the brightness switch. 

The sheer clarity of this guitar makes it a great choice for players who use loads of pedals: it maintains its character no matter what you’re piling on top of it. And it’s definitely geared towards clean and edge-of-dirt sounds, but I found a few settings that wanted nothing more than to absolutely roar through a fuzz pedal. 

Is this the ultimate Jag? Can it be the ultimate Jag in a world where the regular Marr model exists? I dunno but it’s certainly the most fun Jaguar I’ve played in years and undeniably the most versatile one ever. My only suggestion would be, hey guys, how about a version with a lipstick humbucker in the bridge position? Aww c’mon, it’d be cool. 

The post REVIEW: Fender Johnny Marr Signature Special Jaguar appeared first on I Heart Guitar.

Though the business of cloning pedals is competitive (and endless fodder for frothing Reddit denizens), I appreciate when a pedal company offers a useful twist on an established formula. Warm Audio accomplishes this with the Throne of Tone. It is clearly inspired by the Analog Man King of Tone. But it is also very obviously a nod to the Marshall Bluesbreaker, the pedal that Mike Piera used as a departure point for his KOT design. The Throne of Tone, though, might mark the point at which the snake bites its tail. It cross-pollinates the circuits in a dual overdrive that opens up many, many tone-coloring avenues and options.

Split Personality

Mike Piera ripped up a friend’s Bluesbreaker to build the first King of Tone. But by the time he rewired it, it was a different pedal altogether. To the extent that the KOT and Bluesbreaker sections are accurate in the Throne of Tone, the differences between the original Bluesbreaker and King of Tone are easy to hear. It’s hard to accurately assess the accuracy of the Throne of Tone’s two circuits without a real-deal King of Tone or Bluesbreaker at hand. But I’ve played through both as well as excellent clones, and in both sound and feel, both Throne of Tone circuits are in the ballpark and better.

In very general terms, that means the “king” side is a bit less aggressive, darker, and more dynamically responsive to changes in pick intensity—especially when you want to go from gnarly to truly clean. The “blues” side is a bit more dynamite, revved up, and lively in the midrange. It’s more immediate and a bit harder to keep on a leash for dynamic purposes. But the Throne of Tone is a great multiplier—and mixer—of these qualities, because you can experience each basic voice through the lens of high gain and low gain settings, a boost, an overdrive or a distortion. Additionally, output from each side can be modified with a presence control which appears on neither pedal in its original form. Add up the possible tone permutations and, well, you’ll probably be less occupied with the accuracy of the circuits, and more excited about harnessing the copious killer tones here.

Pick A Door

Of the three modes, the boost is the most user friendly and easy to apply to a base tone that just needs heft and body. It’s also great for demonstrating the basic duality in the king and blues voices—which align along a Marshall/Fender divide. The blues, or Marshall-like side feels considerably more compressed as a boost, but it positively rings in the high-mid zone. If you want a guitar to be boss in a mix it dishes the goods. But it’s agreeable too, and flattered PAFs, Telecaster single-coils, Wide-Range humbuckers, and a Rickenbacker 12-string—lending all of them an infectious, excited edge. Matched with an EL84 amp it can feel a touch redundant, but with 6L6 amps it shines. The king, or more Fendery side, sounds comparatively scooped. It feels much less hyperactive, and it excels in the clean, low-gain range, but it also gets squishy when you dig in.

These same qualities are very apparent in the overdrive mode. Each voice sounds more compressed than the boost mode. But the higher reaches of the gain controls yield treasure. Here again, the blues side was explosive—sounding at many settings like Malcolm and Angus Young after consuming a bag of firecrackers. Angry but fun. The king’s OD side, at high gain range, sounds much more like a mid- to late-’60s Bassman at high volume: crunchy, but softer around the edges. Each of these voices can be nudged into more savage extremes by the high-gain toggle, which depending on your amp and guitar, can be surprisingly airy to downright sizzly.

The distortion mode kicks the high-midrange in the pants, but retains much of the overdrive mode’s basic coloration. It’s an especially cool match for 6L6 amps—especially on the king side. But the way the distortion modes remain responsive to dynamic input like volume and touch variation is impressive. Distortions can often sound quite binary—either raging or gobbling up midrange oxygen. Both distortions in the Throne of Tone give you gray area to work with that can range down to chiming clean tones.

The Verdict

The original King of Tone and Bluesbreaker pedals are revered for good reason. And if Warm Audio’s take on the two circuits represents even 80 percent of those pedals’ prime tonality, you’ll still hear and feel what makes them special. As a whole, the Throne of Tone is adaptive and versatile. The kind of pedal that could save your hide and solve problems in a studio. But it could work the same magic in a live situation, especially one with a backline surprise in store. In performance, the vertically oriented mini toggles, which are situated perilously close to the bypass switches, could be a liability. I accidentally switched the gain and mode switches with my toe more than once. That’s a shame, because they make experimentation so much easier than when DIP switches are in the mix. It’s hardly a dealbreaker, though. For $229, the Throne of Tone offers a very big bucketful of tone options that can span civilized and rabid.

Season 2 of Axe Lords kicks off with a legend: Lita Ford joins Dave, Cindy, and Tom for one of the heaviest, wildest, most guitar-nerd–satisfying episodes we’ve ever done. Lita talks about reinventing herself after The Runaways, why she insisted on a three-piece band to prove her guitar chops, and how she developed a voice on the instrument that producers once criticized—until legends like Billy Gibbons co-signed her sound.

And yes: Lita plugs in, cranks a Boss Katana, and rips a live performance that might be the most rock-and-roll ending to an Axe Lords episode yet.

Axe Lords is hosted by Dave Hill, Cindy Hulej, and Tom Beaujour. Produced by Studio Kairos. Presented in partnership with Premier Guitar. Artwork by Mark Dowd. Theme Music by Valley Lodge. Follow and subscribe to Axe Lords @axelordspod.

Subscribe to Premier Guitar for more episodes of Axe Lords and get notified when the next Axe Lords episode drops.

The speed and accuracy with which you react to what’s happening around you musically is definitely not a competition, but I believe it’s the single most important element of any musical performance, and your ears play a pivotal role.

Through some brutally honest self-inventory of my own abilities over the past month, I’ve discovered a few things about my playing that are far from flattering.

Here are a few key takeaways.

I want to get better: I’ll be the first to admit that my abilities—although well-developed after 35 years of practice—can still be improved significantly. Whether it’s recognizing the exact notes in a chord someone is using over my bass line, or hearing a song once and playing it back immediately, there’s plenty of room to grow. As bass players, we get to hang out in the low end and “listen up” the harmony vertically. It’s a great place to be, and the nature of our fundamental role in the band to hold things down often gives us a little more space and time to use our ears. It’s good to be aware of that and make the most of that extra time to absorb more information.

Repetition of listening has never been more important: Depending on the time frame I have from an artist—or my own personal goals—I want to spend as much time as possible listening away from my instrument. I’m making drastic changes to how I allocate my practice time, and the results have been huge. My playing is already sounding more natural because I’m focusing more on my ear than on my chops.

Recording shows religiously: I’ve always had some kind of recording device running during live gigs and practice sessions. Lately, I’ve been leaning much more heavily on this process. The more honest I am with myself about a performance or a practice session, the better I can plan future practice time to fix weaknesses and accelerate growth—even after 35 years!

“No matter where you’re at, creating a positive feedback loop—recording everything we do, listening back, and being self-critical when needed—has enormous potential to make us better musicians right away.”

I think it’s essential to remember that we’re all at different stages of the journey and want different things from our playing and our music. But no matter where you’re at, creating a positive feedback loop—recording everything we do, listening back, and being self-critical when needed—has enormous potential to make us better musicians right away.

I’ve been comparing learning to hear “faster” and more accurately to how a successful athlete approaches their sport. In tennis, for instance, you need multiple specialized skills to become a top player: speed, agility, hand-eye coordination, physical endurance for long matches, and mental toughness to outthink your opponent under pressure.

Similarly, a musician needs great time, great tone, a fantastic ear, solid memory, social skills for working with others, and technical command to execute ideas. It’s no small list of requirements.

But I think the most striking similarity is the mental toughness and focus required to handle the pressure of being onstage or in the studio. The best musicians feel no pressure at all. As a result, their ideas flow freely, they absorb everything happening around them, and their ears catch every detail. That’s where I’m looking to improve: Feel no pressure, and take in as much as I can.

Listening faster has become somewhat of an obsession, and I suspect it will stay at the top of my priority list for life. In just a few weeks, I’ve become more relaxed onstage, uncovered dozens of new things to practice by reviewing old recordings, and started to feel what a great athlete must feel when they step onto the court knowing they’re in complete control.

Distractions are fading, focus and intent are way up, and I feel like I’m playing better than I have in years. I thought I would never get back to the feeling I had when I first picked up a bass in my early teens, but the past month or so has surprised me greatly.

It has actually been quite emotional at times because the past decade has had its fair share of self-doubt, including hitting several plateaus where progress felt nonexistent. But now I can confidently say there’s no end in sight when it comes to new challenges to tackle. The improvements may not come in leaps and bounds, but they’re coming—and that’s what matters.

VOX® announces the debut of the Micro Superbeetle Guitar, a compact guitar amplifier that brings together the unmistakable VOX aesthetic with a bold reimagining of portable amplification. Inspired by the classic Super Beatle stacks of the 1960s, this new model delivers authentic VOX tone in a modern format—complete with an innovative two-way speaker system and a detachable, battery-powered amp head.

Designed for players who want true VOX character without the bulk of a traditional rig, the Micro Superbeetle Guitar offers expressive tone, room-filling clarity, and the freedom to play anywhere.

At the heart of the system is an innovative two-way design, pairing a 4" cabinet woofer with a 1.5" tweeter housed inside the detachable amp head. When stacked, it delivers a full 20 watts of articulate, harmonically rich sound—far beyond what its compact footprint suggests. Detached, the head becomes a fully self-contained 5-watt portable amp with a full-range driver and built-in rechargeable battery, ready for songwriting sessions, rehearsals, or outdoor jams.

“The Micro Superbeetle Guitar captures everything that makes VOX special—its look, its tone, and its spirit—while introducing a level of portability and flexibility that today’s players demand. It’s an exciting new step for the VOX family.” - John Stippell, Director of Marketing & Product Planning.

The Micro Superbeetle Guitar features three versatile amp voices—Clean, Drive, and High Gain—each crafted to reflect VOX’s signature tonal character, from shimmering chime to expressive crunch. With Bluetooth connectivity, players can stream backing tracks or music directly from their devices, making practice and performance seamless across any environment.

Compact, bold, and stylish, the Micro Superbeetle Guitar delivers the perfect balance of vintage charm and modern performance.

Available now through authorized VOX dealers and at www.voxamps.com

Street Price: $399.99 USD

The impact Motörhead had on the rock world cannot be understated. Most rock artists can trace their influences back to Lemmy and co in some way. Let’s be honest, we can all remember the first time we heard that smouldering intro riff of Ace of Spades.

Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett remembers it well; and says his mind “exploded” when he heard Lemmy’s Ace of Spades vocals enter for the first time.

• READ MORE: “The heavy metal thing was not my first intention”: The creator of EMG pickups never meant for them to become the choice of metal guitarists

“Lemmy was the real deal, right to the fucking end,” Hammett tells Metal Hammer. “I saw that Ace of Spades cover and was like, ‘I’ve gotta buy this album.’ I got home and put it on… Oh, my god. Lemmy starts singing, my mind fucking exploded. It was like he’d got a distortion box in his throat. It’s so dirty and aggressive, so real!”

Indeed, Metallica owes a great debt to Motörhead for the band’s influence on their music. Following Lemmy’s death on 28 December, 2015, his ashes were dispersed far and wide (with some finding their way behind the bar at London’s Stringfellows strip club, no less).

A small portion of his ashes, though, found their way under James Hetfield’s skin, after he got a tattoo of the ace of spades using ink mixed with Lemmy’s actual ashes.

“With the steady hand of friend and tattoo artist Corey Miller, this tattoo [is] a salute to my friend and inspiration Mr. Lemmy Kilmister,” Hetfield wrote in an Instagram post at the time. “Without him, there would be NO Metallica.”

He added: “Black ink mixed with a pinch of his cremation ashes that were so graciously given to me. So now, he is still able to fly the bird at the world.”

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Kirk Hammett’s answer was part of a new feature by Metal Hammer charting the greatest Motörhead tracks as chosen by a number of metal artists. Naturally, Ace of Spades is a common favourite among rock fans, but other classics like Overkill, Hellraiser and Killed By Death also deserve their praise.

“Killed By Death is one of my favourite songs ever, not just Motörhead songs,” says Mastodon’s Brann Dailor. “Whenever they would launch into that live it was like, ‘Oh boy, here we go!’ Killed, by death. Can you imagine?! Death gets us all, but this makes it personal… and badass.”

“Tracks like Hellraiser really shaped how I play guitar,” says Halestorm leader Lzzy Hale. “Growing up, my dad was a bass player, so my first real experience playing ‘guitar’ was on his bass. My dad was like, ‘Think about Lemmy from Motörhead! He plays bass like a guitar!’”

The post “I got home and put it on… My mind f**king exploded”: Surprise, surprise – this classic Motörhead song is Kirk Hammett’s favourite appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Gibson, the iconic instrument brand, has shaped sound across generations and genres of music, becoming one of the most relevant, played, and loved guitar brands worldwide. As a true pioneer of the electric guitar and pickup design, Gibson’s nearly 90 years of research and manufacturing have defined the sound of countless musicians and music lovers. Since 1935, Gibson has been the source of the world’s finest pickups—standard-setting components wound in its own factories, though not widely known to the public. Gibson’s original “Patent Applied For” humbuckers™ from the 1950s are considered the holy grail of humbucking tone, highly influential and often imitated, and every modern Gibson pickup continues that tradition of superior construction, crafted in Nashville, Tennessee, from premium materials using time-tested methods.

Today, the Gibson Pickup Shop proudly introduces the 1959 Humbucker Collector’s Edition Series 3, limited to only 1,000 sets and available at authorized Gibson dealers, Gibson Garage locations in Nashville and London, and online at Gibson.com.

“With the 1959 Humbucker Collector’s Edition Series 3, we’ve pushed the boundaries of historical accuracy and tonal integrity even further,” says Jared Brandon, Pickup Product Manager. “Every detail—from the Double Vintage White butyrate bobbins to the Alnico 3 roughcast magnets—was chosen to honor the spirit and sonic magic of the original ‘Patent Applied For’ pickups. This set is not just a tribute; it’s a time capsule for tone purists and collectors alike.”

Explore your sound with the 1959 Humbucker Collector’s Edition Series 3 HERE, and view the full Gibson Pickup Shop Collection, HERE.

Revered by players and collectors alike, Gibson’s legendary “Patent Applied For” humbucking pickups have inspired countless replicas over the decades. The originals featured a range of Alnico magnet types—including Alnico 2, Alnico 3, and Alnico 4—and remain among the most sought-after vintage components in existence, especially when the rare opportunity arises to acquire a set.

Through a meticulous process involving 3D scanning, scientific analysis, reverse engineering of late-1950s examples, and reference to archival Gibson specifications, the Gibson Pickup Shop has crafted its most precise reproductions to date. This Collector’s Edition Series 3 set comes housed in a premium Lifton™ case and showcases Double Vintage White butyrate bobbins, Alnico 3 roughcast long magnets, historically accurate nickel covers, and aged Cream M69 mounting rings. Every metal component—from the silver-nickel covers and baseplates to the screws and springs—has been expertly aged by the Murphy Lab team. Only 1,000 sets will be produced, each serialized with 1959-style numbering.

Dipping their toe into the digital bath of glitch synthesis pedals, Electro-Harmonix introduces the Pico-sized Atomic Cluster Spectral Decomposer. Unlike any other EHX pedal before, the Atomic Cluster uses a unique algorithm to reduce the frequency resolution of your instrument and create a wide range of effects from rhythmic lo-fi glitch and auto-arpeggio tones to ambient synth pads and more.

Housed in EHX’s Pico-sized chassis, the Atomic Cluster main controls for sound manipulation are ATOMS and SPEED. ATOMS controls the number of simultaneous resonant oscillations produced at a time, creating more pixelated, glitchier sound as oscillations are reduced. SPEED adjusts the oscillation refresh rate, ranging from more rhythmic effects to complete random chaos. This rate can also be set by tap tempo. Additional VOL and BLEND controls adjust overall output level and wet/dry mix respectively. A MODE button selects between oscillation transition envelope shapes. SHARP creates instant, choppy effects, while SMOOTH can be used to build more lush, ambient sounds.

This compact sound twister ships with standard EHX 9 Volt power supply, is available now and has a U.S. Street Price of $129.00.

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For 30 years, pedal-based pitch-shifting pedals have been utilised by some of the greatest and most influential guitar players of the modern era to create unique and interesting sounds that simply didn’t exist before.

But so impactful has the venerable Whammy been in this sphere, it’s been a long time since anyone has offered something truly new in that world – until now. It’s fitting that BOSS, would be the one to bring something new and exciting to the table in the shape of the XS-100 Poly Shifter and it’s little brother the stompbox-sized XS-1. Bringing five decades of bleeding-edge expertise to bear, the Poly Shifters have been years in the making – and it’s more than worth the wait.

The Poly Shifters are more than just pedals, they’re advanced pitch-shifting workstations that reimagine pitch shifting for the modern player – courtesy of advanced technology that offers a more natural, precise and smooth tracking than ever seen before.

The full-sized XS-100 lets you glide a whopping four octaves up or down with ease, while the pedal itself offers deep customisation to ensure the sound is all your own. You can program the pedal switches to enable momentary drops or rises. The dedicated retune switch also enables you to digitally change the tuning of your instrument in a heartbeat, with a wealth of drop tuning and simulated capo options. All with the natural and precise note tracking the likes of which has never been seen on a pedal before.

And the best part is, once you’ve found the sound that inspires you most of all, you can save it to one of the 30 onboard memories to recall at your leisure, and thanks to the clear and concise built-in display you never need to worry about what’s gonna happen when you step on it in the heat of battle.

 

Image: BOSS

The Artist’s Choice

Given the game-changing evolutionary leap that the Poly Shifter represents, it’s hardly surprising that just weeks after its launch, artists are already starting to take advantage of its remarkable capabilities to push them into new musical territories.

“I’ve tried out a few popular choices in the market, but they’ve always had trouble tracking the note, and seem limited to doing only one thing.” explains Jonathan Jourdan, guitarist in Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth band. “With the XS-1 I feel like the tracking is immediate and just inspires me as I play.”

Another artist to extoll the Poly Shifter’s virtues is Night Verses’ Nick DePirro. “I’ve used several forms of pitch shifters as part of my playing for a long time, some with expression pedals and some without,” he explains. “I’ve always liked how they allow you to extend the range of your notes by adding more octaves and harmonies, as well as being able to make sounds you wouldn’t be able to do without an expression pedal.”

For Nick, the XS-100’s treadle-based pitch-shifting is a dream, and has immediately carved out a place as its own thing.

“The travel distance from up to down position on the expression seems shorter than others, which gives it its own feel,” he observes. “Also, having both the effect and drop switch right next to each other in that amount of space is nice. Sound wise, I think the pitch sounds very clean between both low and high octaves – it has a bit of its own pitch tone to it in that regard.”

Image: BOSS

The transposition effects on the Poly Shifter is something that really appeals to Snarky Puppy guitar maestro Mark Lettieri, who’s been having fun with the XS-1.

“It does a pretty stellar job at transposing in half-steps,” Mark tells us. “Where I’ve found it really shines is in its harmonization features – particularly in 4ths and 5ths – which can be used to create some cool, almost synth-like chords.”

It’s not just heavy guitarists who are finding the XS-100 a remarkable and inspirational new tool – modern blues virtuoso Eric Gales has spent some time with the pedal and has come away suitably impressed.
“I love how clean it is being able to shift keys and not have that computerized sound like others do,” he reveals. “I’ve been so blown away by that feature alone.”

Another unique feature of the XS-100 that DePirro has already made use of is the ability to set the pitch travel in increments of half a step.
“My favorite thing is that you can specifically set the pitch in increments of half step, single note movements, which provides a very smooth and consistent bend/expressive motion,” Nick reflects. “While there is some nuance and character to discovering those positions manually, it’s nice to have a consistent, more guaranteed option as well.

I’m currently working on a new Night Verses record and so far, that half step incremental option has inspired me quite a bit. I like to bend harmonics and chords with pitch effects, and having the ability to do it in a way that I can repeat consistently, especially when double tracking guitars with the same riff, makes it pretty inspiring.”

Image: BOSS

Transposition is another key part of any pitch-shifting pedal worth its salt, and the XS-1 has already excelled for Nick in this regard as part of his Mammoth touring rig – and he admits he’s barely scratched the surface.

“I think there’s a lot to unpack with XS1,” he enthuses. “I currently use it as a lower octave blend, but the detuning options are out of this world and extremely accurate compared to other options I’ve tried. I can see myself exploring new tunings with that feature.”

There’s something exciting and reassuring about seeing a name as storied, trusted and innovative as BOSS bring something truly new to the pitch-shifting world, and it’s clear our artists felt the same having spent some time with the Poly Shifter in both its forms.

“I think BOSS have always put out quality and well executed effect pedals, built like tanks on top of that,” DePirro explains. “It’s exciting to see them create a new pitch effect in this form.”

If you’re curious about how the Poly Shifter can shift your perceptions of what a pitch shifter is capable of, don’t listen to us – listen to the artists using it, and check one out now.

Find out more about the XS-100 and XS-1 pedals at boss.info

Image: BOSS

The post “It just inspires me as I play” how BOSS’s XS-100 is inspiring a new generation of pitch-shifting guitar wizards appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Gibson has announced the return of two legendary solidbody models: the Les Paul Junior Double Cut and the Les Paul Special Double Cut. First released in the 1950s, these guitars helped define rock ’n’ roll with their raw tone, playability, and unmistakable P‑90 grit.

• READ MORE: Kirk Hammett is auctioning his silver Gibson CEO4 SG from Black Sabbath’s farewell show – plus more than 150 guitars from his collection

The Les Paul Junior Double Cut was first introduced in 1954 as a no-frills student model, quickly earning praise for its “stripped-down simplicity” and “surprising versatility”. The guitar’s double-cut mahogany body, SlimTaper mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets make it fast and comfortable, while a single Dogear P‑90 pickup delivers tones from sweet and clean to snarling overdrive.

Controls are straightforward, with a single volume and tone knob with an Orange Drop capacitor for added tonal flexibility. Meanwhile, a wraparound bridge, Graph Tech nut, and Vintage Deluxe tuners with white buttons keep tuning stable for all your gigs.

The Les Paul Special followed in 1955 as an upgraded version of the Les Paul Junior, adding a second P‑90 pickup, dedicated volume and tone controls, fretboard binding, and a mother-of-pearl headstock logo. It moved to a double-cutaway body in 1958 for better upper-fret access and received a SlimTaper neck update in 1960.

Today’s Special Double Cut retains that classic design with a double-cut mahogany body, SlimTaper neck, bound rosewood fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and acrylic dot inlays, and hand-wired P‑90s for maximum tonal versatility.

Three-way pickup selection and Orange Drop capacitors add further sonic flexibility, while the wraparound bridge and Gibson Vintage Deluxe tuners keep the instrument stable and expressive.

The Gibson Les Paul Junior Double Cut is priced at $1,699, while the Les Paul Special Double Cut comes in at $1,999. Both models are available in Ebony, Vintage Cherry, and TV Yellow finishes, and come shipped with a protective hardshell case.

Learn more at Gibson. 

The post Gibson revives two well-loved student models from the 50s: The Les Paul Junior Double Cut and Les Paul Special Double Cut appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

At this year’s Guitar Summit in Mannheim, Kris Barocsi and Guillaume Chenin from Thomann sat down with EMG founder Rob Turner to talk about the company’s early days – and how his studio-minded designs unexpectedly became a cornerstone of heavy music.

“The heavy metal thing was actually not my first intention,” Turner admits. “When we started making product, we were more into the studio sort of aspect of it – for cleanness of the signal. You could record it direct, you could play it through an amp… and that was the primary intent.”

• READ MORE: Kirk Hammett is auctioning his silver Gibson CEO4 SG from Black Sabbath’s farewell show – plus more than 150 guitars from his collection

He adds that EMG’s design brought several unexpected benefits. “You didn’t have to ground the strings of the instrument anymore. It sounded the same wireless as it did through a cable. It was very predictable in that sense.”

But as Turner explains, that clarity and consistency also made the EMGs irresistible to the growing heavy metal scene of the 1980s. “The heavy metal crowd adopted it because I believe the cleanliness was part of a necessity,” he says. “The passive humbuckers were a little too muddy. And when you wanted to mix them in, it was very difficult to find a spot in the mix. And we just happened to become a part of it. It was not an intention by any means.”

That unexpected rise to prominence was helped by a serendipitous early encounter with one of metal’s biggest names: “Kirk [Hammett] was the first one to actually… he called up and said that he wanted to do an instrument, but I had no idea who he was. I don’t think he knew who he was, actually,” Turner recalls with a laugh.

According to Turner, Metallica were still trying to secure a record deal at the time: “He was in a band and they were trying to get a record deal and all of that,” he says. “But he had this purple Stratocaster that he brought up… it had two single coils and a humbucker in it, and we just simply, you know, did an installation for him while he waited. He took it back with him, and it kind of went from there.”

That modest installation would go on to help define the sound of a generation. By the late ’80s and early ’90s, EMG’s active pickups had become synonymous with heavy metal – prized for their powerful tone, surgical clarity, and noise-free performance.

Watch the full interview below.

Browse the latest product lineup at EMG.

The post “The heavy metal thing was not my first intention”: The creator of EMG pickups never meant for them to become the choice of metal guitarists appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

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Black Friday is almost here! And it’s the perfect time to grab a holiday gift for the guitarist in your life, or save big on your dream instrument. Sweetwater’s Cyber Week sales mean substantial discounts on everything from essential accessories to some seriously impressive guitars – there are over 400 deals in total, with new savings added daily, and fast, free shipping included. We’ve picked out some highlights to get you started on your deal-hunting journey – let’s dive in.

Save $300 on a Strandberg Boden Essential 6 in Astro Dust – was $1099, now $799

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This headless wonder brings Strandberg’s wild design philosophy to a more affordable price-point – even more so this Cyber Week thanks to a hefty $300 discount. If you’ve ever wanted to dive into the world of ergonomic, headless guitars, this is an amazing starting point – there’s a standard non-fanned fretboard for some degree of familiarity, but you still get access to Strandberg’s innovative neck profile and versatile humbuckers.

Save $194.9 on a Electro-Harmonix Soul POG – was $324.8, now $129.90

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Want some polyphonic octaves but with a little more grit than the standard POG? There’s a huge discount of 50% to be had on this Electro-Harmonix Soul POG, a dual pedal that mashes up the Klon-inspired drive sounds of the Soul Food with the multi-octave pitching of the POG, allowing for some awesome overdriven octave sounds – and for only $129.90, you’re effectively getting two amazing effects for the price of one!

Save $170 on a PRS Sonzera 20 combo amp – was $1099, now $929

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There’s an awesome saving to be had on this versatile combo amplifier from PRS. This 20-watt 1×12 tube amplifier can handle everything from the most pristine of cleans to thick, saturated crunch. You also get all of the bells and whistles you might need from a modern tube amplifier, including footswitch control, an effects loop, and multiple speaker outputs to expand your sound. However, the included 12-inch celestion speaker and 20 watts of tube power will still do a great job at projecting you over most drummers!

Save $10.63 on a GHS GBL-6 Guitar Boomers Electric Guitar Strings – was $37.62, now $26.99

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A great stocking stuffer for the guitarist in your life? This six-pack of GHS Boomers is now even better value thanks to a discount down to just $26.99. Breaking a string without a backup is any guitarist’s worst nightmare – one that can be avoided if you stock up!

Save $18.75 on a RockBoard by Warwick Tres 3.1 Pedalboard – was $124.99, now $106.24

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The Rockboard Tres 3.1 Pedalboard is a great mid-sized option for guitarists of all stripes. With a lightweight build and easily cable-managed design, you also have the ability to add a Rockboard Mod module to expand the board out with a patch bay or other utility connections – perfect for easy setups and teardowns, while keeping things neat!

Save $200 on a Taylor x MLB GS Mini Acoustic Guitar – Los Angeles Dodgers – was $799, now $599

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This is one for the Baseball fan in your life, who also happens to love top-quality compact acoustic guitars. With sapele back and sides and a torrefied Sitka spruce top, the Taylor GS Mini punches well above its size class – and thanks to Taylor’s signature neck carve and an ebony fingerboard, you’ve got great playability to boot. It’s not just an LA Dodgers collab too – other MLB teams are available!

Save $124.5 on a Tech 21 SansAmp Character Plus – was $249, now $124.5

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Tech 21’s Character Plus series celebrates iconic amp-and-pedal combos from history. These compact pedal units provide three different combos of drive pedals and preamp circuits, allowing for some classic tones right at your feet, with versatile switching arrangements to boot.

Save $100 on a Exclusive Olive Green Line 6 HX Stomp – was $699, now $599

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The HX Stomp is one of the most powerful modelling units out there, packing tons of different tones into a pedalboard-friendly unit that leverages Line 6’s decades of digital experience. For Black Friday you can save $100 on a Sweetwater-exclusive Olive Green variant – perfect if the only analogue pedal in your rig is a Sovtek Big Muff, and you want to keep a consistent colour scheme!

Save $300 on a Epiphone Dave Grohl DG-335 in Pelham Blue – was $1299, now $999

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Foo fans finally have a standard production model of Dave Grohl’s otherwise hard-to-find signature Trini Lopez 335 – and for Black Friday you can save a substantial $300 on the guitar. This premium Epiphone model replicates Grohl’s ultra-rare Gibson Custom DG-335 signature model, with the same unique aesthetic appointments, and the very same Gibson USA Burstbucker pickups for that signature dynamic and punchy PAF tone.

The post The Ultimate Guitarist’s Holiday Gift Guide – brought to you by Sweetwater appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

He may be one of the most inventive guitarists to ever stand beside Ozzy Osbourne, but Jake E. Lee has long felt overlooked when it comes to the Prince of Darkness’s storied career.

Now, the 68-year-old musician admits that taking part in Osbourne’s farewell show, Back to the Beginning, made him feel “special” after years of being treated like a “forgotten footnote”.

• READ MORE: “Not a day goes by when I don’t ask myself, why am I here and not them?”: Ozzy Osbourne’s posthumous book reveals he was haunted by Randy Rhoads’ death for the rest of his life

Speaking on Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, Lee reflects on the emotional week leading up to the star-studded event.

“It was a great week for me,” says the guitarist, whose stint in Osbourne’s solo band lasted from 1982 to 1987. “Maybe one of the best weeks of my life. I came in there feeling kind of like a footnote, maybe even an almost forgotten footnote: ‘Oh, yeah, we’ll throw him in there too.’ But everybody treated me so respectfully and [there was] encouragement and support from everybody. It made me feel special.”

Lee says that for decades, his contributions to Osbourne’s catalogue – most notably on Bark at the Moon and The Ultimate Sin – have often gone unacknowledged: “I’m not mentioned much in documentaries and things about Ozzy,” he notes. “At the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, you know, not a photo.”

Which was why the invitation to join Back to the Beginning came as a pleasant surprise. According to Lee, the call came from none other than Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello, who served as the event’s musical director.

“When Tom called, I didn’t know why,” Lee recalls. “I’d never met him before, but when he called me he said, ‘I can’t imagine doing this without you.’ Hmm, really? Cool! I’m in! I mean, if for no other reason than just to be there for Black Sabbath: all original [members], final show. I’d do it just for that. I’d go tech for somebody!”

Besides being a reunion of legends and Ozzy’s final show before his death just weeks later, Back to the Beginning also marked Lee’s first major public performance after he was shot outside his Las Vegas home in October 2024. Three bullets struck him during the attack – one passing through his right forearm – and the guitarist spent time in intensive care recovering. Now, months later, Jake reveals he’s still rebuilding strength in his picking hand.

“I went to physical therapy, where they build up the muscles and make sure they’re stretched and not as bad,” he explains. “It used to be that I couldn’t open doors. That would hurt… Now, it doesn’t really hurt. I get some discomfort after I play guitar for a couple hours, but not a lot: just enough to guide me towards re-training my right hand on how to pick.”

The post “I’m not mentioned much in documentaries and things about Ozzy”: Jake E. Lee felt like a “forgotten footnote” in Ozzy Obsourne’s legacy – until Back to the Beginning appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The pursuit of guitar tone is seemingly endless, new pedals arriving on the scene that rehash (in)famous sounds and circuits, albeit with their own unique stamp on it. But if you look at the pedalboard of practically any famous guitarist you can mention, you’ll likely see not one dirt pedal but several – and often they’re all on at the same time.

This is because there’s a certain magic that happens when you run one circuit into another – it clips and shifts the tone in certain ways that wouldn’t be possible going direct, and sometimes the results are greater than the sum of its parts.

• READ MORE: The best effect pedals for all styles and budgets

This is what’s known in the guitar world as ‘gain stacking’ and it’s become an incredibly popular way of getting the best out of your tone. But what’s actually going on here? Well, let’s see if we can break it down…

Different pedals do different things to our presence, frequency response and dynamics, and as such they’ll affect how our tone arrives, and clips, at a distortion or overdrive stage. Do you want a cleaner, more refined and crisp drive sound arriving at a dirtier pedal, or do you want overdriven, gritty tone to be sculpted by a cleaner circuit after the fact?

The way distortion clips the signal can be drastically different and is dependent on what part of the frequency spectrum hits that threshold of distortion first. An overly bright tone might have the attack and crispness subdued as the higher frequencies might be distorted first, and the same is true for mids and lows.

Similarly, drastic EQ changes might allow us to distort those highs, for example, without the mids and lows clipping. In this sense, stacking pedals to clip, distort and drive differently is a form of multi-band processing. A little aside as we are discussing gain stacking here, but EQ pedals are a great way to utilise this!

If you’ll indulge me further, I spend a lot of time as a music producer encouraging bands to pursue their own sound. We all want to sound like those who inspire us, but there’s a few reasons that it’s really important for us to also sound unique. Firstly, replicating a sound or tone can really date your music, either recorded or live, and it’ll easily get lost in the mire of countless other bands.

Secondly, it’s difficult, nigh impossible, to recreate a tone exactly, and clients and myself are often left focusing on what a sound isn’t, rather than what it is. Finally, and possibly most important of all, is that no one can sound like you, and that’s what makes your sound (and the sounds of our heroes) really cool. Pull influence from everywhere you can, but remember that the sum of all parts is what makes something unique, so throw all those sounds in a melting pot and see what you come up with.

What pedals are good for gain stacking?

A few common tone stacking options are the Ibanez Tube Screamer and Way Huge Swollen Pickle drives, used to shape tone before another drive is used for the main drive. The Tube Screamer, usually a TS9 specifically, tightens up the sound by subtly rolling off low end for a more focused attack and less mud. Without pushing the gain, this can be a great option for tightening tone before it hits another drive.

The Swollen Pickle does a similar job but in the opposite fashion, it bolsters the tone, adding heft and weight to it, even without touching the gain. Again, this can be used before another drive for a totally unique sound. Pedals that affect dynamic and presence are a great candidate for this kind of work, so things like the Boss Blues Driver, MXR Micro Amp+ or EHX Soul Food are all pedals that come immediately to mind.

Series vs Parallel Gain Stacking

Mostly when players talk about gain-stacking they’re talking about doing it in series – running one pedal into another, with the signal from one circuit being fed into the next. However, there is another option – you can run those drives in parallel (with each pedal in an independent loop in your chain), and then blend them together after the fact.

This is, of course, much tricker to do in a live environment than a studio. It’s easy enough to blend the sound of multiple amps or gain pedals together in a mix, but to do it live you’ll need a bit more thought.

The Boss LS-2 Line Selector is one solution, as is the EHX Switchblade and Earthquaker Swiss Things. These pedals boast the ability to send and receive two loops at a time, summing and blending them at output.

For example, the LS-2, when set to ‘A+B Mix’ mode, could be used to loop one drive into Loop A, another into Loop B, blended independently to taste before being summed at the pedal’s output and moving onto an amp. This makes more extreme pedals like fuzz and HM-2 style pedals entirely more usable to every guitar player.

For example, the HM-2, while often used at extreme settings, imparts a drastic EQ curve as well as some pretty wild distortion to your tone. The iconic ‘chainsaw’ signature can be blended in a little (or a lot!) to taste, and when combined with another drive, adds that chuggy, driving energy to whatever other drive you have in the second loop.

Or maybe you love the sound of something like a RAT, the aforementioned HM-2 or a fuzz, but it’s just too much. These line selector/mix pedals allow you to blend in those drives, and simply loop one side back on itself, allowing you to use these as a wet/dry blend, for a clean tone alongside whatever drive you decide on.

Much like the rabbit hole of opinions on pedal order on your pedal board, stacking gain is about listening for the signature that each stage imparts. Some offer heaps of gain on tap, but their subtle shift to dynamic can help refine your tone before a different distortion, summing to something new and wonderful.

Some pedals benefit from a bit of nip and tuck after they add gain, and some work best blended in with your clean sound, adding a hint of grit but retaining the clarity that your hands and pickups work so hard to manifest.

Different pedals are great for a variety of sounds, but combining them, blending them, looping them and stacking them are where really unique sounds begin to appear, and unique tone is the coolest tone of all. Get stacking!

The post An idiot’s guide to gain-stacking – how to master the dirt pedal trick that every pro uses appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

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