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The Year in Gear 2025
The gear that passed through our reviewer’s hands in 2025 was a thrillingly varied bunch. There were new takes on old friends, slimmed and shrunken evolutions of proven designs, and radical reinventions of the instrument we love and treasure so much. Join us as we review the guitars, pedals, amps, modelers and more that stood apart from the pack.
Keeley Zoma
Keeley chased one of the most perfect effect combinations—the tremolo and reverb from a black panel Fender amplifier—in the form of the Zoma. But the tremolo-and-reverb combo goes beyond mere black-panel flavors. There’s a versatile plate reverb setting, harmonic tremolo, and vibrato, too, and it’s all very straightforward and easy to use. Stereo capabilities take the lushness to another level if you choose, making the Zoma a standout in a class of pedals chasing magic Fender amp effects formulas.
$229 street, robertkeeley.com
J. Rockett PXO
Phil X’s signature drive and boost is not, at its foundation, a unique idea. But by making the boost and overdrive order switchable and adding flexible EQ controls, the PXO becomes more than the sum of its parts. It can make single coils sound as fat as humbuckers or add treble that burns. It’s a fantastic studio and stage tool—both for discovery and backline problem solving.
$349 street, rockettpedals.com
Gibson Les Paul Studio
Over several decades, Gibson’s minimalist, more economical version of the Les Paul enabled a lot of players to own the fabled—but often expensive—solidbody. In this case, $1,599 might still feel a touch pricy, but reviewer Dave Hunter found the playability on our review model superb, and described the hotter-than-vintage-spec Burstbucker Pro pickups as extremely articulate.
$1,599 street, gibson.com
SoloDallas SVDS
The Schaeffer-Vega Diversity System isn’t exactly a household name—even among gear nerds. But as an early wireless system, its mild coloration became essential for Angus Young and Eddie Van Halen. The SVDS Boost reduces its inspiration to its essence, beautifully fattening every facet of a guitar’s output without favoring any particular frequency.
$129 street, solodallas.com
Read the ReviewOrange Gain Baby
Many of Orange’s solid state amps in the Crush and Terror series have become staples of studios and the road. The Gain Baby, which is part of a trio of new “Baby” solid state offerings, is crushing in its own way. It also weighs just 6 1/2 lbs. Stuff it in the included shoulder bag and you have a highly portable monster that can deliver headroom and rage.
$599 street, orangeamps.com
TC Electronic Plethora X1
The Plethora X1 doesn’t do gain effects, but it covers just about everything else. It’s packed with models of TC’s signature delay, reverb, modulation, octave effects and more, plus access to the company’s star-studded Tone Print library. At just $159, it's a stellar value.
$159 street, tcelectronic.com
MXR Rockman
To resurrect one of the ’80s most essential tone machines in pedal form, the MXR team set their sights on the Rockman X100. They’ve recreated all four modes from the original: cln2 is the default setting, cln1 in the second position is EQ’d with a mid-boost, edge delivers moderate clipping, and dist is high-gain. Both distortion settings use the same hard-clipping LED diodes as the original. Preset compression and an analog chorus circuit add to the fun and nail the vibe.
$245 street, jimdunlop.com
Carr Skylark Special
No stranger to our Year in Gear list, Carr Amplifiers delivered again. The brand made the already spectacular Skylark lighter, but also added an EZ81 tube rectifier and a Hiwatt-inspired tone section from their equally awesome Bel-Ray. With a 2x6V6 power section, it’s no surprise that the Skylark Special has more than a hint of Fender Harvard and Princeton in its makeup. But the extra bit of British flavor, as well as the bass response from the 12" Celestion, make it a thrillingly versatile twist on the Fender formula.
$3,200 street, carramps.com
Supercool Barstow Bat
The magic of the Barstow Bat is its ability to expand the Pro Co RAT’s traditional vocabulary to include 1960s-style fuzz realms, exploding lo-fi student-amp tones and extreme sounds spanning fat and blurry and hot and trebly. A 3-band EQ replaces the traditional filter knob on a RAT, extending its sound palette significantly—and in ways an old RAT could only hint at.
$200 street, supercoolpedals.com
Ernie Ball Music Man StingRay II
Some might find it hard to imagine Cory Wong without a Stratocaster. But in helping design the StingRay II, Wong not only deviated from the Strat template but delved into the realm of humbuckers. Our reviewer found the pickups warm and tight in the low end and more than articulate enough to accommodate Wong’s signature rhythm riffing. They’re also capable of smoky jazz tones and burly alt-rock rowdiness, making the StingRay II an axe for any mission.
$2,999 street, music-man.com
Ananashead Spirit Fuzz
The Jordan Boss Tone is one of the nastiest 1960s fuzz artifacts—check Big Brother and the Holding Company's Cheap Thrills for reference—and Barcelona’s Ananashead captured every bit of that potency in the Spirit Fuzz. The Spirit Fuzz isn’t exclusively mean—it can be smooth and mysterious, too. And while it really loves humbuckers, it will happily take a buzzy trip with just about any guitar or pickup you put in front of it.
$117 street, ananashead.com
Great Eastern FX Co. Focus Fuzz Deluxe
The Focus Fuzz Deluxe was destined to be a rare bird from the start. Great Eastern boss David Greeves had just 400 of the NOS transistors required to arrive at the Focus Fuzz Deluxe formula. But oh, what a formula it is. Unlike many fuzzes, it leaves lots of headroom for a dynamic touch, but still screams—all while offering superb boost and drive sections.
$349 street, greateasternfx.com
Boss Waza Tube Expander Core
Boss’ first Tube Amp Expander reactive load box stood out among the competition for its integrated 100-watt power amp. Still, it was expensive, and though compact, wasn’t exactly backpack portable. The small, more wallet-friendly Core version addresses both issues, making one of the most powerful tools for recording big sounds at quiet volumes a more accessible proposition.
$769 street, boss.info
Divided By 13 CCC 9/15
Clearly, Divided By 13 has thrived under the ownership and guidance of Two-Rock Amplifiers' Eli Lester and Mac Skinner. This brilliant design enables the lucky owner to select between 9-watt 6V6GT or 15-watt EL84 output stages. As you’d expect, it spans 1950s Fender tweed colors and 1960s Brit chime, all while staying dynamic and deftly ranging from clean to filthy.
$3,549 street, dividedby13.com
Moth Electric C. Regalis
Any overdrive that offers blendable clean and dirty tones promises a certain measure of extra flexibility. But the C. Regalis’ powerful +/-15 dB bass-and-treble EQ, as well as its smooth/crunch switch that adds even-order harmonics, make it capable of very heavy and subtly boosted tones that can coax magic out of any guitar/amp combination.
$179 street, mothelectric.com
Taylor Gold Label 814e Koa Super Auditorium
Seeing a Taylor on our Year in Gear list is practically inevitable. But even by Taylor standards the Gold Label 814e Koa Super Auditorium is Cadillac stuff—and a treat to play. For starters, the Super Auditorium body could be Taylor’s loveliest shape ever. But the just-right proportions, combined with Andy Powers' V-Class bracing, add up to a flattop that sounds seasoned, balanced, and beautiful.
$4,799 street, taylorguitars.com
Dunlop Mick Ronson Cry Baby
It’s super cool to see Bowie’s right hand man and ripper supreme, Mick Ronson, honored with this fantastic looking Cry Baby. But there is much practical appeal to this wah, too. It stays bold and heavy in the midrange and is a great match for a nasty fuzz, a wide-open Marshall, or any occasion where you want a solo or riff to stand out like a pair of cherry-red platform boots.
$265 street, jimdunlop.com
Marshall 1959 Super Lead Pedal
Most of the time you don’t really expect a Marshall-in-a-box to rival the sound of the real thing. But Ted Drozdowski, who had the good fortune to test this pedal alongside a real 1972 Marshall Super Lead, found it more than capable of holding its own against the original.
$159 street, marshall.com
Chase Bliss Brothers AM
Chase Bliss’ Joel Korte and “Analog” Mike Piera—now there’s two sticklers for detail. It shows in the fruits of their collaboration, the Brothers AM, a take on Analog Man’s King of Tone that could help sate the hunger of players marooned on the King of Tone’s seemingly endless wait list. It’s a fantastic, agreeable drive that can add a lively edge to any guitar/amp pairing.
$399 street, chasebliss.com
PRS Archon Classic
Most players probably associate the Archon name with ultra-high gain. But that’s not the direction PRS went in with this evolution of the original. The 50-watt, 2-channel Classic is, instead, a relatively streamlined affair that, as the name suggests, coaxes a lot of mid-rangey, Marshall-like tonalities from its 2x6CA7 power tubes and six ECC83S preamp tubes.
$1,149 street, prsguitars.com
Strange Audio The Eloise
One of the more distinctive newcomers in the boutique amp world, Strange Audio has turned heads with its bold, midcentury-modern-inspired colorways and patterns—and circuits that sound as striking as they look. For its first head-and-cab design, the company has built a uniquely interactive control set with switchable preamp tubes, housed in a 35-watt, 2-channel, 6L6-powered package that appeals equally to natural-overdrive purists and pedal-platform players—and looks incredible onstage.
$3,199 (head)/$3,999 (with cab) street, strangeaudioelectronics.com
Verso Sine
Leaping into the future, luthier Robin Stummvoll re-thought the nuances of electric guitar design and created an “expressive guitar” in the Sine. This truly experimental instrument pairs a powder-coated flexible steel “top” with Lehle expression controls to offer playability never before seen on a guitar, including volume-swell capabilities and two expression outs to run to your outboard devices. Plus, the Sine’s easily movable pickups and stereo outs multiply the sonic possibilities exponentially. It’s fun, forward-thinking, and intuitive.
$3,699 street, versoinstruments.com
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star Stereo
A digital reverb pedal that lives beyond simple effect categorization, the DSS is a feature-rich stomp built for creativity. With a control set that includes pitch shifting and bit crushing, the DSS provokes experimentation. There’s a great balance between the pedal’s deep, tweakable controls and easy usability. And it sounds just as great at always-on reverb settings as it does diving into the sonic cosmos.
$299 street, oldbloodnoise.com
Walrus Audio Voyager MkII
Built on a Klon-style foundation, the Voyager delivers a level of versatility that reaches well beyond the average klone. By combining the tight boost and overdrive users expect with a 2-knob sweepable-mid control set and switchable diodes—1N34A and silicon, both with and without bass boost—the Voyager opens up the sonic possibilities of the genre and demands attention.
$249 street, walrusaudio.com
SOMA Laboratory Harvezi Hazze
If you’re looking for the one distortion to rule them all, the Harvezi Hazze from SOMA Laboratory is a good place to start—and end—your journey. It can do your typical rodent-style dirt, but this transistor-based stomp’s unbelievably deep tweakability—centered around its wave-folding function—make it capable of just about any overdrive, distortion, or fuzz tone you'd dream up. It’s not cheap, but the Harvezi Hazze can outperform most signal-clipping boxes in its price bracket.
$349 street, somasynths.com
Fish Circuits Echo Limiteur
Fish Circuits designs pedals with equal attention to both sight and sound. The Echo Limiteur—a hefty, striking delay box—offers two modes that blend a warm analog echo with the extended range of a digital PT2399 chip. Its standout feature, dynamic delay mode, lets your playing intensity control the number of repeats, and when they start or stop. This stompbox has the rare, exhilarating ability to transform the way you play.
$349 street, fishcircuits.com
Mile End Effects Pique
Montreal builder Justin Cober did something remarkable when he built the Pique: He made an EQ pedal that’s fun. The Pique is technically a 3-in-1 (a boost, buffer, and EQ—or, as Cober puts it, “frequency enhancer”) built around Mile End’s beloved Preamp 150 circuit, a take on the sounds in vintage Roland Space Echo units. By incorporating three straightforward EQ modes that enhance targeted frequencies, Cober ensures you spend more time chasing inspiration and less time tweaking settings.
$212 street, mileendeffects.org
Keeley Manis
Did you really expect Robert Keeley to build a simple klone and leave it at that? Of course not! Keeley made sure his Manis possessed all the essential goodness of a Klon Centaur—it’s adaptable to changing rigs and backlines, and its overdrive and distortion profile ranges from barely boosted to raging. And while in many respects it's faithful to the Klon’s architecture, the addition of a germanium transistor clipping and bass boost options extends its utility and enhances its personality significantly.
$199 street, robertkeeley.com
Asheville Music Tools APH-12
With 12 stages, the all-analog APH-12 phaser is capable of much more than simple phasing as most players understand it. It chirps, quacks, thrums, and throbs with intensity, richness, and personality. The likeness to the beloved Moog Moogerfooger MF-103 is not entirely coincidental. Designer Rick “Hawker” Shaich worked at Moog and helped refine the original MF-103 design. With that model long since discontinued, it’s wonderful to see an all-analog phase conceived in that same adventurous spirit.
$397 street, ashevillemusictools.com
Fender Laura Lee Jazz Bass
Khruangbin’s music is driven by groove. And bassist Laura Lee’s tasteful parts, which often evoke vintage soul and reggae lines, are ideal for the fat, punchy tonalities of a Fender Jazz Bass. This signature edition is actually a copy of a copy in one sense: Lee always used an inexpensive SX-branded J-bass-style instrument. But this flawless evolution of that bass, with DiMarzio Ultra Jazz noiseless pickups and jumbo frets—not to mention that ashtray pickup cover—is both a looker and a studio-grade performer.
$1,499 street, fender.com
MXR Bass Synth
MXR’s Bass Synth is the kind of pedal that can blur the differences between a stringed instrument and a keyboard. And the “synth” in the name is not one that MXR tosses about lightly in this case. Several textures here use vintage keyboards like the Minimoog and Stevie Wonder’s TONTO synth as sonic departure points. The MXR not only captures these tones convincingly, but makes it easy for novices with less synthesis experience to incorporate them into their vocabulary.
$285 street, jimdunlop.com
PRS S2 Special Semi-Hollow
We’re used to PRS guitars being well-built, smooth-as-butter players. And yeah, they tend to sound pretty great, too. But the S2 Special Semi-Hollow, with its 58/15 humbuckers in the neck and bridge positions, a Narrowfield pickup in the center, and a bevy of switching and tapping options, is wildly versatile and possesses a distinctive, airy semi-hollow voice that represents a cool alternative to PRS signature sounds.
$2,599 street, prsguitars.com
Aclam Go Rocky Go
In terms of pure sonic presence, it’s hard to match the toothy, trebly tones that marked many Beatles recordings of the 1966-1968 period. Much of what made those sounds distinctive was the band’s occasional use of Vox amps with all-solid-state circuitry or solid-state preamps. The Go Rocky Go, the third of Aclam’s homages to these amplifiers, apes the sound of the Vox Conqueror, which spiced up many White Album tracks. But it’s also a drive, distortion, and fuzz that offers delicious alternatives to familiar, run-of-the-mill dirt sounds.
$348 street, aclamguitars.com
Marshall JVM, DSL, JCM 800 and JCM 900 Pedals
Four pedals, four award winners. Not a surprise, perhaps, given that it’s Marshall. On the other hand, generating the sheer mass and presence of a Marshall from a pedal isn’t easy, which makes this quartet of heavies—which span a rainbow of gain colors—very impressive indeed. Just as impressive is the $159 tag for each, a very nice price considering how close these stomps come to the real thing.
$159 street, marshall.com
Wampler Cryptid
We’re always intrigued when a manufacturer releases a “fuzz for those that don’t like fuzz.” What could that possibly mean? In the case of the Cryptid, it definitely isn’t a fuzz that skimps on nastiness. While it doesn’t imitate any specific classic fuzz, it can erupt with explosive tone—and its bias control adds sputtery, delightfully deranged textures. Where it breaks from fuzz tradition is in its ability to deliver overdrive and bright, near-clean tones, creating a versatility that could make many pedals on your board feel obsolete.
$199 street, wamplerpedals.com
Vox V863-CA Wah
Vox has always been fearless about messing around with familiar formulas. Sometimes their success in these endeavors is in the eye of the beholder, as any collector of mid- to late-1960s Vox oddities will tell you. But the V863-CA, which can switch from wah to envelope generator or envelope follower merely by lifting your foot from the treadle, fits seamlessly into Vox’s history as a design renegade—while remaining highly functional and musically intuitive.
$279 street, voxamps.com
Boss RT-2 Rotary Ensemble
This simpler evolution of Boss’s discontinued RT-20 is definitely one of the better rotary speaker simulators you’ll find in a compact pedal. It’s rich and realistic, in no small part because its simple control layout still enables a user to shift emphasis between virtual treble and bass horns, add simulated tube amp drive, and switch between slow and fast ramp times. The resulting modulations are much less binary, more organic, and considerably more atmospheric than those from a simple vibrato pedal.
$239 street, boss.info
Strymon EC-1
Typically, when a pedal maker tries to capture Echoplex tones, the solid-state EP-3 is the go-to reference. Strymon, however, took a different path: it based its design on the less common—and in some circles, more coveted—tube-driven EP-2, and used one modded by legendary amp technician Cesar Diaz. The result is an Echoplex simulation that feels both warmer and punchier than many others on the market, an appealing proposition in a crowded product segment.
$279 street, strymon.net
NUX Queen of Tone
The name may suggest a note-for-note copy of Analog Man’s much-coveted King of Tone, which is a modified mashup of two Marshall BluesBreaker circuits. But NUX’s two-headed overdrive machine actually unites the company’s BluesBreaker-style Morning Star overdrive and their take on the Klon Centaur, the Horseman. You can, of course, switch the order of the effects, which can yield many interesting colors, but you can also opt for a raspier “silver” version of the Horseman or a FET circuit that will hammer the front end of an amp.
$149 street, nuxaudio.net
Berzerker Aquanaut
The affordable, U.S.-built Aquanaut takes an interesting approach to achieving its pleasing and unmistakably analog-like tone color. For generating repeats, the unit employs the PT2399 digital chip—an inexpensive device once used in karaoke machines that delivers analog haziness. However, the Aquanaut also uses analog filtering at the input and output, which adds to an overall sense of bucket brigade toastiness without the clock noise.
$129 street, berserkerpedals.com
PRS SE NF 53
At first glance, the single-cutaway might mislead a novice into thinking the SE NF 53 is just another T-style guitar—but that label hardly does justice to its distinctive qualities. The Narrowfield DD humbuckers, for instance, can deliver tones that are punchier, grittier, or smoother than a Telecaster’s, depending on how you set the guitar’s volume. Meanwhile, its streamlined design will feel familiar—and inviting—to anyone drawn to T-style guitars for their elegant simplicity.
$2,899 street, prsguitars.com
Reverb just launched limited-edition Blacked Out pedals with 5 top brands – and we want them all
It’s been some years now, but Reverb’s Blacked Out event is still going strong. Every year, the gear marketplace partners with a number of pedal makers to launch a limited-edition run of all-black stompboxes, and this year’s are especially tantalising…
The event started back in 2019, when 17 boutique builders offered super-limited Blacked Out versions of their pedals, including Old Blood Noise Endeavors and Adventure Audio. 2023 saw a gothed-up Line 6 DL4.
- READ MORE: Jason Isbell might have the strangest tip for breaking in an acoustic guitar we’ve ever heard
So what does 2025 have in store, you ask?
This year, Reverb has partnered with five pedal brands – Walrus Audio, EarthQuaker Devices, Way Huge, Daredevil and Death By Audio – for a run of gothic-esque stompboxes. They are (in order of the brands listed above): Qi Etherealizer, with original signed art by Yvette Young; Mini Black Eye; Deep State, signed by Joe Bonamassa; Chicago Rat and Infinity Verb.
As of the time of writing, the EarthQuaker Mini Black Eye is sold out, but the other four are still available.
“Blacked Out 2025 brings five exclusive, all-black effects from your favorite builders: Walrus Audio, EarthQuaker Devices, Death By Audio, Daredevil, and Way Huge. Each one redesigned, reimagined, and built for players who like their tone with a darker edge,” says Reverb.
Head to Reverb to find out more.
The post Reverb just launched limited-edition Blacked Out pedals with 5 top brands – and we want them all appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Kingfish & Bohlinger Jam! Plus Talk New Album, Record Label & Gear!
At just 26, the guitar-playing phenom has already netted a Grammy, earned a signature Telecaster, started his own label, and we think this is just the beginning. John Bohlinger checks in with the lovable Mississippi kid who always has a guitar nearby and continues finding inspiration in his church roots and new gear.
Sponsored by StewMac: https://stewmac.sjv.io/APO2ED
“The rock world is filled with losers, idiots”: Gene Simmons explains why he doesn’t drink alcohol – and why sugary foods are “as much fun as I have with my pants on”
Gene Simmons has walked fans through his passion for sober living, and his peculiar rockstar diet – including a lot of sweet treats.
The Kiss bassist has proudly never drank alcohol or used drugs, but does indulge in a lot of cake which he, apparently, also rubs all over himself after a good show. In a video titled Gym & Fridge for Men’s Health, Simmons says his diet is about “as much fun as I can have with my pants on”.
“When in the middle of a tour, I’d eat cheesecake every day because I’m wearing 40 pounds of armour, seven-inch platform heels — each one of the dragon boots probably weighed, I don’t know, eight to 10 pounds, a leg, a foot. You don’t have to do anything. Within two hours, you will be exhausted,” he says [via Blabbermouth].
“The amount of calories burned on stage, it’s like a heavy workout. And so I could eat anything. Strangely, I wouldn’t be that hungry, after you exert that pressure, but I’d crave sweets. In the morning, big egg white, maybe a little steak, toast, coffee. And then nothing until about three, four o’clock in the afternoon — a little pasta for some carbs, and then hit the stage. Coming off the stage, cake. I wouldn’t even have to eat it, I’d just rub it all over myself.”
Of his sober lifestyle, he credits his mother for keeping him on the right path: “I don’t drink. I never have… The rock world is filled with losers, idiots. Actually, I think it goes back to my mother. She was a survivor of Nazi Germany’s concentration camps at 14 years of age, and I never wanted to break her heart. I’m her only child, so this idea that you could be a loser, not be able to earn a living, and destroy yourself… It’s crazy. No.”
Elsewhere in the video, Simmons says he’s never been “gung-ho about doctors”, but does proudly proclaim himself to be “the doctor of love”. A rather bold statement indeed, but nothing short of surprising from Simmons. In fact, back in 2023 he “confirmed” rumours that he’d slept with over 5,000 women.
Kiss played their final show in December 2023, and are due to return as live avatars only in the future.
The post “The rock world is filled with losers, idiots”: Gene Simmons explains why he doesn’t drink alcohol – and why sugary foods are “as much fun as I have with my pants on” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
NUX Steel Singer Review
Like most of you, I would guess, I’ve never had the pleasure of playing a Dumble amp. I have a fair idea of what they are supposed to sound like thanks to Stevie Ray Vaughan and, presumably, David Lindley and Henry Kaiser (I’m never sure what amp I’m hearing on records from those two mad geniuses). But I definitely don’t know how a Dumble feels, or how it sounds up close in a room. So, I have to take NUX’s word for it that they deliver on the Steel Singer—an overdrive inspired by the Dumble Steel String Singer.
Fat and Snappy
While I can’t comment on the Steel Singer’s ability to perfectly ape a Dumble, there is a lot of reason to recommend the NUX Steel Singer as an overdrive. As a light drive or near-clean boost it can be a great thickening agent (at bassier filter settings), or a better-than-serviceable treble booster at toppier filter settings. At its trebliest extremes it can be a bit crispy, so you should take care. Additionally, the NUX tends to move beyond light drive pretty quickly—requiring only a slight bump in pedal to filthy up a Deluxe Reverb and Stratocaster.
To many ears, single coils and clean Fender-style amps might be the most natural and well-suited companions to the Steel Singer. In these setups, the pedal adds discernible edge in the midrange, while retaining the scooped essence of those formulas. Humbucker users can get in on the fun, too, and a PAF can coax many Plexi-like drive tones from a Deluxe Reverb. British-style amps, however, are less accommodating to the NUX’s charms. AC15-style and 18-watt Marshall-style settings on a Carr Bel-Ray, for instance, clashed with the NUX at times, a setup where klones and TRS-style pedals got along reasonably well.
The Verdict
To many ears, single coils and clean Fender-style amps might be the most natural and well-suited companions to the Steel Singer.
There are two keys to success using the NUX Steel Singer. One is to keep the gain and tone at relatively modest settings and out of the range where merely excited tones become fried. The second is to expect the best results with single coil pickups and clean Fender-style amps. This makes sense. Dumble’s Steel String Singer is, in many respects, an evolution of black-panel Fender designs. And if the goal is to create smooth overdrive and boost tones, a pedal that dovetails more precisely with that Fender-style profile is a smart move. That isn’t to say there aren’t joys to be found in a Steel Singer/humbucker combo, or even with an AC30. But such tones will be better suited for more adventurous players less aligned with classic amp-drive results.
“Everybody was down, and then suddenly we were all smiling and having a laugh”: Bruce Dickinson recalls his eventful Iron Maiden audition
According to Bruce Dickinson, the vibe at his Iron Maiden audition started out on quite a bum note.
Dickinson famously joined the band in 1981 after departing the band Samson, and elevated the English metallers to new heights after the dismissal of vocalist Paul Di’Anno. Featuring for the first time on the band’s third album, 1982’s The Number Of The Beast, Dickinson saw them achieve their first number one album in the UK.
However, in an interview with Classic Rock, Dickinson recalls that spirits were feeling a little withered when he rocked up to his audition in Hackney, London. He tells the magazine: “It was weird… I turned up and Steve [Harris, founder and bassist] wasn’t there, he hadn’t arrived yet, but everybody else was. And I looked around and everybody was just… not happy.
“Everybody was just down. And I was thinking: ‘This is going to be rough.’ But we started bashing through some songs that we knew, and it turned out we all knew half of every fucking rock song on the planet,” he shares. “We had a go at a bit of AC/DC, a bit of Deep Purple – Woman From Tokyo then Black Night – and so on. And suddenly we were all smiling and having a laugh.”
After Harris arrived, the band got straight down to business, which was a breeze for Dickinson, having already mastered all of the Maiden songs thrown his way. On drums was another recent addition to Maiden, Clive Burr, who had also played in Samson.
“Steve turned up. We went: ‘Right, let’s have a bash at some Maiden songs.’ We did three or four Maiden songs, but I’d learned all of them. Clive had been Samson’s drummer, so it felt very natural. But then I had to wait two weeks so that they could deal with Paul after the last gigs in Scandinavia,” Dickinson remembers.
These days, Dickinson is pretty outspoken on one matter in particular: his expectations for the crowd at Maiden’s live shows, and their use of mobile phones. In a conversation with Appetite For Distortion, the vocalist said: “It’s like some terrible disease, that people feel the need to look at the world through this stupid little device. It’s like a failing of humanity,” he explained. “You’re surrendering your senses completely to this little fascist in your hand.”
Iron Maiden continue their Run For Your Lives world tour in 2026, with the first date kicking off on 23 May in Athens, Greece. Find out more or grab tickets via the official Iron Maiden website.
The post “Everybody was down, and then suddenly we were all smiling and having a laugh”: Bruce Dickinson recalls his eventful Iron Maiden audition appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I’d never in my life been freezing but completely drenched in sweat”: Wolfgang Van Halen had a panic attack while en route to support Metallica
Wolfgang Van Halen is no stranger to the stage; he joined Van Halen alongside his father Eddie in 2006 at the ripe old age of just 15. But that’s not to say he doesn’t still experience nerves like the rest of us.
Wolfie has graced some of the world’s biggest stages; his band Mammoth routinely play arena shows, and he’s appeared at some real landmark events, including Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins tribute shows in London and LA in 2022. He was also invited to appear at Black Sabbath’s monumental farewell show, but was unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts with his own band.
But this breadth of experience doesn’t make him immune to jitters, as he notes in a new interview with Classic Rock.
As the story goes, Mammoth were invited to support metal titans Metallica on a string of 2023-2024 shows for their M72 World Tour. But while on the plane to Mexico for two shows in Mexico City in 2024, Wolfgang recalls suffering a panic attack.
“I’ve never in my life been freezing but completely drenched in sweat,” he remembers. “It fucked me up. It felt like it was forever, but it was probably about a 10-minute thing. In hindsight it’s hilarious, but during, very traumatic.”
He notes how he was able to take the negative experience and channel it into something positive, the writing for Mammoth’s newly released third album, The End. “I think that headspace – I’m already an anxious person – bled into the whole writing process,” he says.
As many who have suffered such panic attacks will note, the exact cause is often hard to pin down.
“When I get like that it doesn’t really matter,” Wolfgang notes. “At any time, I can just freak out because something’s gonna go wrong, or I’m gonna make an ass of myself, or I’m gonna ruin it, I’m gonna mess up, or, you know…”
He reflects that some of his anxiety may stem from a lifetime in the public eye as the son of Eddie Van Halen.
“I guess I am my toughest critic,” he says. “And growing up in the scrutiny of the public eye, since I was 14, I think might have a lot to do with that; issues that I’ve got to work on. I’ve been to therapy a couple of times, I’m medicated, all of that. So it’s just a matter of working your way through it, being more comfortable in yourself, not needing that approval from others.”
We were lucky enough lately to catch up with Wolfgang Van Halen himself, where he told us about his five all-time favourite guitar players. You can read the full interview at Guitar.com.
The post “I’d never in my life been freezing but completely drenched in sweat”: Wolfgang Van Halen had a panic attack while en route to support Metallica appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage Stratocaster HSS review: “probably the best marriage of vintage and modern features out there”
$2,899/£2,899, fender.com
If there’s anyone that can find a gap in an already comprehensively stocked catalogue, then it’s Fender. Back at the tail end of 2024, Fender updated their pro-focused American Ultra range with the release of the American Ultra II series. Guitars designed to cater to those modern players desirous of compound radii, Noiseless pickups, extra body contouring and the like.
The thing about those guitars, however, was that they tended to look as modern as they played – and not everyone wants that particular recipe. Enter then, the American Ultra Luxe Vintage series. This brand new tangent at the top of Fender’s USA production range aims to, “Fender’s contemporary innovations with their historic foundations to create a series of modern performance-focused instruments beautifully inspired by vintage tones and aesthetics.”
In short then, these electric guitars offer all the tweaks on the classic formula that the Ultra guitars have championed, but with more old-school sounds and visuals that mean you’d probably never know unless you played it yourself.
Guitars that combine vintage aesthetics and tones with more modern appointments are, of course, already very popular – many of the biggest names in the boutique guitar world made their names doing it. The biggest question is why it’s taken Fender so long to catch up.
Despite the company introducing a 22-fret neck all the way back in 1987, Fender guitars that blend vintage aesthetics with appointments favoured by more technically-minded modern players have been vanishingly rare in the intervening three decades.
Outside of Custom Shop instruments, it’s been pretty much unheard of. It was notable however that last year a British retailer spec’d a run of Custom Shop Strats with heavy relic finishes but with bridge humbuckers, sculpted heels and large frets – and despite the hefty price tag these guitars sold out almost instantly. You would imagine that this did not go unnoticed by Fender’s accounts department…
Image: Adam Gasson
Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage Stratocaster HSS – what is it?
So what does the snappily-named American Ultra Luxe Vintage Stratocaster HSS actually offer you? Well, for players such as myself, the best of both worlds.
Many of the specs of the Ultra II range are replicated here. That means you get a 22-fret compound radius neck complete with rolled edges and Luminlay side dots. You’ll also find a sculpted heel for upper-fret access, and further accommodation is offered for dusty end excursions courtesy of some extra contouring to the back (including on the lower horn).
Up top you’ll find Fender’s two-point Syncronized Tremolo with block saddles, a Tusq nut at the other end, and Fender’s own locking tuners. Under the hood you’ll also find Fender’s S-1 switching system adding some extra sonic options to the usual.
But the pickups themselves are where things start to deviate – rather than the Noiseless units found in the Ultra II, this HSS guitar pairs a duo of Pure Vintage ’61 single-coils (also found on the 1961 American Vintage II Stratocaster) in the neck and middle with a Haymaker humbucker in the bridge.
The most striking visual difference of course is the visual stuff. In this case you get a Heirloom-aged nitrocellulose lacquer finish, and a rosewood board instead of ebony – in this case it’s ol’ faithful Fiesta Red, and there’s also a rather lovely Surf Green option in this HSS configuration.
Image: Adam Gasson
Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage Stratocaster HSS – build quality and playability
As you’d expect from a guitar that occupies the space at the very top of Fender’s production output, the general impression upon pulling this guitar out of its brown vintage-style case (another departure from the Ultra II recipe) is very impressive.
The general fit and finish is exemplary throughout, but it’s worth spending a minute talking about the Heirloom finish Fender has introduced with these new models – as it’s not always totally apparent in photos. The first thing to be aware of is that this is not a pristine ‘just left the factory’ finish – there is artificial ageing going on here, though it is very subtle.
There’s no overtly artificial wear and tear, but the finish itself does have a very subtle (and pretty convincing) lacquer checking to the body and the neck – which has a satin lacquer treatment as opposed to the satin urethane job on the Ultra II. The finish too has a slightly dulled effect – it certainly doesn’t have the vibrant orange-tinted sheen of a classic Fiesta Red, but that’s all to its benefit, I think.
The plastics on the guitar have a slightly yellowed colour too, while the beautifully dark and inviting rosewood board is similarly given the more retro vibe courtesy of some yellowed clay dots – the contrast of which with the Luminlay side dots really does reflect the world-straddling nature of the whole guitar.
The neck shape itself is described by Fender as a shallow D, but with a slightly pronounced set of shoulders, it actually feels more ‘C’. The definition of a modern player’s neck seems to be a D shape, but the dimensions can prove to be a little too slim for some. The Vintage Ultra Luxe has a decent set of shoulders, which vintage enthusiasts may find a little slim, but as someone who has a strong preference for the fulsome Oval 60s C shape offered on a Custom Shop model, I can say that this is still comfortable in comparison.
The rolled fingerboard edges really lend a touch of finesse to the playing experience and further hints at a guitar that’s been well played-in. Combine that with the stainless-steel fretwork and compound radius, and it makes for a notably sleek Strat that will certainly appeal to more technical players.
Image: Adam Gasson
Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage Stratocaster HSS – build quality and playability
If I had my way, every Strat would have a humbucker in the bridge. I’ve never been a fan of the often bright, shrill, and scything tone produced by a single coil in this position but that is a disservice to all the incredible rock riffs by Messrs Blackmore and Gilmour (I guess that’s why they’re called the greats).
Through a Boogie Mark IV the Haymaker humbucker pays homage to another icon of yesteryear, Jeff Beck, as the tonal similarity with his namesake’s iconic pickup are remarkably similar. We get the trademark mid-range bump with a crisp – but not harsh – high end supported by a focused low end. The stainless-steel frets also add an additional presence to my ears and combined, make legato work smooth and seamless. There is also a wonderful balance across all six strings for chordal/rhythm work. This is everything a rock humbucker should be.
In the middle and neck position we have Fender’s Pure Vintage ’61 Single-Coils, so when switching over to the neck pickup I’m expecting a lower output vintage experience. Rather surprisingly – and pleasingly – there’s a plenty of snap and girth on tap, making for a well-rounded tone that is obviously vintage-inspired but with a slightly higher output (noticeable more on the thicker strings).
Through the Boogie, pentatonic-based rock riffs sound wonderfully percussive and full, while retaining some warmth traditionally expected from the neck position. In fact, they’re reminiscent of the Bare Knuckle ’63 Veneer Board’ pickups, which are based on the hotter coils from the ’63/64-era Strats – a set venerated for their wide frequency response and dynamics.
The only real disappointment here is the S-1 system, which continues the trend from the Ultra II of offering a significantly reduced palette of extra sounds than was previously available on the pre-Ultra Elite model Strats. Here it functions in just two positions: splitting the bridge humbucker. I would argue that a simple push-pull switch would do the job just as well.
The split coil is an acquired taste and certainly has its uses, but I found it to be a little on the thin side for my needs – your mileage may vary depending on how much you love the sound of a Strat bridge pickup, however!
Image: Adam Gasson
Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage Stratocaster HSS – should I buy one?
When you’re talking about a near-$3,000 instrument, the pricetag is always something that’s going to weigh heavily on any comparisons made. At this end of the market you’re putting yourself up against not only Fender’s own Custom Shop, but also some of the most storied names in the US boutique market who have been doing this sort of thing for a long time.
The Ultra Luxe Vintage more than stands up to these rivals, however. The attention to detail and general build is exemplary, while the playability is exactly what you’d expect from an instrument at the very highest echelons of production instruments.
It’s one of the most enjoyable and compelling Fender-made Strats I’ve played in a long time – the combination of vintage looks with all the modern conveniences that a technically elevated player could ask for makes for a serious forever guitar. In fact, it’s probably the best marriage of vintage and modern features out there.
Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage Stratocaster HSS – alternatives
When you’re within touching distance of the $3k price point, you’re bringing in not just other big brands, but the meat of some of the bigger boutique guitar makers, too. The vintage/modern amalgamation is extremely well espoused by Suhr and its Classic S guitars ($3,525). It’s not cheap, but is designed to capture the essence of vintage guitars whilst simultaneously offering modern precision and comfort. Tom Anderson is another big name in this world, and the Classic ($4,134) offers a unique blend of classic styling and modern playability. A relic’d Tom Anderson is an unusual sight, but their “Level 1” distressing is subtle yet authentic. And of course, the playability and craftmanship are second to none. The elephant in the room is probably the PRS Silver Sky ($2,339) – if you can live without a bridge humbucker, it does a fine job of blending the vintage and modern in a very stylish package.
The post Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage Stratocaster HSS review: “probably the best marriage of vintage and modern features out there” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Great Acoustic Guitar Tone - Anywhere, Anytime
Excerpt: Joni Mitchell’s Greenpeace in the Fretboard Journal 57
A short excerpt from Clay Frohman’s cover story on Joni Mitchell’s Greenpeace guitar in our 57th issue.
On a bright sticky Saturday in early May 1995, I was sitting with friends near the front of the main performance stage at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. We were waiting for Joni Mitchell to come on. She was headlining the closing weekend, a coveted slot, but freighted with even more anticipation than usual because (a) Joni hadn’t toured since 1983, more than a decade ago, due in part to the impracticality of adjusting her many tunings between songs or carrying enough guitars and techs to handle it all, and (b) word had circulated that today’s show might be her swan song, a final public performance before she called it quits on the “star making machinery” of the music business, toward which she had for years harbored a simmering antipathy.
Thousands of music fans and Joni fanatics filled the sprawling lawn behind me. Joni’s career spanned many eras, genres and styles and they were all reflected in the mix of folkies from the “Circle Game” and “Both Sides Now” early years, reverent intimates from the probing confessional “Blue” and “For the Roses” period, pop fans from Joni’s commercial breakthrough “Court and Spark” and beyond. As her thirst for new sounds evolved from the solo folk guitar and dulcimer of “Song to a Seagull” and “Clouds” into more complex and rhythmic band arrangements, Joni sought out schooled jazz musicians like Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter and Tom Scott who could work through her unorthodox chord voicings and add their own swing and sass to the challenging music heard on “Hissing of Summer Lawns,” and “Hejira.” As an artist, Joni had always thrived on risk and experimentation, and always pushed forward with a stubborn velocity, sometimes to the detriment of record sales and industry backlash, as evidenced in her collaboration with dying jazz eminence Charles Mingus on Mingus. To the critics and company suits and even her own management team it just wasn’t a “Joni record,” but no matter; Joni did it for herself, and for Charlie.
Not all of Joni’s fans kept up with her jazzier enthusiasms, but I did. Having come of age as a rock guitarist mainlining Beatles, Motown and my hometown Chicago blues, I was introduced in elementary school to Miles, Bill Evans, and Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” by my best friend, a budding clarinet prodigy who dove deep into jazz and brought me along. I walked around the schoolyard humming the bass line to “Bitches Brew” and feeling like a Major Dude. When I moved to Los Angeles after college one of my first gigs was writing liner notes for Blue Note, the premier jazz label in town. I worked for the label on album projects with Chick Corea, Ronnie Laws and, yes, Wayne Shorter. So, Joni’s jazz direction suited me. She was playing with half of Weather Report! How cool was that for the Woman of Heart and Mind?
As I was relating some of this personal history to my friends on the Jazz Fest lawn, Joni stepped on stage with her luminous smile, wearing a broad brimmed straw hat, cradling a curious green Strat-shaped electric guitar that appeared to have no pickups or volume controls save for a block of black plastic near the bridge. The crowd greeted her with cheers and applause. Joni announced, “I’m going to try something new today.”
Photograph by Eleanor Jane
She launched into “Sex Kills” from her album Turbulent Indigo. But something was off. The sounds coming from the green guitar were drenched in delay and reverb, distorted and unintelligible. There was a palpable uncertainty in the crowd. This didn’t sound like the music they expected, like nothing they recognized. And what was this strange green guitar under her fingers? It barely sounded like a guitar at all. More like a rude synth.
Joni pushed on, into “Moon at the Window” from Wild Things Run Fast. The guitar sound still wobbled wildly out of control. From where I sat the crowd energy had turned against whatever new thing Joni was trying to do. A couple behind me collected their lawn chairs and left.
I looked on in dismay. I knew the backstory of Greenpeace.
There is a series of photographs of a young Joni, David Crosby and Eric Clapton taken in the backyard of Mama Cass Elliot’s Laurel Canyon home back in the late ’60s. Joni is new to the scene, having been brought to Los Angeles by ex-Byrd Crosby after he was entranced by a set she played in a Florida folk club. She sits cross-legged on the lawn playing her D-28, and the dour Clapton is focused hard at her, trying to decipher how these incredible songs and sounds are coming from this stunning blonde Canadian with a Martin guitar. He’s watching her hands for familiar chord shapes, but there are none.
Photograph by Eleanor Jane
Clapton was stumped because Joni Mitchell was no ordinary guitar player. Her approach to the instrument was entirely of her own design. After picking up her first chords, as many did, with Pete Seeger’s How to Play Folk Style Guitar, Joni found Elizabeth Cotten’s fingerpicking style, then migrated to blues tunings and the more traditional open tunings, then began to invent tunings and voicings based on what sounded interesting to her ear in the moment. She would tune to numbers in a date, to a piece of music on the radio, to the environment she found herself in, to birdsong. Her process was one of invention, discovery, a breezy disregard for traditional forms. With her longtime guitar tech and archivist Joel Bernstein she created a numerical notation system to keep track of her tunings and which song they were assigned to.
To read the rest of the article, order the issue or subscribe now.
The post Excerpt: Joni Mitchell’s Greenpeace in the Fretboard Journal 57 first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
Win a Year of Premium Santa Cruz Strings!
Your guitar’s voice deserves strings that sing. Premier Guitar and Santa Cruz Guitar Co. are giving you a chance to win a year of their world-class acoustic strings, crafted for exceptional tone, balance, and feel.
Santa Cruz Strings PG Perks giveaway
The Science of Perfect Tension
When it comes to guitar strings, it's all about tension. While gauge is simply the measurement of the string's diameter, the tension of a string determines its relative volume to the other strings (EQ). String tension is determined by its core to wrap ratio, which can vary greatly among manufacturers.
Santa Cruz Guitar Company has developed unique "Parabolic Tension" acoustic guitar strings that are engineered to create even tension across all strings for a more balanced tonal response. This innovative approach ensures that each string has the optimal tension for its pitch, resulting in superior projection, clarity, and tonal balance.
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Santa Cruz Parabolic Tension Strings
BOSS XS-100: Eight Octaves of Creative Mayhem
PG contributor Tom Butwin explores the new BOSS XS‑100 Poly Shifter—an 8-octave powerhouse that lets guitarists and bassists go from subtle drop-tuning to full-on pitch chaos with expression pedal and MIDI control. From transforming a standard guitar into a baritone to turning a 4-string bass into a five-string monster, this pedal offers both inspiring sounds and real gig-day utility.
Boss XS-100 Poly Shifter Pitch-shift Pedal
Boss XS-1 Poly Shifter Pitch-shift Pedal
IK Multimedia Announces TONEX Plug for Guitar and Bass
IK Multimedia is proud to announce TONEX Plug, the ultimate portable guitar and bass headphone amp, offering instant access to over 40,000 free amps and pedal rigs, plus Premium and Signature Collections. Powered by IK's award-winning AI Machine Modeling™, TONEX Plug delivers the same studio-quality tone as the TONEX Pedal and TONEX ONE in a sleek, pocket-sized design.
With built-in Bluetooth and the included TONEX Control app (iOS/Android), users can practice or play anywhere, stream audio, and browse and edit presets with the app, then load them wirelessly to TONEX Plug.TONEX Plug Overview
- Personal headphone amp with AI Machine Modeling™ for guitar and bass
- Over 40,000 FREE Tone Models on ToneNET, plus Premium and Signature Collections
- Fully compatible with the growing TONEX Ecosystem
- Stores 30 user presets across 10 color-coded banks
- Find, load, and edit presets wirelessly via TONEX Control App (iOS/Android)
- Stream stereo audio via Bluetooth from all popular apps
- Also functions as a high-quality USB-C audio interface
- Onboard EQ, gate, compressor, delay, modulation, and reverb
- Built-in chromatic tuner with LED indicator
- 1/4" swivel jack and 1/8" stereo headphone output
- Rechargeable battery with up to 6 hours of playtime
- Includes TONEX SE and AmpliTube 5 SE software for capturing, recording, and playing
Great Tone on the Go
From the first note, players will experience incredibly rich, dynamic, and touch-sensitive tones from an ultra-compact device. TONEX Plug, through its control app, also provides unlimited access to ToneNET, the world's most popular tone-sharing platform. Users can expand their personal library of sounds to suit any style or session at a moment's notice.
Whether it's a beloved vintage amp or models of their own rig, users can load any Tone Model wirelessly and transport themselves to the front of the stage as every nuance of the original rig comes to life. The TONEX Plug is ideal for silent rehearsal and travel.
Practice, Play, and More
With TONEX Plug, users can explore their tone library in complete silence using headphones, stream backing tracks via Bluetooth, jam with YouTube lessons or music-learning apps, all while playing their guitar or bass through high-quality amps and effects. Additionally, a built-in tuner and metronome eliminate the need for extra gear, allowing players to focus on improving their skills or warming up for gigs.
A Community of Great Tone
The TONEX Plug isn't limited to just factory sounds. Through the app, users can instantly connect to ToneNET and explore over 40,000 free Tone Models, as well as Premium and Signature collections. The active ToneNET and Tone Partner community uploads and shares some of the most sought-after amps ever made, all of which are easily searchable by song and artist keywords or by using dedicated filters such as instrument, type, Most Liked, Top 10, and more.
Total Tonal Control
The TONEX Control app for iOS and Android serves as the wireless command center for TONEX Plug, providing real-time control over all parameters. Easily browse and load Tone Models from ToneNET. Edit the amp, cab, EQ, IRs, and TONEX FX with precision, and save changes directly to the hardware.
With drag-and-drop editing and integration with Premium and Signature Collections, TONEX Control transforms the TONEX Plug from a headphone amp into a fully customizable tone workstation that adapts to any workflow.
For Learning, Recording, and More
Whether it's learning new chords or recording professional-level tracks, TONEX Plug gives users more ways to connect. Stream audio wirelessly from devices via Bluetooth or connect directly to a computer to unlock even more possibilities.
With many guitar and bass learning apps offering real-time feedback, the connected TONEX Plug ensures precise note tracking, delivering a studio-quality tone. It's the perfect companion for practicing smarter and sounding better everywhere.
And when inspiration strikes, TONEX Plug also works as a high-quality audio interface. Easily record directly to a desktop setup via USB-C, without the need for extra equipment. The best tones are always just one connection away.
Signature Tone Anywhere
TONEX Plug users can easily capture their own rig and take it anywhere with IK's powerful AI Machine Modeling. The included TONEX Modeler profiles a rig's tone in just minutes using real guitar signals - not just test tones - and delivers unprecedented authenticity. Players can take Tone Models of their own rigs on the road, backstage, or wherever they go.
Pricing and Availability
TONEX Plug will ship in November and can be ordered now from the IK online store and from IK dealers worldwide at the following prices:
TONEX Plug - $/€149.99* - Includes TONEX Plug, USB-C cable, TONEX SE and AmpliTube 5 SE software.
- TONEX Plug + Pouch - $/€159.99 - Includes TONEX Plug, custom carrying pouch, USB-C cable, TONEX SE and AmpliTube 5 SE software.
- TONEX Plug Pouch - $/€19.99 - Custom carrying pouch for TONEX Plug.
- TONEX Control app (iOS/Android) - FREE - Provides wireless control over all TONEX Plug parameters and access to ToneNET.
For more information about TONEX Plug and to hear it in action, please visit:
www.ikmultimedia.com/tonexplug
Jason Isbell might have the strangest tip for breaking in an acoustic guitar we’ve ever heard
Jason Isbell has just unveiled his new collaboration with Martin, a pair of classy acoustic signature guitars. And while promoting the fresh Jason Isbell 0-17 and the 0-10E Retro acoustics, the Americana star has shared some rather unconventional advice on how to break an acoustic guitar in.
Isbell insists that a new acoustic guitar should be introduced to good, loud music before it’s played. His advice? Popping your guitar in front of some speakers and letting your axe soak up all the musical magic. “I recommend putting it in front of a couple of stereo speakers when you leave the house and turn it up really loud,” he says [via MusicRadar].
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His personal preference is treating his guitars to a bit of good ol’ hip-hop. It’s not the only option – but it’s just the kind of music Isbell enjoys. “I normally use OutKast or something, just so when I come home, OutKast is playing on the stereo,” he explains. “It makes me happy! But all my new acoustic guitars get to listen to Outkast for about 40 hours the first week they’re in the house.”
While Isbell doesn’t quite explain the science behind his technique, we can only ponder why he stands by it. Perhaps the loud vibrations loosen the guitar up a bit? Sort of like you pull on a new set of strings before retuning a few times so the tuning sets. Or perhaps it really does just sink right into the mahogany, giving it a thorough lesson on what good music should sound like.
If you’re on the hunt for a new acoustic to trial Isbell’s technique out on, one of the guitarist’s new Martin models might take your fancy. The pair of mahogany guitars come in a more premium Jason Isbell 0-17 model, sitting at $4,999 and limited to just 50 units, while the 0-10E Retro is a slightly more affordable $1,049
The premium Jason Isbell 0-17 also serves as a replica of the pre-war 0-17 guitar heard across the entirety of his 2025 record, Foxes In The Snow. The guitars also both come with onboard Martin E1 acoustic guitar pickup systems, which also have the benefit of an inbuilt guitar tuner.
“If you’re a beginner player, a guitar this size and the shape works for you because it’s easy to play, but the more advanced you get as a guitar player, the guitar still works because it’s easy to control,” Isbell explains.
“A guitar like this meets the artist criteria that the instrument can’t be the challenge…” he continues. “What the guitar should be is an extension of your own physical self, and that doesn’t necessarily mean that you play it well enough to where it feels like you’re tying your shoes, but it can mean that you play it well enough to where you don’t notice it after a while.”
The limited Martin 0-17 Jason Isbell is priced at $4,999, while the 0-10E Retro version comes in at $1,049. Both are available from Martin Guitar in left- or right-handed configurations.
The post Jason Isbell might have the strangest tip for breaking in an acoustic guitar we’ve ever heard appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“He gets in big and gets out big”: The ultimate secret of Eric Clapton’s guitar solos, according to his most trusted guitar confidant
![[L-R] Doyle Bramhall II and Eric Clapton](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Clappers-Bramhall@2000x1500.jpg)
With an iconic blues drummer for a father, Doyle Bramhall II was surrounded by the greats from a young age. Over his career, he’s played with Roger Waters, Jimmie Vaughan and more – however, one of his most influential connections would come in the form of the legendary Eric Clapton.
An initial opportunity to collaborate with Clapton arose in 2000, when Slowhand personally asked Bramhall to work on his collaborative album with B.B. King, Riding With the King.
Not only did the record go on to win a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album, but it also marked the start of a collaborative partnership made in heaven, with Bramhall joining Clapton’s touring band and eventually co-producing his 2010 Clapton and 2013 Old Sock records.
Of course, the years of close collaboration have rubbed off on Bramhall. “There’s no way I can adequately describe what Eric has meant to me all of these years,” Bramhall tells Guitar Player. “The musical lessons he taught me have been immense, and I’m proud to call him my dear friend.”
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Most importantly, Clapton taught Bramhall that every second you’re on stage should mean something. “Everything he plays has a purpose,” Bramhall explains. “There are no throwaway lines.”
Specifically, Bramhall zeroes in on the gravity one of Clapton’s guitar solos can muster. In Bramhall’s words, his solos are “commanding”, with every note holding huge importance. “His notes are big,” he says. “There isn’t a lot of extraneous stuff, and even when he does get fiery, it’s always there for a reason. There’s emotion behind what he plays.”
“He also understands the arrangement to a solo,” he adds. “He gets in big and he gets out big. It’s like he’s making a real statement.”
When you make sure every single note counts, you’re instantly on to something extraordinary. “When you’re standing right next to [Clapton], you really feel it.” he reflects. “When a song builds to a crescendo, it’s like he’s rising right along with it… There’s always an urgency to what he’s playing. He’s taking you on a ride.”
Bramhall’s time playing with Clapton has also taught him a very vital lesson: when you’re performing with a guitar hero, you’ve got to prove that you’re worthy of standing beside them. “You get onstage with somebody, you’ve got to have the goods,” he explains.
Of course, it helps when your musical peers are so willing to extend a helping hand along the way. “I have to credit the people who brought me along, because they taught me the true spirit of musicianship, listening and collaborating,” he says. “I learned from the best, and that helped me go from one musical experience to the next!”
The post “He gets in big and gets out big”: The ultimate secret of Eric Clapton’s guitar solos, according to his most trusted guitar confidant appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Heritage Guitars builds on the momentum of its new Standard II Collection with three new premium electric guitars
[Editor’s note: Heritage Guitars and Guitar.com are both part of the Caldecott Music Group.]
After unveiling its Standard II Collection back in September – bringing a number of “meaningful refinements” to its Standard Series – Heritage Guitars has added three new models to the line, the H-150 P90, H-535, and H-530.
All built at the brand’s iconic factory at 225 Parsons Street in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the new additions bear the same ethos as the Standard II Collection’s existing models, with Custom Shop pickups, refined aesthetics and more.
- READ MORE: Ernie Ball rechargeable batteries: The end of the guitar world’s infatuation with 9V batteries?
Standard II Collection H-150 P90
Credit: Heritage Guitars
The H-150 P90, as you might have guessed, sports a pair of Heritage Custom Shop 225 Standard P90 pickups, designed and wound in-house with 42 AWG poly wire and featuring Alnico 5 magnets. These pickups are bolstered by CTS potentiometers, Vishay capacitors and Switchcraft components for the “purest signal and reliable performance”.
Like the other two models joining the Standard II Collection, the H-150 P90 boasts a new headstock veneer with the Heritage logo, as well as a slim ‘60s neck profile for a vintage feel.
Elsewhere, the guitar features a genuine mahogany body with weight relief for greater playing comfort, and comes in four colourways, Dirty Lemon Burst, Midnight Blue, Cherry and Ebony.
Standard II Collection H-535
Credit: Heritage Guitars
The semi-hollow H-535 sports a pair of Heritage Custom Shop 225 Standard humbuckers – wound in-house using 42 AWG plain enamel wire in the neck pickup and 43 AWG poly wire in the bridge pickup, and with 2.5” roughcast Alnico 5 magnets with potted covers for minimising unwanted feedback at higher volumes.
The H-535’s electronics feature modern wiring, though, with series/parallel switching via push/pull tone pots for enhanced tonal flexibility. Like the H-150 P90, the H-535 features CTS potentiometers, Vishay capacitors and Switchcraft components.
It also sports the same new headstock veneer with the Heritage logo, as well as a ‘60s neck profile. Finish options include Chestnut Burst, Trans Cherry, Ebony and Original Sunburst.
Standard II Collection H-530
Credit: Heritage Guitars
And last but not least, the hollowbody Standard II Collection H-530 sports a pair of Heritage Custom Shop 225 Standard P90s with CTS potentiometers, Vishay capacitors and Switchcraft components, as well as the same new additions as the previous two models: a new headstock veneer and ‘60s neck profile.
This one comes in four colourways: Chestnut Burst, Trans Cherry, Ebony and Original Sunburst.
Pricing and availability
- Standard II Collection H-150 P90 – $2,599
- Standard II Collection H-535 – $2,999
- Standard II Collection H-530 – $2,999
All three guitars are available now direct from Heritage Guitars or from select authorised Heritage dealers.
For more info, head to Heritage Guitars.
The post Heritage Guitars builds on the momentum of its new Standard II Collection with three new premium electric guitars appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Ernie Ball rechargeable batteries: The end of the guitar world’s infatuation with 9V batteries?
Whether in stompboxes, active pickups or portable practice amps, guitar gear is often reliant on battery power. But the hidden cost of this dependency is both the ongoing cost to the player of replacements, and the thousands of disposable batteries that find their way into landfill.
Ernie Ball reckons it has the solution, as it’s just launched a line of USB-C rechargeable batteries in partnership with Paleblue, an industry leader in the area.
Available in both AA and 9V formats, the new rechargeable batteries deliver “full-voltage performance” across everything from instruments to effects pedals, with USB-C direct charging (no external charger required), and an environmentally friendly lithium-ion design rated for over 1,000 recharge cycles. That’s a lot less batteries headed to landfill.
Recharge times are fast, too; with up to 80% charge achievable in as fast as 75 minutes, while LEDs indicates your charge level.
And they’ve already had the stamp of approval from touring techs with a range of high-profile artists, including Red Hot Chili Peppers, My Chemical Romance, Billie Eilish, Jack Johnson, Zac Brown Band, Jason Mraz, Turnstile, Nine Inch Nails and more.
“I think rechargeable batteries are the only way forward in this industry,” says Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jerry Cantrell guitar tech Henry Trejo. “There’s too much waste when it comes to conventional batteries. You also have the added benefit of carrying less bulk which also reduces weight, especially when touring on a budget.”
He goes on: “I love the charging indicator lights on these new Ernie Ball batteries and absolutely love the included charging dongle to be able to recharge multiple at the same time.”
Credit: Ernie Ball
It’s worth noting that these rechargeable batteries deliver consistent full-voltage power until they need to be recharged, so you won’t need to deal with that period of unreliable sound courtesy of a dying battery.
You can learn more at Ernie Ball.
The post Ernie Ball rechargeable batteries: The end of the guitar world’s infatuation with 9V batteries? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
IK Multimedia Announces TONEX Plug
The Guitar Gear Used on The Foo Fighters landmark The Colour and the Shape
The Foo Fighter’s second album, The Colour and the Shape was a pivotal point in the career of the band. Through a turbulent recording process that forever altered the lineup of the band, it sent the Foo Fighters flying high with their first Top 10 album, their biggest hit song, and significant radio play. In this article, we’ll look at the gear that was used to record this landmark album (twice…).
For those unfamiliar with this era of the Foo Fighters career, it was one of unrest in the band. That unrest is laid out quite well in the documentary Back and Forth. The band recorded tracks for their second album at Bear Creek Studio in Washington. After that Grohl went to Hollywood to mix the record but discovered that he wasn’t happy with the sound, so he decided that he would re-record many of the tracks, including all of the drum tracks, which resulted in the departure of William Goldsmith and the introduction of Taylor Hawkins.
The Essentials – Guitars
I recently spoke with Dave Grohl’s guitar tech, Earnie Bailey, who was kind enough to look through his notes of the gear that was sent to Bear Creek Studio in Washington for the initial recording sessions. However, a lot of that gear was left behind when Grohl moved the sessions to Hollywood, California.
The guitars present at the Bear Creek sessions included some oddities, but we are unsure if they were used on the final tracks. Some of those included a Roland Synth guitar, an old Silvertone model from the 1960s that had an amplifier built into the case – these were really cool. They were only made for seven years (1962-1968), and they came in one and two-pickup versions. There was also a Mosrite 12-string, and two Travis Bean models (on Standard and one Artist) – only 755 Artist models were ever made. Both would have had the aluminum necks. A Telecaster Thinline was also present. The acoustic on those sessions was a Gibson (unsure of the model).
There are six guitars that we know made it to Los Angeles to be used on the tracks recorded at Grandmaster Studio in Hollywood. A Gibson Barney Kessel, a Gibson Les Paul P90 Goldtop, a Gibson Trini Lopez, a White Gibson Les Paul Custom, and a Hagstrom HiiN with a blue metalflake finish. Grohl also had a black 1990 Gibson Explorer that Earnie Bailey bought for him in Austin, Texas, in September of 1995. Bailey added chrome pickup covers and Gibson reflector knobs to it so it would be styled after a 1963 model. That guitar became his primary instrument through most of 1996.
Dave Grohl primarily used the Gibson Trini Lopez – he claims that this has been his secret weapon in the studio for much of his career. He got his first one, a 1967 model, back in 1992 when he was still with Nirvana. He also used the Les Paul Goldtop with the P-90 pickups. Given Pat Smear’s affinity for Hagstrom guitars, we can assume that he used the HiiN as his weapon of choice. We were also able to confirm that he had in the studio a Super Swede as well as his alpine white 1977 Gibson EDS-1275 SG Double Neck.
Grohl and Smear probably didn’t know it at the time, but they were both playing guitars in that studio that would later be the basis for signature models. Dave Grohl’s Gibson DG-335 was heavily based on his beloved Trini Lopez model. Pat Smear’s history with the Hagstrom HiiN model goes all the way back to 1980 when he was with The Germs. He used them all the way through his time with Nirvana, amassing quite a collection of them, I’m told. He now has a beautiful signature model from Hagstrom that is heavily influenced by the HiiN models.
Make It Loud – The Amps
Dave Grohl played the bulk of his guitar tracks through a Fender (Zinky) Custom Shop ToneMaster 2×12 100-watt amp. The Fender Zinky was an amp that was present at the studio. Grohl would eventually buy three ToneMaster heads in 2000 that he still uses today. For those unfamiliar with “Zinky” amps, they were amps built in Fender’s Custom Shop by a guy named Bruce Zinky starting in the early 1990s. He eventually made his own company, Zinky Electronics, and eventually bought the Supro brand.
In addition to the Fender Zinky ToneMaster, there were some additional amps that we know were at the original Bear Creek sessions. Those amps were a Marshall ‘77-78 JMP 2204 50 watt head, a Marshall 1968 Super Bass 100watt head, a late 80’s or early 90’s Vox AC30, a 70’s Kustom K250 head, an Ampeg VT-22 combo, and a Mesa Boogie Studio .22/Crest 4801. It seems most likely that Pat Smear was using the Mesa Boogie Studio .22 preamp along with the Crest 4801 power amp as that is what he had been using at Nirvana’s live shows. His rig mirrored Kurt Cobain’s rig during the In Utero days as well.
The bass rig on the album was straightforward – Nate Mendel used a Candy Apple Red Fender P Bass through an Ampeg SVT. The P Bass is something that has been part of Mendel’s rig since he was in Sunny Day Real Estate. I believe that Mendel’s bass is a 1971 model. In 2012, Fender graced Mendel with his own signature model, which mirrors this bass and only comes in one color – Candy Apple Red.
Effects
The effects that were sent to Bear Creek were as follows: ProCo Turbo Rat, ProCo Rat 2, Kay Fuzz, Jordan BossTone, Boss BF2 Flanger, Ibanez AD9 Delay, Ebow, Dunlop Rotovibe, Cry Baby Wah, Boss delay, DigiTech Whammy, DOD Gonkulator. We don’t know how many of these were used on those sessions or what made it to the Hollywood sessions, but it does give a pretty good rundown of the basic effects that would have been used on the early Foo Fighters records.
A Foo Fighting Legacy
The Colour and the Shape remains their best-selling album, in part, due to the success of the singles, Everlong, Monkey Wrench, and My Hero, all of which are still fan favorites. While the album’s recording process may have created some turbulence, it solidified the band’s signature sound – quite literally – three of the instruments on this record served as a basis for signature instruments that would come from three different companies over a decade later.
For those seeking the Foo Fighters sound, there really isn’t much of a secret to it. It’s not necessarily a band where people geek out about the gear. The sound is rooted in a Gibson humbucker sound running through a loud amplifier. It is loud, straight-forward rock and roll, backed by some of the most brilliant songwriting of our generation. That’s what makes the Foo Fighters the quintessential rock band of the 21st century.
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