Norse Guitar Feeds

It’s been a landmark few days in the world of heavy metal, as genre titans Megadeth have just dropped their final-ever album. As you might expect, Dave Mustaine’s swansong is chock-full of abrasive riffs and searing solos (try Let There Be Shred on for size).

One of the biggest things that’s got people talking in the runup to the album’s release, though, is the inclusion of Ride the Lightning, a cover of the Metallica classic which Mustaine helped write all the way back in the early ‘80s.

• READ MORE: NAMM 2026 is done and dusted – and loads of the gear debuted is already available at Sweetwater

But Mustaine helped write a number of Metallica songs before he was fired in 1983, including a selection from the band’s debut album, Kill ‘Em All. So why did he choose Ride the Lightning for Megadeth’s final record?

“We were working on the album and my son, Justis, said, ‘Why don’t you do a Metallica song, Dad?’” he recalls in a new interview with Record Collector.“I thought, ‘I don’t think so.’ 

“Then I thought about it more and the idea just felt good, so I agreed. I wanted to close the circle and pay my respects to James [Hetfield, Metallica frontman] and Lars [Ulrich, Metallica drummer]. I personally have always thought James was an excellent guitarist, so I think it was the right thing to do.

“Panic [Mustaine’s first band] was never solidified as a real band, so my first real band was Metallica. Now that I’m going into retirement, I think it’s the right way to pay my respects.” 

While it was important to pay his respects to his former band, Mustaine says he was also conscious not to make the cover too similar to the original.

“When the time came to actually do the song, we thought, ‘Do we want to make it a little longer? Do we want to make it a little fast? Do we want to extend the solo section?’ We started working on it and everything came together nicely. We did speed it up a bit and we did try to do a couple of things a little different from the original version. It was a great song to play.

“Because I wrote music in that song, it just makes sense. It’s not a cover song. It’s a song that I wrote part of, and it just feels different. It doesn’t feel like we’re doing a song by another band.”

Asked whether he’d ever consider recording covers of the other Metallica songs he had a writing credit on, Mustaine replies: “Not anymore. No. I think I said what I wanted to. Unless something gigantic happens, I don’t know that I’ll be going into the studio again. If I do, it probably won’t be for a very long time.

“With my hands the way that they are, it’s hard to sit in the studio all day long and play guitar. Nine months we were in the studio working [on Megadeth], every day, from the morning hours up until seven o’clock at night. My hands got roasted.”

Megadeth’s last-ever album is out now. The band will embark on a massive final world tour from February. See the official Megadeth website for tickets and details.

The post “It’s not a cover song. It’s a song I wrote part of… It doesn’t feel like we’re doing a song by another band”: Dave Mustaine on Megadeth’s Ride the Lightning appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Have you ever dreamt of a pedal with Dr. Phil’s face on it? Maybe you’d enjoy a Fuzztin Bieber or a Splitney Spears? Well, look no further than this bizarre lineup of stompboxes from Celebrity Pedals that are straight out of a fever dream.

Handmade and all-analogue, these pedals take inspiration from celebs and meme stars, and have incredibly great punny names and designs. Not just for laughs, these weird delights have been used by some pretty huge musicians who have played with artists like Beyoncé, John Mayer, Phoebe Bridgers, Miley Cyrus, and more.

• READ MORE: RhPf Electronics Mosrawr review – a noise-bringer that’s designed for post-rock and shoegaze

Rated five stars on Reverb no less, the Celebrity Pedals catalogue includes some real highlights, one being the Taylor Shift octave pedal, which is available in three variations. Also right at the top of its listing is the Millie Wah-bie Brown: a wah inspired by Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown and her character Eleven, complete with glowing eyes.

This one is an envelope filter loosely based on the Mutron with an added volume knob to prevent the volume boost that sometimes occurs with old school envelope filters. It also has a low pass switch to keep the warmth and bass frequencies present, and a handy sensitivity control.

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Some of these celeb names work just great – you can also get an Adam Driver (yep, an overdrive) or a Distorsean Paul distortion pedal, both of which are priced at £160 respectively. Most pedals are priced between £100-300, though there are some great deals across the Celebrity Pedals range.

The Djent Reznor – described as a combination of a BB Preamp and a Tube Screamer, with symmetrical and asymmetrical clipping switch – is now reduced to £150. You can also grab a Hocktave (based on the ‘hawk tuah’ meme) with 21 percent off, or a Splitney Spears II signal splitter for just £89.

Find out more or shop now via the Celebrity Pedals Reverb shop. 

The post Djent Reznor and Millie Wah-bie Brown: check out these unhinged celeb-inspired pedals appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The Guitar.com team is heading home after an action-packed visit to the Anaheim Convention Center for NAMM 2026. This year’s show saw groundbreaking new guitar gear innovations and exciting launches from Gibson, PRS, Neural DSP, and so many more, and loads of that gear is already available to buy at Sweetwater. So if you wanna stay ahead of the curve, well, now you can…

One of the biggest launches from NAMM came from Neural DSP, when the brand launched a downsized version of its flagship amp modeller with the Quad Cortex Mini. It offers the full sound and processing power of its flagship Quad Cortex amp modeller in a significantly smaller unit, measuring just 22.8 x 11.8 x 6.5 cm, and weighing just 1.5 kg. You can order it right now through Sweetwater, and you’ll even get a free Eminence IR Sampler Pack thrown in.

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Also listed on Sweetwater is the new PRS Silver Sky Limited Edition Wild Blue model, and Ed Sheeran’s new PRS SE Hollowbody I Piezo Baritone in Cosmic Splash (the latter is available for pre-order). This limited signature model features eye-catching artwork created by Sheeran himself, and there are only 1,000 available worldwide.

• READ MORE: In pictures: check out the coolest new guitars from Gibson and Epiphone at NAMM 2026

Yamaha’s new single-cut Pacifica guitars are also listed, and its new Chris Buck signature Revstar. Developed in close collaboration with Buck to faithfully reproduce the sound and feel of his custom REVSTAR, it features P90 style pickups tuned to his preferences, a wrap-around bridge, a chambered body and a carbon-reinforced neck.

View the full range of NAMM launches now available through Sweetwater, or catch up on all the biggest highlights from our live blog.

The post NAMM 2026 is done and dusted – and loads of the gear debuted is already available at Sweetwater appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

CHF149/€159/$179, rhpfelectronics.com

Some people believe guitar pedals sound better when they’re pink. Some believe they sound better when they have dinosaurs on them. These theories require further research, but if they’re both right then things are looking seriously good for the RhPf Electronics Mosrawr.

Vibrantly pink and fiercely dinosaury, this compact fuzz box is handmade in the cauldron of rock’n’roll that is Basel, Switzerland. It’s an original circuit, designed in collaboration with Loopy Demos, and claims to be the ultimate summoner of mids-focused rage.

• READ MORE: Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal review – a radical synth pedal for sonic extremists

RhPf Electronics Mosrawr – what is it?

According to RhPf, this MOSFET-powered pedal “delivers dense walls of fuzz” and “speaks the language of shoegaze, noise rock and post-rock”. This tells us two things: firstly, that it’s not just another Fuzz Face or Big Muff clone; and secondly, that it’s been designed to work with other pedals for creating layered textures of immersive noise.

RhPf is a fairly new operation and this is the first of its pedals I’ve tried. The others in the range look very nice too, but the graphic design by Sketchy Pedals has given the Mosrawr a distinct lift… that is, as long as you’re OK with cartoony artwork and candy-store colours. You won’t want to look at it too long while hungover.

RhPf Electronics Mosrawr – what does it sound like?

The first challenge is to get a handle on the controls. They seem simple enough – basically gain, level, bass, middle and treble – but the way they work is not always predictable. For a start, it never gets very bassy even with ‘low’ at maximum, and it never gets very dark, even with ‘hi’ at minimum. The good news is, it sounds glorious with everything set to halfway so that’s a safe place to start.

Used on its own as a simple fuzz, the Mosrawr lives up to the second part of its name (in the sense of both ‘raw’ and ‘roar’) with the force of a hungry Jurassic carnivore ripping the bars off your protective cage. In EQ terms it’s something like a Tone Bender, but high gain and a pronounced lack of headroom give it an edge of splatty delinquency, almost like an extra-gnarly octave fuzz.

RhPf says this pedal can go from sticky velcro tones to something much more smooth and open; in practice it doesn’t get very far along that road, but that’s no tragedy as a million other fuzzes cover that stuff already. What you can do is manipulate the controls to accentuate the features that are already present: the biting treble, the lower-midrange grunt, the soaring sustain.

For the real test, though, this lonely dinosaur needs to find some friends. My live pedalboard includes a phaser, a flanger, a Leslie simulator and two delays (one of them set to reverse mode), and the power that’s unleashed when they all join forces with the Mosrawr is really quite spectacular. It sounds enormous, just as you’d expect, but also has a midrange focus that keeps it commandingly present in a band mix. If you think fuzzy soundscapes have to be soft and washy, this pedal might make you think again.

RhPf Electronics Mosrawr – should I buy it?

First things first: if you’re a classic rock or blues player looking for velvety fuzz textures, please turn back, you’re lost. But for those of a more shoegazey disposition, things get a little more complicated.

The Mosrawr will be too boisterous for some tastes, even within the parameters of alternative rock – it is a great textural tool, but the textures in question are more gravel than silk. Where it will find a place – at least, where it certainly deserves to find one – is on the pedalboards of noise-scapers with attitude.

RhPf Electronics Mosrawr alternatives

The Fender Shields Blender ($346.99/£235) is a multi-layered distortion unit with My Bloody Valentine pedigree; or if you want to get your whole wall of noise from one box, try the combined fuzz and reverb of the Keeley Loomer ($299/£315). Just need to make wild noise? It doesn’t come any wilder than the Ritual Devices Grimalkin Fuzz (£195).

The post RhPf Electronics Mosrawr review – a noise-bringer that’s designed for post-rock and shoegaze appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.