Norse Guitar Feeds

With Eddie Van Halen as his father – and having served a stint as Van Halen’s bassist himself – it would have been easy for Wolfgang Van Halen to build a sustainable career rooted in the monolithic legacy Eddie left behind.

But he’s long been determined to carve out his own path, and with the recent release of his band Mammoth’s third studio album The End, it’s safe to say he’s built his own name through and through.

• READ MORE: Online games have been doing it for years – are guitar brands cottoning on to the lucrative nature of crossover collaborations?

And it’s very much an all-or-nothing mentality, too, as he explains in a new interview with Billboard: “I would rather fail on my own thing than succeed on my dad’s legacy.”

“I’m proud of the way that I’ve handled myself in this business,” he says. “I’m not sitting there playing Van Halen songs and trying to shack up in the legacy of my father. I’m trying to set out and do it on my own.

“Whether I’m successful at that is a subjective opinion, but I’m at least proud that I’m not sitting here going, like, ‘Hey, the only place you can hear a Van Halen play Panama is over here.’”

“Subjective opinion,” he says, but given his band Mammoth has amassed a considerable following of hundreds of thousands of listeners across the globe, toured with the likes of Guns N’ Roses and Dirty Honey, and released three albums in a span of four years, it’s safe to say he’s doing alright.

Elsewhere in the interview, he touches on his decision to drop the ‘WVH’ from his band’s name (until this year the band was called Mammoth WVH).

“I’ve wanted to be [Mammoth] from the beginning,” he says. “There’s a much higher chance of organic discovery when it’s just Mammoth. People have a lot of complicated feelings about me because of my family and how I started out, and I think a lot of people decided how they feel about me and my music before they even heard it.

“So I think now it’s a nice opportunity to get in that window of people just hearing something and get that unbiased reaction – and then they’ll see who it is and get pissed off, but before that it might be, ‘Hey, it’s actually good, but I still don’t like him!’”

We here at Guitar.com were lucky enough to catch up with Wolfgang Van Halen earlier this month to ask him about his five favourite guitar players.

Alongside Aaron Marshall of Intervals – who WVH has cited numerous times before as his favourite player – Van Halen names Adam Jones of Tool – who should also have their own “Mount Rushmore” – and his father Eddie, but notes despite his world-shattering talent, was a “terrible guitar teacher”.

The post Wolfgang Van Halen: “I’d rather fail at my own thing than succeed on my dad’s legacy” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Godzilla. Back to the Future. Hello Kitty. Is the guitar world taking a leaf out of the online gaming playbook, and are we about to see more crossover collaborations between guitar brands and fictional characters and franchises?

When Fender Japan unveiled three Godzilla-themed Stratocasters earlier this month, the guitar community went nuts. With unique artwork depicting the King of the Monsters – and one even sporting a button unleashing Godzilla’s mighty roar (hopefully without the Atomic Breath, to boot) – our article on these six-strings was one of the best-performing of the last few weeks. Readers loved them.

And when Gibson began teasing the imminent arrival of a Back to the Future Marty McFly-inspired Gibson ES-345 on social media – with glam photos of the guitar set against the film’s classic DeLorean time machine car – it sent gearheads’ pulses racing.

Those guitars – a $20,000 Custom Shop model, alongside a much more affordable Epiphone version – were officially launched last week, and our source at Gibson confirmed they’d sold out online in about an hour. Yep, a $20k guitar – 88 made (corresponding with the 88 miles an hour needed to time travel in the BTTF universe, of course) – sold through in an hour. You can do the maths on that one yourself…

Gibson and Epiphone Back to the Future ES-345s. Credit: Gibson

Such furore is not always immediate, however. When Fender partnered with Sanrio to launch its Hello Kitty Stratocaster in 2006, it went largely under the radar. That is, until YouTuber TheDooo began uploading videos of himself playing the guitar in the late 2010s, causing online searches for the six-string to tick dramatically upwards. Average listing prices on Reverb rose 254%, too.

There’s now a series of Fender x Hello Kitty guitars, accessories and merch, and even a range of child-friendly Loog x Hello Kitty guitars, too.

Online video games have been doing crossovers with fictional characters and franchises for years. Take Call of Duty and Fortnite, for example. With its Warzone platform, CoD regularly launches purchasable skins and weapons themed like classic characters and their fictional worlds. Some standout CoD crossovers have been with Saw, Rambo, The Terminator and Squid Game. But this is just a tiny sample. Godzilla is now a beast which has appeared both in the guitar world and Call of Duty universe.

Fortnite is even more prolific on this front. Epic Games’ massive cross-platform battle royale has seen crossovers with the likes of Marvel and DC Comics, Star Wars and Dragon Ball, and even regularly with real-life stars including Travis Scott, Daft Punk and Ariana Grande.

So what’s the insight to take here? Well, professional collaborations, fundamentally, are designed to maximise returns by allowing each party to tap into the audience already created by the other. And in the case of Call of Duty and Fortnite, they’re clearly working and are clearly lucrative, otherwise these companies wouldn’t continue to do them.

Such collaborations are also a way of maximising a customer’s lifetime value. A player purchases the latest Call of Duty title, and at this point their money stops funnelling to the game developer. That is until they see their favourite movie character playable in a downloadable content pack…

Map this onto the guitar world: a player – one who’s not a collector or a total gear head, at least – buys a guitar, and it covers everything they need. But they also happen to be part of Back to the Future’s huge cult following. And when Gibson launches an Epiphone Marty McFly signature model, they think, ‘Maybe it’s time to expand the collection.’

It’s argued by many that the guitar was perfected decades ago. Sure, there have been significant improvements in components, for example, but the triple-single-coil Stratocaster has remained largely unchanged since its invention.

Sure, all of us heavily involved in the guitar space love to wax lyrical on the latest in pickup design, glow-in-the-dark fret markers, or why wood sourced from some remote island in the Pacific means a 2.3% improvement in resonance.

But it’s important to remember there’s also a huge market out there for guitarists who aren’t absolutely obsessed with the minutiae. I’ve had friends not immersed in guitar culture – but still play – ask me on several occasions what’s changed with guitar design in the last 50 or 60 years.

For guitar brands, crossover collaborations may increase the likelihood these casual players will dip their toes back into the guitar market and make another purchase. And that’s a good thing for the rest of us, too, who simply want to see more people join the guitar community and have it thrive.

Whether Godzilla Strats, Back to the Future ES-345s and Hello Kitty Loogs mark the start of a new trend in the guitar market, or whether they’re just a spate of coincidental crossovers remains to be seen. But if the former, our minds are certainly racing as to what might come next…

The post Online games have been doing it for years – are guitar brands cottoning on to the lucrative nature of crossover collaborations? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Welcome to another review within our series that’s looking at the lineup from NotPedals.com – a unique marketplace for small-run, handmade boutique pedals. Today we’re checking out the Rippletron from Monkey Riot FX.

• READ MORE: Meet NotPedals.com, a marketplace that’s making boutique handmade pedals more accessible than ever

What is the Rippletron?

Let’s start on the outside of this thing – first things first, the screen printing is great – sharply-done, and with a Great Wave-esque design that evokes dark, swirling waters. A classic tack, if you’re a modulation pedal. Internally, things are all present and correct – this is an old-school through-hole board, and is very neatly done indeed.

The Rippletron is inspired by DOD Vibrothang, a unique combo of phase, vibrato and tremolo. There’s one master LFO speed control, as well as a depth, wave and filter control – these all tweak the intensity of the vibrato, tremolo and phase aspects of the effect respectively.

Monkey Riot Pedals Rippletron. Image: Press

In Use

Turning the Rippletron on (with a satisfying clunk – this is an old-school hardwired true-bypass switch, not a soft-switching relay), I immediately warm to it. With all knobs at noon the effect is surprisingly subtle – given the mutli-modulation nature of the effect, I’m half expecting it to be a crazy, swooshing signal destroyer – but it’s instead extremely musical and restrained.

Let’s go through the controls one-by-one. Speed is, as you’d expect, simply the speed of the LFO – ranging from helicopter-landing flutter to languishing sweeps. The speed is tied to a pulsing red LED – always a welcome addition on LFO controls, as it gives you an immediate visual cue of the sort of speed you should expect from a given setting.

Depth is tied to the intensity of both the pitch and the volume modulation. It goes from barely noticeable to a decent amount of wobble, however it’s worth noting that due to how the pitch vibrato is achieved, there’s not a massive amount of actual seasick pitching up and down here. Wave, on the other hand, adjusts the severity of the tremolo’s shape – at full, it’s a lot more of a choppy and aggressive, while on minimum, the amplitude modulation is basically removed from the equation. Combined with the relatively subtle pitch modulation, the wave control lets you dial in sounds quite reminiscent of a rotary speaker effect.

Filter adds a resonant, phasing aspect to the modulation. It’s again very subtle, but at maximum settings it adds a very pleasing tilt to the EQ as the LFO cycles.

After finding out what the extremities of all of these controls are, however, I actually find myself returning to noon for all of the controls. The Rippletron’s voice is best suited for a subtler approach, adding just the right amount of dynamic movement into an otherwise flat sound. You could only really achieve a similar sound by chaining together several other pedals, set even more subtly. But here we have a single pedal that can add a lot of interest to an otherwise flat tone – from fuzzy heaviness to sparkly, wobbling cleans – without totally overtaking your playing.

Overall the Rippletron is a very cool modernisation of a vintage DOD circuit. Relatedly, it’s worth noting that while the original Vibrothang is relatively attainable second-hand, it’s also housed within the rather bland-looking vintage DOD enclosure, which isn’t massively inspiring to look at, and has a reputation for being not the most mechanically reliable thing in the world. The Rippletron, then, becomes a great modern boutique alternative.

The post Monkey Riot Pedals Rippletron review: a gorgeous blend of phase, vibrato and tremolo appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

What price for a piece of bona fide rock ‘n’ roll history? Well, if that piece happens to be an iconic guitar used by an equally iconic guitar player, then the last few decades have demonstrated that price is ‘an awful lot indeed’ – especially if that guitar has been sold at auction.

• READ MORE: The Humble Gear Used By Kurt Cobain on Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’

In the decades since Eric Clapton’s iconic Blackie Strat was purchased by Guitar Center for just shy of a million dollars, more and more legendary guitar players have put their collections under the hammer, and it’s led to increasingly outlandish sums being paid for some of the most iconic guitars in rock.

The 2024 auction of Mark Knopfler’s guitars at Christie’s saw some practically every lot smash its estimate, but despite that the most iconic item of the day – a 1983 Gibson Les Paul Standard that the Dire Straits legend used to write and record Money For Nothing and Brothers In Arms – smashing its $19,000 estimate and selling for a whopping $753,231 (£592,200), it wasn’t enough to make it onto our list (in fact it wasn’t even the biggest seller of the day, with a Burst Knopfler bought in 1999 selling for a massive $880,186).

Even Blackie itself – once the benchmark for outrageously expensive electric guitars, no longer occupies a place in the top 15 most expensive guitars sold at auction, falling out of the list with the blockbusting sale of John Lennon’s Framus Hootenany in June 2024. It shows how wildly the market for rock star guitars has inflated in the last few years.

Another iconic instrument to fall off the list is Bob Dylan’s ‘Newport Folk Festival’ Strat. The guitar used when the folk messiah turned Judas with an electric band on 25 July 1965 sold for $965,000 in 2013. It was purchased by Indianapolis Colts owner and guitar collector Jim Irsay and now forms part of the ‘Jim Irsay Collection’ a travelling museum of pop culture memorabilia that tours the US.

Also in Irsay’s collection is David Gilmour‘s Martin D-35 – the guitar that appeared on Wish You Were Here – which had the dubious distinction of being the first million-dollar guitar to fall out of our top 15 entirely. Another guitar to fall off the list was Rory Gallagher’s iconic 1962 Stratocaster – which barely lasted three months on the list before being unseated in January 2025.

Another brief entrant into the list was Jeff Beck’s ‘Anoushka’ Fender Custom Shop Strat – it barely lasted 10 months on our list but holds the distinction of being a non-vintage instrument that cracked the million dollar mark. Made for Beck by Custom Shop legend JW Black in 1993, Anoushka became a mainstay for the guitarist on stage over the following decades, and was sold at auction in January 2025 and knocked Rory’s Strat off the list.

Also not making it into the list are some of the most iconic guitars of all time that never made it to auction. It’s almost impossible to confirm private sale figures, so the rumours that Kirk Hammett paid $2 million for Greeny – the 1959 Les Paul previously owned by Peter Green and Gary Moore – or that the late Microsoft founder Paul Allen paid $1.3m back in 1993 for Hendrix’s Woodstock Strat will have to remain just that: rumours.

No instead we’re dealing in hard facts and confirmed numbers – and these 15 guitars are the most expensive instruments ever to go under the hammer.

Editor’s note: all figures below are converted into US Dollars and were correct at time of auction and not adjusted for inflation. 

15 George Harrison’s Futurama $1,270,000

The most expensive Beatles electric guitar ever sold at auction is probably the most humble – but it might also be the most important. On 20th November 1959 a young George Harrison bought the Futurama for just £59 and used it throughout The Beatles’ formative years both playing at Liverpool’s Cavern Club and into their hugely important Hamburg period.

Without this guitar, who knows how the most important band in history might have been changed, but by the time it was supplanted by his famous Gretsch Duo-Jet in 1962, its place in the lore of pop music was assured. It was later given away as a competition prize by Beat magazine, and was expected to hit just $800k when it was auctioned in November 2024. Instead, it became the first Beatles electric to crack the million dollar mark.

14 Eric Clapton’s ‘Fool’ 1964 Gibson SG $1,270,000

Eric Clapton’s Fool guitar at the media preview for Julien’s “Played, worn, torn rock ‘n’ roll iconic guitars and memorabilia” in 2023. Image: Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images

Perhaps Eric Clapton’s most distinctive instrument also has the distinction of being the most expensive sold at auction when the Fool went under the hammer in 2023. Hailing from Clapton’s Cream era, the Fool is celebrated as an enduring symbol of the psychedelic era in music, the 1964 Gibson SG earned its name from the Dutch art collective that gave it its striking finish. Sunshine of Your Love, White Room, I Feel Free… Clapton’s iconic Woman tone is all this guitar. It was bought by another familiar face – Jim Irsay.

13 Elvis Presley’s ‘Sun Sessions’ 1942 Martin D-18 $1,300,000

Image: Gotta Have Rock and Roll

The King played many guitars over his illustrious career, but perhaps none is more important or iconic than the Martin D-18 he used between 1954 and 1956 when recording at Memphis’ iconic Sun Studios – That’s All Right (Mama), Blue Moon of Kentucky and Good Rockin’ Tonight were all recorded using this guitar, though it’s a rare one on this list in that it actually sold for less than its estimate. It was touted to go for as much as $3 million, but in the end sold for ‘just’ $1.3 million.

12 Jeff Beck’s 1954 ‘Oxblood’ Les Paul $1,329,335

The most expensive Les Paul on our list is the most iconic guitar of one of the most iconic and respected guitar players to ever walk the earth. Jeff Beck first got his ‘Oxblood’ 1954 Les Paul when he was on tour with Beck, Bogert and Appice in late 1972, and it would go on to become a constant companion over the following few years.

The Oxblood Les Paul was the guitar used when Beck recorded his thundering version of Superstition, and when he joined David Bowie and The Spiders From Mars on stage. It was also his number one guitar when he went into the studio to cut his legendary Blow by Blow album – including the majestic and timeless ‘Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers.

11 Kurt Cobain’s ‘Sky Stang 1’ 1993 Fender Mustang $1,587,500

Kurt Cobain’s custom-built left-handed Fender Mustang on display at Hard Rock Cafe in New York City in 2019. Image: Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

Not the most iconic Kurt Cobain guitar, but this custom-ordered Mustang was Kurt’s primary instrument on their final In Utero tour, and was heavily used for Nirvana’s final show on 1 March 1994 in Munich. The guitar was created for Kurt by Fender Japan luthier Scott Zimmerman in 1993 (the US Custom Shop didn’t make lefty necks in those days), and was sold to Japanese businessman Mitsuru Sato in late 2023.

10 David Gilmour’s 1954 Fender Stratocaster $1,815,000

The Pink Floyd man’s second most iconic Strat is the one steeped in the most controversy – for years people assumed that the serial number #0001 meant it was the first Strat ever made. Instead, it turns out that #0100 was actually first, but this is still one of the first pre-production Strat prototypes ever made. The fact that this guitar is also laying down the rhythm parts on Another Brick In The Wall Pt 2 only further adds to this guitar’s legend.

9 Jerry Garcia’s Wolf Guitar $1,900,000

Another completely unique creation for the Grateful Dead man courtesy of Doug Irwin, the Wolf is perhaps even more eccentric than the Tiger, with a body made of ultra-strong purpleheart, capped back and front with bookmatched maple. The guitar also features an innovative plate system for mounting the pickups, which allowed Garcia to swap them from their original SSS configuration to the HHS it currently sports. The Wolf was auctioned in 2017 with proceeds benefiting the Southern Poverty Law Center.

8 John Lennon’s 1962 Gibson J-160E $2,410,000

John Lennon tuning his Gibson J-160E during the filming of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’. Image: Max Scheler – K & K/Redferns via Getty Image

With its electric-like volume and tone knobs and the pole pieces of a P-90 pickup rather artlessly sticking through the top between the neck and soundhole, the J-160E wasn’t Gibson’s most elegant design, but it was the perfect instrument for young songwriters craving amplification in the early 60s, including a couple of cats called John Lennon and George Harrison. This particular J-160E can be heard on Love Me Do and continued to be a favoured acoustic for Lennon throughout his career.

7 ‘Reach Out to Asia’ Fender Stratocaster $2,700,000

Reach Out To Asia Stratocaster. Image: Fender Wiki

Something of a curio on this list, this guitar isn’t an iconic artist instrument at all, but rather a stock Mexican-made white Fender Stratocaster that just happens to have been signed by (deep breath) Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Brian May, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Mark Knopfler, Ray Davies, Liam Gallagher, Ronnie Wood, Tony Iommi, Angus and Malcolm Young, Paul McCartney, Sting, Ritchie Blackmore, Def Leppard and organiser Bryan Adams. The guitar was auctioned off to help the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and certainly did its job.

6 Eddie Van Halen’s 1982 Kramer $2,734,000

Image: Kramer

“It’s very simply the best guitar you can buy today”. If you’re a guitar player of a certain age, you probably remember flicking through a guitar magazine and being presented by a striking picture of Eddie Van Halen, guitar in hand, lit cigarette tucked under his E string alonside this quote. It’s one of the most memorable and iconic guitar ads ever, and one that certainly did the Kramer brand no harm in the early 80s when EVH was at his most godlike pomp – the brand briefly became America’s biggest guitar brand off the back of this in the middle of the decade.

The guitar used in that shoot was a custom Kramer modelled on Eddie’s iconic ‘Frankenstein’ guitar – but with a striped Kramer ‘hockey stick’ headstock – and was also used for various shows in 1982 and 1983. Then later on in the decade, he gifted the guitar to his tech Rudy Leiren, and it still bears the autograph “Rude – it’s been a great ten years – let’s do another ten. Eddie Van Halen”.

Leiren sold the guitar to Mötley Crüe’s Mick Mars, who would use the guitar extensively on the band’s Dr. Feelgood record.  The guitar would later come to be auctioned at Sotheby’s with a massive $2 million estimate – a sign that expectations for iconic artist instruments are catching up with demand – but it still smashed through that. It’s not the most expensive Van Halen guitar on our list however…

5 John Lennon’s Framus Hootenanny 12-string $2,857,000

Credit: Julien’s Auctions

The guitar that was famously used on Help! and its accompanying album was thought lost to the sands of time for decades, until it was found in by the new owners of a house in the British countryside when they were clearing out the attic. The guitar was given to Scottish guitarist Gordon Waller, half of the pop duo Peter and Gordon, and then later handed over to one of his road managers, but the guitar hadn’t been seen in public for over 50 years. The guitar, which is seen being used by Lennon in the Help! movie during the performance of You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, was also used by Lennon to record It’s Only Love, I’ve Just Seen a Face and Girl, and by George Harrison for the rhythm track of Norwegian Wood. Before the auction in May 2024, there was speculation the guitar might end up becoming the most expensive ever sold at auction, but in the end the Framus had to settle for being the most expensive Beatles instrument ever, eclipsing Lennon’s J-160E (above).

4 Eddie Van Halen’s Hot For Teacher Kramer $3,932,000

Credit: Sotheby’s

Eddie Van Halen’s guitar designs have become almost as iconic as the man himself, but with most of EVH’s most iconic gear still treasured by his family, it’s rare for a bona fide EVH guitar to make it onto the open market. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that interest in this guitar, used by Eddie in the Hot For Teacher video, was so high – and the price tag followed suit.

3 David Gilmour’s Black Fender Stratocaster $3,975,000

Image: Eleanor Jane

The Black Strat is David Gilmour’s most iconic guitar and is also one that’s been heavily modified over the years – bought from Manny’s Music in New York, this 1968 model was originally Sunburst but had been refinished in Black by the time Gilmour bought it in 1970. It originally had a maple neck with a late-60s big headstock, but throughout the 70s Gilmour frequently swapped between two 50s necks, one with rosewood and maple. That wasn’t the end – over the decades since the pickups, tuners, pots, trem and scratchplate have all been swapped, and in fact it’s now estimated that the only original parts of the guitar remaining are the body, selector switch and (maybe) the bridge plate. Despite this, the Black Strat remains Gilmour’s most iconic instrument – the sound of Money, Comfortably Numb and scores more. It’s now part of the Jim Irsay Collection.

2 Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit Fender Mustang $4,550,000

The Fender Mustang used by Kurt Cobain in the ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ music video on display at Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus, 2022. Image: Rob Pinney/Getty Images

What does an iconic moment in guitar history cost? About four and a half million dollars it turns out. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Smells Like Teen Spirit music video changed the world, and in it Kurt Cobain is playing a rather fetching but typically unconventional lefty Lake Placid Blue Mustang with a competition strip – 1.5 billion YouTube views and countless hours of MTV airtime later, its place in the pop culture firmament was assured. Ironically, the guitar wasn’t really one of Kurt’s favourites, only really getting a run-out live on a few other occasions but its place in the Teen Spirit video assured its place in rock history, and in the Jim Irsay collection in 2022.

Kurt Cobain performing with his Martin D-18E during Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged. Image: Frank Micelotta Archive/Getty Images

1 Kurt Cobain’s Martin D-18E $6,010,000

If there’s one Kurt Cobain guitar moment that’s become even more iconic than the Teen Spirit video, it’s Nirvana’s incredible, bittersweet performance on MTV Unplugged. Kurt bought the D-18E in 1992 at Voltage Guitars in Los Angeles, and it’s a rare bird for Martin guitars in that it came out of the factory with the DeArmond pickups, but Kurt disliked their sound and had it modded with a Bartolini 3AV soundhole pickup. The guitar was left to Kurt’s daughter Francis Bean, and then ended up with her ex-husband Isaiah Silva as part of their divorce settlement. The guitar was purchased by RØDE Microphones founder, Peter Freedman in 2020 – and it’s not been topped since.

Editor’s note: this article was first published on 1 February 2024 and most recently updated on 27 October 2025. 

The post The 15 Most Expensive Guitars Sold At Auction appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

On a recent tour through California, Clark stopped by the AG offices, Gibson J-45 in tow, to share three songs from her debut album.

Ready to consolidate your rig? Enter today’s giveaway to WIN the Line 6 HX One — a single‑stomp powerhouse with 250+ HX‑family effects, stereo I/O, MIDI, a Flux controller, and full preset power in a compact package.

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Line 6 HX One

Seeking that one elusive sound for your pedalboard? You will almost certainly find it in HX® One, a powerful and compact stereo effect pedal that is a great option for when you want to add more effects to your board but only have room for one! It features intuitive controls, options for 250+ effects taken from HX family processors, a unique Flux Controller, a jack for connecting an optional expression pedal or two footswitches, adjustable input impedance, MIDI capabilities, and a choice of true or buffered DSP bypass.

.rbm-pick { display: grid; grid-template-columns: 160px 1fr; gap: 16px; align-items: center; border: 1px solid #e6e6e6; border-radius: 12px; padding: 16px; } /* Media box — no cropping, no edge kiss */ .rbm-pick-media { height: 180px; /* fixed height for consistency */ padding: 8px; /* breathing room to avoid flat-cut edges */ box-sizing: border-box; /* keep total height = 180px */ border-radius: 10px; background: #fff; overflow: hidden; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; } .rbm-pick-media img { max-width: 100%; max-height: 100%; width: auto; /* preserve aspect */ height: auto; object-fit: contain; /* never crop */ object-position: center; display: block; } .rbm-badge { display: inline-block; font: 600 12px/1.2 system-ui; padding: 4px 8px; border-radius: 999px; background: #111; color: #fff; margin-bottom: 8px; } .rbm-title { font: 700 18px/1.3 system-ui; margin: 4px 0 8px; } .rbm-blurb { font: 400 14px/1.5 system-ui; color: #333; margin-bottom: 12px; } .rbm-pick-buttons { display: flex; gap: 8px; flex-wrap: wrap; } .rbm-pick .rbm-btn { display: inline-flex; gap: 6px; align-items: center; border: 2px solid #b50000; /* Premier Guitar red */ border-radius: 999px; padding: 10px 16px; text-decoration: none; font: 600 14px/1.2 system-ui; color: #b50000; background: #fff; box-shadow: 0 2px 5px rgba(0,0,0,0.12); transition: background .2s, color .2s, transform .15s; } .rbm-pick .rbm-btn:hover { background: #b50000; color: #fff; transform: translateY(-1px); } .rbm-pick .rbm-btn .price { opacity: 1; font-weight: 600; } /* Responsive tweaks */ @media (max-width: 540px) { .rbm-pick { grid-template-columns: 1fr; } .rbm-pick-media { height: 160px; padding: 6px; } } @media (min-width: 900px) { .rbm-pick-media { height: 200px; } }

Hello, and welcome back to another Dojo. Previously I mentioned that there are hundreds of reverb plugins (convolution, algorithmic, plate, and spring) out there, but the vast majority of them are either direct emulations of 6 classic reverbs—or derive a huge amount of inspiration from them, to say the least. I highlighted the EMT 140, the Lexicon 224, and the EMT 250 last month, and I’ll finish up this month by paying homage to the remaining classic trio. I’ll also give you some strategic advice on how to take better advantage of these, and even the reverbs that you already have as well. Tighten your belts—the dojo is now open.

The Bigger Picture

The Lexicon 480L Digital Effects System, introduced in 1986, easily stands as one of the most important reverbs in the history of studio recording. Conceived as Lexicon’s next step beyond the 224 (see last month’s Dojo) it employed 18-bit A/D and D/A converters, giving it a wet path dynamic range approaching 98 dB and either 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz sample rates.

Internally, it was essentially two powerful stereo processors, labeled “Machine A” and “Machine B.” These could be run independently, producing two separate stereo effects, or cascaded so that one fed into the other.

The sound of the 480L is where its legend was truly forged. The reverb tails were smoother and more natural than anything that had come before, while still carrying Lexicon’s trademark musicality. One of the most beloved algorithms was “Random Hall,” which added subtle modulation to the reverb tail, preventing it from sounding static and giving it a sense of living, breathing space. The 480L dominated mainstream pop, rock, film scores, and TV from the mid-’80s through the 2000s. While earlier reverbs like the EMT 250 or Lexicon 224 had charm and warmth, the 480L delivered polish and versatility. It was the professional standard against which all others were judged.

A studio spring?

The AKG BX20 spring reverb is another gem from the analog days. Unlike the small, twangy springs found in guitar amps, the BX20 was designed for studio use, housed in a (roughly) 4' x 2' x 2' wooden cabinet. Its dual spring system produced a reverb that was deliciously dark, smooth, and surprisingly versatile. It became beloved for its organic, almost smoky quality—perfect on guitars, keys, and even vocals if you wanted a touch of atmosphere without the sheen of a plate or the brightness of a Lexicon.

The Underdog from Burnley

By 1981, EMT in Germany had already unveiled the EMT 250, and Lexicon in the U.S. was about to shake the industry with the 224. But back in the U.K., a pair of aerospace engineers in Burnley, Lancashire, created a 3U rackable reverb that came to define the sound of 1980s pop and rock—the AMS RMX16 (admittedly, my favorite). Compact, rugged, and intuitive, with a sound that was bold rather than naturalistic, the RMX16 was the first microprocessor-controlled, full-bandwidth digital reverb with nine core algorithms—halls, plates, rooms, ambiences—but it was the ‘NonLin2’ (nonlinear reverb) preset that turned the machine into legend. The gated snare in Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”? The RMX16. Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”? The RMX16. Prince, Dire Straits, Hall & Oates, Bruce Springsteen—all embraced its punchy, present character.

The RMX16 influence has endured. AMS—now under AMS Neve—has since reissued it as a 500-series module and collaborated on official plugins with Universal Audio.

What’s in it for me?
Remember that a plate doesn’t sound like a spring, a spring doesn’t sound like a Lexicon, and an AMS doesn’t sound like an EMT 250. If you grab “any old reverb” from your DAW, you’re missing the point. These machines became prized not just for what they added, but for how they shaped the emotional character of music. Understanding the differences will leave you better equipped to make deliberate choices. Want your vocal to shimmer with vintage romance? Try a plate or spring reverb. Need drums to slam? That’s RMX16 territory. Looking for a reverb that’s lush yet unobtrusive? The Lexicon 480L is still king.

In the end, knowing your reverbs is like knowing your guitars. Each one has a story, a color, a legacy. These classics remind us that technology and artistry are forever intertwined. You’re not just “adding reverb”—you’re tapping into a lineage of sound that has shaped records for generations. And that, more than anything, is why these machines remain revered.

Khruangbin is a band that moves freely in negative space. They don’t deal in negative vibes, mind you, but the spaces in between objects—or in music, between notes and tones. In Khruangbin’s case, negative space isn’t quite as empty as it seems. In fact, a lot of it is colored with reverberated overtones, which is an aesthetic well suited to Mark Speer’s instrument of choice. Because if you want to color negative space without being a space hog, there are few better means than a Stratocaster.

Speer’s signature Stratocaster, is not, in the strictest sense, a classically Strat-like specimen. Its bridge and neck pickups, after all, are DiMarzio Pro Track humbuckers, with a design informed more by PAFs than Fender single coils. Nor is it modeled after a priceless rarity. Speer’s main guitar is a humble ’72 Stratocaster reissue from the early 2000’s. But the Speer signature Stratocaster is a thought-provoking twist on classic “Stratocaster-ness,” and one well-suited to the atmospherics that mark Khruangbin’s music, but also soul, reggae, jazz, and any other expression where clarity and substance are critical.

Mr. Natural Takes It In Stride

I have to admit—and no doubt some of you will disagree—for most of my life, as an early- to mid-1960s-oriented aesthete, an all-natural-finished Strat with an oversized headstock looked flat-out wrong. My opinion on the matter has softened a bit since. And I think the Speer Stratocaster is beautiful, elegant, and does much the flatter the Strat profile. The pronounced grain in the ash body is lovely, and it certainly doesn’t reflect the drop in ash quality that many feared when ash-boring beetles started to decimate swamp ash supplies. It also looks great against the milk-white single-ply white pickguard and all-white knobs (another nice study in negative space).

Elsewhere, many features are authentically 1972. The 1-piece, 3-bolt maple neck with a 7.25" fretboard radius boasts a micro-neck-adjust feature as well as the practical and cool-looking bullet truss rod. The tuners also feature early ’70s-styled machine covers. The neck itself feels great—slightly less chunky, perhaps, than early ’70s Strats I’ve played, and, oddly, not worlds apart from the neck on my Mexico-made ’72 Telecaster Deluxe, which has a much flatter 12" radius. Some of the similarities in feel may have to do with the jumbo frets, which here give the gloss urethane fretboard a slinky, easy touch. Less delicate players (like me) who tend to squeeze when chording should check out the Speer before purchasing to make sure they don’t pull everything sharp. The frets do make string bends feel breezy, though. Other details, apart from the jumbo frets, that deviate a bit from 1972 Fender spec include a bone nut and Graphtec saddles and string trees.

Warmth of the Sun

The DiMarzio Pro Tracks dwell in an interesting tone space. They’re built with ceramic magnets (vintage Strat and Gibson PAFS were made with alnico magnets) with a resistance of about 7.7 k ohms, which is in the range of a vintage PAF humbucker but hotter than most vintage Stratocaster pickups. In terms of tone signature, they sound and respond a little more like PAFs than Stratocaster pickups, too, which aligns with DiMarzio’s design objectives. But in the neck pickup in particular, the Strat-iness is very present. And when I switched back and forth between a Stratocaster and PAF-equipped SG as baselines for comparison, I marveled at how well the DiMarzios retained qualities of both. It’s hard to know how much Fender’s 25 1/2" scale factors into lending the extra bit of Fender color. But the sound is distinctly, authentically, Speer-like. (For the record, I replicated much of Speer’s circa 2018 signal chain for this test, including a Fender Deluxe Reverb, Dunlop Cry Baby, Boss PH-3 and DS-1, MXR DynaComp, and a Echoplex-style pedal).

The PAF qualities of the DiMarzios are most pronounced in the bridge pickup, which is much burlier and thicker than a Stratocaster single coil. The one single coil on the guitar meanwhile, the middle pickup, will sound and feel familiar to any old-school Stratocaster player. It’s also perfect for chasing Jerry Garcia tones if you’re selecting the Speer for its likeness to Jer’s “Alligator.” The real treat among the Speer’s many sounds, though, is the number 4 position, which combines the neck pickup and middle pickup out of phase. It’s snarky, super-focused, and just a little bit nasty, especially with overdrive and treble bump from either a wah, OD, or boost pedal.

The Verdict

For those players who fall in love with the comfort, feel, and looks of a Stratocaster, only to find it a bit thin-sounding for their purposes, the Mark Speer Stratocaster is an intriguing option. The humbuckers deftly thread the needle between Stratocaster and PAF tonalities, with a distinct lean toward the latter, and the out-of-phase number 4 position is a cool sound that lends the Speer Strat expansive smooth-to-nasty range. Like so many Mexico-made Fenders, the quality is superb. And while the $1,499 price tag represents a Signature Series bump compared to the similar $1,209 Vintera II ’70s Stratocaster, the Speer’s extra tone range and ash body do a lot to soften any sticker shock. If the options here fit your style, it could be well worth the extra dollars.

October 24, 2025 Jim Croce’s music started the Update today, as a nod toward tomorrow’s TG Live episode where I will be going over intros and riffs from some of his songs. It is at 11:00 AM Pacific time Saturday, October 25. If you catch this soon enough you can register here. A few new […]

The post Totally Guitars Weekly Update October 24, 2025 appeared first on On The Beat with Totally Guitars.

This time host John Bohlinger sits down. plugs in, and slides besides the musical Canadian chamaeleon who talks about embracing your influences, playing bold (and loud) onstage for maximize risk taking, and shaping the might Revv D20 and D25 amps. Plus, he notes the guitar star that gave him memorable compliment after Joey bombed a solo.

David Ellefson says Megadeth‘s music is the “most timeless” of all the big thrash bands.

In a new interview with Fox Rochester [via Blabbermouth], Ellefson – who served in the heavy metal outfit from 1983 until 2002, and then again from 2010 to 2021 – praises his former band for reaching audiences beyond listeners of the thrash genre itself.

“There was a benchmark we had when we started Megadeth, to write very epic-oriented music, stuff that could really be a soundtrack. And also stuff that was timeless. I think the music has really stood the test of time,” he says. “It doesn’t sound dated.”

• READ MORE: Death of Ace Frehley under investigation
  

“I think the Megadeth music, out of everybody in the thrash genre, I will go on record as saying, I think is probably the most timeless and will probably stand the test of time the most and be the most listened to by people that aren’t even just metalheads,” he goes on.

Ellefson adds that the band are not given enough credit for their “melodic” sound, adding: “It’s heavy, but it’s melodic. It’s listenable.

“So I think that’s jus the nature of rock and roll. The young generations are always the creators and they’re always pushing the envelope a little farther.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Ellefson notes how heavy metal became heavier after Megadeth with bands like Slipknot and Mudvayne.

“I remember when we were on tour with Ronnie James Dio, who is an icon – this was 1988 – talking with him one day on tour about how the next generation comes up. And our thrash metal was really heavy compared to what he was doing,” he continues.

“Then the masked bands come out – Slipknot, Mudvayne and all this stuff – so it gets heavier and heavier. Look, rock and roll has always been about pushing the limits, starting with Elvis [Presley]. That’s just the nature of what it’s supposed to be.”

Ellefson uses Kiss as an example of how thrash and heavy forms of metal from the 1970s and 1980s had become “family entertainment” by the 1990s. The change was clear, he says, because bands had “progressed” past what “our parents didn’t want us to listen to”.

He says: “I remember seeing the Kiss reunion in 1996. Me and [then-Megadeth guitarist] Marty Friedman went down, and I was looking at us going, as heavy and dark and daunting as this was, and our parents didn’t want us to listen to it, it was like family entertainment by then because of what had progressed past it.”

The post David Ellefson says Megadeth’s music is the “most timeless” of all the big thrash bands appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Last night something happened to me—I had a dream within a dream! Inception style! Here’s how it went down: I was dreaming that I had to unload a bunch of guitars from my car, and I was worried because I thought it was too hot outside and the guitars would get damaged. But when I went outside, there was snow everywhere! I wandered through the piles of snow and found my car buried. I remember looking down and I was walking on clear ice, and I could see little fish swimming around under there. I finally got into my car and I was freezing, but I still checked out the guitars to see if everything is cool. Suddenly, the ice started to melt extremely fast, and before long, I was floating in water! Right then, I started thinking about this one particular guitar because I thought it would make a good paddle.

Then, in the dream, I “awoke” and realized I was back in my bedroom, and it was all just a dream. The kicker is that I was still dreaming, because that “paddle” guitar was suddenly in my hands—then I woke up for real! How about that misadventure?

The next day (in real life), I went down to the basement to find this weird old bugger that, in my dream, would’ve made a good paddle. Apparently, this pancake-batter-shaped Steelphon is one of only a few known to exist, and I had forgotten that I still had it! Hailing from the mid ’60s, this Italian-made electric is a true oddity. Steelphon, which is an odd name in and of itself, was a company based in Turin, Italy, that was already making guitar-related items, primarily amps, but of course jumped into electric guitars during the boom years. The company seemed to contract out guitar production, because this one has all the characteristics of a Crucianelli-made guitar: the robust truss rod, the mini humbuckers, and the amazing bridge (which is like a steel brick) that would put any Gibson bridge to shame.

The amazing mini humbuckers are hot as hell and sound phenomenal—probably my all-time favorite pickups. The electronics feature a preset tone selector, pickup selector knob, and volume and tone knobbies. Playability is obviously weird because the body is so darn wide, and a little heavy. Plus, the neck is slightly thin so the whole experience is a little wonky. But again, the guitar sounds so good that it could be worth it for those looking for the “odd” factor.

“This pancake-batter-shaped Steelphon is one of only a few known to exist, and I had forgotten that I still had it!”

Back in the day, I coveted this guitar for a long time. There was a fellow in the Netherlands who collected and sold the strangest guitars, and this was on his site forever. Eventually, I ended up buying this and a few others from him, but when I got this guitar, it was a basket case. Playability was awful, the electronics were a mess, and the fret dots seemed to have been repaired by a kindergartener. The Steelphon also suffered from the dreaded Italian finish-shrinkage, which caused the guitar to have a lot of finish checking and splitting, kind of like a candy-coated finish that got cracked.

All in all, we were able to sort everything out, and now the guitar plays rather well. A hallmark of many guitars from the ’60s is that the electronics were overly complicated. Designers back in the day were trying to get a lot of preset tonal options, but the overall sound was always getting muddied. Once you dive in under the pickguard, it’s always best to wire point-to-point to get the best sounding guitar—especially with these pickups, which are just so aggressive. They sound dreamy!

As the falling leaves mark the start of autumn, Reverb is celebrating the changing of the seasons with a mega sale. With up to 60% off across guitars, pedals and amps, the Fall Into Gear sale could be the perfect chance to cop a bargain.

Reverb has sliced the prices on plenty of top brands, from Fender to Gibson. Squier in particular has a slew of mighty fine axes up for grabs, with a Limited Edition Paranormal Offset Telecaster SJ going for just £210.60. The Olympic White electric, complete with a laurel fingerboard and tortoiseshell pickguard, is 36% off and it’s in mint condition.

• READ MORE: Paul McCartney reflects on legendary Japan drugs bust that landed him in prison: “This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet!”

If you’re keen for a more vibrant Squier, there’s also a Shell Pink Sonic Mustang available. The sale has knocked 45% off the price, dropping it down to a very respectable £121.19. And who can argue with that classy pastel sheen?

In terms of stompboxes, the M173 MXR Classic 108 Fuzz pedal is currently 53% off. Now just £75.15, the MXR’s new pricepoint is befitting of its ‘70s crunch, perfect for the fuzz-loving garage rockers of the world. There’s also a mint Carl Martin PlexiTone Single Channel Distortion pedal available for £93.75. The simple-yet-effective stomper comes in its original packaging, ripe and ready to add some edgy distortion to your sound.

Elsewhere, a rare Marshall mixing desk is also included in the many sale offerings. Made in England back in 1978, the 8 Channel Marshall Mixer boasts 100 watts of power. It is also fitted with legit spring reverb, and can even go into overdrive – essentially offering the power of 8 head amps. It’s still in good nick, and it’s available for 20% off, costing £639.20.

Head over to Reverb to find more Fall Into Gear Sales Event deals. The sale runs until 3 November.

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The post Get up to 60% off guitars, amps and pedals in Reverb’s Fall Into Gear sale appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

While the matching bowl haircuts and boy-next-door charms might fool you, The Beatles were prone to their fair share of rock ‘n’ roll debauchery – need we mention 1967’s LSD-inspired Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? In fact, Paul McCartney very nearly earned himself a seven-year prison sentence back in 1980 for smuggling marijuana into Japan.

McCartney opens up about his prison scare in his new book, Wings: the Story of a Band on the Run. As he puts it, the weed was “excellent”, so it was worth the risk. “I was out in New York and I had all this really good grass,” the Beatles legend recalls [via The Sunday Times]. “We were about to fly to Japan, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get anything to smoke over there. This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet.”

• READ MORE: The guitar gear used by Tony Iommi on Black Sabbath’s Heaven & Hell album

Having just been in America, where President Carter was considering decriminalising cannabis, McCartney thought marijuana was “no big deal”. He’d also done plenty of ‘harder’ drugs in the past, notably “seeing God” on Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) during The Beatles’ heyday. The response from the Tokyo airport officials was a massive culture shock.

“It was the maddest thing [I’d done] in my life – to go into Japan, which has a seven-year hard-labour penalty for pot, and be so free and easy,” he recalls in horror. “I put a bloody great bag of the stuff right on the top of my suitcase. Why didn’t I even hide it in a pullover?”

McCartney’s daughters Stella and Mary were also present at the drugs bust. Mary chimes in with her own memory of the event: “I just remember them saying to Mum and Dad, ‘Whose is this?’… [then they looked] at each other, going, ‘Which one of us is going to do this? Because one of us needs to stay with the kids.’ Dad said it was him, and then they took him away.”

Though, Stella adds that “even a nine-year-old could have hidden skunk weed better” than her father had.

A customs officer inspects one of the plastic one of the plastic bags containing marijuana which hidden inside one of Paul McCartney’s luggages after he was arrested for illegal possession of marijuana at New Tokyo International Airport in Narita 1/16. Credit: Getty Images

The very same evening, McCartney confessed and was arrested for drug possession. “I apologised for breaking Japanese law,” he says. “It probably didn’t help that I had more than I could get through in a month… I had to go through my whole life story – which schools I went to, my father’s name, our address, my income. I even had to tell them about my MBE medal from the Queen.”

In the West, rockstars tend to be pretty open about their drug habits. Tony Iommi has gone on record admitting that Black Sabbath had a dealer show up “every day” during the recording on 1972’s Vol. 4, and The Rolling Stones were also prone to the odd acid trip. But, as McCartney puts it, the Japanese response was incredibly serious.

The musician had been travelling to perform in Japan with his band Wings. Overnight, every single tour poster was torn down. “Every hundred feet there had been a poster saying, ‘Wings – the greatest rock band in the world visits Japan 1980,’” Wings drummer Steve Holley notes. “They were everywhere… it was inestimable how many there were. And in the morning, they were all gone. The radio stations went silent, too. They wouldn’t play anything.”

Considering the severity, McCartney even thought his family would have to live in Japan to still see him behind bars. But he tried to remain positive. “I couldn’t sleep for the first three days…” he continues. “I had to share a bath with a bloke who was in for murder. I was afraid to take my suit off in case I got raped. But I’d seen all those prisoner-of-war movies and I knew you had to keep your spirits up.”

In order to “keep spirits up” McCartney did what he does best – he performed. “I’d organise singsongs with the other prisoners,” he admits. “There were guys in the next cell and we tried to communicate. I was trying to learn a few words in Japanese, and I could hear people saying konnichiwa (hello). So I turned that into “Connie Chua”. Like a high-school girl, Connie Chua. I could say arigato, thank you, but I couldn’t say much more.”

Despite only being in the prison for nine days, McCartney would write the book Japanese Jailbird reflecting on his experience. And, even though it was a stressful experience, prison guard Yasuji Ariga noted that McCartney remained “very polite and made a good impression on the guards”.

“I was happy to leave [after nine days], but I’d made a couple of friends in there so the parting was a little sad,” McCartney admits. “As I walked free, I was shaking hands with these prisoners through the letterboxes of their cells.”

However, the arrest didn’t seem to sour McCartney’s taste for marijuana. Following on from the arrest, McCartney would call for cannabis to be legalised four years later in 1984. Speaking to press outside of  a London Airport, he said: “I don’t believe [smoking cannabis] is a terribly harmful thing to do… cannabis is a whole lot less harmful than rum, whiskey, nicotine or glue – all of which are perfectly legal. I’d like to see it decriminalised, because I don’t think, in the privacy of my own room, I was doing anyone any harm whatsoever.”

McCartney’s new book, Wings: the Story of a Band on the Run, is out 4 November. McCartney will also be releasing a definitive collection of Wings tracks on 7 November.

The post Paul McCartney reflects on legendary Japan drugs bust that landed him in prison: “This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet!” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The world of amplifiers in 2024 is a wonderfully wide-ranging one, with tube amps, digital amps, floor amps, portable amps, practice amps desktop amps and more all promising brilliant tones at varying levels of volume. A little intimidated by the choice? Not to worry – we’ve put together this guide to the best amps no matter what you need, whether that’s a small home amp or a gigging powerhouse.

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

Digital amps continue to make excellent use of ever more powerful processing – from high-quality modelling units with endless amp sims and ins and outs, to stripped-back combos leveraging digital power for efficiency and reliability, digital amps have come leaps and bounds since those early days of fizzy direct sounds and tinny practice amps. And, of course, tube amp makers continue to find ways to make those classic circuits even more appealing to the modern player. There are plenty of excellent options out there, no matter what you want out of an amplifier. Let’s dive in.

The 14 best amplifiers, at a glance:

• Our pick: Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb
• Best solid state amp head: Orange Tour Baby 100
• Best affordable amp: Boss Katana 50 MkII EX
• Best tube amp: Bad Cat Hot Cat 1×12
• Best modelling amp: Fender Mustang GTX100
• Best desktop amp: Yamaha THR30II
• Best high-end amp: Marshall ST20H JTM Studio
• Best home amp: Positive Grid Spark Mini
• Best gigging amp: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV
• Best combo amp: Blackstar St. James 50 EL34
• Best amp head: Orange OR30
• Best amp pedal: Neural DSP Quad Cortex
• Best busking amp: Positive Grid Spark Live
• Best beginner’s amp: Blackstar Debut 50R
• Best metal amp: Victory The Kraken MKII
• Why you can trust Guitar.com

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Our pick: Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb

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Fender’s Tone Master amplifiers are pitched as modelling amps for those who hate modelling amps: no menus, no deep-editing, no complex multi-mode preamp selection. Instead, the modelling power is aimed squarely at a single amp – in this case, the Princeton Reverb. The result is a combo that sounds and looks basically indistinguishable from the real thing. Aside from that Tone Master badge, the best way to tell them apart is to pick them up, as this one’s literally half the weight of its bottle-fed counterpart.

The sounds are all there, and you can play it at home just as easily as you can on a stage. The power-reduction modes give you a consistent sound across all ends of the volume spectrum, and of course, achieve the awesome sound of a Fender combo breaking up without breaking any windows… or your relationship with your neighbours.

Need more? Read our Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb review.

Best solid-state amp head: Orange Tour Baby 100

Image: Press

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Digital modelling amps are all well and good, but analogue solid-state amps also have their advantages! And there’s perhaps no better example of that than Orange’s Tour Baby 100. It’s simultaneously a 100-watt powerhouse and a compact one-hand lift – while delivering a great sound thanks to its growling overdrive channel and sparkly clean channel. That built-in compressor helps you fast-track to a more interesting clean sound, too. And thanks to Orange’s general design ethos, it’s got a very versatile midrange-forward sound, great for many shades of rock and metal, and comes with a tour-ready gigbag for even more portability. Don’t trust anything less than bulletproof protection? Grab a rack-mount kit for it for even more ruggedness. It’s also pretty affordable at a hair under £500.

Need more? Read our Orange Tour Baby 100 review.

Best affordable amp: Boss Katana 50 MkII EX

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While the Tone Master Princeton Reverb is a very appealing prospect indeed, it’s still a relatively pricey amplifier. The Katana 50 MkII EX, however, is a good deal more affordable, and is just as happy on a stage as the Tone Master – but it can also provide excellent at-home practice sounds, through headphones, or its 12-inch speaker thanks to its power reduction switch. There’s a good range of sounds on tap here, with perfect cleans, chimey overdrive and full-bore metal all represented, plus a suite of effects thrown in, too. The EX version of the amp adds some extra footswitch control options, too – making going without a pedalboard a lot easier.

Need more? Read our Boss Katana 50 MkII EX review.

Best tube amp: Bad Cat Hot Cat 1×12

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Californian boutique brand Bad Cat has gone through, if not quite nine lives then several different iterations, but the current iteration was reborn in 2021 and overhauled the entire line of amps that had made the brand so sought-after in the first two decades of the 2000s. The Hot Cat is something of a statement of intent for the new Bad Cat – it might not be a hand-wired, super-high-end beast any more but it’s a classy combo for big cleans, edgy crunch and high-gain punishment, without you needing to remortgage your house. Arguably the most affordable way to get a slice of bona fide US-made boutique amp in 2023.

Need more? Read our Bad Cat Hot Cat 1×12 review.

Best modelling amp: Fender Mustang GTX100

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Loaded with a hefty 100 watts and a new custom-designed 12-inch Celestion speaker, the Mustang GTX100 is a very serious entry from Fender into the world of digital modelling combos. Unlike the Tone Master amps’ laser-focus, the Mustang GTX100 comes loaded with 39 amp models and 73 effects, which might just be more than you’ll ever need. It’s especially appealing as the GTX-7 foot controller is included in the price – this versatile bit of kit comes with a good number of footswitches, and makes using the GTX100 live without a pedalboard a breeze.

Need more? Read our Fender Mustang GTX100 review.

Best desktop amp: Yamaha THR30II

Image: Yamaha

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Arguably, the THR is the line of amps that invented this whole product category in the first place. There’s a good range of sounds, with 15 preamp models in total and effects ranging from subtle chorus to big reverbs. But this is all somewhat par for the course in 2024 – what gives the THR30II its edge are these two things: first, it looks like a cool retro radio and therefore can absolutely live on your coffee table without you having to plonk a big piece of obvious guitar equipment in the middle of your living room. Secondly, there’s a great range of I/O on offer, including direct USB recording and two quarter-inch line-outs.

Combine these two things with the sheer quality of the sounds, the THR30II nails what Yamaha has set out to do with the “third amp” approach. All of the sound and versatility of a “real” amp, none of the sacrifices of a practice amplifier. There’s also an acoustic version of the THR-30II, the THR-30IIA, which offers the voices of various microphones in lieu of a range of electric preamp modes, but just as much appealing good looks and versatile recording options.

Need more? Read our Yamaha THR30II review.

Best high-end amp: Marshall ST20H JTM Studio

Marshall ST20H JTM Studio. Image: Adam Gasson

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It’s no exaggeration to say that the JTM is part of the very fabric of rock music – after its introduction in 1962, it would shape the landscape of rock and blues by offering massive sounds to an exploding UK rock scene. This UK-made revamp of the JTM harkens back to the very earliest Marshall amps with that fawn cloth and ‘coffin’ Marshall badge. Sonically, the ST20H JTM Studio recreates all of the nuance of the original’s punchy, snarling take on a modified Fender bassman circuit, but there are some concessions to modernity, too. An effects loop and a power-reduction mode make this a very appealing prospect for the modern player indeed.

Need more? Read our Marshall ST20H JTM Studio review.

Best home amp: Positive Grid Spark Mini

Image: Adam Gasson

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The Spark Mini, Positive Grid’s adorable cube-shaped cousin of the full-sized Spark, is a massive acheivement in compact amplifier design. Because it doesn’t just sound good for a small practice amp. Nor does it just sound good for a modelling amp – it’s just a great sounding amp. Full stop. No qualifications. The passive radiator on the bottom of the amp – a similar thing to what you’ll find on a good modern bluetooth speaker – helps the pair of two-inch speakers create a lot more bass than would normally be possible. Combine this with quality modelling and an actually useful and intuitive companion app (it’s possible!), and you’ve got basically the perfect small amp for learning and playing around on at home.

Need more? Read our Positive Grid Spark Mini review.

Best gigging amp: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV

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If you know you’re going to be getting loud, then the Hot Rod Deluxe IV is an amazing option. It’s capable of moving more air than you could ever need, and its chewy tube overdrive sounds get even better if you bring some pedal friends along. If you need cleaner time-based effects, there’s an effects loop. Approachably priced, easily carriable from the boot of your car to the stage, reliable and versatile, there’s a reason the HRD is one of the most popular gigging workhorses around.

Need more? Read our Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV review.

Best combo amp: Blackstar St. James 50 EL34

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The pitch of the St. James series is this: a fully-fledged tube amp, but without the massive weight. A number of design changes to the regular tube amp format have been made, such as the use of a switching-mode power supply instead of a heavy transformer. The cabs and combos use a specially-made Celestion speaker with a lightweight frame and driver. The result is that the St James 50 EL34 is an easy one-hand lift – no mean feat for a fully-fledged 50-watt tube combo. That’d be all for naught if the sounds weren’t there, but luckily they are, with an excellent black-panel-style tonal palette that soaks up pedal tones amazingly. For an all-in-one combo package, it’s hard to argue with – and that’s not even mentioning the bevvy of smart features packed in, too!

Need more? Read our Blackstar St. James 50 EL34 review.

Best amp head: Orange OR30

Orange OR30

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From a lightweight tube combo with lots of smart features to a decidedly not lightweight tube head with zero smart features. Yes, the Orange OR30 is a made-in-the-UK tube head that promises old-school simplicity with just one channel. But that’s not to say it’s not versatile – the gain control has a frankly absurdly wide sweep, with everything from pristine cleans to the massive, roaring fuzziness Orange has become known for represented.

Combine that with built-like-a-tank construction, an effects loop and a low-power mode, it’s a great option for the modern player, despite its old-school approach. Notably, it’s also one of the loudest 30-watters out there – Orange claims it can kick out SPLs to rival 100-watt heads!

Need more? Read our Orange OR30 review.

Best amp pedal: Neural DSP Quad Cortex

Image: Neural DSP

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The world of amp-sim pedals is a wide and varied one, but for our money the Quad Cortex remains top of the heap when it comes to sheer modelling power and I/O capability. It might be magic, it might just be complex neural-net modelling – either way, the quality of the amplifier captures on offer here are astounding.

It’s not just their sonic fidelity – the models here also manage to capture that ever-elusive feel of real amplifiers. The unit itself is relatively compact, which, combined with its extensive I/O offerings, makes it a great option for gigging. You can replacing a whole complex amp and pedalboard setup with something the length and breadth of a laptop. The future is pretty neat, eh?

Need more? Read our Neural DSP Quad Cortex review.

Best busking amp: Positive Grid Spark Live

Positive Grid Spark Live. Image: Adam Gasson

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Not content with making an excellent small, low-volume home amplifier in the form of the Spark Mini, Positive Grid also wanted to create an equally innovative live tool. The Spark Live, rather than just being a larger Spark, is for all intents and purposes an entire live backline crammed into one compact enclosure.

It leverages the same smart tech that makes the Spark so easy to use, plus a few new bells and whistles, to cram a guitar amp, a bass amp and vocal processor all into the same enclosure, effectively a superpowered FRFR speaker that can easily support a small band. All very cool – even cooler is the fact that the rechargeable battery (sold separately) promises eight hours of performance time: absolutely perfect for busking.

Need more? Read our Positive Grid Spark Live review.

Best beginner’s amp: Blackstar Debut 50R

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What makes the Blackstar Debut 50R such an appealing prospect for absolute beginners is this: it’s simple. Not including a smorgasbord of digitally-modelled sounds on an amp aimed at absolute beginners is, for our money, a smart choice – as it’s all analogue, what you see is what you get.You’re already busy getting your head around an F barre chord – you don’t need the extra cognitive load of trying to remember how the preset recall button works. Instead, the Debut 50R does a great job of just letting you play the guitar.

That’s not to say it’s a totally stripped-back, old-school affair – there is a line-in for playing along to tracks, a fairly decent headphone out for direct recording and silent practice, a power-reduction mode for quietening things down. And when you’re ready to move from a bedroom to a stage, the Debut 50R can come with you. The 50-watt power section will be more than happy to keep up with a drummer. The rest is up to you!

Need more? Read our Blackstar Debut 50R review.

Best metal amp: Victory The Kraken MKII

Image: Victory Amplification

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The latest update to the Kraken, Victory Amplification’s flagship metal monster, refines an already great amp into an absolutely fantastic one. As well as an overall refine of the sound, major circuit additions come in the form of a new presence control – good for adding some cutting bite to things – and to a brand-new clean channel, acheived by attenuating the lower-gain, JCM800-based Gain I channel for a spongey, responsive clean sound woth bags of character. But, of course, the main appeal is the Gain II channel – a fire-breathing take on a modded 5150-style circuit.

The result is a near-perfect metal sound: plenty of crunch, more than enough gain, and it can be as aggressive as you like or as compressed as you like. That pretty much covers the metal guitar tonal palette, and the excellent performance at the other end of the gain scale makes this a very versatile offering indeed. Or, you know, good for that 10-second clean intro before 50 minutes of riffs.

Need more? Read our Victory The Kraken MKII review.

Why You Can Trust Us

Every year, Guitar.com reviews a huge variety of new products – from the biggest launches to cool boutique effects – and our expert guitar reviewers have decades of collective experience, having played everything from Gibson ’59 Les Pauls to the cheapest Squiers.

That means that when you click on a Guitar.com buyer’s guide you’re getting the benefit of all that experience to help you make the best buying decision for you.What’s more, every guide written on Guitar.com was put together by a guitar obsessive just like you. You can trust that every product recommended to you in those guides is something that we’d be happy to have in our own rigs.

The post The 14 best amplifiers for all styles and budgets appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

An investigation into the death of KISS guitarist Ace Frehley has been launched.

The veteran musician died in Morristown, New Jersey on October 16 at the age of 74. A statement shared by Frehley’s family confirmed the guitarist – also known as Spaceman – died “peacefully surrounded by family” following “a recent fall at his home”.

Medical examiners in New Jersey confirmed they would be opening an investigation into the death. Frehley’s cause of death will be finalised in the next few weeks pending a toxicology report, according to a Morris County Medical Examiner who spoke to TMZ.

The medical examiner added that, while no autopsy was done, external examinations and a toxicology report are currently being carried out.

Credit: Gary Miller/Getty Images

A statement from Frehley’s family, released at the time of his death, reads: “We are completely devastated and heartbroken. In his last moments, we were fortunate enough to have been able to surround him with loving, caring, peaceful words, thoughts, prayers and intentions as he left this earth.

“We cherish all of his finest memories, his laughter, and celebrate his strengths and kindness that he bestowed upon others. The magnitude of his passing is of epic proportions, and beyond comprehension. Reflecting on all of his incredible life achievements, Ace’s memory will continue to live on forever!”

Tributes were also made in an official statement from Kiss. A post to the band’s social media hailed Frehley as a crucial part of the group’s history.

Kiss’s tribute read: “We are devastated by the passing of Ace Frehley. He was an essential and irreplaceable rock soldier during some of the most formative foundational chapters of the band and its history.

“He is and will always be a part of Kiss’s legacy. Our thoughts are with Jeanette, Monique and all those who loved him, including our fans around the world.”

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A post shared by KISS (@kissonline)

 

Frehley would found Kiss in 1973 alongside singer Paul Stanley, bassist Gene Simmons and drummer Peter Criss. He left the band a decade later to pursue a solo career but rejoined the group in 1996. Frehley would leave again in 2002, and did not rejoin the band for their 2022 farewell tour.

Further tributes were made by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and progressive metal band Opeth. Ex-Kiss member Bruce Kulick also hailed Frehley as an “iconic guitar player” who had an “undeniable role in the creation and success of Kiss”.

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A post shared by Tom Morello (@tommorello)

The legendary guitarist, who once said he was an “anomaly” of a musician [via The Guardian], would help Kiss write hits like I Was Made for Lovin’ You, Detroit Rock City, and Love Gun. Frehley would also achieve success as a solo artist. He released his final album, 10,000 Volts, in 2024. It peaked at 72 on the US Billboard 200 chart.

The post Death of Ace Frehley under investigation appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.



Raymond Morin of Pittsburgh’s Acoustic Music Works joins us this week for an insightful chat about running a guitar store, music and so much more.

At a time when things seem pretty bleak for mom & pop guitar stores, Pittsburgh’s Acoustic Music Works is a true success story. They just moved to a new, larger location with a focus on a handful of higher-end brands and the occasional in-house concert.

https://acousticmusicworks.com

We talk about Raymond pivoting career-wise into the world of guitars; the guitar-building class he took before he became a salesperson; Collings and some of the other brands Acoustic Music Works carries; and Raymond’s own Pleinview line of instruments.

Our new, 57th issue of the Fretboard Journal is now mailing. Subscribe here to get it.

Our next Fretboard Summit takes place August 20-22, 2026, at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. https://fretboardsummit.org

We are brought to you by Peghead Nation: https://www.pegheadnation.com (Get your first month free or $20 off any annual subscription with the promo code FRETBOARD at checkout).

The post Podcast 522: Raymond Morin of Acoustic Music Works first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

$419/£499, gretschguitars.com

As this week’s cover story explained in more detail than I’ve got room to go into here, the Gretsch Corvette is something of a unique proposition in the world of electric guitars. Here we have a solidbody electric design that was created during the Golden Era of American electric guitar manufacturing, by one of the most beloved and famous brands of that time that hasn’t been done to death.

• READ MORE: From vintage oddball to alternative classic: the Gretsch CVT’s remarkable journey

Let that sink in – despite the Corvette having found its way into the hands of literal icons like Jimi Hendrix and Rory Gallagher, this is a guitar that’s still under the radar. We live in a time guitarists are so desperate for the big brands to offer them something – anything – outside of the same half a dozen shapes that we’re seeing 70s landfill like the RD Artist and Starcaster get revived to huge fanfare.

Which is all to say it’s remarkable it’s taken Gretsch so long to get here. It’s been nearly 20 years since Gretsch first added an Electromatic Corvette into the line-up, and half a decade since it was discontinued. In that time, however, we’ve seen multiple signature models that speak to the design’s enduring appeal and outsider chic – for Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, guitar-toting rapper G. Love and most importantly Bleachers frontman and Taylor Swift mega-producer Jack Antonoff.

That guitar – technically branded a Princess, the Corvette’s short-lived little sister – is perhaps the most important piece in that puzzle. When that guitar dropped last year, people promptly lost their collective shit – as did I, frankly – and I don’t doubt that the resounding reception that guitar was given has fed into the revival of the Corvette into the line proper, albeit with a new name: the CVT.

Image: Adam Gasson

Gretsch CVT – what is it?

Pithily, it’s a Corvette without the vowels, innit? But on closer inspection there’s actually a fair bit here that explains why Gretsch felt the need to give it a new name altogether. For starters, when you put a classic Corvette next to the CVT, you’ll notice that the body has been subtly tweaked for reasons of both form and function.

Most notably the body is about a centimetre thicker than the original, while the carve on the sides has been lessened – you don’t get those SG-like edges here. The top horn has also been made a little stubbier than the original design, which makes the guitar look a little more stocky and aggressive – personally I think it’s a bit of a glow up, but your mileage may vary.

And there are more big changes outside of the cosmetic stuff. Most notably, the CVT is a bolt-on design rather than a set-neck – something that Gretsch says was done to take some of the low-end fuzziness out of the guitar’s all-mahogany build. The scale length is the same 24.6 inches as all the Gretsch Jets – so it’ll feel a little more compact than a Gibson but not really noticeably so. The headstock has also been tweaked – swapping the paddle-like original for a pointy ‘Falcon’-style option. The best compliment you can give it is that you’ll instantly assume it’s always been like that, as the shape compliments the body’s lines much more naturally.

Elsewhere you’ll find a pair of Gretsch’s Twin Six humbuckers and a no-fuss intonatable wrapover tune-o-matic-style bridge. As someone who absolutely loves Filter’Trons, I always think it’s a shame when Gretsch puts more generic humbucking pickups in its affordable guitars, but given the CVT’s hard-rocking target market, it probably makes sense. The humbuckers eschew any Gretsch switching eccentricity in favour of a simple three-way toggle with shared volume and tone controls.

Image: Adam Gasson

Gretsch CVT – build quality and playability

Even if you weren’t aware of the changes to the CVT’s body depth, you’d probably notice it when you heaved the guitar out of its box. This is no Les Paul in terms of its weight, but my example tipped the scales at very nearly 8lbs. Now, for most people, that’s perfectly acceptable, and you probably wouldn’t have a sore shoulder after gigging this all night. However, it was still heavier than I expected, and heavier than it looks like it should be – something that’s exacerbated somewhat by a lot of that weight seemingly focused on the bottom of the guitar. It’s not enough to make it feel unbalanced, but I still felt a pull to that end more than I’d like on the strap. It’s probably not helped by the baffling choice to stick the top strap button under the horn – just put it on the back!

That asides though, you really do have to remind yourself that this guitar barely costs $400. The build, fit and finish is absolutely flawless all over – I couldn’t find a single mark, rough edge, oversprayed finish or untidy assembly anywhere, and removing the scratchplate reveals a very tidy and unfussy wiring job too.

The neck profile is what Gretsch calls a ‘Performance C’ and it’s very comfortable if a tad generic. It won’t please the baseball bat aficionados, but it strikes a nice balance between giving you something to grip onto when you’re chugging away at the bottom end, without compromising the performance when you want to get a bit widdly up top. Speaking of which, the carve on the heel, while not removing the inherent chonk of a bolt-on arrangement, definitely makes those upper-fret excursions more comfortable than it would be otherwise. With very little to go wrong here, it’s perhaps no surprise that the tuning stability is rock solid, but you should never take it for granted – many a great guitar has been hampered fatally by an inability to stay in tune, and given this guitar’s rock-oriented persuasion, it needs to be able to take some heavy handed punishment and stay the course.

Image: Adam Gasson

Gretsch CVT – sounds

Unplugged resonance is always a great bellwether of an electric guitar’s overall performance, and again things are really encouraging here – it’s bright, snappy and lively. There is some minor string buzz on the D string when played open, but it’s probably a price worth paying for an action that is low and slinky.

In addition to its famous signature adherents, Gretsch is clearly aware of the brand’s growing popularity with artists at the heavier end of the spectrum and it’s hard not to see the CVT as a direct response to that.

That’s certainly the case when you plug in – these Twin Six humbuckers are pokey, to say the least. They will snarl with almost any encouragement and positively lap up gain – be that smooth overdrive, glitchy fuzz or indeed heavier slabs of crushing distortion. What’s really impressive is that they don’t ever get muddy or wooly with this – the extra midrange bump offered by that bolt-on is clearly doing its job here.

The bridge pickup is a riff monster, with power and clarity that makes short work of heavy chugs, arpeggiated chords and rapid powerchords. The neck pickup has that chewy, thick quality that a mahogany solidbody neck humbucker should have – adding some delay and reverb to a driven tone offers impressive sustain and clarity, again without ever getting too dark and messy.

You’ll notice I started talking about the gained-up sounds out of the gate and there’s a reason for that. When you’re dealing with a sub-$500 twin-humbucker solidbody, you know it’s likely to not be the most inspirational instrument for cleans, and so it is here. These aren’t bad sounds – there’s still that clarity and midrange punch to make them perfectly usable, especially if you’re running it into some good reverb and delay pedals – but there’s a definite lack of character to the unvarnished tonality.

Image: Adam Gasson

Gretsch CVT – should I buy one?

The most exciting thing about the budget end of the guitar market in recent years is how interesting and diverse it has become – gone are the days where if you wanted something with a pair of humbuckers in it for under $500, your choices were Les Paul, SG or maybe something pointy.

The CVT slides into this market with a confidence and focus that befits a design that has technically been around almost as long as some of the icons that its rubbing shoulders with here. It’s easy in the guitar world to naturally equate old with good, but there’s something authentic and classic about the Corvette shape, modified though it is here, that gives the CVT an extra bit of kudos and credibility.

It looks good, plays good and – provided you’re not buying it purely for the clean sounds – it sounds great, too. A new heavyweight contender in the budget rock guitar world has arrived.

Gretsch CVT – alternatives

If you want a Gretsch guitar that sounds a bit more, well, Gretsch-y then the G5220 Electromatic Jet ($579) sports more classic Broad’Tron pickups. If you want an affordable hard-rockin’ electric that’s a little more lightweight, Epiphone SG Standard ($599) is lot of guitar for the money – it’s not hard to imagine that the SG was on the mood board when Gretsch was designing the original Corvette too. Yamaha’s Revstar Element ($599) is another twin-bucker double-cut solidbody that stands out from the crowd – they’re killer guitars for the money too.

The post Gretsch CVT review: a cult classic reborn as a stripped down rock machine appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Taylor Guitars, the leading global builder of premium acoustic guitars, today announced a major expansion of its SOMOS Collection®, adding six new double-course models designed for Latin music styles and broader sonic exploration. The release includes three new Bajo Quinto (10-string) and three Doce Doble (12-string) guitars across the 100 Series, 200 Plus Series, and 200 Deluxe Series, making the collection more accessible to a wider range of players. All six models are available now at authorized Taylor dealers worldwide and on TaylorGuitars.com.

“With the SOMOS Collection, we’re celebrating our musical and cultural connections that define our home in Southern California and Baja California,” said Andy Powers, Chief Guitar Designer and CEO at Taylor Guitars. “These new Bajo Quinto and Doce Doble models support the growing demand for instrument innovation and quality in Latin American music, bringing new textures and tonal possibilities to guitarists worldwide.”

Latin-Inspired Sound and Style

The SOMOS Collection® was first introduced as a family of Latin-inspired acoustic instruments that reflect Taylor’s Southern California roots and the diversity of its musical community. “Somos,” meaning “we are” in Spanish, evokes unity, identity, and shared expression.

Each new model features a cutaway Dreadnought body, onboard electronics, a slim, easy-playing Taylor neck, and C-Class bracing, a variant of the company’s patented V-Class® bracing, engineered to enhance volume, sustain, and intonation. D’Addario custom string sets for their respective tunings, and an offset bridge-pin and string-ramp setup that boosts the resonance and responsiveness without the string interference typical of traditional 10- or 12-string designs.

Model Highlights

100 Series – 150ce Bajo Quinto / 150ce Doce Doble

The most price-friendly entries in the SOMOS Collection, the 100 Series models channel a clean, traditional aesthetic with a natural matte finish, black binding, dot inlays, and chrome tuners. Torrefied spruce tops paired with layered sapele backs and sides deliver warm, classic tone with powerful punch and articulation. Includes gig bag and either EMG ACS soundhole humbucker pickup (Bajo Quinto) or Taylor’s ES2 electronics (Doce Doble). Starting at $899 USD.

200 Plus Series – 250ce Plus BLK Bajo Quinto / 250ce Plus BLK Doce Doble
Boasting bold blacktop finishes, white binding, and Italian acrylic accents, these models make a stark visual statement perfect for any performer. Layered maple back and sides add brightness and projection, complemented by a solid torrefied spruce top for balance and volume. Outfitted with AeroCase protection and a choice of EMG ACS pickup (Bajo Quinto) or ES2 electronics (Doce Doble). Starting at $1,599 USD.

200 Deluxe Series – 260ce-K DLX Bajo Quinto / 260ce-K DLX Doce Doble
Crafted with figured, layered Hawaiian koa back and sides and a solid koa top, these guitars combine a bold, shimmering tone with showstopping visuals. A gloss shaded edgeburst finish, gold tuners, and Sentinel fretboard inlays make these guitars destined for the stage. Each includes a Taylor Deluxe Hardshell Case, and EMG ACS or ES2 electronics. Starting at $2,099 USD.

A Modern Take on Tradition

The requinto-style Doce Doble reimagines the unison-strung 12-string format long favored in regional Mexican and Latin music, producing lush, chorus-like textures suited for any genre. The Bajo Quinto, a mainstay in Norteño and Tejano ensembles, offers five double courses tuned in fourths (A-D-G-C-F), creating a bold, rhythmic foundation that complements both bass and accordion accompaniment.

The new SOMOS Collection instruments are already being played by leading artists and producers shaping the sound of contemporary regional music, including Angel Aispuro and Edgar Rodriguez; Juan Bojorquez (“El Pony”) of Fuerza Regida; Carlos Torres with Peso Pluma; Jorge Tapia with Natanael Cano; Joaquin Ruiz of Grupo Firme; Alan Nieblas from Alta Consigna; and Gil Leyva with Junior H.

“For me, the Taylor bajo quinto and doce doble have really helped me find new ways to express myself,” said Joaquin Ruiz, guitarist for Grupo Firme. “They’ve inspired me with their fresh sound and unique approach. Just like music evolves, there’s a real need for instruments to keep up with that change.”

Crafted Across Borders

The new SOMOS Collection models are built in the company’s state-of-the-art Tecate, Baja California, Mexico manufacturing facility, just across the border from its El Cajon, California headquarters. The Tecate plant, which has produced Taylor’s 100 and 200 Series guitars for decades, plays a central role in the company’s focus on craftsmanship, sustainability, and broader access to the highest-quality instruments.

“The SOMOS Collection is literally and spiritually built on both sides of the border,” Powers added. “It’s a reflection of who we are – ‘somos’ – as makers, musicians, and neighbors.”

The six new SOMOS Collection models are avao;ab;e starting at $999 USD street price (150ce) and ranging up to $1,699 USD (260ce-K DLX).

For more information about the Somos Collection, visit TaylorGuitars.com/Somos.

Double dip in the modulation whip with Keeley's new twin phaser.

Most effects modify the amplitude of the signal like a distortion or compressor pedal. Others modify the timing of signals like delay and reverb. Guitar phasing is achieved by blending your original signal with a frequency domain altered version of the signal. The frequency modified component can be thought of like an EQ pedal that is rhythmically adjusted. As a result, when the two signals are combined you get the instantly recognizable sound of a... phaser.

There's no better way to make your guitar sound spacey, psychedelic, or "liquid". Phasers and vibes have that instantly recognizable dreamy and other-worldly tone. The Oaxa Phaser gives you double the fun with two independent phasers. Two phasers with slightly different LFO speeds can lead to dramatic and inspiring multidimensional layers and textures. The Oaxa Phaser offers you ten stage, four stage, and uni-vibe phasing all with just three large vintage-style knobs. Alt features offer you a one-knob compressor and an additional low-end depth control. The dual phasers in Oaxa can be run in series or parallel. With true stereo processing and built on our award winning Core series platform, it's perfect for creative stereo effects loops. The Oaxa Phaser sounds so good you'll swear it's analog. It's ideal for creating swirling leads, atmospheric textures, or groovy and funky rhythms.

• Versatile Phasing Options: Switch between lush 10-stage, crisp 4-stage, or vintage uni-vibe modes with just three intuitive knobs for effortless control.
• True Stereo Power: Run dual phasers in series or parallel, perfect for pairing with stereo reverb and delay in your effects loop, creating expansive, studio-quality soundscapes.
• Enhanced Alt Features: A one-knob compressor and low-end depth control add warmth and punch, making every note sing.
• Analog Soul, Digital Precision: Built on our award-winning Core series platform, Oaxa delivers the rich, organic warmth of an analog phaser with modern reliability.