Music is the universal language
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Stompboxtober 2025: Orange Amps
Enter now for your chance to WIN the Orange King Comp — a Class‑A VCA compressor pedal designed with pro‑level dynamics, dual attack/release controls, ultra‑low‑noise performance, and 18 V headroom for serious tone.
Stompboxtober 2025 - Win Pedals All Month Long!
Orange Amps King Comp Pedal
The King Comp is a super low-noise Class A VCA compressor pedal that brings studio-style dynamics to your pedalboard. From subtle squish to bold sustain, it enhances your tone with clarity and warmth without losing touch sensitivity. Use it to tighten your clean tone and smooth out single-note lines, whether you’re playing guitar or bass. The tweakable attack and release knobs allow you to shape your tone to perfection, meaning that whether you’re after subtle polish or full-on squash, the King Comp gives you precise dynamic control with a musical feel that responds like a great amp.
Orange King Comp VCA Compressor Pedal
Keeley Electronics Introduces Oaxa Phaser
Keeley Electronics has launched the Oaxa Phaser, an advanced-yet-user-friendly pedal featuring two independent phasers, each controlled by a dedicated footswitch.
The Oaxa Phaser offers a three-position toggle for selecting 10-stage, 4-stage, and uni-vibe phasing, controlled with three easy-to-grab knobs. The dual phasers in Oaxa can be run in series or parallel, with true stereo processing. Built upon Keeley’s acclaimed Core series platform featuring large vintage-style knobs and pilot light, it’s perfect for creating swirling leads, atmospheric textures, or groovy and funky rhythms.
The Oaxa pedal’s Alt features offer even more sonic flexibility: in Alt mode you can access a one-knob compressor and an additional low-end depth control, and its Alt setting for the three-way toggle switch allows you to select 6-stage, 4-stage or 2-stage phasing.
Oaxa features include:
- Two independent phase circuits, each with its own footswitch
- Versatile Phasing Options: A three-position toggle switch allows you to select between lush 10-stage, crisp 4-stage, or vintage uni-vibe modes
- Alt setting for the three-way toggle allows you to select 6-stage, 4-stage or 2-stage phasing
- Simple and intuitive three-knob operation with Rate (controls the speed of the effect), Depth (controls the width of the phaser sweep) and Feedback (The amount of output added back to the input of the phaser, often referred to as “color”)
- True Stereo Power: Stereo inputs and outputs – you can run dual phasers in series or parallel, perfect for pairing with stereo reverb and delay in your effects loop
- Enhanced Alt Features: A one-knob compressor and low-end depth control add warmth and punch
- Selectable true bypass or buffered bypass modes
- Uses external power 9-18V - 130mA with standard center negative jack
- Built in the USA
Keeley’s Oaxa Phaser carries a street price of $199. For more information visit rkfx.com.
A range of Hello Kitty-branded Loog guitars just hit the market, but don’t worry – there’s a new full-sized White Hello Kitty Strat from Fender, too
Remember how we said Loog just partnered with Sanrio on a range of Hello Kitty-branded child-friendly guitars? Well, the Hello Kitty hype must be in full swing, as Fender has just expanded its own Hello Kitty Collection.
The lore behind Hello Kitty guitars is rich, but let me try to quickly clue you in: Fender first launched its Hello Kitty Strat back in 2006, notably to little reception.
However, after YouTuber TheDooo began uploading videos of himself playing the guitar in the late 2010s, searches for the six-string dramatically ticked upward, with average prices on Reverb rising 254% from $275 to $700.
Ever able to spot an opportunity in the market, Fender relaunched the Hello Kitty Strat last year, also coincidentally on Hello Kitty’s 50th-anniversary year.
Now, the Big F is keeping the Hello Kitty love alive, with a slew of new additions to its Hello Kitty Collection, not least a new white-finished Squier Stratocaster, priced at £439.99.
Beyond its white finish and unmistakable Hello Kitty decals across its body, the Fender Hello Kitty White Stratocaster boasts an easy-playing C-shape neck, contoured body, Fender humbucking pickup with volume control, and vintage-style tuning machines. A Deluxe Hello Kitty gig bag also comes included.
And if repping a Hello Kitty-branded Strat just wasn’t enough, the collection now includes a Hello Kitty fuzz pedal (£99.99), with an op amp-based circuit offering fuzz flavours from “overdrive-like grit to full-on ripping fuzz”.
There’s also a Hello Kitty pink and white woven guitar cable (£25.99), Hello Kitty White Poly Strap (£30.99), as well as two new T-shirt designs and a crewneck sweatshirt.
Learn more about Fender’s updated Hello Kitty Collection.
The post A range of Hello Kitty-branded Loog guitars just hit the market, but don’t worry – there’s a new full-sized White Hello Kitty Strat from Fender, too appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Mr. Black Further Builds a Legacy of Innovation
Building upon a legacy of sonic innovation, Mr. Black proudly unveils the Tri-Chorale – a lush, three-voice chorus inspired by the legendary Southern California designs of the mid-1980s.
At its core, the Tri-Chorale features three independent delay lines modulating in perfect harmony to create a rich, organic shimmer that feels alive under your fingers. Sharing a common LFO but offset in time and phase, these delay triplets breathe unprecedented depth and dimension into the classic chorus sound—elevating it to new, breathtaking territory. Sometimes, the sum is greater than its parts, and the Tri-Chorale proves it.
Key features:
- Three independent modulated delay lines
- Full, lossless wet/dry mix control
- Wide range of LFO speeds
- Pedalboard friendly footprint
- True-Bypass
- Powered by “Industry Standard” 9VDC
The Tri-Chorale carries a MAP of $199.95 and is handmade, one-at-a-time in Portland, Oregon U.S.A.
Available at: www.mrblackpedals.com and retailers worldwide.
These Hello Kitty-branded Loog guitars are the most adorable instruments of all time
Looking for the perfect gift for the budding guitarist in your life? Loog Guitars has teamed up with Sanrio on a new collection of kid-sized Hello Kitty guitars designed to help beginners pick up the guitar – and to make first riffs look ridiculously adorable.
The new Loog × Sanrio collaboration centres on a trio of compact, beginner-focused instruments: a mini three-string version of the cult favourite Hello Kitty Strat, complete with pickup and jack and two Loog Mini Acoustics in pink and white, each dressed in Hello Kitty artwork.
Every instrument also comes shipped with educational flashcards and access to Loog’s learning app, giving young learners everything they need to turn curiosity into actual chord progress.
“Cute, colourful, and totally beginner-friendly, these guitars are the ultimate first-instrument gift for kids ready to strum their very first songs!” says Loog.
The release follows Fender’s own Hello Kitty Stratocaster reissue last year, launched in celebration of the character’s 50th anniversary. That drop reignited the frenzy surrounding one of Fender’s most unexpected cult hits.
Originally introduced in 2006 as the Squier Hello Kitty Stratocaster, the model went largely under the radar at first, until YouTuber TheDooo began featuring it in viral Omegle jam videos in the late 2010s. According to Reverb, searches for the six-string skyrocketed, and resale prices followed suit, jumping from around $275 to an average of $700 – a 254 percent increase.
Fender’s 2024 relaunch offered two versions: the Squier Limited Edition Hello Kitty Stratocaster priced at $499, and the premium Made in Japan Fender Limited Edition Hello Kitty Stratocaster, exclusive to Tokyo’s flagship store and priced around $2,145.
Now, Loog’s partnership with Sanrio brings that same pop-culture energy to a younger audience, trading full-scale nostalgia for smaller frets and beginner-friendly fun. With the Hello Kitty craze alive and well, these new Loog guitars might just inspire the next generation of players (or collectors) one adorable riff at a time.
Learn more at Loog Guitars.
The post These Hello Kitty-branded Loog guitars are the most adorable instruments of all time appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Mirador guitarist was worried Greta Van Fleet would think he was “defiling” Jake Kiszka by starting a band with him
Between Jake Kiszka and Ida Mae’s Chris Turpin, Mirador sounds like the guitar dream team you didn’t know you needed. But Turpin admits he was once worried fans might think he was “defiling” the Greta Van Fleet guitarist by starting the band with him.
The pair first crossed paths backstage in Detroit in 2018, when Ida Mae were opening for Greta Van Fleet. And now, with their self-titled debut album out last month, they’re reflecting on those first impressions in a chat with Classic Rock.
“Chris was this Zorro-like figure,” Kiszka says. “Like Strider sitting at the end of the bar. I was immediately struck by his playing. It was really incredible. And some of that earlier blues and folk stuff, it’s really rare to find players who can do that.”
Turpin, meanwhile, was equally impressed by Kiszka. “I’ve grown up with those hyper-classic guitar heroes; I loved Cream, Hendrix, Paul Kossoff from Free,” he explains. “And all of a sudden this… prick was there, going to the front, the guitar behind the head, and to these screaming people. I remember catching him topless backstage and being like: ‘Where the fuck have you guys been?! I’ve been waiting for a band like you for ten years!’”
Their first Mirador gigs only confirmed the chemistry. As Kiszka puts it, “it was like a nuclear reactor going off!”
“It’s incredibly exciting,” says the guitarist. “Because when you play in a band for years and years, there comes a point where the change in evolution becomes a bit more incremental. But what’s really exciting about this band is that everything is so fresh. Every single night is drastically different. There’s constant change, constant growth, constant communication.”
For Turpin though, that excitement came with its own set of anxieties.
“It was sink or swim,” he says. “Like: ‘Are these Greta fans gonna love this? Or are they gonna think I’m Beelzebub taking their precious baby away, breaking their hearts and defiling him?!’ But to see them get invested in it has been amazing. Tickets went so quickly. Mainly Jake fans. Ida Mae fans aren’t that quick off the mark. And there aren’t as many.’”
For now, despite ongoing commitments to their respective groups, the pair remain drawn to Mirador, describing the band as a creatively exciting project that will likely demand significant time and energy.
“This is such a time of creative excitement that I’m drawn to Mirador as often as I can,” Kiszka says. “It’ll be interesting to see what we develop as time goes on, and how we pace this thing.”
“Mirador feels like it’ll turn into this raging beast that’s going to take up a lot of time,” Turpin adds.
The post Mirador guitarist was worried Greta Van Fleet would think he was “defiling” Jake Kiszka by starting a band with him appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“It’s a sine wave. Guitars are here to stay”: Warren Haynes says the cyclical nature of guitar music is normal
Warren Haynes says there’s no need to panic about the state of guitar music. The Gov’t Mule bandleader believes the instrument’s popularity comes in waves – and right now, it’s in a “pretty good place”.
Speaking on Andy Frasco’s World Saving Podcast, the Allman Brothers legend shares his thoughts on the supposed “death” of rock and the cyclical nature of public taste.
Asked if he thinks the guitar is dying, Haynes replies, “I think it, intermittently, kind of goes away for a while, and comes back. I kind of feel like it’s always going to come back. And I think we’re in a pretty good place right now. There’s a lot of good guitar music out there. It usually is about the music, or an artist, or band that comes along and kind of brings it back.”
Haynes adds that talk of rock’s demise has been around for decades, but history keeps proving the doubters wrong.
“People have been asking that question for decades,” he says. “I think going back to the early ‘90s, when people were saying rock ‘n’ roll was dead, and bands like The Black Crowes came along and proved that it wasn’t. So, yeah, I think it’s kind of a sine wave. People get tired of whatever it is they’re hearing, and something fresh comes along and kind of changes their palate for a while. But I feel like guitars are here to stay.”
Elsewhere in the chat, Haynes also names some of the newer acts he enjoys, noting that “there’s a bunch” even though he doesn’t ‘stay as on top of it as he probably should’.
“That band Robert Jon & the Wreck is cool. Of course, Marcus King is making a lot of headway, but I think there are a lot of young kids who are hearing like Derek Trucks playing open E, like this guy, Johnny Stachela, who plays with The Allman Betts Band. And there are a lot of people breathing new life into that these days.”
The guitarist also shouts out Dirty Honey for carrying the torch of old-school rock energy.
“This band, Dirty Honey, that I heard recently, it’s kind of a rock band in the traditional sense of the word,” says Haynes. “And I think it’s fun to see people [from] a generation that didn’t grow up here in all this music that we heard, and they’re discovering it for the first time and discovering bands that keep that music alive as well.”
“You know, it’s so odd because we get these young kids at Gov’t Mule shows occasionally, and they’re 14 and 15, and they’re just now discovering Gov’t Mule, but they’re also just now discovering Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, you know, so and Warren and that.”
The post “It’s a sine wave. Guitars are here to stay”: Warren Haynes says the cyclical nature of guitar music is normal appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Slayer announce new show for 2026 – after insisting they’re done for good
Less than a year after Kerry King swore that Slayer were finished for good, the thrash metal legends have announced a 2026 headline slot at the brand-new Sick New World Texas festival.
Set for 24 October, 2026, at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, the inaugural edition of Sick New World Texas festival will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Slayer’s landmark album Reign In Blood. The stacked lineup also includes System of a Down, Deftones, Evanescence, The Prodigy, Marilyn Manson, Knocked Loose, AFI, Ministry, Mastodon, and Power Trip.
Fans can sign up now at SickNewWorldFest.com/Texas for presale access starting 24 October at 10AM CT, with remaining tickets available to the public later that day.
The announcement comes not long after Slayer’s string of high-profile reunion performances in 2025, including Louder Than Life in Louisville, Hersheypark Stadium in Pennsylvania, and Festival d’été de Québec, plus UK appearances at Cardiff’s Blackweir Fields and London’s Finsbury Park. The band, which officially disbanded in 2019, also played a six-song set at Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning farewell concert in Birmingham this July.
King, who now runs his own band and just last year released his first solo album From Hell I Rise, previously insisted that 2025 would be Slayer’s final run.
In an interview with Australia’s Metal Roos last December, the guitarist said that Slayer were officially done: “We’re never gonna make a record again. Mark my word: we’re never gonna make a record again, we’re never gonna tour again. Because that was the last thing. We said [back in 2018], ‘This is our final tour.’ It took five years for us to come and say, ‘Hey, here’s a couple of shows, five-year anniversary.’”
Fans might now be taking those words with a pinch of salt – or perhaps a full devil-horn salute. Either way, it looks like Slayer’s “final” chapter isn’t quite over yet.
The post Slayer announce new show for 2026 – after insisting they’re done for good appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I had an epiphany at IKEA!” This JHS pedal “annoyed” some builders because of how “fun” it was
JHS Pedals founder and self-confessed gear obsessive Josh Scott has opened up about the origins of the NOTAKLÖN – the DIY stompbox kit that blends the legendary Klon circuit with the simplicity of flat-pack furniture, all for under $100.
Speaking to Guitar World, Scott reveals how the do-it-yourself spirit of the Swedish furniture giant inspired the design of the modular overdrive pedal, which debuted in 2023.
“It came from me loving the Klon,” he says. “But there are so many good replications or clones of the circuit, and I wanted to do something unique. After several years of wrestling with that dynamic, I had an epiphany at an IKEA.”
That moment led him to think about what psychologists call the “IKEA Effect”: the idea that people value things more when they assemble them themselves.
“That’s a big piece of IKEA’s success,” says Scott. “And it felt like a really fun idea. I saw a product where parents who love the JHS brand could do something as a craft with their kids. That’s how we filmed the video and marketed the product.”
While there’s no shortage of Klon-style pedals or DIY kits on the market, Scott says the NOTAKLÖN stands out for its playful and approachable design.
“There are clones of the Klon circuit, even DIY kits, but there’s nothing as simple, modular, intuitive and almost Lego-like as the NOTAKLÖN,” he explains. “I don’t have vast ideas about changing or reshaping the market, but I do think it’s a truly innovative way to make a pedal.”
Not everyone, however, shared in the fun.
“It even irritated a few people,” Scott admits. “I saw a couple of other pedal builders who seemed to be annoyed by how toy-like and fun it was. And to me, that was the whole point. I wasn’t trying to change the world – I was trying to create a product that got parents to build something they love with their kids.”
Since then, JHS has followed up with the NOTADÜMBLË, released earlier this year. And while some might see the company as leading a new DIY pedal trend, Scott is quick to put things in perspective.
“There have always been DIY kits – JHS is not special in that,” he says. “[But] I do think that our product line is less intimidating and more satisfying to build for most customers. Not everybody wants to solder; not everybody feels like they can, and that’s okay. We give them a product they feel comfortable with. To me, that’s how it changes the game.”
The post “I had an epiphany at IKEA!” This JHS pedal “annoyed” some builders because of how “fun” it was appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
The guitar gear used by Tony Iommi on Black Sabbath’s Heaven & Hell album
2025 has been a bittersweet time for Black Sabbath fans – seeing the band unite for one last time before Ozzy Osbourne’s tragic and unexpected passing just weeks later will go down as one of the most poignant moments in the history of rock.
- READ MORE: The guitar influences of Kurt Cobain
But such was the irreplaceable power of Ozzy as a frontman, it’s easy to forget that when he left the band in 1979 to build a legendary solo career peppered with some of the finest guitar-slingers around, Sabbath continued. If there’s an on-record bright spot in this post-Ozzy Black Sabbath period, it’s probably the immediate aftermath when Ronnie James Dio stepped in to front the band.
Heaven & Hell was the first album Sabbath recorded with Dio, released in 1980 and recorded across the previous year with the original Iommi/Ward/Butler dream team backing Dio up. After this record, Bill Ward would leave the band temporarily, and Geezer Butler would do likewise a few years later – kicking off a period of constant personnel upheaval for Sabbath that wouldn’t really settle until the original line-up reformed in 1997.
It’s understandably led to the post-Ozzy Sabbath records to not be well regarded, but Heaven & Hell is an exception. It features some of the best riffs and guitar sounds that Iommi had put on record since the early Sabbath records, this is what he used to make it.
Guitars: An SG Masterclass
Iommi’s main guitar for Heaven and Hell was the SG-type that is most commonly associated with him today, an instrument he lovingly refers to as “Old Boy”. Old Boy was originally built in 1975 as a backup to another custom SG-style guitar that John Birch had built for Iommi. Old Boy was built by John Diggins, who worked for John Birch, and had been asked to tour the US as a guitar tech for Tony. The guitar was meant to serve as not only a backup guitar, but as a platform for him to experiment with different pickups while on tour.
Due to time constraints before leaving for the tour, Old Boy was built by Diggins at home on his kitchen counter over the course of only a week or two. Due to the rush to get it done before the US tour, the finish didn’t have enough time to cure, which led to its distressed look – it was also later left in a car in Brazil on a very hot day and the finish bubbled up, resulting in the look we see today.
The pickups were swapped out a fair amount in the early days before settling on the pickups Iommi liked best. They are, of course, John Diggins custom pickups – the neck was modeled after a John Birch Magnum X – even using a John Birch casing. The bridge was a total custom Diggins pickup. All of Tony’s guitars have the bridge tone pot disconnected. The guitar, at one time had a booster circuit, which was soon removed. Old Boy also features an additional output jack which served as a low impedance output for recording purposes. That was later disconnected. The guitar features cross inlays and a zero fret.
Old Boy was used on overdubs for Heaven and Hell and was the main weapon of choice on every album after that. Diggins built Tony another SG in 1981 as a spare to Old Boy. It featured dual rail humbuckers, and what many believe was a Kahler 2300 tremolo.
So, what guitar was used for the main tracks? The most likely culprit was a cherry red customized left-handed Gibson SG that Iommi dubbed “Monkey”. Monkey was used from the very first album through the classic era lineup. Old Boy was made as a successor to Monkey, but it seems likely that Tony was still using Monkey in the studio during the initial sessions for Heaven and Hell. The neck pickup in that guitar is a John Birch custom pickup and the bridge is a Gibson P-90 that was fitted into a metal casing, again, by John Birch. These are the most likely guitars used on the album.
Amplifiers
Iommi’s amplifiers of choice during that era, and much of his career, were the Laney Supergroups. The folks at Laney seem to recall Iommi getting some of the early prototypes, but we can’t confirm that those amps made it to Iommi prior to the recording of Heaven and Hell. The Supergroup was generally used in conjunction with a Dallas Arbiter Rangemaster Treble Booster, which drove the amps a bit harder on the front end.
However, Iommi claimed in an interview with Vintage Guitar Magazine that for Heaven and Hell, he used a modded Marshall, specifically a 1959 model, which eliminated the need for a Treble Boost, as he stated in the interview:
“On Heaven and Hell, I used a Marshall [model 1959 Super Lead], and effects in the studio were a delay, certainly, on the solo bit for Heaven and Hell. … I had John ‘Dawk’ Stillwell come in – he used to build Ritchie Blackmore’s amps – and he lived with us while we were writing and recording in Miami. We had six Marshalls that he rebuilt with an extra stage, so they were a bit more potent than a regular Marshall. He’d done away with the treble booster I had forever. I was really not happy about that (laughs). He’d thrown it away, and I didn’t know. He said, ‘You don’t need that. You just go straight into the amp.’ Which is what I did.”
The addition of an extra preamp tube as a gain stage was not an uncommon modification to those Marshall amplifiers in that era. Jose Arredondo was well known for performing this modification. While Arredondo performed the mod for the rockstars on the west coast, Stillwell performed the same mod for British rockers like Iommi and Blackmore (he also worked for Richie Sambora). There is no evidence that the two amp gurus ever met, but the modifications they did were very similar, with a common objective.
Elsewhere in the Vintage Guitar interview, Iommi said the only effects he used on the album were a chorus, a delay, and a wah, although he didn’t go into detail about what models he used. However, Tony has historically been partial to the Tychobrahe Parapedal for the wah, which debuted in the mid-1970s.
Legacy
The album Heaven and Hell remains a gem in the Black Sabbath catalogue, despite not featuring the classic lineup. The album remained a great platform for Tony Iommi to further showcase his brilliant guitar wizardry, this time amidst the very different vocal style of Ronnie James Dio. It added an element of depth and variety to what we now know as the Black Sabbath sound.
The post The guitar gear used by Tony Iommi on Black Sabbath’s Heaven & Hell album appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Orange Amps Launches King Comp
The new Orange Amps King Comp is a super low noise Class A VCA compressor pedal with 18V DC power supply for extra headroom and subtle envelope shaping control. It brings studio style compression dynamics to any pedalboard and offers a warm musical response with an exceptionally low noise floor.
Developed to meet the ever-evolving musical needs of guitarists and bassists, the King Comp pedal enhances sound by adding sustain, snap and sparkle rather than flattening it, offering smooth, musical, pro-level compression with real character.
The super useful dual attack and release knobs mean users can set how quickly the compression kicks in and shape every note they play. The versatile attack control allows anything from understated tightening to pronounced pogoing bounce to be dialled in. At the same time the equally adaptable release control gives long-lasting sustain for notes and chords that can go on for miles. Plus, there is also visual feedback of any compression applied when the King Comp’s onboard LED switches from blue to pink.
At the heart of the King Comp pedal is the Class A VCA compression circuit that delivers precision dynamics with a warm, natural feel. There is also a high-quality buffered bypass to ensure signals stay strong and consistent, even when the pedal is off. The buffer maintains clarity, keeping sound punchy and defined and makes the King Comp reliable as an always-on part of any setup.
Running with the external 18V DC supply maximises the King Comp’s dynamic range and reduces compression artefacts so the pedal delivers the most transparent version of any instrument's tone, making it especially useful with hot pickups, basses and more complex pedalboards.
The King Comp pedal offers precise dynamic control with a musical feel that responds like a great amp. To find out more please go to www.orangeamps.com.
Stompboxtober 2025: MXR
Today’s giveaway is live! Win the legendary MXR Rockman X100 — a pedal‑sized recreation of the iconic tone machine created by Tom Scholz (of Boston) that defined the sound of ’80s arena rock. Enter now for your chance to win!
Stompboxtober 2025 - Win Pedals All Month Long!
MXR® ROCKMAN® X100™ ANALOG TONE PROCESSOR
The MXR Rockman X100 Analog Tone Processor revives the signature sonic character of Tom Scholz’s celebrated headphone amp and signal processor in pedal form, offering crystalline cleans, crunchy harmonics, and shimmering modulation.
This pedal requires 9 volts and can be powered by a Dunlop ECB003 9-volt adapter or an MXR® Brick™ Series power supply.
MXR Rockman X100 Preamp Pedal
Rig Rundown: Starcrawler
Henri and Bill Cash, the brotherly guitar duo behind Los Angeles glam-rock band Starcrawler, linked with PG’s John Bohlinger before their gig at the Pinnacle in Nashville to show off some rose-colored rock tools. Check out highlights of their dazzling setups below, and tune into our full Rig Rundown to scope the full details.
Brought to you by D’Addario.
Pink Pony Club
This China-made Gretsch Electromatic Double Jet has just a single TV Jones Power’Tron Plus pickup, but beneath the hood, it’s also got a Rangemaster-style treble-boost circuit (as does another 3-string Electromatic that Henri plays). Henri traced out and applied sparkle-pink paper to give the guitar its memorable finish.
This pink powerhouse is tuned to open G.
Flying Bigsby
Daniel Slusser of Slusser Guitars in San Luis Obispo, California, built this custom V-style according to Henri’s requests, borrowing from a design by Japanese builder Saraso Ju. It’s made from pine from Home Depot, bound with leather, and outfitted with a Bigsby and a Filter’Tron pickup for Gretsch groove.
Triple Threat
Cash runs his dry signal to either this Satellite Amplifiers Neutron head or Vox AC15 combo, and his effects go to the Magnatone Twilighter Stereo on the right.
Henri Cash’s Pedalboard
After a pair of Boss TU-3s and a Boss ES-8 switcher, Henri’s board has a pair of DigiTech Drops, TC Electronic Shaker, R2R Electric Preamp, Boss GE-7, MXR Carbon Copy, Way Huge Red Llama, custom “Lamb’s Head” fuzz designed by Henri and Desi Scaglione, EarthQuaker Devices Tentacle, EQD Bit Commander, and Strymon Flint. A Lehle P-Split sends his signal to either the Neutron/AC15 and the Magnatone.
Tweaked Tele
Bill’s main axe is this heavily modified Fender Noventa Tele, with a Curtis Novak P-90 and a Glaser B-bender system.
Slide Away
For slide parts, Bill uses this GFI Expo pedal steel.
Souped-Up Super
Bill plays through this modded Fender Super Reverb Reissue. The tweaks included inserting a 5E3-tweed-Deluxe-Style circuit in first channel that switches to a handwired Super Reverb-style circuit in the second channel so he can use the tweed channel on guitar and clean black-panel tone on pedal steel. It was inspired by a mod he saw Colleen Fazio did to a friend's Bassman where she changed the first and second channel to be channel switching as well.
Bill Cash’s Pedalboard
On his sprayed-painted pedalboard, Bill runs a Boss TU-3, custom “Lamb’s Head” fuzz by Henri and Desi Scaglione, Way Huge Red Llama, Way Huge Conquistador, MXR Micro Amp, DigiTech Drop, Catalinbread Belle Epoch, MXR Reverb, MXR Tremolo, EarthQuaker Devices Levitation, Electro-Harmonix C9, and a Nocturne Brain Mystery Brain.
Gretsch Electromatic Double Jet
TV Jones Power'Tron Plus Pickup
EarthQuaker Devices Bit Commander
Living in Purgatory with Big Thief
In his 2017 book The Order of Time, Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli looks to Saint Augustine to demystify the question of how it’s possible to experience music if we are physically rooted to the present—while music, of course, happens over seconds, minutes, hours. “It is possible, Augustine observes, because our consciousness is based on memory and anticipation,” Rovelli writes. “A hymn, a song, is in some way present in our minds in a unified form, held together by something—that which we take time to be. And hence this is what time is: It is entirely in the present, in our minds, as memory and anticipation.”
The idea of this middle place poignantly haunts Brooklyn indie-rock band Big Thief's latest record, Double Infinity. In a press release, the band noted that the album title refers to the idea of the “purgatory created by the human brain, always looking to the past or future, between the things we’ve lost and the things we want, between desire and regret.” There are few lyricists in recent memory writing as movingly about this experience—that of looking back, of time passing, moving, receding and stretching out in front of us—as Adrianne Lenker.
“Without this idea of time there’d be no grandmothers and grandfathers, or children,” Lenker says over the phone from Mexico City with bandmate Buck Meek. “There’d be no difference between any stages of life. It’s so wrapped up in reality as we know it, or at least this perceived reality or dream. I feel like it’s such an interesting idea, because it’s a thing that we live with, and the parade leads to the same place for everybody. It’s all wrapped up in death and birth and all of the things we experience along the way, like longing and loss and grief and joy. While you’re falling in love with someone, you’re also perceiving the end of that thing because of time—because of the inevitability of its passing.”
“While you’re falling in love with someone, you’re also perceiving the end of that thing because of time—because of the inevitability of its passing.”—Adrianna LenkerOn one hand, the nature of music makes it a simple task to create compositions concerned with time, as all music occurs over a duration of time. But what does it actually sound like to fully realize that? As a group, and this time with a cohort of studio collaborators, Big Thief’s sonic treatment of these themes captures a specific duality of being: its miraculousness and mundanity. Double Infinity’s production is low-key and handhewn, with rhythms and repetition building feelings that oscillate between grounded and hypnotic, and flourishes of the transcendental—be it blasts of guitar sorcery (“Words”) or ambient icon Laraaji’s wordless vocal flights (“Grandmother”). The result is Big Thief’s most fluid, breathing, flowing record to date—and, for Lenker, an evolution of what the term “rock ’n’ roll” can mean.
“It just immediately makes me think about the bedrock of the earth, and the rolling of the waters and the winds and ethers,” Lenker says. “I think about that dance between what is rooted and solid-feeling and what is fluid and liquid. [Rock ’n’ roll] really needs both.”
Creating music that captures that dance is made easier by a few special tools. Both Lenker and Meek gush over their friends and luthiers Aaron Huff (at Collings Guitars) and Flip Scipio. Huff—“a true Jedi of good in the guitar world,” Lenker says—spent four years building Lenker’s acoustic guitar in his free time, and gifted it to her on the day of a solar eclipse, the same day she met Laraaji. “It’s basically meant for the way I play—open tunings and fingerpicking—and it sounds like a grand piano. It’s so special,” Lenker says.
Meek says two of Huff’s creations at Collings—the 71 and the Ladybird—are in heavy rotation in his quiver. He uses the latter for jazzier songs. Meek and Lenker both also have their own Flipperkasters, custom models made by Scipio. “I’ve never connected with an electric guitar so deeply until he put that in my hand,” Lenker says.
“The guitars we really love are the ones that have been mediums for friendship, or conversations with people in our lives that have really influenced us,” Meek says. “The instrument is kind of just a vessel for that.”
On Double Infinity the guitar, along with the rest of the instrumentation, acts as a conduit for connection. With 10 people improvising arrangements in the studio, the aforementioned fluidity builds from individual players’ intuitive responses to the aggregate. For Meek, that led to a lot of simplifying and repeating lines, offering room to other instruments, and creating an environment where rhythm feels like the element around which everything orbits.
“The guitars we really love are the ones that have been mediums for friendship.”—Buck Meek
“Playing in this band has definitely encouraged me to tap into my intuition more, just through watching Adrianne play and write songs so intuitively,” Meek says about his experience unlearning more academic modes of improvising. “It’s a process of letting go of all of that music theory and just trusting that the language is in there somewhere, and reconnecting with a more somatic approach to improvisation.”
Adrianne Lenker’s Gear
Guitars
Flip Scipio Flipperkaster (sunburst)
Flip Scipio Flipperkaster (woodgrain/gold)
Collings SoCo (green)
Collings SoCo (brown)
Huff acoustic
Amps
1960 Fender Tweed Deluxe
Two-Rock Vintage Deluxe 35-watt head and cab
Effects
Boss DC-2W Dimension C
Mikel Patrick Avery Zeffle Box Type1
Strymon El Capistan
Analog Man Prince of Tone
The GTO Pedal (modded Klon Centaur clone made by Ben Gram, Adrianne's guitar tech)
Lehle amp switcher
Peterson StroboStomp
Strings & Picks
D’Addario EJ16 acoustic strings (.012–.053)
D’Addario NYXL 1252W strings (.012–.052)
D’Addario NYXL Custom Nickel/Steel Set (.011–.015–.018–.028–.038–.054)
G7th Performance 3 ART capos
Kyser capos
Fred Kelly Medium Slick Picks
2- and 4-sided nail files
Buck Meek’s Gear
Guitars and Basses
Collings I-35
Collings Ladybird
Collings 71 M
Flip Scipio Flipperkaster
Guitar Mill partscaster (Throbak pickups, Callaham Guitars hardware)
1954 Gibson Les Paul Custom Staple Pickup Reissue
Bayard acoustic
Amps
1957 Fender Super
1955 Fender Champ 5E1
Effects
Analog Man Beano Boost
Charlie Pedals Troubadour
Lehle volume pedal
Soundgas 636P
Gamechanger Plus Pedal
Mikel Patrick Avery Brackle Box
EHX Attack Decay
EHX Nano POG
Walrus Audio Julia
Fairfield Circuitry Meet Maude
Strymon Flint
Strings & Picks
Fender medium picks
Curt Mangan strings (.010–.046)
This all requires a concentration on being where you are. Settling into the groove, let’s say. The purgatory between Big Thief’s double infinities is, itself, an endlessness. We comprehend its power and depth when we’re jolted into truly feeling it; in moments of profound loss or acute pain or consuming love, past and future briefly cease to exist. If one listens close enough and thoughtfully enough, the effect of Double Infinity, its rolling rhythms and loose drip, is one of tapping into the moment—freedom from the dissolving before and the unknowable after.
“The thing that pushes me to keep making and playing music is that I run into my own limitations all the time, and I just want to get a little bit more free with each album we make.”—Adrianne Lenker
“I feel like the thing that pushes me to keep making and playing music is that I run into my own limitations all the time, and I just want to get a little bit more free with each album we make,” Lenker says. “And I feel like people could be like, ‘What are you doing? It sounds so loosey goosey and wide open,’ and it's like—”
“That’s the very thing I’m proud of,” Meek adds.
“Yeah, that’s great,” Lenker continues. “To be honest, I think I had more fun in that session than I ever have before, because there was this big, open feeling of music and we were listening to all these other people playing with us. It wasn’t about shaping our wants and desires perfectly into the shape we think it should be with our minds. It was about just being there for that experience.”
“People who say rock is dead just wanna listen to Kiss”: Why Wolfgang Van Halen believes guitar music is still thriving
Is guitar music dead? It’s a question which lingers on some people’s minds – generally those outside the still-thriving guitar world, or, as Wolfgang Van Halen says, those whose musical repertoires consist of rock bands past their heyday.
Reflecting on recent comments made by Lzzy Hale – in which she said Wolfgang and his band Mammoth were going to be the ones to “save rock and roll” – the multi-instrumentalist tells Ultimate Guitar says Hale’s comments were “a very sweet gesture”, but that he doesn’t think rock needs saving at all.
- READ MORE: Guitar.com cover star Mateus Asato releases his first official single Cryin’: “It’s been 10 years of identity crises about who I am in terms of music”
“Lzzy is wonderful,” he says. “I love her very much. She’s awesome and a badass in her own right. But I don’t think rock needs saving.
“I think there’s plenty of awesome rock that’s happening right now. I think because it might not be in the forefront – and pop is always sort of at the top – but I don’t know. I don’t think rock needs saving.
“Rock isn’t dead. Rock is very much alive. I think anybody who says that is maybe just looking in the wrong place, or isn’t open enough to listening to new stuff. At the end of the day the people say rock is dead just wanna listen to Kiss, and that’s about it.”
Wolfgang is certainly right that what you might call ‘legacy bands’ often dominate the conversation surrounding modern-day rock and roll, especially among those not deeply connected to the genre. Ask a music fan who only occasionally dabbles in rock music who their favourite bands are, and you’ll often be met with the likes of ‘Kiss, AC/DC or Guns N’ Roses,’ for example.
It could also be argued that there’s a human tendency to become set in our ways as we age, often resorting back to the stuff we know we like.
Most people who would consider themselves rock fans first and foremost would probably agree with Wolfgang that the genre is very much alive, so with the younger rock scene which is very much still verdant, is it perhaps down to a marketing problem in recruiting outsiders into the genre?
Despite his ancestry as the son of Eddie Van Halen, Wolfgang has managed to carve out a musical niche all his own. His band Mammoth are gearing up to release their third album The End later this week, following positive reception received for his previous two albums Mammoth (2021) and Mammoth II (2023).
Speaking to Guitar.com in a recent interview, Wolfgang recalled the time he realised that his dad was actually a pretty big deal.
“There was a benefit I played in fourth grade where I played drums and my dad played guitar. I remember, we went out to the car afterwards and some guy came up and asked him to sign something,” he remembered.
“He left, then he put on a different shirt and came back. I think – in moments like that, seeing that sort of desperation – I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, my dad’s probably a big deal, huh?’”
Mammoth’s The End is out Friday 24 October via BMG.
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Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ Reunite to Channel Tradition, Tone, and Spirit into a Sound All Their Own
Guitar.com cover star Mateus Asato releases his first official single Cryin’: “It’s been 10 years of identity crises about who I am in terms of music”
After years of viral Instagram performances and touring with pop superstars like Bruno Mars, Tori Kelly, and Jessie J, Mateus Asato has released his first official single, Cryin’, marking the start of his solo journey.
Despite millions of followers and years in the sideman spotlight, the Brazilian guitarist had yet to release a solo track – until now. Cryin’ arrives ahead of his forthcoming debut album, set for early 2026.
“It’s been 10 years of a lot of doubts and questions… and some identity crises about who I am in terms of music,” Asato says of his journey in the May/June issue of Guitar magazine. “The album is definitely a journey through all the sides of Mateus. The Mateus who’s a sideman, Mateus as the Instagram boy, and then the Mateus that got more mature over the years. Who developed a different vision regarding music, regarding how I see guitar.”
The song itself was a long time in the making. Asato began drafting Cryin’ in February 2020, during a period of global uncertainty, and finally completed it four years later, in February 2024, just a week before his wedding.
“Cryin’ is my emotional celebration of life — the first act of being human and the sound of joy, fear, and love all at once,” he says. “It’s a reminder that life is full of emotions, vulnerability, and movement, and you’re free to feel it your own way.”
Looking back on his career now, Asato admits that making the leap from stable pop gigs to solo artistry wasn’t easy.
“Trading the stability and the status of playing for a pop star to start walking on my own steps was a very tough decision, and that takes time,” he tells Guitar World. “I was able to give myself a proper season of rest. [It] cleared the path for me to start this first season of my solo career with a very great feeling.”
Listen to Cryin’ below.
The post Guitar.com cover star Mateus Asato releases his first official single Cryin’: “It’s been 10 years of identity crises about who I am in terms of music” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I owe not just an artistic debt to him, but a life debt to him”: Tom Morello on the genius of Ace Frehley
Tom Morello has paid tribute to Ace Frehley, describing the late Kiss guitarist as not just a musical inspiration but someone to whom he owes a “life debt”.
Speaking on a recent episode of SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, Morello reflects on his first encounter with Kiss and his lifelong admiration for the band’s original guitarist, who passed away last week at the age of 74.
- READ MORE: Ace Frehley 1951-2025: Guitar community mourns the death of Kiss’s trailblazing founding guitarist
“[Ace] was my first guitar hero. Kiss was the band that made me love rock and roll, and he was the lead guitar player of that band,” says the Rage Against The Machine guitarist [via Blabbermouth].
“I mean, without him, I don’t know whether I would’ve ever wanted to play guitar. It was totally formative. Kiss was the supernova that made me light up and think, ‘Oh, this is something I might wanna do for the rest of my life.’ And the lead guitarist of that band, a crucial part of that band, an indispensable part of that band’s original chemistry, was Ace Frehley.”
“So I owe not just an artistic debt to him, but just a life debt to him. Every riff that has ever come, every guitar solo that’s ever been a part of my life has its origins, the DNA imprint of Ace Frehley.”
Placing Frehley in the context of transformative acts, Morello continues: “In the same way that acts like The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, they captured the imagination of generations and made people think, ‘There might be room for me to do that too,’ Kiss was that for us. And Ace was the coolest axe-slinging, Les Paul smoke-belching guitar hero for all of us.”
Morello also points out the enduring appeal of Frehley’s playing style, noting, in particular, how the guitarist prioritises melody and fun over technical perfection.
“And time has told the story that that really mattered,” says Morello. “I listened yesterday, after the news [of Ace’s death came], to Kiss’s Alive! beginning to end. I hadn’t listened to that record beginning to end for a long time. And maybe my kind of impression, off the cuff, is Kiss songs are these kind of hard rock songs with a pop element to ‘em.”
“It’s a band that has progressive elements. It’s a band that has huge [Black] Sabbath-like riffs in it. It’s a band where [Ace’s] guitar solos are these kind of journeys within the song – super hooky, super catchy. He’s got that kind of gun-slinging free way of playing that sometimes is beautifully messy. And I just was really kind of overwhelmed with it reminded me of what originally lit my fire and made me love the band and made me love him as a guitar player.”
Kiss were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, with Tom Morello delivering the induction speech. In his speech, the musician called Kiss his “favourite band” growing up and shared how it was “not easy being a Kiss fan” given the band’s relationship with critics.
The post “I owe not just an artistic debt to him, but a life debt to him”: Tom Morello on the genius of Ace Frehley appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Tobias Forge once experienced a horrifying panic attack onstage which changed the way he performed with Ghost: “This was very close to the Bataclan shooting”
Ghost frontman Tobias Forge has revealed that a severe onstage panic attack during a 2015 show in Leeds forced him to rethink his entire approach to live performance, and to the elaborate masks that define his Papa Emeritus persona.
In a recent chat with Metal Hammer, Forge recalls how the Leeds Beckett University gig ten years ago marked a major turning point. Midway through the show, he says, the feeling of being completely enclosed in his full-face mask triggered a sudden wave of claustrophobia – one that made him realise just how much the costume had begun to affect him mentally.
“Throughout my years in masks, I’ve developed a not comfortable claustrophobia,” Forge explains. “It’s the idea of having something over your throat, being completely engulfed, completely enclosed.”
The panic attack struck mid-performance, during the band’s song Con Clavi Con Dio. It was, Forge recalls, something he had never experienced before, and it forced him to walk offstage and strip off his costume.
“It had never really happened to me before, but I was walking into the venue, and this is, this is very close to the [November 2015 Paris] Bataclan shooting,” he says. “We went into the venue, and it was raining outside, big surprise, absolutely pissing down. I was told there was only one entrance into the venue; you had to walk in on the right side of the stage, past the stage, and then into a backstage area.”
“So, essentially, you couldn’t get out. You were locked in. That was what I was told. And I didn’t think of it until during the show, when all of a sudden I was like, ‘I need to know where the door is…I can’t get to the door. Stop! Stop! Get the mask off!’ I had to get everything off. Restart the whole thing.”
As it turned out, there was another exit – one Forge simply hadn’t been shown before the gig.
“We had to have a guard come and show me – lo and behold, there was another door,” the musician recounts. “There was absolutely a way out. And then it became a thing [for future shows]: I need to know where the door out is. I need to know how I get out. As long as I know how to get out, we’re good.”
Since that night, Forge says he’s done “hundreds of shows” without any further incidents: “I haven’t had any problems with it. I know it works. I know how to deal with it. It’s definitely in the back of your head, that that can happen, but it’s just a panic attack. It’s nothing dangerous.”
The post Tobias Forge once experienced a horrifying panic attack onstage which changed the way he performed with Ghost: “This was very close to the Bataclan shooting” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Walrus Audio Mako Mk II R1 review – makes a whole lot of sense for the space conscious reverb fancier
$399, walrusaudio.com
Walrus Audio’s Mako range was one of the trendsetters in the realm of cramming the monster power of high-end DSP into a compact and pedalboard-friendly package, and five years later it seems like even your morning bagel comes with a SHARC chip crammed into there somewhere, so they must have been onto something.
It’s entirely fitting then that a few years on from their initial launch, the Oklahoma City-based maker took another swing at the concept – refining, enhancing and elevating the Mako concept in response to player feedback.
While the initial Mako range came out in batches over a couple of years, last year the brand dropped the Mk II versions of the entire range – which is a roundabout way of explaining why it’s taken us quite so long to get around to reviewing this final pedal in the range, the R1 Reverb.
And in truth, I shouldn’t have waited so long, because this Mk II might be the most transformative entry in the whole collection.
Image: Adam Gasson
Walrus Audio Mako R1 Mk II – what is it?
Like its forebear, the R1 is a compact high-end reverb pedal with six distinct reverb ‘programs’ on board. These comprise the vanilla trio of spring, hall and plate, and then three of the more esoteric ambient reverbs that are all the rage these days – air, refract and BFR (which stands for big flippin’ reverb to those of us of a more evangelical persuasion).
Interestingly, Walrus claims that all six of these programs have been “rebuilt and revamped for vast tonal improvement” – that’s a much more bold claim than on any of the other Mk IIs, which talked about only minor tweaks to the sounds if they mentioned anything about it at all.
Perhaps this is because of the original four Mako pedals, the R1 was perhaps the least impressive – in a world overflowing with expensive high-end reverb pedals that do all manner of post-rock things, the core sounds were good but not great, as Richard’s review reflected. The R1’s sounds have been “completely reimagined from the ground up” according to Walrus, offering highly tuned EQ and more parameters and features to tweak.
Image: Adam Gasson
The tweaking of these new parameters comes courtesy of the new OLED screen, which replaces the bank of mini-toggles on the Mk I as is the case with all the revamped Mako pedals.
Elsewhere, MIDI-botherers will be delighted/dismayed (delete as appropriate) to hear that the cumbersome full-size in and thru cables on the original have been swapped for mini-TRS versions here. Yes you’ll need some connectors now, but it certainly makes life neater and prettier from a cable management perspective – and truly, what matters more in pedalboard circles than having a neat and tidy undercarriage?
You’ll also get access to all 128 onboard presets via the pedal’s menu (as opposed to just nine on the original) – and if you really feel like you need more than that, seek professional help immediately.
Image: Adam Gasson
Walrus Audio Mako R1 Mk II – usability and sounds
My biggest gripe with the M1 Mk II that I reviewed a while back was that the replacement of a few toggle switches with a screen to represent multiple different parameters took some of the WYSIWYG brilliance of the originals away.
That’s definitely still the case with the R1 – you’ll certainly want to consult the manual before diving in to determine what you’re doing – but the nature of reverb means that it’s not too much of a learning curve here, with most of the parameters being pretty straightforward.
One of the bigger criticisms of the Mk I R1 was that while it’s out-there stuff was special, it somewhat phoned in the more basic stuff, and you can really sense that Walrus has taken this to heart when you turn the knob to the spring reverb mode.
It’s a responsive and spanky reflection of a classic amp tank rather than anything more bespoke, but there’s a depth and lushness to the recreation here that feels more impressive than the original’s. It’s not the most out-there spring I’ve ever heard but you can use the decay control to push yourself outside the realms of what would be possible with a real spring reverb.
Image: Adam Gasson
It’s fun, if somewhat limited in its everyday utility, but it does give me the opportunity to play around with some of the new parameters that are common for each reverb mode. On the left hand encoder you can tweak the rate and depth of the verb, and you also get a control to set the amount of diffusion on your repeats. A new addition is an expanded version of the swell control which also now allows you to duck your reverb – it’s a nice added extra, especially for the more esoteric sounds.
On the right hand side you can tweak the size of the room you want your verb to verb into, and you also now get the ability to tweak the low and high frequencies of the reverb itself. There’s also a bipolar EQ filter that will tweak the decay to be either darker or brighter depending on which side of the knob you’re twisting it to.
The other two ‘normal’ modes have also had a definite facelift – there’s a real organic quality to the way the room sound’s notes decay, while the plate has a really pleasant diffusion that gets more enjoyably wiggy as you expand the size of the plate.
Walrus’ reputation as purveyors of some of the most excitingly atmospheric reverbs was very evident in Mk I – there wasn’t a damn thing wrong with any of those sounds really – and while the improvement is definitely there in terms of fidelity and depth, the jump in quality is perhaps understandably less noticeable.
The BFR remains ironically named given that it is the most worship-appropriate reverb sound on the pedal – a giant lush, skyscraping sound that begs for plaintive single-note refrains, especially when you diffuse the trails to add even more ethereal vibes. Granular reverb is all the rage these days, and while Refract isn’t going to give the Qi a run for its money in that regard, it adds some fun glitchy grainy textures over a reverb sound that’s heavy on the diffusion. Finally you get the obligatory shimmer verb in Air. This is the sound that has the most unique parameters, namely the ability to tweak how much shimmer you have, and also whether it shims pre- or post the reverb tank. It’s massive and majestic and twinkly in all the ways you’d expect a Walrus reverb to be, and the ducking and swell controls really come into their own here to make the sound bloom and soar in that most ethereal way.
Walrus Audio Mako R1 Mk II – should I buy one?
There’s no escaping that $400 is a whole heap of beans for any pedal, but this has a versatility and round-the-park quality that few other pedals at this price point can match. You may well be tempted to splurge another hundred bucks or so on a big box unit from Strymon or Empress – or to get something that’s more focused (and candidly better sounding) from Universal Audio. But each of those options involves a compromise in terms of pedalboard real estate or variety of sounds… or both.
While I will go to my grave not understanding why Walrus didn’t just name this the R2 rather than the R1 Mk II, pretty much everything else about it makes a whole lot of sense for the space conscious reverb fancier. It’s the most compact and efficient way to go from basic verbs to heavenly choral excess without any real sonic compromises.
Walrus Audio Mako R1 Mk II – alternatives
Most of the R1’s more compact competitors tend to be more specialised, but one that will give it a run for its money is the Strymon BlueSky Mk II ($379) – it’s more tailored towards the three classic verb sounds, but with switchable shimmer and modulation, you can get some really magical sounds out of it. If space isn’t a concern and you want your reverb sounds to come with zero compromises and all the sounds you could ever dream of, then Strymon’s BigSky MX ($679) – it’ll cost you though! Another comprehensively excellent big box reverb is the Empress Reverb ($494) which is a bit long in the tooth now, but still a monster pedal.
The post Walrus Audio Mako Mk II R1 review – makes a whole lot of sense for the space conscious reverb fancier appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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