It’s hard to believe that the Z.Vex Fuzz Factory is over 30 years old, heck, it’s almost as old as I am. This tiny, yet pioneering stompbox launched way back in 1995 and proved that not all boutique pedals had to recreate historic units from the past. Instead, they could innovate and push the medium forward into bold new territories.

Used by everyone from Deftones axeman Stef Carpenter to resident Red Hot Chili Pepper John Frusciante, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy, and noise junky Trent Reznor, the Fuzz Factory has a long list of famous admirers – and it seems it’s just as popular today as it was back in the day.

The unit is built around a pair of new old stock germanium transistors, and it ditches the traditional tone-shaping of level, tone, and gain in favor of direct control over transistor bias and stability to unlock everything from Velcro-like sputter and gating to infinite, self-oscillating synthy squeals – but it can do some classic Fuzz Face sounds as well, if you like your fuzz tone boring...

As you’d expect from an old-school boutique pedal, the vast majority of Z.Vex pedals are hand-painted, hand-assembled, and produced in relatively small batches in Minneapolis, Minnesota. That said, the model I’m reviewing is part of the Vexter series. This is a slightly more affordable version of the Fuzz Factory. While the innards are the same, this one features UV-printed artwork and is assembled in Taiwan.

Those who like to run pedals on batteries will be happy to hear the pedal draws very little current: a tiny 3 mA, to be exact. For context, and as Z.Vex points out in the manual, an Ibanez Tube Screamer runs at almost 40 mA. Of course, the pedal can also run on a standard 9V center-negative pedalboard power supply.

Today, I’m taking this famous box of fuzz for a test drive to see if it lives up to its stellar reputation and to see if, after 30 years, it’s still one of the best fuzz pedals on the market.

Specs

• Launch price: $229 | £189 | €199
• Type: Germanium Fuzz / Self-Oscillating Fuzz Effect Pedal
• Controls: Volume, Gate, Comp, Drive, Stab
• Features: NOS 1960s Germanium transistors, interactive self-oscillation, velcro-fuzz to synth tones, silk-screened graphics, LED indicator
• Connectivity: 1/4" Mono Input, 1/4" Mono Output
• Bypass: True Bypass
• Power: 9V DC center-negative / 9V Battery (~4mA current draw)
• Dimensions: 4.70" x 2.38" x 1.82" (119 mm x 60 mm x 46 mm)
• Weight: 0.5 lbs (0.23 kg)
• Options: Hand-Painted Fuzz Factory, Fat Fuzz Factory (with bass switch), Fuzz Factory 7
• Contact: Z.Vex

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

It's fair to say the Fuzz Factory is an iconic-looking pedal. Now, while it does do other enclosure styles, this small horizontal format has become somewhat of a trademark of the brand. Yes, it may not be the most practical when trying to Tetris together a pedalboard, but I’ve always thought it looked cool – and it certainly stands out among the sea of other boutique stompboxes.

Another trademark is the cartoony, colorful hand-painted graphics, which are unfortunately missing on this version. That’s not to say the UV-printed graphic is bad; I actually think it looks great, but it doesn’t quite have the charm or uniqueness of the original.

Really, though, it’s not about how a pedal looks, it’s more about how well it’s built, and like all Z.Vex units, this one feels expertly put together. There’s a reassuring heft to the pedal, the knobs are smooth, and the footswitch is robust. Really, what more do you need in a pedal?

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

When I say this is one of the most interactive fuzz pedals around, I really do mean it. Each dial parameter seems to morph and change depending on how the others are set. Even in the manual, Z.Vex jokes, “Although the five knobs are named for the parameters over which they seem to have the most control, please don’t hold me to it.”

The result is a pedal that’s genuinely fun to experiment with. It’s somewhat unpredictable in its nature, and that’s what’s so engaging about it. A few small adjustments can make wild changes to the tone.

Going through the controls, the first, aside from the output volume, is Gate. As you’d expect. This can be a noisy little pedal, so this is used to fully kill any unwanted buzz, hiss, or feedback. Now, it can even be used to tune the feedback pitch, too, if you’re a fan of things getting a little unruly and a touch mad.

The Comp control adjusts the overall attack character of the fuzz. Turn it left for a softer sound, and right for a harder, more immediate one. Again, though, like the other controls, its parameters change when used in conjunction with the other dials.

Drive is used to dial in the amount of distortion. Well, it is if you’re running the Fuzz Factory as a traditional fuzz pedal. This control doesn’t really do anything if you have the Comp dial maxed out.

When it comes to the Stability control, there’s a warning in the manual, “Use all the way right. Do not adjust this control below 2:00, unless you like your fuzz soft and squishy.” Very basically, Stability regulates the voltage supplied to the pedal's internal germanium transistors. By starving or feeding the circuit power, it dictates whether the pedal behaves like a “normal” fuzz or a spitting, sputtering noise machine.

Rarely do I get to play with a pedal that’s so simply laid out, yet invites so much experimentation. I think a large portion of the success of this fuzz is how fun it is to dial in. I lost hours of my life finding cool and interesting settings, and I don’t care one bit – in fact, I loved spending so much time endlessly tweaking.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

For testing, I’m running a Gibson Les Paul directly into the Fuzz Factory and then into a Vox AC30 set fairly clean and open, with a smidge of reverb.

With so much talk of experimentation, it's easy to write off the Fuzz Factory as only for those who like absolutely feral fuzz tones, but it does the classic sounds very well indeed. Leaving the Gate and Comp dials all the way down for the moment, I push the Drive to around halfway and keep the Stab on max. The tone is somewhat Fuzz Face-like. It’s smooth, seriously dynamic, and plays very well with my guitar’s volume pot.

Push the gain further and bring in the Comp, and things start to get very heavy and thick with tonnes of compression. I did start to dial up the gate here too, trying to catch some of the buzz. Things get pretty filthy in this setting, and in the best possible way.

These settings alone are worth the price of admission, but this tiny stomp can do a whole lot more than that, it is a factory of fuzz, after all.

If you max out the Comp and Drive, and pull back on the Stab, you get that quintessential “Velcro” fuzz sound that is addictive to play. It sounds fierce and unpredictable, and it's perfect for garage rock-style single-note riffing. I genuinely love this setting.

Would I use it all the time? No, of course not, but it’s bags of fun. The tone here shifts from something you’d instantly recognize as a standard guitar sound to something that could be considered synth-like, especially as those high octaves start to creep in.

Moving the dials while playing can create filter sweeps. At times, it almost sounds like tuning an old radio, with wild feedback screams and other equally mad, noisy sounds that are all part of the fun with this pedal.

It isn’t for the faint of heart, or guitarists who like a mild Tube Screamer into a slightly overdriven tube amp to go with their equally beige cup of tea. It’s for lovers of over-the-top filthy saturation and those who don’t mind more than a little knob tinkering.

Verdict

The Z.Vex Fuzz Factory is a true icon in the world of effects pedals, and after three decades, it still stands out as a bold, innovative stomp that more than lives up to its reputation.

Unlike troves of boutique pedals that simply pay homage to the past, the Fuzz Factory has always forged its own path, offering a unique and experimental approach to fuzz that has attracted a legion of devoted fans, famous and normies alike.

For me, what sets the Fuzz Factory apart is its sheer versatility and interactivity. The unusual control set invites hours of sonic tinkering. Each knob interacts with the others in unpredictable ways, making the pedal as much an instrument as an effect. Whether you crave classic, dynamic Fuzz Face-like tones or wild, synth-like oscillations and velcro-gated textures, the Fuzz Factory delivers it in spades.

The Vexter Series provides the same legendary circuit at a more accessible price point, trading the original hand-painted graphics for sleek UV-printed artwork. Despite the change in aesthetics, the build quality remains exceptional, with robust components and a solid feel underfoot. Honestly, outside of the printed graphic, most of us would be hard-pressed to notice, or indeed hear, the difference.

Okay, I’ll admit that this pedal isn’t for everyone. Its unpredictable character and penchant for chaos make it best suited for players who live on the wilder side of the street. But for those willing to dive in, the rewards are immense.

I genuinely think the Z.Vex Fuzz Factory remains one of the most creative, inspiring, and fun fuzz pedals ever made. It’s a modern classic in every sense of the word, and one that continues to push the boundaries of what a stompbox can do.

Also try

Hands-on videos

Pedal Of The Day

Matt Kelly

Their Jackson V-touting guitarist, Scott Ian, has often served as the band’s figurehead since their inception in 1981. But some of their best ideas come from behind him, and the man responsible is finally getting the recognition he deserves.

Drummer Charlie Benante, who is currently part of the Zakk Wylde-fueled Pantera reunion, has been driving a lot of the band’s material behind the scenes. For decades, he’s written a huge portion of their material on guitar. For many, that side of their operations has been a complete mystery.

“It’s so weird that 40-something years later I’m starting to get recognized for it,” Benante says in the new issue of Guitar World. “I don’t want to say it was a dirty little secret. Insiders knew, but on the outside, I wasn’t really allowed to talk about it in the interviews.”

“Scott had nothing to do with that,” he adds, “but some of the other guys felt discredited that the drummer was writing all the songs. The problem with that is I don’t think it ever dawned on them the effect that it had on me – that I could never speak about it or talk about it.”

It became an understandable sticking point for the sticksman. So he sought solace from an LA new wave band.

“It was frustrating because Scott and I always did the bulk of the writing and the bulk of the work,” he continues. “I watch the Go-Go’s documentary [2020’s The Go-Go’s] at least once a year because I relate to it so much. At one point, the band wants the two primary songwriters to give up the credit and divide it evenly within the band, and when they’re talking about it, I go, ‘That’s exactly how I feel.’”

Over the years, he’s learned to put his frustrations aside – or at least vent them towards his TV screen once a year, before dusting himself off and going again. Whether he gets his flowers or not doesn’t dilute his commitment to the cause.

“My attitude is still all about Anthrax,” he reassures us. “If I have to take a backseat for it, I’m doing it for the betterment of the band itself. I’m just happy that after all this time, the creativity still comes.

In a studio report with Guitar World in 2014, Ian explained how “great riff writer” Benante’s role has been fundamental to the band’s success, while also explaining his key role in turning demos into bangers.

The riff-writing drummer’s full interview features in the new issue of Guitar World, which can be ordered from Magazines Direct.

Led by guitarist/composer Lyle Workman, Bootsy and several other James Brown alumni – including drummers Clyde Stubblefield and John “Jab’o” Starks and guitarist Phelps “Catfish” Collins – convened to recreate the unique chemistry that had once made Brown’s backing band such a formidable force.

“It felt the same as it ever did. Even though we all have gotten older and are looking crazy, that energy popped back like we had been playing all the time. Nobody was rusty, man. Everybody was on – like we'd just got off the J.B.’s bus!”

Much like the James Brown days, that element of musical interaction provided the foundation for Bootsy to instinctively build his basslines during the session.

“We pretty much came up with our own parts once Lyle would strike up the groove, which is pretty much how it was with James Brown.”

“There’s nothing like it when you’re feeling each other, wondering what a guy is going to play next and knowing that whatever it is, you’re going to be on top of it.

“People are making great music with computers and so on, but that’s like having a doll in the closet instead of having a real chick, you know?”

Bootsy’s partnership with Clyde Stubblefield and John “Jab’o” Starks was never simply a case of locking into the same beat. Each drummer brought a distinct feel to the J.B.’s rhythm section, and Bootsy learned to respond accordingly.

“Jab’o has got the swing thing – like on Sex Machine – but Clyde is more of a live-on-fire kind of drummer – like on Get Up, Get Into It, and Get Involved. I've learned to lay with each of them.

“It’s like having two different girlfriends – you talk one way to one, and another way to the other. One chick will want to jump in the backseat real quick and get it on, and the other might require more foreplay. The end result is the same, so you play with the instruments like that.

“You have to vibe with Jab’o a little bit, and then he’s there. Clyde doesn't need any foreplay – you just jump right in with him!”

For the Superbad soundtrack, authenticity was more important than showcasing Bootsy’s trademark slap bass style, with the demands of the groove calling for the kind of precise, and syncopated fingerstyle playing that he had developed during his time with James Brown.

“With James, it was all about who had the fastest fingers, who could play the most syncopated fingerstyle grooves. They thought I was on fire with that.

“Now I don’t try to play so many things or so fast. I just concentrate on making sure the groove is there, and that the notes I play feel right. I try to avoid the obvious and put notes where nobody else would.

“It’s not something I think about – once you start thinking, you’re shot. It just happens, and that difference creates my style.”

“When I think about the first generation of bluegrass,” she says, “of course, I think of The Stanley Brothers, Flatt and Scruggs, and Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass. But there is no mother of bluegrass.”

She began digging into the history books and found more forgotten stories: “In the Bluegrass Jam Along podcast, [host] Matt Hutchinson said 83 percent of the trad songs were collected from women, but they all have A.P. Carter's name on the copyright.”

A founding member of the Carter Family, he helped bring the songs to a wider audience – but his sister-in-law, Mother Maybelle, had a profound impact on the sound itself.

“In bluegrass the guitar didn't take solos,” Lou says. “The guitar was a rhythm instrument. Mother Maybelle is one of the earliest people to take solos, and the way she played is unique, picking out the melody with the thumb pick. In bluegrass, it's primarily with a flat pick.”

The idea of music blossoming in family circles feels fitting for a tradition whose repertoire grew through informal playing. “That’s the special thing about bluegrass and acoustic music: you don’t need a stage,” says Lou. “You don’t need a sound system. You need a bunch of people who are obsessed with the music.”

That spirit became the foundation of her latest album, Bluegrass Women, showcasing 10 tracks written by the elder women of the genre, performed by an all-star acoustic line-up. The first piece of the puzzle was finding the right producer; and, unsurprisingly, the bluegrass community delivered.

“I learned about Shani Gandhi as she engineered an EP for my friend Billy Strings. I remember meeting her at one of his shows and being impressed because even among engineers and people in the behind-the-scenes world, it’s hugely male-dominated.”

Gandhi provided her own impressive network; she co-produced singer/mandolinist Sierra Hull’s Grammy-nominated 25 Trips, and won Best Folk Album award for producing Sarah Jarosz's Undercurrent.

With Gandhi on board, Lou rapid-fired messages to her friends. “Hey, this is what I’m doing. Do you want to be a part of it?” All of them said yes. One month later, Bluegrass Women assembled at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studios.

What could have felt like an intimidating roll call felt more like an inevitability. Many of Lou’s chosen artists were already deeply connected, including flatpickers Courtney Hartman and Molly Tuttle.

Tuttle, in particular, was a linchpin, having performed in a childhood band with skilled string player AJ Lee and later worked with Grammy-winning fiddle player Bronwyn Keith-Hynes and Hasee Ciaccio.

“We’re all women in the scene,” Lou says. “But to have all these different parts of Molly's life in one room felt a lot like the fates too.”

The record began to take shape in the traditional bluegrass way. “I told everybody, ‘Just show up,’ and that's what we did. We got in a circle, played the song a few times, and the arrangements presented themselves.”

Some songs demanded more deliberation, though. “I’ve Endured is the one that we labored over. I wanted to embody Ola Bell Reed’s spirit as much as I could,” she says, mindful too of the Tim O'Brien version everyone carries in their heads.

The between reverence and reinvention is central to Lou’s own relationship with the tradition. “I'm not a flashy picker, which makes me a little bit of an anomaly in the bluegrass world. But I love singing these songs, and I love harmony so much that I’ve managed to weasel my way in here!”

Her route into music began with folk and family. “I grew up in a really big family of hippies that played. The first song I learned was an Indigo Girls song.” Later, at college in Michigan, she formed her band the Flatbellys, dove into original bluegrass recordings, and found herself really falling for the sound.

“Bluegrass gave me tools to tighten up my guitar playing and a whole well of songs to sing with anybody,” she says. “You can be a band with so many strangers all over the world if you got bluegrass in your pocket.”

Her guitars followed that evolution: a Recording King acoustic guitar, then a Martin Dreadnought, before she settled on a Martin 00-17, which she describes as having “this old Carter Family woody depth to it. I also have a Double 00-17 parlor hybrid by Preston Thompson Guitars that I love to play.”

If those guitars connect Lou to bluegrass’ roots, one of the project’s most powerful moments came when a living link to that history walked through the studio door. Laurie Lewis, an inspiration to many of the players, happened to be in Nashville during one of the four recording days.

“When Laurie Lewis came in – a mentor to all of us – that was an incredible pinch-me moment,” Lou says. “She’s a force, and it was so cool to have her presence anywhere on this record.”

For all the project’s historical weight and countless contributors, Lou keeps returning to one deceptively simple word: ease. The ease of gathering. The ease of celebrating the music together. The ease of playing in a circle and letting an arrangement emerge. Perhaps that’s the real heart of Bluegrass Women.

She’s not out to rewrite the history of bluegrass, but to make some of the women who helped shape the sound harder to overlook – and to give the next generation a clearer path to the music.

“I hope it’s a stepping stone, where you see more young women coming up, picking and leading bands,” she says. “It’s one small contribution to a greater history that’s unfolding.”

• Bluegrass Women is out now.

“The El Dorado was the first guitar I have a memory of,” he says. “My dad gave it to me. It’s the first guitar that I remember strumming and being enthralled by.”

He says that the same footprint is in his new model. “When you play it, there’s an emotion to it. Some guitars have that and some do not. If you play 10 they’re all going to sound different. It depends on what the player is looking for. But there’s ample opportunity to find what they’re looking for with this guitar.”

King’s El Dorado signature is yet another step up for Epiphone, a once budget-focused company that’s been dabbling in an increased range of higher quality, yet still affordable, curios.

“It’s exciting to see a company like Epiphone do this,” King says, nodding to the company’s signature models with Dave Grohl and Joe Bonamassa, and its bang-on rendition of Peter Green’s Greeny.

There’s a lot of your personal history tied into your signature El Dorado acoustic.

Absolutely. I moved to Nashville in 2018. When I was packing up my guitars I mentioned to my dad, “I wish I still had my first guitar.” It was just one he’d had around for years, and then given to somebody. I assumed I’d never see it again.

So I was surprised when he came to visit me in East Nashville, and brought the El Dorado as a housewarming gift. I’d just acquired a 1981 Cadillac Eldorado – so those two happenings influenced me to name my [2020] album El Dorado.

Did you modify the original?

Before I took it on the road I took it to my friend Christy Carter at Carter Vintage Guitars. Christy personally put that Opry-style guard on there, just because I wanted a little Nashville flair. And there are some embellishments on there… You can see the South Carolina shape, mother-of-pearl inlay, and the Tennessee stars.

What was the trick to injecting the soul of that guitar into the signature model we’re seeing now?

Man, I just trusted Gibson to put together the best-sounding guitar they thought possible, you know? It sounds awfully good to me. But I’ve never put that much thought into what goes into the assembly process – other than, “How does the damn thing sound?”

There’s a lot of options out in acoustics. What sets the El Dorado apart?

It’s a hell of a looker! People see that guitar and they remember it. When I moved to Nashville, the words of my grandfather echoed in my ears: “Leave a lasting impression – make people remember you.” They may not remember your name, but they’ll remember that Cadillac parked outside, and that beautiful-looking guitar.

Are there additional signature guitars in the works with Gibson and Epiphone?

I don’t know how much I can get into it, but there have been some discussions. I’ve always got some ideas.

Elsewhere, you’ve switched from Orange, with whom you had a signature amp, to Marshall. What brought that on?

I really enjoyed working with Orange, but it was just time to try something new – I saw my buddy Eddie 9V playing through a Marshall, and it just sounded so damn good! I was really inspired to get back to that Allman Brothers influence. We tried some of the new products from Marshall, and I was just really excited about it.

Is there a signature model in the works with Marshall?

I’ve had my dad’s Plexi head out with me. I think it’s from 1970, and it’s a great-sounding head. He modified it and put the master volume in the back, and I’ve been playing that. I’d definitely be interested if Marshall wanted to do an amplifier with me. I’ve got some ideas.

What sort of ideas?

I like a little bit more compression in what the amplifier is giving me. I also prefer 10-inch speakers because there’s more of an attack. I think the 10-inch just suits my playing style, and it’s what I like to hear. But I also have some 12s up there; I like the combination of 10s and 12s. I’ve tried just about every configuration one could try.

Gear aside, you lost a good friend in Brent Hinds not long ago.

Man, I had Brent in my life for the better part of a decade. We became really good friends really quickly. And something indicative of his character is that anybody who knew him knew that if you were going to be friends with Brent, you knew it very quickly!

And we did become really good friends really quickly. He was a groomsman at my wedding, and just a good friend to talk to. He was a brother.

He was so passionate about his craft – and very unique as a player. Did you take anything away from his style and incorporate it into yours?

I loved how Brent was passionate about playing. But he was also sometimes like, “Oh, man, fuck it. Dude, let’s go do something else!” We never really spent much time talking about playing per se, but every now and then we’d nerd out about a Mark Knopfler solo.

We’d sit outside, get really stoned, and nerd out about a solo or two. But his playing style and his ability to bring chicken pickin’ into the metal realm, I was always really inspired by that. He also had a really good sense of melody, and was just a beautiful composer.

Not long ago, you had the chance to play Rory Gallagher's Telecaster and Jeff Beck's Yardburst. What was that like?

It’s always a heavy experience – it’s like there’s someone showing up, rather than an object, you know? I had the opportunity to play Jerry Garcia’s Tiger guitar and his Travis Bean model. And I played Freddie King’s 335 too.

I’ve had so many opportunities to play the guitars of people I’ve looked up to, and it always feels like there’s a little bit of the DNA still left on the instrument. It feels like you’re getting a visit from your heroes. You can feel the soul, if you’re open to it.

What’s next for you?

We’re gonna be touring up until the top of October, and then we’ll be back in the studio because I’ve been writing a bunch. I’ve got a lot of songs built up, so I’m excited to see what magic we can create.

• Head to King’s website for his tour dates, and visit Epiphone’s King page for details of his El Dorado signature acoustic.

“We were on tour in Europe, and we all started saying we didn’t want to do another numbered record,” guitarist Mark Holcomb says. “That’s what we’ve always done – Periphery I, II, III, IV, V. It became our shtick, and there was nothing less exciting to us than making Periphery VI.”

Holcomb and his bandmates – fellow guitarists Misha Mansoor and Jake Bowen, drummer Matt Halpern and singer Spencer Sotelo – tossed out fanciful ideas: three EPs released on subsequent weeks, conceptual double albums. Nothing felt right until Halpern said, “Why don’t we write an album about loneliness?” Oddly enough, it was the one idea everybody could get behind.

“It’s such a unique concept for an album,” Holcomb says. “At the same time, it’s a universal feeling, because no matter how happy you are in life, no matter how dissatisfied you may be or anything in between, the experience of feeling lonely, whether it’s embraced or resented, plays a large role in anybody’s life.”

As one might expect, A Pale White Dot isn’t the party record of the year. Songs like Mr. God, Obsession, Subhuman – all of them disturbing, dramatic and ultimately astonishing, full of sophisticated musical crosscurrents and blitzing guitar playing – were born from what Holcomb describes as “band therapy sessions, but not in the Metallica sense.”

Throughout the album, the band explores the darker side of emotional responses and conditions – there’s depression, OCD, anxiety and isolation – and on the record’s best number, Everyone Dies Alone, Holcomb recalls the grief he felt following the recent death of his father. “It’s imagery that I wish I could somehow burn out of my brain, but I know it’ll live with me forever,” he says.

When the band decided to make a concept album, did you reference any of the genre’s biggies? In terms of loneliness and alienation, of course there’s The Wall.

I wouldn’t say we directly referenced them, but as prog nerds we all grew up inhaling concept albums. I’m a big Devin Townsend fan – it feels like most of his records are concept albums. Of course, Dream Theater has made amazing concept albums, as has Opeth and Rush. It’s part of our DNA.

We wanted to stick to a framework but not overthink it. At first glance, or at first listen, if the album sounds down and dark and a little bit dire, it kind of is, because loneliness can be that for most people – not to say that there aren’t moments where it kind of gets turned around and looked at in a positive way. But yeah, it’s a concept record in as much as we can apply that loose term to it.

Not to sound glib, but did the band intentionally restrict themselves to songs that sounded gloomy? What would have happened if you wrote an awesome tune that was a bit on the happier side?

That was a situation we ran into many times, actually. I had some ideas that sounded a little more positive, a bit more notey and verbose, as did some of the other guys, but at the end of the day those tunes didn’t match the tone of the record. The fallback was always, “Let’s just store that one.”

We have what we call the Riff Graveyard, where we let riffs and ideas sit in a Dropbox that’s shared by our whole band. We table all of these ideas for our next record or our next-next record, so we always know we’ve got a sizeable stockpile of things to pull from in the future.

I understand you guys used 30-inch scale six-string baritone guitars on the album. Where did that come from?

We typically mix things up – songs with six-string guitars, seven-strings, eight-strings. On this album, Misha acquired a 30-inch Jackson Surfcaster baritone guitar with six strings, and he made a 30-second demo of what became Mr. God.

He let me play it, and I was like, “Man, it’s like playing a new instrument.” It doesn’t feel like a guitar. The frets were so wide, so you don’t feel inclined to play leads. Instantly, I was playing patterns that were sparse and didn’t have so many notes, but they had a lot more power.

We tuned the low string down to a B flat, and the fifth string is an octave up, so you get this droning double B flat on the very bottom. When you chug those two low notes, it’s hypnotic. You sit back in your chair and you’re like, “Wow, that’s really heavy.” I had PRS build me a 30-inch guitar, and I used it for a bunch of the record.

So there’s still guitars with seven and eight strings?

Obsession is on a seven-string. Talk is on a six-string in drop C, but the sixth string is tuned down to A. On Subhuman, it’s an eight-string tuned to F standard. We use the eight string on a A Pale White Dot, the acoustic tune at the end of the record – it’s tuned to open Cadd9. We mix it up, man.

Do you guys just tell your guitar techs, “I’m sorry”?

[Laughs] We feel bad constantly. We do say we’re sorry profusely, and I feel horrible for making our guitar techs’ lives miserable!

• A Pale White Dot is out now via 3Dot Recordings.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Among those big names is Joni Mitchell, with whom Lukather worked on 1982’s Wild Things Run Fast and 1985’s Dog Eat Dog.

“I’ve always been a fan of Joni Mitchell ever since I had a girlfriend in high school who was obsessed with her music during the Blue period,” Lukather said in a recent interview with Guitar Player. “And then, when Court and Spark came out, I was starting to get really interested in studio players, like Larry Carlton, because of the creativity.

“So when I got to work with Joni, I was really excited to get the call. But I was like, ‘Wow… what am I going to bring to this, man?’”

Lukather remembers that first session like it was yesterday. “I walked into the studio, and she was sitting at the piano, playing the song that we were going to cut that day. She was going through it on her own, and singing.”

As he himself puts it, “It’s hard when you’re in a room with greatness like that. It’s hard not to be affected by it in a visceral way.”

He goes on to describe the song she was playing on the piano as “so naturally wonderful and beautiful” that he could immediately envision his guitar part.

“That’s the job. You have to have a ranger’s ears and be able to listen to somebody play a song and hear the parts that you can add to make it something,” he explains. “But you don’t want to get in the way; you want to enhance the hooky part on the arpeggio or add to what she’s already got going on.”

Lukather came up with a “nice little lick” that Mitchell liked, and that set the tone for the rest of the sessions.

“Believe it or not, she wanted to rock and roll it up a little bit,” he adds with a laugh.

“It was the early ’80s, and all that shit was happening. I kind of laughed at first, but it took her out of her normal place, which some of her hardcore fans didn’t dig. And of course, I take all the shit for it.”

“But that was a fun record to do,” Lukather concludes. “She was so nice and fabulous.”

Only a few years after the first guitar amps emerged, foot pedals appeared that allowed players to manually adjust volume and tone settings while performing.

However, the very first outboard device that provided a truly new sound effect was the DeArmond Model 60 Tremolo Control unit and its big brother, the Model 800 Trem-Trol volume/tremolo pedal, which DeArmond introduced during the late ’40s.

DeArmond actually planned on introducing the Tremolo Control as far back as 1941 as an effect device for electric organs and early electric pianos, but parts and materials shortages during World War II delayed its debut.

Even though tremolo became a built-in feature of many combo amps (usually on models designed for accordion players) shortly after these DeArmond effects came out, the Model 60 and Model 800 both enjoyed a pretty long and successful lifespan until the late ’50s, mainly thanks to guitarists who were more enthusiastic about the device than keyboard or accordion players.

During the early ’60s, DeArmond replaced the Model 60 with the 60B, which was enclosed in a less-costly plastic housing and featured push-button on/off switches for selecting the straight instrument signal or the tremolo effect.

The most fascinating element of the DeArmond unit’s design is that the tremolo effect (volume/amplitude modulation) is created purely by electro-mechanical means instead of an electrical circuit.

The interior components are a steampunk wonderland of spindles, rubber flywheels, a motor, pendulum arm and a small canister filled with conductive electrolytic liquid (Windex is an ideal substitute for replacing the original fluid that has evaporated).

The motor shakes the canister back and forth causing the amount of signal reaching the output to fluctuate, creating a very organic-sounding tremolo effect. The flywheel and gears allow users to adjust the effect’s speed via the Rate/Speed control, and a separate control potentiometer adjusts the effect’s depth/intensity.

The shark-shaped Model 800, which is longer and bulkier than an average wah pedal, is probably the most “pedalboard friendly” model of the three variations, although the only way to bypass the tremolo effect is via a slider switch on the side. Modern players who want a stompbox-style means of experiencing the vintage mojo of the Model 60 or 60B can incorporate these units in their rigs via a loop switcher.

Only a handful of classic recordings featuring the DeArmond Tremolo can be verified, but they are quite influential. The first known instance is Muddy Waters 1953 Chess recording of Flood.

Later, during the mid-to-late-’50s, Bo Diddley and Duane Eddy used their DeArmond Tremolo effects frequently, including on the hit singles Bo Diddley and Rebel Rouser, respectively. A gray 60B unit made a notable appearance during the late ’60s on stage with Canned Heat at the Woodstock Festival (Rollin’ Blues and On the Road Again).

Although the DeArmond Tremolo became forgotten by the ’70s after it was discontinued, players like Ry Cooder and Billy Gibbons revived its cult status during the ’80s and ’90s, respectively.

Gibbons has used his DeArmond Tremolo effects frequently on ZZ Top albums starting with Rhythmeen in 1996, and he often plays through two at once for a psychedelic, unsynchronized stereo tremolo effect on stage.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

It was no trivial job, he beat 200 other guitarists to get the gig – not to mention Derringer’s own (very) formidable six-string skills. Derringer had full confidence in Giraldo, though – but he did have one condition for the young guitarist.

“In 1977, I joined Rick Derringer’s band and I was playing a red Gibson SG,” Giraldo told Guitar World in a 2013 interview.

“Rick had a [B.C. Rich] Mockingbird, and the first thing he said to me was, ‘You’re in the band, but you gotta get a new guitar. You can’t play that SG.’ Then he said, ‘I’ll get you a B.C. Rich, but you can’t play a Mockingbird, because I play one.’ So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll have an Eagle.’

“[B.C. Rich founder] Bernie Rico fixed me up with a couple of them,” Giraldo continued. “And now B.C. Rich has a Neil Giraldo Eagle model.”

So, with the guitar model question sorted, it was all smooth sailing from there, right? Not quite.

Speaking to Guitar World in 2023, Giraldo recalled how his on-the-job education with Derringer involved, as is the case with many learning processes, falling flat on his face the first time.

“I remember the first gig: I was used to playing in front of 300 people, sometimes 25 people. Now I’m playing in front of thousands,” he remembered.

“After the gig, Rick comes out and goes, ‘What the hell happened?’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘You sounded terrible.’ I went, ‘Rick, I was really nervous. I swear, I promise it’ll never happen again.’ And it never happened again.”

It was that belt notch – the blood, sweat, and tears – that helped Giraldo develop into the ace supporting player behind Pat Benatar’s rise to dozens-of-times-Platinum rock superstardom.

“I can’t even tell you how much it prepared me,” he told GW of his time with Derringer. “He taught me so much.”

Though he’s an Atlanta-raised six-stringer who began self-producing music when he was a teenager, he linked up with Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach at Nashville’s Easy Eye Sound studios to help capture the raw and wide-smilin’ sound of his new album.

Eddie walks the ledge with exuberantly reckless vibrato on lead-off track Whole Lot Coming for You, and on Blowin’ Up, he becomes part of a three-headed hydra of boogie-rocked goodness during a back-to-back-to-back solo section with Marcus King and Dustin McCook. But he also brings daiquiri-sweet falsetto crooning to a Southern soul cover of KC and the Sunshine Band’s Rock Your Baby, and drawls laissez-faire wisdom into the sunset-strummin’ It Don’t Bother Me.

Just before slapping a bunch of chicken thighs onto the grill for a family cookout at his new home in Greenville, South Carolina, Eddie 9V served up some thoughts on meaty tones, greasy guitar heroes, and more.

What was your first guitar and how did you get it?

I don’t know what brand it was, but it was tiny, and it had a speaker in it – it was just one of those old Japanese knockoffs from the Seventies. I was 6; I wish I still had it. It’d probably be a great-sounding blues guitar, because you could probably distort the speaker.

What was in your teenage guitar rig, and what did you love or hate about it?

I had a Samick guitar, and I tried to relic it, which is a horrible idea when you’re 14. It looked like somebody took a hacksaw to it. But I got my first good rig when I was 14. My dad sold his Honda 450 motorcycle and we got a Fender Blues Deluxe and a Highway One Strat, which I still use today.

I love that guitar – it’s amazing. I traded the amp. I’m not a big fan of the Blues Deluxe. They’re too quick. They don’t have any sag, like a good Fender two-band.

What’s a piece of gear you own that might surprise people?

I just own a lot of old shit, like Wurlitzers. I’m into old mics. My favorite amp that I have, which I’m debating on selling, is a brownface ‘61 Fender Concert. If I sell it, I’ll get some good money for it, but I’ll be kicking my ass in 20 years when they’re [worth] $30,000.

What’s your number one tone tip?

Turn the amp all the way up, and turn your guitar volume down. You’re gonna get better tone that way.

How did you get your first break in music?

Man, I was doing a lot of dumb gigs for a long time… There’s a guy named Tinsley Ellis, a blues cat from the Eighties and Nineties… I sent him my first demo, and he got me a booking agent, which got me on the road.

Then the booking agent got me the management, and then the management got me the label. Luck and hard work meet at the crossroads, but I owe all my success to Tinsley Ellis.

What is the most glorious guitar moment on your new album, Down Here?

One of the most important things to me about this record was that I got to use Sean Costello’s 1953 goldtop. He was an Atlanta blues musician, and he was my idol as a kid growing up. He was absolutely wonderful.

He died when he was 28, and I never got to meet him. Mat Koehler at Gibson ended up buying it – he was a good buddy of Sean’s – so Gibson lends it out to people who want to play it. So, the moment was [when] I was playing that guitar straight into a tweed Champ.

Marcus King had his recently acquired ‘59 Les Paul, an MK Burst. We were in the room for A Whole Lot Coming for You, lookin’ at each other like, ‘Holy shit, is this really happening?’

Tell us about a time you had an argument over tone or gear choices. Did that ever happen with Dan?

They like to use small amps that are turned up, but I need a really big amp. We didn’t have any qualms, but there was one time I wanted to bring this amp into the room and dime it, where it bleeds into the other mics. Everybody was like, “Why?” But everyone loved the sound after I got done with it. But yeah… me and Dan haven’t argued yet!

What was your worst onstage moment?

This was one time in Athens, Georgia… I had just bought new shoes, and they were real slick, but I came out and totally slipped on a cable and busted my ass. I almost broke a headstock. That was embarrassing. And there was one show in New Orleans where I ran out and didn’t have my guitar with me.

The band was playing and everything, [so] I went back to the green room, but I didn’t know the code [to get back in]. The whole venue could see me looking like an idiot. That was pretty funny.

You can only take a Strat or a Les Paul to a gig. Which are you choosing and why?

I would almost always play a Les Paul, because you’re gonna have the most meat – you’re gonna be louder; you’re gonna have more gain in your guitar.

I’ve made the mistake of showing up to a jam with a Strat, and you sound like you’re just plinking, you know? Strats are really hard to make sound fat, especially if you’re not with your own rig. I’d always pick a Les Paul.

If you could magically absorb the playing skills of one famous guitarist – and play like that person for a year or so – who would it be and why?

Probably Albert King, because there’s nobody nastier than Albert King. Freddie King is like the brisket, B.B. King is the filet mignon, and frickin’ Albert King is just a damn ham-hock. He is greasy and nasty. I’m not trying to toot horns here, but Joe Bonamassa did a video basically saying there are only a few guitar players that can do the Albert King bends correctly, and he said my name. I was super honored.

Who is the guitarist you’d most love to jam with or collaborate with next?

John Mayer is like our generation’s Eric Clapton. That would be awesome.

• Down Here is out now via Easy Eye Sound.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

By comparison, a gold Dark Side of the Moon plectrum is a veritable bargain at $6,400.

Having previously worked with other culture-starting British bands like the Who and Queen, The Royal Mint partnered with Pink Floyd for a special collaboration in May. This ‘that’s definitely not a standard issue Jazz III’ guitar pick is the result of a second wave of work together.

It’s limited to 10 pieces, each priced at £4,750, or around $6,400. Elsewhere, that could get you a Murphy Lab Gibson Les Paul, or a couple of premium PRS Silver Skys. But it is 18 Carat Gold.

The pick, the Royal Mint says, “is amongst the first of its kind,” and despite appearances, can be used to whack guitar strings. Personally, this writer wouldn’t dare, given the price, although Brian May and Billy Gibbons get a great tone from coins, so maybe I’m being cynical.

“A must-have collector’s piece for Pink Floyd fans,” the Mint says, “its tactile, beveled edge makes this plectrum a fully functional accessory for the guitar.”

“The iconic prism is instantly recognizable to fans around the world, and Henry Gray has done a remarkable job of bringing it to life with the craft and detail this band deserves,” director of commemorative coins, Rebecca Morgan, adds. “Their influence on music, art and culture is immeasurable, and we’re incredibly proud that The Royal Mint can play its part in preserving that legacy forever.”

Luckily, a copper version is available for just £39.95 (approx. $54), to appeal to more budget-conscious players.

In other Pink Floyd artifact news, the search for the late Syd Barrett’s Mirror Disc Telecaster goes on. There are fears that, even if a contender emerged, it would be nearly impossible to verify. Maybe the crack team that helped find Paul McCartney’s long-lost Höfner violin bass – who are now hunting for the Back to the Future guitar – are the people for the job.

See the Royal Mint for more.

It’s a weird design that you have to adjust to, but that fine line between a trainwreck and a stroke of genius is exactly what Ted McCarty tapped into during Gibson’s ‘modernist’ push in 1957.

Crafted from African korina wood, featuring a split headstock and a body that cut away into a dramatic, sweeping arrowhead, the original Flying V was unlike anything else on the market. Released in 1958, the futuristic design was way too radical for the conservative jazz and country players of the era.

Gibson had quietly pulled it by 1960 after only shipping about 100 units. It reemerged in 1967, when Gibson brought it back with some crucial changes, trading the original korina wood for a mahogany body, adding a larger pickguard, and updating it with a stopbar or Vibrola tailpiece. This forgotten failure somehow clawed its way back to define everything from raw Delta blues to thrash metal.

Blues guitarists played a significant role in popularizing the Flying V. Lonnie Mack favored a ’58 model throughout his career. Albert King was famously a lefty who flipped a right-handed ’58 korina V upside down: the way he grabbed those massive, string bends out of his V proved the design had plenty of tone to back up its wild looks.

In the late ’60s, Jimi Hendrix dragged the V straight into the psychedelic stratosphere, hand-painting his ’67 Flying V and completely blurring the lines of what a rock guitar was supposed to look like.

By the time the ’70s rolled around, Rudolf Schenker had turned the V into a visual trademark for the Scorpions, while his brother Michael took it into absolute guitar shred territory.

Michael’s legendary half-black/half-white Gibson Vs became the ultimate symbol for blistering, lightning-fast solos, proving that this crazy V shape was more than worthy. By the late ’70s, Dean Guitars put its own stamp on the iconic shape with the Dean V. Boasting an oversized wing-shaped headstock and a massive string-through V-plate tailpiece, it was quickly adopted by heavyweight players such as ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons.

By the 1980s, music got harder and faster, and the V shape evolved and underwent its wildest mutation yet. Virtuoso Randy Rhoads teamed with Grover Jackson to develop an offset V-shaped guitar named ‘The Concorde’.

The look was so radical that Grover Jackson slapped his own last name on the headstock instead of his established Charvel logo. He did it purely to protect the Charvel name and avoid alienating his traditional customers if the guitar flopped, accidentally launching one of the most renowned guitar brands on Earth in the process: Jackson Guitars.

The sharp evolution of the Jackson models weaponized the V for the metal era, and the Concorde evolved into the iconic Randy Rhoads model that the metal community has fully embraced for the past four decades. Dave Mustaine of Megadeth made the Jackson King V his signature guitar for much of his career.

Even boutique brands are putting their own spin on the V, like the radical, custom-built Dirty Boy ‘Dirty V’ that completely twists the traditional shape. And, today, Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram is carrying the torch for modern Delta blues, tearing up stages with a killer, custom-built V-shape from Banker Guitars.

C’est La V

To fully grasp why the Flying V remains an iconic tone monster, you have to look closely at how they’re constructed. Luthier Matt Hughes of Banker Guitars highlights the tonality and build variations separating generations of the V.

“The 1958 original Flying Vs were carved from a beefier 1 1/2-inch slab of korina, whereas the 1967 mahogany reissues were cut thinner at 1 3/8 inches,” he says. “The construction approach shifted completely. On the ’67 models, Gibson routed a massive electronics cavity right through the center to mount a giant pickguard, fundamentally hollowing out the footprint compared with a solid string-through ’58 korina body.

“Recreating those original specs requires rare, thick slabs of korina wood, but when it’s done right, that solid construction generates a distinctly snappier midrange and a unique resonance that you simply cannot achieve with thin mahogany.”

What fascinates me most as a player is how the V’s shape changes the physics of how you play, requiring you to wear it differently. Blues-rock powerhouse Jared James Nichols describes how plugging into a Flying V shatters conventional playing habits.

“When you first strap on a V, you realize it’s completely unlike any traditional guitar shape,” he tells us. “It feels less like a guitar and more like a sword. Standard instruments just rest on your leg or hug your hip, but a Flying V demands a different kind of choreography. If you try to position it traditionally, it simply doesn’t feel right.

“You have to pull the body directly into your frame, almost like you’re giving the instrument a physical hug. It forces you into a more personal, aggressive stance where you’re actively shaping the guitar to the contours of your own body. It’s deeply expressive, and commands you to play it with authority.”

The Gibson Flying V was never a failure; it was just waiting for the rest of us to catch up. Today, the value of those rare, pristine, 1958 original korina wood Flying Vs has skyrocketed.

They aren’t just vintage guitars any more, they’re pieces of six-string fine art that easily command jaw-dropping price tags into the hundreds of thousands.

Take Joe Bonamassa’s 1958 korina Flying V, affectionately known as ‘Donny J’, which he bought for over $400,000 – going down in JoBo history as the most he’d ever paid for a guitar when he bought it in 2019. Decades after it originally crashed and burned, the Flying V stands as a masterclass in why we shouldn’t judge a design by its first act.

Three to get ready: Descendants of the V

Epiphone Futura Flying V Custom – $899/£849

If you’re ready to steal the spotlight, the Epiphone Futura Flying V Custom is begging to cause a scene. This modern machine pays homage to the classic Flying V soul with a solid mahogany body, compound-radius ebony fretboard, string-through-body bridge, and stainless-steel frets. At a price that feels almost suspiciously good, it delivers boutique-grade performance without the boutique sticker shock.

Dirty Boy ‘Dirty V’ – $3,500

If you think traditional Vs are too polite, the custom Dirty Boy ‘Dirty V’ is here to pick a fight. This boutique monster gives the classic design a radical offset twist, matching its dangerous attitude with a mahogany body, heavily checked road-worn finish, and premium gold hardware.

Outfitted with dual humbuckers for maximum muscle, it’s a high-end, modern-day evolution of the V shape with built-in attitude.

Jackson RRT-5 Pro Series Rhoads – $1,099/£849

Pushing the boundaries of the original Flying V design, Grover Jackson and Randy Rhoads somehow made one of rock’s craziest shapes even more outrageous.

The Jackson Pro Series RRT-5 Rhoads sharpens the V’s silhouette with offset wings, a flat neck, high-output pickups, and 24 jumbo frets. This iconic heavy metal shred machine remains one of the most extreme and instantly recognizable V variants ever created.

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Pulling up to the white stone frontage of an old mill in the village of Velké Němčice, you might think we were about to enter some artisanal throwback to a hand-crafted past. But a quick look around inside tells another story.

Five-axis robots cut precision neck joints, while humidity is micro-controlled in different areas of Furch’s factory to optimise the various processes taking place – from glueing bracing to soundboards, to fitting hi-tech climate-compensating truss rods to the guitars being built.

There is a certain boyish delight on CEO Petr Furch’s face as he explains how Furch engineers guitars as much as it crafts them. He’s a big believer in human hands doing the jobs that require lots of careful micro-decisions and judicious tweaks – like glueing binding to a guitar body.

But when it comes to the things that are at their best when they are simply deadly accurate, every time, like cutting a neck joint, he says without a shred of doubt that he prefers hi-tech robotics to do the job.

Like a football manager picking the best squad, he simply assigns people and machines to different stages in the construction of a guitar according to which choice will yield the best finished instrument, as he sees it.

It’s refreshing to hear after all the (admittedly compelling) emphasis on craft and legacy that established acoustic makers such as Gibson and Martin often employ. To be fair to them, they know that not only can they lean quite hard into history to sell their guitars but that people actually expect it of them – which can be its own form of gilded cage sometimes, if you want to branch out and try something new.

As a relatively young company that’s still building its profile around the world, Furch doesn’t have that problem. Instead, it has plenty of things to talk about concerning the future of acoustic guitar design, which is being defined in its workshops every day, according to the company.

Its guitars are now offered in one of two formats: Performance or Deluxe variants. The former comes with a high-quality LR Baggs pickup system, whereas the Deluxes are designed for an immersive unplugged experience and feature the elegant Booster Soundport system – a series of slots in the upper side of the guitar that spills some of the sound of the instrument back towards the player for a more immersive playing experience.

The company’s colour-coded system for indicating where each model sits in the overall range, from entry level to the highest spec the company offers, is perhaps the only unintuitive thing about their instruments (the cheapest guitars belong to the Violet range and the quality and features increase incrementally through the Blue, Green and Yellow ranges all the way up to the flagship, high-end Red range).

But what is common to all Furch guitars is perhaps more surprising than what differentiates them.

All have soundboards that have been individually analysed and tuned for the best resonance and performance, a high-end feature normally reserved for Custom instruments, and most of them feature some variation of the Bevel Duo system of a comfort armrest on the top edge of the guitar and a bellycut behind, again a feature normally only seen on high-end or custom acoustics but, at Furch, a pretty standard perk on its guitars.

With all this percolating in our minds, we managed to grab CEO Petr Furch – son of company founder, Frantisek Furch – for a chat amid various 45th Anniversary celebrations taking place at the factory during our visit, to talk about what it takes to be different and to genuinely move the state of the art forward in that most traditional area of lutherie: acoustic guitar design.

Furch has been around for 45 years now – what core values that were a feature of the company when it started are still true of it today?

I think even from the beginning, even in my father’s times, it was not really about making a copy of somebody else’s guitar. It was about improving the guitar in general. In the ’90s, we didn’t have so many possibilities. We didn’t have the budgets and the revenue we have right now, so we didn’t have so much possibility to invest in such great things [as we can do] today.

But still, I think the core [of our ethos] was: let’s improve the guitar somehow [with] things that customers need – or maybe they don’t know they need it, but it would be helpful for them – in terms of the ergonomics, durability or longevity of the guitar. Or, of course, the main thing: the sound.

I think these are our core values, which have been there basically since the first guitar. And these days, bigger-budget technology is available, and let’s say our internal knowledge – how to utilise that technology – these are new things and they’re opening new doors for us.

You have to consider that the guitar world and the world in general is a very dynamic place. Therefore, new ideas are coming, new technologies and new ways of how you can produce something. So if you mix it all together, you can always find some new way to improve [things], though that doesn’t mean that the older stuff was bad. It’s just that you have new possibilities, new knowledge, and so new opportunities. So that’s how I see guitar as well.

What’s interesting about Furch is that it isn’t just interested in the usual showpiece upgrades to a guitar’s tone such as a nice soundboard. You’ve spent just as much time coming up with a so-called Resonance-Enhancing Finish. What does that contribute to the sound of your guitars and why make it such a priority to get right?

The acoustic guitar generates its sound by vibrating the body of the guitar. Therefore, the physical properties of that ‘box’ are important and, of course, it has to somehow resonate the weight of the soundboard – and the flexibility of the soundboard is important.

So if you want to go deeper into the detail of the guitar construction, at some point you have to say to yourself, “Okay, how do I cover and protect this ‘box’?” And, at the same time, ‘How can I avoid compromising the sound?’

You’re trying to figure out, “What kind of protective cover should I put on it? What should be the material? Should it be soft or hard or thick or thin?” Years ago, that [question had] already prompted me to think about exactly what finish I’m going to use.

So we consulted with many companies that specialised in producing lacquers and finishes, and we came up with a formula for a material that is specific for us and specifically designed for a guitar body and guitar shapes. We had to really play with properties of the finish so it’s applicable, especially on round edges and sharp edges of the guitar.

Basically, we needed a lacquer that was as thin as possible and as hard as possible. But at the same time it must also be flexible somehow, though not soft, because the guitar body is always moving with humidity: the top is either lifting or dropping down, even the sides.

It took me more than a year in our spraying department, mixing different additives supplied by the manufacturer of the lacquer. And I was mixing and testing, spraying, curing, sanding and so on. After a year, we got to the [right] formula – I think it was in 2017 – where we started to apply this finish to all our guitars.

And actually these days we call it a Resonance-Enhancing Finish and we apply at least a little bit of that lacquer to all our guitars. Even if you have a [more basic] open-pore finish, we put a little bit of that lacquer on it because we found out that it really improves the sound.”

What tonal qualities does that Resonance-Enhancing Finish enhance, in your view?

Extra volume is the main thing that you can notice – but it’s improved balance as well, and enhanced high frequency a little bit, too. But the volume [boost] is really noticeable.

One of the most eye-catching innovations Furch has recently introduced is the CNR System Active neck joint and truss rod mechanism. It’s designed to automatically counteract changes to your setup that might happen when you take the guitar into different climate conditions, either drier or more humid. How does that work?

CNR Active System is a special neck-to-body joint. We made sure that it’s not visible from the outside, but inside there is this piece of wood that we call the Expansion Element. So the direction of the grain of this block of wood is set so it can absorb the humidity and expand and shrink with ambient humidity.

Basically, the expansion or shrinkage of that piece of wood [which is mechanically connected to the neck joint] is making the neck tilt backwards or forwards a little bit relative to the body…

If your top is exposed to high humidity and is lifting, the Expansion Element basically compensates for a change. And the other way around, if you have a guitar exposed to low humidity and the top is dropping [CNR Active will adjust the neck angle slightly to compensate], so the string action stays pretty much the same.

Also the added value to that concept is that you can use a special Allen key to perform what for years was termed a ‘neck reset’ in seconds. You very quickly adjust your neck angle and therefore your string action and playability in a couple of seconds, and this is very powerful.

It’s pleasing that amid all the hi-tech solutions Furch uses, a block of wood – albeit mounted in a precision-engineered mechanism – turned out to be the best material for automatically adjusting for changes in climate…

It makes sense. I mean, your top is also made of wood, and wood is reacting with certain dynamics and a certain speed to the humidity.

We were initially thinking about some artificial material [for the Expansion Element], for example, that probably could be more predictable than wood. But after all this, [wood] was the best solution. Because once you do a couple of tests, find the right length of that expansion element – basically, how big the expansion is going to be – then it really does the best job here.

Do you think of making acoustic guitars as a craft or a science?

I think it’s a little bit of both. I’m an analytical person, so I tend to work with data and I tend to [take steps to] obtain the data if I don’t have them.

But, of course, there are many things that I still don’t know about guitars and don’t understand about the guitar, so those are the blind spots for me, which still need to be explored. Those, for now, I just have to sort of intuitively decide – so in that way I would say it’s more like a craft.

What are the most interesting challenges that still lie ahead of you, in terms of crafting ever-better guitars?

Materials, for sure. Every year some materials become less and less available. That doesn’t mean that we will go away – or anybody should go away – from making wooden guitars because wood is still the best acoustically performing material out there and not every species is endangered.

But working with materials, that would be one topic not only for us [to expand our horizons on] but for all guitar manufacturers. Because when we are getting deeper and deeper in understanding the guitar and basically improving for guitar sound specifically, it’s getting tougher and tougher to make another step forward.

We have a couple of main [areas for evolving the art of making guitars] that we are still researching… there are always ideas. And there are also dead ends that we encounter, where we have to say, “Okay, we shouldn’t go this way because if the guitar would maybe end up being too expensive, the resulting sound improvement will be too small.”

So the [process of raising the game] gets more difficult with every new generation of our guitars. But I’m not complaining – this is the game and we’re gonna play it well. I like challenges and they give us the potential to improve ourselves.

• For more information, see Furch Guitars.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Hello everybody, and welcome to my new column for Guitar World. In this series of lessons I will demonstrate the techniques and approaches that are essential to my playing style. I hope that the material we cover will be beneficial to you in your own musical endeavors.

I’d like to begin by talking about the importance of the blues and blues-influenced music, such as gospel, soul and R&B, in my approach to music and the guitar. I come from a family of musical brothers, and blues and gospel played a big part in our lives and provided a strong foundation for me as a musician.

Like all aspiring blues guitarists, my brothers and I listened to B.B. King, Albert King, Freddie King, T-Bone Walker, and all of the blues guitar greats. I learned as much as I could from all of them, as well as gospel music, in trying to develop a sound and approach of my own.

Figure 1 illustrates a solo played over medium-slow shuffle in the key of B. I begin in bars 1-5 with simple melodic phrases based on B major pentatonic (B, C#, D#, F#, G#) that are supported by chordal accents, such as B9 in bars 1 and 3, and E7 in bars 2 and 5.

To me, these single-note phrases are very vocal-like; maintaining a “vocal” mindset helps me to stay focused on speaking in a musical way in the lines that I play.

I must mention that I choose to play the guitar “upside down.” I take a guitar strung for a right-handed player and flip it over and play it left-handed, in the same manner as Albert King, Otis Rush and a variety of other players, including my late brother Emmanuel Gales, aka Little Jimmy King.

Playing this way completely changes the riffs, phrases and chords that are available to you. One of the big differences is that, to bend one of the treble strings, I need to pull it downward, as opposed to pushing it up as most players do.

Additionally, with the guitar strung and played this way, it’s easy for me to finger some unusual chord voicings that would be unnatural for “normal” players; a good example is the F7#11 chord in bar 4, wherein the high B note, the #11 (or b5), is fretted by wrapping my thumb around the top of the neck at the 7th fret.

Figure 2 illustrates a few more examples of my pull-down string bends, with many of the accented notes in the phrases treated with a wide, fast vibrato, a la Albert and B.B. King. If playing the guitar in the conventional way, you would, of course, need to push the strings upward to perform these bends and vibratos.

As I move through the I-IV-V (one-four-five) blues chord progression – B7-E7-F#7 in the key of B – I like to reference each chord with the chord tones. Over B7, I’ll accentuate B, D#, F# and A. Over E, I’ll touch upon E, G#, B and D. And over F#7, I’ll emphasize F#, A#, C# and E, resolving back to the I chord, B7 when necessary.

Having a firm grasp and understanding of the blues lays an essential groundwork for all guitar players, regardless of the specific style of music they choose to explore and perform.

Just about every style of music has had an influence on me as a player, but blues is definitely at the core of my playing style.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

He was instrumental in the creation of the Primus myth – and even co-wrote Suck on This, Frizzle Fry, and Sailing the Seas of Cheese.

“I got this idea of mashing symphonic theory with everything I learned before to see what would transpire,” he tells Guitar World in a new interview. “This mindset was pretty much the base for the early Primus guitar parts.”

Huth left the Primus circus in 1989; however, he remains close with Claypool to this day and has fond memories of those early, heady days.

“The way we usually wrote together was that Les would bring in a bass line he was working on, and I would take a song or idea I was kicking around and make it work with his part,” he says.

“For example, in John the Fisherman, I had been tweaking around with backward sliding and diminished patterns.

“Les would usually arrange the tune, and I would put in my two cents during the process. Sometimes, we would rehearse a new song one or two times, and surprisingly Les would put it on the next show’s playlist. It taught me how to gracefully stumble through a song.”

On the live front, things weren’t as harmonious. “We played every show we could get from dive bars to opening for Red Hot Chili Peppers,” Huth recalls. “I’d say one out of three people in the crowd liked us and the other two thought we sucked. Hence, ‘Primus Sucks.’”

‘Primus sucks’ eventually became a famous inside joke and a sort of “badge of honor” for fans of the band.

Huth notes, “[I thought] it was pretty clever for Les to come up with that idea of saying that on stage. You might as well say what most of the audience was thinking.

“We slowly accumulated a following but again found ourselves drummer-less. Since we were down, Les went on tour with Blind Illusion and tried out for Metallica. Because of that, I was thinking of moving on myself.

“In popped Jay Lane. It breathed new life into the band. Our crowds were growing, and our Primus/Sausage tape was selling well.” However, due to scheduling conflicts, Lane had to leave and they were “back on the drummer carousel.”

“Les seemed a bit disillusioned with drummers, bummed that Jay left and the fact that we just tried out 20 prospects, so he deferred the choice to me. I liked Tim [“Herb” Alexander] from the start. He’s a creative tactician, and his heavy groove is one for the archives.”

Huth didn’t even get to play with the drummer known for his polyrhythmic playing. Just as he had a kid and was working as a pipe fitter, Primus started touring a lot. The guitarist felt like he couldn’t keep up.

“I was exhausted and had less and less say over Primus’s scheduling. It was a difficult decision to leave Primus because of what I put into it. And I knew where it was heading. But I wanted to see my kid, Elmo, grow up.”

Guitar World’s interview with Todd Huth will be coming out in the coming weeks.

From new electric guitars to amp modeler updates, the guitar industry is never short of fresh releases, and it can sometimes be hard to stay in the loop with every new launch.

To make things a little easier, we’ve put together an essential must-read guide that will cover the major releases, the boutique drops, and everything in between.

Below you'll find my personal highlights from the week, along with plenty of honorable mentions for the new gear you might have missed. Agree with my picks? Have a highlight of your own? Let us know in the comments.

Positive Grid Spark Pedal

The latest entry to the Positive Grid Spark family, the Spark Pedal is the firm’s first floor-based amp modeler and multi-effects. It joins an uber-competitive market but, with the Positive Grid name proudly on its chassis, we imagine this will be just as popular as its practice amp siblings.

It’s the Spark experience in a pedal, with onboard controls for amp models and effects, as well as an onboard looper and stereo functionality. There’s also Positive Grid’s Spark AI tone creation, and it gives access to the Spark community for browsing a bunch of different tones and presets.

Unsurprisingly, it passed our in-house review with flying colors. In fact, we loved it so much that we said it was “nigh on impossible to craft a bad tone”. No mean feat, that’s for sure. And, at just $199, it looks like incredibly good value for money in a market filled with more expensive competitors.

Seymour Duncan Joe Bonamassa Pawn Shop P-90s

Ever stumbled across a guitar that has changed your relationship with tone? Joe Bonamassa certainly has, when he crossed paths with a 1961 Gibson SG that had been fitted with P-90s. It was, he says, the guitar that made him fall in love with P-90s.

Funnily enough, a Gibson SG loaded with P-90s also made this writer fall in love with them. But I’m not the one getting a signature set. Instead, JoBo gets the honor. He worked with Seymour Duncan to bring his Pawn Shop P-90s to the masses, promising to deliver the same tonal punch, power and attitude that his original model delivered.

Squier Paranormal Series Troy Van Leeuwen Telecaster XII

Just when we thought the Paranormal Series couldn’t get any cooler, Squier goes ahead and releases the lineup’s first signature guitar – which just so happens to be a 12-string Telecaster for Troy Van Leeuwen.

The Queens of the Stone Age guitarist has been rocking a custom shop 12-string Tele for a few years now, but this one brings it to the masses at an incredibly tempting $599 price point. The Copper finish is lovely. The 12 strings look and sound awesome. What’s not to like?!

“The Custom Shop has a more vintage-style bridge. I didn’t want that for this – I wanted something that was user-friendly right out of the box,” he tells Guitar World in a new interview. “Functionality is so important because it’s hard to get a 12-string bridge to work right. It had to be usable because when you’ve got 12 strings, you really need them to stay in tune.”

ALSO LAUNCHED THIS WEEK

Farida JC-1

Ex-Fender Master Builder John Cruz has joined Chinese guitar builder Farida. Their first model together might look familiar. A notable release considering everything that’s going on in the market right now…

For more: Farida

Yamaha Pacifica Plus colors

The very-lovely-indeed Yamaha Pacifica Plus just got even lovelier thanks to some flash new colorways. Sonic Blue, Ice Blue, Fired Red and Tobacco Brown Sunburst are on tap.

For more: Yamaha

RockBoard Second Tiers

The most requested piece of gear RockBoard has ever had, the Second Tiers offers boutique-level pedalboard amenities for those who don’t want to spend thousands on more expensive alternatives. Tiered, modular designs with opening tops. Heck yeah.

For more: RockBoard

Gretsch Black Limba Electromatics

Gretsch has given its Electromatic CVT and Jet models a black limba glow-up, giving the fan favorite affordable electrics a very-easy-on-the-eye tonewood.

For more: Gretsch

Gibson ELEV8 humbuckers

The next generation of Gibson humbuckers arrived this week, when the company brought its ELEV8 humbuckers – previously found in the Victory Baritone – to the aftermarket. They mark the first time Gibson has used Alnico 8 magnets in any of its pickups.

For more: Gibson

SolidGoldFX FUZZBOX

A deliciously drippy, bitty, fuzzy Tone Bender MKII style silicon fuzz pedal from the brains at SolidGoldFX. As a bonus, it’s been taken up a level to make it more suitable for modern ‘boards without losing its bite.

For more: SolidGold FX

EarthQuaker Devices Stereo Easy Listening

An updated stereo version of EarthQuaker Devices hugely popular Easy Listening pedal. One of the best pedalboard headphone practice amp solutions out there, now in stereo. Noice.

For more: EarthQuaker Devices

Walrus Audio Fundamental Lo-Fi Delay

The latest entry to the Walrus Audio Fundamental line, the Lo-Fi Delay does exactly what you’d expect it to: it’s a delay pedal that delivers worn, warped and wonderfully unpredictable repeats. An affordable must-have for shoegazers and sound experimentalists alike.

For more: Walrus Audio

Some of the best guitar tips the ZZ Top frontman ever got came from some friendly advice, or from lessons with the greats. Jimi Hendrix once gave him a lesson. B.B. King, famously, had some great advice.

Now, when the King of the Blues spoke, you listened. This was the man who not only inspired Gibbons the guitarist but inspired the name of the band, ZZ Top. He was responsible for Gibbons choosing a lighter gauge of electric guitar strings, and by proxy visited an act of mercy upon the fingertips of his left hand.

“At the time, using heavy-gauge guitar strings was thought necessary for getting a big tone,” said Gibbons, speaking to Guitarist in February. “When B.B. asked to try a few licks on my guitar, he quickly smiled and asked, ‘Why you working so hard?’ He then laid it down to show off a new set of his super-light-gauge strings.”

This was an epiphany.

“It was at that very moment that everything turned around,” he said. “As B.B. then said, ‘Light is all right!’”

But what about Gibbons’ unorthodox choice of a guitar pick? Again, he grew up in the online era. There were no buyers guides on the best guitar picks money could buy. Well, that’s what Guitar World reader Paul Shuffield, Jr. wanted to know. How come he ended up using a Mexican peso coin as a pick?

On this score, Gibbons had another blues legend to thank, and this cat played bass guitar.

“Tommy Carter of Jimmie Vaughan's Dallas band the Chessmen used a quarter to play bass,” said Gibbons. “He described the serrated edge of the coin as producing a delightful scratchiness as he scrubbed the strings. That gave me the idea, and our love of the Mexican border is what drew us to the peso. The peso coin is a rarity, but we’ve still got a few filed down for the ready.”

Gibbons, of course, is not the only guitar player to use a coin. Brian May famously only uses a sixpence, which really is a rarity because it’s not legal tender. He is very particular about his sixpences, favoring the pre-1950s spec, when they, like guitar strings, had a higher nickel content.

“I used to play with those little plastic picks but I always found that they were too bendy,” he told the Guardian in 2023. “I couldn’t really feel what was happening as the thing touched the strings. I went into harder and harder picks, until they were too stiff. Then one day I picked up a coin, which happened to be a sixpence, and I thought, ‘That’s all I need.’”

Like Gibbons and Carter, May liked the fact that the serrated edge gave him an option the regular Delrin or nylon picks didn’t have.

“Sixpences are very soft metal, which doesn’t hurt the guitar strings, but if I turn that serrated edge at an angle to the string, I can get that kind of articulating, percussive consonant sound,” he said. “I call it graunch.”

And, fellow gear hunters and tone hounds, if you’re looking for the best sixpence to play guitar with, seek out one minted in 1947. They’re May’s favorite, and that was the year he was born.

You can turn it up, crank it, roll back the tone pot if you want to take some of that high-end off. Besides, the pickups can get in the way. Many players will tell you that the triple-humbucker Les Paul Custom – and its SG sibling – is a little awkward with that middle pickup’s positioning.

We all have our preferences. Lenny Kaye does. He is, famously, an aficionado of the single-pickup electric. But he is, statistically speaking, a little unusual. Take a look at the picture at the top of the page. There, the polymath guitarist, writer, and producer is pictured at tastefully lit home in New York City, sitting with his Fender Stratocaster. Do you notice anything different about it?

That’s right, it’s a single-pickup guitar, but that single pickup is not at the bridge – and it ain’t at the neck like some golden-era jazz box (e.g. the Gibson ES-175, the Guild X-50). Just one middle single-coil. What is this madness?

Well, it’s how he likes it. In a recent interview with Guitar World, he explained why he’s the man for the middle.

“I wanted a guitar to be who I am,” he says. “I know a lot of guitarists never use the middle pickup, but I’m all for it. I never used the other pickups, and I was always hitting the selector switch by accident. My guitar tech, Barre Duryea, fixed up the guitar and even made a new pickguard for me. So now I don’t have all that stuff I don’t need. It’s just point and shoot.”

The guitar in question, a Unicaster, if you will, is a 60th Anniversary Fender Strat that features a Fralin single-coil pickup and a solitary volume knob. Kaye doesn’t even bother with a tone control.

Weird? Yes. Unheard of? Not quite. Guitar teacher at large Tomo Fujita is a middle pickup superfan. He too is a paid-up member of the Unicaster club. Doug Martsch from Built to Spill got his Strat modified so that only the middle pickup is active.

And then there are those players who regularly find themselves on their Strat’s middle pickup, such as the great Robin Trower, whose Bridge of Sighs tone owes much to the under-celebrated middle pickup (it wasn’t all Uni-Vibe).

So when you pick up your Strat this weekend, ask yourself: have you been ignoring your middle pickup? And if so, isn’t it time you gave it a try?

You can read our interview with Lenny Kay in full in the latest issue of Guitar World.

John Cruz, former Master Builder at the Fender Custom Shop, has unveiled his first design with the Chinese guitar brand, the JC-1, and it is a relic’d vintage-inspired electric with some choice modern appointments.

This is a historic moment for the Chinese guitar brand. Hiring Cruz is something of a coup. And after 273 days of development, it has a borne fruit.

“It’s the first time a Chinese guitar brand has brought a world-class master guitar builder onboard,” says Farida. “And we believe it’s the start of something even better.”

Farida has put considerable resources behind this move. In the JC-1’s introductory video, Farida says it build Cruz a Custom Shop, and gave him time to get to work. Cruise himself walks through his process.

“To build a great guitar you have to start with great wood,” says Cruz. “I weigh every body blank to find the exact weight I’m looking for. Then I like to tap on them and listen to the voice that tells me which one will be used.”

The JC-1 has a two-piece alder body, a bolt-on Canadian maple neck fashioned into a “JC Comfy C” profile (“sized between a Regular C and a Larger C for an exceptionally comfortable grip”), and the Olympic White finish and tortoiseshell pickguard all speak to the design inspirations.

The fingerboard is rosewood. The finish, which will be a big selling point, is described as a light relic, “with every detail drawn from John Cruz’s own observations of how guitars wear through everyday use – as both a player and a luthier.”

The three single-coil pickups are a custom wind co-developed by Cruz and his team at Farida, and they promise a ‘60s-style sound. But the most interesting thing here is the control setup.

They are hooked up to a 5-way selector switch, master volume and tone knobs, with the second tone control operating as a blend knob, so that in positions 1 and 5 you can mix the neck pickup with the bridge and vice versa.

“I am a guitar builder but I am also a guitar player,” says Cruz. “I know the guitar is a working instrument, something you pick up day after day, that’s why playability is everything to me.”

Farida Guitars does not have a huge presence in the US or UK markets. And they are only making 60 of these.

But Farida’s Instagram suggests these will be priced $1,989, which for a relic’d electric guitar built by a former Master Builder, is a competitive price. You can see more of this guitar at Farida Guitars Instagram.

The exhibit will include an extensive collection of photos from the band’s archive, along with handwritten lyrics from Lemmy himself.

However, the standout for bassists is the fact that fans “will be able to plug in, pick up the [Rickenbacker] bass, and experience the gear that created Motörhead’s unmistakable sound. It’s a rare opportunity to interact directly with an important part of the band’s history.”

In addition, a collection of Motörhead albums will be available to purchase from Vinyl Threat, the museum’s record store, along with exclusive band merch from the museum’s gift shop. The exhibition will mark 11 years since Lemmy died in 2015 and the band’s subsequent disbandment.

Vegas’ Punk Rock Museum opened in 2023, and the 12,000-square-foot space showcases iconic artifacts, exhibits, and events celebrating punk music culture. And while Motörhead may not necessarily be straight-up punk, they bridged the gap between heavy metal and punk and were embraced by both scenes.

The band emerged in mid-’70s England, around the same time punk properly kicked off, after all. And, despite Lemmy’s complicated relationship with punk – even going so far as to say that certain punk legends like The Slits were “a joke” – in his later years, he told UNCUT that “I always thought we had more in common with punk than with anything else, but we had long hair so we didn’t fit in that box.

“But that’s the embassy talking, not the bands. We did a show at the Roundhouse, which was The Damned and us supporting The Adverts – you can’t get more of a mixed media show than that.”

The exhibition opens on October 2. For more information, visit the Punk Rock Museum’s official website.

Now, they’ve got the backing of Manson Guitar Works. The firm, acquired by Muse maverick Matt Bellamy in 2019, has added their two guitarists, Heist and Protest, to its artist roster.

Protest was the first to come aboard. He’s been wielding an extended-scale five-string MV-bass for a little while. Heist, meanwhile, has just taken delivery of a Baritone seven-string Verona Modern model, completing the set. A close inspection reveals Fishman humbuckers on the Verona, as well as an EverTune bridge. Both players also get custom logo inlays at the 12th fret.

Notably, these seem to be custom-made guitars, given that neither is listed on the Manson website. By Guitar World’s count, Heist’s new weapon might just be the firm’s first-ever seven-string baritone. It follows Matt Bellamy going full Meshuggah with an eight-string Oryx model, which has been supercharging their back-to-their-best new album, The Wow! Signal.

What Bellamy’s new beast and these two President models signal is a real statement of intent from Manson to integrate itself into the extended-range modern metal scene.

It’s a burgeoning market, so it’s a smart move from Manson, and one that might yet yield some very interesting production runs.

“We’re incredibly proud to be involved with both Heist and Protest from President,” Manson says. “Their debut album Blood Of Your Empire has been on repeat here since its release on Friday. Any of you lucky enough to be seeing their sold-out US rallies, let us know what you think of these beasts!”

Manson has been pushing the boat out in 2026, with Bellamy’s main guitar – a James Bond-like, gizmo-loaded electric guitar – getting three reissues in February.

Its “radical” Supermassive Black Fuzz has also gotten high praise from Guitar World.

The two defining electric guitars were both designed in the early 1950s. We pore over minute variations on the templates, but their inner workings have – to be honest – not changed all that much.

Full disclaimer, if I’m coming across as a bit high and mighty, the designs of the two guitars that sit behind me as I write this are both old enough to collect Social Security payments. I’ve not, say, installed fuzz circuits in either of them – they’d be fully recognizable to anyone who bought them the year they first hit shelves.

Now, if you move away from the instruments themselves, you’ll find that our little universe has been quite amenable to leaps and bounds in technology. Marty McFly yourself into 1954 or 1961, and show the people buying a brand-new Stratocaster or Epiphone Casino a Neural DSP Quad Cortex mini – “yeah – you just use this touchscreen and there are almost a hundred amps, over a hundred effects, and... oh, right, so, a touchscreen is something where you...”

Elsewhere, one of the main reasons the Beatles quit touring 60 years ago was the inability of their amps to compete with the howls of tens of thousands of screaming fans – now, there are amps fitted with tone-shaping AI tech.

So, what would you like to see from the future of guitars? Do you want to see the instruments themselves leap forward technologically like the devices you plug them into? Should the Strat and Les Paul be joined on Mount Rushmore by new, more futuristic designs? Would you like to see the old giants knocked off their pedestal entirely? None of the above?

Let us know in the comments below.

• On Apple News? Head here to join the discussion.

Traditional fretwire is generally a copper/nickel alloy. It’s easy for a repair tech to cut, seat, level and crown but it eventually wears down. Stainless steel is considerably harder, which is great once it’s on the guitar but much tougher for a tech to work with.

This is not a new invention. The Parker Fly helped put stainless frets on the radar in the early ’90s, and boutique builders have offered them for years. What has changed is availability. The feature has steadily migrated from custom order spec sheets to regular production guitars, including Fender’s American Ultra Luxe models, ESP’s LTD Deluxe 1000 Series and, more recently, Epiphone’s $899 Futura range.

So what do they actually feel like? When stainless frets are properly installed and polished, bends can feel exceptionally smooth, with less of the gritty drag that develops on softer, worn wire. Philip Sayce summed it up perfectly when I spoke with him: “It’s like putting on your skates and going out on a fresh sheet of ice. You can take these big, long strides.”

For a player whose vocabulary is built around huge bends and wide vibrato, that slippery feel is not a minor detail. Sayce said one of his older Strats once needed fretwork roughly every 18 months but with stainless steel frets, that interval stretched closer to five years. “Less wear and tear,” he said, “and I think they feel great.”

The shred crowd has reached a similar conclusion. Periphery’s Misha Mansoor highlighted the jumbo stainless steel frets on his signature Jackson So-Cal, describing its neck as “very easy to shred on.” The general consensus among many players is that bends feel “super-slippery” compared to the sometimes gritty feel of standard nickel frets.

There is, however, an important qualifier: material alone cannot rescue bad fretwork. Height, width, crown shape, fretboard radius and the quality of the level and polish all have a major effect on feel. A beautifully dressed set of nickel frets can play better than a mediocre stainless steel job. Stainless steel simply holds that polished surface much longer.

Then there’s the tone debate. Some players hear a slightly brighter, harder or more immediate attack while others hear no meaningful difference at all. Most players feel that the difference is subtle compared with swapping pickups, strings, picks or speakers. If you like the sound of your guitar now, stainless steel frets aren’t going to turn it into a different instrument.

The real drawback is the work involved. Stainless steel fret wire is tougher on cutters and files, takes longer to dress and can make a refret more expensive. It also demands an experienced hand, particularly on a bound fingerboard. But manufacturers know players are willing to pay for the result.

When ESP adopted stainless steel on their LTD Deluxe 1000 Series guitars, president and CEO Matt Masciandaro explained that it had become their customers’ number one request for a design update. Even budget brands like EART now come standard with stainless steel frets on all their guitars.

I can vouch for the appeal firsthand. A few years ago, I had my Les Paul refretted with jumbo stainless steel fret wire. The bends became noticeably smoother, almost effortless and the wear since then has been virtually nonexistent.

It didn’t change the guitar’s voice; it simply made it feel freshly dressed every time I picked it up. Theres little doubt that this guitar will need another fret job…at least in my lifetime.

That may be the real selling point here. Guitars are built to be played hard and for most of the guitar’s history it meant accepting that frets would eventually wear and need replacing every few years. Stainless steel doesn’t much change how a guitar sounds as it changes how long a guitar keeps feeling new. Smooth bends with nothing getting in the way between your hands and the note.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that original Mastodon members Troy Sanders, Bill Kelliher and Brann Dailor are defendants in a filing that lists a number of complaints, including the unauthorized use of Hinds’ image, that Hinds continued to have owned interests in merchandise, and that the buyout of these interests was never finalized before his death.

The estate also alleges that the surviving members of Mastodon made claims about Hinds’ substance abuse, and the complaint is made in regards to private information being made public after Hinds’ death

Hinds died in a motorcycle accident on August 20, 2025, aged 51. Just months earlier Mastodon had announced his exit from the band. Bill Kelliher told Guitar World it was like a marriage coming to an end.

“It’s been a fun, wild fucking ride, that’s for sure,” he said. “We achieved a lot of things that I never in a million years would have imagined. There’s been Grammys, touring with our heroes, like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Motörhead, and Tool. I cherish all of that. Like a marriage, sometimes people grow apart, and they get interested in other things. We wish nothing but the best for Brent in chasing his dreams.”

Hinds’ exit from the band was mutual. At least that was the story at the beginning. Hinds subsequently described his former bandmates as “horrible humans” and alleged that he was kicked out of the band (the estate alleges he had been notified of his departure via email).

Rumors of discord had been rife before Hinds’ exit. When drummer Brann Dailor appeared in public with a black eye, people jumped to conclusions.

“Brent texted me when that was all stirred up, and he was like, ‘Dude, I can’t believe people think I punched you in the face!’” Dailor told the Guardian in July.

Mastodon paid tribute to Hinds on their latest studio album, Marrow Deep. The cover art, an illustration by Paul Romano, features Hinds’ image.

This brings us back to some of his estate’s legal complaints.Hinds never contributed musically to the album. The estate is seeking compensation for its use on the album and merchandise sales.

The the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the estate alleges the band “selected and placed a recognizable image of Brent on the album cover of Marrow Deep and disseminated that cover to advertise, market, distribute, and sell physical albums, digital downloads and streams, merchandise, and related goods or services”.

Furthermore, it alleges that the $80,000 to buy-out offer for Hinds’ share of Mastodon’s business interests was never fully explained in their accounting, and the subsequently never cashed the check.

Try to imagine that song pumping through the house speakers before a Morbid Angel show, and you might conclude that Lennon’s statement was a bit of a stretch. Still, the song’s lumbering groove and droning riff were unusually heavy for 1965, especially within a pop landscape dominated by tracks like Wooly Bully and Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter.

Ticket to Ride was groundbreaking for another reason, though; It was the first Beatles record to feature Paul McCartney on lead guitar. He’d quietly slipped some gentle acoustic strumming into I’ll Follow the Sun the previous year, but Ticket to Ride was different.

His electric leads enthusiastically leaped across the divides between the song’s bridges and verses, then returned to playfully bob and weave throughout the outro, introducing listeners to a side of McCartney most fans barely realized existed.

“I guess I think of myself as a guitar player, really,” he said in 1990. “If I couldn’t have any other instrument, I would have to have an acoustic guitar.”

To the general public, McCartney is, of course, all about that bass. Publications from Rolling Stone to Bass Player have routinely ranked him as one of the greatest bassists ever, and four-string giants like Flea, Geddy Lee, John Paul Jones, Chris Squire and Sting have extolled his inventive, melodic approach to the instrument.

So why in Mother Mary’s name does he primarily identify as a guitarist? To answer that question, we need to head back to 1950s Liverpool, to the modest home on Forthlin Road where a teenage Paul McCartney’s six‑string obsession began.

Home to Us

Music filled the McCartney household long before Paul ever touched a guitar. His father James was a skilled trumpeter and pianist who led Jim Mac’s Jazz Band in the 1920s. An old photo of that group would eventually inspire the concept of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Family sing-alongs were common in the McCartney home, with Jim providing piano accompaniment as Paul’s aunties grew progressively tipsier.

“My dad was very musical, and I used to listen to a lot of what he did,” the former Beatle told Steven Colbert. “I always think of it like my computer got loaded with a lot of data from all the songs I heard, and so when I finally came to write, I kind of printed it all out.”

In the front room of the McCartney homestead stood an upright piano that Jim bought from a shop owned by the father of the Beatles’ future manager, Brian Epstein. Jim initially encouraged Paul to take piano lessons, but like his dad, McCartney the Younger preferred learning by ear. He famously never learned music theory or note reading.

Paul’s first guitar was a Framus Zenith 17 acoustic – a right-handed model that posed obvious problems for the left-handed teenager. Then he spotted a photo of country singer Slim Whitman playing a restrung guitar upside down.

Following his example, McCartney reversed the strings on his instrument. Having already learned a few basic guitar chords from his school buddy Ian James, he set about teaching himself to play by slowing down records and copying what he heard.

When McCartney’s mother Mary died of breast cancer in 1956, music became his sanctuary. In The Macs, his brother Mike remembered that when Paul picked up a guitar, “he would get lost in another world. It was useless talking to him. In fact, I had better conversations with brick walls around this period.”

According to The Beatles: All These Years, McCartney often disappeared into the bathroom with his guitar. “The fine acoustics of the toilet area was always very appealing to me,” he recalled. “Dad would shout, ‘Paul, get off that toilet!’ And I’d say, ‘I’m practicing!’”

Rock Minors

The seeds of a worldwide musical revolution were sown inside a Liverpool school bus. There, two youngsters with guitars on their minds – McCartney and George Harrison – bonded over their shared love of rock ’n’ roll.

“Eventually we made a guitar together,” Paul later told Uncut. “It turned out more like a Hawaiian guitar.”

The Future Fabs progressed as musicians by studying chord charts together and, as Harrison stated in The Beatles: The Authorised Biography, “pinching anything from any other lad who could do better.” At one point, they even traveled by bus across Liverpool to meet a man who knew how to play a B7 chord.

Like Harrison, McCartney found inspiration in guitarists like Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran and Carl Perkins. Outside of rock ’n’ roll, country music virtuoso Chet Atkins sparked his interest in fingerpicking, while skiffle and folk players helped shape his rhythm guitar style.

“I was a bit of a magpie, really, picking up various styles and gradually assimilating them,” McCartney told Guitar World Acoustic in 2007.

At age 15, McCartney impressed a 16-year-old John Lennon with his performances of Eddie Cochran’s Twenty Flight Rock, Gene Vincent’s Be-Bop-a-Lula and a Little Richard medley. “He could obviously play the guitar,” Lennon later said. “I half thought to myself, ‘He’s as good as me.’”

Before inviting McCartney to be the lead guitarist in his group, the Quarrymen, Lennon was playing banjo chords he’d learned from his mother Julia. As a lefty, McCartney provided a mirror image to Lennon while teaching him proper guitar chords.

“It’s funny; John learned upside down, too, because of me – because mine was the only other guitar around for him if he broke a string or he didn’t have his,” he told Guitar Player.

Even after persuading Lennon to make Harrison a member of the Quarrymen, McCartney continued to play guitar in the group until 1961. At that time, he and his bandmates, now known collectively as the Beatles, were putting in their proverbial 10,000 hours in Hamburg, Germany. When original bassist Stu Sutcliffe left the fold, it fell on Paul, the most versatile instrumentalist of the bunch, to fill the void.

“None of us wanted to be the bass player,” he later admitted. “In our minds, it was the fat guy in the group who nearly always played the bass, and he stood at the back.”

McCartney’s background as a guitarist informed his bass playing, particularly as he and the band evolved. Rather than merely anchoring the rhythm, he chose notes – and, on occasion, bass – that complemented the vocals and guitars with melody and counterpoint, almost using the bass as a second lead instrument.

Still, even as the bass became his calling card and Beatlemania swept the planet, his love affair with the guitar was far from over.

Playing the Casino Card

Cut to late 1964, when a happy accident – or kismet – launched a wave of glorious feedback from John Lennon’s amp at Abbey Road Studios. The Beatles, now the biggest band in the world, knew an epiphany when they heard it. The wasp-in-a-sitar buzz at the start of I Feel Fine became the first known recording of guitar feedback being deliberately harnessed in rock music.

Smitten with the sound, McCartney quickly purchased a guitar that would yield maximum howl – a 1962 Epiphone Casino ES-230TD with a sunburst finish and Bigsby tremolo. It would prove to be his go-to electric guitar throughout his run with the Beatles and beyond.

Paul’s new Epiphone made its studio debut on Ticket to Ride, released as a single in April 1965. A few months later, that song reappeared on the hook-packed Help! album, which arguably marked the first phase of the Wizard of Oz-like transition of the Beatles’ music from black and white to color.

Elsewhere on Help!, McCartney threaded electric guitar leads throughout Another Girl and doubled George’s notes an octave up on the solo to The Night Before.

The Help! sessions also gave Paul the chance to break in a right-handed Epiphone Texan FT-79 acoustic he’d recently bought. He cut I’ve Just Seen a Face and Yesterday on the same day, June 14, 1965.

The latter tune exemplifies his unique fingerpicking style, also heard on later compositions like Blackbird and Mother Nature’s Son. As he explained to Guitar World Acoustic, “I just hit the bass string [with my thumb] and sort of flick the high strings… It’s my own goofball version of fingerpicking.”

Laying Rubber

Four scant months after the release of Help!, the Beatles dropped Rubber Soul, underscoring both the band’s light-speed evolution and their freakish ability to crank out brilliant music in A Hard Day’s Night-style fast-forward motion.

The British version of Rubber Soul opened with Drive My Car, a bouncy, Stax/Motown-inspired number equipped with an infectious guitar solo courtesy of Mr. McCartney.

The acoustic-based Michelle revealed another side of Paul’s guitar playing. He has often recounted how, as a teen, he “enigmatically” sat at parties in a black, collar-necked shirt, singing French-sounding nonsense words while fingerpicking this chic little guitar part.

As he bluntly told Conan O’Brien, he did this in the hopes that the ladies “would think I was a French person and would want me to go to bed with them.”

Sadly, his Pepé Le Pew act never quite worked out the way he wanted. On the bright side, it eventually yielded a gem of a song. As McCartney recounted to Guitar World Acoustic, “Years later, John said, ‘Remember that French thing you used to do? We should stick some words on that.’” Thus, Michelle was born, authentic French phrases and all.

While that song’s vocal originated from Paul’s attempts to pass himself off as a Frenchman, its guitar part was an emulation of a man as American as spray cheese on chicken-fried steak: Mister Guitar, aka Chet Atkins.

“There is a song he did called Trambone’with a repetitive top line, and he played a bass line whilst playing a melody,” McCartney explained in Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now. “This was an innovation for us; even though classical guitarists had played it, no rock ’n’ roll guitarists had… I wanted to write something with a melody and a bass line on it, so I did.”

Atkins would bring things full circle in 1966 with his album Chet Atkins Picks on the Beatles, which included an inspired cover of Michelle. Guitar enthusiasts are encouraged to check it out, along with Trambone. If that should lead anyone down a Chet Atkins rabbit hole, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

McCartney told Guitar World Acoustic that he learned the F7#9 chord in Michelle from a Liverpool music shop salesman named Jim Gretty. “All the guys who worked in that store were jazz guys; they had to play jazz well if they wanted to hold down their jobs.”

He recalled being in the guitar shop with George Harrison when Gretty struck an F7#9. “We said, ‘Wow! What was that, man?’ And he answered, ‘It’s just basically an F, but you barre the top two strings at the fourth fret with your little finger.’”

History snuck in through the bathroom window that day; 7#9 chords would later surface in the Fab Four’s covers of Till There Was You and Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby, then in originals like The Word, Taxman and Sexy Sadie.

After getting the Beatles bump, the 7#9 would help define Jimi Hendrix’s sound, and successive generations of rock players would deploy it as they shot to thrill and raged against the machine.

Backwards to the Future

By 1966, the sound of McCartney’s guitar was becoming a familiar presence on Beatles records. He laid down the ballsy, overdriven Paperback Writer riff just a few days after he and his bandmates recorded Got to Get You into My Life, whose end section contains a guitar passage that shares some DNA with that riff.

In And Your Bird Can Sing, Paul and George’s playful, crisp-toned leads darted around like twin stunt flyers locked in tandem. Up to that point, harmonized dual-guitar leads were unheard-of in mainstream rock music.

Soon after, groups like the Allman Brothers Band, Queen and Thin Lizzy began following the Beatles’ lead. Flash forward to the early ’80s and Iron Maiden and Judas Priest would send intermeshing guitar leads flying like eagles from their amps.

No less innovative was I’m Only Sleeping, widely regarded as the first recorded example of backwards guitar in popular music. As audio engineer Geoff Emerick has written, after Harrison played the main solo, McCartney “joined him to play the backwards outro in a bizarre duet.” This led the charge for Hendrix, the Byrds, Jimmy Page and other artists who would ornament their music with reversed guitar sounds.

Backwards leads aside, McCartney’s most celebrated guitar work from this period was markedly straightforward. Besides playing rhythm guitar on the stunning Here, There and Everywhere, he delivered what many consider his finest guitar solo in Taxman.

“It was the early Jimi Hendrix days, and I was trying to persuade George to do something like that, feedback-y and crazy,” he told Rolling Stone. “And I was showing him what I wanted, and he said, ‘Well, you do it.’”

Besides Hendrix, Paul’s raucous lead guitar on Taxman nodded to blues guitarists like Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Albert King. Author Ian MacDonald (as well as one or two Guitar World writers over the years) has also named Jeff Beck’s solo in the Yardbirds’ Shapes of Things as “the probable inspiration” for McCartney’s performance.

Played on the Casino through an overdriven Vox, the Taxman solo is a Day-Glo splatter-paint pastiche of blues, rock and Indian styles. It is rumored to have reincarnated in backwards form on the one-chord, 500-microgram mind-melter Tomorrow Never Knows.

Seasoning Pepper

A brief, jagged interjection at the end of Strawberry Fields Forever was the last emission the public would hear from Paul’s Casino for a short while. His guitar of choice on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was an instrument he had acquired during the Revolver sessions, a single-pickup 1964 Esquire with a sunburst finish and rosewood fretboard.

On Sgt. Pepper’s title cut, he paired the Esquire with a Vox Conqueror. His playing, while simple, was indispensable to the song. After welcoming the audience to the show with his sharp leads in the intro, he bolstered the first verse with punchy fifth-chord stabs on the upper strings.

When the chorus arrived, his meaty power chords added heft and grit to the song’s explosive lift. Then he stitched a series of inverted arpeggios into the second verse, creating a secondary melody that was, and is, sheer magic.

Paul used the Esquire again on Good Morning Good Morning. To this day, his solo is as much a wake-up call as the alarm clock that breaks the reverie in Sgt. Pepper’s closer, A Day in the Life. Its Eastern-tinged legato licks hearken back to his work on Taxman, hitting like a splash of cold water at dawn.

According to Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, McCartney played the Esquire through a Selmer amp on his spacey guitar solo in Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! Paul’s lead was recorded at half-speed and sped up to capture that inhaling-nitrous-oxide-at-the-fairgrounds feel.

Bach Bird, Fly 

Some sources credit George Harrison with all the guitar work on Magical Mystery Tour’s Flying. Others maintain that he and Paul both played guitar on the track.

Supporting the latter claim, a fingerpicked run that begins approximately 21 seconds into the song sounds curiously similar to the intro of McCartney’s later composition Goodbye, a hit for Mary Hopkin in 1969.

Besides playing lead guitar on cuts like Back in the U.S.S.R., Why Don’t We Do It in the Road? and Helter Skelter, McCartney made profuse use of his freshly purchased Martin D-28 acoustic on 1968’s The Beatles (informally known as the White Album).

Its warm resonance enriched tracks like Rocky Raccoon, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Mother Nature’s Son, Wild Honey Pie, the criminally underappreciated I Will and the ad-libbed Can You Take Me Back? section of Cry Baby Cry.

And then there’s Blackbird, whose roots lie in a Bach piece that McCartney and Harrison wrestled with as schoolboys: Bourrée in E Minor. They never got past the first few measures, but the composer’s use of contrary motion made a lasting enough impression on Paul to give rise to one of his most beloved works.

McCartney’s intuitive use of compound thirds and chromatic voice leading makes for a beautiful and unforgettable guitar part. Blackbird has become a favorite among guitar players of every generation… and the bane of guitar shop employees condemned to hear it on endless repeat.

It’s Getting Very Near the End

As he did in the band’s early days, Macca increasingly focused on bass rather than guitar during the Beatles’ final stage. He did, however, play acoustic and electric guitar on Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, and his Martin helped shape the sound of Two of Us, Maggie Mae and Her Majesty.

Though 1970’s Let It Be was released after the band’s dissolution, 1969’s Abbey Road was the last album the Beatles recorded together. Its parting shot, The End, was the only song to feature solos from all four Beatles. In the three-guitarist relay race near the song’s end, McCartney took the first, fourth and seventh lead breaks, often jumping across intervals rather than playing consecutive scalar notes.

After saying their individual farewells via their instruments, the group left the world with a pithy couplet: “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” The song’s final moments conjure images of the musicians rising into the clouds as one, singing a final angelic harmony as they wave goodbye in slow motion. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more perfect closing statement from a band.

In one last pioneering act, the Beatles inadvertently capped off Abbey Road with history’s first hidden album track, not counting the sound collage in the run-out groove of the Sgt. Pepper record. The inclusion of Her Majesty was the result of an editing error, but in retrospect, it can be heard as almost deliberately anticlimactic.

It’s as though after the band members have taken their bows and left the stage, McCartney has poked his head out from behind the curtain to amicably stick his tongue out at us, reminding us that things aren’t so serious after all. Life goes on, and in the end, a band is just a band… even if it happens to be the most pivotal rock band ever to walk the Earth.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

You will always stand out with an Orange amplifier in your backline, not only because of its brightly colored aesthetic, but also because of a classic tone that has been powering players since 1968. With that sort of heritage, some brands would be content only to lean on past successes and put out re-issue after re-issue, but Orange has consistently launched creative new products alongside its classic amps. Case in point: the new Baby Terror.

It joins Orange’s ‘Baby’ line of products, which utilizes tried and tested solid-state tech but with interesting features aimed at the gigging musician. It’s stable mates include products such as the Pedal Baby, which is a rack-mount power amp built to work with the relatively modern convention of pedalboard pre-amps, and the two-channel Dual Baby, the first channel of which informs part of the Baby Terror's design.

Form factor-wise, Baby Terror takes obvious influence from the Micro Terror line and is an impressively tiny 20-watt guitar amp head. Like the rest of the Baby series, it is solid-state and boasts a couple of interesting features. Namely, the Tubby switch first found on the Dual Baby, a footswitchable volume boost and a balanced XLR output, all of which we will dive into.

If you are a tube amplifier aficionado, don’t let the solid-state thing put you off. Orange has form for using this tech in a way that feels impressively tube-like, not only in the Baby lineup but also in the Crush series of products.

In other words, the Baby Terror has a pretty high bar to meet.

Specs

• Launch price: $249 | £199 | €236
• Type: Lunchbox head
• Origin: China
• Output: 20 watts
• Channels: 1
• Controls: FS Volume, Volume, Gain, Presence, Treble, Middle, Bass, Tubby switch
• Connectivity: 1/4" input, speaker output, effects loop, XLR direct out
• Footswitch: Purchased separately
• Weight: 3.3lbs/1.5kgs
• Dimensions: 165x140x100mm/6.4"x5.5"x3.9"
• Contact: Orange

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

A metal chassis, a big, chunky metal handle, and some equally chunky rubber feet give this baby box a rather hardy feel. Being solid-state too, the internals are not as sensitive as fragile glass tubes, so it really makes an impression as a tough little thing.

Little being the operative word, as at 165 x 140 x 100 mm and just 1.5kg, it is delightfully small, even for a lunchbox-style head.

The controls on the front panel all feel robust in use, as do the inputs and outputs on the back, with the exception of the external power adapter. With a product designed to run straight into a mains socket and potentially gigged with, I would always rather see an IEC cable instead of the comparatively flimsy DC adapter included here.

All of this is protected within a handy soft case, which is thick enough to feel premium and offer some shielding from the inevitable scuffs that come with taking advantage of the amp's portability.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★☆

As a one-channel amplifier, the Baby Terror is, by nature, a simple beast. On the front panel sit the three-band EQ, Presence, Volume, and Gain controls, all of which are clearly labeled and self-explanatory.

I say clearly labeled, as Orange has forgone its trademark icons in favor of simple text to label these controls. Personally, having previously criticized those icons for their lack of beginner-friendliness, I am a fan of this choice.

Also on the front panel lie two of the features that make this amp interesting beyond its diminutive stature. Namely, the Tubby switch, which thickens up the low end on cleaner settings, and a second footswitchable Volume control.

The latter is particularly handy for providing a little boost to get your solos to rise above the mix in a live band. To be clear, it is not a second channel, but rather a second volume to control the single channel with.

What is a shame, though, is that, unlike a lot of amplifiers, the Baby Terror does not come with a footswitch, so you'll need to invest in an Orange FS-1 Mini or similar to make full use of this.

The rear of the amp sports the input for a footswitch, the 8/16ohms output, as well as an effects loop that is particularly handy on a single-channel amp that likes to break up, and a balanced XLR direct out.

It’s great to have that direct output, but it is not cabinet-emulated, so you will have to run your own Impulse Response or cabinet emulation externally to properly use this. With so many other options to go direct without this added hassle, un-emulated direct outs feel a little superfluous in the current market.

On a related note, Orange says that the Baby Terror is suitable for desktop practice. I disagree.

While of course you can use it at home, that unemulated output makes utilising the XLR out for this use a bit of a faff magnet, and for most, using the Baby Terror with a guitar cabinet at home will take up more room than is convenient. You could buy a small cabinet specifically for home practice, but it would make more sense to put that cash into one of the many, and generally very affordable, home practice amps on the market that tend to boast home targeted features such as Bluetooth connectivity.

It's worth mentioning the Orange Micro Terror here, as its auxiliary input makes it a slightly better option for jamming at home. However, its headphone output is also un-emulated, so it runs into the same issue.

Still, the Baby Terror is an amp that costs just $249/£199, so I am not expecting a smorgasbord of bells and whistles, and I am appreciative of those features that are here. Assuming that they don’t come at the expense of tone, of course.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Thankfully, there is nothing to worry about as far as that goes. I am putting it through its paces via an Orange PPC212V cab, a Gibson SG, Fender Elite Stratocaster, and a humbucker-loaded Orangewood Clementine semi (because, orange).

The Baby Terror possesses the familiar, mid-forward growl with a high-end presence that we have come to expect from Orange amplifiers. Like most Orange amps, it is built to drive, as it gets into edge-of-breakup territory relatively quickly at about halfway on the Gain control with my Stratocaster, and a little before that with my SG.

The Gain control needs to be set at least a quarter of the way up before any decent volume comes out of the amp too (even with the master volume set at full), meaning that there isn’t much clean headroom to play around with here.

So it's not for the country pickers, but perfect if you want an amp that breaks up without pushing too many decibels. Assuming you don't want to distort your time-based effects, this is where the effects loop comes in handy too and keeps the amp viable as a pedal platform.

Because of this, and as a solid-state amp with just 20 watts, it’s not suited to situations where you need things loud, but it will give you enough to monitor yourself on smaller stages, at rehearsals, or to do some studio recording with, while using the DI to send things to front-of-house.

Getting a clean tone, then, is all about rolling back the volume control on the guitar. Knocking just a little off the volume control with the amp set up on the edge of breakup gets straight into sparkly cleans with a little bit of grit as I dig in. It’s an old-school approach, but one that yields a very dynamic feel.

It does not quite have some of the luscious overtones of more expensive amplifiers, but that does not stop it from being a ton of fun to play.

Pushing the gain further reveals that the Baby Terror is capable of some meaty saturated tones, comfortably within heavy rock territory.

Throughout all of this playing, I find the amp to be relatively tight in the low end, with a tendency to get a little muddy as the gain gets cranked. For this, though, we have the Tubby switch, so I flick it to see if it solves the problem, and the answer is a resounding yes.

It reduces the low end, which results in those distorted palm-muted riffs sounding incredibly tight, and lends leads a little more cut. It is a subtle change, but one that is in exactly the right place. It’s almost as if Orange have been doing this for nearly 60 years.

EQ-wise, the Mid control is pretty subtle, leaving me feeling like I could do with a little bit more range here. The Bass, Treble and Presence controls, however, all offer enough to allow plenty of room for tweaking.

Lastly, I dig out my Browne Amplification Ethane pedal and find that the amp takes pedals incredibly well. Pushing it with the Tube Screamer-esque side of the overdrive pedal cuts the bass further, reduces airy highs and boosts the gain into a territory more than suitable for metal and heavier styles of music.

Alternatively, the Blues Breaker-inspired Carbon side of the pedal boosts the amp into more gain, with the pedal reflected in the way the tone stays bright, perfect for those classic rock riffs.

In short, it may not do clean all that well, but it can do just about everything else.

Verdict

The Baby line of products is proof that solid state can sound great, and the Baby Terror, as the newest addition to this lineup, is no different.

Built to rock, it is a low-headroom machine that reacts well to your guitar's volume control and responds dynamically to your pick attack. It has a delightfully old-school feel about it, furthered by the lack of modern digital wizardry that often complicates things.

The other side of that coin is that the Baby Terror doesn’t boast a ton of fancy features, but the footswitchable second volume control, an effects loop, and the Tubby switch are great additions that add facility in the places guitarists most need them.

For a lot of users, the Baby Terror is going to fall between the cracks as it does not have quite enough volume for big stages, nor is it practical for use as a home practice amp in the current market. But for studios, smaller gigs where space is often a premium, and rehearsal rooms, it’s a capable little thing.

Guitar World verdict: A tiny amp that delivers big, the Orange Baby Terror is perfect for the studio, small stages or rehearsals, when you need an amp that will happily break up at lower volumes. It’s the classic Orange bark, alongside some well-chosen features in a fun and affordable package.

Also try

Hands-on videos

Orange

Gear 4 Music

zZounds

Notably, they recruit Alnico 8 magnets, which have been used for a Gibson pickup for the first time in its history.

The magnets combine with custom-gauge wire for punch and high-level dynamic response. For the eagle-eyed readers who feel the ELEV8 name sounds familiar, it’s because they’ve already featured in Gibson’s bold new Victory baritone model.

In short, they’re designed to be the best of both worlds, marrying “Gibson humbucker heritage with the power, clarity, and articulation modern players demand.”

Now made available as aftermarket pickups, they arrive in Standard, Plus, and Underwound models, each with four-conductor wiring. For those wanting to pimp their current squeeze, these passive pups represent a new high-gain option.

Seth Lover invented the original Patent Applied For humbucker in 1955. Since then, Alnico 2, 3, 4, and 5 magnets have been commonplace across Gibson pickups. But more is more, right?

Granted, Alnico 8 magnets have been around for a good few years now, but with the ELEV8 range, Gibson becomes one of the first major builders to invest in a magnet that can be seen as a hot-rodded version of Alnico 5.

The Standard pickups pack 10k ohms and come in both traditional Gibson neck and bridge spacings, with the ELEV8 Plus “thoughtfully overwound” at 15k ohms. With a tight bass response and a voicing better suited to high-gain tones, that makes it an ideal bridge ‘bucker, with a Standard model in the neck.

Meanwhile, the ELEV8 Underwound is also designed with the neck position in mind, and a touch more vintage in its character.

The pickups, Gibson believes, “give modern players the confidence to explore drop tunings, aggressive palm-muted riffs, and dense mixes without sacrificing precision.” Time will tell, but the recipe certainly suggests these are the hottest Gibson PAF-style pickups yet. Maybe, at long last, the Les Paul can assert its authority as a djent machine.

Not all of Gibson’s innovations over the years have been humdingers – robot tuners, anyone? – but this feels like the kind of evolution a lot of modern players will get behind.

Each pickup is priced between $139 and $149, and is available uncovered with Double Black or Zebra bobbins, or with Double Black bobbins beneath a nickel cover.

See Gibson for more.

The 76-year-old musician knows what he’s talking about, of course, having blown our minds with his guitar prowess for the last six decades – and that experience is audible on Carry the Light, his first studio album in 16 years.

Loaded with guitar textures, Frampton’s 19th album ranges from sweet acoustic mellowness to the extravagant but controlled soloing for which he became known in his early band, Humble Pie – and even more so after the impact of his talkbox-heavy, eight-times-platinum solo album Frampton Comes Alive! in 1976.

He tells us that his objective with the solos this time was to sound “sweet and just on the edge of distortion,” delivering the goods via the famous “Phenix” Les Paul, a black 1954 Custom model that was lost in 1980 and returned 31 years later (you’ll know it from the cover of Frampton Comes Alive!).

Elsewhere on the new album, Frampton and a cast of guests including Tom Morello, Sheryl Crow and H.E.R. (aka singer Gabriella Wilson), run through slow-building blues, understated balladry and all-out rock, the latter heard most clearly on Lions at the Gate, which features Morello’s signature choppy riffing.

The long outro of Islamorada is another highlight, featuring a blistering solo outro from Frampton, and yet another is Breaking the Mold, a subtle acoustic piece featuring Crow.

In GW’s chat with the affable veteran we cover a lot of territory, from the abuse of power, via the unlikely strength of an 18-watt amp, to the experience of playing at Star Wars HQ.

We also discuss Frampton’s ongoing struggle with inclusion body myositis, a muscle-wasting disease that may or may not prevent him touring the new album – but never fear, he’s not planning to retire any time soon.

Carry the Light is a hell of a record.

Oh, thank you very much. After not releasing any new material for the last 16 years, I knew it had to be good. I’m not as prolific as the next guy, maybe, so it took me at least six years to find all these songs, and my son Julian and I completed them all in the last year.

There’s a stellar cast of guests on the album. How did you meet H.E.R.?

We met when I played George Lucas’ 80th birthday in 2024 at his place up in California, Skywalker Ranch. Basically it’s a winery, right in the middle of hundreds of acres of wine. It’s just gorgeous. Lucky bastard! But he deserves it…

Anyway, H.E.R. was playing first, and then it was us, and then Don Felder played, and I sat in. It was weird looking out and seeing Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas looking back at us.

What’s your connection with Tom Morello?

I’ve known Tom for a while now – I keep bumping into him. We’re managed by the same person, and I’ve been a huge fan of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, and – rest in peace – Chris Cornell. I’m a big fan of his.

So a couple of years ago, I said to Tom, “If I had a song, would you…,” and he said “Yes!” I didn’t even get the question out. It was wonderful, and he said some lovely things about Frampton Comes Alive! and how it affected him.

He guests on Lions At the Gate. What’s that song about?

It’s basically about having too much power and money, which come together. It’s about the billionaires and their power and their influence. I didn’t realize it would be so topical, but the first verse is about sending our kids off to war.

The title comes from the first time I went to Los Angeles, which was probably in the late ’60s. We said, “Let’s go to Beverly Hills and look around,” and you’d see all these big mansions with huge lions on their gateposts. To me, that always made me feel like they were showing off their power.

Basically it’s a protest song, saying that we’ve got to stick together. There’s safety in numbers, and we’re a band of brothers, and we’ve got to fight this.

Your son Julian was your co-writer and also the album’s co-producer.

Yeah. The thing is, Julian knows me so well, that it’s like one person writing, which is so cool. I’ll write a song, and then he’ll come in and help if I need a line, or he’ll write a song and I’ll come in and do the same, or we’ll write a song 50-50.

I’m Sorry Elle is an acoustic showcase, for both rhythm guitar and solos.

That was the first song I wrote for the album. That one’s all me. A lot of the inspiration came from Covid and my daughter giving birth in the middle of Manhattan and barely being able to see her husband because of the restrictions in the hospital. I didn’t see her for four or five months because of the travel thing.

Islamorada has an incredible solo section.

Thank you. My son wrote that one. He wrote the verses and brought them here to Nashville because he lives in Los Angeles, and we’d spend three weeks at a time, and then he’d have to go back.

He also brought in the melody and the chords, which I really love, but he said, “I need a chorus,” so we wrote a chorus that same day – and that was it.

Does the Phenix make an appearance on this record?

Oh yes – on nearly all the solos, I think. When I got it back from Gibson in 2011, they had just made it playable. I said, “Don’t take any of the scars on the body away; just make it playable.”

CBS Sunday Morning News came down to the concert that night because they wanted to see it, so I didn’t play it for the whole show, and then right at the end, just before Do You Feel Like We Do, it all went dark. I pulled out the guitar and put it on the stage, and all the lights hit it.

The whole audience stood up and went berserk. I was thinking, “What about me?” [Laughs] No, the guitar was more important than me that night, because everyone knew it had been gone for 31 years. It was an amazing night. I only played it for Do You Feel... for a while, and then I gradually started bringing it back into the set, and I hardly play anything else live now.

Do you still have the Penta-Suhr you played on David Bowie’s Glass Spider Tour in 1987?

The one I played with David went in a major flood here in 2010, but John Suhr is making me another one, which is very similar. I love his work. Nearly all the solos and all the rhythm sounds on the new album come from a Suhr Badger, which is an 18-watt amp.

Only 18 watts?

Yeah! It’s amazing when you think of those huge sounds, isn’t it? I mean, some of them are really huge, but it’s just that amp with a 1x12 cabinet and Neumann and Shure mics, both the same distance from the speaker. That’s the sound, plus a couple of room mics and some pedals that I had laying around.

What about acoustic guitars?

I used quite a few. There were three different Matons, including the Tommy Emmanuel model and a small travel one, which I’ve recorded with before and is so good.

There’s my old Epiphone, and of course I have my own Martin D-42 Peter Frampton model from the Nineties: that’s a long time ago. I think that’s it. Martin, Matons and Epiphone, basically.

Will you be playing live, or does the myositis prevent that?

It’s making it more difficult. I’m not saying there won’t be some dates, but right now we don’t have anything on the cards. I wish there were, but I just have to wait and see how I do.

Because the condition comes and goes?

Well, we call it “progression or plateau.” It’ll progress for a bit and then it’ll plateau, and right now I’m in a plateau. It is what it is, you know. I’m fully aware of where it’s going, and it’s not great, but I’ve always been the most positive person. It mainly affects my legs, but it’s affecting my hands too.

How do you manage that?

In October, we did a little three-week tour, and I was going, “Okay, finger number two ain’t going to make it there in time: finger number three, you’re up!” I hate thinking when I play, but in this situation, I have to. It’s just a case of changing the way I play a little bit.

I can’t play at the speed I once could. Not that I’ve ever been a shredder, you know. It’s always been more about melody, for me. There’s definitely some shredding going on in Humble Pie and Comes Alive! and some of the other albums, but I tell you right now, it’s less notes, more feel.

You look well, though, and the solos on the record sound as dexterous as ever.

Thank you. Long may that continue. I have some great friends who are making music, and if I don’t have anything of my own to work on, I tell all of them, “Send me tracks, because I want to play every day.”

So right now I’m working on three different tracks: that’s what keeps me going. I love, love, love to play so much, and I’m not going to let it go. Until the last second I’m going to be playing solos and rhythm parts on people’s records.

What inspires you these days?

I listen to everybody for inspiration, like this guy. [Holds up Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue] Oh, my God. I’ve vocally learned the opening cut of Kind of Blue, So What, and then I’m going to learn it on guitar.

I’ve seen a woman online who sings Miles’ solos from that record, and it’s incredible, so that’s why I started doing it myself. I said, “If I can learn to sing it, then I’ll be able to sit down and learn to play it.”

Is it true that when you played with Bowie, you used an electric sitar that once belonged to Jimi Hendrix?

Yes, I did. In 1977 I was finishing I’m in You at Electric Lady in New York, which was Jimi’s studio, and as we were leaving on the last night, the studio manager came out with a guitar case and said, “We’ve really appreciated you being here, I hope you had a good time. We have something here that we think Jimi might have wanted you to have.”

I was expecting it to be a Strat, but they opened it up and showed me this electric sitar, and I went, “Oh, my God.” Jimi’s road manager Gerry Stickells once wrote, “Jimi had three electric sitars. I know where two are, but I can’t find the other one.” [Laughs] I’ve got it here!

• Carry the Light is out now via Universal.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

“I might be lazy about practicing,” says Lea. “But I try not to stress about becoming a mind-blowing badass. I will always do my homework, and I’ve found my own methods of learning new things that work for me.”

That DIY mindset has taken her a long way. As bassist for American rock band Madam Radar, she’s gone from teaching herself how to play to sharing stages with some of rock’s biggest names – including opening for Bon Jovi.

“Our guitarist, Kelly, saw an online ad where Bon Jovi was looking for a local band to open for them in Austin. She didn’t even tell us she’d applied! When they reached out to us, we totally thought it couldn’t be true, but it was!

“The Moody Center wasn’t even completely finished being built! But just watching Bon Jovi soundcheck was an experience. The whole team was so kind.”

As one of three vocalists in Madam Radar, Lea’s role goes far beyond simply holding down the low-end. Her transition from singer-songwriter to bass and vocals has become an important part of the band’s dynamic.

“When I started my journey as a gigging musician, I was primarily a singer-songwriter and acoustic rhythm guitar player, but I always had mad respect for a good bass player. It’s such an important and underrated instrument. And now I’ve assumed the position, I know how hard it is!

“Especially being a singing bass player, it can feel like a juggling act from song to song. Not to mention the never-ending dance with the drummer. My basslines almost always come together through trial and error.”

Are you a bass player who approaches a song from the rhythm section first, or do vocals often take priority?

Vocals take priority 90 percent of the time, but there have been a few songs where the groove wrote the song. Friend of a Friend is a great example.

Do you have any warm-up routines or practice habits? Particularly with regard to singing and playing bass at the same time?

I don’t warm up nearly as much as I probably should, but my biggest secret weapon is just slowing the song down to a crawl. It’s super-helpful. Then I gradually speed it up and get it to where it needs to be.

Since switching to bass, which bassists have influenced your playing the most? And what did you take from them?

Early on I was tasked with learning a full show’s worth of Stevie Ray Vaughan tunes, so Tommy Shannon definitely laid a lot of the foundation for me as far as blues and rock riffs go.

I am always surprised by how fun and intricate Paul McCartney’s basslines are. I feel like he’s someone I always underestimate as a bass player because I put his legendary Beatles status first but damn… he is such a good bass player!

What records do you return to when you need inspiration?

Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World for when I want to sing my head off. 1000 Kisses by Patty Griffin for when I’m looking to write something that will break my own heart. Toxicity by System of a Down for when I’m in the mood to kick down some doors.

Anything by Zero 7 and Fleet Foxes – I probably throw on one of their albums more than anything else when I’m looking to just zone out.

Name a song that you wish more musicians talked about?

It’s My Life by Talk Talk is a work of art. I dare you to try and play it and sing it at the same time.

Are you someone who chases new gear, or do you prefer to get everything possible out of one trusted instrument?

100 percent the latter – I actually don’t like shopping for new things, it gives me anxiety. I have my comfort zones and I like to stay in them.

What bass has been the biggest “keeper” in your collection?

Definitely my Godin Passion RG-4 bass. They sent it to me several years ago and it’s been my primary instrument ever since. I absolutely love it.

What’s the story behind your ’72 P Bass?

A sweet friend of mine gifted me a budget for a backup bass and so I scouted out some guitars at South Austin Music and Austin Vintage Guitars.

After trying out several options I was beginning to wrap my mind around getting something more modern and flashy – but a ’72 P Bass was put into my hands and my heart broke because it was a bit out of my price range and I knew I was going to have to figure out which organ I could live without to get it!

With the help of Nick James Boettcher, a great guitar player and friend, we were able to convince my charitable donor that I needed this guitar and it is now a part of my life. I named it Gus, after Augustus McCrae from Lonesome Dove.

Is there a particular moment onstage where you felt the band truly clicked?

We had a really powerful performance when we recorded our sold-out Live at Antone’s album. Listening back to it you can really hear the magic that was in the air that night.

If you could sit down and jam with any bassist from history, who would it be and what would you ask them?

I guess my answer would have to be Flea because he just seems like such a good hang. I would have to ask him what it feels like to go au naturel in front of 200,000 people.

What advice would you give your younger self as a musician.

I would look myself square in the eyes and say, “Wear sunscreen. You’re not as good as you think you are. Keep practicing!”

The first guitar pedals I ever encountered were sitting in a glass case at Russellville Pawn on the main highway that cut through the center of my small Alabama town. They changed my life.

I was probably 15, and there they were – a handful of lovingly used stompboxes with price tags hanging on those classic paper tags with a single string tied around the knobs. What struck me wasn't their promise of sonic transformation – I barely understood what they did. It was how completely different they were from each other.

A Zoom 505 with its digital display and plastic housing looked like a piece of consumer electronics, something that belonged next to a Nintendo or a calculator. But the scratched-up BOSS pedal sitting next to it had the solid, purposeful presence of a craftsman's tool – something my dad might pick up at the hardware store because he had work to get done.

Even then, I sensed that these visual differences meant something. The brands weren't just competing on features or price; they were making completely different statements about what a guitar pedal should be, who should use it, and how seriously you should consider the aesthetic.

Decades later, as both a pedal builder and a student of guitar culture, I've come to realize that this moment in that pawn shop captured something essential about the relationship between sound and sight in our instrument's evolution. We don't just hear our pedals – we live with them, arrange them, obsess over them, and yes, judge them by their covers.

That visual language has never been more diverse or sophisticated. Every pedal is a collaboration between sound and sight, between engineer and artist, between maker and musician. In an era when anyone can build a circuit, it's often the visual language that separates the memorable from the forgettable, the iconic from the ignored.

The guitar pedal occupies a unique space in industrial design – simultaneously utilitarian and expressive, mass-produced yet personal. These are objects designed to be stepped on, yet many never touch the floor. They're tools for making music, but they're also statements about who we are as players and what we value as artists.

I've always believed that the best pedal designs aren't decorations applied to functional objects – they're integral expressions of the musical philosophy contained within.

When Ivor Arbiter made his Fuzz Face smile, when Bill Finnegan chose the perfect shade of gold for his Klon, when BOSS created their color-coded universe, they weren't just making pedals look different. They were creating visual languages that would become part of how we understand and relate to our instruments.

In my own company's evolution from hand-stamped boxes to printed graphics, I've learned that every design choice – from the thickness of a line to the placement of a logo – either adds to or subtracts from this musical conversation. The best pedal art doesn't just catch your eye; it becomes part of your sound in ways you might not even consciously realize.

Pedals are not mere effects processors but artifacts of creative intent. In the world of guitar effects, beauty and function aren't opposing forces – they're partners in the endless pursuit of the perfect sound.

• Art of the Stompbox: Celebrating The Visual Artistry of Effects Pedals features 300 color photographs from 60 pedal makers across 18 countries, with a foreword by Josh Scott of JHS Pedals and a cover testimonial from the late Ace Frehley of KISS. It's available now via Amazon.

But it’s not the only one, and Fender’s ongoing cease-and-desist campaign, as it bids to reaffirm its ownership of the Stratocaster body shape, will only force other manufacturers to think outside the box.

Changes had already started before Fender swung into action. In recent years, new body shapes have flooded the market. They offer fresh contours, curves, or angularity to sit alongside the classics.

Kiesel has introduced two new shapes – the Kyber and the offset Antares – over the last 14 months. Eastman has gone bold with the FullerTone Offset ’62. Taylor, Ibanez, Baum, Collings and Gavilan guitars (spearheaded by former Fender Custom Shop ace Levi Perry) have also stepped away from existing templates. Some designs are more familiar. Others, like the Valiant Mercury, hybridize the norms for something bold.

Indie builders are largely driving innovation. Tosin Abasi, the virtuoso behind Abasi Concepts and the bold Larada body shape, has a theory about why.

Risk and reward

“There’s been a lot of experimentation in the past,” he says. “But the percentage of what’s accepted is actually pretty low. The risk-reward analysis for large multinational corporations is different – it can limit how much experimentation they can validate. A lot of the artisan stuff is occurring on a small scale.”

He severed ties with Ibanez to launch his own brand in 2017, aiming to create an ergonomic eight-string guitar from the ground up. Before then, most were elongated versions of pre-existing concepts. Building on Strandberg’s game-changing ergonomics – now a buzzword in all guitar PR – he sees the tide is turning.

“Ergonomic-driven guitars are now feature sets that are pretty established, but they weren’t 10 years ago,” Abasi says. “Larger companies are leaving us to take the risk. Once something is validated, they can essentially copy and address a market that was created for them.”

When the Ibanez Alpha launched, swathes of people compared it to pre-existing designs; accusations of homework copying were flung around with abandon. Abasi himself has another take: he says there “isn’t a ton of permission to introduce new designs,” in a largely conservative market.

Nostalgia is easier to sell because of the legacies of those instruments. But extended-range guitar communities showed him that a sliver of the market had an appetite for purpose-built guitars. That market has grown to be one that Ibanez – and Kiesel – can no longer ignore.

Artist innovations

Music Man, however, has long been using its signature collaborations as a chance to break from the mould. Work with St. Vincent, Albert Lee, and Omar Rodríguez-López, as well as its tradition-skewing Kaizen for Abasi, proves the company doesn’t want to play safe.

“We’re the odd to everyone’s even,” says Drew Montell, Director of Engineering and Product Development. “We have a lot of brand equity in our artist roster, and we really pride ourselves on providing them with the tools they need. Sometimes they’re incredibly outlandish.”

Montell says those projects “are exactly what I live for” and he feels a big part of the market appreciates Music Man’s push to innovate. But it’s still a tough ask.

“When you’re making something, you don’t know if it’s just a weird blob or something that can become an aesthetic of its own,” he says. “The biggest challenge is, ‘What’s too outlandish versus what will people be willing to get behind?’”

Releasing a design in collaboration with a player who often colors outside the lines makes it easier. Still: “Most people hate our best-selling guitars right out of the gate,” Montell laughs. “I don’t want to say we don’t care what people think; we’re just confident that once someone puts it in their hands, they’ll recognize it’s not just a weird shape. It’s actually for a reason.”

He does concede, however, that the company’s reputation for quirky designs is both “a blessing and a curse,” as they’re now expected to push the envelope again and again.

That’s interesting, because Abasi compares the Kaizen to a Porsche 911, and says the core design will remain, with small adjustments expected in future generations. Now he has a design that nails its extended-range, ergonomic-focused brief, it’s evolution over revolution.

Augmenting acoustics

If electric guitar manufacturers feel that the shackles are always on them, acoustic builders are far more constricted when it comes to innovation.

With its Super Auditorium design, introduced with the Gold Label Collection last January, Taylor has found a way to get creative within the confines of acoustic guitar design. It builds on its Grand Auditorium concept, but boasts a slightly longer body and wider lower bout.

“I enjoy working with curves and proportions and studying how profile shapes are used to shape an instrument’s tone,” says Andy Powers, CEO and Chief Guitar Designer at Taylor Guitars. “Mechanically and structurally, the builder needs to work out the physics of the shape, its voicing, how the woods will be bent into form, and how the silhouette affects the design’s prospective voicing.

“With an existing shape, you have the known variables in mind. With a new shape, all the variables are on the bench for development. The shapes of acoustic flattop guitars are not arbitrary aesthetic decisions. Each curve and dimension brings a sonic impact.” Even the slightest deviation from the norm can have massive sonic side effects.

Additionally, Powers suggests that “many guitar shapes are popular because manufacturers prefer to build designs that fit an existing case.” It’s a point which can add outlay of buying into a new concept – another risk for the player.

Pleasingly, Powers says the playing community has “largely welcomed” his design, as it offers “a good blend of classic proportions” and has proved well-suited to a variety of genres. But there’s a long way to go. “Beyond this initial response, it will require years for the shape to become firmly established into the library of guitar designs.”

Our bodies in mind

All three manufacturers are forward-thinking, but form must always follow function. Powers says “the physical comfort and weight balance were paramount in the design” of his Powers Electric A-Type.

Music Man go through up to 10 iterations before electronics and hardware are even considered. Abasi notes: “You have to design within the confines of the human interfacing with the instrument.”

He adds: “Stratocasters were the first double cutaway I know of, and there’s an ergonomic benefit to the upper register, so I think ergonomics have always been the core of guitar design – within reason.”

More and more manufacturers are finding ways to let their creativity fly. Montell, for one, believes makers have a duty to accommodate players of all persuasions. It's likely that recent events – from Fender’s lawsuits to the increasing space for adventurous guitar designs – will see many more makers follow suit.

“I would hate it if the industry just said, ‘All distortion pedals have been done before; don’t make a new one,’” Montell says. “It’s fantastic that so many manufacturers, designers and players are willing to try new things. Our job is to create tools that people can actually use, and a guitar that someone always wants to go back to.”

The retail giant has been busy working on its own guitar brand for almost a year now, long before the project was publicly announced back in April.

For the as-yet-unnamed venture, Guitar Center asked players for their help, inviting ideas and feedback on social media platforms in an ambitious attempt to bring something new to the market. Now they’ve entered the next stage of development.

“We’ve been building and creating a new guitar line from scratch, and that new guitar line has been based on interactions with you and your feedback,” Dalporto says on Instagram. “You guys have been giving us tons of feedback on your aspirations and dreams and hopes of what you would like to see in a new guitar.

“We are now at the point where we’re getting prototypes into our office and we want real-world feedback – feedback from you.”

The call has been issued to those in the LA area. Testing will take place at Guitar Center’s office in Westlake Village, CA, in late September and early October. Those wanting to get involved can email info@GCPLB.com with some background information on you and your playing style.

However, there are a few things to note. Rich Thrush, lead on the Guitar Labs project, laid out the terms for getting hands-on with the prototype in a Reddit post.

“You'll need to visit our Westlake Village, CA office in early October, leave your phone outside the testing area, and sign a Non Disclosure Agreement before participating,” the post reads. “We're looking for genuine players who are willing to share honest opinions.

“If you're primarily an influencer or represent a brand, please let us know when you reach out. We'd still love to connect, but we'll likely involve you at a later stage of the project.”

Some guitarists were skeptical when the Guitar Labs project was announced, which CEO Gabe Dalporto directly addressed in an interview with Guitar World.

“Most retailers simply make copycat products and charge a little less,” he said earlier this summer. That’s completely uninteresting to me.”

The Guitar Labs project comes amid a years-long overhaul of Guitar Center’s business model. Guitar World sat down with Dalporto to discuss his plans for the retailer last year, discussing fan concerns in the process.

Recently, we asked you whether you thought Guitar Center had shown any signs of improvement following the chain’s restructure.

Head over to Guitar Center’s Guitar Labs Sub-Reddit for more information.

The Pretty Reckless’ Taylor Momsen and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready joined the band on vocals and guitar, respectively, for the one-off performance, which featured a medley of Outshined and Spoonman. The latter was a significant addition to the two-song setlist, considering it hadn’t been played live since 2017, the year Chris Cornell died.

Both Momsen and McCready had already shared the stage with guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist Ben Shepherd, and drummer Matt Cameron. The Pretty Reckless frontwoman previously sang with the band at the 2019 Chris Cornell Tribute and reunited with them at the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony.

Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron also lent their guitar and drumming chops to The Pretty Reckless’ 2021 album Death By Rock and Roll, contributing to the track Only Love Can Save Me Now.

As for McCready, he also joined Soundgarden onstage at their Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Along with his two-song performance with the band, the Seattle native also wielded his heavily worn 1960 Fender Strat to perform a Jimi Hendrix-inspired version of the national anthem right before the game.

Speaking about the opportunity in an interview for the Seahawks' official website, McCready said, “It's way scary in a way, because I want to do it right and I don't want to mess it up, so that's going through my head every time. I've done it a bunch of times; I just want to do it how I do it, and hopefully it means something, and I do it right, so there's pressure there.”

Soundgarden’s comeback comes amid bigger news for the legendary band: the release of their final album with Cornell. After a multi-year legal battle, his widow, Vicky Cornell, agreed to give the remaining band members the vocal tracks the frontman recorded between 2015 and 2017.

“It’s emotionally draining, and there are things about it that are sad and melancholic,” Thayil told Guitar World in a recent interview.

“But at the same time, it’s exciting to finish the work that we started with Chris. It’s a tribute to Soundgarden and a tribute to Chris. To not do this would be a great disservice to everyone, including the fans who knew we were in a writing cycle while we were touring.”

And while Thayil didn’t confirm a release date, Cameron did reveal that the album was in the process of being mixed when he appeared on the Let There Be Talk podcast in July.

“We’re just gonna try to get this thing mixed,” he said. “Get it over the finish line, and then hopefully we’ll have a better idea what’s gonna come next. We’re just taking it one step at a time ’cause it’s been kind of a long process just to get to here.”

A few weeks later, Kahan called Levine at seven in the morning, asking him to drop everything and join his touring band. “I ran over to the student center, unenrolled from all my classes and hit the road,” Levine says.

Kahan hadn’t yet released hit single Stick Season, and his band was booked into theaters seating 1,000-2,000. No-one knew what was to come. “It was a risk,” Levine says. “There was no guarantee of where it would go – there never is with any music artist.” Four years later, that risk has paid off.

Levine and Kahan are now deep into a stadium tour world tour behind chart-topping album The Great Divide. Nowhere has the scale hit Levine harder than playing Boston’s legendary Fenway Park, which they’ve now done six times.

The old ballpark’s green room sits far enough from the stage that the band can’t just walk to it. They load into a van and go through a barricaded stretch, where fans line up by the thousands before and after the show.

“I told my dad it was like watching a Beatlemania documentary,” Levine says. The journey from playing theaters to the current level, he says, felt both fast and gradual, because the band “hit every size stage on the way there.” Through it all, the touring unit – many of whom live in Nashville – have stayed a tight-knit family.

Baritone guitar, first introduced to Levine by producer Simon, has become his signature voice. He played Simon’s Jerry Jones baritone all over Kahan's Deluxe album, including Dial Drunk and You’re Gonna Go Far. “It’s like my arms doubled in length with so much more reach, so much more range in the low end,” he says.

Fitting that low-end into a band with bass, keys, and a second guitarist took years to master. Levine credits producer Ethan Gruska’s records for showing him how low frequencies can coexist without fighting for space. “The baritone has such a unique growl and twang. It brings in this Western sounding element. I’ve learned how to dial that in and find where it fits.”

Finding the right instrument to carry that tone onstage took just as long. Levine cycled through a Fender Squier Cabronita, then a custom flamed Telecaster hand-built by Ohio luthier Tim Rocco, before John Page Guitars approached him about designing a signature model from scratch.

While Levine was on tour, he and Page worked the design, with prototypes shipped from Page’s Pacific Northwest workshop. “We went through that process three or four times before we nailed it,” Levine says. The result is the Noah Levine Signature DL Baritone, which pairs a solid rosewood neck with active Fishman Fluence P-90 pickups, a nearly silent version of his favorite pickup.

His rig has evolved from what was once a stereo tube setup – a Princeton style amp paired with a Fender Deville, running through a Milkman spring reverb and an Echoplex tape echo – into an entirely digital Kemper system, dialed in with guitar tech Gordon Allison over a month.

“I’ve never been totally sold on how amp breakup translates with a digital amp,” Levine says. But pushing the Kemper’s onboard amp models and effects “about as far as they’ll go” got him close enough to the touch-sensitive breakup of a tube.

His touring arsenal also includes a 1967 Gibson SG Special, a vintage Fender Jaguar and a Mule resonator. And with a rhythm section together nearly a decade, he says translating songs from studio to stage now feels “incredibly effortless.”

Off the road he’s quietly built a solo career, which Kahan has embraced rather than resented. “A lot of artists get territorial,” Levine says, “worried about someone half-assing their project if they’re doing their own thing on the side.”

But the trust runs both ways: when Levine’s own band sold out a 600-capacity show at Boston’s Middle East Club, a group from Kahan’s tour crew showed up at the door. “They nearly got the police called on them for demanding to be let into a sold-out show!”

His debut album Leaver came together in a two-week sprint at a Nashville studio with his friend Sam Westhoff, writing and recording a new song nearly every day. “It’s one thing to write a song, sit on it and then feel the relief of finally recording it,” Levine says. “It’s another thing entirely to walk into a studio empaty-handed and come home with riches.”

Rather than chase Kahan’s sound, Levine says he’s tried to “stay inspired without emulating,” treating music as “the one place you get to be 100 percent honest without being criticized for it.”

Beyond Kahan’s overseas dates this fall, Levine hopes to bring his own show to Europe and the UK. He has no plans to slow down creatively either. “I’ve got plans for 20 more records,” he says. “I’m an album guy. I love listening to a record top to bottom.”

• Head to John Page Guitars for info on the Noah Levine Signature DL Baritone.

It was inevitable, then, that apps would infiltrate our guitar playing, too. Most practice amps come with a companion app these days that gives you better access to tone shaping, handy practice tools, and basic utilities to improve your at-home tone. These apps give you broader control over your amp beyond the physical dials on the unit and can turn what is a fairly basic feature set into something much more powerful and, well, engaging.

But while this marks a seismic shift in technology, not every guitarist is happy to use their phone while jamming. For some guitarists, these apps are a step too far and just get in the way of the fun part of practicing, playing the guitar.

Today, I'm back squaring off with my Guitar World colleague Matt McCracken to settle the debate around apps. We both have strong opinions: I think apps are now a vital part of the modern practice routine, while Matt thinks the opposite, preferring to plug straight into his amplifier and leave the phone behind.

Below you’ll find our detailed arguments for and against practice amp companion apps, and a poll at the end of the article so you can vote on which side of the fence you are on. Without further ado, let's dive in.

The argument for apps

For me, integrating apps with practice amps opens up a world of possibilities that just aren’t always possible on the hardware alone. I genuinely believe they make navigating amp settings much easier and more intuitive.

I think a phone or tablet screen is simply easier to read and interact with than a row of tiny knobs or a fiddly scroll wheel. This is especially true for deeper settings like adjusting EQ parameters or a noise gate threshold.

Some apps even let you visualize your entire signal chain, meaning you can see your exact effects set up, move things around, and experiment with pedal placement.

There’s also the sheer convenience factor. With a companion app, you’re not just limited to a handful of effects or amp models baked into the unit. Take my beloved Positive Grid Spark Mini desktop amp. With the app loaded and synced, I can access hundreds of effects pedals without buying all the hardware, swap amp models on the fly, and save complex presets for every song in my setlist.

Through the physical amp, I have just three tones to play with, but via the app I have access to over 10,000! Better yet, many apps offer built-in practice tools, such as tuners, metronomes, and loopers, all in one place.

Another feature that’s not quite as glamorous as banks of effects, but equally as important, is wireless updates. Instead of plugging my amp into a computer or worrying about missing new features, I can install firmware updates and access fresh sounds over Bluetooth.

As manufacturers release new amp models, effects, or practice tools, these updates can be delivered straight to my device. This means I’m not stuck with the amp I bought on day one, it can evolve alongside me as a player.

Then there’s streaming backing tracks, which is what I probably use the app for more than anything. I find this feature to be a massive benefit for practicing at home on my own. Whether I’m learning a new song, jamming along to my favorite albums, or just noodling my way through yet another E minor blues, it’s nice to be able to feel like I’m playing along with a full band.

Many apps even offer integrated libraries of backing tracks or let you import your own, so I can practice improvisation, soloing, or rhythm guitar with a full-band sound behind me. Some apps go a step further, letting you slow down tracks, loop sections, or even remove the guitar part from the original song, making learning tricky parts way easier.

The argument against apps

Technology is great, but when I’m playing my electric guitar, I want as few barriers as possible between me and the actual playing. As someone who is very time-poor, the idea of having to sync Bluetooth, pull out my phone, or load extra apps on my computer is a straight no from me, dawg.

I’ve had a fair few occasions where the app couldn't connect to my phone via Bluetooth, which has hampered my practice. Sometimes even trying to access the guitar tuner in an app has derailed my playing, turning it into a fault-finding session instead of a chance to rehearse, write songs, or brush up on techniques.

I appreciate that it’s the modern world and most things require updates. I’m more than happy to sit through a software download and installation that improves the performance or adds new features. What I’m not willing to deal with is downtime due to software not performing correctly. Technology is supposed to make things easier, not get in the way.

We have so many distractions in modern life that the last thing I want when I’m playing guitar is to have my phone in front of me.

Phones are a constant distraction at the best of times. Having one on the desk while playing makes it easy to start scrolling social media instead of learning that new song. It makes getting pulled into the endless scroll that much easier, and we all know how that turns out. 20 wasted minutes later, you remember what it was you were supposed to be doing in the first place.

With so many options available in modern guitar apps, you can easily spend more time changing settings and using chord finders than you do actually playing. Instead of focusing on technique, apps can often pull you into changing your compressor settings, EQs, and other tweaks. It’s a proper case of using your eyes instead of your ears, focusing on parameters and values instead of listening to the sound and adjusting your playing accordingly.

I feel there’s definite fatigue among players I know when it comes to dealing with these things. I’m sure I’m not the only one who sighs when a product release makes a big deal about its new software, and honestly, I’m getting tired of settings being hidden behind it. Give me something that has proper knobs and buttons to get to grips with, and I’ll happily play my guitar for hours and hours.

Conclusion

Really, when it comes to practicing, there’s no correct answer here. You need to find the option that works best for you. For many players, the benefits of practice amps apps are undeniable. Beyond sheer convenience, they can foster creativity and make learning more engaging for so many guitarists, but that’s not necessarily true for everyone.

For some, they're an extra barrier stopping them from getting straight to the playing part of practice. They can be clunky to operate, unreliable, and outside of a few useful functions, not all that beneficial to your playing overall.

We've had our say; now it's your turn. Vote below on whether or not you think apps are useful or not in guitar gear. Sound off in the comments and let us know which side you're on. Better yet, tell us what your current practice rig looks like.

While Jake E. Lee would eventually take over the lead guitarist role full-time, the period before his arrival was anything but stable.

A number of high-profile players would come close to the gig. But the Ozzy machine eventually settled on Bernie Tormé, who was brought on board for an ill-fated spell to try and help finish the tour.

“I only played about seven or eight gigs with Ozzy; I was involved for around three weeks,” Tormé remembered in Total Guitar in April 2005. “They had a terribly problematic situation. Ozzy had just broken America and was coming back to New York to play two enormous gigs; it was his breakthrough point.

“I think after the Randy thing happened, Ozzy’s immediate reaction was, ‘Let’s pack it in.’ I mean, Randy was a mate of theirs. He wasn’t just some random guy.”

In 1982, Tormé’s stock was high, and it was Sharon Osbourne who helped him sign a solo record deal with Jet Records – a connection which led to him stepping into Rhoads’ shoes.

“At the time, I was totally unaware of anything Ozzy had previously released other than the Black Sabbath stuff, and I didn’t like Sabbath,” he recalled. “I had just finished playing with Ian Gillan, and at least I was sort of into Deep Purple.

“But David [Arden, Sharon’s brother] said, ‘It’s $2,000 a week. I told him I’d think about it, so I talked to everyone, including Gillan’s manager, who knew David Arden. He said, ‘Do it, but make sure you get a week’s pay up front.’ So I got the gig. I went out, and it was really depressing.

“It was the most horrible situation,” Tormé added. “At the beginning, I had a borrowed guitar, Randy’s pedals, and Randy’s amps. Having heard the records, I had an enormous amount of respect for the guy, so I thought, hold on, if I go in here and play exactly the way he played, I’m sort of erasing him as a person.

“I don’t think they wanted someone who was trying to become Ozzy’s guitarist at that point. I think they just wanted to get through those show dates.”

Get through the dates they did, but it wasn’t Tormé who saw the tour out. He wasn’t mad about that.

“I loved Ozzy,” he says. “He's such a nice guy, and he was in such a bad way. I just didn’t feel like the right guy to be in that band.

“I felt really bad about replacing Randy because it crossed my mind: if my band were in the middle of a tour and I had been killed, would I have been happy about them carrying on? I don’t think so. That isn’t to say they made the wrong decision.”

He accepted that the band needed to play on. It was best for everyone. But it wasn’t an environment he felt at home in.

“I didn’t want to use Randy’s pedals, and I had his roadie who didn’t want to be there and was just crying all the time,” he said. “But my pedals hadn’t arrived at the first gig.

“Randy’s pedals would turn on and off at times when I was nowhere near them. They had lights on them, and I could see the lights. I was like, ‘Fuckin’ hell, he’s trying to help!’ I just felt too close.

“It was really odd because it was a personal choice for me – I needed the money, basically. But the day I walked out I was like, ‘Fuck me! I’m glad to be out of that.’”

Alongside a solo career, Tormé would go back to working with Atomic Rooster, with Brad Gillis filling his place in Ozzy’s band after a late-night hotel-room audition. Tormé’s time in the band was short, but he also goes down in heavy metal folklore as the player who saved Ozzy’s career.

Shatner – who played Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek from 1966 to '94 – has enjoyed a rich recording career alongside his time in outer space. Details of his latest LP remain scarce, but it’s been confirmed it will be heavy metal, and May will be lending his chops and Red Special to it.

Notably, it might be the first-ever music collaboration between two artists with asteroids named after them: Asteroid 52665 Brianmay, and Asteroid 31556 Shatner, respectively.

May is arguably Britain’s best-known astrophysicist, and has been balancing music with science throughout his career. In recent years, he worked on NASA’s New Horizons Pluto mission and co-founded the Asteroid Day awareness campaign.

Recent musical adventures from May include working on the Masters of the Universe movie alongside The Darkness, playing a guitar solo for Tony Iommi’s new album, and contributing to My Angels Are Calling, a posthumous release from Steve Cropper.

As for Shatner’s heavy metal enterprise, Adam Hamilton has been confirmed as the record’s producer. He’s previously worked with L.A. Guns and Brian Jonestown Massacre. They’re set to be joined by a host of guests, with May the first to be announced.

Solo-slingers on previous Shatner albums have included Brad Paisley, Ritchie Blackmore, Joe Walsh, and Peter Frampton. Yes bassist Billy Sherwood and Iggy Pop have been other notable collaborators.

“The album is quickly emerging as a major crossover moment,” a statement from an official statement reads. “[It’s a] part metal event record, part artistic left turn, all created around a cast that spans multiple generations of hard rock and metal excellence.”

Meanwhile, it’s been revealed that a Fender Stratocaster was at the heart of Queen’s first tour since the passing of Freddie Mercury. The singer would have turned 80 last week.

For full-scale multi-hyphenate musician (but perhaps best known as a bass wielder) Tony Levin, one decision had a real, long-term impact.

“I harken back to 1976 in July when I was called to play on an album in Toronto with Peter Gabriel, whom I didn’t know, or know of,” he tells Bass Player. “I hadn’t even heard of Genesis!

“One of the guitar players was Robert Fripp, so I met the two of them that day. Now, there’s a craft to studio work. I loved doing it, and I’d just fallen into it. I’d started playing on rock albums, like Lou Reed's and Alice Cooper’s, and then Peter gave me the choice to go on the road with him, or I could continue to be a New York studio player.”

Levin chose the touring life, or, as he puts it, “I chose to be musically kicked in the butt.”

That fateful day led to his contribution to Fripp's solo album, Exposure. A few years later, precisely in 1980, he was asked to join King Crimson, “where business as usual is not even considered. It’s out of the question. We wanted to truly be progressive”.

It all started from a simple invitation. “Robert Fripp asked me to get together with some guys he knew and think about forming a band,” Levin recalls. “I went to Downtown New York, and in the studio were Adrian Belew, Bill Bruford, and Robert Fripp.

“I hadn’t even heard the music of Bill and Adrian, but I knew Robert’s playing… And I’d also played on the road with him with Peter Gabriel. I vividly remember the first few minutes of them playing, and my jaw dropped.”

He continues, “Adrian was a completely unique guitar player, Bill was the same on drums, and then there’s Robert Fripp, who, obviously, was completely unique. My thoughts while looking down at my bass and Chapman Stick were, ‘I’m not even going to touch the bass… in this band I’m going to be super-challenged to just belong in the room.’”

Levin became a key part of the 1981 to 1984 incarnation of King Crimson, holding down the low-end and occasionally wielding the Chapman Stick on Discipline (1981), Beat (1982), Three of a Perfect Pair (1984), and THRAK (1995).

He would join at several other points in the project’s lifetime, including between 1994 and 1998, 2003 and 2008, and finally, 2013 and 2021.

However, that wasn’t the end of his career with the King Crimson repertoire. In 2024, he was announced as the bassist for the Crimson touring spinoff BEAT, alongside Belew, Steve Vai, and drummers Terry Bozzio and Danny Carey.

One thing is for sure: his initial encounter with Fripp – thanks to Peter Gabriel – proved to be more than fruitful.

Bass Player's full interview with Tony Levin will be published in the coming weeks.

However, despite their pleasant sound and countless uses, sus chords often escape the understanding of guitarists. If you’ve seen sus chords show up in songs you’ve learned but aren't sure where they come from or how to use them together, this article is for you.

So, what is a sus chord? In simple terms, a suspended chord replaces the tonality defining third of a major or minor chord with either the second (sus2) or the fourth (sus4) scale degree.

For example, a regular C major chord includes the notes C – E – G. Replace the E with a D and you get Csus2 (C - D - G). Replace it with an F, and you’ve got Csus4 (C - F - G). The result is an unresolved consonant chord.

This is a unique quality. Most unresolved harmony is dissonant, using notes from outside the musical key or unstable intervals like the tritone or altered 2nd. Sus chords are in a class of their own. When the typical third is gone, the harmonic character of the chord floats in suspense. That’s where the name comes from: a note is “suspended” before typically resolving back to its home base.

In classical music, one voice would often hold a note over into the next chord for smoother voice leading, creating tension until it resolved to the third. For example, when moving from a G to a C chord, one singer might hang onto the G chord's D note while the rest of the chorus transitions to the notes in the C chord.

The singer holding the D note is suspending the resolution from G to C, creating a brief Csus2 chord in the process. It may seem a small thing but it greatly enriches the music.

In modern playing and songwriting, sus chords aren’t always resolved. In fact, many artists have built entire progressions from sus chords without ever involving the third. This creates an emotional tone that's open to interpretation – perfect for pop, new wave, ambient, and alt rock.

Two great sus2 loaded songs are The Police's Message In The Bottle and Edie Brickell and New Bohemians' What I Am. The use of the sus2 chords in each song does create a notion of a home key (C# minor and B minor, respectively) but not from any one single chord.

This article explores nine essential sus chord applications: open chords, barre shapes, sus2 and sus4 contexts, and even 7sus combinations. Each example is accompanied by slow and at-tempo playthroughs, tab, and backing tracks so you can absorb and apply the sound of suspended harmony in your own music.

Whether you’re into jangly rhythms or ambient layering, sus chords are your path to adding sophistication without complication.

Open position sus4 chords (Esus4, Asus4, Dsus4)

Let’s get started with the bread-and-butter sus4 shapes. Below are the common open sus4 chords in the open position: Esus4, Asus4, Dsus4, Csus4, and Gsus4.

They’re very popular and immediately recognizable. You might actually already know a few of these. The open Dsus4 (third chord along) is a particular go-to: check out classic tracks like Free Fallin’, Hide Your Love Away and Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

Barre shape sus4 chords (Gsus4, Csus4)

Sus chords can also be played as barre chords all over the fretboard. Typically, you can use the E and A shapes from the CAGED system: the sus4 shape with the root on the fifth string is a favorite of players like Eddie Van Halen and Keith Richards.

However, the sus4 shape with the root on the low sixth string can be impractical. It uses all your fretting hand fingers so doesn’t allow for fast resolution to a major or minor and doesn't allow for melodic embellishments.

Instead, it's common to use the thumb to fret the sixth string and avoid the fifth string: Pete Townshend did this on the strummed intro for The Who's Pinball Wizard. Or, avoid both the bottom two strings and simply play the chord with the root on the fourth string, D. This provides a clean sus4 chord shape that can easily resolve back to the major triad.

Example 1. Sus4 chords in a musical context (5:36 in the video)

Here, you can combine sus4 chords into an exciting progression. This demonstrates how suspensions can build tension and delay resolution, making a simple progression feel emotionally dynamic.

First, you'll play Gsus4 to G with the root on the fourth string. The second bar outlines a Csus4 chord with a legato embellishment, before shifting down by a whole step for a Bbsus4 chord in a bar of 2/4. This chord is borrowed from another key, but the transition flows well, thanks to the suspension, as the melody descends chromatically from E, to Eb, to D.

Finally, a classic Dsus4 to D move followed by resolution to the tonic chord G. The final chord plays Gsus4 for a half beat before resolving the G chord using a quick pull-off, bringing the progression home and demonstrating another cool way we can use suspensions in passing.

Open position sus2 chords (Esus2, Asus2, Csus2, Dsus2)

Next, here are some open sus2 shapes. These chords have a shimmering, open quality, due to the distance between the 2nd and 5th intervals. These voicings are rampant throughout every decade of pop music, from songs like the Beatles’ Ticket to Ride and Every Breath You Take by the Police.

Again, you're covering the chords in the CAGED system, with the F thrown in as well. The open third string allows for a hybrid open/closed position Fsus2 chord beginning on the 3rd fret.

Barre shape sus2 chords (Csus2, Fsus2)

Barre sus2 chords are a bit trickier but incredibly useful. These include a five-string barre for the A shape chords. You’ll need to properly barre with the first finger across five strings, which can be a bit tough starting out. If you need some pointers, check out my 10 Guitar Tips article, which covers useful barre chord hacks.

Example 2 – Sus2 chords in a musical context (8:37 in the video)

Now you can explore a longer example with sus2 chords. What differences do you hear in the tonality of the sus4 progression versus the sus2 progression? This example includes the first sus to minor third resolution, as the F# in the Esus2 chord resolves to the minor third (G) in bar 3.

Sus2 chords can sound better resolving to minor chords than sus4 chords, which typically sound best resolving to the major third.

You’ll also notice the final two chords, Csus2 and Gsus2 never resolve to their respective thirds. This demonstrates the parallel suspension concept we discussed earlier, where the suspension is carried from chord to chord without ever resolving to a clear major or minor tonality.

Adding 7ths to sus chords

Finally, you can add a b7 flavour to both sus chord varieties to unlock new tonal colors. As the b7 is harmonically versatile (it's used in both dom7 and m7 chords) it pairs beautifully with the equally ambiguous suspended tones of the 2nd or 4th.

Just like sus2 and sus4 triads resolving to a major/minor triad built on the same root note, 7sus chords (eg G7sus4) can resolve to the standard dominant 7th chord built on the same root note.

You can turn any of the sus chords you’ve worked on here into 7sus chords: below are seven chords to start you off.

Example 3 – Putting it all together (11:32 in the video)

This final piece is a combination of everything you’ve covered; sus2, sus4, and 7sus chords, all in a nine-bar mini piece that is designed for practicing transitions and chord changes in a musical way.

You start with funky strumming, using dead notes and sus4 chords on A and G, and then transition to a Beatles-esque 7sus picking section. Notice how some of the notes in the arpeggio carry into the first beat of the next bar. This is a cool trick the Beatles often used during the Revolver era to add to their psychedelic sound.

Bar 6 demonstrates how you can pivot around sus2 and sus4 voicings at the same time, enclosing the major third of the D7 chord by dancing around it with both suspensions.

Start adding these chords into your practice routine, songwriting, and riffing. Consistency will help integrate them into your vocabulary and enrich your tonal palette for the long haul. Enjoy!

The revamp not only introduces a new tonewood to the range, but gives both guitars a fetching appearance, with the West African hardwood’s famous, striking dark brown and black streaks shining beneath clear gloss finishes.

The CVT has become a major player in the affordable guitar market, and its new baritone model has received widespread praise. Here, the makeover is more than just aesthetic.

Lightweight and resonant, black limba has been used for both body and neck. The latter is sculpted to Gretsch’s Performance C-profile and capped with a 22-fret, bound rosewood fingerboard. Pearloid Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays keep things minimal and classy.

It also features a Wraparound bridge with adjustable saddles, die-cast sealed tuners, and a Graph Tech NuBone nut. The electronics center on golden Twin Six humbuckers, flanked by a Master Volume control with treble bleed, a Tone knob, and a three-way switch. Priced at $599.99 / £549 / €649, it keeps the competitive edge with a striking new look.

The Jet, meanwhile, dials things up a few notches. It again features a black limba body paired with a black limba Performance C-shaped neck.

Its 12”-Radius Bound Ebony Fingerboard gets the same inlays and 22 Medium Jumbo Frets, but elsewhere has slightly more premium specs. Here, the bridge is a LockDown locking version of the same wraparound design, with another NuBone nut and more die-cast-sealed tuners to keep tuning tight.

The electronics then go a step further with PureVolt Twin Six humbuckers, billed as “beautifully dynamic, exceptionally expressive, and addictively powerful.” The neck uses an Alnico IV magnet, and the bridge uses an Alnico V. Again, the treble bleed feature is wired into the Master Volume.

Beyond that, it has individual pickup controls and a push-pull for single-coil snap on each pickup. With the split coil activated and the three-way switch in the middle position, it makes for one hum-canceling ‘bucker. That’s all reflected in its $749 / £629 / €739 price tag.

See Gretsch for more.

I’ve reviewed loads of Harley Benton gear over the past few years, and I spotted four bits of guitar gear in the sale that I’ve been personally hands-on with get discounts. For my money, Harley Benton guitars are amongst the best value you can buy right now, so I highly recommend checking these models out.

This list looks at some of the most innovative products to reshape the instrument, its amplification and the way players create sound.

Some were radical leaps, others clever refinements, but each changed what guitarists could do and pushed the instrument somewhere new.

1. Mass-produced Modular Solidbody Guitar

Leo Fender was not trying to make history, he was trying to build a guitar a working musician could repair without much fuss. A solid slab of wood cut down on feedback problems that plagued hollow body guitars, and a neck you could unbolt with a screwdriver made repairs and mass production painless. Earlier electric guitars and solidbodies existed, but this particular combination is the one that stuck, and most of what follows on this list was built on that same practical foundation. That serviceable design helped make swapping parts and customizing an instrument part of guitar culture.

2. Humbucking Guitar Pickup

Single coil pickups had one persistent problem, they picked up hum from nearby electrical equipment just as readily as they picked up your strings. Seth Lover at Gibson and Ray Butts at Gretsch both wired two coils together so their hum canceled out while the string signal stayed intact. The PAF and the Filter'Tron don’t sound much alike, but they share the same clever trick under the hood. The humbucker delivered a thicker, smoother voice that became a sound players wanted in its own right.

3. Fuzz Pedal

Before the fuzz pedal existed, that gritty, broken sound was just something that happened by accident, a blown speaker or a faulty console channel. Glenn Snoddy and Revis Hobbs heard that accident and figured there was a market for it. The Gibson Maestro FZ-1 packaged that distorted character into a simple stompbox, and a few years later the Rolling Stones used it on their hit song Satisfaction and turned it into a phenomenon. This kickstarted the widespread adoption of the fuzz pedal. What began as a happy accident soon became a new color guitarists could summon from a pedal.

4. High Gain Guitar Preamp and Master Volume

Randall Smith at Mesa Boogie was trying to solve a relatable problem, guitarists wanted their amps to sound pushed right to the edge, but not everyone can play at stadium volume in their living room. His answer was cascading gain stages together and adding a master volume knob to tame the power section. It let players dial in real, singing saturation at apartment friendly levels, and it laid the groundwork for essentially every high gain amp built since. For players, gain could become part of an amp’s core voice instead of simply more volume.

5. Digital Amplifier Modeling

For most of guitar history, if you wanted a specific amp's sound, you needed to actually own that amp, or know somebody who did. Line 6 treated an amplifier's behavior as something a processor could simply recreate. Their AxSys 212 combo amp released in 1996 got that idea rolling, but it was the small, oddly shaped POD released two years later that put digital modeling within reach of anyone with a desk, letting players scroll through decades of amp history. Just as important, one compact rig could suddenly cover sounds that once required several different amplifiers.

6. Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo

Dramatic whammy bar dives were technically possible before Floyd Rose came along, they just came with a real cost, your guitar would rarely stay in tune afterward. Rose's system clamped the strings at both the nut and bridge, so the slippage causing that trouble stayed contained. Restringing takes more patience now, but players gained a whole vocabulary of extreme vibrato moves, from subtle shimmer to violent dive bombs. Locking tremolo systems are now standard on many guitars today.

7. EchoSonic Amp

Tape echo had already proven itself in the recording studio back in the 1950s but it took Ray Butts to build one directly into a guitar amplifier and hand the effect to guitar players. Scotty Moore bought one of Butts' EchoSonic amps in 1955, and used it to get that warm, repeating slap back sound all over Elvis's earliest recordings. A guitarist no longer needed an engineer down the hall for that texture when they could create it themselves. That marriage of amplification and echo helped make effects feel like part of the instrument itself.

8. Wah Pedal

The wah gave guitarists a way to make their instruments talk, cry and occasionally throw a tantrum. Rocking the pedal shifts which frequencies get emphasized, giving notes a vocal quality and rhythm parts some extra attitude. Brad Plunkett’s work at Thomas Organ gave us the familiar design, and Hendrix and Clapton wasted little time showing what it could do. Work it through a solo or leave it parked for that nasal snarl. The wah pedal remains one of the most popular guitar effects in history.

9. Two Point Synchronized Vibrato

The Stratocaster vibrato turned pitch bending into something any guitarist could put to work. Its spring loaded bridge made subtle shimmer, chord dips and expressive bar work easy and intuitive, helping define everything from surf guitar to later rock styles. It was a remarkably effective design, but it was never built for the kind of extreme abuse players would eventually throw at it. That weakness would ultimately set the stage for Floyd Rose and the locking trem. It helped turn the vibrato arm from a novelty into a part of a player’s vocabulary.

10. Amplifier Profiling and Captures

Traditional amp modeling gave players a menu of digital recreations chosen by the manufacturer. Kemper flipped that idea around by letting guitarists profile their own amps, sending test signals through the real rig, measuring its response and creating a digital version that could be stored and recalled anywhere. That idea helped push digital guitar rigs into a new era. Today, systems such as Neural DSP’s Quad Cortex and IK Multimedia’s TONEX can capture real amps and pedals, while Fractal’s Axe FX and Line 6 Helix Stadium continue pushing increasingly sophisticated component based modeling. What once required racks of gear can now live in one floorboard.

11. Eventide 910 Harmonizer

The Eventide H910 Harmonizer did something that still sounds unbelievable on paper, it took a guitar's pitch and shifted it up or down in real time, without the player touching the strings any differently. It had a slightly alien quality at first, and honestly still does, but that strangeness was the appeal. Years later, the DigiTech Whammy brought a simplified version of the same idea to a foot pedal, so pitch dives no longer required an actual whammy bar. That opened the door to harmonized leads, strange textures and pitch effects that grew increasingly adventurous.

12. Boss DD-2 Delay

Digital delay was once the kind of technology you expected to find in a studio rack, not on the floor in front of a guitar amp. Early units were large, expensive and well beyond the reach of many working players. The BOSS DD 2 changed that by packing digital delay into a standard compact stompbox. Suddenly guitarists could get clean, repeatable echoes from something that fit on a pedalboard and did not cost a fortune. More than just convenient, it helped make digital delay a practical everyday effect for players everywhere.

13. Spring Reverb

Spring reverb puts a little room ambience in your amp, courtesy of a few vibrating metal springs. Your guitar signal drives the springs, and a pickup converts their vibrations back into an electrical signal. Alan Young’s compact Hammond design helped bring the effect to guitar rigs, with Fender and Ampeg offering it by 1961. A twist of a knob could now add a little depth or the big, splashy, dripping sounds that became a surf guitar staple. It also proved that ambience did not have to come from a studio or effects unit.

14. Analog Electronic Chorus

Analog chorus became a defining guitar effect in the mid 1970s, first appearing in Roland’s JC 120 Jazz Chorus amplifier in 1975 before Boss put the idea on the floor with the CE 1 in 1976. Using bucket brigade circuitry, chorus slightly delays a copy of the guitar signal, gently shifts its pitch and blends it back with the dry sound. The result is that familiar sense of width, shimmer and movement. By the time the CE 2 arrived in 1979, chorus was well on its way to becoming an essential guitar effect.

15. Friedman/Synergy IR Load

Friedman’s IR Load combines a reactive load box, attenuator, IR cabinet section and stereo reamplification in a single rack unit, but the most interesting part is Synergy’s machine learning power amp technology. It analyzes the connected speaker cabinet and adjusts its response in real time to recreate the sag, compression and harmonic movement of a cranked tube power section. That makes the IR Load unusually flexible, whether you are taming a loud head, recording direct, running silently or using it as the heart of a powerful stereo stage rig.

16. Guitar Synthesizer

What if the instrument in your hands was not really a guitar at all, but a controller for an entirely different world of sound? Roland’s GS 500 guitar and GR 500 synthesizer, introduced in 1977, let players use familiar strings, frets and picking technique to trigger sustained synth textures, bass like voices and sounds that had previously belonged mostly to keyboard players. Guitarists could suddenly approach electronic music without abandoning the physical feel of a guitar, opening the door to a completely new vocabulary of tones and helping establish the guitar synthesizer as a serious creative tool.

17. Active Guitar Pickup Systems

Passive pickups are largely at the mercy of whatever cable and pedals sit between the guitar and the amp. Rob Turner’s idea with EMG was to build a small preamp into the pickup itself, buffering the signal before it ever left the guitar. The result was a cleaner, more consistent output regardless of what came next. Metal players embraced it, but so did players like David Gilmour. The tradeoff is a battery, and despite the reputation, active does not automatically mean louder or heavier.

18. Tube Amplifiers

Tube amplifiers helped establish the electric guitar’s voice, from ringing clean tones to the roar that would define rock. Their vacuum tubes amplify the signal, while pushing the circuit hard can introduce overdrive, compression and rich harmonics. Although the technology predates the 1950s, designs such as Fender’s tweed Bassman and Marshall’s JTM45 helped make those qualities central to guitar playing. Changes in picking attack and guitar volume could reshape the sound, making the amplifier an extension of the player’s technique. That interaction helped turn distortion into a musical tool, shaping generations of blues, rock and metal.

19. Guitar Wireless Systems

Before practical wireless systems came along, a guitarist’s freedom onstage was limited by the length of the cable. Ken Schaffer’s wireless system changed that, giving players room to move without giving up reliability or tone. AC/DC, Kiss and David Gilmour were among the early adopters. There was an unexpected bonus too. The system added a slight tonal character of its own, enough that players came to love it. Decades later, builders still make preamps and pedals designed specifically to recreate that signature Schaffer sound.

20. PLEK Machine

Developed in Germany, the computerized Plek machine scans the neck and frets under real or simulated string tension, then uses that information to guide precise fret leveling and crowning. A skilled operator decides what needs changing and can preview the results before any metal comes off. The payoff can be lower action, cleaner bends and fewer buzzing notes. It gives builders and repair shops a repeatable way to get more guitars playing at their best. For manufacturers, that repeatability means setup quality can be measured, documented and reproduced more consistently from guitar to guitar.

The song, Glitter, was demoed in 1974, just a year after the band changed its name to Van Halen. But getting your hands on a copy will be a real battle. The book, Van Halen, is an official chronicle of the band and is limited to just 1,500 signed and numbered copies.

Still, it’s big news for Van Halen fans, coming just shy of two years after the release of Unfinished, the final song Eddie and Alex Van Halen wrote together before the guitar legend’s 2020 passing.

Glitter features original bassist Mark Stone, who left the group later that year. He features alongside the Van Halen brothers and David Lee Roth.

The track will be served up as a 7” picture disc vinyl, featuring artwork inspired by the band’s 1984 tour design. It also stands to be the earliest Van Halen track ever to see the light of day.

The B-side is a specially selected spoken-word recording from Alex Van Halen, born from conversations he had with the book publisher, Genesis.

“Van Halen opens the Van Halen family archive for the first time,” Genesis says. “The band’s story is told through an extraordinary collection of correspondence, tour memorabilia, album artwork, press material, musical equipment, unpublished photographs and much more.”

The 312-page tome traces the band’s Dutch origins, their arrival on US soil, and the glitz, glamor, and chaos that followed.

You can pre-order the book from Genesis for $475/£345.

By Sabbath’s second album, Paranoid, bassist Geezer Butler had begun to codify his bass sound. And there’s no better window into his radical playing style than War Pigs/Luke's Wall.

The eight-minute opus is stuffed with all the great Geezer hallmarks: a dark tone, brutal right-hand attack, deep string bends, and bluesy pentatonic licks.

To get Butler’s sound, the first step is nailing his right-hand technique. Plucking his Fender Precision over the fingerboard, he really hammered hard. As Geezer told Bass Player in 2004, his ears were drawn to that kind of high-end clatter.

“I remember trying to sound like Chris Squire. Ozzy’s reaction was, ‘What the hell is that?’ I was attempting to get a bass sound I liked to listen to, but it didn’t really fit my playing style.

“I also used to love watching Jack Bruce play. He was the first bassist I’d ever seen bending the strings – that's where I picked up that technique. I bend the strings on practically everything I’ve done.”

Before you snap a string trying to cop Geezer’s deeper bends, keep in mind that he would also tune down a step or more to accommodate guitarist Tony lommi’s technique, modified after he lost two of his fingertips in an industrial accident.

To try it, tune your bass down a full step to DGCF, and play everything two frets higher. It's a big part of what makes the records sound so heavy.

War Pigs kicks off with an unhurried 12/8 shuffle. Listen to the bend at 00:16: Pulling on the string just enough to approach the chord’s major 3rd, Butler plays the ‘neutral 3rd’ – that microtonal interval between the major and minor 3rds.

Once Geezer, lommi, and drummer Bill Ward have set the scene with the song’s churning intro, the feel and tempo shift at 00:53, the signature verse riff.

In the instrumental response that follows the verse’s call, Butler and lommi dig into a riff built around one of Sabbath’s harmonic trademarks: the flatted 2nd, in this case the F that arrives at 01:49.

At 02:07, intensity builds as Geezer instigates a chugging 16th-note rhythm spiced with syncopation and more bluesy runs. After another verse, the band launches into the solo section at 03:31.

Butler pedals on octaves for the first three bars of the solo, and then really cuts loose, laying down stream-of-consciousness blues riffs that wind around lommi’s spindly solo.

“Because our music was so uncluttered, there was space for the bass to riff. The first three Sabbath albums were done quickly, and you can hear the spontaneity. If the music is all polished and technically brilliant, you’ve lost the soul.”

At 06:34, the band begins its protracted playout, a two-chord vamp that sees more of lommi and Butler’s riff interplay. Here Geezer’s groove hinges on the way he ties across beat four every other bar, under the D chord.

At the track's bitter end, no, that's not the sound of your brain melting; engineers sped up the tape to create that swirling acceleration.

Clearly, Geezer had chops even back in his early days, but he's rather modest about the whole thing: “You don't need a degree in music to play our stuff – it’s not brain surgery.”

By 2031 he intends to outsell the Swedes and perpetuate his belief that headless guitars are the future. The days of headstocks and industry giants, he thinks, are numbered, and the Pearson Omega – a bizarre-looking metal build with insane upper fret access – is him putting his money where his mouth is.

“From a playability standpoint, headless guitars are objectively superior,” he says. “The only reason headstocks are still popular is because of the culture. The next generation are watching TikTok, and they’re seeing all these crazy headless guitars. When they’re 60-year-old dentists with money for a vintage guitar, they’re going to want a Strandberg, not a Fender. Les Pauls will be collectible art pieces.

“Maybe I’m just young and delusional, but I would bet on headless guitars, and that’s what I’m doing with business.”

In his early teens he bought knock-off guitar bodies, borrowed his dad’s woodworking tools, sand them down and spec them with Chinese parts. His first fully original build was carbon fiber, drawing on his uncle’s experience of making bike frames from the same material. Raw aluminum has since proven more affordable, and just as malleable.

“You can’t do anything interesting with wood anymore,” he states. “It’s all been done. And I don’t believe in the tonewood debate.”

Pearson assembles the guitars himself. Their powder-coated bodies are machined locally in New Zealand. Modern C- and Strat-style necks are custom-made in China, with standard and multi-scale options available.

The modified Hipshot bridge design is bolstered by a Gotoh/Floyd Rose locking nut. It’s wired in with easily-replaceable OEM Alnico 2 humbuckers with dedicated coil-split switches, a three-way selector, plus A500K pots sourced for Korea. He makes around 80 instruments a month.

There’s a wicked attention to detail, too. The Pearson headstock is compatible with wall-mounted stands and there’s a subtle body cut for traditional stands, countering a Strandberg setback. The strap weaves through the guitar’s open-plan body, which means strap locks aren’t needed, and it hugs the player’s form better.

The Omega dials back some of the absurdities of his earlier builds, like the purposefully alien Hyper B. It’s a guitar built for the future, without severing all ties with the past.

“I wanted a Stratocaster neck with Les Paul pickups and a Strandberg body,” Pearson says. “I know there’s a market for a Strandberg Boden, but I know there’s also a massive market for a Boden that has more traditional attributes.”

Ibanez has recognized that, hence its Quest series of guitars, replacing Strandberg’s trapezoidal EndurNeck with its Wizard profiles. The Omega aims to be even more accessible. “The Hyper B was about how weird and wacky I could get,“ Pearson says.

“It got a lot of hate – that was half the plan. The Omega is me asking, ‘How can I build 1,000 guitars a week?’ I’m thinking about mass scalability, because I want people from all over the world playing them.”

He also feels the Omega’s price gives it the advantage. At $1,075, it’s slightly cheaper than Ibanez’s Q Series, and nearly $100 less than the Strandberg Essential. Moreover, he doesn’t want to fall into similar preconceptions of who his builds are for.

“Strandberg really pigeonholed themselves with prog metal,” he says. “I want to be broader – I want jazz and blues players to play the Omega. I want to see it in Taylor Swift’s hands. I need that for the brand.”

Crucially, he’s backing the industry to shift in his favor. “Ibanez saw it was losing out on a market because of Strandberg,” he says of the firm’s pivot into headless builds. “Fender and Gibson are going to start dying out; they’re so driven by shareholders they’re not going to take any risks. Smaller companies are moving the needle.

“But Strandberg is owned by private equity now, so I don’t think they’re interested in selling 100,000 guitars a year; they want to stay niche. That’s how I’m gonna overtake them. I’m thinking massive scale, affordable workhorse guitars.”

His ambitions are lofty, but with Paul Masvidal already showing an interest in the firm, and Plini’s interest piqued, Pearson might not be building these guitars on his own for much longer.

• Find out more at Pearson Instruments.

From vintage guitar shops to auctions and beyond, Bonamassa goes to great lengths to score rare pieces of gear. Sometimes, he finds beauties in more unlikely places, and it was a pawn shop guitar that ignited his love affair with P-90 pickups.

The guitar in question was a 1961 white Gibson SG, and now Seymour Duncan has faithfully recreated those underdog pickups as the Joe Bonamassa “Pawn Shop Special” 1961 P90 Set.

Promising “airy highs, expressive midrange, and snarling overdrive response,” they’re wired with Alnico 4 magnets and have been given a custom wind.

Each set uses period-correct components to “bring the coveted Nerdville tone within reach of every P90 aficionado.”

Bonamassa discovered the ’61 SG while on tour after a tip off from a tech. It was the best heads-up he’s ever had.

“Very rarely do you find a special guitar in a pawn shop,” he says. “Well, one day in 2010 I was playing the Embassy Theatre in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was the middle of winter, and I heard there was a pawn shop around the corner with an interesting SG from one of the crew guys.

“I ended up bringing it back to the Embassy Theatre in Fort Wayne. I plugged it in, and these particular P-90s were the P-90s that I was searching for. Over the years, I always thought they were either too dark or too bright; not for me. But this was the beginning of my love affair with P-90s.”

That love affair has since seen him drop a stunning signature Iridescent Copper Epiphone Les Paul, saddled with Epiphone-made P-90s.

The “Pawn Shop Special” 1961 P90 Set is the first time Seymour Duncan and Bonamassa have worked on signature P-90s. Previous collabs have included recreating Tommy Bolin’s PAFs and single-coils inspired by his obscure Greenburst Strat.

The first 610 sets sold will include a Nerdville #001 inventory tag, a certificate of authenticity signed by Bonamassa and Seymour Duncan, and limited edition packaging. The sets are priced at $375.

Check out Seymour Duncan for more.

Elsewhere, Bonamassa has shown off how drop D can be killer for the blues, revealing how “hiding” your pick can make you a more expressive player.

Arredondo modded Marshalls for James Hetfield (who played through a José-modified Marshall on Kill ’Em All and said it was his favorite amp), John Sykes (who used a José-modded Marshall on the best-selling 1987 Whitesnake album), Mick Mars (Mötley Crüe’s Dr. Feelgood), Steve Vai (David Lee Roth’s Eat ’Em and Smile), Peter Frampton, Steve Lukather, Steve Stevens, Akira Takasaki and countless others.

For many years, biographical information on Arredondo and details of his work were a mystery, which only made his urban legend grow. Other than a brief profile that appeared in the August 1988 issue of Guitar Player magazine, articles about him were scarce.

As Dave Friedman started becoming a great amp wizard in his own right, he chased down examples of José’s modified amps and researched info about his high-gain designs and technical nuances.

Eventually Friedman became somewhat of a José-ologist. His knowledge recently culminated in the Friedman/Arredondo Jose amplifier, which he developed with the Arredondo family’s blessing.

The Jose amp combines several of Arredondo’s acclaimed innovations in one amp. A wonderful tribute to the man and his tones, it’s also the closest you can get to a José-modified Marshall in modern times without spending a small fortune.

This is how a humble, elusive man from Chile became the amp tech to the stars and changed amp design forever.

In the ’80s, nightclubs lining West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip attracted countless kids who wanted to make it in the rock music biz. Hair metal bands competed for major label deals and great guitar playing ruled as guitarists studied at GIT (Guitar Institute of Technology) by day and played gigs at night. In 1987, Dave Friedman arrived in L.A. as an 18-year-old aspiring guitarist chasing rock star dreams.

Over the Hollywood Hills in the nearby San Fernando Valley, a variety of amp techs including Arredondo, Lee Jackson, Paul Rivera were performing hot-rodded high-gain modifications on amps from their workshops to meet the needs of this new generation of metal players.

Arredondo was already an experienced amp tech and designer well before he launched his own business. During the mid ’60s, Arredondo worked for Thomas Organ, where he reportedly helped develop the Vox Super Beatle amp. Later, he worked for Ampeg as a Service Manager, which led to him working on amps for the Rolling Stones and going on tour with them in 1969.

Most players first learned about Arredondo from guitar magazines. When Eddie Van Halen cryptically mentioned “José, an old guy from Argentina (sic) who knows a lot of tricks and does stuff for me” in his April 1980 Guitar Player magazine cover story, curious guitarists started seeking this mysterious tech.

When Ed eventually confirmed Arredondo’s identity in the mid-’80s, the tech’s business went through the roof.

So many customers flocked to Arredondo’s Arrco Electronics shop on Van Nuys Boulevard in Sherman Oaks that he relocated his business to the three-car garage at his home to maintain a more private profile and select clientele. Visitors recall seeing stacks of amps with names like Yngwie Malmsteen, George Lynch, Jake E. Lee and Adrian Vandenberg on the service tags.

“Everybody talked about José,” Friedman says. “Eddie, Mick Mars, George Lynch. He was a pioneer of what are now considered modern-style amps and modern-style gain, and he was definitely the best amp tech in Hollywood at the time.”

Shortly after Friedman arrived in L.A., he landed a job with Andy Brauer Studio Rentals, which catered to the top studio musicians and pros. Here he became acquainted with leading techs like rack guru Bob Bradshaw and amp wizards that included Reinhold Bogner, Bruce Egnater, Steven Fryette and Mike Soldano.

Arredondo also did some repair, maintenance and occasional modification work for Brauer, and Andy gave Dave José’s phone number.

Although amps with master volume controls became increasingly common during the ’80s, the holy grail was to get the heavy, overdriven sound of a fully cranked non-master volume Marshall with its power tubes blazing, but at a lower volume.

“My favorite kind of sound is a cranked-up, old Lead-spec Plexi,” Friedman says. “I was always going after that sound; I just wanted to find a way to do it with a master volume and get that sound at a lower volume.”

When Friedman first met José, he brought over a 100-watt Marshall JTM “black flag” Plexi – a rare and valuable 1967 model. Arredondo installed his three-in-one mod, which Friedman says “added a gain stage with three distinct structures in the front, like boosting a four-input Marshall, but with a regular JCM100-style (Marshall Model 2555 Silver Jubilee) master volume added between the EQ and power amp.”

Friedman also had Arredondo put an extra gain knob in the back of the amp so it would look stock from the front.

“That was his basic mod, and frankly, that was enough gain,” Friedman continues, noting that Arredondo generally didn’t do modern-style high-gain mods, even though his modded Marshalls have produced some very heavy tones, like those heard on Kill ’Em All and Dr. Feelgood.

“He only did a few higher-gain mods. People have gotten way out of hand with gain, but most pros that other players are emulating actually use settings where the gain is backed way off.”

Adding to José’s legend and mystery was the fact that many guitar players tried to keep their gear specs top secret. A few boutique amp builders (most notably Howard “Alexander” Dumble) and pedal designers (like Bill Finnegan of Klon Centaur overdrive fame) were equally secretive, covering their circuits with black epoxy so nobody could reverse engineer or copy their work.

Friedman recalled José “never covered anything up,” but at the time Friedman was still new to amp technology, and he wouldn’t have known what José was doing anyway.

Eddie Van Halen was the player most closely associated with José. The two first met in the early ’70s when Ed’s father drove him to Arredondo’s shop to have José repair the guitarist’s 1968 Marshall Super Lead amp. However, there’s some debate over whether José actually modified Ed’s amps or simply repaired and maintained them. Ed eventually admitted that it was the latter.

“I told people that José Arredondo modified my amp to throw him a bone and help him out,” Van Halen told Chris Gill, author of Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen, in 2007. “José made most of his money by doing modifications to people’s amps, but he never did anything to my amps other than re-tube them, set the bias and replace things that blew, like the transformers.

“For years people thought that I had my amps hot-rodded, but they were stock. My Marshall had no line output or master volume. In a funny way I feel a bit guilty about telling people about José’s mods because I lied, but a lot of people dug them. I don’t own any of those modified amps. All of my Marshalls are stock 100-watt heads.”

Friedman, who has seen the inside of numerous Marshall amps that Van Halen owned, including the guitarist’s “number one” 1968 100-watt model 1959 Super Lead, confirmed that Van Halen’s Marshalls were basically stock.

“Eddie didn’t really have modded amps. José serviced and tweaked them. He would change the impedance selectors to heavy-duty selectors that improved reliability.

“He made some slight tweaks in the circuit and would set the bias a certain way for the Variac Ed used so he wouldn’t blow up the output transformers. He provided Ed with matched sets of tubes so the amps would operate more efficiently, and a variety of other things like that.”

In 1989, while they were recording the Black Album, Metallica guitarists James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett, along with producer Bob Rock, hired Arredondo to modify some Marshall heads.

Hetfield was already a big fan of Arredondo’s work – his favorite amp was a José-modded Marshall that he used to record Kill ’Em All, and he was crushed when that amp was stolen in 1983. The theft of that amp inspired the song Fade to Black.

Unfortunately, Hetfield was lukewarm about his modified 1973 Super Lead, feeling that it sounded nowhere near as good as Rock’s José-modded Marshall (Hammett never received his amp back from Arredondo, who died before the work was completed).

Hetfield tried to use the amp on several subsequent Metallica albums but never bonded with it. When working on Metallica’s latest album, 72 Seasons, producer Greg Fidelman hired Friedman to work on Hetfield’s José-modded amp, which Friedman says, “needed a lot of love. Once I fixed it, they liked it so much they used it on the album”.

It’s hard to estimate how many amps José modified. If you can find an original, it won’t come cheap. They rarely come up for sale, and a street-price guesstimate starts between $15,000 and $20,000, with celebrity-associated amps going for considerably more. Richard Fortus owned the José amp that Mick Mars used on Dr. Feelgood, and he reportedly sold it recently for $45,000.

With Friedman’s Jose amp, you can get a Marshall-style amp loaded with faithful reconstructions of Arredondo’s innovations for $3,799.

Friedman conceived his José tribute amp many years ago, but he wanted the family’s endorsement before he went ahead with production. Eventually he was introduced to José’s daughter Marisol, who gave the project her blessing.

Once Marisol gave the okay, it took Friedman about 34 months to finalize the amp’s design and bring it to market.

The Jose model is a 100-watt head with four EL34 tubes featuring several of Arredondo’s most iconic mods in one amp. Details include a three-way “Gain Style” switch, a Fat switch and two switchable global Presence controls, which provide a choice of vintage or modern presence tones.

“It’s a loving tribute to José, who never made a production amp, so I’ve made it for him now,” Friedman says. “I didn’t reinvent the wheel with this amp. I made it as a tribute to the man and his sounds.”

In the mid-’80s, Arredondo and Van Halen planned to go into business to manufacture an amp designed by José. A few prototypes were allegedly built, but Van Halen eventually opted to develop the 5150 with Peavey instead.

Arredondo passed away September 16, 1994, nine days before his 71st birthday. Although José was a private character who never sought fortune and fame, he probably would have been pleased to know that his innovations and tones have lived on.

“I would hope it would bring a big smile to his face because he had such a great smile,” Friedman says. “He was a warm, friendly, wonderful individual once you got to know him.”

• For more on the Jose Series, head to Friedman Amplification.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Electro-Harmonix likes to describe it as a “distortion/sustainer,” but the rest of us think of it as a fuzz pedal, and arguably one of the most important. This massive stompbox may have launched way back in 1969, but it’s still being used today by a list of guitar legends that reads like a who's who of the greatest ever to strum a six-string.

The humble Big Muff helped David Gilmour get comfortably numb, disarmed Billy Corgan, and was there when J Mascis defined the freak scene. It’s a staple of alternative music, and as such, it’s had more variations than you can shake a Jazzmaster at.

Over the years, transistors were swapped out, and the circuit was tweaked, refined, and improved to evolve alongside the players who used it. Today, there are a whopping 11 options to choose from in the current EHX catalog, all based on the various versions through the pedal's long and storied history – and that’s not counting the boutique clones and copies that have used the Muff as inspiration.

Today, I’m looking at the iconic Big Muff Pi. For most players, this is the most classic version of the Muff, at least from a visual point of view. Standing proud in its over-the-top, giant enclosure, the pedal relies on a classic 4-stage silicon transistor circuit to create its famous singing sustain and crushing distorted harmonics.

The unit features a basic three-knob layout with dials for Volume, Tone, and the gain knob labeled as Sustain. It's true bypass and can run on a 9V battery or a pedalboard power supply.

The Big Muff is pedal royalty at this point, and with a long list of famous admirers, it certainly doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone. That said, today I’m going to take a closer look at the stomp that defined good guitar tone for so many, see how it holds up today, and see whether it’s just nostalgia or has a place on modern pedalboards.

Specs

• Launch price: $101 | £75 | €89
• Type: Fuzz
• Controls: Volume, Tone, Sustain
• Features: Quad-transistor fuzz with true bypass switching
• Connectivity: 1/4" input and output
• Bypass: True bypass
• Power: 9V
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 75 mm x 175 mm
• Weight: 450 g
• Options: N/A
• Contact: Electro-Harmonix

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

Right, first things first, this pedal is massive. Like, seriously big. Fun fact: it’s called the Big Muff because it was larger than Mike Matthews’ compact original Muff Fuzz, which predated this one by a few months. Well, it certainly lives up to the name.

Is it totally impractical by today’s pedal standards? Absolutely, but I don’t care one bit. I’ve always thought the Big Muff was a cool-looking pedal, and the ginormous and unwieldy enclosure is a lot of the appeal. From a build point of view, it’s a pretty lightweight pedal; in fact, it feels almost like there’s nothing inside it, but that’s not to say it feels cheap. Far from it. It feels solidly put together and well made with smooth controls and a firm but satisfying footswitch.

I’ve gigged many versions of the Big Muff, from this one to the Little Big Muff, the Nano, and even a Russian one, and I can reassure you that they always hold up to the harsh rigors of stage life. Genuinely, I’m yet to break one, and I’m not exactly light on my feet when I’m stomping around on stage.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

With just a trio of dials, this pedal works just like any other three-knob drive pedal – and it’s not exactly difficult to dial in. In a world of complex modern pedals, I think the control layout here is refreshingly simple; even pure beginners can get a usable sound with very little fuss. The three knobs of Volume, Tone, and Sustain are clearly labeled and large enough to grab mid-song if you wanted to make on-the-fly adjustments on stage.

Obviously, the volume knob controls the overall output level, allowing you to match or boost your signal to sit perfectly in a mix. The Tone knob is a sweeping EQ that shifts the pedal’s voice from dark and woolly to bright and biting; use this dial to season the high-end to taste.

Of course, the Sustain knob is where the magic happens. Turning it up increases the gain, and adds more clipping and saturation, pushing the fuzz from a subtle sizzle to the classic, roaring Big Muff wall of sound. I’d honestly say the interaction between these controls is very intuitive. There’s really no bad setting, and you can quickly find usable tones without endless tweaking.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

I don't think it’s hyperbolic to say the sound of the Big Muff Pi is instantly recognizable. It's thick, saturated, and loaded with sustain. Personally to me, this is the archetypal fuzz tone – it’s at least the fuzz sound I’m the most familiar with.

There’s something about the huge, creamy, and harmonically rich tone that flatters both chords and single-note lines, and I just can’t get enough of it.

Sonically, the pedal delivers a massive low end with smooth highs, but the mid-range is noticeably scooped. This lack of mids is perhaps both the Big Muff’s calling card and, for some, its Achilles heel.

Many players love the scooped sound, but others think it lacks definition, and well, that’s a fair comment. It can sound a little unfocused, and when playing in a band, it can be easily lost in the mix.

Playing a Gibson Firebird through the Big Muff into a mid-focused amp like my beloved Vox AC30, I found that pairing helped balance the pedal’s inherent lack of midrange. This amp’s natural pokeyness added focus and punch, letting the Muff’s character shine through without sounding too hollow.

Stacking the Big Muff with other pedals opens up even more tonal possibilities. Placing a transparent overdrive in front can tighten the lows and bring the mids forward, while running it after modulation and delay can create lush, swirling shoegaze soundscapes.

I found that the pedal responds really well to different guitars and pickups, but always retains its unmistakable Muff-y identity.

Verdict

The Big Muff is a stone-cold classic in my eyes. You certainly don’t get to enjoy 57 years on the pedalboards of iconic players unless you sound the part, are dependable, and easy to use – and well, the Big Muff Pi ticks all three boxes.

Its instantly recognizable voice, massive sustain, and rich, creamy fuzz have inspired generations of guitarists and shaped the sound of countless records.

Despite its undeniably bulky enclosure, which is sure to frustrate anyone trying to maximize pedalboard real estate, the payoff in tone is more than worth the inconvenience.

The straightforward three-knob layout is refreshingly simple, allowing you to dial in everything from smooth, singing leads to thick, wall-of-sound chords with minimal effort. While the classic mid-scoop can make it tricky to sit perfectly in every mix, it’s also a key part of the Big Muff’s character, and a clever amp or pedal pairing can overcome this small limitation.

What truly sets the Big Muff apart is its versatility and enduring appeal. Whether you’re chasing Gilmour’s soaring solos, Corgan’s alt-rock crunch, or J Mascis’s fuzz-drenched riffing, the Big Muff delivers in spades.

Yes, more feature-packed or compact fuzz pedals are on the market, and some variants offer greater flexibility, but none capture the iconic sound and spirit of the original quite like the Big Muff Pi. If you want classic fuzz in its purest form, this pedal remains the gold standard.

Also try

Hands-on videos

Reverb

That Pedal Show

But while my pedal bag included a PolyTune, OCD and reverb, all I really needed was my beloved Vox wah-wah. Hello, my name is Eva Walker. I'm a wah-wah addict, and this is my story.

I remember my first wah-wah fondly. I didn’t buy it – it was gifted to me by an ex. But no matter the source, I marveled that I could manipulate my guitar’s natural tone with a simple flex or point of my foot. As a former dancer (tap and ballet) I could put my training to good use.

For me, the wah-wah is single-handedly the greatest, most recognizable guitar sound. The alternation between high and low frequency isn’t just a cool effect – it’s power! It’s the ability to influence the listener from sounding like a temper tantrum from my two-year-old daughter to the teacher on Charlie Brown giving a lecture.

What I love most is that it sounds like it could be talking or crying. Whenever I hear a player using it, I wonder: are they speaking or are they weeping?

One of my favorite weeping wah-wah songs is Maggot Brain by Funkadelic. As some guitar-heads know, George Clinton told Eddie Hazel to play the lead solo as if his mother just died. Mission accomplished!

Although I think it’s more that the Strat’s mother just died and Funkadelic are the pallbearers. Sometimes I can’t listen to the whole 10-minute song without feeling overly emotional.

The weeping wah-wah features prominently in plenty of songs from the 1960s and ’70s. Perhaps most famously is Voodoo Child (Slight Return) by Jimi Hendrix; he sounds like he’s wailing, screaming and even begging. Somehow, though, it’s just two tones on a seesaw.

As for that delightful talking wah-wah, players know that making a guitar talk isn’t the most difficult thing in the world. The talent is in how a player puts emotion into that language. One of my favorite examples is What I Am by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians.

The guitar practically raps – clean, calm and consistent, the energy builds as it makes its final point. Kenny Withrow knows how to make his guitar talk. It’s like he gave it a public speaking class; he shows real diction and dexterity.

Another great example is Tell Me Something Good by Rufus and Chaka Khan. It’s as if Chaka Khan is Chuck D and the lead guitar is Flava Flav – yes, that’s the hype wah! The guitar offers two standout features that could carry the track on their own, yet they prove to be complimentary in the background; the peanut gallery.

More of my favorite wah-wah comes in 1970s Afrorock songs from areas like Nigeria and Zambia. W.I.T.C.H, Chrissy Zebby Tembo and the Ngozi Family kill me. Tracks like Coffin Maker and Troublemaker are Zamrock staples that heavily stand on the fuzzy wah-wah.

The recordings at times even sound cheap or low quality – muffled. But it’s the talent and the choices made by the musicians that make them some of the best recordings I’ve ever heard, where the wah-wah displays rawness, resilience and frustration from civil wars and economic struggle.

Another example is Blacky Joe from the Nigerian band PRO (People’s Rock Outfit). The tune puts me in the shoes of the titular Joe, who’s burnt all his bridges in town. He’s a misfit, constantly in shady situations. The guitar solo at the end could easily be Joe running away or begging for his life. It’s the sound of a defenseless man.

The best compliment I’ve ever gotten came from a man in New York. I’d just come off stage after an hour with my favorite pedal. “Wow!” he said. “You’re like Jimi Hendrix but with a better ass!”

I’m pretty sure I hugged him. Hey, addicts have to stick together.

When it comes to cramming a lot of tone into tiny units, Positive Grid's Spark Series of amp modelers has led the industry for years. From combos and practice amps to headphones and the pocket-sized Spark Go, the Sand Diego-based firm has proven a formidable player in the field.

It’s a surprise, then, that it’s taken this long for the tech to be converted into the more traditional pedal format. With the say-it-as-it-is Spark Pedal, that’s changing.

Crafted as an all-in-one amp and effects pedal, with a looper and partner mobile app for scrupulous tone sculpting, it’s super compact and caters to electric guitars, acoustics, and bass in equal measure. Flexibility is also the name of the game, with the pedal ready to become the epicenter of someone’s entire rig, a recording tool, or a versatile practice station.

Under the hood is the same Spark tech that has impressed players worldwide. It packs 33 amp models, 43 effects, and grants users access to over 100,000 tones through Positive Grid’s online ToneCloud community. That creates near-infinite tonal possibilities in a unit that easily slots into a guitar bag.

Other features include a rechargeable battery for up to seven hours of shredding (there’s no mains power option), Bluetooth connectivity with users funneled through its partnering mobile amp for operation, and AI tone building.

The latter is the same prompt-generating feature that first launched in its impressive Bias X plugin, and it can craft tones on demand from the array of amp models and effects baked into the pedal.

Positive Grid's software is typically quick and easy to get great results from, and its track record of releases attests to that. So, is the Spark pedal another victory for the series, or does the new format fall short?

Specs

• PRICE: $199 | £179
• ORIGIN: China
• TYPE: Amp and effects modeler pedal
• FEATURES: 33 amps and 43 effects, plus access to the Positive Grid ToneCloud community, looper, Bluetooth, MIDI-compatible 
• CONTROLS: Drive, three-band EQ, amp type, volume, three preset footswitches
• CONNECTIONS: Input, mono and stereo outputs, expression pedal, MIDI in/out, USB-C port, headphone jack
• POWER: Built-in battery with up to seven hours of playtime, rechargeable via USB-C
• DIMENSIONS: 170 (w) x 100 (d) x 30-50mm (h)
• CONTACT: Positive Grid

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

At 0.58kg, it weighs just a little more than a standard Boss pedal, and about half of a Crybaby Wah. And with the Spark’s signature black-and-gold drip, it walks a tightrope between classic pedal and modern aesthetics, in my book. It’s small but mighty.

All the in/outputs are housed to the rear of the pedal, and with expression pedal compatibility as well as MIDI – with 3.5mm jack-to-MIDI port adapters coming in the box it ships in – it’s well equipped and neatly assembled. The Power and Bluetooth buttons, however, sit by the input, so an angled jack is slightly ill-advised, as it gets in the way. It’s a small note.

Intriguingly, the Spark Pedal follows the lead of the Spark Go in that most of its outer shell is textured rubber, yet it looks and feels durable. The real benefit here is that the entire bottom skirt of the pedal means it’s never really in the mood for sliding about.

As with most other Spark products, there’s a real marriage between the unit and its mobile app, which means I’m tethered to both a lot of the time. For more traditional players who don’t want extra screens and tech to get a pedal to sing, it’s likely to prove off-putting. But it also makes a lot of sense.

Often, these products are better managed through a mobile or desktop app, but still let you craft tones and edit settings within the unit itself. That's the case here with EQ, amp and effect type editable on the hardware but further control requiring the app. In truth, I imagine most players intrigued by the Spark Pedal will not be put off by this phone-and-stompbox marriage, given that it’s very much a futuristic, tech-filled product; it’s digital through and through. The app makes the experience far better.

Setting up the app and using it was pleasingly intuitive. But without coming across as ‘old man yells at cloud,’ the thought of tweaking a tone via my phone at soundcheck is pretty bizarre.

The pedal itself looks really smart and makes great use of the limited space. Its row of six knobs has multiple uses and, at a glance, makes the powerful pedal look much prettier and far less intimidating. They’re quite stiff to touch, in a pleasing, sturdily built way, and they give the Spark Pedal a fairly premium feel considering it’s almost entirely rubber and plastic.

From there, a series of seven lights flicker and flash to show players what mode it’s in, whether Bluetooth is on, the power status, and more. It takes me a minute to get to grips with everything, but I find it as intuitive as it can be. Still, the app is where I tend to gravitate, because it displays the amps and pedals, etc., in a more obvious way – I can see the green tube screamer or the Marshall-looking amp head – it feels far more tactile and less like I’m getting dressed in the dark.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★½

In amp mode, the dials are straightforward: Drive, a three-band EQ, the big center dial for choosing the amp type (Clean, Glassy, Crunch, High-Gain, Metal, and Bass), and the master volume. While the dials have lines on them, as is tradition, each is also surrounded by LED lights that show how much, or how little, something is dialed in. It’s all very clear.

Pressing the center dial switches the Spark Pedal from Amp to FX mode, and the dials now offer different functions. The far-left dial houses the Boost, Distortion, and Fuzz effects, increasing in intensity before switching to the next effect. The next dial does likewise with modulations – Tremolo, Chorus, Phaser, and Flanger. On the other side of the center dial, there are choices of Digital, Vintage, Multi, and Reverse delays, and Studio, Chamber, Hall, and Ambient reverbs.

If I press and hold the center button, the tuner engages, which, for me, is a really important feature if Positive Grid has any real hopes of players using the Spark Pedal live. The pedal doesn’t display the name of the note being played; it only tells me if it’s sharp, flat, or just right. For minor adjustments on the go, it’s useful enough, but for any more specifics, the app becomes a crutch – for better or for worse.

The same applies elsewhere. Spark Pedal sans app is well-suited for making smaller adjustments. Sure, adding a little fuzz, delay, and reverb to a crunch tone can make it sound wholly different, and I am having a lot of fun making those more wholesale changes on the pedal’s face, but there’s also a ceiling. For anything more involved, like tweaking the speed of the Tremolo, the feedback of the delay, or the specific amp at play, the app becomes a necessity.

One benefit of being chained to the app is making the most of Positive Grid’s AI tone generator. I first typed in “modern prog rock rhythm,” and within about a minute – there was a short wait – it served up three presets and a breakdown of how it got there. The three presets are previewable and savable, making for an easy addition to my bank of tones.

The crunch tone I found a little underwhelming; it was a bit too scuzzy for what I was looking for, but the middle option paired a Friedman BE-100 (down as BE-101) and matching cab with a Tube Drive and a few other accouterments. The problem is that when I accidentally press back on my phone, it closes the app completely and takes a few seconds to reconnect to the pedal. It also takes me back to the home page, which is frustrating, as I lose that tone entirely.

The Amp Type dial is also smart. Once I find a tone I like - for instance, I found a user-made Slash/Guns N’ Roses tone using a Marshall - I can tweak the amp type, as it says on the tin. So if that crunch amp needs a shot in the arm, I can turn it to high gain while leaving the other settings alone, or pull it back for a glassy clean. It also changes the cab to match the head, which is the best way to work it.

So yes, it’s designed to be used almost always in conjunction with the app, which is like the key to the Spark Pedal’s tonal kingdom, but the pedal itself is also really well laid out; everything makes sense, everything’s easy to find and tweak, and it’s hard to find any major downsides here.

Also, with three preset footswitches per bank, and each bank wholly customizable, that should leave most players with enough tones to cover a song each for live. For example, preset one could be a glassy clean with a little chorus, with the other two for rhythm and lead channels.

Naturally, it’s not as plentiful as Neural DSP Quad Cortex, a Line 6, Kemper, or the other leading built-for-live modelers, but there should be more than enough to get by. Preset changes are also lightning quick. But for those looking to take this into the rehearsal room and beyond, I think it's a drawback in terms of flexibility that it's completely battery-powered – you can't use your pedal power supply or any other mains adaptor here. You always need to consider battery depletion and recharging.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

From my experience with Positive Grid's Spark range of modelers, it’s nigh-on impossible to craft a bad tone. Its products are always really easy to use and very forgiving. The Spark Pedal is no different. Even with some of the built-in metal tones, which were initially too nasal, old-school, and cliché for me, a simple nip-and-tuck with the EQ quickly fixes things. Not once have I managed to concoct something downright awful; it’s just taste that dictates whether what I dial in is exciting or not inspiring enough to lock that particular amp in place.

You can see that by scrolling through the provided presets. From a pure clean tone provided by a model of a Matchless DC-30, to some really lovely, warm-but-gritty crunch tones from an Orange AD30, and searing 5150 lead tones (all from bank B), the bar is high, and the versatility of sounds on offer is hard to argue with. I rarely tweak the other presets; they’re finely tuned to begin with.

I plug a variety of electric guitars into the Spark Pedal. From a Fishman-powered Charvel San Dimas Tele to a seven-string Strandberg Boden N2 Standard and a 30” Gear4Music baritone tuned one octave below drop-D, it handles everything I throw at it with ease. There’s no tuning so low that the amps fall apart, and really, given the breadth of options, no genre that feels out of reach.

With tones so quick to dial in, or find via provided, user-made, and AI-powered presets, there’s a sense of a great well of inspiration for players to draw upon.

There are rare moments when I’m left a little disappointed. The Reverse Delay, for instance, has an inherently digital sound and doesn’t track quite as well as I’d like. It’s a little glitchy. But more often than not, reaching for an effect gives me what I want, from fuzzing up a bass tone (which sounded great with my baritone) to embellishing a clean tone with a nice, wavering chorus. Largely, very few moments of using the pedal have left me wanting more.

For those looking to call upon cornerstone tones for covers, this is an excellent value option. Whether it's a Marshall JCM-800 for tight, British rock and metal tones, or a Blackface Duo (based on a Fender Twin) for spangly, John Mayer-inspired cleans, the Spark Pedal nails the brief time and again. The quality is high enough to gig with, and versatile enough to make a solo practice an absolute hoot. Playing also feels dynamic under my fingers, and the amps the tones are modeled off are easy to recognize the majority of the time – something a lot of cheaper modelers can struggle with.

Moreover, it tracks really well, so using it to record, practice, and gig are all tasks it’s more than capable of handling. Add in an expression pedal and MIDI switching, and this is a serious bit of kit for a price closer to a single effect pedal or wireless guitar system than the big dog modelers of the world.

Verdict

Positive Grid's reputation with the Spark family of products has preceded it here. Its track record of delivering impressive, highly versatile tones in really affordable, user-friendly packages is a standout. So it’s perhaps wise that it’s taken this long to add a more traditional amp-in-a-box format to the celebrated series; it’s gone into this task emboldened by previous successes, and it comes out on the other end with flying colors.

Tone-wise, there’s no compromise compared to the rest of the range. It’s the same great array of options, all tweakable and re-shapable on the pedal itself, and, to a larger, more detailed extent, via the partner app.

For $199, it feels like a real steal, and certainly has its head above a lot of the other competitors circling that same price point. Sure, it’s no (much more expensive) Quad Cortex or Tone Master Pro, but the drop-off isn’t insane either, and it’s packed with more than enough features to get almost every player by.

My playing experience was 10x better with the app loaded, even just as a visual aid to see what amp and effects a preset offers, and whether I wanted to swap anything out. The tuner was also far better on the app than the pedal alone, so that reliance on a mobile phone companion may not be everyone’s cup of tea, and will make it more suited to the home environment for others.

But with three presets per bank, AI tone building, and enough amps and effects to handle all genres, there’s a hell of a lot going for the Spark Pedal.

Guitar World verdict: For those new to the modeling world, or players with tighter budgets, this should be top of mind for practice and gigs alike into an FRFR cab or PA. For more experienced players, and those with a little more cash to splash, it’s more of a practice and recording companion plugged straight into a DAW, or used via Bluetooth to jam along to songs, rather than something that might replace your trusty amp or a higher-end modeler. With its price, ease of use, and some really nice features, this pedal makes a very welcome addition to the Spark’s genuinely brilliant range of low-cost modelers.

• More info: Positive Grid

Also try

Hands-on videos

Positive Grid

• Best amp modelers: rack-mounted and floorboard options for every budget