Marcin Patrzalek is one of the acoustic guitar’s most formidable talents: a jaw-dropping percussive player, meticulous arranger, and dramatic performer. But his new single, PANICATTACK, takes his playing in its boldest direction yet: electric.

But before you yell ‘Judas!’, rest assured, the Polish wizard’s electric playing is just as fierce as his acoustic approach, all flying fingerstyle and harmonic minor flourishes.

“I’m a really loud player on acoustic guitar,” Marcin tells GW. “That’s the reputation I have. A lot of the things I play are very loud, dynamic, and pretty in-your-face. That’s just who I am as a person and as a musician.

“Because I play so hard on acoustic, I can bring that same approach to electric without it overpowering the other instrument too much.”

Marcin chops and changes between acoustic and electric to match the mood of the track – literally swapping guitars mid-music video. His jagged electric playing was inspired by everyone from Tosin Abasi to Deftones, Tame Impala, and Tool.

But the guitarist sought to team those heavier styles with his newfound passion for clubbing, and Polyphia producer RJ Pasin was key in developing not only the throbbing EDM production but also the guitar approach. The two had previously collaborated on Art of Guitar – 2025’s highest-streaming instrumental track.

“RJ is a beast,” Marcin says. “His signature crunch is a big part of this track. There’s a particular line that comes right after the first hook. That exact two-bar phrase was written by RJ, and it really inspired me to build more around it.”

Electric guitar is a relatively new instrument for Marcin. He started with classical guitar, developing into flamenco and percussive acoustic. Electric came later.

“I wanted to go to college in the States, at Berklee, and everyone there plays jazz. Jazz is a huge deal for admissions. That’s why I picked up the electric guitar: to improvise.

“I never really loved electric guitar until about a year and a half ago, when I started getting into a heavier sound.”

Ibanez hooked him up with a new HSS Premium for the electric parts, which he ran into the Neural DSP Archetype: Petrucci plugin. “As someone who isn’t traditionally an electric guitar player, being able to do all of this on my laptop is a game changer.”

Acoustics were his signature MRC10, recorded with a Manley microphone running through a Manley preamp into a MOTU UltraLite audio interface. A new custom Ibanez also features on the track and in the opening shot of the video, its fretboard squiggle looming as large as Marcin’s sonic signature on the song itself.

It all points towards a big 2027: a new album, complete with vocals, and a daring new approach to the electric/acoustic paradigm. And anything that brings guitar into the wider collective consciousness is good news in our book.

“There’s a really big shift coming in my music. One thing people can expect is a much greater emphasis on original music and original compositions. PANICATTACK is just the start.

“The music is going to be much darker and heavier. It’s also going to be a completely self-produced, self-created, self-directed, and self-written record. I’m extremely excited about it.”

• PANICATTACK is out now.

Orangewood has unveiled the latest addition to its Del Sol lineup – and it could not be more on-trend if it tried.

Do you ever pick up your electric guitar and just feel restricted by all those old fuddy-duddy metal bars on the fingerboard? Or that the EADGBE standard tuning is so b-o-ring that you would rather go out and play padel, or take a pottery class?

Well, Orangewood has just the guitar for you: in collaboration with Connecticut’s TreeTone Guitars, it has just turned its Del Sol Baritone into a fretless guitar that the brand promises will open up “new possibilities for pitch expression, fluid voice leading, and tonal exploration”.

When you think about it, the Del Sol Baritone Fretless feels so on-trend, so 2026, so darn au courant, that you wonder why you don’t see more offset fretless baritone guitars kicking around – Eastwood Guitars’ delightfully oddball Sidejack Baritone is the only other mainstream build in the $699 to $1,000 price backet we can think of right now.

And the Del Sol Baritone quite a very different guitar – it is a more conventionally offset doublecut, for starters, but also has a semi-hollow chambered construction, with one unbound f-hole on the body, controls for the pickups mounted on a metal plate a la the Fender Jaguar.

It’s undeniably cool. How could it not be? It has a roasted maple neck, a pair of cream-colored P-90 pickups, a TOM-style bridge and a rosewood fingerboard that is inlaid with maple fret markers, which makes it an excellent introduction to the initially disorientating experience of going fretless for the first time.

“From improvisation and microtonal music to modal compositions and experimental sound design, the Del Sol invites a more intuitive and exploratory playing experience,” says Orangewood.

Sonically, the possibilities are endless. These guitars can help get you out of a rut, can help find new glissando approaches to soloing and constructing melody, and when someone messes up during rehearsal you can always make your guitar sound like a swanee whistle from the Looney Tunes cartoons.

And if you want to do microtonal a la Angine de Poitrine, you do microtonal – there are no frets stopping you here.

But seriously. For $795, this looks a pretty sweet build. There is a mahogany body, Grover Roto-Grip locking tuners, and some other little tricks that would be headline-worthy if it wasn’t for the guitar itself being so fundamentally headline-worthy; such as the electronics.

Yes, the P-90 pickup pairing is an ideal choice for a guitar like this – Eastwood’s Sidejack Baritone is similarly endowed – but who could have forecasted that this Orangewood x TreeTone two-hander would give it a phase mini-toggle switch that comes into play when both bridge and neck pickups are selected.

If you want an idea of how this sounds, check out the demo videos for the fretted Del Sol Baritone – it has one, too.

The big question is: can Orangewood do for fretless electric guitars – for fretless baritone guitars – what it did for the rubber-bridged acoustic guitar? Well, time will tell. Here’s hoping this launch will attract less controversy. Because for $795, the Del Sol Baritone Fretless looks like a steal. And you get a gig bag.

The Del Sol Baritone Fretless is shipping from early December, in Pitch Black only. Find out more over at Orangewood.

P.S. Stray thought: that TreeTone neck plate is very cool.

PRS recently doubled down on its metal guitar game and went all-in on a new electric guitar family, the Tekton series.

The firm's pedigree in making heavy guitars is well established. Mark Tremonti, new recruit Herman Li, and Mark Holcomb have all shown that PRS guitars can handle the heavy.

The new Tekton models, though, take that a step further. They feature contours galore, a speedy neck profile, and humbuckers designed with digital rigs in mind.

Sweeping changes have been made across the board, and its iconic Bird inlays – a love or hate feature for many – have also left their perch.

Speaking in the new issue of Guitarist, Director of New Products Engineering, Rob Carhart, has spoken about the small details that make all the difference on these new axes.

“We tried prototypes with birds, dots and even no fingerboard inlays,” he admits. “We wanted the finished guitar to look elegant but a little different from what people expect when they see a PRS, so we ended up with simpler, more utilitarian markers.”

Last month, owner Paul Reed Smith laughed off a question about the firm’s 'dentist guitar' reputation during a fan Q&A with Andertons. But the approach to the Tektons suggests there is a real feeling in-house that these guitars had to distinguish themselves from the rest of the PRS lineup.

“We also included Luminlay side dots because they make it easier to see where you are on a dark stage,” Carhart expands. “The position of the volume and tone controls and the three-way switch changed during development, too.

“On a guitar with a tremolo, you don’t want the controls getting in the way of the arm.”

This attention to detail has, in turn, led to high praise for the guitars. Guitar World especially has championed the ergonomics of the guitars and the sounds the seven-string model produces.

Carhart’s full interview features in the new issue of Guitarist. Print and digital copies can be ordered from Magazines Direct.

The primal urge to play guitar with fire, skill and dizzying velocity is as old as rock ’n’ roll itself. But while the godfather of shred is debatable – you could equally fight the corner for Les Paul, Ritchie Blackmore, Alvin Lee, Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie Malmsteen – there’s no doubting the guitarists who have flown the flag highest since the mid-’80s.

It hardly needs restating that Joe Satriani and Steve Vai were – and are – mindblowing players. But the New Yorkers also redrew the landscape of instrumental guitar. By launching the all-star G3 tour in 1996 – an era in which Satriani recalls that hotshot guitar players were told: “Don’t stand next to that guy because he’s your competitor” – the pair proved virtuosity and community needn’t be mutually exclusive.

But does shred still have a place in the modern world? With the web churning out gunslingers, and the limits of human physiology surely now in sight, is the pursuit of hard, cold technical prowess, as Keith Richards once put it, “a dead-end street”?

As Satch and Vai hit the promotional trail for their first joint studio album, The Sea Of Emotion, they open up on the new material and take the pulse of the scene they helped create.

Let’s start with The Sea Of Emotion. Are you pleased with how the album’s come out?

Joe Satriani: Well, it’s too late now [laughs].

Steve Vai: My affection for it grows every time I listen. And it started out very high.

You’ve helmed your respective solo careers for decades now. What was it like relinquishing a little control on this joint album?

Satriani: When we’re working together, it’s the best feeling of comradeship, competition and support all wrapped up into one. If there was one person I would trust to push me into areas I didn’t think I could play – or say, “That sucks, Joe, can you do something else?” – it would be Steve.

Vai: Well, the feeling is mutual. It takes a certain chemistry to help you to raise your own bar. But it just happened so organically. Each of us knew if something was working or not. When Joe would write back and go, “You know what? Let’s put this one on the shelf” – because we had, like, 17 tracks we were working on – I would always instinctively feel, “Yeah, he’s right.”

Satriani: If we’re critiquing each other about how we build things, y’know, I [tend to] want to underproduce something and Steve might want to overproduce something. I’m always like, “Sorry, I only have two guitar parts for this song.” And he’s like, “Sorry, I’ve only got 17 guitars already on this song.” But somewhere it all makes sense.

Which guitar parts really pushed you out of your comfort zone?

Satriani: The nylon-string intro to The Sea Of Emotion Pt 2. When I first composed that, I had full distortion, stereo echo, chorus, and I’m playing it on electric guitar. And I’m so excited, like, ‘This is huge!’ But then reality sets in.

So the song made this journey from a grown man who still thinks like a 14-year-old, sitting by his amplifier, having a rock ’n’ roll moment, to seeing that I should play it on a nylon-string and leave space for what Steve did, which is that electric violin-type dreamscape.

But playing that on nylon-string – and keeping it well intonated and not squeaky – was hard because I hardly ever play those instruments. It was a piece of cake on the electric but not on the acoustic.

Vai: One of the big challenges for me was Old Sins Have Long Shadows. Joe had a riff and I wanted to create something that didn’t get in the way but didn’t copy it. When I approach a part, there’s kind of two sides of me.

One of them is thinking, [panicked] “My God, what am I going to do? I don’t want to ruin this!” Then there’s the part of me that just shuts up and waits. And what came out was, “You’re gonna make it sound like a ghost and play a fretless guitar.”

Fretless guitars – they’re not my expertise. I struggle with them. But to get that ghostly, weird, offbeat riff, it had to be, y’know? All the vibrato and little shakes – it doesn’t sound like a guitar. It sounds like a ghostly spirit.

How did you react to that contribution, Joe?

Satriani: “It’s completely insane that Steve would think that way. When he comes up with these parts, the first time you hear it, you often go, “What the hell is that?” But the next time you hear it, if that track isn’t on there, you go, “Well, where’s that really cool part?”

Vai: For me, the thing that’s always fascinated me to death about Joe is just his musical instincts. He’s able to just touch the notes in a way that perfectly fits. Like, after you hear what he does, you just think, “Well, it really couldn’t have been anything else,” y’know?

How do you see the health of the instrumental guitar scene today, compared with when you guys set out back in the early ’80s?

Satriani: It’s changed a lot. There’s less attention on it. But the market is bigger because the world has opened up. When Steve and I started out, we didn’t have the internet to tell everyone, all at the same time, that we had a new album coming out. So we didn’t get invitations to tour the world. But as the internet opened up the planet to us, we got invited to play everywhere.

We could literally stay on the road 12 months out of the year. So that’s been wonderful for us. But for instrumental guitarists who are just starting out? The talent is fantastic. The technique is the best it’s ever been. But their only outlet is Instagram or TikTok, and that is changing how they play because they figure, “I only got 30 seconds, I better give them everything, or dress up, do something really weird, play with my cat on my head.”

It’s totally different from, let’s say, when I went to a New York club to see Allan Holdsworth back in the ’70s. He’s up there thinking, “Well, I got three hours to play in front of 14 people.” It was a very poorly attended event [laughs]. But can you imagine if Allan was 18 today and looking to make a name for himself – I mean, can you imagine his Instagram posts?

Do you think guitarists can realistically get much more technical?

Vai: Yes, but it’s going to depend on a unique individual to do it. The funny thing about us humans is that we come across something that feels new and we think, “That’s it, it’s not going anyplace from here.” It’s a kind of ignorance and arrogance.

There’s always those individuals who will not give up, who look at the intense guitar technique that’s already there and say, “Okay, this is where I start.” Those glass ceilings are always shattered by people who don’t even recognise the ceiling.

And God knows where they’re going to go. Even in the ’90s, when shreddy ’80s guitar playing took a hit, it seemed there was this underground movement of kids just wanting to shred the shit out of the instrument. They’re the ones that will take that particular torch and burn it brighter. When I listen to Tosin Abasi in Animals As Leaders, say, he’s doing something really melodically challenging. It sounds different.

Do you hear young players, Joe, who prick up your ears?

Satriani: Every single day. Some of them have been around for a long time: I just never knew about it. And some are just kids. Y’know, all of a sudden, there’s a kid from New York or Tokyo or Moscow or China, and you go, ‘Oh wow, that’s elevated the level of guitar playing.’ Like, you take two players like Alyssa Day and Ariel Posen. They’re from different worlds, but they’re both amazingly accomplished players using the internet to spread their musical message.

What do you think is the key to writing great instrumental music?

Vai: The first artist that really moved me was Jeff Beck. He was handing you the melody on a silver platter. There was something in Beck’s melodies that made songs sound like pieces of standalone music, y’know, with a voice.

I thought Carlos Santana was doing some really cool stuff, and then, of course, there was more fusion stuff like Al Di Meola and John McLaughlin. But really, I didn’t hear [those melodies] again until Joe. And then, on top of that, the sheer technical evolution of the instrument in his hands.

I’m sure there’s a lot of beautiful instrumental guitar records that have come along since then. And there’s a lot of great contemporary players doing fascinating, impossible things, technique-wise. But for my personal ears, some of it lacks those kind of melodies that are handed to you on a silver platter. And I think that’s the thing that gives artists and songs real shelf life.

Would you agree or disagree that the internet has made people better technical players?

Satriani: Well, it’s helped me a lot. I’ll give you two examples. A couple of years ago, I was listening to a song called 4+20 by Stephen Stills. It’s an acoustic song, just him playing acoustic, Travis picking while he’s singing. It sounds like a Civil War-era kind of a song. I always loved it, always thought it was really spooky and beautiful.

Then I thought, you know, “I don’t know how to play that.” How stupid is that? Like, I can play all this stuff. I’ve been listening to this song since I’ve been a teenager and I don’t know how to play it.

Obviously, within about 30 seconds, I’m looking at a guy on YouTube going, “This is how you tune your guitar for 4+20.” A minute later, there I am playing it and I’m like the happiest kid in the world, you know?

Another example is when Alex [Van Halen] and Dave [Lee Roth] called me about the Eddie Van Halen tribute tour. After I explained to them, “I don’t know how to play any of those songs” – because I’ve avoided it on purpose, y’know? – I thought, “Well, damn, how do you play that stuff anyway?” It’s basically a sort of glorified cover gig but in the most extreme. Covering Robert Fripp and Eddie Van Halen – that’s like super-extreme and it took a lot of physical work.

So, of course, the internet opened me up to this community of thousands of amazing players who have dedicated themselves to figuring out exactly how Eddie played all these songs. And when you see a 15-year-old nail Mean Streets, you go, “Okay, it’s achievable.”

Was this new album recorded nose-to-nose or remotely?

Satriani: The only time we were together was when we recorded Glenn Hughes singing I Wanna Play My Guitar at Steve’s house. The rest of the time we were engineering on our own in our separate pods, separated by 400 miles.

Vai: There is actually one little snippet we did play together because the technology to record remotely didn’t exist. That’s the intro to The Sea Of Emotion Part 3: Reflections On A Year And A Half. That was recorded during one of my guitar lessons with Joe when I was, like, 13.

We still don’t even know who played what, but it’s eight minutes of these teenage kids having total freedom. So I took a little snippet of that. That’s the only time on the record we’re sitting in the same room playing together. And it was over 50 years ago.

So what guitars were you both playing when you recorded the new album?

Satriani: [Deadpan] I did all my guitar parts on the Hydra.

Vai: So did I – at the same time [laughs]!

Satriani: No, it was a small cache of my ‘home’ guitars. So I had my [Ibanez] ‘Chrome Boy’, the very first gold JS, the MCR #2, and the Paisley prototype. I had a Taylor nylon, a Guild acoustic 12-string, my ’72 P-Bass and a Jerry Jones sitar. Steve and I are always putting sitars on our albums. No amps, no mics. Basically, SansAmp, Tonex, Brainworx plug-ins, Neural DSP…

Vai: Similar to Joe, a lot of my gear was in transit. So I used JEMs and PIAs – the Evo, Flo III, my black onyx PIA. And I have this crazy seven-string sitar Sterling Ball made for me.

So you guys have both come around to plugins?

Vai: After I heard Joe’s album, The Elephants of Mars [2022], he told me he’d used plugins. And I was stunned because I had a very snobbish attitude: ‘Oh, you have to have microphones.’ So I started fooling around with SansAmp and realised how easy it is. Now, it’s mostly the Neural stuff that I use.

There were a couple of things where I still used a combination of my [Carvin] Legacy 3 amp and my Synergy module. And I would mic things ad nauseum. Y’know, I’d have two stereo cabs, three mics on the front of each, one in the back, then 4ft away. And then sets of stereo 414 room mics. And it’s nice… but it’s a lot of setup, a lot of work.

You both have such towering reputations. Every time you put your fingers to a fretboard, do you think, ‘This has to be amazing,’ or does that not cross your mind?

Satriani: It’s funny. It doesn’t bother me that much when I’m working on my own stuff. It certainly was a concern these last couple of years where I had to play like somebody else. When I had to play with Van Halen, a couple of times I was thinking, “Oh, I bet people in the audience are thinking that it doesn’t sound exactly like the albums.” But Steve and I both had to get over that with our extracurricular gigs.

Finally, which two guitarists would you most like to see record an album together?

Satriani: I mean, we don’t have enough Jimmy Page, first of all. Steve and I really love Jimmy Page, and he just hasn’t recorded enough for us, if I’m going to be selfish about it. If he was a friend of mine, I’d call him up and I’d say, “Will you please record yourself more?” But who would you pair with Page? I mean, Jimmy Page and Brian May…

Vai: Yeah, they would work together well, I think.

Satriani: Or Tony Iommi and Page would be good. Two guys that are so close to each other in where they come from and when they were born and how they grew up, but wow, what different players and entirely different composers. I’d be fascinated to hear that.

• The Sea of Emotion is out now via earMUSIC.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Its guitar-lined walls are instantly recognizable, and it’s welcomed in a who’s who of legendary guitarists over the years – but now Norman’s Rare Guitars is getting a makeover.

By his own admission, store owner and vintage guitar expert Norman Harris admits that the world-renowned vintage guitar store needs a refresh, and after getting immortalized in a Netflix documentary, it’s time for the store to be remodeled.

“I’ve stayed in the prehistoric age for long enough,” Harris says in a new YouTube video. “I’ve been the Flintstones; we’re gonna be the Jetsons here.”

The store temporarily closed on Tuesday, November 10 for a two-week revamp, with doors set to reopen for Black Friday on November 27. Harris adds that it will be business as usual for its online operations while work is being done on the store. When it does reopen, Black Friday deals will be in full swing.

Norman’s Rare Guitars has been at the center of some huge guitar stories over the years. John Fogerty’s 1969 Rickenbacker 325 famously passed through there. It’s where the Back to the Future guitar came from, and where Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament rented the bass with which he recorded grunge masterpiece, Ten.

It is also where George Harrison tried to flog a truly iconic Beatles guitar, early into Harris’ career; that was the one that got away from him.

Earlier this year, Harris sold the store to TNAG Global, though the staff and location have remained the same.

“I’ve always known there would come a time when I needed the right long-term partner to carry Norman’s Rare Guitars forward,” Harris said in a statement at the time. “I couldn’t imagine a better steward for the shop and its legacy than Ben Montague and TNAG Global.

“The goal has always been to share my love of great guitars with the community, and this partnership allows that community to grow, while protecting everything that makes the shop special. I feel a deep sense of comfort knowing the shop, its history, and its values will still be here for future generations of my family and for guitar lovers around the world.”

Some guitar shops are carefully planned businesses. Others grow out of pure passion, determination and a willingness to figure it out as they go. Michigan’s Motor City Guitar is one of the latter – and proudly so.

Since opening its doors in 1988, Motor City Guitar has grown from a dream into a serious Michigan guitar institution. Founder Marty Minui, along with his wife, Melissa, launched the shop fresh out of high school with nothing but limited funds and a passion for cool guitars.

But word spread quickly, fueled by local students, musicians and a growing community of players. Through multiple expansions and nearly three decades at its current home in Waterford, a northern suburb of Detroit, Motor City Guitar has remained a trusted destination built on hard work, local roots and a love of the guitar biz.

We’ll let Marty take it from here.

How many instruments are in the shop right now?

It hovers at around 3,000. Around half of them are on display, and the other half are in our warehouse.

What’s the coolest guitar in the shop?

We recently took in five or six ’70s Les Pauls – all from different people – within two or three weeks of each other, and all of them are really, really cool.

We found out after the black Custom sold that it was previously “celebrity owned.” A few weeks before that, we took in a collection of 24 sweet guitars, four of which were double-necks. Again, all of them were really cool, especially for Jimmy Page and Alex Lifeson fans like us.

What has been your favorite instrument you’ve ever had in the shop, and what happened to it?

It would probably be what we call “The Magic Strat.” It’s a ’55, all original and beat to within an inch of its life, like Rory Gallagher’s Strat. If any guitar ever had “mojo,” this is it.

Paul Reed Smith was here, and the second that guitar was in his hands, he lit up! He loved it so much that he borrowed it and made an identical duplicate of it just to see if he could capture its magic. I must say he did an incredible job. Then he actually gave it to us!

That was a year or two before the PRS Silver Sky came out. I’ve got some cool photos of Eric Johnson, Mark Tremonti and others playing the ’55; it really does feel like there’s something magical about it. I still have it – and the PRS-made replica.

What’s the most expensive instrument you’ve ever sold?

A Van Halen Custom Shop Bumblebee, one that Eddie held and signed just a week or so before we got it. Someone ordered it a day or two after we lost Eddie just a few months later [October 2020]. It was still in the box, and when we took it out, there was an indescribable feeling in the air. During those 30 minutes or so, several of Eddie’s biggest local fans randomly showed up at the store and gathered around it. It was magical.

Guitar-wise, what separates the good from the great?

How much you bond with it – that means everything, and that’s something that’s different for everyone. There’s some real truth to the saying “It’s all in the fingers,” so whichever guitar brings out the best from those fingers of yours is a great one.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

I wish some manufacturers were more consistent with their pricing. Some of them do this rollercoaster thing where an item will be $1,400 one month and $799 the next. They act as if nobody who just paid $1,400 last month will be bummed out. Consistency also protects customers’ resale value and brand loyalty, and that ultimately helps them and the manufacturers.

Any fun celebrity encounters?

We’ve had a bunch, from Detroit legends like Bob Seger to heroes like George Lynch, Paul Gilbert, John Petrucci, Mike Portnoy and Stanley Clarke. The list is really long. Rival Sons played a show at the store once. Deftones came to the store and borrowed a bunch of gear because their truck was stolen when they were on tour.

But my Number 1 has to be the time my lifelong brother, Dave Friedman [Friedman Amplification], invited me to the Palace [in Auburn Hills] because he was in town to work on Eddie Van Halen’s amp. Nobody said anything about Eddie being there – and Eddie gave me a hug! That was a shock and thrill that I still can’t get over.

When someone walks in for the first time, what do you hope they feel?

Welcome, appreciated and listened to. We’re proud of our crew, who are all previous MCG customers, and they treat customers the way they liked to be treated. Our job is to ask questions and pair people up with the gear that’s right for them.

What’s one fact everyone should know about your shop?

We are long-term thinkers. In other words, we’d rather earn happy, lifelong customers who recommend us to their friends than try to sell every person who walks through the door something they don’t need.

How has this shop shaped or played a part in your local music community?

We’ve been around a long time, so we know many people on a first-name basis. After 38 years, we’re welcoming the kids and grandkids of our earliest customers. We’ve hosted at least 100 clinics and meet‑and-greets to try and share knowledge and advice from the people who inspire us to play.

What’s your best advice for someone looking to buy their next guitar?

Let it find you. Don’t think too hard – you’ll know the right one when you play it. I can say from personal experience – after tens of thousands of guitars have passed through my hands – that all my favorites found their way to me that way. Customers come in with something specific in mind, but many times they fall in love with something totally unexpected.

What’s the best part about owning and operating a guitar shop?

There’s a camaraderie around people who love music and love playing music. It doesn’t matter if you’re a 75-year-old country singer, a 25-year-old metal drummer or an 8-year-old kid picking up your first guitar; all musicians are part of a family. Working with people who share a love and interest is a blessing.

It’s a personal thing, too. Many of us couldn’t even imagine life without music; it changes lives, including ours. I can’t tell you how many funerals Melissa and I have been to where the one single thing right next to the casket was that person’s guitar. It’s an honor to play a role in providing something that holds that much meaning in another person’s life.

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

Julian Lage says it blew his mind when he was invited to play Eric Clapton’s Crossroads festival by the man himself.

Like many, the jazz virtuoso was drawn towards the guitar through Clapton’s playing, albeit in a roundabout way. So having the influential bluesman approach him out of the blue was an unreal moment for Lage.

“I was on tour in Europe playing solo guitar,” he explains to Guitar Center about how he got involved in the recent Crossroads Festival. “I got [forwarded] an email from my manager, Aaron Sawyer, from Eric. I remember Aaron said, ‘Well, I can verify this is the Eric Clapton; this is legitimate,’ and it blew my mind.”

Lage appeared at Clapton’s star-studded Crossroads in late September alongside the likes of John Mayer, Derek Trucks, and Joe Bonamassa. His own performance saw him and his trio team up with Trey Anastasio to play his original song, Northern Shuffle.

It was another footnote in what has been a hectic year for Lage, who became a surprise addition to Bob Dylan’s band, and joined the Tedeschi Trucks Band in New York for an extended, shred-laden jam.

Getting recognition from Clapton, though, is understandably the feather in his cap.

“You have to understand that many people started playing guitar because of him,” Lage beams. “When his Unplugged album came out, that was what inspired my father to get a guitar, which in turn inspired me to want to play with my father. It all comes from him.

“So it blew my mind,” he repeats. “I wrote immediately back to him and just said I would be thrilled, and thank you for being such an inspiration, and then the rest is history. It was a memorable thing.”

Lage has been balancing his own touring commitments with life in Dylan’s band in recent months, having been invited into a greatly rotating cast of players. Jimmie Vaughan and Jad Tariq have also made appearances, after Dylan lost two long-term members earlier this year. Last month, Dylan revealed his sixth guitarist in five months.

Elsewhere, Lage sat down with Al Di Meola and Guitar World to discuss everything from sloppy solos to dark secrets, and has reacted to Alter Bridge’s two guitarists heaping praise on him.

Michael J. Fox – perhaps best known among guitar heads for his role as Marty McFly in Back to the Future – inspired the members of British powerhouse Coldplay to form a band. In 2024, things came full circle when he joined the band on stage during their record-breaking fifth headline performance at Glastonbury.

Fox, complete with a peach/pink Fender Strat, joined Coldplay on their 2021 track Humankind, before layering up guitarist Jonny Buckland’s lead line on the career-defining Fix You. Fast forward two years, and Fox is looking back on that special show.

“A well-timed kick can seal the show,” he tells Esquire. Fox, who was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s at the age of 29, reveals that he couldn’t properly “hold the guitar” and “was having a hard time playing it.”

However, there was one thing that led him to – as he himself puts it – steal the show.

“There was a change in tempo, and I had just been kicking in rehearsal. I rehearsed a few times. I kept kicking, and I didn't think about it. It just was an expression of the music.

“We're in front of 300,000 people playing the song. Comes the part where I kick. I kick, and fireworks went off and explosions. They saw it in rehearsal, and they timed it for this thing. So it scared the hell out of me. It’s like, ‘Whoa! What happened?’ It was this explosion.” Undoubtedly, “300,000 people went nuts.”

Fox had also joined Coldplay onstage on other occasions. In 2016, he walked onto the stage at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, Les Paul in hand, and joined the band for renditions of Johnny B. Goode and Earth Angel – a direct homage to Back to the Future and Marty McFly and the Starlighters. At the time, Martin called the experience a “dream come true.”

The Hollywood guitarist continued his playing streak last year when he locked fretboards with Jackson Browne at a charity gala.

An acoustic guitar that once belonged to country legend Gene Autry has miraculously been unearthed almost a century after it disappeared without a trace.

Nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, Autry was a big player in the country and western worlds of the 1930s onwards. He was known in guitarist circles for playing Martin acoustics – most famously, a D-45.

But he played other Martins, too, including a pre-war OM-45 that somehow made its way thousands of miles across the Pacific, and ended up in the rural town of Gullspång in Sweden.

As comprehensively reported in a series of articles by the Göteborgs-Posten, the mystery guitar had been left to a woman named Sandra by her father, who died in 2021. It didn’t have a case, and had no documentation to explain what it was.

Sandra had no idea about the guitar’s provenance and put it on Marketplace. It was only after she received a message from a keen guitar restorer, Erik Hjertberg, that she began to suspect the mystery Martin was worth far more than the $50 she listed it for.

With the help of guitar expert Leif Lundbäck, the guitar was discovered to be an ultra-rare OM-45. Only around 50 were ever made, and only 38 had the same design as the one Sandra had inherited. A similar build from the same era had recently gone for $200,000.

“We could establish that it dated from the 1930s, and these guitars are very rare and sought after,” Lundbäck tells Göteborgs-Posten. “They’re what we might call the ‘holy grail’ of guitars.”

GP also notes that Lundbäck thinks “it is probably the only example of this particular model ever to have found its way to Sweden”.

To complicate things, the guitar had no visible serial number, a range of crude repairs, and a botched paint job that covered the fretboard inlay bearing the name: “Gene Autry.”

Autry famously had one of his Martins stolen, after a thief made away with his car in the 1930s. And when the team in Sweden got in touch with the Gene Autry museum to find out more about this guitar, it started to look as though that missing acoustic had been found.

Sandra was offered $20,000 to hand over the guitar to the States in 2021, but the lack of evidence to determine whether it was actually Autry’s own model – and if it had been stolen, or bought later in good faith – meant negotiations ended in deadlock.

However, Sandra was advised against taking the guitar to auction by the Autry estate, who warned they’d take legal action if they noticed any attempt to sell it – with the estate firmly believing it belonged to them, and the Autry museum.

It wasn’t until last year, when Sandra had decided it was time to further investigate, that a serial number was found by guitar repairer and instrument maker Andras Novak. It was, as suspected, identical to the one Autry owned in the 1930s.

As for how the guitar ended up thousands of miles from Autry’s home, GP notes the most likely route came by way of an auction house in Varmland County, Sweden. Regrettably, a water leak in the facility where it stored its auction documentation means there is no hard evidence to confirm the theory.

But, in all likelihood, it was purchased by Sandra’s grandfather, some time between 1989 and 2010, who tried restoring it himself. What went on before then, though, remains a mystery, and those preceding years are at the center of what has become an intense ownership dispute between Autry and Sandra’s family.

The guitar is worth potentially several million Swedish kroner, and as Göteborgs-Posten notes, more than enough to secure Sandra’s financial future. She insists the guitar made its way to her family in good faith, and that it belongs to her.

On the other hand, Autry’s widow, Jackie, believes that it had been stolen and therefore should be returned to her. She is not interested in paying for the guitar: “She has to be honest or dishonest, and that’s up to her,” Jackie tells GP. “I’m not interested in paying for something that was stolen in the first place. It’s illegal, it’s immoral, it’s unethical.

“If she chooses to be honest,” Jackie says, Sandra and her family’s name will be given recognition at the museum.

“I believe I’m the rightful owner of the guitar,” Sandra responds to GP. “I’m the one who inherited it. So, with that said, I don’t think I’m being dishonest by wanting to keep it.

“If something was stolen in 1932, something no-one in our family had anything to do with … am I supposed to give up the guitar because of that? No, I don’t know what to say. I find it difficult.”

At the time of writing, the acoustic is still being restored. What will happen to it after then remains to be seen.

Head over to Göteborgs-Posten to read the full story.

What is it?

It’s easy to forget just how good modern guitarists have it today. Decades ago, finding an affordable, solid-topped acoustic guitar meant scouring pawnshops, braving questionable action, or settling for dead-sounding laminated boxes that made learning a chore. Today, thanks to refined manufacturing and fierce competition in the entry-to-mid-level market, value for money has reached an all-time high.

Affordable guitars like the Cort L-60 show how far budget-conscious acoustic design has come, offering genuine tonewood tops, refined bracing, and premium aesthetic appointments at prices that would have been unimaginable a generation ago.

Built around the smaller orchestra body style, the L-60 features a genuine solid spruce top, an Advanced X-bracing pattern designed to aid projection and dynamics, and a traditional dovetail neck joint. Black binding frames laminated mahogany back and sides, while the mahogany neck sports a laurel fingerboard.

Up top we have a set of die-cast tuners, a PPS thermoplastic nut, and what Cort calls its “basic” headstock shape. Rounding out the specs is a laurel bridge and an ABS rosette designed to look like abalone.

It’s worth noting that it has no electronics on board. This is just a straight-up acoustic guitar, although there is a CE version available with a cutaway and a pickup and preamp built in.

At a snidge under $300, this looks promising, but there is now a lot of competition at this level. So how does the L-60 fare against some cheap acoustic heavyweights? Well, let’s find out.

Specs

• Launch price: $299 | £199 | €229
• Made: Indonesia
• Body shape: OM (orchestra model)
• Body top: Solid Sitka spruce
• Top bracing: Advanced X-bracing
• Back & sides: Laminate mahogany
• Neck/shape: Mahogany / C-shape
• Scale/length: 25.5" (648 mm)
• Nut/width: PPS / 1 11/16" (43 mm)
• String spacing at bridge: 54 mm (~2 1/8") standard Cort OM spacing
• Fingerboard/Radius: Laurel / 15.75" (400 mm)
• Body depth: 101 mm
• Finish: Natural Gloss, Black Gloss (as reviewed)
• Bridge/pins: Laurel bridge / Black ABS pins with white dot
• Tuning Machines: Chrome die-cast sealed tuners
• Weight: 4.3 lbs (1.95 kg)
• Case: No
• Left-handed options: No
• Contact: Cort Guitars

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

Black acoustics aren’t for everyone, but you don’t need to be Elvis Presley or Johnny Cash to appreciate them. I like the look of this guitar. It has an unfussy, simple, clean silhouette that appeals to me. You could say a lack of fancy appointments makes it basic, but I prefer to think of it as understated. And that can be classic.

Cor-Tek, the company behind Cort, manufactures guitars for a wealth of big brands from Ibanez to PRS, Squier to Schecter, so it should know a thing or two about making guitars, and well, it shows in this budget acoustic.

This is a neatly constructed guitar with nothing at all out of place. The finish is even and consistent over the entire instrument; the frets are well seated with no sharp edges, and the tuners feel smooth and plenty responsive.

Honestly, there’s nothing to nitpick here. The internal bracing is clean without unsightly glue squeezes, the neck joint sits tight against the body, and the binding has been neatly applied. For a sub-$300 instrument, the attention to detail is genuinely impressive.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

When I pick up the L-60, the first thing I notice is the neck profile. It’s a slim, beginner-friendly shape that feels tailored for newbies or players with smaller hands. It’s so slim that I can easily wrap my thumb fully over it with little to no effort. On that point, if you have particularly large hands, you may find it a little tight.

Out of the box, the action sits at a comfortable medium-low height of 1.6mm. There’s no fret buzz when digging in with a pick, yet it’s low enough that fretting bar chords near the nut doesn't turn into a finger workout. Some rookies may want it a little lower for the early stages of learning, but as it stands, for me, it feels pretty comfortable.

I found that the orchestra body shape sits comfortably against my torso whether I’m sat up playing “properly” or just lounging almost horizontal on the sofa in between ad breaks on the TV.

I will say that the finish on the neck is pretty thick. I’d personally prefer a satin finish on the back, as that is better at preventing your thumb from dragging during position switches, but that said, the finish does feel decent, if slightly glossy.

I do have to keep reminding myself that this is a sub-$300 guitar, though, and for that, it feels pretty great.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

It’s kind of hard to believe that the first-ever orchestra-size model, or OM, acoustic guitar was introduced by C.F. Martin & Co. way back in 1929.

Legend has it that it was originally designed to help banjo players transition to guitar during the swing band era. Built to cut through dense ensemble mixes with a punchy midrange, the OM-style has a more focused sound than its big brother, the dreadnought, but is louder and fuller than a parlor.

Nearly a century later, that classic blueprint remains one of the most versatile and beloved acoustic body shapes on the planet – and while I may not be a banjo player from the 1920s, I've always loved this size of acoustic.

Striking an open chord on the Cort L-60, the tone is clear, direct, and mostly balanced. As expected from a smaller spruce-and-mahogany body, the sound leans into the midrange with a focused attack. Sure, it doesn't rumble with the booming low end of a dreadnought, but the bass response is taut, articulate, and fairly satisfying to play.

The highs aren’t as sweet or harmonically complex as more expensive guitars, and it feels unfair to compare it to the hi-fi response of my Gibson J-45, but this Cort isn’t overly bright or glassy, either. It manages to avoid the harsh top end that often plagues cheaper entry-level acoustics.

Fingerstyle picking sounds crisp and clean, while light-to-medium strumming fills out nicely. It’s been a great sofa companion for the past couple of weeks, and one I keep picking up throughout the day, which is a good sign for any guitar.

Verdict

At the end of the day, the Cort L-60 proves that you don't need to spend top dollar to get a genuinely good acoustic guitar.

By focusing on a fundamental tone and neat construction rather than superficial glitz, Cort has delivered an affordable model that plays well, looks sleek, and sounds far better than its sub-$300 price tag suggests.

Whether you're a complete beginner looking for your first proper instrument or an experienced player seeking a reliable, hassle-free couch picker, the L-60 is a guitar that's well worth your time.

MusicRadar verdict: I'll get right to the point: the L-60 is an exceptional budget acoustic guitar that prioritizes essentials over unnecessary extras. It may seem like a plain Jane, but understated has its charms, and the solid spruce top, clean construction, and comfortable orchestra body make it one to watch in the sub-$300 price bracket.

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Hands-on videos

Cort Guitars & Basses

• Best acoustic guitars for beginners: My top picks for new players, reviewed by a pro

Last week, the ears of guitarists the world over pricked up when John Fusco, screenwriter of the beloved, guitar-centric 1986 film Crossroads, revealed to Guitar World that he and Ralph Macchio were developing a sequel.

The original movie centers around a young guitarist named Eugene – played by Macchio, best known his starring role in The Karate Kid – who goes on a journey of discovering the joys of the blues. After a winding series of events, he eventually finds himself in a guitar duel with Jack Butler – played by a Jackson-wielding Steve Vai – a guitarist who sold his soul to the devil for his, well, devilish abilities. It makes sense if you watch the movie, trust.

When asked by Guitar World if he’d be down to appear in a potential sequel, Vai seemed to be game. “I know Ralph wants to kick my ass,” he told us with a laugh. “Jack Butler needs his revenge!”

But earlier this week, Vai clarified that he had only heard rumors about the film, and that if it did end up happening, it was unlikely that he’d be involved.

While that’s disappointing, it does beg the question: surely, if a Crossroads 2 did come to pass, its apex would be another guitar duel. If so, who should take Vai’s place?

This question was tossed around between us GW.com muckrakers quite a bit over the past 24 hours, and we have some ideas...

Tosin Abasi has this sewn up, surely? The chops are undeniable, and he certainly fits the next-generation bill. He has past ’80s revival experience, having been the designated “air shredder” for 2020’s Bill and Ted reboot. And dude is already jacked like an end-of-level boss.

If John Fusco and co wanted to go in a different direction, Marcin plays acoustic guitar like the devil incarnate. His performances – all whiplash fretboard taps and percussive body beatdowns – are pure drama. He’d be perfect.

Nita Strauss would also embody the role. Her fluid playing nods to Vai, one of her early shred heroes, but the Alice Cooper gig could give her the edge when it comes to theatrical flair. Especially if the second film leans more into the horror of modern-day ‘vampires play the blues’ epic Sinners.

I take my casting very seriously. So, really, I’d want to know the plot, the character outline, the goddamn motivation, before I start picking players. Still, if we take our cues from the valuable lessons of the original Karate Kid Crossroads, it’s about a generic youth pulling off a virtuosic takedown in the face of devilish wizardry and unmatched resources.

However, now we’ve all become numb to YouTube mini maestros and AI-augmented influencers, I think it might be truer to our times to flip the script for Crossroads 2026 and not just make it a battle of speed. Perhaps with a working title of Crossroads 2: I'm Actually More of a Feel Player, like David Gilmour.

For my sequel, then, I can envision any number of technical titans shredding our faces off with some grating djent tones, but then picture this: Ralph Macchio Jr. (or whoever) fires back with a series of bullet-curving bends, over-dubbed by Chris Buck, Marcus King, or Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram. Cut to the villain. A solitary tear falls on the dust. Fade to black.

It would also be fun to flip the gear choices of the original Eugene, with his down-home guitar. After all, what kid is playing a US Telecaster in 2026? These days he’s more likely show up with a modded Harley Benton and a Tonex pedal. In that case, you’d need a much-maligned vintage obsessive with a bevvy of ’Bursts and lightning fretwork to play the villain. But, er... where on Earth would we find such a person?

Or maybe I would cast an actual villain. A Giacomo Turra-type influencer. Picture the scene: just as all hope seems lost for our hero, the tech glitches exposing the real player beneath, warts ’n’ all. The crowd falls silent. A whistle sounds in the distance. Then Danny Sapko crashes through the wall riding an ACTUAL STEAM TRAIN, yelling ‘Choo choo, ya bastards!’

The possibilities are endless…

The first to come to my mind was Guthrie Govan. Though he’s not the new kid on the block, his chops are, of course, otherworldly, and he’s already got the Hollywood credits! What’s a better classroom for learning cinematic shredding than in the live band of one of the greatest film composers of all time?

I’d also argue in favor of St. Vincent. She’s a virtuoso and a stylistic wildcard who can play pretty much anything – there’s not a cliché guitar lick to be found in her entire catalog. Plus, her game-changing signature guitar still looks futuristic, a decade on.

Finally, though he’s not a whole lot younger than Vai, I feel that John Petrucci should also be given consideration. We all know about his technical abilities, of course, but keep the vivid themes of Dream Theater’s music in mind – Petrucci knows how to make shredding accompany, and color, a story.

A Crossroads sequel would be pointless unless it showed just how radically guitar music has changed since the 1980s. A shred-off would be fun to watch, sure, but realistically who is going to step in and out-speed Vai’s chops in the original?

Therefore, the only answer to this question I will accept is Tim Henson. It’s a no-brainer; in fact, maybe it’s too obvious. Ralph Macchio has the sleight of hand to keep up with Vai, but what happens when Henson rocks up in his fluffy hoody and sunglasses, and starts ripping Polyphia riffs on an eight-string? If it were me, I’d probably run and hide.

Today’s pre-eminent shredder Matteo Mancuso could be a good shout if we want to keep things more conventionally virtuosic. In a wicked twist of fate, Vai was one of the earliest to champion Mancuso. It almost feels written in the stars.

Oh, and the John Mayer fan in me would also like to think he could be a dark horse contender. Let’s not forget, Mayer can shred. And if it was a stank face competition, Macchio wouldn’t stand a chance.

• Who do you think could fill Vai’s devilish shoes in a Crossroads sequel? Let us know in the comments.

Jimmy Page hasn’t performed publicly since the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, when he paid tribute to Link Wray. Now, while attending this year’s Music Industry Trusts Awards in London, he has confirmed that his touring days are well and truly behind him.

“The whole sort of, ‘Living out of a suitcase, bags go down at seven in the morning, and then you leave for the plane at midday,’ that doesn’t really appeal to me any more,” Page told The Sun. “But the idea of playing does, and I am still playing – of course I am.”

Page hasn’t toured since 2000, when he wrapped up the Excess All Areas tour with the Black Crowes. Since then, his live appearances have been few and far between. His most recent full-length performance was at the Led Zeppelin reunion in 2007, which saw him reunite with Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and drummer Jason Bonham, son of late Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.

The one-off show, which took place at London's O2 Arena and was staged as a tribute to the late Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, saw the band perform 16 songs from across their career.

While Page is still playing, he isn't actively releasing material for public consumption. He released what may or may not count as his latest “official” album, Lucifer Rising and Other Sound Tracks, in 2012. This avant-garde record, available only through his website, contained music he produced but never used for the Kenneth Anger movie, Lucifer Rising.

Preceding that limited-edition release, he dropped Walking into Clarksdale with the Page and Plant project in 1998. That was just under three decades ago.

He went on to release the live album, Live at the Greek, with the Black Crowes in 2000, followed by several guest appearances, lending his chops to the 2006 Jerry Lee Lewis album, Last Man Standing, and Foo Fighters’ Live at Wembley Stadium in 2008. That same year, he also took a Led Zeppelin classic to China, for the closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympics.

These days, Page can be spotted at London gigs supporting up-and-coming bands, while his focus has shifted to signature gear releases, including a new 6W signature amp with a $10,000 price tag.

Bryan Bassett’s licks start Wild Cherry’s 1976 funk-rock classic, Play That Funky Music – but the 72-year-old Pittsburgh native doesn’t consider himself a funk guitarist. “I’m a blues-rock player,” he says. “I do have a funky overtone. But Jeff Beck is number one for me. Nobody could play like him.”

Following Bassett’s arena-dominating days with Wild Cherry, he became the lead guitarist for “Lonesome” Dave Peverett’s version of Foghat in 1989. He went on to join Molly Hatchet, and since 1999, he’s been with Foghat proper.

“The club scene in the ’60s and ’70s was a training ground,” he says. “You had to learn a list of new hit songs every couple of weeks. Covering funk by the Commodores, as well as Ritchie Blackmore and Jimmy Page, served me well.”

Foghat are currently on the road. They just released Live & Loud Across the USA, and when the road trip finishes, it’s back to studio for a follow-up to 2023’s Sonic Mojo.

“The fanbase still comes out and sees us, so we honor the songbook,” Bassett says. “Sonic Mojo went to number one on the Billboard Blues charts. That was great for all of us ‘new’ guys – validation for sure.”

How did you cut your teeth on guitar?

I got a real interest in playing in high school. My friends and I would play coffee houses. The club scene was alive then; there were dozens of places playing music every day of the week. In the late ’60s and early ’70s you could make a pretty decent living playing the club circuit.

What led you to turn pro?

I met Rob Parissi, who had a band called Wild Cherry, but it had disbanded. I always admired him; I said, “If you ever reform your band, give me a buzz.” He did, and we got to work together in Wild Cherry – but we were playing clubs.

What gear were you using?

My first great amp was a Hiwatt 50; I loved it. I should have never gotten rid of it, but I couldn’t fit it in my station wagon! I used that and a Fender black[-panel] Super Reverb, which is still one of the best-sounding amps.

I never got into pedals; I always depended on the amplifier. I was using my first great guitar, a ’68 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop with P-90s, and I had another Les Paul from the early ’70s, a Tobacco Sunburst.

Wild Cherry moved up from clubs once Play That Funky Music hit. What did you use for that session?

I borrowed my friend’s blonde maple Fender Strat for that session. It had a black pickguard and it was probably from the early ’70s. I played that through a Music Man 410, which I loved.

How did Funky Music come about?

We loved Zeppelin, Rainbow and ZZ Top, but bands like The Bee Gees, Earth, Wind & Fire and all that were turning up on the club scene. There was this dance-and-R&B vibe. Someone said to our drummer, ‘You better start playing some funky music, white boy!’ We laughed about it in the dressing room, but Rob started writing lyrics then and there.

When we played it live, people would start hitting the dance floor – that was before it was even recorded. Back then jukeboxes were still a big deal, and we wanted to produce a single for those. While we were recording it the A&R guy for a label called Sweet City Records came in and liked what he heard. That’s how we ended up on Epic – Sweet City was a subsidiary.

They released it and we went from clubs to arenas. Within a month or two it went up the charts. It was a mind-blowing time. The recording was very straight-up – done in one or two takes. It was minimal, but it was pretty cool.

After Wild Cherry broke up in 1979, you got into production work before hooking up with Dave Peverett in his version of Foghat.

Dave had relocated to Orlando from England and he’d been on a hiatus. He was a sort of blues historian, and he came to see a band I was in that did a lot of those songs. We hit it off. We had natural chemistry.

He called and said, “I wanna go back out on tour. Wanna to go with me?” I said, ‘“Of course!” We went out as Lonesome Dave’s Foghat for maybe five years. I think he liked that my playing was immersed in blues and I was familiar with the songbook.

When Foghat’s original lineup got back together, you joined Molly Hatchet.

Yeah, Foghat reformed with the original members at the behest of the record company. I’d just finished a European tour with Dave and we’d been playing with Molly Hatchet. When I got back to the States, they knew I’d be out of a gig, so they said, “Wanna join our band?”

That lasted until 1999, when Rod Price retired from Foghat.

Dave called asked me to rejoin in ’99, and I’ve been here ever since.

Dave was sick with cancer in those final years. What was it like navigating that?

He played pretty much up until he passed away. He’d been undergoing treatments; I’d kept in touch with him while I was in Molly Hatchet. He called and said, “I feel like doing a bit of playing.” I said, “I’ll come over if you want to jam.’ He goes, “No, I want to go back out on tour.”

He was in remission from the big C. We got together in New York, rehearsed, and for a time I was playing in both Molly Hatchet and Foghat. Then Dave passed away. I was glad to have that last year of touring with him.

What’s it like in Foghat today?

It’s a lot of fun. There are signature lines in songs like Stone Blue and Slow Ride, where you want to play the notes on the record because that’s what’s in people’s heads.

What’s the key to nailing Slow Ride?

Rod was a fantastic slide player. I’ve spent the last 20-plus years trying to emulate his style. It’s almost impossible because he had the widest vibrato – and playing slide through a distorted Marshall stack is totally different than playing it clean with a Strat like, say, Bonnie Raitt’s style.

It’s a different technique where you’re muting more strings than you’re playing because of the volume and distortion. So the first thing about covering Rod is isolating your notes, and the second is intonation. If I tried his wide vibrato I’d sound out of tune!

He played with such ferocity – he was a very in-your-face, hardcore player. I’m a little more contained, but I’ve finally gotten to the point where I’m fairly satisfied with the way I play slide.

What’s next for you and Foghat?

We like to play, write and record, so we’ll be making another record of new material. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s great that we’re able to carry on the Foghat legacy and that great songbook, and still contribute to it with new material.

• Foghat have shows booked until May. Live & Loud Across the USA is out now.

Stevie Ray Vaughan was a once-in-a-generation guitar talent, and it is a tragedy that he left the world all too soon.

John Lee Hooker was among the first stars to have laid eyes – and ears – on the young guitarist, years before SRV weaved magic with a Dumble amp and a Fender Stratocaster on Texas Flood. What he saw left him convinced of his impending greatness.

“I loved him so much, it’s such a great loss,” Hooker told Total Guitar in March 1997, seven years after his death. “He was so good and such a nice person, too.”

Hooker has played with a who’s who of prolific players over the years, and so he knows a top tier guitarist when he sees one. Him dedicating his 1991 album, Mr. Lucky, to SRV, tells you everything about how highly he rated the Texan. He knew Vaughan was destined to become a legend.

“I remember before he got famous, he got on stage and jammed with me at Antone’s club in Austin, Texas,” Hooker recalled. “I told him then, I said: ‘One day you’re gonna be really famous’. He just looked down real modest and said ‘Yeah?’”

It’s not clear what year this was, but what is clear is that 1983 was a life-changing time for SRV. Bowie, having witnessed a “devastating” performance somewhere in Europe, enlisted him for his album Let’s Dance, which released in the April. His instant classic debut album followed in its footsteps just one month later.

Hooker said it was “without any doubt” his favourite record of all time. Fast-forward 14 years, and he felt the modern blues scene was at a loss without him.

“There’s a lot of good blues around but nobody that unique,” Hooker claimed at the time. “I’m listening but I ain’t hearing anything. I said to Jimmie [Vaughan, his brother], ‘There’ll never be another Stevie.’”

The Texas Flood amp, a Dumbleland Special with the serial number 005, was later used by John Mayer during SRV’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2015. Two of his guitars, meanwhile, have ended up in the extensive collection of filmmaker Robert Rodriguez.

Notably, the success of Texas Flood flew in the face of the blues diminishing public reputation as grunge took hold. He helped make blues guitar cool again, dragging it from small clubs onto MTV. Ideas were said to be “pouring out of him” before a helicopter crash took his life.

Guitar World has explored the legacy that could have been, while remembering the icon he was.

Whatever might have happened off the pitch this year, Fender has a tunnel-vision agenda for its product lines. “Our goal is to always look at our instruments and listening to players, and work with them to offer features that help them express their art better,” says the Big F’s Director of Product Management Allan Abassi.

The Silent System is indicative of that approach: rolled out on the American Professional Classic, it offers a fresh take on solving the single-coil 60-cycle hum problem. Fender is no stranger to hum-cancelling gadgets, of course – its Noiseless pickups have been a mainstay since 1998.

But this marks a change of direction: the Silent System isn’t a new pickup. Instead, it uses a passive magnetless dummy coil positioned under the pickguard to remove 60-cycle hum, promising to retain authentic single-coil tone while removing the pesky noise.

Dummy coil tech isn’t new; Suhr, Ilitch and others have experimented with it in the past. But Fender’s promises to be different in terms of size, shape and, Abassi says, efficiency. “There are a number of ways to approach the challenge,” he says. “And the form our system takes is unique.

“Protecting the natural frequency response of Fender pickups was at the heart of this project, and the Silent System does it better than all the others we tested.”

What inspired Fender to create the Silent System when you’ve made Noiseless pickups for so many years?

At the heart of this is an age-old problem with single-coil pickups, which is 60-cycle hum. If you're playing in an environment with a lot of fluorescent lights, or you have a big pedalboard, or if you just have dirty power in general, it can introduce a lot of ancillary hum into your tone. People have wanted to get rid of it for a long time.

The way we’ve done it in the past is using our Noiseless pickup design, and it works very very well. But you lose some of the organic, transparent feel and tone of a real single-coil. It’s subtle, but it’s there.

We wanted to get rid of all the last percentage of difference between a real single-coil pickup and a single-coil pickup with no hum. The dummy coil is a tried and trusted method. We wanted to take the noise cancellation away from the pickup itself, because we wanted to use regular, real single-coil pickups.

So this system is compatible with any pickups? You don’t need a special set to get the benefits?

Exactly. It’s passive, so it works with any Fender pickups. The only concern you would have ever is that it works by phasing out the hum. The dummy coil is wound in reverse to whatever pickup is selected. Occasionally, if you have a reverse-wound pickup, you might have to flip the phasing in comparison to the dummy coil.

That can easily be accomplished with a switch or changing the wiring, so it does work with any single-coil pickup set.

What are the core mechanics behind how the Silent System works?

A dummy coil, or the Silent System, is a bobbin that’s wrapped with wire. It’s wired in series with whatever pickup is selected on the guitar, and it’s wired in reverse. It senses the phase of the pickup it’s wired in with, and cancels out the hum of that pickup.

What makes this use of the technology different from, say, the Ilitch or Suhr applications?

Ours is unique because it’s a very large coil – it’s very wide and deep with very thick wire, and that’s the recipe that cancels most hum and retains more of the single coil tone. Think about a bucket catching rain: the wider the bucket is, the more rain it’ll catch. So the wider the coil, the more hum it will get rid of.

One of the popular methods of using a dummy coil is to just use another Strat pickup and wire it out of phase. This is different – it’s a magnetless pickup, so it’s not really sensing the strings. While it does fit in the dummy coil category, it’s been optimized well beyond just throwing a plastic Strat bobbin inside the guitar, like the old days.

This coil is wider and deeper than any other noise-reducing pickguard/backplate solutions, which allows for the use of a larger gauge magnet wire. That’s key to preserving high-end response. The final coil is shaped to be as wide as it can be; a wider coil is more efficient at sensing noise.

What were the main design challenges?

We wanted to make sure it wasn’t too heavy. The system we have now, including the pickups in the guitar and the coil, is just a couple ounces more than a Noiseless pickup set would be. It had to fit under all the pickguards – the bigger the pickup, the better the result.

It also had to be better than all the hum-canceling systems we've tried in the past. We wanted to make sure you could tell that more noise was gone, and make sure that we were retaining all the beautiful transparent tone of a normal single-coil.

Are there plans to make these more widely available across the Fender line?

We’re definitely thinking of it. Exactly where and when is still under development, but I think the system works so well, and it fits in all the guitars that we make so well, that we’ll use it in the future. For now it’s reserved for the limited run on the American Pro Classic.

Can it be retrofitted into guitars?

You could route any guitar to fit it in somewhere. Our goal was to fit it under the pickguard, so you don’t need extra cavity covers or trap doors. It’s probably a bit beyond the average user, but if you can route the body yourself, you can mount the system in any guitar that we make.

• See Fender’s full limited-edition American Pro Classic range, featuring the Silent System.

Poll a circle of prog-rock lifers on the bands who built the genre and the usual suspects – Pink Floyd, Genesis, Jethro Tull – will loom large. Certainly, there’s no arguing with the guitar contributions of David Gilmour, Steve Hackett, and Martin Barre. But let the conversation roam, and Jan Akkerman’s name will soon drop.

Born in the Netherlands in 1946, and playing accordion through his formative years, this classically trained alumnus of the Amsterdam Music Lyceum was a fascinating dichotomy, drawn to both the roar of Sixties rock and the delicate renaissance music, the latter inspired by his love of Julian Bream.

That musical curiosity was writ large in Akkerman’s breakout band of the early Seventies, Focus, who interwove jazz, classical, blues, and hard rock into a technicolor tapestry. Albums like Focus Plays Focus (1970) and Focus II, aka Moving Waves (1971), were game-changers, as was their much-underrated live record, At the Rainbow (1973).

“We certainly did not realize,” Akkerman tells Guitar World, “that what we were doing would cause the shit to hit the fan.”

One song in particular, Hocus Pocus, from Moving Waves, earned the most attention. “The thing with Hocus Pocus is that after playing it five million times, I got fed up,” Akkerman says. “For a moment, I said, ‘No more Hocus Pocus’, because I felt there were other things in the world.”

Akkerman duly moved on, finding further success with Focus 3 (1973), which featured another hit in Sylvia. Then came Hamburger Concerto (1974) and Mother Focus (1975), after which the guitarist quit Focus to kick off his solo and session career.

Back then, he never considered himself a prog talisman. And to a degree, he still doesn’t.

“I never thought about it in that sense,” he says. “For me, music is music. If it’s progressive, or whatever they want to call it – that’s fine. They can give it that name. But I never stick to one form of music.”

True to his word, since leaving Focus – and even after reuniting with the band in the Eighties and Nineties – Akkerman has run the gamut. Scan his activities through the decades and you’ll find him winning a Dutch Edison Award in 1976 for his solo concept album, Eli, experimenting with parallel fifths and guitar synths, even stretching himself in the studio with Jack Bruce, Phil Collins, Paco de Lucia, Ice-T, and B.B. King.

A nasty back injury from a car accident in ’92 nearly took him out of the game for good, but Akkerman returned, rattling off more solo music, with even more on the way.

“For me,” he says, “new music is an open field…”

How did your interest in jazz, classical, and rock form you as a player?

I come from an environment of business people, like scrap-metal merchants, secondhand car dealers, etc. I grew up in the middle of the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam and right around the corner from the red-light district, where music oozed out of bars at every corner.

It was not boring. [Laughs] There was a very famous button accordion player, a man called Johnny Meyer, who played all the jazz standards but also J.S. Bach. I was so mesmerized that I wanted to play the accordion. I was 5 or 6, and that music turned me on.

How did classical music impact your playing?

It led me to grow up. I was very curious. That’s a good way for everyone to be. I was very interested in discovering more types of music and instruments.

I ended up going to [Amsterdam Music Lyceum], and found I’d rather learn about new things all the time. My dad once took me to a cafe where an orchestra was rehearsing. They put me on a chair right in front. I was 12, and what other folks must have experienced when listening to Jimi Hendrix, I had listening to that orchestra.

Your first proper band was Brainbox. What gear were you using then?

I played a Gretsch White Falcon, a gift from my father because he had seen on TV a guitarist named Van Wood. By coincidence, my “uncle” became the importer of Gretsch drums and guitars. After that, I had a brown Country Gentleman and a ’63 White Falcon.

My old man told the importer, the “uncle” man, that if he wouldn’t make a gesture, let me have that White Falcon, he wouldn’t buy one screw, amp, or drum kit from him because all our instruments were bought from him. So we made him an offer… [Laughs]

How did you first meet Pierre van der Linden?

I had gotten sacked by Brainbox, which wasn’t so bad, as I was only in the band for seven months. For some reason – probably because of envy, jealousy, and all the other feelings one has in this world – I got kicked out. But before this, I was in a band with Pierre called Johnny and his Cellar Rockers, so I knew him from there.

Moving on to Focus, what gear were you playing?

I played a Tele on the first Focus LP because I loved the clear sound and sustain. But after a while, I started fiddling around and wound up with a body in the shape of a tulip because after my Gretsch, nothing could touch my White Falcon, so I wound up using my White Falcon again. But then, the manager of Focus at that time showed up with a 1954 Les Paul Black Beauty.

I embraced that guitar like my old lady, but there was something missing. I came to realize that I missed my Gretsch sound so much. So, I took my White Falcon pickups and put them in the black Les Paul, but I forgot how the wiring was done. So, I rewired them in the wrong way, which triggered this whole customization business. Nobody said thank you. [Laughs]

What amps did you use back then?

In the old days, I played a lot on German-made amps, like Dynacord suitcase amps. Later, I started using a Cordovox Leslie, and then a 60-watt white Marshall with a separate top, and after that, a Fender solid-state with two cabinets and 4x12-inch speakers and a bass cabinet with eight 10-inch speakers.

Even later, I had 40 Leslie cabinets. Great sound, but they were only 30 watts each, so I replaced them with two large cabinets powered by two 1,000-watt Crown amps, plus crossover filters… just to cheer them up. And I had a Colorsound preamp, which gave me all the FM and radio stations as an extra.

Focus II, also known as Moving Waves, ended up being a pillar of prog. What are your memories of it?

In those days, even before Focus, I listened to a lot of John Coltrane, Django Reinhardt, and all sorts of things. And with Hocus Pocus, I remember I was listening to a lot of the Beatles’ White Album. I loved the craziness of that album.

I’d be listening to that with one ear while having the other fixed on the television while sitting on the floor with a guitar. I’d come up with a heavy lick, and through that sort of process, tracks like Hocus Pocus and that album came together. That album has a lot of different influences layered in.

By then, was it still Fender amps and your Black Beauty?

Yes, in those days, it was mostly just my Les Paul. At first, I used big solid-state Fender amps, but the studio was too small, so I found smaller 30-watt amps for the recording. But I still felt like I needed amps with more sustain, so I went for a walk in London to Shaftesbury Avenue and I found some great gear.

I saw this thing called Colorsound [Supa Tonebender Fuzz], which had boost, treble, and bass. Instinctively, I felt that gadget would do the trick, and it did. The problem later, when touring the States, was that I had every radio station in the neighborhood because this thing not only boosted the guitar sound but also worked as an inductor.

What’s your tried-and-true secret for guitar tone?

The secret to my tone is purity of sound and balance, just like the old bebop players. I keep the bridge pickup full and the switch in the middle and use the neck pickup as a volume pot with the little finger.

How did Hocus Pocus come about?

I heard a song by Frank Zappa called Willie the Pimp, which was in the same category as the Beatles or Rolling Stones but more genuine. This triggered the old R&R feel in me, not realizing how good it felt playing it, and of course, [Focus vocalist] Thijs Van Leer started to yodel – with the result everybody knows now.

Did its success take you by surprise?

In a way, yes. I guess it did alright in the polls, right? It’s a funny album because there’s a lot of heavy rock on there, but also yodeling to the point where it’s almost half opera. [Laughs] It was kind of like a big opera-type story; the only thing missing was stabbing a knife in each other’s back, but that happened later anyway. As for me, I like the opening lick – what comes after that, it’s beyond my budget.

I’ve always loved the 15-part suite, Eruption.

With Eruption, that was kind of this weird, patched-together thing. It was a true conglomeration of ideas. That’s the nice thing about fusion, jazz, and even rock – there’s things you can’t calculate in advance, but sometimes, in the right place, or at the right time, they come together.

Eruption was a sort of liberation. Drummer Pierre van der Linden always wanted to experiment with different styles, just like me. And I wanted to surprise him and gave him a copy of Concerto for Orchestra by Béla Bartók. That triggered van Leer and the form for Moving Waves! The second Focus album was set.

Another classic was Sylvia from Focus 3.

Funnily, the only thing I remember about recording Sylvia was that I added depth with a second guitar part to make it sound like a Doppler effect. I didn’t want to use effects, so I just played the part a second time, doubled it, and got what I wanted. It was easy and only took me maybe five minutes. I never expected the song to be so popular; I thought it was a song with a nice melody, and that was it.

What led you to hook up with Framus for one of the first-ever signature guitars, the Akkerman?

Well, I liked the Framus because I designed it myself. It’s a similar shape to a Les Paul, and they were making them at a good factory. I loved my Les Paul, but I also loved my Tele and my Broadcaster, so I liked guitars that were less about luxury. At the time, I was very happy with my Framus and played it as much as possible.

You added more guitar synths as a solo artist in the Eighties. What led to that?

My experimental period! It goes back to what I said earlier – I like to experiment. At the time, those things were fairly new to Europe, where it was almost like the Renaissance in the 14th or 15th centuries, you know?

I even got into drum machines and, like you said, guitar synthesizers because I liked the sounds I could make with them. It’s like, “Oh, I can make a cow’s ‘moo’ on a guitar,” which was something I never thought possible but also thought was funny. [Laughs]

What are your memories of working with B.B. King?

He was fantastic. He invented that type of blues, right? While playing with him, I realized I had picked up more things from him over the years than I ever realized. Working with a guy like him was like learning a new language – one which makes you wiser, though not luckier. [Laughs]

How did your car accident in 1992 impact your guitar playing?

It’s always difficult to overcome a sickness or injury. I had broken my back in several places and found myself in a wheelchair. The recovery was slow to the point that I felt like I could only move maybe a 10th of a millimeter, and if I did so the wrong way, I’d never walk again. It was hard, and I couldn’t play for over a year. To that, I always say, “Thank God it’s over.”

Which record means the most to you?

It sounds cliché, but they’re all good! The problem for me is not in the music. Let’s put that upfront. I love the music of Focus. The problem is the right or wrong synergy – or whatever you want to call it – that’s involved. I said earlier that envy and jealousy are factors, and those feelings are often underestimated.

So, that’s the stuff that factors in for me rather than how good the music was – it’s all good. Every album is like one of my babies. I have two albums out – Live Under the Rainbow by My Focus, recorded in the U.K. – and the one I’m working on now is a studio album that has no title yet.

I don’t suppose a Focus reunion is in the cards?

No. I mean… the idea is, of course, very tempting, but there are plenty of other tempting things in life. Life is basically one risk after another. To get involved in that again, part of me thinks that would be crazy. You don’t have to be crazy to make music, but maybe it helps!

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

What is it?

The original EarthQuaker Devices Plumes has become something of a collector’s item, thanks to a steady stream of limited editions and extravagant colorways.

It has been a pedalboard staple for many since its 2019 release, yet the circuit inside has stayed the same.

So perhaps it’s time for a refresh?

Enter the Limited Edition Plumes Jr MOSFET Mod, which squeezes the Plumes’ Tube Screamer-inspired overdrive circuit into a smaller enclosure and adds a new MOSFET clipping mode.

Specs

• Price: $129 | £149 | €165
• Type: Overdrive pedal
• Controls: Level, Tone, Gain, Clipping Switch (Symmetrical LED/No Clipping/MOSFET), Bypass footswitch
• Features: True Bypass
• Connectivity: Standard input, standard output
• Power: 9V DC adaptor (not supplied) 25mA
• Dimensions: 38 (w) x 95 (d) x 51mm (h)
• Contact: EarthQuaker Devices

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

EarthQuaker Devices is one of the few builders whose pedals you can spot on a board from a mile off.

Even with the Plumes Jr’s mini enclosure (and my bad eyesight), the identity and aesthetic is immediately recognizable as a pedal of the Akron, Ohio shop.

The original Plumes’ cascading green and yellow circles are still here, just shrunk down and set on an ever-so-tasteful, very on-trend cream-colored enclosure.

The input and output jacks feel as sturdy as those on EarthQuaker’s full-sized pedals and the footswitch has the same satisfying click.

Mini pedals can suffer with the reduced sturdiness of their smaller pots and toggle switches, but that isn’t the case here. The pots turn smoothly with a reassuring resistance and the toggle switch, while tiny, has very little play in it.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★☆

If you’ve ever laid eyes on a three-knob overdrive pedal before, then you’ll already know the score with the Plumes Jr.

Level, Tone and Gain are all a circuit like this needs and it’s easy to get close to classic Tube Screamer tones straight out of the box.

In my testing, though, the Tone knob does more than a typical treble roll-off, seeming to emphasize the bass, mids or treble depending on where it sits.

Mini enclosures are ideal for sneaking one more pedal onto a board, but they come with some practical trade-offs.

The Plumes Jr’s footprint is much smaller than a standard pedal’s, but its side-mounted jacks mean it can take up almost as much real estate as a bigger top-mounted pedal once it’s cabled up.

Shrunken pedals can also be less stable, rocking side to side under a heavy stomp. I tend to avoid mini pedals for this reason, but I can’t deny the appeal of being able to fit the Plumes Jr almost anywhere on my board.

Before I move on to how it sounds, I need to bring up my bad eyesight again.

Shrinking the pedal has shrunk its text too and while the knob labels are fine, the L, N and M labels on the Mode toggle are tiny. I’d have liked the text a size or two bigger across the board.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★★

The original Plumes is popular for a few reasons: it looks great, it’s affordable in a sea of boutique overdrives and, most importantly, it sounds fantastic.

The Plumes Jr keeps that core sound, with one change: the original’s third clipping mode has been swapped for a new MOSFET mode.

I have previously owned an EarthQuaker Devices Blumes, the low-end bass brother of the Plumes, which sounded thunderous on guitar too. There is a new Blumes Jr MOSFET Mod also.

I plugged the Plumes Jr straight into the clean channel of my Victory Amps MKX with my Heritage Guitars H-150 P90 Goldtop and it instantly reminded me why I liked the Plumes.

The first thing you’re struck by is how much sheer power is available. In my testing it has a lot more output and gain than a traditional TS9 Tube Screamer, which makes it more flexible.

There’s enough level to boost the loudest of amplifiers and enough gain to add real heft to every note.

Back those controls off and you’re quickly into Stevie Ray Vaughan and John Mayer territory, which is where I like to use it most.

The Mode toggle drastically changes the texture and feel of the overdrive.

In Mode L, the pedal clips symmetrically through a pair of LEDs, making it the most compressed and mid-focused setting and the one I’d start with out of the box.

Mode N removes the clipping completely, leaving a wide-open op-amp drive. It’s loud with a capital L and perfect as a clean boost or for pushing your amp into characterful saturation.

Mode M, the new MOSFET mode, replaces the original Plumes’ third mode, which, funnily enough, was its most Tube Screamer-like setting.

It’s the most distinctive sound here and my personal favorite. It somewhat reminds me of my old Fulltone Fulldrive 2 MOSFET, which I loved dearly.

It’s powerful in a way you don’t often hear from Screamer-type pedals, sounding closer to a cranked amp. It’s harmonically rich, more strident in the mids and fuller in the lows. Once I’d had my fun with Modes L and N, I set it to MOSFET and left it there.

Verdict

EarthQuaker probably didn’t need to refresh the bestselling Plumes, but the Plumes Jr shows that it was worth doing.

The new MOSFET mode is the standout, delivering amp-like thickness that sets it apart from most Screamer-style pedals.

Losing the original’s most Tube Screamer-like clipping mode is the trade and if that’s what you’re looking for, the full-size Plumes is still the one to get.

The small text and mini enclosure won’t suit everyone, but if you’re short on board space and want something a little different, the Plumes Jr MOSFET Mod is an excellent little overdrive pedal.

With only 2,000 being made though, I wouldn’t wait too long to set yours to MOSFET and leave it there.

Guitar World verdict: The Plumes Jr MOSFET Mod squeezes one of the most popular Screamer-style overdrives into a board-friendly mini enclosure and its new MOSFET mode is the best sound in the pedal.

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• “It’s like a Christopher Nolan movie in a pedal. Don’t think – feel”: EarthQuaker Devices Towers review

Since it arrived in 2018, John Mayer’s PRS Silver Sky signature guitar has undergone a handful of careful revisions, and a few more radical iterations could yet be in the offing – including an HSS model.

The Silver Sky was recently reimagined as a Land Rover Defender collab electric guitar and, perhaps more notably, given a ‘Dead Spec’ spin-off.

But as Mayer recently told Guitar World, he and Paul Reed Smith are constantly discussing ways they can further fine-tune the template for potential limited runs.

“It’s telling a story really thoughtfully,” Mayer said of the Silver Sky line. “It’s basically two SKUs: it’s a Core model and it’s an SE, with a slight number of limited models like the Dead Spec. There was 1,000 of the Dead Spec, which, to me, I always see as a kind of concept guitar.”

“I just think there’s something that feels good in my brain, and maybe other guitar players’ brains, about this model,” he continues.

“I would like to introduce – and will introduce – evolutions of this as we go. Paul is always calling me with another idea.”

One of those ideas, it turns out, is a Silver Sky with a bridge humbucker. “I have a prototype of an HSS,” Mayer reveals.

It’s a popular after-market mod that many Silver Sky owners have taken upon themselves to retrofit – Neal Schon included. So any talk of an official HSS Silver Sky could spark borderline hysteria from Mayer fans.

But the Sob Rock guitarist is quick to quash the idea. Almost as soon as he reveals its existence, he plays down the idea it could become a future ‘concept guitar’ a la the Dead Spec.

“I think that’s too much of a tease,” he replied when asked if it’d be released. “I don’t think it would be a limited run. I’m not out to frustrate people. I’m out to excite people – and it’s a fine line between excitement [and frustration].

“It’s got to be right. You’ve got to be braiding it very slowly – everything has to be as tight as the braid before it. And it’s not a matter of, ‘When’s the right time to drop this on people that would be the most exciting?’ It’s like, ‘When is it right?’

“You know, you have a geometry puzzle on a design level when you take two single-coils and you place them together. How are you going to express the shape of that in a way that communicates with the rest of the design language? How do you do it sonically so you don’t go full blast when you go into the [bridge pickup]. You need it to stay even. These are design-based timelines.”

Given Mayer’s comments, it seems unlikely there will be a design-timeline for an HSS Silver Sky. For now, we can just rest easy knowing one exists – and pray Mayer takes it on to the stage when he hits the Sphere for his solo residency next year.

For more from John Mayer, read Guitar World’s interview on the making of the recent PRS x Land Rover Defender collaboration.

Yep, you read that right. The Black Friday guitar deals have arrived early at Musician's Friend, promising discounts and all manner of exciting goodies to grab. If you’re in the market for a new guitar, amp, pedal, or that finishing touch for your home studio setup, and you can’t wait until the end of the month, then there should be something to catch your eye at Musician's Friend, with up to 50% off some products.

Now, most guitarists know Guitar Center as the music retail giant with hundreds of stores across the U.S., but many don’t realize Guitar Center also owns Musician’s Friend. Earlier this year, Guitar Center gave Musician’s Friend a serious revamp, relaunching it as the go-to online discount outlet for killer deals on premium gear.

So, with this being the first year the site is a new online outlet store, I was excited to see what sort of discounts would be available. With that in mind, I’ve taken a closer look and rounded up a few of the most eye-catching deals I could find.

There are literally thousands of incredible deals in the sale, but, naturally, some caught my attention more than others.

My top pick from this batch is the Epiphone Explorer '80s, which is $140 off right now. In our glowing review, we said, "If you want a guitar to play all kinds of heavy music, the Epiphone Explorer 80s EMG is one that will let you do it with aplomb. From the eye-catching looks to the super-playable neck, it’s a great guitar for laying down precise metal rhythms and searing lead licks. It’s not subtle, but it’s not trying to be."

There's also $150 off the Guild Surfliner. This is a closeout deal, so once it's gone, it's gone. For me, the Surfliner is retro-cool, retro-odd, and all shades of unusual for Guild, but with tones that are musical, the ride is fun, and the price is seriously attractive at only $349.99!

Another closeout deal is a whopping $500 off the Schecter C-1 SLS. This is a metal monster equipped with Fishman Fluence Modern pickups, a lightweight Swamp Ash body, and an ultrathin C-shaped neck.

Musician's Friend hasn't been clear about when the sale ends, but my guess is it will run until the official Black Friday event takes over. That said, if you spot something you like, you’ll need to act fast before stock runs out.

Looking for more discounts? Well, head over to our dedicated Black Friday guitar deals hub for even more offers and personal recommendations.

With the new documentary on the life and times of Ann Wilson set to land on streaming services later this month, the Heart vocalist has explained why her sister, guitarist Nancy Wilson, doesn’t feature.

In My Voice premiered in the rock band’s hometown of Seattle back in May, and will now launch for home viewing via Amazon Prime and Apple (iTunes & Apple TV) on November 25. The film features many notable music figures spanning generations, with interviews with the likes of Paul Stanley, Chapelle Roan, and David Letterman bandleader, Paul Shaffer, interspersed between Ann Wilson’s own contributions.

There being nothing from Nancy Wilson in the documentary has raised eyebrows, but now her reasoning has been revealed in an interview with Classic Rock.

“I asked her to come and speak, but she wanted to wait for her own documentary,” Ann Wilson explains. “She’s got her own life, you know? She didn’t want to forever be known as the two of us joined at the hip.”

It’s an understandable reasoning, with the Wilson sisters clearly set on identifying themselves as individuals, rather than two halves of a double act. Yet, Nancy wasn’t part of Heart at first. She had to audition for the gig – and wowed her future bandmates with a Yes cover.

Her older sister had co-founded the band a year earlier, and was intended to be their acoustic guitar player, before she recognized her sister’s skills were far superior.

Wilson has also been talking to Guitar World about how Heart survived the excesses of the 1980s to redefine their sound, and sell more records than ever before.

In other Heart news, the band’s US tour last year was blighted by the theft of the Nancy’s cherished baritone Tele. The custom-made six-string and a vintage Gibson mandolin were swiped from the stage at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, where they were due to begin their tour.

Thankfully, the Tele was eventually recovered, with the perpetrator reprimanded, and the guitar got its belated live debut alongside Chapelle Roan. Together, they ripped through a Heart classic.

Jimi Hendrix is set to feature on commemorative coins, after he was named Washington’s submission to the U.S. Mint American Innovation $1 Coin Program.

The program was first launched by the Mint in 2019 to honor innovators and innovations from all 50 states, with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs getting the nod for California, while Texas has honored NASA. The districts of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands are also set to be acknowledged as part of a 57-coin program.

Hendrix has become the first musician to be recognized so far, and given the electric guitar revolution he helped kickstart, he is a worthy representative of American music culture. He won the race after a committee had presented five finalists for Governor Bob Ferguson to choose from.

“Picking just one example from the most innovative state in the nation was difficult, but Jimi Hendrix’s historic innovation on guitar and his deep roots in Washington make him a great choice to represent our state,” says Governor Ferguson.

Now his name has been submitted, the coin’s design will be drawn up. The Secretary of the Treasury will ultimately have the final say, with the coin set for a 2029 release.

The firebrand guitarist was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1942. But it was in the UK with a British backing band – after early-career stints playing with Little Richard, Buddy and Stacy, and the Isley Brothers – that he truly made his name with the Experience, stunning everyone from Eric Clapton to Jimmy Page and Paul McCartney on arrival.

His legacy cannot be understated. The Stratocaster poster boy – who currently sits in second place in Guitar World’s ranking of the world’s best players – was an early adoptee of guitar effects like, feedback, fuzz and wah, and took blues to new heights in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Decades after his death, many music lovers believe there are very few players that can lay a glove on him.

Last year, his take on Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower was voted the world’s best cover song, and it is a song that showcases his rhythm chops as well as his fiery leads.

In related Hendrix news, Orianthi was recently granted access to Hendrix’s archive and wrote a new song out of an unused riff with Power of 3, her new Hendrix-inspired trio.

The worlds of heavy metal and military history have collided many times over the years, dating as far back as Black Sabbath’s War Pigs, with other notable works coming later from the likes of Iron Maiden – who have documented battle stories quite extensively – Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer.

But if there’s one band who’ve evolved that formula to the nth degree, it’s Swedish power metal quintet Sabaton: a band whose live shows are renowned for featuring cameos from Julius Caesar, Napoleon and the Knights Templar amongst their immersive melee of battle reenactments, cannons and pyro.

In September it was revealed that Jackson were releasing a signature seven-string for guitarist Chris Rörland, marking his first artist model since joining their roster four years ago.

The Pro Series Signature Chris Rörland SL7 comes with a 26.5” scale length, EMG 81-7H and 85-7H pickups and a recessed Floyd Rose 1000 series double-locking tremolo, with a Nyatoh body, a three-piece maple neck and ebony fingerboard.

If you tell the man himself it looks like a war machine, he won’t disagree. “It’s definitely that!” he laughs. “I’ve dreamed about my own Jackson guitar since I was a kid, seeing Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden playing his models. I played Jacksons early on and ended up trying out some other brands [ESP, Ibanez, Caparison], but now it’s like I’m finally home.”

Nyatoh is an interesting choice for the body. It’s sonically similar to mahogany but lighter.

Yeah, it’s unusual. It was the Jackson team who suggested Nyatoh, which I was unfamiliar with. It’s nice because it’s not too heavy – it won’t break my shoulder like playing a Les Paul while headbanging. A lighter guitar with lots of tone was exactly what I was looking for.

And the EMG 81/85 set is as legendary as pickups can get for heavy metal tones.

I’ve tried so many pickups over the years. My first proper set was the Zakk Wylde EMG set. I got hooked into that sound. So when we were designing this guitar I decided it was time to go back.

It’s perfect for my needs in Sabaton. When I’m at home, sure, I like to play different styles and dial in different sounds; but in Sabaton, it’s pure punch-through-the-wall. I don’t need something versatile. It just has to be high-gain everything in a good way.

It’s interesting how you use a seven-string Soloist while your other guitarist, Thobbe Englund, sticks with six-string Strats. Most twin guitar bands double up on extended range instruments if they’re going low.

I guess I’m the demon driver in the band! Thobbe is a huge Yngwie fan who’s played Strats his whole life. He’s never tried anything else, though when he played one of my new Jacksons the other day he said it felt like cheating because it was too easy to play! I know sometimes it’s good to work for it, but if a guitar feels easy to play, I’m home.

So Thobbe tunes down, but you can go way lower than him.

Yeah, way lower. He tunes his six-string a whole step down to D standard, but my seven-string is dropped a step to A. We don’t play the same thing; he’ll play an octave higher.

Some people don’t realize Thobbe’s guitars are in the usual spot and mine as super-low. That’s what makes our sound so wide. Two guitar players playing the same exact thing makes no sense to me.

You mentioned Adrian Smith earlier. Is he your biggest guitar hero?

He’s one of them, but I think my main influence is John Petrucci. I got his old Rock Discipline VHS tape when I was a kid, trying to play exactly like him. He’s unbelievable. Maybe it’s a mix of those two; Adrian has these amazing melodic ideas, it’s all about phrasing.

I like to write my guitar solos and I recently started writing them on piano first. It was the hardest thing ever because the stretches got a bit crazy, but it definitely sounded more interesting. When you stay on guitar it’s too easy to stick to the same old patterns. Writing on another instrument is a great way of switching things up.

Did you get the chance to meet Adrian when your toured with Iron Maiden in 2013?

I usually try to stay away, because they say never meet your heroes. But one time we played with them in Switzerland and somebody knocked on the door. It was Nicko McBrain – he sat down and talked to us for a while. At the end he said had a great tip for us: “It’s all for fun. If you don’t have fun, it’s not worth it!” That was a very cherished moment for us, and his advice was pretty accurate.

Another time we were touring with Judas Priest and Rob Halford came into our room. It’s surreal getting to meet some of these heroes. I’ve never met anyone who was an asshole, even if they’re rumored to be. Even Kerry King – I’m sure someone said stay out of his way, but honestly, he was the nicest guy ever.

What kind of rig will you be plugging your new Jackson into?

We’ve switched from the Kemper to the Quad Cortex. I’m still learning how to use it because it’s a bit of a spaceship. The main sounds are based on an EVH 5150 with a Green Scream pedal in front, plus some digital delay.

In the studio, our engineer is a good friend of the band and a total gear nerd. We never really know what we’re going through! We used a Marshall Silver Jubilee for a bit, then a Soldano, then an ENGL. I don’t even know what’s on the albums any more – we’re mad puppets in the studio. Anything goes! There’s no signature sound that gets used on every album.

What’s your approach to writing music around historical events?

Pär Sundström [bass] and Joakim Brodén [vocals] are the history buffs. I was really bad at history in school so I just stick to writing music. We get so many emails from fans; we keep them in a big folder of all the different years and battles.

The songs get based on the album theme. One might be about World War II. Our most recent one [2025’s Legends] was about legend; that was great – they could go wherever they liked in terms of themes.

Some riffs might fit perfectly with a lyrical idea; like Hordes Of Khan actually feels like Genghis riding his horse in how it pushes. But when we’re in the studio I have no idea what the vocals will be about. Sometimes it might sound happy for a lyrically dark song, but it’ll fit anyway.

You now headline the world’s biggest arenas, festivals like Wacken Open Air and even have your own cruise. Are you surprised the band has grown to that level?

Yes and no! We work hard, even when we’re not touring or recording. Sometimes we go up to the band HQ in Falun to make plans, write music or sign stuff. Sometimes it’s hard to see the progression when you are so close to it. You wake up one morning and suddenly it’s like, “Wow – we’re doing this now!”

You have to really pinch yourself at times. I enjoy every second. When you’re standing on stage in front of the audience, with Julius Caesar, Napoleon and other historical figures turning up, it’s the best feeling in the world.

• For more info on the Pro Series Chris Rörland SL7 Signature, head to Jackson Guitars.

Faith No More are set to return to the stage in 2027, and former guitarist Trey Spruance is back in the fold after 31 years.

After weeks of teasing their return, the experimental American band has posted an image to their socials showcasing the line-up – and some big name players are ecstatic.

Spruance, who formed Mr. Bungle with Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton in 1985, went on to join FNM in 1993. During a two-year spell, he featured on their fifth album, King for a Day... Fool got a Lifetime, meaning he’s now back in the picture after over 30 years away.

Anthrax riffer Scott Ian, Korn's Munky, Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weinmann, and Mike Vennart have all expressed their delight at the news in the comments section.

Spruance himself has also taken to socials to show off some FNM-branded Schecters and convey his own joy at the news.

“It means the world to me to be invited to strap on my big boy boots and join Faith No More for their upcoming appearances all around the world,” he writes.

“Looks like I’m gonna be riding out into the sunset well equipped with these fine angelic weapons – huge thanks to Schecter. [I’ll be] aiming my damnedest to do the Hudson and Martin eras proud.”

Spruance replaced founding guitarist Jim Martin, and was subsequently succeeded by Jon Hudson, after Dean Menta filled his place on the King for a Day... tour.

“This is so crazy,” he adds. “I can’t believe I get to take this insane victory lap with Billy, Roddy, Mike and Mike!”

The guitarist’s first show back in the saddle will be at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on January 15, 2027, supporting System of a Down. That tour then hops over to Australia and New Zealand.

Two American shows, at Welcome to Rockville and Sonic Temple, have already been confirmed for the summer, alongside a slew of Europe festival dates. With Ozzfest returning in 2027, the band could finally join that bill for the first time, too.

And if the FNM guys are in the mood for another reunion, Jerry Cantrell has previously spoken about his desire of reuniting his Degradation Trip band, which included FNM drummer Mike Bordin, and now-Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo.

Steve Vai has revealed that, on the day he quit David Lee Roth’s band, he received an unexpected phone call from Eddie Van Halen.

Vai walked into the Roth gig with big shoes to fill. The vocalist was looking to kickstart his post-Van Halen solo career, and needed a virtuoso who could live up to the precedent set by Eddie.

So it was a full-circle moment that one of the first people Vai spoke to after he departed Roth’s band was the very guitarist with whom he’d been pitted against by both the singer and fans.

“I didn't even know how he knew,” Vai remembers in a new interview with Chris Jericho (via Guitar Player). “He said, ‘You have to come over to my house,’ and we kind of struck up a friendship that was very heavy for, like, four months where we were virtually talking every day. It was weird.”

The Roth gig was a huge role for Vai, but one that never fully fazed him. There were some nerves in living up to the era’s greatest guitarist, but Vai approached the Roth spot as his own – even if the singer wanted to compete with Van Halen.

“I just knew that I could make it work, because I had a rock and roll fire that I loved in me,” Vai said of his time in the band earlier this year. “I knew that I wasn't going to try to sound like Edward or do anything like him, because people are very hip to that.”

Though the wider perception was of two elite guitarists going head to head, the reality was anything but. And when the pair struck up their friendship, Vai was given a look behind the Eddie curtain.

“During that period, I’d go up to his house and he would play me this amazing stuff because Edward was like an audio pack rat,” Vai adds.

“He was showing me the studio that was being built at the time and he would just go in there and he'd record by himself all you know tons and tons of stuff. I just thought, ‘Make a solo record,’ but [he’d say], ‘No, I’m Van Halen.’”

Vai, of course, did go solo. Recently, he teamed up with Joe Satriani to release The Sea of Emotion – the pair’s first collaborative studio album, which has been decades in the offing.

In the most recent issue of Guitar World, the pair looked back on the making of the record, recalling the time they saw Billy Gibbons and Brian May play through their rigs along the way.

Vai has also recently clarified his involvement in a potential Crossroads sequel, seemingly ruling out his return after the rumor mill went into overdrive.

In the middle of a July heatwave we’re speaking with half of New York City’s Telescreens – singer/guitarist Jackson Hamm and drummer Oliver Graf – as they join a Zoom call before their show in Nantucket.

The band is on tour supporting their sprawling new album, Why the Lights Flicker. It’s their third record overall and second with Graf behind the kit. Interestingly, Graf is quick to reveal that when he auditioned for the band, he almost didn’t make the cut.

“He was playing quiet and all this shit,” Hamm says. “Then Josiah [Valerius, keyboards] jumped on the kit and was like, ‘Nah, let me show you,’ and Oliver goes bright red in the face. He sat back down at the kit and bled and broke the shit out of this practice kit that we were using. It was the moment the band was born. Plus, he’s a legend at the pub. He can drink so much!”

“That’s actually why I’m still here,” Graf says with a laugh.

The album’s title, Why the Lights Flicker, comes from a phenomenon Hamm experienced writing songs in the house he grew up in, which he believes is a signal that he is channeling the energy from the universe. For Hamm, capturing that lightning in a bottle comes easy, but the real skill lies in sustaining that magic for the duration of a song.

“Everybody is capable of channeling from the outer realm or getting hit with some sort of pure inspiration from the collective unconscious,” Hamm says. “But where you become a musician is whether or not you can sustain that for three or four minutes.”

One way that Hamm sustains that magic is by putting the song before his capabilities as a guitar player.

“I can do the scale thing and I can do the shred thing,” he says. “It’s more about what kind of energy is being emitted rather than [whether it’s] a fast or impressive part.

“It’s like with Billie Joe Armstrong. You could say all the guitar parts are easy, but I challenge you to sing them and play them perfectly at the tempo that [Green Day] sing and play. Do it for 20 songs in a row. It’s fucking hard and it’s seriously physical.”

The band has already begun work on their followup to Why the Lights Flicker.

“[Lights] is our quintessential record that represents us as a rock band,” Hamm says. “A lot has changed since we wrote and recorded it. This next batch of songs is much more in the box. It’s just about cleansing the palette and letting the pendulum naturally swing toward things that sound fresh.”

• Why the Light Flickers is out now via +1 Records.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Fender might have just released the final piece of its Player puzzle: a spin-off lineup that takes its most popular electric range in a heavier direction.

First unveiled in June and now finally available, the Player Fusion series is an assortment of Mexico-made, purpose-built Stratocasters, Telecasters, Precision Basses, and even a Jaguar Baritone that go big on hot-rodded specs geared for hard rock, frills-free performance, and some gnarly looks.

As Fender puts it, the range is about “stripping away everything that doesn't serve the riff”.

Fender Limited Edition Player Fusion Stratocaster HSS ($1,149)

For my money, the Fender Player Fusion Stratocaster HSS is the most fusion-y out of all of them. That pickup configuration, for one, promises both hefty, high-output humbucking bridge action via a Player II Modified humbucker along with “surgical clarity” from the Noiseless single-coils.

The 12” radius ebony fingerboard is also a nice touch – especially for a Player series guitar – as is the all-black hardware and streamlined control layout, which offers Master Volume and Tone controls. There’s a two-point tremolo, a black headstock cap, and a choice of either Black or Olympic Pearl finishes.

That Black one is especially cool. It kinda looks like the meaner older brother of Tom Morello’s Soul Power Strat.

Fender Limited Edition Player Fusion Telecaster HH Floyd Rose ($1,399)

The Player Fusion Telecaster, meanwhile, really leans into the hard rock and metal design brief, what with the dual humbucker configuration and Floyd Rose bridge system. That’s not surprising, though, as Fender says this one is “built for the riff”.

Two Player II Modified humbuckers usurp the Tele’s usual SS combo, promising mix-cutting output and power. Again, all black hardware is used, as is a 12” ebony fingerboard. Black and Aura Metallic are the finish options here.

Fender Limited Edition Player Fusion Jaguar Baritone ($1,299)

The standout model of the Player Fusion lineup by a country mile, the Jaguar Baritone is an absolute peach of a guitar. With a 27” scale length, it’s purpose-built for heavier playing, tuned B to B for drop-tuned riffing.

It’s got two high-output Player II Modified humbuckers, but retains a Jaguar-inspired switching system that ekes out a bit more versatility from the pickups. In practice, the ‘Spin-a-Split’ system can roll off the humbucker’s character, and make it more single-coil-y for leaner, more cutting tones. Can we get this on more guitars, please?

There’s also a TBX (Treble Bass Expander) tone circuit, a 12” radius ebony fingerboard, and the choice of Black or Silverburst finishes.

Fender Limited Edition Player Fusion Precision Bass HH ($1,149)

Last up, the Player Fusion Precision Bass looks to elevate the P-Bass template for a hard-rock context. It’s equipped with two high-output Fireball humbuckers, a thin Jazz Bass neck profile for speedy playing, and that familiar 12” radius ebony fingerboard. Black and Halo Metallic are the finish options here.

The Limited Edition Player Fusion range is available now. Head to Fender.com for more info.

Seymour Duncan has given its Custom Shop Eddie Van Halen humbuckers a Frankenstein twist by injecting them with even more EVH flair.

Van Halen began working with the firm in the late 1970s, later developing a meticulous recreation of the humbuckers found in the guitar god’s legendary Frankenstein guitar.

They were followed by two further Custom Shop iterations, both also approved by Van Halen himself, which sought to harness other distinct eras and nuances of Eddie’s guitar tones.

Now, those three humbuckers have returned to the original source material. Not only are they inspired by the sound of Eddie’s Frankenstein, they’re also inspired by the aesthetics of his iconic guitars.

Four finishes have been released across the three pickups. Red, White & Black is probably the one that will have the most tongues wagging: it lifts the striped pattern directly from the final and most recognizable form of Frankenstein.

There’s also a black-and-yellow Bumblebee finish option, inspired by the guitar of the same name that was built by Wayne Charvel in the late 1980s, and which starred during the Van Halen II era.

In keeping with Frankenstein’s evolution, Seymour Duncan has also dropped a Black & White colorway, inspired by the guitar’s earlier form, while a Black & Grey model pays homage to the finish found on Van Halen’s Charvel Art Series models, which were hand-striped by EVH himself.

As for tones, the Frankenstein Custom is a direct replica of the humbucker found in the O.G. guitar, while the Classic draws inspiration from the early P.A.F.-style tones that defined the first Van Halen records. The Frankenstein Plus is a hot-rodded version of the original, with heightened output and increased sustain.

In essence, they’re all Eddie Van Halen humbuckers, made to be even more Eddie Van Halen.

“I was listening to Jeff Beck, I knew Jimi Hendrix. Then all of a sudden I hear this young guitar player doing all of these cool hammer-ons," Seymour Duncan says in a launch video about how he first crossed paths with Eddie.

“When I first heard him, I thought, 'God, who is this guy?' He loved experimenting. He loved that part of it; that is why I wanted to be a part of the pickup side of it.”

All three pickups are available now for $199 apiece.

Head over to Seymour Duncan to find out more.

Canadian indie-rockers The Beaches have gone from suburban garage band shows to opening for the Rolling Stones, knocking the spangly socks off Elton John and being pelted with seven Juno awards, all in less than 10 years since debut album Late Show.

Named after the neighborhood where they grew up, the band formed in Toronto in 2013 when guitarist Leandra Earl joined singer-bassist Jordan Miller, guitarist Kylie Miller (Jordan’s sister) and drummer Eliza Enman-McDaniel.

Working across Canada and the States in their early years, The Beaches racked up a devoted fan base, leading to a record deal with Universal Music. Late Show, released in 2017, was a hit – but international interest only sparked when they left the label in 2022.

“It gave us the freedom to try new things and decide what we wanted to sound like and what we wanted to say,” Miller says. “I think that if we’d stayed, we wouldn’t have come up with the songs we did, or have the success we now do.”

Their 2023 platinum single Blame Brett featured on second album Blame My Ex. “That was the moment it all changed,” says Kylie Miller. “We were able to sell tickets globally and have a lot of excitement and buzz around us.”

The Cure-inspired four-piece have secured much more than their hefty collection of Junos.

“Elton John got into the band much earlier than a lot of people did,” says Miller. He’s shown continued support since then, often playing The Beaches’ songs at his shows. The group returned their gratitude earlier this year, performing John’s The Bitch is Back for the Glenn Gould Prize winner.

“Elton was at the foot of the catwalk and Jordan went up and started shaking her hair. It was a really crazy experience!” recalls Miller.

“He really liked T-Shirt,” adds Earl. “We were like, ‘How does Elton John know us? How is he a fan?’ We ended up FaceTiming him and then he got us backstage to meet him at one of his shows.”

The Junos are more than ornaments: “We’re the first girl band to win these awards,” says Earl. “We’re so honored. We hope it inspires other girls to do the same; we grew up watching the Junos and watching Avril Lavigne win, but never a girl band.”

“To have seven of them kind of speaks to that trajectory of the music industry changing, with more women being at the forefront,” says Miller. “It’s giving us women the flowers we’ve earned for a long time.”

The band have opened for The Rolling Stones on two occasions. Miller describes the first outing as a particularly welcoming show, as it came shortly after singer Mick Jagger had recovered from heart surgery in 2019. “He came back bigger and better. There was like 50,000 people there. Everybody was really into it.”

The band’s wall of sound is built with contrasting guitar tones, Earl preferring a Gibson-style sound and Miller favoring Fender. Their third studio album, No Hard Feelings, features a Les Paul and Stratocaster, although their live setups differ. Miller is currently sponsored by PRS and plays a Fiore, while Earl uses her Frank Brothers Radar.

“What I’m playing now kind of looks like an SG, which I’ve always wanted,” she says. “It’s their take on it. Playing the Frank Brothers with the humbuckers, everything feels like I’m playing a Gibson – but better.”

The Beaches’ live show is no static experience, which is why both guitarists use a Quad Cortex fit with synchronized lighting changes to create a truly immersive gig. “We put our time in with pedals and amps and being little rockstars,” says Earl, “but we’re focusing on the show itself, connecting with fans and whatever choreography we do.”

“Everything on the Cortex switches for us,” Miller says. “We’re able to move around a lot more. We used to have these massive pedalboards and had to look down all the time and stomp on them. It became a harder to connect with the fans. Now it’s all MIDI-synced, which is really helpful.”

No Hard Feelings, which hit the charts last year, is an unapologetically honest and infectious anthem-packed album, described by Earl as “happy-sad.” It kicks off with a chorus-soaked reverbed guitar, reminiscent of The Cure.

“Can I Call You in the Morning is in drop D,” Miller says. “It’s a really easy part to play because it’s two open strings. It sounds more complicated than it is.”

“It’s quite layered,” adds Earl. “I remember me, Kylie and [producer] Gus Van Go making a lot of noise and putting a riff within the noise. We mic’d up some amps and got them to ring out with feedback. We had a shit-ton of fuzz and added more and more and more. It’s fuzz, delay, chorus and then all these layers that build the tension.”

Asked to pick a personal highlight, Earl points to Should Have Known Better. “A lot of the songs are about angry and blameful breakups. But Should Have Known Better is like, ‘I’ve come out of all this and figured out I do deserve better than how I’ve been treated.’

“Getting to write that song with my best friends was such a powerful experience. When we play it, I love that it doesn’t feel like my song anymore. It feels like it’s empowering other people.”

• No Hard Feelings is out now.

John Mayer has two new signature guitars under his belt, partnering with Martin for his first-ever Road Series acoustic guitars.

Mayer and Martin go together like Mayer and PRS. You will rarely – if ever – see Mayer play an acoustic that isn’t made by Martin. He’s wielded everything from that one-off double-neck to a mystery small-bodied 12-string parlor guitar.

But as far as his Martin signature guitars go, they have always come at a premium. His most recent models – two Gray Sunburst Orchestra acoustics – were priced at $18,499 and $3,999. In 2018, his D-45 cost $14,999.

So, the arrival of Martin’s first Road Series models will be welcome news to his fans. As per the Road Series’ remit, these bring Mayer’s go-to guitars to a more accessible price point while retaining the core features that make them what they are.

That said, at $1,999, they sit at the very top of the Road Series price spectrum, above Joe Bonamassa’s 00-10E Retro and Shawn Mendes’ 000-10E. But they are the most affordable Mayer-endorsed acoustics to date. And with that $15k D-45 in mind, it looks like a great move from Martin.

The OM-13E and OMC-13E are largely the same model, save the cutaway found on the latter. Chiefly, both feature Engelmann spruce tops with an aging toner that promises a more vintage aesthetic vibe and a responsive, played-in character. Solid black walnut back and sides are joined by a scalloped spruce X-bracing.

The neck offers a ‘Performing Artist’ neck profile – which is a standard taper that Martin uses – and is topped with an ebony fingerboard. There’s also an ebony bridge, faux mother-of-pearl inlays, and Mayer’s signature on the 12th fret inlay. Under the hood, you’ll find Martin E1 electronics.

So, yes, these look very nice, and at $1,999, these Road Series models are probably the most affordable Mayer acoustics we ever get.

Head over to Martin to find out more.

In related news, Martin recently celebrated the 80th birthday of Gram Parsons by releasing a limited recreation of his workhorse 00-21 acoustic.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are set for a rare reunion next year, as part of a one-off charity show – VetsAid 2027, hosted by Joe Walsh.

The last surviving members of the Beatles haven’t performed together since December 2024, when Starr joined Macca for his finale Got Back tour show in London. For that gig, the drummer played drums on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Helter Skelter.

Before then, McCartney and Starr have only shared the stage on a handful of sporadic occasions. In 2019, they played those same two songs on McCartney’s final Freshen Up tour date. In 2015, McCartney inducted his fellow Beatle into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with a joint performance.

Macca and Starr will be reuniting for the Joe Walsh & Friends at VetsAid 2027, a charity show that will raise money for Nevada veterans and their families.

The two Beatles will join Walsh on the bill alongside other special guests, including The Killers, The War on Drugs, St Vincent, Lucius, and more.

“Having spent the past two years at the Sphere and working with the hardworking people of Las Vegas, I want to show them my gratitude and respect,” Walsh said in a statement.

“This city has taken such good care of me and my family that it would be my privilege to give back to the large veteran community here and to their families.”

The show will take place on January 29, 2027 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. General public on-sale will begin November 13.

For more information, head over to AXS.

Epiphone has been the guitar world’s MVP this year, and we shouldn’t be surprised – the early signs were all there when, back at NAMM, the company promised delivery of bigger and better specs across its entire catalog.

Those promises have been realized and then some. First came the Futura family, with its stainless steel frets and color-shifting finishes. Then we got those Inspired by Gibson Custom acoustics, as well as a host of notable signature guitars, to name but a few.

But a revamp for the Prophecy range, first introduced in 2008, wasn’t on our bingo card. The brand has certainly saved its best ’til last.

“Our team wanted to completely rethink the series,” says Aljon Go, Epiphone’s product development manager. “As a player myself, these are the upgrades I’ve wanted to see for a long time. Getting the opportunity to build them into the platform was incredibly exciting.”

Launched last month, the new-and-improved series is the company’s biggest launch of a stacked year. Billed as their most advanced guitars to date, the 2026 Prophecy range brought forth a host of new specs and models.

“This collection represents some of the most evolved and premium guitars in our history,” notes senior product development engineer Richard Akers. “And there’s more coming.”

No punches have been pulled: there’s stainless steel frets, custom-voiced Fishman Fluence humbuckers, a new HyperGlide neck profile, and a host of body silhouettes including the first-ever Epiphone Victory – and, most notably, the first baritone Les Paul for more than 20 years.

“Whether at events, on social media, in Facebook groups or talking with artists and dealers, I've heard requests for a baritone Les Paul for years,” Go reflects. “The new Prophecy Series felt like the perfect home for it.”

“The baritone Les Paul is something we’ve heard requested repeatedly,” adds marketing manager Lewis McKinney III. “We’re excited that players who’ve been asking for its return can finally get their hands on one.”

The Victory received its Epiphone call-up following a promising return to the Gibson books. The new models join SG, Les Paul and Flying V in featuring the unique HyperGlide neck profile, which promises unparalleled speed performance.

“We wanted our fastest, sleekest neck profile yet – while retaining the support your hand needs for extended playing,” Akers explains. “Hyperglide uses an elliptical D profile, with a controlled change in thickness as you move up the neck. The shoulders matter just as much as the depth. The neck represents the fastest, sleekest profile we have offered.”

Go concurs: “We really wanted to create the most comfortable and fastest-playing guitar neck we've ever offered, and HyperGlide is the result.”

The Prophecy-exclusive Fishman Fluence humbuckers are a big deal, offering three distinct ‘voices’ that aim to cover classic Gibson PAF, single-coil and high-output sounds. It all goes back to the brief of engineering the most versatile and technically advanced Epiphones ever made.

“I wasn’t about creating pickups that only do one thing well,” Go says. “We wanted a pickup system that lets players move between styles and applications without compromise. Working with Fishman has been fantastic from the jump.

“We spent a lot of time researching and testing with the Gibson Pickup Shop to understand what makes vintage Gibson humbuckers so special. After all, the humbucker is a Gibson innovation.”

Supercharging these classic designs often felt a bit like a balancing act. Put all the above features on a Les Paul without due care and attention, and you could be left with something less then a sum of its parts. The biggest challenge was making sure the new Prophecy models still felt like Epiphones.

“We had to reach players we’ve historically underserved while keeping our own identity,” Akers says. “A specification can look great on paper – but the neck, scale length, pickups, wood choices and bridge all influence how a guitar responds. Those choices need to preserve the character that draws someone to our shapes.”

But Epiphone has walked the tightrope pretty well: the Les Paul is close to being one of the best metal-orientated baritones on the market. The Epiphone Victory is a long overdue treat. And this is just the start – the Prophecy could be the start of a prolific new venture.

“What I'm most proud of is that we didn’t approach this as a simple update,” Go says. “We challenged ourselves to build the most performance-focused collection we've ever offered.

“Today's players are tuning lower, crossing genre boundaries, recording at home, touring and asking more from their instruments than ever before. We wanted Prophecy to reflect the way real musicians are using guitars today.”

• For more information on the new Epiphone Prophecy range, head to Gibson.com.

No-one knows Tony Iommi’s electric guitar tone better than Mike Exeter. Iommi’s longstanding guitar tech, producer and friend has been in the trenches with him, helping the Black Sabbath icon evolve his sound.

When GW caught up with Iommi to talk about the release of his long-awaited studio album, From the Dark, the story would not have been complete without hearing from the man in the control booth. And here, Exeter reveals what you hear on record, and explains why we shouldn’t expect Iommi to retread old ground when he’s making a solo record.

What were your audio goals with this album?

First off, I don’t think Tony should be defined by Black Sabbath when he’s making a solo album. There’s nothing on From the Dark that sounds like, say, War Pigs.

It sounds much more like a 21st-century album, such as Fused [Iommi’s 2005 album with Glenn Hughes on vocals and bass]. It was put together over a few years, which is why it has a current sound; it wasn’t put together by a band going into a studio and jamming. That’s not what this album’s about.

It’s funny – there was someone commenting on social media, saying something like, “Tony should have done this and he should have done that to sound like old Sabbath” and then added, “I didn’t even like Dehumanizer” [1992 Black Sabbath album]. I thought to myself, “Well, you’re clearly not the target audience here!”

The guitars sound amazing. What’s the secret?

It’s about matching the guitars to the right amp. A lot of the recent recordings are the JayDee Old Boy going into Tony’s [signature] Laney TI100. The way the JayDee pickups push, they work really well with that amp, which was designed about the time he came off the Heaven & Hell album [2009’s The Devil You Know]. The Gibsons sound particularly good with Tony’s [signature] Laney GH100TI, which was his previous amp.

What role did the Kemper Profiler play, if any?

When we started getting together and doing some writing, we didn’t really have a studio as such, so I said to Tony, “I’ll bring my Kemper Profiler down, and you can plug in your Gibsons and JayDee and see if you like it.”

I brought up one of my favorite patches, which was probably a Peavey 5150, and – because it had drive and sustain – it was perfect for the songwriting. If we needed a sound and we weren’t sure where it was going to go, I just dialed up sounds on it, which I could do remotely from my computer.

Which pedals or effects did you use on the album?

Tony doesn’t really need that many effects, to be honest. There’s a Leslie rotary-speaker effect on the opening riff of the first track, which I did either in the Kemper or in Pro Tools. For some of the clean parts we used an Analog Man Chorus, which I could go on about all day. It’s got a shimmer that works on distorted guitars as well as clean parts.

And the distortion?

The distortion is just the amp circuit. The amps aren’t being driven that hard. There’s plenty of gain, but everything else – presence, bass, middle and treble – is at 12 o’clock. Every now and again I’ll try a treble booster, but it’s mostly very simple, as it should be. Sometimes music should just be bare-assed rock ’n’ roll!

• From the Dark is out now via BMG.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

As Led Zeppelin’s musical backbone, John Paul Jones brought a distinctive blend of rhythmic sophistication, harmonic invention and technical precision to the band’s sound.

His twisted Black Dog riff was an attempt to trip up fans who would dance at the band’s concerts. His tasty subhook on Ramble On brought the song’s verses to a completely different place, and The Lemon Song is a masterwork blues that every developing bassist should try to transcribe or learn – preferably, both.

With a seemingly bottomless skill set, Jones has also worked with the likes of Dusty Springfield, Seasick Steve and R.E.M., and even provided the string arrangement for The Rolling Stones’ 1967 hit She’s a Rainbow. He was also among the early pioneers of the eight-string bass guitar.

So, how well do you really know John Paul Jones? Did you know, for instance, that John Paul Jones isn’t his birth name, but a stage name inspired by a 1959 film starring Robert Stack?

From his iconic Led Zeppelin basslines to his work as a session musician, and multi-instrumentalist, there's plenty more to discover about one of rock’s most versatile musicians. Test your knowledge in our quiz below.

Now that the pumpkins are going moldy, the trick-or-treaters have put away their masks, and the weather is getting considerably colder, guitarists' attention is turning towards some amazing holiday offers. Never one to let the buying public down, Taylor has got off to an incredibly generous start, offering $100 off its most popular guitar lines during the Season of Savings!

That's right, I'm not talking about unpopular models or guitars gathering dust in the back of the warehouse. Instead, at participating retailers like Guitar Center and Sweetwater, you can save $100 (between $130 and $160 CAD, depending on the model) on guitars from the 100, 200, 200 Plus, and 200 Deluxe Series.

On top of that, Taylor has selected a handful of its player-friendly Studio models for the same generous discount, including the 314ce Studio, 354ce Studio, and 414ce Studio (saving $160 CAD in Canada).

So, if you've been looking to push the boat out and treat yourself to a 400 Series guitar, now's the time to make the investment.

In other words, Taylor's most affordable options have become even more attainable. So, if you've been considering a Taylor, now could be the perfect time to take the plunge, as the deal runs from November 1st to December 31st.

As you can see, there are lots of guitars available in this sale, but a few stunners stand out to me in particular. I've listed three of my favorites to get you started.

The Season of Savings truly has something for many players, from fresh-faced beginners to serious acoustic noodlers. Personally, I think Taylor's 100 Series is one of the best acoustic guitars for adults to get started on.

Take the 114ce, for example. With a torrefied solid spruce top, ES2 electronics, and a slender Taylor neck, it's one of the most inviting and encouraging acoustics a beginner can play and one that'll stick by you for as long as you play.

Even the more experienced players amongst us can save a ton at Sweetwater and Guitar Center. Whether it's the 224ce-K Deluxe or the 414ce Studio, these are grown-up, sophisticated acoustics that, for some, will be guitars for life. Particularly the latter. I absolutely love the Tobacco Shaded Edge Burst 414ce Studio, and I've pestered my bandmate to let me borrow his time and time again. With $100 off, it's a deal that I'm seriously considering going for myself!

So, whether you've been thinking about a Taylor for a while, need an upgrade from a beginner acoustic, or are even looking for a workhorse, Taylor has you covered and is bringing its beautiful guitars to you for less. As mentioned, you have until New Year's Eve to take advantage of these savings.

• 👉 This way for more Black Friday guitar deals

What is it?

Laney has done more than most manufacturers to bolster the reputation of the humble solid-state guitar amp in recent years.

Transistors have often been considered a bit of a poor relation to the tube amp's golden child - detractors will say that they’ve neither the versatility of modeling gear, nor the ultimate tonal quality and power of a glass-powered amp. That's quite a generalization, of course – but then, plenty of guitarists are haunted by memories of flatulent practice amps from their early days of playing.

However, there are still those who want neither the complexity of in-depth modelers, nor the added weight of valve power – just simple, rugged, loud amps that do a good job, without breaking the bank. Laney has seized that opportunity.

Along with the well-received Crush series from fellow Brits Orange, the storied Black Country brand has led the charge on higher-output, gig-ready and affordable combos and heads, built around analogue solid-state tech. The recent Lionheart Foundry series (a counterpart to Laney’s retro valve-powered Lionheart range) has garnered no shortage of praise since its release.

Now, it's the turn of the modern, high-gain Ironheart series. We’ve seen shrunken, solid-state Ironheart heads (the single-channel IRF-Leadtop and the twin-channel IRF-Dualtop) but not combos – until now.

Following the launch of three Ironheart Foundry series combos (plus a fuller-featured 120w Foundry head), today I'm taking a look at the mid-range IRF60-112 combo.

Specs

• Launch price: $599 | £349 | €399
• Type: Solid-state guitar combo amp 
• Origin: China 
• Output: 60 watts 
• Speaker: 1x12”, HH H1260
• Channels: 2
• Controls: Front panel - Boost on/off switch, Boost level knob, Channel 1 clipping switch (Asym/Clean/Sym), Channel 1 Gain, Volume, channel select switch, Lead Gain, Lead Volume, Channel 2 voicing switch (Bright/Flat/Dark), Bass, Middle, Treble, Reverb. Rear panel - Power on/off switch, Power Mode switch (60w/1w), 3-way LA:IR cab emulation selector, Ground/Lift switch.
• Connectivity: Front panel - ¼” instrument input. Rear panel - mains IEC input, 2x ¼” Remote outputs, FX Send/Return, 3.5mm Aux In, 3.5mm headphone output, XLR DI output, USB-C output.
• Footswitch: Not included 
• Weight: 12.2kg/26.9lb 
• Dimensions: 486 x 437 x 261mm 
• Contact: Laney Amplification

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

Solid-state amps do rugged simplicity very well. With no valves to worry about, it's also possible to make them smaller and lighter. The Foundry is a compact amp and, at 12.2kg, far from heavy.

Like other Ironhearts, it's transported via two very sturdy-feeling metal cut-out handles on the top edges, balancing the weight equally (also looks pretty cool) – but this does necessitate a two-handed carry. An additional top handle wouldn't go amiss.

Those handles give a great first impression of the overall solidity of the amp, but there are no notable weak points elsewhere. It feels tough, all of a piece, as though it'd cope easily with regular gigs – and looks great too.

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★☆

Unlike the smaller 1x10 Foundry combo, the IRF60-112 has two full channels, everything being laid out neatly and easy to understand. The clean and lead channels have individual gain and volume controls, but share EQ and reverb. The EQ pots have a centre-detent at 12 o'clock; you cut and boost from flat, similar to an active circuit.

Sturdy metal mini-switches change channels, introduce clipping into the clean channel, and make some broad-stroke voicing adjustments to the lead channel. There's one more, for the built-in boost circuit - controlled by a single, red knob, this gives a healthy kick to the clean and lead channels alike.

The rear panel isn't short of features, either. There's an effects loop, and a pair of footswitch inputs – although not having a switch included is a little mean.

Then an aux input, a headphone socket, Laney's proprietary LA:IR emulated XLR output and, finally – a low-power switch to take it from 60 watts down to just one watt, for quieter home practice. But it's a little solid-state combo – how potent can it be?

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

In fact, you’ll be glad of the low-power switch – the IRF60-112 is Loud. For such a wee beast, it kicks like a mule; easily enough for small stages, and then you can send it direct for anything louder.

Channel 1 is your clean sound, but there's also the option of either asymmetrical or symmetrical clipping – I'd argue that just one or the other would have been sufficient, as they’re only subtly different. With clipping engaged, though, and the right guitar, there’s plenty beyond the stereotypically ‘lifeless’ solid-state clean to be found here.

The Foundry can offer some really nice low-gain tones with plenty of warmth and character. The built-in reverb adds to this, although it starts to sound pretty overwrought with the dial anywhere beyond about 11 o’clock.

Channel 2 is what makes the Ironheart tick, though, and there’s much to like. With either single-coils or humbuckers, the IRF60-112 blasts out heavy, saturated distortion that retains a good amount of definition for modern rock and metal tones.

Despite its small stature, it’s not lacking in low-end, and has masses of tight, punchy gain on tap (but modern metallers might like a noise gate to tighten it further).

The Bright switch dials up the aggression and clarity, while Dark seems to have an EQ curve closer to the Clean channel – I ended up using this mode, then pushing the shared Treble control higher to give both channels a similar type of top-end, but I found many other useful tones along the way.

The shared control set does create issues when dialing the Boost, however – the additional input gain makes the second channel more saturated while the clean tone just gets louder, throwing your levels off-balance.

Then there’s the reverb – it’s useful for the clean channel, but you likely don’t want it on your high-gain rhythm tone. Both of these can be operated via the footswitch… after you buy it separately.

Verdict

So, the IRF60-112 is a seriously loud, punchy amp that provides great low and high-gain tones (although having these co-exist these can take some work).

It’s also full of useful features, it’s small and lightweight, and far from expensive. LA:IR means you can feed it into the PA if you find yourself on a bigger stage, and makes home recording easier too.

This alone really elevates this amp in terms of usability and means that, even with its small stature, you won’t necessarily grow out of it in a hurry.

Laney’s decision not to include the footswitch does leave a sour taste but, once you’ve got one of those, this is an amp that many metal guitarists could enjoy for years to come.

Guitar World verdict: Like its Lionheart stablemate, the Ironheart Foundry series makes clear that trad solid-state amps are still very much a viable proposition for today’s guitarists. It’s not always easy to balance both channels, but you can get some fabulous tones from the IRF60-112 - and with plenty of modern convenience to boot.

Also try

Hands-on videos

Laney

Sweetwater x Bernth

The Pedal Picassos

• “The classic British sound of a Laney amp on your pedalboard”: Laney Black Country Customs Ironheart and Lionheart LoudPedals review

Steve Vai has clarified his involvement in a potential Crossroads sequel.

2026 marks the 40th anniversary of Crossroads, one of the more beloved Hollywood films in the guitar canon.

It revolves around a young guitarist named Eugene – played by Ralph Macchio, most famous his starring role in The Karate Kid – who plays at Mississippi juke joints, then goes to the titular crossroads where blues forefather Robert Johnson, according to legend, sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his world-changing songwriting and guitar talents.

Eugene then finds himself in a climactic guitar battle with a guitarist who did sell his soul to the devil, played by a Jackson-wielding Steve Vai.

It’s fun stuff – a fond cinematic memory for guitarists who saw it as a youngster; which explains why the internet was set abuzz when Crossroads screenwriter John Fusco revealed to Guitar World in a recent feature about the making of the film that he and Ralph Macchio were developing a sequel.

The flames were fueled further when Steve Vai told Guitar World in that same feature: “I know Ralph wants to kick my ass. Jack Butler needs his revenge!”

Now, though, with talk in overdrive, Vai has sought to clarify his involvement, or lack thereof, in a potential, still-unofficial Crossroads sequel.

“I’ve been getting quite a few questions lately about whether I’ll be appearing in a sequel to Crossroads,” Vai told Guitar World in a statement.

“For the record, I haven’t heard anything official about a sequel, other than that Ralph Macchio and the film’s original writer, John Fusco, have apparently been discussing the possibility of revisiting the story with a more contemporary generation of players, which I think could make for a compelling film.

“As for Jack Butler, I checked in with him, and he assures me he has no intention of leaving the realm of the fellow with the pointy horns and pitchfork to return to this mortal coil to reclaim his guitar-slinging crown. Apparently, he’s working on a new solo record called ‘Eternally Damned’, but he’s having trouble finding a record label willing to commit to an eternity of royalties.”

Drats. Well, who would you like to see take Vai’s place in a Crossroads sequel? Maybe we can run your picks by Mr. Fusco...

For more about how Crossroads was made, plus new interviews with Vai and Joe Satriani, pick up issue 611 of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.

Fender Japan is approaching the F-hole concept in a rather literal sense with the new F-Hole Telecaster Thinline – a semi-hollow Tele with Fender’s “spaghetti logo” F cut into it.

F-holes have been on instruments, from jazz guitars to violins, for decades. They were dubbed F-holes because of how they were shaped on early electric guitar designs like the Gibson L5, and the Beatles-approved Gretsch Country Gentleman. But Fender has a very different type of F-hole here.

Those with sharp memories will remember that the F-Telecaster Thinline was released in limited numbers back in 2021. Five years later, the semi-hollow axes are back. Much of that recipe from 2021 remians but notably, the ash bodies are out, and new colors are on the menu.

There are six variants available, split equally between twin single-coil and twin humbucker configurations, each with alder bodies and modern C-profile necks with 9.5” radius rosewood fingerboards.

They also feature vintage-style locking tuners, narrow tall frets, and brass saddle bridges. Their colorways – Arctic White, Black, and a web-exclusive Indigo – are given satin finishes.

“This is a special limited model that fuses Fender's tradition with playfulness,” says Fender Japan. And it’s not wrong.

It continues an interesting hot streak of boundary-pushing releases from Fender Japan, which includes 8-bit Pokemon Teles, its standout MJ Hybrid II collection, and the inventively wired Active Modern range.

The Black and Arctic White models are priced at ¥198,000 each (approx. $1,250), with the Indigo models rising to ¥220,000 (approx. $1,390). Like the last batch, these are a limited run.

However, if you had your eyes on the Black or Arctic White single coil models, you’ll have to hope one shows up on Reverb: those two have already sold out.

See Fender Japan for more.

Joe Bonamassa has recalled the poetically stormy evening during which Jeff Beck blew his mind with an unforgettable Crossroads Guitar Festival set.

The bluesman was speaking at the recent Crossroads Festival – Eric Clapton’s star-studded charity event, at which he is a frequent performer. Asked to name his favorite memory of Crossroads gone by, Bonamassa is quick to recall a performance where the Weather Gods were on lighting duty.

“My best Crossroads memory [is from] 2010, is Jeff Beck playing Nessun Dorma,” he says. “I was watching him play it from the stands. I snuck out front and as he was playing it, and it was starting to crescendo, this storm cloud had come over, and the clouds were purple.

“It was the most amazing visual to go along with some of the most amazing guitar playing I've ever heard in my entire life.”

A spine-tingling take on the opera classic lifted from Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot, it featured on Beck’s superlative 2010 album, Emotion & Commotion, before he brought it to the stage at Crossroads.

Atop slowly moving strings, Beck, sharply dressed in an outfit seemingly built around his iconic White Strat, put Pavarotti in his place. When people talk about players who can make a guitar sing, this is the kind of example that should be presented; the emotion he gets out of his whammy bar alone is outstanding.

“It’s quite a ludicrous choice,” Beck once told Guitar Player of his decision to take on such an iconic piece of music. “When I heard Pavarotti sing it, I thought, 'All this is is sophisticated blues.' He bellows out those notes the way a blues singer would.”

“No one’s done it on guitar, as far as I know,” he added. “It just somehow has a majestic feel, playing simple one-note melodies.”

The song was nominated for Best Pop Instrumental Performance at the 2011 Grammys, though from three nominations, the only award Beck took home that night was for Hammerhead, which won the Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

Beck, who famously turned down the chance to replace Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers, passed away in 2023.

Mark Knopfler says he was planning on making an album with Beck before his death, while the last-known recording he made looks unlikely to ever see the light of day.

Sundragon Amps and Jimmy Page have unveiled their latest signature amp, the Dragonette, a 6W recreation of the combo he used across Led Zeppelin.

As the story goes, a modified Supro Coronado was used on the band's all-powerful debut LP. Notably, its two 10” speakers were swapped for one Oxford 12” Alnico magnet speaker after it fell out the back of a truck.

The Dragonette, then, is the latest addition to Sundragon’s Supro-inspired collaborations with Page, and puts the best features of those earlier versions into one versatile unit.

In 2019, Sundragon released the original recreation combo, the Nymph, with a low-wattage alternative following four years later. That one featured a newly designed preamp and a low power output section.

Page says that “the response [to its release] has been incredible”, so its successor carefully brings those two amps together.

“Enter the Dragonette, an amp with the preamp of the Nymph and the power section of my original amp, slightly scaled back to six watts with a carefully chosen 10” inch speaker,” Page explains.

“The result,” he adds, “is a perfect blend of the old and new. The response from musicians in our inner circle has been great and we are happy to release the amp this autumn.”

Dweezil Zappa was amongst those fawning over the Nymph, so it makes sense that the all-important preamp is now getting rehoused in a more powerful unit.

Sundragon talks up a big game of “superior” and versatile tones. The emphasis, though, is on overdriven sounds that go “from mild to deep.”

The Dragonette has been hand-wired in New York using new old stock parts and tubes, and are all hand made to order. And there’s no need to throw it off the back of a truck, either.

Sundragon was established by veteran gear enthusiasts Perry Margouleff and Mitch Colby, alongside Page, to bring Led Zeppelin’s seismic sound into tailor-made amps, with a version of the modded Marshall Page riffed into submission throughout the band’s career arriving in 2023.

Still, while Sundragons promises of “an experience you won’t forget,” the amp’s $9,000 price tag makes it an experience not everyone can afford. It very much is a collector's combo.

The Sundragon Dragonette is available now, and is limited to just 50 units.

See Sundragon for more.

“I wanted you to know I wasn’t AI,” jokes L7 frontwoman Donita Sparks as her video camera flicks on for just a few seconds. And Sparks – who co-founded the band alongside fellow guitarist Suzi Gardner in Los Angeles in 1985 – is nothing but authentic.

The story of throwing a tampon into a crowd of muddy misogynists at Reading Festival in 1992 is well documented. L7’s arrival on the international alternative-rock scene was a welcome shock to the male-dominated establishment, proving that the sludge-heavy sound and ferocious riffs of the day didn’t belong exclusively to the boys.

After their original run ended in 2001, Sparks helped put L7’s history in focus by archiving photographs and footage online. That renewed interest helped bring about the 2016 documentary L7: Pretend We’re Dead – and, eventually, the reunion of the band’s best-known lineup.

Now on their Last Hurrah farewell tour, they’re navigating an emotional final chapter, following the death of longtime bassist Jennifer Finch from aggressive brain cancer in July. “Her doctors were hoping she could do some of these shows,” says Sparks. “Over the summer, the cancer moved swiftly and the whole thing escalated into a cascading shit show of the American healthcare system.”

Alongside ex-drummer Dee Plakas, former bassist Janis Tanaka has returned to the lineup. Sparks has noticed the focus she’s brought to the tour. “Where L7 wing it sometimes, Janis is very pro. Every night before we play, she’s got her headphones on, running through the songs.”

You’re out on the final L7 tour. How are you feeling about the shows so far?

The finality is starting to hit me. The emotion becomes overwhelming at times. I can hold it together until I get backstage – but every once in a while, there’s a little weepiness. We’re doing meet-and-greets for the first time to supplement the tour. People are saying how long they’ve followed us. One woman said, “You’ve taken me from puberty to menopause!”

Jennifer’s memoir Shooting Up and Making Out is due to be published in January. She shared a couple of chapters with the band before she passed. What did you make of them? How have you found preparing for this tour with everything that’s happened?

I have different recollections of some things, but nothing was egregious. The scope of this tour is bigger than we’ve ever done. I didn’t have much time to reflect on – or even, quite frankly, to grieve – what was going down in real time because I had so much to do. My mantra was, “Move the ball forward every day.”

The thing about us is that we’re real people. We’ve got other cancer survivors in the band currently. This is life; other bands have lost members. Jennifer quit the band in ’96. We had Gail Greenwood and Janice Tanaka after her, so we’ve lost her before. But this is a huge fucking loss.

You released Smell the Magic on Sub Pop in 1990. What was it like being part of that underground scene as it grew into a major movement?

There was a lot of excitement. Different areas in the US had their own labels, like Alternative Tentacles in San Francisco and Amphetamine Reptile in Minneapolis. All these bands were on the same circuit. We’d crash with the same people in every city.

Sub Pop did well, mainly because of Nirvana and Soundgarden. When they signed us they said, “You’re in the inner circle of Sub Pop now.” Everyone got huge, except for Mudhoney! There was so much hype, especially in the UK. We’d show up to a club and instead of saying “L7” it would say “Sub Pop Artist” or “Sub Pop’s L7.” It was like the label was getting bigger than the bands were.

Seminal album Bricks Are Heavy was recorded with Butch Vig, following his work on Nirvana’s Nevermind. How did his production change the songs?

We always had a very powerful sound on stage. You can’t put that in a bottle. Producers and engineers would go to an L7 show, after they worked on our record for months, and be like, ‘What the fuck?’

Butch was great because he encouraged our melodic stuff. When we started, we wanted to play hard music sans melody because we were tough cookies; then melody came in. Nirvana and the Pixies gave me more confidence to throw my musical roots into the stew. I love a lot of ’50s/’60s pop; I love a lot of country.

As Keith Richards says, “A lot of bands rock, few roll.” At first, L7 rocked. Then we got rolling, too. Our songs got better, like Shove. Suzi thought it was too sing-songy. I had to fight for that.

You’ve described the musical split between you and Suzi Gardner as David Bowie versus Ozzy Osbourne. How do those influences come through in your respective guitar parts?

Suzi’s leads are a bit more freeform and blues-based and mine are a bit more surf-based. I use a lot of half-steps. I love Dick Dale – I love that Middle Eastern flair that he threw in.

L7 have a lot of ingredients in a very basic recipe. When people post themselves playing our songs online, they’re always wrong because they’re going to the chord they think should be there. They’re not getting the nuances of our songs. Suzi once stayed with some musicology grads from UCLA, who broke down the songs and said, “What is up with these chord changes?”

L7 performed at Gloria Steinem’s Voters for Choice benefit in 1995 alongside Pearl Jam and Neil Young & Crazy Horse. What are your memories?

We met Neil Young that night. I remember Pearl Jam asked us on stage because they were singing Rockin’ in the Free World, but I fucked up my verse by one line!

You’ve just released Loma Linda, which dates back to a 2003 demo featuring Janis. Are there plans for more material?

Even though the band is wrapping up touring life, we’re still going to release music. We’ll also be touring the UK and Europe in 2027. After we announced The Last Hurrah in the US, a shit ton of people in the UK were like, ‘What about us?’ We’re going to do South America and Australia, too.

What gear are you taking out on the tour, and how has your rig evolved over the years?

Suzi and I are currently playing Blackstar St. James 50-watt amps. They’re small and lightweight. It’s like, ‘Oh my god, finally an amp I can fucking carry myself!’

My favorite guitar to play is the 1963 Gibson Melody Maker; it’s got great action and a thinner neck. Suzi plays a Melody Maker, too. But my look is a Gibson Flying V – I need a tremolo bar for a lot of songs.

• L7’s Last Hurrah tour continues across North America until mid-November. New single, Loma Linda, is out now.

Del Casher, the man who helped give birth to the wah pedal, has died aged 88.

Casher passed away on October 1 after a battle with cancer. Aside from the staggering legacy of the wah, the guitarist and engineer was also a film and TV star. He starred alongside Elvis Presley in the 1964 film, Roustabout; was the Music Director for the children's television show, The New Zoo Revue, in the 1970s; and later scored the slasher film, Terror Night, in 1987.

The wah pedal, though, was always his biggest gift to guitarists. One of the world's most iconic guitar pedals, it has been stomped on by everyone from Jimi Hendrix and Kirk Hammett to Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, and Jerry Cantrell. Casher’s invention left a huge mark on the world of music.

Casher worked for Vox in the late 1960s, and essentially prized the wahs uncanny vocal-like effect from a Vox Super Beatle amp. As per JHS Pedals History of The Wah Pedal, Casher heard fellow engineer Brad Plunkett rolling the Control knob of the Super Beatle back and forth. It was a sound he was already chasing; this is how he found it.

So, he and Plunkett took a Vox Continental Organ volume control and married it with the amps control circuit for an expressive, foot-controlled effect. This was in 1967, and a year later, Vox had launched the first-ever wah pedal.

Vox originally leveraged the pedal towards the orchestra market, thinking it would make more money out of saxophone and trumpet players than guitarists.

By the time Clapton put it through its paces on Tales of Brave Ulysses, and Hendrix made magic with the pedal on Voodoo Child (Slight Return), the effect's fate was sealed. Today, the effect is deeply embedded within electric guitar folklore.

Jim Dunlop’s Cry Baby Wah may have gone on to become the gold-standard of the effect – just look at the list of players who have signature models – but Casher laid down the groundwork.

In fact, as JHS Pedals founder Josh Scott, who did an in-depth video on the history of the wah pedal in 2021, says: “James Brown told him it was pointless and it wouldn’t be cool. That’s ironic.”

In the end, Casher stood his ground, knowing the pedal would lift off in the hands of the guitar players.

Speaking to the New York Times in 2011, he said that “nobody saw any future for the guitar being used with this device.” How wrong they were.

“I feel gratified that I was there at the beginning,” Casher added. “I would just like guitar players to think of me once in a while. The only thing I ask is: remember me.”

A GoFundMe has been set up to help support Casher's wife, Eiko, who is facing severe financial distress following the loss of Del.

Some might say Robin Finck is one of rock music’s rarest and most enigmatic chameleons. Whether it’s his work in Nine Inch Nails – standing as founder Trent Reznor’s longest-serving live member – or Guns N’ Roses, Danny Elfman, Gary Numan, composing for video games, soundtracks and beyond, he’s the kind of guitarist who can effortlessly fit into just about any kind of musical scenario.

This stretches far beyond the notes he’s playing and into the tones he’s dialing in, from the classic overdrive crunch associated with one of the biggest rock and roll bands of all-time, to the highly effected surrealist dreamscapes required when Nine Inch Nails are at their most unfathomably atmospheric. It’s hard to think of an environment he can’t dress himself into.

Last week, he announced the Official Robin Finck Reverb Shop, which will include over 200 items used during key moments of his career, including stage-played gear that has made history in the world’s biggest arenas and stadiums beside him.

The list includes the Les Paul Goldtop used on every Nine Inch Nails tour until 2014, having been first debuted 30 years prior in the band’s March Of The Pigs video. Then there’s the 2000 Gibson R8 played extensively during his tenure in Guns N’ Roses, which he describes as the “S on my chest” during a “strange and unsteady time.”

But if you’re expecting just a bunch of beaten-up Les Pauls, think again.

There’s the Fender Custom Shop Nocaster that was played from Nine Inch Nails’ 2013 Tension tour to 2018’s Cold And Black And Infinite run, a Gibson ES-335 used in both arena-conquering bands, a one-off Manson Custom that Finck boldly claims could be the best guitar of the lot, the Martin Classic Backpacker used on live renditions of Nine Inch Nails tracks like La Mer and Disappointed, plus a Schecter signature model as well as various pedals and a Marshall JCM2000 TSL head.

“I’m letting go of just less than half of what’s around me,” he explains, speaking exclusively to GW from his home in Los Angeles. “I can only play one at a time anyway. I like the idea of someone else creating with these guitars. Considering what stays and goes was a bit like having my life flash before my eyes. I’d open these cases and relive the cold midday arenas or festivals in the sun or full moon.

“I would remember what songs they’d be paired with and how they sounded at rehearsals, or what my techs would say. I either associate them with a past experience or they’ve been replaced by something new.

“I’m 1,000 percent sentimental, which is the perfect cocktail for me to end up three decades later with so much gear.”

These might not be the oldest instruments in the world, but they certainly carry their fair share of stories, as well as a few cuts and bruises picked up along the way.

These guitars had a long run but they’ve always bounced back. They’ve been my bed partners for a long time. It’s a privilege to steward them forward to someone new. I’m certainly nostalgic about it and have had my long goodbye. It’s time to move on. But don’t get me wrong – I’m not without a Les Paul or Telecaster.

Your Old Gold Les Paul is quite special, given its history with Nine Inch Nails, and the same goes for the 1990 Custom in white. What are the differences between the two?

Old Gold is a Les Paul Classic with a thinner neck. It’s gold everywhere on the back of the neck and body. The Translucent White Custom was actually the first Les Paul I ever bought. Not too many years after that, I ended up with Old Gold, which can be seen in the March of the Pigs video. That might have even been the first day I played it. Through the years, I’ve paired them with particular songs and they’ve stayed that way to anchor the sound.

It’s interesting you say the Manson custom is quite possibly the best guitar of the bunch. High praise indeed.

Yeah! To play it is to know that. The neck – to be honest, the whole guitar – is a well cared-for experience in its creation. That’s very obvious when it’s in my hands. I can tell it was built by people who were excited about what they were doing.

You’re also selling the Martin Backpacker used on tracks like La Mer, where you would play a piano part on acoustic.

Through the years we’ve experimented with wedging different bits of foam and rubber or mismatching string gauges to make sure it’s perfectly out of tune in the right way. That’s always been an experimental piece in the collection.

Your approach as a whole is experimental. So who are the guitar players that influenced you most over the years?

During my seminal years, it was the metal players like Randy Rhoads, Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen. I was interested in the fretboard gymnastics because the players sounded exciting. I remember trying to play along to the cassettes.

I moved through that into bands like The Cure, Bauhaus and Siouxsie and the Banshees. I think that’s where my interest in other sounds and effects originated from. But it really started when I started working with Trent.

You learned on the job?

Yeah, because I didn’t own much gear before that. I hadn’t had much hands-on time with effects. I would have to pick it up quickly for the next rehearsal. That’s when it was ‘go time’ for me. I’ve been walking with the soundscape approach all these years with Nine Inch Nails. That was clearly the gig from the beginning. I’ve been lucky to play my part in that.

You’re also parting ways with the 2000 R8 used extensively during your time in Guns N’ Roses.

I was fortunate to have been able to use that for those iconic songs during those tours. I’d never had a guitar like that until then. It seemed like the right move to make... in a long list of wrong moves I was making at the time.

You’ve described those years as a turbulent period. It must have been very different to Nine Inch Nails.

Oh, in more ways than I could have been prepared for. It was an excellent time and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to step through all that. I was really tight with the band and crew. It was the best of times, but not without its turbulence.

It’s hard to summarize. It started, then it went on, then I left, then I was back. I continued to jump forward, then some different players were coming in and out of the group for tours. It was a wild time – but we had a blast.

You’ve had signature models through Schecter and Reverend. Interestingly, those guitars are quite different in terms of design and functionality.

I love that Schecter guitar. That’s what made me fall in love with a B5 Bigsby, and I have that on some of my Reverend guitars now. The pickup configuration was really cool, because you could split the coils using different switches. I like the two and four tuners on the headstock, which felt unique at the time, as did the shape.

Those guitars are bright and snappy. They were what I would play before I got into Telecasters. But my Reverend signature is my favorite because it can do all things and it’s the most dynamic-sounding guitar. I love the bass roll-off [control] and it’s so comfortable and reliable to play. That’s why it comes with me.

I would go as far as saying your solo in Better could very well be one of the finest leads in Guns N’ Roses history. How did you come up with it?

We played the song a lot, all together, really loud in the room. And that solo is something I played off the floor. I heard it back on the rehearsal DAT, then played something similar next time. By the time we were recording Chinese Democracy I had a good idea of what would be fun.

I’ve always liked singable melodies and phrases that take a breath in between the notes, like a horn player might. Some of my favorite solos are by Elliot Easton from The Cars or Neal Schon. Very singable and fun to air guitar to, and even more fun to play at loud volumes.

I’ve seen Slash play the Better solo. He doesn’t play it note-for-note but he does pay tribute to what you recorded in his own way. It must be crazy seeing that.

Oh yeah – that’s been really fun to hear. He does his own thing with it; but he can, because he’s the originator.

You’ve been Trent’s right-hand man on guitar for several decades. What have been your favorite tracks to play and tones to dial in?

Through the years, I’ve been trying to find some consistency between so many Axe-Fx presets and pedal pairings. I’m making an effort not to send a wholly unique signal to front of house every eight bars. It can be a challenge to approach all of the parts and represent them authentically in a live configuration.

I want my guitars to sound like the record. There’s the anthemic stuff and the buzzy power chord songs, but also the nuanced tracks like The Fragile. We haven’t played it much, maybe once or twice on the last run, but that’s always fun because it has a lot of layers. The Day The World Went Away is another.

Moving away from digital gear, what are the analog pedals you couldn’t live without?

I’m always stepping on my Voodoo Lab Proctavia – it’s a longstanding favorite of mine. I think it’s the gate that attracts me to it, because it works so well going into a driven tube amp. There’s the JHS Kilt, which is super-versatile pedal, going from drive to distortion to fuzz.

I’m really into the Death By Audio stuff; their Echo Dream 2 is maybe my favorite delay, and the Fuzz War is always on and off my board. Recently I did a short tour with Danny Elfman and built an all-Boss board, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. That went straight into two 100-Watt Orange Rockerverb heads.

When it comes to amps you aren’t necessarily team analog or digital. It’s more about what’s best to get the job done.

That’s right. I love my Orange amps and using pedals – that’s what I did when I played with Chelsea Wolfe last week. With Nine Inch Nails I’m deep into Axe-Fx with a few drawers of supplemental pedals like a POG, a DD-8 for the reverse effect, a Catalinbread CSIDMAN and a Red Panda Particle. When I went to play on Danny Elfman’s record, I didn’t need the Axe-Fx; it was just amp and pedals.

You even did that for some Nine Inch Nails tours – quite brave given how many sounds are needed to get through the set.

That was a challenge! Even more than I anticipated. But once we had committed to it we had to see it through. Some of the biggest challenges are the clean sounds or what happens during Hurt, because I’m playing a Godin nylon-string through the Marshall. I needed a Boss Line Switcher to turn everything off at the end of the song, because there were too many pedals growling. It was my master kill!

• The Official Robin Finck Reverb Shop opens on November 11.

Television guitarist and NYC guitar icon Richard Lloyd passed away on November 7 at the age of 75.

He was one of the instrument’s true journeymen, and led a remarkable career with many twists and turns, from learning the secret of guitar playing from John Lee Hooker to spearheading post-punk with his six-string compatriot Tom Verlaine.

He was also a guitar teacher and regular columnist for Guitar World, imparting his fretboard wisdom as the Alchemical Guitarist.

In December 2025, Guitar World’s Andrew Daly conducted our final interview with Lloyd. In a wide-ranging conversation, he looked back at how he first fell in love with guitar, his star encounters, and changing rock history with Television.

Like many of his generation, Richard Lloyd was moved by The Beatles during his early guitar journey.

“I recognized that the guitar was their magic wand,” Lloyd says. “They were casting a spell over young people. It’s an impulse that never left me.”

With Tom Verlaine, Lloyd went on to cast spells of his own with Television. Songs like See No Evil, Marquee Moon, and Friction became punk-meets-art-rock guitar anthems.

“We were like the glamor of poverty,” Lloyd says. “We looked like runaways playing rock ’n’ roll.”

Musically the pair were a match made in heaven – but personally they were plagued by decades of turmoil. “Dynamic tension existed, and that was responsible for a great deal of the creativity,” the guitarist says.

“There’s no denying that Tom was a genius. He was a poet. I’m not poetic. His double- and triple-entendre was better than mine. But in the realm of our magic, my guitar playing was on another level, though he could play and sing. It satisfied me.”

Verlaine died in 2023, and Lloyd hadn’t kept in touch. He’s okay with how things turned out.

“I wanted to make a dent in rock history. That was my goal, and that came true.

“We made a difference with how rock was thought of. I’m proud of that. Tom didn’t want to talk about that… he thought he was above mentioning the past. But I’m extremely proud. I know we made a difference.”

Did you choose the guitar, or did it choose you?

It chose me. I was playing drums first. I have synesthesia, so the cymbals had a color different than a snare drum – stuff was very lively. One day I was playing, and the color went out of the instrument. The drums sounded nothing like they had before.

They went black, grayscale. Then a voice announced in my left ear, ‘You gotta play a melody instrument.’ I tinkered with the piano but nothing ever came of it – I knew one note sounded good and two notes sounded good together, but three notes, I couldn’t figure it out. I still don’t like the piano much.

Around 1958 I went over to my cousins' for a sleepover, and they passed around a guitar. I got my hands on it and just fell in love. They wanted to go to sleep, so I went to the bathroom and played three chords until there was a knock at the door: “Get out of the bathroom!” I’d played those three chords all night long.

Did you take to it quickly?

The guitar was a powerful motivator. I began trying to bend strings, and I wanted to go electric right away. I’m not fond of acoustic; it doesn’t suit me. I have one, and I can play.

I’m drawn to electricity – when I was four or five, I pulled a plug out halfway, grabbed it with my licked fingers, and got a shock all the way up my shoulder. I wanted to know what electricity was, and I sure found out!

I found it’s a ruthless, uncaring energy that wanted to go through me and evict me from my own body. It caused my arm to buzz for two weeks! So I knew what electricity was, and the guitar and electricity were mighty fine.

As you grew older, you met a musician named Velvert Turner, who claimed to be close with Jimi Hendrix.

He was a scrawny black kid and he wasn’t dressed spectacularly. Everybody laughed at him. One of the kids asked him, “You know Jimi? Prove it!’” He said, “Well, he’s in New York because he has a show later. I could call him at his hotel.”

He went into the other room and dialed a number. It rang, and he asked for a name other than Jimi’s. We proclaimed, “You didn’t ask for Hendrix. Who’s this other guy?” He said, “Jimi doesn’t register under his own name.”

He handed the phone off to the guys, who handed it to me, and while I was on the phone, Jimi picked up and said, “Hey, man, who is this?” I said, “It’s Velvert, Jimi,” and handed the phone back.

Was it actually Jimi Hendrix on the line?

I recognized Hendrix’s voice. It was immovable. You couldn’t disguise it. He had a particular way of speaking. So this was the verifier. But he took the phone, talked to Jimi privately, hung up, and said, “Jimi is playing tonight in town. I can bring one person.”

He did a little pirouette, pointed at the sky; and when he brought his hand down he was pointing at me. He said, “I’m going to take you.” I never found out why he picked me, but I assume it’s because I believed him when nobody else did.

Is it true that Jimi was teaching Velvert guitar, and that you picked up some tricks too?

It turned out that Jimi considered Velvert his little brother. He was teaching him to play electric guitar at an apartment on 12th Street. Velvert would call me because I lived six blocks away.

I had a guitar by then – a Stratocaster named Samantha. Velvert would come over and show me what Jimi was teaching him. Things like double stops, bends, octaves, and little things that I picked up on because I have a photographic memory.

I couldn’t play them for a couple of years, but because of my memory, I had them locked up in there. So many of the things I was trying to accomplish came way down the line, but it didn’t matter to me. It was one of the funniest periods of my life. We hung out a lot.

Through Velvert’s Hendrix connection, you met and spent time with Led Zeppelin and many others.

I’m starproof – I wasn’t in awe of anybody. I’d tried to learn from their records, but I wasn’t very good at that. I can repeat what another person’s hands are doing, but I can’t repeat from ear; I learn by sight.

You were invited to a Led Zep show, weren’t you?

I’d turned Robert Plant on to some very good hash, and they invited me to bring some to a show! Before it started I asked the guitar tech if he would show me what Jimmy Page did to warm up.

He got all excited, took me to one of the vacant rooms backstage, and showed me a bunch of stuff. Like I said, I’m very good at picking up what’s played in front of me. I got a lot out of that night.

Before forming Television, you sat in with John Lee Hooker.

One thing I learned then was that, if you keep your mouth shut, you’ll survive a lot longer in delicate social conditions. John Lee Hooker was playing in Boston, where I was living. I went backstage, entered the dressing room, sat down, and didn’t say anything.

John Lee Hooker was working with someone, then he turned to me and said, “Sonny, what you do?” I said, “I play guitar.” He said, “Are you good?” I said, “Well…” He said, “No, you’re great, man! I’m gonna call you up on stage. You’d better come or I’ll chase you down!”

He told me, “I’ll tell you the secret of playing electric guitar.” I went over to listen and he said, “Bend the strings. Learn one string, how to go up and down, bend the notes, and shake them until the woman go, ‘Whoa!’ and the man go, ‘Ahhh!’’’ That’s a literal translation. Since then, I’ve been bending and shaking the strings.

How did you meet Tom Verlaine?

I’d never had a band. I didn’t want to be in a band until I found something I could really participate in. I wanted to be surrounded by something that you can’t describe. I was hanging around Max’s Kansas City, where I met [manager] Terry Ork.

He said, “Do you want to see this guy Tom? He plays solo electric guitar like you do.” I said, “What good is it for me to see him when I could be practicing?” But that day one of my strings had broken, so I told him I’d go to see this guy.

When Tom turned on his amp – one of those really old Fender amps that thumped when you turned it on – the club manager told him to turn it down! After he did his songs, I turned to Terry and said, “Forget putting a band together around me. Hook the two of us up.”

I said, “With Tom and myself, you’ll have a history-making something. You’ll have a band you want to manage.” So Terry sponsored Television. Neither of us had amps at the time, just electric guitars, so he bought us a couple of Fenders and let us rehearse in his loft.

We passed the guitar back and forth. Then Tom went off to the side and muttered something, came back, and said, “Yeah, let’s try it.”

One of your main guitars back then was a pinstriped Tele. Where did you get that?

It was an amazing guitar. I couldn’t afford a Strat, but I scraped up enough money by selling my drum kit and went with the Telecaster because Stratocasters were $100 more. I bought the Telecaster with a rosewood ‘board.

What do you remember about putting together songs like See No Evil and Marquee Moon from Television’s debut, Marquee Moon?

Those are songs we did in our live act. In the beginning, with Richard Hell [on bass], it was very slaphazard musically. But when Fred Smith took over after quitting Blondie – which was considered a smart move because Blondie were not well-respected compared to Television – things changed.

When we went to record I had these lead parts for the verses at the beginning; I had most of that stuff. But the song Marquee Moon didn’t come until much later. I remember rehearsing it and playing it.

With See No Evil, Tom was fooling around with octaves, and I came up with the rest. There have been debates on that – I didn’t get a penny for the songwriting, nor the other ones that I was responsible for. A real drag, because publishing is where you can actually make a living.

Why is that?

Tom went by the argument that everything is the melody and the lyrics, and that there was nothing deserving of credit for what he called “the arrangement.” I debated that. For instance, with Guiding Light, I wrote the part that runs through the whole song.

That was the final straw. I said, “You’ll either give me credit for this, or you can come up with something else because I won’t play it if you don’t give me credit.” I got half credit on that.

I fought him over See No Evil and Friction, but he went behind our backs – you’d find out he put it under his own name.

Did that make it hard for you to stick around for another record, which turned out to be 1978’s Adventure?

I’d say so. But it was hard for both of us. Tom wanted to be everything. He was gonna head out on his own because he figured he’d make more money. That’s all that motivated him: the almighty dollar. I call him a nickel-nursing, penny-pinching thief.

I created this thing. I said to Terry, “Put this guy and me together.” It was me who came up with the notion that I’d be the lead guitarist, but that we’d split solos. I played the leads anytime that Tom was singing. And that was most of the damn song.

Things like Friction, I came up with that bottom line, and it never varies for the whole song. It’s the ground upon which it’s built, and I never got credit for that. That sucks.

Is that what led you to make your solo album, 1979’s Alchemy?

Not exactly. We were both straining. I wrote songs, but none of them fit Television; I recognized that. I tried to present ideas – but when I did, he took writing credit for the whole fucking thing. You have to say, “Does the benefit outweigh the negatives in sticking around? Am I better off somewhere else?”

For 35 years, Television was my number one priority. Even if I had stuff going on, if Television looked like it was going to get together or do something, I’d abandon my own works.

Seeing that Tom didn’t feel the same way, do you regret that?

Well, I’m already a manic depressive – bipolar A, as they say. Every time we went into the studio, Tom would literally drive me nuts. He would act in such a way that I would end up in the mental hospital, or just the regular hospital.

What sort of things would he do?

There’s no answer to that. I don’t know anyone who’s ever worked with Tom who’s not completely distraught by his lack of cooperation with anybody or anything.

Even David Bowie had to basically mix him out of his own song because Tom drove him nuts in the studio. But Bowie could bury his parts, or not hire him again. I couldn’t do that.

So you and Tom had lost touch before he died?

We didn’t keep in touch at all. After I left, that was that. We were together basically 24 hours a day when touring and making records, and it was a great, fantastic, laugh fest. We had a good deal of fun together, but it didn’t reach our personal lives. We’d only meet up when we were making music.

How do you remember Tom?

I remember his sense of humor, which was outstanding. He nearly brought me to piss with his jokes and tomfoolery. He wasn’t above making fun of himself, so his personality had good elements.

I loved being around it – as long as we weren’t making a decision about anything. If we were coasting along, he was fabulous to be with. He had another side.

What’s next for you?

I have a tour coming up in the Northeast and Midwest as The Richard Lloyd Group. We’re a trio, which suits me. For many years I wouldn’t touch Television songs.

But as the last functioning member of the band, I have a responsibility to the fans. I play a number of Television songs, my own songs, and some covers, so everybody has a good time.

What is it?

Warm Audio has released a take on the fOXX Tone Machine before, the carpeted little octave-fuzz used by the likes of Billy Gibbons, Beck, Peter Frampton and countless others.

The Austin, TX gear brand’s Foxy Tone Box is a 1:1 replica of the circuit, and even presents the classic fuzz pedal in its horizontally forbidding enclosure, footswitch on top, dials and switch on the side, resplendent in a bright orange felt finish.

But the Peach Fuzz is something a little bit different, and was designed with help from the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach – who counts himself among those countless others in the fOXX fan club.

“We’d never done a pedal, but when we were talking about what fun things to do for the album Peaches, we were talking about pedals,” Auerbach told Reverb. “I was like, ‘Well, hey, there’s this flocked pedal – might be fun to make a Peach Fuzz.’ So we reached out to these guys, and because I’ve been using a bunch of their stuff – Pat [Carney, The Black Keys drummer] uses a bunch of their studio gear – they helped put this together for us.”

Here, Warm Audio gives us a second footswitch for the octave effect, houses the circuit in a more pedalboard-friendly format, and gives us switchable momentary and latching modes for the octave effect.

“I didn’t want to really do a pedal unless it was really good and really useable for people,” says Auerbach.

This limited edition fuzzbox is another shag-pile design, soft to the touch, peach-pink like blancmange, and is an altogether more practical option – so long as you don’t mind stains on its carpet finish.

But peach-pink cute or not, history tells us that a fur-covered fuzz can only be tamed so much. There’s a touch of the wild animal about these things.

Specs

• Launch price: $199 | £199 | €229
• Type: Octave fuzz pedal
• Controls: Volume, Sustain, Fuzz Mellow-Brite, Momentary/Latching toggle, engage/bypass footswitch, octave on/off footswitch
• Features: Fuzz with switchable octave-up effect, momentary and latching modes on the octave effect, NOS 2N3565 Fairchild transistors, Germanium 1N34A diodes, carbon resistors, and premium film capacitors to deliver authentic vintage fuzz
• Connectivity: 1/4” input, 1/4” output, 9V center negative power input
• Bypass: True bypass
• Power: 9V DC or battery
• Dimensions: 140mm x 84mm x 58mm
• Weight: 0.8lbs / 0.36kg
• Contact: Warm Audio

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

Those who get their rocks off poring over fuzz-circuit schematics, taking a quasi-erotic voyeuristic interest in what’s going on in the breadboards of others, must really love Warm Audio.

This is a tell-all company. So we can talk about the componentry, about how we have gold-plated PCD construction, super-tidy, with a tasting menu of “NOS 2N3565 Fairchild transistors, Germanium 1N34A diodes, carbon resistors, and premium film capacitors” under the hood.

All this is to say, it wasn’t put together using stuff you found lying around the house, random diodes found down the back of the couch.

Every Warm Audio pedal we have used has felt like a legit option for the touring player’s pedalboard. And it is covered by a five-year warranty

The Peach Fuzz is no exception (robust switches, robust housing, etc), and yet it kind of is, if only for that flock-covered finish. It’ll get dirty over time. But you don’t worry about those kinds of things, right? Right!?

Clearly some players do – why else would Warm Audio have launched a special edition of its Foxy Tone Box in Werewolf Black…

Usability and features

Usability and features rating: ★★★★★

How easy a pedal is to use is a complicated question; it’s both a matter of fact and a subjective opinion. My preference, as in the fuzz pedals I typically find the easiest to use, is for those with two to three knobs. If you can get away with a single knob, that’s cool. Once you start adding bias knobs, blend controls, 3-band EQ, it begins to feel like a mission to understand what sounds the pedal can make and how you can find them.

As per the design brief from Auerbach, Warm Audio has expanded the fOXX/Foxy control set, adding a footswitch, adding a toggle for the octave footswitch’s momentary and latching modes, but essentially it’s a simple three-knob setup, with output volume, gain and tone.

The original fOXX Tone Machine allowed you to take the octave in and out, but not mid-song, not unless you can take your hands off your guitar, reach down to your ‘board and flick the switch.

Presenting the octave effect as a separate footswitchable add-on with the performance-friendly momentary operation is the Pareto optimal solution. The octave, after all, is a complementary effect to the core fuzz voice, it can be an acquired taste, and not for all situations. The original toggle-switch design allowed you to take the octave in and out but not mid-song.

The top-mounted jacks might make it a little easier for you to find a spot for the Peach Fuzz on your ‘board, but it’s worth noting that it’s a considerably chunkier proposition than, say, a Compact Series Boss pedal.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

The Peach Fuzz has not fallen far from the tree. Its core fuzz sound – this great swooshing tide of saturation – is what you would expect from an octave-fuzz with fOXX DNA.

Depending on which side of noon the Mellow-Brite tone knob is sitting – and there’s a lot of range to that blue dial – this can be square-wave woof or a sharper and more wasp-ish sound, but either way we’re talking about a fuzz with the capability to transform your electric guitar tone, at times flattening its identity.

When maxed out, the octave disengaged, I had to look down to my hands to see that it really was an HSS S-style that I was playing. But this is part of its charm. This is why we plug a fuzz in, with those super-saturated sounds making single notes assume the quality of a horn part, or even a synth.

Add in the octave up and the effect is doubly transformative, with this sort of anarcho-harpsichord quality to single notes, and all bets are off when playing chords. More of which in second. But what I want from a fuzz, particularly one that evokes a ‘70s classic, is to be able to dial in a sound that can be used as a substitute for mild overdrive, that crispy heat that makes your edge-of-breakup tones that sort of scratchy CCR quality, and also the capability to go full feral animal, and the Peach Fuzz can do that.

The controls are interactive. With the Sustain knob fully counterclockwise, the Volume control feels as if it’s a little inhibited, but just dialing in a little Sustain gives it a bump, and that works well as an unclean boost, not quite full-fuzz, but still introducing its radicalizing quality to your tone. Again, it’s that subversive drive sound that adds a spikiness to your tone.

Perhaps because of its unruliness, there is a certain poetry to fuzz, that you don’t need to painstakingly tone match for it to do a certain job. With my ‘50s-style Blackguard Tele, it can get you in the ballpark of Keith Richards’ Satisfaction tone. It can sell the illusion of violining vroom of Randy Bachman in his pomp.

With Auerbach’s name attached, it should unlock some of his Black Keys tone, too. But never mind the Black Keys. Don’t let the Peach flock finish fool you. You could call it ‘The Rutting Stag’ or ‘Intemperate Walrus’ and put it to work on riffs in the style of Melvins and Sleep. The doom kids will love it.

The key is to roll with the anarchy. This is where the octave-up effect comes in. Fans of the O.G. Roger Mayer Octavia and UniVox Super-Fuzz might have a similarly good time with the Peach Fuzz, though they will find it a more aggressive option – and thicker, too, especially when the Mellow-Brite knob is sitting around 10 o’clock.

The more treble you introduce, the more that octave up effect asserts itself. It’s touch-sensitive but not in the way we usually understand touch-sensitivity. The harder you player, the wilder your vibrato, and the more you bend the strings, the more overtones come spilling out in all directions.

At extreme settings it’s like a horse that’s lost its rider, but then fuzz was never an effect for the buttoned-up, fastidious player.

Dimed, it’s a force of nature – a nuclear option for dropped tunings. But there are some exquisite vintage fuzz tones to be found that can complement your rhythm and lead playing alike.

Verdict

Fans of Dan Auerbach and the Black Keys will undoubtedly get a lot out of this. The Peach Fuzz does a convincing job of replicating the kinds of fuzz sounds that were all over ‘70s rock. It would give slide players another vintage texture to work with, channeling early Duane Allman, riding the wave of infinite sustain.

A fuzz like this might be an acquired taste, but you might be surprised at how many styles this could work with; grunge, metal, pop, rock ’n’ roll and blues, indie, alt-rock and so on. Its octave-up skronk is just the thing for psych and garage-rock, and adding tape echo and tremolo might help Jimmy open the doors of perception. “Far out,” as they would say back in 1971 when Steve Ridinger designed the fOXX Tone Machine, from which this is descended.

While we are praising Warm Audio and Auerbach for the practical improvements to the fOXX, for the record, Ridinger got there first with the Danelectro fUZZ 3699, which also has the footswitchable octave and there's a midboost – though there isn't the momentary/latching operation on the octave footswitch.

The Peach Fuzz is wild when you want it to be, but with that bestial octave effectively chained up until you need to unleash it, it’s surprisingly practical, giving us all a choice on how we want to wield its chaos and when. But there’s mojo all across the range of that Sustain dial, sweet spot after sweet spot.

Guitar World verdict: Warm Audio and Dan Auerbach have improved upon the classic octave-fuzz, housetraining the fOXX with a more pedalboard-friendly design and offering players more control over its strident octave chaos. They even made it cute. But rest assured, the Peach Fuzz is still a wild thing, and we think you’ll love it

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Dan Auerbach x Reverb

• “A terrific pedal that's loaded with character”: Warm Audio WA-C1 Mod Chorus Vibrato review

The story of the Minutemen is one of the most tragic in the annals of ’80s indie rock.

Led by guitarist/vocalist D. Boon and bassist Mike Watt, and rounded out by drummer George Hurley, the Minutemen were unlike any of their contemporaries.

Their pace was relentless – their masterpiece, 1984’s Double Nickels on the Dime, featured an incredible 45 songs over barely 80 minutes. Contained within was a roller coaster of musical styles – frenzied punk outbursts like Corona (which will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s ever seen Jackass) shared space with an earnest Steely Dan cover.

As they softened their punk edges (musically, mind, not politically) in 1985, it seemed like the band might be primed to travel the road of college-rock-to-mainstream success laid down by R.E.M. Sadly, just as they seemed to be on the threshold of that well-deserved wider recognition, tragedy struck.

On December 22, 1985, while laying in the back of his van without a seatbelt as his girlfriend drove down the highway, the vehicle suffered a sudden structural failure, sending it off the road. Boon was thrown out of its back door, and killed instantly. He was just 27 years old.

Boon’s bandmates were devastated – Watt, always Boon’s foil, lost all desire to play music.

On that note, in a 1995 interview with Guitar World, Watt detailed his beloved Minutemen-era bass, and its fate after the band’s dissolution.

“I got this Gibson – I think it was in 1976 – an EB3-L, like the one Jack Bruce played, but with a slotted headstock,” Watt told GW. “What was important was that it had a thin, three-quarter-scale neck. I played that thing like crazy – it played faster than a guitar – and the strings were so close to the neck that I could really wail on it.

“After D.Boon was gone, I didn’t feel right playing it anymore, so I just gave it away to Flea.”

It was Sonic Youth, with whom Watt was close, who brought the bassist back into music. They recruited him to play on two tracks on their landmark 1986 album, EVOL. Lacking his own bass after the hand-off to Flea, Watt used Youth bassist/vocalist Kim Gordon’s four-string.

Re-energized, Watt teamed up with Hurley to form Firehose, a band that would go on to achieve some of the mainstream success the Minutemen never got the chance to see.

“Mike’s innovative, melodic, and hardcore, all at the same time,” Flea – the recipient of Watt’s Minutemen-era bass – told Bass Player in 1995. “He can also play the simplest thing in the world and imply that he can play anything. He’s one of the greatest bass players ever.”

What is it?

The previous guitar from Patrick James Eggle that passed through Guitarist’s portals was a stunning single-pickup Cabronita-style Oz model.

And while that was in traditional tobacco sunburst on swamp ash with a single humbucker at the bridge, today’s instrument – which obviously shares the same basic DNA – has a different personality altogether. And if you’ve ever wondered where the name ‘Oz’ comes from, it’s simple, as Mr Eggle himself reveals: “The name Oz refers to Oswestry, the home of Patrick James Eggle guitars.”

Our particular Oz sports a pair of Mojo’s twin Wide Range pickups on a carved mahogany body with just one f-hole. Its milky grey ‘grained mahogany’ finish provides a more contemporary look and takes us somewhere else entirely.

Look closely and the wood’s ‘strawberry pip’ grain is clearly visible through the thin nitrocellulose finish. This monochrome look is rather smart, and it’s always great to see something less run-of-the-mill.

“We try to keep things tasteful but away from the norm, where possible,” explains Patrick. “And this one’s not too outlandish. We took it to a few shows and a lot of people were commenting on the finish.”

But even with this unique look and twin humbucking pickups, in sheer hardware and electronics terms it’s still a pretty straightforward guitar.

As usual with Eggle instruments, pulling it from its super-quality branded gigbag and looking it over from the end-pin to the tip of its roasted maple headstock reveals a flawless build. The neck joint is perfectly hewn and paired, and each cavity cover rout exquisitely done. Not to mention the sheer pleasure of holding in your hands something that’s clearly a cut above.

Patrick tends to use AAA figured maple on most of his necks, and the roasted birdseye construction you see here is no exception. The roasting, or torrefaction, lends a deliciously nutty hue to the wood, as well as greater stability. And while it doesn’t look ‘vintage’ per se, it does remove the often anaemic glare that pure naked maple can exude.

Our Oz’s ’board is dark, reddish rosewood and boasts the only outwardly ‘flash’ element here: large pearl block position markers. If you think simpler dots might work better, these can of course be specified. As it is, we rather like it this way.

Speaking of that fingerboard and the 22 Jescar jumbo frets that adorn its 648mm (25.5-inch) extent, we can honestly say we’ve never seen it done better. The rolled edges and elegantly dressed and rounded fret ends are a thing for any guitar lover to behold and enjoy. This is what a true custom maker has the time and indeed the expertise to do, and you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere near this level of care on a production line instrument.

Creating a semi-solid guitar body can be done in a number of ways, but Eggle prefers to carve out the mahogany blank’s innards before glueing the top on afterwards. This allows Patrick to leave the solid centre section intact. In theory, of course, this means the top could be maple, koa or any other timber that will suit the base timber or perhaps a later colour choice.

“Actually, both back and top are routed from the inside before glue-up,” Patrick clarifies. “The top is carved from the inside to leave a thickness of approximately 5mm, and the back is chambered and carved in the area of the belly cut to match the outside. And yes, the centre section is solid.”

Hardware-wise, we find a Gotoh Chopped T bridge with three compensated brass barrel saddles, vintage-style but rear-locking Gotoh tuners, cream control and toggle switch covers, plus a recessed neckplate whose outline follows the contour of the beautifully sculpted body heel.

For the electrics we’re treated to a setup of twin Mojo Wide range ‘CuNiFe’ pickups (a style originally designed by Seth Lover of Gibson humbucker fame, and here with outputs of 7.3k for the neck and 10.0k powering the bridge). Single volume and tone controls with a coil-tap on the tone pot, plus a shoulder-mounted three-way pickup selector switch, complete the operational picture.

Specs

• PRICE: £4,920 (approx $6,599) with posh grey padded gigbag
• ORIGIN: Oswestry, UK
• TYPE: Single-cut, T-style thinline electric semi
• BODY: Semi-solid mahogany, carved top with f-hole
• NECK: 1-piece roasted, AAA birdseye maple, shallow C profile
• SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Bone/43mm
• FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, 254-406.4mm (10-16”) with pearl block inlays
• FRETS: 22 Jescar 57110, jumbo
• HARDWARE: Chopped-T bridge, rim mounted jack socket; aluminium strap buttons; knurled nickel knobs, lightly aged
• TUNERS: Gotoh SD-91 vintage, rear locking
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 54mm
• ELECTRICS: 2x Mojo Wide Range CuNiFe humbuckers, volume, tone with coil-tap, 3-way selector switch
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.1/.6.8
• OPTIONS: A broad range of pickup, timber and hardware is available
• RANGE OPTIONS: Oz (from £3,000), PJE’s take on the classic model; Oz Cabronita (£3,200), thinline swamp ash, single pickup; Oz Drop Top (from £,3700), with figured maple cap ‘dropped’ over the forearm chamfer and twin humbuckers
• LEFT-HANDERS: On request
• FINISH: High-gloss Grained Mahogany (as reviewed), Faded Gold Burst, Island Blue Burst, Denim Burst, Tea Burst, Tobacco Burst, Gold Top, plus many others available
• CONTACT: Patrick James Eggle

Build quality, usability and sounds

The psychology of neck shapes is interesting. While our Oz’s nut is a traditional 43mm, its profile is a shallow C. This gives the impression of being wider than it actually is. But whatever its dimensions, the Oz’s neck is a dream to play. It feels smooth and refined, with the most perfect action we’ve played in a while.

The fat frets, which are smooth as silk under string bends, supply all those facilities we regularly speak of, like easy bending and strong, fluent vibrato.

All this no doubt aided by the fingerboard’s 254mm to 406.4mm (10- to 16-inch) radius. It’s clear just how much Eggle has laboured over the crowning, levelling and polishing, and we’d dare anyone to say it’s not one of the finest necks they’ve played.

The guitar is light in weight, too – at 3.1kg, just under 7lb – and with its generous belly cut is great to play standing up.

Plugging into our Tone King Imperial valve pedal amp, with added Fulltone OCD overdrive and Strymon Brig delay, we’re expecting good things. Wide Range humbuckers (CuNiFe magnets comprise copper, nickel and ferrous elements) tend to sound brighter than their Gibson-style counterparts. And the Oz’s semi-solid construction is sure to add to that clarity and articulation.

Sure enough, with everything set clean but with a dribble of delay, the openness and dynamics are palpable, the guitar responding to every playing nuance. The neck humbucker is bright, clear and yet somehow mellow, while the beefier bridge is sharper, more strident and forceful. Pull the tone switch and one coil is switched off to create a genuine single-coil experience (see accompanying interview that follows this review).

Due to the guitar’s construction, the Oz’s personality remains intact, just a tad more spanky and crisp – more Strat or Tele than ES-335 perhaps. The middle setting supplies that lovely scoop in the tone we love on ES-335s and Telecasters, so in fact why not think of the guitar’s middle tones as not a million miles away from these illustrious forebears?

Our Fulltone OCD pedal is set for a medium drive, which suits the Oz’s every pickup and switch selection. Clear, clean tones are usually a better platform for driven ones, since adding mush to mush is never a great sonic recipe. Hence the drive tones simply propel our already musical tones to fantastic levels of single-string expression.

In the final analysis this relatively simple guitar will cover any base, from classic blues and rock to country, fusion and even modern jazz. It’s also supremely easy and intuitive to use, and that’s a boon to any musical instrument’s desirability.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★★

Guitarist has reviewed a number of Patrick James Eggle’s guitars over the years and every one has received huge praise. The thought and care that goes into the design, build, fit and finish is extraordinary. And the team doesn’t do this just because a magazine is reviewing one; every customer’s guitar receives the exact same level of care.

As for this particular instrument, it’s a perfectly honed example of PJE’s craft. You really can’t fault anything. From its conception to the final execution, everything is unimpeachable. The build quality is supreme, playability hard to match, and the set of sounds on offer will satisfy even the meanest of ears. Yes, the price looks pretty painful, but this kind of quality really can’t be acquired on the cheap.

Above everything, the Oz Carved Top is a finely honed musical instrument that deserves an airing at every opportunity.

Guitar World verdict: In the words of our late colleague Dave Burrluck who pored over that previous Oz: “It’s no posh case queen; it would be criminal if this guitar didn’t hit a stage.” We can say no more, other than it’s another clean sweep for PJE!

• Patrick James Eggle 96 Contour Top review – astonishing craft married to stellar sounds with a feel that few can match

Ovation Guitars started life as a subsidiary of aerospace firm, the Kaman Corporation in New Hartford, Connecticut. Soon, the company was flying high when it found itself designing an acoustic guitar for a Beatle.

And, what started out as a special gift has since morphed into one of Ovation’s best-selling models, the Custom Legend.

Instantly recognizable for their unique, scythe-like headstocks designed to echo the firm’s world-first roundback guitar concept, Ovation guitars have more than made a splash in the industry.

Former Ozzy guitarist Gus G and Al Di Meola are both a signature artist. But their biggest tie-in – and arguably one that afforded Ovation many others – came about after a single phone call.

“One of the top three models is our Custom Legend, a dressed-up version of our Legend,” Rick Hall, CEO of GEWA Music USA explains in the new issue of Guitar World. The German developer and distributor acquired the brand in 2021.

“At one point, Linda McCartney called the company and wanted to order Paul a birthday present,” he adds. “She asked for abalone and other upgrades, and that’s what became our Custom Legend. It was originally made for a Beatle!”

The acoustic was most famously put to work during the Liverpudlian’s Wings era, especially on the 1975 Wings Over the World tour. Given its starry backstory, it was no surprise to see the Custom Legend create a legend of its own.

“That ended up evolving into the Al Di Meola model,” Hall details. “Believe it or not, 12-string guitars have become a big deal for us. We make an abnormally high percentage of 12-strings compared to other companies.

“For most brands, that would be only 5 percent of production. We’ve had icons like Freddie Mercury and Brian May playing our 12-strings. You can see one in Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Both Mercury and May were drawn to Ovation’s Pacemaker series in particular, regularly using the guitars for live performances of songs including 39 and Love of My Life. It was an endorsement that served Ovation extremely well, and no doubt tipped the scales of its production even further towards 12-string acoustics. Yet it all started with Linda McCartney.

More recently, Ovation has been honoring one of its lesser known advocates in Jeff Buckley. The late singer-songwriter loved its peculiar Viper electric guitar, which has just been revived to mark the firm’s 60th anniversary.

Jake E. Lee is another notable player to have taken an Ovation electric under his arm, opting for one of its more obscure models. He said he’d always wanted one, and eventually pulled the trigger after a booze-fueled scroll on Reverb.

Fender is a company with a fascinating history – controversial eras, personnel shuffles, innovations that didn’t quite work out. But its consistency and constant presence really has no peer. Its two tentpole models have never gone out of production, something that can’t be said of some of its chief rival’s most iconic creations.

Listing all the legends who’ve wielded Stratocasters, Telecasters, Jazzmasters, Mustangs, and Jaguars would put you to sleep, but there’s a rich history of non-household names whose unique, challenging asks of the company forced it to innovate. Fender’s consistent presence hasn’t also meant stasis.

So, how well do you know this titan of the guitar industry? The players and designers – famous and more obscure – who ushered in new eras for the firm, and the products that have pushed its boundaries? Test your knowledge in our quiz below.

In this extract from new biography Edged in Blue: A Rock ’n’ Roll Odyssey with Rory Gallagher, Rory and Dónal Gallagher first encounter the ’61 Strat that would become Rory’s constant companion for thousands of gigs and an icon of his music – though not before landing in hot water with their mother, Mona, for secretly bringing the guitar home...

Who's that coming?

‘Are you awake?’ Rory said, shaking my shoulder. Big brother was back late from a gig with news as urgent as if a spacecraft had landed in the city.

‘There’s a Buddy Holly guitar in the window of Crowley’s music shop,’ he exclaimed, ‘Can you believe it – a Fender Stratocaster in Cork? Will you come and look at it with me tomorrow? I might buy it – it’s only one hundred pounds.’

‘What?’ I said, rubbing my eyes and sitting up in bed. I felt like I was still dreaming. ‘And which bank do we rob? That’s the price of a car … for God’s sake, Rory.’

‘Don’t say anything to Mammy until I see if I can get a deal on it,’ my sibling warned.

Standing outside Crowley’s store at Merchants Quay the next day, my brother and I gazed at the contoured, sunburst-finished instrument displayed on a stand in the window. To me, it had all the serenity and presence of Our Lady’s statue in a grotto.

‘Come on, we’re going in,’ Rory ordered.

Reluctantly, I followed him into the small store, which had stringed instruments hanging from every wall like Christmas tree decorations. I tried to make myself as small as possible as Michael, the shop’s genial owner, retrieved the Stratocaster from the front window at my brother’s request.

Rory confidently caressed the guitar’s sleek contours and strummed it acoustically. Even unplugged, its voice was strong and distinctive, the fragrance of its polished lacquer adding to the instrument’s allure.

‘Do you want to plug it into that amp?’ Michael asked Rory.

Rory nodded and, moments later, my ears tingled with shimmering, mirage-like notes that magically filled the shop. The warmth of the amplified chords from the Fender seemed like something from another world.

‘Where did the guitar come from?’ asked Rory.

‘The Royal Showband,’ Michael replied in his soft-spoken way. ‘Their guitarist, Jim Conlon, is after a red one like Hank Marvin has, to suit the band’s new look or something. He only hung onto this one until he could get the red one shipped over from California.’

‘What kind of trade would you give me for my Solid 7 and the Selmer amp – and how would that work with the hire purchase scheme?’ my brother enquired coolly.

Michael did some calculations, his pencil moving quickly as he glanced at the hire purchase rate chart.

‘With the trade-in, it would work out at about £2 and 10 shillings over the next 36 months,’ he said. ‘Sure, why not take the instrument home, try it out at a gig. But obviously, you’ll have to have your mother’s consent and signature for extending the commitment you already have,’ Michael added.

We returned to my grandmother’s house full of glee and trepidation, carrying the guitar in its beautiful buff-coloured case, with stitched tan leather binding at both ends.