Norse Guitar Feeds

If you phone FU-Tone on a Sunday, there’s a decent chance company president Adam Reiver will be the one who picks up. Even after decades in the industry and building a global customer base, he hasn’t distanced himself from his clients—something that, in the age of AI chatbots, can still catch customers off guard.

“People will call, and they go, ‘Oh my god, is this the guy in the video? Is this Adam? I can’t believe I’m talking to you,’” he tells Premier Guitar. “And I go, ‘I can’t believe I’m talking to you!’”

That interaction captures something elemental about FU-Tone and Reiver: He’s one of us. “I'm just a guitar player like you, or some kid in Kansas, or the guy on the cover of Rolling Stone,” he says.

This connection isn’t just a customer service quirk. It reveals a philosophy at the heart of his brand. From the early days of designing the EVH D-Tuna to the present, this approach has shaped FU-Tone into a tight-knit community of dedicated musicians from all walks of life.

It also explains why so much of what Reiver builds and talks about centers on helping players take full control of their tone—not just upgrading their instruments, but understanding them.

To fully grasp how deeply this mindset is embedded, it helps to look at Reiver’s own journey as a player. His story began at a moment when guitar culture ruled the world, during a shift from traditional sounds into more experimental territory.

“It was around ’81 when I first really found the guitar,” he says. “And if you roll the clock back two or three years from there, it was basically, ‘Do you want a Strat, a Tele, or a Les Paul?’ And then off you go. I didn’t think modding and hot-rodding guitars were a thing.”

Reiver was there at ground zero to witness the shift toward customized superstrats, the rise of early custom-shop brands like Jackson and Charvel, and brand-new horizons in playing technique. Not wasting any time, he jumped in headfirst, becoming fascinated with how he could change, improve, and completely reimagine his favorite instruments.

“My first guitar was like a cheap, $200 Hondo Flying V,” he says with a touch of pride. “But by the time I was done with it, it had a Kahler in there. It had an Invader pickup in the bridge. It had a Mighty Mite triple-coil pickup in the neck. It was like, do anything you could do to just tinker and play with the guitar.”

Just about everyone who’s played electric guitar for any amount of time is familiar with that unexplainable pull to hot-rod their favorite instrument. In Reiver’s case, however, it was more than curiosity. It was a new paradigm. The guitar was not a finished product. It was a platform.

“The advent of FU-Tone was, ‘How do you make this guitar sound better?’”

While other tinkerers of his era pursued those same goals by winding pickups, building guitars, and adding wild finishes, Reiver’s curiosity found its outlet in fabrication. Thanks to his high school’s metal shop, he wasn’t modifying existing parts—he was making new ones.

“I was not a good student, except for that class,” he recalls with a laugh. “I got straight As in metal shop. I liked how you could fabricate parts from an idea in your head. Like, ‘How do we do this? How do we get this idea from here to there?’”

That experience translated directly into how he would later develop products. Even before founding Floyd Upgrades—FU-Tone’s original name—his process was simple and immediate. Draw something, build it, test it, refine it. Still, Reiver admits he’s no machinist.

“I know enough just to be dangerous, just to get myself in trouble. So I contracted with this guy who was a professional machinist. I would literally sketch something on the side of a box and say, ‘Can you make this?’ He would whip it up old-school and bring it back to my office.”

This spirit of experimentation wasn’t just limited to those early years. That same trial-and-error approach still defines FU-Tone products today. Instead of designing in isolation, Reiver works through ideas with the instrument in hand, adjusting based on feel and response. And as with his in-house machinist, he doesn’t work alone.

One of Reiver’s most celebrated “assistants” was Eddie Van Halen himself. Working in a small team alongside Eddie, he helped develop the EVH D-Tuna through a similar cycle of experimentation, providing locking-trem players access to instant drop-D riffage.

“[That process] became a melting pot,” Reiver says. “It would be one of those side-of-the-box conversations. I would say, ‘Well, maybe we should angle it a little, make this longer, make that shorter, make this, do that.’ I would put it on a guitar, and [Ed] would monkey with it, and say, ‘No, no, no. Do this. Do that.’”

Like Reiver, Van Halen used the guitar as a testing ground, emphasizing constant refinement in pursuit of maximizing tone. And their early success only signaled the start for Reiver.

“You know, the advent of FU-Tone was, ‘How do you make this guitar sound better? How can you make this sustain more? How can you make it clearer? How can you make it louder?’ That’s where it came from.”

With tone chasing now an obsession, Reiver turned his attention to a specific piece of hardware, one most players assumed Floyd Rose had already perfected: the tremolo. The way Reiver saw it, the point where the guitar strings terminate in the body was the most important piece of the tonal equation.

“I don’t care if you play rock, metal, death metal, country, or pop—you want to have a good guitar tone.”

“In the beginning, that was the biggest thing, and I started making one product, a 37 millimeter Big Block,” he says. “I was like, ‘Wow! It sustains way more, it sounds better, and it’s more articulate. Okay, I’ll do this.’ I invested $880 to make a run of the blocks, and said, ‘Well, worst-case scenario is I could just give them to my friends, or, you know, sell them online.’”

In theory, the Big Block was exceedingly simple: a larger, heavier brass tremolo block designed to replace the smaller stock versions that came with most locking systems. With its increased mass, it maintained more string vibration, which translated into more sustain and articulation.

The Big Block was a hit, and soon enough, some of the world’s most notorious tone-hound guitarists were spreading the Floyd Upgrades gospel. Reiver realized that if one overlooked component could make that much of an impact, there were probably others.

Soon, he was manufacturing highly regarded double-locking tremolo replacement parts for the most popular trem models available. From titanium fine tuners to the little metal inserts found in each saddle, his theory about the effect of mass on tone proved correct, time and time again.

But while he was gaining users, not everyone was a fan of the moniker: Floyd Upgrades.

“A certain company didn’t like me using part of their name in my little company, and that’s fair enough,” Reiver acknowledges. “But the real blessing in disguise was that I became FU-Tone. And thank god I did, because I ended up going on to do so many other guitar parts and projects that have nothing to do with someone else’s brand.”

With a new name over the office door, FU-Tone was free to innovate and expand much further into the electric guitar market.

“FU-Tone encompasses a lot now,” Reiver says. “I make stop tail bridges. We make Tele parts. I make my own locking tremolos. We make guitars. We even make pickups.”

This relentless expansion is about more than just product lines. From tiny titanium (or brass or copper) saddle inserts to full guitar builds, every FU-Tone offering still reflects Reiver’s original conviction: tone isn't tied to any single component, but to how everything works together. It’s what Reiver has characterized as the “FU-Tone vein of tone.”

“I still pinch myself every day that I get to work with people I looked up to and tried to play like, and now I’m sitting in their living rooms.”

But what is that tone? Reiver explains: “FU-Tone vein of tone means lots of sustain, clarity, and articulation. It’s considering the wood and essence of your guitar, your hands and your playing, and then moving far beyond that.”

That idea shifts the conversation away from chasing specific gear and toward understanding how your instrument actually responds—where every material choice becomes another variable in the final sound. So what can you expect when you swap out your Ibanez Edge tremolo block for a brass or titanium one? What’s the tonal difference in the metals used in their Nancy Wilson-approved acoustic guitar bridge pins? Forever a gear nerd, Reiver’s always happy to explain.

“Brass is big and warm and round. When you think of brass, think of Eddie Van Halen, Warren DeMartini, or a George Lynch-type of sound. Titanium has a lot of sustain, but with a certain level of clarity to it, almost like a layer of glass, with really nice note separation. And copper I find to be very similar to brass, with more of a scooped-out midsection.”

From icons like Nuno Bettencourt and Slash to modern players like Lzzy Hale and Nita Strauss, countless A-listers have credited FU-Tone upgrades with having a meaningful impact on their signature sounds.

But FU-Tone products aren’t just for stars. They’re for all guitar players, and they’re also very DIY-friendly. Reiver swears that if you give him a few minutes and watch one of the company’s detailed how-to YouTube videos, you’ll be customizing your favorite instrument in no time. “If you’ve never done any of this, it can seem very intimidating,” he says. “But if you have the ability to change your own strings, you can do this.”

As a guitarist himself, Reiver knows firsthand how badly a trip to the local “expert” can go—which is exactly why he’s worked to democratize the process.

“I’ll get a guy who will buy some parts and take them to his local guy,” Reiver explains, “and he’ll say the same thing [I always hear]: ‘My guy said…’ And I’m thinking, ‘Here it comes!’ I’ve even gotten on a Zoom with guys and walked them through it. And by the end, they’re better than ‘their guy.’ I tell them, ‘You’ll never pay someone else to do it again [laughs].’”

Personal Zoom calls from a company president aren’t exactly standard practice in this industry. For Reiver, though, that’s the point—growth through relationships, not traditional marketing. “I have a handful of core guys that are all still dear friends to this day,” Reiver says. “But one of the guys who was there in the very beginning was Phil Collen from Def Leppard. After that, my phone would ring, and it would be some big artist, and they would say, ‘Phil has this on his guitar, and said to call you.’”

That kind of connection establishes a level of trust that can’t be manufactured. And for Reiver and the FU-Tone team, it also shapes how those relationships develop.

“These are not clients—they’re friends,” he says. “We’re at each other’s houses. We’re at each other’s events. It’s organic, and it’s real. I still pinch myself every day that I get to work with people I looked up to and tried to play like, and now I’m sitting in their living rooms.” He laughs. “But I play it totally cool.”

With an artist roster that includes Gary Holt (Exodus, Slayer) and Michael Wilton (Queensrÿche), it might be easy to assume FU-Tone is strictly for shredders. But Reiver’s products have found traction with players across genres and styles, and though he’s a rocker himself, he’s consistently surprised by the range of sounds and approaches the broader FU-Tone community brings.

“I’m not a big country fan, but I can tell you, those guys are the most badass musicians,” he says. “We’ll get the guys in Rascal Flatts, Jim Kimball from Reba [McEntire]’s band, Paul Sidoti from Taylor Swift’s band. I don’t care if you play rock, metal, death metal, country, or pop—you want to have a good guitar tone. I’ve been doing this for over 30 years, and that never gets old.”

FU-Tone may operate on a global scale, but it’s still rooted in the same instinct that led a high school kid to start modifying a budget guitar—and the same belief that the best conversations about tone happen one player at a time. Which is why, if you happen to call on a Sunday, you just might end up talking tone with Adam Reiver.

Press Release

Source: Think Press

White wowed the crowd with the Cole Porter classic at Brooklyn’s Jalopy Theatre during the release party for ‘Fingerpicking the Great American Songbook.’

Ahhhh, the great guitar vs amp debate. Unless you’re totally new to the guitar gear community, you’ll be aware of the perennial debate over what’s better: a great guitar with a sub-par amp or a great amp with a cheap guitar.

Both sides have strong voices. Math rock legend and Covet guitarist Yvette Young went on record a year ago to extol the virtues of an expensive amp, saying going for a bad amp is like “ruining a really nice audio file with something that’s going to degrade it a lot”.

• READ MORE: Richie Sambora reveals he hired a private detective to track down his stolen Gibson Explorer

Meanwhile, the opposing camp has adherents in Lita Ford and Whitesnake’s Doug Aldrich, who said last year: “You can get a great sound out of any amp that works.”

And it’s the second camp that former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford finds himself in, as he explains in the new issue of Guitarist.

“I’d buy the guitar. Shit, these days, half the time I’m playing through a rented amp,” he laughs. “But the guitar is so much more personal. You’re physically touching the thing and, in a perfect world, it becomes a part of you to where you don’t even think about it any more.

“It becomes just a way to get your insides out, since your fingerprints are literally on it. There’s direct contact and that’s gonna exchange your subtleties way more than an amplifier will, I think.”

So there you have it, if you’ve got some budget and you’re deciding whether to spend more of it on your amp or guitar, you know which direction Marc Ford would steer you in…

And if you do opt to zero in on the ideal guitar, Ford has a few buying tips to orient you in the right direction.

“The ultimate guitar tip for guitars – and really, any guitar, though it’s more obvious on acoustic and maybe less so with electric – is that it’s got to sound good when it’s not plugged in,” he says. “There has to be a tone that catches your ear. And it probably needs to be unique compared with other guitars.

“Obviously, feel is important. It’s gotta feel good to you. But if it doesn’t sound good when it’s not plugged in, there’s no way that you’re ever gonna get it to sound good through the electronics.”

The post “The guitar is so much more personal”: Former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford on why he’d always pick a good guitar over a good amp appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Though some musicians are able to make a living from their playing for the duration of their careers, others, by various circumstances, often find themselves working back working ‘normal’ jobs once their time in the spotlight is over.

Take Rob Dukes, for example. Exodus singer between 2005 and 2014, the Florida native ended up spending his time fixing up old cars, as he explains in the latest issue of Metal Hammer. And he wouldn’t have taken that path were it not for his firing from the Bay Area thrash outfit.

• READ MORE: Richie Sambora reveals he hired a private detective to track down his stolen Gibson Explorer

As he recalls, his dismissal from Exodus came as a surprise: “When I got fired from Exodus in 2014, I didn’t see it coming. I felt betrayed, angry and resentful. I was fucking scared – my livelihood was gone. Fear caused me to lash out. I hadn’t done anything in 10 years other than sing, so what the fuck was I gonna do? I was in no man’s land.”

But after the sting had worn off and he’d picked himself up and dusted himself off, Dukes started looking for his next calling, which came in the form of fixing vintage cars.

“I sucked it up and said, ‘I’m gonna get a job.’ The only thing I knew I could make a living from was working on cars. I found a place in Arizona through Roger [Miret] from Agnostic Front. I got hired and the next you know I’m a full-time mechanic restoring old ‘50s and ‘60s Volkswagens – I became the restoration guy.

“I gained a whole new life. I learned things by reading books and watching YouTube. I’m a fucking master welder now! I love fabricating stuff, I just love making stuff out of metal.”

In the end, though, the world couldn’t take the music out of Rob Dukes, and as of last year, he’s now back in the Exodus lineup. “We are beyond stoked to have Rob back ripping up the stage with us and he’s looking forward to crushing everything like only he can,” the band wrote in January 2025, following the departure of vocalist Steve “Zetro” Souza.

Exodus guitarist Gary Holt has been praising the band as the frontrunners of modern day thrash metal lately. “Metallica were the best of all of us,” he said in March. “I mean, I don’t think so anymore – I think Exodus crushes them, but that’s my own humble opinion.”

He also said last month that he and his bandmates “carry the world’s biggest chip on our shoulders” that Exodus don’t get the same recognition as their thrash metal counterparts like Metallica and Megadeth.

Check out a full list of upcoming Exodus dates via the band’s official website.

The post “The next thing you know I’m a full-time mechanic”: Rob Dukes reflects on his 2014 Exodus firing appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Guitar thievery is sadly all too common. In the last few months alone, session guitarist Mason Stoops had a Fender Jazzmaster and Gretsch Corvette stolen from his van, and Chris Buck was the victim of thieves who smashed the back window of his car to make off with some of his music gear.

Most aren’t so lucky to be reunited with their equipment, but every now and again, the story has a happy ending.

In one such heartwarming tale, former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora became whole again in March following the return of his long-lost 1976 Gibson Explorer, which had been missing for 40 years.

• READ MORE: Stella – the legendary guitar brand championed by BB King, Elvis and Kurt Cobain – has been revived by Harmony with a new line of parlor acoustics

And in a new interview with People [via Guitar World], Sambora reveals the lengths he went to to recover his beloved instrument. Apparently, the guitarist even ended up hiring a private detective to help track it down.

As the story goes, Sambora went into debt as a teenager to front the $250 it cost to buy the Explorer.

“The record company had to lend us money to buy new equipment and we just went and did it,” he says. But the guitar was stolen from a warehouse in 1985 while Bon Jovi were touring overseas, and the case was shrouded in mystery for decades.

“About 10 years ago, I get a call from Guitar Center in New Jersey,” he continues. “I’m staying at my mom’s, and they go, ‘Your Explorer was in here. We just sold it to some guy.’”

Sambora then phoned the buyer to offer him double what he paid for the guitar, but never got a response, so ended up hiring a private investigator to get to the bottom of it.

But it was Matthieu Lucas of Matt’s Guitar Shop who ultimately tracked the Explorer down. He bought the guitar there and then, and sent Sambora a photo to verify the guitar was legit.

“He sent me a picture and I go, ‘Get the fuck out of here. You got it.’ He goes, ‘I knew it was yours. I bought it immediately for you.’ So that was really, really cool of him.”

“I said to myself, ‘This is the guitar that I can make talk.’ When I wanted to be a badass, that’s what I took out. It easily was the best guitar I owned, and the specs were mine. So basically it was the first Richie Sambora custom model.”

On the moment he was reunited with the guitar, he explains: “It was fucking trippy as shit. I put it on, I started to play it. It seemed like it was untouched. It’s almost in perfect shape.”

The post Richie Sambora reveals he hired a private detective to track down his stolen Gibson Explorer appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

£1,045, klangguitars.com

The niche of aluminium-necked electric guitars has long since diverged from the handful of classic rock players who picked up a Kramer or Travis Bean at some point. Now it has its own mythology, a discrete pantheon of players ruling over a much heavier tonal landscape. In 2026 the aluminium universe most often sounds like noise rock and doom metal, plus all of the weird, heavy, downtuned shit that exists in the space between those two pillars: the sparking electrical cable of Sunn O))) strung between Shellac and the Melvins. Klang, a new arrival on the aluminium-necked scene, is acutely aware of this fact, and today I’m taking a look at one of its first guitars.

• READ MORE: Fender Made In Japan Traditional 60s Jazzmaster review: “this visually polarising guitar is anything but traditional”

As I write this review, it feels appropriate that Neurosis have just announced their surprise return, fronted by new member Aaron Turner of ISIS, Sumac and Old Man Gloom. Combined, Turner and Neurosis’ heady, post-everything sludge metal is a pretty good indicator of where a lot of modern aluminium fans’ heads are at: there are exceptions, but guitars and necks from modern aluminium brands such as Robot Graves, TTTides, Obstructures, DNG and, of course, Electrical Guitar Company (also the modern inheritor of Travis Bean’s designs) are much more commonly found in the hands of musicians drawing on some strain of weird, noisy, heavy stuff.

So this is the world that Klang is launching into, and it’s absolutely not shying away from this influence. Its website mentions both Shellac and The Jesus Lizard as inspirations for starting the project, not that you need it to, given the brand name – Klang is pretty good onomatopoeia for the signature sounds of Steve Albini and Duane Denison, both players who leaned into aluminium’s angular, clanking character and crafted tones resembling plastic bags of broken toasters being thrown down concrete staircases. So Klang is very much a brand rooted in the “culture” of aluminium, as much as you can define such a thing.

Image: Adam Gasson

Who are Klang Guitars anyway?

Klang announced its launch last summer, with a fairly unique business model. It’s a UK-based company, with manufacturing outsourced to China – necks are machined and anodised at a third-party facility, before being assembled into full guitars in Klang’s own luthier’s workshop, then imported. Production runs are small – you sign up for a slot ahead of time, and join a run with the guitar of your choice. The streamlined model means, all going well, a wait time of two to three months for your instrument.

That’s lightning-fast for the world of niche custom stuff like this. The other result of the approach is the price, which starts at a rather affordable £990 for a full guitar. To put things in perspective, before aluminium-neck specialist Baguley Guitars shut down, its bolt-on necks alone were in the €650-750 range, with the full guitars running into in the multiple thousands – and even with those prices the operation shuttered in 2024 due to financial insolvency.

US luthier Electrical Guitar Company is perhaps the biggest boutique name in modern aluminium guitars. Their full instruments also cost around three grand, while bolt-on necks from EGC and other USA aluminium makers tend to stay in that $750 range. And so Klang’s prices are affordable for semi-custom full guitars in general, let alone aluminium ones.

The price of the guitars and the bespoke import model Klang is offering has led to a mix of excitement and trepidation from aluminium guitar communities. On paper, this sort of hybrid model can be extremely effective – import guitars have only gotten better and better over the last decade or so, and Klang’s founder, Will, seems to know both his audience and the business. However, the guitar is a fraction of the price you might expect to pay – so can it be too good to be true?

Image: Adam Gasson

Klang Guitars DC – what is it?

If my review guitar is anything to go by, Klang’s model works. It’s not a totally perfect thing, but it’s a damn good instrument for the money, aluminium or not, and it’s got a load of really interesting things going on that I’ll get into now.

Klang’s guitars are semi-through-necks, taking a similar approach to some of the vintage Travis Bean instruments. The aluminium continues from the neck into a block that the pickups get mounted to. It then returns to the surface of the body to become the bridge, so it’s all one piece along the string length. The wooden portion of the body then sits around this assembly, sandwiched in place with an aluminium plate. This means that the available body shapes (the DC and JM) are the same guitar from string to nut – it’s just the wooden portion that’s changed out.

This is very cool to see for around a grand – the fact that the entire string length is supported by the same solid block of metal is for some, kind of the point of using aluminium in the first place – rather than bolting an aluminium neck to a bunch of soft wood.

Another unexpected thing about the Klang is the presence of a truss rod. For some, this was a bit of an eyebrow-raiser when Klang arrived on the scene – a lot of other aluminium necks don’t have truss rods because, well, they essentially are truss rods – relief is just set by ensuring you’re using the right string gauge to provide enough tension when you inevitably tune down to drop A.

My Klang arrives with a set of 12s on it, wound G included (another indication the brand knows its target audience – I was keen to tune it down to C standard anyway), and so as I get it tuned up, I do find that it could do with a little more relief in the neck. I give the heel-access rod a tentative quarter-turn, which does the job just fine.

This flexibility is not a luxury I have with my other aluminium necks, with which I just use thick enough strings to keep the neck in relief with my chosen tuning. If you happen to like a particularly stiff or loose playing feel, a truss-rodless neck’s preferred tension might not accommodate that – but with the Klang, you’ve got more flexibility in that regard.

The look of the Klang DC has a no-nonsense, minimal character to it – the aluminium is anodised satin black by default, and the body is stained mahogany. Since the first run, Klang has moved to a model that offers a ‘pro’ spec, with a polished chrome finish for the aluminium and a nitro finish on the body, while the ‘standard’ keeps the combo of dark wood and anodised black.

The headstock design is modern and angular as opposed to rounded and vintage – I want to call particular attention to its use of its negative space to draw an exclamation mark, a very neat piece of branding that distinguishes it from the otherwise similarly quadrilateral Electrical Guitar Company headstock.

The body design is a little more of an explicit nod to that of the Travis Bean 1000/1000A’s, although a deep German carve does reintroduce some pointiness to the cutaway horns.

Image: Adam Gasson

Klang Guitars DC – build quality

While its overall look is perhaps a result of the more affordable price-point – compared to something with a by-default mirror-polish and curly koa top – I think that it’s a really effective presentation, one very much suited for the modern aluminium world. It’s by no means an aggressive thing, it’s hardly a Jackson Warrior, but for me it’s at home within the styles of noise-rock and metal mentioned in this review’s introduction: raw, dark, industrial and heavy.

One thing I do want to note that might be divisive – the body’s stained-wood finish was starting to show pick wear after just a couple of weeks of me playing the guitar for review purposes. If you gigged this thing hard, it’d likely show pretty noticeable pick wear, buckle rash and other aesthetic dings fairly easily – this may be a positive, as, hey, easy relicing that’s authentically done by you – or you might prefer a guitar that shows a bit more aesthetic resilience.

Image: Adam Gasson

Klang Guitars DC – playability

Aluminium guitars have a reputation for shoulder-pulverising weight – and the Klang DC is no exception. Despite not being the largest instrument in the world, the DC still tips the scales at a whopping 9.8lbs – or ‘right at the heavier end of a Les Paul’s territory if you’re looking for a comparison.

This means you’ll certainly feel it in your back and shoulders after long playing sessions – but if you’re looking for a featherweight instrument, I probably don’t need to tell you that a guitar mostly made out of metal might be one to swerve.

Given the mass of the neck, aluminium guitars also have a rep for neck dive, but despite its considerable weight, the DC is an impressively well-balanced instrument. The heft of the body keeps things firmly in a good playing position when stood up, and the relatively small headstock and the amount of metal south of the heel seem to help in this regard.

Beyond the balance, the guitar is a generally enjoyable thing to hold and use – the deep German carve is also remarkably comfortable on the forearm, and the integrated bridge design features a smooth ramp to the walls either side of the saddles for a pretty nice experience on the side of your palm.

But put the Klang on, and the first thing you’re likely to notice isn’t anything to do with the weight or the forearm comfort – it’s the totally unique neck profile. The neck is incredibly thin, basically the same slim C-profile all the way from the first to the 22nd fret, with an unbelievable amount of access to the higher frets thanks to the deep cutaways and the lack of a neck joint.

It will likely not be a neck for everyone – if you like a baseball-bat-thick profile to reassuringly fill your palm, you’ll probably find it distractingly thin. As it stands, I really enjoy it, and the satin feel of the anodisation also makes moving about it comfortable.

You could, if you wanted to, set it up to be a shreddy thing for big silly bends and 200bpm sweep picking. For my low-and-slow purposes, however, I still find it a comfy and inviting experience. The stainless steel frets are also well-dressed and very smooth – and, in my view, essential for an aluminium guitar – this will not really be a standard refret job if it ever comes to that, so it’s best give the guitar as long a life as possible before you need to cross that particular bridge.

Image: Adam Gasson

Klang Guitars DC – playability

Klang’s instruments are by default loaded with P-90 pickups – or, P-90-sized humbuckers if you opt for them. This presumably keeps all of the body machining and mounting hardware interchangeable, and if down the line you want to swap out pickups, the standard soapbar P-90 format offers you a lot of choice for single-coils, noiseless pickups and humbuckers alike.

The inclusion of P-90s, in my view, does gel well with the overall vibe of the thing – it perhaps pushes it a little more towards noise rock than doom metal (to return to that arbitrary spectrum), but it’s still more than capable of both. In fact, the P-90’s incredibly bright character plus the inherent clang (there it is!) of the guitar leads to an articulate and responsive playing experience – even through a woolly Big Muff and a doomed-out Orange. Their hefty upper-mids do a great job of ensuring the sound remains cutting and present even with more extreme gain settings, like an always-on Rangemaster.

And, yes, I do my due diligence and play this thing through a Harmonic Percolator-style fuzz – and it’s a fantastic time, as you’d expect. With a vintage and weird fuzz like this, and other more sensitive fuzzes, the P-90s really make them come alive.

With that said, I would have perhaps liked to have seen at least the option for traditional wide-range-style humbuckers from the off – for me, wide-range humbuckers are the pairing with the bright sound of an aluminium neck, but I can see why the choice was made.

One quick sidebar on the wiring – this is some of the coolest and neatest wiring I’ve seen in a guitar of this budget. There’s a transparent window to view it through, and I can see why – the harness is all 90-degree angles, cloth-covered wire, full-sized pots and Mojo caps.

Image: Adam Gasson

Not perfect

There are some inevitable compromises dotted throughout my otherwise pretty faultless experience with the Klang DC. There are a couple slight fit-and-finish issues – one of the 12th-fret side dots, for instance, is drilled to a different depth to the rest of the dots. This is fixable, however, as the side-dots are in fact hex-head grub screws, so all I need to do is back it out a little with a very small allen key. Less fixable are the few spots where the anodisation hasn’t quite caught, leading to some marks that kind of look like fingerprints, but are in fact just there.

More notably there’s also a bit of a wobble in the transition from the fretboard to neck in the first position. Klang tells me this was actually a problem with the CAD files for the first five guitars made, mine included – everyone who got one of these first instruments was offered a replacement neck without the wobble, and the issue has now been fixed for future necks. Given the machining accuracy of the rest of the guitar, it makes sense for it to be a CAD problem rather than some failure in the actual process of milling the aluminium – it’s a little less than ideal, but after a while my thumb gets used to it – and I’m glad to see that the affected customers had the chance to make it right.

One more teething problem – my review guitar exhibited a strange issue where something within the assembly was grounding the hot lead of the neck pickup. After I took the pickup in and out of its cover a couple of times this issue went away. This was apparently unique to our unit, and given Klang’s response to the neck issue I’d presume a customer who had this happen would get a similar recourse – but it’s worth noting nonetheless.

Image: Adam Gasson

Should I buy a Klang?

Realistically, if you’ve been aluminium-curious for a while but put off by the high cost of entry, I’d say that a Klang is absolutely a great starting point. My sticking points with the guitar are some teething problems with the process that seem to have already been worked out. And even taking them on board, the guitar you get for around £1,000 is pretty damn remarkable. I also want to mention the fact that it comes with a near-bulletproof ABS hardcase with a custom foam route for another £60 – again, that’d be remarkable for an all-wood guitar!

My colleague Sam took a look at Rabea Massaad’s new affordable signature guitar recently – the £1,000 Sterling By Music Man Artist Series Sabre. I was reminded of what he had to say when I was reviewing the Klang. The Sabre, he said, was by no means bad – it just had nothing to really set it apart from anything of a similar price or vibe.

Point being – £1,000 is very easy to spend on a fairly pedestrian guitar these days, but the Klang DC is as far from pedestrian as you can get – it’s perhaps not to everyone’s tastes, sure, but it’s a well-executed guitar that really understands the needs of its target audience. And you can’t really ask for much more than that.

Image: Adam Gasson

Klang Guitars DC – alternatives

The Klang concept pretty much stands alone in terms of affordability and accessibility when it comes to aluminium-necked instruments. The aforementioned Electrical Guitar Company made good enough Travis Bean-alikes that the late great Steve Albini was happy to use them, and their similarly vibed EGC100A will set you back $3,250. If you just want the look of a Bean guitar without any of the aluminium stuff for some reason, then Eastwood’s ETB500 ($1,499) has the cut-out headstock thing, but on a conventional all-wood electric – albeit with a silver-sprayed peghead!

The post Klang Guitars DC review: an aluminium neck guitar for the masses? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Two-Rock Studio Overdrive Review

It may have "overdrive" in the name, but this luxuriously crafted twist on Dumble themes is super-dynamic, sensitive, and capable of sweetly clean tones.

FU-Tone’s Mass Appeal

How Adam Reiver turned an obsession with hardware into one of the guitar industry’s most trusted upgrade brands.

Córdoba Abasi Stage 7 Review

Tosin Abasi gives electric 7-string players a fanned-fret path to classical connections.

Recording Dojo: RT60, Density, and Diffusion

Three parameters, infinite possibilities. Here’s how to make reverb work harder for you.

Reader Guitar of the Month: Beware Headless Kats!

Headstock surgery saves the day on a beautiful but top-heavy Epiphone.

Rig Rundown: Lamb of God’s Mark Morton [2026]

Hot on the heels of their 12th studio record, Into Oblivion, American metal giants Lamb of God tore off across the continent on a tour that took them to Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium. That’s where PG’s Chris Kies reunited with Mark Morton, the band’s lead guitarist and one of the genre’s most influential riffers. In this new Rig Rundown, Morton walked us through the trusty tools he’s taken out on the road this spring.

Warm Audio Introduces the Reamper

Warm Audio, the leading manufacturer of faithful recreations of legendary recording gear and guitar pedals, today announces the release of the Reamper (WA-RA), a creative routing hub built to connect guitar rigs, studio processors, pedals, and DAW workflows in ways previously reserved for complex setups.

Hi, Everyone!

I just added two new shorts to my YouTube Channel, that feature the wonderful guitarist, Juri Yun. 

I attended the 2025 Denver Guitar Festival as a vendor and Mr. Yun stopped by my table to try out the guitars I brought to the festival and he was very impressed with my work!

Go to my YouTube Channel page on this blog to see videos of other great guitarists playing my guitars!

Guitar multi-hyphenate Robben Ford has been looking back on what it was like to jam with George Harrison in the 1970s, and by his account, things were very rock ‘n’ roll.

Ford has worked with a wide span of huge artists, including Joni Mitchell, KISS, Bob Dylan, and Harrison, who Ford would later tour with in 1974 for Harrison’s Dark Horse tour. Their first encounter occurred earlier in that very same year though, when Ford was touring with Mitchell.

• READ MORE: “There are just so many problems with the electric guitar”: Robben Ford explains why the guitar is the “most difficult instrument to play”

In the new print issue of Classic Rock, Ford recounts, “I was touring with Joni Mitchell, and we did two shows in London in 1974. I’m hanging out backstage, and I turn around and standing before me is the album cover to All Things Must Pass [Harrison’s first post-Beatles solo album and third studio release overall] – you know, he had the hair, hat, gardening boots, big plaid coat.

“Next day, the whole band, including Joni, went out to his place in Henley-on-Thames. We got there about one in the afternoon. George was still asleep. At about four, he came into the kitchen, smoking a Gauloises, making tea – he only drank Typhoo.

He continues, “Joni finally split, and at one in the morning the band all went up to the studio. Everyone had been drinking, smoking something, snorting something. So we’re all set up in the studio, and there’s a shelf running along all four walls of the control room, with a box of cocaine on every shelf. So if you felt like it, you just popped over, had a little toot and continued. And we did that until the sun came up.”

After releasing a number of solo albums, Harrison joined band again in 1988, when he co-founded supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. The group consisted of Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty, and came together as a result of Harrison and Lynne dreaming up a new band during the sessions for Harrison’s 1987 album Cloud Nine.

In a 2007 Uncut interview, Lynne said: “We were three-quarters of the way through Cloud Nine, and every night, as we were relaxing with a few drinks after mixing a big epic or whatever, George and I had the same conversation: ‘We could have a group, you know?’ ‘Yeah, we could.’ He didn’t like the idea of being a solo guy – that’s what he told me. He was never comfortable with it. He wanted a group, and, of course, George could do anything he wanted.”

The post “You just popped over, had a little toot and continued”: Robben Ford recalls “a box of cocaine on every shelf” while jamming with George Harrison in the ’70s appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

[Editor’s note: Harmony is part of Vista Musical Instruments, which like Guitar.com, is part of the Caldecott Music Group.]

Boasting a storied list of players – including BB King, Elvis Presley, and Kurt Cobain – Stella was a guitar brand which remains instrumental in the pages of guitar history.

First founded all the way back in 1899 – 127 years ago – by Oscar Schmidt, and later acquired by Harmony in 1939, it’s a brand which has helped shape the landscape of rock music and beyond.

Credit: Harmony

Now, Harmony has announced it is bringing back Stella, with a new range of parlor-sized acoustic guitars at very-much affordable price points, starting at just $349.

• READ MORE: “This was a divine intervention for me. It was everything that I was looking for”: Jake Kiszka on finding his “Beloved” Gibson SG

Reinterpreting the compact, travel-friendly format for the next generation of songwriters and creators, the new Stella Parlor acoustics boast mahogany backs and sides paired with a solid spruce top, along with a modern X-bracing for durability without sacrificing tone.

Credit: Harmony

There’s a raft of vintage-inspired details, too, like a slotted headstock, off-white binding and a beautifully delicate soundhole rosette. They also feature bone nuts and saddles for “enhanced resonance and sustain”, and come fitted with D’Addario coated strings.

In terms of colourways, the new Harmony Stella acoustics come in Sunburst, Moonstone Blue, Backwoods Green and Ivory.

Credit: Harmony

“B.B. King’s first guitar was a red Stella acoustic,” says Meng Ru Kuok, CEO of Vista Musical Instruments. “That’s the kind of impact we want this brand to continue to have, being the guitar that starts someone’s story.”

Harmony Stella Parlor acoustics start at $349, and are available in limited quantities, exclusively via harmony.co.

The post Stella – the legendary guitar brand championed by BB King, Elvis and Kurt Cobain – has been revived by Harmony with a new line of parlor acoustics appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Fender has partnered with fashion and lifestyle brand Kith on a Kith Records Limited Player Stratocaster, with a stylish green checkerboard design.

This isn’t the first time Fender has teamed up with a fashion brand for an instrument collaboration, in fact a number of other brands have also launched collaborations with fashion companies over the years. This particular model has been designed to commemorate Kith’s 15th anniversary and Fender’s 80th.

• READ MORE: Slipknot x Gucci: the wildest crossover of the year so far?

The Kith Records Limited Player Stratocaster reimagines Fender’s Limited Player Stratocaster and is finished in custom Stadium green with a checkerboard pattern and gloss finish. It has an alder body along with a rosewood fretboard with rolled edges and 22 medium jumbo frets.

It’s fitted with Player Series Alnico V Single-Coil Strat pickups, and its five-way blade switch “covers the full tonal spectrum”. A two-point tremolo and ClassicGear tuners complete the model. As an extra fashionable touch, the guitar’s pick guard also features a Kith logo redesigned in Fender’s famous typography.

The model will be available to pre-order this Friday 1 May, exclusively for US customers on the Kith website and the Kith App. There is currently no information available on price. Check out the guitar below:

View this post on Instagram

Fender’s other fashion ventures include a 2023 collaboration with Wrangler, for which the Big F released a range of denim guitar cases and straps. Prior to this, the two brands also teamed up in spring of 2022, introducing a range of Fender-inspired clothing which aimed to bridge the gap between music and fashion.

Fender has also partnered with high-end fashion label Yves Saint Laurent and even streetwear brand Supreme in the past. Just last year, Gibson partnered with Marc Jacobs on a series of Les Pauls complete with custom artwork, straps and even pick tins.

The Kith Records Limited Player Stratocaster will launch on 1 May at 11am EST. To find out more, head over to Kith.com.

The post Fender teams up with fashion brand Kith on a super stylish Stratocaster appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Greta Van Fleet’s Jake Kiszka has been reflecting on the first time he got his hands on his 1961 Gibson Les Paul SG Standard, which he affectionately nicknamed “Beloved”.

The guitar is the inspiration behind his new signature SG Standard with Gibson, which launched just last week. Crafted in Nashville and available only in limited numbers, the model retains the essence of his ’61 Les Paul SG through its contours, deep-edge bevelling, and double‐cutaway design.

• READ MORE: Greta Van Fleet’s Jake Kiszka thinks that modern rock bands aren’t experimental enough: “There’s so much tunnel vision in contemporary rock records”

Speaking to MusicRadar, Kiszka recalls how the band visited the Chicago Music Exchange while on tour, back when they were just getting started. Greta Van Fleet’s manager was friends with the company’s CEO, Andrew Yonke, and arranged for Kiszka to visit what CME calls ‘The Vault’, where it keeps treasures of interesting and vintage gear.

Kiszka recalls, “It was maybe a decade ago now, about 10 years ago, Greta Van Fleet was leaving Michigan for the first time, where we’d really played shows and gigged and done all sorts of work there. It was really the first time out in North America, nationally… Setting out into the infinite horizon, trying to find manifest destiny or something.”

On his visit to The Vault, he remembers, “I was looking through all these guitars, and we were trying to pick up some gear if we could, some serious, good gear. I wasn’t really that familiar with the early ‘60s SGs. I didn’t know much about them. I stumbled upon this one,” he shares of his Beloved.

“I was just immediately mesmerised. Immediately, from the first strum, it was like a lightning bolt just hit me from above,” he continues. “I really did feel like this was sort of a divine intervention for me. It was everything that I was looking for in terms of the sound of something. I’d been searching for that my whole life up to this point.”

However, back then Kiszka didn’t have the money to afford this stunning vintage model that he’d fallen head over heels for: “There was no question I yearned to take it on the road with me. The caveat was it was a $25,000 guitar. So of course I wasn’t gonna be able to afford that being a poor kid coming out of Michigan.

“Thankfully and gratefully I’m humbled that the owner perhaps saw something in me, and us as a band, and allowed me to take it on the road. He said, ‘Do you know what? Just pay me back for it later, when you can afford it.’ And I did,” he states.

Kiszka spoke of this very story back in his episode of My Guitars & Me with Guitar.com. Speaking of the wear and tear the guitar has earned since being in his ownership, he told us: “This is what happens when you start wearing rhinestones on suits with no jacket over them. And this is what my nipples have done,” he joked. “It looks like a cutting board, doesn’t it? It’s a lot lighter than when I got it – I’ve sanded it away!”

“I’ll probably be buried with it!” he added. “There’s a piece of me in this guitar, but there’s also a piece of this guitar in me. In reality, a lot of my playing, and the way that I’ve developed playing have actually come from this very specific instrument.”

The post “This was a divine intervention for me. It was everything that I was looking for”: Jake Kiszka on finding his “Beloved” Gibson SG appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Back in 2024, London’s High Court ruled that the estates of former Jimi Hendrix bandmates Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell could sue Sony to pursue royalties they believe they were owed from three classic Hendrix albums.

The Noel Redding Estate Ltd and Mitch Mitchell Estate Ltd first sued Sony Music Entertainment in 2022. Sony believed at the time that the case was open and shut, because Redding and Mitchell had signed away their rights to the albums in the ‘70s.

• READ MORE: “It’s your phone – I don’t mind”: Why John 5 is against phone bans at live shows

But despite being granted permission to sue, Redding and Mitchell’s lawsuit has now been dismissed.

Though it claimed that both musicians died – in 2003 and 2008, respectively – in “relative poverty”, at that both were owed royalties from Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland, British High Court Judge Edwin Johnson ruled that both signed away their rights – forgoing future royalties – decades ago.

In a lengthy 140-page ruling, Judge Johnson wrote [obtained by Rolling Stone, via Guitar World]: “I conclude that the first owners of the copyrights… were the producers.”

The judge noted that a clause in the agreement signed by Redding and Mitchell meant the band’s producers, and not Jimi Hendrix’s bandmates, owned the rights to “any sound recordings made hereunder”.

“It’s difficult to see how this could have been expressed more clearly,” Johnson wrote. “The producers were to have the copyright in sound recordings made pursuant to the terms of the recording agreement. This clearly included the recordings, which were all made pursuant to the terms of the recording agreement.”

He added that the agreement was “clear and unequivocal”.

“Jimi’s music is more than a catalogue – it’s a living piece of our family’s soul, filled with his spirit, his passion and his truth,” Jimi’s sister Janie Hendrix says.

“This decision means we can continue protecting that legacy with the love, care, and integrity it deserves, and ensure his voice is honoured for generations to come.”

At the time of writing Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell’s estates have not commented on the ruling.

The post “It’s difficult to see how this could have been expressed more clearly”: Estates of Jimi Hendrix bandmates Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell lose court case over royalties appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

There are dozens of micro-decisions that go into building a guitar: wood choice, neck joint, fret size, pickup height, and on and on. Most players never think about them. But one design difference that sits right at the end of the neck generates more debate than almost anything else among luthiers and guitar nerds: headstocks.

• READ MORE: Answered: more technical guitar questions you were too afraid to ask

There are so many different designs and approaches to building a peghead, of course, but broadly they can be put into one of two camps – a Fender-style six-in-a-line or a Gibson-style three-a-side (not now, Ernie Ball 4+2!).

You probably know which style you prefer cosmetically, and let’s not pretend that doesn’t matter of course, but many of us still don’t fully understand what’s actually happening mechanically with the different methods. Understanding a little about what these different designs and the elements that make them up do to your guitar can help you understand why you might prefer one over the other.

The Headstock Angle

On a traditional Gibson, the headstock tilts backward relative to the fingerboard. On a Fender Strat or Tele, it doesn’t. That one difference cascades into a whole set of tradeoffs that touch on structural durability, string geometry, and – depending on who you ask – tone.

The word “better” gets thrown around a lot here. Personally, I hate the word “better” when it comes to design – really, the designs are just different, but knowing the mechanics of each design will help you decide which one is best for you.

When a string travels over the nut, the angle at which it bends downward toward the tuner post is called the break angle. A steeper break angle means more downward pressure on the nut slot, which in theory improves string seating and reduces the chance of open-string buzz.

The key thing most people miss is that you don’t need a pitched headstock to generate break angle – you just need the string to drop below the nut once it clears it. The question is whether you achieve that through geometry carved into the wood, or through hardware. This is the fundamental divide between the big two guitar brands and their approach to headstock design, and it’s been there since the 1950s.

Fender’s Headstock Design

Leo Fender’s approach to guitar building was all about making things as straightforward and easily replicable as was possible, and this is perhaps why Fender’s headstocks traditionally sit essentially flat. The face of the peghead runs in the same plane as the fingerboard, with no backward tilt. Break angle is instead created by the height difference between the nut slots and the tuner posts, which sit lower down below the fretboard.

On the bass strings, that vertical drop is usually enough break angle, but on the treble side, it isn’t. The inline tuner layout means the high E and B strings don’t get enough downward pull on their own, so Fender added string trees: small metal guides that press those strings down toward the headstock face. It’s a hardware solution to a geometry problem.

The break angle for a Telecaster or Stratocaster is roughly six degrees from the nut to the tuning post – this is, of course, dependent on a lot of factors and can vary, but six degrees is a common reading I get on many Fenders.

The structural benefits of this approach are real and underappreciated. Because the headstock isn’t angled back, the wood grain runs more continuously through the neck-to-headstock transition. There’s no sharp break point, no short grain exposed at a stress concentration zone – this means it’s more durable as a result.

If you drop a Strat headstock-first, you’ll likely walk away with a damaged tuner at worst. Do the same with a Les Paul and you’re looking at a painful and costly neck repair. Now, Gibson’s own VP of Product recently claimed that claims about Gibson’s headstock design were “misinformation”, but the fact that these repairs have become so routine that any good tech will be able to fix a snapped Gibson headstock invisibly tells its own story.

Fender’s bolt-on neck is worth mentioning here too, because it compounds the structural advantage. If something goes wrong, you replace the neck. The whole repair philosophy is modular in a way that suits the flat headstock perfectly. It’s a very mid-century production mindset: simplify, standardize, make it serviceable. Leo Fender wasn’t a guitar player. He was an electronics man who thought about instruments like machines. That perspective shows in every detail of the Strat’s construction.

Gibson’s Headstock Design

Gibson’s approach is the opposite in almost every respect. The headstock is pitched back – historically 17 degrees on most production models, though some years in the late ’60s through early 2000s saw 14-degree angles.

That pitch builds the break angle directly into the wood. All six strings get consistent downward pressure at the nut without any additional hardware. The string path is cleaner, geometrically. There’s undoubtedly an elegance to solving the problem at the construction stage rather than compensating for it afterward.

Gibson still creates their necks out of one solid piece of wood, even though it costs considerably more than if they would simply use a scarf joint, they do this at great cost, because they believe that it directly influences the instrument’s resonance. Whether that’s measurably true is contested, however.

What is unequivocally true is that a properly executed scarf joint can be structurally superior to a one-piece angled neck, because the joint can be oriented to run with the grain rather than against it. Many boutique builders use scarf joints for exactly this reason. Gibson’s preference for one-piece construction is more about tradition and brand identity than engineering necessity – but there’s unquestionably value in that, too.

The tuning stability complaints that follow Gibson-style headstocks around are worth addressing, because they are usually blamed on the wrong thing. The angle itself isn’t the primary culprit. The bigger issue is lateral string pull – on a 3-per-side tuner layout, the G and D strings travel outward at a significant angle to reach their posts, which creates sideways friction in the nut slot.

A well-cut, well-lubricated nut eliminates this issue. Aftermarket fixes like the String Butler exist to straighten that string path further, and they work, but they shouldn’t be necessary on a properly set-up guitar.

Which Headstock Design “Sounds” Better?

This is the big question and one that ultimately has no real answer beyond listening with your own ears. Plenty of Gibson fans will tell you that the back-angled three-a-side headstock is not only a more elegant and balanced solution, but is one that allows the wood of the guitar to resonate better. There’s certainly something to be said for solving the issue using the geometry of the woodwork itself rather than delegating it to a piece of metal.

There are definitely ways to get around this on the Fender side though – slightly angling a Fender headstock, or using staggered-post tuners will improve the break angle and remove the necessity of string trees. Fender uses the latter for their American Ultra guitars.

Personally, I appreciate the Fender method for its engineering strength and simplicity, but I still don’t discount the logic and cleaner design of Gibson’s method either. As usual with guitar, it’s all subjective – the right answer is the one that inspires you most.

The post Which guitar brand has the better headstock design – Gibson or Fender? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Reader: Bill Sumner

Hometown:Las Vegas, NV

Guitar: Epiphone Kat

I’d wanted a hollow or semi-hollow guitar for some time, drawn to the tonal differences relative to solid bodies. A Gibson ES-335 or Epiphone Casino had been on my radar for years, but the 16" body width always gave me pause. The Epiphone Kat, at only 14" wide, made the difference. I also considered the ES-339, but the Kat simply looked better.

Right out of the box, my brand-new Epiphone Kat semi-hollow was absolutely beautiful, very well made, played nicely, and sounded excellent, with surprisingly good pickups. Unfortunately, there were negatives. It was longer than any of my other guitars and felt clumsy to me as a result. The extra length combined with the Grover tuners to induce neck dive. The Kat was heavier than I expected for a semi-hollow. Lastly, it didn’t stay in tune very well. As with any imperfect online purchase, I faced the hassle of returning it, tolerating it, or fixing it.

Almost immediately, my imagination went to work: It’s too bad Epiphone didn’t make a headless version of this guitar, I thought. That would solve all four problems I faced. That led to design questions—how does one convert a conventional guitar to headless, without doing major wood work like routing on that beautiful body?

My partner in exploring the feasibility and execution of this project was Las Vegas luthier and guitar tech Von Schroeder. He confirmed that my headless scheme was technically viable. But actually beheading a brand-new guitar would be a first for him. In the end, I decided it was worth a try.

Our unusual design approach was to keep the existing bridge and nut rather than replacing them. I placed a Hipshot Lowpro headpiece just above the nut to lock the strings, and a Hipshot Headless Bridge replaced the tailpiece. This effectively created a tailpiece with tuners. The final result was a perfectly balanced guitar that’s a delight to play, stays in tune, and is exactly one pound lighter than the original.

In a world in which we’re all glued to our phone screens, some artists have taken it upon themselves to force fans to take a break – at least while they watch their shows, anyway.

The phones-at-shows debate has picked up steam in the last year or so. On one hand, some believe banning smartphones at shows encourages the audience to be more present and enjoy the show more, while others think such bans infringe on a fan’s right to film a gig if they wish to do so. 

There are also a number of logistical and safety concerns pertaining to phone bans, like fans being unable to contact their friends in a venue should they become separated.

• READ MORE: Should phones be banned at the Oasis reunion tour? Average attendee to watch 12 minutes of each show on their phone, per new research
  

One of the biggest proponents of phone bans at shows has been Ghost leader Tobias Forge, who mandated last year that fans place their smartphones into locking Yondr pouches for the duration of their set on their Skeletour, which ran from 2025 to 2026.

“If you have 10,000 people at a concert and 8,000 of them are holding a phone, there’s something deeply disconnected,” he reasoned at the time. The success of the ban was sometimes questioned, like when, at the band’s show in Birmingham, UK, fans were queuing to get into the venue for over an hour.

Even pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter has toyed with the idea of limiting smartphone use at her concerts. That’s a different kettle of fish altogether, of course, considering Carpenter’s army of teenage fans.

But there are certainly still musicians who encourage the use of phones during shows, as the fan-filmed footage can serve as promotional material, plus viewing material for those unable to attend.

In a new interview with Louder, guitarist John 5 says he’s all for his fans filming his gigs.

“Many bands object when the fans film the show on their phones. I don’t mind,” he says. “Record the show, put it online. It’s your phone. There are a lot of people that won’t be able to see it, so let’s give them a little joy.”

Tobias Forge elaborated on his Ghost phone ban last year, saying people recording during his shows is “irritating”.

“Maybe I’m old school, maybe I’m old-fashioned,” he said. “I just feel that we’re having an intimate moment, and it disturbs me that you’re filming while we’re doing this together. I’m doing something for you to respond to me.”

The post “It’s your phone – I don’t mind”: Why John 5 is against phone bans at live shows appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

It’s a great feeling when your guitar playing moves away from learning your favourite songs and riffs to coming up with your own. Better still, is sharing those ideas with bandmates or other musicians in a jam/rehearsal setting and hearing them in a brand new context – often resulting in fresh inspiration.

But what do you do when you’re writing guitar by yourself? Some people are blessed with the creative vision and skill to visualise a fully-formed song from the outset, but many of us need some form of accompaniment to help us hear the big picture.

In this guide, I’m going to present a series of techniques and tools that I’ve found useful as a solo composer. We’ll be looking at both free and paid tools, so that you can find an approach that works for you.

Before we dive in, it’s important to remember that writing guitar by yourself does get easier with practice. My early ideas were super simple, and while I still lean heavily on many of the tools highlighted in this guide, sometimes a song comes out fully-formed. When that happens, it’s important to embrace it and not mess with it too much. Many of the world’s greatest songs just poured out in a single sitting with little to no additions.

Our favourite techniques for writing guitar by yourself

Rip off your favourites

Sensationalist headline aside, I do really recommend this technique. I’ve taken rhythms, chord progressions and riffs from artists I love and turned them into something completely different that feels like an authentic representation of my style. Your influences may be very obvious in those early days, but the more you play, the more those influences become a footnote of your songwriting and playing style.

Write all the time

You can’t force creativity, but the more you write, the more you hone your writing skills and ability to construct solid ideas when inspiration strikes. Just hit record on whatever device you’re using and play. Not every session will be fruitful, but that’s OK. Your creativity is like a muscle; the more you use it, the more effective it will be.

Don’t be confined to one guitar

I’ll caveat this by saying I spent the first six years using a single electric guitar and your creativity is by no means affected by the number of guitars you own. However, if you’re fortunate enough to be able to own or at least experiment with different guitars, it can unlock a lot of ideas you’d never consider.

In my 20+ years playing, my guitar collection expanded from my Fender Strat to a Cort M600, to a Squier Bass VI and finally a Jackson JS22-7 Dinky. With each successive guitar, the ideas that poured out whilst playing were ones I hadn’t considered and/or couldn’t work on the previous guitar.

You might find that exploring extended range guitars unlocks new creative paths like me or inspiration may strike when switching from electric to acoustic (or vice versa), or exploring other string instruments like mandolin, gottan or cittern.

Find passionate players that speak to you

What really helps me out of a creative slump is being reminded why I love guitar. Loading up YouTube and checking out the latest ‘Thick Riff Thursday’ from Nick Broomhall, seeing what silliness Dean Lamb’s up to or hunting down an interview with my favourite artists on the Garza Podcast never fails to inspire me. That’s before you add in official guitar playthroughs, rig rundowns, production tutorials on how to sound like ‘X artist’, etc.

Will every video turn into a new idea? No, not necessarily. But it keeps me engaged in that world, so that when I do pick up my guitar, there’s inspiration ready and waiting.

Our favourite free tools for writing guitar by yourself

Best for ease-of-use: Voice memos

Voice memos are an invaluable tool for guitarists, be they solo composers or in a band, and pretty much every one of us has one in our pockets. Record your idea, then connect your phone to a pair of headphones or a speaker and you can overdub lines or write lead parts.

Voice memos don’t even need to involve your guitar. A melody or rhythm might come to you when you’re away from home, so recording a quick voice memo is a great way of retaining that idea and exploring it when you’re reunited with your guitar.

Best for efficiency: Video recordings

The major downside, at least in my experience, with voice memo recordings is that I don’t always remember how I played something, especially if the idea is quite old. By filming your ideas on your phone, you can clearly see what you’re playing. If you’re using pedalboard effects, filming the settings on your board is also really helpful so you can dial in the same tone(s).

The caveat here is storage space, as videos will fill up your phone’s HD much faster than voice memos. A free Google account comes with 15GB of free cloud storage, so you can backup your ideas without fear of losing them.

Whether you choose voice memos or video recordings, I recommend devising a naming structure (key, chords, vibe, etc.) so that when you’re browsing through all your ideas, you can pick out the one you’re looking for quickly and easily find ideas that can be paired together to flesh out songs.

Best for computer-based composition: Tracktion Waveform Free

If you’d prefer to demo ideas on your computer, a free DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) such as Waveform Free is super useful for writing guitar parts by yourself. With unlimited audio channels, built-in FX, third-party audio plugin support and video training resources, this is such an amazing tool and a great way to develop not only your songwriting skills, but your recording and production chops, too.

You can even combine this with your voice memo recordings and drag-and-drop them into Waveform and loop them for overdubbing additional guitar parts, writing solos or accompaniment.

Our favourite paid tools for writing guitar by yourself

Best all-rounder: Guitar Pro

Guitar Pro is an incredible solo songwriting tool – I just wrote a three-part guide series on the very subject, so I won’t go into massive detail here. Costing just £61, this software remains the best investment for my musical development, creativity and songwriting.

Whether you’re trying to write sections with multiple guitar parts, hear what a riff sounds like with bass and drums behind it, or just catalogue your ideas so they are ready for when inspiration strikes, Guitar Pro is, in my opinion, the best tool for the job.

Best for tactile songwriting: Loop pedals

You might look at my previous recommendations and feel like your hands are spending too little time on the fretboard, and to those people I recommend a loop pedal. I’ve had a Line 6 DL4 since the early 2010s – a purchase made more for my love of artists such as Brontide and Minus The Bear, rather than its looping capabilities. It’s a delay modeller for crying out loud! Regardless, I’ve racked up hundreds of hours of looping fun on my DL4, but there are so many fantastic dedicated loop pedals for a fraction of the cost.

TC Electronic’s Ditto+ is a space-saving powerhouse with up to 60-minutes of looping time, while its bigger brother the X2 Looper sacrifices looping time (5 minutes max), it adds FX like stop, reverse and half-speed. Both feature a micro USB which allows you to import/export loops and backing tracks (Ditto+/X2) and work with your loops in a DAW (X2 only).

 

Then there’s Donner’s Circle Looper, which offers the same core functionality as the Ditto, in addition to being a drum machine and metronome. Personally, I find writing with a drum beat is essential to moving ideas along, so having these tools in the same pedal makes a big difference. Like the X2 Looper, you can connect the Donner Circle Looper to your DAW of choice.

At the time of writing, each of these loopers is around the same price point (£89-95), so it’s really about what features you would find the most useful, rather than which pedal is the cheapest.

Best for computer-based composition: Drum libraries and guitar plugins

Building on my point about how drum grooves can unlock creative ideas, I have to shine a light on some of the excellent digital drum libraries available. These libraries contain high-quality recorded samples of iconic kits, players and styles for you to use to build out the rhythm sections of your songs. Sometimes, all it takes is hearing a groove for ideas to start pouring out and it’s why I rate tools like this so much for my own songwriting.

As I write and play predominantly in heavier genres, GGD (Getgood Drums) is my go-to for digital drums, especially as several of their flagship libraries are now available as standalone plugins. For a more jack-of-all-trades drum library, Toontrack EZdrummer 3 is a super versatile plugin and an affordable one at that. I would recommend doing some research of your own and trialing a few different libraries before taking the plunge.

While it can be dangerous thinking that new gear means new ideas, there’s an element of truth in that. For that reason, I’m including guitar plugins as an honourable mention. These don’t necessarily need to cost anything, but they can absolutely spark ideas and break you out of a creative dry spell in the same way that a different style of guitar can. Our guide on the best free and paid guitar plugins is the best place to start.

The post Gear and techniques for writing guitar riffs – the essential guide appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

From his infamous struggle with addiction, to repeatedly quitting and rejoining Kiss, the late Ace Frehley lived a pretty chaotic life. However, his ex-bandmates are no longer holding that against him; in a recent interview, Kiss bassist Gene Simmons admits that he wishes he’d done more to help Frehley while he was still alive.

Speaking on the Inside Of You With Michael Rosenbaum podcast, Simmons recalls how the state of Frehley’s personal life was “up and down for 50 years”. However, Simmons admits he could have done more to support Frehley through his alcohol and drug dependency. “I should have, when [I first saw] the disease starting to get a hold of him,” he says [via Blabbermouth]. “I should have, decades ago, took him aside.”

• READ MORE: Ace Frehley’s wild Kiss moments: “A smoke bomb ignited too early inside the cavity of the guitar, and it melted my asbestos costume to my thigh”

While Frehley ended up beating his addictions, being clean and sober for around 20 years before his passing, Simmons still regrets not stepping in to help his bandmate. He admits that an intervention would have been the best port of call, rather than the animosity and anger.

“[I should have] forced him to understand he’s not just hurting himself by his lifestyle choices, but his family, his child and the fans,” the bassist continues, before noting that it was a “stupid and shameful decision” to hide Frehley’s genuine addiction struggles for years.

“Right now the fans who are gonna listen to this are gonna [say], ‘Prick Gene, he never says anything [positive]’… But the kids at home don’t understand [what it was like],” Simmons reflects. “They never met and spent time with Ace. When he’s straight – lovable, everything’s great. When the stuff started to take hold, it was Jekyll and Hyde. You just can’t make smart decisions when you’re drunk or high.”

When Frehley left the band in 1973 and 2002, Simmons would often be met with outrage when trying to explain Frehley’s unreliable nature: “[It’s like] when mum suddenly kicks dad out of the house, and she tries to explain ‘He was a drunk, he was a loser, he was late…’ The fans are the kids, they don’t understand.”

“Ace turned to beverages and chemicals early on, and he wouldn’t show up to do this guitar parts…” he goes on to explain. “The fans don’t like to hear this because he was so talented. Everybody, all the new guitar players, were influenced by him.

The decision to downplay Frehley’s struggles was often due to the band not wanting to worry fans. “[We thought] ‘No, don’t get the fans upset, let’s [pretend] he’s in the band and everything’s okay at home,’” Simmons recalls.

However, despite the addictions Frehley was battling, Simmons insists he was in his own league of guitar playing. “You look at his body of work, and guitar players [like] Eddie Van Halen point to Ace…” he says. “They say, ‘I cut my teeth on guitar by listening to Ace.’”

True to Simmons’ words, countless guitar icons came forward last October to pay tribute to Frehley. Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello named Frehley his “first guitar hero”, while Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt also praised Frehley’s influence in Kiss, naming them the “first rock band [he] wanted to be like”.

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The post “When the stuff started to take hold, it was Jekyll and Hyde”: Gene Simmons regrets not staging an intervention for Ace Frehley appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, and raised in Los Angeles, Abbasi has been a stalwart member of the New York jazz scene for more than three decades.