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Gibson’s long-standing Songwriter series has welcomed two new acoustics to its lineup. Designed to be the perfect tool for studio recording sessions, the Recording Artist and cut-away variant Recording Artist EC promise to be the perfect way to capture Gibson’s classic tone with a “modern, professional” polish.

Handcrafted in Bozeman, Montant from thermally aged Sitka spruce tops, rosewood backs and sides, and long-scale mahogany necks, the Recording Artist and Recording Artist EC have been designed with reliable studio-worthy clarity in mind.

With their 25.5” scale length and combination of tonewoods, both guitars harnessing the essence of the 1936 Advanced Jumbo – resulting in a rich, warm and balanced Gibson sound.

• READ MORE: Rich Robinson on why the Black Crowes channeled the spirit of “20-year-olds showing the f**k off” on their new album

Both guitars also boast a bound headstock with a rosewood veneer, classily inlaid with the Gibson logo and crown. The guitars also have a bone nut, while gold Grover open-back tuners add a premium feel to the instrument. Then there’s an ebony bridge with a bone saddle, TUSQ bridge pins, and mother-of-pearl arrow inlays.

Credit: Gibson

Elsewhere, both models also employ an L.R. Baggs HiFi electronics system, which features dual bridge plate sensors and an internal preamp to help provide you with a natural acoustic tone. Soundhole-mounted volume and tone controls are also in place to keep your controls discreet, but still easy to access.

Visually, the guitars also opt for timeless Rosewood Burst and Antique Natural finishes. The top also has a tortoise pickguard, while the sound-hole is framed by an abalone rosette.

Credit: Gibson

Whether you’re opting for the Songwriter Recording Artist or the Songwriter Recording Artist EC, you’ll be getting the same quality build. The primary difference is the EC’s cutaway – so you can opt for either model that allows you to feel most comfortable playing without sacrificing that rich Gibson voice. They also both cost $4,999, so you wont have to splash out more on a certain model, either.

Both the Songwriter Recording Artist and Songwriter Recording Artist EC are available now for $4,999. For more information, head to Gibson.

The post Gibson expands its Songwriter line with new Recording Artist and Recording Artist EC models appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

At the beginning of my career, I made a lot of mistakes. The beginning is the time for it. If you’re lucky, and you are surrounded by enough good people (as I thankfully was), you begin to learn what’s important and replace the mental noise with hard work.

Buried in the center of all the mental stuff is, for a lot of bass players, the inevitable pursuit of sound through gear. Sometimes it’s totally justified; other times it’s what has become known as GAS: Gear Acquisition Syndrome.

In those early years, I knew nothing about gear. I had very little of it. Maybe three or four basses and a total of two pedals and a tuner. (The EBS Octabass and a Boss Chorus, for anyone wondering.)

If you know anything about me now, almost 30 years later, you literally can’t move in my studio for pedals. Sometimes I grab a gig bag out of the closet to go to a gig and find a bass inside that I forgot I owned. This isn’t a flex; this is just to highlight how things have changed, how absurd they have become, and to perhaps lend some validity to what I want to talk about today, considering the amount of experience (good and bad) I’ve had with gear.

My good friend Ian Martin Allison, who you may know from Scott’s Bass Lessons or from countless recordings and tours, recently collaborated with Walrus Audio on a preamp/DI, the Mantle. I was fortunate enough to receive an advance unit to check out and give feedback on. I posted an episode of my podcast featuring it, and the outrage at the price point of the Mantle is on a level I haven’t experienced before on my channel.

It’s fascinating to see how far the algorithm has come in terms of brainwashing us into thinking we either need, or deserve, every new thing that is announced, regardless of whether it makes any sense for what we do, and more importantly, regardless of what our personal means are. People look at the price, know they can’t afford it, and immediately accuse the company of greed, all the while having never used it, never been involved in R&D, and with no experience of the artist/brand relationship.

I was very careful on my podcast to highlight the fact that there are a multitude of entry points into the world of preamps, and at $749, this latest one might not be the thing for you, no matter how much FOMO you think you might have or how much you love the way it sounds.

I really like how the Bugatti Chiron looks, and boy would it be a special moment to be able to drive one and experience engineering that is incomprehensible to most of humankind. But the $4-million-plus price tag lets me know it’s not for me, that I should appreciate it from afar, and reminds me my Mazda (at 0.63 percent of the cost) still has four wheels, AC, Bluetooth, and gets me where I need to go in quite some comfort.

“Not only do you probably not need the latest, most expensive thing on the market, you really don’t need to be mad about its price.”

I think the internet has changed the way we bass players chase things like sound, and a healthy dose of awareness could not only save you a ton of money but get you to the thing that is actually right for you. Is it a unit that is $749 (Mantle), $1,400 (Noble Preamp DI), or $449 (JHS Colour Box)? It could well be. If that is the case, and you are a professional who requires high-quality gear that you will actually use, then fantastic. Question asked, question answered.

If your budget doesn’t allow for that right away, definitely try to have the patience to save until it does so that you buy once and cry once. Patience now for a short period of financial pain and a lifetime of happiness with your sound.

Is your budget sub-$300? This is also great information, and you have so many options for bass preamps. I used the EP Booster from Xotic for years. I think I paid $100 for it used and still have it to this day. Want more EQ options and a DI? MXR Bass Preamp at $189. Want an industry-standard DI that will never die? Radial Engineering JDI for $260.

This isn’t a commercial piece for any of the aforementioned companies or products. It’s just a heads up that not only do you probably not need the latest, most expensive thing on the market, you really don’t need to be mad about its price. If we can start asking bigger questions about our own needs and means, we’ll be able to shut out the mental load marketing algorithms place on our decision-making process and live a far more streamlined existence with the absolute best gear for us.

When it comes to gear, Josh Homme is known to opt for the “underdog”. And in a new interview with Guitar World, the Queens of the Stone Age frontman recalls the time he showed one of his rigs – a Yamaha hollowbody bass into a Peavey Decade practice amp – to his Them Crooked Vultures bandmate, former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, and his reaction that followed.

“I showed the Decade to John Paul Jones when we were in Them Crooked Vultures,” Homme says. “I have this Yamaha hollowbody bass with flatwounds on it, which I call Lame-aha. Instead of a pickup switch, it’s a volume knob, so you’re on the spectrum of which pickup you’re using. I said, ‘Try that with the Decade and a Coles ribbon mic.’”

• READ MORE: Josh Homme says “you have to be willing to lose your fans sometimes” when writing new music

Jones was bewildered. “He laughed – and I love that, because the looks are deceiving,” Homme explains. “You’re like, ‘What is this entire piece-of-shit setup?’ Then he played it. It was fun to see him go from giggling about how shitty something looks to complete joy. It’s fun to do that to people and it’s fun to do that to yourself, too.”

Homme embraces the ‘shitty’ look, because he knows how good he can make ‘shit’ sound. It’s a mindset that keeps his sound unique, as well as intriguing audiences and peers alike. “You’re looking for any way, visually and sonically, to do something that nobody else is doing,” he explains. “Getting shit from people is the best thing that could happen. It made me think, ‘Never again will anyone ever say I sound like someone else…’”

As Homme puts it, his goal was that “within three seconds, you know it’s [him]”. The approach has been a constant through the Queens of the Stone Age’s three-decade run, even spanning back to his downtuned guitar work in Kyuss.

Employing quirky gear helps the process, and Homme has worked his way through countless pieces of rogue gear. “Anything is an amplifier to me,” he says. “I love playing out of old stereo tuners, old tape machines; anything with a speaker and a jack. With a Les Paul and a Marshall I know what’s going to happen there. Music is about matching your own evolution.”

“It’s hard not to want to get behind the underdog, because music is about being an outcast,” he continues. “All I need is insurmountable odds and I’m in. Give me your worst guitar, a boutique amp made in someone’s mom’s garage, and a pedal that’s not supposed to be there, and we’ve got something. When you do that, you instantly feel like these things are yours.”

Now, Homme has worked on reviving the Peavey Decade. The Peavey Decade Too “revives that voice and makes it accessible again” while removing the need to “hunt for vintage originals”.

Back in 2022, Acorn Amps transformed Homme’s Peavey Decade into a nifty pedal. The Solid State pedal serves as a “full circuit recreation” of the compact 10-watt practice amp.

The post “What is this entire piece-of-s**t setup?”: Josh Homme once showed his Peavey/Yamaha bass rig to John Paul Jones – this was his reaction appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

It’s hard to control your facial expression when you’re lost in the music. From blissfully closed eyes to rock-ready stank-faces, you can see when a musician is really in-tune with their instrument – and when they aren’t. Parliament-Funkadelic’s Michael Hampton in particular has been prone to look quite stone-faced if he isn’t ‘feeling the funk’ on-stage.

In a new interview with Mojo, he laughs about how his power-funk sound might have seemed at odds with his grumpy demeanour. “The way I may have come across on-stage, it might have been like I wasn’t having a good time,” he says. “[I might have looked] a little bit bored… because I can’t fake the funk, if I’m not feeling something.”

• READ MORE: Rich Robinson on why the Black Crowes channeled the spirit of “20-year-olds showing the f**k off” on their new album

Just as other guitarists can’t contain their excitement, he couldn’t contain his disinterest when he wasn’t in the mood to perform, or when the performance wasn’t feeling particularly magic. “I went as far as I could go and, you know, you get tired,” he explains. “Still to this day I’m not the one dancing around. I like to joke a bit but I’m pretty serious about playing. I just go with the flow and kind of stay in my lane.”

“Nowadays on tour, I’m not as loud as I would like to be, there’s a lot of vocals,” he continues. “I really miss the part of it when we’d crank up the amp all the way and do Cosmic Slop. But it’s another day and time. I’ll play Maggot Brain until I’m told, ‘Okay, it’s time to end it.’”

When the late Eddie Hazel stepped down from his Parliament-Funkadelic duties in 1971, the group quickly sought out his successor. They’d find the perfect guitarist in 17-year-old Michael Hampton, enlisting him to join the collective after witnessing him perform the 10-minute Maggot Brain solo at a Parliament-Funkadelic aftershow party.

Despite worries that he may have appeared “bored” onstage, his work with the band was anything but boring. Plenty of his time performing in Parliament-Funkadelic was electric and “spontaneous”, just like that first solo that convinced the gang to take him on board. “Everything’s pretty much a spontaneous surprise and it’s all inter-changeable,” he explains. “The last time we played [in 2025], it was good, you know?”

Michael Hampton’s Into The Public Domain EP is out now.

The post “I can’t fake the funk”: Parliament-Funkadelic guitarist on why he’s often looked so miserable on stage appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Changing pickups on an electric guitar is a surefire way to quickly shift the sound of your instrument, this know-how being very helpful for troubleshooting, repair and maintenance. This is a potentially expensive endeavour once you add up the prices of pickups themselves as well as the tech to install them, so a quick lesson on the basics can save you in the long run. A quick word of warning though, removing this barrier and furthering your knowledge will enable a deep dive into the tonal rabbit hole, one you may never escape from!

• READ MORE: How to tab a basic riff in Guitar Pro – the essential guide

First, be aware that this isn’t a step by step guide for absolute beginners to work their way through the process – think of it more as an overarching explanation of how and more importantly WHY it’s fun and interesting to do this job. With some helpful practical advice along the way of course.

Learning to solder is essential here, and unfortunately the best way to learn is to dive in. Your initial attempts might be messy, but you’ll learn how to work with the solder best. While I can’t hold your hand through the learning, I can set you on your path with this: tin your contact points for hot solder joints, buy a solder-sucker and don’t hold that dang iron on contacts for too long!

Getting Started

At its most basic level, a single pickup will have two wires connected to the magnets that pick-up the sound of your guitar strings. These two wires can serve as either your “hot” or “ground”, the “hot” carrying signal to the output jack and the “ground” being sent to ground. The output jack (often incorrectly cited as an input jack) features two terminals intended to mechanically connect these two wires to a cable (connected to pedals or an amp) to the hot and ground of your pickup. Everything else simply intercepts this initial connection.

When installing a new pickup, it can be as simple as tracing their connection to a pot or switch and de-soldering the old pickup to make way for the new pickup, after you’ve identified the hot and ground in your new pickup. This goes for switches, pots and anything else you might have jammed in that control cavity! Troubleshooting or augmenting your electric guitar, however, is where things get more complicated.

Pardon the pun, but these interceptors potentially include potentiometers to be used as volume and tone pots. These have three terminals that (when used as a volume control) serve as input, output and ground. Switches for toggling between pickups have connections for ground as well as a switch (usually blade-style or toggle) that switch between different hot connections. At its most basic level, this is guitar wiring in its entirety. Humbuckers act like two pickups connected (therefore usually have four wires), pots can be used for tone roll off frequencies for a warmer sound, and additional complex switching options like those in a Fender Jazzmaster or active pickup switching augment this basic connection principle.

In terms of signal flow, adding a potentiometer at the end of the chain, right before the output jack will serve as a master volume, as all signal is passing through it before output. However, a pot before a switch will only affect the signal before the pot, usually a single pickup, so this would be a dedicated volume for that pickup.

Fender Jazz Basses, for example, work in this way, where each pickup has a master volume and no switch, the sound summing at the output jack. A Les Paul on the other hand, features volume for each humbucker before a three-way toggle, so you can adjust the volume of each pickup independently and toggle between them or choose to engage both pickups (middle position) and blend.

How To Troubleshoot

When troubleshooting, understanding this signal flow can help find problem areas. For example in a two pickup guitar, if one pickup is working and not the other, the problem is most likely at the pickup stage, not at the master volume or output stage, otherwise both pickups wouldn’t be working. Conversely, if there’s no output at all, it’s most likely a master volume or failed connection at the output jack, rather than two pickups coincidently failing at once— though stranger things have happened!

Generally speaking in terms of wiring, pickups are either single coil or humbucking, the latter being two pickups wired out-of-phase with one another to cancel, or buck, the ground hum out of the signal. All grounds are still sent to ground, and all hot are still sent to hot terminals in your wiring, though be aware that different manufacturers colour code the wires differently.

Capacitors can also play a huge role in tone, being used to to turn potentiometers into tone pots. Instead of adjusting the volume output of the signal after the potentiometers, a capacitor controls how much high end bleeds out of the hot signal from the pot, allowing just the low end to continue on, reducing the treble of the signal.

Therefore, a tone pot on its ‘maximum’ setting is actually allowing the entire signal to pass, whereas turning it down allows more high end to filter out. The tone pot isn’t adding more treble, it’s just reducing it.

Overall, as confusing as schematics and control cavities can appear, it’s about tracing where the signal begins and where you want it to end up. At a basic level you’re connecting the pickup to the output jack, and everything else between it is auxiliary. Switches and toggles simply (usually) switch which hot signal flows onward to the output. Capacitors turn potentiometers into tone pots and they filter out high end from the main line, and your carefully crafted tone can flow onto pedals, amps, cabs and listener’s ears!

The post Stop wasting your money on professionals – here’s how to install a new guitar pickup yourself appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

“Any time we make a record, it’s like we’re taking a snapshot of where we’re at that particular time,” says Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton. “I think it’s inevitable that over the course of your career you start to understand what people respond to and what they don’t. But we’ve never chased the approval of anyone—not critics, not even our fans. We’ve always rallied very strongly around the idea that we’re making music for the five of us in this band. I mean, if we can’t get excited about what we’re doing, how can anybody else?”

For Morton, the process of gearing up for Lamb of God’s 10th studio album, Into Oblivion, involved a period of reflection. After the band (which also includes guitarist Willie Adler, bassist John Campbell, drummer Art Cruz, and singer Randy Blythe) finished their 2024 Ashes of the Wake 20th anniversary tour, he went through the group’s catalog and listened to a number of songs they had never performed live. “That kind of spun me off into thinking, ‘Who was I back then? Where was my head at when I was writing those songs?’” he says.

Morton decided to investigate further, and went down the rabbit hole of bands he listened to some 25 years ago, like Meshuggah, At the Gates, and the Haunted. But he didn’t stop at early 2000s Swedish death metal; he also reconnected with records by local bands from Lamb of God’s hometown of Richmond, Virginia. “I’m talking about Breadwinner and Sliang Laos and some other bands that never got the kind of notoriety they deserved,” he says. His listening binge then segued to old favorites like Fugazi and the Jesus Lizard. He notes, “We have a new song called ‘Sepsis’ that’s like the Jesus Lizard and Sliang Laos spun together in a modern metal song.”

Before hitting the studio with Lamb of God, Morton issued his second solo album, Without the Pain, an engaging and thoughtfully crafted Southern rock-tinged set that featured collaborations with Cody Jinks, Charlie Starr, and Jason Isbell, among others. Coming out the other side, the guitarist felt ready—refreshed and rejuvenated—to reconvene with Lamb of God. “I think longtime bands can only survive if there’s room for members to pursue other opportunities,” he says. “I can get other music out of my system and still allow Lamb of God to maintain its character and personality.”

He doesn’t beat around the bush as to the nature of the band’s identity. “We’re a heavy metal band,” he says. “We make heavy metal records. It’s what I want us to do, and it’s what we want to do. We’re really good at it, and we keep trying to get better. I respect what we’ve done in the past, and I feel obligated to honor our history and help us make something that’s worthy of that body of work.”

Which wasn’t always a walk in the park. The band went through an intense vetting process while writing material for the album, weeding out anything that sounded like reworked versions of songs from their past. “That was the challenge,” Morton says. “If you want to get to a new place, you’ve got to be willing to put the work in, and it can be hard. You listen a lot, rewrite a lot, try new ideas. If something sounded fresh or out of the ordinary, we ran with it. Even if it didn’t pan out, at least we were out of our comfort zone.”

​Mark Morton’s Gear

Guitars

• Gibson Mark Morton Les Paul
• 1969 Gibson Les Paul Custom
• Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster

Amps

• Mesa/Boogie Rectifier Badlander (rhythms)
• Mesa/Boogie Mark IV (solos)

Effects

• Vintage Ibanez Tube Screamer
• Klon Centaur
• “Any delays, choruses, or phasers are done with outboard gear in the mix.”

Strings, Picks, and Cables

• Stringjoy Mark Morton Artist Series
• Dunlop Tortex 1.00 mm
• Mogami cables

The guitarist recalls each band member using a certain word throughout the writing and recording period: stock. “We said that over and over,” he says. “It became our touchstone. We had to be brutal. If something felt stock—a riff, a song, a performance—we’d toss it. You keep listening, and you go, ‘It’s not bad. It’s not broken. There’s no mistakes. But it feels stock.’ Good enough wasn’t good enough. Regular-schmegular wasn’t gonna cut it. It had to be great. So you keep going till you get there.”

Morton embraced self-scrutiny when it came to his own guitar playing. If he found himself playing the same patterns as a result of muscle memory—it’s as typical among musicians as it is with athletes—he sought a new approach. He credits longtime band producer Josh Wilbur for his unsparing, pull-no-punches approach in the studio. “Josh has been with us for close to 20 years, so he knows the work in and out,” the guitarist says. “I’ll play something and he’ll go, ‘How many times have we said this already? This riff feels like it’s been on two other records. Can we say something else?’ A lot of other guitarists would have their pride hurt, but I don’t mind. You have to rally around the perspective that you’re trying to do something of value.”

Morton calls himself a “card-carrying tone chaser,” and to that end, he found what he was looking for years ago and stuck with it. Into Oblivion is brimming with his two-tone approach: For rhythm tracks, he ran his go-to guitars (either a signature Gibson Mark Morton Les Paul or a 1969 Les Paul Custom) through a Mesa/Boogie Rectifier Badlander with a vintage Ibanez Tube Screamer in front (“I put the gain all the way up and the overdrive all the way down”), and for solos he used a Mesa/Boogie Mark IV with a Klon Centaur boost pedal in front. “I didn’t feel the need to try to change my sound for the sake of changing it,” he says. “The self-editing I felt I needed had more to do with my actual playing.”

“If we can’t get excited about what we’re doing, how can anybody else?”

Any band that gets to their 10th album might sound as if they’re coasting, but Lamb of God are full of frenzy on Into Oblivion. As they have from the beginning, they serve up a vicious mix of sledgehammer heavy metal and metal-adjacent subgenres (metalcore, thrash, post-metal, death metal, doom metal), but the beauty of it all lies in their seemingly indefatigable ability to make each song’s wicked grooves and way-out licks sound like inspired bits of improvisation. What’s even more remarkable is that, unlike on their previous album, 2022’s Omens, which was recorded live in the studio, Into Oblivion was tracked in sections, with various band members operating in different locales (Morton cut his guitars at his home studio).

“I don’t think recording live off the floor is the standard anymore, for any band,” the guitarist says. “We enjoyed doing it on the last record, but this time we did things individually, and cool stuff came from it. It’s fun to open up the files and listen to tracks one of the other guys did. It’s like opening presents on Christmas. That’s not to say that everything is a total surprise—we’re all very involved with the writing and pre-production. These are just steps along the way when we’re working independently to bring material in.”

The album’s title track is fiery stuff, built around a pile-driving, high-velocity riff that Morton kicked around in pre-production. “It was one of the last songs we worked on,” he says. “Josh and I were sitting in my studio, and I had a riff that we started building into a song. We actually did speed that up about four bpm,” Morton remembers, “which isn’t huge, but we have to be careful about that kind of thing because tempos have a huge impact on the song.”

“Sepsis” comes on like a volcanic beast from hell. Blythe howls and hollers like he just laid his hand on a smoking cast-iron skillet, and a pummeling guitar-and-bass riff adds knockaround punishment. Mid-song, Morton goes weird and wonderful, ramming the message home with jarring dissonant chords that evoke the styles of the Jesus Lizard’s Duane Denison and indie producer Steve Albini. “I love both those guys,” Morton says. “The Melvins, too—they were huge for us. When we talk about Lamb of God, we have to talk about punk and alternative, but also Slayer and Pantera. All that stuff is vital for us.”

The award for Naming Songs For Exactly What They Sound Like goes to Lamb of God for “Blunt Force Blues,” an overwhelming nod to Vulgar Display of Power-era Pantera that asks the musical question: Why have just one corrosive metal riff when 20 will do? “We all have a hand in the songwriting, but that one is a clear example of Willie Adler’s train of thought,” Morton says. “He has this incredible stream of consciousness that sometimes we have to roll back and sometimes we don’t. It can be a wild ride interpreting what’s inside his head.”

When asked if the band has yet tackled the song live, Morton laughs and says, “No. I might need to bring some notes if we do get to that one.”

“Regular-schmegular wasn’t gonna cut it. It had to be great.”

The band hits the brakes on their high-speed tempos for the somber and atmospheric “El Vacio,” a mini-epic of sorts that’s distinguished by layers of gorgeous, echo-drenched, clean-toned guitar textures. “That one began as a bit of an assignment given to me,” Morton says. “Josh and Randy were out in L.A. doing some vocals and writing, and I got a text from Randy: ‘Hey man, send us something weird. We’ve got great songs, but we need to shake the snow globe. Even if we don’t use it, give me something super out of the box.’”

Morton accepted the assignment as a challenge and came up with “something that feels a little like the Cult from their Love period. It was really different for us, and the band loved it.”

Not every song on Into Oblivion features a guitar solo (Morton has never presented himself as a particularly self-indulgent player), but “Parasocial Christ” is a standout. Amid rugged rhythms, the guitarist shoots lead fireworks, abusing his instrument like it owes him money and even tossing in a heaping helping of old-fashioned dive bombs. “It’s nothing I’ve ever done in my professional career, but I did all that stuff when I was younger,” he says. “I did all the tapping and dive bombing that everybody else was doing. There’s actually a lot of whammy bar stuff on the record, which is entirely attributable to Josh Wilber. Every time we cut a solo, he’d say, ‘Why don’t you do a dive bomb?’ I was like, ‘Did you just discover whammy bars or something? I play Les Pauls, so what are we gonna do?’ He just went, ‘We’ll figure something out.’”

Ultimately, the producer got his wish, and to that end Morton utilized a Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster “super-Stratted” by master builder Mike Shannon. “Whenever you hear a dive bomb, that’s me playing the Strat,” Morton says.

“I didn’t feel the need to try to change my sound for the sake of changing it. The self-editing I felt I needed had more to do with my actual playing.”

Whether he’s detonating dive bombs or digging deep into earth-moving rhythms, Morton burns through it all with the zeal and youthful stamina of someone making his first album. For guitarists seeking pre-album training tips, Morton says simply, “By the time we start tracking a record, we’ve spent months doing pre-production, running through the songs and trying different ideas. At that point, I’m ready to go.”

Pressed further, he admits that there is a bit of a science to the art of capturing the perfect guitar performance. “It can come down to all sorts of things, or even just one thing,” he says. “Am I in a good mood? Am I excited about what I’m doing? Do I feel good physically? Am I undercaffeinated or overcaffeinated? It rarely takes me two days to track a song, but if we have to do something again to get it right, we will. The bottom line is, I try to stay in a good mental space.”

Asked if he has any special tricks for that one, Morton cracks a grin. “Yeah—I turn off social media.”

Back in the 1970s, Eddie Van Halen asserted that he hated “store-bought, off-the-rack guitars”. As a result, he would go on to design and configure many axes throughout his career, with his most iconic creation being the EVH Wolfgang. And, as one Fender luthier discovered, the Van Halen frontman was very involved in the building process.

In a new interview with Premier Guitar, Andy Hicks recalls working on the production line for the EVH Wolfgang, unaware that Eddie was surveying his craftsmanship. While working on guitar necks, the guitar builder felt himself being watched – but he didn’t suspect it would be the designer himself. “It’s Fender – we have tours all the time!” Hicks explains. “This guy comes over, leaning on me, and he looks like some dad wearing a baseball hat.”

• READ MORE: Keo are proving that Gen Z still love guitar music: “We do feel like we’re on the tail of those bigger bands”

Of course, he soon registered what was happening, mentally noting the fact that “Eddie Van Halen is just standing here watching us work”. However, his Fender peers were still none the wiser. “The guy I was working with was in the middle of complaining: ‘Man, these stainless steel frets. With just these Wolfgangs, we’ve gotta do 12 stainless steel necks today.’”

Rather that feeling insulted by the complaint, Eddie decided to chime in with a “playful” comment. “He said something along the lines of, ‘I’m sorry my guitar is such a pain in the butt,’” Hicks laughs. “It was incredible.”

Eddie truly hadn’t taken the comment to heart – in fact, he later invited the entire production team to an ultra-exclusive Van Halen show in 2012. The gig was intended for friends and family of the band, and took place at the Forum in Inglewood, California. “My dad was sitting next to Tom Morello, telling him that his son made Eddie Van Halen’s guitar,” he says. “I had to say, ‘Dad, please stop talking to Tom Morello…’”

“He was so excited to talk to somebody, and he just happened to be talking to Tom Morello!” he adds.

Throughout his career, Andy Hicks has helped many signature models come to fruition at Fender. He also had the honour of making a guitar for Iron Maiden’s Dave Murray. “It was completely insane,” he says. “They were about to start this multi-year tour and wanted another guitar. I was working really closely with his tech, fine-tuning his model a little bit.”

“I shipped it off and got an email a couple days later from Dave,” he continues. “It just said ‘Regarding the guitar’ [in the subject line], and it’s a Schrödinger’s cat situation: ‘I’m gonna open this email, and one of two things happens: He either likes the guitar, and that’s good, or he doesn’t like it, and now what do I do?’ He said how much he loved it. His guitar tech reached out and said it was going to be his number-one for the tour.”

The guitar has even been recreated for fans to purchase, with the $11,000 Masterbuilt Strat being announced back in December. The special release came just in time to mark the band’s 50th anniversary.

The post “I’m sorry my guitar is such a pain in the butt!”: Eddie Van Halen once apologised to the Fender production line for the EVH Wolfgang’s fiddly frets appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Back in 2022, Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine vowed that he was never going to perform alongside ex-bandmate David Ellefson ever again. Even in light of Megadeth’s grand farewell tour, Mustaine is sticking to that promise – and Ellefson isn’t happy about it.

Despite going on record saying that his Megadeth firing was a blessing in disguise akin to being “kicked out of hell”, the bassist has changed his tune. He’s made it very clear that he is “available” for the band’s final run of gigs, recently telling Gustavo Olmedo’s Quemar Un Patrullero podcast that he holds no “bitterness towards Dave or Megadeth” [via Blabbermouth].

• READ MORE: Keo are proving that Gen Z still love guitar music: “We do feel like we’re on the tail of those bigger bands”

However, Ellefson does still hold a few grievances. Namely, he has an issue with comments Mustaine made in a 2025 interview with SiriuxSM, where the frontman said that he wouldn’t be enlisting former bandmates for Megadeth’s farewell tour due to “the behaviour of one of [his] band members in the past”.

While Mustaine didn’t delve into specifics, one could assume he is alluding to Ellefson’s previous allegations of sexual misconduct in 2022, after explicit videos were shared online. Ellefson denied any wrongdoing and filed a ‘revenge porn’ lawsuit against the person who uploaded the videos to social media.

In light of Mustaine’s comments, Ellefson has one thing to say: “Fuck off… just fuck off”.

“Who is that one person?” he ponders. “It wasn’t me, because I didn’t do anything that would prevent me from coming back at all… And so this sort of deflective thing, to get on some moral high ground? Gimme a break.”

“I had rock stars much bigger than Dave coming to my side and coming to my aid, standing by me, saying, ‘Man, just let me know if you need anything, that’s really fucked up,’” he continues. “It’s fucked up how I was discarded. People were saying, ‘I’m really disappointed that they chose business over brotherhood’. At the end of the day, the brotherhood will always last beyond the business of owning a rock band – especially something we started and built together.”

“I could call a lawyer, I could go back into defamation lawsuits, and I have every right to – trust me,” the bassist adds. “But at the same time, there’s two ways to win in tug of war. I either pull you over the line or I just drop the rope and let you fall on your ass… And that’s what I’ve chosen to do.”

In a recent chat with Argentinian rock radio station UnDinamo, Ellefson implored Mustaine to consider allowing old bandmates to join Megadeth on their last tour. His reasoning was that it would “give [the fans] what they want”.

In a January NME interview, Mustaine explained that his reasoning boiled down to his ex-bandmates “saying bad things in the press” about him. It’s fair to assume Ellefson’s cries of “fuck off” probably wont help his case. Nor will his comments about the band’s final album, a record Ellefson told The David Ellefson Show that he “[doesn’t] care” about, since he’s “really moved on from Dave, from Megadeth”.

The post “Just f**k off”: David Ellefson isn’t satisfied with Dave Mustaine’s reasoning for not enlisting ex-bandmates for Megadeth’s final tour appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Despite regularly performing Eddie Van Halen’s riffs while touring with Sammy Hagar’s Best of All Worlds band, Joe Satriani wasn’t always brave enough to tackle Eddie’s iconic tone. In fact, even when Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth asked him to perform at a Van Halen tribute event in 2021, he was too intimidated to accept the invitation.

Speaking to The Weekly Show With David J. Maloney, Satriani recalls how, when the Van Halen drummer and frontman approached him to perform at the We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert event, he refused. “They wanted to put together a band, and they were insisting that I was the guy to do it,” he explains [via Blabbermouth]. “I kept saying, ‘I’m not the guy! Call Nuno Bettencourt, he can really do it!’”

• READ MORE: Rich Robinson on why the Black Crowes channeled the spirit of “20-year-olds showing the f**k off” on their new album

Satriani was adamant that they should reach out to another guitarist. Despite being a “huge fan” of Eddie’s, the Satriani explained that he’d spent his entire career trying to avoid comparison with the guitar legend. “There’s thousands of kids around the world who’ve dedicated their life to sounding exactly like Ed… And I’ve always tried not to sound like Ed,” he says.

However, the Van Halen pair were “insistent” that Satriani was the perfect fit. “We rehearsed, and we came really close to doing our first show, but it all kind of started to fall apart,” he explains. “I’m not really sure what happened with that. And I was busy as well, so I was just waiting to hear what was happening month by month.”

Despite the project not coming together, Satriani would eventually become comfortable with the idea of tackling Eddie’s riffs. When he was approached by Sammy Hagar to join Michael Anthony and Jason Bonham for the Best Of All Worlds band in 2024, a tour that largely tackled Van Halen’s vast back catalogue, he accepted.

“Sam called and he surprised me by saying, ‘Look… how about if we did a retrospective tour – not an Eddie Van Halen tribute thing – where we get to do Montrose, Hagar, Chickenfoot, and even some David Lee Roth era of Van Halen?’ And I liked that idea,” he says.

“I liked the idea that we would create our own sound as a band…” he adds. “I had to remind Sam [that] I don’t really play like Eddie, but he kind of knew that. He said, ‘That’s not what it’s about, we’re not gonna do that – let the imitators do that.’”

This year, the band are embarking on yet another tour. Kicking off this month, the band will be warming up with 6 dates performing at the Las Vegas Dolby Live, before the summer will see them performing across the US in June and the UK in July. The year will be rounded off in September, with the band returning for 5 dates back in Las Vegas to wind down.

For more tour information, head to Ticketmaster.

The post “I’m not the guy! Call Nuno Bettencourt!”: Why Joe Satriani turned down Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth’s request to perform at a Van Halen tribute show appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Developing a healthy and positive mindset will go a long way toward helping your musical success.

John Osborne loves Telecasters. Given that he’s a firebrand guitar player in a major country act, that’s hardly surprising – Osborne’s melodic, expressive lead playing is a huge part of the sound of Brothers Osborne, and it’s lent an extra edge by the Telecaster twang. It’s no surprise, then, that he’s the latest artist to be tapped by Fender for a new signature model – one that recreates his very own well-used and well-traveled Telecaster.

• READ MORE: Rich Robinson on why the Black Crowes channeled the spirit of “20-year-olds showing the f**k off” on their new album

Image: Fender

Partscaster’d together

The story of the new John Osborne Telecaster starts with John’s first main guitar that he used on stage and in the studio. A vintage 1968 example, John obtained it from a local Nashville music shop when he was in his early 20s – with the help of a few trade-ins of the rest of his gear, and $700 borrowed from his mum. “I didn’t have guitars,” John explains. “I just had this one 1968 Telecaster. So I played it on everything – every gig and every session.”

Part two of the story would come with John’s first introduction to b-benders. “When my brother and I went to record our second record, called Port Saint Joe, a friend of mine who has since passed, Keith Gattis, a total b-bender master, lent me one of his guitars to play on that record. And I fell in love with the b-bender. I had played b-benders a few times, just here and there, but never live or on a record. And I could not put it down. I was obsessed!”

From there, John knew what needed to happen to his main guitar. “I went looking for maybe a cheap b-bender Telecaster I could put together myself – and I found a body preloaded with a b-bender, and that was it. No pickups or anything. So what I did was take the neck of my ‘68 and put it on that body – thus proving that 80-90% of a guitar is really in that neck, how it feels, how it plays – because it was really not too dissimilar to how it felt before. I found some pickups and so on, assembled it all myself – that was the real genesis of that guitar!”

For some, the idea of changing just one of the bridge saddles on a 1968 Telecaster would be close to sacreligious – let alone replacing the entire body. But for John, it’s just abiding by Leo Fender’s original ethos. “He was a very utilitarian, pragmatic person – this was before people learned how to take frets out of necks easily. He had the idea that once the frets wear out on the guitar, you just take the neck off and you put a new neck on it – like changing a set of tires. And because of that, because of the simplistic design, it’s allowed people to modify these guitars themselves into their own personal canvas to create on.”

And for those who are worried that the original ‘68 body is hiding in the back of a wardrobe somewhere, it’s luckily still fulfilling its purpose under a different guise. “I still have that original ‘68 body, and I actually converted it into a baritone guitar with a long conversion neck!” John says.

Image: Fender

The spirit of a Tele

The spec-sheet of John’s new guitar stays essentially as close as possible to his self-assembled guitar, itself aiming to keep the voice of a traditional Tele, not replace it. “At the end of the day, I still wanted it to be a Telecaster, not another guitar shaped like a Telecaster,” John says. “I wanted the three brass-barrel saddles, compensated, obviously but even that’s not perfect – and that’s ok. Those imperfections are what make music special. I’ve had six-saddle Teles over the years, but I start to miss that honk and spank that comes from having those brass barrels – even with six brass saddles, you lose some of that character.”

This approach carried over to the electronics, too. “I still wanted a Telecaster bridge pickup, because that is the sound. And I did want to keep the neck pickup, but make it a little punchier. I didn’t just want to put a Strat pickup in there! But I wanted something to compete with a louder bridge pickup, so there wasn’t a drop when I switched position. You know, everyone’s favourite pickup on a Strat is the neck – we all want to pretend we’re Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughan, even when we’re playing a Telecaster. So I really wanted something that could speak in that way, but still retain some of the tradition of the Tele.”

Image: Fender

A new toy

There is, of course, one big concession to bucking tradition – that b-bender. If you’re unfamiliar, it offers a hands-free way to bend just the b-string, as a lever translates a downwards pull on the strap to a tightening of the b-string behind the saddle. This lets you easily bend the b-string within chords in order to mimic the sound of a pedal-steel guitar – and it can be totally transformational to all aspects of your playing, lead and rhythm alike.

Regardless, anyone who gets their hands on a John Osborne Telecaster will likely spend a good while doing absolutely nothing but chewy pedal steel chord-bends on it – and, if John’s experience is anything to go by, have a hard time not using it on everything. “When I first got the b-bender, I wanted to put on every song. I was having so much fun – it was like learning a new instrument again,” he says. “When anyone gets a new toy, they just want to use it the whole time. I’ve got three-year-old twins in the house, and they’re no different!”

“When guitar players get that new pedal, it’s like, ‘this is going on every song!’ – until eventually you learn where it needs to go. But that’s all part of the fun – discovering, experimenting and then finding out how to incorporate that sound into the larger palette of colours that you have,” he explains. “Now, I don’t even really think about it anymore. It’s just part of my voice as a musician.”

For John one of the coolest things about his signature is taking all of the quirks of his guitar – b-bender and all – and putting them out there into the hands of a much wider range of players. “I’m really looking forward to seeing how other people use it, all the things that they will do that I couldn’t even think of,” he says, and notes that like the Telecaster itself, the b-bender is definitely not just chained to country. “The pedal steel – which is what we’re all trying to emulate with it, really – has been used on a lot of rock and pop records now, so the sound is not tied to this one genre of country. You’re able to cross over with these things. I mean, hell, Jimmy Page had some great b-bender stuff back in the day! It’s just another tool in the toolbox to create the music that you want to create.”

Image: Fender

A well-worn look

And like any good tool, John’s own guitar has seen its fair share of wear-and-tear. “I grew up plumbing with my dad,” he notes, “and the tools in that toolbox are just beat to hell, because they’ve been used. Guitars are the same – you know it’s a good guitar if it’s been used!”

The signature guitar wears a road-worn finish – while it’s not a total one-to-one recreation, the spirit of the original is carried over, particularly given that the second-hand b-bender body he found had actually already been relic’d when he put the ‘68 neck on it. “But as time went on, with the thousands of hours I played that guitar, it created a lot of different wear, especially in the forearm – I really wanted to make sure that was there,” John adds.

It’s also clear that John’s just a fan of a rough-and-ready look in general. “I’ve never really been a fan of glossy guitars – I’m not a glossy human, and I don’t really want my guitars to look glossy because it makes me look even less glossy!” he jokes. “The instrument should be a bit of an extension of who you are, and it just made more sense from that perspective. Also subconsciously – it shouldn’t be about how it looks, but at the end of the day, it kind of is, because when you look at an instrument, it does put you in a mindset, and how you play is a reflection of that mindset.”

And in some ways a road worn finish is particularly applicable to any given Telecaster. “I’ve literally thrown that guitar across the stage, and my tech picks it up, and it’s still in tune,” John adds. “That’s the thing about these Teles in particular – they are made to be beat up.”

Find out more about the Fender John Osborne Telecaster at fender.com

The post “I’ve thrown that guitar across the stage and it’s still in tune!” – John Osborne talks the joys of creating Fender’s first B-bender signature model appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Winzz Guitars introduces the Lead Burner 30W

In the spring of 2020, I found myself quarantined in Nashville, staring at screens for too many hours, with TikTok feeding me an endless scroll of protests, police confrontations, and cities on edge. Meanwhile, right here in Music City, protesters smashed windows along Lower Broadway and set fires near the state Capitol. It felt surreal, chaotic, and unpredictable. The entire world was wondering: What’s going on?

During that time, I rewatched the documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown. It occurred to me that our current chaos hit exactly half a century after Marvin Gaye captured the same bewilderment in his landmark 1971 single and album. Recorded in the summer of 1970 at Motown’s Hitsville U.S.A. in Detroit, What’s Going On emerged from a man who’d grown weary of the polished pop machine.

Before this, Marvin Gaye was the ideal Motown product: handsome, polite, safe. Hits like “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You),” “Ain’t That Peculiar,” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” made him a star. But by 1969, depression had sidelined him. He stopped touring. His brother Frankie returned from Vietnam with haunting stories of war’s toll. Detroit’s streets boiled with police brutality and unrest. Singing only love songs started feeling dishonest.

The spark came on May 15, 1969, when Four Tops member Renaldo “Obie” Benson witnessed police attacking anti-war protesters at Berkeley’s People’s Park on “Bloody Thursday.” Shaken, Benson wondered aloud, “What’s going on here?” Why send kids overseas to die? Why beat them in the streets at home? Back in Detroit, he collaborated with songwriter Al Cleveland on a tune inspired by those questions. Benson pitched it as a love song—about love and understanding—but his bandmates dismissed it as protest. Benson insisted: “I’m not protesting. I want to know what’s going on.”

Motown in the ’60s was a hit factory modeled on Detroit’s auto plants. Berry Gordy ran it with iron discipline: Songwriters cranked out material, producers cut poppy versions, and weekly quality-control meetings decided releases. The goal was to make Black music that white America would embrace—no politics, no anger, no “inside” references. Songs focused on love, heartbreak, dancing—emotional ground that was safe enough to cross racial lines. The Funk Brothers delivered grooves that ruled dance floors with tight time driven with a ubiquitous tambourine, two drummers, and James Jamerson’s funky bass lines. Albums were a collection of singles and filler.

Marvin Gaye thought this song would not fly under the constraints of Gordy, so he booked a late-night session with a core of trusted Funk Brothers—including Jamerson, who, legend has it, was so drunk he had to lay on his back to play, reading charts upside down. Jamerson’s line never really repeats; instead, he weaves chromatic passing tones into a jazz-influenced swing that rarely hits the tonic and never loses the pocket.

“Marvin Gaye’s masterpiece endures because it refuses rage for its own sake.”

The whole vibe of the sessions feels loose, spontaneous, alive. This wasn’t assembly-line Motown; it was personal, socially conscious, adventurous. The song doesn’t shout protest. It asks questions: about war’s human cost, community violence, poverty, ecology. “Mother, mother, there’s too many of you crying / Brother, brother, there’s far too many of you dying.” The refrain—“You know we’ve got to find a way to bring some lovin’ here today”—pleads for compassion without condemnation. Marvin invites reflection, empathy, unity.

When Gaye presented it to Berry Gordy, Gordy called it “the worst thing I ever heard.” It was too political, uncommercial, poorly structured, sonically weird, very un-Motown. Marvin, leveraging his star power, essentially went on strike and refused to record anymore until they released the song. Gordy relented for a single release, expecting it to fail, after which Gaye would fall back in line. Instead, the song soared to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No. 1 on the R&B chart. The public connected. Gordy greenlit the full album, shifting Motown toward artist-driven, thematic works. It paved the way for Stevie Wonder’s creative control and proved personal vision could sell.

Now, the question—what’s going on?—feels eerily fresh to me. I’m by nature an optimistic person, and I suspect Marvin Gaye was as well. Otherwise, he would not have jeopardized a wildly successful career to make a statement for change. Marvin Gaye’s masterpiece endures because it refuses rage for its own sake. It calls for love amid chaos, understanding across fractures. “War is not the answer / Only love can conquer hate.” In 1971, it challenged Vietnam and domestic strife. Today, it speaks to endless cycles of conflict, brutality, and disconnection.

Marvin Gaye risked everything to say something true. The result wasn’t just a hit; it was a mirror. Sometimes the most revolutionary act is refusing to look away.

Fender has claimed victory in a recent intellectual property case in Germany against a Chinese guitar manufacturer, stating that its win in the case sets a new legal precedent that strengthens Fender’s protection over the Stratocaster shape.

• READ MORE: Gibson denied opportunity to appeal court ruling that its ES body shape is generic – but the final terms of its legal victory over Dean have been laid down

The case was against the Chinese-based Yiwu Philharmonic Musical Instruments Co., and took place in the Düsseldorf Regional Court in Germany. According to Fender, the decision made by the court agrees with Fender’s claim that the company had imported guitars that “reproduced” Fender’s Stratocaster body design, and that the design in question is not just a functional trademark but is instead a “a copyrighted work of applied art”, according to German and European law.

Aarash Darroodi, Fender’s general counsel and chief administrative officer, said in a press release: “This ruling is a meaningful affirmation of the Stratocaster as an original creative work and an important step in continuing to protect the integrity of Fender’s designs and intellectual property. It reinforces our commitment to originality, supports fair competition, and helps ensure that when players encounter these iconic Fender guitar shapes, they can trust the craftsmanship, quality, and heritage behind them.”

While the ruling is clearly bad news for Yiwu – a Chinese maker that seems to primarily sell budget guitars and other instruments via AliExpress and other online marketplaces – the potential wider impact of the case is yet to be tested.

Importantly, Backstagepro.de reports that the judgement was not as a result of the sort of lengthy legal battle that has characterised many recent trademark disputes in the guitar world, but was instead a default judgement. In effect, the defendant did not respond to a summons, and sent no legal representation to defend and therefore did not appear to defend itself in court.

This could have major implications on how much precedent is set – the decision is enforceable against Yiwu Philharmonic Musical Instruments, and theoretically against others, but a default judgement does mean that Fender’s claims have not yet faced any legal counterarguments.

In practice, this means that if Fender were to attempt to use this decision against another manufacturer that sought to challenge the ruling in court, it would face a much more thorough proceeding to establish why the design is more than just a standard trademark.

Fender may also have to draw out a clearer distinction between a guitar that, as Fender argues Yiwu did, “reproduces” the Stratocaster body, and a non-infringing “S-type” guitar.

A related case happened very recently in the US, with the loss of Gibson’s ES trademark despite an overall victory over Dean in a long-running trademark dispute. The ES body shape was ruled generic because expert witnesses for both Dean and Gibson admitted that many guitar manufacturers have used the shape in the years since its introduction – a potential argument surrounding the Stratocaster body shape could see similar claims being made.

Regardless, the speculation does not change the fact that the ruling is very much enforceable. Yiwu Philharmonic Musical Instruments Co. is now legally prohibited from “manufacturing, offering, or distributing” guitars featuring the Stratocaster body shape in Germany and the EU, and could face large fines or even prison time if the fines are not able to be enforced. Whether that will apply to other brands who import similar guitars is unclear, however Fender does now have a stronger legal precedent it can use to protect the design.

The post Fender wins legal battle over Stratocaster shape in Germany – is it the end for S-type guitars in the EU? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

As a single-pickup, hardtail guitar, the Reverend Charger Jr. wears simplicity as a badge of honor. But thanks to excellent execution of practical design updates and a basic player friendliness, it’s not as limited as one might suspect.

Its combination of a single-cutaway body, bolt-on neck, Steelhead P-90-style pickup (designed in-house,) and string-through hardtail bridge brings to mind a cross between a Fender Esquire and a Les Paul Jr. But part of what makes that marriage work is originality that lets the Charger Jr. hint at those two classics while staking out its own territory.

Hot Rod Heart

The solid Korina body (beautifully finished in metallic cherry, with cream binding and a back-sprayed gold pickguard) produces an unplugged tone somewhere between ash and mahogany—warm, but with plenty of snap. The roasted maple neck, topped with a rosewood fingerboard, has a comfortable medium oval profile. It’s a little chunkier than a typical C shape, but far from baseball bat territory.

This review was my first go with roasted maple, and I’m a convert. Smooth to the touch and pleasing to the eye, the wood stood up to very dry New York winter heating that had me refilling my acoustic guitar humidifiers at an alarming rate and finding jagged metal on electrics I’ve had for years. Not the Charger Jr.’s medium-jumbo (.110 x .050) frets, though. They’re fine.

“The Charger Jr.’s Steelhead P-90 delivers purity that’s hard to resist, while offering enough variety to cover roots, punk, and even metal.”

Reverend is great at effectively updating familiar design elements. The bolt-on neck, for instance, attaches with six screws rather than the traditional four—and it is a tight joint. The strings pass through an aluminum ferrule block, up to a Bonite (synthetic bone) nut, and under a cleverly designed 3-string tree, before terminating in Reverend Pin Lock locking tuners. High build quality brings the best out of these intelligent upgrades, making the Charger Jr. a pleasure to play and listen to, with solid tuning stability and consistent tone up, down, and across the neck. The guitar came out of the case with good intonation and low, buzz-free action, too.

At 43 mm (1.69 inches) at the nut and sporting a 12-inch fretboard radius, the 25.5-inch, 22-fret playing surface is a great platform for chords, runs, and bends. Even after deep bends, the guitar stays true and in tune.

Rocks In the Head

While the Jr. has only one pickup, the 3-way switch combines with a very effective treble-bleed volume control and a wide-range tone control to offer an impressive array of tones. The forward switch position (what you would otherwise call the “neck” setting) rolls off treble but preserves more of the Steelhead’s grindy personality than you get by simply turning down the tone knob. At times, it’s almost like a fixed-position wah. The back position offers more cut and spank, and a lot of upper-mid emphasis—reminiscent of a hot Telecaster pickup but with a hint of combined bridge-and-neck jangle. The middle position is my favorite of the three and the most P-90-like. There’s plenty of top-end bite, beefy lows, and a little scoop in the midrange that makes single notes jump and chords fill space.

The Steelhead pickup seems made for my modded Fender Vibro Champ, which can switch between a Bandmaster-style EQ and a raw, tweed Champ-like signal path (no EQ, higher gain). With the Champ’s EQ active, and treble and bass maxed, the Charger’s switching offered three distinct but totally compatible voices. Overdriven, the middle and bridge settings worked best together, and thanks to the treble-bleed volume control, you can mellow the tone out for rhythm without getting lost in a mix. The Champ’s snarly raw mode favored the brighter bridge pickup position alone, with the middle, unadulterated Steelhead sound a close second. Rolling back the Charger Jr.’s volume yields very nice clean tones.

Through an uber-clean SWR bass amp, the switching system still offers impressive variety. The front rhythm position is more effective in this kind of super-clean signal path, and ranges from darkness to twilight depending on the guitar’s tone control position. Where the other two positions scream through the Champ, they pop and chime through the SWR. What’s more, the Reverend’s natural sustain lends these super-clean single notes plenty of presence and body.

In a way, I was most impressed by how the Charger Jr. sounded with my Universal Audio Apollo interface while I was sitting in front of a computer, because the guitar’s low noise floor is remarkable. Noise can make single-coil pickups—and P-90s in particular—a nightmare when running into an interface. But not here. Factor in the guitar’s comfort and tuning stability, and you can imagine why I used the Charger Jr. for composing and recording sessions a lot in recent days.

The Verdict

From the moment it came out of the case, the Charger Jr. felt as comfortable as a broken-in pair of leather gloves. At just less than $1,100, it boasts the materials and build quality of a considerably more expensive instrument. If one pickup seems limiting, the Charger platform is available in other guises with different pickups and different bridges. That said, the Jr.’s Steelhead P-90 delivers purity that’s hard to resist, while offering enough variety to cover roots, punk, and even metal. If you crave simplicity that deviates from Esquire and Les Paul Jr. templates, this Charger is highly recommended.

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A student of Reverend Gary Davis, Book Binder spent decades sharing the blues with audiences everywhere from concert halls to small clubs.

The long-running legal battle between Gibson and Dean Guitars’ parent company Armadillo has come to a close, after several revivals and attempts at adjusting the final outcome by both parties. With a new filing last month, the presiding judge reasserted Dean’s loss, but, in a major blow to the brand, denied Gibson’s appeal for a new trial to appeal the ES trademark being made generic.

• READ MORE: Gibson triumphs in revived trademark case against Dean – but could lose its ES trademark

The beginning of the end for the long-running case came in March 2025, when a jury entered an opinion that essentially reasserted Dean’s initial defeat. As with the ruling of a different jury in 2021, Dean/Armadillo was found to have counterfeited a number of Gibson trademarks, and could no longer advertise or sell the infringing guitars. In the 2025 ruling, these were found to be the Dean Gran Sport, Dean V, and Dean Z guitars, which infringed on the Gibson SG, Gibson Flying V and Gibson Explorer respectively. This was, again, a major blow to Dean’s lineup, with the V and the Z in particular being flagship models for the brand.

But it was still not a victory without cost for Gibson. The new jury found that Dean only owed Gibson $1 in damages (plus around $170,000 in legal fees), while also agreeing with one of Dean’s claims – it ruled that Gibson’s trademark for the ES body shape should be made generic. Gibson made its intent to appeal this clear, however, the latest filing – the one made in February 2026 – has struck down this attempt to appeal. No new trial regarding this will be held.

As judge Amos L Mazzant puts it in the filing, “The Court finds that the jury’s verdict that the ES Body Shape Design was generic as of 1996 is not against the great weight of the evidence […] Plaintiff is again asking the Court to substitute its wisdom for the collective wisdom of the jury – the Court refuses to do so. […] Indeed, contrary to Plaintiff’s arguments otherwise, there was ample evidence to support the jury’s finding that the ES Body Shape Design is generic.”

This reiterates what was made clear in the final judgement back in September – that there was ample evidence to suggest the generic status of the ES body shape, and there is not enough of a gulf between the obvious implications of what the expert witnesses presented and the jury’s conclusions to warrant anyone even attempting to overturn the ruling.

Some other important decisions were made in the final order – Gibson had requested that Dean’s damages be tripled to over $500,000, but this was ruled as unnecessarily punitive. However, Gibson has been allowed to charge Dean interest on the initial amount – a daily rate of 3.61% from the date of the final judgement, 22 September 2025, compounded annually. This means an extra few thousand dollars from Dean to Gibson.

Can other brands now make an ES-shaped guitar?

The ruling on the ES shape changes less than you might assume. It is still a very big deal for a company so protective of its IP to lose a body shape, but materially not that much changes for most builders. The ES body shape is, now, legally speaking no longer Gibson’s – but, crucially, only in the US, and just as crucially, Gibson still possess a plethora of other trademarks related to its original guitars, and makes no secret of its intent to use them. The headstock design is still very much trademarked, and the ES word mark is also still in play. And so the ruling in no way opens the door to full ES-335 clones marketed as such.

Any litigation surrounding a would-be clone or counterfeit can technically no longer consider just the body outline. However, Gibson still holds the ES shape in a number of other territories, including the EU – and so even if a new guitar only used the body shape, you could only really safely advertise and sell your new ES-shaped guitar in the US, and even then you’re flying pretty close to the sun.

What does this mean for Dean?

The main new impact of the case’s closure for Dean is purely monetary. It has now been ordered to pay Gibson that $168,399.22 amount – plus that interest since 22 September 2025. There is also another amount that will likely not be public – the final ruling states that “that all costs of court spent or incurred in this cause are adjudged against Armadillo.” How much that is is unclear.

Dean has, however, already been legally barred from marketing or selling its Gran Sport, V and Z guitars, ever since that ruling in 2022. This much stays the same with the closure of the case, and the brand has time to refocus its efforts. In the years since Dean has pivoted to new guitars with its ML body shape, and new Kerry King signature models – these have undoubtedly been the most actively marketed of Dean’s guitars of the last couple of years.

The long-term impact on Dean of paying the above legal fees, alongside the loss of some of its most notable guitars, remains to be seen. We do know that so far it has not been a death-blow as some have suspected – although there are other storms Dean has had to weather since the beginning of this case, not least losing one of its most notable signature artists, and some years of rather chaotic leadership changes and a separate set of ensuing legal kerfuffles.

The post Gibson denied opportunity to appeal court ruling that its ES body shape is generic – but the final terms of its legal victory over Dean have been laid down appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Seymour Duncan is celebrating its 50th anniversary in style by reissuing its P.A.F. ‘59 Model humbucker pickup in a highly limited run.

With only 500 sets available worldwide – each hand-built by the brand’s Custom Shop masters with decades of experience – the ‘59 Model Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Custom Shop Set pickups are built exactly as Seymour’s original ‘59s were, but with a number of visual touches commemorating 50 years in the game.

• READ MORE: Verso Log: This funky-looking lap steel lets you slide the pickup around while you play

A recreation of the original 59 Model, these pickups feature butyrate bobbins, long-legged baseplates, single-conductor cable, maple spacers and rough-cast Alnico V magnets. Their original-spec construction delivers that classic open and airy P.A.F. tone, Seymour Duncan says.

Meanwhile, the pickups’ bottom plates bear the signature of the brand’s founder Seymour W. Duncan and Custom Shop manager Maricela “MJ” Juarez, as well as original replica “Seymourized” stickers.

Credit: Seymour Duncan

Each set also arrives in exclusive anniversary packaging in celebration of the brand’s half-century of pickup building.

The ‘59 Model Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Custom Shop Set “celebrates Seymour’s personal vision of an ideal P.A.F.-style humbucker, shaped by decades of hands-on experience, careful listening and an appreciation for the many voices that made the originals legendary”, the brand says.

“Vintage P.A.F. pickups are revered for the tones captured on countless classic recordings, with variation among individual pickups yielding a wide spectrum of voicings. Early in his career, Seymour developed a deep understanding of these variations by rewinding, repairing, and studying countless vintage pickups.”

The company explains that Seymour’s original goal with the ‘59 Model was to reach his “ideal interpretation of a P.A.F.”, using an Alnico 5 magnet to capture the “open, airy character and three-dimensional harmonics of the best originals, while offering balance between neck and bridge”.

The ‘59 Model Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Custom Shop Set is priced at $375, and comes in Black and Zebra colourways.

Learn more at Seymour Duncan.

Credit: Seymour Duncan

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There’s clearly no love lost between ex-Van Halen bandmates Sammy Hagar and Alex Van Halen. With a new record reportedly in the works – and Toto’s Steve Lukather rumoured to be involved – Hagar’s absence seems all but guaranteed.

The former Van Halen singer has long criticised Alex for sidelining his era of the band in his book and for “not doing his brother’s musical legacy justice”.

Speaking with Rolling Stone last year, Hagar laid out the source of their acrimony: “I think Al’s angry because I’m out doing it, and Mike and I are out doing it, and he can’t. He’s not a singer. He’s not a guitar player. He is not really a band leader. And he seems like he doesn’t want to play drums or can’t play drums anymore, and he can’t go write a new record.”

• READ MORE: Michael Anthony thinks Alex Van Halen’s archival Van Halen album should be purely instrumental, “if they wanted to do it justice”

Now, in a new interview with Classic Rock, the 78-year-old Red Rocker likens his feud with Alex to the legendary rift within the Pink Floyd camp.

“I’m the biggest Pink Floyd fan. I see David Gilmour say: ‘I will never play with Roger Waters again’, and I know what he means,” says Hagar. “I feel that way about Alex Van Halen. They’re negative people.”

The singer also shares that he now feels “more comfortable” performing material from his own Van Halen era, particularly after Eddie Van Halen’s passing and Alex selling his drum kit.

“Because frickin’ Mike Anthony’s in the band I feel good about playing a lot of Van Halen stuff, cos no one will ever hear it again,” says Hagar. “And that was the biggest part of my career, and everybody’s career, for god’s sake. It was the biggest band in the world.”

Looking ahead, Hagar also remains candid about when he might finally retire from the microphone: “When I can’t sing any more. When I walk up to that microphone and I sound like some of those other guys out there touring, that will be it,” he says. “I can’t see that happening yet. I can hit a falsetto, I can sing low, I can do my screams, I can sing any song I’ve ever written. I’m still great at what I do, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this. And when I’m not, I won’t. But I still don’t have a plan.”

The post Sammy Hagar compares Alex Van Halen to Roger Waters, says he’ll never play with him again: “I feel that way about Alex Van Halen. They’re negative people” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Lap steel guitars aren’t exactly known for radical reinvention. But every so often, something comes along that nudges the instrument in a new direction.

Enter the Verso Log, a quirky-looking slide guitar that turns one of the instrument’s most fixed components into something you can physically move around while you play.

• READ MORE: Laney’s new Prism-Mini is a pocket-sized smart amp ready to take on Positive Grid’s Spark GO

Described by its maker as a “universal playground for modern sound creation”, the Log’s defining feature is its freely movable magnetic pickup. Mounted magnetically to the body, it can be slid up and down the instrument to explore different tonal sweet spots along the scale.

“The pickup is no longer just a passive microphone but a creative part of your playing – all accessible through physical motion,” explains the brand. “Explore the entire scale with it and find an unheard spectrum of timbres and new playing techniques.”

Visually, the Log leans into its stripped-back aesthetic. The body is constructed from sheet metal – steel on top and stainless steel underneath – giving the instrument a distinctly industrial vibe while also making it extremely rigid. The steel top arrives in a striking Pop Lilac powder coat finish, contrasted with a raw stainless steel back.

Despite its unconventional looks, the Log sticks to a fairly traditional lap steel spec sheet. It features a 570mm (22.5″) scale length, six strings (.058–.013), and weighs around 2.3kg. The instrument works well with E or D tunings, as well as the classic A6 lap steel tuning.

The included pickup – dubbed the Magnet Mount LOG CUSTOM – is a specially designed single-coil with a slightly hotter wind than Verso’s standard models, clocking in at 7k. The pickup also features a thick steel baseplate designed to minimise magnetic interference with the fret markings and reduce body resonance and magnetic friction. Players can also opt to add a second pickup, which will then be wound as a humbucking pair.

Electronics are handled via two SMB pickup inputs and a switchable mono/stereo output, with a three-way switch allowing A, AB, or B configurations.

Up top, the headstock is made from high-density beech plywood, finished with linseed oil paint and fitted with six nickel-plated GEWA harp tuners. A tuning key is even clip-mounted inside the instrument for quick adjustments.

The Verso Log is priced at €699 and ships with an art print featuring a curated tuning chart on the back, and a foam-padded cardboard box.

Tempted? You might need to be patient. As the Log is a limited-run design by Kassel-based builder Robin Stummvoll, and due to high demand, current orders are closed – though prospective buyers can sign up to be notified when pre-orders reopen.

Learn more at Verso Instruments.

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