Music is the universal language
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The “world’s first generative AI guitar” is about to launch on Kickstarter
The world’s first generative AI guitar is here, and lets users generate original songs, play any track, and learn through guided gameplay without any prior musical training.
Made by music technology company TemPolor, which is focused on making music creation “more accessible through AI-powered instruments and interactive design”, the Melo-D guitar is its flagship product, and combines generative AI and guided play with a patented foldable design for portability.
Melo-D has a built-in 2.4-inch LCD touchscreen and functions alongside an external app. Using TemPolor’s proprietary TemPolor.AI engine, it can transform humming into guitar solos and generate complete original songs with lyrics from text inputs.
Users can also paste a song link or upload an audio file, and Melo-D will transcribe it into fingerstyle tabs or chord charts in under 60 seconds, with on-screen guidance and light-up strings to help beginners play with no music theory required. You can see how it works in the videos below:
“Our goal with Melo-D was to lower the barrier between inspiration and creation,” says Jason Jia, founder of TemPolor. “We wanted to build an instrument that feels approachable to beginners, useful to creators, and exciting from the very first interaction, whether someone is playing, learning, or generating a completely original song.”
The guitar is soon to launch on Kickstarter, and early backers will have access to a Super Early Bird price before full retail availability.
To find out more, head over to the TemPolor Kickstarter page.
The post The “world’s first generative AI guitar” is about to launch on Kickstarter appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“That was distasteful to me”: Geddy Lee confirms “many” drummers contacted him following Neil Peart’s death offering to join Rush
Following the death of Neil Peart in 2020, drummers were in a bleak ‘Rush’ to pick up the phone and ask whether the band were looking for a replacement. While Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee have since recruited Anika Nilles to fill in on drums for their comeback tour, the pair stand by the fact the “bombardment” was inappropriate.
In a new chat with Guitar World, Lee reflects on how insulting it was to receive a wave of drumming applications while still mourning his late bandmate. “There were many other drummers who reached out to me in the aftermath of Neil’s passing that were pushing themselves, and that was so distasteful to me,” he says. “It was completely inappropriate timing.”
Of course, not everyone was quick to reach out. Many amazing drummers held back, because they respected that Rush needed time to handle their grief. “People who are close to us – good friends that are successful drummers – would never [have tried to do] something like that,” Lee explains. “They have too much respect, not only for Neil and for the situation.”
“They were grieving as well, so they wouldn’t be so selfish as to say something inappropriate like that,” he adds.
Back in 2024, Lee also admitted on Strombo’s Lit that those “inappropriate” drummers got put in his “little black book” of people he didn’t want to work with in the future. “I was, like, ‘Whoa, that’s just so inappropriate right now,’” Lee said. “Dude, wait two months. At least two months.…”
Last year, the world was shocked to discover Rush would be reuniting for their massive Fifty Something tour, along with new drummer, Anika Nilles. Elsewhere in the Guitar World interview, Lee explains why Nilles was the perfect fit: “When Al and I finally said, “Okay, I guess we’re getting serious. Who’s going to sit in that impossible seat?” How do you ask someone to replace a guy who’s irreplaceable? It’s daunting… [but] she brought a lot to the table.”
“More than her chops, more than her guts and her willingness to sit in that hot seat, she brought an intelligence and a story,” he continues. “I love her story. This is someone who grew up in Germany in a family of musicians. Her dad was a drummer. She played drums her entire life. She doesn’t even remember the first time she picked up sticks. It’s who she is.”
While Peart’s family has given Nilles their blessing, Rush are also certain that she has more than proven her worth. “The fans love her right now, but they’re going to scrutinise her, and she’s up for it,” Lee says.
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Deep Purple guitarist says Smoke on the Water is a “challenging” song to play: “It is easy technically, but it’s not easy to play”
It’s bread and butter for Guitar Center goers, and the kryptonite of employees who work at those same stores. As far as all-time ubiquitous riffs go, Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water is right up there with Sweet Child O’ Mine, Seven Nation Army and Enter Sandman.
But while it may seem like one of the easier riffs you could bust out to impress – or infuriate – your fellow shoppers, Deep Purple guitarist Simon McBride says it’s actually deceptively difficult to get right.
In a new interview with the dopeYEAH talk podcast, McBride – who joined the legendary rock outfit in 2022, replacing Steve Morse – explains why Smoke on the Water isn’t quite as simple as many deem it to be.
“Generally, the most challenging ones are the simple ones, like Smoke on the Water,” he says [via Blabbermouth].
“People always say, ‘Ah, it’s easy.’ It is easy technically, but it’s not easy to play. It’s like any of this stuff. It’s the delivery, it’s the force of how you play it, it’s your timing. It’s what not to play. A lot of guitar players, when they play the riff of Smoke on the Water, they play it like a guitarist. They wanna add stuff to it. They wanna vibrato it. They wanna do this.
“But the beauty of the riff of Smoke on the Water is its simplicity… So being disciplined enough just to – don’t play anything else, just what’s there. ‘Cause when you’re standing there, and I start the riff, and then Don joins me, then Roger joins me, this explosion of power comes out, which you would not get if I was fiddling around with it, or Don was. It’s the four of us just doing this riff, and it’s like, ‘Oh, God, here we go.’”
Elsewhere in the interview, McBride reflects on how the simplicity of a lot of Deep Purple’s most timeless songs has contributed to their success.
“The thing is with the Purple stuff, it’s not overly complicated, but that’s the beauty of it, and that’s why it was so successful,” he says. “Smoke on the Water is three chords, really. And all the great songs, even Perfect Strangers, it’s two or three chords. So it is quite simple.”
Smoke on the Water remains one of the top riffs heard in Guitar Center stores, as was recently revealed by CEO Gabe Dalporto in an interview with Rolling Stone. He revealed Metallica’s Master of Puppets also gets a large degree of sonic real estate, as does Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, and even Tool’s Schism.
The post Deep Purple guitarist says Smoke on the Water is a “challenging” song to play: “It is easy technically, but it’s not easy to play” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“It was just like my security blanket” Lamb Of God’s Mark Morton on his love affair with the Les Paul
The Les Paul may as well be in Mark Morton’s DNA at this point. The guitarist is 52 years old as of 2026, and he’s spent almost 30 of those years on the frontlines of heavy metal music, first in his university band Burn the Priest and then in its Platinum-selling, five-times Grammy-nominated successor Lamb of God. And, before those outfits even kicked off, he was lugging Gibson’s flagship model around.
“My first main guitar was a Les Paul Deluxe ’75,” Morton remembers, talking to Guitar over the phone from his home near Richmond, Virginia. “It was chopped up for PAFs and refinished – just a total beater! But I played it until the frets were flat. I was playing that guitar in punk bands all around town, just kind of dragging it around on the floorboard of my truck with no case. It was just like my security blanket.”
It was the simple things that made the model so appealing to him. It was comfortable to play, it was easy to access every part of the fretboard, and he was impressed with the sustain and reactivity. Beyond that, he didn’t overintellectualise it – and he still doesn’t.
“These are all very basic things that are still paramount for me, and I think for most players,” he says. “Some guitars are a little dull and flat. I think even then, despite having an unrefined understanding of instruments, I knew when something was jumping out, versus when something was dull and flat.”
Image: Gibson
Full Circle
Even though he’s long since traded Virginia punk rock gigs for arena-size metal shows all over the world, Morton’s come full circle. He’s endorsed by Gibson after years with Jackson, and he has a new signature in the form of the Gibson Mark Morton Les Paul Modern Quilt. It’s true to his love for traditional Les Pauls: its slim taper neck helps with speed and comfort and evokes designs from the 1960s, and it uses passive pickups, as opposed to the active pickups that are a dime a dozen in the metal scene.
“I’m just a big proponent of passive pickups,” he says. “I said in an interview a while back that [Black Label Society singer/guitarist and longtime Ozzy Osbourne collaborator] Zakk Wylde is one of my favourite guitarists, and he uses active pickups, but I find passive pickups to be far more dynamic. I feel like it just allows for a more fluid voicing of the guitar than an active pickup does. When I play an active pickup, it sounds like the pickup, which is very consistent. But I always say, you could put that on a skateboard and it’s still gonna sound like that pickup.”
It’s not all old-school, though. Morton’s model is customised to the preferences and demands of a constantly on-the-road metal player. For starters, its mahogany body uses Gibson’s Ultra Modern Weight Relief.
“I’m in my 50s now and bouncing around onstage for as long as we do, it’s nice to have a guitar that’s a little bit lighter,” he explains. “But I can’t really moan when we’ve got [vocalist] Randy Blythe, who’s a year older than me, and he’s running around the stage like a lunatic and jumping off the drum riser and jumping off of amplifiers.”
Other standout features include the model’s namesake AAA quilted maple top, plus the Translucent Ebony Burst Satin finish, which makes it look sleek and suitably ‘heavy metal’ without seeming ostentatious. It has 22 medium jumbo frets to make bending easier, as well as a Modern Contoured Heel to help with upper-fretboard access.
“I find it to be pretty practical and convenient for soloing,” he explains. “It gives you easier access to the higher registers there. I can accomplish that without a heel contour, but it does make it nice and comfy. So that’s definitely one thing I do enjoy about this guitar.”
Lamb Of God. Image: Travis Shinn
Mashing Up
If it sounds as if this model is a mash-up of the traditional and the cutting-edge, then that’s good, because Mark’s playing is the same. Along with his Lamb of God cohort Willie Adler, he was one of 2000s metal’s freshest guitarists, laying down incredibly athletic leads that pushed mainstream heaviness forward. But, he’s said before that his greatest influences are actually in vintage blues.
“The cornerstone of my playing is classic rock and Southern rock and British blues and that kind of stuff,” he elaborates today. “When I’m playing for myself, that’s the kind of player I am, which is not a slight on heavy metal. I adore heavy metal, and I spend so much time playing it and writing it, and I just think it’s wonderfully expressive and dynamic and very technically challenging, but it’s not what I play when I’m in my living room. My first loves musically were the Allman Brothers and Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page.”
Morton was exposed to these artists – as well as Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Aerosmith and 70s country – through his family, hearing his parents and his older brothers play them on the radio while he was growing up in James City County, Virginia. He remembers discovering heavy metal “probably around the advent of MTV, which would have been when I was 11 or 12”. By the time he was 14, he had friends who brought Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer tapes along when they hung out at his house.
“Even in our little town, there were [metalheads],” he recalls. “MTV had much of the same effect that you’d see the internet have later, whereby it was streaming this culture into areas that maybe otherwise wouldn’t have been exposed to it. It was right there on the TV! I found out about Motörhead in James City County, Virginia because of MTV.”
Then, Burn the Priest. Randy Blythe, who joined the band a few months after their ’94 founding and remained as they transformed into Lamb of God, has spoken before about how the band’s don’t-give-a-shit attitude is what inspired him to become their frontman. He tells a great story about seeing the police crash a house party they were playing, only for the members to refuse to put their instruments down. Was it as chaotic as it sounds like it was?
“It was more chaotic than it sounds like it was,” Morton answers. “We were, in every sense of the word, a punk band. Burn the Priest started in a mouldy basement. We really had no ambition to be some worldwide touring act. That would have been laughable to us, because it seemed impossible.”
Image: Gibson
Centre Stage
Nonetheless, they pulled it off. Lamb of God released some of the essential metal songs of the 2000s, with Laid to Rest and Redneck especially becoming MTV mainstays, and time has done nothing to dull the band’s jagged edges. Their new album – Into Oblivion, which features Mark’s signature guitar and its prototypes all over the place – is another stab to the jugular, laced with venomous lyrics and hellfire riffing.
“What we went to achieve with our records has largely stayed the same for us,” says Morton. “Lamb of God have established this long and in some cases very celebrated body of work over the decades we’ve been doing this. So to make a Lamb of God record, and call it a Lamb of God record and add it to that body of work, it has to feel to us like it’s worth doing, like we have something relevant to say. The process of making a record has to feel like it’s something we deem necessary to do for ourselves, for the five of us.”
He adds that whatever happens after an album’s release is out of the band’s hands, but one part of the process that Morton’s excited for is returning to the UK’s Bloodstock festival in Catton Park, Derbyshire in August. They’ll bring their new material, and Morton’s signature, for a headline set which will mark their third time at the top of the bill there. It seems like it’s become something of a home away from home for them.
“We’ve always enjoyed that audience,” Morton agrees. “It’s a very, very solid, through-and-through, metal-oriented festival. We haven’t really gotten into the production or the setlist or anything this far out, so we’ll have to see, but we will certainly give Bloodstock our best – and we expect the same from them!”
We finish by asking if Lamb of God have anything left to achieve, after the decades of dominance and now that Morton has his own version of the guitar he hauled during his underdog punk rock days. He doesn’t know. But, the band will continue for as long as it’s fun.
“We enjoy playing music together,” he says. “We’re all really close friends and we enjoy our time together. I feel like we don’t have a lot left to prove to ourselves or to anybody else, and at this point, we just do it because we enjoy it and because it’s fun, and because we feel like we’re good at it.”
Lamb Of God headline Bloodstock on 6-9 August. Find out more at bloodstock.uk.com
The post “It was just like my security blanket” Lamb Of God’s Mark Morton on his love affair with the Les Paul appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
A Complete Amplification Environment
Babysitting a Super Model (D-28)
Most Fretboard Journal readers, whether players or collectors, have been afflicted by the incurable disease of Guitar Acquisition Syndrome (GAS). No matter how good the instruments in our possession are, we have an insatiable hunger for something better, be it a holy grail of tone, a rare combination of woods, the work of a legendary builder, or an historic instrument from a favorite brand. For many of us, certainly for me, this longing lives in the uncomfortable land between unquenchable and unaffordable.
So, how is it that a 1944 Martin D-28, a wartime wonder of perfect wood (straight-grained Brazilian rosewood and Adirondack spruce) and symphonic tone, is on a stand in my office, beckoning me to play it again?
Truth be told, it’s an instrument so far beyond my ability that it’s laughable. I literally can’t pick it without giggling.
My modest instrument collection includes a 2001 Martin 12-fret 000 and a rosewood OM I built last year in partnership with a luthier (see that story in Fretboard Journal 59). They are both lovely-sounding instruments, as fellow players and audience members regularly tell me. But compared to this D-28, they might as well be cigar box guitars.
What’s a fellow like me doing in (temporary!) possession of a guitar currently selling for more than I made in annual salary most of my 35 years working in human services?
Every February, the Fretboard Journal collaborates with the Wintergrass Music Festival to present the Vintage Instrument Tasting Workshop. This event, a highlight of the four-day festival, features some of contemporary acoustic music’s top players demonstrating guitars and mandolins from the 1840s to the 1940s, ranging from Lloyd Loar F-5 mandolins to Regals, an 1848 James Ashborn parlor guitar to, you got it, this 1944 Martin D-28.
The roster of instruments is curated by Mark Demaray and Bill Clements of the Wintergrass Board of Directors. Instruments on loan come from FJ readers, collectors and players across the country and, sometimes, from stores in Western Washington.
This particular D-28 is a loaner from Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, where it is on consignment.
Its historical significance is described on the store’s website.
“An exceedingly well-kept Wartime Martin with sparingly few repairs and a limited service history, this genuine vintage herringbone D-28 has the transitional feature set consistent with late ’44 production including tapered X-bracing on the Adirondack spruce top, ebony neck reinforcement, and one of the first ebony fingerboards on a D-28 to feature dot inlay (a shift from the notched diamond inlays seen earlier in the year).”
Wintergrass needed someone to transport the guitar from the store to the festival in time for Friday’s Tasting and return it to the store when they open on Tuesday. FJ publisher Jason Verlinde was out of town on Friday. So, I was lucky enough to be asked to play courier. As of this writing, it’s Monday. Guess what I’ve been doing all day? Hint: My callouses are worn out.
And my nerves are a little frayed. I was volunteering all weekend at the festival, and the guitar was in my house, alone, for much of that time. Sitting at Wintergrass on Saturday, it was all I could do not to imagine the break-in, the difficult phone calls to my insurance agent and to Mike & Mike’s, the shame…Why didn’t I handcuff it myself?
History aside and forgetting the fact that for an 82-year-old, this thing is in stellar condition, what does it sound like?
I expected a boomy, bass response befitting the appellation “a cannon” we often hear applied to vintage dreads. Nope. The low end is sweet and focused; the notes have a rounded bloom, like an organ’s pedal tones. There is incredible resonance and natural reverb. The trebles are the real highlight. You could chime a note, go get a kombucha from the fridge, and come back to the sweet ringing tails of tone hanging in the room like contrails from a jet. Chords sound like a choir, each note distinct but vibrating with the others. A D-28 is perhaps best known as a bluegrass guitar, so often flatpicked at 120 beats per minute or more. But played slowly, the projection and tone of this beauty really shine, making a modest rehearsal room sound like a cathedral.
Here’s a little taste of the tone. Please forgive the mediocre picking and listen to the notes bloom. Recorded sans any effects via an AT 2035 mic, through a Focusrite Scarlet into Ableton.
Like most of our readers, I love to visit guitar stores and sample the wares. I usually leave a little jealous of some box or another, but mostly happy for the guitars waiting for me at home. I could never afford this D-28 and will say goodbye to it soon. But it will forever be lodged in my memory, the supermodel that deigned to spend the weekend with me, a queen of tone whose voice I will never forget.
Watch our 2026 Wintergrass Vintage Instrument workshop (including this guitar) here.
The post Babysitting a Super Model (D-28) first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
I'm Not Mad, I'm Just Disappointed
First, the backstory: Fender recently won a significant legal victory in Germany regarding the Stratocaster body shape. The Düsseldorf Regional Court ruled that the Strat body qualifies as a copyrighted work of applied art under German and broader European law, giving Fender new leverage to pursue manufacturers selling Strat-style guitars into the European Union.
Now, Fender has sent out cease and desist letters to manufacturers who are selling Strat-style guitars in Europe.
As a fan of Fender guitars, this has been disappointing to see.
It’s hard not to think of Fender as the company that Leo Fender created 70+ years ago. However it hasn’t been that same company since the mid-60s after the sale to CBS.
For years, Gibson has largely occupied the role of "bad guy" in the guitar industry's intellectual property discussions. Gibson aggressively pursued Dean, PRS, Kiesel, and seemingly anyone else building a guitar that vaguely resembled one of its classic designs. Guitar players rolled their eyes. Builders got frustrated. Forums exploded. It often felt less like protecting intellectual property and more like trying to litigate entire categories of guitars out of existence.
Through all of that, Fender was mostly absent from the conversation.
The Stratocaster and Telecaster are probably the two most copied guitar designs in history. Entire companies were built around S-style and T-style guitars. Boutique builders refined the formula. Some of the best guitars I’ve ever owned have been refined versions of Leo’s designs. Fender, for the most part, appeared content to compete through brand strength rather than courtroom filings.
The reality is that nobody buys a Suhr, Anderson, Nash, or other boutique guitar because they think they're secretly buying a Fender. The guitar community largely understands what these instruments are. In many ways, the Stratocaster and Telecaster transcended Fender decades ago. They became foundational industrial designs for the electric guitar itself.
Which is exactly why this feels disappointing.
To be clear, Fender absolutely has a legal responsibility to protect its intellectual property. Once the German court handed Fender a favorable ruling, it would have been surprising if the company didn’t act on it. Shareholders expect companies to defend valuable IP. Executives are obligated to preserve brand equity and market position. From a corporate standpoint, Fender's actions make complete sense.
And if we're being fair, this isn't quite the same thing as some of Gibson's more questionable lawsuits. Fender's recent case involved direct copies sold through AliExpress by a Chinese manufacturer, not an established builder making a clearly differentiated instrument. Fender has also emphasized that the ruling is intended for "targeted enforcement against clear cases of infringement" rather than an attempt to eliminate healthy competition.
Still, once the legal precedent exists, it's difficult to believe the scope remains narrow forever. And, I think it’s clear that the guitar-buying community wants these options to exist.
The guitar industry has benefited enormously from the open ecosystem surrounding Fender-style instruments. As mentioned above, some of the best guitars I’ve ever played were inspired by Leo Fender's original designs while still improving upon them in meaningful ways. Different neck profiles. Better tremolos. Compound radiuses. Stainless steel frets. Modern electronics. Entire segments of the boutique guitar market exist because Fender historically tolerated a fairly broad interpretation of what constituted a Strat- or Tele-style guitar.
If Fender has their way, that’s going to change in Europe. Maybe the impact ultimately ends up being limited. Maybe this only affects blatant counterfeit-level copies. Maybe larger boutique builders adjust body contours slightly and move on without issue. Hopefully that's where things land.
But it still feels like the end of an era.
For a long time, Fender occupied a unique position in the guitar world. They were the company that invented the most copied electric guitars ever made and somehow managed to coexist with the derivatives without turning every disagreement into a courtroom battle. That restraint bought them a tremendous amount of goodwill among guitar players. And, goodwill is hard to quantify on a balance sheet.
But to disregard it completely is, I think, a mistake.
And while I understand why Fender is doing this, I also think many guitar players are going to view these recent cease and desist efforts with the same frustration that Gibson has faced for years.
Not because Fender is necessarily wrong. It's just disappointing to see them become part of the same conversation.
“My ol’ Red Special is all over it!”: Brian May has added some epic guitar solos on the new Masters Of The Universe soundtrack – and he’s not holding back
By the power of Greyskull, Brian May has the power! Thanks to the Queen legend, the soundtrack for the new He-Man movie, Masters Of The Universe, is ridiculously epic – and it features one of May’s coolest Red Special guitar solos in years.
Working with composer Daniel Pemberton, May serves up riffs for the track Eternia, named after He-Man’s home planet. Talking to The Wrap, Pemberton promised that this project had his most “maximalist score” to date, notably being even more ambitious than his work on this year’s box-office hit Project Hail Mary. And we can safely say that Eternia is a grand, triumphant track that perfectly embodies the machismo and might of the titular hero.
And it seems like May is absolutely chuffed to be working on the project. He first announced the collaboration in March, sharing the news alongside a photo of him posing with director Travis Knight, sound designer Sam Okell, Pemberton and a plethora of vintage He-Man memorabilia. “I have the POWER!!!!” he wrote. “Great joy to work tonight on the scrumptious, brand new He-Man movie.”
This isn’t the first time May has helped soundtrack a movie, having famously worked on 1980 sci-fi flick Flash Gordon. However, posing with his son Jimmy May’s collection of action figures spanning back to as early as 1968, you could argue this is the most excited he’s been about film project yet. “What fun! “ he adds. “This movie will make a lot of people smile a lot!!!”
Most notably, the collaboration sees May whipping out his iconic self-designed Red Special. “Yes – my ol’ Red Special is all over [Eternia]!!! Watch out!!!”
May’s iconic Red Special was a DIY project, pieced together between 1963 and 1965. Speaking to Premier Guitars in 2014, he noted that the project came about because he simply couldn’t afford a pricy axe from Fender or Gibson – and this homemade effort has served him very well. It boasts 27 basic tones, and features on essentially all of Queen’s discography.
When the guitarist first teased Eternia last week, he joked on Instagram, saying “Just a bit of guitar in here…” We’d certainly argue it features more than ‘a bit’ of riffage!
The film itself has been in the works since 2009, with plenty of setbacks until this year’s release, spanning from numerous script edits to directors stepping down. However, it’s finally set to hit cinemas this June, and will see the likes of Thirty Seconds To Mars’ Jared Leto taking on the role of villain Skeletor, beloved actor Idris Elba as Man-at-Arms, and Nicholas Galitzine, an actor typically known for his roles in rom-coms, starring as He-Man himself.
Masters Of The Universe is set to have an exclusive premiere today in Hollywood, before hitting cinemas 5 June across the US.
The post “My ol’ Red Special is all over it!”: Brian May has added some epic guitar solos on the new Masters Of The Universe soundtrack – and he’s not holding back appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“We did call, he just didn’t answer”: Alex Van Halen pushes back against the narrative that Michael Anthony wasn’t told he was being replaced in Van Halen
When news of Van Halen’s reformation dropped in 2006, nobody was more shocked than bassist Michael Anthony. Not only had he not been made aware of the reformation, but Eddie Van Halen’s son, Wolfgang Van Halen had taken over his bass duties. However, Alex Van Halen insists that the band did try to reach out to their former bassist – but they got ignored.
Speaking to YouTuber KazaGastão, the Van Halen drummer explains that the band tried to recruit Anthony for the band’s revival. “Just to put the record straight, we did call Mike, because we owed him that,” Alex insists. “We did call him, he just didn’t answer.”
He goes on to add that he’s “not angry” at Anthony, despite any bitterness the miscommunication might have caused. “I love Mike,” he adds. “He was important for the band too, his backing vocals. And he was my drinking buddy!”
According to Alex, the band only began considering a replacement when they heard nothing back. Famously, that’s when they took a chance on Wolfgang, who was only 15 at the time. He explains that it wasn’t a simple case of handing Eddie’s son a job just because he was “family” – Wolfgang was just really goddamn talented.
After not hearing back from Anthony, Wolfgang decided to showcase some surprising bass skills to his father and uncle. “One day Ed and I were playing [in the studio] and this bass comes in… and behind the curtain it was Wolf,” he recalls.
Elsewhere in the interview, Alex explains how “proud” he is of his nephew for following his own path. “He doesn’t want to be Ed Jr,” he explains. “He could have just continued with the Van Halen stuff, but he decided he was his own man.”
Despite the murky circumstances of Wolfgang taking over Anthony’s role in Van Halen, the former bassist holds no ill will towards Wolfgang. Speaking to Sally Steele in 2024, Anthony said that “Wolf is a great guy, great musician, and his band [Mammoth] kicks ass”. But, yeah. So at least we were able to do that.”
“We’ve always been friends,” Anthony added. “Eddie, he wanted to play with his son. The way I kind of feel is that Wolfgang probably wasn’t excited, really, about being in Van Halen. That’s why in his band, he doesn’t play any Van Halen, ’cause he wants to carve out his own niche. But just to be able to get up and play with his father, I can totally understand that.”
The post “We did call, he just didn’t answer”: Alex Van Halen pushes back against the narrative that Michael Anthony wasn’t told he was being replaced in Van Halen appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“The world doesn’t need another Tele or Strat clone – it just doesn’t”: Why Guitar Center is launching its own guitar brand that’s “meaningfully better and differentiated”
Last month, Guitar Center announced plans to launch its own in-house guitar brand – but caught flak from the guitar community for what it deemed the crowdsourcing of ideas with limited rights for those who submitted successful ones.
At its core, it seems like a worthwhile idea. “Guitars haven’t changed that much in the last 50 years, and we’re about to change that,” said CEO Gabe Dalporto, as he rationalised Guitar Center joining the likes of Thomann (with Harley Benton) in developing its own guitar brand from the ground up.
But some community members took issue with the move, with one labelling a stipulated rule for contributors to waive “moral and similar rights” to their ideas as “peak corporate cringe”.
Now, Dalporto has joined YouTuber Phillip McKnight to explain a little more about how the brand’s idea to create its own guitar brand came about.
“Our private brands team came to me and they said, ‘Hey, we’re going to launch a new guitar. It looks just like a Tele, and it’s a Tele, but it’s not called a Tele.’ I’m like, ‘Reject it. No, this is stupid,’” Dalporto recalls.
“There’s a great Tele out there. It’s made by Fender. It’s an amazing guitar. The world doesn’t need another Tele clone. And it doesn’t need another Stratocaster clone. It doesn’t need another Les Paul clone. It just doesn’t.”
Dalporto explains that while other large musical instrument retailers have their own in-house gear brands, his idea is to do something radically different with Guitar Center’s new one.
“All big companies like Guitar Center, like Thomann – they’ve got their own private brands. Sweetwater’s got a few private brands. It’s what you do, right. You create private brands.
“But all those private brands are just knockoffs of something else. And I’m like, ‘The world just doesn’t need that. We don’t need another knockoff. Why don’t we guys try to do something exceptional? And why don’t we do it out loud, in public, and start with customer feedback.”
Addressing the community backlash that occurred when Guitar Center asked its customer base for ideas, Dalporto continues: “Now, [people say] you’ll get the Homer Simpson car if you take everybody’s [opinion].
“And fine, but would you rather you don’t listen at all? And actually, every opinion that’s out there is out there from here to here, so you’re going to have to make choices. You can’t please everybody.
“There’s been some really cool ideas, and some of it is novel, some of it is like, ‘This guy in the ‘80s designed this nut and it is so amazing, and you’re like, ‘Holy shit, that is pretty cool, let’s take a look at that.’ So we’re taking information from Reddit, from Instagram, we’re getting some really legendary guitarists to come in and consult with us, we’re going to focus groups.”
Ultimately, Dalporto isn’t interested in seeing the project through unless what comes of it is meaningfully different.
“I said to our team, ‘We’re not going to build something if it isn’t awesome, and I don’t want something that looks like or feels like anything else.”
In terms of where things are in the design process, the CEO reveals the team has developed a number of prototype guitars, and is trying out different builds and pickup configurations.
“Our goal is to come up with something that doesn’t look like a Tele and a Strat that actually is reasonably priced – in the $700 to $900 range – a good solid quality guitar, not some $200 knockoff, that is meaningfully better, and differentiated. That is your workhorse guitar that you can take to any gig and travel with and is versatile – that’s what we’re going for.
And while the company is still in the relatively early design process, Dalporto reveals his team already have plans for subsequent instruments.
“We’ll probably also do a second model that is just radically out there on the technology front,” he says. “And so we’re gonna push the bounds of technology and we’re gonna push the bounds of analogue.”
You can stay up to date with the latest from Guitar Center’s project at the r/GuitarLab subreddit.
The post “The world doesn’t need another Tele or Strat clone – it just doesn’t”: Why Guitar Center is launching its own guitar brand that’s “meaningfully better and differentiated” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“The band wasn’t pulling its weight as a venture – it became a committee”: Why Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple
Sometimes, too many cooks can spoil the broth – and that’s exactly what Ritchie Blackmore felt when he left Deep Purple back in 1975. In the 51 years since his initial departure from the band, he’s thrived being the boss in his musical projects, rather than having to consult a “committee” of other musicians.
In a new interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Blackmore explains that leaving Deep Purple to pursue other projects like Rainbow and Blackmore’s Night was his way of escaping a musical “stalemate”. While Deep Purple were always busy deliberating over their art, Blackmore just wanted to get straight into the studio. “I just felt that the band wasn’t pulling [its weight] as a musical venture,” he says. “It became a committee.”
In the Deep Purple “committee”, Blackmore notes that “there were always five different answers” because “everybody was into different things”. It always delayed creativity, because the band couldn’t decide what to do. “I got a little bit tired of the committee meetings…” he explains. “I basically thought ‘I’m going to [leave], get four other musicians, [and make it so I can] just get on with playing the music.”
He goes on to explain that the band sometimes couldn’t agree on tour dates. “Our manager [would] turn around to the band and say, ‘Okay, guys, let’s work out the tour for the next year’… straight away, it was ‘Okay, what about January the 25th?’… And somebody would speak up, ‘Oh, I can’t make that, I have a wedding to attend.’”
“This went on, believe it or not, until about June or July,” he laughs. “And I’m thinking, ‘This is ridiculous…. Are we a band any more, or are we just people going on holiday and going to weddings?’”
Another key reason for leaving was to truly let his creativity shine. While the differing tastes and “committee meetings” were already a hurdle, there were some cases where Blackmore felt his talent was being muffled due to other members not believing in his work. In some cases, members even rejected his writing if it meant they wouldn’t get writing credit.
He points to a track that ended up being on Rainbow’s 1975 debut, Black Sheep of the Family. “I thought it was a great song that we should do, whereas one of the members of the band said, ‘I don’t want to do that song… We didn’t write it, so we won’t get writing credits,’” he says.
It’s a strange memory he also recalled in a chat with Guitar World last month: “A band member said, ‘If we didn’t write it there’s no point in doing it because we won’t get writing credits’. I was really disappointed in that statement.”
Eventually, Blackmore would enlist Ronnie James Dio to record the track instead – and working with Dio would change everything. “We [recorded the track] in an afternoon,” he tells Ultimate Classic Rock. “We worked so quickly together. There was no committee meetings. He wasn’t going on holiday or getting married or anything else. Finally, things seemed to be going along quite quickly… and that’s when I decided to leave Deep Purple.”
Last November, Blackmore was forced to postpone the second leg of his Blackmore’s Night tour due to medical reasons. The dates are yet to be re-scheduled, and you can find out more about the band via the Blackmore’s Night website.
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Gibson launches new 50s and 60s ES-335s – including one that should get Keith Richards fans excited
Gibson has expanded its ES lineup with two new vintage-inspired takes on its legendary semi-hollow electric: the ES-335 50s and ES-335 60s.
Handcrafted in Nashville, Tennessee, the new models aim to give players a more era-specific ES-335 experience, much like Gibson’s existing Les Paul Standard ‘50s and ‘60s guitars. While both instruments feature the classic ES-335 semi-hollow construction with three-ply maple/poplar/maple and a solid maple center block, each model leans into distinct appointments and feel from its respective decade.
The ES-335 50s arrives with a thicker Rounded C neck profile, dot inlays, a longer pickguard and a pair of Custombucker humbuckers loaded with Alnico 3 magnets. Vintage Deluxe tuners with keystone buttons plus gold Top Hat knobs with dial pointers complete the ‘50s aesthetic.
Meanwhile, the ES-335 60s opts for a faster SlimTaper neck, small block inlays, Grover-style tuners, a shorter ’60s-style pickguard and calibrated T-Type humbuckers with Alnico 5 magnets.
That ’60s-inspired spec also arrives just months after Gibson partnered with Keith Richards on a pair of ultra-limited – and ultra-premium – ES-355 Collector’s Edition models based on the Rolling Stones guitarist’s own 1960 ES-355. Richards famously used ES-355s during the recording of Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main St., as well as throughout the band’s live shows in later decades.
Elsewhere, both ES-335 models share the same core DNA including a 24.75” scale length, rosewood fingerboards with a 12” radius, ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridges and aluminium Stop Bars.
The finishes are split by era too: the ES-335 50s is available in Vintage Natural, Vintage Tobacco Burst and Ebony, while the ES-335 60s comes in Vintage Burst, Sixties Cherry and Dark Walnut.
“These new models are built for players who know exactly what they want, delivering a distinct decade-correct feel, look, and tone while preserving the unmistakable ES-335 voice that works in virtually any genre,” says Gibson.
Both guitars ship with Gibson hardshell cases and are available now for $3,499.
For more information, head to Gibson.
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Jack Osborne says the planned Ozzy Osbourne biopic will feature the fallout from Randy Rhoads’ death
Jack Osbourne has shared a fresh update on the long-awaited biopic about his father, late Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne.
Speaking during a livestream on his YouTube channel last week, Jack – who serves as one of the movie’s producers – confirmed that the script is complete and the project is now actively moving forward.
“I can tell you this: we are moving ahead,” he says [via Blabbermouth]. “I was on calls today about it. The script is right there. We are good. This movie will absolutely happen.”
While no director has yet been attached, Jack says the team is preparing to begin that process soon, though fans may still have a long wait ahead of them.
“Realistically – I mean, look, we’re already halfway through ‘26 – it probably won’t come out until ‘28,” he explains. “But you never know. But, yeah, we’re full steam ahead. We’re about to start going out and getting a director attached. So, fingers crossed. I’m really excited. It’s, yeah, very much been a labor of love, of course. But, yeah, I’m excited – I’m excited for everyone to see this film.”
Plans for an Ozzy biopic first emerged back in 2021, years before the singer’s death last July at the age of 76.
Jack had previously shed light on the film’s direction during an appearance on Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast earlier this year, revealing that the project had undergone a rewrite and narrowed its focus to Ozzy’s early solo years following his departure from Sabbath.
Asked if details of the biopic had been announced yet, Jack said: “Well, it was announced that we were doing it with Sony Pictures. We haven’t announced the cast yet, ‘cause we haven’t settled [on all of it].”
“Initially it was gonna go from kind of my dad as a young man to the kind of mid-’90s, but we’re shrinking it down,” he said. “We’re doing a rewrite right now. In my perfect vision of it, it would be kind of the tail end of Sabbath, him going solo. [Because] you gotta have the love story. And that’s kind of the main focus of the film, and all the craziness that happened in the early ‘80s and Randy’s [Rhoads, late Ozzy guitarist] tragic death. But, yeah, it’s an origin story.”
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“When you go to this land, you understand Led Zeppelin in a way that goes deeper”: Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien on why moving to Wales reframed his love of the iconic rock band
![Ed O'Brien on stage [main]. Archival photo of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page [inset].](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/ed-o-brien-led-zeppelin@2000x1500.jpg)
Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien has been talking of his move to Wales, where he now spends his time close to the cottage where Led Zeppelin have written many of their songs, especially those for Led Zeppelin III.
Writing for the 1970 album took place in Bron-Yr-Aur cottage in Wales between Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, and its remote setting and lack of power made for the perfect, inspiring retreat. O’Brien feels his move to Wales has made his connection to the band even stronger, and he feels he now understands them in a “deeper” way.
Speaking to Prog Magazine, O’Brien says, “When you go to this land, you understand Led Zeppelin in a way that goes deeper. When you hear The Battle Of Evermore – man, it’s like being on the top of fucking Plynlimon, the highest point in mid-Wales, and you feel it. And it’s so in this land, this land of poets, this land of mystery, this land of spirit.
“If you’re sensitive to this stuff – and, as musicians, we tend to be sensitive souls – you feel it. And that’s why I’ve been drawn to Wales. That’s why I love Wales. That’s why Wales is my home,” he explains.
Ed O’Brien has also been reflecting on Radiohead’s career. In a recent Uncut interview, he was asked about the moment in his career when he felt Radiohead had created something completely artistically new, “I think The Bends, really,” he replied.
“You could feel the influences on the sleeve of Pablo Honey, but The Bends was pretty diverse. If you think about the way that that album bookends, it starts with Planet Telex and ends with Street Spirit. Two quite different songs – the power and the sonic playfulness of one, and then the emotion of the other.
“We knew there were flaws with the first album, and it was propped up massively by Creep. If Creep hadn’t been as big as it was, there’s a very good chance we may never have made another record, because the record company would have dropped us,” he admitted.
Ed O’Brien is releasing his second solo album, Blue Morpho, on 22 May.
The post “When you go to this land, you understand Led Zeppelin in a way that goes deeper”: Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien on why moving to Wales reframed his love of the iconic rock band appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Teaching Machines FuzzBillion review: is this the most ambitious and unique dirt pedal ever made?
£435, teachingmachines.co.uk
It’s easy to look at the world of guitar effects these days and wonder if we’ve reached a point where all the innovation has started to dry up. It feels like not that long ago every month seemingly saw a new and wildly inventive new pedal arrive, often out of nowhere, that instantly inspired people to make new music and approach their instrument differently.
Those ‘wow’ moments seem to come along less frequently nowadays, and that’s only natural. Like iPhones or the mechanical wristwatch, guitar pedals have reached a “mature technology” stage where most of the big breakthroughs have happened. We’re probably past ‘peak pedal’ now – as this very website opined a few years back – and while that doesn’t preclude people making interesting new pedals, they’re going to be mainly iterating on what already exists.
It does, however, make it all the more exciting and interesting when something comes along that does surprise you, and that does approach things in a way that you haven’t seen before. Allow me to introduce the Teaching Machines FuzzBillion.
Image: Adam Gasson
Teaching Machines FuzzBillion: what is it?
Teaching Machines is the brainchild of Frank Naughton and Mat Wigley, two friends and musicians who decided to work together to craft unique musical devices from their home city of Cardiff, Wales. The brand’s first product, the Wellspring – a rackmount analogue stereo spring reverb with a huge amount of unconventional tweakability and functionality – showed that this two-man operation was not short of ambition or inventiveness.
The FuzzBillion is their first foray into floor-based guitar pedals, and while it looks like the sort of thing you’d use to input the nuclear codes or do some Cold War code-breaking (or in guitar terms, a Lovetone pedal from the 90s), it is in fact a totally unique and totally analogue dirt pedal.
On the top of the pedal you’ll find 11 rotary switches that are numbered from 0-9. Each of these rotaries controls various types of diodes and amplification devices from Germanium to Silicon and light-emitting diodes.
The numbers determine the intensity or type of the effect on offer, and each of these different stages then feeds into the next one using analogue technical wizardry. Effectively, it’s as if someone took apart a whole bucket load of fuzz pedals and reattached their components to a code generator wheel.
The result is, the brand claims, quite literally billions of possible permutations and combinations. I’ve not done the maths on this myself, but safe to say, there’s a lot going on here than your standard three-knob fuzz pedal…
Image: Adam Gasson
Teaching Machines FuzzBillion: build quality and usability
I said that this thing looks like something you’d use to input the nuclear codes into, and that’s reflected in the overall build quality. With its rugged steel chassis, old-school plastic switches to control the rotaries, plus a big metal knob and footswitch, this certainly feels like something that’ll come through armageddon unscathed alongside Keith Richards and the cockroaches.
In case you were wondering, by the way, the ‘Wedi gwneud yng Nghymru’ you can see stamped on the case in our photographs isn’t more code that needs cracking, it’s simply Welsh for ‘Made in Wales’.
In terms of size, it’s not exactly pedalboard-friendly, and it’s not lightweight either. But given the way this pedal operates, you imagine it’s envisioned more as a studio tool anyway, so maybe that doesn’t matter.
Image: Adam Gasson
The operation is both incredibly simple and deathly complicated. To make a sound, simply pick an 11-digit number, plug it into the rotary controls on the FuzzBillion and see what happens.
Now, if you’re feeling a little scared by all that open pasture ahead of you, don’t fret – Teaching Machines isn’t sending you into this blind. There’s a cheat sheet included in the box that explains exactly what each rotary control does, and the manual itself features a really in-depth but accessible guide to each one that features loads of example settings to try out – both for guitar, but also bass and synth too.
There’s also a good portion of the manual given over to providing space to log your favourite combinations – a handy little table that has space to put in 112 different presets with room for both the number and a brief description.
And you’ll need to get your pen and paper out, because this is an all-analogue thing, and that means no onboard presets, no MIDI and no way to save or recall anything other than the old-school method.
I do appreciate this commitment to the all-analogue form on some level, but it does definitely limit the FuzzBillion’s potential as a live tool to not have any way to quickly store and recall presets. I can’t imagine your bandmates having much sympathy for you stopping the gig between songs so you can input a credit card-length number into what is effectively an 11-barrel combination lock.
The act of putting those numbers in, however, is a big part of the FuzzBillion’s appeal – the tactile nature of it, the way the numbers thunk so satisfyingly as you input your chosen number… it’s a pedal that’s clearly designed to make you take a beat and enjoy the experience of tone exploration.
One slight drawback to this was the incongruous way the + and – controls are laid out – so that you have to press the switches on the bottom to increase the number, and the ones on top to go down.
No matter how long I spent with this pedal, I never once managed to adjust my brain to this upside-down configuration, and I hope future units turn them the other way. That doesn’t take away from the fact that using it is a hugely fun, unique experience that is unlike any other pedal.
Image: Adam Gasson
Teaching Machines FuzzBillion: build quality and usability
A billion sounds then, but are they any good? Well, I decide the best thing to do is plug the FuzzBillion into a P-90 loaded Goldtop and clean Princeton Reverb, and have at it.
As you might well expect, all the main fuzzy food groups are covered here, and then some. From thick and sustaining Gilmour-esque leads, to Faces, Muffs, and Benders, and Velcro-ripping zonky splutters – I struggled to find a single fuzz sound it couldn’t do with absolute conviction.
But despite the name, this isn’t all about fuzz, and by delving deeper into the permutations and what they mean, you can quickly summon every other strand of the dirty dimension.
Awesome boosts and overdrive sounds? check! Distortion, yep tons of it. Hendrixian Octavia? Yes indeed! The best bass fuzz we’ve ever heard? Yep. Even when adding texture to synths or drum machines in the studio, the FuzzBillion, excels with gorgeous sonic authenticity and an innate ability to encourage further tweaking in search of new sonic horizons.
Personal sonic highlights include some simple op-amp boosts that offered gorgeous interactivity with the guitar’s volume control, a mismatched transistor fuzz, and hours of fun making spaceship noises with the theremin-ish Phase-locked Loop rotary (nope, I don’t know what that is either), desperately trying to follow the pitch of my notes. The sounds here are truly inspiring.
Image: Adam Gasson
Teaching Machines FuzzBillion: should I buy one?
In a world of instant patch recall, deep-dive sub menus, amp capture and IR rig modelling, it’s refreshing and enlightening to realise your time investment experimenting with the FuzzBillion will not only be some of the most fun you’ve had with your instrument, but you’ll also develop a deeper understanding of how your dirt sounds are created and how components work together to shape that tone.
There’s no doubt that a lack of presets and MIDI control is going to limit its live utility, but studio musicians will rejoice at the transformer-isolated switchable line-level ins and outs, allowing the FuzzBillion to add its dirt to everything from synths to samples.
Teaching Machines describes the FuzzBillions as the “last distortion pedal you ever need” and while all us pedal obsessives know that’s a fanciful idea no matter how good something is, it’s rare to find one pedal that covers so many bases in such a comprehensive way – while also adding some new points on the map that you’ve never heard before. It’s not cheap, but the unique things rarely are.
Image: Adam Gasson
Teaching Machines FuzzBillion: alternatives
It won’t surprise you to learn that there are not many all-analogue dirt pedals that promise a billion sonic combinations on the market – in that regard, and in the way you use it, it’s certainly unique. However, if gain experimentation and versatility is what you’re after, then Chase Bliss’s Preamp MKII covers a huge array of Boost, Drive and Fuzz textures – you’ll have to find one on the used market though as it’s out of production. At the fuzzy end of the spectrum, the Clusterfuzz ($219) by FunctionFX has a number of different clipping options and filters in a compact package.
The post Teaching Machines FuzzBillion review: is this the most ambitious and unique dirt pedal ever made? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Two Minute Tech: The Action Control Neck
REVIEW: Charvel Jake E Lee Signature Pro-Mod San-Dimas Style-1 Blue Burst
It was so great to see Jake E Lee receive his flowers at Ozzy Osbourne’s Back To The Beginning show last year. Jake has always been one of the greats but has never really chased the spotlight or acclaim that is owed to him. But on that day, Nuno Bettencourt led the crowd in welcoming this guitar hero with the thunderous applause that he deserves. It was fricken great.
Charvel has recognised Jake’s influence for a few years now with an official signature model but now there’s a new entry to the Jake Charvel canon in the form of this beautiful blueburst beauty based on a classic guitar from Jake’s past. That guitar was a Fender Stratocaster modified by Grover Jackson in 1985 and you can see Grover being reunited with it here:
The body of the Pro-Mod signature guitar is made of Alder (the custom shop version is Poplar) with a gorgeously subtle blue burst finish which you might not even quite make out as a burst in certain light. It has a hardtail bridge like the original. Although the USA Custom Shop version has a matching blue headstock, the Pro-Mod has an unpainted one, highlighted by fancy-lookin’ pearl-button tuners.
The neck is Maple with a Rosewood fingerboard, 12-16” compound radius, Jumbo frets and rolled fingerboard edges with a hand-rubbed Satin Urethane finish on the back. Scale length is 25.5” and there are 22 frets to get your noodle on with.
Oh and the truss rod adjustment is at the base of the neck, which is such a perfect, unobtrusive system that I’m always glad to see on my tech bench. No truss rod cover screws to lose, no taking the neck off, and it just looks more elegant than a headstock-mounted truss rod nut.
The electronics are rather fun. We have the mighty Seymour Duncan TB-4 JB Model in the bridge position and a pair of slanted Dimarzio SDS-1 single coils in the middle and neck slots, with just a volume control and a 5-way pickup selector switch.
Custom switching gives us the following options: Position 1. Bridge Pickup, Position 2. Bridge Outer Coil and Middle Pickup, Position 3. Middle Pickup, Position 4. Middle and Neck Pickup, Position 5. Neck Pickup. I like that the humbucker splits to one coil in the second position. It’s kinda beautiful seeing Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio living together in harmony, y’know? West Coast and East Coast coming together in the name of tone. Yay guitars.
The JB is of course Seymour Duncan’s flagship humbucker and it’s been a part of some of the greatest guitar tones in history. The magic of the JB lays in its ability to sit perfectly in a band mix. It can sound a little boxy and weird on its own so a lot of players don’t quite get what the fuss is about when they first play one in a store or something. But get it into a band situation or even just playing along to music at home and you’ll hear exactly what’s made it so revered for so long.
As for the DiMarzio SDS-1, this is no standard single coil. Jake needs something that can keep up with the JB, and that’s no easy feat for a traditional single coil pickup. But the SDS-1 is voiced like a P-90 Soapbar, and its adjustable pole pieces don’t pull has hard as regular rod magnets, meaning you can raise these pickups closer to the strings for higher output.
DiMarzio also voices these pickups with smoother treble and fuller low end, both of which help them sit nicely with the JB. And the combined JB/SDS-1 setting in that second position is pretty damn girthy.
The neck is very playable. I’m someone who likes to get stupidly fast on occasion and I certainly don’t feel restrained on this neck. The frets are nice and chunky, bends can get utterly ridiculous and the rolled fingerboard edges are a pleasure to play. I found myself meandering around the neck just enjoying the ability to effortlessly slide between positions.
We had this guitar in stock at the shop I work at recently but it just sold. To be totally honest, this model feels like such a perfect fit for me and my playing style and tonal preferences that I’m sad it’s gone, even though the buyer is a great guy who will give the guitar a loving home. It’s certainly on my wish list. You’ve gotta try one if you get the chance.
The post REVIEW: Charvel Jake E Lee Signature Pro-Mod San-Dimas Style-1 Blue Burst appeared first on I Heart Guitar.
The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 165
It’s episode 165 of the Truth About Vintage Amps podcast!
Thank our sponsors: Grez Guitars; Emerald City Guitars; and Amplified Parts / Mod Electronics.
Some of the topics discussed this week:
00 Jason and Nigel
6:26 Our sponsors!
10:42 A letter, two beers, some washers, and a crossroads: Follow Joe here and on Instagram
17:10 1967 Fender Princeton Reverb project with a replaced power transformer; a shorted reverb transformer
31:36 A baffler: Two kinds of hum
36:16 What are “getter” and “wings”? The Barkely Marathon (Wikipedia)
40:31 Has anyone put the tweed Princeton tone circuit in a guitar? swaddled meat is tender meat, cast iron
44:15 A Fender Super Reverb that kept blowing fuses; the 1972 Sacramento Farrell’s Ice Cream parlor plane disaster (Wikipedia)
53:33 Federico’s pizza dough recipe on the TAVA Patreon; the Tone Quest Report; Tin Can Valley Letterpress
55:08 Replacing the foam gasket on my Traynor YGM-3 reverb’s tank; Vacaville’s Pacific Hardware
1:00:04 Rickenbacker M-11 thoughts; King Sunny Ade
1:04:51 What’s on Skip’s bench: Slim Dossey’s Tweed Bassman and another Bassman
1:08:59 Skip’s potential barn sale ponderings
1:12:29 Once an amp has replaced caps, do you still need a Variac? rice balls
1:15:28 Skip still needs a wooden Epiphone Electar Zephyr schematic (all-octal tube with vibrato) schematic!
1:17:01 1964 Fender Princeton 6G2 with non-working trem
1:20:16 Adding a stereo headphone jack to a Princeton clone
1:24:04 Jenson transformer website schematics (link)
1:27:38 What should I do with this untouched 1976 45-watt Fender Pro Reverb?; cornbread
Above: Listener Matthew’s Rickenbacker M-11.
Want amp tech Skip Simmons’ advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Want to share your top secret family recipe? Need relationship advice? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com! Include a photo, too.
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Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal.
The post The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 165 first appeared on Fretboard Journal.
Exploring Open-String Voicings
When you hear songs played on guitar, it’s common to hear familiar chords that use open strings: D, C, G, Am, etc. These can make for some beautiful music, but at some point there might be an interest to explore more of what’s possible. One way is to include open strings for new ways to play voicings with close intervals, and also expand the possibilities of the fretboard.
I started to get interested in chords with open strings around the late ’90s. I think I came across the idea from an Eric Johnson video when he mentions “a real pretty Wes chord” (which you can find in Ex. 6). It wasn’t until much later, though, that I started to really explore them. I remember being intrigued by some of the things that were possible when an open string (or two or three) was included in a chord, and how the sound/timbre of the voicing changed when mixed with the fretted notes.
I’d like to start by showing two close voicings I came across (which are not otherwise possible without including an open string) and explain the process I worked through to find them.
I’ve always loved the sound of harmony moving in thirds, so for these examples I’ll be exploring B major sounds and G major sounds focused around the root, 3, 5, 7, 9, and #11.
Ex. 1
Here’s where I eventually ended up: a chord containing the root, 3rd, 7th, 9th, and #11 with two whole steps on the bottom. On a piano, this wouldn’t be too challenging, and normally on guitar, it wouldn’t be possible. But with the addition of the open string we are able to easily get to it.
Something that I find somewhat challenging about these voicings is that the lowest sounding note is not always on the lowest string of the voicing—it might be somewhere in the middle. So when I work on new voicings, I’ll try to play through them one note at a time from lowest note to highest note, then highest to lowest—I think it helps my ears connect with what my eyes are seeing.
Ex. 2
When I started exploring the idea of major 7th chords with open strings, I probably started with something like this: 3rd, 7th, and an open string as root. (You could also start with the 3rd or 7th as an open string, depending on the key.) In this range, we have a familiar fretted interval—a 5th—with an open string a half-step above the 7th.
Ex. 3
After working on the open-string idea for a while, the term “zones” kept coming back to me. Playing in “positions” on the guitar is pretty common, but that has more to do with giving each finger a specific fret. I think the term “zones” leaves a little more interpretation as to what’s possible in each place on the neck. For instance, in this example, there are five “zones” that give us all the possible ways to play these two fretted notes with the open B, and each one of them offers a slightly different area, sound, and range on the fretboard. These will be the shapes we start with as we work through some of the possibilities of each one. Work through Examples 3a through 3e to hear some of the different colors. Even though the last voicing has the 7th an octave higher, it seemed too good not to share here.
Ex. 4
Similar to Ex. 3, these are the possibilities for B, F#, and open G—shapes to build from as we explore these zones.
Ex. 4a gives us a usable range of F# or G in the low end up to an A (the 9th) on the high E string.
The zone for Ex. 4b offers the possibility of adding a note on the 5th string, since the B and F# are on non-adjacent strings. The second voicing also might look familiar as a Bm triad (on the bottom three strings), and the third voicing also allows us to play that same voicing, but with two open strings.
Ex. 4c gives us access to the highest range—reaching up to a high D on some of the voicings here.
Eventually, as I kept exploring, I came across the two chords from Ex. 1 by moving Ex. 3a up an octave and adding the 9th, which gives us Ex. 5. An important idea with this voicing is that with the fretted notes in the lower octave, an open string would create an interval of a half-step, but by moving the fretted notes up an octave, that same open string would then create an interval of a major seventh.
Ex. 6 (Eric Johnson’s “Wes chord”...)
I hope you found something interesting here, or maybe are able to come away with a new voicing you haven’t seen or thought of before. I always try to remember that it’s not so much about how many voicings one knows—it seems more about knowing one or two that you can really use and that can become part of your playing.
If you’d like to dive a little deeper into things like this, I’ve got a Patreon page dedicated to it: https://www.patreon.com/ryanferreira.
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