Norse Guitar Feeds

We’re all aware of Schrödinger’s Cat – the notion that, within the confines of a closed box, a cat is simultaneously both alive and dead in the limbo before you actually check. However, if you were to apply the same thought experiment to, say, an airline handling your guitar, Schrödinger’s theory doesn’t apply. Because artists often know whether their guitar has been bashed around by airport handlers even before cracking open their case.

In fact, sometimes even the case is a casualty. That was unfortunately the case for digital creator Titus Tucker, one of the most recent guitarists to face a devastating loss at high altitude. After flying with American Airlines, Tucker shared a video accusing the airline of damaging his guitar – and we use the term ‘damaging’ very lightly.

• READ MORE: “I’m totally a guitar guy” the OG Red Wiggle Murray Cook on Spinal Tap moments, 40s Martins and embracing his blues-rock soul

For those easily disturbed, look away now… but the condition of Tucker’s guitar is ghastly. As Tucker explains that it’s a new guitar in a brand new case, the pile of wood and strings on the floor is almost unrecognisable as an instrument. Honestly, it’s cartoonishly destroyed – as if handlers dropped the case down a flight of stairs, reversed over it with a lorry, and finally placed grenade placed inside before loading it onto the plane.

View this post on Instagram

This isn’t just exclusive to American Airlines, either. Just yesterday, Nashville artist Ella Hennessee shared her experience with United Airlines, accusing the airline of mishandling her childhood guitar. “I didn’t don’t y’all dropped luggage 25,000 ft apparently,” she jokes in a clip as she inspects cracks down the side of her guitar.

View this post on Instagram

Of course, United Airlines have faced quite a bit of bad press in the past surrounding the way it treats instruments. In 2009, Canadian musician Dave Carroll dropped the ultimate United Airlines diss track, United Breaks Guitars, after the airline refused to front the cost of his $3,000 guitar broken in transit. In the end, the airline ended up paying far more than $3,000 – because the protest track had such an impact that the airline’s stocks dropped by $180 million in a single day.

Elsewhere, Southwest Airlines also received bad press last year for mishandling Emily Wolfe’s guitar. The blues rocker accused the airling of breaking her signature Epiphone White Wolfe, resulting in a snapped headstock.

Wolfe’s experience saw her filing a report, only for the airline to wipe its hands clean due to instruments being classed as “fragile items” – essentially meaning that the company considers it the owner’s responsibility if a guitar breaks in transit.

“If airlines can damage professional-grade instruments, charge us extra to check them, and then refuse to take responsibility, it puts every traveling musician at risk,” Wolfe wrote on her Instagram post. “This is not just about one guitar. It is about protecting the tools of our craft.”

View this post on Instagram

The entire debacle raises a very worrying concern – if your guitar gets damaged mid-tour, it’s just an extra cost on top of the ever-hiking cost of touring. Artist Devin Townsend has even admitted he cuts costs by travelling with just an acoustic guitar as it’s cheaper than lugging around more gear… if his sole acoustic broke, what then?

With airlines attempting to pass the blame on to the individual and refusing to pay out, travelling puts artists in an incredible vulnerable position. It sadly seems we’ve made little progress since 2009’s United Breaks Guitars, but hopefully more artists sharing their experiences online will pressure airlines to take more accountability for any damage that happens on flights.

The post “They dragged it out like a dead body”: Musician fumes at American Airlines after guitar destroyed beyond recognition appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

In many cases, a closing track is usually a sign that a record is nearing its end… unless you’re Slipknot, that is. On their 2001 release, Iowa, the masked metal unit saved their longest, most evil cut for last, serving up a title-track that sunk listeners into a twisted 15-minute-long finale straight from hell.

Sonically and lyrically sinister, the track explores the mania one might feel after being locked alone with a corpse for far too long. And, keen to authentically embody that madness, frontman Corey Taylor infamously did all he could to get into a dark headspace. We’re talking drugs, nudity and rolling around with shards of glass.

• READ MORE: “I’m totally a guitar guy” the OG Red Wiggle Murray Cook on Spinal Tap moments, 40s Martins and embracing his blues-rock soul

As producer Ross Robinson explains in the latest issue of Metal Hammer, the foundation of the Iowa record was set after a drug-addled jam session. “[The band] pounded a bottle [of NyQuil] and we went into this room… that’s supposed to be haunted, all mouldy and shitty…,” he recalls. “They started jamming and there was this vibe and presence that was the foundation for the whole album.”

“I remember he did that on vocal overdubs… he had to strip his soul all the way,” he notes.

Of course, Taylor did take the notion of “stripping his soul” away a little bit literally. “I do remember seeing him naked a lot,” Robinson admits. But, as he puts it, the nudity felt like it was just a by-product of all the carnal, twisted themes the record was exploring. “We’d get all woo-woo around the lyrics, go deep into the meaning and the tone of everything, so I’d have chills by the time I hit record,” he says.

Over the years, Taylor has explained the meaning of Slipknot’s most macabre nu-metal magnum opus. In 2012, the frontman explained his “thought process” behind Iowa during a fan Q&A: “Oh boy… as I’ve said before, I am a little unbalanced, to put it lightly. I can [mentally] put myself in several very strange situations… But Iowa was really the chance to take it even further. Basically, Iowa is about spending time with a corpse… Don’t judge me! And I’m just doing… beautiful, fucked up things to it…”

“I was a little fucked up when I recorded it, stripped naked… I wish you could have seen Clown’s face,” he continued. “He was in the fucking control room, and there’s this little window… I just start taking [my clothes] off… It was almost like method [acting] at that point. I wanted to go so fucking deep into it… [After I’d finished], Clown looks me right in the fucking face and he just goes, ‘Taylor, what the fuck is wrong with you?’”

The post “I do remember seeing Corey naked a lot”: Producer recalls carnage making Slipknot’s legendary sophomore album, Iowa appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Eddie Van Halen’s famous tapping technique was created because he felt like he needed “an extra finger” for guitar solos.

In an unearthed interview with Eddie, he shows how he decided to incorporate two hands into his soloing as he felt he could only go so far by using just one. The technique is the most recognised associated aspect of his approach to guitar, although many artists over the years have disputed that he was the original inventor.

• READ MORE: Joe Satriani recalls David Lee Roth’s “crazy” attempt to recruit him for a Van Halen cover band in the ‘90s: “I said, ‘But Dave, Ed’s still alive!’”

In the short archival clip, recently shared to YouTube by Hair Metal Revolution, Eddie explains, “I got the idea [because] I wanted another finger, you can only go so far [with one hand]. So I figured if I use this hand, you get more fingers.”

Watch below:

In other Van Halen news, Eddie’s former bandmate Sammy Hagar argued that Eddie “saved guitar players”, and was, in his view, a “music god” whose talents extended far beyond his instrument.

He told Guitar Player, “I can’t imagine where guitar players would be without Eddie. He just took a fuckin’ hard left, man, and we’re going to outer space. There were great guitar players before him: Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, David Gilmour, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix.

“I mean, Hendrix kind of did the same thing – he got that whammy bar in there and changed everything. But Eddie took the whammy bar and the hammer and the frickin’ tapping.”

Van Halen fans are also patiently awaiting more news on a forthcoming album from Alex Van Halen, who is reworking some old Van Halen demos in order to release them. Details are still scarce, but Steve Lukather is assisting with project.

Despite initial rumours, Lukather has strongly denied any guitar playing on the project, and has stated that he is acting as a co-producer instead. Every riff on the record was recorded by Eddie, and Lukather has called them “jaw-dropping”.

The post “I needed another finger”: Eddie Van Halen explains why he developed his two-handed tapping technique appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Billy Duffy believes some of his best guitar work within The Cult’s discography ended up being under-appreciated due to tensions among the band and creative differences.

Looking back on the early 1990s, when The Cult released their fifth studio album Ceremony, Duffy recalls achieving some of his favourite guitar sounds, but felt they were unable to find the right producer to deliver the album as intended. Different sonic desires with bandmate Ian Astbury also created an unsettled creative environment, leading to a “necessary” hiatus in 1995.

• READ MORE: “Get a good amp or you’re always going to sound s**tty!”: Billy Duffy on why it’s more important to have a good amp than a good guitar

Speaking to Guitarist, Duffy reflects on the era of Ceremony: “Ian wanted to go in a different direction. I was a bit more conservative and was like, ‘We’ve just had a multi- platinum record. Why would we depart from that?’ But he wanted to change it up and do something looser and more shambolic, like Keith Richards’ band the X-Pensive Winos,” he says.

“I remember being resistant, so we kind of compromised. Bob Rock was gonna do Ceremony, but he said, ‘Well, I’ve got Metallica. That’s only gonna take a couple of months…’ 13 months later he finished the Metallica record and in the meantime we had to find another producer.

“13 months later he finished the Metallica record and in the meantime we had to find another producer. It was just never right. It was okay, but it didn’t really capture what we wanted to do. It’s sad because the guitar sounds [of that era] are probably the best I ever got,” he adds.

Later asked how he hopes to be remembered as a guitarist, Duffy goes on to name three other albums from The Cult that also show some of his best work.

“I think what I did on Electric, Love and Sonic Temple was interesting. Me taking a Gretsch and putting two overdrives and a wah there, it took Gretsches into another area. I just thought it was kind of cool to try to make this acidy, psychedelic kind of post-punk music – but with a big, solid, chunky rock sound in its foundation.”

He later concludes, “I just think I’d like to be remembered as a guy who kept the values of the 70s – you know, the good stuff – alive. I helped keep the spirit of Free, Bad Company, Mott The Hoople, Zeppelin, Iggy Pop, Sex Pistols, Sabbath and all that stuff alive. I just wanted to keep the essence of proper rock alive.”

The post Billy Duffy reveals his favourite era of the Cult: “The guitar sounds are probably the best I ever got” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$199/£149, orangeamps.com

Whatever you might think of Ed Sheeran’s music – and the comments on our Instagram posts would imply that certain sections of the Guitar.com community are not exactly overwhelming in their affection for the ginger prince – you can’t deny that he’s a bona fide guitar guy.

• READ MORE: Martin 000-10E Retro review: “it authentically distils everything that’s great about 000 guitars”

This is an artist who has taken the ‘singer with an acoustic and a loop pedal’ concept and turned that into sitting just behind Beyoncé in the all-time album sales chart, while also being the third biggest-grossing touring act of the 21st century.

He’s also a guy who loves guitars so much he started his own guitar brand, Sheeran by Lowden, in 2019. The sense that Sheeran really cares about this stuff has only been enhanced by him adding his own looper brand to the stable a few years later, not to mention a PRS signature baritone.

The missing piece of the puzzle then was an amp. For someone who cut his teeth busking, the ability to amplify what he was doing with that loop pedal must have been so important, and so it’s a surprise it’s taken this long to arrive… but the real surprise is that he’s done it with Orange.

Because while literally nobody with ears can deny that Orange make superlative guitar amps for almost any style and budget, one thing the British brand hasn’t got any pedigree for – unlike the likes of Marshall, Fender, Laney etc – is making amps for acoustic guitars.

All of which makes the Outlowd – a series of three amps with the same fundamental DNA but different use cases – one of the most interesting and important new amp launches of the year. The less said about the name, the better, though.

Orange Outlowd ES3 – what is it?

The ES3 is the smallest Outlowd in the range, and it has a narrower remit than the bigger brothers in the family. Whereas the 100 and 60-watt versions are two-channel guitar and vocal amplifiers with a variety of inputs and outputs to make it at home as both stage monitor and performing tool, the ES3 keeps things simple. This is a three-watt hybrid acoustic amplifier and Bluetooth speaker, and that’s it.

Simplicity is the order of the day when it comes to this amp, and let’s face it, Orange in general – if you’ve ever found yourself struggling to get to grips with the functionality of one of the brand’s creations, that’s probably a you issue.

In keeping with that, then, the ES3 keeps things incredibly straightforward on the control side of things with knobs for just volume, tone and spring reverb, plus a button to activate Bluetooth pairing. That’s it!

Orange Outlowd ES3 – build quality and usability

If there’s one thing that Orange amps tend to have in common, beyond the colourful tolex of course, it’s that they are built in a manner that leads you to believe that should armageddon make its long overdue appearance, you could shelter from a nuclear firestorm behind one and come away with nothing more worrisome than a light sun tan.

The ES3 absolutely fits into that lineage, with its angled wooden cabinet not just expertly covered, but feeling incredibly rugged and well-built. It’s the sort of unfussily excellent build quality that leads you to wonder just how tall a building you could launch this thing off and still get a sound out of it.

You probably shouldn’t do that, however, because as with so many Orange amps, that reassuringly robust build comes at a cost. Despite being smaller than a six-pack, this thing tips the scales at a hefty 1.4kg (3.1lbs) – thank goodness for that soft and generous leather carry handle, eh?

As mentioned, the amp is intentionally stripped back and simple; you have just one input for your guitar, mini-rotary controls for volume, tone and the level of onboard reverb, and then a shiny silver button that you use to pair it to your phone for audio purposes.

Now, remember a few paragraphs ago when I said that anyone who struggled to get to grips with an Orange amp’s functionality was probably the one with the problem? Well, I’m going to tell on myself here and say that for a good 30 seconds after sliding the ES3 out of its lovely plush box, I pawed at the silver Bluetooth pairing button wondering why the amp wasn’t turning on and wondering if it was out of battery.

If you look closely, you’ll see that the power is actually activated by a notched switch on the volume pot – this is probably crushingly obvious to you, but for the sake of fellow morons like myself, I thought this was worth mentioning.

Orange’s ‘pics only’ approach to control labelling is in full effect here, and while anyone with eyes can see that it looks way cooler than boring old text, maybe it does have a drawback. There is perhaps an argument that given the ES3’s target audience of relative newcomers to the guitar amp world, it’s not exactly intuitive to have things like ‘reverb’ and ‘tone’ represented with what are effectively cool squiggles. Obviously, it’s very easy to work out what these things do in short order, but it does add a bit of friction for new users.

Otherwise, it really does feel every bit a very professional bit of kit, despite its size and price. The chunky rubber feet on the bottom make it stable and secure, the metal and fabric grille cloth means you can chuck it in a bag or case without worrying about the speaker being damaged – it’s rock solid.

Orange Outlowd ES3 – sounds

The elephant in the room with a tiny acoustic amp like this is well… does this really need to exist? An acoustic guitar, by its very nature, is pretty good at amplifying itself, after all… most acoustic players I know have amps primarily for live use where they also double as vocal amplification.

The ES3’s size and functionality obviously make it not best suited to all but the smallest performance settings, so what does it actually offer? Well, for starters we have to consider the cast of characters involved here.

Ed Sheeran is, of course, a musician for whom a dry acoustic guitar signal is very rarely the vehicle for his artistry, and you don’t have to go to many open-mics, cafe shows and other scenarios to see that effects are becoming increasingly common aspects of acoustic guitar musicianship.

With that in mind, having a small and portable amp that you can use to either practice at home with your full rig, or to add some effected sound for busking or smaller gigs has real utility.

Then there’s the fact that Orange amp design guru Adrian Emsley is a bona fide mutton-chopped amp design genius – one of the very few left in a world that seems to be moving away from the magic of real amps.

While most modern digital practice amps will have an acoustic mode that effectively offers a flat response akin to a portable PA, plugging a Martin 000 into the ES3 is a reminder of how different the experience is when you have someone who knows what they’re doing tuning every aspect of the amp to enhance and accentuate the sound of an acoustic guitar.

The four-inch speaker sounds full, rich and dynamic, accentuating the overall sound of the acoustic in the room rather than outright replacing it. With the tone control in the middle of its travel, you get a tone that has surprisingly punchy and enjoyable mids, while fingerstyle excursions demonstrate that even the high notes sound less thin and ‘string-y’ than you often get putting an acoustic through a practice amp.

There’s not a huge amount of bass response to be had here – after all, this lacks the passive reactors we see on other FRFR cabs – but it does a fine job and doesn’t sound too muddy.

The tone control itself is quite powerful, and sweeping it too far either way quickly makes the sound unappealing, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I found the power of this control useful for taming some of the boominess of a Guild dreadnought I also tried, or adding some enhanced midrange to a Gretsch parlor I converted to a rubber bridge guitar.

The real star of the show is the hall-like reverb, which adds a wonderfully produced sheen to basic strumming that really makes you appreciate the value of something like this even if you aren’t using loads of effects. If you are, however, it handles the likes of delay, chorus and even some granular stuff with aplomb – things never get too mushy.

As a Bluetooth speaker it sounds good, though the lack of independent guitar volume control is a little annoying here. You can control the music volume from your device, but turning up the master volume will also make the music louder, so if you’re playing to a backing track, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got your guitar volume sorted before you start getting your levels right, as any tweak to one will mean a tweak to the other.

In terms of music volume, it has plenty of projection and the ability to fill a decent-sized living room – it’s a little boxy and not the most bass-heavy sound ever, and it starts to get a little fuzzy at the upper reaches of the volume control, however, so be warned.

Orange Outlowd ES3 – should I buy one?

If you’re an exclusively home-based acoustic player, it might be hard to justify dropping nearly $200 on this – though I was pretty startled by how much more I enjoyed the sound of my acoustic at home plugged in with a bit of reverb. It really elevated the whole thing.

If you’re an acoustic player who does use loopers and effects in their sound, or play smaller gigs and busking shows where you just need something to give your guitar a bit of push and polish, this is an impressively designed and great-sounding option.

Orange Outlowd ES3 – alternatives

Blackstar’s Fly 3 Acoustic ($99.99/£89.99) is another small acoustic amp that prioritises ease of use and sounds great – especially when you pair it with its stereo cab. The Positive Grid Spark Mini ($199/£171) is a solid all-rounder that offers both electric and acoustic sounds, while Fender’s Acoustasonic 15 ($169/£129) is a solid small option, but it’s AC-power only.

The post Orange Outlowd ES3 review: is Ed Sheeran’s signature amp the best compact acoustic combo out there? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.



It’s the 167th episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps, the call-in show where amp tech Skip Simmons fields all of your tube amp and life questions.

Our sponsors: Grez Guitars; Emerald City Guitars; and Amplified Parts / Mod Electronics.

Some of the topics discussed this week:

:00 Special Guest: Sebastian Gruenberg of Vintage Inspired Pickups (link); molecular biology; winding pickups, making potentiometers; cryo-tuning magnets; Emerald City Guitars; Gibsonette input jack ground issues; and more!

30:57 What’s on Skip’s bench: Magnatones; a Sears 40XL Danelectro; Traynors

34:07 Jonathan Richman, charming singer-songwriter and stone mason

36:17 An early National Dobro amp for sale; where’s Larry Chung?

38:51 The Fretboard Summit, August 20-22 in Chicago (register here); this year @vintagetubeamplifiers is bringing out a bunch of old & rare amps along with various other contributors/listeners!

39:50 A kitchen cleaning tip, Dutch ovens, Skip’s typewriter repair

44:07 Optocoupler repair in a classic Fender

45:57 The BBC’s Shipping Forecast (link)

48:54 Rattlesnake Milk’s ‘Midnight Train’, quick Asian rice, and TAVA buzzwords

50:54 Output tubes for Skip’s Mega Champ amp build (Champ with Soursound transformers)

54:38 A demonic Ampeg B-18N

59:04 A new caster for my 1966 Fender Pro Reverb, ‘The Magnificent Charlie Parker’ compilation; homemade gumbo; Mike Watt

1:06:12 What should I do with this Masco A-10 project? Using a Hammond 166M12 as a Variac; do old black metal pre-amp tubes like the 6SJ7 have glass inside?

1:12:02 A tie story; how can I slow down the tremolo on my modded Silvertone 1484?

1:17:46 Gourmet dog treats

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.

Want to support the show? Join our Patreon page to get to the front of the advice line, see exclusive pics, the occasional video and more.

Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal.

Above: @patconnorbass‘ possibly haunted Ampeg bass rig, as discussed on this week’s episode.

The post The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 168 first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

Press Release

Source: Gallows West PR

Gallows West – Lauren & Stacy Hogan

GALLOWS WEST PHOTO GALLERY

July 24, 2026 A student recently wanted to learn Do You Know The Way To San Jose, which brought the song back into my orbit and…what a great piece of music by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. We now have a lesson on it that looks at three different ways of accompanying a vocalist, ranging […]

The post Totally Guitars Weekly Update July 24, 2026 appeared first on On The Beat with Totally Guitars.

We all remember our first rock concert. Realistically, nothing was ever going to prepare us for how loud it was going to be. For many of us, that unadulterated, visceral noise was the reason we fell in love with the genre in the first place.

If you went to your first gig as a child, there’s a good chance you went with your parents. And while some parents might choose to furnish their children with earplugs to keep their hearing safe, in the case of Richie Faulkner, his father chose a different tack to get him ready for his first show…

• READ MORE: “I couldn’t play to the potential they needed”: How insecurity made Jim Root turn down joining Slipknot at first

Specifically, Faulkner’s first-ever rock show was a date on Bryan Adams’ Into the fire tour in the late ‘80s.

“It was my first live gig in an arena, and my dad used to take me out in the car preparing me for how loud it was going to be. We’d crank Reckless really loud and drive around listening to songs like Run to You at full volume.”

He continues: “Everyone at school was getting into guitar music, but instead of buying a Guns N’ Roses record like everyone else was, I bought Live After Death by Iron Maiden.

“I remember trying to learn Hallowed Be Thy Name with the light and shade and the different parts. The guitars panned left and right, so you had Adrian Smith on one side and Dave Murray on the other. I’d learn Murray’s bits and then turn him off and play the gig, essentially. After school my friends would go out, and I’d just play guitar night after night with Iron Maiden.”

The post Richie Faulkner’s dad made him listen to music in the car at full blast to prepare for how loud a gig would be appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Once upon a time it was the dream of bands everywhere to get signed to a label. It was often the first sign that you had ‘made it’. Now, the internet has enabled self-promotion, leading many to question whether they need a record label in 2026 like they would have done years ago.

In 2024, M. Shadows, frontman of one of the biggest metal bands in the world, Avenged Sevenfold, questioned the legitimacy of record labels and what they’re able to offer artists.

“You’re going to take 24 cents on our dollar and that’s all you can do, come up with a f**king fake viral TikTok moment?” he asked.

• READ MORE: “I couldn’t play to the potential they needed”: How insecurity made Jim Root turn down joining Slipknot at first

Now, AFI frontman Davey Havok has shared some of the strange advice given to the band after they’d signed to Dreamworks in the mid-2000s.

“The writing of Decemberunderground was a miserable period,” he tells Metal Hammer in a new interview.

“We had signed to Dreamworks, but they sold it to Interscope… Out A&R guy was hellbent on trying to get [Interscope boss] Jimmy Iovine – who had expressly claimed in the press that rock is dead – to pay attention to AFI, and so it was suggested that we collab with Jimmy’s great love at the time, which was 50 Cent.”

He continues: “I have nothing against 50 Cent, but what does that even mean?!”

But Havok says the worst advice came around the time ringtones started becoming popular.

“Even worse than this was the era when ringtones were the new technology craze. I love this man and I still see him once a month at the least, but this motherfucker says to me, ‘What if you were to be the first band to write a ringtone album?’”

While certain tracks from 2006’s Decemberunderground were made available as ringtones, the band never made a full-on ringtone album – nor have they ever collaborated with 50 Cent, so it’s safe to say they stuck to their creative guns…

The post AFI frontman claims label wanted them to collaborate with 50 Cent – and other terrible advice: “This motherf**ker says to me, ‘What if you were the first band to write a ringtone album?’” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$229 / £219, boss.info

In the 49 years since the brand first blessed the world with a compact effects pedal, Boss has been the musical equivalent of a bandmate that always turns up on time, has learned the material perfectly, and offers to be the designated driver home.

• READ MORE: Fender Studio Pro 8 and Quantum LT 16 interface review: a guitar-recording match made in heaven?

The best Boss products tend to hit the sweet spot that has made the compact format such an enduring and popular icon of guitar – they’re not too expensive, they’re very well built and they sound great.

Into that equation comes the latest affordable multi-effects processor, with a simple but compelling mission statement: a unit that’s fully loaded with effects, has a user-friendly interface, and contains enough sonic flexibility to keep you knob-turning until you feel the need to upgrade – if ever.

With an SRP of just $229, it’s also eyebrow-raisingly affordable in a world of four-figure multi-effects units. Obviously, this is not meant to go toe-to-toe with Helix or Neural, but so many other players in this space are trying to be that on a budget, leading to a glut of menu-heavy and often clunky equipment that can fry the brain of a newbie to the world of multi-effects.

This, on the surface at least, looks like a much more gentle introduction…

Boss GX-1: what is it?

The GX‑1 is an all‑in‑one guitar effects processor aimed squarely at entry‑level and intermediate players on a budget. It bundles together all the usual suspects of classic effects – overdrive, distortion, modulation, delay and reverb – alongside an intriguing collection of built‑in amp models, all housed within a solid, yet lightweight and portable unit.

Think of it as a guitarist starter kit that’s been lovingly curated rather than hastily assembled. The GX‑1 offers a full buffet of tones, enough to help you discover what you like with ease.

Accessibility is clearly at the forefront of the design process here. You’re not expected to understand the complexities of audio, nor do you need a PhD in engineering to set up your own presets.

Instead, it’s about plugging in, scrolling through sounds, and stumbling upon something that makes you want to keep playing, which, ultimately, is the whole point, right?

Boss GX-1: build quality and usability

If there are two things Boss consistently gets right, it’s usability and solid construction. The GX‑1 continues that proud tradition with reassuring confidence.

The interface is clean, logical and refreshingly inviting. Navigating through presets feels straightforward, and making adjustments is as intuitive as it gets. Hold down the effects button of your choice, and the screen presents your options. Easy. It’s the kind of unit where you can spend more time actually playing and enjoying than puzzling over button combinations and complicated menus.

Physically, it’s lightweight but far from flimsy. The chassis has that trademark Boss ruggedness, giving me the confidence to toss it into a gig bag without hesitation. The footswitches are responsive with a satisfying “click”, and the expression/wah/volume pedal invites some Hendrix-esque stomping. I don’t expect it to be as bomb-proof as my precious 1980s OD-1, but then again, that’s not the brief here. It’s less future heirloom and more faithful companion – the sort of unit you might outgrow eventually, but not before it teaches you a few valuable lessons.

For bedroom practice, guitar lessons, rehearsals and even the odd gig, the GX-1 is more than up to the task. It can also be battery powered, though it breaks with the conventions of some contemporary multi-effects to eschew a built-in rechargeable battery in place of four AA batteries. This is perhaps not the most environmentally friendly way to go about things, and the cost of those batteries will add up over time, but you can also see the wisdom of using something that is easily and quickly replaced – it will also likely enhance the GX-1’s longevity. As well as keeping the initial asking price down.

Boss GX-1: sounds

Plugging in, you can really get the sense that the sonics will be where the GX‑1 begins to justify its place at the upper echelon of this hotly contested corner of the market.

The range of effects and modulation on offer is impressively broad, especially at this price point. From fuzz, crunch, and high-gain drive to spacious delays and reverbs, there’s a lot here to explore and edit to taste. The effects themselves really are top quality, something I wouldn’t have doubted from Boss-made equipment.

Boss has long been known as the undisputed king of looper pedals, so I was pleased to see an excellent little looper has been included here. It’s a little fiddly to activate, as you have to spread your foot across two pedals to get it started. But from there, it’s more straightforward. It’s an inspiring setup on the effects side, particularly for newer players who are still figuring out what “their sound” might mean, and the possibilities really are endless.However, the 23 included amp models, along with many of the harsher drive tones, are something of a mixed bag. The bright, clean presets are spot on out of the box, with very little adjustment needed. They were more than suitable for live use and even some light recording. Some of the crunch sounds hold their own too, particularly when layered into a full mix.

But push things further, and the cracks begin to show. Higher‑gain tones can feel a touch flat, like a photocopy of a photocopy rather than the original document.

That said, context is key. Through many low-stakes settings, these tones work absolutely fine. They might not fool a seasoned tone purist with a Mayer-like ear, but they’re more than capable of inspiring a player who’s still finding their sound.

Boss GX-1: should I buy one?

If you’re just starting out, or looking for a wallet-friendly way to explore a rich tapestry of guitar effects for rehearsals or demo recording, the Boss GX-1 is a strong contender. Its satisfying combination of user accessibility, a wide range of tonal possibilities, and build quality that exceeds its price makes it an excellent choice.

The amp modelling won’t compete with some higher-end units, but the strengths here outweigh the limitations tenfold.

Boss GX-1: alternatives

There’s so much varied and decent competition at this end of the market, the best thing here is probably to look at what you really want if this ain’t it. If you want ultimate screen-free multi-effects simplicity, then the Line 6 POD Express ($179.99/£149.99) is a great option, as is Blackstar’s ID:X Floor One ($269.99/£169). If you want something that’s perhaps a little more in-depth in terms of sounds and editing, Boss’s own GX-10 ($439.99/£349) is very valid, while the HeadRush Flex Prime ($499/£459) goes even further with profiling and all sorts. If you want something that’s directly going against the GX-1 in vibe and price point, NUX’s MG-300 ($169/£129) and Mooer’s GE150 (£149) don’t have Boss’s prestige, but they’re very good for the money.

The post Boss GX-1 review: A gateway to bigger sounds without the bigger price tag? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

A list of the best modern-day metal guitarists is scarcely complete without Jim Root. His dizzying legato runs in Slipknot are now legendary – try Sulfur or Psychosocial for a quick primer – but, while it may be hard to believe, the guitarist reveals he hasn’t always been sure in his technical ability.

In fact, before joining Iowa’s would-be metal titans in 1999, Root had pretty much checked out of guitar playing altogether. “I was bitter, because I had passed 18 years old and didn’t ‘make it,’” he tells Ben Giese in a new episode of the RIDE BYND podcast.

Root – also a passionate motorcycle enthusiast – says there was a time before joining Slipknot that he didn’t even own a guitar.

• READ MORE: Jim Root’s signature Telecaster is now available in Shoreline Gold – here are some images to whet your appetite…
  

“I think I had an amplifier still, but I didn’t even have a guitar at the time,” he says. “I’d given up. I was working at a screen printing place. It was seasonal, and I’d collect unemployment in the winter.”

“My parents had just gotten divorced so I moved in with my mom so she wouldn’t be so low,” he continues. “Then I was just kinda like, ‘Well, this is gonna be it. Maybe something will happen. Maybe there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.’ But I’d resigned myself to the fact that music was just gonna be done.”

But some time later, the call came from then-Slipknot frontman Anders Colsefni asking Root if he was interested in joining the band.

“When that happened, I think Donnie Steele was the guitar player at the time,” Root recalls. “Joey [Jordison, late first drummer of Slipknot] was the drummer… They were players, man… And I hadn’t been playing for so long. I just didn’t feel like my ability was good enough to join their band.

“I didn’t say no to them for any other reason than I just didn’t feel like I was ready for it. I didn’t feel like I could play up to the potential that they needed as a guitar player. Self-defeating, maybe, a little bit.”

Root later answered the call, which proved to be the best career move he could ever make. In the nearly 30 years since he joined the band, Slipknot have become one of the quintessential forces in modern metal, putting out seven top-selling studio albums, frequently headlining festival slots and regularly playing sold-out arena shows.

He’s also made his mark as one of the more unconventional Tele players around right now. The Fender Telecaster is traditionally an instrument claimed by country, blues and softer rock artists, but Root loaded EMG pickups into one and streamlined its features to make it his own signature metal-ready monster.

In a recent video with Fender, Root explained his love of the Telecaster, saying it’s so cool as a guitar design it’s like a timeless pair of sunglasses.

“Everybody thought I should be coming out with some pointy metal guitar that’s got 12 points or whatever. No, how about we just do a classic slab iconic guitar?” he said of his signature model. “Guitars, in my opinion, are like sunglasses. The classics never go out of style. They’ll always be there. People will make their version of it, but there’s only one Fender Telecaster.”

The post “I couldn’t play to the potential they needed”: How insecurity made Jim Root turn down joining Slipknot at first appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Of all the artists who have instated phone bans during live shows in order to create a more ‘present’ atmosphere among attendees, Tobias Forge’s Ghost have made themselves the unofficial face of the campaign.

The band’s massive Skeletour World Tour ran from April 2025 to February 2026, and they famously made fans lock away their smartphones while watching the show in order to create a more “connected” atmosphere.

“If you have 10,000 people at a concert and 8,000 of them are holding a phone, there’s something deeply disconnected,” frontman Forge reasoned at the time.

Of course, no phones meant no fan-filmed footage, so if you couldn’t make it to a show, you missed out. But the Swedish metallers had a plan all along, as Ghost: 2 Big to Rig, a feature-length film spotlighting the massive production behind the band’s Skeletour and the show itself, is coming soon to a cinema and IMAX theatre near you.

Captured live over the course of the band’s two sold-out shows in Mexico City in 2025 and shot on 16mm film, 2 Big to Rig is described as the “definitive document” of the Skeletour World Tour.

“Featuring the only pro-shot footage of Papa V Perpetua and his band of Nameless Ghouls from the phone-free Skeletour, 2 Big to Rig immerses the audience in the Ghost live ritual, including exclusive behind-the-scenes and backstage access,” the band say.

The film is said to feature performances of some of the band’s most classic tracks, including Mary on a Cross and The Future is a Foreign Land.

Ghost: 2 Big to Rig arrives 26 August. Get your tickets now.

The post Ghost’s phone ban controversy was legend – but it’s alright because you’ll soon be able to watch their show in IMAX appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Jazz-funk virtuoso Cory Wong has spoken about how his “artistry” took precedence over his guitar playing during the making of his latest studio album, Lost In The Wonder.

In a recent chat with Guitar.com, Wong explains that taking on double duty as both artist and producer on his 12th studio record meant constantly juggling two creative mindsets: his instincts as a guitarist, and his broader vision as the artist steering the album as a whole.

• READ MORE: “The only way this thing goes out is if I’m 100% satisfied”: What Cory Wong told Neural DSP when offered his own signature Archetype plugin

“A producer’s got several jobs. One of them is getting this thing finished and delivered. One of them is being a good casting director,” Wong explains. “I have a whole Rolodex of musicians that I draw from, and that I wanted to work with for this album.”

The record features 12 guest vocalists, including Taylor Hanson, Cody Fry and Benny Sings, with Wong building each song around the people performing it.

“Another side of the producer is bringing the artist’s vision to life, helping the artist discover more about themselves, and express themselves in new and different ways,” he says. “In this case, because I am the producer and the artist, I have to separate those things.”

It’s a balancing act that ultimately changed how Wong viewed his own role on the record.

“My artistry comes before my guitar playing. My guitar playing is a byproduct and expression of my artistry, so I think of my artistry as being more important,” he says.

Wong also explains that stepping back from the instrument helped him record what he considers some of his strongest guitar work to date.

“As a producer, I’m thinking about the writing and how to treat the production of it, knowing that the artist is a guitar player, knowing that the artist is collaborating with a bunch of people, and that the artist is a band leader and arranger,” Wong says. “Splitting my brain into different pieces. Those things are fun on the producer side because then it shapes a little more easily what is being asked of the guitar.”

That also meant resisting the temptation to fill every track with flashy solos, instead waiting for the moments where the guitar could make the biggest impact.

“It’s not solos, but it’s definitely like, ‘Here’s a moment for the guitar.’ Here’s how to incorporate the guitar as a featured instrument,” says Wong. “The producer brain of mine gave the guitar a lot of those instrumental hooks, and the artist is a guitar player, so let’s do some weird, cool, interesting tone.”

The post He’s one of the most prominent jazz-funk players in the world – but Cory Wong says this one thing is more important than guitar playing appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

If you’re still holding out hope for the original Sex Pistols to reunite, John Lydon has some bad news: the chances are “in the minus infinities”.

The former frontman has once again shut down any prospect of reconciling with guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock, saying he’ll “never forgive” his ex-bandmates over the legal battle surrounding Pistol while his wife, Nora Foster, was battling Alzheimer’s.

Speaking in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Lydon reflects on the bitter dispute over Danny Boyle’s Pistol miniseries, which saw him unsuccessfully attempt to block the band’s music from being licensed for the Disney+ show. The court case unfolded while Foster was battling Alzheimer’s disease; she died in 2023 at the age of 80.

• READ MORE: This Sex Pistols 50th Anniversary Marshall stack might be the most punk guitar amp ever

“I’ll never forgive them for the way that they piled that court case on me while my wife was dying of Alzheimer’s,” Lydon says. “It was a most unfortunate act on their part, and then using Disney to strip-mine me [for FX’s Pistol]…. If I didn’t raise, say, $10 million after the first week, the case couldn’t go on. That’s money I could have spent taking care of my lovely Nora. They knew she was ill.”

When asked to rate the chances of ever singing with the band again on a scale of zero to 100, Lydon bluntly replies: “It’s in the minus infinities. The dirt that they unloaded on me in a time where I was in real serious grief … No, I cannot forget about that.”

The musician also reveals that none of his former bandmates contacted him following Foster’s death. Asked whether a lack of respect lies at the heart of the split, he replies: “Yes, there was no respect.”

“And to try to put together what I call a mockumentary about the Pistols, and for three years, deliberately not tell me a word, not share any of this with me, and not consider that I might have an opinion on this and then to force that into the law courts, that was really, really untasteful. So no, I don’t hang out with low-renters.”

Lydon also hit back at comments made by Jones in an earlier Rolling Stone interview, in which the guitarist joked that the singer might return to the band if he needed the money.

“There’s desperation for you. How little they know me,” Lydon says. “They must be the only fools on the planet that could think that about me. Well, then, they are special people with special needs.”

The latest remarks follow Sex Pistol’s recent reunion shows, which saw Jones, Cook and Matlock return with Gallows frontman Frank Carter handling vocal duties. Lydon previously slammed the project, accusing his former bandmates of ‘killing the content’ of the Pistols’ message and reducing the band’s legacy to “rubbish childishness”.

Grab tickets to the show.

The post Why John Lydon will “never forgive” the Sex Pistols appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The ABBA Voyage concert experience brings to life again the timeless music of one of the 70s’ biggest pop groups, ABBA. The Swedish foursome called it a day back in 1982, though in 2021 they did reunite on record for one last hurrah which culminated in the album Voyage.

Then the following year, the group was back on the concert stage albeit in digital form or as they’ve now become known as, ABBA-tars. And to describe the ABBA-tars as holograms is inaccurate; they are digital versions of ABBA created through cutting edge motion capture performance techniques by video effects company, Industrial Light & Magic – the company behind some of the most incredible Hollywood special effects of the last five decades.

• READ MORE: Yard Act’s Sam Shipstone on clichés, concision and how guitars returned to their core: “Great bands really find their style, and that’s the thing they sit on”

The Voyage concert is held in the purposely built ABBA Arena in London and features a 10-piece live band, with the twin guitar team of Fernando Sanchez and Christian Mendoza tasked with replicating live all the intricacies of the guitar parts on the original ABBA recordings.

But ABBA Voyage is no ordinary show. It’s a concert where the technicalities involved are multi-levelled, especially when it comes to the live band who, each night, face the challenge of bringing ABBA’s memorable music to life for 21st century audiences.

“We try to stick as much as we can to the original part and to the arrangements that we’ve been told to play,” explains Sanchez who first auditioned for the gig in June 2025 and made his live debut with the Voyage band in December, 2025. “However, because we’re playing every night and doing a lot of shows, you are in this little bubble and so, you start adding a little note here, and adding on something there. But when I do that personally, the next day I try to go back to the original so I don’t lose track of what I’m supposed to be playing. We know as musicians we can do other things and maybe embellish it or do something, but I always try to go back to the original the next day.”

“I would say that this is not a job for me to put much of a stamp on what I want or what I would think would be needed,” adds Mendoza, who is now in his third season with the Voyage troupe after having first auditioned back in December 2023, and made his live debut in April, 2024. “These are timeless classics and to go and change like a lead part because I want to do something, is not on. I think the purpose of us is to recreate this music and have people hear these lines and be excited that they’re hearing the stuff that they were excited about when they were young or first heard it.”

Reconstruction Workers

From day one the modus operandi for all the musicians involved with the concert was to reconstruct the sonic aspects to the original recordings in minute detail. In order to help the musicians along in the process of learning the material, charts were also offered up.

“It’s not necessarily a gig where you have to read music, but it is obviously a massive plus if you do,” explains Sanchez. “I do read music. So, in my case, I got sent the charts and I had to learn the songs before we went into rehearsals. And then in rehearsals we have our MD who is guiding us through it, so if we’re playing a part that is not being played correctly, he will come and let you know what we’re supposed to be basically doing.”

And early on in the process, the musicians received some guidance from ABBA’s piano playing maestro Benny Andersson.

“When I joined, Benny was at some of the rehearsals and there were a few things like if he heard something that he maybe wanted more closer to on the record, he would mention it,” recalls Mendoza.

“Like with the lead line in Knowing Me, Knowing You. It was funny because he said, ‘I don’t know what’s on the paper as it doesn’t matter, because what’s on the record is this’. And he then sang the line to us. So, he knows that sometimes liberties maybe get taken in the way that stuff gets written, but that was an example of something where he felt strongly, ‘Let’s do it like the way it was’.

“But he was very gracious. I believe that at that point had we been playing something very differently, I feel like that wouldn’t have happened because they would’ve made sure that before Benny came to the rehearsals, we were playing the music the way it is intended.”

In The Pocket

One of the difficulties both guitarists and the band face each night are the occasional alternating tempos of the original recordings which were recorded in the pre-digital age where click tracks weren’t a common practice in the studio as they are today.

“Some of the tracks are not exactly to the grid,” says Sanchez. “People record to a click track today, but some of the avatar’s instruments are not to a click so, we have to pay attention. For example, in Chiquitta, there’s a part where Christian and I are playing the exact same thing and we need to listen to the track intently because it kind of moves around the click. And if we are not playing accurately to that part, it’ll just sound a bit messy.”

“There’s a click in our tracks, but they [ABBA] didn’t put the music to a grid, so it’s going to move,” adds Mendoza. “In Chiquitta, because everything goes quiet at one point, the click obviously is louder in our ears than normally, but because the piano part is slower, we kind of have to ignore the click in that part at the beginning and just play to the piano, even though the click is still there.

“We have to play together to this piano part and ignore the click to kind of know when to come in. It’s only for a couple of bars, but those are little challenges we face. Sometimes intros too like on Thank You for the Music the click is only given to us in the intro and then we don’t have a click. So, the drummer has to play to the vocals and we have to match his beats to the vocals. But that’s a lot easier to feel, as you’re playing in time following the drums.”

Knowing Me, Knowing Tubes

Perhaps surprisingly given the technological nature of the show, both guitarists are running real tube amps for the show. Both employ Mesa/Boogie California Tweed amps, with Mendoza primarily using a Fender Telecaster for the majority of the concert, and a Fender Strat for a few select numbers, while Sanchez uses a Fender Stratocaster for the entire performance. Just as important is the selection of tones for the guitars, which too, has to be matched to the tones on the recordings.

“I built my pedalboard to what I knew and also after hearing the music, certain overdrives because the gig doesn’t really necessarily need much distortion,” explains Mendoza. “I try to get close to it with just an overdrive tone, not so much 80s distortion or whatever. I got a Phase 90 too because of the funky parts and all that kind of stuff. I remember when I auditioned, there was somebody who came in with a sort of more of a heavy metal tone and they were playing right, but I remember they were asked, ‘You think you could put less drive on your sound as it’s not quite in context with the style.’

“I got given the pedalboard that the previous guitarist had chosen for the gig,” interjects Sanchez. “So, for me, the challenge was to rearrange the way I wanted to use the pedal board, because obviously the other guitarist was using it in a different way. So that might have affected the tone. I had to try to change a few things, but it was a conversation that we had to have with the guys, so that I didn’t change the tone much because it’s a very specific thing for the show.”

With multiple performances per week, sometimes with two in a day, how do the pair cope with the pressure to deliver the goods night after night.

“Because it’s a live band and we’re on stage all the time, for me that gets me buzzing with the audience,” affirms Sanchez. “It’s not like other stage shows where you are sat in a pit and it’s very small. I get excited if I’m going on stage to play to 3,000 people every night and even though we’re playing the same thing, there are fantastic arrangements, and the band that we’re playing with is amazing. And we have certain freedom to interact with each other on stage, too, which makes it more interesting.”

“I’m what they call a road dog,” concurs Mendoza. “So, I’m more than happy for me as a musician personally. A day played, is better than a day you have not played. And I started out with my first paid gig, when I was 15 years old playing weddings with my parents. My parents are musicians and I played clubs five days a week and three one-hour sets back in my home country of Mexico. So, I’m used to very late nights and playing and that’s just what I live for.”

The post How do you play guitar with a hologram? The live guitarists behind ABBA Voyage reveal all appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Andy Burnham, the New Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, is a proud lover of guitar-driven music.

Burnham became Prime Minister on 20 July 2026, taking on the role after the resignation of Kier Starmer. Speaking to The Quietus in 2022 (when he was Mayor of Greater Manchester), which has been newly re-shared by Louder, Burnham explored his admiration of “guitar bands” and his most treasured albums.

• READ MORE: Justin Bieber used a specially made left-handed Taylor Gold Label acoustic during the World Cup Final halftime show

In the interview, Burnham picked records from The Beatles, The Stone Roses, Radiohead, and hailed George Best, the 1987 debut record by Leeds-based indie band The Wedding Present, as “the pinnacle of guitar music.”

He said: “I played this to death. I loved it and it had everything for me. I love guitar bands, if there’s anything I’ve always loved it’s soaring guitar bands and George Best is the kind of album that does that better than anything.

“I love David Gedge’s style, that slightly conversational, matter-of-fact thing. Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft, it’s just great. It’s been a constant, I loved it when I first heard it and still do.”

In the piece, Burnham also praised The Strokes’ Is This It? and The Pogues’ Rum Sodomy & The Lash. He also shared his love of The Smiths, specifically their 1984 compilation album Hatful of Hollow.

“I remember everyone at school going on about The Smiths on Top Of The Pops. It was a massive thing when that happened, and someone took a record to school and told me to take it home, it was Hatful Of Hollow. Then I remember buying it at Piccadilly Records. I listened to that to death. It was the first indie record I ever bought,” he said.

Watch The Smiths on Top Of The Pops below:

The post Is the UK finally in good hands? New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham loves “soaring guitar bands” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

If you’ve got a humbucker-equipped guitar, you might miss the spanky, bright sounds of single-coil pickups – but worry not! One of the easiest mods you can do is adding a coil-split via a push-pull pot. Ready to unlock some extra sounds? Grab your soldering iron and wire strippers, and let’s dive in.

• READ MORE: Building a DIY pedal kit? Here are some tips for neatness and reliability

Well, actually – a quick note before we get to the edge of the diving board: to do this, you’ll need humbuckers with modern four-conductor wiring. Some humbuckers will have two-conductor wiring, either in the form of modern insulated multi-core, or vintage-style braided wiring. Four-conductor wiring will have an extra pair of wires that, when the pickup is in humbucker mode, are simply connected and taped off – these are the wires that will allow us to perform the coil-split.

So the first thing to do is to pop the pickguard/control cover off, take a look at your guitar’s wiring and check that your humbuckers are four-conductor. If they’re not, you can either mod your pickups (a little risky and difficult, and beyond the scope of this guide!) or swap out for pickups that do have this wiring.

To understand why we need four conductor wiring, and help us down the line if anything goes wrong, let’s look a little deeper at how a humbucker works. A standard humbucker consists of two coils, commonly called the north coil and the south coil. These are wound in opposite directions around pole-pieces magnetised with the opposite polarity. Standard humbucker operation calls for the finish wraps of each coil to be wired together, and the start of wrap of the south coil connected to ground. The start wrap of the north coil will then carry the signal picked up from the strings.

This is what makes a humbucker, well, buck the hum: because of the opposite winding and polarity of each coil, they pick up the same polarity of signal from the moving strings, but pick up opposite-polarity versions of any hum. Combining the two signals, then, means that you both get a beefier sound from the strings and cancel out the noise at the same time.

For coil-splitting, we obviously want to isolate just one of the humbucker’s coils, ignoring this hum-cancelling behaviour but getting a sound much closer to a traditional single-coil. To do this, we can take those two finish wraps, and wire them to ground, along with the start wrap of the south coil. This means that any signal generated in the south coil just gets conducted away to ground – but we still read the north coil’s signal as normal.

What do you need to perform this mod?

Alongside compatible pickups, you’ll also need a few tools and supplies to make this job go smoothly. Most obviously, you’ll want the push-pull pots themselves – I’m using CTS pots here, and I’d recommend them – if you’re going to the trouble of taking your guitar apart and rewiring it, you might as well put nice and reliable high-quality full-sized pots in there, especially with push-pull pots, which have more moving parts. Just keep in mind you may need to drill out the potentiometer hole a little larger if you’re currently using mini pots.

You’ll also want some of your hookup wire of choice, as you’ll need to make a few new connections, and it’s good to have flexibility rather than just rely on re-using what’s already there. To get that in place you’ll need  a decent soldering iron, solder itself, wire strippers that will accommodate the full multi-core pickup wire, and a multimeter. These are, in general, pretty essential for general maintenance, repairs, testing and troubleshooting, so if you plan to keep your guitars operational yourself rather than take them to a tech, then they’re a worthwhile investment.

Wiring up a push-pull pot

CTS push-pull pots come with a little PCB that breaks out the standard switch into separate connections – here’s how they change depending on whether they’re down or up:

As you can see above, we have two common connections, each of which switches between two poles depending on the pot’s position. (It’s worth noting here that a push-pull pot is two components in one – the push-pull switch doesn’t interact with the potentiometer). If we want, as is conventional, to have the coil split when the pot is pulled up, all we need to do is twist the two finish wraps together and wire them to either of the common connections – and then wire connection 1 or 3 (depending on the common connection we used).

For my project, I’m splitting the humbuckers of a Squier Telecaster Deluxe. The wiring scheme here is, in a very Gibson manner, two volumes, two tones and a three-way toggle switch – I’m replacing each pickup’s volume control with a push-pull pot to split each individually. The full wiring for the guitar essentially remains the same as standard, but each pickup has its finish wraps wired like this (or with the finishes to C1 and ground to 1):

There are a few tricks to achieve this in practicality. First things first – identify how things are already wired, as different pickup manufacturers will colour-code their wires differently. Two of the four conductors will be soldered together and taped off – these are our finish wraps. Another will be going to a lug on the volume pot – this is the north start, or hot wire of the pickup. And finally there’ll be a wire that’s connected to both the shield of the multi-core and a ground connection, like the back of the pot.

Wires identified, it’s time to desolder and remove the pots you want to replace with push-pull. There’s no hard-and-fast rule as to which pots to replace – you can put the push-pull controls on the tone pots if you want, or use both sides of a single push-pull to split both of your pickups at once. You could even use switches rather than pots if you’d rather – the same principle applies. Ground the finish wires, and you split the pot.

Once you’re ready to reinstall, get your pots in position and get your pickup wires ready to work with. You can use your wire strippers to remove the main insulation for a bit more to work with, and you’ll also want to make sure the ends of the core wires are nice and clean to work with. You can strip, twist and tin the two finish wraps together to make it easier to wire them both to the push-pull, and do the same for the south start and the shield.

The rest of the wiring goes like any other wiring job – here’s how I did my Telecaster Deluxe in the end (switch, output jack and string ground not shown, as those will vary between guitar):

You don’t have to follow this exactly – there are loads of wiring schemes out there depending on your guitar and your goals. The main thing is that those finish wraps connect to ground when you want a split-coil sound, and are only connected to each other when you don’t.

Wired up, it’s time to test. You can test your wiring before stringing up your guitar in a few ways – for basic operation, the old screwdriver test is quick and easy. Simply plug your output jack into an amp (carefully, depending on how detached from your guitar the pickguard is!) and lightly tap on the pickups with a screwdriver. You can then go through the switch positions to check that the bridge makes a noise and the neck doesn’t when the switch is down, and so on – and you can also test the volume and tone controls here.

To test that the splitting has been a success, you can also just listen for an increase in hum when you pull up the pots for single-coil mode – but, let’s be a little more rigorous, and get out the multimeter. Measuring between the sleeve and the tip of the output jack with your multimeter on the 20K Ohms setting, you should read the total impedance of the selected pickup. For a humbucker this varies, but it’ll likely be between 6K and 9K ohms. If you pull the pot and the impedance decreases by half, then you’ve successfully split!

Now you can enjoy both full-bore humbucker sounds and single-coil sounds at the pull of a pot. Get that pickguard/control cover back on, and get playing.

The post DIY workshop: adding coil-splitting to humbuckers with push-pull pots appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi has reflected on his friendship with Ozzy Osbourne in a new social media post.

Today (22 July) marks one year since the passing of the Sabbath frontman, which occurred just a matter of weeks after his final gig with the band for the mighty Back To The Beginning concert event in their home city of Birmingham, UK.

• READ MORE: “I was just amazed at all the great jazz voicings that song has”: The Ozzy Osbourne classic Kirk Hammett wishes he wrote

Iommi writes, “Hi everyone. Well, it’s now a year since Ozzy’s passing and I still can’t believe that he’s not with us. I watch him on YouTube and it feels like he’s still here with us. We always stayed in touch, almost every week or so and we’d usually talk about our ailments and then about what we’d been doing that particular week.

“The fans have been absolutely brilliant and the love and respect that they have shown for him has just been amazing. I’m so glad that we were able to play one final show with the original line up of Sabbath at the Back To The Beginning show in our home town of Birmingham! There will never be another Ozzy. I miss you my dear friend.”

View this post on Instagram

Iommi spoke to ITV News shortly after Osbourne’s death last year, in which he shared his belief that the Prince of Darkness held on to be able to do their final gig: “I think he really just held out to do that show. I really feel, and me and Geezer [Butler] were talking about it last night, that we think he held out to do it, and just after that, he’s done it and said goodbye to the fans. And that was the end of it, really.”

The Back To The Beginning event raised an estimated eight million for charity in total. Iommi was recently made an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the King’s Birthday Honours for his services to music and charity. Iommi has worked on humanitarian projects over the years, such as international disaster relief and cancer patient advocacy.

The post “I watch him on YouTube and it feels like he’s still here with us”: Tony Iommi reflects on friendship with Ozzy Osbourne a year on from his death appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.