Norse Guitar Feeds

August 7, 2026 Do You Know The Way To San Jose has just about run its course with me now that the lesson on my solo arrangement got finished this week. I hope some of you who like instrumentals will have a go at it. There are a couple of challenges, even for experienced fingerpickers, […]

The post Totally Guitars Weekly Update August 7, 2026 appeared first on On The Beat with Totally Guitars.

In our 60th issue of the Fretboard Journal (out now), John Drenning sits down with Brian Baker of Bad Religion/Minor Threat fame. The result is an 8,000-word interview that spans some 14 pages of our magazine. As a reader-supported publication, we seldom post stories online, but we thought we’d share a few choice excerpts for all to see. The complete article can be purchased here. -Editor

 What’s the point of asking a guitar player their influences? It’s like asking someone their top five albums; it very quickly becomes an exercise in taste and curation. What does it say about me if I name Tom Verlaine instead of Ace Frehley? It’s more honest to think in terms of musical DNA: the guitarists who, when you come up with a riff, you realize they already wrote it; the ones who were the godparents of your own style because you couldn’t do what they did. This imitation isn’t self-conscious. These are the players who made you want to play, and taught you how. Tastes change; DNA doesn’t.

Have you ever met one of these players? What would you say if you did? I met Brian Baker by chance in 1993, backstage at the Whisky. Brian wasn’t just in one of the bands that was most important to me when I was a teenager just a few years prior, learning to play, write, and gig. He was in two of them. There is no question I’d play guitar differently, and maybe even be a different person, if I’d never heard those bands.

I introduced myself and asked what he was doing musically. The man couldn’t have been nicer. After some chitchat and feigned nonchalance, I told Brian his guitar playing and the songs he wrote were more important to me than I could begin to explain, and I just wanted to thank him for that.

He thanked me, very graciously, and then said: You should hear the other guitar player in my band.

Over 30 years later, Brian describes his own talent the way Fonzie apologizes: hesitantly, and under duress. “It was one of those weird things: I could play guitar in a weirdly good way for a very small baby boy…good enough to where it was like a carnival act.” Early influences—DNA, if you will—were “Angus and Malcolm [Young], Billy Gibbons, Eddie Van Halen…My debt to Angus is immeasurable, but if you truly understand Malcolm — talking about him gets me emotional; he’s that good.”

Brian took lessons as a kid, but wasn’t a serious student — “I was a child, and I wanted to skateboard.” In 1978, when he was 13, Brian went full Frehley and added a third pickup and two toggle switches to his Norlin-era Les Paul Deluxe, because it was 1978, and he was 13. Instead of cranking his first amp, a Princeton, or using a pedal for distortion, Brian plugged the speaker into the extension speaker jack. (Amp guru Andy Marshall told me that when you plug a speaker into the external jack only, the main speaker out becomes a “dead short,” and 95% of the amp’s power goes to ground. Per Andy, don’t try this at home unless you like the smell of smoke.)

Brian told me that by ninth grade, “guitar was already my personality, and my entree into polite society.” Guitar was also his entree to the stage at Detroit’s Cobo Hall, where he jammed onstage with Carlos Santana in March of ’79, the month after he turned 14. Did he think at this age he would play guitar for a living? “No, because that’s not possible…I was going to go to college, because that’s what one does.” But then, “almost accidentally,” Brian became a founding member of the most influential high school band of all time.

Minor Threat was one of the first D.C. hardcore bands, which means it was one of the first hardcore bands. As Michael Azzerad put it in Our Band Could Be Your Life: “Black Flag may have been its godfathers and the Bad Brains may have revved up its tempo to light speed, but hardcore has no more definitive band than Minor Threat.” In 1980, Lyle Preslar asked his classmate Brian to play bass. Then 15, Brian had “gone punk” shortly after moving back to DC from Michigan. “I was just one of the few people around who wasn’t already in a band, and knew how to play an instrument. That’s how I got in. I cut my own hair, and I knew how to play guitar.”

Minor Threat didn’t last long—very few of these bands did—but they developed fast, and by the time I discovered hardcore in 1984, a year after they broke up, they were one of the genre’s defining bands. Their eponymous first 7″, with eight songs, runs a little over nine minutes. As Bad Religion co-founder Brett Gurewitz said, 1981’s Minor Threat “set the rule book. It showed how fast, and how tight, hardcore can be, and what it should be.” It was ground zero for straight edge, which altered the trajectory of a lot of kids’ lives, mine included. Later that year they released their second 7″, In My Eyes, having grown rapidly in the intervening six months. Describing songs like “In My Eyes” and “Look Back And Laugh,” author Ben Merlis jokingly called it “prog-ified hardcore—let’s make a three-minute song with lots of parts, but still have it be really hardcore and still have it be really catchy. Good luck doing that. Look how many lesser bands tried copying that later, and it didn’t work.” As a teenage member of one of those lesser bands, I can testify that while the exact recipe was impossible to recreate, the general approach scaled well.

Minor Threat recorded Out Of Step in January 1983. The nine-song EP, 15 seconds shorter in its entirety than the Yes song “The Gates Of Delirium,” has cast the longest shadow, but by this point the internal pressures in the band had become unsustainable. Their last show was September 1983. How do you know your hardcore band is breaking up? Your guitar player sells his Marshall, and buys a Roland Jazz Chorus.

Brian has always been forthright about his belief that, as he told me, “If I hadn’t been in Minor Threat, I do not believe we’d be having this conversation.” If Preslar had asked a different classmate to play bass in his high school band, it’s not hard to imagine Brian as, say, an American history professor. And Brian is quick to credit singer Ian MacKaye’s focus and foresight as key to Minor Threat’s lasting influence. “I was lucky enough to be close to someone with that vision and skillset… those of us who were lucky enough to make records with him when we were very young go on to have conversations with John who’s in Seattle right now for Fretboard Journal.” I don’t believe this is false modesty. The music industry is bleak.

And yet. Seneca: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity;” Picasso: “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” Etc. Brian may be the most influential musician in the genre, and his playing easily passes the Les Paul test: asked about the hyper-technical shredders of the 80s, Paul responded, “but when they’re on the radio, can their mother tell it’s them?” And multiple collaborators described how Brian’s intuitive contributions could improve their material: he occupies that rare shared territory between technical excellence, which usually arises from ego, and an egoless ability to make the song better. If punk has a Mike Campbell (who has played on two Bad Religion tracks), it’s Brian Baker.

I asked Brian if he thought in his teens and twenties that he could be a professional musician. He responded, “I didn’t know I could do it for a living until I was already doing it for a living.” By then he was in his 30s and had been in Bad Religion for a couple years, and would get home from tour and not have to get a day job. He’d been touring half his life by then: longtime friend and current Fake Names bandmate Johnny Temple (Soulside, Girls Against Boys) told me he and Brian were in high school chemistry class together, and he remembered “Brian leaving class to go on tour with fucking Minor Threat.” Brian said, “There are times when I should have just stopped, but I didn’t know, I just kept going.”

Formed in 1985, Dag Nasty was the second legendary band Brian was in, but was the only band where he was the primary writer, sole guitarist, and, for a time, lyricist. (Brian would be equally comfortable having the descriptor “felon” in the same sentence as his name as “legendary.”) Their first album, Can I Say, was recorded and mixed with minimal overdubs (Brian: “Did we all make it through? OK, let’s keep that take”) in about 20 hours the following year. Brian used his regular gigging rig, as anyone would have on a punk record at the time: an early-70s Les Paul Deluxe Goldtop into a 100-watt ’78 Marshall JMP100, along with an MXR M-134 chorus pedal that was lying around the studio.

Can I Say has the visceral punch of Out Of Step. But the songwriting is revelatory, the well-rehearsed band having shaped Brian’s riffs into songs that didn’t conform to the hardcore mold. The rhythm section of Colin Sears and Roger Marbury was seamless, packing more low-end punch than their hardcore contemporaries. Dave Smalley’s vocals were delivered with uncommon conviction, perfectly blending melody and power. And the lyrics are, well, emotional, not what subsequent Dag vocalist Peter Cortner called “made-to-order anthemic lyrics.” Ben Merlis told me, “The songwriting is incredible; just the right balance of melody and aggression. The recording sounds impeccable—it sounds fresh, and it sounds like you’re in the room with them.” Pete Chramiec, guitarist for Verbal Assault, described hearing Dag Nasty and “immediately turning the ship in that direction. It was a necessary course correction, that you could be way more interesting, and way more musical. We were already getting sick of the macho shit.” End on End podcast cohost Jeff Kaplan told me: “There were already traces of melody in hardcore, including Minor Threat. But Can I Say is the point where you could say, this isn’t just hardcore that’s experimenting with some melodic elements; this is the record that invents melodic hardcore. And I feel like hardcore, even with Minor Threat, had to have this toughness to it, even though Minor Threat weren’t your prototypical tough hardcore guys. It wasn’t macho, but there was still this tough edge to it. Whereas with Can I Say, it was okay to be vulnerable. For the first time in hardcore, we don’t need to be so fucking tough.”

Can I Say is where Brian’s distinctive playing style fully emerged. Like another much-“borrowed from” player, Stevie Ray Vaughan, it’s not that his style was unique; instead, like SRV, Brian was able to meld a variety of pre-existing techniques into one cohesive package, and then execute it with feel, technical precision, and originality. And as with SRV, countless pale imitations ensued. (I was a pale imitator of both.) Brian drew from the deep well of Captain Sensible (i.e., the single-note lines), George Harrison (i.e., the riff-based melodicism), and Malcolm Young (well, Malcolm fucking Young), rather than cookie-cutter punk players, but took those influences in an entirely different direction.

No single part of Brian’s style is revolutionary. What made it unique was doing it all, in tune and in time, in service of the song. Brian Gathy, founder of End On End, told me, “It was all about his choices. He didn’t sound superhuman, but he was so laser-focused in his choices…Every guitar part on Can I Say supports the bones of the song.” Jeff Kaplan remarked that “if we had to pick one record in his entire catalog where we said, this is the defining artistic statement made by Brian Baker, I think it has to be Can I Say. Brian was playing at a different level than his peers. He brought a level of tightness, a level of discipline, that was so rare in hardcore in the early-mid 80s. And he was about the song first—you can be this really great guitar player without making it about you, and instead, just make it about the song.”

Dag Nasty, like Minor Threat, had about a three-year run. After two more albums and numerous lineup changes, Dag played their last show in July 1988. The wind had gone out of the sails. And Brian had run into Chris Gates—formerly the bassist of the Big Boys, who Minor Threat played their last show with in DC, not quite five years ago—in the parking lot of an L.A. 7-Eleven. Gates was playing guitar in Junkyard, recently signed to Geffen, and short a guitar player. The switch from melodic hardcore to Skynyrd-meets-Motorhead rock was not a premeditated career move by Brian; he just wanted to keep playing guitar. In their book on the exploding 1980s L.A. hard rock scene, describing the intense competitiveness of the genre, Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock observed that “no one stumbled into this (okay, maybe Brian Baker of Junkyard did).”

As Brian pivoted “mainstream” with Junkyard, and hardcore obstinately stayed put, “alternative,” or “college rock” as we called it back then, was pivoting mainstream, too. This was well underway before the release of Nirvana’s Nevermind in September 1991. This arc is best captured by the ur-college rock band, REM. Document, in 1987, sold a million copies, almost doubling the previous year’s Life’s Rich Pageant. 1988’s Green more than doubled the sales of Document, at 2.6 million. Out Of Time, released six months before Nevermind, sold 12 million copies; next year’s Automatic For The People sold 18 million.

When I met Brian backstage at the Whisky in February 1993, a year after Junkyard’s demise, Peter Buck was also backstage. Neither Brian nor I remembered this, though REM bestrode the earth like a colossus at the time. A year later, Brian was REM’s second guitarist.

Except, he wasn’t. Shortly after accepting the gig as REM’s touring guitarist, Brian was offered a job as a card-carrying member of Bad Religion. Brian’s chair in Bad Religion had previously been occupied by Brett Gurewitz, founding member and one of the chief songwriters. This is kind of like being offered John Lennon’s spot in The Beatles. In Jim Ruland’s book on Bad Religion, bassist Jay Bentley explained: “When someone leaves the band and people want to know what happened, my answer is, ‘You’ll have to ask him.’ But when someone like Brett leaves and you’ve lost one of your songwriters, you can’t just go, ‘You’ll have to talk to him’ because that’s not going to fly. So having someone like Brian Baker from Minor Threat helped get us out of that awkward conversation. ‘What happened? Here’s Brian!’ It buffered the situation without completely ignoring that we’d lost a major player in our band by replacing him with another major player.”

Hardcore is as obsessed with lineage as the Old Testament. Greg Graffin, Bad Religion’s singer, wrote in his memoir Punk Paradox that a minority of the band’s fans expected the band to fall apart in Gurewitz’s absence. Brian’s pedigree got him in the door, but doesn’t explain why he’s still there: “Once those naysayers realized ‘That’s Brian Baker up there,’ the credibility portion of their criticism would be canceled immediately. But his sound, which is one of the most signature sounds in all of punk, and his virtuosity would do the rest of the talking. It complemented our songs, and blended perfectly with our style, and the audience would soon be treated to hearing a greatly enhanced live set from Bad Religion.”

Brian joined Bad Religion over 30 years ago; only founding members Graffin and Bentley have been in the band longer. As Graffin said, this longevity comes more from Brian’s lineage; Brian’s later collaborator Alec Bourgeois (Severin, Capital City Dusters) described it as “a stroke of luck for all of them.” When I asked Brian about what he brought to a band, he told me that “whatever personality trait” is required for longevity in a band, “I seem to have it.”

Ian MacKaye described Brian’s musical discernment from the beginning; his musical contributions were a big part of why Minor Threat were, as Michael Hampton (S.O.A., Embrace, Fake Names) explained, “heads, and tails, and shoulders above everybody else.” Bourgeois told me, “You talk about musicianship—he was the ringer in Minor Threat, and the reason they were so fucking tight: Brian was the glue there.” And Chris Gates called Brian “literally the perfect definition of a sideman. Without Brian, Minor Threat’s not Minor Threat. Brian’s playing in Junkyard was integral to the sound and how great the band was.”

MacKaye described Brian’s nascent professionalism simply: “Brian is definitely an ambitious guy. He wanted to play guitar for a living.” In the DC scene in the 1980s, this was abnormal, and, arguably, not punk. Brian Gathy said of Brian, “it was clear he had ambition, which, even talking about it now, seems strange to say it as a negative thing [laughing], but it was obvious he wanted a bigger stage, both literally and figuratively…it was clear that he had his eyes on bigger things than being in a good band in DC and maybe touring a little bit; he wanted a career. To some, and we’re talking people in their teens and early 20s, who were high on their own supply of idealism, this professionalism was suspect.

Regarding Brian’s exacting nature, Bourgeois told me: “That precision—it’s not just his playing. And it really does bring people along.” Seattle amp builder and luthier Jesse Quitslund told me that when he’d been working on guitars for almost a decade, Brian asked him to set up his Les Pauls for his first album with Bad Religion. He “did as good a job as I thought was possible,” and returned them to Brian, who “literally played every note on the guitar neck in, like, five seconds, and found the one dead spot.” Brian told him, “This is a really important rock and roll note; can you do anything about this?” This was the first time anyone had asked Quitslund to improve his work; he’d “never set up a guitar for a guitar player who was that technically proficient before.” At the onset of recording, producer Ric Ocasek played all the guitars, declaring Brian’s the only guitars ready to record. Quitslund described it as “a career high point, to have Ric Ocasek praise my work. And Brian, of course, proceeded to nail everything in one take, as he does, and impress everyone, including Ric Ocasek, who then had Brian play in his solo band.”

Everyone I spoke to characterized Brian as very funny, but acerbic, and not one to suffer fools gladly. At some point in every interview, I thought of John McPhee’s description of physicist Edward Teller as having “a sense of humor that could penetrate bone.” Bourgeois said, “Cynical, funny: he is all those things, right? But I think at the center of it, he’s got a giant fucking heart. He’s got a wit that he’s just too tempted by. Brian’s too fucking smart, and too funny.” The corollary to this is that most of the people I spoke to attained prominence as a musician as a teenager. Bourgeois said, “You can’t overemphasize how young everyone was. People were putting out albums and touring before they were out of high school…All the DIY, all the shit that we built is just based on kids not waiting for life to happen to them.” A former bandmate of mine put it succinctly: “we were all kind of assholes back then.”

It’s worth quoting Bill Barbot (Jawbone, Burning Airlines) at length here. When Bill told Ian MacKaye he was joining Foxhall Stacks with Brian: “Ian told me: ‘That motherfucker’s a changed man.’ I think that was Ian’s way of acknowledging that the Brian that he knew, as a young teenager, and the Brian I was in a band with now were completely different people, as far as he was concerned…. Brian went through a lot of transformations, as a person, and as a musician, between when he was ‘launched into fame’ as bass player and guitarist for Minor Threat—that’s a lot of attention to have, at that age, as a kid, that was ‘celebrity’ in our circles—and so the rumor, and the reason I was so nervous about being in a band with Brian Baker, was not just because I knew him to be an exceptional musician, but also because, like, What’s the ego going to be like in the room? Is he going to be critical of my singing or my guitar playing, or look down on me? And he could not have been more the opposite…You could tell he just loved making music so much. And his suggestions came from an intuitive sense of how a song should go. His way of putting things was really positive, and constructive, and helpful. And it’s rare to find someone in life who has that level of expertise in their genre, who also has a sense of how to deliver feedback and be a constructive critic in a way that doesn’t come off as: I’m better than you, because I’m a godfather of hardcore. It felt genuine, and it felt constructive, and it felt like it was offered in the interest of the songs being better.”

One of those transformations was addiction, and then sobriety. Brian said to me, simply, “I lived a lifestyle that allowed me to get away with a lot of shit for a very long time, and it finally got to the point where I was just not able to function, and something had to give.” MacKaye, not one given to sentimentality, seemed to allude to this when he told me, “I think Brian was able to center himself and his life in the last few years in a way that made him really finally reveal what a glorious human being he is. He’s a really lovely dude.”

Brian’s primary touring guitars with Bad Religion are a pair of ’55 Les Paul Juniors. Brian is incredibly particular about his gear, but he’s not precious about it. But, in keeping with what Temple called, with approbation, his “fastidiousness,” Brian doesn’t like refins. Every friend of Brian’s I spoke to had a different way of describing him as a perfectionist. He is, however, completely unsentimental about gear. (Brian is the only guitarist I’ve ever spoken to for more than fifteen minutes who didn’t rue a guitar they should never have sold.) Given his minimalist/punk approach to gear, I asked why he didn’t just tour with a reissue. He explained that the older ones have more life, more bloom. And they smell better!

It’s rare to just spontaneously get into vintage Juniors. But when someone puts a Junior in your hands, it’s a revelation. Some years ago Tacoma Luthier Joe Riggio handed me his ’55, with divots in the body from when its original owner used it to drive stakes into the ground. It was the loudest unplugged solid body guitar I’d ever played. As Brian said, “there’s the least amount of things in the way of the vibration” on a Junior.

Brian’s LP Junior sherpa was Bad Religion’s other guitarist, Mike Dimkich. Dismissing complaints about tuning and noise, Dimkich described tuning more as a function of the player than the guitar. (It is very punk rock to view tuning as a matter of personal agency.) He acknowledged the noise, but noise management, like tuning, comes down to personal agency; both Bad Religion guitarists ride their volume knobs relentlessly.

Brian explained that previously, “I didn’t like P-90 guitars because they buzzed and I didn’t like wraptail guitars because you couldn’t intonate them.” But Brian thought Mike “sounded so great…and I was attracted to the economy of the guitar.” Regarding noise, Brian credited a combination of volume knob control and “getting over it.” At first, his “inner nerd” was still obsessing over intonation, but he realized—and I can’t tell you how liberating this epiphany is—“it was the idea of the lack of precision that was bothering me; it wasn’t the lack of precision itself.”

Purchase the issue to read the entire feature. 

The post Excerpt: Bad Religion’s Brian Baker in the Fretboard Journal 60 first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

Press Release

Source: Nick Loss-Eaton PR

Jad Tariq

Precious Company slated for September release Memphis-based guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Jad Tariq made an unforgettable first impression in early 2025 with his debut release, Jad Tariq Sings.

Effortlessly blending feel-good swing with the raw emotional power of the blues, the album quickly captured the attention of audiences and critics alike.

As one reviewer observed, “Jad Tariq leaves no doubt that he has arrived, and that we will be enjoying his artistry for years to come.”

That prediction has proven remarkably accurate. For his highly anticipated sophomore release, Precious Company, Tariq has crafted ten compelling original songs that showcase both his growth as a songwriter and his musical maturity.

Throughout the album, Tariq delivers his well-crafted lyrics and melodies with a rich tone, and his electric guitar dazzles as his playing moves between intimacy and intensity. Backed by some of Memphis’ finest players, Precious Company captures an artist fully stepping into his own, delivering a sound that is both timeless and unmistakably original.

Originally from Trumbull, Connecticut, Tariq began performing professionally at just twelve years old, honing his craft in bars and clubs throughout the tri-state area. At eighteen, he relocated to Memphis, immersing himself in the city’s rich blues tradition.

Since then, he has become a fixture on the Memphis musicscene, performing regularly with his own band while also serving as a sought-after sideman for many of the city’s most respected artists.

Jad has garnered national attention through collaborations with multiple Blues Music Award-winner, John Németh, renowned musician Tony Holiday, and legendary harmonica master Charlie Musselwhite.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Most recently, he earned the prestigious honor of being invited to join Bob Dylan’s touring band for a series of dates. One writer noted: “His instant chemistry with his new bandmates rendered a familiar setlist into something novel and exhilarating. It was easily one of the best Dylan shows I’ve seen over the last 20 years” – fitting praise for one of the most exciting young artists to emerge from today’s blues scene.

“It’s a blessing to see such a talented young artist establish himself and flourish in such a short time,” says MoMojo label manager Debra Clark. “Jad is the complete package. His musicianship speaks for itself, but what impresses me just as much is his professional-ism, humility, and work ethic. Those qualities have earned him the respect of everyone around him and are the basis for what I believe will be a long and remarkable career.”

Jad adds, “I’m so excited to share these 10 new tunes with you all! We recorded these tunes live in my living room studio right here in Memphis. The songs are raw and honest, and I hope you enjoy listening to this record as much as I enjoyed making it!”

Pre-orders will begin August 21; two singles will be released (August 21, September 4) prior to the release date of September 18, 2026.

Joe Bonamassa is one of the most prolific collectors of vintage guitars. But he doesn’t possess the purism you might expect from a vintage collector. In fact, one of his favourite guitars is a heavily modified 1968 Fender Telecaster loaded with Gibson PAF humbuckers…

Blues ace and owner of one of the world’s greatest collections of vintage instruments – housed at Nerdville East and West in Nashville and LA, respectively – Joe Bonamassa has hundreds of guitars. But this guitar remains one of his favourites, and it’s precisely because it’s a hybrid, he explains in a new interview with Guitar Center.

“These are PAF humbucking pickups from Gibson,” he says. “I bought this guitar from a guy in Daytona Beach, Florida about 15 years ago. It wasn’t a lot of money. And I plugged it in and it was magic. Sometimes a hybrid can turn out to be the best.”

• READ MORE: This is why your guitar’s scale length actually matters
  

The Tele, he explains, is fitted with 500k potentiometers – which let less high frequency content bleed resulting in a brighter tone.

“It’s basically a Gibson Les Paul jammed into a Fender Telecaster,” says Bonamassa. ‘But the difference is you have a maple neck and an ash body. And they sound great. And that’s the beauty of a Fender Telecaster: you can pretty much do anything to it.

“Now, do I suggest going out there and buying a very expensive vintage Telecaster, taking a pin router to it and jamming a whole bunch of pickups in there? No. If they’re already modified, then that’s the beauty of it. And you can save yourself some money and have literally just a utility plank that can play anything.”

Of course, one of JoBo’s favourite guitars has obviously seen its share of stage use…

“I’ve used this guitar for jazz fusion gigs, I’ve used it for rock gigs. I’ve used it for everything, because it has so much flexibility.”

He might be a vintage guitar collector, but his love of hybrid guitars isn’t the first opinion that might poke at the gear purists. Increasingly so lately, he’s been touting his love of digital amp modellers.

Recently admitting that he “wanted to hate” amp modellers, he explained: “I was wrong about the fact that no modeller will replace a tube version, I think they’re gonna get there and surpass.”

The post “It’s basically a Gibson Les Paul jammed into a Fender Telecaster”: This is one of Joe Bonamassa’s favourite vintage guitars – and why hybrids can be “the best” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Scale length is one of those items on the spec sheet that I always saw, for many of my early years before I ever knew what it actually was or what it meant. I would hear terms like “Fender scale” or “Gibson scale” and politely smile and nod.

• READ MORE: What actually happens when you adjust your guitar’s pickup heights?

There were so many differences between a Les Paul and a Telecaster that I never thought much of the scale, but it does have quite an effect on the playability of the models. In this article, we’ll explain what scale is and why it matters – and how you can use that to choose a guitar with the right scale for you.

What the number actually means

Scale length is the working length of the string, measured from the nut to the saddle. The simplest way to find it is to simply measure it. A 25.5-inch scale length has 25.5 inches of string free to vibrate on every course, and that’s all the number tells you on its own. Everything worth knowing comes from what it forces the rest of the instrument to do.

A lot of electric guitars you’ll pick up will sit in one of two camps. Leo Fender built the Telecaster and Stratocaster around 25.5 inches, and that became the standard for Fender and for the mountain of guitars built to copy them. Gibson went with 24.75 inches on the Les Paul, SG and ES-335. If you’re wondering why it is measured in inches instead of metric, its simply because Fender and Gibson were based in the US and the specs fell into that unit of measurement.

Three-quarters of an inch sounds like a rounding error, and as a measurement, it nearly is. A few builders split the difference on purpose. PRS landed on 25 inches, reaching for a bit of Fender’s tightness and a bit of Gibson’s give in the same neck. Other guitars exist outside the 25.5-24.75 thresholds. We’ll get to them later in the article.

Why a longer scale length guitar fights back

Bringing a string up to pitch takes a set amount of tension, and a longer string needs more of it to reach the same note at the same gauge. The relationship isn’t gentle, either. Tension climbs with the square of the scale length, so swapping a 24.75-inch guitar for a 25.5 with identical strings and tuning piles on roughly six per cent more tension across every string.

Six per cent doesn’t read like much, but your fretting hand will feel it. The longer Fender scale pushes back against your bends and snaps to pitch faster. It stays firm when you dig in. It’s a big part of why players coming off a Les Paul onto a Strat so often drop string gauge from 10s to 9s, just to get the old slack back. A shorter scale does the reverse. It’s looser and more forgiving, and bends come without a fight. Plenty of blues and rock players build their whole feel around that softer response.

What scale length does to your tone

Tension shapes the sound as much as the feel. A tighter string speaks with more clarity and top end. There’s more harmonic content sitting under the note, and the low end holds firmer, which is a chunk of that bright, almost piano-like attack baked into the classic Fender voice. A looser string leans harder on its fundamental and comes back warmer and rounder, with the highs pulled off the top. So crediting Gibson warmth entirely to mahogany and humbuckers leaves something out. The short scale is in there doing its share.

Fret spacing is the most visible effect. You cant just move a Fender neck .75 inches further into the body and have it work as a Gibson scale – the fret spacing is different. A longer scale stretches the frets apart, which keeps notes separated but asks more of your hand down near the nut. A shorter scale brings them in tighter, friendlier for small hands and fast chord work, though it can feel cramped once you’re past the body/neck joint.

Non-traditional scale-lengths

Step outside the Fender-versus-Gibson norms and builders start reaching for scale length on purpose. Short-scale guitars like the 24-inch Mustang and Jaguar, or the old Danelectros, play slinky and run a little dark, which is half of why indie and garage players love them. Basses follow the same logic. A 34-inch scale keeps a low E from going to mush, while 30-inch short-scale basses trade some of that tightness for warmth and an easier reach.

Baritones are usually defined as having a scale length of 27 inches or more. The whole point is to tune well below standard without the strings turning to wet noodles, since the extra length holds the tension together down in low drop tunings.

Fanned-fret guitars chase the same fix from another angle. Ralph Novak’s Novax designs run a longer scale under the bass strings and a shorter one under the trebles, with the frets angled so the geometry lines up. The low strings hold their tension and the high strings stay easy to bend. That was the idea behind fanned frets.

So, which scale is right for you? That’s not for me to say. My advice is always to get your hands on as many guitars as possible and see which ones feel and sound best to you. That’s why I love guitar stores where you can pick a guitar up and test it out. It allows you to know what you’re looking for when buying a guitar.

You might prefer the look of Fender guitar but the more compact dimensions of a Gibson – that’s what I realised, and it’s why I build Fender-style necks with 24.75-inch scales for my guitars. Warmoth and other aftermarket companies make these sorts of conversion necks as well if you’re set on the look of one body shape but prefer a different scale length.

Few players can tell the difference by looking at it, but the feel is undeniable. That’s why scale length is such an important part of any guitar equation.

The post This is why your guitar’s scale length actually matters appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Press Release

Source: SKH Music

One of the world’s most captivating guitarists, Yngwie Malmsteen has announced his new studio album, Hell or High Water, which will be released on November 13 via Music Theories Recordings / Artone Label Group. To whet your appetite, he has also revealed the first single from the album, ‘Now or Never,’ which you can listen to HERE.

When we think of the greatest guitar players of all-time, specifically the crème de la crème musicians who invented a whole new style and sound on the instrument, Yngwie J. Malmsteen is a name that sits comfortably alongside game-changers like Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Edward Van Halen.

The nine tracks that make up his latest triumph were crafted meticulously and purposefully, away from the distractions that stall the creative process in the modern age. This is something he first tried with 2021’s Parabellum – mainly because of the state of the world at that time – and the results were so strong, he decided to stick with this as his modus operandi moving forward.

Pre-Order/Stream HERE.

“When I started making records, I would just take the songs I had lying around,” he admits. “Later on, I fell into a schedule – make a record, tour the record and then write the next record. Over the pandemic, I realised it was better to focus completely uninterrupted, so I stayed at home to write this album over the course of eight months. I had around 80 or 90 tracks finished, and then I had to decide which ones were the strongest.”

For a man born with a gift to conjure up overtures “out of nowhere”, the science behind writing a song is something that’s hard to explain. But, in any case, he’s grateful for the abundance of gold-standard ideas that do arrive – the kind that would take other musicians months or even years to realise into actuality. For Yngwie J. Malmsteen, this is simply what he was born to do.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Even without a guitar in my hands, the music just comes to me,” he reasons. “It’s like that movie Amadeus. Mozart was getting music given to him in complete form. I understand the building blocks and can therefore build you anything you like. If you asked me to write you a death metal song, call me back in five minutes, and I’d have it ready for you. You want country and western or reggae? No problem. I can give you whatever you want. The language of music is simple. There are certain notes that belong together in whatever stylistic direction and sound pleasant to the ear. The ideas don’t come all the time, but when they do, it’s like an avalanche. The pieces I choose for my records are like gifts that I capture because they amaze me. I’m very lucky in that sense.”

Lead single ‘Now Or Never’ is a perfect storm of palm-muted riffing, baroque counterpart melodies, soaring vocals and mind-blowing dexterity. If you’re looking for Yngwie in a nutshell, this is very much it, and similar things could be said of the second track and instrumental pièce de résistance ‘Am Caprice/Hell Or High Water.’

‘(On The) Battlefield’ and ‘Eye For An Eye’ feature some of the singer/guitarist’s strongest vocal performances to date, alongside the stunning instrumentals ‘Antikythera’ and ‘Beyond Zeta Reticuli’ – which were both named after important scientific breakthroughs and discoveries.

Hell Or High Water is an album that’s bursting with emotion from all corners, but the closing track ‘Father’ is undoubtedly the most spirited of them all, written in tribute to the guitar legend’s dad, who passed away last year.

“He was an amazing man,” remembers Yngwie. “I was proud to have him as a father, and I loved him. I wanted to dedicate all of this to him, and that one particular track is for him. I wanted others to feel what I felt when they hear it. Nicola Paganini once said, ‘One must feel strongly in order to make others feel strongly’. It’s one thing to be a typewriter and another thing to be someone who writes stories that can touch people. That was always the point.”

All these years on, Yngwie J. Malmsteen looks and sounds more determined than ever. If the music feels good to him, that’s enough – anyone else liking it is a bonus. And this is precisely the creative fortitude and single-mindedness that turned him into a household name among the guitar community. There is no such thing as half measures or compromise in his world. Here is an artist who will be forever bound to authenticity and creative honesty.

Tour Dates

Tickets available HERE

September 4 – Beijing, China @ East Third Live House

September 6 – Shanghai, China @ Phase Live House

September 11 – Tokyo, Japan @ Toyosu Pit

September 13 – Yokohama, Japan @ Pacifico Yokohama

Yngwie Malmsteen Online

https://www.yngwiemalmsteen.com/

www.facebook.com/officialyngwiemalmsteen

www.instagram.com/yngwiemalmsteen_official

/www.tiktok.com/@yngwiemalmsteen_official

https://www.youtube.com/@officialyngwiemalmsteen622

https://x.com/officialyjm 

Back in May, Edward “Bud” Cole likened AI to “cover music” in an interview with T3, noting that the act of learning and adapting another artist’s songs and techniques is like a form of “analogue AI”. Now, the Fender CEO is keen to clarify his comments.

In a new statement shared with Fast Company, Cole explains that he hadn’t “fully conveyed” his perspective on AI during his T3 interview. “My intent was to talk about how technology can help artists and players learn and grow,” he explains.

• READ MORE: Fender has sent Yamaha a cease-and-desist in Stratocaster crack-down

He goes on to explain that, while AI can help a player grow, that will never take away the human spirit that keeps the guitar community thriving. “Music is an inherently human experience, and great songs are born out of people’s lives, their creative energy and the countless hours spent learning their instruments – something no machine can ever replicate,” he writes.

“Many of the concerns people have about AI are real,” the CEO continues. “Conversations need to happen about how to advance AI while protecting artists and upholding respect for their work.”

To round off, Cole asserts that he still believes that AI is a supportive tool for guitarists of all levels. In his mind, it serves as a way of opening new doors to “explore, refine and experiment with their own creative ideas”. But “music starts and ends with people, and it always will”.

The post “My intent was to talk about how technology can help artists and players learn and grow”: Fender CEO responds to his previous comments on AI appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Recently, backers of the pro-AI movement are taking a new approach when defending its use in the studio. Instead of addressing on the plagiaristic realities of AI training, musicians are focusing on how it improves musical productivity.

The latest artist to proclaim AI as a useful “tool” in the studio is Empire of the Sun’s Luke Steele. In an interview with iHeartRadio Canada, the singer said that AI technology is the same as using a “really smart guitar pedal” that can “empower artists that know how to use it” [via Consequence Of Sound].

• READ MORE: “If AI replaces musicians, we’re out of business”: D’Addario responds again to claims it used AI-generated music in a demo

Steele is aware of the fact that AI’s steadily increasing influence in the music industry could result in artists falling to the wayside. “I think you’ve got to be careful, you know?” he notes. “‘Cause [AI] is so powerful… it’s going to empower artists that know how to use it, and they’re going to become unstoppable… [if you don’t keep up], it’s going to come and swallow you like a boogie monster at night.”

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This isn’t the first time the singer has spoken out in support of AI. In fact, back in April, Steele told Clash Magazine that AI was an “amazing breakthrough in the world”, and explained what AI tools Empire Of The Sun were actively using in the studio.

“I think it’s a breakthrough for artists, too because it’s such a powerful tool…” he said. “We’ve been building out of Base44… [we are using] this thing we called Song Mountain, [which is] like a lyric maker that has all the different tongues of different kinds of words from scriptures to ancient American-Indian Quotes, to different flavours of taxi conversation, it can all be used to kind of help craft different ways lines and verses are written.”

It’s a vastly different approach to the artists standing against AI. Recently, both Sophie Burrell and Sophie Lloyd have spoken out about AI plagiarising their music and likeness, while Rhett Shull has also spoken out about AI ripping off his content.

In terms of artists in the opposing camp, Boy George comes as one of the latest to wave the AI flag. Last week, he proudly asserted that he used AI to write a pro-Israel track, We Will Dance Again. Earlier in the year, George also sunk AI’s praises on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast, explaining that it AI technology has “really helped [him] as a lyricist”.

In the days following We Will Dance Again’s release, Bandcamp quickly took it down, with a spokesperson telling NME: “The track was removed ​based ​on violation of our Acceptable ​Use & Moderation Policy, which in specific ​regard ​to this case, prohibits music and ​audio that ​is wholly ​or in substantial part created, composed, ​or ​generated ​by ​artificial intelligence”.

The post Empire of the Sun’s Luke Steele likens AI music tools to a “really smart guitar pedal” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

A full decade ago, Guns N’ Roses surprised the rock world by announcing they would be reuniting to perform at 2016’s Coachella Festival. Considering Slash and Axl Rose had previously been caught in a decades-long feud, it was a wonder that the pair could stand performing together again – and then, in another shock, they even decided to keep the band going for another ten years.

However, despite Slash and Axl being at one another’s throats in the past, Slash insists that it’s all water under the bridge now. In a new interview with Rolling Stone Australia, the guitarist even says it was “easy” to move on from any bitterness once the pair had a proper heart-to-heart about their issues.

• READ MORE: Slash admits that he was getting tired of the “very predictable Marshall sound” in his music

Before Coachella was even on the cards, Slash reveals that Axl reached out to him to mend old wounds. “I was on the road with The Conspirators in South America, and I got a call from my management saying that Axl’s management wanted to get in touch,” he recalls. “That wasn’t even about Guns N’ Roses getting back together… that was really about mending the fences, so to speak.”

“When I got off the road, he and I had dinner, and then everything just sort of blossomed from there…” he continues. “It was always a bummer to me that it went the way that it went… it was nice to get together with him and talk about it, and realise that all these issues were really on the surface and superficial and stupid.”

As Slash puts it, his issues were never with Axl directly. The problem was more to do with people interfering in their relationship. “The actual issues between Axl and I weren’t insurmountable,” the guitarist admits. “It really had to do with other people that had gotten involved – that sort of exacerbated the issues that we had. It caused a lot of issues. So without [those people], it was really easy for me and Axl to just get past it, you know.”

In fact, the Guns N’ Roses legend even explains that mending the relationship instantly left him with a “warm, fuzzy family feeling” in his gut. “And we haven’t had one fucking fight the whole 10 years that we’ve been together this this this time around!” he announces proudly.

Not only has their renewed bond allowed them to carry on rocking for another ten years, but it’s also allowed Slash to help Axl meet one of his heroes – namely the Prince of Darkness. “I got Axl back there to meet Ozzy Osbourne for the first time [when we played Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning show], because they’d never met each other,” Slash remembers.

“Axl obviously was always a fan of Ozzy, but what Axl didn’t know was Ozzy was a huge fan of his!” he adds. “It was nice to see them actually meet.”

Now, Guns N’ Roses are slowly working towards the long-awaited follow-up to 2008’s Chinese Democracy. “There’s a lot of writing going on with Guns,” Slash reveals. “So after I get back from [touring with The Conspirators], we’ll see if [Guns N’ Roses] can start putting some stuff together and getting in the studio.”

In the mean time, a new record from the The Conspirators is set to drop in February next year after Guns wrap up their tour. It’s set to be the first record from the project since 2022. “It’s it’s good for me just to have all these musical outlets, so I can constantly be playing,” Slash says.

The post Slash says his decades-long feud with Axl Rose wasn’t personal: “It really had to do with other people” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The price tag of a proper original 1959 Gibson Les Paul puts it firmly out of reach of the vast majority of guitar players. Only 643 Les Paul Standards were ever shipped in 1959, so their extreme scarcity – and legendary status in the rock world – means these guitars, when they hit the market, command six-figure price tags most budgets would wince at.

So how can guitar companies give players on more typical budgets the feeling of landing a vintage instrument without having to sell their house in order to do so?

• READ MORE: “I don’t want to disappoint anybody”: Why Don Felder refuses to improvise when playing the Hotel California solo

The vintage guitar market remains strong, with many guitarists seeking instruments that look and feel like they’ve been extensively played in. But again, real vintage guitars are pricey, so many companies offer pre-aged models – guitars that are brand-new but made to look old.

Gibson, for example, has a dedicated division, the Murphy Lab, which specialises in artificially aging its electric and acoustic guitars.

“We don’t relic guitars; we age guitars and we try and age them to specific levels of wear with real examples that we see in the wild,” Gibson’s Director of Brand Experience Mark Agnesi tells Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto in a new podcast episode.

“Anything you can do to make a new guitar feel like – we call it the vintage guitar ownership experience. The feeling like I have a $700,000 ‘59 Les Paul in my hands, but when I open the case, I feel like this is the one. That’s the feeling.”

Agnesi says owning a real original ‘59 Les Paul is “unobtainium for almost everybody”, so the brand looks to create a similar experience for a fraction of the cost.

“Not everyone can afford it,” he continues. “Almost no one can afford an original 1959 Les Paul… So what you do [is] try and give the most amount of people the experience of when they open that case, they go, ‘Holy shit.’ That’s what the GIbson Custom Shop, and specifically the guitars coming out of the Murphy Lab, that’s what they’re trying to do. And I think they’re doing a phenomenal job.”

Agnesi says he himself has been fully converted to vintage-accurate guitars: “It’s all that I can own now. Once you get a couple of them, it’s like I need to get rid of all [of my old guitars] and replace them with the exact same thing [but aged].

“After playing vintage guitars for a decade, it’s hard to not have the feel of the neck [where] that binding has been rolled by somebody’s thumb going over it. Or that feel and texture of lacquer checking on the back of the neck.

“To me, it’s a lot more to do with the feel of the back of the neck than how cool it looks or how much paint got taken off the body. For me, it’s about the feel of the neck, and the binding roll – there’s no crisp edges anywhere. It just feels like putting on your old blue jeans. To me, that’s the most important part of an aged guitar.”

The post “Almost nobody can afford a 1959 Les Paul”: Mark Agnesi on why Gibson wants to make the most vintage-accurate guitars possible appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Press Release

Source: Hello Wendy PR

Bruce Cockburn – Image by Daniel Keebler

Bruce Cockburn has spent more than five decades writing some of the most enduring songs in Canadian music, and on his new album, The Blood of Others, released October 16ththrough Sunset Boulevard Records, he turns his attention to the songs that shaped him long before he wrote a single lyric of his own.

The album gathers material written by others, tracing a musical lineage that stretches from the gospel and blues records he heard as a child in Ottawa to the folk clubs and coffeehouses where he first found his voice. “What began back in the eighties as a vague notion grew over time into a strong desire to put together a collection of material, written by others, that I found sticking to the edges of my musical landscape,” Cockburn explains. “The accumulation of these songs started in the sixties, before I’d even begun to try to create my own.”

The album’s title comes from an unexpected literary source, Simone de Beauvoir’s novel of the same name, written during the Nazi occupation of France.  “Among other things it deals with personal responsibility in the face of scary oppression, and the kinds of choices people make,” he says. “I have borrowed the title because it seems perfect for an album of songs I didn’t write.”

The Blood of Others opens with “Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down,” a Robert Wilkins gospel number Cockburn first encountered on an early ‘70s compilation. “Wilkins’ powerful bottle neck guitar and passionate singing made this conversation with God instantly memorable,” he says, noting he reworked the arrangement using the angular harmonies of his DADGAD tuning. From there, the album moves into “As Time Goes By,” the Herman Hupfeld standard forever tied to the Casablanca film. “Who doesn’t love the scene in Casablanca in which Dooley Wilson plays this song, Ingrid Bergman at his side?” Cockburn says. “I thought I should include the original preamble, which gives the familiar part of the song a context, but it seemed to want an update. Hopefully Herman approves.”

The album also traces Cockburn’s early fascination with jazz and ragtime through “Buddy Bolden’s Blues,” a song he learned not from a record but from a book. “My friends were singing country blues and old timey music,” he recalls. “I was drawn to the somewhat more sophisticated style of ragtime and early jazz.”  That thread continues on “You Belong to Me,” a song Jo Stafford’s voice carried into his childhood home. “Jo Stafford’s gorgeously true voice was all over the radio with this when I was five,” Cockburn says. “The geographical references were exciting, awakening the travel bug in me years before “On the Road” lit a fire under it.”

Elvis Presley’s influence looms large on The Blood of Others as well, most directly on “That’s Alright.” “Elvis Presley hit the radio in Ottawa right when I was hitting adolescence,” Cockburn says. “He was captivatingly charismatic of course, but the guitar. Scotty Moore’s leads, by turns raucous and tender, bred a burning desire to play the instrument.” Cockburn notes his own version leans closer to Arthur Crudup’s original recording than to Presley’s.

A hometown connection surfaces on “Four Strong Winds,” the youngest song on the record. Cockburn credits Le Hibou, the Ottawa coffeehouse he calls his spiritual home, for introducing him to the song’s writers, Ian and Sylvia, who played the venue regularly through the sixties. “We were all very excited when their song showed up on the radio,” he says.

The album’s emotional core runs through several songs tied to formative personal memories. “God Bless the Child,” the Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog standard, dates back to a record Cockburn bought with his Sunday collection money as a teen. “A couple of years later I got to hear Billie Holiday’s original version,” he says. “Theologically a bit off base, but a deeply moving expression of disappointment with the human species.” “Louis Collins,” the Mississippi John Hurt classic, arrived through an afternoon Cockburn still remembers in vivid detail. “Barbie Luther invited me to her parents’ house to listen to music,” he recalls. “She opened a bottle of Mateus wine and put on Mississippi John Hurt’s rediscovery album. I was blown away by the sweetness, the idiosyncratic phrasing and the way he put voice and fingerpicked guitar together.”

Cockburn also revisits “Yellow Dog Blues,” a song he first heard on a Bessie Smith collection as a youth boy. “Right away I fell in love with the lyrics,” he says, tracing the song’s origins to WC Handy’s time in Clarksdale, Mississippi. “Fare Thee Well” carries its own full circle story, one that connects Cockburn’s earliest musical memories to a career highlight decades later. “It came back to mind when I got to perform it with the McGarrigle sisters at Pete Seeger’s ninetieth birthday event in NYC,” he says.

Few songs on the record carry the personal resonance of “I’ll Be Seeing You.” Cockburn describes hearing a version on the radio in the nineties, in the aftermath of what he calls “a brief but heart opening relationship,” and mishearing a lyric that reshaped how he understood the song. “I thought that version ended with the line, I’ll be looking at someone, but I’ll be seeing you,” he says. “That’s not in the original lyrics. They only refer to the moon, but it hit me in a powerful way.” That memory led him to give the song a rhythmic treatment inspired by “I Only Have Eyes for You.”

The album also carries a story about the road not taken. Cockburn recounts a night in Ottawa when he and friends dressed up to see blues guitarist Lonnie Johnson, whose 1964 Paris recordings had captivated him years earlier, and requested “Laplegged Drunk Again” from the stage. “He shook his head and smiled, and said, Oh, I can’t play that song in a place like this,” Cockburn remembers. The record closes out its story arc with “One for My Baby,” a Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen standard Cockburn traces to Frank Sinatra’s 1958 recording, “Les Feuilles Mortes,” the French original of “Autumn Leaves” that Cockburn discovered through the poetry of Jacques Prévert, and “Peace in the Valley,” a Thomas A. Dorsey gospel song Cockburn first heard through Elvis Presley.

The Blood of Others marks Cockburn’s 39th album, a milestone that speaks to the remarkable consistency of a career that began in 1970. Along the way, he has earned 13 Juno Awards, been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, named an Officer of the Order of Canada, and awarded 9 Honorary Doctorates including the Berklee School of Music. His songs, including “Lovers in a Dangerous Time,” “Wondering Where the Lions Are,” and “If I Had a Rocket Launcher,” remain touchstones of Canadian songwriting, covered by artists from the Barenaked Ladies to Jimmy Buffett to Jerry Garcia.

That legacy was still growing as recently as his previous studio release, O Sun O Moon, recorded in Nashville with longtime producer Colin Linden. “Time takes its toll, but in my soul I’m on a roll,” Cockburn sang on that album’s opening track, a line that could just as easily describe the restless curiosity behind The Blood of Others.  Speaking about his songwriting at the time, Cockburn put it simply: “I just don’t want to ever keep doing the same thing.” With this new record, he proves that philosophy extends even to the songs he didn’t write himself, each one chosen and reshaped with the same care and instinct that has defined his catalogue since 1970.

Cockburn will bring these songs to audiences across North America on an extensive run of tour dates.

TOUR DATES:

Aug 7 — Los Angeles, CA — Ford Theatre **

Aug 26 — Iowa City, IA — Englert Theatre **

Aug 27 — Des Moines, IA — Hoyt Sherman Place **

Sep 8 — Omaha, NE — Astro Theater **

Sep 9 — Lawrence, KS — Liberty Hall **

Oct 3 — Eugene, OR — McDonald Theatre **

Oct 15 — Kitchener, ON — Centre in the Square

Oct 16 — Ottawa, ON — National Arts Centre

Oct 17 — Toronto, ON — Massey Hall

Oct 18 — Montréal, QC — Gesù Salle

Oct 20 — Plymouth, NH — Flying Monkey&

Oct 21 — Portland, ME — State Theatre&

Oct 23 — Boston, MA — Chevalier Theatre&

Oct 24 — New York, NY — Town Hall&

Oct 25 — Philadelphia, PA — Keswick Theatre&

Oct 27 — Washington, DC — Warner Theatre&

Oct 29 — Durham, NC — Fletcher Hall&

Oct 30 — Charlotte, NC — Carolina Theatre&

Nov 1 — Nashville, TN — CMA Theatre&

Nov 2 — Knoxville, TN — Bijou Theatre&

Nov 4 — Atlanta, GA — Variety Playhouse&

Nov 6 — Ponte Vedra, FL — Ponte Vedra Concert Hall&

Nov 7 — Fort Lauderdale, FL — Amaturo Theatre&

Nov 8 — Key West, FL — Key West Theatre&

** With Judy Collins

& With Livingston Taylor

Is there any guitar solo in existence more iconic than Hotel California?

Sure, there are certainly some strong contenders, but Don Felder’s outro solo on the title track from the Eagles’ landmark 1976 album of the same name will go down in history as one of the greatest lead guitar moments ever committed to record.

• READ MORE: Two of Eddie Van Halen’s Kramer guitars are up for auction – accompanied by his used cigarette butts

And as such, Don Felder makes sure to treat the solo with the utmost respect when performing the track live, in that he’ll never deviate from the notes on the record as an obligation to fans.

“I’ve played it so many times – like, every show I’ve played as a solo artist I have played Hotel California,” Felder tells Ultimate Classic Rock in a new interview. He notes how he continuously practices Hotel California despite playing it hundreds of times over the last five decades.

“The one thing I do at every show, before I go on stage, is work on Hotel California because I don’t want to disappoint anybody,” he explains. “Everybody knows every note in that solo, and I’m afraid if I started jamming on it people would go, ‘What is he doing? That’s wrong! That’s not the solo! Is he having a moment? Or maybe he’s just too old to remember it?”

“I think people want to hear it as they remember it from 50 years ago. So I do my best to play that, and it really takes the most amount of intense concentration to execute that solo over and over and over and over. You never want to just go on autopilot with it.”

Of course, Hotel California remains the Eagles most defining song, and is a staple of the band’s live show to this day. For his big moment each set, Don Felder uses his trusty Gibson EDS-1275 double neck guitar, as he has for decades.

Eagles continue to perform, and have just announced a new run of dates for their massive residency at the Las Vegas Sphere.

In September last year, Don Felder spoke about Heavy Metal (Takin’ a Ride), his 1981 solo track he re-recorded for his album The Vault – Fifty Years of Music. While the track ultimately became one of his solo songs, he had initially envisioned it as the ultimate guitar showdown between him and bandmate Joe Walsh – one that would even eclipse their twin leads on Hotel California.

“It was going to be a follow-up on The Long Run,” he said. “It had a real kind of heavy hand to it and I wrote it so that Joe and I could play even harder than we did – or edgier than we did – on Hotel California, against each other. It had harmony parts, trading-off solos and a much harder rock edge.”

The post “I don’t want to disappoint anybody”: Why Don Felder refuses to improvise when playing the Hotel California solo appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$349/£349, sourceaudio.com

Everybody loves a good reverb pedal, and right now it feels like we’re living through a golden age of ambient effects. Whether you’re after a subtle plate, a cavernous hall, or some otherworldly wash of galactic ambience, there has never been a shortage of options. If anything, today’s market is almost spoiled for choice.

• READ MORE: Attic Audio Putty review – will this ultra-mouldable preamp give you The Edge?

That said, not every player is chasing increasingly expansive soundscapes. For many guitarists, the magic still lies in the tried and true sounds of vintage spring reverb and pulsing tube tremolo. It’s a classic combination that has shaped countless recordings for decades, and one that continues to inspire players today.

Enter the Source Audio Pathways. On paper, it promises to bring those timeless reverb and tremolo sounds into the modern era, combining both effects into a single compact enclosure. Of course, whenever two effects share the same pedal, there’s always the question of compromise. Does combining them result in the best of both worlds, or does convenience come at the expense of performance?

What is it?

Source Audio’s description of the Pathways is pretty straightforward. At its core, it’s built around one of the most beloved effect pairings in guitar history: reverb and tremolo. Given Source Audio’s reputation for creating some wonderfully esoteric soundscaping machines, you might be expecting me to explain how this pedal takes these two classics and gets weird, but no – this is very much the peanut butter and jelly of guitar effects, presented without any gimmickry.

That’s not to say this is lacking in options sonically. The Pathways packs seven onboard reverb and echo algorithms: Slap, Echo, Spring, Tank, Room, Plate, and Hall. Those are paired with three tremolo voices: Harm, Opto, and Bias, along with three selectable note subdivision options. The result is a broad range of sounds that can cover everything from old school surf and vintage Americana to the kind of cavernous ambience that makes you immediately feel like a Slowdive record.

Build quality and usability

Physically, the Pathways is a noticeable departure from the larger enclosures used for pedals like the Collider and Dimensions. Instead, it shares a footprint much closer to the Source Audio Artifakt. In other words, it’s smaller than what many of us have come to expect from Source Audio. Good news for anyone whose pedalboard is already one new purchase away from violating local zoning regulations.

When it comes to controls, Source Audio has continued its recent trend of keeping things refreshingly simple. The pedal features six knobs, with the top row dedicated to reverb duties: Reverb Time, Tone, and Mix. The bottom row handles tremolo controls, including Speed and Depth, while the center knob in the second row serves as the mode selector and will likely be the control you’ll interact with most often.

Of course, this is still a Source Audio pedal, which means there’s considerably more happening beneath the surface than the control layout initially suggests. MIDI support, USB-C connectivity, and integration with the Neuro 3 app also potentially expand the pedal’s capabilities dramatically – offering deeper editing, preset management, and a level of customization that power users will undoubtedly appreciate. And speaking of preset management, you have four onboard presets to switch between sounds.

Sounds

To really see what the Pathways was capable of, I reached for what felt like the obvious choice, a Jazzmaster. After all, few guitars are better equipped to cover the sonic ground this pedal is aiming for, from drip-soaked surf rock to the kind of lush ambient soundscapes that make you want to spend an afternoon pretending you’re in Sigur Rós.

I wanted an amp that didn’t have any onboard reverb or tremolo to see how it enhanced the overall package, so I plugged into a Milkman Beekeeper combo – there was truly nowhere for the Pathways to hide. Every bit of ambience and modulation coming through the speaker was entirely its own doing.

It didn’t take long for the Tank setting to win me over. It’s wonderfully bouncy and absolutely dripping with character, delivering an immersive warmth that immediately felt familiar. More importantly, it captures that vintage spring reverb magic without feeling like a sterile recreation of the past. Each chord rang out with the kind of wet articulation that instantly transported me back to the classic outboard tanks and amp reverbs of the 1960s. There’s a depth and dimensionality here that reminds you exactly why guitarists fell in love with spring reverb in the first place.

The rest of the reverb offerings are equally impressive in their own right. In particular, I found myself repeatedly gravitating toward the Hall setting and its gloriously indulgent wall-of-sound ambience. It’s the kind of reverb that practically asks you to play slow chords and make questionable life decisions. Likewise, if your tastes lean more toward traditional Room or Plate reverbs, there’s a level of attention to detail here that makes each algorithm feel thoughtfully voiced rather than simply included to pad out a spec sheet. Then again, when it comes to reverb, did we really expect anything less from Source Audio?

Admittedly, I’m not the world’s biggest tremolo enthusiast, which meant that side of the Pathways had a tougher job winning me over than the reverb section did. That’s not to say the tremolo sounds aren’t good. Quite the opposite, actually. While all three voices are more than serviceable, I found myself spending most of my time with the Bias mode. There’s something about the way it adds movement and depth without overwhelming the front end of your signal. Each note carries a warm, pulsating warble that feels far more organic than I expected, making it both rewarding and surprisingly addictive to play through.

However, it’s the interaction between the reverb and tremolo engines that ultimately becomes the Pathways’ biggest selling point. Combined, they create some genuinely gorgeous textures that can move effortlessly between dream pop soundscapes worthy of Cocteau Twins and the subtle surf-inspired pulse of Dick Dale. A feat that I thought nearly impossible outside big-box offerings like Eventide’s H90.

Oddly, the only shortcoming I found with this pedal was the Neuro 3 app integration. While it’s one of the best apps I’ve encountered in terms of technological integration and implementation, with Pathways I never really gave it much thought and would posit that most people who purchase this pedal are still best served by what it’s immediately capable of. In some ways I can’t help but wonder if that will come as a detriment to the Neuro 3 app, or if people will completely forget that it’s there.

Should I buy one?

The Pathways feels like Source Audio has managed to thread a very difficult needle. It captures the tonal character that made vintage reverbs and tremolos so beloved in the first place while embracing the flexibility and convenience that modern players have come to expect.

Is it perfect? No. While the Neuro 3 app is genuinely powerful, I suspect a lot of players will spend most of their time enjoying the pedal straight out of the box rather than diving deep into its expanded functionality.

Likewise, if your primary goal is creating massive ambient soundscapes that could double as a film score, you’re probably better served by some of Source Audio’s more ambitious offerings, such as the Dimensions.

On the flip side, if you’re a diehard traditionalist looking for a near one-to-one recreation of the classic reverb and tremolo sounds of yesteryear, the Strymon Flint remains one of the category’s standard bearers thanks to its simplicity, feel, and remarkably authentic sounds.

The Pathways sits comfortably between the worlds of modernity and tradition. More importantly, it accomplishes all of this without feeling like a compromise. Whether you’re chasing surf rock drip, Americana warmth, dream pop textures, or ambient soundscapes, the Pathways feels equally at home. That’s not an easy balancing act to pull off, especially in a compact enclosure. But for anyone curious, it’s not only worth the financial investment, but it’s also worth the creative possibilities it begs you to explore.

Like this? Try these alternatives

Strymon’s Flint ($349/£329) is a wonderfully simple and great-sounding reverb/tremolo, and the V2 version adds MIDI control and the ability to store up to 300 presets. Robert Keeley’s Zoma ($229/£289) is the effects guru’s attempt to create a stripped-down and no-nonsense take on Fender amp-style trem and reverb, and it’s very good. Fender’s effects pedals don’t often get enough mention, but the Tre-Verb ($359/£219) is a very good stereo reverb and tremolo.

The post Source Audio Pathways review: “a pedal that sits comfortably between the worlds of modernity and tradition” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Press Release

Source: SKH Music

Coast To Coast Run of Forty Confirmed Appearances Begins on October 9 in Santa Cruz with

The Final Performance To Be Staged in Riverside on December 3 

Adrian Belew and Tony Levin, alongside Steve Vai and Terry Bozzio approach the next chapter of BEAT. The quartet has announced a tour of the U.S. that will stage 40 appearances.

The general on-sale is set for Friday, August 7 at 10 AM local time. Tickets and VIP experiences will be available here: https://beat-official.com/tour.  The artist pre-sale goes live on Tuesday, August 4 at Noon Eastern time with the password BEATTOUR. Fans can access the ticketing page and simply enter the code at checkout. All pre-sales will end at 10am local time Thursday, August 6. 

Adrian Belew shares, “For those of you who’ve seen BEAT live, it’s important to note we’ll be adding some material from ‘90s Crim to our U.S. tour. Along with the addition of superman drummer Terry Bozzio, we feel this will result in a new experience for our audience.  We’re very excited to play for you again.  Don’t miss it!”

The global audience has celebrated the existence of BEAT, responding to the music, chemistry, spirit and respect this collective of esteemed musicians has brought to one of the most remarkable catalogs in progressive rock. BEAT continues to evolve whole remaining true to the music and the spirit that inspired it.

As Adrian, Tony and Steve approach the band’s upcoming activity, Terry Bozzio enters the fold behind the kit. Danny Carey remains an important part of the BEAT family, and simply his Tool commitments prevent him from being available for this upcoming run in the Fall. Steve Vai offers, “Terry is one of the truly legendary drummers of our time, whose remarkable career and unique musical voice make him the perfect artist to join us for this tour. He brings his own extraordinary artistry to BEAT, and that’s something worth celebrating.”

Adrian Belew shares, “Our deepest appreciation goes to our brother Danny Carey—a true BEAT-Poet. His extraordinary musicianship, generosity, humor, and explosive creativity helped establish BEAT as something far beyond a tribute. He helped create its identity. While Tool commitments keep him from joining us this fall, he remains an essential part of our family.

When the ensemble’s existence was first made public on April 2, 2024, the vision was simply to present a creative reinterpretation of the three iconic ’80s King Crimson albums – Discipline, Beat, and Three Of A Perfect Pair. Just over forty appearances were announced across the U.S., triggering a majority of those planned appearances reaching sold-out status in days. Additional performances were added, creating an inaugural run which staged 65 concerts across the U.S. Appearances in Mexico, South America and Tokyo’s legendary Budokan followed, most recently staging an extensive run of the U.K. and Europe performing in 31 cities this year.

When the band heads back out in the Fall, fans should anticipate some exciting additions to the repertoire being performed, with several songs rotating out while other classic King Crimson pieces emerging in to the set. Those details will come to light once the tour begins.

The itinerary kicks off on October 9 at the Quarry Amphitheater in Santa Cruz, CA, with a final appearance planned in at Riverside, CA’s Municipal Auditorium on December 3.  

 In front of the 2024 tour, guitarist Adrian Belew reflected, “The 1981 through 1984 King Crimson created a music all its own. Timeless. Beautiful. Complex. Fierce.  For the fans who lived through it then, and the ones who never got to witness it, our aim is to bring it to life again. A monumental task but we’re going for it!  There are not enough exclamation points to express my excitement!”

Guitarist Steve Vai stated, “Being a part of this ensemble is an extraordinary privilege and opportunity to perform some of the most beloved, timeless, and monumental music of the 80’s (and beyond) with truly inspired musicians. This music resonates deeply with me. Father Robert Fripp is one of our historical geniuses. His highly specific and exceptionally brilliant guitar technique is studied and revered. His contribution to the quality of my musical life, and so many others is supreme.”

Bassist Tony Levin offered, “Revisiting some of my favorite music is a treat in itself. It’s also great that we’re not just playing a few shows, we’re hitting it hard. So, Road Dogs are coming to your area soon.”

Drummer Terry Bozzio shares, “All of these guys are my friends and excellent musicians who l’ve played with before! When l was asked to join this tour, l was honored & very grateful to do it!”An exclusive meet & greet with Adrian Belew, Steve Vai, Tony Levin and Terry Bozzio will be staged at each appearance planned. There are three tiers available with limited availability. First, the “BEAT On-stage Experience” features one premium reserved ticket, the rare opportunity to watch the show from an exclusive on-stage VIP viewing area, early entry in to the venue, a pre-show meet & greet and a group photo opportunity with all four members of the band, access to a pre-show soundcheck, a limited edition autographed BEAT tour poster, commemorative BEAT ticket magnet, a specially designed BEAT record bag, an exclusive VIP merchandise item, and an official side-stage laminate and lanyard. This top tier has very limited availability. The second tier is the “BEAT Meet & Greet / Soundcheck Experience.”

It features one premium reserved ticket located in the first five rows, early entry in to the venue, a pre-show meet & greet and group photo opportunity with all four members of the band, access to a pre-show soundcheck, a limited-edition autographed BEAT tour poster, commemorative BEAT ticket magnet, a specially designed BEAT record bag, an exclusive VIP merchandise item, and a Meet & Greet laminate and lanyard. The final tier is the “BEAT VIP Tour Package.” It features one premium reserved ticket located in the first 15 rows, a limited-edition autographed BEAT tour poster, commemorative BEAT ticket magnet, a specially designed BEAT record bag, an exclusive VIP merchandise item, and a commemorative laminate and lanyard. There is limited availability for each of these packages, which are available for purchase at https://beat-official.com/tour.

Tour Dates (confirmed): 

10/09   Santa Cruz, CA                     Quarry Amphitheater

10/10   Napa, CA                               Blue Note Napa Summer Sessions at Meritage Resort

10/11   San Diego, CA                       Civic Theatre

10/13   Las Vegas, NV                       Theater at Virgin Hotel

10/14   Phoenix, AZ                           Celebrity Theatre

10/16   Denver, CO                            Bellco Theatre

10/17   Omaha, NE                            Orpheum Theater

10/18   Waukee, IA                            Vibrant Music Hall

10/19   Milwaukee, WI                      The Riverside Theater

10/21   Chicago, IL                             Copernicus Center

10/22   Madison, WI                          Orpheum Theater

10/23   Saint Charles, MO                The Family Arena

10/24   Prior Lake, MN                     Mystic Lake Casino Showroom

10/26   Cincinnati, OH                      Taft Theatre

10/28   Columbus, OH                      Palace Theatre

10/29   Detroit, MI                            Masonic Temple Theatre

10/30   Cleveland, OH                      Agora Theatre

11/01   Toronto, ON                           The Theatre at Great Canadian Toronto

11/02   Montreal, QC                         Theatre St-Denis

11/04   Huntington, NY                     The Paramount

11/05   Uncasville, CT                       Mohegan Sun Arena

11/06   Boston, MA                           Boch Center Wang Theatre

11/07   Hampton Beach, NH           Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom

11/09   Newark, NJ                            Prudential Hall at NJPAC

11/10   Washington, DC                    MGM National Harbor

11/11   Rochester, NY                        Kodak Center

11/13   Virginia Beach, VA                Sandler Center

11/14   Reading, PA                            Santander Performing Arts Center

11/15   Philadelphia, PA                     Academy of Music

11/17   Durham, NC                           DPAC

11/18   Nashville, TN                         Grand Ole Opry House

11/21   Charlotte, NC                         Ovens Auditorium

11/22   Daytona Beach, FL                Peabody Auditorium

11/24   St. Petersburg, FL                  Mahaffey Theater

11/25   Atlanta, GA                             Cobb Energy Center

11/28   Houston, TX                           713 Music Hall

11/29   Austin, TX                              ACL Live

11/30   Dallas, TX                              Music Hall at Fair Park

12/02   Inglewood, CA                      YouTube Theater

12/03   Riverside, CA                        Riverside Municipal Auditorium

Panic is over for Greta Van Fleet fans, as they’ve just announced that a new album is on the way despite break-up rumours flooding the internet earlier this year.

Back in May, GVF posted a cryptic social media video thanking their fans for a “wild ride”, featuring clips of the band throughout their 14-year run. Shortly after, the Michigan quartet calmed speculation with a studio clip showing the members working on new material.

The band then went on to release a new single titled Play Your Games, and even performed at a one-off intimate show in New York City. Now, Greta Van Fleet have announced their fourth album Palace For The People, landing on 9 October 2026, and have already shared a new single Saw You Stand. It will mark their first album since 2023’s Starcatcher.

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

According to a press release (via Louder), the record’s title was inspired by famous London music and sports venue Alexandra Palace (aka Ally Pally), which they headlined in 2022.

“A friend explained that the elaborate grandeur of this Victorian-era ‘palace’, originally named ‘The Palace Of The People’, was created as a gathering place for the public,” a statement on the album explains.

“Unlike most lavish buildings of the time, this one wasn’t created for the Monarchs nor the wealthy aristocrats of the day, but for everyone to ‘escape and wonder’, a truly modern concept for the time. Fast forward to 2026, Greta Van Fleet began to wonder: what would a palace for the people mean today? And how do we get there?”

Guitarist Jake Kiszka describes it as a “very modern record”, despite it still being rock ‘n’ roll at its core, while drummer Danny Wagner states, “the minute the four of us step into a room with the shared goal of creating, there is very little that can stop us.”

Listen to new single Saw You Stand below:

“I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me and said, ‘This is my best friend. We met through your music or at your show.’ We realised, the music is our palace!” adds bassist/keyboardist Sam Kiszka.

Josh Kiszka continues, “We love each other just as much as ever, if not more, because we’ve got to spend quality time together off of the road. We’ve grown closer, and we have more to say and share than ever.”

Palace For The People from Greta Van Fleet is available to pre-order now.

The post Remember when we thought Greta Van Fleet were breaking up? Well, they’re not – and they’ve just announced new music appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Two Kramer guitars that belonged to Eddie Van Halen have gone up for auction, with a unique additional offering: both come accompanied by used cigarette butts that are tucked under the strings on the headstocks.

The models up for grabs are a 1986 Zeke Clark Customised 5150 and 1987 Zeke Clark Customised 5150. Both are listed with a minimum bid of $50,000 each, and are being sold via Backstage Auctions.

• READ MORE: “I can’t imagine where guitar players would be without Eddie. We’d be listening to electronic music”: Sammy Hagar says Eddie Van Halen “saved” guitar players

The guitars have been “meticulously maintained” and put up for sale by Eddie’s lead guitar and amplifier technician, Randall ‘Zeke’ Clark, according to the auction website. Each one includes a signed letter of authenticity from Clark, who worked with Van Halen from 1985 to 1993, maintaining the band’s gear through the 5150, OU812, and For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge eras.

The 1986 model is the first he custom built for Eddie. It is described as in “raw, production-used condition” and is stamped with EV5150 on the rear back plate. It also features nine authentic guitar picks from the 5150 tour and, of course, retains the “stage-used cigarette”.

The lucky buyer will also receive a number of memorabilia, including an Ernie Ball EVH-branded leather guitar strap, three sets of vintage 5150-branded strings, a blue Van Halen-branded golf divot tool, an original fan-made EVH button, a Zeke Clark decal, a photo of Clark with the guitar, his personal business card, and more.

The instrument is housed in its original plush-lined hardshell case, described as “heavily weathered” and decorated with fifteen authentic backstage passes.

The 1987 version is in the same condition, and is also stamped with EV5150 on the rear back plate. This one comes with ten vintage white guitar picks, each printed with OU812 on one side and Eddie’s printed signature with 5150 on the other.

Other goodies included are: a notarised letter of provenance directly from and signed by Zeke Clark, two 8×10 colour photos of Zeke with the guitar, two full sets of strings, one incomplete set, and a guitar strap. It also has its original plush-lined hardshell accompanied by a rare 1988 Monsters of Rock Staff laminate.

Further Van Halen items are up for auction, including some as bizarre as a stage-used Frankendrill. Find out more in the video below:

To view all lots, head over to Backstage Auctions. 

The post Two of Eddie Van Halen’s Kramer guitars are up for auction – accompanied by his used cigarette butts appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Joe Bonamassa has once again clarified his stance on amp modellers and the growing digital market, and feels that modellers may well replace tube amps in the future.

Despite Bonamassa previously questioning the coolness of digital gear, he has since spoken out on a flurry of platforms about his new-found love of all things digital. While he admits there are still aspects of traditional gear that cannot be emulated at this point – such as the pushing of air – he does feel that tonally, they’re on the mark.

• READ MORE: “I am going to take a lot of s**t for this”: Joe Bonamassa reveals he’s using digital amps for his new tour

Speaking on the No Cover Charge Podcast, he says, “The biggest revelation of them all, I still use two [Fender] High-Powered Tweed Twins, but they’re now Tone Master versions. I wanted to hate it! I know a lot of people who are like, ‘but in 2017, you said this…’ I’m like, ‘go fuck yourself.’

“I say a lot of things, okay? Have you ever been to a restaurant and you’re like, ‘the chicken parm is killer,’ and you’re trying to sell it to your friend, and then you go, ‘I’ll just have the caesar salad.’ I just wasn’t in the mood or I was wrong, and in this case I’m a little bit of both!”

He goes on to add, “The in-path, not the sound, the in-path of moving air into a microphone, they can’t do that yet. When you are about to break things like speakers, and you’re moving air, there’s a difference. So, I’m right about that, I was wrong about the fact that no modeller or digital anything will replace a tube version, I think they’re gonna get there and surpass.”

View this post on Instagram

Bonamassa also recently spoke to MusicRadar about the Fender Tone Master range. First launched in 2019 at NAMM with two amp models that promised tubeless tube tone, the Fender Tone Master Pro multi-effects and floorboard modeller then followed in 2023 after a four-year period of research and development.

He said, “I still have my other tube amps behind me. It’s just that the [Fender ‘59] High-Powered Twin is now a Tone Master. When I first plugged into it, I realised this shit’s good. I wanted to dislike it, I really wanted to dislike it! But I couldn’t.

“My production manager, my sound tech, even my other guitar player Josh Smith – they were all telling me it sounds better and feels right. And I was like, ‘I know!’”

Check out the full No Cover Charge Podcast episode with Joe Bonamassa on YouTube below:

The post “I wanted to hate it!”: Joe Bonamassa admits he was wrong about modelling amps appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Gibson has announced the opening of the fourth Gibson Garage location – this time in Las Vegas – following the success of similar brick-and-mortar retail stores in Nashville and London, and ahead of the opening of the upcoming Gibson Garage Miami in September 2026.

Set for its grand opening on 10 September 2026, Gibson Garage Las Vegas is situated at the Miracle Mile Shops shopping mall on the Las Vegas Strip, and is said to be Gibson’s “boldest expression yet of experiential retail, music culture and live performance”.

Occupying 9,000 square feet, the new Gibson Garage will house the “full family” of Gibson brands, including Epiphone, Kramer, MESA/Boogie, Maestro, KRK, Gibson Amps and more. This gear will sit in a “highly interactive environment created for musicians, collectors, artists, music fans, tourists, families and first-time players from around the world”.

• READ MORE: Country star Eric Church launches new whiskey made using maple tonewood offcuts from Gibson guitars – oh, and a brand-new signature Hummingbird, too

Interactivity is one of the key selling points of the Gibson Garage as a concept, and visitors to the new Las Vegas location will be encouraged to pick up and play guitars including limited-edition and collector’s models.

Gibson says the new store has “soaring ceilings, dramatic architecture, expansive rooms and an immersive stage and sound environment” for live performances and events, all “built to match the scale, spectacle and spirit of Las Vegas.

Additionally, Gibson Garage Las Vegas will feature an Acoustic Murphy Lab Collection Room, offering visitors the chance to get up close with some of Gibson’s most astounding acoustic instruments.

The premises will also feature the first-ever Les Paul ‘59 Experience Room, an environment dedicated to celebrating the iconic 1959 Les Paul Standard, including a special area where visitors can design and build their own ‘59 Les Paul to take home.

“Las Vegas is one of the most exciting entertainment destinations in the world, and the Gibson Garage Las Vegas will be designed to meet that energy at full volume,” says Anne Rohosy, Interim CEO of Gibson.

“This will be much more than a place to buy a guitar – it will be a place to play, discover, perform, connect and experience the Gibson legacy in a way that can only happen in Las Vegas. Building on what we’ve created in Nashville, London and Miami, Gibson Garage Las Vegas will take experiential retail, artist culture and music to an entirely new level.”

“We’re thrilled to welcome Gibson Garage Las Vegas to Miracle Mile Shops,” adds Robert Buchanan, Vice President and General Manager of Miracle Mile Shops.

“Gibson is one of those brands that needs no introduction, and what they’re bringing to Las Vegas is more than a store. With live music, artists, history, and immersive experiences built into the space, Gibson Garage will give people a reason to visit Miracle Mile Shops just to be part of it. There couldn’t be a better city for Gibson Garage than Las Vegas, or a better location in Las Vegas than Miracle Mile Shops.”

Learn more at Gibson.

The post Design and take home your own ’59 Les Paul Standard at the Gibson Garage Las Vegas, coming in 2027 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.