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Keith Richards is fed up with technology: “AI is killing me… Do I fear for the future of music? I fear for the future of everything”
Keith Richards is sick of modern technology, and has no desire to get on board with the progression of AI and those “damn phones”.
While other members of The Rolling Stones – he names Mick Jagger as an example – are much more open to moving with the times, Richards tells The Guardian in a new interview that he likes to stick to his old ways and that his daily use of modern tech extends to “an electric kettle” and not much further.
- READ MORE: Mick jagger says he “absolutely would love to tour” Rolling Stones’ new album Foreign Tongues
Richards says he’s “had it up to here with technology” and celebrity culture, noting that his grandchildren “are not quite as imbecilic”: “If it wasn’t for a cassette, there wouldn’t have been a Satisfaction, because I got the riff in my sleep, hit record and then the next day played it back and it was Satisfaction in a very raw form,” he explains.
“I stick to the old ways, as my dad would have said. I’ve seen records go from being made on two-track tapes stuck to the wall, to suddenly eight tracks, then 16, 24, then digital and it hasn’t really helped the music at all. But it’s something you live with.
“I mean, personally, I think the world would be better off without the damn phone. AI is killing me, you know. Do I fear for the future of music? I fear for the future of everything. They don’t know what the hell it does, so now we all dangle and wait,” he warns.
The Stones announced their 25th studio album in May. Titled Foreign Tongues, it will mark their first release since 2023’s Hackney Diamonds and is due to land on 10 July. Just like their previous release, it has also been produced by Andrew Watt.
Learn more about Foreign Tongues or pre-order the album now via the Rolling Stones website.
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“There aren’t many American guitar players that are well known for restraint”: Joe Satriani on Sammy Hagar’s underrated guitar skills
Joe Satriani has revealed what he considers to be one of the most remarkable yet underrated aspects of Sammy Hagar’s guitar playing
In a recent chat with Thinking About Guitar, Satriani – who’s spent the past few years sharing a stage with the Red Rocker on The Best of All Worlds tour – explains how Hagar’s greatest strength as a guitarist comes from the same place that made him such an effective frontman.
“I always thought that one of the coolest things about his guitar playing was that he somehow took that knowledge of being a really good lead vocalist and applied it to the way he played guitar,” says Satch.
“And, you know, he’s kind of a crazy shred guitar player on the one hand. But on the other hand, he’s got this editorial process that I personally recognise as being a lead singer.”
According to the virtuoso, Hagar possesses an instinctive understanding of what a song needs, and just as importantly, what it doesn’t.
“I’ll play too many notes, but he won’t,” he says. “And I always ask him, ‘Well, what is that?’ And of course, he doesn’t think about it. It’s totally natural to him. He’s just a completely natural player. But he somehow plays the right notes with the right kind of vibrato. And that still fascinates me, as it did when I was a young kid growing up.”
“I was thinking, wow, restraint,” Satriani continues, adding that “there aren’t many American guitar players that are well known for restraint.
“I always saw that as something that would come from the UK or Ireland. You have these players like [Eric] Clapton or Brian May who just play the perfect notes. They don’t turn the amp up to eleven.”
Hagar, he argues, belongs in that conversation.
“Sam had this thing, because he really liked Clapton. I think he would take that one step back from the edge of the cliff and make sure that he could pull it off.”
“I hear it over and over again as a thing that really good lead vocalists have,” he says. “And they apply it to their guitar playing.”
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John Mayer says he’s already used his Neural DSP plugin on records: “I’m just not going to tell you which ones they are”
For a player whose rig lore has spawned countless forum threads, gear rundowns, and YouTube deepdives, John Mayer has revealed that some of the sounds fans have heard on the record may have come from a plugin rather than a tube amp.
The guitarist says he has already used his Neural DSP signature plugin on professional recordings – he just isn’t telling anyone which ones.
The admission came in a recent video for Neural DSP discussing Archetype: John Mayer X, the plugin released last December that captures some of Mayer’s most sought-after amps, pedals and tones in software form.
“If I were in a pinch, I would always use this plugin and I have already on records. I’m just not going to tell you which ones they are. And I don’t think you’ll know,” the musician teases.
Mayer says that part of the appeal is how naturally the plugin slots into both recording and practice setups.
“What’s really cool about using the plugin in a DAW is that the Archetype plugin works really, really, well as the first stage of a signal chain. It gives this kind of water pressure to the rest of the sounds you want to put on top of it.”
These days, he says, his home rig consists of little more than a laptop with the plugin on it, an interface, and a pair of studio monitors. That simplicity is a far cry from wrangling with dying 9-volt batteries, faulty pedals and amps that seem perpetually in need of maintenance.
“I’ve forward to the year I would be able to simply have one cable, a laptop, and two
speakers and have that be the whole rig,” Mayer says. “It’s such a natural authentic emulation of amps, it just does what amps do except it’s already chained in to [your DAW] and have all the flexibility.”
That said, the guitarist stresses that none of this should be interpreted as a declaration of war on tube amps. Despite joining a growing list of high-profile players embracing digital tools – with Joe Bonamassa recently admitting he’s been won over by Fender’s Tone Master series despite ‘really wanting to dislike it’ – Mayer says Archetype: John Mayer X was never intended as a replacement for traditional amplifiers.
“I think more options are better when it comes to technology taking the place of very heavy, expensive things that spend a lot of time in the shop,” he says. “There is always going to be a really good reason to use amps. I will always continue to use amps. I don’t believe you’ll see me on a stage playing in an arena with a laptop. I don’t think that’s that cool.”
“That is not meant to replace an amp,” Mayer continues. “It’s meant to give you more options. It’s meant to bring the experience of owning a tube amplifier and owning this gear into your home. No matter who you are, it’s meant to democratise the gear.”
Learn more at Neural DSP.
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Beyond the hype: are we entering a new era of guitar technological innovation?
Talking about innovation in the world of guitar is a slippery topic at the best of times. On the one hand, the instrument has endured as a key vehicle for popular musical expression for over 70 years – with each new generation finding new ways to use the instrument to express themselves. On the other hand, many of the tools of the trade that we use today are nearly identical to the ones artists were using in the 1950s – in some cases they are literally instruments that were made in that period.
But despite the inherent conservatism of guitar players, there have been clear moments of innovation and technological breakthroughs that have stuck in one way or another – effects pedals would be one example, whereas digital emulation is clearly another.
The first modelers were primitive. Fine for sketching ideas or practice, but their tones weren’t convincing enough for players to fully switch over. They always defaulted to the tried-and-true practice of using gear that moved real air.
But over the last few decades, that has changed dramatically. Whether that’s via the huge leaps forward in digital modelling, or the development of profiling technology, it’s now totally normal to see guitar players use digital rigs and sound just as good as their tube-amp counterparts.
But what’s going to be the next sticky guitar innovation that will change the way we play in the same way that pedals or modellers have done? Could it be new endlessly customisable instruments, or something that uses machine learning to enhance and expand our palette of sounds?
The wisdom of the last 70 years would indicate probably neither, but people were pretty quick to write off the Maestro FZ-1 until Keith Richards used it on Satisfaction – you never know what’s going to capture the musical collective imagination.
Modular mayhem
Modular guitars have been around in some shape or form almost as long as people have been modding their instruments. People forget that asides from the whole lucite body thing, the most interesting thing about Ampeg’s Dan Armstrong guitar was its innovative swappable pickup modules.
In the last decade though, the idea of what a modular guitar can be has flourished and expanded in ways we’ve not seen before. On the more conservative side of things, Swedish brand Relish has developed a pretty innovative pickup-switching system that has since been adopted by other brands – most notably Cream T.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Boaz One promised to be a modular guitar in the truest sense but before that project had a chance to prove its worth things got weird – really weird.
But there are clearly a growing cohort of builders who believe that modular builds are the future, or as Bayram Tekçe of modular maker Shark Guitars tells it, “Guitar V2.0”.
And you can see why on the face of it – modular designs let players hotswap elements like pickups, bodies, necks, nuts, and bridges. Some even include onboard effects. For studio guitarists that need access to a variety of tones it’s a unique value proposition, but introduces complications for live use.
Some might feel that the nature of modular designs compromises the feel and soul of the instrument. Ian Reddick, founder of Reddick Guitars and creator of the modular Voyager states, “I believe the soul lives in the craftsmanship and history of the instrument”.
The idea is fascinating, but where does it fall short? Aaron Maisler, founder of Fern Guitars says, “There are some limits. Primarily alternate tunings in a live setting. [But] with a modular setup, two guitars cover the same territory [of six] since you can freely interchange the electronics.”
Modular guitars offer seemingly endless tonal possibilities, and the idea is appealing. But that modularity is tied to the maker – what happens when something breaks down? You can’t just take it to any luthier for repair. What happens if you want something that the maker doesn’t offer?
The promise of distilling all your guitars into one is captivating, sure – but do any of us really want just one guitar? Isn’t part of the magic of this hobby the fun of trying new instruments, new looks, new everything?
The Smart And Not So Smart Guitars
For decades now, people have been trying to cram technology into guitars in often innovative but usually doomed ways. Built-in effects and onboard MIDI controllers are perfect for someone like Matt Bellamy, but they don’t have a lot of mainstream appeal.
When you try to tell the man or woman in the street their guitar needs to be loaded with onboard technology the answer seems to be well, remember what happened to the Firebird-X…
Still, there are plentiful modern examples of how technology and guitar is starting to blur into one thing. Lava’s smart guitar platform has won it scores of fans around the world for the way it makes learning and practice more fun and interesting. Positive Grid’s Spark amps have brought technology and player together to create the ultimate practice amps. Enya Music’s Sonic integrates a bluetooth speaker and onboard effects into the body of the guitar itself.
Next-gen guitars are addressing issues like tonewood sustainability and sound versatility, but the burning question is do players actually want their guitars to be connected?
Not long ago a guitar player’s main concern was feeding their gear dirty power. But smart guitars introduce concerns about WiFi dropouts and signal weakness, not to mention vulnerability to hackers.
Are modular and “smart” guitars the instrument’s future or just a flashy fad? It could come down to longevity. Traditional guitars work with proper upkeep, no firmware or software updates required.
When manufacturers stop product support or fold altogether, a guitar with an end-of-life OS or modeler can become effectively useless. The appeal of modular guitars is obvious, but carries risks traditional guitars don’t, especially regarding repairs.
Proprietary systems depend on manufacturer support and survival. Investing in technology-dependent instruments comes with uncertainty. Also consider resale value. Vintage guitars are proven investments that appreciate worth. Technology-dependent guitars likely depreciate in value as the tech ages or turns obsolete.
Neural Networks
There’s little doubt that the word “AI” is a polarising one in the guitar world at the moment, with many musicians being reflexively opposed to anything that has those two letters in them. And clearly there are legitimate and valid ethical and environmental concerns about the use (or indeed imposition) of large language models in our modern lives.
And there are unquestionably some products that are using AI as a means to float some pretty uninspiring products under the noses of an unsuspecting musical public – the less said about the TemPolor Melo-D the better.
But machine learning has been benefitting guitar players for a long time now, and many of the most jaw-dropping leaps forward in digital modelling technology in recent years has been enabled on some level by artificial intelligence operating under the hood.
AI amp modeling is moving fast, and neural networks are the new movement. The most notable one of these is perhaps the open-source Neural Amp Modeler platform. NAM uses advanced neural networking to learn the sonic behavior of a real world amplifier – it’s different to what the likes of Neural and Kemper do with profiling, but the results are impressively similar.
The result is amp tones that sound and feel much closer to the real thing than most modellers can offer – and various brands from Poly Effects to Two Notes to Blackstar are starting to incorporate it into their pedals and amps.
Increasingly, guitar players are coming to accept the blurred lines between digital and analogue, but there are plenty still who feel that digital is still not quite there in terms of replicating the true feel of a valve amp – the pick attack response, playing articulation, and acoustic space response are physical elements that contribute to the experience just as much as the sound.
There’s also the question of the long term viability of such things. Your valve amp from 50 years ago still works because it’s easily repaired by any qualified tech – like any other modern piece of consumer electronics, there’s a big question over how long the companies building these connected products will continue to support them.
There’s also the question of what happens when everyone is using the same digitally recreated tones – anyone who has played through a lot of amps knows that there’s a great deal of variation even between identical models. Democratization of tone is an exciting concept, but puts sonic distinction in jeopardy.
Text prompts vs. twisting knobs
If there’s one area of guitar technology that isn’t afraid of progress and innovation, it’s effects – the digital and boutique revolutions have transformed the stompbox arena into something where some of the weirdest and most wonderful ideas have come from small builders trying interesting things with modern technology.
But with talk of “Peak Pedal” being mooted in recent years, after a decade of huge expansion and innovation, where is the next pedal frontier?
Increasingly, some makers are looking to AI as a means to enable creative experimentation – and in the last year or two we’ve seen AI-enabled pedals from makers as diverse as Quilter, Chaos Audio and newbie Groundhog Audio.
Polyend is another manufacturer leading the charge. The brand’s Endless pedal turns ideas into effects by describing them through text prompts or hardcoding. But do players really prefer inputting text prompts over twisting knobs? It’s an interesting idea.
The company deliberately distances itself from the buzzword “AI” for practical and philosophical reasons. Founder/CEO Piotr Raczyński posits, “AI has become a very overloaded term. It often creates expectations that don’t match what the system actually does.”
Endless works by generating DSP structures from natural language akin to LLMs like ChatGPT, but that’s where the comparisons end. This opens up worlds of new sounds not available in standard pedals, but the trouble is in getting there.
Inputting text prompts is simple enough, but hardcoding takes a certain acumen. Another element of AI built into effects is that the more it’s used, the more it learns user preferences. Either way it’s not as easy as turning pots or flipping switches.
Raczyński continues, “We’re not interested in using AI tools for imitation. We’re interested in enabling people to create original tools they couldn’t build before”.
There’s a laudable aim of putting more creativity in guitarists’ hands at play here – the question is does it actually make sense in the real world? As our review of the Positive Grid Reactor recently alluded to, prompting an LLM to do what you want can be more frustrating than twiddling knobs ever was.
Complexity can also be an enemy of creativity – text prompts open up worlds of new sounds, but require extra effort. In that regard, knobs and switches will beat menus and touchscreens every time.
It’s really intriguing to use an LLM to offer unique features that aren’t available in traditional pedal designs, but option paralysis is a real thing for many guitar players as it is – if you effectively give them a blank slate, is that really going to help all but the smallest percentage of creative musicians?
Culture clash
This is far from the first time guitar has faced rapid technological changes. Modelers were supposed to replace analog amps altogether. They didn’t. Guitar synths were supposed to revolutionize the instrument. They became a niche.
Guitarists adapt to changing technology on their terms. Ideas with the biggest hype around them may only find a select audience. Healthy skepticism around “revolution” in guitar tech isn’t hesitance, it’s pattern recognition.
The overarching question is will the traditionalist guitar culture embrace how fast, and in what ways, technology is changing?
Disruption or distraction?
As time proves, new doesn’t equate to better. Oftentimes it’s the opposite. Some products don’t catch on until they’re out of production, and some never do.
Plenty of voices in the guitar industry are shaping the conversation around evolving guitar tech, particularly AI inclusion. Josh Scott, founder of JHS Pedals, argues that AI gear might be solving the wrong problem altogether. “AI gear is optimizing for speed in a domain where speed was never the constraint.”
But there are as many proponents as detractors. Edward “Bud” Cole, CEO of Fender, says “I strongly believe that AI will create opportunities that are unimaginable today for players to learn, create, record, and express themselves”.
It’s human nature to focus on the novelty of technology before examining its efficacy and necessity. That might speak more to the “invisible hand of the market” than inferior design. But hit or miss, creators keep creating.
New horizons
The future of guitar is here, and the technology is changing faster than ever.
Some gear catches on, some gets relegated to time. But one thing is certain. No matter what innovations and advancements come out, the venerated gear and tools guitarists have relied on for the past 75-plus years will always be in style.
Great tone has never required more technology. Historically, constraints drive creativity, they don’t inhibit it. Where guitar technology is going – and what will stick – will always be uncertain.
But there’s one direction it’s not moving. Backward.
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The best distortion pedals: jagged sounds from ProCo, Boss, EHX & more
Distortion is the gain effect of choice for guitarists who want to scuzz up their sound without rounding it off or flattening it past the point of musicality. This type of effect has a more jagged and aggressive character than an overdrive, while allowing far more dynamism and nuance than a fuzz pedal.
The basic idea behind distortion pedals hasn’t really changed since these unruly effects were pioneered in the 1960s – they clip your signal, hard, to give you a sound that’s heaven-sent for hellishly heavy rock, metal and punk (or Prince-style solos!) This doesn’t mean all distortions are alike. Sounds and controls vary, and plenty of guitarists will swear by one model or another.
These pedals take various approaches to tonal adjustment, from three-band EQs and special mids-tweaking features down to simple high-end filters or pared down designs where only the gain can be adjusted, and some distortions simply sound heavier or more chaotic than others. One thing that you can usually count on is that distortion pedals are generally less expensive than more technologically intricate effects like delay pedals, although they do range from budget to boutique.
To help you find the soundwave-slasher of your dreams, we’ve brought together our top ten distortion pedals below. There are options from ProCo, Boss, EHX, Fender, JHS and more, spanning the gamut from plug-in-and-play noisemakers to leftfield gain laboratories. Any one of them will add some edge to your sound.
At a glance:
- Our Pick: Pro Co RAT 2
- Best unusual distortion pedal: Redbeard Effects Bearded Vulture
- Best Boss disortion pedal: Boss DS-1W Waza Craft
- Best high-gain distortion pedal: Electro-Harmonix Hell Melter
- Best dual distortion pedal: Fender Pugilist
- Best affordable distortion pedal: TC Electronic Dark Matter
- Best multi-voiced distortion pedal: Walrus Audio Fundamental Distortion
- Best 2000s-style distortion pedal: JHS pedals Hard Drive
- Best distortion pedal for metal: Boss MT-2 Metal Zone
- Best simple distoriton pedal: EarthQuaker Devices Acapulco Gold
- Why you can trust Guitar.com
Our Pick: Pro Co RAT 2
The RAT 2
The RAT distortion line has been around since the 1980s. And when we say around, we mean it, as these pedals are at the gritty heart of recordings from Radiohead, The Arctic Monkeys, Nirvana, Blur, Foo Fighters and countless others.
With sumptuous sustain and era-defining abrasiveness, the RAT 2 is our pick of ProCo’s range. It’s so straightforward (and reasonably priced) that we’ve also named it among the best guitar pedals for beginners, but there’s a deceptive depth of sounds available via the ‘Filter’ control. This rolls off varying degrees of high-end, meaning the output signal can range from tight, radio-friendly rock to avant garde freakout territory.
Need more? Read our Pro Co RAT 2 review.
Best unusual distortion pedal: Redbeard Effects Bearded Vulture
Image: Richard Purvis
Put Skindred guitarist, Mikey Demus, together with Thorpy FX mastermind, Adrian Thorpe, and monumental sounds tend to ensue. The Bearded Vulture is the Redbeard Effects duo at their best, inspired by a classic valve preamp and delivering a streamlined stompbox with surpassingly smart tonal control.
You won’t find another distortion pedal quite like this one. There are two circuits to get your teeth into – straight-up ‘drive’, and ‘octave’ – which can be used independently, or mixed together for the mightiest of distortion sounds. And for further ear-catching idiosyncrasy, you can use the ‘bias’ control to bring in a gating effect, or ‘timbre’ to shape the mids.
Need more? Read our Redbeard Effects Bearded Vulture review.
Best Boss disortion pedal: Boss DS-1W Waza Craft
Credit: Boss
The ‘DS-1’ is aptly named, because there’s a decent chance that the orange stompbox from Boss was the first distortion pedal that you encountered. But before you don your rose-tinted spectacles and dig out the original model, you might consider trying the DS-1W Waza Craft instead. This is a boutiquified version of the classic pedal, with added custom voicings that boost the gain and increase the touch response.
Yes, there’s a ‘standard’ mode here that sounds very much like the DS-1 – but it’s the newly added ‘custom’ mode that really impresses, with amped-up gain, more focused mids and higher responsiveness than the original.
Need more? Read our Boss DS-1W Waza Craft review.
Best high-gain distortion pedal: Electro-Harmonix Hell Melter
If the Metal Muff isn’t quite metallic enough for you, try EHX’s Hell Melter. This pedal will put the chainsaw in your signal chain, whether you’re a metal guitarist or some other fabulously freaky soul in search of maximalist sounds.
Electro-Harmonix refers to this as an ‘advanced metal distortion’, and there’s certainly plenty to master. The deathly jewels in its crown include an active boost mode (with its own footswitch) that allows you to toggle dial-adjusted boosts to bass, mids and treble, and ‘Burn’ mode, which produces a barely-clipped distortion sound that could cut down a whole forest with just a few riffs.
Need more? Read our Electro-Harmonix Hell Melter review.
Best dual distortion pedal: Fender Pugilist
Why choose between drive and distortion, when you can get yourself a pedal that does both? The Fender Pugilist is gainfully employed in delivering these two effects, with a separate channel (and circuit) devoted to each. It’s at its best when the two circuits are mixed together in ‘blend’ mode, which gives you scope to balance musicality (channel A) with distorted brutality (channel B).
Like any seasoned fighter, the Pugilist has some tricks up its sleeve. The bass boost is a handy option when you need to beef up your signal, and the togglable LEDs on the control knobs make for easy tweaking on a gloomy stage.
Best affordable distortion pedal: TC Electronic Dark Matter
This affordable distortion pedal sounds better than you might expect, with 1970s Marshall-style tone that’s tailor-made for hot blues licks and classic rock. Its standard voice is responsive, musical, and bordering on an overdrive sound when the gain is set low. Flick the switch, and you’ll hear a bullish, bassier voicing that’s decidedly more alt-rock.
For about the price of a cheap haircut, that’s a lot of scope to sound like guitarists with haircuts of varying styles and costs. The bass and treble knobs give you further control over your tone, rounding out a pretty spectacular budget-friendly pedal.
Best multi-voiced distortion pedal: Walrus Audio Fundamental Distortion
You might know Walrus Audio as a fancy boutique pedal brand – and if you simply heard the Fundamental Distortion’s trio of distortion voicings, you might be unshaken in that belief. But what’s different in this pedal (and others from the Fundamental range) is the simplicity of the on-unit controls, which cram oodles of functionality into an iota of space, and the accessible price.
The three voicings cover a huge breadth of possibilities, especially when used artfully with the tone, volume and gain sliders. ‘Dark’ smothers the high-end and clips characterfully; ‘Si’ sounds crunchily compressed; while ‘LED’ uses your old D.T. teacher’s favourite diodes to ratchet up the noise.
Need more? Read our Walrus Audio Fundamental Distortion review.
Best 2000s-style distortion pedal: JHS pedals Hard Drive
Josh Scott’s love letter to turn-of-the-millennium high-gain tones, the JHS Hard Drive Distortion is all (or at least largely) about the mids, which can be controlled to create a scooped or boosted sound. The really nifty thing here is that two knobs work together for maximal mid-sculpting finesse: one to select the exact range of mid frequencies that you’ll tweak, and another to set the level of the selected frequency range.
The necessary companion to all of that tonal adjustment is great-sounding distortion. JHS described the Hard Drive as its “heaviest pedal yet” at launch in 2024, and we’d say that’s on the money. It’s an ideal noise-maker for modern alt-rock or classic metal.
Best distortion pedal for metal: Boss MT-2 Metal Zone
Image: Boss
The Boss MT-2 Metal Zone does what it says on the die-cast enclosure. Its high-gain distortion sounds are loved by legions of rock leviathans from Dave Mustaine to Simon Neil.
The three-band EQ controls give you final say over the style of slay, and it’s worth tweaking these with an attentive ear to get the best out of the pedal. Your first instinct might be to cut the mids for a scooped sound, but – whisper it – you might try boosting the mids if you’re exploring noisier or more abrasive territory. That’s the joy of the MT-2: its comprehensive controls let you zone in on your own strand of metal mayhem.
Best simple distortion pedal: EarthQuaker Devices Acapulco Gold
Flaunting its own simplicity with one giant gain control, this power amp distortion pedal is all about Model T-style tube amp distortion tone – and you’ll enjoy that sound strictly as the maker intends.
If you’ve always preferred amp distortion to distortion pedals, but you can’t stretch to a classic tube amp (or you can’t crank one till the signal distorts, perhaps because you have neighbours), then the Acapulco Gold is for you. Depending on the gain setting, its sound ranges from a lively sparkle to a doomy facsimile of full-bore power amp distortion. Sometimes this feels almost like an overdrive rather than a distortion – but treasure abounds in that grey area.
Why You Can Trust Us
Every year, Guitar.com reviews a huge variety of new products – from the biggest launches to cool boutique effects – and our expert guitar reviewers have decades of collective experience, having played everything from Gibson ’59 Les Pauls to the cheapest Squiers.
That means that when you click on a Guitar.com buyer’s guide, you’re getting the benefit of all that experience to help you make the best buying decision for you. What’s more, every guide written on Guitar.com was put together by a guitar obsessive just like you. You can trust that every product recommended in those guides is something that we’d be happy to have in our own rigs.
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In need of a new guitar rack? Get over 60% off on these Gator display and storage solutions at Thomann
Buying new guitars is always exciting, but finding a reasonably-priced storage solution for your collection can often feel far less glamorous. But, now’s the time to act, as these whopping deals on Gator racks at Thomann make the process far less painful.
These guitar racks come in varying sizes and styles, and are reduced from three-figure sums down to just two, with 67 percent off each one. Thomann is currently offering a bunch of savings across the instruments and accessories on its site with Music Days, which run until 14 July.
- READ MORE: Thomann Music Days deals are here: guitars, pedals, amps and accessories we’d actually buy
For a simple and small storage solution, you might want to opt for a Gator Elite 3/4 guitar rack, which comes in black, grey, brown and a natural wood finish. These are now priced at £85.
These smaller racks offer adjustable dividers with rubberised protective linings to keep instruments and cases stored safely, are suitable for asymmetrical body shapes, and have soft padding on the bottom of the stand to prevent the underside of the guitar from coming into contact with the wood.
If you’re in need of more space, the Gator Elite 5 E/A racks offer more space and features, yet still come in at just £96 with their reduced price. Fit up to five electric/acoustic guitars or five-seven cases among its adjustable dividers.
Again, these racks are suitable for asymmetrical body shapes, offer soft padding, and have convenient cable storage hanger hooks on both sides. The racks come in grey or dark brown wood.
As part of Thomann’s Music Days, there are also savings on a number of guitars and gear brands. You can save on models from Schecter, Epiphone, Taylor and more, or get a deal on an amplifier from the likes of PRS or Blackstar.
To shop these deals and more, head over to Thomann.
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Finneas shares “confusion” around Rick Rubin’s self-confessed lack of technical ability: “What I assume he means by that is, there are a lot of people that know a lot more than I do”
Musician and producer Finneas says, like many, he’s “confused” about Rick Rubin’s self-proclaimed lack of technical knowledge, and feels he maybe isn’t being so literal when he says he “knows nothing” about music.
In a 2023 interview for 60 Minutes, Rubin claimed he didn’t know how to use a mixing desk and said, “I’ve no technical ability. And I know nothing about music.” He also made similar comments about the freedom of “knowing none of the rules” of music in discussion with Rick Beato in 2024.
Finneas, who recently composed the score for season 2 of Netflix’s Beef, was asked about the evolving role of being a producer and his thoughts around Rubin’s unique practices in a new interview.
Speaking to Billboard, he explains “He’s made work that I’m really inspired by. I’m a little confused by his kind of… He swears that he knows nothing at all about music, and it’s like, just Google Rick Rubin, Johnny Cash. There are many videos of him setting up the mics. He doesn’t know ‘nothing’.
“I think what I assume he means by that, and I respect this, is similar to what I’ve said before: There are a lot of people that know a lot more than I do. I don’t know the most, but I also don’t know ‘nothing.’”
Finneas goes on to add: “I think I try to do the same thing, which is, I don’t want to make people feel like it isn’t achievable. I think that you don’t want to intimidate somebody out of trying to make something by way of, ‘I have my 10,000 hours, I know so much, you’ll never know as much as I do.’ So I like that about [him].
“I also think that the other thing that he really does, and I’m sure he is happy to talk about this, is he provides this environment. And I think that environment is incredibly important to me. I sometimes do think that, similarly to him, that’s the best thing I can offer some people.”
Interestingly, The Cult’s Billy Duffy lifted the lid on what it’s like to work with Rubin in an interview last year. Speaking on the Rockenteurs podcast, he recalled collaborating with Rubin on their 1987 record, Electric.
“He did hire Andy Wallace to be the engineer – Rick’s always used great engineers, he’s not stupid,” Duffy admitted. “And [producer and A&R exec] George Drakoulias was there all the time. Rick and George were like a team… [but] George was more musical. Rick’s not musical… at all,” he said.
“He’d say ‘can you play one of those pussy AC/DC English chords there?’” Duffy laughed. “We literally deconstructed the album on the spot. I went from a Gretsch with the Roland and the chorus and the echoes. And he was like, ‘Well, that’s a Marshall, that’s a Les Paul, off you go.’ It was quite traumatic for me, I gotta tell you.”
As for Finneas, he’s often best known for collaborating with his sister, Billie Eilish. In 2024, he spoke to Guitar.com around the release of his signature Fender Acoustasonic Telecaster, and shared how guitar remains his favourite instrument choice when taking to the stage.
“I happened to be doing this interview the other day with Hans Zimmer, and Hans was talking about touring, playing live – Hans plays everything and can conduct! And I was like, ‘Yeah, but whenever I see footage of you playing a concert, you’re just always shredding!’ and he was like, ‘Playing guitar is the most fun’ – and it really is true! It’s five or six times more fun to play a guitar or a bass than it is to sit and play a keyboard on stage. It’s so fun!”
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Soloing Basics—How to Guide Your Solos with Chord Shapes
Lost footage of The Beatles’ performance on Top Of The Pops has been found
Lost footage captured at The Beatles’ performance on Top Of The Pops in 1964 has been found and is due to be restored.
The Fab Four appeared on the BBC music show to play Can’t Buy Me Love and You Can’t Do That, the A-side and B-side of a single they released the following day, marking their fourth UK Number One.
The show was recorded on the 19 March 1964 at the BBC’s Television Theatre (now known as The Shepherd’s Bush Empire), in London, right at the height of Beatlemania. The footage was believed to have not been preserved by the BBC, but film preservation group Film Is Fabulous! has managed to get hold of it.
The group says it will return the digital scan and 35mm negative film to the BBC Archives, and will hold a discussion with the BBC about making the content widely available to audiences.
In a post on Facebook, it says, “Film is Fabulous! is delighted to confirm the 35mm negative presented to John Franklin at the recent British Film Collectors’ Convention (BFCC) in Oxted [in Surrey], on behalf of the family of a deceased former industry professional, contains the missing BBC film inserts of The Beatles first appearance on Top Of The Pops.”
It continues, “Passages of the film recording show the studio, the technicians, and the make-up ladies. There were four takes of the first song, Can’t Buy Me Love, with two being aborted because of technical errors. During breaks, the Beatles openly joked, and could be seen dancing to amuse themselves.
“The other song, You Can’t Do That, had two takes. During the second of these recordings John Lennon pulled a funny face when the camera came in for a ‘close-up’. It’s an amusing piece of Beatle history.”
In other Beatles news, the first-ever official Beatles fan experience is due to open in 2027 at 3 Savile Row in Mayfair, London, where the band played their final gig.
3 Savile Row is a Grade II listed mansion, and was one of the original headquarters for Apple Corps Ltd, the band’s multimedia company. They recorded their final album, Let It Be, in its basement, and played their last gig on its rooftop in 1969.
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Joe Satriani recalls David Lee Roth’s “crazy” attempt to recruit him for a Van Halen cover band in the ‘90s: “I said, ‘But Dave, Ed’s still alive!’”
Joe Satriani has opened up about the time David Lee Roth tried to recruit him for a Van Halen cover band – while Eddie Van Halen was still very much active.
Speaking to Thinking About Guitar in a recent interview, Satriani reveals how Roth had called him sometime around 1995 or 1996 with an ambitious plan to perform Van Halen material outside the group.
“I remember in the mid ‘90s, David Lee Roth called me, and he wanted to put together a band to do Van Halen songs,” says the guitarist. “He went on and on about how we were the only guys who could really do it right, and he had all these crazy plans.”
Satriani, however, couldn’t get past one obvious issue.
“I said, ‘But Dave, Ed’s still alive! He’s still making amazing records. He’s still on tour. What guitar player would ever try to imitate him while he’s still working?’ I said, ‘It makes no sense.’ And, of course, I said, ‘Look, I’m not the guy.’”
While the proposal never got off the ground, it wasn’t the last time Satriani’s name would be linked to Van Halen. Following Eddie Van Halen’s death in 2020, the guitarist was approached again – this time by Roth and drummer Alex Van Halen – regarding the latter’s long-rumoured tribute project.
Even then, Satriani remained unconvinced he was the right person for the job.
“Dave has a lot of creative ideas, and every once in a while, he’ll reach out, and you just have to listen to him. I mean, he really is a brilliant performer and musician, and I kind of expect it, you know,” says Satch.
“When he and Alex called me after Ed had passed away, it made a little bit more sense, even though I tried to convince them I was not the person who could do it justice, because I said I’ve tried to avoid playing like Ed for so long that now I really can’t.”
Instead, Satriani suggested other players he felt were better suited to the role, including Nuno Bettencourt and Steve Vai. Ultimately though, the project never materialised.
Ironically, Satriani would eventually find himself playing Van Halen songs onstage anyway. In 2024, he joined Sammy Hagar for the Best of All Worlds tour, celebrating the singer’s tenure with the band.
Looking back, Satriani also admits he was somewhat relieved when Alex Van Halen’s tribute plans fell apart, largely because they appeared set to overlook a significant chapter of the band’s history.
“When it fell apart, I was kind of relieved because I was really concerned about how we were going to do it justice as a show, top to bottom, and not reflect Sammy’s period in the band, which was huge,” he says.
“I think they got more number one records and sold more records in general than the Roth era. So it was confusing to me that they wouldn’t want to reflect that at all. But that’s a whole other story. It’s not my place to get into.”
The post Joe Satriani recalls David Lee Roth’s “crazy” attempt to recruit him for a Van Halen cover band in the ‘90s: “I said, ‘But Dave, Ed’s still alive!’” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Pedalboard Power Supply Gets An Upgrade
The Trey Hensley Gold Label 510e
“When I first plugged into it, I realised this s***’s good. I really wanted to dislike it! But I couldn’t”: Joe Bonamassa on digital amps winning him over
There’s something to say about how far digital modelling technology has come when even a self-confessed tube aficionado like Joe Bonamassa ends up using it on tour.
The blues guitarist has recently been “beta testing” Fender’s Tone Master range on the road and it’s clearly made more of an impression than he expected.
Speaking to MusicRadar, Bonamassa admits he went into the experiment ready not to like what he heard: “I’ve got to be honest with you and admit when I’m wrong,” says the virtuoso.
“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.”
The reaction wasn’t just his own, either. According to Bonamassa, the people around him on tour were hearing the same thing.
“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!’”
The “trick”, says Bonamassa, “is to be physically pushing out sound.”
“You have to be moving air. By having the right speakers, the Tone Master works. It’s not like I’m plugging into a direct box, which I could, but I don’t think that would sound good.”
“That’s where a lot of this digital modeling stuff can start sounding a little generic,” he continues. “With a lot of the things out there, you’re not moving air, and the dynamic range is limited. For me, moving air is essential, just like playing loud.”
First introduced in 2019, Fender’s Tone Master range was developed to digitally recreate the sound and feel of the company’s most iconic tube amplifiers. The lineup has since expanded to include digital versions of classics such as the Twin Reverb, Deluxe Reverb, Princeton Reverb and more.
The post “When I first plugged into it, I realised this s***’s good. I really wanted to dislike it! But I couldn’t”: Joe Bonamassa on digital amps winning him over appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I want my guitar to do exactly what I need, so we took out all the ‘extra’ stuff”: Mammoth guitarist Jon Jourdan’s new PRS has just one pickup, one knob, and zero distractions
PRS has teamed up with Mammoth touring guitarist Jon Jourdan on a limited-edition signature guitar that’s “stripped back to the bare essentials”.
Designed with the guitarist’s touring needs in mind, the all-new PRS Jon Jourdan Limited Edition features a single bridge humbucker, one volume control and an all-mahogany construction built for life on the road.
- READ MORE: Anime fans can get a real-life version of the guitar from Rock Is A Lady’s Modesty thanks to PRS
Limited to just 200 units worldwide, the model takes a decidedly minimalist approach to electric guitar design. There’s no neck pickup, no tone control and very little standing between the player and their amp.
Instead, the guitar uses a single PRS Metal pickup in the treble position paired with a lone volume control in the tone pot’s traditional location. Given that Jourdan typically plays with the volume control wide open, the repositioned knob ensures that he won’t hit it when going all out during a performance.
The guitar also features a 22-fret Pattern Regular mahogany neck topped with an ebony fretboard that forgoes traditional inlays altogether. Visibility in low light is handled by green Luminlay side dots, while hardware includes a PRS adjustable stoptail bridge, proprietary nut material and Phase III locking tuners with ebony buttons.
“At the end of the day, my guitar is a tool. I want it to do exactly what I need it to, so we took out all the ‘extra’ stuff I don’t need,” says Jourdan. “This guitar sounds huge and is incredibly fun to play. There’s something about taking out any unnecessary wiring and removing the neck pickup so its magnets aren’t pulling on the strings that makes it feel alive. I can’t imagine anyone playing this guitar having a bad time.”
Only 200 units of the PRS Jon Jourdan Limited Edition will be made in 2026, with each guitar arriving with a backplate hand-signed by the guitarist.
Available in Platinum Metallic and Gunmetal Metallic finishes, the model is priced at $4,200 – not exactly pocket change, though we’re keeping out fingers crossed for an SE version down the line.
Learn more at PRS.
The post “I want my guitar to do exactly what I need, so we took out all the ‘extra’ stuff”: Mammoth guitarist Jon Jourdan’s new PRS has just one pickup, one knob, and zero distractions appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Two Notes’ GENOME software gets a “full-bore” 2.0 upgrade – here’s everything you need to know
Two Notes has launched a 2.0 update for its GENOME platform, providing a “major evolution” that introduces iPad compatibility, a free intro trial for new users, and new capture technology.
GENOME was first teased in 2022 during NAMM, and was later awarded a 9/10 in our review for its focused set of virtual amps, cabs and pedals, making it a sturdy option for an affordable “full signal chain” plugin. Now, the platform is getting a much broader glow up by expanding beyond the desktop and bringing in new features and modern enhancements.
The GENOME 2.0 launch on iPad is described as “full scale”, meaning no watered-down mobile version features. Instead, the software has been “rebuilt for touch from the ground up”, with all the same capabilities as normal.
The launch of GENOME Intro also means new users can try the platform for free through desktop and iOS. Again, Two Notes stresses that this isn’t a basic version, but that it rather “delivers a complete rig-building experience with a curated selection of Amplifiers, Pedals, DynIR Virtual Cabinets and Studio FX”.
A key addition to the update is the Two Notes Capture Studio, a free standalone capture environment built to bring your own gear into your GENOME rig. Users can create static NAM captures for CODEX, or build multi-parametric AmpNet captures for an all-new PARADEX component, preserving how your amp responds across its full control range.
In response to demand, there’s also a new generation of stock TSM-Ai amplifiers on board, bringing “decades of legendary amplifier design” inside GENOME’s hybrid modelling engine. Global Transpose also unlocks full-system pitch control across an entire rig in real time.
Take a look at the video below to find out more:
“Since day one, GENOME has moved fast, each release pushing the boundaries of what the platform can be. With 2.0, we’re not just continuing that momentum – we’re redefining it. This is a new line in the sand…” says Guillaume Pille, CEO of Two Notes Audio Engineering.
“GENOME 2.0 is about innovation, effortless control, and precision – putting a truly uncompromised, next-generation rig-building experience into the hands of every player, wherever they are.”
To learn more about GENOME 2.0, visit Two Notes.
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This nylon electro-acoustic guitar is designed for “crossover musicians” seeking classical tone with “modern playability”
Winzz Guitars has launched the WCG 370, an electro-acoustic model with nylon strings that unites classical warm tone with modern playability.
The model is said to blend a familiar electric guitar feel with the expressive character of nylon strings “to answer a growing need” among today’s guitarists. Its body shape certainly resembles modern electric guitars, but its headstock retains classical guitar character.
The WCG 370 has a thin profile African mahogany body paired with a spruce top and flame maple veneer. It has a gloss polyester finish, available in Honey Burst, Vintage Sunburst, and Red Tiger Special colours. As Winzz is a budget-friendly brand, the model is also priced under $500.
The African mahogany neck, constructed with a 4-bolt joint with a satin finish, offers a comfortable C-shape profile and a 25.5” scale length. The neck is completed by a rosewood fingerboard with a 16” radius, 22 medium nickel silver frets, white position inlays, and Luminlay side dots. Its 1.89” bone nut, narrower than traditional classical dimensions, is tailored to players accustomed to steel-string and electric neck widths.
The WCG 370 also utilises an under-saddle piezo pickup powered by an onboard, 9-volt battery, and comes with controls for Master Volume, Bass Control, and Treble Control.
The model is finished with a rosewood bridge and bone saddle for “enhanced tone and improved transfer of string vibration to the top of the guitar”, and 18:1 tuning machines for “reliable tuning stability”.
Credit: Winzz
Winzz was founded in 2006 through a partnership between guitar builders from Germany’s village of Winz and Aileen Music in China. It believes music should be accessible to everyone, and says the WGS150 embodies that mission by offering “a professional instrument that welcomes beginners, creators, and seasoned musicians alike”.
The WCG 370 is available now for $399.99 USD. Find out more via Winzz Guitars.
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Thomann Music Days deals are here: guitars, pedals, amps and accessories we’d actually buy
There are only two things that really help you deal with a heatwave – powerful AC, and saving big on some great gear. Thomann has launched its summer Music Days deals, and there are some awesome discounts to be had on amps, guitars and pedals as part of its big summer savings event. Let’s dive into our favourite deals across the huge deal event Thomann has just launched.
Best electric guitar deals
D’Angelico Premiere Mini DC and SS in Sky Blue – over 50% off each
These two excellent semi-hollow guitars have had their pricetags cut by over half – a huge saving for fans of D’Angelico’s gorgeous design.
The SS version is a single-cut, also available in that lovely Sky Blue finish:
Epiphone Bonehead Riviera – 19% off
This signature guitar for Oasis guitarist Bonehead is a tidy 19% off, meaning you won’t need to look back in anger about this purchase…
ESP LTD EC-401 – 44% off
Almost 50% one of the best heavy-focused single-cut guitars out there? This EC-401 is loaded with all that you need for bone-crushing riffs – and is only £489.
ESP E-II Horizon NT-II – €1,100 off
There’s a saving of 34% to be had on this high-spec’d S-style shredder from ESP. With 24 extra jumbo frets and an eye-catching purple finish, this premium riff machine might be the last guitar you need.
Best acoustic deals
D’Angelico Premier Gramercy – 60% off
This great acoustic from D’Angelico is a whopping 60% off, meaning that for under £200 you’re getting a solid sitka spruce top, high-quality electronics, and a unique look thanks to the Black Cherry finish and antique bronze hardware.
Martin Guitar 00-18 – 29% off
This classic Martin Grand Concert guitar is almost £900 off for the Music Days event, neaning that now would be a great time to commit to getting that high-end acoustic you always dreamed of.
Martin Guitar 000-16 StreetMaster – 29% off
For something a little less traditional, this Auditorium guitar in a darker, aged finish with vintage-style hardware is a real enticing guitar at only £1,555.
Taylor GT811E Grand Theater – 30% off
This classic Taylor acoustic is over £800 off for the Music Days event, and features classic Taylor appointments and a timeless look.
Best deals on effects pedals
EarthQuaker Devices Ledges Glaciers Reverberation – 26% off
This is a fantastic little reverb pedal that doesn’t do anything too fancy, instead it just offers some brilliant takes on Room, Hall and Plate reverb modes, with preset save/recall and expression control to boot.
Eventide H9 Max Harmonizer – £40 off
This pedal is famously powerful, offering over 50 effects algorithms, all which sound utterly phenomenal, particularly if you’re of a more ambient persuasion.
KHDK Night Of The Living Shred
Get half off this limited-edition version Zacky Vengeance’s signature preamp. The Avenged Sevenfold player has crafted a high-gain fuzz and preamp alongside KHDK, and there’s some gloriously retro zombie art to go with it.
Marshall Drivemaster – 47% off
The Marshall Drivemaster may not the most famous of Marshall’s original overdrive lineup from the 1990s, but this authentic recreation has just as much of a cool saturated distortion sound, albeit a little heavier than its Bluesbreaker sibling. A discount of almost 50% has brought the price down to a nice £69 for the Music Days event.
Best deals on amps
Mesa Boogie Mark Five:25 – 12% off
Save on this compact but powerful head from Mesa Boogie. An integrated load and cab sim lets you record it direct – while a 25 watt power section still lets you bring the volume on stage.
PRS Archon Classic 50 Head – £43 off
This vintage-style amplifier head from PRS is a no-nonsense 50-watt monster – and it can be acquired for an excellent price right now.
Blackstar Debut 30E – 29% off
Looking for a great starter amplifier? The Blackstar Debut is a great amp for the price anyway, but for Music Days its been discounted by almost 30%. Clean-sounding and loud, this is a great starting point for new players who want to move some air for the first time.
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The Close Up: Muse guitarist Matt Bellamy’s most iconic and beloved guitar, the Manson 007
“When I pick up this guitar, it makes me play the way I play and come up with the ideas I come up with that are different to when I play any other type of guitar.”
Muse’s Matt Bellamy is one of the most influential guitarists of the last two decades, but the way he approaches the construction of the instrument is as vital and interesting as the actual notes he plays. This is because for the majority of Muse’s career Bellamy has used custom instruments created by UK luthier Manson Guitar Works – but the 007, also known as “Black Ed”, is perhaps his most iconic and famous. It’s the guitar that can be seen in the video for Time Is Running Out, it’s the guitar one you hear on New Born, Stockholm Syndrome, Uprising and Starlight. It’s no exaggeration to say that it’s the most often-heard guitar in the entire Muse canon.
“I would say that on every album Muse has made since this guitar was built it has been featured on about 50 per cent of every song we’ve ever recorded,” Bellamy explained to Manson MD Adrian Ashton. “It’s the number one, most go-to recording guitar for me. I did use it on stage a lot as well, and it took a bit of a beating! And I won’t say it was the only one, but it was pretty much the only one that was always getting recorded consistently on Muse albums.”
Plug In, Baby
Back in the early 2000s, Bellamy came to Manson founder Hugh Manson with a plan. He’d already been getting Hugh Manson to install various pedal circuits into the T-style guitars Bellamy had been using, enabling him to tweak his sound on the fly without having to mess with a pedalboard. But now he wanted to squeeze the much more involved gubbins of a DigiTech Whammy pedal into one of the customised T-type guitars Bellamy had been using in Muse.
Rather than load the guitar with a bunch of heavy electronics and batteries, Manson suggested that a more elegant solution would be to: install a touch-sensitive strip that could control the pedal via MIDI, and achieve the same results. The idea spurred Matt Bellamy to take the idea further – just how much could you squeeze into one conventionally-proportioned instrument? A lot, it transpires.
The finished guitar ended up with a Fernandez Sustainer pickup to offer crazy infinitely sustaining notes, a killswitch for stuttering effects, a Z.Vex Fuzz Factory for distortion and perhaps most uniquely of all, a Z.Vex Wah Probe. The Wah Probe is a bizarre, unique creation that uses a theremin-like copper plate to alter the sound of the effect depending on where your finger sits. Naturally, Manson built the plate into the guitar’s pickguard with a specific purpose.
“Whenever we went to Japan, we used to always go and buy weird pedals, basically,” Bellamy recalls. “That was just a thing that we did. A lot of [bassist Chris Wolstenholme]’s synth pedals come from Japan. There were certain shops we used to know in Tokyo, and they had all the best collections and stuff. And I remember seeing a Z-Vex Wah Probe over there for the first time. I bought one and played it and said, ‘Let’s do this!’
“The idea behind it was to try to get this theremin vibe going – with a sustainer holding the note, but just trying to get the note to have some movement.”
And as if that wasn’t enough, the fretboard also lights up with LEDs, kicking off Muse’s longstanding practice of making their instruments just as part of the visual spectacle of a show as everything else.
Back In Black
Fitting it wasn’t a problem, said Hugh, but the resulting guitar would weigh a huge amount purely because of the number of batteries you’d have to squeeze in there to run the tech.
A better solution, Hugh suggested, would be to install a MIDI controller in the guitar. MIDI is the standardised means of digital communication for music technology, and Hugh reasoned that Matt could use it to control an outboard Whammy just as effectively.
The resulting guitar sported a touch-sensitive MIDI control strip above the pickups to control said Whammy, but Matt wasn’t done there. Manson had already been building various other pedals into Matt’s guitars, and with 007 he kicked it into high gear. The guitar features internal circuitry and controls for a Z.Vex Wah Probe (the theremin-like control plate takes the place of a scratchplate on the bottom horn), a Z.Vex Fuzz Factory, and an MXR Phase 90, as well as the addition of a Fernandes Sustainer pickup above the Seymour Duncan hot P-90 neck pickup. Oh, and the fretboard also lights up with LEDs, kicking off Muse’s longstanding practice of making their instruments just as part of the visual spectacle of a show as everything else.
Bellamy first began using this unique and remarkable instrument Black Ed in 2001, and it quickly became his go-to guitar. As you can see from Guitar.com’s photos, the guitar had taken some serious punishment over its time as a stage instrument, and around 2011 Matt decided to retire it from the stage for practical reasons. “It has a very specific tone, but it was a bit heavy for me on stage,” he reveals. “Some of my latest guitars, I’ve had them made deliberately from lighter woods, sometimes with hollowed-out bodies to be extra light. And that’s one of the reasons why I stopped touring with it so much: because it was heavy. But it had the best tone of all the guitars.”
You might start to spot it again soon, however… sort of. Last year Manson (which Bellamy took ownership of in 2020) released the Matthew Bellamy Signature Black Edition – an identical replica of the 007 guitar down to every scratch, chip and repair, while exactly replicating the guitar’s truly unique internals. “If I could only have one guitar in the world, the Black Edition would be it,” Bellamy explains. That’s how important this guitar is to him, and why Manson spared no expense to ensure he can continue using a version of it for years to come.
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“I couldn’t imagine them being left unplayed”: Johnny Marr is auctioning off nearly 100 bits of gear, including pivotal Smiths guitars
Smiths legend Johnny Marr is having a clear our, with plans to auction off nearly 100 pieces from his personal collection later this year. Consisting of almost 80 instruments, as well as amps and other bits of gear, the collection will be a chance to take home a piece of Marr’s diverse and colourful musical back catalogue.
The auction will be held in collaboration with Christie’s auction house, with prices ranging from £1,000 to £80,000. One of the higher ticket items could potentially go for up to £150,000 though – namely his 1960 Cherry Red Gibson ES-355, a gift Marr received from Seymour Stein when signing to Sire Records. The guitar is a pivotal piece of Smiths history, featuring on the iconic Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.
Another notable guitar up for grabs is Marr’s iconic black and white 1982 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo, which was another staple instrument of his Smiths era. Featuring on the band’s self-titled 1984 debut, the guitar can be heard throughout, including on cuts like This Charming Man and What Difference Does It Make?
The Manchester-born Marr also leant this guitar to fellow Mancunian Noel Gallagher during the recording of Oasis’ Definitely Maybe, so that’s some extra Northern spirit contained within this axe. Oasis even gave a little nod to the Rickenbacker’s influence by featuring it on the cover of 1994 single Supersonic.
Other highlights include Marr’s Martin D-28 (famously featuring on the timeless There Is A Light That Will Never Go Out), as well as a one‑of‑a‑kind Roger Giffin Korina Custom ‘Tele’ (an engagement gift from his now-wife), and a 1984 Gibson Les Paul Standard, which Marr apparently claims has been used on more recordings than any other guitar up for auction.
One of the most modern guitars available is Marr’s 2018 Fender Johnny Marr Signature Jaguar. But that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in experience – the guitar was used to record on Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack for the 2021 James Bond instalment, No Time To Die. It features on both the film’s instrumental theme, as well as Billie Eilish’s Oscar‑winning theme song.
Speaking about the upcoming auction, Marr explains: “I have loved guitars for as long as I can remember, since the first one I got at the age of five. Each guitar I have acquired over the past 50 years or so has helped me evolve as a musician, bringing new songs, new sounds and techniques.”
He notes that writing his 2023 book, Marr’s Guitars, gave him some perspective on his collection. In his mind, it’s time to set these instruments free so they can go forth and make some more memories. “The book turned out to be a cathartic experience and when it was time for these beautiful instruments to go back into storage, I couldn’t imagine them being put away and left unplayed,” he writes.
“It’s bittersweet to be parting with these guitars but I want them to go to new homes and new people who will love them as much as I have,” he concludes. “I hope they bring as much joy, inspiration and fun – and new songs – as they have given me.”
Marr is promising to donate 100% of the profits from 10 lots to a pair of charities: The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and The National Autistic Society.
The public will be able to view a selection of collection highlights prior to the auction. New York will have a chance from June 25th to July 1st, before returning to Christie’s headquarters in London. Then, the public will be able to view the collection from September 9th to 16th.
Following the grand clear out, Johnny Marr will surely be able to focus on his new album The Age of Everything. The record is due to drop October 2nd, with latest single Spin serving as a taste of what to expect.
For more information, head to Chirstie’s auction house.
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“Slip and destroy!”: Kirk Hammett took a tumble offstage during Metallica’s Dublin show
There’s no denying that Kirk Hammett is a masterful, coordinated guitarist – but he can be pretty clumsy on his feet. What with the Metallica axeman injuring his leg onstage back in 2023, he took his antics up a notch last weekend in Ireland, taking a tumble right into the crowd.
The fall happened at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium on Friday 19 June during Seek & Destroy. In an effort to treat front-row fans to a clear view of his fretwork, the heavy metal legend stood right on the edge of the stage – and things got a little more up-close and personal than he’d intended.
In a video of the fall, you can see Hammett moving closer to the eager fans. Everyone looks delighted – before he slips and falls down onto their heads, that is. Thankfully, the crowd all reacted accordingly, helping Hammett back up and on his feet without much of a hitch.
Despite the head-first dive, Hammett was easily able to continue on with the show. He’s seemingly not got any injuries from it either, if we consider his joke-y response on Instagram hours after the show: a simple “SLIP AND DESTROY!!!!” over a video of the incident.
Again, Hammett has been known to be clumsy. The internet is full of videos of him slipping on his wah pedal, slipping on thin air, and even a few of him just collapsing to the ground.
Hammett’s plunge isn’t the first onstage antic that’s gained him attention on this leg of Metallica’s M72 world tour. On 13 June, Hammett’s choice of attire raised a few eyebrows, with the guitarist opting to wear a comedic shirt reading “Taylor Swift Is A CIA Psyop”.
Moving forward, Metallica’s M72 tour will continue with their two-night stops in each city, with the promise of no repeats across the pair of shows. They’ll be hitting the rest of the UK throughout the end of June and into July, with dates schedules in for Cardiff, Glasgow, and London.
View the full list of tour dates at the Metallica website.
Kirk Hammett wears t-shirt that says "Taylor Swift is a CIA Psyop," mocking conspiracy theorists during a show in Budapest.
This satirical shirt humorously critiques and mocks the absurdity of the real-world conspiracy theories that assert Swift is a government asset.
The…
— BBQ Chiefs (@BBQChiefs) June 19, 2026
The post “Slip and destroy!”: Kirk Hammett took a tumble offstage during Metallica’s Dublin show appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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