General Interest

Martin is marking America’s 250th birthday the best way it knows how: by building a guitar. The company has unveiled the HD-28 Semiquincentennial, a limited-edition model built on one of its most iconic acoustic platforms and infused with pieces of American history.

The release also marks 50 years since the HD-28 first debuted in 1976, America’s Bicentennial year. The guitar has since become one of Martin’s most recognised and beloved rosewood Dreadnoughts.

• READ MORE: Martin celebrates 100 years of its lacquer finishes with a limited all-koa Custom Shop model

Limited to just 250 guitars, the Semiquincentennial model features wood from the legendary Basking Ridge white oak a.k.a Holy Oak, a 600-year-old tree that stood through the Revolutionary War and generations of American history.

According to local lore, George Washington’s troops drilled within view of its branches, while Washington himself is said to have picnicked beneath it with the Marquis de Lafayette. Martin has incorporated wood from the historic oak into the guitar’s endpiece, heelcap, and Liberty Bell headplate inlay.

The patriotic theme continues across the reclaimed Sitka spruce top, which features original artwork by longtime Martin collaborator Robert Goetzl depicting a bald eagle, Independence Hall and a colonial-era American flag.

Underneath all of that, though, it’s still very much an HD-28. The guitar packs a Dreadnought body, solid East Indian rosewood back and sides, bold herringbone top inlay, and Golden Era scalloped forward-shifted X-bracing.

It also features a Golden Era Modified Low Oval neck profile, an ebony Golden Era modern belly bridge, bone bridge pins, antique white binding, and a Semiquincentennial star fingerboard design crafted from paua and mother of pearl.

Each guitar also comes strung with Martin Authentic Acoustic Lifespan 2.0 strings and includes a molded hardshell case.

“This is one of those projects where a lot of history comes together,” says Chris Martin IV, the sixth generation leader and current CEO of Martin. “Martin has been part of the American story for nearly 200 years, and our family has its own connection to the Revolution, so celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary feels especially meaningful.”

“It also brings us back to 1976, when Martin marked the Bicentennial and introduced the HD-28. Fifty years later, using that same model as the foundation for this guitar just felt right. It’s a really special way to celebrate the past while creating something that can carry the story forward.”

Learn more at Martin.

The post Martin’s new HD-28 Semiquincentennial is a love letter to 250 years of American history appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Guild has resurrected one of the most unconventional offset electric guitars from its ‘70s catalogue. Nearly 50 years after its debut, the S-300 is making a return in the form of the new S-300 Deluxe, complete with two eye-catching metallic finishes and a handful of player-friendly updates.

• READ MORE: The best single-cut electric guitars to buy, from Les Pauls to Telecasters

Originally introduced in 1977, the S-300 never quite achieved the mainstream recognition of some of its contemporaries. But its futuristic offset body, exaggerated contours and unusual electronics earned it a loyal following over the years, turning it into something of a cult favourite among guitar enthusiasts.

“The S-300 was viewed as fairly radical when it was introduced nearly 50 years ago,” says Nick Beach, Product Manager at Fretted Instruments. “The guitar’s offset body had dramatic cutaways and contours that gave it a futuristic look, and its phase switch was also unusual at the time – but since then it has become increasingly popular and collectable.”

“With the new S-300 Deluxe guitar, we’re bringing back a classic with a few key changes to make it even more comfortable and giving players a choice of eye-catching metallic finishes.”

Those finishes come in the form of Neptune Blue Metallic and Vintage Sterling Metallic, both paired with a contoured mahogany body, a Soft U-profile mahogany set neck, an ivory-bound rosewood fingerboard sporting Guild’s Chesterfield block inlays and an oversized vintage-style headstock.

The guitar is sounded by a pair of HB-2+ humbucking pickups with Alnico V magnets, combined with dual Volume and Tone controls and a mini-toggle phase switch, delivering a wide variety of tones ranging from “old-school warmth and punch to cutting-edge crunch and clarity”.

Additional appointments include a 5-ply black pickguard, an Ultimate Angle Tune-o-matic-style bridge, vintage-style Guild compensated tailpiece and Grover G2 open-gear tuners.

The S-300 Deluxe joins the company’s Newark St. Collection, sitting alongside other vintage-inspired models including the Polara Deluxe.

Available now in Neptune Blue Metallic and Vintage Sterling Metallic, the Guild S-300 Deluxe carries a price tag of $799.99.

Learn more at Guild Guitars. 

The post Guild revives its “radical” S-300 offset from the ‘70s: “The guitar was viewed as fairly radical when it was introduced” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

String trees are one of those bits of guitar hardware most players have never given a second thought to – that little metal disc or bar pinning the high strings down behind the nut on your Strat. Some guitars have one. Some have two. Some don’t have any at all. And if you ask the average player what it actually does, you’ll usually get a shrug and a vague mumble about “keeping the strings down.”

• READ MORE: What’s the point of your guitar’s vibrato system anyway?

String trees (also called string retainers or string guides) are about as simple as guitar hardware gets, and they’re routinely ignored until something goes wrong, at which point they get blamed for tuning drift, tone loss, and general bad behavior. Sometimes fairly, sometimes not. So here’s what they actually do, why some guitars need them, and why some don’t.

A Simple Solution to Headstock Design

The whole reason a string tree exists comes down to physics, and the angle at which the string crosses the nut. Once the string crosses the nut on the way to the tuner, it has to angle downward sharply enough to stay seated in its slot. That downward bend – called the break angle – is what keeps the string seated, keeps it ringing cleanly, and keeps it from popping out of the slot when you dig into a bend.

On a Gibson-style headstock with its angled-back design, somewhere in the 14- to 17-degree range depending on era and model, every string gets plenty of break angle and there’s no need for a string tree.

On a flat, Fender-style headstock, things get more complicated. The plane of the headstock sits roughly level with the back of the neck, which means the strings have to drop down to the tuner posts across a much shallower angle. The low E, A and D strings are usually fine – their tuners are close enough to the nut and their posts low enough that they generate adequate break angle naturally. But the G, B and high E strings, depending on layout, often don’t. The break angle of those strings is usually somewhere between 3 and 6 degrees without a string tree.

So What Does a String Tree Actually Do?

A string tree is, mechanically, the simplest possible solution to this problem. It pins the offending strings down between the nut and the tuners, forcing them to make the bend the headstock geometry isn’t providing. With the tree in place, those strings sit properly in the nut, ring cleanly, and stay put when you bend.

Without one – and you can try this if you ever pull a tree off – the high E and B will buzz in the slot, lose volume, or in some cases actually skip out of the nut altogether under pressure. This is why Leo Fender added them in the first place. The original 1954 Stratocaster shipped without a string tree, but it didn’t take long for Fender to spot the problem and add a single round retainer for the high E and B. By the late 50s, the little disc-style “butterfly” tree had become standard issue. Telecasters got them too, for exactly the same reason.

Why Do Some Guitars Have One Tree and Others Have Two?

Walk through a guitar shop and you’ll notice the variation. A vintage-spec Strat will usually have a single round tree pinning down the high E and B. A ’70s-style Strat or many modern American models often have a second one – usually a bar-style retainer – sitting further down and pulling the D and G strings into line as well.

The reason comes down to tuner post height. Vintage Fender tuners had relatively tall posts, which kept the strings sitting higher above the headstock face. As post heights got shorter on some models, and as headstock geometry shifted with the larger ’70s headstock, the D and G ended up needing their own retainer to maintain consistent break angle across the whole nut.

Fender’s modern answer has been staggered tuners: each post is a slightly different height, getting shorter as you move towards the high strings. With a properly staggered set, you can often get away with a single tree, and in some configurations no tree at all. EVH-style headstocks and a lot of boutique builds use this trick to clean up the look and cut down on friction points.

Tuning Stability

Here’s where string trees earn their reputation as a necessary evil. Every contact point between the bridge and the tuner is a potential source of friction, and the string tree is no exception. When you bend a string or work the trem, the string has to slide back and forth under that retainer. If it sticks – even for a moment – your tuning suffers. You’ll hear it as that familiar pinging sound when a string suddenly releases, and feel it as a guitar that won’t quite settle back to pitch after heavy whammy use.

Today, we have so many aftermarket solutions. Graphite-impregnated retainers, roller string trees, Graph Tech-style synthetic versions, and PTFE-treated trees all aim to reduce that friction. A few drops of nut lubricant under a stock tree will often do most of the same job for free. If you’re a heavy tremolo user on a Strat, this stuff is genuinely worth attending to.

Do String Trees Affect Tone?

Strictly speaking, the length of string between the nut and the tuner doesn’t vibrate as part of the speaking length, so the tree itself shouldn’t have any direct tonal influence. But it does affect things indirectly. A string with insufficient break angle over the nut can sound dull, lose sustain, and sit unevenly in volume against its neighbours. The tree doesn’t add anything to the sound – it makes sure the string is doing its job properly, which is a tonal contribution in its own right.

I will admit that I am one of the aforementioned critics of string trees. But after trying to re-engineer a Strat neck myself, I can see why Fender opted to use string trees as a simple solution. Some builders out there, like Lucky Dog, make Fender-style guitars with an added headstock angle. When I’m building Fender-style instruments, I do this too, and prefer a 12 degrees angle, but it does require a lot more attention during the building process than a flat headstock. Simplicity is key, and as long as your tree is well lubricated and smooth, it’s a great solution for mass-produced guitars, and has kept Fender guitars stable and in-tune for decades.

The post Answered: what’s the point of a guitar’s string tree anyway? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.



For Episode 115 of the podcast, we’re joined by classical guitarmaker Marco Bortolozzo.

In our conversation, Marco tells us about the mentorship that launched his career, and the story behind his signature Olympic ring rosette, inspired by a 19th-century Spanish guitar. We also discuss his neck joint design, his unique use of shellac records in guitar finishes and much more.

https://www.marcobortolozzo.com/

Luthier on Luthier is hosted by Michael Bashkin of Bashkin Guitars and brought to you by the Fretboard Journal. This episode is sponsored by the Looth Group, Dream Guitars and StewMac.

Want to support Luthier on Luthier? Join our Patreon to get access to exclusive photos and content from Michael and his builds.

The post Luthier on Luthier: Marco Bortolozzo first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

At the 2026 Wintergrass festival in Bellevue, Washington, the Fretboard Journal teamed up with filmers  I Know We Should to capture some of our favorite artists (and talk gear).

First up, banjo player Tray Wellington performing “Moon In Motion I” / “Moon In Motion III” and “False Idols.”

A companion video features Tray going over his banjo, a newer Gibson RB-75 with a radiused fingerboard.

Follow Tray here.

Register now for Wintergrass 2027. The lineup in 2027 will include Sierra Hull, Jerry Douglas Band, East Nash Grass and other bluegrass favorites.

Video by Brad Wagner, audio by Juan M Soria.

We’ll be sharing more highlights from Wintergrass 2026 on a weekly basis here and on our YouTube channel.

The post Wintergrass Sessions: Tray Wellington first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

Jackson has once again teamed up with metal guitarist and former Black Dahlia Murder man Brandon Ellis, this time on a monstrous 27-fret shred machine, the KE27.

Adopting the brand’s Kelly shape, the Pro Plus Series Signature Brandon Ellis Kelly KE27 arrives as the latest addition to Ellis’s signature line, and is designed for “crushing tone, massive output and high-performance playability”.

Chief on the guitar’s spec sheet are 27 stainless steel frets, offering players access to the extreme high registers of the fretboard. There’s also a Seymour Duncan Signature Dyad Parallel Axis humbucker in the bridge position – which boasts a unique hybrid coil design with a singular bar magnet – and a PA-STK in the neck position, a top-mount Gotoh GE1996T double-locking tremolo system, and a striking Gold Crackle finish personally chosen by Ellis himself.

• READ MORE: Gibson has launched a range of retro-inspired football shirts right in time for the World Cup

Elsewhere, the guitar sports a nyatoh body with a through-body maple neck with graphite reinforcement – plus a scarf joint for enhanced sustain and stability – a 12”-16” compound radius’ board for “pulverising speed”, with black sharkfin inlays, a Floyd Rose R2 nut, three-way toggle switch and Dunlop dual-locking strap buttons.

Despite the extra frets, the KE27 boasts a scale length of 25.1”, within the typical range of 24.75” – 25.5” of most electric guitars.

“The KE27 has really evolved into a completely different guitar in its own right,” says Brandon Ellis.

“While the first iteration was built on the standard Jackson Kelly spec, this one features meaningful customisations to virtually every aspect including 27 stainless steel frets, a custom 25.1” scale length, top-mount Gotoh tremolo and my signature Seymour Duncan Parallel Axis Dyad pickup, which is otherwise only available as a Custom Shop model. When I pick this guitar up, I’m just in awe. It plays like a custom shop guitar and has a unique feel and sound all its own.”

“Ellis’s new signature is as uniquely designed as his sound,” says Peter Wichers, Product Manager of Jackson.

“It features custom appointments tailored specifically to him, including 27 frets and his custom Seymour Duncan Dyad Parallel Axis bridge pickup, the very elements that define his distinctive tone. This signature gives players the tools to tap into that sound.”

The Pro Plus Series Signature Brandon Ellis Kelly KE27 is priced at $2,199 / £1,799.

Learn more at Jackson.

The post The KE27 is a 27-fret shred-ready monster conceived by Jackson and metal guitarist Brandon Ellis appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

With the 2026 FIFA World Cup well underway, football fans the globe over have been clamouring to support their countries as they vie to lift that coveted golden trophy on 19 July.

We’re now into the knockout stages, and some strong contenders – including Japan, the Netherlands and, shockingly, Germany – have already been eliminated.

Of course, the desire to buy and rep your team’s shirt when they’ve already been knocked out is pretty minuscule, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still look the part…

Thanks to this new collaboration between guitar giant Gibson and Icarus Football – which specialises in custom kit design – you can express your love of both guitar culture and football all at once.

• READ MORE: Olivia Rodrigo’s new LEGO set immortalises her custom Music Man St Vincent in brick form

Available at Gibson.com and at the Gibson Garages in Nashville and London, the Gibson x Icarus Football collection reinterprets classic football aesthetics “through the lens of Gibson’s heritage”.

The drop consists of two limited-edition polo-style shirts, one long-sleeve in white repping “Gibson USA”, and another with short sleeves in a navy blue Gibson Stars aesthetic.

“Each piece blends the craftsmanship and attitude Gibson is known for with Icarus Football’s reputation for storytelling through shirt design,” Gibson says. “The result is apparel that feels equally at home in stadium stands, on festival grounds, or in the wardrobes of fans who move fluidly between music and sport.”

“Gibson chose to partner with Icarus Football for its distinctive position at the intersection of football and music culture,” the brand continues.

“Beyond its reputation for original, story-driven shirt design, Icarus Football has longstanding associations with numerous bands, including Gibson partners Motörhead and Broken Social Scene, making the brand a natural collaborator for a project centered on creative crossover. Together, Gibson and Icarus Football have created a collection that reflects a shared point of view – where sound, style, identity, and sport all meet.”

It doesn’t look like this drop is the first from Gibson and Icarus Football, either, as the two brands say they plan to explore future collections with design elements drawn from the Gibson Garages in Nashville, London and Miami.

The long-sleeved white shirt is priced at $120, while the short-sleeved blue shirt is $100.

Learn more at Gibson.

The post Gibson has launched a range of retro-inspired football shirts right in time for the World Cup appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

If you’ve ever spent hours perfecting an amp tone only to have your mates ask, ‘Can you send me that preset?’, STL Tones thinks it could be worth more than just bragging rights.

The company behind ToneHub and ControlHub has announced the public expansion of its artist royalty platform, allowing guitarists, producers, mixers, and artists to upload and monetise their own tones across its software ecosystem.

Until now, the marketplace has largely been reserved for invited artists and producers, with over USD$2.5 million in artist royalties generated in total.

• READ MORE: Simon McBride believes “truss rods suck the tone and sustain out of guitars”

The expansion means independent players will be able to publish alongside signature tones from the guitarists and producers behind acts including Bring Me The Horizon, blink-182, Slipknot, Paramore, Foo Fighters, Turnstile, Ozzy Osbourne, Chris Stapleton, Jack White, Arctic Monkeys and Weezer.

Creators can publish guitar and bass tones in ToneHub, mixing and mastering chains in ControlHub, and earn recurring royalties whenever their content is used across the platforms. Artists will also retain ownership of the tones they upload while STL handles distribution, royalty tracking, usage analytics and payouts.

The tones themselves are captured from real amplifiers and studio gear, with STL aiming to recreate the feel and response of physical rigs inside its software ecosystem.

Rather than limiting official tone packs to big-name artists, STL says the move is about giving its wider community a chance to benefit from the platform they’ve helped build.

“For years, users in the STL community have helped shape the platform through their support, feedback, and creativity. The launch represents a shift toward sharing platform revenue directly with the users contributing to the ecosystem,” says the company.

The move also reflects a wider trend in the music industry, where artists are increasingly relying on multiple revenue streams to build sustainable careers.

“Streaming, touring, merch, fan communities, and digital products have all become part of the modern artist business model. STL believes artist tones should be part of that revenue stack as well, transforming them from one-time product releases into long-term royalty-generating assets,” STL adds.

“Over the years, I have collected amps and hardware that may not be accessible to the average person. ControlHub and ToneHub have allowed me to share the gear I love and have used on countless records while also creating an additional revenue stream. No other company has revolutionised modern-day mixing quite like STL Tones, and I’m stoked to be part of the ride,” says producer and former A Day To Remember guitarist Tom Denney.

Learn more at STL Tones.

The post STL Tones is now letting anyone earn royalties from their guitar tones – not just the pros appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

“It’s no secret that the Gibson Les Paul is one of the most influential guitar designs of all time. It has seen countless versions from Gibson itself, and inspired plenty more single-cut guitars – whether that’s set-neck designs that offer their own twist on Gibson’s formula, or other brand’s more characterful attempts to fill the same niche – such as Fender’s powerful humbucker-loaded, 1970s-inspired telecasters.

• READ MORE: The best electric guitars for all styles and budgets

But there are countless Les Pauls, Les Paul-alikes and rock-ready single-cuts out there on the market. So we’ve distilled down the best guitars in the category that we’ve reviewed – let’s dive in!

At a glance:

• Our Pick: Gibson Les Paul Studio Session
• Best Les Paul-style guitar for Metal: Jackson Diamond Rowe Monarkh
• Best high-end single-cut: Heritage Custom Shop Core Collection H-137
• Best affordable humbucker-loaded Telecaster: Squier Classic Vibe ’70s Antigua Telecaster
• Best modern-style HS Telecaster-style guitar: Yamaha Pacifica SC Professional
• Best vintage-style HH Telecaster: Fender American Vintage II 1972 Telecaster Thinline
• Best lightweight single-cut: Harmony Jupiter Thinline
• Best single-pickup Les Paul: Epiphone Jared James Nichols “Blues Power” Les Paul Custom
• Best vintage-style Les Paul: Epiphone 1959 Les Paul Standard
• Best high-end vintage-style single-cut: Heritage Standard H-150 P90
• Best affordable Les Paul: Epiphone Les Paul Special
• Why you can trust Guitar.com

Our Pick: Gibson Les Paul Studio Session

The Les Paul Studio is back. While its return wasn’t without controversy – the revamped version of the instrument is decidedly more pricey than its predecessors – let’s set that aside for a moment and look at what the guitar is, rather than what it isn’t. Our reviewer found plenty to love about this modern take on the format, from the incredibly playable SlimTaper neck to the updated 57 Classic/57 Classic+ pickup combo. While a lot of Gibson’s approaches to the Les Paul are perhaps squarely stuck in the ultra-modern format as with the Modern Lite (a guitar we had less of a good time with) to the thoroughly vintage-indebted, the Les Paul Studio Session balances these two approaches to arrive at one hell of a guitar.

Read our full review of the Gibson Les Paul Studio Session.

Best Les Paul-style guitar for Metal: Jackson Diamond Rowe Monarkh

A good old Les Paul can be great for metal, but what if you want to tune down, or shred up near that chunky neck joint? Jackson’s signature model for Tetrarch’s Diamond Rowe is one of the best modern metal-focused single-cuts out there. It features a Fender-style scale length, comes stock with thick strings tuned to B standard, and has an absurdly comfortable all-access cutaway. Its EMG pickups are no slouch, either – there’s a reason the 81/85 set is a metal staple. Plus, just look at it – it’s one of the most extremely metal takes on a flashy burl top out there!

For the price it’s an amazingly professional guitar, with the only downside being the rather bad gigbag that it comes with. That aside, this could form the beating heart of a heavy AF metal rig.

Need more? Read our Jackson Diamond Rowe Monarkh review.

Best high-end single-cut: Heritage Custom Shop Core Collection H-137

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On the hunt for a serious bit of guitar-making? In terms of an all-out, US-made, handcrafted electric guitar in this style, the Gibson Custom Shop isn’t your only option. The legacy of Gibson’s Kalamazoo factory lives on with Heritage – and in this particular case, we have a guitar clearly inspired by the dual-P90 Les Paul Special. It’s a refined take on what was initially a punkier student model – its P90s are punchy and aggressive off the bat, meaning a wide range of tones in the four-control layout. And the overall excellent fit-and-finish of the thing helps it transcends its thrashier roots into something a little more versatile.

Need more? Read our Heritage Custom Shop Core Collection H-137 review.

Best modern-style HS Telecaster-style guitar: Yamaha Pacifica SC Professional

Yamaha’s recent adjustment of the Pacifica line has led to some stellar high-end instruments being released as part of the line. This take on something approaching a  Telecaster Custom is a smartly designed – and flawlessly crafted – instrument, featuring some of Yamaha’s own unique twists on the formula. You’ve got the focus switch, for instance, borrowed from the Revstar line, as well as a unique high-end three brass-saddle bridge and a compound radius fretboard. It all combines to make a guitar that truly lives up to the professional assertion in its name.

Read our full review of the Yamaha Pacifica SC Professional.

Best vintage-style HH Telecaster: Fender American Vintage II 1972 Telecaster Thinline

If that Squier Classic Vibe instrument isn’t for you, there’s always of course the other end of the spectrum. This entry into Fender’s American Vintage II line meticulously recreates the 1972 version of Fender’s Telecaster Thinline. There’s an awesome balance going on with this guitar – there’s the characteristic Fender liveliness thanks to the semi-hollow construction, but a pair of Wide Range Humbuckers are ready to bring the midrange grunt to the party. The price tag isn’t for the faint of heart, but if you know that you love a vintage-style Fender, this is a great Les Paul killer from California rather than Kalamazoo.

Need more? Read our Fender American Vintage II 1972 Telecaster Thinline review.

Best lightweight single-cut: Harmony Jupiter Thinline

Looking for a thinline that’s a little different? One of the most affordable USA-made instruments you can get your hands on, this semi-hollow single-cut modernises and streamlines the vintage Harmony vibe, meaning a more sensible set of electronics in the form of a pair of brilliant-sounding gold-foil humbuckers and a single volume/tone control. And thanks to the semi-hollow construction this is a guitar your back won’t hate you for playing for four hours straight!

Need more? Read our Harmony Jupiter Thinline review.

Best single-pickup Les Paul: Epiphone Jared James Nichols “Blues Power” Les Paul Custom

The latest iteration of the blues-rock firebrand’s signature single-pickup Les Paul adds a few major changes to the formula that makes it a fantastic guitar, even without taking into account its relatively modest pricing. With a new bridge pickup – a signature noiseless P90 from Seymour Duncan – the guitar comes a lot more alive with overdrive, and a set of locking tuners make things generally easier to manage in terms of setup and string-changing. But perhaps the killer feature here is that gorgeous Pelham Blue – just look at it. Is this the coolest-looking Epiphone full stop?

Need more? Read our Epiphone Jared James Nichols “Blues Power” Les Paul Custom review.

Best vintage-style Les Paul: Epiphone 1959 Les Paul Standard

If you want an awesome Les Paul that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, then this collaboration between Epiphone and the Gibson Custom Shop could be it. Thanks to premium electronics and Gibson-spec pickups, there’s a wide range of responsive tone-shaping options on tap. Construction is solid and mostly sticks to vintage specifications, too – perfect if you want to see why the 1959 Les Paul Standard has remained one of the most legendary guitars of all time. It’s also a smart purchase when you compare it to what’s available at the most accessible end of the Gibson USA catalogue.

Need more? Read our Epiphone 1959 Les Paul Standard review.

Best high-end vintage-style single-cut: Heritage Standard H-150 P90

Guitars like Heritage’s standard H-150 P90 are more than the sum of their parts. Sure, there’s all of the classic Les Paul-indebted specifications on show, like a C-shaped mahogany neck with a rosewood fingerboard, set into a maple-capped body with vintage P90s – but thanks to Heritage’s attention to detail, it all comes together into an incredible sounding and playing guitar packaged in a sleek, stylish look that features a range of subtle updates to the single-cut formula. For the discerning buyer, this may well be the ideal option.

Need more? Read our Heritage Standard H-150 P90 review.

Best affordable Les Paul: Epiphone Les Paul Special

Compared to the pricey Custom Shop collaborations Epiphone likes to shout about, the standard Les Paul special – first launched as part of the Inspired By Gibson range in 2020 – is an affordable workhorse that, unless you really, really hate the Epiphone headstock, has no discernible compromises. Although its neck profile is on the chunkier side, it’s very playable – and not quite as fat as some baseball-bat examples out there. Importantly, its pickups aren’t messing around, either, with all of the vocal midrange P90s are famous for.

Need more? Read our Epiphone Les Paul Special review.

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.”

The post The best single-cut electric guitars to buy, from Les Pauls to Telecasters appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Finding out someone has copied your YouTube videos is one thing. Discovering they’ve apparently used them to build an AI creator that’s racked up more than half a million views is another entirely.

That’s the situation guitarist and gear reviewer Rhett Shull recently found himself in after discovering an AI-generated guitar channel that appears to have been built using his content as training material, borrowing everything from his old studio setup and thumbnails to the overall style of his videos while amassing more than 600,000 views and over 5,000 subscribers.

Shull says he first learned about the channel after being tagged by The Bad Guitarist Podcast on Instagram.

“I got tagged in a story by The Bad Guitarist Podcast. [It says] ‘This week, we take a look at an AI guitar YouTube channel that popped up in the last month and has over 5000 subs, 600,000 views, and a ton of comments from unsuspecting viewers.’”

Curious, he clicked through, only to discover that the AI channel – Guitar Gems with Chase – was, in his words, “directly ripping me off in several different ways”.

“I clicked on this last night and honestly was kind of freaked out,” he says.

• READ MORE: 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”

According to Shull, the similarities are hard to ignore. The presenter appears in a studio designed to resemble the set Shull used before moving house in 2021, wears a jacket reminiscent of one he frequently sported on camera, and even features gear mirroring that seen in his older videos.

“There’s no question that this is someone – some content farm or some person somewhere – who’s feeding my videos to some sort of AI and having it spit out this content,” he says, before joking, “I wish I was as handsome, though, as this guy is!”

For Shull, the issue isn’t simply that his videos appear to have become AI training fodder. It’s the fact that viewers seem to believe the content is genuine.

“These are real people that are watching this and thinking that this is an actual video.”

The uploads also follow a familiar “rage-bait” formula, with titles like Eight Guitars Only Dumb People Buy and thumbnails Shull says closely resemble his own. The difference, he argues, is that some of these videos veer into outright misinformation.

“What this video is claiming is that a company like Gibson or Fender and PRS and these other companies are ripping you off because they’re using the same machines and building the same guitars but in China. It’s completely wrong information. It’s false.”

Because the videos are AI-generated, Shull believes they exist in a legal grey area with little accountability.

“If I said that stuff in a video, if I came out and made these claims that are just objectively false, I could be held liable for slander or defamation because I’m lying about a company,” he says. “But so far as I understand it, because this is an AI creator and AI is completely unregulated here in the United States, there are no rules around this stuff, at least as far as I can tell. And YouTube obviously doesn’t seem to have a problem with it.”

Adding to his frustration, Shull says the channel appears to be monetised and is even promoting paid guitar courses, meaning somebody is profiting from AI-generated content built on his work.

“I’m going to file a takedown request with YouTube and report these videos because obviously this shouldn’t exist,” he says. “The fact that this is allowed to happen on YouTube, the fact that the platform doesn’t immediately crack down on this AI generated slop really sucks… and it doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in me about the future of this platform.

“People are watching this thinking that it’s real and then being funnelled to buy a product that is equally as fake… someone most likely in Brazil, from what I can tell, is making money off of this and YouTube is just allowing it to happen.”

Whether YouTube ultimately removes the channel remains to be seen (at the time of writing, it is still live on the platform), but Shull suspects he won’t be the last creator to find their work repurposed as AI training material.

“I feel like this is a losing battle. The better these AI tools get at making videos and creating this kind of content, the more prevalent these type of slop channels are going to be on the platform. And that sucks, man. That really sucks.”

Watch the full video below.

The post “Someone is making money off of this and YouTube is letting it happen”: Rhett Shull slams ‘AI slop channel’ that ripped off his videos and amassed over 600,000 views appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Just a few months ago, Joe Bonamassa was “beta testing” Fender’s Tone Master amplifiers. Then he admitted he “really wanted to dislike” them, only to end up impressed by how convincing they sounded.

Now, the experiment appears to be over.

The blues legend has revealed that he will be taking Fender’s Tone Master digital amplifiers out on his upcoming summer tour – a decision he reckons is bound to ruffle a few feathers among gear purists.

• READ MORE: Joe Bonamassa thinks Eddie Van Halen wouldn’t have been as “cool” if he’d used a Quad Cortex instead of vintage analogue gear: “People hear with their eyes”

Sharing a photo of four Tone Master Twins lined up and ready to hit the road, Bonamassa writes in his latest Instagram post, “I am going to take a lot of shit for this but my tone-master high power twins are ready for the summer tour and the backline truck just got a hell of a lot lighter.”

As expected, it didn’t take long for the comments to roll in. When one user suggested he should “get a Tonex pedal and call it a day”, Bonamassa fired back: “Fuck those guys”. Fellow guitarist Andy Wood, meanwhile, joked, “cue the apocalypses”, prompting JoBo to reply: “locusts and frogs falling from the sky!”

It’s quite the turnaround for a guitarist who’s built a reputation as one of the industry’s biggest vintage gear enthusiasts. Earlier this year, Bonamassa revealed he’d been quietly beta testing Fender’s digital amps on tour, before later admitting he was surprised by just how much he liked them.

“I’ve got to be honest with you and admit when I’m wrong,” he told MusicRadar in a recent interview. “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.”

Bonamassa also explained that his production manager, sound tech and fellow guitarist Josh Smith all preferred the Tone Master, adding that the key to making digital amps feel authentic is still “moving air” through a proper speaker cabinet.

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Learn more about the Tone Master range over at Fender.

The post “I am going to take a lot of s**t for this”: Joe Bonamassa reveals he’s using digital amps for his new tour appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

What does it take to keep one of rock’s longest-running bands firing on all cylinders well into its seventh decade? According to Keith Richards, it helps to have a producer who isn’t afraid to keep things moving, and who, crucially, “doesn’t put up with any bullshit”.

Andrew Watt has become one of modern rock’s most in-demand producers, steering projects for everyone from Paul McCartney to Elton John and Ozzy Osbourne. And after producing The Rolling Stones’ acclaimed Hackney Diamonds, he’s back behind the desk for the band’s forthcoming 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues, due 10 July.

Speaking to The Guardian, Richards credits much of the band’s current creative momentum to both Mick Jagger’s recent songwriting streak and Watt’s ability to keep sessions focused.

• READ MORE: Mick jagger says he “absolutely would love to tour” Rolling Stones’ new album Foreign Tongues

“Mick’s been very prolific lately,” Richards says, “which is one reason this album has come out so quick, because he won’t bloody stop. And the momentum from Hackney Diamonds was such that this is basically carrying on in the same breath. I was just letting it roll – we had enough stuff if we wanted to keep pushing, and so Mick and I gave each other the usual wry look and said: ‘Yeah, let’s keep pushing.’”

Richards is equally effusive about Watt, whose resume has increasingly become a who’s who of music royalty. McCartney once described his first impression of the 35-year-old producer as: “I like him, but he’s a bit pushy.” Richards, meanwhile, seems to view that same quality as a feature rather than a flaw.

“[He’s] a breath of fresh air and a kick up the ass,” says the guitarist. “He knows his stuff musically and technically, and he doesn’t put up with any bullshit – he just gets on with it. So I found him very easy to work with. He’s a bit impetuous at times, but then so what?”

When asked whether Watt had ever needed to give him a dressing down, Richards offers the cheeky response. “No. But he may have given somebody a talking-to.”

Elsewhere, the musician also admits he’s “had it up to here with technology” as a whole, preferring instead to “stick to the old ways”.

“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,” he says. “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.”

The post Keith Richards on working with Andrew Watt: “He doesn’t put up with any bullshit” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.



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

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

Some of the topics discussed this week:

:00 Skip’s refrigerator dies (but lives!), taking the train to the Chicago Fretboard Summit, electronica band Chessie

10:09 The LA vintage guitar show

13:52 ‘The Angel’s Share’ movie

16:18 Our sponsors and a great 2026 Fretboard Summit amp giveaway (thanks, Andy!)

19:19 A non-tech tip: Silverface control panel amps with peeling film

21:59 What’s on Skip’s bench: Magnatone amps; an early Dickerson amp; using a Trace Elliot Velocette shell for a tube amp build

26:38 How long would it take Skip to build a tube amp (on a game show)?

28:31 Starting an amp repair business, redux (Ahuntsic Amplification https://amplificationahuntsic.ca/homepage-en)

32:45 Solder Smoke Absorber Remover (Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3QPSuv6)

36:16 Modding a Silvertone Powermaster PA for guitar, dogbone resistors, 6J7 tubes

45:21 Novak hybrid guitars; did I fry my transformer?; AI Skip; cooking with duck

53:51 What to do with my dad’s 1959 Gretsch 6161 Electromatic Twin amp?; Uncle Doug on TAVA?

1:00:05 Serge Gainsbourg with a bunch of smoking kids (https://youtu.be/unYu22Ign1E?si=VkCNtOaDbloJqh63)

1:01:03 Warehouse speakers for a 1976 Silverface Vibro Champ (Instagram: @cwg_guitars)

Above and below: Listener Micajah’s Silvertone Powermaster PA. 

Want amp tech Skip Simmons’ advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Want to share your top secret family recipe? Need relationship advice? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com! Include a photo, too.

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

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

The post The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 167 first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

If there’s one thing that’s even cooler than a regular guitar, it’s a LEGO guitar. Fender realised this a few years ago, and now Olivia Rodrigo’s debut collection with the Danish brick maker has put guitar right at the heart of everything. 

Rodrigo is the latest artist to collaborate on a LEGO set but by no means the first – over the years the brand has made sets for everyone from Pharrell and BTS, to The Spice Girls and The Beatles – but her five-set collection is certainly the most involved. 

The crowning glory of the LEGO Editions Olivia Rodrigo collection is the Dual Guitar – a 1,228-piece set that represents the duality of Rodrigo’s guitar-playing artistry, as seen on her GUTS world tour and 2025 headline set at Glastonbury.

For guitar fans, the half-and-half instrument should certainly raise a few eyebrows – on the one side is a LEGO recreation of her custom Gibson L-00 acoustic, while the other is a pretty bang-on recreation of the purple-finished Music Man St Vincent Goldie that made waves across the guitar scene when she began using it onstage in 2024.

Neither guitar appears to be officially licensed however, as the headstocks for both guitars look a little off and don’t have any headstock decals. Unlike the Fender Strat set, this guitar has more going on under the hood – pop open the top of the St Vincent guitar and you’ll find a pair of guitar-toting Minifigures of Rodrigo in stage attire, one acoustic and one electric. 

Disappointingly neither are purple, and it seems like LEGO couldn’t stretch to making a tiny Minifigure-sized version of the St Vincent, but it does give the vibe of the red vintage Mustang she used for much of her Glastonbury 2025 set. 

The guitar isn’t the only bit of six-string bricking in the LEGO Editions Olivia Rodrigo collection either. The “Secret Storage” set brings some of Rodrigo’s most familiar symbols together in one set, and includes a smaller red guitar that, is apparently a nod to the aforementioned red Mustang she used at Glastonbury. 

In truth, it looks more like a Rickenbacker to us, but such are the limits of making things out of tiny bricks – maybe they’re being a little careful about making unlicensed replicas of Fender body shapes in the current climate, ahem. The collection is completed by a “Concert Moon” set, a record player, and a Botanicals flower collection – the first of its kind. 

“Olivia brings to every lyric, every hidden clue and every album, while giving fans a meaningful way to connect with her,” says Julia Goldin, Chief Product & Marketing Officer at the LEGO Group. “This collaboration is about more than recreating moments – it’s about inspiring fans to build, explore and express themselves through storytelling and creative building.”

Given that it didn’t take long for LEGO fanatics to create a pedalboard to go with the Strat set, surely it’s a matter of time before someone uses this set to create a full Lego Music Man St Vincent and Gibson L-00? Stay tuned… 

The LEGO Editions Olivia Rodrigo’s Dual Guitar launches on 1 August 2026 and retails at $119.99. You can preorder the sets from LEGO now.

The post Oliva Rodrigo’s new LEGO set immortalises her custom Music Man St Vincent in brick form appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

If guitarists needed another excuse to argue about tone, Deep Purple’s Simon McBride may have just provided one.

Speaking to Guitar World ahead of the band’s upcoming album SPLAT!, the guitarist reveals he recorded the entire album with a prototype PRS that ditches one feature found in almost every modern electric guitar: the truss rod.

• READ MORE: Deep Purple guitarist says Smoke on the Water is a “challenging” song to play: “It is easy technically, but it’s not easy to play”

For those new to guitar anatomy, the truss rod is the metal bar running through the length of your guitar’s neck beneath the fretboard. Its job is to counteract the constant pull of the strings, helping keep the neck straight and allowing relief adjustments over time.

In other words, it’s one of the least glamorous – but arguably most important – parts of a modern guitar. McBride, however, believes it’s also getting in the way of great tone.

“I played everything on this record with a prototype from PRS,” he says. “The idea is that there’s no truss rod. It goes back to the early days when guitars had no truss rods because I’m a firm believer that if you put a truss rod in a guitar, it sucks the tone and sustain out of it.”

According to McBride, the difference was immediately noticeable.

“This guitar is like an animal,” he says. “It’s hard to control because there’s so much natural sustain, and I don’t do high-output pickups.”

“Acoustically, there’s such a difference without the truss rod. [The neck] must be the strongest piece of wood they could find because it doesn’t bend at all.”

Guitarists, of course, are no strangers to passionate debates over what does and doesn’t affect tone. From tonewoods and guitar shape to pick material and even theoretical knowledge, there’s rarely a shortage of opinions. McBride’s truss rod theory is certainly one of the more unusual additions to the conversation, though we wouldn’t recommend anyone start pulling theirs out just yet.

Deep Purple’s new album SPLAT! arrives on 3 July. Check out their latest single below.

The post Simon McBride believes “truss rods suck the tone and sustain out of guitars” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

If you’re building a rig on a budget, which deserves the bigger investment: the guitar in your hands, or the amp before you? To say that guitarists are split on the subject would be putting it mildly.

Covet guitarist Yvette Young has argued that pairing a great guitar with a bad amp is like “ruining a really nice audio file”, while The Cult’s Billy Duffy believes that “you’re always going to sound shitty” with a bad amp. On the other side of the fence are players like Bon Jovi’s Phil X and  Doug Aldrich of Whitesnake, who posit that almost any working amp can sound good with the right guitar.

• READ MORE: “The guitar is so much more personal”: Former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford on why he’d always pick a good guitar over a good amp

Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy has now added his name to team amp, telling Guitarist he’d happily compromise on the guitar before the amplifier.

“A shitty amp is useless,” he says. “I could probably get sounds that I enjoy out of a cheap guitar and a good amp.”

That said, Tweedy doesn’t see the debate as entirely black and white.

“I think it could go both ways… it depends on the cheap amp,” he explains. “Some cheap amps, to me, sound better than the most expensive amps. So it’s all relative.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Tweedy reveals he’s also been favouring Japanese-made guitars from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s of late, even swapping them into his live rig in place of his Gibsons.

The musician, who admits to spending “an insane amount of time” browsing guitars online, says Greco models from the era have become a particular favourite – not least because he feels more comfortable taking them on the road than increasingly valuable vintage Gibsons.

“I’ve been swapping them out for the Gibsons I play live because they’re getting ridiculously expensive,” says Tweedy. “I don’t mind taking [the Japanese guitars] out on the road because they’re supposed to be used, and they’re tools – but I feel a bit self-conscious when I get handed a guitar that I can see somebody in the front row going. ‘Oh, my God, that’s an expensive instrument.’”

“I don’t like that feeling,” the guitarist laughs. “So the Grecos from that era are what I’ve been playing a lot. If you see me playing an SG, it’s usually a Greco.”

The post “A sh**ty amp is useless”: Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy on why he’d always pick a good amp over a good guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction five decades after your debut might sound like the kind of milestone that leaves a band celebrating. But don’t expect Iron Maiden to make too much of a fuss about it.

Speaking in the latest issue of Metal Hammer, bassist Steve Harris and frontman Bruce Dickinson make it clear that while they’re grateful for the recognition, it’s never been something they’ve spent much time thinking about.

• READ MORE: “Brian said we’d frightened the life out of them. I thought: ‘Good, we’ve done our job’”: The time Queen thought Iron Maiden – their support act – had upstaged them

Asked whether the band ever discussed turning down this year’s induction, Harris says there was never much of a conversation to begin with.

“No, there have only been comments from a couple of members of the band here and there,” he says. “Bruce has his own strong feelings about it, which is his opinion.”

In fact, the bassist says the honour has never meant all that much to him.

“It’s never really bothered me one way or the other, because awards aren’t what we do this for,” he explains. “But in a weird way I’m glad it’s happened so the Americans will stop banging on about it. To me, if you get offered something, you say, ‘Thank you very much.’ But did I lose sleep over getting it or not getting it? No.”

Dickinson – who famously said he didn’t “give a monkey’s” about the Rock Hall or its approval after the band missed out on induction in 2023 – sounds equally unfazed.

“I can’t even summon the energy to be vitriolic about it,” he says. “I appreciate that a significant number of people are happy for us. That’s nice. It’s not something we’re bothered about.”

The members, who won’t be attending the ceremony due to Iron Maiden’s Australia tour, say they probably wouldn’t have gone anyway.

“I don’t do those sort of things,” Harris says. “I didn’t even go to the recent red carpet thing for the documentary. It’s not me.”

And for anyone hoping the occasion might spark a Live Aid-style reunion featuring every current and former member, the band has already shut down the idea.

“No. That’d just be cheesy,” says Harris.

Dickinson agrees, arguing that those kinds of all-star performances rarely make for great music: “Those kind of things make some people feel, ‘Oh great, what an event’, but musically usually it’s a mess,” he says.

“I absolutely don’t have any problem with Blaze [Bayley, former vocalist] or any of those other guys on the bill – I love Blaze, he’s a fantastic guy. But we’re not planning on having Nicko [McBrain, former drummer] playing three drums during the show or anything like that. No, people have paid money to see this incarnation of Iron Maiden. It will be an Iron Maiden set. This is the band, this is what you get.”

Iron Maiden first became eligible for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, but weren’t nominated until 2021 and 2023 before finally making this year’s class. The 2026 inductees also include Oasis, Billy Idol, Wu-Tang Clan, Joy Division/ New Order and Phil Collins.

The post “I’m glad it’s happened so the Americans will stop banging on about it” Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris doesn’t seem too excited about their Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Has technology made us worse at practising and making music? Al Di Meola certainly thinks so.

Speaking on the new issue of Guitarist, the jazz fusion icon argues that smartphones and constant digital distractions have fundamentally changed the way musicians work – and not for the better.

Asked about the “big obstacles” that stand in the way of guitarists nowadays, Di Meola says, “Here’s the big issue that doesn’t get talked about. Back then, before cellphones and computers, we practised way more. And it was way more focused on the songs.”

• READ MORE: Richie Kotzen says guitarists are playing “more complex” nowadays, but at the expense of “artistic creative value”

The virtuoso recalls noticing the shift while recording an album at New York’s famed Power Station around 15 years ago.

“I noticed, as soon as we were done with the track, which was killer, everybody ran out in the hallway,” he says. “Now, back in the day, everybody would run into the control room to hear their performance. But everybody was on their phone, like, networking, y’know? And I said, ‘This is not right.’ We went as far as to tell the receptionist to hold all calls.”

For Di Meola, the phenomenon is symptomatic of a wider problem.

“That phone is always right there, within arm’s length,” he says. “We got addicted to something that we can’t break. But back in the time when we didn’t need it because it didn’t exist, our focus on our work was phenomenal.”

He points to The Guitar Trio – his supergroup project with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía – as an example of that mindset.

“When I did The Guitar Trio with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía: the first tour, we were in our hotel rooms practising for the show that night because we knew we had to be up on our game,” says Di Meola. “There was no ‘let me check my phone’. And when I listen to those records, I cannot do what the hell I did back then now. Not that I want to, by the way. Velocity isn’t my number one desire. I’ve been devoting more time to composing.”

Elsewhere in the chat, Di Meola also reflects on how creative constraints can sometimes be more productive than unchecked freedom in the studio.

“My record company gave me, on my last record, as much time as I wanted,” the musician recalls. “And I went, ‘Boy, that’s a good thing and a bad thing.’ Because in the days when they had deadlines for shipments, you had to be done no matter what. In a way, it was good to have that pressure. Otherwise, you start experimenting, doing so many different things, and then you go, ‘Wait, let me listen to those early takes’ – and you already had it.”

The post Al Di Meola on the “big issue that doesn’t get talked about” that’s hindering modern guitar players appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Many artists wear multiple hats when they’re making music. Cory Wong accesses different parts of his brain.

• READ MORE: The Close Up: Muse guitarist Matt Bellamy’s most iconic and beloved guitar, the Manson 007

He’s best known for his rhythmic chops on Fender Stratocasters, whether he’s performing his own music or serving with the jovial funk-soul outfit, Vulfpeck. But his artistry goes much further than the fretboard. On his latest album, Lost In The Wonder, he accessed his producer brain, which has a few more goals within the process, other than nailing instrumental parts:

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

12 vocalists contributed their voices to Lost In The Wonder. Wong brought in established talents such as Taylor Hanson, one of the three brothers behind the 90s pop trio, Hanson. Cody Fry of American Idol fame did some crooning. So did Benny Sings, who was featured on Rex Orange County’s modern classic, Loving is Easy. In his producer brain, Wong built songs to support their contributions, and his guitar was a tool for doing so, but it was still his music.

“Another side of the producer is bringing the artist’s vision to life, helping the artist discover more about themselves, and express themselves in new and different ways,” Wong says. “In this case, because I am the producer and the artist, I have to separate those things. My artistry comes before my guitar playing. My guitar playing is a byproduct and expression of my artistry, so I think of my artistry as being more important.”

Background Actor

And yet, by removing the guitar from the forefront and giving himself a larger overview of the body of work, he still ended up recording what he considers some of the best work on the instrument.

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

Throughout the album, Wong selects precise moments for his playing to shine through. Some of them are powerful solos, but others are more reserved instances that demonstrate his deep understanding of what is called for within the song.

The electrified dance jam, Tongue Tied, is fertile with these diverse applications. In the pre-chorus, Wong gracefully fills the spaces between Stephen Day’s syncopated vocals with light, glitchy strums. Then, when the chorus comes in, he doubles Day’s more expressive flares to give them that extra bit of sonic emphasis.

On Better Than This, Wong goes one step further to emphasize the guitar without the instrument dominating the song. At two different points, he delivers detailed guitar melodies, which he emphasizes with creative tones. The first has a gritty crunch from the Beetronics Vezzpa pedal. The second is an exercise in crystal clear picking.

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

One of the moments Wong does step into the forefront with a solo is also on Tongue Tied. In it, he has a run he describes as “somewhere between Daft Punk and Eddie Van Halen.” After a career of nearly two decades, his ability to play impressive solos is common knowledge, but this one is as functional as it is flashy.

Instead of building these titanic peaks and valleys like a Comfortably Numb or Stairway to Heaven-style flex, he keeps the 16th-note rhythm consistent throughout, using the quickness to slide between different arpeggios. This technique also serves to maintain the momentum of the song, leading into the grand key change at the conclusion of the solo. He shows off his skills without sucking up all the attention.

“This tune has been featuring vocals the whole time. How does anybody know that the guitar player is part of this?” Wong says. “The song is now asking for the guitar player to step up to the plate, and the producer needs the artist to step up to the plate and be represented.”

Tools Of The Trade

On that solo, Wong represented himself with an Epiphone Riviera with some custom modifications. Throughout the rest of Lost in the Wonder, he used his standard tools like his Strat and his Archetype Cory Wong X plugin. He also ventured out into his Music Man Stingray 2, as well as some different pedals, including the JHS Pedals Artificial Blonde.

However, he frankly doesn’t remember most of the instruments he used. At the time of our interview, he didn’t know which Epiphone he used on Tongue Tied. It just happened to be next to him in the studio when it was time to record.

“It was just what was right there, so I just grabbed it and used it. Didn’t even think about it,” Wong says. This was the case for many of the songs as he traveled to various studios around the world to collaborate with the different vocalists. “I am not somebody who’s particular about needing this gear, this thing. I want something that gives me inspiration.”

Whatever was there, in arm’s reach, ended up on the album (as long as it fit the vision he saw in his producer brain).

The post “I am not somebody who’s particular about gear” Cory Wong on why the nearest guitar to him was the best for his latest album appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.