General Interest

Towards the end of Duane Betts’ video for “Heartache,” a melancholy song about grief written after his father died in April 2024, the 48-year-old guitarist etches the initials “FRB” in the sand. It seems like a riddle, or perhaps a non sequitur, until you realize Betts’ late father, Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers Band, was born Forrest Richard Betts. “It was something that was kind of thought about and plotted out as an easter egg—something very meaningful, but not obvious. We didn’t want to be too on the nose about any of the references,” the singer and guitarist says, speaking to Premier Guitar by phone from a summer home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the night before he’s scheduled to perform with the Allman Betts Family Revival in Vail, Colorado. “Some people don’t know that my dad’s first name is Forrest. They might not catch the initials.”

While inspired by the senior Betts’ death at age 80, “Heartache” is a universal ballad, on the edge of Neil Young-style folk-country and, yes, the Allman Brothers’ soulful southern rock. “I’ll wait, watch over you / Nothing I can do,” Betts sings, then repeats the phrase “there’s nothing you can do” multiple times before playing a solo that is both mournful and hopeful on his cherry-red 1961 Gibson ES-335, a guitar he inherited from his father. “I wrote that song down in Florida, shortly after my dad passed away, with my friend [singer-songwriter] Stoll Vaughan,” Betts says. “I had this haunting chorus melody, and I was mumbling ‘heartache,’ and it just went from there. It’s a universal feeling that everybody can relate to. It’s about loss and acceptance and getting through that process.

“It’s about everything and everyone that you’ve lost, you know?” he adds. “The lyric is simple, but it’s vulnerable and personal to me and I’m very proud of it.”

In the video, filmed in Malibu, California, last March, Betts, slender with long hair and a thin mustache, wears open-collar, earth-toned suits that can only be described as “Allman Brothers chic.” In one of these outfits, he wanders into the ocean; in another, he plunges into a pool. “Actually, I don’t think we wrecked any of them,” he says of the clothes. “The first one turned out okay. We just air-dryed it. It was a lot of fun. The pool was about 10 degrees colder than the ocean, and the ocean wasn’t warm.”

Betts made “Heartache” and the rest of his new album, Isle of Hope, with Dave Cobb, the Nashville producer who has worked with just about everybody, from the Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb to pop star Teddy Swims, and has a knack for drawing out the country soul from raggedy-voiced singer-songwriters like Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, and Jason Isbell. Betts came across Cobb’s work while recording a session with guitarist J.D. Simo; while Betts was waiting for an Uber, “me and J.D. were getting some quality time,” and Betts played him a new tune called “Reckless.” “You know who would love to do this? Dave,” Simo told him.

​Duane Betts’ Gear

Guitars

• 1961 Gibson ES-335
• Gibson Dickey Betts Les Paul Gold Top prototype #1
• Pre-war Martin acoustic
• Fender Telecaster (courtesy of Dave Cobb)

Amp

• 1961 Magnatone Troubadour

Pedal

• Union Tube & Transistor NeverMORE

Cobb proved to be exactly as advertised while producing Isle of Hope, an album that balances laid-back, hymnlike tracks such as “Silver Afternoon,” “Best Wishes,” and the lead single “Heartache” with more hard-driving numbers like “Pills and Liquor,” “Down to Houston,” and the closing track “Keep My Hands Clean.” The latter songs capture the tight, barrelhouse swagger of early-1970s Rolling Stones, though they are surprisingly concise by the standards of the Allman Brothers diaspora. Throughout the album, potent slide-guitar solos—performed primarily by Betts and Johnny Stachela—add both fire and texture. Their guitar work often recalls Duane Allman’s playing alongside Eric Clapton on Derek & the Dominos’ “Layla.”

“Dave is a genius in the studio. He can frame things in his head while he’s playing in the band and map everything out perfectly and know where everything fits at all times. It’s what a producer is supposed to do—times 100,” Betts says, launching into a technical explanation of which portions of which studio takes wound up in the final track. “I wanted to have a vehicle like ‘Heartache’ to play a little differently. Dave set me up. I had the solo mapped out over different chords, over a different point in the song, and he changed it and gave me a nice path to just go at the end of the song, over those other chords. It turned out to be a great idea.”

Reproducing the album live has proved to be a challenge as the band rehearses for dates through the end of 2026 and early 2027—mostly because Betts’ road band has only two guitarists, which pushes him to play an acoustic or “an electric like an acoustic.” He adds: “You can’t play all the parts on the record. You have to be thoughtful. ‘Maybe the keyboard player can do something.’”

“We didn’t make a ‘guitar record,’ but there’s plenty of guitar playing on the record.”

Discussing the album, Betts has a habit of changing the subject to move the attention off of himself—his own songwriting, his own vision—and onto the other musicians who worked on the album, particularly his friend Simo on rhythm guitar. “I really wanted everybody to have their moments. J.D. doesn’t play any solos per se, but his guitar work on this record is just excellent,” Betts says. “We didn’t make a ‘guitar record,’ but there’s plenty of guitar playing on the record.”

The new album has a rawer, more spontaneous and live-in-the-studio feel than Betts’ solo debut, 2023’s Wild & Precious Life, a more star-studded affair that featured guests like Derek Trucks—himself the nephew of a late Allman Brothers Band member, founding drummer Butch Trucks—plus Marcus King and Nicki Bluhm. On Isle of Hope, Betts mostly plays an acoustic guitar, a pre-war Martin, although he uncorked the 335 in key moments, like the electric solo in “Heartache.” “I cut the solo after the band went home and got it,” he says.

Has Betts’ playing evolved since Wild & Precious Life? Not in his own estimation. “I don’t know if my playing has changed that much—I kind of play the way I play,” he says. “When given the opportunity to play over different chords, or a different style, you might play differently.”

Because Isle of Hope is so clearly—and lovingly—dedicated to his late father, Duane has had even more opportunities than usual to reflect publicly on Dickey Betts’ legacy and influence. Betts was a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band in 1969, after he and former bandmate Berry Oakley accepted an invitation from guitarist Duane Allman to join an informal jam session at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. That gathering ultimately led to the formation of one of Southern rock’s most influential bands.

Duane was born to Dickey Betts and his then-wife, Paulette, in 1978, seven years after his namesake, Duane Allman, was killed in a motorcycle accident. By that time, the Allman Brothers had broken up, then reformed, and were putting out rock albums like Enlightened Rogue during an era of punk and disco. They were touring regularly, and Dickey brought his son on the road. Duane was home-schooled and had a tutor, as he once told the Marin Independent Journal: “It was great. I loved it. ... It was mainly me and the adults. I didn’t get to socialize with kids my own age. I had to make up for that later.” Eventually, he left his father’s hometown of Sarasota, Florida, for his mother’s home base in Malibu. There, he earned his GED and began playing in bands, including Backbone69, whose lineup featured the sons of Roy Orbison, producer Lou Adler, and Berry Oakley.

Around age six or seven, Betts took up drums before switching to guitar. His first electric was a tiger-striped sunburst PRS prototype with a 5-way switch—a model that Paul Reed Smith had personally given to Dickey Betts and Warren Haynes.

“Most of the guitars I own are my dad’s, and it’s really a beautiful thing.”

“I really haven’t played it much,” Betts says. “Believe it or not, I sold it to a good friend because I just wasn’t using it. Then I bought it back. About 15 years later, I thought, ‘Man, it’d be cool to own my first guitar.’” He approached his friend and asked, “You’re not playing as much anymore—can I buy my guitar back?”

“That’s what friends are for,” Betts adds with a laugh.

“Most of the guitars I own are my dad’s, and it’s really a beautiful thing,” he continues. “He was so good at playing that Delta stuff on the National steel. He was such a master, and a student of those guys, and it was always so thrilling to hear him play that style.”

Children of famous musicians sometimes spend their careers trying to distance themselves from their parents’ work. But Betts is happy to talk about his father, who was his primary guitar inspiration and frequent teacher. Although, he says, “It’s not like we spent an hour a day talking about guitar—or an hour every other day, even. I kind of wanted to learn on my own. I liked the challenge.”

Dickey, he says, “taught me about fundamentals. Like a Chuck Berry rhythm. Like a 12-bar blues. ‘Go listen to Freddie King, “Hideaway.”’ He was turning me on to stuff like that.”

Befitting his own generation, Betts also picked up on the guitar sounds of Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins, and combined their ideas with the John Coltrane records he was absorbing in his teens. “I forgot who said it: ‘Every rock ’n’ roll guitar player’—whether they’re punk rock, Steve Jones or whoever— ‘should have a little bit of Chuck Berry influence in them,’” Betts says. “That’s how my dad felt. I’m sure Keith Richards feels that way.”

“If you’re being truthful, it can’t be wrong.”

Betts has also forged a creative partnership with fellow Allman Brothers heir Devon Allman, the son of Gregg Allman, who died in 2017 at age 69. The two longtime friends formed the Allman Betts Band in 2018, embracing their shared musical heritage while occasionally inviting other second-generation musicians—among them Dweezil Zappa, son of Frank Zappa, and Tommy Prine, son of John Prine—to join them onstage.

After Dickey Betts’ death, Duane and Devon found common ground in a loss they both understood. “A lot of that goes without saying. We don’t sit and talk about it at length,” Betts says. “He knows. You just look at somebody, and you’re there for them—it’s an unspoken thing. He knows what it’s like.”

Betts says he has found similar understanding among other friends who have experienced the loss of a famous parent. “Alex Orbison lost his father at a young age,” he says. “They’re here in spirit. We’re in the same boat a little more.”

For all the practical lessons Dickey Betts taught his son about guitar—rooted in Chuck Berry riffs and blues fundamentals—it was a more philosophical piece of advice that left the deepest impression. As Duane has told interviewers, his father’s guiding principle was simple: “Go play to nature, and it can never be wrong.”

“He had an abstract way of thinking about art and music and life—the way he wrote some of his songs, like ‘Seven Turns,’” Betts says, referring to the Allman Brothers Band’s 1990 track. “I think what he meant was that god, nature, the universe—whatever higher power you believe in—can’t be wrong.”

“So if you’re being truthful, it can’t be wrong,” he continues. “If you can accurately emulate the movement of water, how could that ever be wrong? That’s god moving right in front of your eyes. He meant that you should try to reflect things that are beautiful and natural. Basically, try to have good taste.”

Nashville studio veteran Kris Donegan was at Nashville’s East Iris Studios earlier this summer when PG’s John Bohlinger stopped in to check out all the gorgeous vintage gear that Donegan uses to make the magic happen. Have a look at some quick highlights below, and tune into the new Rig Rundown for all the details. Brought to you by D’Addario.

Slip Sliding Away

Donegan built this chopped-up, DIY slide guitar himself, using a Strat as a host instrument. The Duesenberg MultiBender gives a very convincing impression of a proper slide guitar. This, and all of Donegan’s guitars, take D’Addario strings.

Bukovac’s Beauty

This 1958 Gibson ES-335, an early model with an unbound neck, 3-ply thin top, and a super-low neck angle, was previously owned by Tom Bukovac.

Four-Headed Beast

Among his studio tools is this quartet of amp heads: a Fender Bassman, Silvertone Model 1484 Twin Twelve, Mesa/Boogie Dual Caliber DC-5, and a late-’60s, 50-watt Marshall head from a transitional period.

Kris Donegan’s Pedalboard

Donegan’s sprawling studio board includes an Ernie Ball VP JR, Peterson StroboStomp HD, Xotic Effects RC Booster, Greer Amps Lightspeed, Ibanez Mostortion, Analog Man King of Tone, Pro Co RAT, Boss GE-7, Boss VB-2w, Boss TR-2, Basic Audio Scarab, Strymon Mobius, Line 6 M9 Stompbox Modeler, Strymon Brigadier, Mr. Black SuperMoon, JHS NOTAKLÖN, and FX Engineering Mirage Compressor. A Strymon Zuma and a pair of Strymon Ojais handle power needs.

John Page Guitars has introduced the Noah Levine Signature DL Baritone, a new signature model developed in close collaboration with guitarist Noah Levine, lead guitarist for Noah Kahan and a multi-platinum songwriter. The release marks the latest expansion of John Page Guitars' baritone platform, continuing the company's focus on hand-built American instruments designed around the way real players actually use them.

Designed by legendary guitar builder John Page, who co-founded the Fender Custom Shop, and hand-built in Delaware, Ohio by John Page Guitars Master Builder Chase Gullett, the Noah Levine Signature DL Baritone launches in an initial “Batch 01” release of four artist-selected finishes: green, blue, black, and yellow, each finished as a heavy relic and personally chosen by Levine.

Highlights include:

• Heavy relic-finished body in green, blue, black, or yellow: an authentic, road-ready look and feel from day one
• Choice of rosewood or maple neck and fretboard: dial in the exact feel and tone that fits your playing style
• Fishman Fluence P90 or Lollar P90 pickup options: Fluence P90s deliver quiet, versatile tone built for the stage, while Lollar P90s bring classic vintage warmth
• “Noah’s Spec” rosewood neck and fretboard paired with Fishman Fluence P90 pickups: matches Levine’s own touring instrument exactly
• Premium hardware and electronics selected by John Page: reliable performance night after night
• Unique Batch 01 serial designation: marks your guitar as part of its debut run

The Noah Levine Signature DL Baritone carries a retail street price of $5,995 USD (Street Price: n/a). For more information visit johnpageguitars.com/noah.

The breakup of The Smiths at the height of their fame is the stuff of music legend. Famously, Johnny Marr was only 24 when band split, but over three decades later, he still remembers the simple nugget of wisdom Paul McCartney shared with him in the aftermath.

In the wake of the acrimonious dissolution of the band in 1987, Marr recalls meeting with McCartney, and spending “one long, incredible day” with him and his wife Linda. Of course, there could be no better person to go to for wisdom on all the complexities of being in a band – and navigating what happens when they split up – than a Beatle.

• READ MORE: Paul McCartney’s advice to young bands: “Don’t rely too much on gadgetry. Just play it all, learn it all, write it all”

Speaking to MOJO, Marr recalls, “Linda was so generous as a person, she was asking me all about my life. And he was sat there so I just told him about the break-up of the band. I looked to him and waited and he just said, ‘That’s bands for you.’ It’s such a brilliant answer coming from him. Over the years, I’ve been asked to give advice. There is just a time to say, ‘That’s bands for you.’”

Marr also goes on to share how post-Smiths, he found purpose in being a “ringer”, as he didn’t feel ready to form another band right away. In fact, he says it gave him a sense of “sanctuary”.

“I just have to give credit to the people I was working with – [The The’s] Matt Johnson is one of my closest friends to this day. Bernard Sumner and Chrissie Hynde – that collection of people. Because I get very tight with people, you know.

“If you’re looking at it like a CV it seems to be flitting around a lot, but I know when I’ve got a good job – playing with Bryan Ferry and turning up on his records. There’s a time to not look too deeply at stuff,” he says.

Earlier this year, Marr also spoke of what it was like to play alongside McCartney. He told The Overlap podcast, “Paul McCartney on the other hand – and speaking as a musician – I had a mind-blowing experience playing with Paul McCartney when I was younger. He’s like having your 12th man. In a band he really is like having two guys. Because he’s so melodic, he’s so attitude-y, and just [has] amazing musicality.”

Johnny Marr’s new album, The Age of Everything, lands on 2 October. You can pre-order it now.

The post Johnny Marr reveals what Paul McCartney said when he told him about The Smiths’ ugly breakup: “It’s such a brilliant answer coming from him” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

“Waiting has been a theme in my life. This version of ‘Hesitation Blues’ is my way of making that space feel flirtatious, playful, and full of possibilities.”

Everything about Angine de Poitrine seems to flip the script on what a band ‘should’ look or sound like, but it turns out guitarist Khn de Poitrine thinks that you need to have a bedrock of knowledge of the rules of music before you can really get weird.

Known for his microtonal magic on guitar, Khn feels that some musicians have the wrong idea about implementing scales and theoretical knowledge into their playing. While some may argue it stifles your creativity, he likens such technicality to using a map and a compass, while still having a wandering spirit.

• READ MORE: “Would they have that same attention if they weren’t wearing big clown noses?”: Why Devin Townsend isn’t sold on viral guitar duo Angine de Poitrine

Speaking to Guitar World he says, “I think in terms of scales all the time. Or rather, intervals in a context. But it’s just a harmless piece of information that sits there in the consciousness. A lot of people get this idea of someone playing robotically with a straight face, thinking, ‘Now I should play this note, for this reason.’

“Even among musicians, there is this myth of how knowledge might somehow end up hurting your creativity. If I say, ‘I think in terms of scales all the time,’ it does not mean, ‘the things that should be done according to a given set of rules will dictate all of my choices.’ It’s not like I will only act creatively in a sterile and conscious effort to create only using these tools.”

He goes on to add, “When I wander in that space, I have a compass and a map in my pocket. Some areas remain blurry to me since my knowledge is limited, but I can recognise and name some of the sounds and phenomenons that I love. I can use them by choice if I’m looking for a specific taste, but I can also let things happen and analyse as I go or even after.

“Terminology matters to me,” he states. “When someone uses the inappropriate term in a conversation, I become insanely irritated. I make a conscious effort not to bother people too much with that stuff, though. But when you play chords, intervals, melodies in a harmonic and rhythmic context, every aspect of what is happening has a name.

“Why on earth would someone make a point out of not knowing the names of things? Terminology is our only hope at humanity. Without it, chaos awaits. Value terminology. Worship terminology. Or be a monkey.”

Want to catch Angine de Poitrine live? Head over to the band’s official website to view their full list of scheduled tour dates. 

The post Angine de Poitrine’s Khn on why guitarists shouldn’t be afraid of music theory: “Value terminology. Worship terminology. Or be a monkey” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$199/£169, roland.com

It’s no exaggeration to say without the Roland Micro CUBE I wouldn’t be the guitarist I am today. My teenage years were defined by coming home from school, plugging in my Ibanez SA Series, and cranking that 2-watt beauty until it was time to go to bed.

All over the world there are countless guitarists with a similar story about the CUBE series, which has been a staple of the Roland product lineup for decades. According to Roland, over three million of these combo amps have been sold worldwide since the first CUBE’s launch in 1978.

• READ MORE: Orange Outlowd ES3 review: is Ed Sheeran’s signature amp the best compact acoustic combo out there?

And there’s a good reason for this – they might never be the coolest amps on the market, but as a young Sam found out, they do what they do very well indeed, and their ease of use and reliability means that they remain the default choice for many buskers and solo players.

The CUBE has enjoyed various major and not-so-major updates over its long life, with a variety of variants now in the line, but this latest one is tiny, mighty and a little bit different. Let’s get up close with the confusingly capitalised CUBE Street MINI.

Image: Press

Roland CUBE Street MINI – what is it?

The CUBE Street MINI is designed, says Roland, to be the most sophisticated busker-friendly CUBE amp yet, and it does that by packing in such mod cons as a USB-C-rechargeable battery offering up to seven hours of continuous unplugged use, Bluetooth connectivity for backing track playback, a suite of onboard effects and more, all wrapped up in a package weighing no more than 2.2kg and being small enough to fit in a backpack.

The CUBE Street MINI boasts a dual-channel design, with the first channel supporting guitar, microphone or a stereo instrument, and the second – the mic channel – featuring an XLR/TRS combo input for a dynamic microphone. As such, it’s aimed squarely at solo buskers and content creators looking to talk or sing while playing guitar or another solo instrument.

An all-in-one PA solution for buskers and guitarists on the move, the CUBE Street MINI is designed to keep things as streamlined as possible, with a suite of onboard effects – including reverb, delay, chorus and echo – as well as an onboard tuner with panel indicators, and Bluetooth audio for streaming songs or backing tracks from a smartphone.

Of course, if you’re busking there’s a good chance you’ll be placing the CUBE Street MINI right on the floor, so it’s handy that there’s an integrated tilt stand for increased projection – and even an integrated mic stand mount. If you don’t want to shove it in a rucksack, it also has an optional soft case that will keep it scratch-free on public transport or in the back of your car.

Image: Press

Roland CUBE Street MINI – build quality and usability

Like all Roland Cube amplifiers I’ve tried over the years, the CUBE Street MINI feels rock-solid, despite its uber-light weight. With any amp or pedal, or any other music gear, for that matter – there’s a certain resistance to the travel that you’re looking for in the knobs that reassures you about the quality; too loose and the device feels a little cheap, too stiff, likewise. Roland seems to get this right every time, and it’s no exception with the CUBE Street MINI. In fact, the robustness of the design in general makes you confident it could withstand the elements – perfect for a high street performance on a rainy autumn day..

The control panel is beautifully intuitive. After all, this is an amp aimed at buskers looking to plug and play, so there’s no need for it to be endlessly complex. Per-channel volume and tone controls, plus easy-to-understand effects knobs: everything you need and nothing you don’t.

With the exception of the charging port and headphone in, all the inputs are located on the side of the unit – a convenient design choice to get cables out of the way of the top control panel, and perfect for on-the-fly tone adjustments while performing. You get a single combi jack for vocal mics, and a pair of stereo line-level inputs for guitar and keys.

Where the CUBE Street MINI really sets itself apart as a busker’s amp, though, is the addition of a tilt-back stand. With an amp of this size, it’s crucial for the sweet spot of the amplified sound to hit the ears of passers-by rather than their feet, and the tilt-back stand makes this possible while keeping the profile small.

It’s a reassuringly sturdy little stand, too – though not one that is immune from being knocked over, at least compared to the angled bomb-proof stability of the regular CUBE Street. If you want to keep it out of harm’s way, it also has a socket on the bottom for mounting on a mic stand.

Image: Press

Roland CUBE Street MINI – sounds

Part of the reason why the CUBE series has remained so popular is its unflappable ability to deliver rock-solid digital tones at an affordable price point, and the CUBE Street Mini is no different. Projection is brilliant thanks to 10W of power and a 2.1 speaker system (one 5” woofer and two tweeters), so it makes enough noise to have a chance to be heard in busy environments like town centres, for example.

The first channel allows you to select between clean and overdriven lead guitar, Flat and Bright options for acoustic guitar, a flat, full-range instrument setting for keyboards and other instruments, and a mic channel optimised for vocal clarity.

The lead guitar setting feels pretty powerful, but while you can crank up the overdrive via the tone knob, I can’t help feeling that it doesn’t have quite the same oomph as some of Roland’s previous CUBE models. Of course, you could run an external overdrive pedal, but as an amp marketed as something of an all-in-one performing solution, it feels like a little bit is missing here. Meanwhile, the clean channel sounds beautiful – particularly when paired with the onboard effects like chorus, reverb and delay.

On the acoustic front, it’s nice to have two unique settings to play with. I find myself going back time and again to the Bright setting, as it offers superb clarity while maintaining the sonic character of my acoustic guitar.

Image: Press

Roland CUBE Street MINI – should I buy one?

If the regular CUBE Street is a reliable if somewhat unspectacular van, the MINI is effectively its sleek, EV equivalent. It might not be quite as outwardly robust as its sibling, but it packs in enough useful technology to make it a valid option.

With up to seven hours of battery life, Bluetooth backing track playback, a reliable onboard tuner and a healthy palette of sounds catering to electric and acoustic guitarists alike, Roland has pretty much hit on all bases a street performer would look for. My only recommendation would be to ensure you have an overdrive pedal if you’re primarily into higher-gain playing.

And at just $199/£169, you can’t really go wrong with the CUBE Street MINI if you’re in the market for a portable performance amp that can handle both vocals and guitar on a budget.

Image: Press

Roland CUBE Street MINI – alternatives

At $199/£149, the new 3W Orange Outlowd ES3 – developed with busking veteran-turned-worldwide superstar Ed Sheeran – is an obvious alternative here. However, it’s geared squarely towards acoustic guitarists with the absence of a high-gain channel and simple volume, tone and spring reverb controls, so if electric guitar is your weapon of choice, you’ll be better off sticking with the CUBE Street Mini. Either that or go for the Positive Grid Spark Mini ($199/£171), a solid all-rounder offering both electric and acoustic sounds.

If you’ve got more budget to play with, the Katana Air ($499/£329) – from Roland’s subsidiary BOSS – could be a contender. It might be a bit overkill for street performance, but it’s completely wireless with a transmitter that plugs into your guitar, so no annoying cables while performing. That, and the impressive Katana amp models it offers, makes it worthy of consideration.

The post Roland CUBE Street MINI review: a busker’s bestie at an equally friendly price point appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ready to unleash pure tone and road-tested reliability? Enter today for your chance to bring home the Hagstrom Megin!

Hagstrom Megin Giveaway

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This dapper 20-watter delivers a full-spectrum sound that starts at jangly chime before its EL84s natrually overdrive into a musical, singing saturation zinging with overtones and sustain.

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As anyone who has toiled long enough in any art form can tell you, hitting walls is inevitable, even necessary. They exist to remind us that there’s something on the other side, someplace to go that we haven’t discovered yet. We may not see the way over today, but when we start looking, that’s when new ideas reveal themselves (and not always in a way we can anticipate).

Sometime around 2002, up against such a wall, I was gifted a portal into a new way of approaching the guitar. A friend of mine brought me to see the 1993 Tony Gatliff film Latcho Drom. It follows the path of Roma music as it moves from India and Iran through eastern Europe, eventually landing in Spain, evolving and changing along the way, picking up influences yet retaining its unmistakable signifiers. No talking, no written narrative, just people and music. One scene focuses on an older man standing under a tree with a young boy watching on. The man is Nicolae Neacşu (1924-2002), the great Romanian violinist known for his work with the group Taraf de Haïdouks. As he plays and sings mournfully about the dictator Ceaușescu, he begins to tug on a small piece of string, a horsehair from his violin bow that’s tied on to one of his violin strings. The sound is haunting, complex, simple, earthy, and mystifying. I wanted to run out of the theatre right then, grab a guitar, and try it.

Without a horsehair on hand, and after several attempts with dental floss, cotton thread, and fishing line, I landed on a certain quality of polyester sewing thread that was able to produce a similar effect: cheap, thin, textured, stretchy thread. When I finally got the grip and the right tension, and the first vibrations bounced the sound through my fingers, I felt like I’d been handed a secret technique, like a Japanese hiden—a singular masterstroke.

I’ve spent the last thirty years in pursuit of these connections between the guitar and the natural world. Whether it’s through the raw physics of the instrument, drawing from the sounds of animals, looking to other cultures and their instruments, or finding ways to prepare and effect the guitar to break it open, there is no shortage of discoveries to be made. And this one technique, distilled from Roma ingenuity, has been one of the most curious and most useful. I always have a spool of polyester in my gig case. It takes about 30 seconds to tie it on before a show. I most often tie a strand onto the G string and another onto the D (double knots each), so that two arms-length threads are constantly dangling gently and unobtrusively from about an inch in front of the bridge. (You can pull two strings or more at the same time to create harmony.) I can take them up at any time. By scraping my finger nails down the textured polyester thread, the friction creates a vibration that transfers onto the guitar string. It’s similar to the physics of a cuíca, or the feeling you get when you run scissors down a ribbon to make it curl.

It’s really effective. I most often tie thread onto my 1951 Gibson J-45. There’s a clarity, response, and growl that I get from this instrument that blends well with this technique. I also use it on my ’69 Martin N-10, but because the tension is a bit lower on classical guitars, intonation is less reliable when the thread pulls outward on the nylon strings. At low volume, though, the effect can be sublime. Tied onto an electric guitar and multitracked, a lone producer can emulate an orchestra, creating a more unique sound than using VST. Hit it with distortion, delay, and reverb, and you have the four horses of the apocalypse.

Why not just use a bow? Since guitar bridges, unlike violin bridges, are flat, it’s difficult to bow single-note melodies without hitting multiple strings. This technique produces a similar (if creepier) sound as a bow, but allows the player to focus on a single string.

It’s more complicated to talk about and describe this than it is to just try it. So, give it a shot. Make sure the thread can produce a “zipping” sound when you run your nails down it. That’s the most important thing. The wound strings of the guitar work best as anchors; they lock the thread in place. And you can tie it anywhere along the string horizontally, but the closer you are to the bridge, the clearer and more fundamental tone you get (the further away from the bridge you tie it, the more strange harmonics you get). It’s been a really rewarding way for me to experience another side of the guitar. I hope you get to try it.

The MXR Flanger/Doubler recreates the original MXR rack unit in pedal form, capturing those classic all-analog flanger and doubler effects featured on hallmark recordings from the ’70s and ’80s. It’s designed for experimenters, offering the tools to blend and bend your signal into your own rich, multi-layered textures. Built around authentic bucket-brigade devices and the original control set, this pedal delivers the full range of sounds that made the rack unit a studio staple.

Whether you're chasing the sweeping jet-engine swoosh of the flanger or the thick, doubled-up layering of the doubler, the MXR Flanger/Doubler is equipped with the controls, the CV connectivity, and the visual feedback to take you wherever you want to go.

MXR Flanger/Doubler highlights:

• The renowned rack unit has returned in pedal form
• Authentic all-analog bucket-brigade devices
• Full, original control set shapes tone, range of motion, and sweep rate
• Doubler button switches between classic flanger swoosh and thick doubler chorusing
• Mix knob blends wet and dry signals to taste, from fully dry to fully wet
• Invert switch reverses wet signal polarity for airy, hollow vocality or bold low-mid punch
• Two LEDs track instantaneous delay time for quick adjustments when it’s too loud to rely on just your ear
• CV In and Out jacks connect with synths, sequencers, and CV-capable expression pedals
• Line Level switch ensures optimal performance when working with hot signals

Availability

The MXR Flanger/Doubler is available now at $333.00 street/$475.71 MSRP from select retailers.

Last month, a promotional clip for D’Addario’s new NYXL HD electric guitar strings got a lot more attention than the brand had anticipated. The reason? Keen-eared listeners suspected that AI-generated music was included in the promo – an allegation that D’Addario adamantly denied.

However, the company has now edited its previous denial and admitted that it did use AI. Specifically, D’Addario has confirmed that it used Suno Studio to “regenerate the original track” that had been recorded for the promotional video.

“We got this wrong,” the new statement says. “We’ve completed a full review and confirmed that Suno Studio was used to regenerate the original track. We shared inaccurate information, and we’re truly sorry.”

• READ MORE: “My intent was to talk about how technology can help artists and players learn and grow”: Fender CEO responds to his previous comments on AI

“Music is made by people-their ears, hands, taste, and emotions,” it continues. “D’Addario exists to give artists the tools to shape their own sound, not to blur the line between human creativity and AI-generated content.”

While nobody is thrown under the bus, the statement implies that, somewhere along the line, someone used AI without D’Addario’s approval. “We do not support AI-generated music, and our process will reflect that going forward,” the company writes. “We’ll require our employees and creative partners to disclose any use of generative AI, and we’ll more closely review everything we put into the world.”

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The unfortunate reveal comes after pushback from countless commenters and YouTubers, all suspicious of D’Addario using AI-generated music. At first, the company defended itself in a statement to Guitar World by saying that the demo music was just “over-produced” and that including the demo in a “fully produced mix” was a decision that had “backfired”.

D’Addario also shared behind-the-scenes clips of recording sessions for the track, as well as explaining in a since-deleted post: “[This track] was not created by AI. All guitars were tracked in real-life, drums and synths were MIDI programmed, plus a whole lot of plug-ins and production.”

The company even insisted that it was “a music company, built by musicians for musicians,” and therefore “naturally, [shared] the growing alarm that generative AI can remove the musician from the creative process.”

“Remember, we are a company whose products can only be used by people. If AI replaces musicians making music, then we’re out of business. Of course, that’s nothing compared to the chilling thought of musical expression being co-opted by machines. As a company made of hundreds of people, we desperately want to preserve human expression through music.”

Given the truth, these words seem very ironic… especially considering the company used Suno. When it comes to preserving human creativity, Suno in particular has faced a lot of backlash for allegedly using copyrighted music for its AI training. Just last month, German courts officially ruled that Suno had violated copyright laws.

Moving forward, D’Addario is keen to prove that it does genuinely believe in human-made music. “We know we can’t fix this with another statement,” the company concludes in its latest statement. “D’Addario exists because musicians trust our products with their sound, and we’re committed to earning that same trust in how we show up for this community.”

The post “We do not support AI-generated music, and our process will reflect that going forward”: D’Addario admits it used AI-generated music in promotional campaign appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

It’s not often a deal comes along where you can save half a grand on a guitar, but at Sweetwater and zZounds right now you can grab the Epiphone Dave Grohl DG-335 signature model with $500 off.

Now reduced to to $799, this Epiphone version of Grohl’s Gibson signature model launched in March 2024 after continued requests from Foo Fighters fans for more than a decade. An initial teaser post from Epiphone on social media showed a graphic resembling the diamond-shaped soundholes in Grohl’s Gibson signature model.

• READ MORE: Marcus King partners with Epiphone to revive the El Dorado acoustic: “This guitar means the world to me”

This Epiphone version is still premium-grade despite being a more affordable option. It comes in Pelham Blue (of course), and offers a resonant laminated maple body, Trini Lopez–inspired bound diamond-shaped soundholes, and a one-piece mahogany neck with a laurel fingerboard that hosts split-diamond mother-of-pearl inlays.

Up top there’s a Firebird-style headstock equipped with Grover Mini Rotomatic tuners, complementing the LockTone ABR bridge, and tone is powered by a pair of Gibson USA Burstbucker pickups. Sweetwater says these pickups offer “a rich, expressive, and remarkably dynamic humbucking roar”.

At the time of its launch, Epiphone said: “Dave Grohl is an alternative rock legend who needs no introduction. A longtime Gibson user, his previous Gibson signature guitars have remained extraordinarily popular and command premium prices on the used market – when you can find one.”

Grohl recently spoke of the Foo Fighters’ creative dynamic, stating they still make music like a band in a garage. Speaking to Radio X’s John Kennedy about their latest album Your Favorite Toy, the frontman explained that despite decades of success, the group’s creative process hasn’t strayed far from their roots.

“The way we function as a band… I know that all of this is much different than it was when we were young and playing in bands in a garage, but we still function like a band that plays in a fucking garage,” he said. “It’s the same thing! It’s like, ‘Hey, I’ve got a riff,’ and we show it to everybody.

“Maybe people would imagine that we’re a lot more professional than we actually are, but really the way that we function… it’s really similar to [Dave’s previous punk band] Scream.”

The post Foo Fighters fan? Right now you can get Dave Grohl’s signature Epiphone DG-335 at $500 off appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

“I find it really hard to write on anything other than a guitar,” begins Truman Sinclair. “I am so inspired by it,” the self-taught emo-folk songwriter continues. “I think about it all the time.”

In fact, ever since he was a child growing up in Chicago, playing guitar was what he enjoyed most. “I’ve always been a fidgety kid and my fidget obsession was the guitar,” he reflects. “I would fiddle with it all the time learning tricks.”

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

Watching his brother play and having lessons from a friend helped him fall in love with the instrument from the age of eight. “He was really young when he was hammering around the G chord on a nylon string guitar,” Truman recalls. Picking the same one up soon after, his brother taught him the riff to Roy Orbison’s Oh, Pretty Woman.

“I was sold,” enthuses Truman, who grew up on his dad’s love of Bruce Springsteen, Nirvana and AC/DC’s “crazy and epic” Hells Bells before discovering metal bands like Slipknot, Metallica, Beartooth and Attack Attack! during middle school.

Truman’s taste changed, quite dramatically, when he moved to Laurel Canyon at 14-years-old and started going to high school in Los Angeles. “It was a total culture shock because I was used to playing Mario in basements in the Midwest,” he laughs, adding that being in a “massive city where everybody felt so much older than me” made making friends tricky.

He wasn’t too bothered, however, as much of his time after school was spent playing guitar (instead of doing homework) and walking around listening to music that had been made in the area, particularly folk songwriters James Taylor, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. “Anytime you’re where something historical has happened, it can be really inspiring and I’ve always found that to be very powerful,” Truman says.

Image: Press

New Noise

Being in a new place altered his approach to the guitar too. “It made me want to play some simple chords, because until then I was really focused on being the gnarliest shredder in town,” he recalls, adding that he tried to write “honest” songs when he turned 16. His limited life experience at that time made this difficult, so Truman started to make instrumental math-rock on his computer.

As his teenage years progressed, he played with the alternative act Fat, Evil Children, and later founded the beloved emo outfit Frat Mouse. Truman even produced four of the latter band’s albums from his bedroom. “It was as simple as it gets,” he reflects, adding that he already knew how to record sample drums. Using a laptop, a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, mic, stand and Vox AC15 amp (which he still uses daily) he “tried to make the songs awesome”.

Learning how to record guitar educated Truman from a technical standpoint, he considers. “I would try the verse riff 100 times, and that would make me a lot better, because then I could play and listen to it and decide if it was good enough.” His attitude towards the instrument also evolved: “it’s deeper than just the guitar, it’s the spirit you put into it, what you’re trying to do, why you’re trying to do it, and how it makes you feel”.

With his passion abundantly clear, Truman decided to study music production at the University of Southern California. To increase his experience, he set out to work at a studio. Thankfully, Truman met Grammy-winning producer Dave Sardy who, having worked with Oasis and Johnny Cash, gave him a great opportunity. “He said ‘you can be the runner, but it’s on you’,” Truman recalls, describing Sardy as a “really tough, old school” boss. “He’d say ‘if I tell you to do something, don’t ask me, just go figure out how to do it and come back with it done’.”

Image: Frank Lookinland

The Real Deal

As Sardy’s assistant audio engineer and producer, the first band Truman worked with was Modest Mouse. “I was really scared because I love them but they were very kind to me.” Social Distortion visited the studio soon after: “Mike Ness brought upwards of 45 ‘70s gold top Les Pauls in a vault”, Truman beams, adding that it was “so crazy” to unload them.

Having previously spent his spare time scrolling Reverb.com, Truman was living his “guitar dream”. Instead of looking online at all the different ones that exist, he was playing “priceless” guitars on a daily basis. “It’s like a museum,” he says. “He’s got everything, and he’s one of those dudes who genuinely has a real appreciation for gear, vintage and new.”

Witnessing Sardy at work was hugely inspiring, especially because “everything he makes is handmade; that dude can make a G chord sound better than anybody else on the planet”. This, perhaps unsurprisingly, is exactly what Truman now aspires to: “I’ve always been into making a bass drum guitar mix sound insane, and he’s the master.”

Despite their contrasting profiles, Truman found the similarities between his and Sardy’s processes particularly interesting, especially because of their different set ups. “I realised that what we do is largely the same, but being in a studio requires so much work to keep that sacred bubble working,” he ponders, drawing a comparison of when he’s in his own room working on songs. “No-one wants to bother me, I sit and record on my Nash-S57, sing into my microphone and use a little drum machine,” Truman shares of his creative process.

“I just do my thing, but when you’re a massive artist and you go into a studio, everybody wants to bother you. There are a million things you could do, and you’re all stressed out,” he suggests. Truman is keen to make clear that this wasn’t a problem for artists and bands who passed through Sardy’s studio while he was there: “he’s been able to create a space where they feel like they’re in a room and can just play.”

Image: Ryan Gomez

Shifting Perspectives

Immersing himself in such an environment altered Truman’s perspective on the guitar even more: “I used to think that gear didn’t matter and that it was more about how you play.” While Truman still thinks this is true, he learned that every guitar sounds different, especially in terms of tone and tuning. “I found that, largely, what people want is what I had in my room — freedom. It all comes back to the simple stuff and the music, how something sounds; half the time, these big artists aren’t using the most expensive thing, they’re using the thing that is in tune, solid and sounds great.”

Subconsciously undergoing “exposure therapy”, as Truman describes it, impacted his own approach to songwriting. “It made me relax and use the gear that’s around because, at the end of the day, they’re all like tools.” Watching some of his favourite songs being made in Sardy’s studio on “the simplest thing” inspired him to pick up his acoustic guitar and “know that I wasn’t really missing anything and that I could do it all here in this very confined world,” he suggests.

“Because the music that I love is pretty simple but sounds awesome, the majority of my songs are no more than four chords,” Truman says, adding that his main focus is the melody and rhythm. To this end, he feels that his music “comes from a very free and fun place”. Maintaining this ethos requires him “having control over it”, so much so that he wrote, produced and recorded all the songs on his 2025 EP American Recordings. “I think I’m a bit of a control freak, which I’ve never admitted,” he laughs, “but it’s a valiant reason of mine. I think there’s something about doing it yourself that keeps it real and natural.”

In a similar vein, Truman is particularly passionate about being able to make the music that he wants to make. “I’m always worried about having it not be mine, so it’s for me,” he attests. “I am very aware that no one wants me to make anything that I think they want to hear,” he considers. “I can’t guess what somebody likes. I just have to make what I think is fucking sick and if I’m making something in my room that I think is cool then that’s good enough for me.”

Despite now being a solo artist, Truman plays with a band. “I don’t think I would feel like myself if I wasn’t doing that,” he says, having recently supported Courtney Barnett on a two-month tour. “Playing music loud in a group is one of the many fruits of life, so I’ll always do that,” he continues.

While it’s a different experience, Truman loves performing solo, on his acoustic guitar, too. “It feels like you can really drive everything. You’re making split-second decisions,” he adds. “Any choice you think of, you can just do it and then see what happens. There’s a freedom that’s super fun and addicting, but at the same time playing with the band is so powerful,” he considers. “There’s something really special about figuring out an arrangement with your band that you all know and love and are tweaking slightly every night. That’s its own thing, so I feel really happy to be doing both.”

Truman’s new single 4th of July is out now

The post What self-taught emo-folk guitarist Truman Sinclair learned from years as studio engineer to Grammy-winning producer appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.



Nashville-based singer-songwriter Maisy Owen joins us this week to talk about her gorgeous debut album, Dark on a Sunny Day (Tompkins Square).

Maisy talks about her music-filled upbringing (her dad is songwriter Gwil Owen; radio programming legend Rob Bleetstein is a family friend); her decision to take up the guitar; unlikely jobs (and songwriting sessions); her newfound love for British folk and so much more. Maisy also performed some songs while visiting us, available on our YouTube channel.

https://www.maisyowen.com

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Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar: https://mmguitarbar.com

 

The post Podcast 559: Maisy Owen first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

Floyd Rose has introduced a Limited Edition Laser-Etched Paisley USA Series Original Tremolo, an exclusive release that adorns the iconic double-locking tremolo with an eye-catching, timeless design.

Each limited edition Paisley Tremolo begins as a genuine chrome USA Series Original before receiving a precision laser-etched paisley pattern across the hardened steel base plate, saddles, and fine tuners. The result is a strikingly unique interpretation of the classic Floyd Rose look, combining vintage-inspired style with modern manufacturing precision.

More than just a finish, the etching creates a subtle, understated look that catches the light from every angle while revealing incredible detail. Inspired by the classic paisley motifs that have graced iconic guitars for decades, it brings a fresh take to the legendary Floyd Rose Original.

Each unit is built with precision machining and premium materials, so the Etched Paisley Original Tremolo delivers the tuning stability and professional performance musicians expect from a genuine Floyd Rose.

With only 50 pieces available worldwide, the Limited Edition Paisley USA Series Original Tremolo carries a $355 street price. For more information visit FloydRose.com.

In a newly unearthed interview given in 1987, Slash comments on how Guns N’ Roses were outsiders to the LA scene during the early days.

Slash and Izzy Stradlin were being interviewed about the band’s at-the-time upcoming tour with Mötley Crüe. The interviewer asked the pair: “Do you feel that you actually fit in to the Los Angeles scene and are you happy out there?”

Slash replies: “Not anymore. We didn’t fit in when the band first started. We didn’t fit in ever. It was always like, there was LA and then there were the five of us crawling around in the dark. In Los Angeles, Los Angeles is like one of those places that like any other big city but even more so. It’s real trendy and it goes through fads and it goes through other stuff.”

• READ MORE: “It scared the s**t out of you”: Pepper Keenan explains what happened when he played through AC/DC’s “insane” guitar rig
  

The legendary guitarist also adds that they managed to stand out because they did not give into expectations of fad and trend. “And so it was always real hard to say ‘We’re an LA band’ because LA bands always meant this one little band for one particular time that everyone was into because it was a particular fad,” he says.

“We were never like that. We were just us and we really stuck out compared to everything else. I’m really surprised we went to become as big as we did but it’s just because we were really real and people pick up on that no matter how goofy they are.”

He adds that the Axl Rose-fronted group had set a precedent for other bands to “give it a shot and to really go for it. Because maybe at a particular time it wasn’t happening.”

Stradlin adds that music had gotten “into more of a groove” and at one time it was “just a lot of noise going on. It’s 12 million people and 6 million are musicians, it’s every type of music you can imagine.”

The post “We were just us and and we really stuck out”: Lost Slash interview shows how Guns N’ Roses were always outsiders in the LA scene appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Pepper Keenan had the chance to play out of one of the most legendary guitar rigs in the game thanks to a former guitar tech.

The Corrosion of Conformity member says he played through AC/DC legend Malcolm Young’s guitar rig, courtesy of his former guitar tech.

• READ MORE: Joe Bonamassa calls out the guitar community’s “armchair quarterbacks”
  

Keenan tells Chris Garza on the Garza Podcast: “My old guitar tech, Takumi, he worked for White Zombie and then he jumped to COC [Corrosion of Conformity] when COC had the Metallica tour and for all those years needed a real guitar tech.

“Takumi was great, we were on tour with Metallica doing the big, giant shows. Me and Takumi were so tight we roomed together on tour… We were just super buddies and stuff.

“One day he came to me on the Metallica/COC tour and said, ‘Pepper, I’ve been offered another gig.’ I was like, we’re on tour with Metallica. Who could it possibly be? He said ‘Prince.’”

While Keenan understood the offer and Takumi later worked with Prince “for years”, his former touring bunk buddy did later get him the chance to use the Malcolm Young’s AC/DC rig.

Keenan explains: “He did that and then he ended up working for AC/DC. He called me up and I went to a show. Down actually played with AC/DC in Transylvania, but yes, I got to play Malcolm’s rig.

“It’s Marshall’s improper bias that is microphonic, like hot, insane, and they’re all on. It scared the shit out of me. It’s just volume. No overdrive. Just volume. He has no pedals.

“He’s got this big rack for guitars and there’s two of them in there. There’s a glitter one, and then there’s The Beast.”

The post “It scared the s**t out of you”: Pepper Keenan explains what happened when he played through AC/DC’s “insane” guitar rig appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

If you’ve ever pondered trying out PRS’ take on a T-style guitar, then look no further than Sweetwater – right now, you can save $70 the PRS SE NF 53.

Now priced at $979, this quirky model is quite the investment. It has a unique White Doghair finish (visible wood grain), and comes fitted with PRS’ Narrowfield DD pickups, capturing the peak characteristics of a humbucker, a P-90, a traditional single-coil, and a mini humbucker, merging them into a distinctive voice of its own.

• READ MORE: Collectors alert: the stunning Birds of a Feather inlay was previously only available on PRS Private Stock guitars – now you can get it on a Custom 24

The launch of this SE version followed on from the release of the standard NF 53 and its Kennedy signature sibling back in 2023. PRS later revealed that the guitars were the brand’s top two best-selling USA guitars in that same year. We reviewed this SE version of the guitar last year, and noted that despite it being seen as a “T-type” guitar, it is entirely its own thing.

Guitar.com writer Eric Dahl said, “These Deep Dish pickups have a sound that’s very much their own, but that’s no bad thing at all – if pushed I’d say they sit somewhere between P-90s and mini-humbuckers. In practice, it gives you a very full tonality played cleanly, but adding some gain is where this guitar really comes into its own.”

Aside from its unusual looks and peculiar pickups, other key features of the guitar include a swamp ash body, a maple neck and fingerboard, and an NF 53-profile neck for speed and control. Its sculpted contouring allows for access to all 22 frets across its 10” radius fingerboard.

In other PRS news, the company appointed a CEO for the first time in its history just last month: Jack Higginbotham, formerly the guitar giant’s Chief Operating Officer. Higginbotham will oversee day-to-day business operations while its founder and Managing General Partner, Paul Reed Smith, continues to lead guitar development.

To check out this deal and more, head over to Sweetwater.

The post We said this guitar might be the best PRS SE model yet – now it’s discounted at Sweetwater appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Joe Bonamassa has criticised “armchair quarterbacks” for damaging guitar culture.

The blues hero believes those most critical of guitar players ought to pick up an instrument and play rather than put down those who are hard at work.

• READ MORE: “It’s basically a Gibson Les Paul jammed into a Fender Telecaster”: This is one of Joe Bonamassa’s favourite vintage guitars – and why hybrids can be “the best”
  

In a recent interview with Guitar Interactive Magazine [via Guitar World], he explains: “In the US, we have this term called ‘armchair quarterback’, right? I could sit in my chair and say to Tom Brady, ‘I could have thrown that ball better than you.’ No, you can’t.”

Bonamassa, a blues veteran who has opened on numerous occasions for BB King, says there needs to be more empathy – not judgement – when it comes to live performers. He points to a viral incident from the ACM Country Awards in 2016, in which Nick Jonas messed up a guitar solo, only for it to be immortalised on camera. The incident was so traumatic for Jonas that it sent him to therapy.

“That one that caused this guy to go into therapy,” says 49-year-old guitarist Joe Bonamassa. “We’ve all done that. Everybody’s done that.

“You know, like, ‘I didn’t even know what I was thinking!’ But the vitriol. What do you want him to do? Burn his guitar in effigy? Like, jump off a cliff? The guy had to go to therapy! What’s wrong with people?”

“Kenny Wayne Shepherd and I have been on stage a lot together, the last five, six years. It’s not a competition. We don’t look at it like that,” he continues. “Warren Haynes and I, we’re on stage a lot. We’re having fun.

“But what do they expect? A trophy at the end? A cash prize? A judge that goes, ‘I declare the winner!’ like a fucking boxing match.”

Bonamassa is set to tour across North America and Europe this year, with dates scheduled for Radio City Music Hall in New York City on October 1, and at the Uber Arena in Berlin, Germany, on October 30.  He will return to Germany next year for the Tollwood Summer Festival in July.

See his official website for a full list of upcoming dates.

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