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Think of Queen, and we’re willing to bet the Queen II artwork is the first image that pops into your head. Shot in 1974 by photographer Mick Rock, the artwork for the band’s sophomore record has since become one of the most recognisable shots in musical history. However, following Rock’s death in 2021, his family are now pursuing legal action, arguing that Rock wasn’t properly compensated for his work.

Speaking to The Sun, guitarist Brian May reveals that the Rock family are claiming that the late photographer was allegedly not paid enough for his work. “His family is suing us at the moment for vast amounts of money,” May says. “Mick was a lovely guy, very ambitious, quite money oriented.”

Queen ensured that they “paid [Rock] very, very well for what he did”. Despite that, Rock’s family are insisting that the payout wasn’t sufficient.

• READ MORE: “We were ludicrously compliant”: Brian May looks back on why Queen were “terrified” recording their first album

Alongside its recreation in the 1975 video for Bohemian Rhapsody, the iconic snap of Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor has since become a cultural touchstone, with countless bands imitating it in photoshoots and music videos. Yet that legacy has been soured, in light of the brewing legal battle.

Perhaps alluding to the later recreation of the shot for memorabilia and in the Bohemian Rhapsody video, May alleges that the Rock family are suing on the grounds that Rock should be compensated for every way in which Queen have benefitted from the shot.

“His dependents became incredibly greedy and decided that everything was his idea,” May explains. “[They believe] we owe him millions and millions, not just in the UK, but all around the world. So they’re suing us all around… it’s a little hard for me to be objective about the thing.”

May goes on to say that, if Rock were still alive, the matter could have been settled easily out of court. “I’m sorry he’s not around because I know if he was around, we’d go, ‘Oh, come on, we’ll settle this,’” the guitarist says. “We’d shake hands and it would be done tomorrow.”

News of the legal battle comes shortly after the re-release of Queen II, with an expanded edition of the record dropping just last Friday.

The post “His dependents became incredibly greedy”: Brian May reveals Queen are being sued by the family of the photographer who shot their most iconic album cover appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

With the increasing power of AI-driven LLMs, it was only a matter of time before digital guitar tones created from a single text prompt were made possible. 

Positive Grid really spearheaded the movement last year when it launched BIAS X, with a handy text-to-tone AI assistant that turns the tonal ideas in your head into reality. Now, the concept is available in a browser-based format courtesy of FUKKAUDIO.

• READ MORE: I tried using an AI-powered amp and effects suite to create my guitar sound for me – here’s what happened

Text prompt guitar tone creation, in theory, circumvents the often-tedious process of crafting the perfect signal chain yourself, essentially offering a faster route from the sound in your head to a sound you can actually use.

Unlike Positive Grid’s BIAS X – which can be used as a standalone application or as a plugin within a DAW – FUKKAUDIO is an entirely browser-based guitar tone generator, with no installation required.

So how does it actually work? Simply plug your guitar into your computer via an audio interface – input and output device dropdown lists are front and centre in the user interface –  then enter your prompt, like “tight modern rhythm” or “sparkly clean that makes chords feel expensive”, and FUKKAUDIO will do the rest.

FUKKAUDIO doesn’t have quite the same post-prompt customisability as BIAS X, which formulates a full signal chain based on your prompt, after which you can swap out amps and effects to your heart’s content. Understandable, of course, considering FUKKAUDIO is a free browser application.

FUKKAUDIO does, however, grant controls for FX Intensity, Drive and output level, which can be tweaked to further refine your prompted sound.

“The focus is on getting to a usable tone quickly, especially for home players working with a laptop or simple setup,” the Finnish brand tells Guitar.com.

“That shift – from presets to plain-language tone – is the core angle. It turns guitar tone into something you can reach immediately instead of something you have to construct.”

Try FUKKAUDIO for yourself now.

The post FUKKAUDIO is a browser-based text-to-tone guitar tone generator appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

With Van Halen blood running through his veins, it’s no surprise that Wolfgang Van Halen knows his way around a guitar. However, Wolfgang’s father Eddie Van Halen was in no rush to teach his son guitar – in fact, he didn’t buy him his first acoustic until he had first become proficient on the drums.

In a new interview with Rick Beato, Wolfgang reflects on how this drum-first approach has helped him as a musician. “I think my dad was right to start me on drums,” he explains. “It’s a really good place to start rhythmically. You just understand music from that dynamic first, and you kind of grow from there.”

• READ MORE: Wolfgang Van Halen reveals he and his dad jammed a song on the new Mammoth album before he died: “I taught him how to play it on guitar, and I played drums”

As Wolfgang notes, his foundational understanding of percussion is something he utilises across his now-multi-instrumental arsenal. “I play guitar like a drummer, I play bass like a drummer,” he says.

“Everything I start with is the rhythm of it,” he adds. “The rhythm section is tight because it’s my instincts.”

Wolfgang Van Halen is a proficient multi-instrumentalist, but explains how it’s “always drums first”. And that approach stems from how he was taught by his father.

In a 2023 interview with MusicRadar, he revealed drums were the only instrument Eddie properly taught him, and he was largely left to his own devices while learning guitar. “Other than [drums]… there was never a moment where Dad sat down like, ‘I’m gonna teach you how to do this,’” he revealed.

“I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I like how I was able to teach myself from looking at guitar tabs on the internet and just trying to replicate every one of my favourite songs.”

Back in 2023, Wolfgang also told the  Talk Is Jericho podcast that his dad only got him a guitar after he has mastered the drums. “He had magazines on the table and was like, ‘do this and do this’… the second he saw I could do that he bought me a V drum kit and for my birthday the next year got me an acoustic kit,” he said.

In the same podcast, Wolfgang also praised Tool’s drumming for “expanding” his musical knowledge. “Tool was a big band for me… I noticed I became a better drummer when I learned how to play Tool songs,” he explained.

The post Wolfgang Van Halen says his father was “right” to start him out playing drums instead of guitar: “I play guitar like a drummer” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

For every guitarist who isn’t yet a digital amp modelling convert, there’s another who’s made the switch. Recently, the Black Crowes’ Rich Robinson spoke of his hesitancy around amp modellers, admitting that “they’re getting close” to the real thing, but noting the “symbiotic relationship” a guitarist has with their analogue amplifier.

But on the flip side, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready has readily adopted a digital guitar rig, even admitting that doing so has made him a “better guitar player”.

• READ MORE: The 15 Most Expensive Guitars Sold At Auction

Speaking to Guitar World in a new interview, McCready shares that he used a Fender Tone Master Pro – which we gave a strong 8/10 in our 2023 review – while touring Pearl Jam’s 2024 album Dark Matter, and it also makes up part of his home rig.

He does, however, admit that he’s still very partial to analogue gear – it’s just about striking the right balance.

“It’s a mixture of modelling and real amps, so I keep both the analogue and digital worlds,” McCready says. “I love the Tone Master… I play on it every day. I can pick up any kind of pedal on that thing and it sounds pretty great.”

On Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter tour, McCready ran the Tone Master Pro through Fender Tone Master FRFR (full range, flat response) cabs. He says his current rig – newer digital technology combined with classic analogue gear – has made him a sharper guitar player.

“I know there’s purists that probably aren’t into that, but I felt like my amp modelling system along with the old analogue stuff has made me a better guitar player,” he continues.

“It was the consistency of the amps over the Dark Matter tour that pushed me to play better than I have ever done. I just felt more confident.”

The post Mike McCready says using a digital amp modeller has pushed him to play better than ever: “I just felt more confident” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ad Feature with Lutefish

The Lutefish Stream is a very capable solution for jamming remotely, in real time, with musicians up to 500 miles away, one that aims to get past the normal roadblocks that lead to session-ruining latency and frustration in online jam sessions. For bandmates who aren’t all in the same city, or just don’t want to have to deal with the traffic and the gear-lugging and the time commitment that can come with piling into a practice studio, it’s a gamechanger!

Making connections

So, how do you set the Lutefish Stream up if you’re a guitarist? At first blush, the Lutefish Stream resembles an audio interface – but it’s not quite the same. Most importantly, there’s no computer connected to the Stream – instead, the Stream sends audio directly through an ethernet cable connected to your router to reduce latency. The Stream cannot connect to your network via Wi-Fi, you must use an Ethernet cable. This is a big part of what makes the connection fast enough for playing music in real time.

The audio connectors on the device include two mono combo XLR/¼” inputs with individual gain controls and two headphone outputs for your preferred connector size (⅛” or ¼”). There’s also a talkback mic that transmits your voice – or acoustic instrument – over the same stream as the rest of the audio.

The very first step is powering the unit up – the Lutefish is powered by a USB-C cable, and needs to be connected with the included USB-C power brick. Once it’s powered up and connected to your router via the included ethernet cable, it’s time to get it online. First, log into Lutefish.com, and go to the account settings page. Choose ‘device setup’ to ‘add new device’, and enter the serial number on the bottom of your Stream. If your Stream is powered on and connected to the internet – it’ll be showing a solid blue light. If so, you’ll get a message that reads “device connected”, and you’re ready to jam.

Using a mic

There are a few ways you can set up the stream as a guitarist. For more control over your sound, plug a microphone directly into the Lutefish stream. This is great for acoustic guitarists and singer/songwriters, as the two inputs let you use one mic for your guitar and another for your vocals – meaning a clearer mix for your bandmates, and clearer monitoring for yourself.

For electric players, you can mic up an amplifier as you would if you were recording with an interface – this will give you and your bandmates a great sound, of course, but it might not be ideal if you have neighbours or flatmates, and you want to turn your amp up to its sweet spot.

Going direct

If you want to avoid any noise complaints, going direct is the way! Thanks to the combo nature of the Lutefish’s input jacks, you can take whatever your favourite direct solution is – such as the IR-loaded line output on the back of your amplifier or a multi-effects unit – and go straight into the unit. If you play acoustic and have a pickup system in your guitar, you can go straight in with an instrument cable – or go through your favourite effects.

If your approach is a little more in-the-box, you could also take a ¼” line-out from your audio interface of choice and route that into the Lutefish. This will let you apply software effects and amp modelling to your guitar, while still going straight into the Lutefish – but keep an eye on your buffer size, as you’ll want to make sure you’re playing with the lowest latency possible.

Talkback only

In a pinch, you could simply engage the talkback microphone. This will also transmit your voice, so you won’t need to worry about leaning over to engage the talkback microphone.

There are a couple of downsides to this simpler setup, however – if you’re singing, you can’t balance your voice against your guitar, and depending on the space you’re in, this might lead to a bit of a boomy sound. It definitely won’t sound as good as using dedicated mics for your guitar and voice, or a built-in pickup.

Scheduling a jam session

First, make sure that you’ve connected with your bandmates on the Lutefish network by searching for their usernames and sending them a connect invite. You can schedule a Jam right from the main bar at the top of lutefish.com. Once you join a session on your device, you’ll be able to see your bandmates as if it’s a standard video call – but the audio will be going through the Lutefish Stream’s low-latency connection! This separate approach leaves as much bandwidth and processing power available for the most important part of any jam – the audio – to reach your bandmates’ ears unimpeded.

If you’ve picked a good setup for your instrument and your playing situation, you should have no trouble playing with your bandmates remotely. The Lutefish Stream can provide latency under 30ms, depending on connection speed and distance – which is great for a natural-feeling session. Once you’ve got a jam going, you can adjust your mix with the dedicated mixer panel, accessible via the controls in the top-right corner – or simply use the hardware gain controls to get the right balance. You can also add basic reverb effects, which is brilliant for elevating your guitar playing or singing and making a session feel even more real!

Find out more at lutefish.com.

The post Plug in and play 500 miles away: how to set up Lutefish for guitarists appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$69.99 (individual amps from $9.99), tone.net

People who work in pro recording studios spend all day every day doing creative stuff, surrounded by piles of top-quality gear – and they get paid for it. Is it any wonder they always seem to be so infuriatingly nice?

• READ MORE: Universal Audio Paradise Guitar Studio review – all the classic tones you need for home recording?

More importantly for the purposes of this review, studio professionals are the real experts when it comes to capturing the sounds of great guitar amplifiers. So in theory at least, when the people who run Heiga Studios in Miami decide to contribute a library of amp models to the ToneX digital platform, it should be seriously good.

Heiga Studios Amp Series For ToneX – what is it?

Just to be clear, this is not an app: ToneX is IK Multimedia’s modelling ecosystem, and the Heiga Studios Amp Series is simply a collection of extra sounds for it. So if you’re not using ToneX software or one of the ToneX pedals, you’re welcome to read the rest of this review but you might feel a bit like a pigeon fancier at a dog show.

As long as you are already on board the good ship ToneX, what you’re getting here – for a very reasonable price – is a total of 142 models captured from 10 of the amps in Heiga’s collection. Those amps are a Fender Twin Reverb, a Fender Hot Rod DeVille, a Vox AC30, a Roland JC-120, a Marshall JCM900, a Peavey 51050 II, a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier Solo, a Fuchs Mantis, a Bogner Uberschall Rev Blue and – for the bass thwompers – an Aguilar Tone Hammer 700.

Notice anything? If you include the JCM900, five of the nine guitar amps are of the high-gain variety. That’s the kind of ratio that should have metalheads piqued.

Heiga Studios Amp Series For ToneX – sounds

I tested these sounds two ways: firstly by loading up the amps in the main ToneX desktop app and auditioning them through studio monitors; and secondly by using ToneX Editor to load two at a time into a ToneX One pedal then recording them. Initial setup via the IK Product Manager app was a faff, but that’s not Heiga’s fault… and the sounds themselves are glorious.

As a Vox obsessive, I had to start with the AC30 captures – and while only a tiny logo distinguishes the Heiga ones from IK’s own in ToneX Editor, telling them apart by ear is a lot easier. The factory sounds are pretty good, but the new ones are sublime: rich and lifelike at all levels of crunchiness, perhaps even better than the ones in UA Paradise Guitar Studio.

The clean stuff also has plenty of depth – this might be the first time I’ve actually enjoyed playing through a JC-120 – but the high-gain amps are where things get really impressive. There’s lots of tonal variety between the different models, and none of the oversaturated washiness that often characterises this kind of modelling: no matter how much bite you want or don’t want in the midrange, the top end always remains crisp yet smooth. I don’t think Heiga Studios is particularly associated with metal bands, but on this evidence maybe it should be.

Heiga Studios Amp Series For ToneX – should I buy it?

Just as my theory about studio professionals predicted, these amps sound top-class – so if you are a ToneX user and you fancy a realism upgrade, this library will absolutely provide it. The only pity is that it’s limited to one software system – a system that, incidentally, I wasn’t able to get working within my DAW of choice, Logic Pro. I’d love to see a standalone Heiga plugin, making these excellent models – especially the metally ones – easily available to everyone.

Heiga Studios Amp Series For ToneX alternatives

Last time I checked, there were 639 ‘tone partner’ collections for ToneX available through tone.net – so you might want to have a browse through that lot for a start. Otherwise, you have strong options for home recording in Positive Grid Bias X ($149) and Universal Audio Paradise Guitar Studio ($149).

The post IK Multimedia ToneX Heiga Studios Amp Series review – a collection of all-star amps taken from a world-class studio gives Tonex a serious quality boost appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ross “The Boss” Friedman, guitarist and co-founder of The Dictators and Manowar has died at the age of 72.

Friedman passed away on 26 March, weeks after publicly disclosing that he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). News of his death was confirmed via a statement posted to his official Instagram account.

“It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of the Bronx’ own Ross ‘The Boss’, Friedman who died last night after battling ALS,” the statement reads. “A legendary guitarist and beloved father, his music and spirit impacted fans around the world as much as you impacted him. We are grateful for the outpouring of love and support you all have shown throughout his career and especially these last few months.”

“His music meant everything to him & his guitar was his life’s breath,” it continues. “This insidious disease took that away from him. His legacy with The Dictators, Manowar, Ross the Boss Band and other collabs will live on forever in our hearts and ears.”

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Born in the Bronx, New York, Friedman emerged in the early 1970s as a co-founder of The Dictators alongside bassist and songwriter Andy Shernoff and rhythm guitarist Scott Kempner. Formed in 1972, the band became an early fixture of the city’s developing punk scene, releasing three albums during its initial run: The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! (1975), Manifest Destiny (1977) and Bloodbrothers (1978). Of those, Manifest Destiny reached the Billboard 200, marking the group’s only chart appearance.

Following his tenure with The Dictators, Friedman briefly performed with Shakin’ Street, who toured as a support act for Black Sabbath, before linking up with bassist Joey DeMaio to form Manowar in 1980. During his decade with the band, Friedman recorded on six studio albums, including 1988’s Kings of Metal, one of their most commercially successful releases.

In 1984, Manowar set the Guinness World Record for the loudest band in the world, a record they have since broken on multiple occasions.

Friedman left Manowar in 1989 but continued working steadily as both a recording and touring musician. He later fronted the Ross the Boss Band, revisiting material from across his catalogue, and played with a range of acts including Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom, The Hellacopters, The Nomads and The Brain Surgeons. He also reunited with The Dictators on several occasions, with the band releasing their sixth studio album in 2024.

Friedman was inducted into the Hall of Heavy Metal History in 2017. A tribute from the organisation describes Ross as a “pioneering force in both punk and heavy metal”: “His powerful playing, unmistakable tone, and uncompromising spirit helped shape generations of musicians and fans around the world… From the raw energy of early punk to the epic scale of heavy metal, his work left a lasting mark on the genre and on everyone who experienced it.”

“Beyond his achievements on stage and in the studio, Ross was deeply respected by his peers and beloved by fans across continents. His legacy will live on through his music, his influence, and the countless lives he touched.”

The post Ross “The Boss” Friedman, pioneering Dictators and Manowar guitarist, dies aged 72 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Rush made their long-awaited return to stage at the 2026 Juno Awards, performing live for the first time in over 11 years. The appearance also marks the band’s first performance together since the death of drummer and lyricist Neil Peart in 2020.

• READ MORE: “The only thing that calms him down is to go eat a pig somewhere”: Rush’s Geddy Lee explains the secret of his enduring relationship with “emotional” Alex Lifeson

For the evening, frontman Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson were joined by new touring drummer Anika Nilles and keyboardist Loren Gold, who will also be part of Rush’s upcoming Fifty Something tour. Together, the band kicked off the ceremony with a surprise performance of Finding My Way, the opening track from Rush’s 1974 debut album.

Asked why they chose that particular song, Lee tells reporters [via Blabbermouth], “You really can’t ask us what song to play. If we have to choose one song, it’s almost impossible. We have so many. So we just asked management, and they said first song, first album.”

“Also, it’s the only song we know how to play,” Lifeson adds.

Rush will take this lineup on the road for the Fifty Something tour starting this June, with dates across Canada, the US, and Mexico. The initial 22 dates sold out immediately, prompting the addition of more shows. The tour now totals 58 shows across 24 cities, with over half a million tickets sold for 2026.

Sharing his excitement about the upcoming run, Lee says: “We can’t wait to get back to all these cities we haven’t played in so long, as well as hitting some new places we’ve yet to play. Both Alex and I are loving the hours of rehearsal time we’re spending with Anika and now Loren, learning around 40 songs which will enable us to keep the shows evolving, playing some different songs on different nights.”

“We are thrilled that many of our longstanding crew have come back to help us design the kind of Rush show that fans have grown accustomed to expect from us. We dearly hope you will come along and help us celebrate 50 years of Rush music, while giving Neil the long overdue tribute he so richly deserves.”

Watch Rush’s full Juno Awards performance below.

Check out the full list of dates for Rush’s Fifty Something reunion tour on the band’s official website.

The post Rush have performed for the first time since reforming – and you can watch it right now appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

When your entire set falls through at the very last minute, what do you do? Go out and perform some crowd-pleasing Jimi Hendrix covers, of course. That’s exactly what Paul Gilbert did when a health emergency rendered blues guitarist Albert Collins unable to join him onstage at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival back in 1991.

Despite the panic that coloured the few hours Gilbert had to practice the impromptu set, the unplanned tribute to Hendrix was a huge success. In fact, it was so good that it’s now being released digitally, to mark the 25 year anniversary of the marvellous set that happened by pure chance.

• READ MORE: How Women Are Giving Metal Guitars A Mainstream Moment

Originally, Gilbert and Collins were set to headline the festival with a joint set. When Collins was forced to pull out, the promoters begged Gilbert to go out and perform regardless. “The promoter was panicking and asked me to be the headlining act instead,” Gilbert explains [via Guitar World]. “I didn’t have a band with me. And I didn’t have any solo material prepared.”

However, Gilbert improvised. He recruited a bassist and drummer from the band Ten Years After, and then the trio started brainstorming. They quickly discovered a common ground in Hendrix. “The only thing I could think to do was to quickly rehearse some Jimi Hendrix songs,” Gilbert admits.

The crux of the issue, however, was still the time restraints. So Gilbert came up with an ingenious plan: “I had to make the solos long enough to fill up a whole set… I told the promoter, ‘We only have time to learn 5 songs, so I’m going to have to play REALLY LONG SOLOS.’”

That’s how Gilbert and two parts of Ten Years After ended up onstage having only prepared five Hendrix songs. However, the limited setlist of Red House, Hey Joe, Highway Chile, Midnight and Purple Haze was scattered with plenty of long, self-indulgent solos – and it went down a storm. “It turned out great,” Gilbert recalls. “I don’t think I’ve ever played such long solos in my life!”

“In the end, the pressure of pulling everything together quickly in front of an audience,” he adds. “And being worry-free about endless guitar jamming may actually have brought me closer to Hendrix’s spirit than if I had planned everything while sitting in a chair.”

Gilbert goes on to praise Hendrix’s music for lending itself so well to a good ol’ jam. “Jimi’s songs are such great vehicles for jamming,” he notes. “His writing invites musicians to play with each other and listen to each other. The songs are flexible enough to allow musicians to keep their own style and still make the song work.”

Gilbert’s Tribute To Jimi Hendrix album is set to drop on 12 June. The first track, Purple Haze, is available now.

The post “I don’t think I’ve ever played such long solos in my life!”: Paul Gilbert’s unplanned 1991 tribute to Jimi Hendrix is being released digitally for the first time appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Today, Queen are globally recognised as one of the best-selling rock acts of all time. However, things were very different back in the early 1970s. When the now-rock legends were recording their 1973 debut, there was no guarantee it would be a hit – so the entire period of recording at Soho’s Trident Studios was a “terrifying”, high-stakes process.

Without the ability to see into the future, the young band had no clue of the success that lie ahead. As a result, it meant that every second of their self-titled debut mattered – it had to be all killer, no filler. “We were ludicrously compliant on the first album because we were terrified that it was going to be out only chance to record,” guitarist Brian May tells Uncut.

• READ MORE: How Women Are Giving Metal Guitars A Mainstream Moment

With the pressure well and truly on, Queen would put everything into their two year stint recording in Trident Studios between 1971 and 1972. And it was a respectable studio for a young band to be using – David Bowie, Lou Reed and Paul McCartney were also all using the studio across the same period. However, they had a far less glamorous experience, having to settle on cheaper, late-night slots.

“We’d start our sessions near midnight,” drummer Roger Taylor recalls. “By six in the morning we’d have to reset everything in the studio ready for whoever had booked in the next day.”

As a result, it meant that 1973’s Queen left the band slightly unsatisfied. Inspired by the Beatles’ knack for “using the studio as an instrument”, Queen also wanted to have full reign over the studio layout – but having to reset things every evening meant they were unable to do so. “We wanted drums that throbbed and reverberated and soaked into the rest of the studio, which meant reorganising the entire space around the drum kit,” Taylor explains.

“That’s the big difference between Queen and Queen II,” he continues. “The second album is the sound of us starting to get the sound we wanted.”

It’s a sentiment shared by May. “Queen II was the first time we could behave as if the studio belonged to us,” he says. “We’d been rehearsing ourselves to death, and by this point we are very ready. All this stuff is already prepared, we just have to fulfil the promise that was in our heads.”

Despite coming just one year after their debut, 1974’s Queen II was far more grandiose and ambitious. The cover art alone has stood the test of time, with the artwork serving as the most iconic snap of the band to this day. “We weren’t turning up and plugging in and playing, as we did on the first album,” May notes.

This involved whacky moves like bassist John Deacon crafting a DIY amp from a radio speaker from a recycled circuit board, a device that captured a sound not unlike a synth. “We were finally able to orchestrate these huge arrangements that were in my head. We were able to build orchestras in the sky.”

The post “We were ludicrously compliant”: Brian May looks back on why Queen were “terrified” recording their first album appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ah, yes. The perpetual analogue vs digital guitar gear debate. It divides the guitar community like few other topics, with prominent and well-qualified voices on both sides.

Last month, Analog Man legend Mike Piera weighed in on digital guitar gear and amp modellers, saying those who use them are missing out on a huge part of guitar tone. He added that digital amp modellers are “not any fun”. 

Meanwhile, Joe Bonamassa recently questioned the cool factor of digital gear, pondering whether Eddie Van Halen would have made the same splash were he using a Neural DSP Quad Cortex instead of vintage analogue gear. JoBo is, of course, an avid vintage gear collector – with two physical locations in Nashville and LA housing his vast collection – but we’ll park that for now…

• READ MORE: “A compelling entry into the world of American-crafted archtops”: Heritage updates its Standard II Collection with new H-575 model

But not everyone is married to the idea that vintage is always better; in November, AFI guitarist Jade Puget revealed he’d ditched tube amps in favour of a digital Line 6 Helix as the former made him feel “constrained”.

Yep, the pool of digital converts is expanding, but don’t count the Black Crowes guitarist Rich Robinson among them quite yet.

In a new interview in the latest print issue of Guitar World, Robinson says that digital amp modellers are “getting close, but you can never account for the physics of a room”.

He explains: “What’s the humidity like? What’s the oxygen level like? Are you at high altitude or low altitude? What’s the shape of the room? Where is the microphone being placed? All of these things can have a big effect on your sound.

“Your tone that comes out will always be what it is, but everything else needs to be taken into consideration. 

“Then there’s the feeling aspect. You have this symbiotic relationship with your amp. You’re literally connected to it. You’re plugged in and feeling that. It’s vibrating the floor and you’re hearing it, feeling it and playing with it. I think that’s when it becomes like this big oscillation. You’re in it.”

Part of Robinson’s favour of analogue gear over digital is his dislike of computers, as he explains.

“The whole purpose of rock ‘n’ roll is to [play with] abandon. It could go off the rails at any time. If everybody is on a computer listening to a click track playing their music around the light show rather than the actual songs, there’s no chance of greatness or failure… There’s nothing more boring than sitting at a computer.”

The Black Crowes have a series of tour dates planned throughout 2026, making stops in Australia, Japan, the US, and Europe. For tickets and a full list of dates, head to their official website. They also have a new album out, A Pound of Feathers. Check out one of its singles, Profane Prophecy, below:

The post “They’re getting close, but you can never account for the physics of a room”: Why the Black Crowes’ Rich Robinson isn’t yet a amp modeller convert appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

How much of a threat to musicians is AI? It’s been the subject of intense debate in the last year or more, and guitarist Zakk Wylde reckons there’s actually not that much to be worried about.

In a recent Q&A session, the Black Label Society frontman and former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist called AI a “fun” tool, but dispelled fears that it could actually replace human artists. “You can’t replace what’s coming out of Ozzy’s mind,” he said.

And now, Wylde has doubled down on his assertion that AI isn’t as scary as some make it out to be, telling Qobuz [via Blabbermouth]: “To me, it’s no big deal.”

• READ MORE: Zakk Wylde says the riff for Miracle Man was inspired by this classic Jimi Hendrix song

Specifically talking about AI music generators which are trained on large datasets to come up with music based on simple user prompts, Wylde says: “Whoever the artist is that you love, whether it’s Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath, you’ll never be able to replace what’s gonna come out of Tony [Iommi’s] riffs, what Geezer [Butler] is gonna write lyrically, what Bill [Ward] is gonna play, what melodies Ozzy’s gonna sing, because they’re creating it.”

He continues: “But I get it. I mean, if AI listens to all of Ozzy’s melodies and gets a feel for what Ozzy’s style is, and then hears Tony’s riffs and then it could hear the tendencies Bill plays, certain fills he does, and the way Geezer plays bass, and it listens to the lyrics… and it comes up with something, it’d be no different than a songwriter trying to come up with something that Black Sabbath would write.”

He says the same principle applies to an AI algorithm trying to replicate the music of Jimi Hendrix, for example.

“Everyone’s terrified of [AI],” Wylde goes on. “I just think you can’t take away what’s in the mind of Jimi Hendrix… You can try and emulate it. 

“All I look at it is the computer is just giving a compliment to the sound of whatever band that they’re trying to [emulate], like the Eagles or something, [and write a song like Desperado or Hotel California].

“It doesn’t bother me, because I’m still gonna buy the record from the Eagles.

Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society are currently on tour in the US. Check out the band’s website for tickets and more details.

The post “It’s no different than a songwriter trying to come up with something Black Sabbath would write”: Why Zakk Wylde feels AI-generated music is “no big deal” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$2,749/£2,549, taylorguitars.com

You have to admit, it has been a bit weird looking at the full range of Taylor acoustic guitars over the last few decades without seeing a single square-shoulder dreadnought in the USA-made offering.

• READ MORE: Yamaha Chris Buck RS02CB review: one of the most compelling P-90-loaded electrics on the market

Sure, the stripped-down Mexico-made Academy series offered one, and Taylor re-released a limited run of the 810e to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary a few years back. But that guitar felt more like a nostalgic glance in the rear-view mirror rather than a new direction.

Taylor’s apparent reticence in the dreadnought department is understandable though. The success of the round-shouldered Grand Pacific design – arguably a much more versatile guitar than the classic dread – meant that another big body chugger was surplus to requirements. So what’s changed? Well, it’s time to unpack the new Taylor Gold Label 510E and see if it’s still hip to be square.

Taylor Gold Label 510E – what is it?

Taylor’s Gold Label series has gone from a retro indulgence to a fan favourite in a remarkably short space of time. The combination of 1930s-inspired visuals – including a tweaked headstock design and inlays – coupled with some typically forward-thinking under-the-hood design, and well-judged wood choices, has definitely had an impact on the acoustic scene.

Since I first checked out the range, I’ve been looking forward to seeing where the Gold Label goes next. I must admit, I was surprised when the answer was to adopt a shape that Taylor’s core line seemed to have left behind a long time ago, but given the Gold Label’s ethos of looking back at classic techniques and influences, perhaps it shouldn’t have been.

The 510e is a non-cutaway dreadnought with solid neo-tropical mahogany back and sides, and a solid, torrified Sitka spruce top. The neo-tropical mahogany neck features a West African crelicam ebony fingerboard, and it joins the body at the 14th fret as all classic square-shouldered dreads should be. Not so traditional, however, is the fact that the guitar is built around a 25.5” scale length – making it a touch longer than the Martin D-18. Interesting.

The Next Generation Grand Auditorium guitars have seen Taylor start to move away from the venerable ES2 pickup system, but while those guitars make use of the new in-house Claria system, the Gold Labels have always been spec’d with an LR Baggs Element VTC active pickup – that continues here. This boasts an onboard low-frequency compressor “tuned specifically to the natural texture of acoustic guitar tone,” according to Taylor, which is going to make things interesting.

Taylor Gold Label 510E – build quality and playability

Part Gibson J-50, part Collings or Bourgeois, the Gold Label 510e is a pleasing aesthetic mash-up that feels more posh, small workshop than pawnshop weird. The golden Sitka top, minimalist inlay design and fire stripe pickguard – albeit without the banjo-inspired art nouveau motif – all promise a sound and playing experience that veers from the uber-clean and precise vibe of a typical Taylor guitar.

The neo-tropical mahogany back and sides look inviting under the gloss finish. There is some striping reminiscent of sapele but it’s good-looking stuff. Although subtle, the body of this guitar is actually a touch deeper than a standard dread. How much difference this makes to the sound remains to be seen but it certainly feels comfortable against the body.

This model features Taylor’s Action Control Neck design, which allows for quick and easy fine-tuning of the action in a matter of seconds, without the need for a visit to a guitar tech. In fact if you buy the right bendy screwdriver off Amazon, you can do it yourself in a few seconds without even having to detune the guitar.

For touring players this is a godsend, and it’s another step forward in easy maintenance that has been such a hallmark of Taylor’s innovation over the last few decades. Despite the fancy engineering under the hood, Taylor necks always feel good. The Gold Label series version feels a little meatier than the standard issue but that could just be the power of suggestion.

This guitar features Taylor’s V-Class bracing which – like so many innovations before it – continues to divide opinion. Whereas personality is subjective, response is not. This is a lively and engaging guitar and the bracing may well be part of that.

Taylor Gold Label 510E – sounds

A mahogany dreadnought is just crying out for some big pick energy and with a BlueChip in hand, it’s time to dig in. As expected, the Gold Label 510e absolutely loves this. Big strums, liquid leads and fat G-runs. This is a very good time indeed.

There’s a lot of power and headroom to explore coupled with a pleasingly wide timbral range from the bridge to the end of the fretboard, which emphasises the fundamental of the note without denying us some of those good overtones. The initial attack may come across as a touch rounded if you’re used to the immediacy of a rosewood dread, but that is the nature of the beast.

Played fingerstyle in standard tuning, the Gold Label 510e is a little less happy. This is still a very young instrument, of course – fresh from the production line to my studio. Thumbpick enthusiasts will still find a lot to be happy about, but if you play softly with bare flesh, it can feel like steering an oil tanker.

Given that Taylor’s first foray into Gold Label dreads was a near-identical signature model for all-world flatpicker Trey Hensley, perhaps none of this should surprise anyone. Thankfully, the Taylor range is packed with dedicated fingerstyle instruments, and some of them are in the Gold Label series too.

Dropping the machine into DADGAD yields predictable results. The sympathetic resonance and lower frequencies immediately make the guitar sound more lush and open – the sustain envelope is smooth along the neck and there is no evidence of wolf tones or dead notes.

Any guitar with an E in the name is begging to be plugged in, so I ease the Gold Label 510e into a Fishman Solo Amp. The Baggs VTC element system is based on an undersaddle piezo pickup. The interesting bit of VTC is the C, which stands for compression. Yes, this pickup system has an in-built proprietary analogue compressor that operates below 400Hz. The soundhole-mounted volume and treble tone controls are easily accessible.

Plugged in, I am greeted with a pokey sound that still leans into the ping of the attack but can deliver warmth behind the initial transient. It’s not the cooked quack of an older piezo, but it lacks the warmth of something like a K+K. This will sit beautifully in a band mix, despite being a touch aggressive for a solo player without some gentle EQ shaping from the amp.

Taylor Gold Label 510E – should I buy one?

The Taylor Gold Label 510e is priced keenly. It’s considerably cheaper than its main competition and forefather – the Martin D-18 – and the other obvious mahogany choice, the Gibson Hummingbird. Aesthetically, it manages to sit in the middle of those two venerable ancestors, but the sound is still very Taylor.

While the unfinished bridge and internal glue blobs are a little scruffy for this company, they do fit the idiom, and this is a welcome addition to the world of the mahogany square-shoulder dreadnoughts.

[products ids=”5ZCnybCwfEVkbLq3vLxsr0″]

Taylor Gold Label 510E – alternatives

There is no shortage of quality square-shouldered dreadnought options out there, of course, but as mentioned above, the Gold Label 510e does offer a significant value proposition against the non-electro Martin D-18 ($2,999 / £3,199, the D-18e is currently discontinued) and the Gibson Hummingbird ($3,999 / £3,799). One truly exceptional guitar that can compete on the price front is the Bourgeois Touchstone Country Boy (£2,650), which utilises a hybrid US/Chinese build process to produce a truly stupendous boutique guitar at a more real-world price.

The post Taylor Gold Label 510e review: “Taylor’s return to the dreadnought is crying out for some big pick energy” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Sometimes song ideas come fully formed, but most of the time, your ideas will take time to come together into a cohesive whole. When you don’t have other musicians to bounce ideas off, Guitar Pro can act as a useful stand in.

In this guide, I’m going to show you how to compose music for other instruments, introduce you to some of Guitar Pro’s intermediate tools and share some tips on how to build the structure of your song. This isn’t a songwriting guide, so I’ll only be using a four bar piece of music to showcase everything. However, we will cover all that’s needed to give you the grounding to how to compose a complete song in Guitar Pro.

Before you continue, if you’ve never used Guitar Pro before, I highly recommend you read our How to tab a basic riff in Guitar Pro feature. I cover the basics there and lay the foundations for where we’ll be continuing in this guide.

How to add accompanying instruments in Guitar Pro

For this guide, I’ve tabbed out a four bar progression playing F# diminished, Bm7 and Em with a “jazzy” rhythm utilising dead notes and hammer-ons. This will be the foundation for showcasing additional instruments, customising sounds and advanced articulation.

You can download the Guitar Pro file so you can hear the rhythm and use this file for your own practice, as well as listening to and editing the lead guitar, bass and drum tracks.

To add a new instrument track, click ‘Track’ in the main menu and ‘Add…’.

Drums

Unlike when tabbing guitar, there’s no set line that a part of the kit must be tabbed on, but I would advise creating a system that makes sense. This is how I organise the kit from top line to bottom:

• First and second lines: Cymbals
• Third line: Hi-Hats
• Fourth line: Toms
• Fifth line: Snare
• Sixth line: Kick

Top tip: Fill an empty bar with sixteenth note rests. I’ve found it gives me more freedom from the beginning for the placement of kick, snare and cymbal fills to compliment the back beat.

To see what number relates to what part of the drumkit press Fn+CMD+F6 (CTRL+F6 on Windows) to bring up the ‘DrumKit View’. You can also find this in the ‘View’ menu. Note that when you click to hear a sample of any of the pieces of the kit, it will add it into the selected bar of your tab.

The key ones to note for your first beat are:

• 35 = Kick
• 38 = Snare
• 44 = Hi-Hat (Closed)
• 46 = Hi-Hat (Open)

Keep your beat simple to start with and ensure it pairs well with your riff. Once you have the core groove locked in, then you can refer to the ‘DrumKit View’ and start embellishing with fills and cymbals.

Bass

The process of tabbing bass is identical to guitar, just with fewer strings (most of the time). Write out whatever feels good for you based on your knowledge and experience with bass guitar. Once you’re more actively tabbing out bass and drum parts, you’ll be better at writing more nuanced parts.

How to customise your instruments’ sound in Guitar Pro

Now that we’ve tabbed out the parts for all of our instruments, we can start to look at refining their individual sounds.

Add a capo to your guitar(s)

Select your instrument track and make sure that ‘Track’ is selected in the ‘Inspector’ column. Click the box where your guitar’s tuning is shown and you’ll open the ‘tuning’ dialog box. At the bottom you can choose to add a capo or partial capo. You can do this at the beginning of a project, but if you do it after the fact there’s a button to ‘adjust the fingering’ so that the notes are transposed correctly.

Change your guitar model, effects and amp

Sticking in the ‘Track’ column, click on the guitar name, which in my example is ‘1. Jazz ES’. This brings up a drop-down menu with the first option being the different styles of your currently selected guitar, as well as the option to change the guitar type or change to a different instrument. There are ‘signature’ sounds for many of the guitar types, so if you’re hunting for something specific, be sure to explore the options available.

Below ‘1. Jazz ES’ you will see symbols of a headstock, amplifier, mixer and stompbox. Clicking this will open up your signal chain. In ‘Soundbank’ you’ll see your guitar and here you can change to a different type of guitar, e.g. L. Paul, Strat, Tele.

Beneath this is your effect chain, which in my case has my amplifier, reverb and EQ. You can tweak the settings or change the amp and pedals in your effect chain to suit your preferences. There are presets built-in to all of them or you can build your sound from scratch.

Top tip: I recommend highlighting a bar or section of music and then going into the ‘Sound’ menu to activate a loop when tweaking the settings, so that you can hear what’s being changed live. When paired with ‘Count-in’ this is really handy for when you’re practising playing along.

Add the ‘human touch’ through interpretation

At the bottom of the ‘Track’ column, each instrument will have an ‘Interpretation’ section. This is a great set of tools to give the playing style some personality. You can dictate when the instrument is played with a pick, fingers or bass slap, and dial in the intensity of palm muting and accentuation.

3. How to tab different articulations

Continuing on from the adding the ‘human touch’, there are so many techniques at play in a single riff. While we looked at the basics in our first guide of this series, here’s some of the more intermediate articulations that I use regularly and how you tab them out.

I’ve included the keyboard shortcuts below, but you can select all of these effects quickly with the ‘Edition Palette’ enabled.

• Up and downstrokes – Press (Shift + U / D) to add an up or downstroke to accurately tab your rhythm playing
• Grace notes – Hitting a note before or after the beat super quickly? Press (G) for a grace note that plays before the beat or (Option+G / CTRL+ALT+G) for grace note(s) on the beat
• Vibrato – Press (V) to add a touch of vibrato to a note or chord
• Staccato – Press (!) when highlighting a note or chord to add a staccato effect. Super handy for those rhythmic stab sections or for plucky lead lines. A staccato note has a • above it in the staff
• Slide in from above/below – When you’re not sliding from a specific note, but want that effect highlight your note or chord, go into Effects > Slide > Slide in from Above / Below based on how you’re playing

Be sure to refer to the Guitar Pro file of this project to see these effects in situ.

Building your song’s structure in Guitar Pro

Whether you’re composing a prog epic or a tight verse-chorus pop anthem, these tools will help add dynamics to your song and make the project easy to navigate.

Use repeat signs

Rather than tabbing out your riff or chord progression each time it’s played, use repeat signs ( [ ) and ( ] ) in the first and final bar to keep your project tidy. You can use alternate endings where the instrumentation changes.

Label your song’s sections

Select a bar, click ‘Section’ in the main menu and then ‘Edit…’ to add a letter and/or name to any section in your song. This will appear both above the staff in the respective bar and along the bottom of the screen.

Pan your instruments to improve the mix

Finding that your two guitar tracks are drowning each other out? Hard pan one to the left and one to the right. You’ll be amazed at what a difference such a small change makes.

Get good at automation

Press F10 and you’ll bring up the ‘Automation’ screen, where you can automate volume, tempo and panning changes throughout your song. These variables can add both personality and dynamics to a song.

Experiment with effects and different instruments

Want to build tension in the intro? Add a couple of bars to the start of your project, duplicate your guitar track and then add a low-pass filter to it, then in your original guitar track, tab the root chord as a whole note, and add a long fade ( < ) or automate a volume swell before the song kicks off.

Maybe your bridge section sounds a bit samey? Ditch the guitar and try out a violin, synth or woodwind instrument and see how that affects the mood of the piece.

In the final part of this guide series, we’ll be looking at how Guitar Pro can streamline the recording process as you take your finished projects to the studio.

The post How to compose a complete song in Guitar Pro – the essential guide appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Music theory is boundless. And even a musician as distinguished and accomplished as Paul McCartney is still exploring nearly 70 years into his illustrious career.

That quest for discovery recently reached an inflection point in the unlikeliest of situations – over a cup of tea with producer Andrew Watt. 

As the story goes, the Beatles legend and the mega-producer met for a casual “exchange of ideas” five years ago, when Macca stumbled upon a chord he couldn’t identify. He began experimenting with note choices, and his inspiration was so profound after coming up with a new three-chord sequence that he ended up writing an entire full-length album.

• READ MORE: “A compelling entry into the world of American-crafted archtops”: Heritage updates its Standard II Collection with new H-575 model

And that album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, is set to arrive 29 May via MPL/Capitol Records. It’s set to bring “Wings-style rock, Beatles-style harmonies, McCartney-style grooves, understated intimacy and melody-driven storytelling – par for the course for Macca, then.

With “no record label pressure and no deadline” The Boys of Dungeon Lane was recorded over the last five years in both Los Angeles and Sussex, to McCartney and Watt’s “own timeline and satisfaction”.

You can listen to the first single from the album, Days We Left Behind, right now:

“This is very much a memory song for me. The album title, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, comes from a lyric in this track. I was thinking just that, about the days I left behind and I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past but then I think how can you write about anything else? 

“It’s just a lot of memories of Liverpool.  It involves a bit in the middle about John and Forthlin Road which is the street I used to live in. Dungeon Lane is near there.  I used to live in a place called Speke which is quite working class.  We didn’t have much at all but it didn’t matter because all the people were great and you didn’t notice you didn’t have much.”

The Boys of Dungeon Lane’s tracklist is as follows:

1. As You Lie There
2. Lost Horizon
3. Days We Left Behind
4. Ripples in a Pond
5. Mountain Top
6. Down South
7. We Two
8. Come Inside
9. Never Know
10. Home to Us 
11. Life Can Be Hard
12. First Star of the Night
13. Salesman Saint
14. Momma Gets By

The Boys of Dungeon Lane is available to preorder now.

The post Paul McCartney found a guitar chord he didn’t recognise while having tea with Andrew Watt – and was so inspired he recorded a new album appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Is a new Judas Priest album in the works? It would certainly appear so, according to a brief comment made by guitarist Richie Faulkner in a new interview.

Priest’s most recent album, Invincible Shield, landed in 2024, and it would seem the English quintet are eyeing up a followup. Though his reply is brief, when asked about the status of a potential 20th studio album, Faulkner confirms: “We’ve started recording it.”

• READ MORE: “Sometimes I come off stage, call home and say, ‘I can’t f**king do it’”: Richie Faulkner reveals he suffered a stroke while recovering from aortic aneurysm – but isn’t ready to leave Judas Priest yet

“We were in the studio for a month in February laying the foundation,” he tells Canada’s The Metal Voice [via Blabbermouth]. “I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that, but I’ve said it!”

That’s all we know for now, and it may be a while before we actually hear any material from the album, but for now, confirmation is good enough for us.

Richie Faulkner joined Judas Priest in 2011, replacing KK Downing. “They’ve been doing it for 50-odd years,” he says. “I’m part of the team now, and it is the crew and management and everyone that pitches together to make that machine roll.

“And I can see how they’ve been doing it for that long. I’ve said to you guys before – they love it. And we’ll do a tour and then we’ll get excited and do an album, and then you get excited for the album and do another tour. So I can see how it happens. And we’re doing another album, and we’ll probably tour that.

Richie Faulkner’s career was put on hold when he suffered an aortic aneurysm while performing onstage with Priest at Louder Than Life Festival in 2021. He subsequently underwent 10-hour emergency open heart surgery and has since recovered.

Despite the years that have passed since, Faulkner recently revealed that he continues to work with a physio “three times a day” to manage the damage the incident caused to his body.

I’ve had a bit of collateral damage on my right side with stuff connected to what happened. So I have to work on that,” he said.

Elsewhere in the new interview, Faulkner touches on the upcoming Ballad of Judas Priest documentary, which chronicles 50 years of Judas Priest.

“It’s really well put together, and it goes through the story of where they started and what they went through and everything like that and talks to different people about Priest’s influence on them. 

“There’s a great bit in it where they go back to, I think it’s a working man’s club in Aston [United Kingdom] or somewhere like that, where they played their first show, and Ian’s [Hill, Judas Priest bassist] in there and he’s sitting down, and it’s still there. And he’s in the club, and you can see the stage where they performed and everything. It’s still there, man. And it’s great, as a fan, to see that stuff. I haven’t seen that stuff before. So it’s really good. When it comes out, you should definitely check it out.”

The post “I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that:” Richie Faulkner lets slip update on new Judas Priest album appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

[Editor’s note: Heritage Guitars and Guitar.com are both part of the Caldecott Music Group.]

Back in September, Heritage Guitars unveiled its Standard II Collection on its 40th anniversary, bringing a number of upgrades to its celebrated Standard Series. The Standard II Collection kicked off with the refreshed H-150, followed in November by a trio of electric guitars, the H-150 P90, H-535 and H-530.

Now, the Kalamazoo-based brand is continuing that momentum with the introduction of the latest Standard II model, an updated version of the original hollowbody Standard H-575.

• READ MORE: Ace Frehley’s number-one Les Paul headlines upcoming auction at Julien’s – and could fetch half a million dollars

Offered as a “compelling entry into the world of American-crafted archtops”, the Standard II Collection H-575 arrives with refined aesthetics following the Standard Series’ H-575, as well as newly unveiled Heritage Custom Shop 225 Standard Archtop Humbuckers.

These pickups are specifically voiced for modern jazz, prioritising “clarity and dynamic response”, with 42 AWG poly wire and Alnico 2 magnets with chrome covers “perfectly complementing” the guitar’s hollowbody resonance.

Crafted at the brand’s legendary 225 Parsons Street facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the Standard II Collection H-575 sports a new headstock veneer with the Heritage logo for a “more refined and elevated aesthetic”, a standard C neck profile for a “comfortable and effortless” playing experience.

Priced at $4,499 and available via the Heritage Guitars website and authorised Heritage dealers, the brand says the Standard II H-575 “stands confidently” beside its more elite archtop offerings, including the Heritage Custom Shop Core Collection H-575 and H-717.

The Standard II Collection has already made a strong impression on the Guitar.com team; in November, we checked out the Standard II H-150, which has seen the brand shift somewhat from its philosophy of vintage revivalism to something a little more contemporary. In our review, we gave the guitar a 9/10, praising its quality tonal palette, useful array of switching options and comfortable light weight.

Will the Standard II H-575 measure up the same way? You can learn more at Heritage Guitars.

The post “A compelling entry into the world of American-crafted archtops”: Heritage updates its Standard II Collection with new H-575 model appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

In the Metallica discography, there’s one album that attracts critics more than any other, and that’s 2003’s St. Anger.

The record – which followed 1997’s Reload and the band’s 1998 compilation album Garage Inc. – has divided the Metallica fanbase since it arrived 23 years ago, with many critical of its off-kilter mix and, in particular, the sound of Lars Ulrich’s snare drum.

• READ MORE: “I saw UFO play with Van Halen in the ’70s – they got their asses kicked”: George Lynch recalls seeing Eddie Van Halen’s “mind-bending” playing up close

But inspiration often comes from unusual places, as discovered by Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Zacky Vengeance, who praises the album in a new interview on WRIF’s Meltdown.

Avenged Sevenfold have toured numerous times with Metallica since the early 2000s, most recently on their 2017 WorldWired stadium tour.

“Honestly, and this is gonna be controversial, but we were touring in a van. And we were driving across the country playing small shows, and it was right at the time when St. Anger came out, and that was the most divisive Metallica album since Load and Reload, and since the Black Album,” Vengeance says [via Ultimate Guitar].

“And you look back and people were like, ‘What are they doing with the Black Album.’ ‘What are they doing with Load? And then with St. Anger… it was the craziest sounding [album]. And then we fell in love with it.”

He continues: “It might not be our favourite Metallica album, but the thought behind it and the fact that it was so different and it had to be listened to, and they were just going for this thrashy raw sound using tones that weren’t perfect…

“They can do whatever they want – they chose to go and just make this buck-wild album. And it was, like, ‘If Metallica can do that, then we can do that.’”

Avenged Sevenfold’s penchant for experimentation has caused division among their fanbase over the course of their career. The arrival of their third album City of Evil in 2005 brought mainstream success, but also alienated some fans due to its stylistic departure from their previous record, Waking the Fallen. 

“When that record first came out, our fans on Waking the Fallen were very bummed on it,” frontman M Shadows said in 2021. They were like, this isn’t Waking the Fallen 2. This isn’t even screaming and singing, this is all singing. Matt’s voice has changed. They’re doing way more solos – it’s much more over the top.”

And in 2023, he commented on the backlash to the band’s most recent album Life Is But A Dream…:  “There are so many psychological things that go into if people like records or not or if they don’t or what they’re listening to at the time. And it’s not really our job to figure that out; it’s just our job to put something out that we totally back and we appreciate. And we’ll see where it goes. It’s hard to really talk about it, ‘cause there’s really no right or wrong answer. It’s okay to hate this record.”

The post “They can do whatever they want, and they chose to make this buck-wild album”: Avenged Sevenfold’s Zacky Vengeance on being inspired by Metallica’s most maligned album appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ad feature with Yamaha

Back in 2015, if you asked someone to think about Yamaha electric guitars, they’d almost certainly point to the budget brilliance of the Pacifica or the under-the-radar classic that is the SG 2000.

Nobody would have expected that a brand with such a defined identity could introduce not just a new guitar, but an entire concept that would redefine what people expected from a Yamaha guitar, and establish itself as a true modern classic in a world that’s often so resistant to new things. But the Revstar was no ordinary guitar line – it’s a guitar that has won over beginners and professionals alike, and won dedicated fans in the shape of two of the brightest lights in modern guitar: Chris Buck and Matteo Mancuso.

Revs Your Heart

To understand the DNA of the Revstar, you have to understand the history of Yamaha. While the world’s largest musical instrument maker and the world’s second largest maker of motorbikes have been independent companies since 1955, there is obviously a significant fraternity between the two still.

That’s why, when the design geniuses at Yamaha Guitars came together to create what would become the Revstar, they borrowed from their own history, of course, but they also looked to their friends over the Tenryū River at Yamaha Motor Co.

In particular, the designers looked to the timelessly cool stripped down Cafe Racer motorcycles that had ferried the hip young rockers of London around the city in the 1960s – the same decade that Yamaha first started making guitars.

The bikes even gave the Revstar its name – a nod both to the revving of a motorbike engine, but also the Yamaha Motor Group’s “Revs your heart” company slogan. The Revstar would certainly set guitarists’ hearts racing when it arrived in 2015.

More Than Skin Deep

But if the Revstar was just a pretty guitar, it would never have established itself in the unprecedented way it has over the last decade – becoming a fixture with professionals and hobbyists alike. These are people who appreciate not just the Revstar’s looks, but the usability and design that could only have come from Yamaha.

The genius of the original Revstar line was the way every design choice was made with the prospective player in mind – making sensible and smart decisions based on hundreds of interviews conducted with real guitarists from across the playing spectrum.

Whether it was scale length, tonewoods, fret size or pickup selection, the huge amount of research allowed Yamaha’s expert designers to craft instruments that put the player at the heart of things like never before.

For example, each of the original Revstar guitars featured custom pickups created for the line. In the hugely popular entry-level RS320 model, the pickups were high-output units with ceramic magnets. This was done because the designers sensibly reasoned that a beginner player would appreciate more volume when they were developing their technique, but would also allow even more advanced players who appreciated heavier styles to still have fun with them.

At the other end of the scale, the Bigsby-toting RS720B featured underwound humbuckers – with 2500 turns of heavy formvar wire on the neck pickup and 2900 on the bridge – in order to give a more classic, vintage tonality that would pair with the Bigsby’s smooth wobble.

It’s this kind of considered and evidence-driven approach to guitar design – mixed with an undeniably beautiful overall design of course – that captured the attention of guitar players. Where so many brands lean heavily on nostalgia and established designs to appeal to the masses, the Revstar courted the attention of those seeking something unquestionably new, distinct and timeless.

Rather than look back, the Revstar represented an inspiring new tool for the job, that captured the imagination of a generation of guitar players looking for something outside of the norm.

Refining The Concept

Given the huge amount of research, development and listening that Yamaha’s designers put into the first generation of Revstars guitars, it would have been unthinkable for them to not take advantage of the fact that it was now out in the real world being played by thousands of musicians who would provide even more feedback.

Thus in 2022 the second generation of Revstar guitars was launched, which featured a host of refinements, tweaks and improvements on the original. Perhaps the most significant of these was the fact that each Revstar guitar now utilised Yamaha’s proprietary Acoustic Design chambering to improve resonance and reduce weight.

Another key addition to the second generation of Revstar guitars was the Revstar Professional RSP02T – a Japan-made take on what had become the defining recipe of the Revstar platform, ready for pro musicians to take on the road.

And that was important, because the Revstar had quickly become a guitar that had been embraced by major recording artists for its unique looks and wonderful functionality: from Graham Coxon of Blur, to Lynval Golding of The Specials, Dave Keuning of The Killers, and Jeff Schroeder of Smashing Pumpkins.

Player’s Choice

The breadth of the Revstar’s appeal is shown in the variety of players who have adopted it over its first decade, but two modern guitar greats stand apart in making the guitar their primary means of guitar expression: Matteo Mancuso and Chris Buck.

“I chose to play a Revstar because I was searching for a solid body that was similar to the SG but with more versatility for both jazz and rock,” the Italian jazz phenomenon explains. Mancuso is one of the most jaw-dropping technical guitar players on the planet, but the Revstar’s intelligent and thoughtful design takes him where he needs to go.

Mancuso references the comfort of the body shape and its lightweight design, plus the versatility of the five-way selector switch on his personal model, which adds coil splitting options to the Lollar Imperial pickups onboard. Combined with the guitar’s lively chambered body, it accommodates everything he wants in one guitar: “I can achieve every sound I need!”

For Buck, the love for Revstar runs even deeper, and it’s an enduring relationship that has spawned not just the first Revstar signature model ever, but Yamaha’s first signature electric full stop for 15 years.

The first time Buck saw a Revstar was when he walked into a Cardiff guitar shop a decade ago, and instantly the design spoke to him. The Revstar has been by his side ever since as he’s become one of the most respected blues-rock guitarists on the planet.

He loved his Revstar so much, he later upgraded to a model made by the YASLA Custom Shop in the USA that became his primary stage instrument. This guitar has helped usher in another milestone for the Revstar when it became the basis for Buck’s signature model in early 2026.

“My Custom Shop Revstar has been the beating heart of every record I’ve made and every show I’ve played since I first laid hands on it in 2020,” Buck enthuses. “It hasn’t left my side and has quite literally travelled the globe with me, from Cairo to California.

“The phrase ‘labour of love’ gets thrown around a little too often these days, but collaborating so closely with Yamaha to recreate my Number One over the past few years has been exactly that. I’m beyond thrilled to finally see it come to life.”

That two masterful players with such different approaches to the instrument can be united by the Revstar is a testament to the design brilliance at the core of this modern classic. From expressive and feel-led playing to highly articulate modern technique, the Revstar can handle anything these titans of modern guitar can throw at it. It’s a platform for inspiration no matter who you are.

Find out more about the Revstar at yamahaguitargroup.com

The post “I can achieve every sound I need” how Yamaha’s Revstar won over the professionals to become a modern classic appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Artificial intelligence may be creeping into all aspects of music-making, but Jacoby Shaddix believes rock is pushing back – and he’s all for it.

Speaking on the LA Lloyd Rock 30 radio show, the Papa Roach frontman reflects on the genre’s resistance to AI, noting the way rock fans can “smell” when something’s off. He describes the current moment as “a strange time” for artists, particularly those just starting out, and sees the rise of AI as yet another turning point for the industry, much like the collapse of the CD era.

• READ MORE: “AI is fun… But you can’t replace what’s coming out of Ozzy’s mind”: Zakk Wylde weighs in on AI music

“I think now, at this point, we’re at another kind of strange time in music where this AI element is coming through, and it can be frightening, I think, for a lot of people, for a lot of young artists maybe,” Shaddix explains [via Blabbermouth].

“But then there’s this hopeful element in it that I feel. Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas was trying to explain it, and I think he kind of hit the nail on the head in a way of, like, when you go to the grocery store, you can get the organic or you can get the GMO. What do you want? So if you want music, do you want fake music or do you want the music that’s coming from a human being? And we have a choice.”

For Shaddix, the issue lies in what AI currently represents: imitation over intention.

“AI is really essentially studying us. It’s a study of us,” says the musician. “And how does it regurgitate us back at us in a generic way? And that’s where it’s at right now. And it will be interesting to see how this plays out.”

“But I love the pushback from rock culture against it. I think that a lot of people in rock culture can smell it. They can hear it in the song, they can see it in the art, and they’re, like, ‘Ah, that ain’t it.’”

“And I love collaborating with people,” Shaddix continues. “I love the humanness of it. I love the push and pull in the relationship of creating with another person and having to have a conversation in a room, creating a song. And sometimes my idea isn’t the best idea in the room, and it gets shot down. And then sometimes my idea is the idea that sticks, whereas this other one is, ‘I have a prompt. Let me press a button.’ It’s just lazy, man.”

“I think the people in the rock culture and in the rock space, we could smell it a mile away. There’s room for the human in that.”

That mindset is already shaping how Papa Roach approach recording. Shaddix says the rise of AI has prompted the band to strip things back in the studio and rethink overproduction.

“[It’s] prompted us, when we go into the studio, to kind of dial back some of the tech and the overproduction of things,” he says. “[Our latest single] Wake Up Calling being one of those. There’s no samples on the drums in that song. It’s just raw drums. It’s just a recording of a drummer playing drums. And I think that that element is coming back into the play.”

Papa Roach’s new album – the follow-up to 2022’s Ego Trip – will be out later this year. Listen to the single Wake Up Calling below.

The post “They can hear it in the song, see it in the art, and they’re, like, ‘Ah, that ain’t it’” Papa Roach’s Jacoby Shaddix says he loves rock’s pushback against AI appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.