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Police say Brent Hinds “at fault” for crash which took his life – as he is found to have been travelling twice the speed limit
Atlanta police say Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds was at fault for the crash which took his life on 20 August, after he was found to have been travelling between 63 and 68 mph at the time, around twice the speed limit in the area, according to Atlanta News First.
A police report released shortly after the accident noted how the driver of an SUV failed to yield while making a turn at an Atlanta intersection, leading to a collision with Hinds, who was riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
A responding officer said Hinds was “breathing and moving with visible injuries to his head, arms and torso”, but was later transported to Grady Memorial Hospital, “where he perished from his injuries”.
In a new police report, investigators say that Hinds was “at fault for the crash” due to his excessive speed. Using video footage of the intersection, investigators estimated that the guitarist was travelling between 63 and 68 mph, roughly twice the speed limit at the intersection. “Hinds was at fault for the crash,” police say.
In a previous report uploaded online, the Atlanta Police Department said the driver of the SUV which collided with Hinds’ motorcycle remained at the scene and spoke with investigators.
She said she was “positive the light was green” as she proceeded, however a witness claimed her light was red. The same witness and another both said Hinds was “driving fast” at the time of the crash.
As a founding guitarist of Mastodon, Brent Hinds remained a member of the band for 25 years since its formation in 2000, until his departure earlier this year. While the split initially looked to be amicable, Hinds later came out with some criticisms of his former bandmates, even going as far as to call them “horrible humans” and “incapable of singing in key”.
Hinds’ sudden and tragic death rocked the guitar and wider music world, with his former bandmates saying they were in a “state of unfathomable sadness and grief”.
At their first concert following his death, Mastodon noted how their relationship with Brent Hinds was “not always perfect, but we were brothers till the end”.
Tributes to Hinds also came from Opeth, Slash, Zakk Wylde, Trivium’s Matt Heafy and many others.
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It’s Guitar Month at Sweetwater! Here are the five best deals from the event
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September is Guitar Month at Sweetwater! Until the end of the month, there are some serious savings to be found on electrics, acoustics, basses, pedals and amps. Plus, alongside the big deals, there’s also some cool new and exclusive gear landing, and some special financing offers available. We’ve picked out five of the coolest discounts you can find at Sweetwater this Guitar Month, with hundreds of dollars to be saved on some great pieces of kit.
$500 off a Guild Starfire III Hollowbody Electric Guitar
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Looking for your next jazz hollowbody or wanting to do a rockabilly deep-dive? You can’t go wrong with a Guild hollowbody for either. The Starfire III is a really cool combination of old-school style with some modern design tweaks – the LB-1 “Little Bucker” humbuckers provide a focused sound, just as ready for some warm, jazzy cleans as they are for fire-breathing rock and roll – plus the thinner hollow body will handle higher volume a little better than a full-sized jazz box. There’s also a Bigsby-style vibrato if you need a little wobble.
For guitar month it’s also almost half off. There’s a huge saving of $500, with the price slashed down to $699 from $1,199. For such a premium instrument, that’s a fantastic saving.
$600 off a Gibson Les Paul Standard ’60s Plain Top Electric Guitar in Sparkling Burgundy
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The Gibson Les Paul Standard – one of the most iconic guitar designs ever, of course, with all the Les Paul trimmings you might expect from a USA-made Gibson. There’s a mahogany body with a maple top and a slim-taper mahogany neck, as well as two ‘60s Burstbucker pickups for some authentic PAF tones. A little less authentic – but all the better for it – is the absolutely gorgeous Sparkling Burgundy finish
And this Guitar Month, a USA-made Gibson doesn’t have to totally break the bank – this guitar is down from $2,599 to $1,999, a generous saving of $600.
$500 off a Heritage Standard H-535 Semi-hollowbody Electric Guitar
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Don’t fancy a hollow guitar or a solid-body? Why not split the difference! The H-535 is a take on the classic double-cut semi-hollow electric, drawing on Heritage’s Kalamazoo DNA. The guitar comes finished in a gorgeous Original Sunburst – it’s also a thin nitrocellulose that’ll age and wear just like a 60s guitar.
It also comes loaded with a set of Seymour Duncan ‘59 Humbuckers – these are prized for the PAF impression, capturing the touch sensitivity and transparency of Seth Lover’s 1955 design.
For Guitar Month, there’s a huge saving of $500 – down to $1,999 from $2,499, saving $500.
$800 off a Breedlove Oregon Concert CE
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This beautiful and unique acoustic from Breedlove is made with solid myrtlewood, a unique tonewood native to the Pacific northwest. The sound is described as a blend of the maple, rosewood and mahogany, with a balanced character
Alongside this unique acoustic sound there’s also the fantastic LR Baggs Element system to provide a realistic translation of the guitar’s character on stage or when recording direct.
All of these premium features are at less of a premium this guitar month, too, with a discount of $800 from its usual price of $2,799 – grabbing a guitar like this for just under $2,000 is not to be sniffed at!
$484 off a Victory Amplification V40 The Duchess
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The Victory Duchess splits the difference between what we know and love from both the British and American approaches to tube amp voicing. While it has just a single channel, there’s an awesome Voice switch to leap across the Atlantic for bright and restrained US sounds or midrangey, chaotic British sounds.
Plus your sound on stage will thank you – 40 watts of tube power is more than enough to keep up with even the most aggressive of drummers, and a midrange-push switch will let your overdriven tones stand out amidst a mix.
For Guitar Month, The Duchess has been placed in an entirely different price category – it’s reduced by $484, down to $945 from $1,429.14
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PRS SE NF 53 review: “it might look like PRS’s Telecaster, but this is its own guitar”
$979/£979, prsguitars.com
Paul Reed Smith hasn’t got to where he is today by being afraid of ruffling a few feathers. The Maryland guitar maker’s success over the last 40 years has been built on finding new and innovative ways to evolve the electric guitar while always being inspired by its iconic heritage.
Sometimes it’s meant that PRS has attracted its fair share of criticism – remember the outcry when the Silver Sky was first launched? Well, now the ‘PRS Strat’ regularly outsells its inspiration, and the naysayers have gone very quiet.
It was a very similar scenario when Alter Bridge’s Myles Kennedy started being spotted with a noticeably T-style PRS guitar on stage a few years back. Sections of the internet were widely incensed by the guitar’s very existence, and weren’t shy about letting people know this fact when the guitar, dubbed the NF 53, and its Kennedy signature sibling launched just over two years ago.
Image: Press
Some people loved to hate on the NF 53 and MK. Especially in their unconventional ‘doghair’ finishes – which uses contrasting-colour grain filler to give a striking effect. But then PRS revealed that the guitars were the brand’s top two best-selling USA guitars in 2023, despite only being launched in June of that year.
Again, the naysayers went quiet, and the stage was set for the NF 53 to follow the Silver Sky into the SE range, where the ‘PRS Telecaster’ could truly become a disruptive force in the T-style market. And here, two years on, is the result.
PRS SE NF 53 – what is it?
The first thing to be aware of is that this is not simply a Telecaster with a PRS headstock. Smith’s reputation as one of the most important and innovative minds in the history of electric guitar design is based on his ability to take something and evolve and iterate on it to create a modern instrument that’s more versatile and more reliable.
So yes, on the surface the SE NF 53, like its US-made forebear, is a single-cut, swamp ash-bodied guitar with a bolt-on maple neck that sports 22 frets and a 25.5” scale length. At the other end you’ll find a plate-style steel bridge, a pair of pickups and a control layout that comprises a shared volume and tone controls and a three-way blade selector switch. So far, so Fullerton.
But, this is where the PRS magic so often resides – because a closer look will see that this is not your grandaddy’s T-type in almost every way that matters. That swamp ash body has a more rounded feel than the original, with some well-considered contours on the back and around the cutaway to make it sit a little better.
That bridge I mentioned? It’s Smith’s own design, and sports a pair of adjustable brass saddles – one for the treble strings and one for the bass. Then there are the pickups that give this guitar its name.
Image: Press
Instead of traditional single coils, here you’ll find a pair of PRS’s Narrowfield DD (Deep Dish) “S” units. These differ significantly from the traditional with taller bobbins to fit more winds and extra metal pieces in between the magnets for a focused, powerful tone – this is every bit a noiseless humbucker, but one designed for twang as well as rock.
The one notable difference between the SE version and its US counterpart is the pickguard – the dinky option on the original has been replaced with a sweeping Custom-style plate that holds the pickups and all the controls.
The obvious reason for this is to make this guitar easier and cheaper to build. Instead of having to individually mount each pickup and pot to the body (which involves both front and back routing), you can simply borrow a lesson from the Strat and mount everything on the ‘guard, meaning a much more straightforward assembly at scale.
And, whisper it, but I think the guitar actually looks better with the larger guard – sometimes mass production can have unintended benefits…
PRS SE NF 53 – build quality and playability
Pulling the SE NF 53 out of its included gigbag and the first thing you have to remark on is the finish. I have the ‘White Doghair’ option – which is probably the most polarising of the three offered at launch. It features an off-white base coat with black filler in the grain, giving a striking presentation of the grain of the swamp ash.
Many will probably prefer the flat white option, or indeed the less overt Black Doghair option, but I dig it – it reminds me of a meerschaum pipe in some ways. It’s certainly a conversation starter. It’s also gloss-finished so you won’t get the tactile feel of the wood grain, even if it might look it from a distance.
Image: Press
PRS’s SE line has been the benchmark for build quality and consistency for import guitars, and nothing about the NF 53 challenges that reputation. The finish is expertly applied and every screw, joint and part feels solid, snug and reliable.
One thing that’s also hard to ignore is the weight. Swamp ash is a wood in increasingly short supply, and so you have to expect that the stuff being used for a sub-$1,000 guitar isn’t going to be the absolute cream of the crop. Still, it was an eyebrow raiser to see this guitar tip the scales at around 8.5lbs/3.8kgs. While I’ve played other SE NF 53s that weigh considerably less than this, I’ve also seen some that weigh even more.
Some people will not have an issue with this kind of heft, of course, and if it pays you back with more sustain than you’d normally expect it could be a worthy trade-off. But a T-type that’s verging on Les Paul territory weight-wise is still something you’ll want to be aware of.
Strapping it on and those extra body contours make an instant case for themselves, making the guitar sit in a way that feels comfortable and ergonomic. It’s helped by a very welcoming but still characterful playing experience. It’s a very full neck shape, but thanks to the immaculately applied satin finish, it’s still very comfortable. What’s more, due to the 25.5” scale length strings bend more easily, almost like it is a tremolo guitar instead of a hardtail. The neck shape is very full, but it doesn’t feel it thanks to the satin finish.
PRS SE NF 53 – sounds
The NF 53 has a bright and resonant unplugged quality – perhaps not as lively as its US-made brethren but it still feels alive in the hands. The bigger test is to come of course – the plugged in T-style sound is iconic and distinctive, but is that even what we’re going for here?
In short: no. Putting the NF 53 into an amplifier and it becomes instantly clear that while this guitar has a bevvy of sounds at its disposal, it’s not a Telecaster in the traditional sense. The overall tonality is cleaner and less brittle or biting.
Image: Press
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.
With overdrive and distortion, the pickups really fill out – adding body and beef, and a very impressive amount of sustain and grit. But that’s not all – shape the tone of your amp and controls to extract a nice helping of T-style twang from the NF 53, too. It’s perhaps not quite as spanky as the classic, but it’s nice to be able to go there when you need to.
PRS SE NF 53 – should I buy one?
The NF 53 might look like PRS’s Telecaster, but this is very much its own guitar. The sounds are beefy and muscular, and it definitely loses a little bit of the T-type character as a result of that. But you can argue that what we gain here is probably more useful and usable for today’s musician anyway.
Because that’s the thing, this isn’t a PRS take on a classic – that’s not the way Paul Reed Smith operates. He’s reinterpreting the bolt-on singlecut for the needs of the modern player – and in doing so he’s departed from many of our traditional notions for what this type of guitar should be.
You can also make the argument that there are plenty of great traditional T-style guitars in this price point with Fender on the headstock, and so what would be gained from adding another? Again, this is not PRS’s style.
Instead what we get is a guitar that evokes that lineage but adds something different to the pot – all while adding a level of build, fit and finish that continues to set the SE line apart from the rest of the (rapidly improving) Asian-made pack.
Be careful though, plug one in, and you might find yourself going home with it – it’s just that good. In fact, it might be the best SE PRS yet..
PRS SE NF 53 – alternatives
It would be rather silly to talk about T-type alternatives and not start with Fender’s own of course. The Mexico-made Player II and Player II Modified range offer an upgraded and more pro-ready take on the traditional recipe, and its Telecaster ($1,049/£949) is very impressive. If you want another affordable T-type that is sonically on another plane, Manson’s MBM-2H (£569) sports a pair of high-output humbuckers and a killswitch.
The post PRS SE NF 53 review: “it might look like PRS’s Telecaster, but this is its own guitar” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I wish I’d heard that song when I was a kid”: Brian May says this modern track is “one of the best rock songs ever”
If you were to think of the best rock song ever, you’d probably start by casting your mind back to something truly classic, but for Brian May, one of the greatest tracks ever made was released in the 2010s.
The Red Special-wielding Queen legend says The Struts’ Could Have Been Me is one of the greatest, and wishes he could have heard its inspirational lyrics at a young age. May has recently teamed up with the band to release a new version of the song, which features him on guitar.
Released in 2013, Could Have Been Me was originally the leading single from the band’s debut album, Everybody Wants. Speaking of his love for the song, May tells Classic Rock, “I wish I’d heard that song when I was a kid. It’s a classic.
“It’s one of the best rock songs ever,” he continues. “It was actually bigger in America than it was in Britain: it passed people by over here, and it shouldn’t have done. I’m hoping that this is an opportunity for the song to really connect all around the world.”
He adds, “It’s a very inspirational song. ‘I don’t want to look back and think I didn’t live my life and take all the opportunities that were in front of me’. I love that sentiment. You can say it in words, of course, but you really feel it in the song. Could it be me? It says everything that a kid needs to know when they’re growing up.”
As for the band’s vocalist, Luke Spiller, May thinks he actually has a lot in common with Freddie Mercury: “Working with Luke, I’m often thinking of Freddie. There are a lot of similarities. They both have this unstoppable belief. They have incredible voices, they’re great songwriters, but they have that extra ingredient: ‘I’m going to do this, I’m going to let the world come to me.’ That’s what Freddie had, and that’s what I see in Luke.”
Check out the song below:
Could Have Been Me by The Struts and Brian May is out now on streaming services. The Struts are due to head out on tour later this September – find out where you can catch them live via their website.
The post “I wish I’d heard that song when I was a kid”: Brian May says this modern track is “one of the best rock songs ever” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“It was like juggling chainsaws while being on a skateboard”: Zakk Wylde on the pressures of playing with Ozzy Osbourne at Black Sabbath’s final gig
![[L-R] Ozzy Osbourne and Zakk Wylde](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Ozzy-Obsourne-and-Zakk-Wylde-hero@2000x1500.jpg)
During the lead up to Back To The Beginning, it was looking like the organisation of the event was going to be pretty hectic. According to Zakk Wylde, that was certainly the case on the big day, as he likens the experience to “juggling chainsaws”.
Of course the madness all turned out to be worth it, with the event drawing in millions in ticket sales that will go on to support Ozzy Osbourne’s chosen charities. The final gig also brought a beautiful close to the Black Sabbath story, with Osbourne sadly passing away just a matter of weeks after.
Back in early July before the event took place in Birmingham, England on the 5th, Wylde shared that plans for the event were still up in the air: “Nobody knows what’s going on”, he said, and likened it to “Ozzfest on steroids”. Even now, he tells Guitar World (in its print magazine) just how chaotic it continued to be on the day itself.
“I was just more worried about making sure Oz was okay for the whole performance, you know? So, with Mama, I’m Coming Home, when we got the acoustic out, I had to be like, ‘Keep the guitar away from the microphone so I can sing,’ because Oz’s voice was having trouble at certain notes.
“I was just like, ‘I need to make sure I’m always there so I can double him,’ and I was three feet away from the microphone when I started playing the song,” he continues. “I started, and I go, ‘Wait, hold on a second, I’m like three, four feet from the friggin’ microphone.’ [Laughs] I was like, ‘I gotta gear near the microphone,’ so I had to almost stop playing, lift the guitar up and put it over the mic.”
Wylde concludes, “It was like juggling balls or chainsaws while being on a skateboard. It was actually pretty funny, but it was business as usual. But yeah… It’s supposed to be the most important show ever, and everything’s on the fly.”
Though the total amount of money Back To The Beginning has made has been disputed, namely by Sharon Osbourne herself, a group of economists at the University of Birmingham have suggested that they have a better estimate of the actual numbers from ticket sales.
According to Dr. Matt Lyons of the University of Birmingham, tickets for the monumental Villa Park show brought in a total of £33.8 million. The money raised is going to Cure Parkinson’s, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorns Children’s Hospice.
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“It was a bit of a disaster”: Why John McLaughlin had to use a cheap acoustic during a jam with Jimi Hendrix
![John McLaughlin [main], Jimi Hendrix [inset]](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/John-McLaughlin-Jimi-Hendrix@2000x1500.jpg)
Back in 1969, John McLaughlin was able to live out every guitarists’ dream – jamming with Jimi Hendrix. However, the experience proved to be more of a nightmare thanks to some shoddy gear.
Picture this – its the 25 March, 1969 and McLaughlin waltzes into Record Plant. The New York studio had hosted Hendrix while recording 1968’s Electric Ladyland – and he was back for more. “I walked into the studio with Mitch Mitchell [Hendrix’s drummer]… and it was LOUD,” the jazz guitarist tells Ultimate Guitar. “There was a big party going on, and that’s where I met Buddy Miles for the first time… Buddy was already playing some boogaloo… And Jimi was there.”
Alongside McLaughlin, Hendrix and Miles, Dave Holland was also there on bass. And, as McLaughlin describes the jam – which lasted 6 hours, spanning from 2am to 8am – it sounds like quite the occasion. “There were quite a few guitar players there,” he recalls. “A lot of people. It was a big party.”
Unfortunately, McLaughlin was at a disadvantage – he only had an acoustic guitar to hand. “The only guitar I had was a Gibson Hummingbird,” he frowns. “I’d moved to Europe by that time, and I’d run out of money! I had to sell my really nice Gibson guitar.”
Strapped for cash, he’d only been able to afford the Hummingbird in lieu of a more expensive electric model. “It was pretty cheap, and I had a DeArmond pickup over [the sound hole],” he recalls. “It was a bit of a disaster.”
In his opinion, McLaughlin’s invention wasn’t quite up to scratch. “At that volume, I plugged my guitar in, and it was instant feedback,” he says. “It was really hard to play. It was unfortunate. I needed a solid body guitar on that session.”
Despite his handicap, the jam didn’t sour his relationship with Buddy Miles. In fact, the percussionist even gladly agreed to feature on McLaughlin’s 1970 record, Devotion.
While he didn’t have the chance to impress Hendrix on that fateful night of jamming, McLaughlin notes that he did end up meeting Hendrix again – and he didn’t seem to hold his acoustic nightmare against him. “He was a sweet guy,” McLaughlin says. “We had a chance to talk, and he was just totally unpretentious.”
“I think he knew he was causing quite a revolution on the electric guitar,” he adds. “He certainly affected me, and about another five million guitar players. He was a one-man revolution on the guitar. It was unbelievable what he was doing, with a wah-wah pedal and a Marshall amp. That was it!”
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“Nothing they ever did was to try and f**k over Jake – it was always about business”: Jake E. Lee reflects on seeing Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne at Black Sabbath’s final show
![[L-R] Ozzy Osbourne and Jake E. Lee](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Ozzy-Jake@2000x1500.jpg)
Guitarist Jake E. Lee has assured that there were no hard feelings between himself and Ozzy Osbourne during their final meeting before the legendary Prince of Darkness passed away.
Osbourne died just a couple of weeks after his reunion with Black Sabbath for their final Back To The Beginning show together. Lee got to chat with him shortly at a photoshoot prior to the event, and says it gave him closure following a sour ending to his stint in Osbourne’s solo band.
Lee played in the band between 1982 and 1987, following Randy Rhoads’ tragic death. He was eventually fired over the phone by Osbourne’s wife and manager, Sharon, which he did not see coming.
Despite having not seen Osbourne since the firing, his recent and final catch up with the late vocalist went swimmingly. He tells Guitar World in its print magazine, “I did get to talk to him. There was a big photoshoot a couple days before the gig, and I talked with Sharon, and she brought me over to Ozzy.
“There’s no ill will; there has never been any on my part. Business is business. I don’t think anything they ever did was to try and fuck over Jake; it was always about business. I didn’t know how they’d be, but they were amazing, friendly, open, welcoming and loving. I hadn’t seen either of them in decades, and after the show, on the flight back, I got a text from Ozzy.”
Lee continues, “He said he was sorry he couldn’t spend more time with me. And he said that when he got back to LA, he’d shoot me a text and maybe we could get together and shoot the shit for a while. Everything’s cool. I’m glad it’s resolved and everybody still likes each other.”
He goes on to share how connecting with Osbourne again was a “big bucket list check-off”, stating, “There’s a certain amount of closure. For years, in the back of my head, it was like, ‘I hope I get to see Ozzy one more time.’ I would’ve hated for the last time I spoke to him to be in 1987. I wanted to tell him I’m grateful for the opportunity he gave me.”
The post “Nothing they ever did was to try and f**k over Jake – it was always about business”: Jake E. Lee reflects on seeing Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne at Black Sabbath’s final show appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Five times the Hives were the best band in the world (according to the Hives)
Do you like watching people fail after they have talked themselves up? Of course you do, you’re human. Do you like watching the Hives fail after they have talked themselves up? Well, you’re still waiting to find out, aren’t you? Their new record The Hives Forever Forever The Hives won’t give you any closure on that front.
Arriving more than three decades on from the suited-and-booted iconoclasts’ formation in Fagersta, Sweden, it is another flex by a band who are still rattling along at high speed, powered by volume, treble and battleworn chemistry. “It kind of feels like we’re on an upward trajectory,” guitarist Nicholaus Arson, aka Niklas Almqvist, says and, remarkably, there’s a lot more than bravado behind his assessment.
The Hives’ seventh album is, in some ways, a reaction to what came before it. By landing barely two years after the release of The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, it course-corrects the yawning, decade-plus wait for a follow up that took hold after 2012’s Lex Hives. It’s a record by a touring group, its songs gathering momentum on the road and reaping the rewards of hundreds of on-stage reps. It’s about striking while the iron is hot.
“Recording when you’ve toured for two years is both good and bad,” Almqvist says. “It’s kind of fatiguing, but you have a band that sounds good, you know? You have to rehearse the songs, but your timing is still intact. You don’t have to practise to start sounding like the band that you are. It’s already sorted.”
The Hives Forever Forever The Hives pulls together two threads in the Hives’ story — it’s both a high-gloss rock album by some old heads and also a lean, mean garage-punk LP by musicians who’re still connected to their roots. It’s their attempt at making an “arena record”, inspired by their experiences opening for AC/DC and the Rolling Stones, but in executing that it seems like they’ve realised that a Hives arena record is actually just a Hives record assembled in a manner that pays attention to the basics: knife-wielding riffs, shoutalong hooks and a remorseless rhythm section.
Image: Press
“What’s an arena record for us?” Almqvist asks. “Maybe Back in Black? It’s pretty traditional stuff. Traditional-sounding drums, traditional-sounding guitars, great sounds. Maybe that was our take on it — you don’t have to do so much weird stuff if you’re going to try to make a classic rock record.”
Like its immediate predecessors, it was partly recorded at Stockholm’s Riksmixningsverket, the studio co-founded by ABBA’s Benny Andersson, while there was also creative input from Mike D, he of Beastie Boys fame. Crucially, though, it was tracked with Pelle Gunnerfeldt, whose gonzo style characterised their first three records. It’s the first time he’s produced a full LP for the Hives since 2004, with everyone from Pharrell Williams to Josh Homme having a crack in the intervening years, even if he’s steadfastly kept a finger in the pie, whether that’s as a mixer, engineer or sounding board.
Here, there’s energy and grit beyond what might be expected from a band this deep into their career, a youthfulness that bursts from Paint A Picture’s ringing chords and the blown out swagger of Enough is Enough. “Pelle’s always been around,” Almqvist says. “Kind of like us, in a way, he’s in a good spot right now. He’s making great sounding music — he’s done magical things with Viagra Boys. We’re in good shape. The rest of it is work. You work until the record sounds good. A studio is a studio. It can be anywhere, really. I don’t think we trust magic as much as other people do. For us it’s always work. That’s just the grind, you know?”
Image: Press
Reflecting the momentum that led them into the studio and this direct approach to documenting these songs, Almqvist and his co-guitarist Vigilante Carlstroem (Mikael Karlsson) threw their live set ups at the problem. “We probably used our regular guitars way more than we ever did before,” Almqvist says. “I mean, we probably haven’t used them this much since the first record, when we had no other guitars. The second record we recorded in Pelle’s studio, and he’s always collected Travis Beans and Kramers with metal headstocks, stuff like that. We used a lot of his gear on that record and from Veni Vidi Vicious onwards we played anything, really, that was in the studio. Anything that sounded good.”
While Karlsson has pinwheeled between his one true love, a ‘59 Epiphone Coronet, plus a Les Paul, and a Flying V along the years, Almqvist’s choices have remained decidedly Telecaster-shaped. His Sundberg Arsonette, a guitar of his own design that is halfway between a Tele and a Firebird, sat this one out, but his 1970s Telecaster Custom, a battered and bruised road-dog with just a fizzing stock bridge pickup, was in full flow. Amp-wise, The Hives Forever Forever The Hives leans on another old face: a Standel Custom that’s been around since the Veni Vidi Vicious era. “This is where it gets a bit dull to talk to me about guitars, because I picked them 25 years ago and ran with it,” he says.
And how. The Hives are older now, but thankfully they’re not wiser. No prog song suites here, no plaintive reflections on mortality, just ripping garage-rockers. In that spirit, we asked Almqvist to pick his five favourite Hives riffs or, to put it another way, to tell us five times the Hives were the best band on the planet. Unsurprisingly, he found it quite difficult to narrow it down. “I came to the conclusion that there are a whole bunch of riffs that I really like,” he says.
“A lot of them are older, I guess,” he continues. “They kickstarted things for us, they were riffs we managed to craft into songs early on, when we were finding our sound. If you’re a high jumper, the first time you clear 2.40, that’s amazing, but when you’ve done it 20 times the novelty is going to wear off a little bit. That first time, when you’ve nailed it, is a good feeling.”
Main Offender (Veni Vidi Vicious, 2000)
“People always ask me, ‘What’s your favorite song to play live?’ And I always say Main Offender. I really love that little guitar intro going into what’s probably one of my favorite riffs. It’s very much an updated version of the Sonics, one of my favorite bands. We always try to be like a punk band with AC/DC riffs, you know? Maybe a punk riff, but they would have that start and stop element. Main Offender is totally one of those.”
Die, All Right! (Veni Vidi Vicious, 2000)
“It’s on that record, too. The verse from Die, All Right! is one of my favourite riffs. It’s also very Sonics inspired. Main Offender, or Die, All Right! are riffs. I guess some will say Hate To Say I Told You So but it’s more like chords in a sequence. Is that a riff? I guess it is, but it’s not like a blues riff or a boogie riff or something. I like Hate To Say I Told You So because it really gave us a career, even though it wasn’t the song that I thought would give us a career. I thought that was probably going to be Die, All Right!.”
A.K.A. I-D-I-O-T (Barely Legal, 1997)
“I really like A.K.A. I-D-I-O-T. The intro bit is really good, and I really like both the verse and the chorus. On that record, too, I really like Here We Go Again. That’s a great riff. Barely Legal was the first record where I felt, ‘This is so cool, this is what I want our music to sound like.’ I remember listening to the master in my basement on one of those CD Walkmans. It was so great [working with] Pelle Gunnerfeldt. He was probably the only guy recording music [in Stockholm] who had ever heard about the New Bomb Turks.”
Bogus Operandi (The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, 2023)
“To me, that’s a sort of a traditional Hives riff. What I like about it, too, is that it evolves during the song. There’s a key change, and there’s that bit at the end where you sort of cut the riff in half, and you play that outro bit. There’s a take on it through that middle eight, or whatever you want to call it, where you let it set sail and send it out to sea for a bit.”
Bad Call (The Hives Forever Forever The Hives, 2025)
“I should pick a favorite from the latest record, too. There are a lot of great riffs on there. Hooray Hooray Hooray has a great riff, Paint a Picture has a great riff, but I think my favourite is the verse to Bad Call. It’s the drums that are the star in that one, the chords accent the drums and then travel through the song. If it was just the drums, maybe you’d get a bit bored on your journey towards the chorus.”
The Hives’ The Hives Forever Forever The Hives is out on August 29 through PIAS.
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Brian Wampler likens the rise of amp modellers to Napster’s impact on music: “I think it’s going to take a big chunk of the market”
Brian Wampler, founder of the Wampler pedal brand, thinks the rise of digital amp modellers could go on to impact the gear industry in a similar way to Napster’s lasting effect on the consumption of music.
Growing numbers of big league artists are turning to brands like Neural DSP, Fractal, and Line 6 for their impressive amp modellers for touring and large shows. Though eliminating the need to carry around a hefty pedalboard while on the road sure is useful, it seems traditional pedal manufacturers are growing concerned with how such gear will go on to impact the sales of their traditional pedals and amplifiers.
For those unfamiliar with the infamous story of Napster, let us fill you in on the details: Napster was a peer-to-peer music sharing site that existed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, though reports suggest it will be returning in the form of an interactive music platform.
Around that time Lars Ulrich and his Metallica bandmates discovered that a demo version of their song I Disappear was being played on radio stations without their permission, which the group eventually traced back to Napster. The band’s entire catalogue was available to download for free on the site, leading to Metallica responding with a lawsuit, ultimately leading to its closure.
Some still argue that, despite its shutdown, the creation of Napster created a springboard for subscription-based streaming platforms to come along, which have drastically changed how we listen to music, and how we value its financial worth.
Speaking to Adam Wakeling on the Products of Music podcast, Brian Wampler believes a similar shift is occurring in the gear world: “I think, really, everyone in the pedal market is concerned. I think it’s going to take a big chunk of the market… as well as [create a] two-band market,” he says (via Guitar World).
Wampler feels there are “two paths” for manufacturers going forward: “You can always stick your head in the sand and ignore it and think, ‘It’s not going to happen to me,’ and then wonder what happens in five or 10 years. Or you can say, ‘It’s going to happen. I need to make a pivot here.’”
He later continues, “It’s analogous to Napster – for those who remember that, that’s where everybody who had music that you just uploaded to Napster, and now no one needs to buy any more music.
“So, the question is, ‘Well, what do you do?’ Eventually, Spotify forms, you know? I mean, is that good? Not if you’re an artist, it’s not good. Not really, not unless you’re just using the music as a marketing tool.”
Wampler’s move into adapting to the digital world has seen the brand release a line of plugins. Currently it sells three, which are virtual versions of some of its most popular physical pedals: The Terraform Multi Modulation, Metaverse Multi Delay, and its Catacombs Reverb/Delay.
Find out more about Wampler, or view its current range of plugins.
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“God save the wrist”: Sex Pistols postpone their North and South American tour dates due to Steve Jones’ injury
Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols has broken his wrist, and the band have subsequently had to postpone their upcoming tour dates.
The Sex Pistols, fronted by Frank Carter, will eventually be rescheduling the shows they had planned across North and South America. The tour was announced back in March, with their North American run originally due to kick off at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Texas, on 16 September.
In a post shared on social media, the band states: “We have some unfortunate news to share about our upcoming North and South American performances. We’ll let Steve explain what’s going on: ‘I’ve got some good news and bad news. What do you want first?
“‘Okay, the bad news: I’ve broken my wrist, so unfortunately we won’t be doing any shows for a while,’” says Jones. “‘The good news is the surgeon said I will be back playing guitar in the not-too-distant future. The other good news is I’ll be 70 tomorrow! God bless, and God save the wrist.’”
The band adds: “The performances will be postponed and rescheduled when Steve has fully recovered. Please check local venue websites and our social media for more information. We appreciate your understanding and support.”
Jones recently discussed how Frank Carter has changed the live dynamic of the band in an interview with Guitar World. He told the magazine, “Frank’s a lot younger, so he’s got a lot more energy. He’s literally the best; I call him the ringmaster. He loves getting the crowd going; he goes crowd surfing and just takes the heat off of me, [Paul Cook] Cookie and Glen [Matlock].”
Carter is of course filling in for John Lydon, who has criticised the band’s decision to reunite with Carter on vocals. “He’s definitely not trying to be Johnny Rotten. He’s really something else, and he’s made it a lot of fun,” Jones said of the difference between the two.
“I’ve got nothing but love for John. He was brilliant back in the day, and I never would take that away from him. I would never deny it; he was fantastic. But I think we’ve just grown apart… l’ll never shut the door, but I don’t think he’d have the energy like Frank does, to be honest with you.”
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“My father always thought you were a c**t”: Jack Osbourne slams Roger Waters for saying he “couldn’t give a f**k” about Ozzy Osbourne’s music
![[L-R] Roger Waters and Jack Osbourne](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Roger-Waters-Jack-Osbourne@2000x1500.jpg)
Pink Floyd founding member Roger Waters has reignited an age-old feud with Black Sabbath, snubbing the late Ozzy Osbourne in a new interview – and Ozzy’s son Jack isn’t too happy about it.
Speaking to The Independent Ink, Waters discusses how pop culture often diverts attention away from politics and humanitarian issues. He namedrops “Taylor Swift [and] Kim Kardashian’s bum” as unimportant topics the media uses to detract from vital topics – before, unfortunately, opting to lump Black Sabbath and The Prince of Darkness into the same category.
“It all doesn’t matter… and Ozzy Osbourne – who just died, bless him!” he adds to his list of media buzz topics. “Whatever that state that he was in his whole life, we’ll never know… He was all over the TV for years, with his idiocy and nonsense.”
After already criticising the late musician, he also decides to criticise Black Sabbath’s music on the whole. “The music, I have no idea,” he says. “I couldn’t give a fuck!”
“I don’t care about Black Sabbath, I never did,” he announces. “I have no interest in ‘BLAAAAH!’, biting the heads off of chickens, or whatever they do. I couldn’t care less.”
Now Jack Osbourne, son of Ozzy Osbourne, who passed away on 22 July just weeks after Sabbath’s grand Back To The Beginning farewell show, has responded by calling the former Pink Floyd man a “cunt”.
“Hey Roger Waters – fuck you,” he writes in a new Instagram post. “How pathetic and out of touch you’ve become. The only way you seem to get attention these days is by vomiting out bullshit in the press.”
“My father always thought you were a cunt,” he adds. “Thanks for proving him right.”
This isn’t the first time Waters has shared his dislike of Sabbath’s music. Speaking in music magazine Melody Maker back in 1970, he critiqued the band’s debut album Paranoid, honing in on the album’s cover of Crow’s Evil Woman.
“Well, well, well… I’m speechless,” he said [via Louder]. “Well, almost. It’s got that kind of Dragnet, Peter Gunn, American detective series beginning. You keep thinking it’s going to start. You think that for the first minute but then, if you are really perceptive, you realise it isn’t going to start, and that’s all there is.”
It’s a comment that would stick with Sabbath for many years, with Tony Iommi even mentioning it in a radio interview with Planet Rock in 2017. “I used to read the slaggings we’d get and I’d just think ‘Why?’” he said. “There was one comment that really hurt and that didn’t actually come from the press. It came from Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters.”
“He reviewed Paranoid when it came out as a single because he was reviewing the singles that week for a music paper,” Iommi recalled. “He gave it such a terrible review. I thought ‘Blimey!’ Hearing that from a fellow musician seemed really harsh.”
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“We start playing at 10am and nobody’s there yet… Two or three songs in there were thousands of people watching us”: Dan Donegan on how Ozzfest helped “launch” Disturbed’s career
Disturbed’s Dan Donegan has looked back on the band’s first ever set at Ozzfest, and how they managed to draw a crowd of “thousands” despite playing in broad daylight at 10am.
The travelling festival, founded by Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, was launched in 1996. The idea for the fest was born after Sharon had tried to get Ozzy on the bill at Lollapalooza but was rejected, and decided that the pair should make their own festival that celebrated the best established and growing bands in metal.
Disturbed made their Ozzfest debut in the year 2000, when they played the festival’s second stage bright and early (in festival time, that is). Speaking to Guitar World for its new print edition, Donegan says it took the band to new heights.
“It was a steady climb, gradually going upward. I’ll never forget – our first show was in West Palm Beach in Florida, and we were the first band to open the second stage, which was basically a stage set up in the parking lot. There were so many good bands coming out at that time, so there was this friendly competition, with everybody trying to leave their mark.
“We were on at 10 in the morning, so we were like, ‘Is anybody even gonna show up?’ Sure enough, we start playing at 10am and nobody’s there yet,” he says. “The festival people said, ‘They’re coming in, don’t worry about it,’ and by the time we got to the second or third song, there were thousands of people watching us. It was great exposure, and it really helped launch our career.”
Speaking to Metal Hammer earlier this year, Sharon Osbourne looked back on the festival as one of her proudest achievements. “It was brilliant,” she said. “For 23 years, it was like summer camp. There was one band in particular who I just always adored, and I got the honour of working with them for a while, which was Motörhead [who played Ozzfest in 1998]. I just loved Lemmy to death.”
Of the festival’s success, she said, “It passed the torch. So many great bands came out of Ozzfest that are still going today and still so relevant.”
The post “We start playing at 10am and nobody’s there yet… Two or three songs in there were thousands of people watching us”: Dan Donegan on how Ozzfest helped “launch” Disturbed’s career appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“Forget the guitar playing; the way I made ham sandwiches was amazing!”: Zakk Wylde on the ‘real’ reason he was hired as Ozzy’s guitarist
![[L-R] Ozzy Osbourne and Zakk Wylde](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Ozzy-Obsourne-and-Zakk-Wylde@2000x1500.jpg)
Zakk Wylde has been reminiscing on his bond with Ozzy Osbourne, and has shared what their friendship was like outside of music.
Osbourne passed away back in July, just a matter of weeks after his giant final show with Black Sabbath in their home city of Birmingham, England. The monumental metal celebration brought in a total of £33.8 million in ticket sales, according to Dr. Matt Lyons of the University of Birmingham, and proceeds from the event were pledged to Cure Parkinson’s, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorns Children’s Hospice.
Since his passing, friends, fans, and music figures alike have been sharing their stories of meeting or working with the Prince of Darkness. As one of his solo band guitarists, Wylde has spoken of the advice Osbourne used to give him, and why his excellent sandwich making skills kept him in Osbourne’s good books in a new interview with Guitar World.
“You’re always gonna learn along the way. You trust somebody, and then you get screwed on a business deal or whatever. When anything would happen, Oz would be like, ‘Zakk, I remember with Sabbath this or that…’ Stories about thinking someone was a good guy, and they end up screwing you over,” he says.
“Obviously, all of us live and learn on our own, too. But Oz would always be there for advice. He’d poke me in the eye, and I’d be like, ‘What was that for?’ He’d say, ‘Life’s tough. That’s why.’ [Laughs] I’d go, ‘Yeah, but I really didn’t need that.’ He’d go [in a British accent], ‘Oh, go make me a sandwich, light on the Colman’s [Mustard].”
Wylde followed in the footsteps of Randy Rhoads and Jake E. Lee within Osbourne’s band. Asked why he felt Osbourne chose him to take on the gig with such big shoes to fill, he jokes, “Because I went light on the Colman’s! Forget the guitar playing; the way I made ham sandwiches with the Colman’s was amazing.
“I was the Randy and the Jake of ham sandwiches and Colman’s,” he laughs. “With anything, if it works and it’s easy, that’s how it should be with bands and relationships. I mean, with your wife, your friends, anyone – if they don’t bring you peace, why are you with these people?”
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Crazy Tube Circuits Venus review – ”Crazy Tube Circuits may well have created a masterpiece”
€299/£265, crazytubecircuits.com
Vintage guitars are rightly held as some of the most inspirational tone-creating machines out there in guitar land. Vintage pedals, however, are often dismissed for being overly big and bulky, noisy and needing a power supply last seen powering a 1980s Casio keyboard. Yes, there are the well-trodden and bank-busting Tube Screamers and Klons, and much love for round Fuzz Faces abides on forums, but outside of a few classics, many of today’s players find these ‘quirky’ boxes are just too much to handle.
For others however, the quest for tone means they will tolerate the original pedals in all their idiosyncratic glory.
One such is the Tube Driver. Designed by BK Butler in 1983, it was initially developed from a circuit designed to overdrive keyboards – in the style of Deep Purple in the late 1970s. However, it was quickly refined as a guitar pedal and despite numerous versions over the years, remains a somewhat overlooked iconic pedal.
Relied on by players such as David Gilmour, Billy Gibbons and Joe Satriani, and a core part of Eric Johnson’s smooth violin-esque lead tone, original models are big, heavy, mains powered and, feature a real ECC83 inside giving oodles of juicy smooth gain to even a clean amp.
While Butler has once again began making Tube Drivers in very limited runs, he’s a one-man operation, so they’re both hard to get and pretty pricey on the used market. Thankfully for those of us without the patience to wait, Crazy Tube Circuits is here to help.
Image: Adam Gasson
Crazy Tube Circuits Venus – what is it?
The Venus is effectively an attempt by CTC to cram all of that valve-powered goodness into a compact modern enclosure, complete with some refinements that you won’t find on the original – most notably a three-band EQ. It’s also less than half the size of the original Tube Driver, and you can power it straight off your pedalboard’s power supply (albeit with a 400mA current draw), which again, you won’t be able to do with the original.
As luck would have it, I happen to own an original vintage non-bias control Tube Driver that’s fitted with an ECC83 valve – what better way to see how the new kid on the block stands up?
Image: Adam Gasson
Crazy Tube Circuits Venus – sounds
Despite the ‘real tube overdrive’ moniker of the original unit, I’ve always felt like Tube Drivers should be best approached like fuzz pedals, they work great at imparting huge walls of gain on even the cleanest amp, yet are quite tricky to dial in. Often their best tones, at least for anything other than rich compressed super-sustaining lead tones, are best found by working your guitar’s controls to dial them back a bit.
Owners of original units will debate endlessly whether higher gain ECC83 or lower gain ECC82 valves sound best so for their reworking of the classic pedal, CTC have used an ECC823 dual triode in their Venus as they felt this offers the best of both worlds, although users can swap out for any other dual triode should they wish.
Plugging my Strat into a Deluxe Reverb set squeaky clean is usually kryptonite for drive pedals, but with the Venus’ volume and drive set at noon I’m greeted with exactly the thick, harmonically rich lead tone I hoped for. Smooth, sustaining notes bloom and blossom into feedback as I turn up the volume.
Side by side, it’s perhaps a touch fuzzier around the edges compared to the original unit, but definitely a wonderful expressive tone that is more dynamic than the vintage pedal, cleaning up far better from my volume control.
Utilising the onboard bias control to presumably starve the valve of voltage, I can go from smooth to Velcro-esque spitty fuzz tones and all points in between. Special mention should also go to the addition of this powerful 3-band EQ – it offers a myriad of tonal tweaks not possible with the original unit, making it much more versatile as a result..
Image: Adam Gasson
Crazy Tube Circuits Venus – should I buy one?
It’s very rare that a modern pedal is an improvement over the original, but for size, flexibility, tone and practicality, Crazy Tube Circuits may well have created a masterpiece here, a new Goddess of tone!
Image: Adam Gasson
Crazy Tube Circuits Venus – alternatives
Bargain hunters looking for a Tube Driver fix may wish to seek out a TC Electronic Tube Pilot, which manages to pack a real ECC83 tube in for a frankly bonkers low price of around $67.90/£50. For a non-valve take on a similar tonal palette, you might be lucky and find a used Dover Drive by Hermida out there, but it won’t be cheap! The Butler Audio recreation of the original Tube Driver will cost you $299, but Butler makes them one at a time so prepare to be patient.
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“I’ve missed it since – I almost wish I’d never played it!”: Jake E. Lee reveals Kirk Hammett let him play Greeny backstage at Black Sabbath’s final show
![[L-R] Ozzy Osbourne and Jake E. Lee, with Kirk Hammett inset](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Ozzy-Jake-E-Lee-Kirk-Hammett-hero@2000x1500.jpg)
In guitar circles, Greeny – the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard once owned by Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green and now by Metallica’s Kirk Hammett – is sort of like the One Ring from Lord of the Rings; when players get their hands on it, they’re never quite the same again.
It’s a lesson former Ozzy Osbourne six-string sidekick Jake E. Lee learned the hard way, after Kirk Hammett let him play the guitar backstage at Black Sabbath’s recent farewell show in Birmingham on 5 July.
As he recalls in a new interview with Guitar World, Lee explains how Hammett let him play Greeny while rehearsing for his performance at the event, and the experience left an indelible mark.
“I can confirm that it’s a magical piece of wood,” he says. “I didn’t want to put it down – didn’t want to leave it. I’ve missed it ever since! It’s so resonant; it just sings. I almost wish I’d never played it! [laughs] Nah – I’m glad I got to bask in its magic, if for just a while.”
While undoubtedly one of the most fabled electric guitars in existence today, Kirk Hammett is generally pretty generous with whom he lets play the Greeny Les Paul. Earlier this year, he recalled lending the guitar to Jack White, who played it for a few songs onstage.
But while Hammett and Greeny are not tied at the hip, he has acknowledged the lasting effect the guitar has had on him since owning it.
“People say a lot of things have changed about me since I got that guitar,” Hammett said last year. “My playing has changed, my attitude has changed, my tone has changed, my approach has changed. All those things have changed over the last five or six years because of this guitar. I’m really happy about it.”
Elsewhere in the Guitar World interview, Jake E. Lee recalls his performance at Black Sabbath’s monumental final gig, which would also serve as Ozzy Osbourne’s last live appearance before his death.
“I was backstage, and I knew my guitar needed tuning,” he remembers. “And I kept saying, ‘Where’s the rest of the band? Shouldn’t I be out there?’ But they said, ‘No, we’re not ready for you?’ I was like, ‘Okay… can I go out now?’ They said, ‘Okay, you can go.’ Then they led me to stage right, and I said, ‘Shouldn’t I be stage left? I’m playing over there…’ But they said, ‘No, you’ve got to go this way…’
“So I came out, and I hadn’t heard anything, but Nuno [Bettencourt] had the crowd chanting my name. And I walked out and Lzzy [Hale] and Nuno are doing little bows to me. [Laughs] Then Nuno grabbed me and gave me a kiss on the cheek!”
He continues: “The crowd was chanting my name. It was overwhelming. I’m surprised I didn’t trip and fall down! But because of all that, I was a little out of tune – but it was worth it. To have that introduction and reaction was good for my soul.
“And then, with Shot in the Dark, we rehearsed it a certain way, but I think David got a little excited and jumped ahead. So I didn’t get to do my cool harmony at the beginning, but that’s okay! Did I play my best? Maybe not. Was I in tune? Maybe not. Was it fantastic and amazing? Absolutely.”
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“I want to be more myself, and get back to the real joy of playing guitar”: Sophie Lloyd to post simpler content due to social media pressures ruining the fun of playing music
Sophie Lloyd has decided to change up her social media content, as the pressure of battling with algorithms has impacted her joy of sharing guitar videos online.
Lloyd has been building up her live presence in the real world across recent years following the release of her 2023 album, Imposter Syndrome. When she last chatted to Guitar.com, she spoke of how she’d always viewed herself as a solo performer, even though she’s well-known for playing alongside MGK.
MGK recruited Lloyd after coming across her online presence, which she has been building since the early 2010s. Her YouTube videos and snappy covers on TikTok and Instagram have been something she has continued alongside both her solo work and her live shows with MGK, but the pressure of making ‘perfect’ content was has become a lot less fulfilling.
“Lately I’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed with the pressures of social media,” she writes on Instagram. “With so many amazing creators out there, I’ve been finding it harder and harder to stand out and keep up with the constantly changing algorithm. I kept comparing myself to others, chasing numbers, and honestly, it just stopped being fun.”
She continues, “I think back to when I started posting videos when I was a young girl, I was so excited to pick up a guitar for hours every night learning my favourite songs, and sharing that with whoever would listen, not worrying about views or likes. I want to rediscover that passion and love for guitar and music.”
“Joe Satriani’s Surfing With The Alien was the first instrumental album that really got me into guitar, and the song Satch Boogie was one I tried to learn when I was younger, and could just never get my fingers round it. So the other night, I sat down and started trying to work through it again. I was sat there for hours, really enjoying myself, actually playing guitar for fun like I used to. I want to bring that back into the content I make.”
With that in mind, Lloyd is going to be stripping down her content in favour of posting “real stuff” with “no fancy lighting, no fake eyelashes, no overdubbed audio. Just the room sound, and what I’m actually doing and wanting to work on that day”. She’ll also be doing chatty and fun content, the kind of videos she likes to watch as a viewer, and will still be doing her YouTube shred versions and higher production reels from time to time as well.
You can watch Lloyd’s cover of Satch Boogie below:
Sophie Lloyd is touring with Glenn Hughes this October – find out more via her official website.
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“These go to 11!”: Nigel Tufnel’s old Spinal Tap amps are out – because Marshall has designed him an amp that goes to “infinity”
A teaser video for the sequel of Spinal Tap landed earlier this year, showing a Marshall amp that can be cranked right up to “infinity”. Now, the fictional band’s lead guitarist, Nigel Tufnel, has spoken about it for the first time.
The sequel, titled Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, lands on 12 September this year – that’s over 40 years since the original rock ‘n’ roll comedy mockumentary was released. As for the plot of the new film, director Rob Reiner says that the band’s manager has passed away, and that his widow has been left with a contract that states Spinal Tap owe them one more concert.
- READ MORE: Eddie and Alex Van Halen thought This Is Spinal Tap “wasn’t funny” because it was too true to life
Tufnel, played by Christopher Guest, recently did an in-character interview with Guitar World, in which he discussed his gear choices for the Spinal Tap reunion, and that mighty “infinity” master dial. After all, how can you possibly out-do an amp that goes to 11?
It seems this new custom-made head is the solution: “Marshall has made for me an amplifier, the head, and if you look at the dials, it now goes to Infinity. Just think about that for a moment. Think about infinity – oh, my God, that’s literally infinity,” Tufnel says.
Commenting further on his experiments with gear, he adds: “There are lots of pedals that people have done in the last years that are quite extraordinary. Companies that make these pedals, which I use, and I do a little work on them. I take them apart, and I do a little fooling around with wires and stuff like that to get the sound I’d like.
“Lots of times I break them because I don’t really know how to do that work. I haven’t been trained, but it’s interesting to open things up, see all the wires and move them about a bit.”
You can watch the official, full-length trailer for Spinal Tap II below:
To find out more about Spinal Tap II, head over to Sony Pictures.
The post “These go to 11!”: Nigel Tufnel’s old Spinal Tap amps are out – because Marshall has designed him an amp that goes to “infinity” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I couldn’t get up to the top frets, but the SG suited me perfectly”: Why Tony Iommi never became a Les Paul player
Tony Iommi is about as synonymous with the Gibson SG as any guitar player could be, apart from maybe AC/DC’s Angus Young.
But in his early days as a guitarist, the Black Sabbath man actually set his sights on being a Les Paul player instead, but found that, following his famous accident while working at a sheet metal factory – which saw him lose the tips of his two middle fingers on his fretting hand – the LP proved a little restrictive.
During a recent Q&A event held at the Gibson Garage in London – where he launched his new signature humbuckers – Iommi explained [via Guitar World]: “I always wanted a Les Paul, but I couldn’t play the Les Paul because of my accident.”
“I couldn’t get up to the top frets, but the SG suited me perfectly,” he said. “The SG for me was comfortable. I liked the shape, the weight, and, eventually, a ton of people started using it. Everybody wanted a Les Paul in the early days; that was always the best.
“As I said, I couldn’t have a Les Paul. I didn’t feel comfortable, [it was] too heavy, and I couldn’t get to the top frets. So the SG has been perfect for me, and that’s why I always stuck with it.”
While Tony Iommi is now synonymous with the Gibson SG, he started out his Black Sabbath career playing a Fender Stratocaster, before it became faulty while recording the band’s self-titled debut album.
He reached for his backup Gibson SG, which has been his preferred guitar for his entire career since.
While the Les Paul is widely considered to be the most iconic Gibson model, guitarists have long touted – and continue to tout – the benefits of an SG.
Recently, Greta Van Fleet man Jake Kiszka explained why his SG is his favourite in his arsenal.
“The thing about an SG that differentiates it from other Gibson guitars is that it’s really microphonic, and you can feel every nuance of the guitar,” he said.
“I really like to play with my body,” he continues, “and even pulling the neck slightly back and moving things and tapping on it. It’s responding in more than just one way. It’s not just the strings and the connection between that and the pickup.”
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“One of the main goals with these parts is to not subtract from the beautiful sound the strings are trying to make”: Paul Reed Smith explains how hardware impacts guitar tone
Continuing its popular Rules Of Tone YouTube series, PRS Guitars has released a new video on how the hardware materials on your instrument affect its sound.
Founder Paul Reed Smith – whose knowledge on all things tone has come from years of experimentation and building, from crafting the right necks to taking razor blades to pickups – says that the materials used on your guitar are all “subtractive”, and have an impact on the way its strings ring out.
With that in mind, PRS opts for hardware material that ensures the guitar doesn’t “shut down” its natural harmonic sound. Teaming up with Rob Carhartt, PRS’ Director of New Products Engineering, Reed Smith walks through some examples of the brand’s choice for nut material, bridge material, tuning pegs, and more.
“In a lot of the past videos, I’ve stated that whatever the guitar string touches is God,” begins Reed Smith. “To exaggerate that, if the bridge is made of rubber, the nut is made of rubber, and the tuning peg is made of rubber, the guitar is not going to have the kind of high-end that it would have if these things were made out of metal.
“We’ve done a tremendous amount of research about how each of these [parts] operate on a mechanical engineering basis, but also what [they] sounds like. I can tell you just in these tremolo bridges alone, the amount of time spent on the geometry of the curve of the saddle where the string leaves has gone through three or four iterations, and it makes a difference [to] how much high-end the string has, how it works with the tremolo, and how it gets out of the way so the string can vibrate without sounding like a sitar.”
He continues, “The theory with these parts is that the string is trying to do its job. It’s really, really trying to ring for a really long time. The guitar in general is subtractive. If you make the bridge and the nut and the tuning pegs out of rubber, it’s going to shut that vibration down really fast…
“One of the main goals with these parts is to not subtract from the this beautiful sound the string’s trying to make. If you take a string and put it between two big steel vices and hit it, it rings [beautifully]. It’s got a nice, beautiful musical high-end. It’s full of harmonic content, which I want the guitar to not shut down.”
You can watch the full video below:
PRS celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. You can find out more about the brand and view its product lineup via the PRS Guitars website.
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“Probably had a better chance of getting struck by lightning”: Watch Daron Malakian join System Of A Down covers band onstage in Chicago – it’s the stuff of dreams
It’s the stuff of dreams: you’re playing a cover of a famous song with your bandmates, and a member of the original band digs what you’re doing so much they come and jam with you.
That’s exactly what happened to a band playing System Of A Down’s Cigaro in a bar near where the Armenian-American metal legends were set to perform with Avenged Sevenfold on Sunday (31 August).
The event was the first of two nights at Chicago’s Soldier Field with a co-headlining bill of System and A7X, and support from Polyphia and Wisp.
As the story supposedly goes, ahead of the first night on Sunday, SOAD guitarist Daron Malakian was walking around the area near Wrigley Field, a few miles from Soldier Field, when he overheard a band in a nearby bar playing Cigaro, from the band’s 2005 album Mesmerize.
He then used his rockstar powers for good, stepped inside and joined the band onstage, no doubt to their heavy disbelief.
Malakian later took to Instagram to share his thoughts about the moment, confirming that “none of this was planned”.
“We had a day off before our show in Chicago and I went out to dinner, and after I decided to go take some pictures around town. We didn’t plan on going to Wrigley Field, but we ended up there.”
He explains that he first heard a cover of Needles (from 2001’s Toxicity) and, at first, thought it was karaoke.
“I decided to walk across the street and go into the bar and found that it was a System Of A Down cover band called Peephole. I walked right to the front of the stage and surprised the band and the audience. This was all so spontaneous. The look on everyone’s faces was priceless.
“To be honest, I was just as surprised as anyone else that this was happening. I joined the band and sang Cigaro, shook their hands, took some pictures with the fans in the audience, and walked out of the place. I can only imagine what a shock it was for everyone there after I left.
“The odds of this happening were so slim. Probably had a better chance of getting struck by lightning. So many stars had to align for me to end up at the right place and right time.”
Malakian concludes by saying it was “one of the coolest moments I’ve ever had”.
Watch footage of the spontaneous performance below:
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