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The dreadnought acoustic guitar has long been associated with country and folk music. But did you know that the first dreadnoughts made by Martin under the Ditson brand name were originally intended for music from Hawaii?

In fact, there is a strong argument that modern society owes a significant cultural debt to this tiny group of islands, and should be celebrated. This is certainly a position held by C.F. Martin IV – former Martin guitar CEO, current Executive Chairman of the iconic guitar brand, and the man with a name that should indicate that he very much knows what he’s talking about.

Chris Martin has been heavily involved in the new Martin Oʻahu sub-brand – and its debut instrument, the HG-28. The HG-28 is the sort of guitar to make dreadnought fans sit up and take notice – a 14-fret instrument with a shorter 24.9-inch scale length, a Sitka spruce top, and Hawaiian koa on the back and sides.

You can see a fair bit of of Dread DNA in here, and that’s by design – as Chris himself explained in the latest Martin Journal, that is by design. Modern guitar in general would be a very different place without the impact of Hawaiian music.

After all, how many times have we read that resonators, lap steels, and electric guitars were originally invented for Hawaiian music? It’s a fact that many players tend to gloss over, but it remains a fact.

Unconventional Origins

The specs listed above are rather unusual for a Martin guitar, but that’s because the whole concept for this instrument actually came from a vintage Gibson – and one that you’ve almost certainly never heard of.

The HG-20 is a superbly improbable guitar – it sports both an internal resonating chamber and no less than two sets of f-holes in its top. The guitar was, like the original Ditson Dreadnought, designed for Hawaiian music.

When browsing an auction one day, Chris Martin IV spotted the guitar and instantly recognised that this bizarre guitar’s outline was remarkably similar to a slope-shouldered dreadnought.

This revelation led to an intense period of research in the company’s archives and ultimately led to the creation of the HG-28 – a guitar that imagines itself as the Hawaiian ‘missing link’ in the evolution of the Dreadnought between the commercial failure of the Ditson Dread to the all-conquering 14-fret Martin-branded beast that would come along 17 years later.

Uke Can Do It

Another instrument that had a massive influence on the Martin Company is the ukulele. In fact, during the dark financial times of the 1920s, the Martin Company survived thanks to the thousands of ukuleles they were able to make and sell.

Koa was a common wood choice for the ukulele – an instrument which saw a huge spike in popularity following the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915. This was arguably the point at which the world fell in love with Hawaiian culture and it would not be the last time that the tiny ukulele would have a significant effect on popular music around the world.

Martin pioneered the use of koa for steel string guitars in the 1920s and the wood, which only grows on the Hawaiian islands. In recent years, koa has again become very popular with players looking for something different to mahogany or rosewood – but the HG-28 is another way to demonstrate the brand’s early engagement with what feels like a very modern concept.

The gently slope-shouldered body of the Oʻahu HG-28 is slightly slimmer than a regulation dreadnought. In fact, it’s the same depth as a Martin 000, making it very comfortable indeed for the seated player. The neck features Martin’s low oval High Performance taper with 14 frets to the body, while the 13/4-inch nut width means there’s plenty of space for the fingerstyle player, too

There are plenty of other nice little touches on the HG-28 that make it feel a little different to the regular line Martin – the herringbone purfling, the colourful palm-adorned internal label, and of course the word ​​ʻOʻahu’ – note the correctly oriented apostrophe! – sitting proudly on the headstock beneath the iconic Martin logo.

Because the HG-28 is not just one guitar – it’s the start of a range. Already, the Oʻahu sub-brand has absorbed an existing Martin tribute to the huge impact of Hawaiian guitar culture – the Custom K-1 Major Kealakai

Kealakai was a giant of Hawaiian music, who was the conductor for the Royal Hawaiian Band. The custom guitar made for him by Martin in 1916 – recreated in the K-1 – was itself a direct forebear of what became the dreadnought we now know and love.

The Oʻahu HG-28 is a fitting tribute to the influence of Hawaiian culture on modern music, and a great and interesting addition to the Martin line. If you’ve ever been tempted by the sound of a classic dread but have been put off by the size, this could very well be the perfect guitar for you.

Find out more about the Oʻahu range at martinguitar.com. 

The post How Martin’s Oʻahu HG-28 sheds light on the hidden history of the Dreadnought appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Deftones’ Chino Moreno has shared his sadness regarding guitarist Stephen Carpenter’s decision to step down from international touring, though he’s still not sure as to his reasons why.

Deftones are due to release a brand new record, titled Private Music, this Friday 22 August. They’re due to kick off a tour in support of the new record that same day in Vancouver, with dates across Europe, the UK, and Ireland set for early 2026. Guitarist Lance Jackman has been known to fill in for Carpenter overseas.

• READ MORE: “At that time, my guitar sound was garbage”: Stephen Carpenter recalls tone struggles during this Deftones album era

Back in 2022, Carpenter announced his decision to step away from playing shows with the band outside of North America. Many believed this was down to his anti-vax views, which he shared via the Tin Foil Hat podcast back in 2020, surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Carpenter has also spoken openly about mental health struggles with anxiety. In a 2024 Rock Feed interview, he insisted that he’d already made the decision to step down from international tours prior to the pandemic, but said that it had worsened his anxiety.

Now, speaking to Metal Hammer, Moreno has shared support for Carpenter and says the band accept his decision to do things his own way: “I don’t want to speak for him. And even if I could, I still don’t have an answer,” he says.

“Really I don’t. It’s still something that I think he is figuring out. And if he does have an answer, I think it’d be great if one day he would share it. But yeah, we support him. We have to. He’s our friend. And his health, be it physically or mentally, always takes the forefront of anything.

“It’s sad, I want him onstage with us at every show. If you ask me what I prefer, I want him there every day, every time we do anything, with the band. But it literally comes down to: there’s two ways to deal with it. We accept what he can and will do, or we just don’t play. And we want to play,” concludes Moreno.

Deftones’ new album Private Music is available to pre-order now. View their full list of tour dates via the band’s official website.

The post “If he does have an answer, it’d be great if one day he would share it”: Chino Moreno doesn’t know why Stephen Carpenter isn’t touring internationally with Deftones appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

They say that in New York, you’re never more than six feet away from a rat. This isn’t true. What is true, is that on guitar pedal forums, you’re never more than six seconds away from being told to buy a ProCo RAT, potentially by me personally. Have you thought about buying a RAT today?

• READ MORE: A guide to the best Big Muff-style pedals, from classic reissues to boutique oddities

But why? What makes the RAT so bloody good? Why does everyone – including yours truly – go on about the virtues of this unassuming, affordable distortion pedal? And how can you sift through the many versions of the circuit, boutique or otherwise, to find the right one for you? Today we’re unpacking the many different versions of the circuit, from the classic ProCo models to boutique oddities to affordable alternatives.

What makes a RAT a RAT?

I won’t be doing a full deep-dive into the history of the original here – you can see my review of the modern RAT for that – but I do want to establish what’s going on in the circuit, and what boutique versions might be giving you more control over.

In the above schematic, you can see that the RAT is a relatively simple circuit. Let’s go over it in stages – first, the power supply up in the top right. This part of the circuit has a few purposes – the diode here is a polarity protection diode, which will try to block current if you accidentally connect the wrong polarity power supply. There’s also a few resistors and capacitors here – these form a filter that gets rid of high-frequency power supply noise.

The power supply stage also has something called a voltage divider. Here, two resistors of the same value are connected between the 9V supply and ground. In the middle of these two resistors, the voltage is halved from 9V to 4.5V for use in the circuit. The final thing to note in terms of power is that pins 7 and 4 of the opamp are connected straight to power and ground respectively.

The reason for all of these relatively complex power connections, at least when compared to a more basic circuit like a Fuzz Face, is that the RAT’s main gain stage uses an opamp – an 8-pin chip that’s represented here by a triangle. The opamp’s internal circuit needs a reference voltage of where to swing your audio signal up and down from – with the most headroom on either side being provided by a point slap-bang in the middle of the available nine volts. Hence, the 4.5V part of the supply.

How much the opamp, er, operationally amplifies your signal, is controlled by the gain pot. This goes all the way from “not very much at all” to “far more than the opamp can technically handle” – and so while the RAT also introduces distortion with some clipping diodes, on higher gain settings your signal is also hitting the opamp’s headroom.

Moving onto those clipping diodes, this is where variations of the RAT – official or otherwise – make a lot of their changes. On the stock RAT, these are basic silicon 1N1418 diodes or similar, connected in a hard-clipping configuration. Hard-clipping means that the diodes chop off the top and bottom of your signal and bleed it to ground, creating a sharper edge in the waveform. Soft-clipping, on the other hand, uses a feedback loop to create a gentler curve between the unclipped and clipped parts of the signal.

What diodes are used here is massively important to the final sound – different diodes mean different frequency responses, and different amounts of clipping, and so swapping them out is a great way to modify the sound.

From here we hit the RAT’s tone control – this is a basic low-pass filter that goes from letting basically all of the audio signals through to rolling off a whole load of high-end. This is what lets the sound go from sharp and cutting to smooth and fuzzy, although it does mean limited control over the low-end. The final stage is just a simple unity-gain buffer that sets the output impedance, with the volume control just cleanly lowering the level of the whole pedal’s signal.

What RAT should I buy?

So, that’s the basics of a RAT structure – but there are many variations thereof, complex and subtle. ProCo’s own lineup includes some modified versions, most notably You Dirty RAT! And the Turbo RAT. These replace the clipping diodes with Germanium and red LEDs respectively. In the case of germanium diodes, these clip a lot earlier, and have a much more compressed, squishy sound. Red LEDs, on the other hand, clip later – and therefore a good deal louder, open and uncompressed.

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Affordable alternatives

Arguably the RAT itself is already pretty affordable, however there are some more budget takes on the circuit out there for the distortion-inclined who want to save a bit of cash.

Mooer Black Secret

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This is an ultra-affordable mini-pedal from Mooer that’s a pretty faithful take on the standard RAT circuit. There’s also a clipping switch to boot, going between a standard vintage mode and the LED-driven Turbo mode. Its small size and affordable price make it pretty appealing if you’re on a budget in terms of either cash or space, but keep in mind that two of the three knobs are rather fiddly mini affairs.

TC Electronic Magus Pro

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The TC Electronic Magus Pro is another faithful, affordable take on the RAT. As well as changing the clipping diodes, the toggle switch here also affords access to a Fat mode, which is bassier and punchier in the mids – good for bassists or down-tuning!

Boutique options

There are many, many boutique takes on this circuit, doing everything from totally reshaping the sound, adding many weird and wonderful clipping options to integrating boosts and extra fuzzes. Let’s take a look at a few.

Black Mass Electronics 1312

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My personal favourite RAT-inspired distortion, the Black Mass 1312 does three main things to stand out. Firstly, it packs a voltage doubler for extra headroom and oomph. Secondly, it features the mother of all clipping selectors, allowing for a load of different levels of grit and compression. And thirdly it looks cool as hell. It all leads to a great sound for everything from lower-gain overdrive to ultra-bright, piercing distortion to dark, doomy sludge.

JHS Packrat

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Option pa-rat-asis? That doesn’t work at all, but what does work is the JHS Packrat. Rather than just a clipping selector, this nine-mode pedal also adjusts various circuit values on each mode with some clever switching trickery. This meticulously recreates different versions of the pedal in full, all within one circuit. Would you expect any less from such a vintage pedal historian as Josh Scott?

1981 Inventions DRV

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The 1981 Inventions DRV is one of the more drastically modified circuits in the world of boutique RAT-alikes. Like the 1312, it features a voltage doubler for extra headroom, but has a bit more of a subtle tonal approach. Some extra input and output gain stages give it a bit more control than a regular RAT when it comes to the gain and volume sweeps, and there’s a bit more focus on clarity rather than fuzz when you crank the distortion up.

Walrus Iron Horse V3

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The Walrus Audio Iron Horse doesn’t reinvent the wheel, however V3 does add a pretty cool blend knob to go between silicon and LED clipping. While the LED clipping somewhat dominates the dial thanks to the extra volume if offers, the rest of the circuit adds some clarifying tonal tweaks – making the Iron Horse a good option if you like the texture of a RAT, but the harmonic practicality of something a little more transparent.

EarthQuaker Devices x Sunn O))) Life Pedal V3

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No list of cool boutique RATs would be complete without one. The EarthQuaker Devices Life Pedal is inspired by the crushing tones conjured on the Sunn O))) albums Life Metal and Pyroclasts – achieved by running vintage Shin Ei fuzzes into RATs for massive walls of fuzzy sustain, essential to the band’s sound. A vintage-style analogue octave-up can be blended into the RAT portion of the pedal, and for version three is also footswitchable on or off. After this your signal hits a switchable clean boost, making sure your amp’s front end also brings something to the party

In terms of the RAT portion of the circuit, the voicing can get surprisingly bright for such a doom-inspired pedal – there are three clipping modes, too – either no clipping at all other than the opamp distortion, asymmetrical LED/Silicon clipping or the classic silicon diode pair.

The post RATs and RAT-alikes explained – our guide to the best affordable, classic and boutique RAT-style pedals appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

[Editor’s note: MONO is part of Vista Musical Instruments, which like Guitar.com, is part of the Caldecott Music Group.]

Instrument accessory brand MONO has unveiled the M80 Classic Ultra, a new evolution of its classic M80 gig bag. 

Now with greater emphasis on smarter storage, effortless mobility and more robust protection, the M80 Classic Ultra might just be the perfect solution to keep your guitar safe as houses.

• READ MORE: MONO’s new minimalist M80 Sleeve 2.0 is a guitar case “perfectly suited for urban travel”

Chief among the features of the M80 Classic Ultra is its patented Freeride Wheel System, which enables musicians to attach wheels – perfect for moving around airports, venues, or anywhere else that carrying your guitar for long periods of time might prove inconvenient.

The M80 Classic Ultra comes both as a standard single-instrument case, or as a Dual case able to carry two guitars or basses, so the Freeride Wheel System makes carrying two instruments easier than ever.

Elsewhere, the M80 Classic Ultra features a “supercharged” approach to storage, with a newly designed expandable front pocket offering more room for tools, accessories and other gigging essentials, and a series of built-in compartments.

Additionally, the M80 Classic Ultra is “Tick-ready”, and compatible with MONO’s Tick 2.0 and Tick+ 2.0 accessory cases.

Obviously, protection is one of the key selling points of the M80 Classic Ultra, and your instrument is kept safe via its Headlock neck suspension system, which keeps it securely in place and shielded from impact. The case’s exterior is built using water-resistant 1680D ballistic nylon, with a waterproof zipper tape and reflective strips for added safety.

The case also features a discreet pouch designed to hold a tracker tag, so you can have that piece of mind in case it ever goes missing.

Price-wise, the M80 Classic Ultra is available now at $359.99 for a single guitar/bass case, and $459.99 for a dual guitar/bass case.

For more information, you can head to MONO.

The post Is MONO’s M80 Classic Ultra the ultimate guitar case? Expanded storage, superior protection – and even attachable wheels appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

After Sharon Osbourne recently called out the “ridiculous” £140 million figure some media outlets claimed Black Sabbath’s final show brought in, a group of economists at the University of Birmingham reckon they’ve got a better estimate of the actual numbers – from actual ticket sales, that is.

According to BBC News, approximately 42,000 physical tickets were sold for the concert itself, with 20% bought by international fans, and with prices ranging from £197.50 to £834.

• READ MORE: “What’s the point of even being there, if you’re a band?”: Bruce Dickinson hates the idea of Iron Maiden playing the Las Vegas Sphere

According to Dr. Matt Lyons of the University of Birmingham – who conducted the new research – tickets for the monumental Villa Park show brought in a total of £33.8 million, with £27.6 million being retained in the West Midlands region, which consists of seven boroughs, one being the city of Birmingham, Sabbath’s hometown.

“As regional economists from the University of Birmingham, we thought we would do our bit to honour Ozzy’s legacy by estimating the economic impact of his last gig,” says Lyons.

“The impact of the Prince of Darkness obviously goes far beyond the financial impact his gigs and TV shows have netted.

“Ozzy is a global legend, and his gift of incredible music, and now his final economic impact, will go on to benefit his home city far into the future.”

No mention is made in the BBC News article, though, of the revenue accrued from pay-per-view stream sales.

According to a Billboard article published last month, “5.8 million individuals online” paid to watch the livestream of the concert as it happened. And priced at £24.99, we work that out to be over £140 million (24.99 x 5.8 million) in additional revenue, if Billboard’s numbers are accurate.

While we don’t have official numbers from the event yet, it is true that with an event of this magnitude and with this many moving parts, overheads including band fees, logistics, crew wages and online processing fees were likely substantial, and would have made a hefty dent into the final figure that was ultimately donated to charity.

Proceeds from the event were pledged to Cure Parkinson’s, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorns Children’s Hospice.

Ozzy Obsourne sadly died at the age of 76 just two weeks after Black Sabbath’s final show, prompting a widespread outpouring of grief and tributes from the rock world, and indeed the wider music world, too.

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Sammy Hagar has taken a stand against a social media frenzy claiming that David Lee Roth recently mocked him during a concert over his spiritual visitation from the late Eddie Van Halen.

Former Van Halen frontman Hagar claimed that Eddie had visited him in a dream and that they’d written a song together, which he went on to release as Encore, Thank You, Goodnight back in April. However, in a recent video of Roth – who served as vocalist in Van Halen until Hagar replaced his position in 1985 – he seemingly poked fun at Hagar’s story, though Hagar himself begs to differ.

• READ MORE: “They’re like, ‘I’m in the ballpark’”: Dweezil Zappa on the “laziness” of guitar players when covering songs like Eruption

In the video, taken during his concert at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom last week, Roth said, “You all know Sammy Hagar, right? He’s got a great voice. Sammy described to the media about six weeks ago that the ghost of Eddie Van Halen visited him and graced him with a song that he memorised and then went home and recorded.

“I don’t know what the odds are, but last night the ghost of Eddie Van Halen visited me at the fucking hotel room,” he said. “I was watching the weather report and he came in and he was laughing. His fucking ghost was laughing.

“I said, ‘What did you do now?’ He said, ‘Dave, Dave… Dave, you know that song I gave Hagar?’ I said, ‘What now?’ He said, ‘It’s actually [1968 Iron Butterfly proto-metal hit] In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida backwards. Don’t fucking tell him.’”

The video of course went on to make headlines, which caught the attention of Hagar. Replying to a comment under an Instagram post on the matter from Metal Addicts, he responds: “I can’t believe social media is trying to make something out of this. This is the first compliment and real olive branch moment Dave and I have had in 100 years. Listen closely and you will see that this is not negative whatsoever.”

He adds, “I believe Dave had the dream as well. Dave’s a good storyteller, but there’s some truth in between the showmanship. All good with me – keep it up Dave. These songs we both wrote with Eddie need to be carried on forever.”

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A live version of Sammy Hagar’s Encore, Thank You, Goodnight is out now, recorded with his Best Of All Worlds Band. David Lee Roth is touring until mid-September. You can get tickets via his website.

The post “This is the first real olive-branch moment Dave and I have had in 100 years”: Sammy Hagar insists that David Lee Roth wasn’t mocking him about being visited by Eddie Van Halen’s ghost appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Reports suggest Metallica are currently eyeing up a residency at the immersive Las Vegas Sphere, but it seems not every legendary metal band is keen.

To clue you in, the MSG Sphere is a spherical $2.3 billion venue that opened in Las Vegas in 2023, and features around 1.2 million LED lights covering the interior which can be configured to display any light or graphical show an artist wishes.

• READ MORE: Fleetwood Mac lyric sheet handwritten by Peter Green hits the auction block – and could fetch up to £15,000

But according to Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden has no interest in joining the growing list of bands to perform at the venue, suggesting that he wants Maiden shows to remain performances with focus on the band members, rather than on a light show that might be going on around them.

“No. It’s not Maiden,” Dickinson tells Eddie Trunk in a new interview. “Maiden’s about the relationship between the band and the audience, and the show, whilst it’s a show, is an enhancement to what we do. 

“The Sphere, as far as I can gather… I mean, I appreciate what you’re saying about it – it’s all encompassing, it’s this and that, it’s the other – but I think the band would be very uncomfortable with the idea.”

He continues: “I mean, we just do a lot of stuff: we run around, we go around, and at the Sphere, what’s the point? What’s the point? In fact, what’s the point of even being there, if you’re a band?”

While Bruce Dickinson asserts that an Iron Maiden show should be about the performance from the band members, first and foremost, one can’t help but imagine how spectacular it would be to have Eddie (the band’s mascot) in various scenarios on the Sphere’s gigantic dome roof.

While he sounds pretty adamant that Maiden won’t sign up to play there any time soon, for what it’s worth, Bruce, we’d love to see it…

So far, the Sphere has hosted the likes of U2, Dead & Company and Eagles, as well as electronic artists including Anyma and Kaskade.

While the venue has generally attracted overwhelmingly positive reviews from those who have attended, it has, as Bruce Dickinson suggests, called into question whether the intensity of the experience detracts from the artists who play there.

Naturally, though, for bands and artists with a strongly defined visual theme, the Sphere perhaps presents the best opportunity yet to bring their artistic world to life.

View all of Iron Maiden’s upcoming tour dates via their official website.

The post “What’s the point of even being there, if you’re a band?”: Bruce Dickinson hates the idea of Iron Maiden playing the Las Vegas Sphere appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Paul Reed Smith is continuing to take fans behind the curtain at PRS Guitars, and in a new video he’s confessed to taking a razor blade to pickups to find out how they’re waxed.

Given his eccentric leadership – from intentionally pitching ideas he knows his team won’t like, to championing tonewood like no other CEO – it’s not all that surprising that Reed Smith will quite literally butcher a pickup to understand it better, even when a famous pro advises him not to.

• READ MORE: “Paul Reed Smith has mastered creating an instrument that behaves”: Carlos Santana on his love of PRS guitars

In the latest episode of PRS’ Rules Of Tone YouTube series, Reed Smith chats with Chuck Lenderking, who works as part of the new products engineering team at PRS, and collaborates closely with the boss on all things pickups.

“How many experiments do you think we’re running a day?” Reed Smith asks him.

“Oh, five to 10 probably,” replies Lenderking. The pair stand before a dissected electric model with a large chunk missing from its body and empty pickup slots, which is used as the company’s test guitar.

“You can take the electronics out of it and snap on the pickups any way you want. And I know it looks ridiculous, but it has worked so well for us to be able to slide the treble pickup in and listen, slide the bass pickup in and listen,” explains Reed Smith.

“We keep using it. It gets the job done… It actually is not that great sounding, which makes the pickup have to do its job even more,” he adds.

“You have seen me take a razor blade to [pickups] to find out how they were waxed, right? I had a really famous guitar player say, ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it!’ I said, ‘Why not? I need to know.’ He goes, ‘Don’t do it!’ The next day the phone rings. He goes, ‘What’d you find?’”

You can watch the full episode below:

In another Rules Of Tone episode, Reed Smith also explained why neck making is the most important part of building guitars. “Neck making in my mind is fundamental to guitar making. You’re a guitar maker, you’re a neck maker – there’s nothing more important on the guitar,” he said.

PRS celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. You can view the brand’s full product range over at PRS Guitars.

The post “I had a really famous guitar player tell me, ‘Don’t do it!’ The next day he phoned me and said, ‘What did you find?’”: Paul Reed Smith admits he takes razor blades to pickups to find out how they work appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

A Fleetwood Mac lyric and chord sheet handwritten by guitarist Peter Green is set to hit the auction block, and could reportedly fetch up to £15,000.

The sheet depicts lyrics for 1969 single Man of the World, which hit Number 2 in the UK later that year. It subsequently stayed in the charts for 14 weeks.

The lyric sheet – written in blue ballpoint pen, with corrections made in black ink – shows Green changed three lyric lines, adding a complete line to the final verse, while finalising each finished line with a tick at the end.

• READ MORE: “Pushing the boundaries of what’s possible for players at every level”: Squier’s 2025 Classic Vibe drop has arrived – with some head-turning new configurations
  

Ewbank’s auction house in Woking, Surrey, is selling the sheet, and hopes it will reach a bid of up to £15,000. At present, there are no bids, and the starting bid is £6,000.

“Green himself said that he wrote the song when he was at his saddest,” says a spokesperson for Ewbank’s.

“The song is particularly significant as band member Mick Fleetwood said it reflected Green’s mental state at the time and helped explain why he quit the band and tragically descended into mental illness.”

“Few musicians can claim to have been as talented and as important to the development of rock music from the blues and folk movements as Peter Green,” adds John Silke, Ewbank’s music specialist.

Peter Green died in 2020 at the age of 73, after leaving an indelible mark on the blues and rock worlds. Once a member of John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers and the original founder and leader of Fleetwood Mac, Green’s unique guitar playing earned him nods from guitar legends Eric Clapton and BB King, as well as adoration from the wider guitar world.

Green – born Peter Allen Greenbaum in 1946 – suffered a series of issues with his mental health in the 1970s, and was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent time in psychiatric hospitals in the mid ‘70s.

He later re-emerged professional at the end of the ‘70s and early ‘80s, and in the late ‘80s attributed his breakdown to his previous abuse of drugs including LSD.

Green’s name is also attached to one of the most famous and iconic guitars in the world, Greeny. The 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard was used by Peter Green throughout his time with John Mayall and Fleetwood Mac, and was later acquired by Gary Moore in the early ‘70s. Now, the guitar is under the custodianship of Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett.

Learn more at Ewbank’s.

The post Fleetwood Mac lyric sheet handwritten by Peter Green hits the auction block – and could fetch up to £15,000 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Boko Yout’s debut album needs all of three minutes to start falling apart in thrilling fashion. As the opener Volleyball Tournament strolls to its conclusion – one part Seal, another Ghostpoet, vocalist Paul Adamah’s melodies coiled and patient – there’s a sudden burst of noise, a blast of distortion and thudding, relentless percussion. Then it’s something else entirely. “When I first saw them they were very tight as a band, very in the pocket,” guitarist Lionel Turner says. “It felt like the right thing to do to add some chaos into that.”

Circling Adamah’s shapeshifting, concept-driven writing, Gusto makes good on this promise. Underpinned by a loose narrative that finds a fictionalised version of the vocalist in therapy sessions with the titular doctor, one moment it might be discussing identity or gig work, the next it might train its sights on perceptions of art from both inside and outside institutions or the push-pull between openness and self-destruction. It’s pointed and ambitious, reaching for what Adamah has described as “a sonic manifesto for living with love and intention.”

• READ MORE: Meet Essence Martins – the YouTube-taught guitarist who’s choosing to master the instrument on her own terms

The accompanying sounds are a melange of motorik drums, needling bass and guitars that whirr and bite against verses with roots that run all the way back to lo-fi bedroom hip hop experiments and the joyous collaborative music that emanated from jams between local African musicians at Adamah’s childhood home in Örebro, where he was brought up by a Togolese father and Mozambican mother. Turner initially met Adamah through his day job as a cinematographer, but their parallel interests in music soon drew them closer together.

“He was rapping at the time,” Turner recalls. “One day he told me he was done with that and he wanted to start a band. He didn’t recruit me – we just had some sessions and we wrote some songs together, and that was that. We kept on living our lives. I thought he had this band, but it turns out that he had just created it in his head. It was something he was projecting towards the future.”

A musician since his teens, Turner grew up with a guitar in the house and his South American father’s love of 60s rock ‘n’ roll and cumbia ringing in his ears before stretching out into his own esoteric interests. Learning the ropes on bass first, he then tapped into the psychedelic wandering of Dungen’s Raine Fiske, the pedal manipulation of Stereolab’s Tim Gane and the searching ambient work of Tatsuhiko Asano.

From time to time Adamah would send demos his way, asking if he heard a guitar part. “I would try something out at home, and then maybe send him a video,” Turner says. In 2023, Adamah bit the bullet and asked him to be a part of Boko Yout. “He had already recruited some members but they just had one guitar player,” Turner says. “They were going to play in a big venue with Viagra Boys. That’s when I joined.”

Quickly, he fell into a collaborative process that put the songs at the heart of everything. There are multiple voices at play, with each of them bouncing back in a new form once they’ve reached someone else’s ear. Drummer Joel Kiviaho, who produced Gusto, plays some guitar on the record, including a section on 9-2-5 that was lifted straight from an iPhone note and dropped into the finished track, while Adamah’s writing has pushed Turner into spaces he might not have discovered on his own.

“Paul always has ideas,” he says. “He can come up with riffs that sound mad to me, at first, like they don’t make sense. I love that about his mind. We have a song called Teleprompter, which is a really strange riff to me. It doesn’t sit right in my hand, with the way I play. But it’s just fun. He’ll ask me, ‘Shit, should I study music theory?’ And I’m like, ‘Please don’t. Just keep doing what you’re doing.’”

In many ways, Gusto comes to life in the details. It’s about shifts in tempo and melody, with Turner particularly interested in how texture, noise and distortion might alter the way something is perceived by the listener. He’s a keen follower of Arto Lindsay, particularly the manner in which the no wave pioneer finds ways to thread something gnarly between elements that, outwardly at least, appear more conventional.

Here, that comes to the fore in moments such as the choppy, barbed accents on Boyfriend’s riff, or a string of outro solos that drag songs towards unexpected, feverish endings without losing a self-contained sense of directness.

“Texture is a key word to me,” he says. “That’s part of what makes music interesting, it’s tactile, you know? I’ve been going through so many different types of distortions and fuzzes – it’s like a never-ending exploration because there are so many combinations. I discovered so many things recording this album, from just changing cabs and guitars to changing the order things are in.

“I tried to have a clear idea of what I can contribute, and asked what the sound could benefit from. For me, it was texture, grit, and distortion. But it’s also a slippery slope. Once you start cranking up the volume, everyone wants to crank up the volume. I think that’s consumed us in a way. We let that consume us. I think this album has turned into a heavier sound than the first EP.”

Working largely at Kiviaho’s place, which has an “almost extended bedroom studio” feel, Boko Yout had time to delve deeper and deeper into this world. Completed on the album by bassist Kevin Stierne (Damien Kabran plays second guitar live) they spent time finding the right layers of grime to drive home Adamah’s messages. “As excited as I get, I think they all really like to experiment with distortion, too,” Turner says. “Especially Joel, he’s always asking me to put some fuzz on a song.”

Turner started out with an interesting guitar in hand: a Victor SG-18, which was only manufactured for a short time by JVC in Japan during the 1960s. “But we started playing louder and more distorted, it started feeding back a lot live,” Turner laments. He turned instead to a Danelectro Dead-On ‘67. “That worked very well,” he adds. “It didn’t have a whammy bar, which I quite like to use, so I modded it and put one on. But I kept everything else original.”

Amps-wise, it was a case of adapting to their surroundings. When he needed to, while recording on tour or darting between studios away from home, Turner turned to sims such as the Universal Audio Dream ‘65, but the sound he hears in his head is often coming from another characterful piece of kit dating back to the time when the Beatles walked the Earth: a small-but-powerful Hagström 26. “That’s the sound that we prefer,” he says. “It’s like a typewriter, really portable.”

On his live board, he’s been racing through pedals, finding different things to love about equipment that forces him to learn on the fly. “I’ve been going through a lot of distortions but one keeper has been the Basic Audio Zippy,” he says. “That’s been great. Lately on tour I have been using a Fairfield Circuitry Roger That, which has been interesting, too. At times I’ve been trying out something called [Mattoverse] AirTrash – it’s very hard to control. I feel like my research is going towards those kinds of uncontrollable fuzzes. I love to be surprised by gear, to not always be on top of it, and sometimes have something that goes somewhere where I’m not ready for.”

In a project such as Boko Yout, where the music is largely propelled by the vision of one songwriter, the task for their bandmates is to find a way in. Turner takes that job seriously, almost leaning on the interpretive nature of his career in film to challenge and reconstitute concepts that carry great personal weight. That dynamic is one of Gusto’s greatest strengths. “When you get a script or a treatment, you need to find a way to tell that story in effective ways,” Turner says. “The fun part of cinematography is that you get to choose the texture, the media, the format.”

“It is pretty similar, playing guitar, because you have this palette of sounds,” he continues. “I don’t have a go-to way [of doing things]. I’m always thinking, ‘Okay, what should I use now?’

“I try to mix it up as well. I seldom use the same stuff on every song. We talk about the ideas that we want to bring to life to see if it makes us excited. That’s pretty much how you make films as well.”

Boko Yout’s Gusto is out on September 5 through Hoopdiggas Recordings.

The post Meet Boko Yout: Sweden’s most interesting new band who approach guitar chaos with the mindset of a cinematographer appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Despite what the media would have you believe, it’s not easy being a rockstar. Years of effort go into a good album, and, when it comes out, there’s endless travelling, touring, and promotion junkets to endure. Rockstars are human too – and sometimes they need a break.

John Mayer is the latest rocker to admit that he needs a “breather”. While songs are easily “coming out of [Mayer]”, he’s yet to construct the follow up to his 2021’s Sob Rock. “I don’t know when it’s coming out,” he tells People. “But I’ve been going around making music, touring, making music, touring for a lot of years, and I think it would make sense at this stage in my life [to] just take a breather.”

• READ MORE: “You’re adding to the problem”: Warren Haynes says this is the biggest mistake guitarists make when improvising

Considering Dead & Company’s 30 date residency at Last Vegas’ Sphere only wrapped up last month, it makes sense that Mayer wants a break. Rather than running on empty, he’s taking the time to recoup, allowing himself to enjoy the songwriting process without the pressure of deadlines.

“I’m [figuring] out when I want to do it and how I want to do it,” he explains. “So I’m enjoying just taking it day-by-day and doing the projects I love.”

Of course, Mayer is still a songwriting machine, noting that he has “enough songs that [he] could put a record out right now”. However, he’s just not in the mood to tour right now. “If I put a record out right now, I would want to go on the road, and I just want to take a minute and practice this newfound ‘going with the flow’,” he explains.

He clarifies what this means, noting he has to learn to let life and inspiration “happen”, rather than forcing himself down a strict path. It is something he admits he is having to “relearn all the time”.

While Mayer is in no rush to release another record, he already has some festival performances booked in for September and October, including California’s Palm Tree Festival and Nevada’s Rise Festival.

The post “I could put a record out right now”: John Mayer says he’s written enough songs to make a new album – but here’s why he’s not going to do it appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

From The Allman Brothers Band to Gov’t Mule, it’s no secret that Warren Haynes is an axeman to be reckoned with. However, his dynamic blend of blues, rock and jazz has been refined by his fellow guitarists – because the true “magic” of performing is only revealed once you find the perfect collaborative partner.

According to Haynes, a strong guitar partnership brings out the best in both parties. “[You need] the right mix of contrast and similarity,” he tells Classic Rock. “If two guitarists are too similar it gets bland; too different and it can clash. But when there’s that balance, something magic happens.”

• READ MORE: “You’re adding to the problem”: Warren Haynes says this is the biggest mistake guitarists make when improvising
  

Haynes has been lucky enough to find his perfect muse in guitarist Derek Trucks. “Derek and I have been playing together for so long we almost don’t have to think about it,” he explains. “We can finish each other’s musical sentences. There’s trust, respect, shared philosophy about what music is. You need that – and a healthy amount of competition, but not one-upmanship.”

It’s a view Haynes has parroted time and time again; guitarists need to be able to listen to one another and work together. It’s not about being the best and standing out, but about adapting and working with those around you.

“To play music to the best of your ability, you have to learn how to listen to everyone else while you’re playing and adapt to that – even if it’s just from a tuning standpoint, or what register you’re playing in standpoint, or rhythmically,” he told Sweetwater back in March. “That’s the key in improvisational music, without question,”

“If you’re just concentrating on your own part and you don’t realise that the rhythm section is kind of laidback or pushing, then you’re adding to the problem,” he continued. “So, I think musicians that improvise on a certain level are all deeply listening to each other. All the years that I played with The Allman Brothers, that was the key ingredient – being locked in, together.”

Haynes’ upcoming record, The Whisper Sessions is set to drop this September. The record will serve as a “companion piece” to 2024’s Million Voices Whisper, comprised of solo and duet alternative takes on each track. “When I listened back, I thought there was something unique about hearing the songs in that raw, singer-songwriter form,” he tells Classic Rock. “Then Derek and I recorded a version of Melissa – just one take – and someone suggested putting it al out as a release.”

Pre-order The Whisper Sessions now before it arrives 12 September.

The post “If two guitarists are too similar it gets bland”: Warren Haynes on how to create “magic” in a band appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Despite being a founding member, Ace Frehley was nowhere to be seen throughout Kiss’ End Of The Road World Tour – because the glam rockers rescinded his invitation.

According to Frehley, him and founding drummer Peter Criss were both originally set to perform at Kiss’ final Madison Square Garden show in December 2023. “About nine months… both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons were saying, ‘We’re going to bring everybody out on stage,’” he tells Guitar World. “And then, a few months before the concert, they both changed their tune.”

• READ MORE: “Ace started to indulge in things that went up his nose”: Gene Simmons on the “rebellious” nature of Ace Frehley in Kiss’s early days

Considering Frehley previously reunited with the band in 1996, fans were confused as to why Frehley did not perform at Kiss’ final show. And he would have, if the Stanley and Simmons hadn’t changed their minds.

Some rather rude comments only added insult to injury, too. “Paul went on to say, ‘If Ace and Peter got on stage with us, the band could be called Piss,’” Frehley recalls. “So, I kind of got into an argument with him.”

Following the snub of being uninvited to Kiss’ final show, the guitarist is understandably less keen to involve himself in Kiss-related projects. Most recently, Frehley has declined the invitation to attend Kiss’s Kiss Kruise: Land-Locked in Vegas. “They asked me and I declined,” he explains.

The event in question, which is set to take place this November, pales in comparison to the grand Madison Square Garden send-off. “There’s no way I’m gonna be involved with that, you know?,” he says. “Their biggest mistake is that they should have done that at Madison Square Garden, not in Las Vegas in a 5000-seater, or whatever it is.”

However, Frehley isn’t entirely ruling out working with Kiss in the future. While the invitation to attend Kiss Kruise (which isn’t even a cruise this year) may feel insulting, he still loves his Kiss family. “I’m the kind of guy that never says never,” he says. “I don’t hate Paul or Gene, you know? We’re rock and roll brothers – and Peter, too. So, anything can happen.”

Regardless, Frehley is continuing to focus on his own work. He explains he’s “having too much fun doing my own thing” at the moment. “Maybe I’ll eventually get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist,” he notes.

Kiss are set to perform two unmasked sets over the course of the three day Kiss Kruise: Land-Locked in Vegas event. The sets will feature all but Eric Singer from the final Kiss line-up, with Simmons, Stanley, and Tommy Thayer on lead vocals. But remember – Kiss have broken up. They’ve definitely broken up. Yep.

Kiss Kruise: Land-Locked in Vegas will take place 14-16 November. You can grab tickets now.

The post “They asked me and I declined. There’s no way I’m gonna be involved in that”: Ace Frehley on his current relationship with Kiss appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

When Fender announced its Standard Series – the cheapest new Fenders you can buy – at this year’s NAMM Show, many industry watchers wondered about the future of the Fender-owned Squier brand, which has long made affordable, entry-level alternatives to Fender’s classic guitar designs.

Indeed, earlier this year, Fender’s EVP of Product Justin Norvell revealed the brand had briefly considered replacing the entire Squier line with Fender-branded instruments, but ultimately realising there was “so much equity in the Squier brand name”, so it would have been “crazy to get rid of that”.

• READ MORE: “I was happy if I got 9 hours a day”: Steve Vai on the crazy practice schedule he developed as a teenager

Yep, it certainly doesn’t look like Squier is going anywhere, and the brand has just launched a plethora of new additions to its Classic Vibe line, which offers ‘50s-, ‘60s- and ‘70s-inspired instruments with period-correct aesthetics, tones, neck profiles and more.

There’s 10 new models on offer, with a selection of new finishes and hardware options that are sure to make even the most hardline Fender purist tempted by its budget sister brand.

“At Fender, we’re always pushing the boundaries of what’s possible within the world of instrumentation – for players at every level,” notes Justin Norvell.

“We’ve built this range to inspire creativity and elevate the playing experience in every genre. We’re proud to carry forward our legacy by continuing to shape the future of music whilst also paying homage to our heritage and the traditions that got us here in the first place.”

First to stand out in the drop is the new Custom Telecaster SH outfitted with a Bigsby tailpiece, just below a classic vintage-style Tele bridge plate. The Bigsby, in this case, features a string-through design for easy restringing – welcome, no doubt, for less advanced guitarists – and a floating bridge with barrel saddles for optimal tuning stability.

The Classic Vibe Custom Telecaster SH Bigsby is a tribute to the double-bound body Tele models of the late ’50s and ’60s, complete with Fender-designed alnico single-coil bridge and humbucking pickups.

Two new Stratocasters join the Classic Vibe lineup: a ‘50s-inspired one with a stable hardtail bridge and string-through-body design for “optimal body resonance”, and a ‘70s hardtail bridge-fitted HSS model, with ‘70s-inspired headstock markings, nickel-plated hardware and a slick vintage-tinted gloss neck finish.

There’s also a new Jazzmaster, Esquire and even the return of the Duo-Sonic, an offset design with a single coil/humbucker pickup configuration, complete with a short 24” scale length.

The drop also makes room for the bass players, with a new ‘60s Jazz Bass, Active ‘70s Jazz Bass, Telecaster Bass and Active ‘70s Jazz Bass V. 

For more information on the latest Classic Vibe models, head to Squier.

The post “Pushing the boundaries of what’s possible for players at every level”: Squier’s 2025 Classic Vibe drop has arrived – with some head-turning new configurations appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$189/£189, earthquakerdevices.com

Ah, how nice it is to be able to talk about EarthQuaker Devices in the context of some pure bouncing-bunny-rabbits good news: the launch of a really tasty fuzz pedal.

It’s tempting to think the deathly skulls adorning the Rancho de la Luna Dirt Transmitter are a reference to the grim future of the American stompbox industry – the Ohio company’s CEO Julie Robbins has been one of the loudest voices warning about the potential impact of the Trump tariffs on EQD and other makers – but the artwork is actually a tie-in with the Rancho de la Luna recording studio in Joshua Tree, California. It’s cute anyway. Macabre, but cute.

• READ MORE: Beetronics Larva review – a speed-ramping phaser with a couple of twists

EarthQuaker Devices Dirt Transmitter – what is it?

On the inside, this is not a new pedal: the Dirt Transmitter was one of the first fuzzes EQD ever made. It was brought back last year in a limited-edition Legacy Reissue, and now it’s been re-reborn.

Loosely based on the Fuzz Face circuit, it has something that’s been cropping up on a lot of dirt pedals recently: a bias knob, letting you lower the voltage to the two 2N1711 silicon transistors for sputtery gating effects. The other controls are the standard-issue level, tone and fuzz; it’s true bypass and has a soft-touch footswitch.

EarthQuaker Devices Dirt Transmitter – sounds

Conventional wisdom says silicon fuzzes sound bright and raspy compared to their soft and fluffy germanium counterparts. Well get ready for some unconventional wisdom, because the Dirt Transmitter is about as dangerously abrasive as a duvet.

It’s not muffled, but the treble response is fundamentally moderate even with the tone knob maxed out. The bottom end, in contrast, is thoroughly well rounded, while the mids have the smooth, slightly scooped character of a classic Fuzz Face – albeit without the same looseness in playing feel. It sounds extremely pleasant with the fuzz around halfway, scuzzy but sweet with the guitar’s volume turned down a couple of notches, and sludgily colossal with everything at maximum.

Turn the bias down too far and things get spitty in a way that really isn’t musical, but the right half of the dial is well worth exploring for subtly tightened-up tones with an element of ripping texture and, on single low notes, good old-fashioned squelch. It’s this extra dimension, in the end, that might just leave you wondering why the Dirt Transmitter was discontinued in the first place.

EarthQuaker Devices Dirt Transmitter – should I buy one?

You might be inclined to buy this pedal because you appreciate EarthQuaker’s efforts to raise awareness of the existential threat facing the US pedal-making industry. You might want to buy it just because you think EQD is a cool company… or because you’re a Day Of The Dead obsessive and it’s got skulls on it. But no, let’s get serious: you should probably buy the Dirt Transmitter because it’s excellent.

EarthQuaker Devices Dirt Transmitter – alternatives

Two of the pioneering voltage-starved fuzz pedals of the 90s are still around in one form or another: the ZVEX Effects Fuzz Factory Vexter ($199/£189.99) and, an evolution of the Lovetone Big Cheese, the ThorpyFX Field Marshal (£209.99). Or if you really are all about the skulls, your other option is the superb Flattley DG Fuzz (£259).

The post EarthQuaker Devices Rancho de la Luna Dirt Transmitter review – heavy fuzz tones with a voltage-starving twist appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The Who found themselves at the centre of the headlines earlier this year when drummer Zak Starkey was abruptly fired following a choppy gig at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Starkey – the son of Beatles legend Ringo Starr – was re-admitted into the band on the condition that he “tighten up”, but was subsequently dismissed again a short time later.

Now, guitarist Pete Townshend has explained in further detail why frontman Roger Daltrey decided Starkey was out of the band following that Royal Albert Hall show and the subsequent aftermath.

• READ MORE: “Pete and I retain the right to be The Who. Everyone else is a session player”: Roger Daltrey comments on firing of drummer Zak Starkey

“One of the difficulties Roger had was [Zak] jumped straight into Instagram and started to mouth off and defend his position in a cheeky, chatty manner, which belies the seriousness of what actually happened,” Townshend tells AARP.

In a now-deleted post on Instagram made shortly after his firing, Starkey wrote: “Heard today from inside source that Roger Daltrey – lead singer and principal songwriter of the group – is unhappy with my performance at the Albert Hall a few weeks ago, is bringing formal charges of overplaying.”

Pete Townshend continues: “Roger had asked us to rehearse The Song Is Over because that’s what we were calling the tour. We shortened it to three and a half minutes. And about halfway through [during the Royal Albert Hall show], it appeared that Roger got completely lost.

“He stopped, he complained, spoke to his own sound engineer, and started to rage. It looked like he was raging at Zak, but that’s not the case. It became a story among fans, and it looked like Roger made a mistake, but something technical went wrong. [Zak’s] handling of it was, I suppose, light-hearted, but you know Roger.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Townshend is asked why he and Roger Daltrey continue The Who while they’re both now in their 80s, instead of retiring.

“It’s a brand rather than a band,” he says. “Roger and I have a duty to the music and the history. The Who [still] sells records – the Moon and Entwistle families have become millionaires. There’s also something more, really: the art, the creative work is when we perform it. We’re celebrating. We’re a Who tribute band.”

The post “One of the difficulties Roger had was Zak jumped straight into Instagram and started to mouth off”: Pete Townshend reveals the real reason why The Who fired Zak Starkey appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

How did Steve Vai get so good at guitar? Well, it could be to do with the rigorous – to put it lightly – practice regimen he adopted from a young age.

In a new interview with Billy Corgan on the Smashing Pumpkins leader’s podcast The Magnificent Others, Vai recalls becoming obsessed with the guitar in his early teenage years, and developing a round-the-clock training schedule to sharpen his skills.

• READ MORE: “They were doing some fixing on their live record”: Peter Frampton claims Kiss borrowed his guitars to do overdubs on KISS Alive!

“When I was younger I chose the route of being fascinated by chops,” the virtuoso recalls. “It was an interesting discovery, and it was just something as simple as, ‘Look, if you sit down and just practice, you get better.’”

He continues: “And when I started getting better, it gives you a feeling of enthusiasm, self-respect, which I needed at the time. So it becomes sort of like an addiction.

“Practicing endlessly is not for everybody. It’s only for those that have a pull to do it. You can try to force it, but if it doesn’t feel natural to you, [it won’t happen].”

When asked by Billy Corgan about how many hours a day he would practice early in his guitar-playing career, Vai replies: “My schedule back then – I was happy if I got nine hours a day. I was very neurotic, very myopic.”

Vai says it was as early as 12, 13, and 14 years old that he became so engrossed and obsessed with honing his guitar skills.

“It just had such a pull, such an attraction, such an interest. Such a joy,” he explains.

“The funny thing was, it didn’t feel like discipline. People say, ‘You must have been very disciplined.’ Sometimes I would go to sleep early on a Friday so I could wake up and practice all the way ‘til Monday… I’m not a very disciplined person in that way. It was a passion. Passion is a much more powerful engine of creation than discipline.

“Discipline implies you have to fight something, you have to push yourself to do something that you don’t really wanna do. But passion says, ‘You’re gonna do this because you want to do it.’ There’ll be challenges along the way but there’s never the thought of giving up. Because it’s in your heart.”

The post “I was happy if I got 9 hours a day”: Steve Vai on the crazy practice schedule he developed as a teenager appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

It’s long been known that Kiss’s 1975 breakthrough Alive! album wasn’t quite as “live” as advertised. Members have since admitted to overdubs, while producer Eddie Kramer has explained that the band’s explosive stage show often came at the cost of clean-sounding performances.

• READ MORE: “Ace started to indulge in things that went up his nose”: Gene Simmons on the “rebellious” nature of Ace Frehley in Kiss’s early days

From fire-breathing and guitar rockets to sky-high platform boots, the chaos of a Kiss gig made it nearly impossible to capture everything cleanly on tape. “It’s no wonder things got a little bit out of whack,” Kramer tells Guitar Player. “So we did a bunch of guitar and vocal overdubs at Electric Lady Studios.”

As it happens, Peter Frampton was mixing Frampton Comes Alive! at the very same studio. And according to the guitarist, Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley made regular visits next door to borrow his gear.

“They kept on coming to us and asking if we got guitars, amps or basses, as they were doing some fixing on their live record,” Frampton told Guitar Player in a 2005 interview.

Among the gear was his mid-’50s Les Paul Custom ‘Black Beauty’, the same instrument immortalised on the cover of Frampton Comes Alive! and in Humble Pie’s breakthrough record Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore.

”They just kept on coming in and borrowing all sorts of different stuff,” Frampton said. “So my equipment is on that album – but not me!”

Kramer, too, remembers Frampton’s gear being used alongside Kiss’s Marshalls: “I do remember Peter’s amps in Studio A other than the Marshall stacks that Ace and Paul had,” he says. “Aside from them doing lead vocals and some harmonies, that’s all the gear I can remember now, as it’s ‘only’ 50 years ago now.”

Despite purists questioning the overdubs, the producer insists the fix-ups were necessary to deliver the record Kiss needed.

“After having heard all of the original shows and the rehearsals, they were remarkably good,” he says. “The essentials were there and well played, and we did whatever was needed to make that a great live album.”

The result spoke for itself: Alive! went on to sell nearly eight million copies, turning Kiss into arena headliners – with a little uncredited help from Peter Frampton’s gear along the way.

The post “They were doing some fixing on their live record”: Peter Frampton claims Kiss borrowed his guitars to do overdubs on KISS Alive! appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Joe Bonamassa is done wrangling with the critics. With his new record Breakthrough fresh out, the blues legend is clear-eyed about where he stands: not everyone will like his music, and that’s perfectly fine by him.

In a recent chat with Guitar World, Bonamassa declares, “What I interpret the blues as is different from what other people interpret the blues as. I’m long past the point of caring. There’s nothing I can do to change people’s opinions about me, nor do I wish to.”

• READ MORE: Joe Bonamassa says he no longer cares if you use too many pedals: “Players can do whatever the f*** they want. How about that?”

For Bonamassa, the point of it all is simple: “What I offer is an escape for two hours and 10 minutes. When we play a show, it’s an escape from politics, the world’s problems and your personal problems. You enjoy the show, or put on the record, and you forget. That’s what music is about. It’s always been about that.”

And while the so-called “blues police” might nitpick, he shrugs it off.

“Even the people who get praised and championed by the blues police think the blues police are a joke. They all roll their eyes in private,” says the guitarist. “It’s like, ‘Who cares? It’s just music.’ It’s made to be enjoyed; it’s not that important.”

That attitude extends beyond genre debates to his gear too.

“Everybody has room. There’s no right or wrong,” JoBo explains. “We live in a world of influencers going, ‘Well, here’s the ultimate way to do X.’ The next thing you know, someone comes up with some oddball approach that changes the game again. But everybody is dealing with the same wood and wire as everybody else.”

As for the critics who still want him to play it straighter? Bonamassa’s simply not interested.

“It doesn’t matter, because when I look at our last set of gigs and I see full arenas, I think, ‘We did something right, and the music struck a chord with a large number of people,’” he says. “So do I placate the minority of folks, or do I play an arena gig with blues songs that nobody else is doing? I’d rather do the latter.”

Ultimately, Bonamassa wears the “polarising” label like a badge of honour: “You have to, at some point, say to yourself, ‘This is who I am, but not everybody is going to like it.’… You’re not doing it right until you’re polarising. You’re not doing it right until someone you know makes a stupid meme about you.”

“There’s a quote from a bass player [Derek Smalls] from a great band [Spinal Tap], who said, ‘There’s fire and ice,’ but what you don’t want to be is lukewarm water. I’d rather quit than be lukewarm water,” says the musician. “I’d rather be loved or hated – but not tolerated.”

The post “There’s nothing I can do to change people’s opinions about me”: Joe Bonamassa accepts some people will never appreciate his take on the blues appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

For most of us, learning guitar is a labor of love, and that love is placed squarely in the music we want to make with the instrument, not necessarily in how it works and functions as a piece of equipment. In this article, or perhaps series of articles, we’ll take a look at some of those steps that might get overlooked when it comes to getting to understand our instruments and how they work.

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How Do I Tune A Guitar With A Tuner (Properly)?

Tuning a guitar seems like it would be the easiest thing in the world for a guitarist to learn, but there is actually a fair amount of subtlety to it if done properly. Everyone should learn to tune by ear, and there are enough tutorials online on how to do that. I do have some tips for those using a tuner of some sort that will help you get a better reading.

A guitar string vibrating consists of several notes – there’s the fundamental note, which is the initial sound when you pluck the string. Your fundamental note is the lowest note and then you have harmonics of that note at various points on the string. We know exactly where these points are, and they are very important in determining the timbre of an instrument. However, these harmonics often confuse a tuner – that’s why your tuner might bounce around a bit before it “settles down” and gives you a good reading.

When tuning your guitar, you only want the fundamental note, which happens to be the lowest note, so, to make it easier for the tuner to find that, roll the tone knob down very low, switch your guitar to the neck or rhythm pickup (if it has one) and then pluck the string over the twelfth fret. Don’t pluck it too hard or your string will go sharp and by the time it settles down, the note has died out – this is especially true on down-tuned guitars. Light pluck is all you need. This will give you the most accurate reading on a tuner.

What Does A Tone Knob Actually Do?

Most guitars have volume knobs and tone knobs, and while the volume knobs are fairly self-explanatory, ‘Tone’ knobs are a bit more misunderstood. Tone is a big buzz word in the guitar community and there are a million different ways that a guitarist can alter their tone, only one of which is the knob on the guitar. As it turns out, the tone knob affects the tone in a very specific way and can be a very important tool for us to alter tone before it leaves the output jack of our guitar.

The tone knob on your guitar is essentially a low-pass filter which allows lower frequencies to pass through the pot while knocking out the high frequencies. So, when you find your tone a bit harsh and high pitched, you can roll back on your tone knob to knock out some of those high frequencies. It functions very similarly to a treble knob on an amplifier.

When your tone knob is set to 10, you are letting all frequencies through, and you can dial it down until it’s at 0, at which point no frequencies will get through, and the guitar will not have any output. Learning to work with your tone knob will allow you to dial in a wider range of sounds right on your instrument without having to go mess with your amp during a show.

Are Neck And Bridge Pickups Interchangeable?

Most of the time, pickups will physically fit into either position on the guitar, but a good life lesson is: just because it fits doesn’t necessarily mean you should put it in there. There are some key differences that you should be aware of.

The first difference is that bridge and neck pickups are often wound differently. A string vibrates differently at the neck pickup than it does at the bridge. The string vibrates less at the bridge because it’s closer to a fixed point. Many builders compensate for this by making the bridge pickup “hotter”, essentially boosting the signal to match the neck pickup’s output signal.

The other key difference is string spacing. The string spacing at the bridge and the nut is generally different on electric guitars, with the string spacing being narrower at the nut than at the bridge. Because of this, the pole spacing on the neck pickup is often closer together than on the bridge pickup. This is not always the case, but oftentimes it is. Today, many aftermarket pickups make “F-Spaced” humbuckers, which can be used in Fenders as the string spacing on a Fender is usually a bit narrower than on a Gibson. Eddie Van Halen compensated for this difference on his Frankenstrat by slanting the humbucker to put the pole pieces more directly under the strings on his Fender-style guitar.

With these differences in mind, my advice is always to try anything that you feel might give you the sound you are looking for. Experimentation is just fine. I swap pickups all the time, and sometimes it has yielded really good results. Remember, you can always swap them back.

Why Do Some Guitars Have A Stripe On The Back Of The Neck and Some Don’t?

This is referred to as a “skunk stripe,” and it is most commonly found on Fender guitars. It was originally seen on guitars where the neck and fretboard were one piece of wood. In these cases, the truss rod was inserted from the back of the neck and the hole was covered with a piece of wood that was usually a different color. This was done because using a piece of the same color maple would have made it look as if a repair had taken place. So, they opted to make it ornamental instead, using walnut prior to 1959 and today it can be anything (I usually use roasted maple).

Fender still uses a skunk stripe today, even when the neck is a two-piece design and the truss rod can be easily inserted into the neck before the fretboard is glued on. The skunk stripe has become somewhat of a marketing gimmick for people who have become accustomed to it.

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