Guitar.com

Good Charlotte’s Benji Madden believes pop-punk’s biggest chapter is still being written, and according to the guitarist, there’s one band with the power to follow in the enduring, stadium-filling footsteps of the Rolling Stones.

After seven years away, Good Charlotte returned this year with Motel Du Cap, their first new album since 2018’s Generation Rx. It marks the end of a long quiet stretch for the Maryland pop-punk veterans, who had largely stepped back from releasing music after that record and its accompanying tour.

• READ MORE: Good Charlotte’s Benji Madden: “If you’re a guitar player, your skills go completely to waste if you’re not working with a f**king great songwriter”

Speaking to Guitar.com in a new interview, Madden shares his thoughts on what it takes for a guitar player to leave a lasting mark and why he doesn’t believe the era of pop-punk stadium bands is over just yet. When asked to name the most important guitarists in the genre, his number one choice came without hesitation.

“If I have to go number one, it’s Billie Joe from Green Day,” says Madden. “They’ve taken pop-punk all the way from clubs to stadiums and now a bunch of pop-punk bands have done – or will do – stadiums. You haven’t seen the last pop-punk stadium band. Green Day will be the [next] Rolling Stones, as they continue on and play stadiums all over the world.”

For Madden, Joe’s influence goes far beyond guitar tones or technical showboating. Instead, it’s about songs – and the ability to write music that embeds itself into culture.

“Again, it goes back to, ‘How can I become a guitar hero? How can I become a guitar player that’s remembered in time?’ It’s all about the songs,” Madden continues. “Billie Joe has his own feel, and his own journey, too. That would be the poster child to me, because they are a fixture in the culture of what people love and remember and associate with. That makes him a really important pop-punk guitar player.”

Good Charlotte’s latest album, Motel Du Cap, is out now. The band is also set to appear at the Slam Dunk Festival next May.

The post The pop-punk band Good Charlotte’s Benji Madden claims will be “the next Rolling Stones” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$599/£449, fender.com

Whilst players from Beck, Gibbons, Cropper to Springsteen have chosen the single-pickup Fender Esquire as their six-string of choice over the years, many players still prefer a Telecaster’s broader tonal palette courtesy of its dual pickup format.

• READ MORE: Gretsch Synchromatic Falcon review – “this guitar is going to make Falcons a much more common sight on everyday stages”

But can that still work when that magic is distilled into something a lot more humble than the guitars that those icons were using? Well, Squier’s latest addition to the impressive Classic Vibe range aims to make you a believer…

Squier Classic Vibe Custom Esquire – what is it?

In addition to having considerably more naming designations than it does pickups, the Squier Classic Vibe Custom Esquire eschews the blue-collar simplicity of what most of us would associate with the Esquire look for a classier double-bound early 60s custom colour look.

You get a poplar body and a maple neck with an Indian laurel fretboard – as is the norm for the Classic Vibe range – plus a single alnico single-coil pickup with a three-way selector switch (more on that later).

The Esquire is available in Candy Apple Red or the classy Sherwood Green you see here. It’s not often that a guitar unboxing gets all heads in the room turning – especially at this price point – but there can be no doubt that this Squier Esquire is a looker.

However, like a nightclub bouncer in a dinner jacket, looks can be deceptive; underneath the West Coast hot rod look, is there a bruiser waiting to be unleashed?

Squier Classic Vibe Custom Esquire – build quality and playability

With its double-bound body, the retro-feeling slim C-ish neck profile and 21 vintage-sized frets, it all adds up to a 60s Fender playing experience in the hand – there’s even a subtle hint of flame to the back of the neck, adding to the ‘how much?’ vibe.

The single Fender-designed alnico single-coil bridge pickup has controls for volume and tone, but also a 3-way selector. Why? Well, thanks to some clever wiring, position one has a capacitor to give a dark pseudo-‘neck’ tone, the middle position has the tone and volume controls connected and having the selector all the way back bypasses the tone control for a subtle lift in output and top end.

Squier Classic Vibe Custom Esquire – sounds

Plugging in, and instantly the drawback of that single pickup is felt. Unfortunately, to my ears, the pseudo neck position is just too dark and woolly to be usable in most musical contexts. It’s not the end of the world, however – there are plenty of simple wiring mods you could make to the capacitor value to change this should you be handy with a soldering iron, though I can’t really understand why Fender would persist with this as the default.

Getting to the good stuff, however, the Fender-designed single-coil pickup at the bridge is a sweet and punchy-sounding pickup, bright without being abrasive, offering plenty of snap and clarity to notes with cleaner sounds and a powerful punky snarl with more gain. Select the ‘middle position’ dial the tone control back and a mellower tone that contrasts well to the straight-ahead bridge sound emerges, and select the pickup alone in position three ups the brightness and output a touch, pure BFG, pure rock ‘n’ roll and loads of fun, offering more versatility than the single pickup initially suggests.

Squier Classic Vibe Custom Esquire – should I buy it?

I thought I’d miss those genuine neck pickup and middle position Jimmy Page Tele tones; however, the straight-ahead bridge sound, especially the snarling aggressive vibe of the bypassed tone control setting, meant I was having so much fun I forgot all about them!

This is a seriously cool guitar, head-turning elegant looks, retro feel, and tons of 60s Americana vibes. And it has some seriously good tones, too. For this price, you’d be crazy not to take a look.

Squier Classic Vibe Custom Esquire – alternatives

For more classic single-pickup action, a good P-90-loaded guitar is a must, and the Epiphone Coronet ($449/£379) is a lot of guitar for the cash. Alternatively, for a wallet-conscious take on a Gibson classic, there’s the Sire Larry Carlton L3 P90 ($459/£279). For heavier music with the stripped-down simplicity and a cool range of colours, the humbucker-loaded Squier Sonic Esquire H ($230.99/£159) is a tempting proposition.

The post Squier Classic Vibe Custom Esquire review – “I was having so much fun I forgot all about the neck pickup” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Perry Bamonte, guitarist for The Cure, has died after a short illness over Christmas, aged 65.

Bamonte’s death was confirmed by the band earlier today (27 December). “It is with enormous sadness that we confirm the death of our great friend and bandmate Perry Bamonte, who passed away after a short illness at home over Christmas,” the band’s statement reads.

Bamonte began as a personal assistant and guitar technician for frontman Robert Smith, before joining the band on guitars and keyboards in 1990. He remained until 2005, and rejoined in 2022.

The band continues: “‘Teddy’ was a warm hearted and vital part of The Cure story. Looking after the band’ from 1984 through 1989, he became a full time member of The Cure in 1990, playing guitar, six string bass and keyboard on The Wish, Wild Mood Swings, Bloodflowers, acoustic hits and The Cure albums, as well as performing more than 400 shows over 14 years.”

“He rejoined The Cure in 2022, playing another 90 shows, some of the best in the band’s history, culminating with The Show of a Lost World concert in London November 1 2024. Our thoughts and condolences are with all his family. He will be very greatly missed.”

The post The Cure guitarist Perry Bamonte has died aged 65 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

boss.info

What makes a great octave pedal? That question is a bit of a pandora’s box, but we can at least prop the lid open for a bit with one of the most popular modern octave pedals out there: the Boss OC-5, which folds in nearly 40 years of Boss octave history, while remaining a lot more accessible than octave workstations like the Pog 3.

• READ MORE: Electro-Harmonix POG3 review – the wildest pedal EHX has ever made

The OC-5 was released in 2020, superseding the very vintage (and analogue) OC-2 Octaver from 1982, and 2003’s OC-3 Super Octave. The OC-3 was notable as it was the first polyphonic octave pedal – meaning it could accept chords without completely destroying its ability to track. The OC-5 contains a more modern polyphonic mode, as well as a recreation of the OC-2’s glitchy, dual-sub-octave tracking.

OC-5 control overview

The OC-5’s controls are pretty straightforward, with the exception of the multi-function range/-2 oct knob on the right. This varies its function depending on if you’re in vintage or poly mode – in vintage mode, it blends in an ultra-low sub-sub octave, while in poly mode, it controls how the -1 octave signal tracks. On its lowest range, this sub-octave will only follow the lowest note of a given chord – turn it up, and more of your signal will join the low-octave mix. Other than this control, there’s dry blend, which ranges from completely killing the signal to a fairly hefty boost, the blend for the upper octave and the blend for the sub octave.

Vintage mode

True to the goal of recreating the OC-2’s rudimentary tracking, the Vintage Mode is purely monophonic. But even with single note inputs, it can struggle to find what you’re actually playing, resulting in glitchy artefacts as the octave sound jumps about. This mode is still a lot of fun, although unless you’re in a two-piece, the -2 octave sound is absolutely bound to get lost in a full band mix.

Poly Mode

This is the main event, really, and realistically the far more usable of the two modes. The improved tracking makes it obviously much more tight and responsive to play – and thanks to that cleaner tracking, the mix controls are a lot more useful in dialling in what output you want.

The upper octave here is a lot of fun, especially on leads – one of the main uses of an octave pedal is to make your guitar sound like a synth or an organ, and while the OC-5 isn’t quite as built for that approach as, say, the new Pog 3, there are still plenty of big synthy sounds on tap, especially with some gain and power chords.

Some aggressive use of the upper octave is perhaps the most fun you can have with the OC-5, though – especially on leads, adding a screaming, Jack White-style edge to things.

Digital vs analogue octave pedals

While the original OC-2 was analogue, the power of the OC-5 comes from its digital nature. But if you’re in the market for a compact octave pedal, you may well have come across a modern analogue option like the EQD Tentacle, an updated version of the Dan Armstrong Green Ringer, or something like MXR Blue Box.

These pedals rely on the fact that you can do some very simple maths with analogue equipment – either folding the signal over to double its frequency, or using flip-flop circuits to recreate every other wave peak to half the frequency. This leads to a much more chaotic and fuzzy sound, hence vintage octaves are so closely associated with octave fuzzes rather than cleaner “pitch-shifting” units.

A/Bing the OC-5 (with only its upper octave engaged) and an EQD Tentacle is particularly illuminating in this regard – even with an amp set clean, the Tentacle introduces audible distortion – and while it “handles” chords, anything more complex than a power chord gets messy – even basic thirds get crunched apart.

On the other hand the OC-5 in its modern Poly mode introduces no distortion at all, with a sparkly-clean recreation of the exact same sound, only one octave higher, blended in. So keep this in mind if you’re looking to make a decision between an analogue and a digital octave pedal in 2025.

Can you stack the OC-5?

The OC-5 is an excellent pairing with some heavy full-spectrum distortion – especially something super-saturated like a Big Muff. If you’re a fan of, say, Jack White, you may already know that a digital octave run into a Big Muff Pi is one of the best sounds out there – and thanks to the OC-5’s clean tracking, big riffs will gain a synthy, powerful character rather. We’ve seen this sound get a lot of love recently with Keeley’s Octa Psi and Eventide’s Knife Drop, the latter a collaboration with White himself.

But combined with impedance-sensitive fuzzes, however, things are less ideal – the Boss buffer will present problems even in bypass, and the digital nature of the tracking is not a fond pairing with the more uncontrolled nature of a raspy, vintage-voiced fuzz.

Another trendy pairing in recent years has become an octave pedal and a RAT, a combo made famous by Sunn O)))’s albums Life Metal and Pyroclasts, immortalised in the band’s signature Life Pedal. This sound is definitely doable with the OC-5 – run into a RAT, you get a thick but harmonically complex wall of sound. However, the cleanliness of the OC-5 means that, in comparison to using an analogue octave up, things don’t quite develop and shift over the course of a (very long) note – arguably the appeal of that sound.

Who is the OC-5 for?

The world of pitch-shifting is a massive and expansive one – and the OC-5 only represents a small part of it. The clean, full sound of an octave harmony is a very distinct thing to the more evocative sound of a scale-based harmoniser, or the free-form pitch ramps of something like a Whammy. And the OC-5 offers a good amount of control, but nowhere near as much as some of the bigger workstation pedals out there – but for guitarists looking to explore the benefits of cleanly mixing in octave-shifted sounds into the mix, whether that’s for otherworldly synth parts or for massive Jack White impressions, the OC-5 is a great, affordable compact option.

OC-5 alternatives

We’ve already mentioned a lot of the different styles of octave pedal already, but for posterity let’s establish some directions to go – using the OC-5 as a starting point. Given its affordable and compact nature, a starting point is a good way of looking at it – for many, it’ll be all they need – for others, a gateway drug into the world of octaves.

If the OC-5 is too clean for you, and you want raspy unpredictability, you can go for the Earthquaker Devices Tentacle for an analogue upper-octave sound. In the other pitch direction the MXR Blue Box is a sub-octave fuzz, and is completely gnarly.

If you want more control over your octaves, most iterations of EHX’s POG line will give you that – not least the incredibly extensive new POG 3. Until boss makes an OC-200, it’s probably the most fully-featured octave pedal you’ll be able to find – but keep in mind its price and its size make it a pretty big commitment.

The post Boss OC-5 review: what makes a great octave pedal? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Wolfgang Van Halen is inspired by a number of modern metal players, but his love for Tool runs deep, and his admiration of Adam Jones’ guitar work perhaps even deeper.

WVH’s band Mammoth released their third studio album, The End, back in October. Though it departs from the sound established by the band on their first two albums, the influences of his favourite players still jump out.
Alongside the likes of Foo Fighters and Intervals, Wolfgang has shared his love of Tool a number of times across his music career, and feels that Jones’ approach to guitar echoes that of AC/DC’s Malcolm Young.

• READ MORE: “It’s not about having a guy jumping around on stage… It’s about playing the f**k out of your instruments”: Wolfgang Van Halen on what really matters onstage

He tells Guitar.com, “I think, in terms of every instrument I play – bass, guitar, drums and singing – each member of Tool is on the respective Mount Rushmore for their instrument.

“The first song I heard from them was Third Eye [from 1996’s Ænima], which is funny, because it wasn’t a single or anything. It kind of opened my mind – opened my third eye, so to speak – regarding what music can be. I was like, ‘This is a 13-minute song! Not just a four-minute thing!’ It blew my mind when I was in seventh grade. There’s power in its simplicity: when Adam just holds down the rhythms and almost lets Justin [Chancellor, bass] take the lead, they have such a great connection.”

He adds, “When it comes to rhythm playing, Adam is almost like the Malcolm Young of metal. He is such a fucking awesome rhythm guy, and he’s a great lead guy, too. Things like the talkbox solo on Jambi are just the best.

“In Mammoth, the influence of bands like Tool and Meshuggah will come out in places you don’t expect. If you listen to [the song] The End, the very end of it, there’s this double-kick, half-time, metal-ey thing. They just pop up… It’s never intentional.”

Mammoth’s third album The End is out now. They head out on tour in March – find out more via the official Mammoth website.

The post The legendary guitarist that Wolfgang Van Halen calls “the Malcolm Young of metal” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Jason Isbell has made a rather strange comparison, but it kind of makes sense – his beloved Martin guitars are somewhat “like a laptop”.

Isbell teamed up with Martin for the launch of two signature models back in October, both of which take after his beloved pre-war 0-17 model used across his latest record, Foxes In The Snow.

• READ MORE: The Guitar.com staff picks: this is the best new gear of 2025

Speaking to Guitar.com about the guitars, as well as the Grammy nominations for his new album, Isbell likened his use of Martin models to the use of a laptop – not necessarily due to any jazzy technical specifications, but because of how versatile he finds them to be. With a Martin in hand, he gets stuff done.

“I’ve never felt like I could do something that a Martin couldn’t do,” Isbell explains. “You know, it’s kind of like my laptop. Especially with the really good old ones or the nice Custom Shop new ones. It’s like I’m doing emails on here, and this thing could operate a city or an automobile, y’know?”

He adds, “You don’t want your tools to create the ceiling. You want your creativity to create the ceiling and the tools should be able to follow you there. And that’s always been the case for me with Martins.”

The launch consisted of the super limited Martin 0-17 Jason Isbell, with just 50 made available, and the slightly “more accessible” 0-10E Retro Jason Isbell. Speaking of the two variations, he says, “This time around, I felt like a version that was more accessible would be a good idea because I didn’t want to split the difference.

“I feel like there wouldn’t be as much of a purpose in making one that was sort of in the middle of the road. I wanted one version that was as close to the old guitars we could get and then, one version that sort of had the spirit of that guitar, but was a lot more affordable.”

Find out more about Jason Isbell’s signature models via Martin Guitar.

The post Jason Isbell thinks his Martin guitars are sort of “like a laptop” – and his justification actually makes sense appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Matt Heafy has opened up on his struggles with burnout and mental illness, sharing how in 2024 he juggled around 30 projects at the same time.

His band Trivium released a new EP, Struck Dead, in October, which explores his confrontation with his own mind. Though still super busy balancing the writing of the band’s 11th album with fatherhood, Twitch streaming, and more, Heafy has a new perspective on his mental health, and is trying to scale things back.

• READ MORE: This is why Matt Heafy uses a double guitar strap

In an interview with Guitar.com, he shares: “[Last year] I was doing 15 to 20 to 30 projects at the same time. I was producing bands, I was managing bands; I was making all these different products and trying all these different things, like scoring video games and scoring a movie and starting a pop-up restaurant.”

The pressure became too immense, and his bandmates and loved ones staged an intervention. Heafy went on to attend counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy: “What we determined through therapy is that I’m naturally very low on serotonin,” he explains.

“I have to be on SSRIs to help my very low serotonin. Once I corrected that, we realised that I’ve got intense ADHD, anxiety and OCD. I wanted to figure out what makes me tick. Why do I think this way? How can I stop going to such an extreme point every single time?”

Track Six Walls on the new EP is potent with brutal honesty about the darkness that overcame him. He tells us, “I buried myself in my own coffin, and the six walls of this wooden coffin are what I pictured. I’m finally trying to break free. It took, like, a year. It was in January [2025] when I started coming to. On the first tour after treatment – after 38, 39 years of living the same way – I was like, ‘Holy shit! I’m having so much fun!’”

Hear the track below:

Trivium’s new EP, Struck Dead is available now to buy or stream. Find out where you can get support if you’re struggling with your mental health.

The post “I buried myself in my own coffin”: Matt Heafy opens up on mental health struggles appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Tom Morello’s Arm The Homeless guitar is featured on 22 albums and has accompanied him on every tour from 1998 to the present day. Now, thanks to Fender, you can now get one of your own.

The guitar’s origin story begins sometime around 1986 and 1987. Morello had just moved to LA having graduated from Harvard, and splashed out on a custom guitar from LA’s Performance Guitar USA. Luthier Kenny Sugai had made guitars for Frank Zappa, Joe Walsh and Steve Vai, but there was a problem with Morello’s finished model – he thought it was “crappy”.

• READ MORE: “There’s creativity to happen, and there’s a job to get done”: Tom Morello says you have to be “professional” to be a successful rock star

Sugai was not to blame for his disappointment, though. As Morello has admitted, he had ordered a custom made instrument with “no idea” what he was doing. He began to completely modify the guitar, changing everything apart from the body wood, leading to the creation of one of the most recognisable and unique guitars of our time.

The model has now been fully replicated by Fender, and proceeds from each sale of the instrument go towards supporting the work of Midnight Mission in Los Angeles, and Covenant House, a charity that helps homeless teenagers across the US.

In a new interview with Guitar.com, Morello assures us that the real Arm The Homeless guitar will still come out for special occasions and remains in the studio “always ready”, but says this new replica is now the one he takes out on the road.

It faithfully emulates the original so closely, that even Morello’s son has struggled to tell them apart. But there is one identity marker on the original guitar that was not included in Fender’s rendition.

“If you look closely you can tell, because a dog chewed the headstock of the Arm The Homeless guitar at some point in the past. And we did not recreate because I did not think that was important to the sound! But you will always be able to tell the real one because it’s been chewed!” Morello explains.

Of the charitable aspect of this guitar collaboration, Morello adds: “It was important that in making a guitar that has spent so many decades on the front lines, fighting for the oppressed and fighting for justice, that there be a justice component to this as well.

“While this guitar is made up of scraps and shards, to get it just right is not necessarily an inexpensive process. And so I want to make sure that there’s a Robin Hood component, where when you purchase this guitar it does filter back into people who really need it.”

You find out more or shop the guitar now over at Fender.

The post The secret difference that Tom Morello uses to tell his original Arm The Homeless guitar apart from his new signature model appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$199, uaudio.com

Glossing over a period towards the end of the 20th century when it slightly didn’t exist, Universal Audio has been making studio equipment since 1958. It’s also been doing effect plugins since 2002 and amp emulator pedals since 2022, so there aren’t many companies with better pedigree when it comes to creating an entire guitar recording chain in the software realm.

• READ MORE: Neural DSP Archetype: John Mayer X review – is this the Mayer tone plugin we’ve been waiting for?

A plugin for your DAW of choice, Paradise Guitar Studio includes virtual stompboxes, amps, cabs, mics and studio effects – everything you need, in theory, to record high-quality tracks without any hardware except a guitar, a cable and an audio interface. OK, and maybe a pick.

UA Paradise Guitar Studio – what is it?

I’ve reviewed most of the aforementioned UA amp pedals, and there’s been something of a common theme: the user experience isn’t always perfect but the tones are fabulous. And the good news is, the amps in this plugin are built on the same software. At least, on some of it…

The thing is, Paradise Guitar Studio is not the sort of ultra-comprehensive offering that will keep you scrolling through dozens of models before you even record a take. UA describes the gear it’s included as a “golden unit” collection, which I think is another way of saying “not very big”.

Three of those pedals were made available as individual plugins over a year ago: the Dream ’65 (based on a black-panel Fender Deluxe Reverb), Ruby ’63 (Vox AC30) and Lion ’68 (Marshall Super Lead). They’re joined here by the Woodrow ’55 (tweed Fender Deluxe) and Enigmatic ’82 (Dumble Overdrive Special), plus another black-panel Fender modelled on the more headroomy Showman. That’s a total of six, which is enough to cover most bases but does mean neither of UA’s recent high-gain amp emulators – the Knuckles and ANTI – is on board. Perhaps these are being held back for a rock and metal add-on?

In terms of effects, there are six drive/distortion options, seven modulation types, four delays and four reverbs, plus two compressors and two EQs. The speaker cabinet selection is a lot more generous – I counted 34 – but each has its own mic (or pair of mics) and you can’t change these or move them around.

Hardcore recording nerds will already be sneering at these limitations, but if you’re new to this sort of thing – or just crave simplicity – it’s still an impressively well-appointed tonal toolbox. And there are loads of user presets to get you started.

UA Paradise Guitar Studio – is it easy to use?

Guitar plugins like this have been around long enough now that there’s no excuse for making one that’s difficult to use. Luckily, Paradise Guitar Studio doesn’t need any excuses because it’s as clear and intuitive to navigate as it could possibly be.

The carefully curated selection of models certainly helps with this: there’s no need to go scrolling in search of an amp, because they all fit on one page. But UA also deserves credit for some fine UX design, with everything just where you’d expect it to be and no unpleasant surprises.

There is one more limitation that might bother some shoegazers, soundscapers and ambient drug casualties: you can only use a maximum of five stompboxes in front of the amp. It’s also a bit of a faff to remove a pedal from your virtual pedalboard, except by replacing it with another one. Not a real issue, just an annoyance for neat freaks like me.

UA Paradise Guitar Studio – what does it sound like?

Those fabulous amp tones I mentioned earlier? They’ve made it safely across from the real world to the virtual one. All are beautifully realistic and three-dimensional, with special mention going to the rich chiming midrange of the Vox model and the sweetly thick scuzz of the tweed Deluxe. Side-scrolling through the cabs brings instant access to all the options you could want for that all-important final stage of tone shaping, and you’re then free to play around with EQ, compression and reverb.

Both black-panel Fender amps work well as clean platforms for the pedals – and this, lest we forget, is another field where UA has plenty of experience. Its range of standard effects boxes is now 14-strong, so it’s no surprise that the delays and reverbs in particular are well up to scratch.

This is one area where you might find yourself longing for more choice, though. The six dirt options are a Muff, a Rat, a Klon, a Tube Screamer, a Fuzz Face and a Nobels ODR-1 – solid picks. But when it comes to modulation, three of the seven models are choruses – what is this, 1985? – along with a tremolo, a vibrato, a flanger and a phaser. This latter has just a single knob for speed, MXR-style, and a switch for vintage or modern voicing.

Still, you do have the option of going hybrid – combining your own real pedals with Paradise Guitar Studio’s virtual amps. So maybe it isn’t time to toss all your trusty old hardware onto a giant bonfire just yet.

UA Paradise Guitar Studio – should I buy it?

There are two very clear reasons not to buy this plugin. If you’re a metal fan looking for your next fix of high-gain chuggage, you’re not going to find it here; there are plenty of other plugins for that, though. Or if you’re a dedicated tone-sniffer who demands hundreds of options and complete control over every imaginable parameter, you’re not going to find that either. For everyone else, UA’s impeccable tones should prove more than enough.

UA Paradise Guitar Studio alternatives

If varied options is your bag, the one to beat in this race is IK Multimedia AmpliTube 5 Max V2 (€99.99), which includes a huge array of pedals, amps, cabs, mics and virtual recording spaces. Its many challengers include Positive Grid Bias X ($149); but if you fancy something even simpler than UA’s offering, try the MixWave JHS Loud Is More Good Collection ($179) with its five pedals and one amp.

The post Universal Audio Paradise Guitar Studio review – all the classic tones you need for home recording? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

One thing’s for sure: the world of guitar and rock music is still very much popping, with millions of you visiting Guitar.com over the past year to stay up to date with the latest news – from gear launches to the hottest takes from your favourite artists. And as Guitar.com’s News Editor, it’s been my distinct pleasure keeping you informed…

Now, as we wrap up 2025 and get ready to celebrate the festive season, I thought we’d take a quick look back at some of the biggest news stories from the past year that had you all clicking the most. No further beating around the bush – you probably have plenty more gifts to wrap (or, like me, buy…). Enjoy!

Metallica guitar tech on how ditching real amps helped the band improve the spectacle of their live shows

When many of us think of a rock show, part of the image in our heads is a wall of Marshalls at the back of the stage. For many years it was. But now, many of the world’s biggest bands are turning to amp modellers for their tones, thus freeing up space on stage to play around with set design. And Metallica guitar tech Chad Zaemisch says the switch has led to “a lot more opportunities” when it comes to providing a spectacle for the fans.

“The people in set design realised that if we don’t have this wall of speakers anymore, we have all of these other things available to us,” he said.

“Everybody’s all about content these days, and not a lot of people want to watch a band stand in front of their amp line with nothing else going on. Now we can use large video screens. It opens up a lot more opportunities to do different things.”

What do you think – should it be mandatory for a rock band to be seen in front of their amp line, or does it not really matter anymore?

Read more.

We said goodbye to some rock legends

Credit: Getty ImagesThere’s no getting around it – some of our biggest rock heroes are getting older, and this year we’ve had to say goodbye to some of the genre’s most legendary figures.

In June, we lost Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson at the age of 82, prompting a flood of tributes from far and wide, including from the likes of Paul McCartney, Sean Ono Lennon, Bob Dylan and Ronnie Wood. Wilson’s influence on the world of pop music cannot be understated, his creative vision and keen ear for melody shaping the sound of the genre in the decades following the formation of the Beach Boys in 1961.

It was hard to believe the news when it came – particularly as Black Sabbath had played their monumental farewell show in Birmingham just two weeks prior – but the metal world mourned in July when Prince of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne passed away aged 76. His death prompted thousands of tributes from across the music world, with bandmate Tony Iommi calling it “such heartbreaking news that I can’t really find the words”.

The guitar world was also stunned when it was confirmed that founding Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley had passed away at the age of 74. His former Kiss bandmates called him an “essential and irreplaceable rock soldier”.

Tobias Forge comments on Ghost’s phone ban for their 2025 tour

We’re all more glued to our phones than ever, and some artists have been looking for solutions to make their shows feel more organic and connected. Swedish metal powerhouse Ghost – a troupe of Nameless Ghouls led by frontman Tobias Forge – were one of the most high-profile acts this year to instate a ban on mobile phones at their 2025 shows.

This year, fans have been forced to seal their devices in Yondr pouches, designed only to unlock when outside the venue so fans are more present while watching the show. “If you have 10,000 people at a concert and 8,000 of them are holding a phone, there’s something deeply disconnected,” Forge said while justifying the ban.

It ignited considerable debate this year, with many commending the ban for making shows feel more “connected”, while others took issue with certain logistical challenges, like not being able to contact others while inside a venue, or not being able to take videos.

Read more.

Machine Gun Kelly revealed how he once accidentally stole a Martin guitar from a hotel room

Rockstars and hotel rooms have never really been a match made in heaven, and Machine Gun Kelly revealed how he once got on the wrong side of hotel staff when he accidentally swiped a Martin guitar from his room. Believing it to be a gift for playing his show in LA, he told Norman’s Rare Guitars that he took the instrument on the way out, and later received a call from his label saying the hotel had alerted them of the theft.

“I took the guitar out of the room, we exited the building, and Interscope called me 20 minutes later. They said, ‘The Ace Hotel just called us and said that they have you on camera leaving with the guitar,’ and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, well, I thought it was a gift for doing the show!’ They were like, ‘Yeah, well, it wasn’t a gift, that’s just what they put in their hotel rooms,’” he said.

MGK decided he didn’t want to give the instrument back, as he had already developed an attachment. “I love the guitar, just tell them I have to have it,” he told the Interscope rep. “The hotel billed me for $5,000.”

Read more.

Cory Wong kicked up some dust with this opinion…

Is it necessary as a guitarist to know every single note on the fretboard? Cory Wong definitely thinks so, and wasn’t shy in sharing his opinion back in March. In an Instagram Reel, the jazz-funk maestro said: “Gentle call out to the folks that consider themselves advanced guitarists. You should know where all the notes are on a guitar!”

As it does best, the guitar world erupted in debate, with many refuting Wong’s claim and saying it’s not essential to know your fretboard inside out after all.

Wong was undeterred by the furore spurred on by his comments, though, later saying: “Didn’t know this would trigger so many folks,” he writes. “I’m here for it.”

Read more.

The post The biggest news stories from the world of guitar in 2025 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

2025 is nearly over – across the last 12 months we’ve seen some seriously impressive guitar products arrive, ranging from overarching software suites to gorgeous metal guitars, from innovative utility pedals to gorgeous ambient delays. Over the last few days  myself and the rest of the Guitar.com team have been collating our favourites from the whole year – let’s dive into our picks!

Best premium acoustic: Taylor 314ce

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News Editor Sam: “Forget the scene when Jack lets go of the door and Rose watches him fade into the icy abyss of the Atlantic Ocean. A real tragic end to a beautiful love story came earlier this year when the UPS courier came to collect the Taylor 314ce Studio I had spent months developing an intimate bond with. I’ve never quite felt heartbreak like seeing that van – carrying what I can only describe as the love of my life – fade into the distance. I won’t be judged for being dramatic.

“The Taylor 314ce is among a small crop of the finest instruments I’ve ever played. Everything, to me, is exactly how I want it to be. The action is set up pristinely, which, paired with Taylor’s “easy-playing” neck profile – and satin-finished neo-tropical mahogany neck and West African Crelicam Ebony fingerboard – makes for one of the most luxurious acoustic guitar playing experiences imaginable. The guitar also delivers a stunningly balanced and earthy tone, with satisfying low end projection plus gorgeous sparkly highs, making everything from simple chord strumming to intricate fingerstyle playing an utter delight. I must also note that I had this guitar for months and played it regularly, and somehow the strings still sounded brand-new.”

Best affordable acoustic: Martin 000 Jr Sapele

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Commissioning editor Josh: “I am not a small person. I am big and broad enough that I will begrudgingly accept that I do look rather silly playing any kind of student or parlor guitar. And yet… I bloody love a small-bodied acoustic. Especially as the entirety of my acoustic playing life is now at home, I don’t really care about the power and projection of a big-bodied guitar at this point. I just want something that’s comfortable, plays well and sounds good.
That said, I was not expecting to get on with the Martin 000 Jr quite as much as I did – but something about the whole recipe really did just click with me in a way that made it a very, very hard guitar to say goodbye too.

“That scaled-down 000 body shape doesn’t feel as dainty as a parlor-sized instrument, and the full-size scale length certainly combines with that to make it feel every inch a ‘proper’ guitar, but just a big more ergonomic and compact. It also sounds and looks great too, and with its stained sapele finish, it just looks at home in any space you put it in – a killer instrument and a killer price too.”

Best gigging amplifier: Orange Tour Baby 100

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Senior Staff Writer Cillian: “It’s no secret I love Orange amps, and I’ve recently been having a very good time with the brand’s solid-state offerings. Late last year I bagged myself a used Super Crush 100, which is essentially a JFET version of the Rockerverb preamp running into a Pedal Baby power amp. It’s a great amp and I love how it sounds and looks, but I was really impressed with one of Orange’s more compact solid-state offerings this year – the Tour Baby.

“The Tour Baby is the same size as the Pedal Baby, but adds two preamp channels and a built-in compressor for the cleans. Given its miniscule size but beefy 100-watt power stage, it’s a really compelling option for small gigs where you don’t want to load the boot of your car to bursting but still want to kick out some serious dBs on stage. Its overdrive sounds were great too, and it took dirt pedals amazingly – in all, a very Orange take on the solid-state thing, with some added versatility and portability, all for under £400. What’s not to like?”

Best practice amplifier: Orange O Tone

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Commissioning editor Josh: “I didn’t actually review this one in the end, Richard did, but the O Tone 40 spent a few weeks in my house while it was waiting to be photographed and man, did I have a good – and extremely loud – time with it sitting in for my trusty Princeton over that time. Because, as the O Tone 40 proves, nobody really designs amps like Orange’s design guru Ade Emsley. Here’s a solid-state, non-modelling amp that sounds absolutely fantastic, responds like a tube amp in all the best ways and is unapologetically and unreasonable loud with it.

“I am a paid up member of the ‘most people play at home we need amps that sound great at bedroom levels’ club, but I love that there are people out there like Orange building these uncompromising machines in 2025 – it’s a dying art and we should appreciate it.”

Best utility pedal of 2025: Boss PX-1

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Commissioning editor Josh: “A confession, before we start: I think we might have reached something of a saturation point in terms of pedal innovation in 2025. That’s not a particularly original thought I know – my esteemed colleague Cillian said much the same last year – but it’s something I’ve been coming back to a lot this year. It’s not that there aren’t still good and interesting pedals being made all the time of course. But I think we’ve reached the point in the curve where the ‘surprise and delight’ aspect has started to wear off. Pedals are a bit like iPhones now – what would have blown your mind a decade ago is kinda normal now, and it takes a lot to really inspire much strong emotion.

“Which is why I found the reaction – and dare I say the backlash – to the Boss PX-1 so interesting. There’s no doubt that what Boss is trying here is quite different – creating a pay-as-you-go archive of classic and rare stompboxes from the brand’s illustrious past is not what anyone had on their bingo cards I don’t think. And while I think that the discussion and debate it provoked was actually quite useful and important – I’ll be very surprised if anyone tries a subscription-based pedal thing any time soon on the back of it, for example – it did rather obscure what the pedal itself was about.

“And taken on its own merits, the PX-1 is a very fun thing to have around – a living library of Boss rarities to pull out as and when the mood strikes. And judging by how quickly they flew off the shelves, a lot of you agreed with that sentiment.”

Best guitar software of 2025: Positive Grid Bias X

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News editor Sam Roche: “My colleagues Cillian and Josh started their year-end gear picks lists with their favourite guitars, and I’ll get to mine, but first I have to highlight BIAS X, the groundbreaking new AI-powered amp and effects suite from Positive Grid. Essentially an evolution of the brand’s long-adored BIAS FX 2, BIAS X blew the in-the-box tone market wide open when it landed in September, bringing with it an AI assistant, on hand to turn the tone in your head into a reality, in some cases in seconds.

Creativity should be the ultimate goal, and the tone-making process taking too long can be a hindrance to that end. With BIAS X, you can enter any prompt (“give me a high-gain tone for modern metal”), and the AI assistant conjures a signal chain from the platform’s vast amp and effects library to best match the vibe you’re going for. Like any AI, it’s not always perfect, but almost always offers a solid starting point which you can then tweak to your heart’s content. For the record I’m not a fan of any AI which takes creativity out of the hands of humans. But this is an application which expedites the tone-chasing process, and ultimately keeps you in your creative flow, so it’s a big A+ in my book.”

Best vintage-style electric of 2025: Fender Road Worn 50’s Jazzmaster

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Commissioning editor Josh: “Okay, I’m going to cheat slightly here because, frankly, this is my article and you can’t tell me what to do. Yes, you will probably have noticed that Guitar.com hasn’t quite got round to publishing our review of Fender’s latest Road Worn return… but I’ll let you in on a little secret: I’ve had one in my house for the last month and it is K-I-L-L-E-R killer.

“That might be somewhat spoiling the review when it comes out early next year, but time is a construct and I will not be constrained by such trivialities. I love a Jazzmaster at the best of times, but the Road Worn Vintera II is such a wonderfully bang on version for the money.

“I remember the first RW Jazzmaster Fender made over a decade ago, and while it was cool, it did very much look like a factory-aged guitar. The subtle ageing and lacquer checking on the 2025 variant is so much more believable. The only thing that’s lacking is the colour options – Fiesta Red and Sunburst? Come on guys, give us some custom colour options – Sonic Blue, Seafoam Green, Shoreline Gold… who cares if it’s vintage-correct, live a little!”

The best rock/metal electric of 2025: Jackson Lee Malia LM-87

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Senior Staff Writer Cillian: “Is it a metal guitar for offset nerds? Or an offset guitar for metal nerds? Who knows, but either way, Jackson’s new Lee Malia signature is absolutely my top pick of 2025’s new guitar releases. Firstly: it looks cool as hell, and in a super classy way. This is not the kind of heavy guitar that, aesthetically, screams “mettuuull”, shotguns a beer and stage-dives into the moshpit – instead the dark, open-pore finish, the offset shape and the weird tune-o-matic nabbed from Malia’s love of weird vintage Gibsons make it appealingly minimalist but still mean looking. Sonically, the combo of a subtle P90 in the neck and an absolute jackhammer of a bridge humbucker makes it great for doing things that aren’t just drop-A chugs – but it does still excel at those.”

Best modern electric of 2025: Sterling By Music Man Kaizen

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News editor Sam: “I’m fortunate enough with this job to have many guitars across my desk, and every now and then there’s one which has me tempted to get my wallet out to persuade the powers that be to let me keep it. When I was delivered the Sterling by Music Man Kaizen 6 last month, it was one of those moments.

“I love to experiment with jazz, blues and all manner of other genres, but really I’m a metal player through and through. And the SBMM Kaizen – an affordable take on its Ernie Ball Music Man counterpart, developed in partnership with Animals As Leaders visionary Tosin Abasi – is genuinely up there as one of the best guitars I’ve ever played. Much is often made of a guitar’s ergonomics, and for good reason. The way it sits in your lap and contours against your body will often be the defining factor in whether you play it casually for 10 minutes or get lost in it for two hours. And when I say I couldn’t put the Kaizen down, I mean I actually couldn’t put it down. I had plans on the evening of the day I received it which I was late for because I was so consumed.

“It’s so lightweight and thin that it quickly starts to feel like an extension of yourself – which in my mind is the perfect recipe for creativity. Oh, and I’m not even mentioning the high-gain and clean tones offered up by its duo of ceramic humbuckers. And add to that a floating trem? Take my money.”

The best ambient pedal of 2025: Old Blood Noise Endeavours Bathing

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Senior Staff Writer Cillian: “A lot of guitar gear is rooted in what was – but it’s hard to level that accusation at Old Blood Noise Endeavour’s Bathing. It’s a delay with a totally unique signal chain that shunts the feedback through a variable-stage and variable-LFO phaser – which is a whole lot of jargon to say it sounds utterly unique, totally gorgeous and, true to OBNE’s stated goal, very ‘liminal’. While it’s by no means for everyone, it’s hard to think of a pedal release I was so intrigued by this year, and I have a lot of respect for the approach of aiming for a totally new, uncharted feeling with a pedal – the art of the thing is in the driving seat, and it’s the sort of thing I’d love to see more pedal companies do.”

The post The Guitar.com staff picks: this is the best new gear of 2025 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Noel Gallagher may happily reach for a Stratocaster in the studio or on stage with High Flying Birds, but don’t expect to see one slung over his shoulder at an Oasis gig. According to fellow Oasis guitarist Gem Archer, it’s simply not how Noel approaches the band live, as the musician “doesn’t need all the bells and whistles”.

Speaking to Guitar World in a wide-ranging new interview, Archer sheds light on Gallagher’s live guitar philosophy, and shares why certain instruments – however iconic – just don’t fit the Oasis blueprint on stage.

• READ MORE: What guitars does Noel Gallagher use? The instruments that will power the Oasis Live ’25 reunion tour

Archer, who rejoined Oasis for their mammoth Live ’25 reunion tour alongside Noel and Liam Gallagher and original rhythm guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs, says that while Strats have their place elsewhere in Noel’s world, Oasis is a different beast entirely.

“He plays Strats with High Flying Birds, but in Oasis that’s not his thing,” explains Archer. “He doesn’t need all the bells and whistles live – it’s a direct thing, and he’s not gonna go from his wall-of-sound Les Paul to suddenly playing a Strat. It’s not needed.”

That said, despite Noel’s Gibson-heavy reputation, Archer reveals that at least one defining Oasis track was cut with a Fender, much to his own surprise.

“Don’t Look Back in Anger… was done with a Strat on the record,” he says. “I think it was a sunburst Strat. One of the first times I met Noel, I was round his house and he went, ‘Do you wanna come upstairs and see some guitars?’ And he went, ‘This is what I played on Don’t Look Back in Anger.’ I was like, ‘What?’”

Meanwhile, Gallagher himself has previously addressed his mixed feelings about Stratocasters. Speaking to Guitar.com in the past, the Britpop veteran admitted he was “never a fan of Strats” – even if he’s happy to rotate guitars in the studio, noting that “all guitars have got songs in them”.

The post Why Noel Gallagher will never play a Strat live with Oasis, according to Gem Archer: “He doesn’t need all the bells and whistles” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Session ace Larry Carlton has opened up about a chaotic, late-night studio date with John Lennon that turned out to be such a “drag” he ended up quitting after just one night

The session in question was for Rock ’n’ Roll, Lennon’s fifth and final solo album, released in February 1975. A covers record paying tribute to the rock and roll songs of Lennon’s youth, the album’s creation was famously turbulent, unfolding amid Lennon’s legal battle with Morris Levy over The Beatles track Come Together and his separation from Yoko Ono.

• READ MORE: Ed Sheeran is inspiring more people to play the guitar than The Beatles, according to a new study

Speaking to Jonathan Graham on the Thinking About Guitar YouTube channel, Carlton explains that he was booked for what was meant to be a full week of sessions at A&M Studios.

“I didn’t end up on the album,” he says [via Ultimate Guitar]. “Phil Spector, the producer, had booked a lot of us musicians for seven o’clock every night that week, five nights. And so, I went to the session for John on time, and Leon Russell [keyboards], I forget who else was there that night…”

“But anyway, what I’m getting at, is the seven o’clock session. [It’s] nine-thirty, still no John Lennon and Phil Spector. We’re just sitting around A&M Studios, Leon Russel and I went to another studio, he sat at the piano, and we just kind of jammed a little bit.”

When Lennon and Spector finally arrived, Carlton says the atmosphere only deteriorated further.

“So, John and Phil finally got there at ten o’clock or something. I didn’t tell the story for a lot of years, but it was a bad time for John,” Carlton recalls. “He was drinking. And so, we were gonna do a song, Bony Moronie [cover of the 1957 Larry Williams single]. I played Bony Moronie when I was 12 years old. So, I was in my cubby here, and John’s right there, and he had been drinking. He’s calling the chord changes; it’s only three. He’s going, ‘A!’ ‘Oh, I got it!’ ‘D!’ I said, ‘I got it!’…. It was a drag.”

By the end of the night, Carlton had made up his mind.

“It was not professional,” says the guitarist. “So, we finished that night’s session, I drove Leon Russel back to his hotel, and I said, ‘Man, that was a drag, darn it!’ And with his Oklahoma accent, Leon said, ‘You’re kiddin’, I’m back at Tulsa in the mornin’.’ I got home and called Phil Spector’s office, and just left a message at midnight, and said, ‘Sorry, I can’t make it for the rest of the week.’ I canceled. That wasn’t how I wanted to spend my time. It could have been so cool. But, one of those things. For me, it was the right decision. That wasn’t fun.”

That fateful session turned out to be the last time he crossed paths with the Beatles star as well, with Carlton admitting, “I’m an admirer, but that was a bad time.”

The post “I canceled. That wasn’t how I wanted to spend my time”: Guitar legend Larry Carlton reveals how he quit working with John Lennon after one drunken session appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Matt Heafy is at a transitional point. With his band, Trivium, he’s recently released the EP Struck Dead and is in the process of bringing aboard new drummer Alex Rüdinger while writing album number 11. Things are also changing behind-the-scenes. Revered for years as the busiest man in metal, Heafy is trying to scale things back.

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

“[Last year] I was doing 15 to 20 to 30 projects at the same time,” the singer/guitarist says, talking to Guitar.com during a down day on Trivium’s North American tour. “I was producing bands, I was managing bands; I was making all these different products and trying all these different things, like scoring video games and scoring a movie and starting a pop-up restaurant.”

The plates that Heafy was spinning all smashed on the ground when he had a self-described “metal breakdowns/mid-life crisis” in 2024. Burnt out more than he realised, his bandmates and loved ones staged an intervention, and he began to attend counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy.

“What we determined through therapy is that I’m naturally very low on serotonin,” says Heafy, explaining why he had to stay so busy for so long. “I have to be on SSRIs to help my very low serotonin. Once I corrected that, we realised that I’ve got intense ADHD, anxiety and OCD. I wanted to figure out what makes me tick. Why do I think this way? How can I stop going to such an extreme point every single time?”

By any other person’s standards, Heafy is still a wildly busy man, balancing Trivium with fatherhood, a regular Twitch presence and his passion for Jiu-Jitsu. However, he’s zeroed in on being a musician and a dad, and the lyrics on the three songs that make up Struck Dead are him interrogating his own thought process.

Opener Bury Me with My Screams is about the spiral that led up to his breakdown, centrepiece Struck Dead (Pain Is Easier to Remember) quotes something that bassist Paolo Gregoletto told him at his intervention, and widescreen finale Six Walls is about trying to break free from mental health struggles.

“I buried myself in my own coffin,” Heafy says, “and the six walls of this wooden coffin are what I pictured. I’m finally trying to break free. It took, like, a year. It was in January [2025] when I started coming to. On the first tour after treatment – after 38, 39 years of living the same way – I was like, ‘Holy shit! I’m having so much fun!’”

Musically, Trivium looked backwards while making Struck Dead: the writing coincided with their rehearsals for a co-headline tour with Bullet for My Valentine, where they played 2005 breakthrough Ascendancy in full. However, the EP is just as forward-thinking as it is nostalgic. Bury Me… closes with a torrent of breakdowns heavy enough to murder a newborn elephant, and the intro of Six Walls brings the shamisen, a Japanese stringed instrument, into Trivium’s world.

Ascendancy’s lyrics were just as bare as Struck Dead’s, with a 19-year-old Heafy opening up about depression and social anxiety. The album catapulted Trivium into metal’s stratosphere, but it was a mixed blessing. As great as all the magazine covers and blockbuster tours were, the band found themselves being bullied by jealous peers and gatekeeping fans.

“It was rough being bullied by our favourite bands, and by their fans,” Heafy reflects today. “We got bottles thrown at us [while onstage]. People tried to accost us by our van. We were on tour with Lamb of God, Machine Head and Gojira in 2006, and we had our sound guy walk out on us. I was going to our bus and some guy said [sarcastically], ‘Good show,’ and flipped me off and walked off.”

Having been through that and come out the other side, Heafy’s now a staunch advocate for new metal bands, not wanting them to be hazed the way he was. Trivium frequently pick young artists to open for them, and Heafy has a radio show dedicated to spotlighting rising talent. So, for the second half of our interview, we asked him to pick five up-and-coming metal acts who are truly impressing him right now. This is who he thinks will take over in 2026:

Fit for an Autopsy

“It was Corey [Beaulieu, Trivium lead guitarist] who first got me into them. I think he sent me Heads Will Hang first. I was like, ‘Holy shit, this is incredibly heavy!’, because it’s that mixture of stuff that I love. It feels a little bit like they would have been in the Gothenburg sound, a little bit like they’re into hardcore, and a little bit like they’re into modern metal. And then I heard Hydra, and I was like, ‘This is one of the best usages of a breakdown essentially being a song that I’ve heard since a band like Pantera.’

“We brought them out on the Trivium, Arch Enemy, While She Sleeps, Fit for an Autopsy North American tour, and they were just such lovely, wonderful guys. I spent hours or days playing games with Joe Bad [frontman Joseph Badolato] while we both streamed. Love him. I love all the guys: I had them all at my house, basically, when my kids were maybe a year old. We got them all Cuban food.

“They’re so freaking good live. They’re just perfect. The stuff that Joe can do, from his super low screams to his high screams and then his singing range, it’s just marvellous. The songs that Will Putney [guitarist/producer] writes… I think Putney is a wonderful songwriter and a great producer. When you hear a Putney record, you know instantly it’s one of his records. There’s this live energy to it while also being perfect. It sounds so well put together.”

Orbit Culture

“I love them so much. I’d say, if someone hasn’t heard them before, I don’t want to pigeonhole them but they’re for fans of Gojira, Machine Head, Fear Factory – the glory days of each of these bands. It reminds me of melodic death metal in a way, but it’s not. It’s got moments of the 2000s vibe of the Gothenburg sound. The songs are awesome, the production is awesome. But, it’s done very differently. I think it’s really cool that, at times, the drums will really just groove. It’ll give almost a Chaos A.D. kind of simplicity, drum-wise [referring to Sepultura’s influential 1993 groove metal album].

“Vocally, Niklas [Karlsson, vocals/guitars] is a powerhouse. Just like Joe, he’s able to do very low screams to very high screams. He has such a great grit scream. His gritty singing reminds me of [classic Metallica album] Ride the Lightning. It doesn’t sound like James Hetfield, but it makes you think of Hetfield from ’84, ’85, ’86.

“Niklas was one of the people who influenced me to get my grit scream back. The first time we toured with them, I was still doing my safe screaming that I’d done for 10 years [Matt adopted a new screaming technique after blowing out his voice in 2014]. I remember hearing Niklas’ voice and I was like, ‘Goddamn!’ He was definitely one of my inspirations to get that back. The fact that a band that’s relatively new can inspire a band that’s been doing it for 27 years, that’s awesome.”

Burner

“Burner’s album [2023’s It All Returns to Nothing] is that perfect fusing of these different sounds and styles and worlds while being its own thing, which is really cool. It so seamlessly blends things together. I think before, maybe in the 2000s, you could really feel the black and white combination of styles. But, I think the way Burner have done it, it’s their own palette they’ve created. It’s hard to say, ‘Hey, did they get this from Mastodon-era bands? From sludgier bands? From hardcore? From extreme metal?’, but you have all those tonalities within it.

“They have a really amazing recording quality, already. Straight out of the gate, hearing the guitar sound and the vocal sound, you know right away that it is Burner. I think that that’s a really important thing. When you can hear that individualism that quickly, that’s a rare thing, because there are a lot of bands today that are kind of chasing the same sound. There are five bands where I’ll hear five singles and go, ‘This all sounds like the same band.’ When you hear a band like Burner, you know right away that this is their sound.

“If I were to give Burner any advice, it would be the advice I gave to bands when I helped produce their records. I would say, imagine yourself playing at 1pm at Wacken or Summer Breeze or something, to 20,000 or 30,000 people who’ve never heard of you before. What is a guitar riff or a beat or a vocal line or a hook that by 2am, when they’re done watching the headliner, they can still remember you for? What’s your Roots Bloody Roots chorus, your Du Hast chorus? Let’s hear Burner’s version of these.”

Heriot

“Our manager’s just like us: he’ll tell us, ‘Hey, check this band out,’ and we’ll check them out. [When I first heard Heriot] I was like, ‘Holy shit, this is pulverisingly heavy.’ There are these kind of moody vibes in between. When I was dropping my kids off at school, another one of the dads was wearing a Heriot shirt. I was like, ‘Oh, man, we’re touring with them [in North America this autumn]!’ He was more excited about Heriot than us.

“Debbie [Gough, singer/guitarist] is fucking awesome and she looks so badass, too. With that Jackson old-school style guitar that she wears, it reminds me of Andreas [Kisser] from Sepultura. The music hearkens back sometimes to old 90s industrial, which is something that is near and dear to my heart: originally, Trivium was meant to be an industrial band. Sometimes I get vibes of Godflesh when I hear them, or if you stripped back and made heavier Napalm Death.

“I just love the visceral heaviness that goes on. I remember watching them a lot on this tour and people being very just, like, ‘Holy shit! This is so heavy! This is so good!’ They’re wonderful people. Rudy [Alex Rüdinger] actually just gave haircuts to a couple of the band members. I love the vibes of people who are just nice, good people, who can play incredibly heavy music. There’s something extra heavy about that!”

Paledusk

“HUGs is the opening song of Gachiakuta, which is a really wild anime. It’s a show where bad people are sent to this trash pit. I don’t want to give too much else away, but it reminds me of Borderlands and Dune and Fallout all in one. Musically, it starts off with this cool singing pattern that has a really heavy scream underneath. It almost reminds me of the screams that I do. And then it just gets really, really wild, like this kind of a new-school, super heavy, Bring Me the Horizons wildness mixed with Mick Gordon [composer of the recent Doom games]. Imagine the Doom score and Bring Me The Horizon when they’re really going heavy and nutty, using digital chops and stutters inside the song. It makes it seem like the music is glitching.

“The vocalist [Kaito Nagai], sometimes he’ll be singing pretty freaking high, and then he’ll go into this ultra-high, really strange, heavy, kind of Architects-three-or-four-records-ago stuff. Really, really cool, really bizarre. That’s what’s happening in the Japanese scene: it’s really weird. Being half-Japanese, I can say, us Japanese folk are pretty strange. It’s really cool that Paledusk are exemplifying that in a new way, with these no-holds-barred song structures. The hook structures don’t always make sense. They really don’t repeat like you’d expect them to. It’s very cool, very weird.”

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Singer-songwriter Chris Rea – the man behind the festive classic Driving Home For Christmas – has died aged 74.

His wife Joan and two daughters Josephine and Julia confirmed in a statement that Rea died “peacefully in hospital… following a short illness”.

Born in Middlesbrough, England in 1951, Rea went on to find considerable success as a musician, releasing 25 studio albums over his multi-decade career – touching on a multitude of genres including pop, blues and rock – and selling more than 30 million albums.

While Driving Home For Christmas has enjoyed a perpetual place on Christmas playlists every year since its release in 1988, Rea had hits with tracks including Looking for the Summer, Fool (If You Think It’s Over), Let’s Dance, Josephine and On the Beach, to name a few.

Chris Rea suffered a number of health issues throughout his life; in the early 2000s he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and had his pancreas removed in 2001. He later suffered a stroke in 2016.

Per the Guardian, he later described the stroke as a “very scary moment,” adding: “I got it into my head that my perception of pitch had gone with the stroke. And it took a lot of convincing from people saying there’s nothing wrong with what you’re playing.”

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Alice In Chains’ Jerry Cantrell has looked back on his friendship with Eddie Van Halen, sharing how the guitar mastermind gave him so much gear that it completely took over his manager’s garage.

The pair became buds when touring together for Van Halen’s For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge Tour in the early 1990s. Cantrell was originally nervous to play in front of EVH, but soon enough they would hang out together backstage playing ‘name that riff’.

• READ MORE: The Guitar Influences of Eddie Van Halen

In an interview for Gibson TV, Cantrell shares how Eddie generously gave him a guitar for free, and even went the extra mile to gift him even more guitars as well as amp heads and cabs, all for nothing in return.

“The first time I met Ed Van Halen I was getting ready to go onstage [to open] for his band, and he was standing in my pit with Valerie [Bertinelli] right next to him and Wolfie [Wolfgang Van Halen] in her arms. He’s got his guitar on, and he’s running scales like, ‘Hey, dude, what’s up?’ And I’m like, ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’”

He adds, “I think it was probably the worst show I ever played in my life, because I could not stop thinking, ‘He’s right there!’ I couldn’t focus, and I couldn’t wait until the gig was over. After that, it was fine… We ended up being really good friends.

“On that tour he had the [Peavy] 5150 heads that he had kind of made, and he had the [Ernie Ball] Music Man guitars; the EVH Music Man that he had designed. I was like, ‘Man I’d really like to have one of those, think you could give me a good price on one of those?’ And he was like, ‘Fuck that dude, I’ll just give you a guitar! Everybody gives me everything for free now, when I can totally afford it. When I couldn’t afford it, nobody would give me anything. So, let me do that for you. I’ll give you a guitar.”

Cantrell continues, “I remember coming home off that tour, and I was living with [Alice in Chains’ manager] Kelly Curtis and his wife, Peggy… He was like, ‘Hey man, welcome home. You had a good tour? Now you can relax. Hey, by the way, do you think you could clear your shit out of my garage? I need to put my car in there.’

“I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And he says, ‘Eddie Van Halen filled the garage with gear for you. I haven’t been able to park my car in my garage for months.’”

You can watch the full interview with Jerry Cantrell below:

You can watch the full episode of Icons: Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains via Gibson TV on YouTube.

The post Eddie Van Halen once gifted Alice In Chains’ Jerry Cantrell so much gear it filled up his manager’s garage: “I haven’t been able to park my car for months!” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The festive season is finally upon us. And amid the intergenerational wrestling matches that invariably break out over who gets the last Green Triangle in the Quality Street tin, it’s also a time in which we take stock of the past year, of our biggest wins and failures, and the resolutions we might look to carry into 2026.

But there’s a more important order of business on the agenda before you get into your 2026 personal growth plan: my favourite guitar gear of 2025.

I’m Sam – Guitar.com’s News Editor – and my inbox is busier than the Shibuya Crossing with guitar brands the globe over notifying me of exciting new gear releases and product innovations. So choosing my favourites from the past year was no easy feat, let me tell you. That said, there were a few that stood out as particularly innovative, and some I was lucky enough to get my hands on myself.

My identity as a guitar player can be defined in simple terms: metal and digital. A huge metalhead for nearly 20 years, and an avid lover of digital amp modellers and in-the-box tones, I’m genuinely thrilled to see the rapid pace of progress in the amp modeller space – not to mention the throngs of what you might call legacy players who have keenly made the switch. And that brings me to my first pick…

My favourite (amp) of 2025: Positive Grid BIAS X

My colleagues Cillian and Josh started their year-end gear picks lists with their favourite guitars, and I’ll get to mine, but first I have to highlight BIAS X, the groundbreaking new AI-powered amp and effects suite from Positive Grid. Essentially an evolution of the brand’s long-adored BIAS FX 2, BIAS X blew the in-the-box tone market wide open when it landed in September, bringing with it an AI assistant, on hand to turn the tone in your head into a reality, in some cases in seconds.

I get it: auditioning amp sounds can be very fun, and is invariably part of the process when recording music, but how often have you found yourself spending more time than you planned sifting through pages and pages of presets, never landing on the one you’re actually looking for?

Creativity should be the ultimate goal, and the tone-making process taking too long can be a hindrance to that end. With BIAS X, you can enter any prompt (“give me a high-gain tone for modern metal”), and the AI assistant conjures a signal chain from the platform’s vast amp and effects library to best match the vibe you’re going for. Like any AI, it’s not always perfect, but almost always offers a solid starting point which you can then tweak to your heart’s content.

For the record I’m not a fan of any AI which takes creativity out of the hands of humans. But this is an application which expedites the tone-chasing process, and ultimately keeps you in your creative flow, so it’s a big A+ in my book.

My favourite guitar of 2025: Sterling by Music Man Kaizen 6

I’m fortunate enough with this job to have many guitars across my desk, and every now and then there’s one which has me tempted to get my wallet out to persuade the powers that be to let me keep it. When I was delivered the Sterling by Music Man Kaizen 6 last month, it was one of those moments.

I love to experiment with jazz, blues and all manner of other genres, but really I’m a metal player through and through. And the SBMM Kaizen – an affordable take on its Ernie Ball Music Man counterpart, developed in partnership with Animals As Leaders visionary Tosin Abasi – is genuinely up there as one of the best guitars I’ve ever played.

Much is often made of a guitar’s ergonomics, and for good reason. The way it sits in your lap and contours against your body will often be the defining factor in whether you play it casually for 10 minutes or get lost in it for two hours. And when I say I couldn’t put the Kaizen down, I mean I actually couldn’t put it down. I had plans on the evening of the day I received it which I was late for because I was so consumed.

It’s so lightweight and thin that it quickly starts to feel like an extension of yourself – which in my mind is the perfect recipe for creativity. Oh, and I’m not even mentioning the high-gain and clean tones offered up by its duo of ceramic humbuckers. And add to that a floating trem? Take my money.

My favourite acoustic guitar of 2025: Taylor 314ce Studio

Forget the scene when Jack lets go of the door and Rose watches him fade into the icy abyss of the Atlantic Ocean. A real tragic end to a beautiful love story came earlier this year when the UPS courier came to collect the Taylor 314ce Studio I had spent months developing an intimate bond with. I’ve never quite felt heartbreak like seeing that van – carrying what I can only describe as the love of my life – fade into the distance. I won’t be judged for being dramatic.

The Taylor 314ce is among a small crop of the finest instruments I’ve ever played. Everything, to me, is exactly how I want it to be. The action is set up pristinely, which, paired with Taylor’s “easy-playing” neck profile – and satin-finished neo-tropical mahogany neck and West African Crelicam Ebony fingerboard – makes for one of the most luxurious acoustic guitar playing experiences imaginable. The guitar also delivers a stunningly balanced and earthy tone, with satisfying low end projection plus gorgeous sparkly highs, making everything from simple chord strumming to intricate fingerstyle playing an utter delight. I must also note that I had this guitar for months and played it regularly, and somehow the strings still sounded brand-new…

The cost of the Taylor 314ce Studio is lower than that of a fully US-made Taylor, owing to the fact the neck is made in Mexico. Some purists might take issue with that, but when a guitar looks, plays and sounds this good, who really gives a shit?

The post Ergonomic shred machines, AI amp suites and a real-life acoustic love story: these are my favourite guitar products of 2025 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Höfner has given an update on its recent bankruptcy filing, stating that “business operations will continue” throughout the administration process. It has also cited the effects of a challenging export market, particularly due to the recent hike in US tariffs rates.

• READ MORE: Höfner – maker of Paul McCartney’s iconic violin bass – files for bankruptcy
  

A new press release from the German guitar and bass manufacturer adds some context to the filings, which were made on 10 December 2025. It claims that around 65% of its most recent turnover of €6.5 million was due to export business – hence, when the recent US tariff changes were made and EU businesses faced much higher export costs, this had an outsized effect on Höfner. The company also points towards a generally unenthusiastic market for musical instruments due to the “tense overall economic situation.”

Klaus Schöller, managing director of Hofner, adds: “This step [filing for insolvency] was necessary in order to open up realistic prospects for the future of the company. Our goal is to work with a strong partner to position the Höfner brand for the future and secure business operations and jobs in the long term.” The press release further clarifies that filing for insolvency has allowed it to continue operations, as employee salaries are secured by the Federal Employment Agency until February.

The company is, of course, best known for making the 500/1 bass, AKA the Violin Bass, made iconic by Paul McCartney. Last week McCartney paid tribute to Höfner, writing on Instagram about his longstanding relationship with Höfner and the instrument that helped shape his playing.

“It is very sad to see Höfner go out of business. They have been making instruments for over 100 years, and I bought my first Höfner bass in the sixties. I have loved it ever since. It’s a wonderful instrument to play: lightweight, and it encourages me to play quite freely. It also offers pleasing variations in tone that I enjoy. So commiserations to everyone at Höfner, and thank you for all your help over the years.”

It’s worth noting that McCartney may have been premature in stating that Hofner is going out of business. Insolvency proceedings could help secure investors in the company and get it back on track.

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The PRS SE Silver Sky is one of the most popular guitars of the modern day, and Sweetwater is offering a number of festive deals across the lineup – including on a rather spectacular one that caught our eye.

The SE Silver Sky launched in 2022 as a slightly more affordable alternative to the original John Mayer signature Silver Sky released in 2018. It’s gone on to become increasingly popular, having been crowned as the best-selling guitar on Reverb for two years in a row in 2022 and 2023.

If you’d like to get your hands on one as a last minute Christmas present, then look no further than this Gold Spark version, exclusive to Sweetwater.

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Reduced to $679, saving you $170, this sparkling SE model’s striking finish was personally selected by John Mayer for Sweetwater, and it even has a sparkle-finished, colour-matched truss rod cover. Beneath the aesthetic upgrade lies the beloved SE Silver Sky foundation of a lightweight poplar body, a maple neck, a rosewood fingerboard (with an 8.5-inch radius), and a trio of 635JM “S” pickups.

• READ MORE: “If you come up to the factory and draw it with me, I’ll do it!”: Mark Tremonti reveals how Paul Reed Smith challenged him to design his “coolest” custom guitar

If gold isn’t to your taste, Sweetwater is also offering a Platinum Spark colourway also at the same reduced price. If you’d like a refresh on how it sounds, then check out the demo below, from none other than John Mayer.

We scored the PRS SE Silver Sky a near-flawless 9/10 in our original 2022 review. We noted that it was incredibly comfortable to play, and that its voice remains balanced with no sharp jumps in volume or tonal character as you change pickups – making it an uber versatile axe.

The range was expanded back in August this year, with new finishes made available for the first time on any PRS model: Derby Red, Trad Blue, Laurel Green, and Dandy Lion (yellow). According to Mayer, each colour was inspired by traditional American fashion.

Get your hands on the Gold Spark exclusive via Sweetwater.

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$269/£279, silktone.org

By now we can safely conclude that Charles Henry knows his shit. The man behind Silktone hasn’t exactly flooded the market with amps and pedals, but there’s been a common theme to the stuff he’s put out so far: utter brilliance.

• READ MORE: Coggins Audio Dinosaural Hypoid Drive review – a high-class overdrive with a difference

The Expander is his second overdrive. Seeing as we described the first one as an “instant classic”, I’m going to be massively disappointed if this new pedal – notable for its distinctively handsome enclosure design and lack of a conventional tone control – is anything less than stellar.

Silktone Expander – what is it?

OK, it isn’t just an overdrive… and nor is it, despite the name, a studio-style expander. What we’re promised here is one dirt pedal to rule them all, covering everything from subtle enhancement to aggressive drive and even fuzz. And the key to all of that is its novel approach to tone-shaping.

As mentioned, there’s no standard treble-attenuating control, but what you get instead is an interesting double act: a ‘choke’ knob for rolling off bass and a three-way toggle switch for dark, normal or bright voicing. On paper, that should have everything covered – just as soon as your overworked little brain has got a handle on how they interact.

Silktone Expander – usability

Three-knob pedals are never exactly difficult to use, but there is a learning curve with this one just because of those unusual tone controls. Luckily, there’s a card in the box with a basic manual on one side and three suggested settings on the other: an always-on tone-improver, a full-range drive and a Rangemaster-style treble boost.

If you’re wondering where the fuzz is, well so was I… but as so often in life, cranking up the gain will provide all the answers.

Silktone Expander – sounds

I begin with a Telecaster, a clean black-panel amp and the first suggested setting… and it hits the spot like the first cup of tea after being stuck up a tree for two days. It’s light, smooth and crisp-edged, with just enough compression to stop it getting abrasive – something like a sophisticated Rat at a low distortion setting. In fact, it’s a lot like the 1981 Inventions DRV, which is a heck of a start – but there’s lots more to this pedal than that.

The second setting is a mid-gain crunch that keeps the same sweet treble response but fills out the body of the tone a little, marking a step in the direction of transparent overdrive. This could come in very useful for a lot of players, and works just as well with humbuckers as it does with single-coils.

In a sense the third setting is more of the zingy same – lots more, in fact, as the gain is now close to maximum – but this can easily be turned into a more familiar full-range voice simply by flipping the toggle switch to the left, its darkest setting. Does that make it muffled? Actually it’s still quite bright, but you can now turn down the choke knob to let more bass through, which forces the treble to take a step back.

This can feel like a topsy-turvy way of doing things, but there’s no denying it’s effective at shifting the tonal balance. Set the choke to minimum and you can even get properly squelchy splat-fuzz, which is all about the overblown bottom end – and feels a long way away from the shimmery grit of that first suggested setting.

Silktone Expander – should I buy it?

There’s an awful lot of competition in the world of premium dirt – just look at the ‘alternatives’ paragraph below, phwoar! – but the Expander sets itself apart with an emphasis on addictively sugary treble. In that respect it’s very much an equal to the vaunted DRV, but with way more versatility.

It won’t make all your drive and fuzz pedals redundant, but put this thing anywhere near your existing pedalboard and there’s a good chance it’ll have its pick of which one to knock off.

Silktone Expander alternatives

Other ultra-classy overdrives that push all the way into fuzz territory include the Dinosaural Hypoid Drive (£219), Great Eastern FX Co Focus Fuzz Deluxe (£299) and Origin Effects Deluxe55 (£279). See also the 29 Pedals FLWR ($269.99/£285), which lets you shape its tone with a trio of three-way toggle switches.

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