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Fernandes guitars files for bankruptcy again – but there may be hope for the future of the brand
Fernandes Guitars has entered bankruptcy proceedings once again, but this time there is some hope that the legendary Japanese guitar brand might continue in some form.
This news arrives after the company previously filed for bankruptcy back in July 2024. Shortly after, Fernandes withdrew its petition, but the company hasn’t made any announcements since.
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Now, however, Tokyo-based news outlet, Nikkei Asia, has confirmed that the company has re-filed bankruptcy, with filings claiming the brand has amassed a total debt of around 730 million yen ($4.9 million). The Tokyo District Court granted permission for proceedings to begin on 9 July.
An interesting wrinkle to the new filing, however, is the confirmation that part of the Fernandes trademark has been transferred to another company in advance of these proceedings. While no details have been revealed at this stage, it could potentially mean that Fernandes will continue in some part.
Fernandes’ history begins in 1969, and it grew to become a go-to provider for budget import guitars. In addition to making guitars, Fernandes was also widely known for its Sustainer pickup – which is widely used by other brands and as an after-market add-on.
It ceased trading when it originally filed for bankruptcy last year, and its website remains closed. At the time, Fernandes released a statement in which it said, “Fernandes Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ‘Fernandes’) is currently owed a considerable amount of debt to multiple creditors, and unfortunately, it has become impossible to continue business.”
It later added, “Creditors and business partners who have claims or debts against Fernandes will be contacted in writing by the attorney representing them in the bankruptcy proceedings… We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patronage over the years.”
Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong has used a Fernandes S-type model (affectionally known as Blue) across their live shows for years, having owned it since the age of 11, and even Metallica’s Kirk Hammett has owned one too – his FST-13, named Edna, appears on the cover of Metallica’s The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited. Other notable Fernandes players include Ed O’Brien of Radiohead, and Robert Fripp of King Crimson.
Guitar.com will report on any further information regarding the future of the Fernandes Guitars brand.
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Vintage and Fret-King owner John Hornby Skewes & Co is shutting down despite being “profitable” and “entirely solvent”
John Hornby Skewes & Co, also known as JHS but unrelated to the US pedal brand, has announced that it is closing down after over sixty years in business.
JHS owns the Vintage, Encore and Fret-King brands, as well as being one of the UK’s largest distributors – currently supplying the UK market with brands such as Danelectro, Godin, Donner, Lava Music, Shubb, Wilkinson and many others.
In a statement released this morning, JHS is at pains to point out that the closure has nothing to do with financial troubles that have dogged the UK music retail sector in recent months, but due to a rather unique set of circumstances spurred by the death of the company founder, John Hornby Skewes, in September of last year.
In a statement from JHS shared with Guitar.com, these unique circumstances. “The JHS business comprises of a property company and a trading company, both majority owned by family trusts set up by the late John H. Skewes,” it reads. “The settlor of those trusts stated that after his death, the Companies should be sold.
“Steps have been taken over the last few months to try and secure a buyer to take John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd. forward under new proprietorship. This has thus far not been possible.”
It goes on to explain, “The trustees, shareholders, and board of John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd. have concluded that to achieve the settlor’s mandate, a process of conducting an orderly winding down of John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd. will commence with immediate effect.”
The company stresses that this is not a liquidation or administration process, and that JHS is “entirely solvent”. It anticipates that its closure process may take up to 12 months as it continues to trade, downsizing along the way, “gradually disposing of its stock and assets, including its valuable trademarks and other intellectual property”, which will be sold to the highest bidder.
JHS has created a variety of in-house brands over the last few decades, including Encore, Vintage and Fret-King – the latter two working in close tandem with after-market guitar hardware and electronics pioneer, Trevor Wilkinson.
The future of these brands will no doubt be determined in the coming months, but for the time being it seems to be business as usual as JHS begins the process of winding down its operations.
JHS concludes, “The trustees, shareholders, and directors of JHS would like to pay tribute to those who have engaged with us over the decades, in whatever capacity or manner of contribution.”
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“First it was booze, then it was bottles, then tables and chairs”: Blur’s Damon Albarn recalls how an acoustic folk song turned a gig into a riot
Damon Albarn is primarily known for his work in Blur and Gorillaz, he’s had plenty of musical projects in his time. But one of his most interesting musical ventures – Africa Express – also led to an unexpectedly intense reaction to an acoustic Welsh folk song.
In a new interview with Mojo, Albarn looks back at two decades of Africa Express – a non-profit organisation that facilitates cross-cultural collaborations between musicians in African, Middle Eastern, and Western countries. Not all of these collaborations have been well-received by the audience however.
Albarn recalls the most memorable of these took place in Lagos, Nigeria in 2008, where things really turned sour. Why? “Gruff Rhys decided to do a ballad in Welsh,” Albarn explains.
The Super Furry Animals frontman’s performance was just an acoustic folk tune, with Rhys taking to the stage with just his acoustic guitar. “I accompanied him and held up Welsh-language placards,” Albarn says. “It went over the head of the audience, and they started throwing things. First it was booze, then it was bottles, then tables and chairs, until [Nigerian saxophonist and activist] Femi Kuti calmed things down.”
At least the experience didn’t sour Albarn’s affection for the Welsh language – even if the Nigerian crowd probably won’t be putting Fuzzy Logic on their Spotify playlists. Albarn even recorded some of The Good, The Bad & The Queen’s – his art-rock supergroup – sophomore record, 2018’s Merrie Land, in North Wales.
Speaking to Mojo about his motives for starting Africa Express, which was spurred by the lack of artists from the African continent appearing on the Live 8 benefit concerts.
“I didn’t want to put on a white linen suit and be helicoptered into a disaster zone,” he explains. “Which was the route of the celebrity in Africa up until that point. Maybe that’s an unfair assessment but that’s how I felt then. I thought I would love to go to Mali but do what I actually do, make it something real to me.”
“We went to Salif Keita’s home in Bamako and he sang three songs then handed his guitar to Martha Wainwright, and she played three,” reflects cofounder Ian Birrell of that first Africa Express show. “[Malian duo] Amadou & Mariam were there, Jamie T… We spent time with Toumani Diabaté, went to an amazing show at Bassekou Kouyaté’s house. As we left, Norman Cook said it was like the best Later… With Jools Holland he’d ever seen.”
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The Who album that Eddie Van Halen loved so much that Michael Anthony claims he could play it “note for note, probably better than Townshend!”
We all know Eddie Van Halen was a great appreciator of classic British rock bands – Van Halen’s cover of You Really Got Me on their debut showed that. But according to Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, teenage Eddie was so obsessed with The Who, he could replicate Pete Townshend note for note – even as a teen.
In a new interview with Professor of Rock, Anthony recalls Eddie’s impressive skills when he first auditioned to join for Van Halen. “When I jammed with Eddie and Alex that first time, they played some of their original stuff,” the bassist explains. “They were going through these time changes and I’m [thinking], ‘Whoa! What a trip!’”
“They were great players,” he continues. “They really impressed me… [Eddie] could play the whole Live at Leeds [The Who] album, playing it note for note. It was just as good, if not better than [Pete] Townshend!”
Rather than being intimidated by Eddie and Alex’s talent, Anthony rose to the challenge. “They were putting me through time changes, and I was really digging it because it was something new to me,” he admits.
Anthony would learn over 300 songs, both covers and original tracks, to keep up with the band. “Every day at rehearsal, I’d be learning,” he recalls. “Just cramming songs in because we’d be auditioning for little clubs around the area.”
As Van Halen grew in popularity, their dedication and talent would impress fans and peers alike. In fact, David Lee Roth soon alerted Eddie to the fact that peers were listening in on rehearsals in the hopes of stealing ideas.
“Friends of his that play guitar would sit outside our little rehearsal garage and listen to us,” Anthony says. “They’d be out there listening to what Eddie was doing because they knew that he had something going on that they weren’t doing.”
To avoid artists poaching ideas off of Van Halen, Roth came up with a ploy to disguise Eddie’s talents. “Dave used to tell him, ‘hey, when you play solos… turn your back to the audience because you don’t want these guys to see what you’re doing!’” Anthony explains. “So a lot of times Ed would do that!”
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“I’m just going to throw that thing in the fire”: Shinedown guitarist admits his relic’d PRS Silver Sky inspired so much “drama” that he wanted to get rid of it
When Shinedown’s Zach Myers gave his John Mayer PRS Silver Sky signature a hot pink paint job and a relic’d finish, it was treated like an act of sacrilege. While Myers loved the final product, inspired by Mayer’s beaten-up BLK1 Strat, the backlash initially made him resent his custom project.
In a new interview with MusicRadar, Myers admits that he once considered destroying the guitar by throwing it into a blaze of onstage pyro. “I was like, ‘One night I’m just going to throw that thing in the fire and let it burn to death because I’ve had [so much] drama around this guitar,’” he reveals
Though Myers isn’t too sure who got wound up over his custom Silver Sky, Myers notes that Paul Reed Smith himself didn’t seem mad about it. “He didn’t say anything!” he explains. “He notoriously doesn’t like relics – it’s well documented, his hatred of relics. Yet it’s fine. Hey, I would never relic a flame-top guitar – I just felt the Silver Sky lent itself to that kind of cool thing.”
In the past, Myers has hinted that some of the backlash seemed to come from other members of the PRS team. This could potentially be because the company was gearing up to release Mayer’s signature in Roxy Pink in 2021, after Myers had already debuted his pink John Mayer Silver Sky onstage.
Speaking to Premier Guitar in 2022, Myers explained that he received “an upset phone call” after the company heard of the guitar. “I don’t know if it was [Mayer] that was upset – I’ll just say someone was upset that I had my own white guitar painted pink,” the guitarist explained.
“They were like, ‘Well, what if other artists want a pink guitar and you have one?’” he recalled. “If John wants to get mad, I basically just copied the BLK1. That’s really all I did! It’s exactly the same… If you’re a Mayer fan, you can probably tell.”
Myer’s tech, Drew Foppe, has publicly supported Myer’s custom Silver Sky in the past. “For people who don’t quite understand what a tribute relic job looks like, and just want to talk trash about what kind of wear and tear a guitar should or shouldn’t have… you’re missing the entire point in the first place,” he wrote.
His post shows Mayer’s BLK1 Fender Strat alongside the ‘infamous’ relic’d PRS Silver Sky. “I get some people don’t like relic guitars,” he wrote. “But to talk trash on a really, really good relic job is just ridiculous!”
“This is a TRIBUTE to the original, not just a random heavy relic job,” he continued “Some of you people have lost your dang minds to speak on something you know nothing about!”
Nowadays, Myers can look beyond the hate, explaining that his custom Silver Sky is one of his favourite axes. “It’s still one of my coolest looking guitars,” he tells MusicRadar.
The Shinedown guitarist is set to release a new signature guitar of his own very soon. He’s even played a prototype onstage at recent shows – but it’s not too dissimilar to his last signature. Rather ironically, the new release is just a paint job.
“Really, it’s pretty much the same thing as the last one – but it’s a different colour,” he says. “I believe we might have done something different with the pickups. It’s basically a different colour variation of the Myers Blue, of the last version of the Myers. It’s a cool colour, matching headstock. It’s very pretty.”
The post “I’m just going to throw that thing in the fire”: Shinedown guitarist admits his relic’d PRS Silver Sky inspired so much “drama” that he wanted to get rid of it appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Man buys John Lennon’s old Fender guitar amp on Facebook Marketplace… for barely $4,000
Imagine copping a quality 1960s Fender Deluxe on Facebook Marketplace for under £3,000. You’d already be pretty satisfied – but what if that amp turned out to be a priceless piece of Beatles history?
That’s exactly what happened to 45-year-old James Taylor. When the father of two was picking up his purchase, the seller alleged that the Fender amp was previously owned by John Lennon. “They told me it might have been gifted to someone by John Lennon, but I have heard these stories before and I didn’t pay it much mind,” he tells Manchester Evening News.
However, after some digging, Taylor started to believe the seller’s claims. Taylor discovered that the Facebook seller did have some ties to Lennon; the seller was friends with Rob Lynton, a songwriter and guitarist who had worked with Lennon on his 1971 album, Imagine.
Taylor reached out to Lynton to confirm whether the amp was once Lennon’s – and Lynton confirmed that it was.
In fact, Lynton went so far as to hand-write Taylor a ‘Certificate of Authenticity’ as proof. “My friend Mal Evans, who was The Beatles’ roadie and general Factotum for many years… initially loaned me the amplified for recording purposes,” Lynton writes. “He advised me that this amp was John’s.”
“In 1971, I was invited to play on John Lennon’s Imagine album,” the ‘certificate’ continues. “Following the recording sessions, I was with John and I mentioned that I had been loaned the Fender amplifier by Mal Evans, as I required a smaller amplifier than the ones I owned at the time.”
“I asked John if I should bring the amplifier to his home, or return it… he responded: ‘No, thanks very much for all the work you’ve done on the sessions. Don’t worry about bringing it back, you can keep it. It’s yours!’”
While Taylor was already happy with his new amp, the news has just made the purchase even sweeter. “I bought the amp because I wanted the amp, and I didn’t pay John Lennon sort of money for it,” he tells Manchester Evening News. “When all the details started checking out, I realised I had something very exciting on my hands. I wasn’t expecting it at all!”
“One of my earliest listening experiences was my parents introducing me to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at a young age… And now I have John Lennon’s amp, which is crazy to think about!”
According to Taylor, the amp still “plays and sounds fantastic”, and he’s already used it for some band practice sessions. Though he does admit he “might have been a bit more cautious had [he] realised the historical importance” of the piece of gear.
Looking forward, Taylor is hoping to further investigate what tracks Lennon might have used the amp on. He’s also thinking he might sell on the piece, as “it would be scary to have something so valuable in the house”.
“There are many parts of me that wish I could hold onto it, but it is a risk to keep in a house with toddlers rushing around,” the father of two admits.
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Taylor Gold Label 517e review – “this is the most sonically compelling Taylor guitar I’ve ever played”
$2,599/£2,549, taylorguitars.com
If you’ve been paying attention over the last seven months, you’ll have probably heard the stir caused by Taylor’s Gold Label guitars. After 50 years of defiantly and obsessively looking forward in its guitar designs, the Californian guitar company – now under the watchful eye of master luthier Andy Powers – decided to look back.
The result was a guitar that somewhat changed the conversation about what we perceive as ‘the Taylor sound’. As Bob Taylor himself told me last year, when it comes to the tonality of Taylor guitars, “You have to like it, to like it” – and that for every person who loved the pristine, bright characteristics that are the brand’s trademark, another person would dislike it for exactly the same reason.
But by Powers’ own admission, the people who don’t vibe with the classic Taylor sounds aren’t wrong for doing so – they just have different tastes. The Gold Label Collection was Powers responding to that: “I’m thrilled that many people do love this,” he told me, “But for those who don’t, well, there can be other sounds too.”
The result was an all-new design in pretty much every way – new body style, new bracing pattern, new neck construction, new visual style and above all else, a new sound. Well, I say new – it was new for Taylor, but it was a sound that sprinkled a sheen of something very old onto the formula, and made our reviewer Michael Watts call the 814e an “important milestone” in the evolution of Taylor guitars.
Evolution doesn’t stand still of course, and there was always the sense that it wouldn’t be long before the Gold Label concept expanded further, and here we have it in the shape of another (sort of) new body shape, and a more accessible price point. Meet the Gold Label Grand Pacific.
Image: Adam Gasson
Taylor Gold Label 517e – what is it?
Those of you familiar with Taylor guitars will be aware of the Grand Pacific body shape already. Introduced back in 2019, the Grand Pacific was Powers’ take on a slope-shouldered dreadnought guitar. In a classic bit of foreshadowing, the Grand Pacific was the first Powers-designed Taylor that hinted at his desire to expand the tonal recipe in a more old-school direction.
The GP has since become a mainstay of the Taylor line, but for the Gold Label guitar, the body has been tweaked somewhat. The guitar retains the body dimensions of the original, but has upped the depth by ⅜ of an inch to be a full 5 inches at the soundhole. For reference, that’s deeper than a Martin Dreadnought or a Gibson Super Jumbo: a chunky boi indeed.
Otherwise we have much the same basic specs as the Super Auditorium-sized 814e – including the new fanned V-Class bracing, the revolutionary long-tenon Action Control Neck, and another notable appearance of LR Baggs’ Element VTC pickup in place of Taylor’s proprietary Expression system.
Visually it’s got the same tweaked peghead design and inlays, and the same 1930s-influenced pickguard and bridge shape… but elsewhere things are really rather distinct.
For starters, whereas the 814e was available with a torrefied spruce top, and either rosewood or koa back and sides, you can get a Gold Label Grand Pacific in spruce/rosewood configuration in the shape of the 717e. But the guitar we have here has tropical mahogany back and sides, to go with the neck of the same material.
And then there’s the colour of the thing of course – the initial run of Gold Label guitars were either available in natural or a smoky caramel sunburst, but the 517e also comes in this rather lovely gloss Blacktop.
A casual perusal of the festival stages across the world this summer will leave you in little doubt that shade- and painted-top acoustics are very much Having A Moment right now, and this guitar feels right at home in that world. That painted top is also a nice nod to the Depression-era guitars that informed the Gold Label’s sonic and visual character, and I must admit to being rather charmed by the whole package, visually.
Image: Adam Gasson
Taylor Gold Label 517e – build and playability
Back in that conversation I had with Bob Taylor, he emphasised to me that subjective opinions on sound were not something that concerned him – all he really cared about was that the build quality of his guitars was beyond reproach regardless.
Candidly, that’s often been my experience with Taylor instruments – they are invariably wonderfully and innovatively constructed guitars that reflect the care, craftsmanship and attention to detail that the company has become famous for, regardless of what price point you’re talking about. The 517e is of course far from a cheap guitar, and so you’d expect a first-class degree of build, fit and finish here – and that’s exactly what you get, pretty much.
The satin-finished neck is beautifully applied and supremely comfortable, with Taylor’s ‘Standard’ carve offering a slinky and accommodating palmful that welcomes electric players in the most classic of Taylor ways. It’s a reminder that for all the visual and marketing claims that this is a guitar with an ‘old soul’, it’s still a Taylor guitar first and foremost, and that’s no bad thing from a playability perspective.
String spacing is a fairly generous 38mm at the nut and 55mm at the bridge, giving larger hands plenty of room to operate, while the slim neck and accommodating profile mean it’s comfortable enough playing cowboy chords as it is more deft fingerstyle maneuvering.
I’m not a small guy, but unquestionably the extra depth added to the body here makes the already imposing size of a Grand Pacific feel even more so. Personally, I don’t have an issue with that but it should go without saying that those with smaller frames and shorter arms might want to try one out before you pull the trigger.
Put side by side with the Dreadnought-adjacent Martin HG-28 that I happen to have on deck here at Guitar.com HQ, the 517e looks like something of a kaiju – certainly by the usual svelte standards of Taylor’s instruments.
Image: Adam Gasson
The general finishing is pretty much flawless all over, though I did notice a small but uncharacteristically rough bit of finishing on the top brace. It’s the sort of thing that will have no bearing on the sound, and I likely wouldn’t have noticed if not for the fact that it was the brace sitting directly below the soundhole. It’s honestly nothing that couldn’t be fixed with 10 seconds of gentle sanding, but it’s also one of those things that once I did notice it, I couldn’t stop noticing it every time I picked up the guitar. It’s also in sharp contrast to every other bit of woodworking on the instrument which is utterly flawless.
Before we get into the sounds of the thing though, it is worth talking about the looks – spending time with a Gold Label guitar you can really get a sense of all the charming and unusual little touches that set these guitars apart from the regular Taylor line.
The subtle angled bevel of the headstock edge, the lovely matt-effect parchment of the pickguard, the appealing dark stain of the peghead and indeed the lovely thin application of the Blacktop finish, allowing the straight grain lines of the torrefied spruce top to catch the light in the way a proper old guitar does… it’s all rather lovely.
Image: Adam Gasson
Taylor Gold Label 517e – sounds
So does this guitar have the sonic character that can win over non-Taylor fans? Well, before we get to the subjective stuff, a word about the wood choices here. Spruce/mahogany is of course an all-time classic acoustic guitar pairing, but one that brings certain qualities to the party that we have to consider.
Rosewood, the other option in the range, absorbs soundwaves quite differently to mahogany, and without getting too deep into the weeds of the physics of the whole thing, a guitar with a mahogany tends to have an open and more airy tonality versus the deeper and more complex nature of rosewood.
With that in mind, I sit down with the 517e and the extra power and projection offered by that extra body depth is immediately apparent. It’s a similar basic sonic character to the 817e in that it has a warmth and richness I’m not used to hearing from a Taylor instrument.
It’s not exactly vintage in the way an old Martin or Gibson is of course, but there’s something pleasantly old-school in the bass frequencies – the extra air inside and that long-tenon neck presumably giving them a bit more body than I might have expected. It also doesn’t have the roundness and complex overtones that you’d generally get from a rosewood guitar, but it has more depth to the lows than you might expect.
Mahogany’s natural glassiness is also a good fit for the more Taylor-y qualities of the guitar – that Taylor sheen is very evident upon picking, and the string and note separation is further enhanced by the always-impressive V-class architecture under the hood.
As you move partial chord shapes up the neck or take more elaborate fingerstyle excursions, the remarkable in-tune-ness of the V-Class concept really does show its hand wonderfully. Whether you’re in altered tunings or standard, this thing really does stay in tune impressively and offers wonderfully clear and well-intonated single notes all the way up the neck. I can see this being a very fine recording guitar indeed.
The Baggs Element VTC pickup is a tried and true option, and while it doesn’t offer the fancier pseudo-modelling stuff that some of the more high-end modern pickup systems do, as a quality under-saddle transducer it does a nice job of replicating the sonic character of the guitar without too much of the nasty stuff that nobody likes from piezo systems.
Image: Adam Gasson
Taylor Gold Label 517e – should I buy one?
At this point I should probably confess that I am absolutely one of those people that Bob Taylor and Andy Powers was talking about earlier. I love everything about Taylor guitars – the playability, the craftsmanship, the innovation… the whole bag. But for whatever reason I’ve never truly managed to embrace the sound of them – though I’ll admit I’ve come close with a couple of instruments in the last few years.
From that perspective then, I’m the ideal target for these Gold Label guitars – and I can’t deny that this is the most sonically compelling Taylor guitar I’ve ever played. Part of me wonders if I might personally have preferred the extra warmth and bass response of the rosewood back and sides version, but there’s still plenty to love here for fans of more old-school acoustic guitar tones – and the way it weds that with the precision, clarity and definition that a Taylor V-Class guitar offers is hugely impressive.
Is it going to replace your well-loved old Martin in your arsenal sonically? Of course not, but the Gold Label Collection is still an important and intriguing avenue for Taylor to explore. Because it’s not just about winning over the doubters, though it does a very good job of that. Really, it’s about showcasing that Taylor’s ethos and craftsmanship defies the pigeonholes that we often put brands in, and expands the brand’s future horizons into even more exciting and broad territory.
Taylor Gold Label 517e – alternatives
The sub-$3k market is very much the heavyweight division when it comes to American-made acoustic guitars, so the Gold Label faces stiff competition from all the major brands. One prominent branch of the Bob Taylor coaching tree also occupying this space is Breedlove, and their Oregon Dreadnought Concerto CE ($2,999) – founded by ex-Taylor builders Larry Breedlove and Steve Henderson, the brand offers a smaller but similarly ethos’d approach to acoustic building. If you want a dreadnought guitar with a real retro vibe, Martin’s D-18 Standard Series ($2,899) is a spruce/mahogany monster with unimpeachable credentials. Another 50-year-old acoustic guitar company with a penchant for doing interesting things with bracing, the Larrivee D-44 ($2,899) is a spruce/mahogany dread that’s made in Oxnard, California – a couple of hundred miles up the coast from Taylor.
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“There was never a single moment when he did not have the guitar in his hand” Eddie Van Halen’s friend remembers how obsessed he was with guitar
Legendary rock journalist Steven Rosen was friends with Eddie Van Halen for a long time. And in this time, he learned a thing or two about his relationship with the guitar. Now, in a new interview with Igor Paspalj, Steven recalls how it all began for the “guitarist’s guitarist”, who was only a “local Hollywood phenomenon” when the two first met in July 1977.
Steven has written a new book Tonechaser on this friendship, providing deep insights into just how far the Van Halen guitarist’s musical obsessions went. It also looks at some of his personal quirks. “[Eddie] was a pretty complex person”, Rosen recalls, and that “the longer I sort of knew him and hung out with him, I realise there were more facets to his personality.”
“Music was first and foremost and everything for him. I mean, I know you’ve heard it before, but with him, it was everything.”
Steven was able to get to know Eddie on such a personal level because of their proximity: the two only lived eight minutes away from each other. Eddie lived in the luxurious Coldwater Canyon, while Steven lived in the comparatively “funky cheap rent part of Hollywood”. Because of this, it “wasn’t long before he would just sort of come over… Or I’d drive over to his place in Cold Water”, where Eddie lived with his future wife, American actress Valerie Bertinelli.
Whenever Steven would visit Eddie’s Coldwater Canyon home studio, “He was always sitting in the chair and having a talk. He was playing, he was changing strings. It was always about the guitar.”
It was through these studio encounters that Rosen realised that his more musical side was intensely private: “When he was in the musician mode and he needed to work, he needed to be by himself. It was almost an unspoken thing. I mean, I could sense it. He’d kind of be playing, and you kind of look over, and I just knew it. ‘Hey man, I’ll see you later.’”
Because of this key moment, he also discovered how important it was to Eddie that people respected this part of him: “And if you disrespected him, he held on to that for a very long time.”
In other recent Van Halen news, a recently unearthed interview with Ed from 1991 revealed that far from being enamoured with the rise of shred guitar in the 1980s, he seemed to be quite disdainful of the idea – “what’s important to me now isn’t how fast I can solo. It’s the whole picture,” he explained.
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BOSS’s RT-2 Rotary Ensemble pedal offers classic rotary speaker sounds in a compact footprint
There’s nothing quite so cumbersome and unweildy as a real, honest to goodness rotary speaker cabinet – it’s probably why most guitarists who appreciate the unmistakable sound tend to use some sort of pedal-based alternative. And now Boss has brought its most compact version ever to the party.
Boss’s original RT-20 Rotary Ensemble pedal was discontinued in 2019, despite its classic replication of the Hammond organ rotary speaker effect. But fans of the original pedal can rejoice, since the Japanese pedal giant has revisited the concept now in classic compact pedal form. It also comes with a very fun rotating LED screen that emulates the movement of a classic rotary cab.
Like other rotary ensemble pedals, BOSS’s own seeks to replicate some of the original 1940s combo organ voice sound, based on rotary speakers that create their signature modulation effect. As Boss says, this effect creates “depth and movement” in your recorded and live sounds.
Image: Boss
A rotary speaker sound is probably not something you’re going to use for every song of course, but that’s what makes the dinky size of the RT-2 so compelling – you can introduce the effect into your sound without taking too much real estate on your pedalboard.
According to the Boss website, the pedal comes with a plethora of classic effects like: “A vintage rotary sound and two modified tones with enhanced spatial effects, virtual rotor display with lights that indicate treble and bass rotor speeds, fast/slow rotor speed control, drive knob to add vintage tube saturation, and a Rise/Fall Time switch [for adjusting] the transition time between rotor speeds” alongside saturation control and volume balance between treble and bass rotors via the Drive/Balance Switch.
The pedal also has four selectable pedal switching modes, making this an even more versatile piece of kit to have with you live, also particularly in its support for controlling external footswitches and expression pedals.
The RT-2 Rotary Ensemble is available this month and is currently retailing at $239.99.
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Joe Satriani on why he doesn’t rate vintage guitars “The musician has to connect with the guitar for it to become special”
Rare guitar seekers search high and low for guitars owned by the greats, in the hope that they can capture some of the same magic. But for Joe Satriani, working in a guitar shop “disillusioned” him to these collectables, simply because they don’t always sound as good as their price tag suggests.
Having exclusive access to some of the “most expensive, the most valuable, rare guitars”, Satriani tells D’Addario, he discovered what they sounded like. And while a dream job to many, the experience made the scales fall from his eyes. “There’s nothing special about it”, Satch admitted.
Satch believes that players should “connect with the guitar” rather than chasing after vintage instruments for the sake of it. It becomes special to them, and the hallmark of their own sound. Unfortunately this would mean that buying a guitar previously owned by a guitar god doesn’t mean that you’ll get much out of it yourself.
This realisation encouraged Satriani to build custom guitars instead, but “it was really to get by week to week” he says, “and to do the gig I was doing at the time.” Outside his “disco band playing around the East Coast”, which was “going nowhere’, his solo music career was beginning to grow. Satch began realising this after receiving a short-but-sweet review of his debut solo album Not of this Earth in Guitar Player.
Despite this, Satriani still has an appreciation for unique guitars, such as the see-through Ibanez Y2K Crystal Planet prototype, designed by Junji Hotta in 1999 to coincide with his Crystal Planet album. Alongside some other gear, he sold this guitar on Bananas at Large to collectors. Even though he’s disillusioned with vintage guitars himself, he still recognises them as artefacts that people love to collect.
In the same interview, Satriani also talks about how he struggles with being extroverted on stage. “I don’t ever feel like myself” he says about the experience of playing to his fans – certainly a surprising thing for someone with as many massive gigs on his CV as Stach.
The post Joe Satriani on why he doesn’t rate vintage guitars “The musician has to connect with the guitar for it to become special” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“F”**k you! You don’t have to listen to it”: why Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy doesn’t care if you think his albums are too long
Wilco guitarist and frontman Jeff Tweedy has just announced he’ll be releasing a 30-track triple album this September – and if that seems excessive to you, well, he doesn’t really care.
Speaking in the latest issue of Mojo, Tweedy explains that Twilight Override is a “special” magnum opus of a record. “It’s a really beautiful evolution,” he says. “I’m not holding back or protecting myself, and I don’t care if people think a triple record’s too long.”
For anyone who thinks it is too long, he has one thing to say: “I mean… Fuck you!” he laughs. “You don’t have to listen to it…”
Twilight Override sees Tweedy yet again working with his children, vocalist Sammy and drummer Spencer, as well as the rest of his usual touring band. So far, only four tracks have been shared from the record; Enough, One Tiny Flower, Out in the Dark, and Stray Cats in Spain explore a plethora of the Illinois’ rocker’s sides, from his harmonica-loving alt-country to his charming cerebral indie rock reflections.
Tweedy notes that Stray Cats In Spain in particular was “written with [his band’s] gift for vocal harmony in mind”, while the yet-to-be-released Feel Free is a seven-minute ode to self-expression. “It’s saying forget yourself, be unburdened by yourself,” he tells Mojo.
The seven-minute tune is another example of Tweedy not caring about how long a record or a track is. In fact, he wishes it was even longer: “I’d like for people to add their own couplets to it and make it the world’s longest song.”
Elsewhere, Tweedy has explained that his upcoming record is a testament to the magic of creativity. “When you choose to do creative things, you align yourself with something that other people call God,” he explains in a press release [via NME]. “When you align yourself with creation, you inherently take a side against destruction. You’re on the side of creation. And that does a lot to quell the impulse to destroy. Creativity eats darkness.”
“Sort of an endless buffet these days – a bottomless basket of rock bottom. Which is, I guess, why I’ve been making so much stuff lately. That sense of decline is hard to ignore, and it must be at least a part of the shroud I’m trying to unwrap. The twilight of an empire seems like a good enough jumping-off point when one is jumping into the abyss.”
“Twilight sure is a pretty word, though. And the world is full of happy people in former empires, so maybe that’s not the only source of this dissonance. Whatever it is out there (or in there) squeezing this ennui into my day, it’s fucking overwhelming. It’s difficult to ignore.”
“Twilight Override is my effort to overwhelm it right back. Here are the songs and sounds and voices and guitars and words that are an effort to let go of some of the heaviness and up the wattage on my own light. My effort to engulf this encroaching nighttime (nightmare) of the soul.”
Tweedy is set to embark on a solo tour in support of Twilight Override later this year. Things will kick off in Michigan on 8 October, before hitting Europe in February.
Twilight Override is out 26 September. Tickets for Tweedy’s solo tour will go on sale at 10am this Friday (18 July).
The post “F”**k you! You don’t have to listen to it”: why Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy doesn’t care if you think his albums are too long appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“On the inside we are all fifteen-year-old boys”: Lzzy Hale on what it’s really like to tour with Skid Row
Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale has revealed what it was like to tour with Skid Row, and it seems the band are not opposed to the odd innuendo or fart joke.
Hale fronted the band for four shows after the departure of vocalist Erik Grönwall last summer, and having been a Skid Row fan since childhood, it was a pretty big deal for the vocalist and guitarist.
To not only have a great time playing music with a band but to also click with the group backstage is exactly what every artist hopes for when stepping into another camp, and Hale fitted in just fine with the Skid Row bunch.
She tells Classic Rock, “I got to know Rachel [Bolan] and Snake [Sabo] as people first before we ended up gigging together. I’ve been a Skid Row fan since I was eleven, just trying my damnedest to hit those high notes. When they asked me to be a part of it we were at a mutual friend’s birthday party, and it got brought up over cake.
“The thing that I discovered was when we were on the bus together, it doesn’t matter how old you are on the outside. On the inside, including myself, we are all fifteen-year-old boys. The fart jokes were rampant,” she admits.
“We were making all these Spinal Tap jokes about the meat in catering. They’re like, the meat is so sweaty. I don’t know why it was so funny, but this sweaty meat came up a lot, and then that ends up being a dirtier and dirtier joke. I’m so grateful for them accepting me into their camp and for allowing me to be a part of that.”
Following the announcement of Hale’s temporary appointment as vocalist for the band, she described it as “full circle”. She told Loudwire Nights, “I’m a weird in-betweener. When I was 11 through 13, I was into ‘80s metal, like Cinderella and Skid Row and all of that. But I was also getting into nu-metal in the early-2000s, Disturbed and Sevendust and Tool. The crazy thing about Skid Row is that they were the ones that carried me through over that bridge.
“They had the big choruses and everything, but then they had those later albums that were very present with the times and the weird, seedy underbelly that was the ’90s. They bridged that gap for me.”
Halestorm are currently on tour in support of Volbeat. You can find out more or grab tickets via the Halestorm website.
The post “On the inside we are all fifteen-year-old boys”: Lzzy Hale on what it’s really like to tour with Skid Row appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I had just put together Cream – and they were already rehearsing!”: Manfred Mann frontman reveals how he inadvertently rumbled Eric Clapton’s biggest secret
When Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker joined forces to form Cream in 1966, the rock world was forever transformed. The combination of talent made for the very first supergroup, who had quietly rehearsed together in secret before exploding onto the scene. But 60s contemporary Paul Jones nearly blew the lid off the whole thing, entirely by accident…
In a new interview with Mojo, the Manfred Mann frontman recalled a time he was asked to form a one-off band to feature on the Elektra collaborative album, What’s Shakin’. “They had The Lovin’ Spoonful, Paul Butterfield, Al Kooper and Tom Rush. Joe Boyd [American record producer] said, ‘Look, we can’t do this without one British act,’” Jones says. “‘We’ve asked The Yardbirds and so on, and they all say no… could you put together a band?’”
Jones started brainstorming – and the first person he called up to join his new band was bassist Jack Bruce. “I said, ‘Look, would you be up for it?’ and he said, ‘yeah, I certainly would. Who else are you thinking of?”
Jones mentioned that his preference was the then-unattached Eric Clapton on guitar. “Yeah, of course – he would be anybody’s first choice. Anybody else?” Bruce responded. And that’s when Jones would utter the final piece of the Cream puzzle, suggesting: “it’d be great if we could get Ginger Baker on drums.”
“There was a silence.,” Jones recalls. “Then, Jack said, ‘How much do you know?’ I said, ‘about what?’ – ‘Oh, nothing…’”
Without realising, Jones had pieced together the next band that would define rock history. “I had just put together Cream – and they were already rehearsing!” Jones laughs.
The ad-hoc band, which would be listed on the album as ‘Eric Clapton and the Powerhouse’ recorded three songs, including an iconic Clapton cut, Crossroads. In the end, Baker would decide to opt out as he didn’t want to dilute the power of what was going on behind the scenes. “I’m not doing it,” Baker apparently said. “It’s really stupid if all three of us do this project together when we’re about to burst onto the world.”
In the end, Clapton, Bruce and Jones would be joined by Steve Winwood and drummer Pete York. The band was completed with “Ben Palmer, a great blues piano player I’d met in Oxford,” as Jones explains.
Due to the fact that many of the members of the band were under contract with other labels, including Jones, many of them performed under aliases. As Jones explains, he was credited as ‘Matthew Jacobs’ on the record, named after his two sons, while Winwood went under the alias of ‘Steve Angelo’.
Sadly, the band never recorded together again – though let’s face it, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce were rather busy over the next couple of years…
The post “I had just put together Cream – and they were already rehearsing!”: Manfred Mann frontman reveals how he inadvertently rumbled Eric Clapton’s biggest secret appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I choose guitars that stay out of the way of the vocals” how Ella Feingold became the most versatile rhythm guitar player on the planet
Ella Feingold can count the likes of Johnny Marr, Lenny Kravitz and John Mayer as fans and she has worked with Erykah Badu, Janet Jackson, Bruno Mars and Jay-Z among others.
You’ll have also heard her orchestrating the music in Destiny – Bungie’s groundbreaking video game – and seen her incredible funky chops on display across your Instagram and TikTok FYPs. She’s even got a new album of duets in the pipeline with jazz legend Charlie Hunter, and an incoming solo project.
An artist that clearly contains multitudes, then – we have a lot to talk about…
Image: Press
Many of your new fans have found you through your funk tutorials on Instagram – you have a very appreciative audience online!
“I mean it’s funny. A lot of the things in my career happened long before social media, but I am really happy that people also seem to enjoy watching me look at these songs that I love.
“It’s like taking apart a telephone and putting it back together. I’m very curious and especially when I want to know how something works. That applies as much to the music of Sly Stone or James Brown as it does to the world of Jeff Buckley.
“There’s something so fun about finding a part that locks in and you just drive it straight home. Kool & the Gang’s Jungle Boogie is a great example. The guitar part appears so simple but you have to keep it going for the whole song – you just hold on to this thing for dear life. It’s not about ego or shredding – it is all about concentration and maintaining the groove.
“You have to understand the phrase, then you have to develop the stamina. It’s the same thing with James Brown. Check out Ain’t It Funky Now – it’s not hard to play, but that cut is 9 minutes and 36 seconds long. So, at 6 minutes, you might fuck up and you ruin the take and the whole band has to go back to the top.”
Who else should up and coming players listen to?
“Everyone should be familiar with Curtis Mayfield. He influenced Jimi Hendrix, Prince… so many more. John Mayer once told me, ‘Yeah, you just play how you are’, and Curtis Mayfield played in a really gentle soft-spoken kind of way while addressing some hard truths that are still relevant today.
“Then there is his ‘Black Key’ tuning of F#-A#-C#-F#-A#-F#, using the Maestro rhythm and sound effects unit – all that cool stuff. There’s something familiar and comforting about his playing. I think my favourite thing with musicians is their touch.”
Ella’s Hagstrom guitar. Image: Press
Funny you should say that: no less than Johnny Marr is a fan of your work for exactly that reason. How did you two meet?
“I had done an Instagram lesson on Jerome Smith who played guitar for KC and the Sunshine Band – little did I know that he’s one of Johnny’s top three favourite guitar players. So Johnny commented ‘Nobody knows about Jerome Smith!’ and my first thought is like, ‘Oh man, I thought that was the real Johnny Marr… that’s a bummer…’ because you know you get so many of those fake accounts. And I looked again and I’m like, ‘Oh fuck, it’s really him!’
“He invited me to a show he was playing in Boston. I didn’t know what to expect and when he saw me from across the room he grabbed my arm and we talked guitar for like – no exaggeration – three hours. To the point where the cleaning crew came in and his tour manager was like, ‘Johnny, you gotta get on the bus!’
“I love the Smiths and I love his guitar playing, but I didn’t get to grow up with that music – Siouxie and the Banshees, Magazine, and Adam and the Ants. So being friends with him, like he just started to hip me to all this amazing music. I have a chorus pedal now and I’m just like, man, you’re a bad influence on me!”
How does classic 70s funk mix with Jeff Buckley and indie textures?
“Jeff Buckley might be my favourite musician of all time. There’s so much I love. His touch on the guitar and how he makes it sound, and the chord voicings. Who else makes a Telecaster sound like that, you know? Maybe Ted Greene?
“Jeff learned a lot about guitar pedals and ambient stuff from Gary Lucas, I’m positive of that. You know, with the EHX 16-second delay?. I think his Quadraverb reverb stuff might have come more from Robin Guthrie and the Cocteau Twins.
“All roads lead back to Johnny Marr right? Like, I’m like playing him Jeff Buckley stuff backstage saying, ‘Johnny you don’t understand… this guy adored you. Do you know how many Smiths songs he covered?’ and you know, Johnny gets it.”
Ella’s guitar gear. Image: Press
You have a long-standing position in Erykah Badu’s band – how did that relationship come about?
“I was on tour with Queen Latifah. My first gig ever was 2005. It was sort of like a black Lilith Fair. It was Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, so many more – Erykah liked my playing and her MD asked me to join the band.
“It’s funny I’m working on Erykah’s new record right now, and there’s absolutely some Jeff Buckley influence in my playing on this music. My first gig with her was this VH1 Soul Stage concert, which was kind of infamous, and I’ve been working with her, on and off ever since.
“I can only think of a couple of occasions in twenty years where Erykah has verbalised what she needs from me. There was one time when she wanted me to step out front and solo and then on this record she just said, ‘Make it cry bitch!’ and that was it.
“That was easy. I literally took all of the oppression and fear I face as a trans woman and I put it into the guitar and it came out. If you want me to be dead honest, that’s where the cry comes from.
“But it’s all about the vocals – the storyteller. I just listen. You have to be sensitive. I choose guitars that stay out of the way of the vocals – I use a Gibson 345 with the Varitone on position 3 which scoops out a lot of the midrange. I fitted it with Bartolini pickups which are very 80s smooth jazz – the opposite of the analogue gritty stuff that I usually enjoy. This sound has punch in the bass and treble clarity and it fits the context.
“It’s like a conversation. Maybe you’re at a dinner party and someone talks like crazy, so you just go, ‘All right, I’ll just kind of listen and interject when I can’. With Erykah again, this has never been spoken but like she’s got Rhodes and keys. So she’s got all this buttery stuff so she doesn’t need me to do more of that. She needs some grease and something slightly itchy in there.”
Your duet album Different Strokes for Different Folks with Charlie Hunter has been getting high praise from legends like Bootsy Collins and Lenny Kravitz – how does that feel?
“This whole record really was like a musical conversation between two good friends, I talk to Charlie almost every day. It’s raw and it’s real and it feels good. I feel like it’s music that you can sort of complete for yourself. Pick up your sax, blow over it, drive down the street and lose yourself and just groove to it like it’s a beat tape. You know what I mean? It is raw funk.
“Charlie’s using a six string hybrid guitar – not the eight-string version – that opens things up and my guitar is in inverted standard tuning throughout. So that’s EBGDAE low to high. We boiled the whole thing down to its essence. The way it fused together was really cool, I hope people enjoy it!”
Your debut solo record 4-Track Ephemera is a return to analogue recording with a Tascam four-track tape recorder. What attracts you to the old school creative process?
“I wanted to return to a time when I was most in love with music, which was when I was a kid in the ‘90s during grunge. Buying guitar magazines and, you know, looking at articles and watching MTV and my parents getting me the 424 for Hanukkah and just like, God, I can jam with myself! So, I just set the stuff up in a guest bedroom. Not like, oh, I’m about to make a record. Just, well, just have fun.
“I started to share stuff on Instagram. Not like, ‘Yo, check this out’, just kind of where my head’s at and suddenly people were responding, ‘Oh my god, please put this out. You’re putting this out, right?’ The response was so positive I decided to go for it.
“It’s the first music where I’m comfortable introducing my influences to each other. You can hear Sly, J Dilla and Q-Tip, Tribe Called Quest and you can hear Jeff Buckley and you can hear Johnny Marr. I’m comfortable mixing all those things and trying to find my own sound. Like a cocktail.”
Different Strokes For Different Folks by Charlie Hunter and Ella Feingold is out now. 4-Track Ephemera is out 1 August
The post “I choose guitars that stay out of the way of the vocals” how Ella Feingold became the most versatile rhythm guitar player on the planet appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“Playing as fast as you can doesn’t really hold much water for me”: Eddie Van Halen pours scorn on shredding in unheard 1991 interview
Eddie Van Halen is pretty much regarded as one of the true innovators of shred guitar, but a recently unearthed interview from 1991 shows that Eddie had reservations about the discipline he’d spawned.
Speaking to Guitar Player journalist Jas Obrecht, the Van Halen guitarist admitted that he was well beyond his years of shredding. “A lot of people just do all kinds of crazy shit,” he said. “Sure, that’s fine and dandy when you’re young… playing as fast as you can doesn’t really hold much water for me… To me, a solo is to highlight song. It’s not to show off.”
Later on in the interview, he even explained that he was embracing a slower, more deliberate approach to playing. “In the guitar polls, I’m not the number one cat anymore,” he admitted. “You know, there are faster gunslingers out there… what’s important to me now isn’t how fast I can solo. It’s the whole picture.”
That’s not to say shredding holds no place in metal. “I was like that back then [when I was younger],” he added. “But the whole band thing, the songs… that’s what’s important.”
Of course, Eddie added that this wasn’t an admission that he “can’t solo anymore”. The realisation was just something he came to learn as he grew up, as shredding seemed to often be a by-product of “big egos” and showing off.
“Big egos are very unhealthy,” he explained. “Everybody needs an ego, obviously, but when it starts getting in the way of the overall picture, you know – what a band is and what a band supposed to be doing – too much ego is bad news.”
Eddie distancing himself from shredding is something fans and peers alike noted in the legend’s later years. Toto’s Steve Lukather revealed that Eddie regretted adding fuel to the shredding fire in an interview with us back in 2021.
“There were the times when guitar players were trying to show what they had – each guy had something and they wanted to show it off,” he recalled. “It was healthy, no-one was trying to one-up anybody else, that came a little later in the 80s with all the intense Uber-shredding.”
“Ed was sitting there going, ‘I created a monster, fuck!’” he continued. “They misinterpreted what his musical intent was and turned guitar into more of a sport. I know that always bothered him.”
Lukather voiced a similar sentiment in 2023 while talking to Guitar World. “Eddie Van Halen came along and changed the whole game,” he said. “I remember him telling me once, ‘Man, I didn’t mean to start all this madness,’ but he really did change the entire game. That always cracked me up, as Eddie was the father of shred!”
The post “Playing as fast as you can doesn’t really hold much water for me”: Eddie Van Halen pours scorn on shredding in unheard 1991 interview appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Charvel launches new seven-string, upgraded version of Angel Vivaldi’s signature Nova guitar
Charvel has partnered with virtuoso Angel Vivaldi on a new version of his signature Nova guitar – the Angel Vivaldi Signature Pro-Mod Nova-7 NAT.
This new seven-string guitar is the result of a close collaboration with Vivaldi, and offers a natural finish with gold hardware. It’s described as “perfect for the modern shredder” by the brand, and follows on from a number of six- and seven-string versions of the original Nova, which was first launched in 2019.
The Pro-Mod Nova-7 NAT is inspired by Vivaldi’s explorations into Latin fusion, funk, and acoustic works. It hosts premium features including a modified Dinky caramelised basswood body capped with a flame maple top, and three-ply body binding.
It also has a sculpted heel for upper fret access, while a tilt-back reverse seven-string Fender Stratocaster headstock provides “ideal string tension”. Its 12”-16” compound radius maple fingerboard has rolled edges, 24 jumbo frets, cascading black dot inlays and a Gotoh locking nut.
Furthermore, its bolt-on maple neck is custom-shaped to Vivaldi’s preferences with graphite reinforcement, a satin back finish, Luminlay side dots, and a heel-mount truss rod adjustment wheel.
The guitar has a HH pickup configuration consisting of a DiMarzio Tone Zone bridge pickup and DiMarzio Air Norton neck pickup, both decorated with gold covers. There’s five-way blade pickup switch, dome-style volume and tone knobs, a recessed Gotoh GE1996T-7 double-locking tremolo bridge, and Charvel-branded die-cast tuners.
Take a look at the guitar and hear how it sounds below:
“This Nova is eight years in the making and sports some pretty considerable upgrades that will really take things up a notch,” comments Vivaldi. “The natural finish really reminds me that it just isn’t a piece of gear, it’s like this living breathing part of the creative process for me…it just feels free, no resistance, no restrictions.”
Peter Wichers, Product Manager of Charvel Guitars, adds: “This collaboration allows us to merge Angel’s signature playing techniques with Charvel’s legendary craftsmanship, resulting in an instrument that serves both traditional and modern progressive players.
“Angel embodies the virtuosic technique and forward-thinking approach that has defined Charvel for decades. His musical versatility, technical precision and innovative vision perfectly align with our commitment to creating instruments that push boundaries.”
The Angel Vivaldi Signature Pro-Mod Nova-7 NAT is priced at £1,499/$1,999.99. Find out more via Charvel.
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Mesa/Boogie officially releases Mark IIC++ modified amplifier to the public for the first time
Mesa/Boogie is officially releasing the storied Mark IIC++ modified amplifier to the public for the first time ever. The amp has been re-created in an extremely limited production run, and is available worldwide.
The original Mark IIC+ amps were first developed in 1985 at the request of Vivian Campbell, and later by Kirk Hammett of Metallica. The Mesa/Boogie brand eventually made some modifications to a few production Mark IIC+ amps to achieve more gain in the overdrive mode, leading to the birth of the ‘++’ version.
Designated ++ IICs were created for the select few artists who requested them and were never officially offered as a production model, and it is estimated that only 20 or so of them were created during the mid-1980s.
In the years that followed, the ++ tone became highly sought after by players who loved a heavy sound, with many sending their C+’s to tech guru and archivist at Mesa/Boogie, Mike Bendinelli, to have the ‘++ mod’ performed outside of production time for a fee.
Image: MESA/Boogie
With all this in mind, Mesa/Boogie have essentially revived a unicorn of the amplifier world, making it available to buyers across the globe. However, there are only 200 of these rare amplifiers available.
According to the brand, this new Mark IIC++ build has increased gain in the preamp, which affects the LEAD Mode only, so the CLEAN Mode can produce the same clean performance as the standard IIC+ production model. The LEAD Mode is thicker sounding in these ++ versions, and has enhanced low end and more top end gain, cut, and harmonic layering.
Take a closer look and hear one in action below:
Doug West (Director, Tone Lab, Gibson Amplifiers, and Mesa/Boogie) comments, “We’re excited to bring a very special first official production run of the Mark IIC++, a very special ‘mod’ done to a very few Mark IIC+ amplifiers… Over time this mod that was never an official model, logged a healthy list of A-Level artist recordings and this kept our Chief Tech and IIC+ guru Mike Bendinelli busy for decades.”
West continues, “This limited run of 200 very special new production amplifiers gives those who have always dreamed of a C++ a chance to own one without the hefty price tag of a pre-owned 40-year-old original IIC+ and the shipping and labour costs for the update. Not to mention that it’s a solid, reliable, and consistent new build backed by our five-year warranty.”
The Mark IIC++ amplifier is priced at £3,899.00. Find out more via the Mesa/Boogie website.
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Martin’s new Inception model brings a non-cutaway Grand Performance shape to the series for the first time
Martin has launched five new guitars, including two additions to the Inception range, two special X Series models, and a new SC design joining its Road Series.
These new launches bring new aesthetics, and even some firsts, to three of its key, existing lineups. Notably, the debut of the GPE Inception Maple – a non-cutaway version of its eye-catching sustainably-ethos’d Inception model, which debuted last year.
In fact, it’s not just a new guitar – the cutaway GPCE Inception Maple is getting something of an overhaul that makes its looks somewhat less polarising and unconventional than it was at launch. Most notably, perhaps, is the change from a walnut bridge and fingerboard to a more traditional-looking (but still FSC-certified) ebony.
The body itself retains the striking amber fade sunburst finish of the original, but rather than the matt finish we saw in 2024, this is now all-over gloss, with a satin-finished neck.
Elsewhere it’s as you were, with the same European spruce top, flamed maple back and sides, plus a black walnut wedge on the three-piece back
But the headline event is no doubt the the GPE Inception Maple, this guitar offers has the same tonewoods, visual appointments, and clever internal architecture as the original – including Martin’s skeletonised bracing, but delivers a full-body design for a more traditional silhouette. If the GPCE was too radical a departure for you visually, this one feels much more in the classic Martin wheelhouse.
Image: Martin
Moving on to the X Series, two Ziricote Specials join the range – the GP-X2E and the OMC-X2E. The former is a limited-time Grand Performance model with a solid sapele top and ziricote-patterned high-pressure laminate (HPL) back and sides. It has a Performing Artist neck profile and high-performance taper, plus Martin E1 electronics with a built-in tuner.
As for the latter, the OMC is said to offer the comfort of a 000 body with a 25.4” scale length for “greater projection and sustain”. It has a cutaway design, and like its Grand Performance sibling, it features a solid sapele top, ziricote-patterned HPL back and sides, and Martin E1 electronics with onboard tuning.
GP-X2E. Image: Martin
OMC-X2E. Image: Martin
The SC-10E Spruce is the final new launch as part of this Martin drop – a new addition to the Road Series with an SC body shape. It has a patented Sure Align neck system and Low Profile Velocity neck, and its solid spruce top is paired with solid sapele back and sides. Also joined by E1 electronics and a built-in tuner, Martin describes this guitar as “a modern acoustic-electric built for the stage, studio, or wherever the music takes you”.
Image: Martin
To find out more or shop the new models now, head over to Martin Guitar.
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“It’s a dream come true”: Ariel Posen announces his first Fender signature guitar
Guitarist Ariel Posen has just scored himself his very first Fender signature. The Limited Edition Ariel Posen Stratocaster is a guitar as versatile as the man himself, designed to tackle just about any genre from the blues, to neo soul, to classic rock and roll.
Posen’s signature Stratocaster bridges the gap between the past and the present. Coming in a nostalgic, “road-worn” Faded Lake Placid Blue finish, the aesthetic is one of nostalgia. This is aided by the guitar’s vintage-style tuning machines, frets, hardtail bridge, and 1969 ‘U’ neck shape.
Despite the aesthetic, the look is balanced out with ample new sonic injections for a sharp, modern sound. The Strat boasts custom AP-90 pickups developed by Fender’s guitar wizard Tim Shaw. It also has custom Caballo Férreo wiring for to tweak master volume and tone, as well as a 3-way switch.
“It’s a dream come true,” Posen notes in his Instagram announcement. “As a kid growing up playing guitar, these are the things you would never expect to experience in a million years. I’m so incredibly grateful for this opportunity, and even more excited to have a guitar that’s so true and authentic to myself.”
Posen further explains the workshopping behind his signature Strat in a Fender press release: “This is the most genuine and authentic representation of what I’m looking for in a guitar. I was always a Strat guy and always felt most comfortable playing them, so it was important to capture those qualities.”
“The AP90 pickups really highlight my love for Jazzmasters – there’s something so open and airy about those guitars. More than anything, this Strat embodies everything I love about Fender and condenses it into one instrument.”
The Fender Custom Shop Director, Chase Paul, has also expressed his excitement over creating a guitar as versatile as Posen. “Ariel Posen’s playing style is outright jaw-dropping,” he explains. “He has a remarkable ability to weave together beautiful melodies, intricate technique and captivating dynamics in a way that’s approachable to a wide group of guitar players. When the Custom Shop had the opportunity to work with him on his signature Stratocaster, we knew it needed to exceed his expectations.”
“Our hope is that this particular combination of custom pickups, tonewoods and hardware come together to inspire players as powerfully as Ariel’s music does.”
The Limited Edition Ariel Posen Stratocaster is available now, and comes with a deluxe hardshell case and Moody Leather Ariel Posen signature strap. There’s also a signature brass slide thrown in, as well as some Dunlop Ariel Posen picks and a certificate of authenticity.
The announcement also welcomes in a new era for the Fender Custom Shop. Fender has announced a new series, From the Factory Floor, to take people behind the scenes and show how the company’s California factory operates. It will feature artist performances, as well as discussions with guitar and amp builders. The first episode with Ariel Posen is available now.
Grab yourself a Limited Edition Ariel Posen Strat now.
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Slayer’s Gary Holt thinks that some modern guitarists don’t put enough “conviction” and “passion” into their riffs
Gary Holt of Exodus and Slayer has shared his thoughts on what makes a killer riff, noting that conviction is vital to make something that sticks.
During a Q&A with Rock City in celebration of his new memoir, A Fabulous Disaster: From The Garage To Madison Square Garden, The Hard Way, Holt reveals how he’s balanced his respective careers with both of his bands, and shares how passion prevails over complexity when it comes to some of his best work.
“You just play until the riff speaks to you. I love riffs. I’m still a massive fan. It sounds really narcissistic to say I’m a super-fan of my riffs, but when I write a really good riff, I still get goosebumps,” he says (via Ultimate Guitar). “I love it. And when you’re recording it, and you hear it back with the savage guitars and drums, it’s like, ‘Oh yeah! It’s so awesome.’”
Offering up some sturdy advice, he continues: “There’s a limited number of notes on a guitar. There’s limited options on what you do with them, but it’s the passion you put into them. I mean, how many times can we go, E, E, F? Everybody could do it. But it’s the conviction you put in it.
“Try to bend notes, rhythm wise. People don’t do it enough. Dime [Dimebag Darrell] did it and everything. You can bend all over those riffs too, and just write riffs, have fun. Blacklist [by Exodus] is our number one streamed song in the world, and it’s four chords… It’s just about finding something that sticks,” he concludes.
Also in the interview, Holt explains that Slayer are taking things year by year, with no pressure or expectation to tour or record any music since their return to a live environment at a handful of select festivals. The shows took place after the band had previously completed a farewell tour in 2019.
“[Slayer] is not like a permanent commitment on my end anymore, and I’m able to focus on family number one, which is Exodus,” he says. “[They’re] my childhood friends. Slayer is my family as well, but they’re family number two. And at my age, I want to close my career out with the guys I started it with.”
Both Slayer and Exodus are playing at Louder Than Life festival and Hersheypark Stadium in September. Exodus are also due to play at Aftershock in October.
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