Music is the universal language
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” - Luke 2:14
Guitar.com
How Women Are Giving Metal Guitars A Mainstream Moment
There are some rules of guitar that most of us stick to. Rock bands play Les Pauls, Jazzmasters and Telecasters are for indie kids (and country stars). Strats are for everything. And pointy guitars? Well… they’re just for metal, right?
- READ MORE: The Guitar Influences of Eddie Van Halen
Well, if you cast your eye across the biggest festival stages over the last few years, however, you’d have noticed something rather unprecedented happening. From Glastonbury to Coachella and beyond, a new generation of guitar-playing women have reclaimed the most aggressive and angry looking guitar shapes for a new generation. And for styles of music that have never seen such pointy and angular instruments before.
We can probably trace this back to Phoebe Bridgers. The Grammy-winning guitarist triggered an entire generation of angry guitarists when she smashed a BC Rich Warlock – a model more associated with Mötley Crüe, Slayer, and Guns N’ Roses than with indie’s resident sad-girl laureate – at the end of a Saturday Night Live performance in 2021, but it was clearly more than a stunt.
The guitarist began using Warlocks almost exclusively in the coming years, including as part of the cultural phenomenon that was Boygenius, but she would by no means be the last.
Phoebe Bridgers performing with Boygenius at Oyafestivalen in 2023. Image: Per Ole Hagen/Redferns via Getty Images
At Glastonbury this year, Wet Leg ditched the prairie dresses and neutral-toned Fenders for a new and more confrontational stage presence. This shift was epitomised by frontwoman Rhian Teasdale, who ditched her trusty Telecaster for an even weirder BC Rich curio – a lime green transparent acrylic-bodied Warlock.
And that wasn’t the only pointy guitar around the neck of a guitarist at Worthy Farm that weekend. Fellow Wet Leg guitarist Hester Chambers was rocking the pointy headstock of the none-more-80s Kramer Jersey Star.
Elsewhere, Turnstile’s Meg Mills was helping reinvent hardcore for a mainstream audience with her trusty pink Jackson Soloist in hand, while over on the Pyramid Stage, Olivia Rodrigo’s co-guitarist Arianna Powell was another guitarist propelling the set forward with a Soloist in hand.
By the end of the festival, it became clear that this isn’t just a gear shift, but a key change away from the age-old archetypes.
Meg Mills of Turnstile performing at Alcatraz in 2025. Image: Sergione Infuso/Corbis via Getty Images
Silver. Glittery. Crazy.
So why is it that more and more women in pop are reaching for pointy metal-adjacent guitars, and what does that say about gender, genre, and the evolution of our modern-day guitar heroes?
Originally a P-bass player, Emily Smith from rapidly rising Welsh upstarts Panic Shack never expected to pick up the Silvertone Apocalypse bass — the four-string version of KISS guitarist Paul Stanley’s early 2000s signature model — let alone be seen with it.
“I remember typing in Google, ‘Silver. Glittery. Crazy’,” she laughs from her home in Cardiff. For Smith, the shift isn’t just about aesthetics: it’s about subversion. “If you’re a woman, people assume you’ll gently play an acoustic guitar, shy away, and not take up space. I love that these artists are like, ‘No, I’m gonna get that crazy guitar. I want to stand out!’ It’s not all dainty, cutesy guitars. It’s ‘look at my minging rock guitar’. It’s disgusting and I love it.”
Young women are no longer being put into a Daisy Rock-shaped box when it comes to guitar inspiration. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying that of course, but a generation of new players are having their FYPs filled up with female musicians who aren’t ashamed to break with conventions.
Emily Smith of Panic Shack. Image: Press
It’s why you’ll see Willow Smith rocking a Jackson King V at Coachella, or you’ll see Halsey’s pop pyrotechnics backed up by seven-string Warrior-toting guitarist Vixen. A Jackson artist, Vixen has definitely noticed a shift in who uses the pointy stuff.
“These instruments were traditionally designed for men’s bodies, so I’m seeing a lot of offsets and shorter-scale options,” they explain. But for the skilled session musician, this shift is something deeper than gear choice. “Why try to be a slightly worse version of someone? Just do your own thing.”
For Vixen, the use of out-there shape guitars like the Warrior and the King V is key to that “thing”. “The pop scene requires drama,” they explain. “It’s about dynamics, ups and downs – so let’s bring out the white V, you know?”
Willow Smith performing at Coachella in 2023. Image: Presley Ann/Getty Images for Coachella
Full Circle
In some ways, this return to the pointy, the dramatic, and the genre-agnostic is a full-circle moment. In the 70s and 80s when many of these weird and wonderful guitars were first designed, shred and metal had yet to claim them.
Take a few minutes and look up Latin-pop legend Jose Feliciano posing in a suit and open-collar shirt with his custom Soloist with ‘Jose’ written in the Jackson font on the headstock – it’s wonderfully incongruous, and can be filed alongside a similarly amazing shot of Wrecking Crew legend Carol Kaye playing a BC Rich Warlock in while dressed a chic 70s housewife.
But as Tim Hillier-Brook, who heads Artist Marketing manager for Fender’s Specialty brands (Jackson, Gretsch, Charvel, and EVH), puts it, today’s revival isn’t about irony; it’s about reclamation.
“Men have had thirty years of playing guitars because they could,” he insists. “The idea that you need a bullet belt to play pointy guitars doesn’t exist anymore.”
Rhian Teasdale of Wet Leg performing at the Royal Albert Hall in 2025. Image: Chiaki Nozu/WireImage via Getty Images
Rejecting the pressure to perform on a “correct” instrument resonates strongly with Smith, especially when confronted with purist opinions.
“If anybody said anything to me about using an instrument that’s metal, I’d be like, ‘Oh, fuck off!’” he exclaims. “It’s just a guitar at the end of the day; it’s not that deep.”
Vixen is equally unfazed by this sort of mindset. “It no longer has to be, ‘If I’m playing this genre, I have to play this guitar.’ It’s cool to play something different and to make it work.”
And women are making it work – everywhere. Fender’s 2019 study famously found that women made up 50 per cent of new guitar players. Their 2022 follow-up revealed that many bought guitars online to avoid the intimidation of traditional stores.
As Danielle Haim puts it on the band’s Women In Music Pt. III track Man From The Magazine: “Man from the music shop / I drove too far / For you to hand me that starter guitar.” And if the chart-topping LA sisterhood is still fielding that kind of prejudice, what chance does a new, fresh-faced player have?
Arianna Powell performing with Olivia Rodrigo at BST Hyde Park in 2025. Image: Lorne Thomson/Redferns via Getty Images
Screen Idols
With physical stores still feeling fraught in some cases, thankfully, digital spaces have become a lifeline. Just as Ableton has equipped a whole new generation with access to studio gear and home recording opportunities, social media has made discovery democratic.
“Artists with huge followings like Willow Smith and Phoebe Bridgers,” continues Hillier-Brook. “People will see them and go ‘Cool, I’m going to buy that.”
Now, if someone is curious about picking up a guitar, they can simply find the model they want online, without being subjected to a character assassination.
New players without that traditional knowledge curve through dad-focused guitar mags and gatekeeping open mic nights are coming to guitar, thinking less about their forefathers and more about how the instrument fits with their identity and lifestyle.
When Vixen caught millennial musician Nai Palm of Aussie outfit Hiatus Kaiyote, they were intrigued to find her picking up a Randy Rhoads to play out the band’s sultry sounds. “Not only was it bad ass to have that guitar anyway, but to play it in a neo-soul way is like you really don’t give a fuck,” they explain.
Nai Palm of Hiatus Kaiyote performing at Coachella in 2023. Image: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Coachella
Panic Shack’s Smith agrees about her role within her brash and bold foursome, who recently brought their high-kicks and hotpants to the BBC’s Later…with Jools Holland.
“We’re all very out there,” she agrees. “It makes sense to have a guitar that represents your style and personality.” And in pop – a genre built on the razzle dazzle – that matters more than ever.
“It is a conversation piece,” adds Hillier-Brook. “The aesthetic of a show is arguably more important than it’s ever been. You want people to leave thinking that was a complete spectacle!”
Perhaps that’s why earlier this year, after a decade-long legal battle with producer Dr Luke, Kesha returned to the stage as an independent artist, wielding a Jackson Rhoads.
It was, in many ways, the ultimate guitar power move: reimagining a guitar designed to be played with the Prince Of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne, as a vehicle for a pop artist to celebrate her independence.
Emily Smith performing with Panic Shack. Image: Press
“If you’re a woman playing guitar, you’re already doing something against the grain,” Vixen agrees. “So why not lean into that?”
For Smith, the empowerment goes beyond the stage. Picking up that gleaming Silvertone every night means seeing herself – loud, unapologetic – reflected back.
“The whole industry is intimidating as a woman or someone who’s not a guy,” she admits. “I know that the other girls in the band, Romy and Meg, only now feel confident to say ‘I’m a guitarist!’”
It takes more than talent to stand out; it takes courage. Because underneath the outrageous shapes, the bold finishes, and the sneers from traditionalists, most players want the same thing: to be heard.
“Just because you’re standing there gurning doesn’t make you look like a more serious musician,” Smith says. “If you listen closely, we’re doing the same thing as you are.”
The post How Women Are Giving Metal Guitars A Mainstream Moment appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Justin Hawkins takes another brutal swing at Yungblud: “if the future of rock comes from musical theatre and Disney, if this is Ozzy’s heir, we’re in trouble”
![[L-R] Joe Perry, Steven Tyler and Yungblud](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Joe-Perry-Steven-Tyler-and-Yungblud@2000x1500.jpg)
Back in September, The Darkness’ Dan Hawkins labelled Yungblud’s VMAs Ozzy Osbourne tribute as “nauseating”. In the months since, Justin Hawkins has backed his brother up, revealing just why the pair are critical of the Doncaster rockstar.
The point of contention is how some are heralding Yungblud as Ozzy Obsourne’s “heir”. However, Justin thinks Harrison is just too squeaky-clean to be the next generation’s Prince of Darkness. “If the future of rock comes from musical theatre and Disney, if this is Ozzy’s heir, we’re in trouble,” Justin tells Classic Rock in a new interview.
For those unaware, Yungblud, AKA Dom Harrison, previously starred as on Disney Channel show, The Lodge. The show ran between 2016 and 2017, with Harrison taking on the role of Oz, a cheeky, boy-next-door rocker – arguably a watered down, PG version of what he’s up to nowadays.
Despite Harrison moving on from his Disney days, most recently collaborating with Aerosmith for the One More Time EP, the Hawkins brothers can’t detach Harrison from his past. Harrison’s career has certainly been a bit more family-friendly than Ozzy Osbourne’s rampage of bat-chomping and drug-addled benders, that’s for sure.
With that in mind, The Darkness just can’t see him being Ozzy’s “heir”. Previously, Justin has also told Classic Rock that Harrison’s recent metamorphosis has felt like “101 School of Rock stuff”. But who can blame Justin for his caution; rockers are going to be critical of anything that threatens to encroach on Ozzy Osbourne’s legacy.
While Justin insists his and his brother’s opinion was never intended to start a “spat”, he did throw a slight dig at Harrison elsewhere in his chat with Classic Rock interview. Namely, he criticised Harrison’s use of auto-tune during the VMAs. “We said [called it a] ‘bit shit’ [because of the] auto-tune that was being run in real time,” he says. “If the future of rock needs auto-tune to carry a song, then we are in trouble.”
However, Harrison has previously proved his worth at Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning show. His performance of Changes showed some real vocal skills, and his performance has been repeatedly praised as an unsuspected standout of the event.
While the Hawkins brothers aren’t set to accept Yungblud as “Ozzy’s heir” any time soon, the Osbourne family have repeatedly expressed feelings that Harrison is similar to Ozzy. In a new interview with Piers Morgan on his Uncensored talkshow, Ozzy’s wife, Sharon Osbourne, seemed fond of the idea of Harrison portraying her late husband.
After revealing there was a “deal” agreed upon and that the job now was to “look for people to work on the movie”, Morgan asked “do you have any idea who you want to play him?”. After Sharon admitted she has someone in mind, she refuses to name anyone – but, when Morgan suggests “Yungblud?”, she lets out a small smile. While she doesn’t deny the suggestion, she simply says: “I’m not saying a word.”
The post Justin Hawkins takes another brutal swing at Yungblud: “if the future of rock comes from musical theatre and Disney, if this is Ozzy’s heir, we’re in trouble” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“It doesn’t work!”: Gojira’s Joel Duplantier explains why he doesn’t like bands playing albums in full live
As we all get older, so do our favourite rock albums. As a result, an increasing number of bands are embarking on milestone anniversary tours to perform their most iconic records in full; last year, Slipknot toured their debut record to celebrate its 25th anniversary, while Liam Gallagher embarked on his own solo tour to mark 30 years since Oasis’ debut.
However, French metallers Gojira aren’t too fond of a cut-and-dry anniversary tour. Despite 2026 marking 20 years of From Mars To Sirius, frontman Joe Duplantier insists the album’s anniversary tour will offer more than a back to front performance of the record.
“We already tried it in rehearsal, and it doesn’t work,” he explains of the concept. His reasoning is rooted in how a live show differs from the intimacy of listening to a record. “For me, listening to an album is about lying on a bed, headphones on, following a story,” he explains in a new issue of Rolling Stone France.
Duplantier notes that performing the record in full might even be a disservice to the original record. With all the “crazy things happening”, the intricacy and beauty of a record would simply get lost in the chaos of a live environment. He adds that “moments of calm” might also lose their magic, as quieter tracks wont translate as well in a massive arena.
In the end, the result is a diluted version of what was originally put to record. With that in mind, Duplantier would much rather breathe new life into From Mars To Sirius to honour its anniversary. “It’s the album that propelled us to international success,” he reflects. “We already tried [playing it in full] in rehearsal, but it doesn’t work!”
“We want to shake things up to give it a boost,” he explains, noting that the shows are set to have plenty of “surprises” for fans. One of which has been a massive flying whale, in honour of the album artwork and track Flying Whales.
The idea of giving old tracks a “boost” has been a staple of Gojira’s work as of late. Earlier this year, Gojira performed at Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning show, putting their own spin on Sabbath ‘s 1972 classic, Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes.
As Duplantier explains, the band “reshaped”, “modernised” and “shortened” the track, transforming it into something more in-line with Gojira’s style. While the frontman notes the track wasn’t the band’s “usual groove”, he embraced the challenge to pay his respect to Sabbath’s legacy.
Despite the challenge, Gojira pulled their cover off without a hitch. They even made a point of knocking it back out on 22 July, the day Ozzy Osbourne passed away, to honour the heavy metal legend. “We were informed [of Ozzy’s passing] in the middle of the concert. When we played Under the Sun/ Every Day Comes and Goes, everyone was overwhelmed with emotion; people were crying in the audience.”
The post “It doesn’t work!”: Gojira’s Joel Duplantier explains why he doesn’t like bands playing albums in full live appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Blur drummer reveals that some of his bandmates loved them becoming a “boyband”: “We’d gone from indie kids to screaming girls”
While 1994’s Parklife served as Blur’s breakout record, the band only began to understand the gravity of their newfound fame the following year. Thirty years on from The Great Escape, drummer Dave Rowntree recalls how 1995 marked Blur’s shift from a humble indie group to a chart-topping “boyband”.
In a new interview with Classic Pop, Rowntree notes how The Great Escape saw the band’s main demographic of fans totally change. “We’d gone from indie kids to screaming girls,” he recalls. “Some members of the band found that wonderful, others regretted it.”
While Blur have never been a boyband – they play their own instruments, for a start – they were a group of charming young lads in their 20s. Once their Britpop and indie tunes hit the mainstream, girls quickly took a shine to them, covering their walls with posters and dreamily obsessing over Damon Albarn.
“It had never occurred to me that we could fit into the boyband mould,” Rowntree laughs. “We knew Take That reasonably well, and of course they consciously played up to it, [but] we never had. To have it suddenly coming our way was interesting.”
While Rowntree notes that the hysteria “didn’t last” for too long, the group experienced their own mini version of Beatles-mania. One such incident happened in Spain, when the lads were escorted from a radio station, while another saw bassist Alex James and frontman Albarn being locked inside of a shop in Florence while police sent away crowds of rabid fans.
“It was very exciting, as every band wants to be The Beatles,” Rowntree notes. “We weren’t the first or the last band that happened to, but those were hairy, crazy times.”
Regardless of the new mania that surrounded them, the band were more excited about the doors that the fandom was opening for them. More fans meant selling more tickets, which meant bigger, more ambitious shows. “We worried if we could fill these stages just by being ourselves,” Rowntree admits as he reflects. “[But] we loved building stage sets that Damon could interact with in interesting ways.”
Rowntree picks out one of the band’s more ambitious ideas, which took place during Dan Abnormal. “We came up with some pretty berserk ideas,” he explains. “For example, ‘McNormal burgers’ were hid in the rafters, before they were lowered over audiences… We wanted everything as big and bold as possible!”
The Great Escape (30th Anniversary Edition) is out now.
The post Blur drummer reveals that some of his bandmates loved them becoming a “boyband”: “We’d gone from indie kids to screaming girls” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
One of the most iconic pedals ever for under 50 quid? Grab this incredible Thomann deal while you can
Still looking for last-minute Christmas gifts? You’re in luck, because Thomann is offering one of the most treasured Electro-Harmonix pedals for less than £50.
The EHX Bad Stone was originally launched in the late 1970s and was reissued by the brand in 2015. It remains faithful to the original circuit design and three-knob control layout, but features up-to-date enhancements for today’s players, and can now be yours for just £47.
The Bad Stone delivers six stages of phase shifting, and also hosts a manual mode that lets players freeze the phase. Its Rate knob controls the phase shifting speed – which goes from very slow to a rapid, oscillating warble – while its Feedback knob determines the depth of the phase effect. A toggle switch is also onboard for selecting Auto or Manual modes.
All controls are super simple to use, and the pedal is housed in a compact, rugged die-cast package that shrinks down the original Bad Stone to a more typical modern pedal size. To hear how it sounds and find out more, you can watch the video below:
In other EHX news, the brand has teamed up with JHS Pedals to revive Bob Myer’s long-lost dual Op-Amp Big Muff design as the EHX Big Muff 2, described as “a sharper, louder, more aggressive take on the classic Big Muff voice.”
But that’s not all from the EHX camp, as it also recently informed the subscribers of its email newsletter that the company has a plan to solve an AI-induced energy crisis by harvesting a near-infinite supply of energy that’s hiding out in the planet’s magnetosphere.
To shop this deal on the EHX Bad Stone, head over to Thomann.
The post One of the most iconic pedals ever for under 50 quid? Grab this incredible Thomann deal while you can appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
We said this Guild “reminds you exactly why you fell in love” with guitar – and you can get an incredible 20% off it at Reverb
The Guild Polara is an ultra-light, rock-ready machine with simple yet effective controls, and you can now get your hands on it for less than $500.
Launched at NAMM in 2024, this Polara range followed on from the success of Guild’s 2023 collaboration with Kim Thayil. This standard version is the most affordable of the lot – among the Deluxe, Artist Signature, and USA versions – and you can now get a further 20 percent off it via the zZounds Reverb shop, knocking it down to $439.95.
We reviewed the Polara shortly after its launch, and awarded it a glowing 8/10. While its no frills layout means it’s not the most versatile guitar, we loved its striking aesthetics and described it as a “tone-packed rock machine” that will “remind you exactly why you fell in love” with guitar in the first place.
A brilliantly accessible model, the standard Polara offers uncovered HB-2+ pickups, described as “modern extensions” of the coveted Guild HB-1 oversized humbuckers built in a traditional size with Alnico V magnets. A diagonal string layout matches Guild’s compensated stop bar design first introduced in the early 1970s, and its string-through body design delivers glorious sustain.
This double cut dream offers plenty of access to the upper frets for soloing and classic rock shredding. It has an ultra-light ergonomic Mahogany body, making it an ideal workhorse guitar, and a mahogany U-shaped neck hosting a rosewood fingerboard. Its uber sleek and simple design is completed with basic controls for master volume and tone.
Infallible for players of all abilities, this standard Polara is sold brand-new through Reverb and comes in a vibrant Voltage Yellow colour. Hear it in-play in the video below:
You can shop this deal now via Reverb.
The post We said this Guild “reminds you exactly why you fell in love” with guitar – and you can get an incredible 20% off it at Reverb appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
The Circle Guitar is the most revolutionary new guitar in half a century – and artists are queuing up to be part of it
As much as we love it, and while guitarists themselves have continued to evolve, there’s no escaping the truth. The electric guitar is an instrument rooted in technology from the early 20th century, with a playing technique that predates the printing press.
But what if we took all the technological innovation the last seven decades have afforded us, and approached this wonderful thing of ours with fresh eyes? The Circle Guitar is one answer.
The Circle Guitar on the Guitar.com Cover. Image: Andy Ford for Guitar.com
If you’ve seen it, you will no doubt have an abiding memory: the disc. The spinning wheel that gives the guitar its name, covered in tiny plectrums, strums the strings in a way that no human could – freeing both hands up to create sounds, effects and textures that even the greatest guitarist couldn’t create on their own with a conventional instrument. With the rhythm aspect controlled by the guitar (the rhythm and pattern of which is determined by MIDI), you can interact with the guitar in new ways: create impossible chord shapes, experiment with new types of string muting and string bending, work the onboard volume faders to precisely bring in each note at the right moment.
Creator Anthony Dickens describes the circle as “an electro-mechanical guitar that uses a MIDI-enabled physical sequencer to strum the strings”. Sounds straightforward, right? But to see it, to hear it, to play it is like nothing else you’ve ever experienced with six strings. It’s dizzying, confronting and exhilarating all at once.
Image: Andy Ford for Guitar.com
Pushing The Envelope
The man who designed this guitar from a cyberpunk future is an unassuming, down-to-earth chap from the South West of England. Anthony Dickens’ first experience of the instrument was some rapidly aborted classical guitar lessons at school. He didn’t give the guitar much more thought until he was flicking through his dad’s record collection a few years later. The 12-year-old happened upon a cellophane-wrapped sample single given away with Smash Hits magazine, celebrating some artist he’d never heard of by the name of Jimi Hendrix.
“For two years, I listened to nothing else apart from every single thing Jimi Hendrix did,” Dickens explains today. “I was just obsessed from that moment on with music and guitars.”
“The thought was a simple one really – what if I could strum a guitar, but that strum never ends?”
Dickens’ obsession expanded: Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Rage Against The Machine. Rave music was also everywhere in the UK in that period, but Dickens struggled to really connect with it until he heard the uniquely experimental sounds of Aphex Twin – it was like a light had been turned on.
“When I discovered Aphex Twin, the first thing about it was that he was sort of an enigma,” Dickens says. He adds, tellingly: “And then I heard that he made his own instruments, and I was like, fucking hell, that is cool! That is the ultimate freedom, isn’t it?”
Dickens’ cousin taught him the basics of sampling on his Atari ST, and he was off making his own ‘esoteric’ electronic music. The logic went: “I’m not in a band, so I’m gonna try and do it myself!”
Image: Andy Ford for Guitar.com
Design For Life
Dickens also had a passion for making things, and went to university to study furniture design. That said, he planned to pursue music as a career once he was done with his degree. But a final-year exhibit in London complicated matters.
“I ended up winning these awards!” Dickens explains. “Instead of going to Brighton with my three other mates, to go head first into writing music and probably set up a label, I had to ring them up and go, ‘I’ve won this design award. I’ve got to stay in London and I’m going to work.’ It’s a sliding doors moment because it started me on a design career… but the tension has always remained.”
As a designer, Dickens has since worked with everyone from Red Bull to Audi – but he never stopped thinking about ways his two passions could combine. Around 1996, he started to seriously contemplate how music could influence design and vice versa.
“For me, it’s always about: how can I find a new way of expressing myself that nobody else has done before? It’s about people exploring new ways of communicating, and progressing that historical lineage of creativity.”
“It’s almost like the guitar has been left behind. Look at the evolution of music technology – and yet the guitar is the way that it is, and that’s all it should be”
After considering and discarding various ideas over the years, true inspiration struck in 2018. “I was trying to think about how I could change the way that I interacted with a guitar,” Dickens recalls. “The thought was a simple one really: ‘What if I could strum a guitar, but that strum never ends?’ No matter how fast your hand is, there has to be a moment where your downstroke ends and you have to bring it back up for the next one. But I thought, ‘What if it never ended?’”
Dickens landed on the idea of sticking a wheel onto a guitar, putting a load of plectrums onto it, and spinning it by hand. So he made his first prototype – using a cheap acoustic guitar with a hole drilled into it, skateboard ball bearings, a laser-cut piece of plastic, the cheapest, thinnest plectrums he could find, and a doorknob off a kitchen cabinet.
“I started spinning it around, and it sounded amazing – you could make it sound like a swarm of bees, this incessant, endless thing. Immediately I thought, all right, there’s something there.”
Image: Andy Ford for Guitar.com
On Your Ed
Dickens began pursuing the Circle Guitar project in earnest shortly before the pandemic. At Somerset House’s Makerversity space, he connected with people who could fill in expertise gaps, such as the coders and engineers who helped develop the motorised spinning wheel and the MIDI control that could accurately and consistently keep time. Dickens eventually also added a hex pickup to enable each string to be treated as an independent signal, with onboard volume faders for each one.
As he continued to tinker, Dickens needed some validation that he was on track. “I thought I had to put some videos on social media. Just to see: are we being absolutely mad? If I’m finally going to put my love of design and music together into something, I need to find out if it’s really worth pursuing.”
Some thought the Circle Guitar was madness, while others thought it was genius. But one particular cosign pushed the project forward.
Dickens had watched a That Pedal Show episode with Ed O’Brien, where the Radiohead guitarist insisted that searching for new sounds and textures was more important than any kind of technical virtuosity. It struck a chord, and so he dropped O’Brien an Instagram message about the Circle Guitar. “Within an hour, he got back to me going, ‘Wow, this is amazing. I’d love to come and play it,’” Dickens remembers. “And a week later he was in my house!”
“Every single guitar hero was an agitator, because they were doing something that hadn’t been done before”
O’Brien would later characterise the Circle Guitar as “extraordinary”, telling Reuters it was “almost like playing a different instrument”. “It’s like learning a new language, really. I want to spend a lot of time with it.”
Chances are your first encounter with the Circle Guitar was a direct result of that meeting in August 2020. While at Dickens’ house O’Brien recorded a short phone video of him using the Circle Guitar to create some otherworldly sonic textures, and shared it on Instagram. It quickly went viral, and before long Dickens was fielding queries from artists and producers keen to try it for themselves.
In the five years since that video, the Circle Guitar has changed dramatically both inside and out – and Dickens is ready to share his vision with the world. The first batch of production instruments have been completed, each one custom-tailored to the requirements of the artists and innovators who ordered them.
Image: Andy Ford for Guitar.com
O’Brien will take delivery of one of them, Phish bassist Mike Gordon another, as will A-list producers Paul Epworth and John Congleton. True innovation doesn’t come cheap – the Circle Guitar costs £7,995 – but guitarists as diverse as Muse’s Matt Bellamy and Idles’ Lee Kiernan have been wowed by the Circle Guitar’s potential.
The faith these artists have placed in Dickens has empowered him to assemble a small team of investors and collaborators to help him achieve the Circle Guitar dream. US-based software engineer David Ashman is responsible for coding the guitar’s firmware and designing the internal electronics, while respected UK luthier Manson Guitar Works – which is owned by Bellamy – produced the necks and bodies for the first batch. [Editor’s Note: Meng Ru Kuok, Founder & CEO of Caldecott Music Group is a part owner of Manson Guitar Works. Guitar.com is part of Caldecott Music Group.]
Another key figure in helping the project move forward is Freddie Cowan, former guitarist in indie-rockers The Vaccines. When Dickens moved to the quiet Somerset village of Frome to work on Circle in earnest, he discovered that Cowan was his neighbour, and he became a hugely important voice in the development – if you’ve seen a Circle Guitar demo online in recent months, Cowan is likely the man playing it.
Image: Andy Ford for Guitar.com
The Future of Guitar
Even with a formidable team behind him, Dickens still toils away in his workshop to assemble each and every Circle Guitar. There are some who see his brainchild as some sort of technological interloper, transgressing on the pure and good world of electric guitars. It’s a position he understands, even if he hasn’t got much patience for it.
“It’s almost like the guitar has been left behind,” he argues. “Look how the evolution of music technology has exploded – and yet for some reason the guitar is the way that it is, and that’s all it should be. Some people get annoyed because they see the Circle as cheating, because you don’t have to play it like a normal guitar – but you can still buy the old ones! And the intention was never to create something to shortcut learning; it was about exploring new ways to play the guitar. But,” he adds with a wry smile, “it’s also quite fun winding people up as well.”
The unique venn diagram of Dickens’ interests made him the perfect man to conceive of the Circle Guitar. But it still comes back to that maverick creativity and expression that Jimi Hendrix captivated him with all those years ago.
“The beauty of innovation is that it’s deep within us – we’re compelled to find something new”
“For the purists out there, every single one of their guitar heroes was an agitator when they first came out,” Dickens explains. “Because they were doing something that hadn’t been done before, and it probably pissed off a load of other musicians too! This is what humans do. We are always pushing things. The beauty of innovation is that it’s deep within us – we’re compelled to find something new.”
With batch one completed and deposits for the second batch now being taken, Dickens is ambitious about the future of the Circle Guitar. He has plans for new devices, and intends to use feedback from batch one’s owners to refine the concept and better cater to the needs of artists – something that remains at the heart of the Circle ethos.
“The thing that [guitarists] always tell me is that Circle forces you to think differently,” Dickens says. “And for a musician, that’s their job – they’re constantly trying to reinvent themselves. They’re trying to find different ways of responding to their instrument. So that’s what I’m hoping that Circle as a brand is going to keep doing – giving these tools that allow them to open new doors of sonic exploration.”
Words: Josh Gardner
Photography: Andy Ford
Location: Distillery II Studios, Bristol
The post The Circle Guitar is the most revolutionary new guitar in half a century – and artists are queuing up to be part of it appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Keith Urban says this is the best way to tell if you should buy a guitar: “I get very excited about that particularly”
What makes you want to buy a guitar? It could be a visual aspect like shape or colour, or maybe it’s the electronics or wood. For Keith Urban, it needs to pull an unusual riff out of him.
Urban, who has just launched his first ever live album, High And A(live), has been sharing his best tips for buying guitars, including what is most important to him. It doesn’t matter if a guitar is expensive or cheap, if he manages to play something entirely brand new on it, he’ll likely buy it.
He tells Guitarist in its new print issue, “I think maybe it’s about bonding with something. That’s all it is for me. l usually base it on if I pick it up and play it, and a riff or something comes out of the guitar that I’ve never played before, I get very excited about that particularly.
“It happens on really cheap guitars, too. I’ve walked into stores and found fairly cheap guitars, you know, for a couple hundred bucks, and kind of gone, ‘Wow, l’ve never played that riff before.’ Then maybe another riff comes out of it, and I go, ‘This guitar’s got some stuff in it.’ So l’ve bought guitars based on that,” he explains.
Asked if he’d rather buy a cheap guitar and an expensive amp, or vice versa, Urban responds, “The guitar comes first, but… Man, that’s a great question. I was going to try to give an answer, and I was like, ‘You don’t believe that, Keith’ [laughs]. Because, really, either one works.
“To me, ‘good’ is something that pulls something out of me that feels and sounds really good. Regardless of how much it is, what brand it is or anything about it, to me, that’s a good guitar. That beats tone,” he concludes. “Because the tone could be shitty and that’s actually part of the character of the guitar you just played.”
Keith Urban will go on tour in 2026. You can find out more via his official website.
The post Keith Urban says this is the best way to tell if you should buy a guitar: “I get very excited about that particularly” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Steve Stevens claims 80s guitar music suffered due to the obsession with finding “clones” of Eddie Van Halen: “Record labels were signing anyone who could tap and shred”
Steve Stevens has recalled how Eddie Van Halen “shook up the world” when he rose to success, as shredding became an obsession – but with some unintended consequences for the rest of the guitar scene.
Stevens kicked off his own career in the 1980s, just as Van Halen were soaring, and remembers how record labels were looking to sing players who could tap and shred in the same style.
- READ MORE: The Guitar Influences of Eddie Van Halen
Stevens has worked with artists like Michael Jackson, Vince Neil, and prominently Billy Idol, as well as having worked on his own solo music. In an interview with Guitarist, he says he never gave into the pressure of shred-sanity, and still prefers “having a dialogue” with other band members on stage.
“I wasn’t from LA. I didn’t grow up watching Van Halen thinking, ‘Oh shit, what do we do now?’ A lot of guys did. Eddie shook up the world, no doubt. I became friends with him later, but I never wanted to play like him.
“Record labels were signing anyone who could tap and shred. The good ones, like Warren DeMartini and George Lynch, found their own voices, unlike guys that were just Eddie clones. But, really, my true love is collaborating on a good song.”
He continues, “I’m definitely not looking for my moment of glory three minutes into a song, waiting for the guitar solo. I enjoy being part of the band more than anything and having that dialogue with the guys on stage, playing and locking in with the drummer.”
Another guitarist who has recently reflected on the impact of Eddie Van Halen’s work is Steve Lukather, who was also a good friend of his. Speaking to Forbes, he said that Ed “changed the world”, but not everybody understood what he was about.
“People mistook him for a parlour trick because he did the tapping thing. He actually stumbled upon it by accident. It had been around for a while. He was in a trio, and filling up the sound is hard. Think Cream [with Eric Clapton],” Lukather said.
“Ed’s rhythm-playing and solos were like one fluid movement. I don’t think he ever played the same thing twice, and that used to drive the guys in the band crazy.”
You can find out more about Steve Stevens’ work via his official website.
The post Steve Stevens claims 80s guitar music suffered due to the obsession with finding “clones” of Eddie Van Halen: “Record labels were signing anyone who could tap and shred” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Guitar.com Deals Of The Week: pre-Christmas savings to stuff your stockings with
We’ve entered into December proper. And, so, the herds of savings that stampeded around us across Black Friday and Cyber Week have completed their yearly migration, disappearing over the horizon as quickly as they came. But, deal hunters that we are, we move onto new pastures to find fresh savings to throw spears at and chase over cliffs. Metaphorically. And those new pastures are the pre-Christmas build-up sales, which are now in full swing at retailers like Sweetwater and zZounds. There are some awesome deals to be had on everything from stocking-stuffing pedals to dream guitars to reliable Boss classics – here are just a few.
Save $50 on the IK Multimedia ToneX One
[deals ids=”55Lo7ELi4kX2vnXWA5zWSV”]
A pocket-sized pedal this may be, but there’s a whole universe of amplifier simulations within its miniscule enclosure. This bite-size pedal features 20 onboard Tone Model slots, allowing you to pick and choose from over 200 Premium Tone Models and more than 25,000 user-generated Tone Models via IK’s TONEX Librarian and ToneNET – that’s an unbelievable amount of flexibility, all for less ahead of the holidays.
Save $30 on the Boss RC-5
[deals ids=”2iMpWKulea7KLxmzvOZSvh”]
This is my personal looper of choice – it’s a great balance between size and featureset, as it’s got an extensive set of on-board beats, storage options, and other nifty quality of life features, but it still functions just fine as a straight-ahead looper!
Save $310 on the PRS SE Hollowbody Standard Piezo Electric Guitar
[deals ids=”4izu1sQ7V1fRK6OT8tv4Hg”]
This innovative semi-hollow from PRS comes in the rather intriguing dog hair finish, which is a lot prettier to look at than you might think – with the accentuated, tight grain of the top providing an almost glittery effect. The guitar comes with all of the player-friendly ergonomics that you might expect from PRS, alongside a versatile set of sounds thanks to that unique piezo setup.
Save $30 on the Boss TU-3
[deals ids=”4LjwlcMcAqUpOw4yYG5TiS”]
We don’t need to tell you why the TU-3 is great, and even greater at just under $80. It’s a fast, accurate, reliable tuner that’s housed in Boss’ ever-beloved compact series enclosure, and therefore will survive a direct hit from a nuclear missile, probably. No wonder it’s on so many professional and non-professional pedalboards alike!
Save $50 on the Boss Katana
[deals ids=”6p5ZFu8SQuchpClOioLc3H”]
$299 for the Katana 50 Gen 3 is an extremely appealing deal. The Katana Gen 3 has excellent direct sounds, with a customisable signal path and effects chain thanks to robust software control. What’s more, it’s also more than capable of being used as a regular combo amplifier – the 50-watt version balances between power and portability, as it’s more than capable of all kinds of gigs thanks to its headroom and its direct capabilities, but it’s also a one-hand lift!
The post Guitar.com Deals Of The Week: pre-Christmas savings to stuff your stockings with appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
The Lutefish Stream is a remote jamming solution that actually works
Ad feature with Lutefish
Remote jamming is a phrase that incites a certain degree of scepticism – with a lot of solutions, the latency is inevitably too high thanks to lengthy processing delays. But the Lutefish stream is a new solution that aims to get around the normal roadblocks and offer a super low-latency experience while you jam with musicians hundreds of miles away.
What is the Lutefish Stream?
The Lutefish Stream is a pretty straightforward unit. To some degree it resembles an audio interface, but it is by no means a traditional one. Each bandmate requires a Stream, and can easily connect their instrument either direct or via microphones – there are two mono combo XLR/¼” inputs with individual gain controls, two headphone outputs for your preferred connector size, an overall master volume and finally a talkback mic to communicate with your bandmates.
So, why a hardware solution as opposed to software that uses your own interface? Rather working like a traditional interface, the Lutefish Stream instead uses a direct ethernet connection, straight into your router – which is what lets it achieve such low latency. Going direct via ethernet means the minimum possible delay in sending the digitised audio stream – no lag is added by unstable WiFi connections or your computer’s audio processing path.
With a good connection, the Stream’s latency can be around 3ms. Sound travels through air at roughly one metre per millisecond – and so a 3ms delay is about what you’d get from just standing on the other side of the room to the rest of your band.
All of the audio is routed through this connection, including the talkback mic. This allows for seamless, lag-free chats alongside your practice session. The video call for a session is sent separately through your laptop or phone’s own connection, which keeps as much bandwidth as possible available for the audio stream.
To the test
I put the Lutefish Stream to the test with the help of my band Epimetheus. Gathered in different practice spaces, we connected everything up and joined the session. I was worried that remote jamming of any kind would be pretty obstructive to our music – we play downtuned shoegaze that occasionally veers totally off-piste, or at least I do, while the rhythm section keeps things grounded. We don’t play to a click or backing tracks, and we often rely on cueing each other back in for different sections – so we really need to be in sync!
However the Lutefish Stream handled it all with aplomb! Remote jamming is never going to feel exactly like you’re in the same room, mainly because you’re hearing everything through headphones – but the latency was so low it felt really great playing with my bandmates. Check out the video to see for yourself!
The benefits of a solution like this really speak for themselves – there are lots of reasons why you might not be able to all get into the same room and practice as often as you’d like. And thanks to Lutefish’s network of musicians, once you have a stream you can also start connecting with a load of other players and expand your musical horizons.
The Lutefish Stream is by no means a complete replacement for playing in a room together, however it’s a great solution for those of us who find life getting in the way of music. It lets you work to a more flexible schedule, and spend more time playing – and less time lugging gear across your city.
Find out more about Lutefish at lutefish.com.
The post The Lutefish Stream is a remote jamming solution that actually works appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Mateus Asato doesn’t mind you imagining vocals on his instrumental music, but this is why he’s not going to do it
Mateus Asato has been thinking about suggestions to add vocals to his instrumental pieces, and has concluded that the music alone is “enough”.
Asato rose to fame by sharing videos of himself playing online, and has toured with artists like Bruno Mars and Tori Kelly. This year, he began releasing music of his own with singles Cryin’ and The Breakup Song. Both tracks form part of his debut album, which is due for release in 2026.
Neither song features any lyrical content, and fans of Asato have been suggesting different vocalists that should collaborate with him on his music. In a Story post on Instagram, he says he’s not offended by these suggestions, but plans to keep his music purely instrumental.
“If there’s a person who’s considered having vocals and lyrics on my songs, that person was definitely me,” he begins. “Now that I have been releasing my own music these days, it’s been a common thing to read something like, ‘I can picture [this artist] singing over this’. I don’t feel offended – actually, most of the time, I agree or even thought the same thing.
“But… let me explain this. I’m aware of how a human voice and words could be the closest bridge from a creator to the listener. The message doesn’t get any more clear than that. I am not a singer – and never wanted to be one. The only reason I make music today is because I fell in love with the sound of the electric guitar one day.”
Asato goes on to explain how for a number of years, he felt there was something missing from the music he was making, which he now puts down to external pressures from others: “That never started from myself, always from others. Former managers, family members and so on.
“After hearing their words, I’d come home and started to re-shape in my head the creation that made me proud and alive. Until the day I realised that I truly like these guitar pieces how they are. It’s meant to sound that way and it’s enough. For me, at least. And that’s what matters,” he says.
“The coolest thing of instrumentals is how SUBJECTIVE it could be. Like a painting with no description. And I’ve been enjoying the effect of it at this season of my life. It’s grown on me at a point that I finally decided to release these songs in an album that will be out soon. The time with songs with vocals and melodies might come, if my identity as a creator understands it needs some extensions. Right now there’s a lot of satisfaction where it is.”
Hear his latest single below:
You can learn more about Asato and find tabs for his new music via his official website.
The post Mateus Asato doesn’t mind you imagining vocals on his instrumental music, but this is why he’s not going to do it appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
John 5 explains why he doesn’t improvise when playing other people’s songs: “I show respect by playing the songs just as they were written”
John 5 has played for some huge rock artists, and unlike some guitarists, he doesn’t believe in putting his own spin on other artists’ songs.
John joined Mötley Crüe in 2022 after Mick Mars stepped down due to health reasons. As well as his own solo career, he’s played for David Lee Roth, Rob Zombie, and more, and says he only plays for artists whose music he enjoys so that he’s a better fit for the job.
There are lots of guitarists out there who are set on putting their own spin on things when filling in the shoes of another player, with some arguing they want to leave that artist’s work and legacy alone out of respect, but John feels that nailing the parts as intended is more honourable.
Speaking to Metal Hammer for its new print issue, he explains, “[For every band I’ve played with], I have such respect for the music and the artist, and the person that I’m stepping in for. Be it Eddie Van Halen [with David Lee Roth], Mick Mars [with Mötley Crüe], or anyone like that, I have such respect for them.
“I show respect by playing the songs just as they were written. I’m not trying to do my own thing. As long as you play the parts directly and do a good job at it, everything will be OK, because that’s what people want. They love these bands that they’ve seen their whole lives.”
He goes on to add, “I do only join musicians that I’ve loved most of my life as well. It makes it easier on me. It’s easier for the audience, too, because there have been a lot of people who joined certain bands, and were like, ‘Oh, I never really even listened to them before’, and that idea is just so foreign to me.”
In other John 5 news, the guitarist was honoured with a birthday cake that replicated his Boss-heavy pedalboard earlier this year. After turning 55 in July, a fan named Merredith Mooth commissioned the cake, which was made by Angie Martinez Hrndz (Cakes from the Crypt). All six of his pedals were expertly recreated, from his CE-2W Chorus to his NS-2 Noise Suppressor, to his DD-8 Digital and DM-2W Delay pedals.
Find out more about John 5, or view the full list of dates for Mötley Crüe’s 2026 Carnival Of Sins anniversary tour.
The post John 5 explains why he doesn’t improvise when playing other people’s songs: “I show respect by playing the songs just as they were written” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal review – a radical synth pedal for sonic extremists
€329/£299/$399, gamechangeraudio.com
I’m going to be very careful to avoid hyperbole here. The Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal is almost certainly the wildest, hairiest, scariest stompbox I have ever used. Now imagine what that sentence would have been like with the hyperbole left in…
To be clear, while the Latvian mavericks’ latest concoction very much comes under the ‘synth’ category, we’re not dealing with boops, bleeps, moving filters or emulated organ sounds here. This is a whole different kettle of piranhas.
Image: Adam Gasson
Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal – what is it?
Okay, here’s the easy part: it’s a monophonic synthesizer pedal for guitar. More specifically, according to the manual, this is “the world’s first electromechanical synth engine in pedal format”. It’s built around a spinning motor oscillator with three rotating coils and a fixed electromagnetic pickup, driven by a pitch-tracking engine.
For anyone thinking that might as well be written in Greek, you’re not far off – it’s written in geek. And here’s what it means in basic English: the higher the note you play, the faster the motor spins, and that’s what generates the output signal. It’s an idea taken from the desktop Motor Synth, but now offered in much-simplified (and guitarified) form.
Image: Adam Gasson
Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal – is it easy to use?
Ten knobs looks like a lot, especially when they’re crowded around a bamboozling display of multicoloured lights, but they’re ripe for picking off one at a time.
Begin with the ones at bottom left and right, which aren’t really knobs at all but five-way rotary switches: one for selecting the synth mode, and one for assigning the function of the built-in expression pedal. Between those two you’ve got plenty of housemate-horrifying power on tap even with everything else parked at halfway.
Let’s not forget the other controls, though. There’s a seven-way switch for setting a pitch-shift interval between one octave down and one octave up, dials for dry and wet volume plus tone and drive, and three more for tweaking the synthesized signal.
And then, of course, you’ve got the expression pedal. This looks and feels like a car’s accelerator, and I don’t think that’s a decision Gamechanger has made just to fit in with the automotive theme: push it down and it will spring back up when you let go, which is useful, and you can also squeeze it down harder to push through into ‘floor-it’ mode. Intriguing, no? Better buckle up…
Image: Adam Gasson
Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal – sounds
Sure, the vroomy-vroom concept is cute and all – it’s even got racing stripes! – but if you pop it in the first mode and note-bend your way along the low E string, the Motor Pedal can sound uncannily like an F1 car going through the gears. It’s a ‘synth’ sound, yes, but with a grindingly atonal thickness that’s distinctive and exhilarating, if not exactly musical in any familiar sense of the word.
Some of the other sounds are more traditionally synthy – throw away your keyboards now, Gary Numan fans! – but you always have the feeling that unpredictable overtones are just waiting to grab the wheel and drag you into the crash barriers. The knob marked ‘mod’ can make this even more pronounced, while you also have the option of cranking the drive for maximum furiousness.
There’s a wonderfully wobbly vibrato on board, as well as adjustable sustain for softening the in-built gating effect – which is helpful, but can’t always stop it cutting off a hanging note when you really don’t want it to. This can be absolutely maddening, and will make you envy those key-prodders with their un-decaying notes.
For the real high-octane thrills, though, you need to step on the expression pedal. It can be set to go up or down an octave, engage infinite sustain, add momentary vibrato or serve as a volume pedal. Push down extra-hard in vibrato mode and it increases the speed; in either of the octave modes it will soar beyond its range like a satanically possessed Whammy. All of this happens without any distracting latency or tracking issues, and with the entertaining visual bonus of a spinning chequered wheel to distract you from all your mistakes.
Image: Adam Gasson
Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal – should I buy one?
The Motor Pedal pushes at the boundaries of what a guitar stompbox can do before it becomes simply a generator of unpleasant noises. Its practical uses, unless you’re in some sort of neo-industrial electro-goth dada-brutalist ensemble, are limited. It’s large, heavy and somewhat expensive. Worst of all, it sounds better with keyboards than it does with guitars. Still with me after all that? Then yes, you probably should buy it.
Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal – alternatives
Nothing else will take you anywhere quite like this, but other unapologetically rebellious stompboxes for noisemongers include the Noise Engineering Dystorpia ($299/£299), Electro-Harmonix POG3 ($645/£599) and Mantic Flex Pro ($269/£230).
The post Gamechanger Audio Motor Pedal review – a radical synth pedal for sonic extremists appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.