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You could say John 5’s guitar tone is pretty delicious – but this is next level. With the Mötley Crüe guitarist turning 55 this year, one fan took on the challenge of transforming his pedalboard into a cake.

While John 5’s birthday was back in July, the cake looks like it was worth the wait. Commissioned by fan Merredith Mooth and made by Angie Martinez Hrndz, otherwise known as Cakes from the Crypt, the cake is a perfect replica of the guitarist’s famously Boss-heavy ‘board.

• READ MORE: Wolfgang Van Halen names his five favourite guitar players

All six of his pedals have been expertly recreated, from his CE-2W Chorus to his NS-2 Noise Suppressor, to his DD-8 Digital and DM-2W Delay pedals. The pièce de résistance, however, seems to be John 5’s pair of SD-1 Super Overdrives. “The Super Overdrive never tasted so good!” the guitarist proclaims in an Instagram clip.

The board even has John 5’s Radial Engineering SGI 44 power supply, for an extra bit of tech to sink your teeth into.

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As John 5 notes, the late arrival of the cake also coincides with the birthday of his guitar tech, David Vela. With that in mind, it’s a perfect gift for them to share – although we can’t imagine there’s much left at the time of writing… “Thank you, Meredith for this incredible birthday cake,” John 5 writes on Instagram. “My birthday was in July… David’s was a week ago. We really appreciate it. Thanks again.”

In the past, Vela has praised the Mötley Crüe riffer for his simple, no frills live rig. Speaking to American Music Supply last year, the tech explained: “Essentially, he has four pedals on that thing. You’re looking at six, actually. One of the pedals is doubled up, the Super Overdrive. He doubles up on the Super Overdrive because when he wants really high-gain pinch squeals and harmonics.”

“He’s got that, a delay, a reverb, and a chorus. And the noise suppression, but you don’t really hear anything from the noise suppression.”

Most significantly, Vela explained how “none of the pedals are modded”, which some find hard to believe. “They’re right out of the box,” he insisted. “Fans ask all the time, and I’m like, ‘No, those are just stock pedals!’”

In Vela’s words, “besides John’s fingers”, the secret to the guitarist’s ‘clean’ tone is his EVH 5150 EL34 amp.

The post The tastiest guitar tone ever? John 5’s pedalboard has been turned into a cake – complete with an array of edible Boss pedals appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

D’Addario introduces the Pick Holder 360, a sleek, fun new way to keep your favorite picks organized and visible, easy to reach, and ready to play.

Spin, Grab, Play

The Pick Holder 360 offers rotating, stylish, easy-access storage for guitar picks of all shapes and sizes. Designed for one-handed use, all you have to do is give it a spin, grab your pick, and play. It’s a quick, perfect buy for musicians, custom pick collectors, or anyone simply looking for the perfect stocking stuffer for the musician in their life.

Highlights

• 360° Access: Rotating design keeps every pick within easy reach
• Stylish Storage: Sleek tabletop design fits comfortably in any setup
• Universal Fit: Holds picks of various sizes and shapes securely
• Gift Ready: Perfect for musicians and music lovers alike

Availability & Pricing

• The D’Addario Pick Holder 360 will be available October 13, 2025, through daddario.com and authorized retailers
• Street price: $19.99
• Watch the video: ddar.io/pickholdervideo

For more information, visit: ddar.io/pickholder-pr

Mateus Asato, the Brazilian guitarist, composer, and musical innovator who is celebrated for redefining modern guitar artistry, has released his first official single, “Cryin’” today. The song will be on his forthcoming debut album, due out in early 2026.

About the release, Masato says, “‘Cryin’’is my emotional celebration of life — the first act of being human and the sound of joy, fear, and love all at once. It’s a reminder that life is full of emotions, vulnerability, and movement, and you’re free to feel it your own way.”

Born in Campo Grande, Brazil, Asato began playing guitar at age nine and quickly developed a soulful, melodic style that blends technical mastery with deep emotional expression. After moving to Los Angeles to attend the Musicians Institute, he graduated with top honors and received the Outstanding Guitar Player of the Year award.

His expressive playing and viral Instagram performances propelled him to international fame, earning millions of followers and recognition as one of the most influential guitarists of his generation. Asato has toured and recorded with global superstars including Tori Kelly, Jessie J, and Bruno Mars, performing at venues such as Tokyo Dome and the Grammy Awards as part of Mars’s Silk Sonic band.

Mateus has been named among Guitar World’s Top 10 Guitarists of the Decade and Total Guitar’s Top 3 Guitarists in the World Today. Beyond his technical prowess, he is revered for bringing lyrical storytelling to the instrument — bridging genres from pop and R&B to instrumental fusion — and inspiring a new generation of players worldwide.

Fender has opened its first Artist Showroom in China, in Shanghai’s Xuhui District.

The Fender Artist Showroom Shanghai marks Fender’s fourth Artist Showroom worldwide, following locations in Tokyo, London and Nashville. It will serve both as a working space for Fender’s Shanghai-based artist marketing and product teams, and to offer “elevated services to Fender China’s extensive roster of artists”.

• READ MORE: The iconic rock band Wolfgang Van Halen thinks should have their own “Mount Rushmore”

The new showroom is housed within a two-storey building, with the first floor featuring a product display area, guitar tech station, and amp room – and regularly hosting community events including product trials, musician workshops and live performances – and the second floor serving as the workspace for the Fender China team.

Credit: Fender

“From London to Nashville, and Tokyo, each Fender Artist Showroom is more than just a physical location, it’s an emotional bridge connecting artists with the brand. It’s a place where musicians find inspiration and support, and where Fender gains direct insight from artists to co-create the future of music,” says Edward “Bud” Cole, President of Fender Asia-Pacific.

“Today, we are proud to extend this bridge to Shanghai – a dynamic, inclusive, and international metropolis. This move is not only a key extension of our global strategy but also a solid commitment reflecting our firm belief in the future of the Chinese market and our long-term investment here.” 

Credit: Fender

“At Fender, we are committed to accompanying musicians and players at every stage of their music journey,” says Peggy Dai, General Manager of Fender China. 

“With the establishment of Fender Artist Showroom Shanghai, we look forward to listening more directly to the voices of local musicians and players, translating their feedback into enhanced services and products that better meet local needs.”

With its new Artist Showroom Shanghai, Fender says it looks to “deepen artist relations and community cultivation”, while integrating “Fender’s brand spirit with Chinese music culture”.

Credit: Fender

The post Fender opens its first Artist Showroom in China appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Pink Floyd remain heavily in the rotation of prog lovers and music fans the world over, but they shouldn’t expect a reunion of any form any time soon.

The relationship between David Gilmour and Roger Waters remains acrimonious, to say the least; in October last year, Gilmour was on record saying he would “absolutely not” perform with Waters ever again, adding: “I tend to steer clear of people who actively support genocidal and autocratic dictators.”

Roger Waters has been accused of supporting President Vladimir Putin during Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, and even addressed the United Nations Security Council via video link in 2023 upon invitation from the Russian government.

• READ MORE: The iconic rock band Wolfgang Van Halen thinks should have their own “Mount Rushmore”

Gilmour’s wife Polly Samson has also been vocal in her opposition to Roger Waters, writing in a 2023 tweet: “Roger Waters you are antisemitic to your rotten core,” going on to call him a “Putin apologist” among numerous other insults.

Sadly @rogerwaters you are antisemitic to your rotten core. Also a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching,misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac. Enough of your nonsense.

— pollysamson (@PollySamson) February 6, 2023

Samson became somewhat professionally entangled with Pink Floyd following Roger Waters’ bitter departure in 1985, contributing many of the lyrics to the band’s 1994 album The Division Bell. 

She refused to pursue writing credits, partly due to “an internalised misogyny”, as she explains in a new interview alongside her husband with The Telegraph, and hinting that it was some part due to Roger Waters fans blaming her for his Pink Floyd departure.

“The fans of Pink Floyd at that point were very much a divided community,” she explains. “I mean, they want mummy and daddy not to be divorced anymore,” she says, referring to Roger Waters and David Gilmour.

“I was like some sort of mistress who’d gone along and taken daddy away from mummy.”

“[Fans] still fight like cats and dogs,” says Gilmour, adding that Pink Floyd in the mid ‘90s was “very much still a very misogynistic boys’ club”.

“It was difficult for Polly,” he says. “I don’t think I did my best. I don’t think I’ve done enough to protect her in those ways really but we got through it.”

In other news, David Gilmour recently reflected on how he felt Pink Floyd were never prog rock, as they are often labelled. “To me, progressive rock is very serious players who can really do their stuff,” he said.

The post “They want Mummy and Daddy not to be divorced anymore”: David Gilmour and wife Polly Samson reflect on why fans keep clamouring for him to reunite Pink Floyd appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Emily Roberts has just landed in London from an exhausting set at Hungary’s Sziget festival. She is, rightfully so, a little weary after The Last Dinner Party, the band for which she is lead guitarist, led a fiery set under the blazing sun. The crowd was hungry for hits; fervently screaming back most (if not all) the words to songs from their debut album Prelude To Ecstasy. But Roberts has a twinkle in her eye this sunny Tuesday evening, despite her full-on day. There’s some big news to discuss.

• READ MORE: Wolfgang Van Halen names his five favourite guitar players

It was during a thunderstorm in Prague last year when an unsuspecting audience heard a piece of The Last Dinner Party’s upcoming sophomore album, From The Pyre, for the first time. The band called themselves the decoy name Yeehaw Interlude for this moment, but the lead single This Is The Killer Speaking had officially been performed. This wasn’t like what happened on the run-up to last year’s debut, when many of the songs on the record had already been played live during the band’s early rise to fame.

This time, The Last Dinner Party were well on their way to becoming a household name, ubiquitously appearing on the radio, on billboards and happily finding themselves atop the charts. So, aside from this one-off performance as Yeehaw Interlude, it means the London five-piece still have no idea how their new songs will be received before releasing them. That’s a new feeling of anticipation they’ve never known.

“We haven’t played about eight out of ten of these songs live before,” says Roberts of the track list on From The Pyre. “With the first record, we always wanted to play the songs live and the recording wasn’t an afterthought, but it came later. At the time, we just wanted to get out and get gigging since it was after lockdown and covid. But with this one, the process is the other way round.”

Roberts, alongside her bandmates Abigail Morris, Lizzie Mayland, Aurora Nischevi and Georgia Davies, is clear on the fact that From The Pyre is not a new era following on from Prelude To Ecstasy. They’re both a collection of abstract, theatrical stories based on personal experiences. But whilst Prelude To Ecstasy was a highly successful test of this format with the songs structured into sections (a prelude, interlude and postlude), From The Pyre ditches any particular order for the tracks and dives deeper into storytelling, telling richer and earthier tales that sound every way from fragile to riotous.

Image: Cal McIntyre

Look Who’s Back

“The start of this record is the opposite to Prelude,” Roberts continues, speaking of opening track Agnus Dei. “Prelude eased into itself and had this dramatic orchestral intro, but it made sense to have Agnus Dei at the start of this one because it just started things off with a bang.” Roberts’ guitar part narrates this track, striking a shiny three-note riff in an effervescent intro backed by crashing cymbals and momentous keys. As Morris slides into her first verse, Roberts drops down into three steady chromatic notes. She climbs them, tumbles back down and then glides beneath Morris’ sultry voice in effortless ease. It’s one way of yelling “look who’s back again” in the breeziest, most nonchalant way you can.

“It’s the most ridiculous song, but not in a negative way,” she laughs. “It’s unapologetic, it’s joyous and it’s silly, but all in a fun way.” Roberts also has a vibrant minute-long solo towards the end of the track – one which took two months to write.

“That solo took a really long time,” she admits. “I was kind of going back and forth. I kept thinking, ‘Is this too silly? Is it too outrageous?’ And because it’s such a long one as well, I realised I’d only ever written short guitar solos. I didn’t know how to write something that long that keeps your attention or tells a story over a length of time. So, that was quite challenging for me, but it was really fun to get to do that because I don’t think a lot of albums coming out in 2025 will have a minute-long solo at the end of a song.”

Roberts took influence from 60s rock for a lot of this record, pulling strands from The Rolling Stones and George Harrison to create a round, sustained sound with a bit of a bite that makes it her own. She used a combination of Music Man St Vincent signature models, a Gibson ES-330 and a Les Paul across the whole album to create a vintage twang throughout, but flavoured by that sharp bite from the St Vincent signatures and their bridge pickups. However, it’s not just her playing that reflects sixties icons – it’s also the way in which she’s written parts of the tracks.

“I definitely took inspiration from George Harrison and the way he writes in the context of a band,” she says. “We all needed to respect each other’s space. Writing my parts was something which was mine, and something I did. I do respect what the writer of the whole song wants but, at the same time, I want to bring my creativity to it as well. I feel quite protective over that. But we’ve just learned to balance those two things.”

Spooky Season

Roberts wrote bits and pieces of the instrumentals throughout From The Pyre, including an eerie, discordant vocal part at the start of Woman Is A Tree. The harmonies are hauntingly beautiful – they start off steady but bend unsettlingly upwards by a semitone. Then, like an elastic band, they snap, and a cold yelp escapes one singer like a gust of air. If you paired it with a horror film (it’s also ghostly a capella) you’d have a hard time sleeping.

“We were very meticulous with writing,” Roberts says. “We didn’t set ourselves many limitations, we just kept adding more layers to things. When I arranged the choir at the beginning of Woman Is A Tree, it was really fun, and it was kind of inspired by the Yellowjackets soundtrack. But I’d probably say it was the most challenging one to sing and to write. We hadn’t really done much of that [choral] stuff before. Lizzie’s usually the only one doing the backing vocal parts, so to have all of us singing in such close harmony was quite experimental and hard for us to do.”

The Last Dinner Party doesn’t choose anything safe or easy – From The Pyre straddles the line between truth and mythos. The record depicts a world where every story is character driven, written from specks of real life and lived experiences.

Image: Rachel Smith

The characters, including scythes, Mother Earth, saints, cowboys, sailors and even Joan of Arc, may be flamboyant theatrical metaphors, but the true origin of each story lurks down at the core. It forced each band member to surrender themselves to the music and allow it to reach intimate parts of their soul. It meant trusting an individual vision and acting on it.

“I’ve been a lot better at conveying my opinions authoritatively, even if they don’t always end up as the result,” says Roberts. “With Prelude, we were still understanding what we’re each good at. I was definitely a lot more shy then, and I’d sit quietly and observe things. But I think it’s always better to say things and contribute. I learned more about writing parts and what works well in which situation, and how to serve the right energy at the right moment.”

Second Best, the third track on the album, is a perfect example of that expert judgement coming into play. The song starts with a magnificent choral passage whose density and power, this time, completely engulfs the listener. For the guitar part, although she mostly used the St Vincent signatures and the Gibson on this album, Roberts chose a Les Paul to create a classic rock sound that she resonated well with on the last album. “I used that for the lead guitar on the chorus specifically,” she explains. “It gave it that rocky sound because the song is a bit more seventies or eighties, so it needed that kind of energy since it’s got that big, sustained sound.”

Sharper Focus

But since Count The Ways needed something sharper with a definite edge, there was an obvious guitar choice. Roberts has known and loved the St Vincent guitars since Prelude to Ecstasy, so why stray elsewhere and fix what ain’t broke? “I’m a bit stuck in my ways at this point,” she laughs. “What I like about the St Vincent is that it really cuts through a mix, and it’s quite high-end. I think that’s a great quality that it has and it just doesn’t sound like a Fender or a Gibson. I wanted something that, when you hear it, it’s not obvious what it is. I wanted people to go, ‘What is that?’ and for it to sound new.”

As a lover of at least one signature guitar, Roberts has had her hopes set on one day releasing her very own signature model. When Guitar.com interviewed her last in 2024, she admitted she’d want it to be “modern-looking” and to “have the same ease for playing as a female”. Has there been any development on the idea since then?

“I’ve always wanted to design or make my own guitar, I just haven’t had any time to do that,” Roberts laughs. “I’d want it to be an amalgamation of different decades in one guitar, even if that’s really difficult to do. It would be cool to have a guitar that combines elements, like if it had different pickups from each other, or a switchable bridge pickup that changes from a P-90 into a humbucker or a Firebird. Having something with a lot of versatility that captures different decades of guitar playing and guitar history would be really cool.”

Image: Rachel Smith

Something unique about being the lead guitarist in a popular rock band is that a lot of fans cover your solos. In fact, if you click on YouTube and search for The Last Dinner Party guitar covers, you’ll find countless clips of people putting their own spin on Roberts’ parts. Perhaps it’s not something she’s quite used to yet.

“It’s such an amazing feeling to watch other guitarists, whom you’ve never met, play something that you wrote just alone in your room,” she smiles. “People covered the Nothing Matters solo and added their own personality to it, which I loved. One guy even added these shreddy licks in between phrases, and I just thought that was crazy.”

The Scythe solo, Roberts says, could be one fans tackle next, or perhaps even sing along to since it’s largely melodic and “hooky”. Or maybe it’ll be the jaunty Inferno chorus which Roberts co-wrote with Morris. That’s the thing about releasing an album whose tracks people mostly haven’t heard yet – the next part is unpredictable.

“I’m just excited to put a lot of the new songs onto our setlist,” Roberts grins. “We can now pick and choose a curated set rather than having to fill an hour. We don’t need to play all of our songs plus a cover to fill the time anymore, so it’s going to be really exciting and freeing to use some of that spontaneity.”

So far, it’s just lead single This Is The Killer Speaking that’s out. It’s a smart hint at what else is to come – starting off snarling and mysterious as it creeps towards a more dynamic, groovy chorus. The thing about From The Pyre is that it packages up tonnes of emotions in one record in a way that’s jaggedly contrasting yet entirely fitting. It’s a giant landscape painting with different characters travelling all over it, in different directions. It’s meant to be loud and busy. But it’s honest, truthful, and another clear masterpiece.

From The Pyre is out now.

The post The Last Dinner Party’s Emily Roberts on why she decided to embrace her most “outrageous” guitar impulses on new album From The Pyre appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Today’s prize is the Brothers AM — a tone‑twinned beast with double gain channels, treble‑booster mode, full MIDI/Expression control, and the soul of a legendary overdrive built “in collaboration with” Analog Man. Enter now for your chance to WIN today’s gear — and don’t forget to comeback tomorrow for another killer giveaway!

Stompboxtober 2025 - Win Pedals All Month Long!

Chase Bliss Brothers AM

Made in collaboration with Analog Man himself, Brothers AM is a tribute to the legendary King of Tone overdrive.

It takes that coveted circuit, gives you advanced control, and tosses in a couple exciting bonuses – but it doesn’t mess with what made it so good in the first place.

A stack of sunny saturation that always manages to sound just right.

Julien’s Auctions today announced the unveiling of 18 bass guitars from Adam Clayton’s extraordinary personal collection in a first-ever exhibition in Ireland titled “Played, Worn, & Torn Featuring The Adam Clayton Collection.”

The exclusive three-week exhibition celebrating the U2 bassist and this collection of 18 iconic bass guitars is open to the public at The Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge, Co Kildare, Ireland from today until November 9th.

Following the exclusive three-week exhibition run in Ireland, the collection will head to Nashville where it will be auctioned at the industry’s most anticipated music memorabilia event of the year “PLAYED, WORN, AND TORN,” taking place over two days - Thursday, November 20th and Friday, November 21st 2025 - at the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum in the historic Municipal Auditorium and online at juliensauctions.com.

Experience the legendary bass-playing journey of Adam Clayton as Julien’s, the industry-leading music memorabilia auction house, in partnership with the bass icon and co-founding member of one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time, U2, brings together 18 phenomenal axes from his personal collection at The Museum of Style Icons, home to the world’s finest collections of style, fashion and pop culture artifacts. For the first time ever, the largest curated collection of Clayton’s guitars will be exhibited in U2’s native Ireland.

Adam Clayton said – “I’m fortunate enough to have owned many wonderful instruments in my life and I have amassed a very personal collection of basses over the last 40 years. They have all become favourites for one reason or another, a reminder of a particular tour or recording session. I return to them time and time again, it’s a very special relationship, I can’t really explain it…

My only regret is that I don’t get to play them all as often as I would like, a musical instrument needs time and attention… I’ll be sad to see these basses go but this is an opportunity to give each and every one of them a new home in the care of a new owner. And maybe they can become someone else's favourite.”

This remarkable collection of Adam Clayton's illustrious basses, stage-played through the different eras and continents of U2's record-breaking globe-spanning tours, is set to make history once again in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to potentially own a piece of the 22-time Grammy Award-winning artist and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s legacy. Over 20 items from Adam Clayton’s personal collection, including music instruments, gear, memorabilia and more, will be offered for the first time at auction, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting MusiCares, the leading music charity supporting the health and well-being of the music community.

Highlights include: Clayton’s 2014 Sherwood Green Fender Adam Clayton signature Jazz Bass, played during U2’s Innocence + Experience tour stops in 2015, notably in Dublin, Belfast, Paris, Glasgow, London, Koln, Antwerp, Barcelona, Berlin, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Turin, NYC, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Montreal, Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose, and Vancouver (estimate: $40,000-$60,000); his 200 Lakland Joe Osborn J sunburst bass, played during the U2’s Vertigo Tour for their classic hit “One,” notably in Dublin on August 27th, 2005 (estimate: $20,000-$40,000); a 2010 Gold Sparkle Fender Adam Clayton Precision Bass deemed a “mistake” by Clayton’s guitar technician due to the Jazz Bass decaled headstock (estimate: $40,000-$60,000); Clayton’s stunning U2 360 Tour 2010 Warwick Gold Reverso electric basses (estimate each: $20,000-$40,000); Clayton’s prized Fender Jazz Basses ranging from 1960s to 1970s models in Sunburst, Ice Blue Metallic, Lake Placid Blue; and more!

Exhibition:

When: October 20th – November 9th, 2025

Where: The Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge Silverware Visitor Centre, Athgarvan Rd, Kilbelin, Newbridge, Co. Kildare, Ireland

Opening Times: Monday to Saturday 9am-5pm and Sunday & holidays 10am-5pm

Information: https://visitnewbridgesilverware.com/about-the-museum-of-style-icons

LIVE AND ONLINE AUCTION

Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum 401 Gay Street Nashville, Tennessee 37219

“Played, Worn, & Torn”

Thursday, November 20th

Session: 10:00 a.m. Central Time

Friday, November 21st

Session: 10:00 a.m. Central Time

For more information please email - info@juliensauctions.com or call 310-836-1818.

Registering to Bid

Registration is required to bid in this auction and can be done in person on the day of the auction, or online before the sale at the Julien's Auctions.

For inquiries, please email info@juliensauctions.com or call 310-836-1818.

Placing Bids

There are four ways to bid in Live Auctions:

• Bid with Julien's Auctions online.
• Bid over the telephone through an auction house representative.
• Bid in person in the room at our auction events.
• Bid in advance by absentee bid. Absentee bid forms are available by calling 310-836-1818

Supercool Pedals has announced the eleventh pedal in their growing lineup: The Cutback – a versatile preamp-style overdrive pedal inspired by the legendary DOD 250 and the golden era of 1980s Australian surf culture.

Carefully designed to deliver a wide array of sounds from warm preamp tones, natural amp-like breakup, all the way to searing distortions, The Cutback is a perfect catch-all drive pedal for any guitarist, no matter the genre of music or style of playing. The Cutback boasts two selectable gain modes: 0.01% for dynamic boosts and responsive overdrives, and 8% for more saturation and intense distortions, as well as a carefully-tuned active 3-band EQ for subtle or dramatic tone shaping.

Developed in collaboration with Blood Brothers Brewing, The Cutback launches alongside the Cutback Aussie Style Ginger Beer — a limited-edition brew sharing the pedal’s name, design, and adventurous spirit. Together, the two celebrate the art of sound, sun, and brewing with a shared sense of surf-inspired fun.

The Cutback highlights include:

• Based on the iconic DOD 250 overdrive/preamp circuit
• Dual GAIN modes (0.01% and 8%) for low or high distortion modes
• Active 3-band EQ (LOW, MID, HIGH) for comprehensive tone shaping
• Wide array of gain uses, from preamp, boost, overdrive, and distortion
• Captivating and nostalgic 1980’s Surf Design
• Glows in the dark for maximum radness!
• True Bypass switching with standard 9v center negative power supply
• Designed and assembled in Canada

The Cutback is the 11th installment in the Supercool pedals lineup with a street price of $199 USD, and is available for purchase with worldwide shipping through www.SupercoolPedals.com as well as in select independent retailers.

With his pioneering of Chicago-based soul music in the 1960s and ‘70s, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram would go as far as to call Curtis Mayfield a “prophet”.

Born in 1942, Mayfield first found success with vocal group The Impressions, before embarking on a solo career which would later spawn albums like his debut Curtis (1970), and the soundtrack to the 1972 movie Super Fly.

• READ MORE: The iconic rock band Wolfgang Van Halen thinks should have their own “Mount Rushmore”

And it’s the latter which Kingfish cites as one of the six blues albums which influenced him most.

“Curtis Mayfield has to be here,” he tells Guitar.com in an interview. “Super Fly is an important album. I always say that Curtis Mayfield was a prophet. History repeats itself and he really prophesied a lot of what we are seeing today for sure man. 

“Not only that but his black piano key tuning and his whole approach opening up the guitar to his melody and rhythm work. This record belongs here for sure. The title track says it all.”

And Kingfish isn’t the only one to rank Super Fly high on his list of top albums. In 2003, Rolling Stone placed the soundtrack at no. 72 in its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Curtis Mayfield suffered an accident in August 1990, in which lighting equipment fell on him during a live performance, leaving him paralysed from the neck down. He continued to compose and record, and later released his final album, New World Order, in 1996.

Prior to his death in 1999, Mayfield was the recipient of two Grammy awards, and was a double inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

While deeply rooted in the blues, Kingfish wouldn’t regard himself as a blues purist, he explains. 

“I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with ‘purists’ of the genre,” he says. “And that’s simply because I jump back and forth – one day I’ll play traditional blues, the next I’m all rocked up and rocking out.

“But here’s the thing, I will play whatever the hell I want to play, how I want to play it. And not only that, I feel that it’s cool to showcase the influence of the blues as much as the language itself.”

He continues: “We all know that the blues is the roots – all these other sub-genres like soul, blues rock, rock ‘n’ roll, they’re all the branches. Ain’t nothing wrong with showing what the blues has influenced.

“I feel like the more I go out the box musically people will always be able to hear the foundation of the blues in my music because I will always have that no matter what I do. Even if I’m doing a pop record it’s going to have some blues in there somewhere because that’s where I come from.”

The post The unexpected guitarist blues guitar hero Christone “Kingfish” Ingram calls a “prophet” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

David Ellefson’s views on his soured relationship with Megadeth and Dave Mustaine have shifted, as he now says he would “take his call” if Mustaine were to reach out.

Ellefson was dismissed from the band in 2021, and hasn’t spoken to Mustaine in over four years. However, it seems the recent passing of Ace Frehley has reframed his thoughts on holding grudges.

• READ MORE: “I sat down and wrote it out as one word – and dropped the ‘A’ out”: Early Megadeth guitarist claims he came up with band’s name – here’s his account

During a special episode of The David Ellefson Show titled Remembering Ace Frehley, the bassist was asked by co-host Joshua Toomey if Frehley’s death – as well as other significant and recent losses in music, such as Ozzy Osbourne – make him want to get back in touch with Mustaine.

“I had someone say that [to me] after I finished [playing at] the Ozzy [Back To The Beginning] gig, just saying, ‘Dude, let’s just get over it,’” he says (via Blabbermouth). “The problem of it is me and Dave were always together as a band. We never just hung out just as buddies not in the band. It was always angled with us being in the band together.

“Look, he’s got his own [incarnation of Megadeth], he’s got his own record, he’s got his new music. I’m not part of that. I think he made it really clear in his press statement, he doesn’t wanna play music with me again. And whether that was just a kneejerk anger statement or it was true, I don’t know. But, look, I would take his call.”

He concludes, “For sure it would be nice if things between me and Dave and me and Megadeth, as just an entity, didn’t end on a sour note. I think that’s what [Megadeth’s] farewell statement has [done], sort of raised all those questions. Which is why I said right away, I would be open to [being part of] it, if for nothing else to just sort of close the circle, close the gap.”

Earlier this year, Megadeth announced that their 17th studio album, which will arrive in 2026, will be their final record. A farewell tour will also follow.

In an official statement from Mustaine, he said: “Don’t be mad, don’t be sad, be happy for us all, come celebrate with me these next few years. We have done something together that’s truly wonderful and will probably never happen again. We started a musical style, we started a revolution, we changed the guitar world and how it’s played, and we changed the world.”

The post “Whether that was just a knee-jerk anger statement or it was true, I don’t know”: David Ellefson hasn’t spoke to Dave Mustaine in four years – but admits he would “take his call” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris managed to convince Sabaton to let his band British Lion play at their Open Air festival by offering to stay at any hotel they could land him.

Sabaton Open Air was founded in 2008 by the Swedish metal band, and ran until 2022. Located in their hometown of Falun at the Lugnet Ski Stadium, the event drew in thousands of people each year, and hosted a plethora of bands all picked out by Sabaton themselves.

• READ MORE: “It’s like some terrible disease”: Bruce Dickinson blasts the use of mobile phone cameras at Iron Maiden shows

Speaking to Metal Hammer about the festival, bassist Pär Sundström says that Harris’s offer to play at the event was a real surprise and honour for the band: “In 2017 Steve Harris’s British Lion played,” he says. “I couldn’t believe it! We toured with Iron Maiden, and Steve said he wanted to come and play the festival.

“I actually said no at first! I told him, ‘This is only a small town, we don’t have the infrastructure for an artist like you!’ But he said, ‘I’ve seen the crowds, I’ll stay at any hotel you can offer me, and I’ve seen you have a Sabaton cheeseburger – I’ll eat that.’ And he came! It was an unbelievable honour for us.”

Vocalist Joakim Brodén adds: “The only thing he demanded was access to some sports… That’s the one thing we have plenty of here. So we closed off the swimming pool for him [at the Lugnet sports complex] and he was happy as can be!”

Sabaton released their eleventh studio album, Legends, last week. They say it “takes listeners on an epic journey through the stories of some of history’s most iconic figures”, and that it delves into the lives of “legendary characters like Jeanne D’arc, Napoleon, Julius Caesar, and the master swordsman”.

In an official statement, they explain, “With Legends, we usher in a new era – while our sound and songwriting remains intact, we are now entering into a new chapter hand-in-hand with our new record label, Better Noise Music. This is the first time in our history that every current band member has played an active role in the songwriting process on a single album.”

Sabaton head out on tour in November, and you can still grab tickets via the official Sabaton website. 

The post “I’ll stay at any hotel you offer me!”: How Steve Harris convinced Sabaton to let him play at their Sabaton Open Air festival appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Some bands have made such a seismic impact on the world that you could argue they deserve some kind of immortalisation in statue form. And Tool, Wolfgang Van Halen says, is one of them.

Speaking to Guitar.com about his five all-time favourite guitar players, the Mammoth bandleader and son of Eddie Van Halen is quick to name guitarist Adam Jones and his bandmates and single out their technical wizardry.

Wolfgang is a hugely proficient multi-instrumentalist himself, and therefore recognises the immense skill possessed by each Tool member.

• READ MORE: “My dad was a great guitarist but a terrible guitar teacher”: Eddie Van Halen once asked Paul Gilbert to give his son Wolfgang a guitar lesson
  

“In terms of every instrument I play – bass, guitar, drums and singing – each member of Tool is on the respective Mount Rushmore for their instrument,” he says.

“The first song I heard from them was Third Eye [from 1996’s Ænima], which is funny, because it wasn’t a single or anything. It kind of opened my mind – opened my third eye, so to speak – regarding what music can be. 

“I was like, ‘This is a 13-minute song! Not just a four-minute thing!’ It blew my mind when I was in seventh grade. There’s power in its simplicity: when Adam just holds down the rhythms and almost lets Justin [Chancellor, bass] take the lead, they have such a great connection.”

Wolfgang goes on to describe guitarist Adam Jones as the “Malcolm Young of metal”. “He is such a fucking awesome rhythm guy, and he’s a great lead guy, too,” he goes on. 

But while Wolfgang Van Halen cites Adam Jones as one of his biggest inspirations, he says Tool’s influence on his music isn’t always so overt.

“In Mammoth, the influence of bands like Tool and Meshuggah will come out in places you don’t expect,” he says. 

“If you listen to [the song] The End, the very end of it, there’s this double-kick, half-time, metal-ey thing. They just pop up! Even on the last album [2023’s Mammoth II], on Right?, there’s that Meshuggah-ey breakdown in the middle after the solo. It’s never intentional: I try not to stifle the creative process by overthinking and just do what feels right.”

Also in the interview, Wolfgang recalls his father Eddie being a “terrible teacher”, and even once calling virtuoso Paul Gilbert to give him a guitar lesson. “He laughed his ass off!” he says. “That just shows you how he felt about being a teacher!”

The post The iconic rock band Wolfgang Van Halen thinks should have their own “Mount Rushmore” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Imagine, if you will, a vintage Gretsch electric. Chances are you’re thinking of a Falcon – the brand’s flagship guitars have largely been defined by big hollow bodies, bold accents and a maximalist approach to hardware and electronics.

What you probably didn’t imagine is the Corvette. It’s safe to say that Gretsch’s first solidbody design didn’t take the world by storm when it was launched in 1961, but in the following decades it developed a cult reputation and no shortage of artist associations – from Jimi Hendrix and Rory Gallager, to Patrick Stump and Josh Homme.

The Gretsch CVT on the Guitar.com Cover. Image: Fiona Garden for Guitar.com

This is a golden-era guitar released by a major brand that still somehow has a certain outsider cachet. That’s a vanishingly rare concept in 2025 when everyone is looking for a guitar to stand out from the Strat– and Les Paul-toting crowd, and the most surprising thing is that it’s taken Gretsch so long to give the design its moment in the spotlight, albeit one with a new name: the CVT.

Perhaps it took Gretsch and its corporate stewards at Fender a while to realise the potential power of the Corvette because of how alien it is to the rest of the stable. Even 50 years on, it’s easy to forget what an impact guitars like the Les Paul, Strat and Telecaster had on what had been an exclusively air-filled existence for the electric guitar to that point.

Image: Fiona Garden for Guitar.com

“Solid bodies were like asteroids hitting guitar design!” explains Jason Barnes, the VP of the modern Gretsch guitar brand. “Looking back, it’s easy to get lost in what is and what is not ‘Gretsch’ – but think of the late 1950s and early 1960s. At the time music was so dynamic, sound was evolving so fast. Brands were just trying to make cool guitars that served the music of the day. The Corvette was certainly miles away from a Jet, and miles away from a G6120 – but maybe we have to temper the idea that Gretsch was breaking its own mould!”

The Corvette was, however, no Telecaster. Sales numbers never really took off, and it was discontinued by the mid-1960s. That wasn’t for a lack of variety – the Corvette shifted and changed just as quickly as the rest of the electric guitar world. The body bevels, the bridge and the number of pickups all varied across its short lifetime, and we got a couple of distinct variants, including the very edible-looking Peppermint Twist model and the Princess – the latter a guitar that instantly put the Corvette on a different course to the rest of the guitar world.

“The retro sensibility is there, but it still looks like it’ll kick you in the face!”

A Gretsch for her

“Now for the first time, a guitar that is unmistakably ‘hers.’ When she’s out in front of others, she’ll see the admiration in their eyes.” That was the marketing line that accompanied the launch of the Gretsch Princess in 1962 – a guitar designed to be “feminine in size, light in weight”, according to the catalogue.

The Princess was effectively a Corvette with a fabric pad on the back, a removable ‘Tone Twister’ vibrato and the word ‘Princess’ stamped on pickguard, but it was more than that. We may quite rightly cringe at the sheer 1960s-ness of it all, but the Princess stands out as a very early attempt to market the electric guitar – then an almost exclusively male-dominated cultural phenomenon.

Even by Corvette standards the Princess was not popular, and barely lasted a year in the Gretsch catalogue, but the intent, however clumsy, was there from the off: to appeal to those the mainstream electric guitar ignores.

Image: Fiona Garden for Guitar.com

“We’ve done some of our research that’s found that women are a much larger percentage of the market than perhaps we had been assuming,” Barnes explains. “So you wonder if the same thing happened with the Princess – was that what drove that decision to pitch it like that?”

Neither the Corvette nor the Princess was a big seller, but they had something. A definite spark of outsider cool means the guitar has regularly popped up in the hands of interesting and individual guitar players in the decades since – from G. Love to Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump.

“The Corvette is a guitar that’s being discovered by modern artists,” Barnes says. “It was short-lived, and wasn’t a commercial meteor, by any stretch of the imagination. So, as artists do, they stumble upon something and create an identity with it and for it. That’s definitely what led Jack Antonoff to it – the frozen-in-timeness of it!”

“It’s quirky, it’s cool, it’s got that approach of ‘grab something, mash it up, and see what the world says’.”

Doing what was needed

Ah yes, Jack Antonoff. The mega-producer might be the single most important driver behind the return of the Corvette to Gretsch’s production ranks for the first time in over a decade.

Last year, the Bleachers frontman revealed his signature model, based on his trusty 60s Princess – which fused the killer looks of the Corvette shape with a pickup configuration and tremolo borrowed from a Fender Jazzmaster.

It was a gloriously unconventional creation that this publication called “one of the most unique and fun electric guitars of 2024”. The internet agreed, losing its collective mind over what an undeniably cool and fantastic looking guitar the Antonoff Princess was. It was a culmination of a gradual building hype train for cool signature Corvettes – including models for Stump and G. Love – over the last few years.

“People loved it – we were blown away by the response,” Barnes says of the Antonoff Princess. “For that price, that look – you’ve just got to have it. It’s quirky, it’s cool, it’s got that approach of ‘grab something, mash it up, and see what the world says’.”

Image: Fiona Garden for Guitar.com

Crucially, it was also keenly priced compared to most artist signature models. It proved in many ways to be the first act of reviving the Corvette – keeping a focus on accessibility, but also evolving it so it didn’t slavishly recreate a guitar that was designed 50 years ago.

“We let the guitar do more of what I think it needed to do,” says Barnes. “Look at the Corvette’s neck pickup – it’s almost in the middle position! That gives it some of its sonic charm, for sure, but it’s not ideal for the killer double cut that we wanted it to be. We wanted something that looked cool, but we needed it to perform.”

So the CVT still costs just £499, but you get a pair of punchy Twin Six humbuckers, and a wrapover tune-o-matic bridge. Crucially, it’s also not a set-neck guitar – but being part of Fender meant that Gretsch’s team realised this was far from a downgrade. Instead, it was an opportunity to create something more sonically interesting.

“When you have the mahogany-on-mahogany thing, you can kind of get some cloudiness in high mids, and sometimes the low end gets a little fuzzy,” Barnes says. “The bolt-on clears things up and gives you some nice snappiness.”

Image: Fiona Garden for Guitar.com

And far from 3D-scanning in an original example, the chance was taken to switch up the body and its balance. “We thickened the body for a deeper, tighter low-end and a stronger midrange. And if you mess with the mass it shifts how the guitar sits on you, so we chilled out that upper horn too. In all, we’re really pleased with where it ended up. The retro sensibility is there, but it still looks like it’ll kick you in the face!”

Barnes also notes that the CVT’s slightly “meaner” look was a deliberate choice, too. You may have noticed that a lot of heavy bands in recent years have really embraced vintage and the weird – and Gretsch guitars are a big part of that. Liverpool band Loathe are the obvious example: guitarist Erik Bickerstaffe puts a vintage-style Gretsch Baritone to work wreaking absolute havoc in double-drop tunings.

Barnes stresses that Gretsch is “totally tuned into” what’s happening in that regard. “Those lower-output pickups mean you’re not absolutely pummeling the front end of an amp, and when you’re tuned to those low registers, you’re getting so much definition out of, say, Broad’Trons. It’s not pure saturation – it’s about width. It almost sounds like a piano!”

For Barnes, this all goes back to a foundational – and extremely loud – use of a Gretsch in rock music. “We’re very much about powerful sound and fidelity and articulation. And you hear it, most exemplary, with Malcolm Young. That Marshall Super Bass isn’t set incredibly crunchy, but man does it take up space!”

“You can get into business, market share and all this crap, but the reality of it is you’re not successful in music unless you start with the music and the musicians.”

An outlier no more?

All this is to say that the modern Gretsch brand has firmly diversified its image beyond just cattle-branded country and quiff-toting rockabilly. The new CVT is far from a massive handbrake-turn away from those touchstones of the Gretsch identity – it’s more the next step of a path Gretsch has been on for a while. Ever since, really, a Sparkle Jet found its way into Chris Cornell’s hands.

The approach has paid off – in 2025, indie-guitar-cool-kids are some of the most talked-about artists globally. It’s notable to see both someone like Antonoff – whose in-demand production skills have defined the 2020s’ most influential pop – and Boygenius – whose members are some of the most influential indie artists of the last decade – on the same artist roster.

“You can get into business, market share and all this crap, but the reality of it is you’re not successful in music unless you start with the music and the musicians,” Barnes says. “I mean, that’s just a proven factor – we’ve seen over time, new designs full of great innovations – not a lot of them land! Because in most genres, I would say, guitar players aren’t looking for the brand-new shininess. They’re looking at ways to make their music better, ways to be inspired by the instrument. And, honestly, ways to look cool and add to that performance aspect.”

Image: Fiona Garden for Guitar.com

And so the new Corvette isn’t a sign of Gretsch deliberately pivoting away from the flash of big-box country guitars towards ‘cooler’ modern artists. If anything, Orville Peck’s signature Falcon is proof that those two concepts are absolutely compatible. Instead, it’s another example of what Barnes said Gretsch was doing upon the launch of the original Corvette: making “cool guitars that serve the music of the day.”

“You’ve just gotta give people good stuff. Cool stuff that doesn’t feel kitschy, doesn’t feel arbitrary, doesn’t feel market-share driven. And that’s where the CVT was so much fun for us – because it was a blank slate. The guitar was what it was. We saw a little resurgence. But every one of us, myself included, always had an eye on that thing. We just knew that if we did it right, the guitar would crush.”

Words: Cillian Breathnach
Photography: Fiona Garden

The post From vintage oddball to alternative classic: the Gretsch CVT’s remarkable journey appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Limp Bizkit have paid tribute to founding bassist Sam Rivers, who has died aged 48.

Sharing the news in a poignant tribute on social media, the band write: “Today we lost our brother. Our bandmate. Our heartbeat.

“Sam Rivers wasn’t just our bass player – he was pure magic. The pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound. From the first note we ever played together, Sam brought a light and a rhythm that could never be replaced. His talent was effortless, his presence unforgettable, his heart enormous.

We shared so many moments – wild ones, quiet ones, beautiful ones – and every one of them meant more because Sam was there.

He was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of human. A true legend of legends. And his spirit will live forever in every groove, every stage, every memory.

We love you, Sam. We’ll carry you with us, always. Rest easy, brother. Your music never ends. Fred, Wes, John & DJ Lethal.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Limp Bizkit (@limpbizkit)

Sam Rivers’ cause of death has not been disclosed at the time of writing.

Rivers was born in 1977 in Jacksonville, Florida, where he later founded soon-to-be nu metal titans Limp Bizkit in 1994, alongside frontman Fred Durst.

He played on all of the band’s six studio albums: Three Dollar Bill, Y’all$ (1997), Significant Other (1999), Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water (2000), Results May Vary (2003), Gold Cobra (2011), and Still Sucks (2021).

He took a brief period of time out from the band between 2015 and 2018 while he fought liver disease resulting from chronic alcohol abuse.

Speaking to author Jon Wiederhorn for his book Raising Hell in 2020, Rivers revealed the extent of his alcoholism: “The doctor said, ‘If you don’t stop, you’re going to die.’ I had really bad liver disease. I quit drinking and did everything the doctors told me. I fought liver disease for a couple of years and it won. I had to get a liver transplant in 2017.”

This is a developing story.

The post Sam Rivers 1977-2025: Limp Bizkit pay tribute to founding bassist, who has died aged 48 appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Xvive is building on its successful 5.8 GHz A58 Guitar Wireless System with the new BCA58 Charging Case, which is both a power bank and a custom-molded, highly protective carry case for the A58 system. BCA58 boasts enough onboard power to provide up to two full charges or multiple top-ups for the A58 Transmitter and Receiver. Also now on offer is the AC58 Guitar Wireless System, which pairs BCA58 with the A58 System.

The BCA58 is built with durable 1680D fabric and high-strength ABS engineering plastic, offering excellent impact resistance and wear protection. Its built-in 5000 mAh lithium battery can be fully recharged in 5 hours using any standard USB 5V/2A charger. The case can charge your A58 set anywhere, anytime—at home, on the way to a gig or between sets. BCA58 features auto full-charge detection and auto shutoff. Simply place your Transmitter and Receiver into the designated slots, and charging begins automatically. Once the units are fully charged, the case stops charging to protect battery health and extend lifespan.

The A58 Guitar Wireless System was launched in the summer of 2024 as a followup to Xvive’s popular U2 Guitar Wireless System. Operating on the 5.8 GHz wireless frequency allows A58 to avoid interference from other devices on the crowded 2.4 GHz band. A58 also supports both passive and active pickups, and its True Diversity receiver scans the available wireless channels and automatically connects using the most stable option. Guitarists and bassists already using the A58 System can now protect and charge their wireless units with BCA58; new A58 users can go all-in by choosing the AC58 system, combining a rock-solid, great-sounding wireless with a reliable charging and storage solution.

The BCA58 Charging Case is not available from US retailers at this time. The AC58 Guitar Wireless System retails for $189.99 USD and is available now from Xvive retailers and online dealers worldwide.

Official product pages:
BCA58: https://xvive.com/audio/product/bca58-charging-case
AC58: https://xvive.com/audio/product/ac58-guitar-wireless-system



It’s the 154th episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps, the call-in show where amp tech Skip Simmons fields your questions on all things tube amps.

Some of the topics discussed this week: 

:42 Skip is back on the Ferguson TO-35 tractor; Roy Clark & Joe Pass

7:04 What’s on Skip’s bench: A Marshall Plexi Super Bass, Marshall bright caps, the Pet Shop Boys

11:43 Our sponsors Grez Guitars; Emerald City Guitars and Amplified Parts; more Fender Champ mods; a Champ gain input baffler; Soursound transformers

23:51 200 more power cords; IEC hijinks; Steve Soest

28:13 A 1954 Fender Tweed Twins and the low-powered versus high-powered Twins; Tweed Pros; Fender Champion 600 amps

31:49 A Lafayette PA with ECL82 tubes (watch on Instagram)

33:45 A 1960s Airline 62-9021A amp; how to tell a Supro/Valco from a Danelctro amp

37:33 Skip’s advice for a future repair business; liability insurance; the Boilermaker; the amp that couldn’t be fixed

49:06 A listener-submitted baffler: A Supro that needed a speaker recone?

52:29 What should I do with my new Knight 93350 PA head?

58:03 Should I build a 6G4 or a 6G4A in this Northern Electric PA-20 with six pre-amp sockets?

1:04:28 Wiring a Danelectro DS-100 speaker output for use with other cabs

1:11:10 Recommended media: The Birth of Loud; The Sweeney; Taggart

1:12:52 Burning up chokes in a Princeton Reverb

1:14:13 Listers on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl-wAqplQAo

1:15:18 ESR meters and ceviche

Need amp tech Skip Simmons’ advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Want to share your top secret family recipe? Need relationship advice? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com! Include a photo, too.

Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal.

Don’t forget, we have a Patreon page. Support the show, get behind-the-scenes updates and get to the front of the line with your questions.

Above: Listener Marcus’ Northern Electric amp, which he may turn into a Fender Super.  

The post The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 154 first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

Enter today’s #Stompboxtober giveaway to WIN the all-new Electro-Harmonix POG3 — the most powerful polyphonic octave generator ever. With lightning-fast tracking, stereo mixing, MIDI + expression control, and 100 presets, the POG3 unlocks endless creative potential for guitarists, synth fans, and sonic explorers alike. Don’t miss today’s chance — and check back tomorrow for more pedal magic!

Stompboxtober 2025 - Win Pedals All Month Long!

EHX POG 3

The world’s best octave effect just got better! The POG3 is the most powerful pedal in Electro-Harmonix’s revered line of polyphonic octave generators that continues to inspire and captivate musicians of all styles. At its core, the POG3 delivers lightning-fast tracking and perfect polyphony over 4 octaves with smoother tone and performance than ever before. From 12-string jangle to 6-voice drawbar organ sounds, the POG3 delivers an endless possibility of tone creation. The pedal has received many updates that further expand its tone shaping possibilities to enhance your performance on stage and in the studio.

Featuring 6 voices including DRY, -2, -1, +5th, +1, & +2, you can mix each with individual sliders and create enveloping stereo effects with dedicated pan knobs and selectable LEFT/RIGHT/DIRECT outputs. The effects section has been expanded to offer envelope control and adjustable Q for the new multi-mode FILTER, enhanced DETUNE section with SPREAD, and individual DRY effect selection, plus the famous ATTACK slider for subtle or dramatic swell effects. All voices, effects, and additional features are now controllable via expression and MIDI for even more creative control. Unlock new expression effects including Freeze, Glissando, Volume, Filter, X-Fade, and Warp with advanced programming and performance controls. The INPUT GAIN slider is an old friend from the original POG that can add girth and dirt to your tone mix.

With all of this fresh tone creation power on tap, additional storage and editing options simply workflow and sound saving capabilities. 100 onboard presets can be saved and rearranged easily thanks to the POG3’s high-visibility OLED display and NAVCODER knob. The EHXport desktop app also allows for easy preset storage and organization as well as streamlined preset editing on your PC or MAC.

Discover your most creative self with the POG3!

.rbm-pick { display: grid; grid-template-columns: 160px 1fr; gap: 16px; align-items: center; border: 1px solid #e6e6e6; border-radius: 12px; padding: 16px; } /* Media box — no cropping, no edge kiss */ .rbm-pick-media { height: 180px; /* fixed height for consistency */ padding: 8px; /* breathing room to avoid flat-cut edges */ box-sizing: border-box; /* keep total height = 180px */ border-radius: 10px; background: #fff; overflow: hidden; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; } .rbm-pick-media img { max-width: 100%; max-height: 100%; width: auto; /* preserve aspect */ height: auto; object-fit: contain; /* never crop */ object-position: center; display: block; } .rbm-badge { display: inline-block; font: 600 12px/1.2 system-ui; padding: 4px 8px; border-radius: 999px; background: #111; color: #fff; margin-bottom: 8px; } .rbm-title { font: 700 18px/1.3 system-ui; margin: 4px 0 8px; } .rbm-blurb { font: 400 14px/1.5 system-ui; color: #333; margin-bottom: 12px; } .rbm-pick-buttons { display: flex; gap: 8px; flex-wrap: wrap; } .rbm-pick .rbm-btn { display: inline-flex; gap: 6px; align-items: center; border: 2px solid #b50000; /* Premier Guitar red */ border-radius: 999px; padding: 10px 16px; text-decoration: none; font: 600 14px/1.2 system-ui; color: #b50000; background: #fff; box-shadow: 0 2px 5px rgba(0,0,0,0.12); transition: background .2s, color .2s, transform .15s; } .rbm-pick .rbm-btn:hover { background: #b50000; color: #fff; transform: translateY(-1px); } .rbm-pick .rbm-btn .price { opacity: 1; font-weight: 600; } /* Responsive tweaks */ @media (max-width: 540px) { .rbm-pick { grid-template-columns: 1fr; } .rbm-pick-media { height: 160px; padding: 6px; } } @media (min-width: 900px) { .rbm-pick-media { height: 200px; } }

IK Multimedia launches TONEX Bass Editions, which include a new TONEX Signature Bass Collection and two hardware additions to the TONEX Ecosystem specially for bass players: TONEX Pedal Bass Edition and TONEX ONE Bass Edition, both preloaded with gig-ready Tone Models and presets from the collection.

TONEX Bass Overview

• A dream collection: Legendary bass amps and pedals captured at their sweet spots.
• Superior sound: Created with the new TONEX Modeler for clarity, punch, and feel.
• Phase-tight blend: Perfect dry/wet phase correlation keeps fundamentals strong while adding grind-perfect for blending DI + amp tones.
• Iconic sounds onboard: From vintage tube thump to modern drive, Tone Models deliver the precise response of the originals.
• With added tools: Exclusive VIR™: multi-IR cabinets and custom IR Loader, tuner, and 15 pre/post FX
• Signature look: Premium aluminum-silver enclosure with all-over neural design.
• Included software: TONEX Modeler, TONEX Editor, and TONEX CS
• ToneNET expansion: Browse, search, and demo thousands of Tone Models, including Signature and Tone Partner Collections

TONEX Signature Bass Collection
Discover a curated collection of 150 Tone Models that cover every style, from clean DI-friendly amps and classic tube stacks to modern solid-state punch and popular bass drives. Highlights include captures based on Ampeg SVT-CL/VR/2-Pro, Fender Bassman models ('53, '59, 100, 300), Markbass, Orange AD200, Gallien-Krueger RB/2001/Fusion, Trace Elliot, Darkglass heads and pedals, Tech 21 SH1/PSA/DP-3X/YYZ, ProCo RAT variants, and more.

From Studio to Stage
Powered by the new TONEX Modeler, each capture benefits from improved Dry/Wet phase correlation, resulting in a more natural, phase-coherent blend of DI and processed signals. This provides clear low-end fundamentals along with drive or saturation, helping the bass sit perfectly in any mix with clarity, punch, and authentic character.

TONEX Pedal Bass Edition
Featuring on-stage controls for easy tone switching, the TONEX Pedal Bass Edition comes preloaded with 150 bass-optimized Tone Models and presets, ranging from vintage tube sounds to modern, high-fidelity punch.

Presets are organized into 50 banks, each centered around a legendary bass amp and offering three tone model options per bank. 15 onboard effects are available to enhance or customize any tone model, giving players an unlimited variety of tones for songs of any genre.

TONEX ONE Bass Edition
TONEX ONE Bass Edition is perfect for home setup and easy transport in a gig bag. It offers 20 ready-to-use bass presets in a compact pedal, featuring legendary amp models that range from vintage smooth tones to modern punch and grit.

Each preset is designed to deliver a complete rig with optimized tones and onboard effects. While the pedal can store 20 presets at once, it also provides full access to the entire 150-model Bass Collection. Users can conveniently load their favorites using the included TONEX Editor or create custom Tone Models with TONEX Modeler for Mac/PC.

Customize for the Stage

For seamless editing, TONEX pedals include TONEX Editor for Mac/PC that enables real-time adjustments using a connected pedal. It provides access to the user's entire TONEX library, including Tone Models, presets, and ToneNET, enabling quick loading of favorites for auditioning and saving to a designated hardware slot on your pedal.

Capture your rig
TONEX software and the new Modeler can be used not only to model any rig but also as a standalone app or a plug-in integrated with any DAW to deliver the exact tone for live and studio use.

Designed and Crafted in Italy
Both TONEX pedals for bass feature a rugged aluminum chassis for reliable performance. With 24-bit, 192 kHz processing, an extremely wide 5 Hz - 24 kHz response, and a whisper-quiet 123 dB noise floor, they ensure any bass sounds as good as it ever has- even before it hits TONEX's incredible modeling.

It's About Time
The TONEX Bass Signature Collection and TONEX Bass Edition pedals offer players a modern and incredibly versatile way to add classic bass tones to their live rig and take center stage.

Pricing and Availability
TONEX Signature Bass Collection, TONEX Pedal Bass Edition, and TONEX ONE Bass Edition are now available from IK authorized dealers worldwide and through the IK Multimedia online store, at the following prices:

TONEX Signature Bass Collection - $/€99.99* - 150 Tone Models curated for bass covering every style.

• TONEX Pedal Bass Edition - $/€429.99 - Preloaded with 150 brand-new, gig-ready presets. Includes TONEX Signature Bass Collection, TONEX CS, TONEX Modeler, and TONEX Editor. AmpliTube 5, AmpliTube SVX 1 & 2 Collections.
• TONEX ONE Bass Edition - $/€199.99 - Preloaded with 20 brand-new, gig-ready presets. Includes TONEX Signature Bass Collection, TONEX CS, TONEX Modeler, and TONEX Editor. AmpliTube 5, AmpliTube SVX 1 & 2 Collections.

*Pricing excluding taxes.

For complete details and information about the TONEX Signature Bass Collection and pedals, and to hear the tones, please visit: www.ikmultimedia.com/tonex-bass

October 17, 2025 We started this week off with a new addition to the TG Library with Flowers Are Red by Harry Chapin. For too long the only songs of his we have had were Taxi and Cat’s In The Cradle. We are certainly looking to add even more and would love anybody’s suggestions. Next […]

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