Norse Guitar Feeds

$2,749/£2,549, taylorguitars.com

You have to admit, it has been a bit weird looking at the full range of Taylor acoustic guitars over the last few decades without seeing a single square-shoulder dreadnought in the USA-made offering.

• READ MORE: Yamaha Chris Buck RS02CB review: one of the most compelling P-90-loaded electrics on the market

Sure, the stripped-down Mexico-made Academy series offered one, and Taylor re-released a limited run of the 810e to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary a few years back. But that guitar felt more like a nostalgic glance in the rear-view mirror rather than a new direction.

Taylor’s apparent reticence in the dreadnought department is understandable though. The success of the round-shouldered Grand Pacific design – arguably a much more versatile guitar than the classic dread – meant that another big body chugger was surplus to requirements. So what’s changed? Well, it’s time to unpack the new Taylor Gold Label 510E and see if it’s still hip to be square.

Taylor Gold Label 510E – what is it?

Taylor’s Gold Label series has gone from a retro indulgence to a fan favourite in a remarkably short space of time. The combination of 1930s-inspired visuals – including a tweaked headstock design and inlays – coupled with some typically forward-thinking under-the-hood design, and well-judged wood choices, has definitely had an impact on the acoustic scene.

Since I first checked out the range, I’ve been looking forward to seeing where the Gold Label goes next. I must admit, I was surprised when the answer was to adopt a shape that Taylor’s core line seemed to have left behind a long time ago, but given the Gold Label’s ethos of looking back at classic techniques and influences, perhaps it shouldn’t have been.

The 510e is a non-cutaway dreadnought with solid neo-tropical mahogany back and sides, and a solid, torrified Sitka spruce top. The neo-tropical mahogany neck features a West African crelicam ebony fingerboard, and it joins the body at the 14th fret as all classic square-shouldered dreads should be. Not so traditional, however, is the fact that the guitar is built around a 25.5” scale length – making it a touch longer than the Martin D-18. Interesting.

The Next Generation Grand Auditorium guitars have seen Taylor start to move away from the venerable ES2 pickup system, but while those guitars make use of the new in-house Claria system, the Gold Labels have always been spec’d with an LR Baggs Element VTC active pickup – that continues here. This boasts an onboard low-frequency compressor “tuned specifically to the natural texture of acoustic guitar tone,” according to Taylor, which is going to make things interesting.

Taylor Gold Label 510E – build quality and playability

Part Gibson J-50, part Collings or Bourgeois, the Gold Label 510e is a pleasing aesthetic mash-up that feels more posh, small workshop than pawnshop weird. The golden Sitka top, minimalist inlay design and fire stripe pickguard – albeit without the banjo-inspired art nouveau motif – all promise a sound and playing experience that veers from the uber-clean and precise vibe of a typical Taylor guitar.

The neo-tropical mahogany back and sides look inviting under the gloss finish. There is some striping reminiscent of sapele but it’s good-looking stuff. Although subtle, the body of this guitar is actually a touch deeper than a standard dread. How much difference this makes to the sound remains to be seen but it certainly feels comfortable against the body.

This model features Taylor’s Action Control Neck design, which allows for quick and easy fine-tuning of the action in a matter of seconds, without the need for a visit to a guitar tech. In fact if you buy the right bendy screwdriver off Amazon, you can do it yourself in a few seconds without even having to detune the guitar.

For touring players this is a godsend, and it’s another step forward in easy maintenance that has been such a hallmark of Taylor’s innovation over the last few decades. Despite the fancy engineering under the hood, Taylor necks always feel good. The Gold Label series version feels a little meatier than the standard issue but that could just be the power of suggestion.

This guitar features Taylor’s V-Class bracing which – like so many innovations before it – continues to divide opinion. Whereas personality is subjective, response is not. This is a lively and engaging guitar and the bracing may well be part of that.

Taylor Gold Label 510E – sounds

A mahogany dreadnought is just crying out for some big pick energy and with a BlueChip in hand, it’s time to dig in. As expected, the Gold Label 510e absolutely loves this. Big strums, liquid leads and fat G-runs. This is a very good time indeed.

There’s a lot of power and headroom to explore coupled with a pleasingly wide timbral range from the bridge to the end of the fretboard, which emphasises the fundamental of the note without denying us some of those good overtones. The initial attack may come across as a touch rounded if you’re used to the immediacy of a rosewood dread, but that is the nature of the beast.

Played fingerstyle in standard tuning, the Gold Label 510e is a little less happy. This is still a very young instrument, of course – fresh from the production line to my studio. Thumbpick enthusiasts will still find a lot to be happy about, but if you play softly with bare flesh, it can feel like steering an oil tanker.

Given that Taylor’s first foray into Gold Label dreads was a near-identical signature model for all-world flatpicker Trey Hensley, perhaps none of this should surprise anyone. Thankfully, the Taylor range is packed with dedicated fingerstyle instruments, and some of them are in the Gold Label series too.

Dropping the machine into DADGAD yields predictable results. The sympathetic resonance and lower frequencies immediately make the guitar sound more lush and open – the sustain envelope is smooth along the neck and there is no evidence of wolf tones or dead notes.

Any guitar with an E in the name is begging to be plugged in, so I ease the Gold Label 510e into a Fishman Solo Amp. The Baggs VTC element system is based on an undersaddle piezo pickup. The interesting bit of VTC is the C, which stands for compression. Yes, this pickup system has an in-built proprietary analogue compressor that operates below 400Hz. The soundhole-mounted volume and treble tone controls are easily accessible.

Plugged in, I am greeted with a pokey sound that still leans into the ping of the attack but can deliver warmth behind the initial transient. It’s not the cooked quack of an older piezo, but it lacks the warmth of something like a K+K. This will sit beautifully in a band mix, despite being a touch aggressive for a solo player without some gentle EQ shaping from the amp.

Taylor Gold Label 510E – should I buy one?

The Taylor Gold Label 510e is priced keenly. It’s considerably cheaper than its main competition and forefather – the Martin D-18 – and the other obvious mahogany choice, the Gibson Hummingbird. Aesthetically, it manages to sit in the middle of those two venerable ancestors, but the sound is still very Taylor.

While the unfinished bridge and internal glue blobs are a little scruffy for this company, they do fit the idiom, and this is a welcome addition to the world of the mahogany square-shoulder dreadnoughts.

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Taylor Gold Label 510E – alternatives

There is no shortage of quality square-shouldered dreadnought options out there, of course, but as mentioned above, the Gold Label 510e does offer a significant value proposition against the non-electro Martin D-18 ($2,999 / £3,199, the D-18e is currently discontinued) and the Gibson Hummingbird ($3,999 / £3,799). One truly exceptional guitar that can compete on the price front is the Bourgeois Touchstone Country Boy (£2,650), which utilises a hybrid US/Chinese build process to produce a truly stupendous boutique guitar at a more real-world price.

The post Taylor Gold Label 510e review: “Taylor’s return to the dreadnought is crying out for some big pick energy” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.



This week, the Fretboard Journal’s Sofia Wolfson talks to Tulsa, Oklahoma-based songwriter Ramsey Thornton. Ramsey is a multi-instrumentalist with a love for both banjo and guitar. In fact, he’s one of those rare individuals who boasts a graduate degree in banjo!

We hear all about it and about Ramsey’s forthcoming debut album, I Called It! 

Follow Ramsey here: https://www.instagram.com/ramsey.thornton/

Our next Fretboard Summit takes place August 20-22, 2026, at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. Register today: https://fretboardsummit.org

We are brought to you by Peghead Nation: https://www.pegheadnation.com (Get your first month free or $20 off any annual subscription with the promo code FRETBOARD at checkout).

Stringjoy Strings: https://stringjoy.com

Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar: https://mmguitarbar.com

The post Podcast 541: Ramsey Thornton first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

Our annual Fretboard Summit is a unique event where we spare no expense. For three days, attendees participate in workshops, panel discussions, jaw-droppingly great concerts and hands-on exhibits, along with one of the world’s largest showcases of modern guitarmaking. It’s like no other public guitar gathering out there.

We are grateful for all the attendees – literally from around the world – who show up to support this weekend. We also want our annual guitar gathering to be as diverse as possible and to inspire the next generation of luthiers, players and students.

With that in mind, we’re pleased to launch the Summit’s inaugural Pay It Forward program, a sponsorship program that will grant full, all-access passes to individuals who want to participate in the Summit but can’t due to financial hardship. (Note: We unfortunately cannot cover airfare, hotel or travel expenses.)

To apply for the program, simply fill out this questionnaire.

Thanks to a generous sponsorship from The Music Emporium, we’ll be granting ten full-access, three-day passes to players, builders, students or content creators in 2026. The Summit is a once-in-a-lifetime weekend where you can meet the leaders of the gear space and some truly inspiring artists. Connections get made in truly impactful ways. We’d love for you to be a part of our community.

Our team will review all the applicants and notify the recipients by May 15, 2o26.

The post Announcing the 2026 Fretboard Summit Pay It Forward Program first appeared on Fretboard Journal.

Sometimes song ideas come fully formed, but most of the time, your ideas will take time to come together into a cohesive whole. When you don’t have other musicians to bounce ideas off, Guitar Pro can act as a useful stand in.

In this guide, I’m going to show you how to compose music for other instruments, introduce you to some of Guitar Pro’s intermediate tools and share some tips on how to build the structure of your song. This isn’t a songwriting guide, so I’ll only be using a four bar piece of music to showcase everything. However, we will cover all that’s needed to give you the grounding to how to compose a complete song in Guitar Pro.

Before you continue, if you’ve never used Guitar Pro before, I highly recommend you read our How to tab a basic riff in Guitar Pro feature. I cover the basics there and lay the foundations for where we’ll be continuing in this guide.

How to add accompanying instruments in Guitar Pro

For this guide, I’ve tabbed out a four bar progression playing F# diminished, Bm7 and Em with a “jazzy” rhythm utilising dead notes and hammer-ons. This will be the foundation for showcasing additional instruments, customising sounds and advanced articulation.

You can download the Guitar Pro file so you can hear the rhythm and use this file for your own practice, as well as listening to and editing the lead guitar, bass and drum tracks.

To add a new instrument track, click ‘Track’ in the main menu and ‘Add…’.

Drums

Unlike when tabbing guitar, there’s no set line that a part of the kit must be tabbed on, but I would advise creating a system that makes sense. This is how I organise the kit from top line to bottom:

• First and second lines: Cymbals
• Third line: Hi-Hats
• Fourth line: Toms
• Fifth line: Snare
• Sixth line: Kick

Top tip: Fill an empty bar with sixteenth note rests. I’ve found it gives me more freedom from the beginning for the placement of kick, snare and cymbal fills to compliment the back beat.

To see what number relates to what part of the drumkit press Fn+CMD+F6 (CTRL+F6 on Windows) to bring up the ‘DrumKit View’. You can also find this in the ‘View’ menu. Note that when you click to hear a sample of any of the pieces of the kit, it will add it into the selected bar of your tab.

The key ones to note for your first beat are:

• 35 = Kick
• 38 = Snare
• 44 = Hi-Hat (Closed)
• 46 = Hi-Hat (Open)

Keep your beat simple to start with and ensure it pairs well with your riff. Once you have the core groove locked in, then you can refer to the ‘DrumKit View’ and start embellishing with fills and cymbals.

Bass

The process of tabbing bass is identical to guitar, just with fewer strings (most of the time). Write out whatever feels good for you based on your knowledge and experience with bass guitar. Once you’re more actively tabbing out bass and drum parts, you’ll be better at writing more nuanced parts.

How to customise your instruments’ sound in Guitar Pro

Now that we’ve tabbed out the parts for all of our instruments, we can start to look at refining their individual sounds.

Add a capo to your guitar(s)

Select your instrument track and make sure that ‘Track’ is selected in the ‘Inspector’ column. Click the box where your guitar’s tuning is shown and you’ll open the ‘tuning’ dialog box. At the bottom you can choose to add a capo or partial capo. You can do this at the beginning of a project, but if you do it after the fact there’s a button to ‘adjust the fingering’ so that the notes are transposed correctly.

Change your guitar model, effects and amp

Sticking in the ‘Track’ column, click on the guitar name, which in my example is ‘1. Jazz ES’. This brings up a drop-down menu with the first option being the different styles of your currently selected guitar, as well as the option to change the guitar type or change to a different instrument. There are ‘signature’ sounds for many of the guitar types, so if you’re hunting for something specific, be sure to explore the options available.

Below ‘1. Jazz ES’ you will see symbols of a headstock, amplifier, mixer and stompbox. Clicking this will open up your signal chain. In ‘Soundbank’ you’ll see your guitar and here you can change to a different type of guitar, e.g. L. Paul, Strat, Tele.

Beneath this is your effect chain, which in my case has my amplifier, reverb and EQ. You can tweak the settings or change the amp and pedals in your effect chain to suit your preferences. There are presets built-in to all of them or you can build your sound from scratch.

Top tip: I recommend highlighting a bar or section of music and then going into the ‘Sound’ menu to activate a loop when tweaking the settings, so that you can hear what’s being changed live. When paired with ‘Count-in’ this is really handy for when you’re practising playing along.

Add the ‘human touch’ through interpretation

At the bottom of the ‘Track’ column, each instrument will have an ‘Interpretation’ section. This is a great set of tools to give the playing style some personality. You can dictate when the instrument is played with a pick, fingers or bass slap, and dial in the intensity of palm muting and accentuation.

3. How to tab different articulations

Continuing on from the adding the ‘human touch’, there are so many techniques at play in a single riff. While we looked at the basics in our first guide of this series, here’s some of the more intermediate articulations that I use regularly and how you tab them out.

I’ve included the keyboard shortcuts below, but you can select all of these effects quickly with the ‘Edition Palette’ enabled.

• Up and downstrokes – Press (Shift + U / D) to add an up or downstroke to accurately tab your rhythm playing
• Grace notes – Hitting a note before or after the beat super quickly? Press (G) for a grace note that plays before the beat or (Option+G / CTRL+ALT+G) for grace note(s) on the beat
• Vibrato – Press (V) to add a touch of vibrato to a note or chord
• Staccato – Press (!) when highlighting a note or chord to add a staccato effect. Super handy for those rhythmic stab sections or for plucky lead lines. A staccato note has a • above it in the staff
• Slide in from above/below – When you’re not sliding from a specific note, but want that effect highlight your note or chord, go into Effects > Slide > Slide in from Above / Below based on how you’re playing

Be sure to refer to the Guitar Pro file of this project to see these effects in situ.

Building your song’s structure in Guitar Pro

Whether you’re composing a prog epic or a tight verse-chorus pop anthem, these tools will help add dynamics to your song and make the project easy to navigate.

Use repeat signs

Rather than tabbing out your riff or chord progression each time it’s played, use repeat signs ( [ ) and ( ] ) in the first and final bar to keep your project tidy. You can use alternate endings where the instrumentation changes.

Label your song’s sections

Select a bar, click ‘Section’ in the main menu and then ‘Edit…’ to add a letter and/or name to any section in your song. This will appear both above the staff in the respective bar and along the bottom of the screen.

Pan your instruments to improve the mix

Finding that your two guitar tracks are drowning each other out? Hard pan one to the left and one to the right. You’ll be amazed at what a difference such a small change makes.

Get good at automation

Press F10 and you’ll bring up the ‘Automation’ screen, where you can automate volume, tempo and panning changes throughout your song. These variables can add both personality and dynamics to a song.

Experiment with effects and different instruments

Want to build tension in the intro? Add a couple of bars to the start of your project, duplicate your guitar track and then add a low-pass filter to it, then in your original guitar track, tab the root chord as a whole note, and add a long fade ( < ) or automate a volume swell before the song kicks off.

Maybe your bridge section sounds a bit samey? Ditch the guitar and try out a violin, synth or woodwind instrument and see how that affects the mood of the piece.

In the final part of this guide series, we’ll be looking at how Guitar Pro can streamline the recording process as you take your finished projects to the studio.

The post How to compose a complete song in Guitar Pro – the essential guide appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Music theory is boundless. And even a musician as distinguished and accomplished as Paul McCartney is still exploring nearly 70 years into his illustrious career.

That quest for discovery recently reached an inflection point in the unlikeliest of situations – over a cup of tea with producer Andrew Watt. 

As the story goes, the Beatles legend and the mega-producer met for a casual “exchange of ideas” five years ago, when Macca stumbled upon a chord he couldn’t identify. He began experimenting with note choices, and his inspiration was so profound after coming up with a new three-chord sequence that he ended up writing an entire full-length album.

• READ MORE: “A compelling entry into the world of American-crafted archtops”: Heritage updates its Standard II Collection with new H-575 model

And that album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, is set to arrive 29 May via MPL/Capitol Records. It’s set to bring “Wings-style rock, Beatles-style harmonies, McCartney-style grooves, understated intimacy and melody-driven storytelling – par for the course for Macca, then.

With “no record label pressure and no deadline” The Boys of Dungeon Lane was recorded over the last five years in both Los Angeles and Sussex, to McCartney and Watt’s “own timeline and satisfaction”.

You can listen to the first single from the album, Days We Left Behind, right now:

“This is very much a memory song for me. The album title, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, comes from a lyric in this track. I was thinking just that, about the days I left behind and I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past but then I think how can you write about anything else? 

“It’s just a lot of memories of Liverpool.  It involves a bit in the middle about John and Forthlin Road which is the street I used to live in. Dungeon Lane is near there.  I used to live in a place called Speke which is quite working class.  We didn’t have much at all but it didn’t matter because all the people were great and you didn’t notice you didn’t have much.”

The Boys of Dungeon Lane’s tracklist is as follows:

1. As You Lie There
2. Lost Horizon
3. Days We Left Behind
4. Ripples in a Pond
5. Mountain Top
6. Down South
7. We Two
8. Come Inside
9. Never Know
10. Home to Us 
11. Life Can Be Hard
12. First Star of the Night
13. Salesman Saint
14. Momma Gets By

The Boys of Dungeon Lane is available to preorder now.

The post Paul McCartney found a guitar chord he didn’t recognise while having tea with Andrew Watt – and was so inspired he recorded a new album appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Is a new Judas Priest album in the works? It would certainly appear so, according to a brief comment made by guitarist Richie Faulkner in a new interview.

Priest’s most recent album, Invincible Shield, landed in 2024, and it would seem the English quintet are eyeing up a followup. Though his reply is brief, when asked about the status of a potential 20th studio album, Faulkner confirms: “We’ve started recording it.”

• READ MORE: “Sometimes I come off stage, call home and say, ‘I can’t f**king do it’”: Richie Faulkner reveals he suffered a stroke while recovering from aortic aneurysm – but isn’t ready to leave Judas Priest yet

“We were in the studio for a month in February laying the foundation,” he tells Canada’s The Metal Voice [via Blabbermouth]. “I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that, but I’ve said it!”

That’s all we know for now, and it may be a while before we actually hear any material from the album, but for now, confirmation is good enough for us.

Richie Faulkner joined Judas Priest in 2011, replacing KK Downing. “They’ve been doing it for 50-odd years,” he says. “I’m part of the team now, and it is the crew and management and everyone that pitches together to make that machine roll.

“And I can see how they’ve been doing it for that long. I’ve said to you guys before – they love it. And we’ll do a tour and then we’ll get excited and do an album, and then you get excited for the album and do another tour. So I can see how it happens. And we’re doing another album, and we’ll probably tour that.

Richie Faulkner’s career was put on hold when he suffered an aortic aneurysm while performing onstage with Priest at Louder Than Life Festival in 2021. He subsequently underwent 10-hour emergency open heart surgery and has since recovered.

Despite the years that have passed since, Faulkner recently revealed that he continues to work with a physio “three times a day” to manage the damage the incident caused to his body.

I’ve had a bit of collateral damage on my right side with stuff connected to what happened. So I have to work on that,” he said.

Elsewhere in the new interview, Faulkner touches on the upcoming Ballad of Judas Priest documentary, which chronicles 50 years of Judas Priest.

“It’s really well put together, and it goes through the story of where they started and what they went through and everything like that and talks to different people about Priest’s influence on them. 

“There’s a great bit in it where they go back to, I think it’s a working man’s club in Aston [United Kingdom] or somewhere like that, where they played their first show, and Ian’s [Hill, Judas Priest bassist] in there and he’s sitting down, and it’s still there. And he’s in the club, and you can see the stage where they performed and everything. It’s still there, man. And it’s great, as a fan, to see that stuff. I haven’t seen that stuff before. So it’s really good. When it comes out, you should definitely check it out.”

The post “I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that:” Richie Faulkner lets slip update on new Judas Priest album appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

[Editor’s note: Heritage Guitars and Guitar.com are both part of the Caldecott Music Group.]

Back in September, Heritage Guitars unveiled its Standard II Collection on its 40th anniversary, bringing a number of upgrades to its celebrated Standard Series. The Standard II Collection kicked off with the refreshed H-150, followed in November by a trio of electric guitars, the H-150 P90, H-535 and H-530.

Now, the Kalamazoo-based brand is continuing that momentum with the introduction of the latest Standard II model, an updated version of the original hollowbody Standard H-575.

• READ MORE: Ace Frehley’s number-one Les Paul headlines upcoming auction at Julien’s – and could fetch half a million dollars

Offered as a “compelling entry into the world of American-crafted archtops”, the Standard II Collection H-575 arrives with refined aesthetics following the Standard Series’ H-575, as well as newly unveiled Heritage Custom Shop 225 Standard Archtop Humbuckers.

These pickups are specifically voiced for modern jazz, prioritising “clarity and dynamic response”, with 42 AWG poly wire and Alnico 2 magnets with chrome covers “perfectly complementing” the guitar’s hollowbody resonance.

Crafted at the brand’s legendary 225 Parsons Street facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the Standard II Collection H-575 sports a new headstock veneer with the Heritage logo for a “more refined and elevated aesthetic”, a standard C neck profile for a “comfortable and effortless” playing experience.

Priced at $4,499 and available via the Heritage Guitars website and authorised Heritage dealers, the brand says the Standard II H-575 “stands confidently” beside its more elite archtop offerings, including the Heritage Custom Shop Core Collection H-575 and H-717.

The Standard II Collection has already made a strong impression on the Guitar.com team; in November, we checked out the Standard II H-150, which has seen the brand shift somewhat from its philosophy of vintage revivalism to something a little more contemporary. In our review, we gave the guitar a 9/10, praising its quality tonal palette, useful array of switching options and comfortable light weight.

Will the Standard II H-575 measure up the same way? You can learn more at Heritage Guitars.

The post “A compelling entry into the world of American-crafted archtops”: Heritage updates its Standard II Collection with new H-575 model appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

In the Metallica discography, there’s one album that attracts critics more than any other, and that’s 2003’s St. Anger.

The record – which followed 1997’s Reload and the band’s 1998 compilation album Garage Inc. – has divided the Metallica fanbase since it arrived 23 years ago, with many critical of its off-kilter mix and, in particular, the sound of Lars Ulrich’s snare drum.

• READ MORE: “I saw UFO play with Van Halen in the ’70s – they got their asses kicked”: George Lynch recalls seeing Eddie Van Halen’s “mind-bending” playing up close

But inspiration often comes from unusual places, as discovered by Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Zacky Vengeance, who praises the album in a new interview on WRIF’s Meltdown.

Avenged Sevenfold have toured numerous times with Metallica since the early 2000s, most recently on their 2017 WorldWired stadium tour.

“Honestly, and this is gonna be controversial, but we were touring in a van. And we were driving across the country playing small shows, and it was right at the time when St. Anger came out, and that was the most divisive Metallica album since Load and Reload, and since the Black Album,” Vengeance says [via Ultimate Guitar].

“And you look back and people were like, ‘What are they doing with the Black Album.’ ‘What are they doing with Load? And then with St. Anger… it was the craziest sounding [album]. And then we fell in love with it.”

He continues: “It might not be our favourite Metallica album, but the thought behind it and the fact that it was so different and it had to be listened to, and they were just going for this thrashy raw sound using tones that weren’t perfect…

“They can do whatever they want – they chose to go and just make this buck-wild album. And it was, like, ‘If Metallica can do that, then we can do that.’”

Avenged Sevenfold’s penchant for experimentation has caused division among their fanbase over the course of their career. The arrival of their third album City of Evil in 2005 brought mainstream success, but also alienated some fans due to its stylistic departure from their previous record, Waking the Fallen. 

“When that record first came out, our fans on Waking the Fallen were very bummed on it,” frontman M Shadows said in 2021. They were like, this isn’t Waking the Fallen 2. This isn’t even screaming and singing, this is all singing. Matt’s voice has changed. They’re doing way more solos – it’s much more over the top.”

And in 2023, he commented on the backlash to the band’s most recent album Life Is But A Dream…:  “There are so many psychological things that go into if people like records or not or if they don’t or what they’re listening to at the time. And it’s not really our job to figure that out; it’s just our job to put something out that we totally back and we appreciate. And we’ll see where it goes. It’s hard to really talk about it, ‘cause there’s really no right or wrong answer. It’s okay to hate this record.”

The post “They can do whatever they want, and they chose to make this buck-wild album”: Avenged Sevenfold’s Zacky Vengeance on being inspired by Metallica’s most maligned album appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Ad feature with Yamaha

Back in 2015, if you asked someone to think about Yamaha electric guitars, they’d almost certainly point to the budget brilliance of the Pacifica or the under-the-radar classic that is the SG 2000.

Nobody would have expected that a brand with such a defined identity could introduce not just a new guitar, but an entire concept that would redefine what people expected from a Yamaha guitar, and establish itself as a true modern classic in a world that’s often so resistant to new things. But the Revstar was no ordinary guitar line – it’s a guitar that has won over beginners and professionals alike, and won dedicated fans in the shape of two of the brightest lights in modern guitar: Chris Buck and Matteo Mancuso.

Revs Your Heart

To understand the DNA of the Revstar, you have to understand the history of Yamaha. While the world’s largest musical instrument maker and the world’s second largest maker of motorbikes have been independent companies since 1955, there is obviously a significant fraternity between the two still.

That’s why, when the design geniuses at Yamaha Guitars came together to create what would become the Revstar, they borrowed from their own history, of course, but they also looked to their friends over the Tenryū River at Yamaha Motor Co.

In particular, the designers looked to the timelessly cool stripped down Cafe Racer motorcycles that had ferried the hip young rockers of London around the city in the 1960s – the same decade that Yamaha first started making guitars.

The bikes even gave the Revstar its name – a nod both to the revving of a motorbike engine, but also the Yamaha Motor Group’s “Revs your heart” company slogan. The Revstar would certainly set guitarists’ hearts racing when it arrived in 2015.

More Than Skin Deep

But if the Revstar was just a pretty guitar, it would never have established itself in the unprecedented way it has over the last decade – becoming a fixture with professionals and hobbyists alike. These are people who appreciate not just the Revstar’s looks, but the usability and design that could only have come from Yamaha.

The genius of the original Revstar line was the way every design choice was made with the prospective player in mind – making sensible and smart decisions based on hundreds of interviews conducted with real guitarists from across the playing spectrum.

Whether it was scale length, tonewoods, fret size or pickup selection, the huge amount of research allowed Yamaha’s expert designers to craft instruments that put the player at the heart of things like never before.

For example, each of the original Revstar guitars featured custom pickups created for the line. In the hugely popular entry-level RS320 model, the pickups were high-output units with ceramic magnets. This was done because the designers sensibly reasoned that a beginner player would appreciate more volume when they were developing their technique, but would also allow even more advanced players who appreciated heavier styles to still have fun with them.

At the other end of the scale, the Bigsby-toting RS720B featured underwound humbuckers – with 2500 turns of heavy formvar wire on the neck pickup and 2900 on the bridge – in order to give a more classic, vintage tonality that would pair with the Bigsby’s smooth wobble.

It’s this kind of considered and evidence-driven approach to guitar design – mixed with an undeniably beautiful overall design of course – that captured the attention of guitar players. Where so many brands lean heavily on nostalgia and established designs to appeal to the masses, the Revstar courted the attention of those seeking something unquestionably new, distinct and timeless.

Rather than look back, the Revstar represented an inspiring new tool for the job, that captured the imagination of a generation of guitar players looking for something outside of the norm.

Refining The Concept

Given the huge amount of research, development and listening that Yamaha’s designers put into the first generation of Revstars guitars, it would have been unthinkable for them to not take advantage of the fact that it was now out in the real world being played by thousands of musicians who would provide even more feedback.

Thus in 2022 the second generation of Revstar guitars was launched, which featured a host of refinements, tweaks and improvements on the original. Perhaps the most significant of these was the fact that each Revstar guitar now utilised Yamaha’s proprietary Acoustic Design chambering to improve resonance and reduce weight.

Another key addition to the second generation of Revstar guitars was the Revstar Professional RSP02T – a Japan-made take on what had become the defining recipe of the Revstar platform, ready for pro musicians to take on the road.

And that was important, because the Revstar had quickly become a guitar that had been embraced by major recording artists for its unique looks and wonderful functionality: from Graham Coxon of Blur, to Lynval Golding of The Specials, Dave Keuning of The Killers, and Jeff Schroeder of Smashing Pumpkins.

Player’s Choice

The breadth of the Revstar’s appeal is shown in the variety of players who have adopted it over its first decade, but two modern guitar greats stand apart in making the guitar their primary means of guitar expression: Matteo Mancuso and Chris Buck.

“I chose to play a Revstar because I was searching for a solid body that was similar to the SG but with more versatility for both jazz and rock,” the Italian jazz phenomenon explains. Mancuso is one of the most jaw-dropping technical guitar players on the planet, but the Revstar’s intelligent and thoughtful design takes him where he needs to go.

Mancuso references the comfort of the body shape and its lightweight design, plus the versatility of the five-way selector switch on his personal model, which adds coil splitting options to the Lollar Imperial pickups onboard. Combined with the guitar’s lively chambered body, it accommodates everything he wants in one guitar: “I can achieve every sound I need!”

For Buck, the love for Revstar runs even deeper, and it’s an enduring relationship that has spawned not just the first Revstar signature model ever, but Yamaha’s first signature electric full stop for 15 years.

The first time Buck saw a Revstar was when he walked into a Cardiff guitar shop a decade ago, and instantly the design spoke to him. The Revstar has been by his side ever since as he’s become one of the most respected blues-rock guitarists on the planet.

He loved his Revstar so much, he later upgraded to a model made by the YASLA Custom Shop in the USA that became his primary stage instrument. This guitar has helped usher in another milestone for the Revstar when it became the basis for Buck’s signature model in early 2026.

“My Custom Shop Revstar has been the beating heart of every record I’ve made and every show I’ve played since I first laid hands on it in 2020,” Buck enthuses. “It hasn’t left my side and has quite literally travelled the globe with me, from Cairo to California.

“The phrase ‘labour of love’ gets thrown around a little too often these days, but collaborating so closely with Yamaha to recreate my Number One over the past few years has been exactly that. I’m beyond thrilled to finally see it come to life.”

That two masterful players with such different approaches to the instrument can be united by the Revstar is a testament to the design brilliance at the core of this modern classic. From expressive and feel-led playing to highly articulate modern technique, the Revstar can handle anything these titans of modern guitar can throw at it. It’s a platform for inspiration no matter who you are.

Find out more about the Revstar at yamahaguitargroup.com

The post “I can achieve every sound I need” how Yamaha’s Revstar won over the professionals to become a modern classic appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Artificial intelligence may be creeping into all aspects of music-making, but Jacoby Shaddix believes rock is pushing back – and he’s all for it.

Speaking on the LA Lloyd Rock 30 radio show, the Papa Roach frontman reflects on the genre’s resistance to AI, noting the way rock fans can “smell” when something’s off. He describes the current moment as “a strange time” for artists, particularly those just starting out, and sees the rise of AI as yet another turning point for the industry, much like the collapse of the CD era.

• READ MORE: “AI is fun… But you can’t replace what’s coming out of Ozzy’s mind”: Zakk Wylde weighs in on AI music

“I think now, at this point, we’re at another kind of strange time in music where this AI element is coming through, and it can be frightening, I think, for a lot of people, for a lot of young artists maybe,” Shaddix explains [via Blabbermouth].

“But then there’s this hopeful element in it that I feel. Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas was trying to explain it, and I think he kind of hit the nail on the head in a way of, like, when you go to the grocery store, you can get the organic or you can get the GMO. What do you want? So if you want music, do you want fake music or do you want the music that’s coming from a human being? And we have a choice.”

For Shaddix, the issue lies in what AI currently represents: imitation over intention.

“AI is really essentially studying us. It’s a study of us,” says the musician. “And how does it regurgitate us back at us in a generic way? And that’s where it’s at right now. And it will be interesting to see how this plays out.”

“But I love the pushback from rock culture against it. I think that a lot of people in rock culture can smell it. They can hear it in the song, they can see it in the art, and they’re, like, ‘Ah, that ain’t it.’”

“And I love collaborating with people,” Shaddix continues. “I love the humanness of it. I love the push and pull in the relationship of creating with another person and having to have a conversation in a room, creating a song. And sometimes my idea isn’t the best idea in the room, and it gets shot down. And then sometimes my idea is the idea that sticks, whereas this other one is, ‘I have a prompt. Let me press a button.’ It’s just lazy, man.”

“I think the people in the rock culture and in the rock space, we could smell it a mile away. There’s room for the human in that.”

That mindset is already shaping how Papa Roach approach recording. Shaddix says the rise of AI has prompted the band to strip things back in the studio and rethink overproduction.

“[It’s] prompted us, when we go into the studio, to kind of dial back some of the tech and the overproduction of things,” he says. “[Our latest single] Wake Up Calling being one of those. There’s no samples on the drums in that song. It’s just raw drums. It’s just a recording of a drummer playing drums. And I think that that element is coming back into the play.”

Papa Roach’s new album – the follow-up to 2022’s Ego Trip – will be out later this year. Listen to the single Wake Up Calling below.

The post “They can hear it in the song, see it in the art, and they’re, like, ‘Ah, that ain’t it’” Papa Roach’s Jacoby Shaddix says he loves rock’s pushback against AI appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Don’t count The Who out just yet. A new album from the prog rock legends may not be as far-fetched as it once seemed – at least if Pete Townshend is to be believed.

While frontman Roger Daltrey has repeatedly downplayed the idea of another Who record in recent years – citing the cost and underwhelming commercial performance of 2019’s WHO as reasons to move on (“there’s no record market anymore,” he previously said) – Townshend has now suggested that door might not be fully closed.

• READ MORE: “Two of his right-hand fingers were bleeding afterwards”: Tony Visconti on Pete Townshend’s one-take David Bowie Heathen session

The Who guitarist and primary songwriter recently shared a glimpse of his new London writing studio on Instagram – a space he says was “built by Rick Astley” and “mine now”.

“I’m loving it. Great sound. I’m very spoiled,” Townshend writes.

And when one commenter suggested there was “no way” “another Who album” would happen, Townshend fired back with a surprising reply: “You might be wrong. Roger wants to give it a try.”

The musician also fielded questions about his current setup, revealing a relatively no-frills approach to writing and recording.

“I use a MacBook. The sequencer is an MPC Live III. I use it on the road like a portastudio,” he writes in the comments, adding that his speakers of choice are Genelec.

Whether that setup ends up powering a full-blown Who record remains to be seen – but for now, it appears the idea is back on the table.

View this post on Instagram

In the meantime, Townshend has previously revealed he’s sitting on hundreds of unfinished pieces – and isn’t opposed to using AI to help complete some of them.

“I’ve managed to wade through about half of [my unfinished music],” he said during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “What’s interesting is… I don’t know what to do with it! I’m quite interested in AI [to see what it makes of it].”

“I’m quite interested in [using it to rework] some of my old songs that didn’t quite work,” he added. “[If I put stuff] onto Suno or some AI music machine, [I could see] what it can make of it. There might be some hits!”

The post Is a new The Who album on the cards? Pete Townshend claims Roger Daltrey “wants to give it a try” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

“People on Facebook I hadn’t spoken to in a decade were all sending messages, going, ‘Hi. How are you?’” begins Lucy Morgan of London-based, kitchen punk band, I, Doris. “Just wondering, have you seen this TV show?” The series in question is Riot Women, a critically acclaimed six-part drama from the BBC that the New Yorker described as “genius” and currently sits at 92% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

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

Set in the quirky and inclusive Northern town of Hebden Bridge, pub landlord Jess Burchill assembles an unlikely crew of women to form a band for a local talent contest. But for a legion of Gen X women across the globe, the storyline felt far from fictional.

Director of the upcoming documentary Menopunks, Alicia J. Rose, performs in two bands born from Portland’s punk energy, the city also responsible for seminal riot grrrl acts like Heavens to Betsy, Team Dresch, and later, Sleater-Kinney.

For Rose, the show was a welcome tonic in its focus on women in their 50s and 60s reclaiming their voices. “[It] reminded me of The Full Monty but with women and rock and roll as the MacGuffin,” she says from her home in Oregon City. “I love every fucking character in the show. They’re not the real thing, but I’ll tell you, the real thing does fucking exist.”

Nana Punk

South Wales sextet the Nanaz, an outfit that formed in 2024 through a punk rock workshop, proves not only that these women exist, but their sounds are in demand, thanks to the BBC series. “We’re riding a very good wave, partly as a result of Riot Women,” admits bassist Anne-Marie Bollen. “People are looking at who’s actually doing this for real.” The group met through the Nana Punk project, an initiative hosted at Wales’ Millennium Centre to break barriers and build new communities.

For the Nanaz’s Deborah de Lloyd, the sessions were a crash course in stepping out on stage. “At the end of the workshops, they got us to play a gig, with no rehearsal time, in the middle of the Millennium Centre. I was working out the chords ten minutes beforehand!” Lead guitarist Angela Samuel, who played acoustic before turning to electric in the last few years, is still astounded by their progress. “When we started, I thought ‘There’s no way we’re going to get a band going,’ but we actually have!”

I, Doris’s Lucy Morgan’s entrance to music was more traditional. Rather than taking in the toilet circuit of dingy East London dive bars, she was classically trained. But the desire to perform with other creatives like her was strong.

“I liked the idea of having a band with Cassie [Fox, LOUD WOMEN founder and I, Doris bassist and frontperson]. We have a shared love of pop music, Dolly Parton, and gin-soaked evenings.” For Fox herself, it’s railing against societal expectations. “It’s what we do, rather than play bridge or golf,” she quips. “What are normal middle-aged women supposed to do with their time?”

Portland’s Alicia J. Rose feels similarly, learning drums when she turned 40 and forming Party Witch. She’s since added another artistic output to her arsenal that’s quickly picked up steam in the community, as she shares. “I’m in another band called The Fabulous Bloodstains with Gilly Ann Hanner [ex Calamity Jane and former tour support for Nirvana]. It’s the most real version of the Riot Women that I’ve ever experienced in my life. We formed to open for two sold-out shows of Sleater-Kinney playing as the Ramones last October.”

Seeing Red

This new burst of creative flow didn’t come easily for Rose, though, whose forthcoming documentary, Menopunks, paints an intimate portrait of celebrated female musicians (think vocal tornado Neko Case and original riot grrrl Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile) navigating midlife. In the BBC’s Riot Women, vocalist Kitty Eckersley and keyboardist Beth Thornton pen the band’s talent show entry, Seeing Red, supercharged with the frustrations of accessing HRT (hormone replacement therapy).

The struggle isn’t a new subject for I, Doris, who wrote their own powerful post-punk number about gynecological healthcare three years prior. Alicia J. Rose is adamant that the shift from hot flashes and brain fog on stage is all thanks to the drug. “Now I have the energy to be in two bands. Now I’m making a movie, and I couldn’t be doing any of these things if I were as miserable as I was two years ago.”

While the TV series’ songwriting themes line up with lived experience, there’s a longstanding ethos from the riot grrrl era that doesn’t chime so well. In the ‘90s, Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna began demanding “Girls to the front!” at her band’s shows to create safe spaces for women in a male-dominated scene. While the riot women of today are happy blasting out their politically charged tunes, they’re demanding visibility on their own terms, as I, Doris’ Lucy Morgan explains.

“In my last band, I hid behind a trombone. I, Doris is my first opportunity to be on a stage as a performer, not someone hiding in the background, [but] it took me a lot of years to get over some really crippling stage fright. It’s only as I got past 40 that I became comfortable with standing up on stage and people looking at me.”

Getting Things Wrong

This trepidation to take up space also feels familiar to the Nanaz’s second guitarist, Claire Symons. “They’re always trying to get me out from behind a pillar!” she admits before bandmate Marega Palser chips in. “When we started, it was like if you’re shy, just put a fucking bag on your head.” But as Symons reflects, that’s not so easy when you’re a woman of a certain age. “Someone said, ‘Wear a balaclava. Do a Kneecap!’ And I was like, ‘Jesus Christ, I’m always hot!’”

Pushing past the debilitating stage fright and questionable accessories, bands like the Nanaz and I, Doris are channeling a lot of the early DIY spirit that post-punk godmothers The Raincoats gifted us back in the 1970s, a learn-as-you-go mentality. “We’ve got no shame in making mistakes or getting things wrong,” says Marega Palser of the Nanaz. “The fact that you’re getting up on stage and doing it is enough of a signal to women of the same age. It’s important to see that there are other ways of being and behaving.”

The same could be said for the bands’ attitudes to guitar culture. I, Doris’ latest addition, Lenie Mets, who has consistently performed in London’s live music circuit, is unsettled by the weight often placed on an artist’s gear. “I honestly couldn’t give a blank shit about that. You see a guy with his 500 guitars and the pedal boards they come up with, and you just think, why?” Some of that resistance may stem from how the gear is marketed and displayed.

Research by Fender revealed that women were predominantly buying guitars online “because in the bricks-and-mortar stores there was nobody to relate to, and they weren’t getting treated well”. For the Nanaz’s Anne Marie Bollen, her bass came via an unlikely punk grapevine about a decade ago. “Richie from Dub War told me to drive over quickly — a guy had been kicked out, and I could have his bass for £100,” she laughs. “Years later, we’re playing shows with Bad Sam featuring Dean Beddis, and he goes, ‘I had one like that!’ I said, ‘I know — it’s yours!’”

With the Welsh creative community rallying around them, it’s no surprise that the Nanaz have been embraced on the live circuit. But there’s one particular supporter in the crowd who’s been rooting for lead guitarist Angela Samuel for years. “We’ve got Ang’s dad in the audience,” beams Bollen. “He’s 87 and an old rock and roll drummer. He’s always wanted Ang to be in a band.”

Louder Than Ever

It’s champions like these that are helping to turn up the dial on women’s voices that have been systematically suppressed and repressed for generations. In the ‘90s, women-fronted bands grappled for the single slot on an all-male festival bill. Today, initiatives like Nana Punk and Leicester’s Riotous Collective mean more Gen X women are making noise than ever before.

“We deserve to be louder than fucking ever,” insists Alicia J. Rose back in Portland. “So why the fuck not pick up the loudest instrument possible and turn it up to fucking 11, as Tufnel said, and rage against every fucking machine that will be in listening distance?” The beauty of this collective coming-of-age? The message is spreading far and wide for others to reconnect with their creativity, regardless of status or tech setup.

Like The Raincoats’ Gina Birch seeing the “madness and chaos” of The Slits for the first time, sometimes we just need to see someone like us on stage. Today’s real-life riot women are making that visibility louder — and contagious.

“What I’ve found really amazing is talking to other female friends who have said, ‘I’ve started singing lessons!’ or ‘I’m going to play the guitar!’” says the Nanaz’s Claire Symons. “My sister-in-law even said, ‘Oh, I’m gonna get my mandolin out that I bought 15 years ago, and I’m now gonna have another go!’”

Follow the real riot women at @thenanazband, @idorisband and @menopunks

The post The Real Riot Women: the Gen Xers discovering punk and embracing guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Press Release

Source: Mark Pucci Media

Colin James – photo credit: James O’Mara

Multi-award-winning blues/rock guitarist Colin James’ last US tour in 2024 was cut short due to an automobile accident. Now fully recovered he’s bringing his exciting blend of blues and rock music to fans in the States with the upcoming “Coast to Coast Tour” in April and May. Joining him on the tour are Matt Andersen and Terra Lightfoot to celebrate the rich legacy of electrifying Canadian blues and roots music.

 The “Coast to Coast Tour” starring Colin James, Matt Andersen and Terra Lightfoot brings these friends and fellow musicians together for an 18-city US Spring 2026 cross-country tour celebrating blues and folk to rock and soul.  Audiences can expect powerful individual sets and inspired collaborative performances from three of Canada’s most acclaimed and distinctive roots artists.  The “Coast to Coast Tour” honors the enduring power of music to cross borders, generations and traditions – live on stage!

Colin James

James’ career spans over 30 years, with a track record that includes 21 studio albums, 8 JUNO Awards, 31 Maple Blues Awards and multi-platinum record sales.  He has worked with some of the world’s most revered artists, including Bonnie Raitt, Albert Collins, Pops Staples, Robert Cray, Albert King, Keith Richards, Lenny Kravitz, ZZ Top, Mavis Staples, Carlos Santana, and Buddy Guy, to name a few.  His latest album, Chasing the Sun, featured guest appearances from Lucinda Williams and Charlie Musselwhite. Colin will be performing with his trio.

Matt Andersen

New Brunswick, Canada, native Matt Andersen is one of the most accomplished Canadian singer-songwriters and powerhouse vocalists active today.  A multiple Maple Blues Award winner, multi- European Blues Award winner and JUNO nominee, Andersen was the first Canadian to take home top honors at the International Blues Challenge. Today he headlines major festivals, clubs, theaters throughout North America and the rest of the world. Matt will be performing solo.

 Terra Lightfoot

This native of Ontario and two-time JUNO Award nominee has drawn musical comparisons from Dusty Springfield to Van Morrison.  Her decade-plus musical evolution has seen her tour four continents alongside Willie Nelson, Bruce Cockburn and the all-female revue The Longest Road Show, among others. Terra will be performing solo.

Colin James with Matt Andersen and Terra Lightfoot Tour Dates

April 17 – The Admiral Theatre – Bremerton, WA
April 18 – Mount Baker Theatre – Bellingham, WA
April 19 – Edmonds Center for the Arts – Edmonds, WA
April 21 – Urban Lounge – Salt Lake City, UT
April 24 – Knuckleheads Saloon – Kansas City, MO
April 26 – The Parkway Theater – Minneapolis, MN
April 27 – City Winery – Chicago, IL
April 29 – City Winery – St. Louis, MO
April 30 – Lincoln Theatre – Columbus, OH
May 1 – The Kent Stage – Kent, OH
May 2 – The Cellar at the Original Pittsburgh Winery – Pittsburgh, PA
May 3 – Town Ballroom – Buffalo, NY
May 5 – Sellersville Theater – Sellersville, PA
May 6 – Rams Head on Stage – Annapolis, MD
May 7 – The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center – Old Saybrook, CT
May 8 – Lewis A. Swyer Theatre – Albany, NY
May 9 – Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club – Portsmouth, NH
May 10 – The Center for the Arts in Natick – Natick MA

Dokken guitarist George Lynch has recalled watching Eddie Van Halen play up close in the ‘70s, and how his chops humbled even the formidable musicians of English hard rock outfit UFO, who Van Halen supported during a show at the Golden West Ballroom in California in 1976.

“I saw UFO play with Van Halen at the Golden West Ballroom in Norwalk, California, near where we lived. We played there a lot.” Lynch tells The Music Zoo owner Tommy Colletti in a new conversation [via Blabbermouth].

• READ MORE: EVH unveils two 5150 “blast from the past” models – with both throwback and modernised features

“It was somewhat dramatic, because I don’t know if UFO knew what they were in for. And I love UFO – we all love UFO – but they got their ass kicked. I mean, they came up, and I don’t think they were ready for that.”

Lynch goes on to recall the “paradigm shift” in hard rock brought about by Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing and how he spearheaded two-handed tapping’s foray into the mainstream.

“To see it up close and personal as it was happening, in Mammoth [one of Eddie Van Halen’s pre-Van Halen bands, not to be confused with his son Wolfgang’s active band of the same name] and also early Van Halen, it was mind-bending to see that in person. It was just insane. 

“I mean, I’d just go to my studio or go home and just get on my guitar for eight hours and go, ‘I gotta step up. This is insane.’”

Elsewhere, blues ace Joe Bonamassa recently pondered whether Eddie Van Halen would have been as cool if he were to have used an amp modeller like a Neural DSP Quad Cortex, as opposed to the vintage analogue gear that was available to him at the time of Van Halen’s heyday.

The guitarist and avid gear collector said: “Instead of a 68 plexi with a laydown transformer, a Univox [EC-80A Tape Echo], and MXR Phase 45, a [Marshall] basket weave cabinet, and a Boogie Bodies Strat, imagine if the same Eddie Van Halen showed up with a Neural [Quad Cortex] and a Suhr.”

He asked, “Is it as cool? I’m not knocking John Suhr, I’m not knocking Neural… Great invention, but I just pose the question. People hear with their eyes. It’s the whole thing.”

The post “I saw UFO play with Van Halen in the ’70s – they got their asses kicked”: George Lynch recalls seeing Eddie Van Halen’s “mind-bending” playing up close appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Jackson has blessed Gojira guitarist Christian Andreu with a brand-new signature model, and intriguingly, it’s the first-ever Rhoads model in the Jackson lineup to feature an EverTune bridge…

The guitar joins two existing Jackson signatures under the French guitarist’s portfolio, completing a trio of custom-spec’d Randy Rhoads tuned for his punishing riffs in Gojira.

• READ MORE: Ace Frehley’s number-one Les Paul headlines upcoming auction at Julien’s – and could fetch half a million dollars

In terms of specs, as stated, the headline feature of the Pro Plus Series Signature Christian Andreu Rhoads RR24 EVTN6 is its EverTune bridge – the first time one has featured on a Jackson Rhoads.

For those unaware, the EverTune is a patented bridge design which uses a system of springs and levers to keep a guitar perfectly in tune no matter the conditions or ferocity of playing that’s thrown at it.

As you’d expect, then, the EverTune is widely favoured by metal musicians, with Andreu’s Gojira co-guitarist Joe Duplantier using one during the band’s landmark 2024 Olympic opening ceremony, as well as other metal stalwarts including Trivium’s Matt Heafy and Tetrarch’s Diamond Rowe.

Elsewhere on the spec sheet, Christian Andreu’s new signature model features a single Fishman Fluence Modern humbucker in the bridge position – with a three-way mini toggle for access to three different Fishman voicings – 24 jumbo stainless steel frets on a “lightning-fast” 12”-16” compound-radius ebony fingerboard, and a three-piece neck-thru build with graphite reinforcement with alder wings for “earth-shaking tone with fortress-like stability”.

“It started as love at first sight when I was 15, seeing the legendary Kirk Hammett wield this iconic shape. It was the most metal thing I’d ever seen, and I was hooked,” Andreu says.

“20 years later, holding my first Jackson RR signature model turned that teenage dream into reality. And now, I’m even more excited to introduce my brand-new RR signature guitar. This instrument isn’t just something I play live; it’s an extension of who I am.

“It’s also an honour to represent the first-ever RR model equipped with an EverTune bridge! With an unbelievably smooth neck, perfect balance and effortless playability, this guitar feels like it was built for me. I couldn’t be prouder of how it turned out.”

Watch Christian Andreu put his new signature model through its paces in Jackson’s new demo video below:

“This Pro Plus Series signature is the culmination of everything we’ve learned about extreme performance,” adds Jon Romanowski, VP of Product, Jackson.

“It’s a precision-engineered instrument built to withstand the most punishing tour conditions while delivering the sonic brutality that defines Gojira’s legendary sound. We’re proud to collaborate with a groundbreaking artist who shares our commitment to creating instruments that unleash musicians’ full creative potential.”

The Pro Plus Series Signature Christian Andreu Rhoads RR24 EVTN6 is available now, priced at $2,429 / £1,849. Learn more at Jackson.

The post Gojira guitarist’s new Jackson signature is the first-ever Rhoads model to feature an EverTune bridge appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

EVH has launched two new 5150 Series models, the DX and DX QM (quilted maple), which blend both throwback and modernised features together.

The DX offers a modified Strat-style basswood body with a deeper upper body curve. While the striped original had a single humbucking bridge pickup only, this new version comes with a HH pickup configuration and also has a lower bout kill switch.

• READ MORE: The best value electric guitars: 11 affordable options for beginners and players on a budget

These models also offer a graphite-reinforced bolt-on quartersawn baked maple neck with a modified “C” profile, 12”-16” compound radius baked maple fingerboard with 22 jumbo frets and black dot inlay, plus a hand-rubbed satin urethane back finish, heel-mount truss rod adjustment wheel, and a “hockey stick” headstock decorated with the EVH logo decal.

Its custom designed EVH Wolfgang Alnico 2 humbucking pickup configuration is controlled by a three-way toggle switch. The bridge pickup delivers punch and articulation with sweet sustain and thick chunky rhythms in a perfectly balanced EQ curve, according to the EVH brand, while the neck pickup serves up “no-nonsense, balls to the wall overdrive and endless sustain without skimping on articulate cleans when the volume is rolled down”.

The DX is completed by an EVH-branded top-mount Floyd Rose bridge and locking tailpiece with fine tuners for each string, plus a patented EVH D-Tuna for switching back and forth from drop-D to standard tuning.

The DX is available in Black or Candy Apple Red Metallic, while the DX QM comes in Pacific Drift (blue) or Limeade Zest (a green into yellow ombre).

The MSRP for the 5150 Series DX is £1099 / €1299 and the 5150 Series DX QM is £1249 / €1449. Find out more via EVH.

The post EVH unveils two 5150 “blast from the past” models – with both throwback and modernised features appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

With the Telecaster’s 75th anniversary celebrations well underway, Fender has announced Tele Town, a “live music experience” with appearances from a smorgasbord of top Tele players at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville – “where the Telecaster became a legend”.

Taking place Monday, 4 May, 2026, Tele Town will be a “one-night live music experience” celebrating all things Telecaster, with a curated lineup of performers including Brad Paisley, Brent Mason, Brothers Osborne, Guthrie Trapp, James Burton, Luke McQueary, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, Trey Hensley and Zach Top. 

They’ll perform alongside a dedicated house band led by Nashville native and the event’s musical director Derek Wells.

• READ MORE: Ace Frehley’s number-one Les Paul headlines upcoming auction at Julien’s – and could fetch half a million dollars

Elsewhere, the event will be hosted by Nashville guitarist and music historian Zac Childs, who will take the audience through performances and segments which highlight the Telecaster’s “pioneering design and role in shaping Music City’s – and the world’s – musical identity.

“75 years after its debut, the Telecaster remains proof that simplicity endures, adaptable enough to move across genres, generations, and stages without losing its identity,” says FMIC President of Americas, Justin Norvell. 

“This celebration is our way of honouring not just an instrument, but a cultural phenomenon that has shaped music for over seven decades.”

He continues: “Tele Town at the Ryman will be the culmination of this celebration – bringing that story to life on one of music’s most hallowed stages in the heart of Music City. From our limited edition collections to the content pieces and community celebrations, we’re ensuring the Telecaster’s legacy reaches both longtime fans and discovers new ones who will carry its voice into the future.”

“Serving as musical director for Tele Town is a true honour, especially in my home city of Nashville, where I grew up and where the Telecaster’s legacy runs so deep,” adds Derek Wells. 

“Putting this show together has been about more than just great players, it’s about capturing the spirit of an instrument that’s shaped so much of the music we all love. This lineup is full of people who’ve lived with this guitar onstage and in the studio, and I’m certain that when we all are together, you’ll see people playing with love and reverence for what this instrument has meant to us all.”

Tickets for Tele Town will go on sale Friday, 27 March, 2026 at 8AM PT.  All net proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to local Nashville charities.

Prior to the event, the Fender Custom Shop will also celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Telecaster with an exclusive Roadshow event on 3 May from 18:00 – 21:00 at Carter Vintage in Nashville. The event will feature FCS Senior Masterbuilder Paul Waller, Master Pickup Winder Josefina Campos, and Fender’s Chief Engineer of Guitars Tim Shaw, who will offer an “intimate look” at the craftsmanship behind Masterbuilt guitars.

Visit AXS for ticket information for Fender Presents: Tele Town.

The post Fender to celebrate 75 years of the Telecaster with one-night-only Nashville event featuring Brad Paisley, Brent Mason and Brothers Osborne appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

Joe Bonamassa has been questioning if modern gear looks as cool as good old fashioned analogue rigs, and believes people “hear with their eyes” to a certain extent.

The blues guitarist and gear obsessive’s home gear museum, known as Nerdville, holds thousands of rare and vintage gear gems, with over 600 guitars. The collection has grown so much that he’s even slowing down to avoid reaching “a saturation point”.

• READ MORE: “You’re not going to get any sustain”: Analog Man legend Mike Piera thinks people who use digital amps and in-ear monitors are missing out on a huge part of guitar tone

With such an avid love of gear, Bonamassa may be somewhat biased, but he poses an interesting question, and he’s not alone in quizzing how smaller and modernised set ups can sometimes take away from the visual aspect of putting on a gig or affect the sound overall.

During his appearance on the No Cover Charge podcast, he uses Eddie Van Halen as an example: “Instead of a 68 plexi with a laydown transformer, a Univox [EC-80A Tape Echo], and MXR Phase 45, a [Marshall] basket weave cabinet, and a Boogie Bodies Strat, imagine if the same Eddie Van Halen showed up with a Neural [Quad Cortex] and a Suhr.”

He asks, “Is it as cool? I’m not knocking John Suhr, I’m not knocking Neural… Great invention, but I just pose the question. People hear with their eyes. It’s the whole thing.”

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Interestingly, not all artists believe smaller rigs impact the visual aspect of live shows. Chad Zaemisch, guitar tech for James Hetfield of Metallica, actually feels that a large wall of amps is not missed at their shows. In an interview with Guitar World, Zaemisch explained how their one-off Freeze ‘Em All concert in Antarctica in 2013 caused their transition.

“We were kind of forced to come up with a solution for playing a show in Antarctica where we couldn’t have speakers. For environmental reasons, they didn’t want any noise pollution. Matt Picone from Fractal came and got all our sounds started. It was definitely a learning curve for us and the band, but once we got through that, everybody started to look at how convenient it was.”

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

The post Joe Bonamassa thinks Eddie Van Halen wouldn’t have been as “cool” if he’d used a Quad Cortex instead of vintage analogue gear: “People hear with their eyes” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

A video taken by a passenger onboard a plane at Los Angeles International Airport showing a baggage handler throwing guitar cases to the ground has gone viral.

The footage has been seen by millions, with 4.1 million views on TikTok alone. It’s also made the rounds on Instagram, where a number of musicians have commented in outrage. This isn’t the first time an incident like this has occurred, as a number of other artists have faced damage to their instruments over the years following flights, including Emily Wolfe, Madi Diaz, Pete Thorn, and more.

• READ MORE: “I can’t wait to throw it through a Marshall”: Richie Sambora reunites with long-lost Gibson Explorer after 40 years

You can watch the footage below, but beware, it will make you wince. Touring guitarist Chris LaPlante comments, “first time I’ve wanted something to be AI”, while another user on TikTok comments, “was he kicked out of the band?” Others are questioning, does he hate music, or is he just a drummer? It seems we will never know.

@goyamariacookie

I hope your guitars are ok #LAX #losangeles #airport #guitartok

♬ Cumbia Buena – Grupo La Cumbia

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Nick Ruiz, who captured the footage, has spoken to Need To Know, and says, “The whole situation felt wrong. My instinct was to start filming.”

At the time of writing, LAX has not commented publicly on the viral footage.

A number of musicians have argued that it is better to pay for a seat for your guitar – Joe Bonamassa has also spoken about doing so – but with many touring musicians on a tight budget, it’s not always possible.

Emily Wolfe called out Southwest Airlines after her signature Epiphone White Wolfe guitar had its headstock “completely broken off” following a flight in August last year.

In a post on Instagram, she explained how she followed every guideline for traveling with an instrument: it was in a hard-shell flight case, checked in properly, and was labelled with fragile stickers.

When she first filed a report at the airport, she was first told the airline was not responsible for anything inside the case and that instruments are considered “fragile items.” After posting about her experience online, the airline eventually reached out and agreed to cover the damages.

The post “Maybe he’s a drummer”: Outrage sparked as viral video shows airport baggage handler throwing guitar cases to the tarmac appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.