“These guitars are not just for blues lawyers – you can rock with one of these”: Joe Bonamassa on the vintage Gibson that makes a great power chord guitar

🗓️ November 10, 2025 | Source: Guitar World

What makes the Gibson ES-350 so good for rock? Bonamassa says they are a real live wire, with “a lot of pop” and no shortage of low-end

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StewMac Introduces Valve Factory 18 Amp Kit

🗓️ November 10, 2025 | Source: Premier Guitar

StewMac has released the Valve Factory 18 Amp Kit, an original design inspired by the classic circuits of Fender, Supro, and even Electro-Harmonix. Compact yet powerful, the 18-watt DIY amp delivers the same warm, expressive dynamics that shaped the sound of legends like Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Joe Bonamassa, Pete Townshend, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.The Valve Factory 18 includes a key feature: interchangeable preamp tubes, allowing you to quickly and easily dial in your tone. This inn...

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M-Audio BX5BT: A Versatile Bluetooth Monitor System

🗓️ November 10, 2025 | Source: Gear News

The M-Audio BX5BT is a compact active/passive studio monitor system with app-controlled 5-band EQ and room correction for your home studio. The post M-Audio BX5BT: A Versatile Bluetooth Monitor System appeared first on gearnews.com.

“I was like, ‘Joni, that’s gonna be terrible, we need an amp.’ She was like, ‘Would you just try it?’” Robben Ford on Joni Mitchell’s fuzz pedal experiments that shaped one of her most adventurous tracks

🗓️ November 10, 2025 | Source: Guitar World

Ford says the experience defines what “the ultimate creative artist” is like to work with – and it changed the way he played

“When I was 15, I was hustling it out in the juke joint clubs – and then along came Mr. Buddy Guy…” From teenage prodigy to modern guitar royalty, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram is ushering in a new era for blues guitar

🗓️ November 10, 2025 | Source: Guitar World

Hard Road is the sound of an artist maturing, dealing with tragedy, life, and new ideas for putting a fresh twist one of electric guitar's foundational sounds

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Michigan Synth Works MSW-820: Classic Roland Analog Synthesis With a 16-Mode Filter?!

🗓️ November 10, 2025 | Source: Gear News

Michigan Synth Works’ upcoming MSW-820 will combine two Roland-style oscillators with the Caveman Totem 16-mode filter. The post Michigan Synth Works MSW-820: Classic Roland Analog Synthesis With a 16-Mode Filter?! appeared first on gearnews.com.

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Electro-Harmonix Swello Attack Envelope Review

🗓️ November 09, 2025 | Source: Premier Guitar

Attack—essentially the rate and intensity with which a note rises in volume from its point of creation—is one of the coolest musical expressions you can mess with. If you play an instrument from the violin family it’s a fundamental part of your vocabulary. It’s used frequently in synthesis to conjure spooky, low-gravity atmospherics, and it’s an essential tool for taking the front end off some psychotic Moog sound that might otherwise explode like a foghorn six inches from your ear. Guitar playe...

“Boldly established Ibanez as a new contender in the highly competitive Superstrat market”: How Ibanez’s era-defining RG550 transformed high-performance guitar

🗓️ November 09, 2025 | Source: Guitar World

It had the tones, it had the super-stable floating vibrato for divebombs, and it had the fastest neck around. The RG550 pushed shred guitar further and faster – just ask Paul Gilbert

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YouTube Advice: Can You Really Learn Music Production from YouTube?

🗓️ November 09, 2025 | Source: Gear News

In this article, we discuss the plausibility of learning music production based on YouTube advice and how to navigate the growing sea of channels. The post YouTube Advice: Can You Really Learn Music Production from YouTube? appeared first on gearnews.com.

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Tighten Up! Optimize Your Guitar’s Tone

🗓️ November 09, 2025 | Source: Premier Guitar

Our world of guitars is peppered with cliches and theories about what physical attributes make an instrument special. I’ve always gravitated towards electric guitars whose sound not only blooms and holds on to a note or chord, but also leaps from your touch. This can be described as having great dynamic range and punchy transients as well as sustain. Whether we admit it or not, beyond the subjective matter of “good” tone, that’s the thing that we’re all looking for. You might describe it differe...

“He used seashells as a pick, that's where he gets all that squank from”: Brilliant players of all persuasions have earned their stripes in Lynyrd Skynyrd's three-guitar army. Rickey Medlocke takes us through all of them, and what made them each special

🗓️ November 09, 2025 | Source: Guitar World

Having served in Skynyrd as a pre-fame member and later as a crucial part of their reunion, Medlocke has more insight into the idiosyncrasies and genius of each of the band's six-string aces than just about anyone

“We weren’t allowed to talk about it at Guitar Summit, but the signature everyone was asking about is now here”: All the guitar gear that has caught me eye this week – including the crown jewel of PRS’ 40th Anniversary year

🗓️ November 09, 2025 | Source: Guitar World

Wylde Audio's most metal guitar ever, a new contender for Boss and Fender in the headphone amp space, and GNR bass tones in a pickup set. All that and more landed this week

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Crypt, Transient Control, MidBoss: Free Plugins of the Week

🗓️ November 09, 2025 | Source: Gear News

Crypt is a hyper-unison synthesizer for super-fat trance and EDM sounds! This week’s round-up also brings you a transient shaper and a saturator. The post Crypt, Transient Control, MidBoss: Free Plugins of the Week appeared first on gearnews.com.

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Synth Libraries: 5 of the Best Places to Check Out Synthesizers

🗓️ November 08, 2025 | Source: Gear News

You don’t always have to buy. These are the five best synth libraries to check out electronic musical instruments. The post Synth Libraries: 5 of the Best Places to Check Out Synthesizers appeared first on gearnews.com.

“It’s less significant than your guitar strap being an inch higher or lower”: John Mayer on why fretboard radius doesn’t actually make that much of a difference

🗓️ November 08, 2025 | Source: Guitar World

Before he developed his PRS Silver Sky signature guitar, Mayer didn't pay much attention to fretboard radius

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How MTV Unplugged Saved the Acoustic Guitar

🗓️ November 08, 2025 | Source: Premier Guitar

On November 14, 2025, I’ll be giving a presentation at the Royal College of Music in London. It’s in conjunction with a unique guitar they have on display: Kurt Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E, the one he played on MTV Unplugged. To honor the occasion, we’ve built a modern reproduction of that particular guitar for my friend Craig Thatcher to play at the event—because I don’t think they’ll let him play the original. (Yes, that one … the guitar that sold for $6 million at auction in 2020.) MTV Unplugg...

“It's more than an effect. It's an instrument in itself”: Made famous by David Gilmour, and employed by Rory Gallagher and the Beatles, the Binson Echorec is a secret-recipe tool that helped define rock guitar tone

🗓️ November 08, 2025 | Source: Guitar World

If you have even the most passing familiarity with Pink Floyd, you've heard an ethereal soundscape generated by the Binson Echorec. This is what it is, the unit's fascinating inner workings, and why it still matters

“A shoo-in for completely natural drive sounds”: Nobels ODR-1X review

🗓️ November 08, 2025 | Source: Guitar World

The green pedal loved by Nashville session players gets a reboot with added versatility

“People that didn’t understand the situation wanted me to get out of the way and hear more of Joni”: Brandi Carlile was instrumental in bringing Joni Mitchell back on stage – but faced a lot of criticism for her efforts

🗓️ November 08, 2025 | Source: Guitar World

In 2015, Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm that left her unable to walk, talk, sing or play guitar. Carlile took the initiative to support the legend and eventually helped her perform again at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival

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Rodec Sherman Ministyler Filterbank Now Available!

🗓️ November 08, 2025 | Source: Gear News

The Rodec Ministyler mini version of the Sherman Filterbank is finally available. Get that sweet filter action in a tiny format. The post Rodec Sherman Ministyler Filterbank Now Available! appeared first on gearnews.com.

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The Year in Gear 2025

🗓️ November 07, 2025 | Source: Premier Guitar

The gear that passed through our reviewer’s hands in 2025 was a thrillingly varied bunch. There were new takes on old friends, slimmed and shrunken evolutions of proven designs, and radical reinventions of the instrument we love and treasure so much. Join us as we review the guitars, pedals, amps, modelers and more that stood apart from the pack.Keeley ZomaKeeley chased one of the most perfect effect combinations—the tremolo and reverb from a black panel Fender amplifier—in the form of the Zoma....

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The History of Oberheim Electronics: American Giant

🗓️ November 07, 2025 | Source: Gear News

Tom Oberheim went from designing guitar pedals to some of the most respected synthesizers ever made. This is the history of Oberheim. The post The History of Oberheim Electronics: American Giant appeared first on gearnews.com.

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The 5 Best Acoustic Bass Guitars: Tone and Value Compared

🗓️ November 07, 2025 | Source: Gear News

Discovering the best acoustic bass guitars for rich tones, great playability and even better value. Here to inspire your unplugged sessions. The post The 5 Best Acoustic Bass Guitars: Tone and Value Compared appeared first on gearnews.com.

“I’ve seen people cover the tune, and one thing most get wrong about it is they’re not intentional about the sections in the way they should be”: Cory Wong on how to create a bigger, wider sound by layering baritone guitar parts

🗓️ November 07, 2025 | Source: Guitar World

Using a Fearless Flyers classic as a case study in baritone layering, the funk-master GW columnist peels away the onion to explain how these individual parts all stack up

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Oberheim TEO-5 & TEO-5 Desktop: Poly Chain Update – 2 × 5 = 10!

🗓️ November 07, 2025 | Source: Gear News

Oberheim has released an update for the TEO-5 and TEO-5 Desktop synthesizers. These synthesizers now support Poly Chain with up to ten voices! The post Oberheim TEO-5 & TEO-5 Desktop: Poly Chain Update – 2 × 5 = 10! appeared first on gearnews.com.

“My vision closed up. I felt like I was gonna throw up. I started sweating profusely, but I was freezing”: Wolfgang Van Halen on the panic attack he suffered on the way to his Metallica support – and how it inspired his new album

🗓️ November 07, 2025 | Source: Guitar World

Flying out to Mexico City, Wolfgang felt his body betray him – a terrifying experience that turned out kinda useful when writing The End

Every year, Rob Scallon and Andrew Huang write and record an album in a day. For 2025, they did it in an open Guitar Center – and used any gear they wanted

🗓️ November 07, 2025 | Source: Guitar World

The two YouTubers have taken their First of October recording project to the public domain

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NUX Steel Singer Review

🗓️ November 07, 2025 | Source: Premier Guitar

Like most of you, I would guess, I’ve never had the pleasure of playing a Dumble amp. I have a fair idea of what they are supposed to sound like thanks to Stevie Ray Vaughan and, presumably, David Lindley and Henry Kaiser (I’m never sure what amp I’m hearing on records from those two mad geniuses). But I definitely don’t know how a Dumble feels, or how it sounds up close in a room. So, I have to take NUX’s word for it that they deliver on the Steel Singer—an overdrive inspired by the Dumble Stee...

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Neumann RIME 1.5 Update: Improved Immersive Mixing Features

🗓️ November 07, 2025 | Source: Gear News

The Neumann RIME plugin lets you mix in multichannel audio formats from Neumann's NDH headphones. Let's see what's improved in version 1.5. The post Neumann RIME 1.5 Update: Improved Immersive Mixing Features appeared first on gearnews.com.

“I was going everywhere – on the toilet, the bath, the taxi, and walking down the street – going, ‘What do I hear coming in there after those chords?’” How Eric Bell wrote one of Thin Lizzy’s most iconic guitar solos

🗓️ November 07, 2025 | Source: Guitar World

Originally an Irish traditional song, Whiskey in the Jar found new life in Thin Lizzy's – and, eventually, Metallica's – respective repertoires

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Sequential Take 5 & Take 5 Desktop Update: Poly Chain Now Supports Up to 10 Voices

🗓️ November 07, 2025 | Source: Gear News

The Sequential Take 5 and Take 5 Desktop are receiving a significant update: a poly chain function! But that's not the only new feature! The post Sequential Take 5 & Take 5 Desktop Update: Poly Chain Now Supports Up to 10 Voices appeared first on gearnews.com.