Latest articles by Jonathan Horsley
Dirty Boy turns the tables on guitar’s digital revolution with an all-analogue preamp pedal inspired by a plugin
SilverBOY is fully wired for sound and presents players with a high-functioning preamp pedal with all mod cons, proving that the inspiration between pedals and plugins can go both ways
EVH Gear turns “holy grail” Eddie Van Halen amp Hypersonic with super-lightweight 5150III 6L6 digital modelling combo
The three-channel 50W monster is a super lightweight combo that is easy on your back while showing no quarter with its high-gain tone, and EVH Gear says its faithful to the original tube amp
Adrian Belew on how he and Seymour Duncan made one of the first relic’d guitars
The prog guitar icon has posted new pics taken by Seymour Duncan that show off their handiwork as they turned Belew's new Strat into a relic and started guitar's most controversial trend
Electro-Harmonix presents 100-watts of solid-state power in a compact guitar amp head weighing just 2.5lbs
An amp you can throw into a backpack, the ABRAMS100 is a single-channel head with digital spring reverb, 3-band EQ, Bright switch and effects loop and it has ample clean headroom
Fender and Jackson celebrate 50 years of Iron Maiden with limited run signature collection
Choose your fighter, Maiden fans, with four variations on the archetypical Superstrat including a Custom Shop doozy... And it is foot on the monitor time with that Harris P-Bass
Nuno Bettencourt on why he handed Shot Of The Dark over to Jake E Lee at Ozzy's farewell show
Bettencourt says Lee was far too humble and had to remind him that he had done the impossible by not only replacing Randy Rhoads but taking Ozzy Osbourne to “another place”
Brian Wampler just reimagined a bona fide modern classic with The Compulsion Drive – but is this OCD-inspired dirt pedal an overdrive, distortion or both?
The TCD Compulsion Drive from Wampler Pedals is a love letter to the Fulltone OCD, expanded with 3-band EQ, switchable clipping four modes, and all that enigmatic dirt that is at one with your amp
“A generational leap in modelling technology”: Neural DSP gives Quad Cortex and Nano Cortex an almighty power-up
With the CorOS 3.3.0 Quad Cortex and NanOS 2.2.0 Nano Cortex updates, Neural DSP levels up its modelling game with cloud-trained tech, improving the units' sounds and performance
Harley Benton unveils Custom Line jumbo 12-string with a $350 price tag that’s for the Byrds
Harley Benton serves up all that shimmery Roger McGuinn jangle for the player on a budget, and the King-12 CE NT sure looks the part
How the “fingerprint” wood grain of this Warwick bass revealed a connection to not one but two British rock legends (and tripled its value)
Incredibly, this bass, co-designed with John Entwistle, changed hands in 2003 without anyone noticing its regal connection. Now wood grain analysis reveals it was owned by John Deacon
Steve Morse on why he loved writing with Jon Lord and the Deep Purple track that started with a cup of tea
Steve Morse on how a noodle during one of Deep Purple's many tea breaks ended up on the album, and the mixed reception from Ritchie Blackmore fans when he'd improvise onstage
JHS Pedals revises the “ultimate dirt pedal” with a heap of player-requested features and more headroom
What’s up yet Kilt? On JHS Pedals’ 10th anniversary limited edition, it’s a whole lotta mods to make it even more versatile, and amp and mix friendly
Joe Bonamassa just teamed up with Fuchs Audio on a signature tube amp that might just save you spending $175,000 on a Dumble
This 100-watt 1x12 combo has heaps of EQ options, top-shelf digital reverb, a series/parallel effects loop and signature Celestion speaker – all without the six-figure vintage price tag
Rave culture meets the first mass-produced electric guitar – Fender teams up with Palace Skateboards for limited run Telecaster
The Big F and the cult skate and streetwear brand also unveil guitar picks and strap
![Alex Skolnick play his silverburst ESP signature model [left] while Joe Satriani plays his JS signature Ibanez](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VSVVnoyEgnFTvPoErusisi-840-80.jpg.webp)
“You can be an educated musician but also have feel and be a street player”: Alex Skolnick on what he learned from Joe Satriani
When a teenage Skolnick studied under Satch, he found a man who was “like the equivalent of studying with a classical piano or classical violin teacher” – except this guy could rock
“John said we were the best stuff he'd heard since the Beatles”: Davey Johnstone on Elton John’s collab with John Lennon
How a visit from John Lennon during the sessions for Elton John’s 1975 masterpiece Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy yielded an impromptu Beatles cover and another number one hit
“It’s been on stage with everyone from Deep Purple to Janet Jackson. It kind of blows me away that people ever responded in that way”: PRS reworks Mark Lettieri’s signature Fiore as super-versatile dual-humbucker model with serial/parallel switching
Available with satin or gloss finishes in a variety of colours, this is a clever refresh of Lettieri’s smash-hit do-it-all S-style
Ace Frehley’s ‘Smoker’ Les Pauls were spectacular but dangerous – now one from his final Kiss tour heads to auction
You might want to crack a window open before playing this custom Les Paul. It is equipped with the late Spaceman's onboard smoke machine
Great Eastern FX finds stash of NOS germanium diodes and makes a distortion with a cocked-wah twist
Take three rare Soviet-era germanium diodes, add a band-pass filter, and there you have it, the recipe for a limited edition hard-clipping distortion like no other, the Distortion Filter D312A
Gretsch teams up with Abbey Road for the Studiomatic – a hollowbody with a filter circuit inspired by actual tech from the studio
The limited edition Abbey Road RS201 Studiomatic redefines the studio guitar and has an onboard version of Abbey Road's ‘Rumble Filter’ from the 1950s integrated into its wiring
Epiphone unveils signature G-3 Grabber with Gibson USA pickups for Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt
The Grabber was Dirnt's first Gibson bass and he says his Epiphone performs just as well, and he has tested it in front of 180,000 people
Gibson cooks up “holy grail” PAF mojo with the 1959 Humbucker Collector’s Edition Series 3 – the ultimate Les Paul tone hack?
Limited to 1,000 units, available exclusively direct from Gibson, this PAF humbucker set has been reverse engineered to give you golden era tone – and they even ship in a brown Lifton case
Alex Skolnick on the time he was on standby for Megadeth – and what to do when you can’t match a player lick for lick
With Kiko Loureiro's wife pregnant, Megadeth needed an understudy for emergency cover. The Testament guitarist answered the call but admits Loureiro's solos were impossible
EHX expands its Pico series with the Atomic Cluster Spectral Decomposer – a mini-pedal that sounds so wrong its right
The Atomic Cluster might be teeny tiny but it's packing transformative energy for your guitar tone, with celestial synth sounds that soundscapists and adventurous players will love
Cesar Gueikian on building the SG Kirk Hammett played to honour Black Sabbath and how his designs might shape future Gibson releases
The Gibson CEO on his guitar-making journey, from early missteps to making the SG Hammett rocked at Back To The Beginning, and the Ghost Burst finish that's coming soon to the Gibson lineup