Fifteen years after her death on July 23, 2011, Amy Winehouse remains best known for her singular voice and candid songwriting. But there’s another side to her musicianship that tends to get overlooked: Winehouse was an accomplished guitarist who used the instrument to shape her songs and develop a style that was entirely her own.

Take it from Pete Doherty, singer and guitarist for the Libertines, who once watched Winehouse play up close. As Doherty told MusicRadar in 2024, Winehouse had a distinctive approach to the instrument.

“Listen, I’ve actually sat in a room with her and a guitar,” he said, “watching those tiny hands finding all these weird jazz chords. And her strumming patterns… crazy, off-kilter timings. She made it look so effortless.”

From an early age, Winehouse made electric guitar integral to her songwriting and performing, using the instrument to pen her songs as well as perform them with a unique personal touch. She first fell in love with the Fender Stratocaster as a teenager, after her older brother acquired a used model.

“It was the most beautiful thing in the world,” Winehouse recalled during a 2004 interview. “It’s such a beautiful guitar. I mean it’s got to be probably the most attractive guitar there is.”

Winehouse wasn’t supposed to play her brother’s Stratocaster, but she would carefully sneak into his room and play it whenever she had the chance. By doing so, she slowly began to develop her chops. And when she finally acquired her own guitar — an acoustic model — the siblings amicably swapped instruments back and forth.

“I just played every day. No one said to me, ‘You’ve got to play for at least this amount of time.’ It was all I wanted to do.

“It’s so easy to teach yourself if you have love for guitar. People say to me all the time, ‘How come you taught yourself?’ And there’s things people can show you, but the truth is, if you learn how to play guitar off someone, you just kind of learn to play it like them, you know what I mean? And that’s why I can say that while I’m not even an adequate guitarist, I’m still a distinctive guitarist. I sound different.”

Inspired by the likes of Carole King, PJ Harvey and Shuggie Otis, Winehouse’s self-taught musicianship and remarkable gift for songwriting resulted in a unique playing style that perfectly complemented her voice and songwriting.

The two videos below offer a glimpse of Winehouse’s unusual relationship with the instrument.

First, in a 2003 performance of “Stronger Than Me” — from her debut album, Frank, released earlier that year — Winehouse wows the studio audience on the BBC’s live music show Later… with Jools Holland, her loose, jazz-inflected rhythm-guitar style providing the song’s harmonic foundation.

We then get to see a 20-year-old Winehouse up close as she performs with nothing more than her voice and a Stratocaster at London’s Wembley Arena. The 2004 Strat Pack concert celebrated the 50th anniversary of Fender’s iconic guitar and featured an all-star lineup that included David Gilmour, Ronnie Wood and Hank Marvin.

Finally, Winehouse discussed her love of guitar and the Stratocaster in particular in a video celebrating the model’s 50th anniversary.

The battle over who can legally sell Stratocaster-style guitars in Europe has escalated, with Fender filing a copyright infringement lawsuit against musical instrument retailer Thomann.

In a statement, Fender said its infringement claim is “the expected next step in the legal process” after Thomann filed a Declaration of Non-Infringement action against the company.

The latest development follows Thomann’s lawsuit, filed after Fender sent cease-and-desist letters to Harley Benton, Yamaha, PRS Guitars, LsL Instruments and other manufacturers it believes are producing “copies” of its Stratocaster electric guitar.

Thomann, which owns the Harley Benton brand, said it was acting on behalf of both major manufacturers and smaller builders, specifically naming companies including Tom Anderson, Suhr, Pensa and Maybach.

Fender, however, argues that Harley Benton guitars infringe on its Stratocaster design and says Thomann’s legal action is an attempt to secure the right to continue selling those instruments.

According to Fender, it previously sought to resolve the dispute by discussing “practical ways to differentiate products while respecting Fender’s intellectual property,” but those discussions were unsuccessful, leading Thomann to file suit and prompting Fender’s countersuit.

“Thomann isn't a small independent guitar builder,” Fender said. “It is one of the world's largest musical instrument retailers, one of Fender's largest retail partners, and the owner of Harley Benton, one of Europe's largest guitar brands.

“From the beginning, our goal was simple: have a conversation. Like many other companies across Europe, we reached out to Thomann to discuss practical ways to differentiate products while respecting Fender's intellectual property. Our preference has always been dialogue and practical solutions—not litigation.

“Unfortunately, Thomann chose a different path.Rather than continuing that dialogue, it initiated legal proceedings asking the court to determine that it can continue selling guitar body designs that Fender believes copies the iconic Stratocaster. Today's filing is Fender's response and the expected next step in the legal process.”

In the statement accompanying its Declaration of Non-Infringement filing, Thomann said it had taken legal action “for the many manufacturers, dealers and guitar makers who have shaped our industry for decades and continue to shape it.”

“We urge Fender to stop issuing cease-and-desist demands against manufacturers, distributors and dealers and to return to a fair, cooperative partnership,” the retailer said.

Fender rejects the suggestion that it has avoided cooperation, maintaining that collaboration has been central to its approach. The company says it has successfully worked with other manufacturers to modify guitar designs so they are clearly differentiated from the Stratocaster while remaining commercially viable.

“Our preference has always been to resolve these matters through direct dialogue rather than litigation,” Fender said. “In many instances, companies have chosen to work collaboratively with us to explore practical solutions, including design modifications that clearly differentiate their products while continuing to serve musicians. This matter is different.”

The countersuit marks the latest chapter in the widening dispute over Stratocaster body-shape rights. The conflict intensified after Fender secured a default judgment in a German court that it says grants it enforceable rights against guitars using the Stratocaster body shape within the European Union.

The corporate buyouts of Fender and Gibson in the mid to late 1960s have long been perceived as a trigger for a significant dip in the quality of musical instrument manufacturing. But a session guitarist wants to dispel that belief. In fact, he points to the Beatles’ breakout success as the cause for the era’s production chaos.

The claim comes from Brad Allen Williams, who has worked with Alabama Shakes guitarist Brittany Howard, jazz drummer Nate Smith, and soul singer Bilal, amongst others. Of course, he acknowledges that the two biggest guitar firms of the period underwent tough changes at this time, which today are blemishes on their histories. Yet he feels the root of the problems can be traced back to February 9, 1964, when the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.

It was the dawning of a turbulent time for instrument makers, with corporate buyouts, an overwhelming surge in demand, and experiments with production techniques creating a perfect storm that flooded the market with subpar instruments.

Two electric guitar giants, Fender and Gibson, were both on the end of buyouts that dramatically changed their operations. CBS acquired Fender for $13 million in 1965, with Leo Fender facing a staggering production backlog and health issues. He was happy to sell up. Gibson, meanwhile, was acquired by Norlin in 1969, while Baldwin assumed control of Gretsch upon the founders’ retirement.

For years, many guitarists have pointed to CBS’s cost-cutting measures as the reason its reputation started to slide, as it bid to churn out the instruments the market was ravenous for by any means necessary. Some view its moves as quantity over quality, and similar stories have been spun about the Norlin and Baldwin-era operations, too.

Williams, though, wants musicians to take a step back and assess the bigger picture.

“I don’t want to rage bait, but I am about to argue against probably one of the most widely held and uncontroversial beliefs about vintage guitars,” he says in an Instagram post. “That’s this idea that the big corporate acquisitions and mergers of the 1960s were what caused the decline in quality of the major American guitar brands. I don’t think it was.

“I do think quality was declining around the time,” he notes, “I just think that in most cases that was already well underway by the time the actual mergers happened, and if I had to affix a turning point, it would be the same date for every American guitar and drum company: February 9, 1964. That’s when the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.”

Culturally, the Beatles’ five-song performance was a landmark moment. It was, for the likes of Tom Petty, Gene Simmons, Joe Perry, and Nancy Wilson, among so many others, the singular moment that made them want to pick up an instrument and play. That, from a supply-and-demand perspective, was troublesome.

“This was such a seismic pop culture moment that it caused this massive overnight sudden spike in demand,” Williams says. “And all these companies were blindsided. When Ted McCarty started at Gibson in 1948, total production was around 2,000–3,000 guitars a year [other sources claim the figures are around 1,100 and 3,700].

“By the time he was burnt out and leaving in 1966, that was over 100,000 guitars a year,” he expands. “When Leopeningnder sold to CBS in January 1965, Fender was something like $9 million in inventory backordered. In a later interview, he said that with the Fender Mustang alone, they were 150,000 units backordered.

“I don’t care who owns the company; if you’re trying to ramp up your production rate that fast, something’s got to give,” he adds. “You’re going to have a lot of people making guitars, amps, and drums who have never made them before.” One of the first things CBS did once it assumed control of the Big F was to expand its production operations, with new facilities opened in hopes of chipping away at those daunting backorder numbers. But he believes by the time their new corporate owners tweaked production and processes, these companies were already on the slide.

“Vintage Gibson collectors know that, 1969 with the Norlin era is not a hard cut off of the quality,” Williams continues. “You start to notice things changing as early as 1965 or 1966.”

He uses Ludwig “flinging” drums out of its factory before their finishes had even dried as evidence of “the environment these guitars were made in.”

“So, I don’t really think that the corporate buyouts were the cause,” he concludes. “I think they were more the effect.”

It’s a fascinating perspective. Music lovers are quick to point to the incredible impact the Beatles’ success had on Western musicians, and the list of future stars seduced by rock’ n’ roll after watching the Beatles on that February evening in 1964 underscores the romanticism swirling around that night. But there was a darker side to the story that is spoken about far less.

Still, CBS produced some iconic guitars despite its mounting challenges, and Stratocaster enthusiast Walter Trout believes CBS-era builds don’t deserve the bad rep they get. The Beatles helped reshape the music industry in a myriad of ways, but did their success also come at a price?

Thomann, the world’s largest music retailer, is suing Fender in an effort to halt the company’s cease-and-desist campaign against guitar makers that use Stratocaster-style body designs.

In doing so, Thomann says it is standing up not only for its own Harley Benton brand, but also for other manufacturers affected by Fender’s legal action.

For weeks, Fender has been sending cease-and-desist letters to U.S. guitar makers such as PRS Guitars, as well as retailers of S-style electric guitars across Europe and the U.S.

The campaign stems from a December 2025 ruling by the Düsseldorf Regional Court, which determined that the Stratocaster’s body shape qualifies as a copyrighted work.

Since May, Fender has cited that decision in demanding that manufacturers and retailers cease production and sales of Stratocaster-style guitars. In addition, the company has called on them to recall instruments already sold and provide customer and sales data.

Fender CEO Edward “Bud” Cole said in June that Fender is not suing anyone, but simply enforcing its intellectual property rights. The company’s position directly affects Thomann, particularly its Harley Benton line of guitars.

However, Thomann says its lawsuit is about more than protecting its own interests.

“We used to be a small music store ourselves and know exactly where we have come from,” Thomann CEO Hans Thomann says. “Many of those affected do not have the financial and legal means to conduct such a legal dispute. We therefore see it as our responsibility to have this matter clarified in court not only for our own company, but for all parties involved.”

Thomann also notes that the Düsseldorf ruling was a default judgment issued after the defendant — a Chinese seller of Stratocaster-style guitars — failed to appear in court. By pursuing its case, Thomann hopes to have the copyright claim tested in a fully contested trial.

There is a personal side to the dispute as well. Thomann debuted in 1954, the same year Fender introduced the Stratocaster. Since then, the retailer has carried Fender products alongside S-style guitars made by numerous other manufacturers.

At the heart of Thomann’s case is the claim that form follows function — that the Stratocaster shape is not merely artistic but functional as well. The guitar’s double cutaways provide upper-fret access and help balance the body, making them practical design elements. Thomann also argues that Fender has benefited from the shape’s ubiquity, which can be seen in everything from Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstein to the rise of the Superstrat.

Thomann is not seeking financial damages, but rather a determination that the use of an S-style body shape does not constitute copyright infringement.

When Brad Paisley partnered with Fender last year to resurrect one of the company’s most notorious Telecaster finishes, the project was about more than a clever play on his surname. It represented the culmination of a decades-long fascination with one of Fender’s strangest and most short-lived creations.

The Paisley Red Telecaster debuted in 1968, when Fender — then under CBS ownership — attempted to capitalize on the psychedelic spirit of the era. Alongside the equally flamboyant Blue Flower finish, the guitar featured colorful Cling-Foil wallpaper applied directly to the body and covered with a translucent burst finish. It was Fender’s attempt to pay tribute to the Summer of Love.

The look was unforgettable. The execution was not.

The thick decorative paper, inexpensive adhesives and heavy polyester clear coats proved to be a disastrous combination. The finishes cracked, chipped and peeled prematurely, becoming victims of the same cost-cutting measures that defined much of Fender’s CBS era. By 1969, the experiment was over. Production ceased, and many owners stripped or refinished their electric guitars altogether.

That should have been the end of the story.

Instead, decades later, the forgotten finish found an unlikely champion in Paisley.

“It’s unreal that my own name is one of the coolest finishes I think Fender has ever done,” he said when Fender unveiled his signature Limited Edition Brad Paisley 1967 “Lost Paisley” Telecaster in 2024. “This is an attempt to show what this lost color could have been. It’s the best guitar I’ve ever had.”

Long before Fender enlisted him to help revive the design, Paisley had been on a mission to track down surviving examples of original Paisley Telecasters and restore them whenever possible. That was easier said than done. With relatively few produced — estimates generally place the number between 300 and 400 — most had long since been refinished, their psychedelic origins buried beneath later paint jobs.

Still, the hunt fascinated him.

“There’s nothing more beautiful to me than a ’50s Blackguard Tele, a ’54 Strat, or an original Paisley Tele — any of those things that frequently got stripped and mutilated,” he told Rick Beato. “Some of those refins are the best guitars I’ve ever had. It’s therapy to be able to take something and restore it.”

The obsession eventually led him to master builder Bill Crook. Together, they began trying to reverse-engineer the original Paisley finish, assuming that uncovering an authentic example hidden beneath a refinish would be nearly impossible.

Then fate intervened.

“Let me find the right guitar first,” Paisley told Crook.

That search led him to Chicago Music Exchange, where he asked if they had a refinished 1968 Telecaster for sale.

“They said, ‘Yeah, we have a black one, but it’s not a good paint job,’” Paisley recalled. “I said, ‘I don’t care.’

“I pick it up, it’s a good guitar, and I said, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna turn this into a Paisley.’”

Crook agreed to take on the project. But once the guitar arrived, something caught his eye.

“He gets it, throws the thing on a guitar stand, and is looking at it hanging on the wall,” Paisley explained. “He looks at the way that the black finish is cracking, and he goes, ‘No.’”

Crook removed the neck and neck plate for a closer inspection. Beneath the black paint was exactly what Paisley had spent years searching for.

“There’s a paisley staring at him,” Paisley said. “He took the finish off with thinner, and that’s 100 percent original paper.

“I had accidentally bought a Paisley Tele, thinking I would turn it into a Paisley Tele!”

The story became even more remarkable when Paisley tracked down the guitar’s original owner. According to Paisley, the owner had purchased the instrument at a discount because the Paisley models weren't selling and later sprayed it black in his backyard.

What had spent decades disguised beneath an amateur refin was suddenly revealed as one of Fender’s rarest late-'60s guitars.

Paisley named the instrument La Brea, comparing it to a fossil preserved in the famous Los Angeles tar pits.

“I called it La Brea because it’s like a fossil in a tar pit,” he said.

Today, the guitar could command tens of thousands of dollars on the vintage market. But for Paisley, its value has little to do with money. After years spent chasing lost Paisley Telecasters, he had finally stumbled across the real thing by complete accident.

As Fender’s campaign against Stratocaster-style copyists gathers momentum, PRS Guitars has confirmed it received a cease-and-desist letter from the iconic guitar maker.

Last March, a default copyright ruling in Germany established the Stratocaster as a piece of “original creative expression.” While the ruling allowed Fender to pursue infringement claims against Stratocaster-style guitars manufactured, sold or distributed within Germany and the wider European Union, it also appeared to embolden the company to pursue claims against other makers.

LsL Instruments was the first company targeted when the Santa Clarita, California guitar maker received a cease-and-desist letter in May over its Saticoy electric guitar.

Now, according to The Wall Street Journal, Fender has taken similar action against PRS over the Silver Sky, the hugely successful signature model it developed with serial Grammy-winner John Mayer.

“PRS Guitars, a company endorsed by the likes of John Mayer and Carlos Santana, confirmed that it is among the companies that received a letter,” the Journal writes. “The company said it disagrees with Fender’s assessment and declined to comment further.”

Introduced in 2018, the Silver Sky has become one of PRS’s biggest commercial hits. It topped Reverb’s best-selling guitar lists in 2022 and 2023, dropped to third in 2024, and climbed back to second in 2025.

Like many modern electric guitars, the Silver Sky draws inspiration from the Stratocaster — unsurprising given Mayer’s long history playing (and reportedly freezing) Strats. But whether the PRS design crosses Fender’s legal threshold for imitation remains a gray area.

In a statement obtained by Guitar World, Fender clarified that it is not targeting all “two-horned” or “double-cutaway” guitars, but rather what it considers “close copies” of the Stratocaster design.

“Fender’s goal,” the company said, “is simply to protect one of the company’s most iconic and recognizable designs while continuing to support a vibrant and innovative guitar industry.”

With its triple single-coil configuration, white pickguard, alder body, and maple neck — plus the option of rosewood or maple fingerboards — the Silver Sky undeniably shares familiar Strat-like characteristics. PRS, however, told The Wall Street Journal it “disagrees with Fender’s assessment.”

It’s not alone. Speaking recently to British retailer Gear4music, longtime Strat devotee Philip Sayce — owner of the heavily modified 1963 “Mother” Stratocaster — argued that the Silver Sky occupies its own space despite becoming a key part of his touring rig.

“With the vintage guitars that I’m grateful to own, they’re like a ’60s muscle car. You feel that rumble. They’ve got a thing that can’t necessarily be recreated,” he said. “Whereas this [the Silver Sky] is like a modern-day electric vehicle with power windows and Wi-Fi.”

“For me, they each have their own lane,” he added. “I’m not having this replace a guitar that’s one of a kind. This has things that are reminiscent of vintage guitars I love, but it also has its own voice.”

Mayer himself has made a similar argument. Speaking to MusicRadar, he insisted the Silver Sky was never intended to replace the Stratocaster.

“This guitar is made to coexist with Fender amplifiers, with Fender guitars, with Gibson guitars, with any other guitar out there in the world,” he said. “It’s not trying to revise history; it’s just a new way forward.”

Ironically, the Silver Sky’s popularity has helped position it as one of the Stratocaster’s biggest modern rivals. The only guitar to outsell it on Reverb’s 2025 list was Fender’s own American Professional II Stratocaster.

That rivalry may say more about PRS’s breakout success than outright imitation. But with Fender escalating its legal campaign beyond smaller boutique builders, the dispute has now become a much bigger industry story.

How the situation develops remains unclear. PRS continues to maintain its innocence, while Fender has shown it’s prepared to defend the Stratocaster shape against companies of any size.

We’ve still got a little way to go til the arrival of the Memorial Day guitar deals, but Fender has jumped the gun with discounts hitting up to $600 off in its sale. It means an early chance to save on Acoustasonic guitar, audio interfaces, accessories, and loads more.

There are no solid-body guitars in the sale right now, but you can still grab some excellent deals on acoustic guitars, pickups, and plenty more. The sale is due to end on May 27th so there’s a little bit of time to act, but I expect some of this gear will sell out due to the low costs.

It’s not the biggest Memorial Day sale around at the moment, but well worth looking at if you’re a Fender superfan. I’ve already looked through it in its entirety and picked out five of the very best deals for you below.

The Fender Blues Junior IV is one of the most popular tube combo amplifiers the world has ever seen, positioning itself as a compact and easily transportable unit that boasts enough power for live playing and recording scenarios. Its fourth iteration, originally released in 2018, was about evolution, not revolution for Fender, looking to make incremental gains on predecessors, rather than reinventing the wheel.

The Blues Junior IV has always faced pretty stiff competition, namely from cross-Atlantic contemporary, the Vox AC15 – an amp that goes almost beat-for-beat with the Blues Junior in terms of specifications, and is one of only a handful of amplifiers in this category that can claim to come close to matching the pedigree of the Blues Junior.

Alongside the Vox, there are amps from Marshall (DSL and Origin series), Orange (the Rocker 15), and plenty of others that sit at comparable price points and have similar power. Despite all of this, the Blues Junior has regularly sat at the top of the pile in terms of sales figures in its class, regardless of the competition. It is the amp to beat.

The Blues Junior IV comes loaded with 15 watts of all-tube power courtesy of three 12AX7 preamp tubes and two EL84 power amp tubes. It puts this power down through a single channel, with a narrow set of controls: volume, treble, bass, middle, master volume, reverb, plus a FAT switch.

The reverb is a genuine spring tank, rather than the digital emulations that have become ever more common in small tube amplifiers due to space, reliability, and the quality of digital reverbs nowadays.

All of these sounds are projected through a 12” Celestion Type A speaker, a ceramic magnet design that boasts 50 watts (RMS) of power – more than enough for the Blues Junior – and is designed for "modern American" tones, with a punchy low end and articulate midrange, designed for achieving those classic Fender clean amp sounds.

My first impression when taking the amp out of the box was that it was a serious piece of kit. Some amps I have played over the past few years – even some that would position themselves as competitors to the Blues Junior – feel as though they are made to a price point, rather than to a specific standard, but this is not at all the case here.

The Tolex used feels suitably rugged, ready to take on any kind of environment, and I could find no noticeable areas where it was loose or sagging. If I had to nitpick, the fact you can see the joins where a couple of different pieces of Tolex panels have been used means it’s not as totally sleek as it could be, and in the back cavity there are a couple of areas where you can see the staples used to hold the vinyl down, but this is looking for faults and not something that anybody would notice unless actively hunting for issues.

The grille cloth is the classic Fender silver, with a tight weave that you are unlikely to pierce. It’s timeless, having first appeared on their amps in the late 60s, and it still holds up today. The same can be said of the aesthetic of the Blues Junior in general, and if you were to put an original Mk I Blues Junior next to the IV, there’s a good chance you wouldn’t be able to tell which one was which. Personally, I have no problem with this at all, and appreciate that Fender has found a functional and handsome design and stuck with it.

The steel-reinforced carry handle self-recesses down against the amp when not in use, but is easy to access when you do want to grab it. On handles like these on cheaper amps, I have found that the plastic coating around the handle can split over time as the material begins to become brittle with age, but this feels suitably durable, and there are no signs of a seam that could split after significant use.

The chicken-head style, pointed knobs are timeless, and have a solid travel to them. Comparing directly to those on my Vox AC4, which has almost identical-looking knobs, the Fender is fractionally firmer in operation, which I generally like, though not by any significant margin.

While it’s not strictly a budget amp, it sits towards the bottom of the tube amp market, so accessories aren’t necessarily something to be expected, which makes the addition of a footswitch as standard welcome. The footswitch itself is vintage-inspired, and it has a build that can take a serious stomping. I’m not a particularly small guy, and it dealt with my boots crashing down on it with no issues whatsoever.

The only potential negative is the shape, which is circular and not optimized for slotting onto a pedalboard. If this is something you’d like to do, there are a number of aftermarket switches that can be swapped in and are more pedalboard-friendly. There’s also no cover included as standard, but you can purchase one from Fender or find 3rd party option easily online.

While I haven’t had the opportunity to gig the Blues Junior IV, I’ve done my best to replicate the gigging experience by loading it in and out of the car and on short drives. I live around a number of country roads with potholes aplenty – the Blues Junior has not been treated to smooth rides. In my testing, it came out entirely unscathed and worked perfectly, which is not something I can say for other tube amplifiers I have used.

One of the first things that struck me upon the amp's arrival at my door was just how small it is. When I think of 1x12 combos, I tend to think of amps like the Blues Junior’s big brother, the Hot Rod Deluxe, or a Marshall DSL40 combo – both of which are significantly larger – and, maybe it’s purely down to the space in my home, but I absolutely loved having a compact amp.

When I wasn’t using it, it was easy to find space to stow it away, or a corner of a room that was actually improved by having this little amp positioned in it. It’s only 16 inches high, 18 inches wide, and between 9-10 inches deep, and comes in at around 30lbs/14kg, which means it is light enough to carry for most players, particularly if you’re just moving it around the home.

The Blues Junior IV is extremely simple, so if you’re expecting modern features, you’re definitely looking in the wrong place. The FAT switch is footswitchable, and I like that the labels face you as you approach the amp from the front, which was not the case on earlier iterations of the Blues Junior.

For home use it does edge towards being too loud, at least if you want to get it properly singing. I live in a semi-detached property with a young family next door, and I was acutely aware that pushing the master volume knob past the 3 or 4 mark would make their walls vibrate. If your home is detached, or you are lucky enough to have a sound-insulated home studio, you can probably make it work, but for those in apartments or with shared walls, I’d look at something like the Marshall DSL1CR or the Blackstar HT-1R.

While it would feel criminal to start lumbering it with things like a USB output or a headphone jack, an effects loop wouldn’t go amiss. The one thing I found it seriously lacked was switchable wattage, something many of its rivals have. 15W may not sound like a lot on paper but this is still a tube amp. For home use, switching it down to half, or 10% power, would be so useful, without negatively impacting the amp or spoiling its character at all.

To start with, I plugged in sans pedals to get the pure, natural tones of the Blues Junior IV. My immediate take was how instantly dynamic it feels to play, with an organic response to subtle changes in my playing. Dialling up the preamp volume, I can get a bit more dirt, but when I roll back my volume knob, things go from warm overdrive back to bright and clean.

On my Les Paul, which has a volume knob for each pickup, I found I could set the neck pickup volume to around halfway and get warm rhythm tones, and then switch to the bridge, on full volume, and have some crunchy lead tones ready to go. Unsurprisingly, with the pokey humbuckers in the Ibanez, the amp was even more grunty, and the natural tube breakup was particularly delightful.

When I used my Fulltone OCD overdrive pedal, it helped push that overdrive into cascading, harmonic distortion even on subtle settings. As I took things further down the dirt road, I wasn’t surprised to find that when I started stacking fuzzes, I quickly reached the ‘fart-out’ zone, where the amp struggled to cope with anything more. While stacking an EHX Big Muff and Dunlop Gypsy Fuzz isn’t really something I’d regularly do, it was more about pushing the limits of the Blues Junior IV, so I can’t hold that against it too much.

The ‘FAT’ switch, which is operated on top of the amp or via a foot switch, engages a boost in the midrange, which results in a more pronounced thick tone, ideal for soloing. It’s not quite like switching in a Tube Screamer-type pedal, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a noticeable and effective way to get a tone boost.

The integrated spring reverb in the amp is classic Fender, and just delightful. It has just the right amount of that trademark ‘drip’, and is a noticeable upgrade on the previous generation’s spring reverb, which had a slightly harsh quality. Personally, I prefer the voicing of the reverb on the IV versus the prior iterations. If you’re looking for cavernous ambience, that’s not quite what’s on offer here. It is more subtle, particularly between one and six on the knob, although it can go into a more swampy, drenched style as you go beyond this point.

Next, I used an MXR double team of a Carbon Copy analog delay pedal and an MXR M300 reverb pedal, with a Boss chorus pedal thrown in for good measure, to push the Junior IV into larger, more spacious tones. The Blues Junior held up well to this, particularly when playing with my Gold Foil-equipped Supro, though the inherently warm nature of the Carbon Copy did mean the amp felt a little dark, which I quickly remedied with a few EQ tweaks.

The lack of an effects loop means your time-based effects can get muddy when you start going for more overdriven sounds from the amp itself, as your entire signal chain is being subject to preamp gain. This went into shoegaze territory for me, which I rather liked. I can see this being more of a problem if you use a lot of overdrive/distortion pedals in tandem with ambient time-based effects, as things could get a little muddy when that kind of signal chain collides with a hot preamp section, though, for my style of playing, it really wasn’t a problem.

Having lived with the Blues Junior for a decent period, I still think it’s a great amp for anybody likely to find themselves regularly gigging, offering just the right combination of volume and transportability for the vast majority of shows. It’s also a simply phenomenal studio workhorse, taking up minimal space, but producing maximum tone at a very reasonable price.

In an ideal world, it would be a little bit lighter, but some extra weight is a tradeoff I am more than happy to make for the Celestion Type A Speaker, the spring reverb tank, and a robust wooden frame. While the Blues Junior is designed to be a simple, stripped-back, and authentic tube amp affair, I can’t help but feel that there are simply some things that the Blues Junior IV is falling behind on. Cab-emulated DIs and an effects loop are now staples in the modern era of small combo guitar amps, and the Junior IV shows its age here.

I’ve gone back and forth asking whether $789 is a reasonable asking price for the Blues Junior, particularly when you compare it to the likes of the Supro Delta King 12, which has similar features but comes in over $100 cheaper. Something like the Vox AC15 – an amp most definitely in the same class as the Blues Junior – is even more expensive. It’s not an insignificant investment, but in the context of modern tube amp prices, it’s worth it, and when compared to the competition, it’s competitively priced.

Guitar Player verdict: If you want classic Fender tube tones, the Blues Junior IV remains among the cheapest ways of achieving them. Some may wish for a few more mod-cons, but you have to respect that Fender has stayed true to the recipe that made the Blues Junior a fan favorite since its release. In a few years, maybe this will change, but right now, and as has been the case since it launched, the Blues Junior is best in class, even if that class has a lot of competition.

Specifications

• Price: $789.99 | £749.00 | €755
• Type: Combo
• Origin: Mexico
• Output: 15 Watts RMS
• Speaker: 1x12” Celestion A-Type speaker, 8 ohms
• Channels: 1
• Controls: Reverb, Master, Middle, Bass, Treble, Fat Switch, Volume
• Connectivity: 1x 1/4" Input
• Footswitch: 1-button footswitch (included)
• Weight: 31.5 lbs (14.3 kg)
• Dimensions: 457.2 x 406 x 249mm
• Contact: Fender

It’s day 2 of Amazon’s Spring Deal Days, and if you’ve been thinking about picking up the guitar or expanding your collection, now’s your chance. Amazon is offering major discounts on entry-level Fender guitars, making it a prime opportunity for newcomers and Fender fans alike to get started or upgrade their setup.

Amazon’s Spring Deal Days brings Black Friday-level savings to the spring season, with deep price cuts on music equipment, as well as the typical home appliances, electronics, and everyday consumables. This round of savings is focused on UK shoppers, but a US version is coming soon, so American musicians should keep an eye out.

UK-based guitarists can take advantage of some standout offers right now. One highlight is the Fender CD-60S, a perennial favorite among beginner acoustic guitars thanks to its winning mix of affordability, ease of play, and superb build quality.

The CD-60S stands out with its solid spruce top, something rarely seen in this price range, which delivers a richer, warmer sound. It also features a dreadnought body for full, resonant lows and a neck designed with beginners in mind, offering rolled fingerboard edges and low action for comfortable fretting.

Of course, it’s not just acoustics on offer. The Squier Debut Stratocaster, the most budget-friendly Strat in Fender’s lineup, is also 15% off, making it a great pick for those ready to go electric. Bassists aren’t left out either, with the Squier Affinity Precision Bass now available at a 15% discount.

Beyond instruments, there are plenty of deals on accessories, from straps and cables to strings, tuners, gig bags, and even Fender-branded apparel. It’s a convenient chance to stock up on essentials, whether you’re preparing for lessons or your next gig.

Remember, these offers are only available for a limited time, and popular items can sell out quickly. Amazon is updating deals daily, so it’s smart to check back often to catch the latest discounts before the sale wraps up on Monday, 16 March.

It’s Presidents’ Day today, and that means it’s a great opportunity to save big on some fresh guitar gear. One of the best sales I’ve seen so far is over at the official Fender store, where you can bag yourself up to $600 off Vintera II guitars. It includes Strats, Teles, Mustangs, Jaguars, and more, so it’s well worth a browse if you’re a Fender fan.

It’s not just Vintera II guitars in the sale either, you can also save on some select Fender Player Plus instruments, plus a nice selection of Squier guitars. The Paranormal, Sonic, and Affinity lines all have reductions if you want to pick up a great playing guitar for relatively little cash.

I’ve had a look through the full sale, and the first deal to catch my eye was a hefty $510 off this Fender Vintera II 50s Nocaster. Based on one of the most famous Fender guitars ever made, it’s got a surprisingly thick-sounding pair of single coils in it, and the ‘U’ neck profile is really comfortable considering it’s not a shape you usually find on guitars these days.

There’s also a chance to save big on an anniversary guitar, with the Fender 70th Anniversary Vintera II Antigua Strat getting a gigantic $600 reduction. Unusually, it’s a hardtail Strat, so expect rock-solid tuning stability, and the trio of vintage-style 70s single coils will give you all those classic Strat tones.

Finally, another Strat grabbed my attention thanks to a generous $410 off this Fender Vintera II 70s Strat. It’s another guitar that attempts to recreate an iconic version of probably the world’s most famous guitar, with a 7.25” radius fingerboard and narrow tall frets. Add in the synchronized tremolo with bent steel saddles plus a set of ‘F’ stamped tuning machines, and you’ve got the perfect vintage Strat for way less than a grand at just $799.99.

• Amazon: - save big on accessories
• Guitar Center - up to 30% off guitars
• Sweetwater - great guitar sale
• Musician’s Friend - up to 60% off gear
• Reverb - new and used up to 67% off

The worlds of country rock and glam metal may seem far removed, but a rare vintage Fender has bridged two stars of the genres.

In the hands of Cindarella’s Tom Keifer, this 1950 Fender “Nocaster” was used and abused. But when a major country player got the chance to buy it, it got a less bruising new life.

“I used to throw it across the stage during the show,” Keifer told Vintage Guitar about his example of Fender's early, transitional solidbody electric guitar.

A Nocaster is one of a small number of '51 Fender Broadcasters that were produced without a name on the headstock. Fender was forced to eliminate the model name when it came into trademark conflict with a Gretsch drumkit known as the Broadkaster. Fender continued to produce the Broadcaster without a name decal until some point in 1951 when the guitar was rebadged the Telecaster. To own one of these rare nameless guitars is to own a rare piece of Fender history.

Not that Keifer handed such a relic with care. Inexplicably, he traded it in to Nashville vintage guitar store, Gruhn's, where serial Grammy winner and Tele-obsessive Keith Urban came across it.

“I don't know why Tom sold it; maybe it served its purpose in his life, as they do, and it was time for someone else to own it,” Urban says in the new print issue of Guitar World. “I was at Gruhn's many, many years ago. I played it, fell in love with it, and bought it.”

Urban professes not to remember the price but says “it wasn’t cheap.” Still, for a man whose favorite guitar is his 1989 Fender 40th Anniversary Telecaster, dubbed Clarence, it was a purchase that made complete sense.

“It's just an unusually great guitar with, hands down, the most ferocious, dynamic pickups I've ever heard in a Telecaster,” he says. “The whole thing is original — well, maybe not the frets — but the electronics, hardware, and everything else. It's amazing.”

It isn’t clear when exactly Kiefer sold the Nocaster, but it's known that he later regretted his decision. He tells Vintage Guitar that he later shelled out on a 1950 Nocaster and paired with a 1972 Marshall Super Lead tube amp for his 2013 solo single, "Solid Ground."

However, he told Guitar World that same year that the Nocaster was his favorite guitar, suggesting it was likely his second model — a fondness perhaps strengthened by the regret of letting go of a guitar that Keith Urban’s paws are now all over.

Elsewhere, former GP cover star Urban has made a suggestive lyric change to one of his hits after announcing his divorce from Nicole Kidman, and it lands his co-guitarist, Maggie Baugh, at the center of the story.

Off stage, he's hard at work with Paul Reed Smith on a signature Tele that can help him “get a bit of a fight out of a guitar designed to give you no fight.” He wants it to be the most versatile T-type guitar in the world, and early signs are promising.

Jason Isbell says guitarists who hold a bias against Mexican guitars are missing out on quality gear.

The Americana guitar star has worked with two of America’s biggest guitar-building institutions, Fender and Martin, which also have factories south of the border. While many guitarists believe American-made electric and acoustic guitars are far superior to their more affordable Mexican cousins, Isbell says players shouldn’t be so quick to judge.

His words come from a recent Guitar.com interview about his two new releases with Martin: the U.S.-made 0-17 and the Mexican-made 0-10E, both of which are based on his pre-war Martin acoustic.

“I think people pay for their biases sometimes,” he says. “Not necessarily with Martin but with a lot of companies. I think people will pay more to reinforce the incorrect opinions that they already have.”

The cost difference can be substantial. Consider Fender guitars: American-made models can cost up to twice as much as Mexican models, which can be priced lower due to the reduced labor costs and use of less expensive parts and materials.

While many guitarists see a big divide in quality between the two, Isbell says it's not necessarily so. As an example, he points to his two new Martin acoustics: the premium 0-17, which costs $4,999, and the wallet-friendly, Mexico-made 0-10E, at $1,049.

“I could take this Mexican-made version out and play it on tour, and nobody would know the difference,” he says. “I don’t think anybody could have done a better job on a guitar at that price point at making it reminiscent of the pre-war Martin, for sure. It definitely has that vibe to it.”

Then, of course, there are the people who believe the price of a guitar doesn’t directly correlate to quality, like the guitarist who played a $40 Harley Benton Strat every night of a 113-date arena tour. And as Guitar Player has proven, you can get a lot of bang for 500 of your bucks, or less.

Isbell's 2021 Fender collab, which released the four-star-rated Jason Isbell Custom Telecaster, is another fine example of a high-quality instrument from Mexico. And he pushed Fender hard on it, too.

“Fender did a great job on that guitar,” Isbell says. “I think it was the first double-bound Tele that they had made in the factory, and they knocked it out of the park.”

“It’s great that Fender is still coming up with ways to improve one of the greatest electric guitars ever made,” GP said of the axe. “The fact that the Jason Isbell Custom Telecaster is priced within reach of working players should make Isbell feel pretty stoked about his new signature Tele.”

Isbell's words about Mexican-made guitars take on extra import when you remember that he's a connoisseur of fine instruments. He went to extreme lengths to buy Ed King’s infamous “Red Eye” Les Paul. But that shows how value can be found at both extremes of the scale.

Elsewhere, the Tim Shaw-voiced pickups in Isbell's Tele have now been launched in their own right, and the guitarist has offered some important buying advice for newbie players to make learning easier.

And for more from Isbell, check out these nifty slide guitar and blues tricks, direct from the man himself.

On Black Friday I was raving about Fender.com's Player II Series Tele deal – and unsurprisingly, it has now sold out completely. But there is a great Cyber Monday guitar deal option elsewhere, it's not much more money and I think this darker Racing Green Player II Tele at Guitar Center for just $649.99 is actually a better finish than the Fender.com deal's Forest Green.

I reckon this one will sell out too. You get all the great Player II features here that make the series the best buy in Fender's catalogue: rosewood fingerboard with rolled edges on a C-shape neck that's a benchmark for comfort, ClassicGear tuners like the US models and Alnico 5 pickups that blend traditional Tele twang with some low-end versatility. I'm a Fender modder and even I'd think twice about ever swapping them out.

I've been focusing on what I consider to be truly great guitar deals for Cyber Monday, and this is the one I think is the best right now. It's surely going to sell out like the Fender.com has. It's only $50 than what Guitar Center is charging for the Indonesia-made Fender Standard Telecaster!

• Amazon: Huge holiday savings
• B&H Photo: Early Bird Holiday deals
• Fender store: Player II Strat lowest price ever
• Guitar Center: Up to 40% Black Friday sale
• Guitar Tricks: $899 $99 annual sub
• IK Multimedia: Up to $300 off Tonex hardware
• Musician's Friend: Early Black Friday 50% sale
• Native Instruments: Over 50% off UA bundle
• Plugin Boutique: 100s of software savings
• Positive Grid: Up to $50 Spark savings
• Reverb: Black Friday early access
• Sweetwater: Up to 80% off Black Friday sale
• Universal Audio: 12 Days of UAD software sale
• Waves: Huge plugin bundle deals up to 95% off

Fender’s been absolutely killing it in the last decade, with player-focused innovations and variations on its quintessential library of era-defining instruments. Its Player series launched as a retooled umbrella for Fender’s Made-in-Mexico guitars, continuing a well-established reputation of incredible quality and accessible pricing. It took the opportunity to level things up a little, too, with juicier aesthetic choices and some player-focused tweaks for a faster and fun-er guitar right out of the box.

As far as ‘exemplary’ goes in this regard, there’s no better set of instruments to look at than the Player II-series Stratocaster and Telecaster. Both benefit from the same essential approach and build choices, not to mention the same arrestingly-sick visual presentation. What a joy – nay, what a privilege, then, to find such alluring examples on sale at a 30% discount, direct from Fender’s own Black Friday sale.

And what's more, spend over $100 in the sale and you'll receive a free Custom Shop calendar to help you plan all of your 2026 guitar action!

The discounted axes on offer are a Stratocaster and Telecaster each in Forest Green, a richly verdant green with just the right amount of smokiness. They’re by no means traditional-looking, but they are indeed fetching! Eye-catching color aside, both are actually quite traditional in design – keeping more to older iterations than to newer innovations (save for a more modern string-through-body bridge on the Tele).

Both of these Player II-series guitars benefit from a maple neck and slab rosewood fretboard, itself inlaid with 22 medium jumbo frets. The neck is shaped to modern C profile, a pet project of Fender’s that has resulted in some serious playability; between this and the medium jumbo frets, there’s an excellent balance of articulation and speed.

Both also benefit from a set of Fender’s own Alnico V single-coils, which serve each well in their own signal sound. The Player II Strat has all the attack you could ask for in the bridge, and all the honk you know and love in the neck (and, of course, everything in-between thanks to the classic 5-way switch); meanwhile, the Player II Tele maintains the glorious twang of its siblings. It’s not every day you get a gen-u-wine MiM Fender for less than 600 bucks – and if it was, every day would be the best day ever. Act accordingly!

Shop more Black Friday deals

• Amazon: Black Friday instrument bargains
• B&H Photo: Early Bird Holiday deals
• Guitar Center: Up to 40% Black Friday sale
• Guitar Tricks: $899 $99 annual sub
• IK Multimedia: Up to $300 off Tonex hardware
• Musician's Friend: Early Black Friday 50% sale
• Native Instruments: Over 50% off UA bundle
• Plugin Boutique: 100s of software savings
• Positive Grid: Up to $50 Spark savings
• Reverb: Black Friday early access
• Sweetwater: Up to 80% off Black Friday sale
• Universal Audio: 12 Days of UAD software sale
• Waves: Huge plugin bundle deals up to 95% off

It’s nearly time for the Black Friday guitar deals to officially arrive, but if you’re looking for an early deal on a guitar, then you should head over to the official Fender shop, which has got some awesome deals of up to 30% off Fender and Squier guitars. There’s a nice range of budget and premium instruments available, from cheap Squiers through to more upmarket MIA instruments.

The majority of the sale is on Squier guitars, but there are a fair few upper-tier series available with some nice discounts, like the American Acoustasonic range, as well as American Professional II and American Performer guitars with some nice money off. THere’s also some cool merch in the sale, great if you’re gifting for a guitarist who already owns too many instruments.

• Save a massive up to 30% off guitars in the Fender Black Friday sale

Below I’ve picked out 7 of my favorite deals for you, including everything from budget electric guitars to the perfect stocking filler for a guitarist:

Few guitarists represent the future of blues guitar quite like Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. Recognizing this, Fender has teamed up with the Mississippi-born guitarist, championed by Eric Gales, Buddy Guy and Slash, for a revamp of his 2022 signature Telecaster Deluxe.

In an interview for a promo video, however, Kingfish confessed that he didn’t always like Fender’s second-most famous electric guitar. He says it was Prince, chief among a litany of six-string greats, whose music convinced him to revisit the instrument with a fresh mindset.

“My first Telecaster was a red Squier Affinity Tele,” Kingfish explains after a tour of Fender’s Corona, California, factory, where his new Daphne Blue axe has been crafted. (The model was previously made with a shimmering purple Mississippi Night finish.) “At first I didn’t get the whole Telecaster movement, because I felt like they were too twangy.”

The Tele Deluxe, however, delivered a solution to what he feels is the guitar’s biggest tonal problem: its pickups.

The Fender Telecaster — first produced as the Broadcaster in 1950 — went through several iterations leading up to the development of the Telecaster Deluxe in 1972. Rather than a pair of single-coils, the Deluxe model featured two of Fender’s Wide Range humbuckers, giving it a warmer, thicker and more rounded tone than its standard sibling. (The Tele Thinline, first introduced in 1968, was likewise revised in 1972 with a pair of Wide Range pickups.)

While that tonal change spoke to Kingfish more than any other Tele, he needed another guitarist to convince him to make the leap. He found what he needed in his own record collection.

They include “some of my favorite Telecaster players out there, like Freddie Stone, from Sly & the Family Stone, Prince, Keith Richards, Albert Collins, and of course all of the country players as well, like Danny Gatton and Roy Buchanan,” Kingfish says.

Of all those players, he says Prince was the most influential. Listening to him play, Kingfish says, “I found out how funky these things can get.”

(It should be noted that while Prince played a modified Tele in his early years, he was best known for playing a Hohner Mad Cat Tele-style model, as seen in his celebrated live performance of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." The Mad Cat featured a flamed maple top on an ash body with a walnut strip in the middle, as well as a distinctive-looking leopard-print pickguard.)

Ultimately, it was the sound of those twin Wide Range humbuckers that drew Kingfish not to the Telecaster, but to the Tele Deluxe.

“Coming from traditional blues, I'd always been into players that had a big sound,” he adds. “Then I started to expand my ear and got into guys like Gary Moore, who has that classic overdriven humbucker sound.

“I always wanted that kind of tone — something where I can hit the pedal and everything can be boomy, and I can scale back and be pretty. The pickups do just that. Between that and two Fender Twins, the sound guy is always telling me to turn down!”

Having a signature Telecaster also meant Kingfish could go further and specify his own custom-voiced pickup. “I wanted a sound that could really punch and hit heavy,” he explains. “But being that I come from church, I wanted a guitar that doesn't scream. I can dial back the volume if I want to.”

Speaking to Guitar Player last year to dish out his top tips for guitarists, Kingfish discussed his love of aggressive melodic soloing, the need for his live shows to tell a cohesive story, and the key lessons taken from his time jamming with Buddy Guy.

And in related news, Samantha Fish is the latest blues star to name-drop Kingfish's talents as one of the torchbearers of modern blues.

Rory Gallagher’s iconic and heavily worn 1961 Fender Stratocaster is finally being put on display at the National Museum in Ireland.

The Irish bluesman bought the guitar second-hand for £100 from Crowley’s music store in Cork in 1963, and it was his number one guitar throughout his storied career. The Strat, the first one to reach Irish shores, had originally been ordered by Jim Conlon of the Royal Showband, but he was left disappointed when the sunburst model, as opposed to the red one he ordered, turned up.

It has, save for several museum stays, been kept in the possession of Gallagher’s brother and former manager, Dónal, since his passing in 1995. Much furore was caused when its sale was first announced last July, with Irish politicians, and the daughter of the man who sold Gallagher the instrument, campaigning the keep the guitar in Ireland.

“This guitar means so much to us in Cork, and we need to become the custodians of that magical guitar,” Sheena Crowley wrote at the time. “We feel tied to him, and the guitar is a symbol of what he represents for us.”

Joe Bonamassa was also behind the campaign, and hailed the news that it would be donated to the National Museum at Collins Barracks, Dublin, following its $1.16 million sale as “the best news I've heard all year.”

From October 16, the guitar is set to be displayed at the museum as one of 250 pieces relating to Irish history and culture. It comes as part of the biggest expansion of its public galleries in over two decades.

The exhibition, entitled The Changing Ireland Galleries, puts the country’s most important moments under the microscope, with artifacts from those times speaking of its history. The fact that Gallagher’s Strat — and quite possibly his 1932 National Resonator recently taken for a spin by Joe Bonamassa — will feature alongside a decommissioned RPG7 rocket launcher used by the IRA in the 1970s, during the Troubles, and items from the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921) shows its cultural significance.

Speaking about the electric guitar last year, Gallagher's nephew, Daniel, stressed its importance in his career.

“It meant a hell of a lot to him, and was a huge part of his sound,” he said. “He played it to death. I don't think he would have swapped it for anything in the world.”

Bonamassa recently played three nights in Gallagher’s hometown of Cork, and even bought a sunburst Strat from Crowley’s Music in a bid to follow in his footsteps. Since then, he’s spoken with Guitar World about why Gallagher’s talents are underrated by many.

“Rory always played with a fiery intensity and communicated great emotional depth in every performance,” he wrote. “And within the world of slide guitar, he is one of the greatest ever.”

Discussing his earliest memories of Gallagher with Guitar Player last year, he recalled being rapt by his “Live in Europe” album.

“Here's this guy with long hair, a flannel shirt and he looked like he just came out of an auto factory playing some of the most gutbucket blues and rock you've ever heard,” he said.

The sale of Gallagher’s Strat, which was bought by Live Nation Gaiety Ltd, makes it one of the most expensive Strats ever sold at auction. It’s bested only by David Gilmour’s Black Strat ($3.9M). the Reach Out to Asia Strat ($2.7M), which was auctioned for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and Gilmour's 1954 #0001 Strat ($1.8M).

Fender CEO Andy Mooney had once, unsuccessfully, tried to buy Gilmour's famed #0001 Strat, calling it his “holy grail.” Considering the eye-watering price it ultimately went for, it’s no surprise that Gilmour wasn’t willing to do a deal.

It was first owned by country player Rex Gallion, and passed through the hands of Seymour Duncan before it made its way to the Pink Floyd guitarist. It's on that guitar that he recorded the Nile Rodgers-esque rhythm parts in "Another Brick in the Wall."

From ultra-rare 1950s Broadcasters to Vernon Reid’s greatest-ever guitar find, Norman’s Rare Guitars in Tarzana, California has long since been home to some incredible vintage guitars.

And yet, the best-sounding Stratocaster in the store right now isn't a rare vintage model; it’s a midpriced Fender from 2018, one of the less-glamorous electric guitars in stock.

So says the store's Secret Stash Instagram page, where Norm's spotlights its more unusual wares.

“OK, I know what you’re thinking, and I will agree with you 2000%: it’s ugly as shit,” the post states. “But if you want probably the best-sounding Stratocaster in the house, then you might wanna get over the look.”

The model — a Fender Jimi Hendrix Stratocaster — was part of a limited-edition run of guitars in Ultraviolet finish that paid homage to the late guitar great. True to form, it features an alder body, a maple neck and fretboard, and a trio of vintage single-coil Strat pickups. It even has a reverse headstock, alluding to the fact that lefty Hendrix played right-handed guitars.

The guitar sold for the low price $1,080, but it has blown away Norman Harris, his team, and every customer who’s heard it.

“Ask anyone in the store, and they will tell you,” the post continues. “The other day, [L.A.–based guitarist Michael] Lemmo played it and everyone in the shop agreed this guitar holds up to any Strat we have, even the vintage ones.

“It’s just special. It has that thing and sounds ridiculous. I guarantee whoever gets this one will be thanking us.”

Unlike most sought-after Fenders, the Strat wasn’t made in its Corona, California factory but south of the border, in Mexico. Today, the company's Player, Player Plus and the retro-inspired Vintera series all come out of Ensenada.

Fender set up a manufacturing facility in Ensenada in 1987, just five years after it struck a deal to build its first guitars overseas, in Japan. Since then, Mexican Strats have built a reputation for sounds that belie their price tags. And the folks at Norman’s Rare Guitars can see why.

Meanwhile, Norman Harris has revealed he had the chance to buy George Harrison’s famed Gretsch Country Gentlemen, but saw it become the one that got away after he turned down the trade for one specific reason.

Over the years, the store has become an authority on vintage guitars and was responsible for putting a Cherry Red ES-345 in Marty McFly’s hands in the movie Back to the Future. However, the props team didn’t heed Harris’s advice when picking an instrument for the scene, and, as a result, they got some key details wrong.

The guitar hasn’t been seen since filming wrapped 40 years ago, leading Gibson to launch a worldwide search for an electric guitar that has inspired thousands to play.

Fender, meanwhile, has continued to roll out Hendrix-inspired Strats, complete with their Authentic Hendrix neck plates. But that love-it-or-hate-it Ultraviolet finish has been consigned to the history books.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know that Fender has just launched the new American Ultra Luxe Vintage collection. This new lineup showcases a fantastic array of Stratocasters and Telecasters that are quickly making a name for themselves as some of the tastiest guitars in the current catalog. The American Ultra series has always represented the peak of Fender’s electric guitars, and with the arrival of the American Ultra II and Luxe Vintage range, it has reached new heights.

With this fresh update, many older models are now being offered at impressive discounts of up to 20%. For a limited time, you'll be able to grab a multitude of guitars from the renowned Ultra Luxe, Ultra, and American Professional II series, along with the innovative Acoustasonic line.

Whether you’re on the hunt for a classic Strat, a reliable Tele, a versatile Jazzmaster, a punchy P-Bass, or even acoustic guitars and spare parts, there’s something for everyone in this incredible sale. Make sure you act quickly, as these deals are available only until August 24!

I’m particularly excited about the American Ultra Luxe Telecaster. This beauty delivers phenomenal performance with its unique Augmented "D" neck profile, providing amazing comfort. Its 10"-14" compound-radius fingerboard, stainless steel frets, and Ultra Noiseless Vintage pickups ensure excellent playability while giving you that classic Tele twang, minus the unwanted buzz. Right now, you can save an impressive $530 at Fender.

Then there’s the American Professional II Jazzmaster, which merges over sixty years of innovation with the modern player's needs. It boasts a Deep "C" neck and V-Mod II pickups designed for better clarity, along with a versatile Panorama Tremolo system. I consider it a great deal at a discount of $200.

Also check out the Limited Edition American Performer Timber Stratocaster, made in Corona, California, featuring Yosemite single-coil pickups for those signature Strat tones. It’s designed with a comfy “Modern C” neck and comes with 22 jumbo frets for today’s players. Right now, you can save $320 on this fantastic instrument.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! I really encourage you to explore Fender.com to see their impressive selection and take advantage of these amazing sales. Just remember, the clock is ticking, and you only have until August 24!

Some of Jeff "Skunk" Baxter's earliest guitar contributions to modern rock can be heard on Steely Dan's first three albums. He followed that gig with a celebrated stint in the Doobie Brothers during the band's most popular years.

But when he received requests to sit in on recording sessions, the guitarist found a calling that was truly satisfying.

“Folks would come in and say they needed somebody to sub for them on sessions,” he explained to Guitar Player earlier this year. “I wanted to be the top gun of studio guitarists,. The better I played, the more it allowed me to help other musicians reach their goals. I loved being part of the whole process.”

Now, with five decades of experience as one of the industry's most beloved session guitarists, Baxter says he's learned a thing or two about what makes for a good electric guitar. He's played a range of them over the years, including a Burns Bison that he bought for “25 bucks and a six-pack of Bud” and put to use on Donna Summer's chart-topping single "Hot Stuff."

These days, Baxter can be seen sporting a familiar staple of the Fender family, namely a Stratocaster. Only it's a G-5 Strat: Beneath its classic tonewoods, the guitar has a very digital heart.

“It’s a Fender Stratocaster that has modeling electronics in it,” Baxter explains. “It's a project we did some years ago at Roland because I got tired of carrying different guitars with me.”

Roland's built-in Composite Object Sound Modeling (COSM) tech was first introduced with the VG-8 multi-effects pedal, and the essence of that has since been integrated directly into Strats. That enables Baxter to dramatically reshape the instrument’s voice to that of a Tele, a Strat, a 12-string or an acoustic. The guitar’s trio of single-coil pickups can imitate the depth and breadth of a humbucker, and it can be switched into a different tuning at the turn of a dial.

“That's my go-to instrument as far as guitars are concerned,” he says.

It's not the first nontraditional electric guitar he's used. Back in the late 1970s and early '80s, Baxter was known for using a Roland GR-500 synthesizer guitar, proving he's been a forward thinker for quite some time.

Readers may recoil at the thought of a guitar veteran embracing modern technologies over vintage traditions. But Baxter sees guitars as tools of his trade, and he isn’t one to be seduced into buying something without good reason.

For that matter, he doesn't buy into the idea that vintage is better. For his latest purchase, he looked past a 1958 Tele to chose a decidedly cheaper model.

“I bought a Squier Telecaster that has a Jazzmaster pickup installed for rhythm,” he reveals to Guitarist.

“I played it and really loved it, so I told the guy at Guitar Center, ‘Pull down that '58 Telecaster you have up there,' which cost about a bazillion dollars.

“I spent about an hour setting up the Squier. They had a guitar repair guy there, so I asked if I could use his tools and set up the guitar myself. Very quickly, I compared the two, and the $140 Squier Telecaster, to me, sounded better, so I bought it.”

Another one of his guitar deals saw him trade “a beautiful white Stratocaster” with Jimi Hendrix, which saw him getting an old, beat-up Duo-Sonic in its stead. The guitar had been put through its paces on tour with Little Richard, and Hendrix wanted to get his hands on his first-ever Strat.

Elsewhere, he's discussed how the Ventures revolutionized guitar rock, and has revealed when he'll finally reveal the mysterious origins behind his stage name.

An English father of two got more than he bargained for when he purchased a mid-’60s blackface Fender Deluxe on Facebook Marketplace for £3,000, a little more than $4,000 at current exchange rates. It turns out the amp was owned by John Lennon and likely used on the Beatles' 1968 White Album.

“I saw this old 1960s Fender amp on Marketplace,” James Taylor, 45, of Brighton, told The Manchester Evening News. “They told me it might have been gifted to someone by John Lennon, but I have heard these stories before and I didn't pay it much mind.”

Research into the Fender amp, however, revealed that he should have given more weight to the claims. The amp was used by one half of the Lennon-McCartney tandem during the Beatles' final years and into his early 1970s solo career.

Writing in his book Beatles Gear, musical instrument historian Andy Babiuk confirms the Beatles received a care package of equipment from Fender in 1968, ahead of the White Album sessions. It included a Fender VI six-string bass, a silverface Deluxe Reverb and the blackface Deluxe. Lennon plugged his Epiphone Casino into the Deluxe for the “Hey Jude” music video. The VI, meanwhile, was used by Lennon and George Harrison, respectively, on “Rocky Raccoon” and “Honey Pie,” among other White Album tracks.

Lennon held onto the Deluxe for three years before gifting it to Rod Lynton, who played acoustic guitar on four tracks from his 1971 solo album, Imagine. Lynton confirms he received the amp as a token of Lennon's gratitude for his contributions to Imagine, and he has a certificate of authenticity to prove the amp's provenance.

Taylor believes the amp was also used in the Beatles' video for “Revolution” and is looking for help authenticating its roles in the group's recordings.

“I bought the amp because I wanted the amp, and I didn't pay John Lennon sort of money for it,” he says. Indeed, Lennon’s first Vox amp recently resurfaced at auction. Though it was purchased for £16,000, now that its history has been confirmed, it's worth an estimated £250,000, about $320,000.

“Once I had it, I started researching the history, and all the details started checking out, I realized I had something very exciting on my hands,” Taylor continues. “I wasn’t expecting it at all.”

“One of my earliest listening experiences was my parents introducing me to Sgt. Pepper at a young age,” he adds. “And now I have John Lennon's amp, which is crazy to think about.”

“It plays and sounds fantastic. I had used it in my own band practices prior to authentication. I might have been a bit more cautious had I realized the historical importance!”

Given its value, Taylor doesn't expect he'll be able to hold onto the amp for too long.

“I will probably have to sell it because of the value,” he admits. “It would be scary for me to have something so valuable in the house. There are many parts of me that wish I could hold onto it, but it is a risk to keep in a house with toddlers rushing around.

“I could probably use the money from selling it to get myself a mortgage and get on the property ladder.”

Several auction houses have reportedly contacted Taylor with estimates that the amp could fetch six-figure sums at auction. Time will most certainly tell.

Are Wet Leg having their breakthrough moment?

After their standout performance at Glastonbury 2025, where frontwoman Rhian Teasdale donned an Antifreeze Green acrylic-bodied B.C. Rich Mockingbird for the occasion, Wet Leg are gaining a strong buzz on both sides of the Atlantic. The show felt like a pivotal moment for a band whose rise is gaining pace.

Their second album, Moisturizer, comes out this week, but already its three lead singles have already racked up more than 10 million Spotify streams between them. The band stands as a bright new hope for the post-punk and indie-rock worlds.

But who exactly are they?

Founded by Teasdale and co-guitarist Hester Chambers in 2019 while studying at college on the Isle of Wight — a small island south of England and home to around 140,000 — the band quickly gained traction. By 2021, they’d penned a deal with Domino Records (Arctic Monkeys, My Bloody Valentine). Their 2021 debut single, "Chaise Lounge," characterized by its throbbing beat and erratic guitar lines, quickly went viral and generated millions of streams.

A year later, Dave Grohl was lending his screaming voice to the band at Coachella 2022, roaring down the microphone during a particularly rambunctious performance of their 2022 single “Ur Mum.” Last summer saw him take the group along with his band, Foo Fighters, on a tour of U.K. stadiums.

Teasdale and Chambers are now flanked by other songwriting talents. Bassist/vocalist Ellis Durand co-wrote fresh hits "CPR" and "Catch These Fists" with Teasdale; rhythm guitarist Josh Mobaraki has plenty of credits on the upcoming LP; and Henry Holmes sits behind the drum kit. All three had started life as touring musicians, filling out the duo's grand vision for the group's live shows. Between Teasdale and Chambers alone, there's a score of interesting gear picks.

According to Guitar World, Teasdale had bought her eye-catching Mockingbird from eBay just weeks before the show. Before that, she played a Fender Noventa Telecaster sporting a P90 in the bridge position.

It can be seen during the band's performance on Jools Holland in 2022, a show which saw Chambers sporting another oddball axe: a Hofner HCT Galaxie that she bought during lockdown.

“It’s so gorgeous, she tells Total Guitar. “It’s got nails in it holding it together, and stuck-on gems.”

For recent shows, including a new Tiny Desk performance, Chambers has since pivoted to a white, triple-humbucker Kramer Jersey Star. She also has a Noventa Jazzmaster — also equipped with three humbuckers — in her collection.

Teasdale, meanwhile, opted for a Fender Meteora during a Fender Player Plus session in 2022. She’s also employed Jazzmasters in the band on various occasions.

Most impressive is the fact that Chambers had scant experience with electric guitars before Wet Leg formed.

“Something that really blows my mind is that, before Wet Leg, Rhian didn’t know how to play guitar,” Hester reveals.

“She’s excellent at writing songs on a piano but had never done it on a guitar. She was like, ‘I’m gonna write on guitar,’ and it just kind of happened. She’s got a really beautiful way of playing and writing. She’s not restricted — not like, ‘Oh, I need to learn these chords so I can make this song.’ She just kind of plays around.”

She's since journeyed down the gear rabbit hole, bestowing her pedalboard with the likes of an Electro-Harmonix Soul Food overdrive and a Keeley Loomer fuzz and reverb.

As for tones, although the secrets behind Moisturizer remain locked behind closed doors, the recording of their self-titled 2021 debut album saw Chambers make an all-important amp swap. Teasdale has stayed loyal to a Supro Combo, but Chambers changed out her "very big" Fender Deluxe for a Vox AC10.

“It was a hard decision,” she adds, “because I loved the Fender’s spring reverb, but the AC10 sounds warmer.”

As per their chat with NME in late 2021, Teasdale set out the band's lofty ambitions.

“We want to be recognized as guitar heroes,” she said. “It doesn’t hurt to win sometimes.”

We've reached the final day of Amazon's massive Prime Day sales event. Over the last four days, I've brought you the very best offers from across the sales, and I'm not done yet.

To help make your pedalboard arrangement a lot cheaper, I’ve spotted an amazing Prime Day guitar deal on the Fender Blockchain patch cable kits, where you can get a seriously huge $104.99 off a 15-pack of Fender-branded cables.

In my opinion, a well-organized pedalboard is a thing of beauty. Ordering your pedals correctly, getting them as close together as possible, and managing your cables so that everything stays neat and tidy is one of the most satisfying parts of owning a pedalboard and it will pay dividends in the long-run when it comes to gigging or recording.

Buying patch cables for a pedalboard can take some experimentation, as you’ll likely need a variety of lengths depending on your setup, such as the size and number of pedals.

• Shop all the latest Prime Day deals at Amazon

There's a decent saving to be had on the medium pack, too, with a slightly smaller discount, giving you 12 patch cables for just $39. Buying in bulk is such a great way to save money, and both packs offer significant savings on the RRP, working out around $3 per patch cable.

What's more, Fender is currently offering free shipping on orders over $50, so add another item that's at least $5 (like this striking $7.50 Seat Belt guitar strap or a 12 pack of picks, $8.49) and they'll ship it to your door for nothing. Now that's the smart way to shop.

I have a few Fender patch cables on my own pedalboard at the moment, and I’ve found them to work as well as any of the others I’ve used over the years. They’ve got a nice compact connector that ensures I can get my pedals as close as possible, and I’ve not had any issues at all with the nickel-plated ends.

Fender’s patch cables use a 24 AWG wire with 90% OFC spiral shielding, which in plain English means excellent signal delivery with minimal noise. The cable itself is actually square, which is different from a lot of other cables I’ve come across.

They’re very flexible, though, which allows you to run them underneath the chassis of your pedalboard with a minimum of fuss. They also feel super durable, so I wouldn’t have any qualms about using them on a touring ‘board.

The matte black design of both the connector housing and cable jacket ensures a slick look, whilst saving as much space as possible. The variety of lengths means they’ll fit into a wide variety of setups, and the extra-long cable is great for reaching across pedalboards with multiple tiers.

More of today's best accessory deals

• Fender Original Series cable: $27.99, now $16.99 @Fender
• Amazon Basics guitar stand: $16.99, now $14.99 @Amazon
• Fender Premium picks (24-pack): $19.99, now $15.97 @Amazon
• Fender FCT-2 tuner: $21.99, now $17.99 @Amazon
• Regular Slinky strings (4-pack): $26.99, now $19.99 @Amazon

Over the last four days, the Prime Day guitar deals have been pretty great, but if you ask me, the best deals are available elsewhere. If you’re looking for a new guitar, then you should head over to the official Fender shop where you can bag yourself up to 20% off an excellent range of Fender and Squier guitars - but be quick as the sale is due to end soon.

Included in the sale is my regular gigging guitar, the Fender Player Plus Tele, which has got a cool $240 reduction at the moment. I’ve been using mine for the last three years or so, whether that’s in the studio, writing at home, or playing with my band. I’ve used it on alt rock, punk, metal, and even reggae tracks to great effect - it never lets me down.

• Shop all the early Prime Day deals at Amazon

I always considered myself a Strat player before I bought my Tele, but as soon as I’d played a Tele for a couple of weeks, I was immediately converted. I’d always heard about the Tele versatility, but it’s hard to understand until you actually use one day in, day out. The combination of bright bridge tone and dark neck sound makes for a really versatile instrument, especially once you start adding pedals into the mix.

My Player Plus Tele has a secret weapon though. Pull the tone knob up and you engage a series circuit, which feeds the output of the bridge pickup into the neck, creating an almost humbucker-esque tone. Once engaged, you can get a really fat tone that’s great for smooth leads and chugging palm-muted riffs. It also adds a little boost, so I like to use it to accentuate chorus or lead guitar sections when I’m playing on stage.

It’s not just the great variety of tones I love about the guitar. I’m a big fan of the Fender modern ‘C’ profile, and the Player Plus Tele has rounded fingerboard edges, which make it feel super comfortable in my fretting hand. It doesn’t have the rosewood ‘board of the Player II Telecaster, but having reviewed that model, I don’t really feel that much of a difference between the two.

The Player Plus Tele also has locking tuners, which aren’t on the Player II model. It definitely makes the guitar’s tuning more stable, I find I rarely have to adjust the tuning, even when I’m playing the guitar every day, and it also makes string changes an absolute breeze. I can do a full set of electric guitar strings in about five minutes now!

If you’re considering a Player II Telecaster, I’d definitely recommend you check out a Player Plus model too. You get a lot of cool features for your money, and although it won’t please those looking for a traditional Telecaster, it’s a properly great gigging workhorse.

With the impending Prime Day guitar deals next week, loads of retailers have launched sales to celebrate the 4th of July and get you in on some early savings. There's no doubt these sales are designed to compete with the four-day Amazon deals extravaganza, but if you’re not interested in air fryers or AirPods, then you should head over to the official Fender shop, where you can get your hands on up to 20% off Fender and Squier guitars.

• Save big on guitars with up to 20% off at Fender
• Shop all early Amazon Prime Day deals

There’s a great range of guitars on sale too, whether your budget is more beginner-oriented or you’re looking to splurge on something a little more premium. To make your life easier, I’ve had a look through the entire range of guitars on sale and picked out a budget-friendly, intermediate-level, and pro-grade guitar for you to look at.

For those who want to spend big, this Fender American Performer Timber Stratocaster is definitely worth a look, thanks to a massive $320 discount. Unusually, it’s got a spruce tonewood for the body, which makes this guitar really lightweight.

A trio of Yosemite single coils delivers those classic Strat tones, with a Greasebucket Tone System - read: treble bleed circuit - that allows you to maintain the treble content of your tone when you roll off the volume knob. Add a push-pull tone knob for adding in the neck pickup and you’ve got one seriously versatile instrument.

Next, for those after a mid-level instrument, you should feast your eyes on the Fender Player Plus Meteora HH. Something a little different from their usual instruments, it’s got a nice $140 reduction at the moment, which brings it down to just above $500.

Considering you get locking tuners and S-1 switching for single coil tones, I’d say that’s a great deal in anyone’s book. The twin Fireball Humbuckers allow for some fiery guitar tones, and a two-point tremolo lets you add some sizzle to your open chords and lead licks.

Finally, if you’re looking for something that looks great but doesn’t cost the earth, this Squier Paranormal Esquire Deluxe is an absolute stunner. It’s got a single, wide-range humbucker in the neck position, which helps keep things nice and simple.

Despite this it still has options, with a rotary three-way pickup selector that gives you humbucker, split coil, and humbucker sans volume and tone controls, which deliver plenty of variety. With a nice $94.80 discount it’s now below the $400 mark, giving you a very unique looking and sounding instrument for less.

Mysterious and masked progressive metal band Sleep Token have made history with their fourth album, Even in Arcadia. Released earlier this month, it debuted at the top of the charts in the U.S. and U.K., beating the likes of Thom Yorke and mainstream artists PinkPantheress and former Glastonbury headliner SZA to the coveted spot.

It’s an ascent that has smashed a few world records on the way and confirmed the group’s status as the biggest band in the world right now.

Billboard has said that the album, which merges eight-string prog-metal riffs with sugary pop hooks, R&B, gospel drumming, and electronic soundscapes is the best-selling record of the past two years and has achieved more weekly streams than any other hard-rock album in history.

And it's not just streams where the band are excelling. More than 47,000 vinyl sales make Even in Arcadia the highest-selling hard-rock album in the modern era, edging out the also recently released Ghost album, Skeletá, which sold 44,000.

The band has been on a dizzying upward trajectory for years now, with 2023’s Take Me Back to Eden hinting that this day would soon come for a band whose fanbase transcends genres and demographics.

But who are they?

Sleep Token are fronted by a character known only as Vessel. He writes all the songs with drummer II, who is set to feature at Black Sabbath’s star-studded final show. The rest of the band are likewise assigned numbers rather than stage names. IV, for instance, is the band’s guitarist. Whether he plays a role in the studio or not is unconfirmed.

The ambiguous lore of the band centers around them conveying the messages and sermons of an omnipresent entity called Sleep, who Vessel says he once encountered in a dream.

Influences — either stated by the band during one of their ultra-rare interviews or theorized by detail-oriented critics — include Deftones, Meshuggah and Bon Iver.

But while little has been revealed of the people behind the masks since their 2016 formation, their tech has confirmed IV's gear.

IV is predominantly a Jackson loyalist, and eight-string guitars are his main weapon of choice, but there is a little variation. Having previously played a Jackson's X Series Soloist SLAT8, as the band’s budget has increased, he’s been treated to a Jackson USA Custom Shop Monarkh, the firm’s Les Paul–style build.

The 28-inch-scale guitar is loaded with active Fishman Fluence pickups and an EverTune bridge, and capped with a striking Pale Moon Ebony fretboard with the band's logo at the 12th fret, and some classy binding. It’s tuned to E A E A D G B E. His tech, Billy, says he favors “long necks and heavy-gauge strings”, including .010s – .084 sets.

The guitar is flanked by an Aristides multiscale 080SR eight-string. It features the firm's signature Richlite fretboard, passive Bare Knuckle Ragnarok pickups, and an EverTune bridge.

Elsewhere, the signature Jackson SoCcal Strat-alike from Periphery’s Misha Mansoor has been a regular on tour. On its surface, the guitar looks like a vintage Strat but mirrors Mansoor's go-to Juggernaut axe with a basswood body, bolt-on caramelized maple neck and a fretboard with 22 stainless-steel jumbo rets.

That guitar features Mansoor's signature Bare Knuckle Ragnarok humbucker in the bridge and is joined by two Bare Knuckle Trilogy Suite single coils. The guitar was originally the stock colorway of Daphne Blue, but was resprayed to match Sleep Token's cream-colored aesthetic while touring Take Me Back to Eden.

Other guitars include a custom-built Balaguer Espada seven-string with a 28.5-inch scale length, roasted maple/walnut neck, and Fishman Modern Fluence pickups tuned to drop D,. He also has a Fender Telecaster American Ultra II used for “Missing Limbs,” which Vessel performs on his own with a capo on the fourth fret.

Tonally, IV is an advocate of digital modelers, having switched from Kemper to the Neural DSP Quad Cortex in recent years. He tours with two QCs which are kept off stage and operated via MIDI. The main tones, as revealed by Billy, “come from a Revv Generator [amp head] and a Mesa cab that IV captured onto the QC in the studio. We run two amps left and right.”

The QC's doubler feature, which splits a mono signal into stereo and adds a slight delay on one side to give the impression of two guitarists when there are only one, is a trick utilized throughout their set.

The no-expense-spared rig is full of archetypal modern metal picks, with some chief aesthetic flourishes along the way, and also stands as the embodiment of the band’s genre-mashing approach to songwriting. With guitars that can sparkle and grunt in equal measure, every base is covered.

Indeed, Sleep Token has captured the younger generations, but are slowly turning older heads too. Few bands in recent years — if not decades — have enjoyed a rise as quick and as unstoppable as the British act, and now they have the world records, and a score of high-end gear to prove it.

Despite being nearly two weeks away from Memorial Day, Fender has seen fit to surprise us all by launching their massive sale early. With up to 20% off guitars, guitar parts, and accessories, if you’re looking for an early Memorial Day guitar deal then the official Fender shop is the place to be.

As well as a selection of premium-level American-made guitars you can also bag some hefty discounts on the Player Plus series instruments. It’s not all about guitars though, there are plenty of discounted guitar necks if you like to build or mod your own instruments, as well as some select accessories with serious discounts.

Robert Plant has listed a treasure trove of gear for sale to raise funds for charity, including a golden-era Stratocaster and a leftfield piece of Gibson history.

Cheltenham, UK-based guitar emporium ATB Guitars is handling the charity drive, with proceeds being donated to “charities close to Robert's heart.”

Incredibly, four pieces, including a 1990 Les Paul Standard gifted to Plant by Les Paul himself while backstage at a Page/Plant show at Madison Square Garden in 1995, have already sold. But arguably the most storied instrument of the collection is still up for grabs.

Plant’s 1962 Fender Stratocaster is heralded by ATB as “a guitar with a wonderful history and no doubt many stories to tell”—and with good reason. Its finish has been stripped, revealing the alder body’s wood grain, and the guitar has seen plenty of action in the 63 years since it left the factory.

The singer bought the guitar from Stan Webb of '60s blues band Chicken Shack in the 1970s. The pair first crossed paths during the early British blues boom in which the band enjoyed its heyday.

Led Zeppelin were said to be huge fans of the band, and so Plant is said to have jumped at the opportunity to own a Webb-played six-string and either Webb or Plant pulled the trigger on several modifications.

Most notably, it passed through the workshop of Tony Iommi-approved luthier John Birch. There, its fingerboard was lacquered, and, curiously, an extra pickup selector switch added for “more tonal options”.

Elsewhere, new saddles and Schaller tuners were installed, and two Suhr vintage V60LP single-coil pickups were placed in the bridge and neck positions. The middle pickup remains untouched—an original “black-bottomed” single-coil.

Unusually for a Stratocaster of that era, the headstock decal has been changed. It’s clear that Plant, Birch, and co. weren’t overly concerned with preserving historical accuracy during the guitar's transformation.

The headstock has also been repaired, with a visible scar running through it and ending beneath the D-string tuning peg. ATB assures buyers the instrument is “totally stable,” and the damage is considered historic.

The guitar is available for £19,995 (approx. $26,650).

Other listings came at more modest price points, including a 1993 Dobro F-60 Resonator, which sold for £1,995 (approx. $2,650), and a 1992 Washburn M-1S/TS Mandolin, which fetched £495 (approx. $659) and was described as a “no-nonsense workhorse.”

A Gibson A-1 Style has also been sold. It was crafted in Gibson’s famous Kalamazoo, Michigan factory—now home to a Hard Rock Hotel—and features a design that became the precursor to Gibson’s iconic arch-top builds.

Visit ATB Guitars to see the full collection.

The sale follows the success of the band's new documentary, which traces Led Zeppelin’s earliest days, including a “devastating” first jam session that gave no hint of the success to come.

In addition, lost footage of Led Zeppelin playing in Denmark in 1979 has resurfaced after sitting in a drawer for 45 years. It’s now been restored with original audio and gives fans a rare glimpse of the band just before their legendary Knebworth shows.

Online music store Reverb has been sold to two new investors, meaning it will become an independently operated business for the first time since Etsy’s $275 million takeover in 2019.

Financial details around the newly announced deal have not been disclosed, but it has been confirmed that Creator Partners and Servco are behind the move. Both have deep-rooted links to the music industry.

Creator Partners, founded by former SoundCloud CEO Kerry Trainor, has an investment portfolio that includes a trio of music-related firms: BMI, Fender, and SoundCloud.

Servco, meanwhile, is the majority owner of Fender, which has recently detailed how Donald Trump’s new trade tariffs are impacting its operations.

In an official statement, the online instrument marketplace confirmed Reverb’s newfound independence, stating: “We won’t be merging with either investor or any of the other companies in their portfolios, and our team will remain intact,” ensuring site users “can continue buying and selling on Reverb as you normally would without any disruption.”

The statement adds that its new investors will “bring a passion for the musical instrument industry as well as a community-first approach and a deep desire to help transform creative industries for the better.”

Though its new owners have connections with Fender, Reverb made it clear that the famous American brand will not receive “preferential treatment.” The Player Telecaster and American Professional II Stratocaster were the best-selling electric guitars on the site last year, dethroning John Mayer's PRS SE Silver Sky, which had topped the sales table the previous two years.

“Reverb’s partnership with Fender will remain unchanged,” the statement continues, “including Fender’s Certified Pre-Owned program, which is just one of more than 20 Certified Pre-Owned shops brands have opened on Reverb.”

While that portion of Reverb will continue as normal, the new investors are also looking to leave their mark on the business with several user-focused changes.

They plan to increase the amount of music-making software, such as plugins, available on the platform. There are also plans to pilot a new option for sellers that allows them “to get paid faster and drop off your gear locally, without needing to create a listing or ship.”

This will prove particularly useful for users wanting to shift hard-to-ship gear via drop-offs and pickups.

Reverb was founded in 2013 by David Kalt as the online offshoot of the popular Chicago Music Exchange. Funding for its launch was supported by a group of investors, including Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen and country star Brad Paisley.

It has since blossomed into one of the most-used online marketplaces for gear and has expanded its reach via video content and documentaries, including two fascinating mini-docs of Joe Bonamassa’s museum-like home, Nerdville.

The bluesman’s Klon-style pedal, made in collaboration with Way Huge, was exclusively available on the site at launch last year, and Martin did likewise with its “bombshell” non-cutaway Grand Performance acoustic in July.

A score of big-name musicians — from Alex Van Halen and George Benson to Jason Newsted and Muse — have all sold stage-played gear and rarities on the site.

Reverb was founded in 2013 by David Kalt as the online offshoot of the popular Chicago Music Exchange. Funding for its launch was supported by a group of investors, including Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen and country star Brad Paisley.

It has since blossomed into one of the most-used online marketplaces for gear. It has since expanded its empire via star-studded video content and documentaries, including two fascinating mini-docs of Joe Bonamassa’s museum-like home, Nerdville.

The bluesman’s Klon-style pedal, made in collaboration with Way Huge, is exclusively available on the site, and Martin did likewise with its “bombshell” non-cutaway Grand Performance acoustic in July.

A score of big-name musicians, from Alex Van Halen and George Benson to Jason Newsted and Muse have all sold stage-played gear and rarities on the site.

Fender could see operational costs rise by up to $25 million due to new tariffs placed on goods produced overseas.

So says a new report by credit rating analyst Moody’s, which highlights an increased risk of default for the historic gear firm’s operations.

According to the report, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation’s (FMIC) has been hit by three downgrades. The musical instrument maker has had its credit rating downgraded from B2 to B3, indicating a higher risk of default. Moody’s has also downgraded the Probability of Default Rating from B2-PD to B3-PD, and its senior secured term loan rating from B3 to Caa1, indicating significant deterioration in creditworthiness.

Taken together, the three downgrades reflect a negative outlook for a financial forecast that previously looked stable. The changes are a direct result of the rising costs brought on by the Trump administration's newly imposed tariffs, which Moody's predicts could result in operational costs rising by “approximately $20 to $25 million.”

Boutique amp firm Morgan has previously spoken of the financial impact these tariffs could have on its operations.

The tariffs have come into play because of Fender’s overseas production sites, specifically its guitar production site in Ensenada, Mexico, and its China factory, where electronic products, including amplifiers and pedals, are made. Both countries fall under the crosshairs of President Trump’s new tariffs.

Moody's report notes that "a 25% tariff on products from [Fender's] Ensenada, Mexico manufacturing facility and an additional 10% tariff on products manufactured in China and imported into the U.S. would increase operating costs by approximately $20 to $25 million.”

Fender has moved to mitigate these financial pressures by increasing production in Indonesia. While Moody's has recognized that effort, the analyst believes short-term reactions, such as price increases and vendor concessions, may not be enough if the new tariffs remain.

“Prolonged imposition of tariffs,” Moody’s reports, “will likely be highly disruptive and costly for ... Fender.”

Fender's Chinese operations represent their own set of challenges.

Says Moody’s, “China remains the largest global manufacturer of guitars by unit volume, and the musical instruments industry is already facing challenges such as weakening consumer confidence in the US and an economic slowdown in China.”

Operating in a market where “competition is intense” is also challenging because “the ability to pass on costs to consumers is constrained in an already high-priced market.”

The report also notes that Fender possesses “strong brand recognition and market position in the acoustic and electric guitar categories” and “benefits from good geographic diversity and a long-standing reputation for high-quality products, supported by a well-diversified retail distribution network.

“However, these strengths are offset by the company's narrow product focus and earnings volatility, which stem from the discretionary nature of demand for musical instruments,” it continues. “This volatility is further exacerbated by the current challenging economic environment and exposure to new US tariffs.”

A reversal of fortunes, though, can be achieved. Fender would see its credit rating restored if it is able to mitigate the impact of the new tariffs to generate organic growth. Conversely, it could face further downgrades if earnings decline beyond the expected margins.

Those fearing the worst need to only look to its biggest rival, Gibson, to see that it may not necessarily mean the death knell will chime.

Gibson faced similar downgrades in 2018, which led to it filing for bankruptcy, but has since improved its economic outlook under new ownership.

Visit Moody’s to read the full rating report.

Courtney Barnett is the latest artist to be spotlighted in the ongoing Fender Sessions video series, showcasing her technical but heartfelt guitar style on both a Stratocaster and a Jaguar. However, it's the latter of those two electric guitars that has had the biggest influence on her career.

The 37-year old Australian singer-songwriter released her debut album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, in 2015, and has since released two more studio albums, as well as a collaborative LP with Kurt Vile and End of the Day, the soundtrack to Anonymous Club, the 2021 documentary about Barnett. She’s also picked up several domestic and international awards along the way, and a Grammy nomination.

Barnett's woozy indie-rock stylings, characterized by effects-warped Fenders and her intricate fingerpicking, have won her plaudits, but she downplays her skillset in the new video.

“I'll always call myself a guitar player before I call myself a singer or a songwriter or whatever, 'cause I think it's just my comfortable state,” she says. “That natural and comfortable state is playing music.”

Over the years, she’s become most synonymous with her employment of a Fender Jaguar. It was an instrument, she says, that came to her in time of need as she suddenly became greatly exposed as a guitarist and found its tonal versatility to be a lifesaver.

“We used to tour a lot as a four-piece and always had another guitarist,” Barnett explains, referring to her former touring guitarist, Dan Luscombe.. “Then there was a point where my friend Dan couldn't tour anymore, and so I had to learn both guitar parts.

“While I was in the process of learning how to do that, I was like, 'I need a different guitar.' Up until then, I was playing a Telecaster, so I went out and I bought myself my first Jaguar. It just was easier; something about the sound. I could make both worlds work.

That change came in tandem with her recognition of her creative pitfalls.

“Over years of playing live, I’ve recognized that one of my safety fallbacks was to use a lot of distortion pedals,” she told Guitar Player in 2022. “When in doubt, just make a big noise. I recognized that it started to feel a little bit lazy and repetitive.

“Obviously, it’s fun to do that, and a lot of the songs called for it, I was looking for different angles: different ways to show emotions and find dynamics in the songs.”

That saw her leaning into meditative moments, peeling away from a constant craving for loudness, and she used lessons learned from visual arts school to her advantage.

“The visual stuff and music inspire each other,” she says. “Just like the power of silence in music, there’s the power of negative space in visual art. It all overlaps, and there’s no formula. It all depends on the song and the moment.”

Being left-handed, though, her search for a new guitar was greatly limited. That drew her to a reissue of Kurt Cobain's famed 1965 model. The stock model comes with DiMarzio DP103 PAF and DP100 Super Distortion pickups and a Chrome Adjusto-Matic bridge with a vintage-style floating tremolo. Here, she uses it for a frentetic take of “Turning Green”.

Elsewhere, she plays an American Vintage II 1961 Stratocaster for "Before You Gotta Go," which showcases her Neil Young in Crazy Horse-inspired fingerpicking, and she's recently taken her love for the artist one step further by covering "Lotta Love".

The dreamlike rendition is featured on the forthcoming tribute record, Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young, which also includes contributions from Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Sharon Van Etten and Brandi Carlile.

With their doom-laden take on electric blues, Black Sabbath turned the world of heavy music upside down when they released their debut album 55 years ago, in February 1970. A 1964 Gibson SG propelled Tony Iommi’s instantly recognizable guitar sound, but if it weren’t for a bad pickup and a risky gear swap, the band’s change-making album might have sounded very different.

Iommi had a few misfortunes to thank for his title as the inventor of heavy metal. He’d lost the ends of several fingers on his fretting hand in an industrial accident when he was 17, requiring that he devise leather thimbles to cover his damaged finger tips. .

He then had a brief, unsuccessful run in Jethro Tull, after which Iommi returned to Sabbath with a fresh drive and greater work ethic. But as the band went in to record their debut album, Iommi found his Fender Stratocaster — which he can be seen as he plays with Tull on the Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus — was having some issues. It was especially bad luck because, as Iommi tells Gibson TV, he'd worked hard to make the guitar suitable for his damaged digits.

“I worked on it myself to try and get it right for me to play, because I couldn't just pick up a guitar like you'd be able to pick up and play,” he tells his interviewer, Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner. “I couldn't use heavy strings anymore. I had to change everything — change the fretting and lower the strings — because I was using the thimbles. i couldn't feel the strings."

His backup guitar was a right-handed Gibson SG that the left-handed guitarist had strung upside down. As luck would have it he was able to swap it for a proper left-handed model shortly before recording began.

“I heard of this bloke that had a left-handed guitar, and he was right-handed, and he played that upside down,” Iommi says. “Really peculiar! So I got in touch with him, and I arranged to meet him in a car park.

"It was a bit dodgy,” he adds. “He might have nicked it!”

Although Iommi intended the SG to be nothing more than a backup guitar, it quickly became his main guitar when the Strat developed a problem with one of its pickups.

“I recorded 'Wicked World' with the Strat, and then the pickup went,” he recalls. “So, I thought, I've got to use the other guitar. It was the first time I'd ever really played it, and I thought, Here I am, doing an album on a guitar I've never played before!”

Yet, something about the SG won him over. “I never went back after that. I’ve stuck with the SG ever since.”

Asked why the Strat was abandoned rather than repaired, Iommi says, "as far as I knew, it was buggered. In those days, you couldn't just go and buy a pickup. I could have taken the front pickup out and put it in, but I never thought of that."

Besides, he says, “as soon as I started using the SG, and that was on the album, that was it. I swapped my Strat for a sax. I had this mad idea of trying to play the sax, which I drove everybody up the wall with.

Iommi is set for one last Black Sabbath show this summer, having recently spoken to Guitar Player about why “Iron Man” is the Sabbath song he relates to the most.

Over an eight-year spell, Eddie Van Halen was Peavey’s poster boy, working closely with the U.S. gear maker to create the now-iconic 5150 amplifier and Wolfgang electric guitars. That ended abruptly in late 2004, and CEO Courtland Gray believes its signing of Joe Satriani is to blame for the breakdown in their relationship.

Talk at the time was of an amicable split, with the gear-obsessed virtuoso instead forging a new partnership with Fender, leading to the EVH brand that continues his legacy today.

Taking his amp and guitar trademarks with him, the EVH Wolfgang soon entered production, and several models followed since, including the Frankenstein. Many believed that Van Halen’s motivations centered on forming his namesake brand, but in a new interview with Guitar World, Gray says he believes other factors were at play.

“The best we can figure is that we joined up with Joe Satriani and made a signature amp with him called the JSX,” he suggests. “I think Eddie got rubbed up the wrong way because we had another superstar guitar player in our lineup, and he always figured he was the artist for Peavey. So he decided to leave.”

The timeline certainly matches up: Satriani’s signature three-channel, 120-watt amp head launching earlier that year.

However, while it was all smiles in public, the relationship grew frosty behind the scenes. Gray says that while Van Halen kept the 5150 name, “it was part of the agreement that we wouldn’t make the guitar if he didn’t make the amp”.

Tensions continued to grow when the guitarist seemed to go against the agreement.

“Shortly thereafter, we were at a trade show and heard this amp that sounded just like a 5150,” Gray recalls. “And sure enough, he’d come out with his own version. I think he even used our engineer to develop the new one.”

So Peavey, Gray says, hit back: “That was in 2005, around our 40th anniversary. Having been founded in 1965, we decided to call our amp the 6505.”

It's even gone on to release new iterations of the Wolfgang, or at least its essence, with the “streamlined hard-changing beast,” HP2 Poplar Burl RM landing in 2023.

Just five years later, Satriani turned to Marshall amps for his tour dates with the supergroup Chickenfoot, which also featured Sammy Hagar, Chad Smith and Michael Anthony. This reportedly led to another severed relationship.

Interestingly, when Hagar tapped up Satriani for his Van Halen–celebrating Best of All Worlds shows last year, the guitarist turned to 3rd Power Amps to re-create his favorite Van Halen tone, rather than returning to Peavey or Marshall.

Yet Gray doesn’t seem to hold grudges today. Asked about the legacy of the Peavey/Eddie Van Halen relationship, he says he’s grateful for the learnings it provided, and the status elevation it offered the brand.

“Eddie spent a lot of time over here in Meridian, checking the tones and tweaking everything bit by bit to make a great product,” he reflects. “I guess it must have been a big shock when little Peavey in Mississippi got the biggest guitar hero out there working on a signature product.”

How is it that a tiny guitar amp with origins that date back 76 years is still considered a monster tone machine today? It’s because Fender got so much right with the humble Champ combo from the start, with “simplicity” as the watchword both then and now.

Founded in 1946, Fender debuted its amp lineup that same year with the Princeton, Deluxe and Professional models. In 1948, the company introduced a “beginner” set that paired a Hawaiian lap-steel guitar with an amp designed to sit a rung lower than that initial trio. It was dubbed the Champion 800, a name that was soon after shortened to Champ. Some version of the diminutive combo has remained in Fender’s catalog ever since, although the narrow-panel tweed model of the mid ’50s to early ’60s is arguably the most revered of them all.

The original Champion 800 had a blonde TV-front livery and delivered four watts through a single eight-inch speaker, with a volume knob as its sole control. One year later, Fender replaced it with the Champion 600, an even smaller combo that combined the same circuit with a six-inch speaker. Fender revised the design in 1949 with a two-tone covering and a slanted, rear-mounted control panel that remained until ’55, differentiating the two Champion models from the flat, top-rear mounted panels found in the rest of Fender’s lineup.

In ’53 the Champion moved into Fender’s “wide-panel” tweed cabinet of the era, so-called for its wider upper and lower mounting panels and full-width baffle. Two years later, it began evolving toward its most iconic form: the narrow-panel 5F1 tweed combo, with an upper rear-mounted control panel and a look that matched the rest of the range. Initially, the wee ’55 model — now simply called the Champ — retained the six-inch speaker, but in ’56 it gained an eight-inch Alnico Jensen and a slightly larger cab, which maximized this small amp’s volume, such as it was.

Fender never intended the Champ as a tool for professional players, and certainly the model has never been able to keep up with any but the very lightest-hitting of drummers onstage. Nevertheless, countless pro guitarists have discovered through the years that the amp’s restricted volume means absolutely nothing once you put a studio mic in front of it, and some have taken the same principle to live performances.

When used as such, the amp’s diminutive output can be co-opted to great advantage in creative tone sculpting: Rein in the Champ’s volume control for crisp clean tones and make the signal whatever you want at the mixing desk, or crank it up for juicy, tactile overdrive without blowing the rafters off the joint or destroying an expensive studio mic.

As many noteworthy electric guitar pros have discovered, the simplicity of the Champ’s design allows a voice and playing feel that are difficult for many larger amps to capture. The circuit employs a mere three tubes — one 12AX7 preamp, one 6V6GT output and one 5Y3 rectifier — each of which performs an entirely different job.

Furthermore, there’s nothing between the input and the output transformer besides a mere two coupling capacitors, a single potentiometer and one resistor (the standard 68k-ohm grid stopper that follows the input jack on all Fender designs). That’s not a lot coming between your guitar signal and the sound that emanates from the speaker, all in a totally hand-wired circuit using the revered components of the day. This minimal path contributes mightily to the Champ’s legendary sonic veracity and touch sensitivity.

Even the use of just a single tube in the output stage, what’s called a single-ended design, adds considerable character to the tonal brew. Without a partner to couple it in a push-pull Class AB amplification circuit, the lone 6V6GT does all the work itself in what is considered a true Class A output stage. As such, the Champ provides a rare example of a term that is often mistakenly applied to many two- and four-tube designs that don’t truly fit the definition. The result can sometimes be heard as a smoother onset of distortion and richer harmonic content when the Champ gets there.

As for street cred, myriad guitar heroes have plied their trade in the studio through the little Champ. Eric Clapton famously used a tweed Champ on several songs, including, reportedly, “Layla.” Keith Richards, Billy Gibbons and Jeff Beck frequently turned to the Champ, and Joe Walsh used a tweed model on “Rocky Mountain Way” and several other noteworthy tracks. Beatle George Harrison is said to have preferred his Champ for slide parts, and in more recent years acclaimed jazz guitarist Julian Lage has used a tweed Champ in the studio as well as onstage.

Tiny though they are, original vintage tweed Champs have astronomically escalated in price in recent years. If the real thing is beyond your means, Fender currently offers the ’57 Custom Champ in the Handwired Series, and in 2011 introduced the EC Vibro Champ in its Eric Clapton Signature Series, essentially a Champ with added tube tremolo (now discontinued).

As the rest of the Fender lineup evolved into brown-panel cosmetics in ’61 and the iconic blackface styling partway through ’63, the Champ remained the last of the tweed-era amps for a few years longer. It retained the same cabinet build until a good way into ’64 and kept its tweed covering longer than any other model, although it was covered in black Tolex over a narrow-panel ’50s-style cab starting in 1963, prior to fully joining the blackface lineup in fall 1964.

Thirteen years since her death, Amy Winehouse continues to be a cultural force. Last month saw her single “Back to Black” come storming back on several U.K. charts — including Official Hip-Hop, R&B Singles and Vinyl Singles — some 17 years after its initial release. Her legend only continues to grow through tribute events that take place regularly in the U.K. and U.S.

But while the world knows Winehouse for her songwriting and singular voice, what few seem to appreciate is that she wrote many of her songs on guitar, an instrument at which she was quite adept.

Take it from Pete Doherty, singer and guitarist for the Libertines, who was romantically involved with Winehouse. As Doherty told MusicRadar last April, Winehouse had a flair for harmonic invention.

“Listen, I’ve actually sat in a room with her and a guitar,” he said, “watching those tiny hands finding all these weird jazz chords. And her strumming patterns… crazy, off-kilter timings. She made it look so effortless.”

From an early age, Winehouse made electric guitar integral to her songwriting and performing, a musical tool that helped her pen her songs as well as perform them with a unique personal touch. Known to favor the Stratocaster, Winehouse first discovered this timeless Fender model in her pre-teenage years when her older brother bought a used instrument.

“It was the most beautiful thing in the world,” recalled Winehouse during an interview in 2004. “It’s such a beautiful guitar. I mean it’s got to be probably the most attractive guitar there is.”

Though Winehouse was forbidden to touch her brother’s Stratocaster she would carefully sneak into his room and play it whenever she had the chance. With strategic access to the instrument, Winehouse slowly began to get her chops together. And when she finally acquired her own guitar — an acoustic model — the siblings amicably swapped instruments back and forth.

“I just played every day. No one said to me, ‘You’ve got to play for at least this amount of time,’ " Winehouse recalled. “It was all I wanted to do.

"It’s so easy to teach yourself if you have love for guitar. People say to me all the time, ‘How come you taught yourself?’ And there’s things people can show you, but the truth is, if you learn how to play guitar off someone, you just kind of learn to play it like them, you know what I mean? And that’s why I can say that while I’m not even an adequate guitarist, I’m still a distinctive guitarist. I sound different.”

She would eventually use a Stratocaster to perform some of her best-known songs. Inspired by the likes of Carole King, PJ Harvey, and Shuggie Otis, Winehouse’s self-tuition coupled with a remarkable gift for songwriting resulted in a unique playing style that was her perfect musical accompaniment.

In this 2003 performance of “Stronger Than Me” (from her debut album Frank, released earlier that year) Winehouse wows the studio audience assembled at the BBC’s live music show Later… with Jools Holland, her inimitable rhythm guitar style proving to be the perfect accompaniment.

Below, we get to see a 20-year-old Winehouse up close as she stuns the crowd at London’s Wembley Arena with nothing more than her voice and a Stratocaster. In this 2004 all-star event marking the 50th anniversary of Fender’s iconic Stratocaster she goes it alone against a backdrop of guitar legends, including David Gilmour , Ronnie Wood, and Hank Marvin.

Finally, here’s Amy discuss her love of guitar and the Stratocaster in particular in a video celebrating that model’s 50th anniversary.

Fender never offered a “deluxe” rendition of the Stratocaster until 1987, more than three decades after that model’s introduction. By contrast, the Telecaster proved ripe for modification on several occasions long before the Strat reached that milestone. I’m not talking about the evolution of components and appointments that defined the chronological march of all Fender electric guitars through the company’s early years, but rather the unveiling of a souped-up or upgraded rendition that appeared along-side an original model.

Leo and company did just that with the Telecaster Custom in 1959, a mere nine years after it was introduced as the Broadcaster. The Telecaster Custom featured a bound body and a then-new rosewood fingerboard. The next change came nearly a decade later when Fender lightened the load of heavier ash stocks with the Thinline model, a chambered Telecaster with an f-hole on the upper bout.

But the Telecaster Thinline would soon undergo significant revisions of its own.
In 1971, Fender’s owner, CBS, began to implement a series of major design changes that would impact its guitars, including the Tele Thinline. Midway through that year, a version of the guitar appeared bearing the company’s new Wide Range Humbucker pickups.

Designed by Seth Lover, the former Gibson engineer behind the humbucking pickup, the Wide Range was designed to sound characteristically Fender — bright, crisp and articulate — while being fuller and more powerful, and rejecting 60-cycle hum. With it, Fender could finally compete in the rock territory dominated by Gibson.

The Wide Range pickup even looked somewhat like the full-size humbucker Lover had developed for Gibson a decade earlier, although it was approximately 3/8 inches longer and   inch wider, and had its visible adjustable pole pieces in a three-and-three formation, in opposing rows.

Significantly, those threaded pole pieces were made from CuNiFe magnets,
an alloy of copper, nickel and ferrite. This blend of metals produced a magnetic material hard enough to cut threads into (something not possible with alnico), allowing for adjustable pole pieces. Simultaneously, it retained the Fender pickup-design archetype of positioning the magnetic poles within the pickup’s coils, rather than using bar magnets beneath the coils, feeding steel poles within, as in the Gibson archetype. Such construction was a big part of the Fender tone formula, helping to retain the maker’s signature twang, even in a humbucking pickup.

Following their 1971 debut on the Telecaster Thinline, the Wide Range pickups showed up the following year in the neck position of the Telecaster Custom, with a traditional single-coil Tele pickup in the bridge position. The Custom also gained a new four-control layout and toggle-style pickup selector switch, similar to Gibson guitars.

The move was clearly designed to appeal to the many blues, rock and jazz players who for years had been modifying their Teles by adding a Gibson humbucker in the neck position for a thicker, warmer tone. An entirely new Telecaster, the Deluxe, was released in early ’73 according to most accounts and featured the Custom’s switching array, Wide Range humbuckers in the neck and bridge positions, and an enlarged Strat-style headstock.

The ’74 Telecaster Thinline shown here displays all the key features and so-called innovations introduced with the model’s redesign in 1971. They include Fender’s then-new “bullet” headstock-positioned truss-rod adjustment nut, as well as the three-screw neck attachment with Micro-Neck-Adjust (a.k.a. Tilt Neck) neck-angle adjustment bolt, all of which were seen on the Stratocaster beginning partway through 1971.

Rather than the standard Telecaster’s three tone-enhancing steel bridge saddles, these models employed the same die-cast Mazak (a.k.a. Zamak) saddles used on the Strat. This pot-metal alloy of zinc, aluminum, magnesium and copper allowed cheaper and easier component fabrication, but many guitarists found it detrimental to the guitars’ sustain and resonance, even if the six individual saddles arguably allowed for more precise intonation adjustment.

Promoted as beneficial new features at the time, the three-bolt neck and bullet-head adjustment nut have, together, long been regarded as the most obvious outward demarcation point between the “good” early CBS Stratocasters and the inferior examples that followed. Most Telecaster fans have similar feelings about their preferred model. Still, these solid, versatile early humbucker-loaded Fenders now retain a certain cache with rock, blues and roots players.

While the quality of Fender guitars made in the ’70s in general tends to be derided, and occasionally with good reason, the second version of the Telecaster Thinline has a lot going for it. Despite being aimed at the rock guitar market, the guitar proved more appealing to blues, punk, grunge, alternative and indie-rock players in the decades that followed.

The list of major names who have wielded one or another of these Wide Range Humbucker–equipped Teles — Thinline, Custom and Deluxe included — is long and includes Tab Benoit, Carrie Brownstein, Keith Richards, Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner, Thom Yorke, Chris Shiflett and several others.

Christmas is approaching at breakneck speed, and if you're anything like us, you'll most likely have left a few essential gifts a little too late for comfort. Well, there's no need to panic, as Fender has come through with the perfect solution for the last-minute gifters. Right now, you can score an extra $50 when you buy a $350+ gift card from the official Fender store. 

A gift card is an ideal solution for the recipient who is a little too particular about their music gear. Going down this route takes all the guesswork out of buying a gift, allowing your loved one to choose exactly what they wanted in the first place – and they have plenty to choose from on the Fender site.  

It's worth noting that Fender is currently running multiple sales this holiday season, so it's never been more affordable to bag one of these iconic instruments. For a limited time, you'll find $200 off the American Professional II range, $150 off Vintera II and $100 off select Player Plus guitars. 

I’ve been using the Fender Mustang Micro for years now and as far as headphones amps for guitar go, I still think it’s one of the best. Super portable, packed full of great tones, and easy to use, it’s now dirt cheap over in the Musician’s Friend Cyber Monday sale thanks to a cheeky $15 discount.

It can cover a lot of different styles with its combination of 12 amps and 12 effects, so whether you prefer cleaner tones, mid-gain crunch, or high-gain grind it’s got your back. So if you’re looking for a great Cyber Monday guitar deal on a practice amp I don’t think it gets much better than this.

I’ve played my Mustang Micro pretty much everywhere in my house whether that’s on the sofa, in bed, or the garden on a sunny day. Armed with your guitar and a pair of headphones you’ve got a travel-anywhere rig that’s perfect for impromptu songwriting sessions and practicing on the go. I love using it when I’ve got downtime on work trips, giving me great tones with a minimum of fuss or weight to carry.

There’s an excellent selection of sounds on board with EQ presets for fine-tuning the amp models giving you plenty of flexibility in your tones. With everything from the classic Fender clean sound through to 5150 tones, you can cover pretty much everything and anything with this ingenious bit of kit. I particularly enjoy the stereo delay effects, which sound fantastic through a pair of headphones.

Despite being relatively old, it has a USB-C connection which makes it well-suited for the modern world. You can charge it pretty much anywhere now and it’s also great for connecting to a smartphone to shoot videos of yourself playing. On my Pixel phone, it shows up as an external microphone and with a long USB-C cable you can make a nice content creation rig that doesn’t require loads of setup.

Fender has gone dark for Black Friday 2024 with a luxurious new high-end Stratocaster and Precision Bass in a gold and black Eclipse finish.

Limited to just 400 pieces each, American Professional II Anniversary Stratocaster HSS HT and Precision Bass also offer some unique features compared with the rest of the AmPro range.

The Strat features a hardtail bridge configuration – a relative rarity, especially on higher-end models, and perfect for maximum tuning stability – and a roasted maple neck, for increased resonance and resistance to temperature and humidity changes. And then of course there's the HSS pickup configuration, utilizing Fender’s V-Mod II single coils and DoubleTap humbucker, with a coil-split for extra flexibility.

It also looks killer.

The Precision Bass sticks to the AmPro II formula, with an alder body and maple neck and HiMass Vintage Bridge, while the V-Mod II split-coil pickup aims to occupy the middle ground between vintage and modern.

At $2,099 for the Stratocaster and $1,649 for the P-Bass they're not cheap. But as an added bonus, Fender has slashed $200 off its entire American Professional II guitar and bass range, including their left-handed models.

As much as I love the classic look of a Strat or Tele, I’ve always had a soft spot for Fender’s offsets. That’s why I picked up my Fender Jazzmaster 60th Anniversary model a few years back, and it’s why I still lust after Fender models like the Jaguar, Mustang and Duo-Sonic. It’s also why I think the Player Plus Meteora HH is one of the hottest-looking electric guitars to come from Fender in recent years. And if the offset shape rocks your world, right now is the perfect time to add the Meteora to your collection, whether you’re a guitarist or bassist. That’s because Sweetwater is offering $160 off select electric guitar models and $170 off basses during Black Friday. While four finish options are available for the guitar and three for the bass, here are the two that caught my eye.

If the Jazzmaster, Mustang et al represent the classic take on offset, the Player Plus Meteora is most assuredly a modern take on it. Like those models, the Meteora is built for comfort when sitting down and designed to cut a striking image when you’re standing up onstage. And with guitar and bass models available, it’s an ideal choice for six- and four-string players.

In that same way, the Meteora satisfies elements of Fender’s classic guitars while it strikes out a decidedly futuristic path. From a vintage angle, the guitar has the classic alder body/maple neck combo. The pau ferro fretboard, on the other hand, is in keeping with Fender’s recent move away from rosewood, and it’s the same wood famously found on the guitar maker’s celebrated SRV Strat. It looks beautiful and plays and sounds as good as maple or rosewood.

As for the pair of high-output Fireball pickups, they sound just like the name implies. But hit the SC-1 coil-split switch and they clean up nicely, presenting pristine single-coil tones. Either way, the Fireballs offer wonderful string-to-string articulation, making them ideal for a range of style, from rock to pop to country and more.

It all adds up to a guitar that’s as versatile as it is stylish. If you want a guitar that can do it all and not become just another one-trick pony in your collection, the Player Plus Meteora HH delivers.

For bassists, the Player Plus Active Meteora Bass boasts all that shapely style and tonal versatility, thanks to an active three-band EQ and switchable active/passive electronics that deliver everything from warm, thuddy grooves to punchy riffs. A pair of humbucking Fireball bass pickups serve up classic Fender bass tones as well as low-end with an aggressive modern edge.

Sweetwater’s Black Friday deals make putting a Meteora electric guitar or bass in your hands even easier. Check out the range of features and finishes at Sweetwater.

And be sure to see more early offers on our dedicated Black Friday guitar deals page.

When I was learning to play guitar, we didn’t have tab or platforms like Fender Play – now 50% off for Black Friday. No sir. Back in the mid-80s, you had go to a human for a guitar lesson (if you knew one and had the money), or you worked it out by ear (I, uh, didn’t have the talent ears).

Or you did the same as hundreds of thousands of guitarists across the world did: You bought an instructional cassette by Arlen Roth.

Arlen Roth was “the master of the Telecaster”. A columnist for this very magazine, no less. When they needed someone to teach actor Ralph Macchio how to play guitar for the movie Crossroads, they knew there was only man to turn to: Roth.

Arlen was probably the no.1 guitar teacher in the world back then, thanks to Hot Licks, his cassette series of guitar lessons. Eventually, he’d move into video but that was yet to come – I don’t think we even had a VCR. So I bought Rock Guitar, on tape, and I sat down with my Strat copy and got to work.

From memory, Arlen started us off with a simple blues riff. I knew a handful of chords, but this was new. I was picking notes and starting to get a nice blues shuffle going when, suddenly – and I’m talking 10 minutes into the tape – Arlen said something I just didn’t understand. I dunno what it was: his Bronx accent in my Scottish ears, or the use of a musical term I just didn’t get, I dunno.

But I couldn’t follow him.

I rewound that tape a million times to try and understand what he was saying. But… nothing. Bear in mind, this is the 80s: I couldn’t Google it. I was lost. I couldn’t move on to the next part, because I’d missed a bit. It didn't make sense. The chain was broken. I was stuck with C, F and G until the VCR revolution.

I think the same thing must’ve happened to Noel Gallagher.

All I’m saying is: YOU OWE ME ROTH!* I coulda been somebody. Instead, [Ray Liotta voice] I had to live the rest of my life like a schnook.

And you, reader: you don’t know how lucky you are in this world of tab and YouTube videos and platforms like Fender Play. 50% off for a year! It’s so much of a bargain that I would consider suing Fender for discrimination against old blokes. Except I’m gonna get it myself. Time to brush up on those blues shuffles.

*If you’re reading this, Mr Roth, sir, I’m only joking, clearly. You’re still the boss.

What is Fender Play?

It's coming to that time of year when someone in your family might be getting their first guitar – or setting themselves some New Year's Resolutions: "This is the year, I'm going to learn to play properly!"

Well, if that applies to you or someone in your family, Fender's Black Friday means that new users of teaching platform Fender Play get 50% off an annual plan.

Aimed at the beginner and intermediate levels, Fender Play is great for newbie guitar players who want to learn guitar, bass and ukelele or anyone with a few blind spots in their playing.

With Fender Play you get everything from step-by-step lessons for total beginners and bespoke lesson plans, to song lessons covering tracks by contemporary artists like Ed Sheeran and Billie Eilish, to heavy hitters like Pantera and Nirvana through to classic rock numbers from The Beatles and The Stones, back to Elvis Presley. There’s thousands more to work through. Put it this way, you’re not going to be short of inspiring material to keep you playing, especially at this price.

Fender Play also includes fun features such as the Chord Challenge, which will make sure you develop key skills like quick, tidy chord changes without getting bored. You also get access to the Fender Play community, which is full of players on a similar journey, and a great place to get – and give – advice and tips!

Whether you have 5 minutes or two hours, the range and volume of content aimed at every level of player means you'll be able to learn something new every single day.

For more great guitar deals, visit our Black Friday round-up or check out this great value online lessons deal from Guitar Tricks, aimed at intermediate players.

The Fender Player Series has always offered incredible value and has long been a favourite of beginners and pros alike. When the sequel was announced, the aptly named Player II, the entire guitar community was excited to see how this newly revised version compared to the original. Thankfully, we weren't disappointed. The Player II was every bit as good as the guitar that came before, but now, it sports a few choice upgrades that have been carried over from 2021's Player Plus range. 

Fast forward to today, and with Black Friday right around the corner, we've started to see the very first discounts applied to two unique Player II instruments. Right now, you can score an impressive $240 off both the Player II Strat and Tele at Fender.com. 

Dressed in an eye-catching Forest Green getup, both models feature a contemporary C neck profile with silky satin urethane finish, a familiar 9.5”-radius slab rosewood fingerboard and 22 medium jumbo frets. The tonal heart of each guitar is a set of Player Series Alnico V single-coil pickups, and the spec sheet is rounded out with ClassicGear tuning machines. 

So, who should purchase one of these bargains? Clearly, they’re epic value for the budget-conscious player and an excellent buy for a novice. At only $559, they are also an absolute steal for the gigging musician who needs a reliable road-worthy guitar that doesn't cost the earth.   

There’s only one question that really matters – which one should I buy? The Fender Player II Stratocaster is arguably the most versatile out of the two, with its trio of pickups and Synchronized Tremolo. That said, a Strat can be too much for some players. The Fender Player II Telecaster is a far simpler instrument, and its rugged appeal suits various musical styles. 

Really, in our opinion, you can't go wrong with either. Both are stunning guitars at a fabulous price. Keep it locked to our Black Friday guitar deals page for even more savings throughout this year's Cyber Weekend.

Black Friday week has arrived and it’s bargains galore out there with some amazing deals to be had on Fender classics. We’ve found some truly incredible offers on a range of electric guitars. From Strats and Teles to offsets it seems there’s something for everybody in Fender's massive up to 50% off Black Friday sale. 

Some of the best deals we’ve spotted are now live at the official Fender site – but take it from us, they’re that good they probably won’t hang around. Now, with 75 guitars on offer, we thought we'd hand-pick our top eight. These are the guitars that we highly rate - and more importantly, these are the instruments we'd spend our own cash on.

Of course, there are lots more on offer, so we recommend checking out the full sale for yourself. This promotion runs until the 1st of December, so if you see something you like, don't hang about, as there are only a few days to grab a bargain.

Check out more epic Black Friday sales that are live right now

• B&H Photo: Mics, monitors, headphones
• Guitar Center: Up to 50% off BF sale
• Musician's Friend: Up to 50% off holiday sale
• Sweetwater: Huge 80% savings
• Andertons: Black Friday price promise
• PMT: Christmas gifting guide
• Waves: Plugins from as little as $19.99

Anyone who's seen Thurston Moore play over the years knows he's a fan of Fender Jazzmaster guitars.

And there's one in his collection that's particularly special, and not just because it hails from the model's first year of manufacture.

On July 4, 1999, Sonic Youth's instruments and stage gear were stolen in Orange County, California, while the group was in the midst of a North American tour. The band members would recover a number of the guitars and basses over the years, but that of course did not help in the short term.

"We had to replenish our coffers with newly bought secondhand guitars at different music stores and re-create the band, as far as our sound goes," says Moore, who also lost lyric books in the theft. "Because we could never replicate the distinctions of each of those guitars."

To Moore's everlasting thanks, Patti Smith came to the rescue with a gift: her vintage Fender Jazzmaster.

"After the initial rip-off, the Patti Smith Group was playing in Northampton [Massachusetts], where we were living in the early 2000s," Moore recalls. "They stayed at our house. Patti shared the story about how their group also had their van broken into. All of the instruments were stolen, along with suitcases and all her signed, first-edition William Burroughs books."

Smith recalls that she purchased the Jazzmaster in the ’70s, from a shop across the street from Manny's Music, on 48th Street in New York City. "I think I put a metal nut and metal pickguard on it," she says. "I gave it to him, as all our equipment was stolen in Chicago in 1978. It was devastating. So I knew how it felt."

As Moore recalls, "She said, 'I want to gift you one of our guitars.' That was incredibly sweet and special and such an honor. I couldn't believe it. It's just a beautiful Jazzmaster, painted gold."

But Moore was in for another surprise when he took the guitar in for some work.

"I found out it's a day-one '58 Jazzmaster, with the year penciled in underneath the neck," he says. "I had a luthier take it apart. He nearly had a 'pack my bags and send me to heaven' moment. He was like, 'I've never seen a Jazzmaster that had this penciling inside. It's a ground-zero Jazzmaster.' I said, 'Yeah, it's a good guitar,’ ” Moore adds with a laugh.

"I remember mentioning to Tom Verlaine, 'Patti gave me this really cool gold Jazzmaster.' He was like, 'She gave you the gold Jazzmaster? Oh, man, I really wanted that guitar.' That's her nature, though. She has this great, kind quality as a friend, that when somebody gets burned, she wants to help make it right."

The Jazzmaster is still in Moore's possession, and he's used it on some of his solo albums — although not his new solo album, Flow Critical Lucidity. The guitar has been seen of late onstage in the hands of his co-guitarist, James Sedwards.

"I treasure it," Moore says. "I keep it very safe and secure when I'm not" using it." He adds, with anther laugh, that, "Talking about it is funny because I always worry that Patti’s' gonna read an interview and say, 'Hey, I always wondered what happened to that guitar. I want it back!' "

Thinking back on the theft, meanwhile, Moore says the event made a profound creative impact on Sonic Youth that went beyond replacing their instruments.

"In some ways it was really interesting because it allowed us to become new again," he explains. "We had to reinvent what we were doing. And it took us awhile to get back to playing the material we were up to playing 'til that point 'cause we had to find the guitars to do so. And even then it wasn't exactly the same. But it became a real opportunity for us to grow, I think."

How unique is the tone of a mighty Dumble amp? Just ask Mark Tremonti. The guitarist says his three Dumbles served as the model for his lead tone when he went on the road for Creed's reunion tour.

“I’m an amp fanatic; I’ve bought, sold, and traded a lot over the years and kept the best ones,” he says. “When I go on the road, I miss some of them, so I wanted to make an amp that does it all, and that’s the MT 100.”

The MT 100, of course, is his signature PRS amplifier. And versatility, he says, was crucial for it to meet his demands.

“It has a big high-gain channel that does the heavy Mesa/Boogie thing that I’ve always loved,” he explains. “It’s a great balance between the percussive heavy, high-gain rhythm stuff that I do and the lead at the same time.

“Sometimes you can get a great rhythm tone, but then your lead tone suffers. So I had to find that perfect balance between the two.”

While he talks up the amp’s “ high headroom, Fender Twin–on-steroids” clean channel, he says its dirt draws inspiration from Dumble amps.

“There’s a million Dumble clones out there. I’ve played almost all of them and own three,” the PRS signature artist says. “I love the expressiveness of those amps. So I took one of my favorites up to the factory and said, ‘Let’s not try to do a Dumble — let’s try to capture what it feels like when the pick hits the string on a Dumble, because that’s what I really love.’

“So we just tweaked and tweaked and tweaked until we came up with this overdrive channel, which, to me, is very inspiring.”

Over the years, Dumble amps have built a mystical reputation akin to Klon Centaur. The amps have been beloved by greats like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robben Ford, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Joe Bonamassa, and Tremonti believes their magic lies in their ability to bridge dirty, driven tones and crystalline cleans. As such, he’s had to double up on his MT 100s to achieve both sides of Dumble’s tonal coin.

“It’s a sound that blooms,” he says. “You can have that half-dirty thing, where you can dial the gain back and strum through a chord, and it can just be a little overdriven and sweet. So if you’re playing a clean, fingerpicked part, that middle channel is perfect.

“On this tour, it’s going to be two MT 100s, and they’re going to be dialed in the same way. For some reason, to me, that’s the best-sounding rig.”

As for his pedalboard, simplicity reigns supreme, with the guitarist saying, “I’m all about the big, straight-ahead meat-and-potatoes sound.”

“I usually set my delay consistently for the entire set; I don’t set it per song,” he reveals. “And then, on the floor, I’ll have a wah and an overdrive for leads, some kind of Uni-Vibe-style modulation pedal, and an octave pedal for any time I hit a big single-string riff and want it to jump out and be bigger.”

Pedals on his board include a Boss OctaveOC-5, a Mark Tremonti signature Morley wah, a Little Lehle AB box, and an Ibanez tube screamer.

Creed’s tour begins in Oklahoma City on November 2, with the spirit of his favorite Dumble amp living on in his twin MT 100 setup.

In related news, Tremonti’s Alter Bridge bandmate Myles Kennedy has revealed how an onstage disaster forced him to buy a PRS guitar he couldn't afford.

The Doors' guitarist Robby Krieger is the first guitarist to showcase a brand-new cardboard Telecaster, putting it through its paces during his take on the blues classic "Little Red Rooster."

Krieger features in the latest installment of the Cardboard Sessions video series, which finds the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and his band, Soul Savages, playing instruments made of cardboard.

The project was born from a collaboration between snowboard manufacturer Signal Snowboards and Ernest Packaging to use cardboard in ways never seen before. The material had proved useful for making surfboards, skateboards and even push bikes, and the community-based snowboard brand was looking for its next cardboard-based venture.

In 2015, the Fender Custom Shop joined the project to create a fresh approach to the Stratocaster, and the legacy of cardboard instruments has continued to grow since. The instruments, built at Fender's facility in Corona, California, are made of layered cardboard strong enough to withstand string tension, and have been played by Billy Gibbons and Keanu Reeves. Bass guitars have also been built, but a Tele hadn’t been in the cards until now.

Krieger, who unveiled the first cardboard Telecaster with some purring slide guitar licks, is an unusual choice for this particular model. He's usually seen playing a Gibson SG or a Les Paul. But he's unequivocal when it comes to his belief in the power of music.

“Music, I think, is the only thing that can mend the world," he says following his band’s performance, "and I hope we can do that before it’s too late. Music is the answer, so let’s keep playing.”

Soul Savages features keyboardist Ed Roth, drummer Franklin Vanderbilt and bass player Kevin Brandon. Their collective resume includes stints with Lenny Kravitz, Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder. Krieger’s son, Waylon, guest stars in this episode, trading licks with his father on a cardboard Strat.

Speaking to Guitar World, Cardboard Sessions’ Dave Lee says, “A lot of artists will see the cardboard guitar for the first time and joke, ‘You guys just took some pizza boxes and started stacking them together to make a guitar!

“That material is not as sturdy as wood, obviously, so there are some minor tweaks that need to happen,” he admits. “But they all have truss rods; you’re able to tweak ’em. The structural integrity is pretty amazing for cardboard. You can totally rock it.”

Billy Gibbons concurs with that sentiment. During his Cardboard Sessions video, the ZZ Top man can be heard exclaiming “Man, I like this thing!” while tracking an original song, "Slammin' on Cardboard" with Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum.

Fender looks set to enter new territory after a prototype seven-string Stratocaster has been unveiled amid talks of “a bigger vision” for the guitar.

Through the success of djent and progressive metal, the demand for extended-range guitars has skyrocketed over the past two decades. Metal guitar luthiers like Ibanez and Jackson were quick to cash in on that demand and today, extended-range guitars are commonplace in any electric guitar store.

Despite that surge in popularity, more traditional luthiers like Gibson and Fender, have historically stuck to what they’re best at rather than experimenting in unchartered territory.

That is, until now. Talking on the latest episode of his podcast, Suicide Silence guitarist Chris Garza has shown off the first-ever seven-string Stratocaster made by Fender. It's a striking axe that, aptly, has been nearly seven years in the making.

“This is the first-ever official Fender – not Squier – seven-string hardtail. The first one ever in history,” he says. “Honestly, it still doesn’t seem real.

“I've been trying to manifest it, and it's now a physical, real thing. It even looks better in person as it did in my mind.”

As detailed by Garza, the guitar pairs a mahogany body and maple neck with an ebony fingerboard sporting 24 jumbo frets. Built to a 26.5” scale length, the Custom Shop creation sees Bare Knuckle Aftermath humbuckers sitting beneath its seven strings.

That makes it quite a rare beast, as typically Fender guitars come with Fender-voiced pickups, but of course, exceptions had to be made for what is currently a one-off prototype.

Its specs are rounded out with a string-through-body hardtail bridge, a single volume knob, and some choice body contouring, especially around the neck. There are also no inlays for a clean finish.

There’s a reason Garza was so clear underlining that this is a Fender build, and not one from its wallet-conscious sister firm, Squier. That’s because Squier has tried – albeit unsuccessfully – to bring seven-string guitars into the Fender family stable before.

First came the now gold-dust-rare Squier Stratocaster VII in 2000, which was made available with hardtail and tremolo bridges. The Squier Stagemaster 7 also arrived in 2000 and rocked a Floyd Rose-style floating tremolo but was discontinued two years later.

While this new build is a one-off, Garza hints that more chapters in the Fender seven-string story will soon be written.

“There’s a bigger vision with this guitar,” he continues. “I do want this to be a signature model at some point. We’ll see what happens.”

Noticeably, Fender has been blurring the lines between its roster of brands, which includes Jackson, Charvel, and EVH. Fender’s new American Ultra II line is a testament to that, with a great emphasis on faster and thinner necks, which is a trope those other three brands have hung their respective hats on.

If that trend is to continue, more seven-string Fenders doesn’t seem too far of a stretch. Indeed, as extended-range Jackson’s for Spiritbox’s Mike Stringer and Periphery’s Misha Mansoor prove, there’s a real renaissance for vintage-modern builds right now, with both only possible with Fender and Jackson collaborating. Fender could be sitting on a veritable gold mine.

It will be interesting too to see what Fender does regarding the pickups for potential seven-strings. Voicing its own pickups, drafting in Jackson designs, or using Seymour Duncans, which are commonly found on Jackson builds, all represent viable options.

For now, players can marvel at Garza's one-of-a-kind history-maker.

“Shout out to [Fender Custom Shop manager] Javier Cuba ,” he concludes. “He put in a lot of time on this. From the first conversation with Fender to getting it in my hand took almost seven years. It was definitely well worth the wait.”

You’d think that ordering a guitar custom-built to your exact specifications might cost you a princely sum of cash, but with free upgrades that can offer massive savings of up to $400, the Fender Mod Shop just made designing your dream guitar a little bit cheaper. With all the popular Fender models available to be chopped and changed to your desires, this is one early Black Friday guitar deal that’s well worth a look.

I went and had a look at the Mod Shop to see what was available - not at all because it’s great fun designing your dream guitar - and put together my ideal Jazzmaster to see what the price came out at. Opting for a Skyburst Metallic color scheme I added a Rosewood neck, American Vintage II pickups, a set of deluxe locking tuners, and a 6-saddle bridge with Panorama tremolo, all of which were free upgrades from the sale.

It came out at $1,999.99, which is really not bad for a guitar made to my preferred specification. It’s less than the brand-new American Ultra II range of guitars, making it a great option if you're a bit tired of the standard Fender models. Free upgrades are available on a huge range of parts too, meaning you can get your dream axe at a significant discount.

Although there are not too many body wood options for the Jazzmaster (you can only choose between alder and pine) other models in the lineup have plenty of free upgrades. You can go for a Mahoganyor chambered ash on the Strat and Tele models, as well as classic Alder if you prefer the gold standard for a Fender guitar. Alder also gives you the most color options as the others are a bit lacking in that department.

Neck’s also have an array of free upgrade options so you can select between Mahogany, rosewood, or roasted maple. As arguably the most important part of any guitar, this is a crucial choice when designing your dream instrument. There are also free upgrades for more aesthetic choices available, like a black-painted headstock or block inlays of the fretboard.

There’s a wide array of pickups available too, and you can select pretty much any configuration when putting together your axe. Free upgrades can get you a Shawbucker humbucker, V-Mod pickups, and Gen 4 Noiseless if you like your sounds more modern. For classic Fender tone lovers you can also upgrade to the American Vintage II pickups in a range of classic configurations.

Fender's newly announced American Ultra II series combines classic Fender ingredients with hyper-modern recipes to showcase the company at its most forward-thinking.

The complement of modernizations include new finishes, body contours, and a modern D-profile neck shape, along with advanced Ultra Noiseless and Haymaker humbucker pickups. The result is a closer relationship between Fender's heritage builds and the high-performance, built-for-speed instruments of its sister firms Charvel, EVH and Jackson.

The series consists of two Stratocasters, a Telecaster, and — for fans of offsets — a Meteora, along with Precision, Jazz and Meteora bass guitars and an all-single-coil Strat for left-handed players.

Updates include D-shape necks made from quartersawn maple and topped with either ebony or maple fingerboards, with Luminlay side dots and ultra-rolled edges. Taking the guitars closer to Charvel and Jackson's territory, the new neck shape is said to allow players to “effortlessly glide along the fretboard” while retaining Fender’s most lusted hallmarks.

Other updates include newly sculpted neck heels and rear body contours for contemporary playability and comfort.

The two Stratocasters pair the new 10–14-inch compound radius necks with alder bodies, medium jumbo frets, and GraphTech TUSQ nuts. The standard version (from $2,199.99) packs a trio of Ultra II Noiseless Vintage Strat single-coil pickups, while the HSS model (from $2,249.99) features a pair of Ultra II Noiseless Hot Strat pickups and a Haymaker humbucker in the bridge.

Other hardware specs found across the two models include a two-point American Ultra Synchronized tremolo with whammy bar, stainless-steel block saddles and deluxe locking tuners. There are also soft-touch knobs and one-ply anodized aluminum pickguards.

The Standard Strat comes in Ultraburst, Solar Flare, Avalanche, Noble Blue, Sinister Red and Texas Tea finishes, with Texas Tea, Avalanche and Ultraburst on tap for lefties. The HSS is available in Ultraburst, Noble Blue, Sinister Red and Solar Flare.

The Ultra II Series Telecaster ($2,199.99) features Ultra II Noiseless Vintage Tele pickups combined with an all-new S-1 switch that engages a series wiring option to widen the guitar's tonal scope.

It's rounded out with a six-saddle string-through-body bridge with chrome brass saddles, deluxe locking tuners, knurled aluminum knobs and a futurist one-ply anodized aluminum pickguard. Finishes include Texas Tea, Sinister Red, Solar Flare, Avalanche and Ultraburst.

The Meteora ($2,249.99) has a pair of Haymaker humbuckers, designed to deliver “modern crunch and searing leads” in equal measure. Like the Ultra II Tele, its pickups are paired to an S-1 switch, and it features a bass-cut knob that sits alongside its master volume control.

The Meteora features a six-saddle string-through-body hardtail, deluxe locking tuners, and the same knurled knob and aluminum pickguard combo found on the Tele. The model is offered in Texas Tea, Avalanche and Ultraburst satin finishes.

For bassists, the Precision ($2,199.99), Jazz (four-string, $2,299.99; five-string, $2,399.99) and Meteora ($2,299.99) models pair alder bodies with ebony or quartersawn maple 10-to-14–inch compound-radius fretboards, medium jumbo frets, GraphTech TESQ nuts and smooth Ultra satin finishes.

The Precision is outfitted with a set of specially designed Ultra II Noiseless Vintage pickups, the Jazz comes with American Ultra II Jazz Bass pickups, and the Meteora wields Haymaker bass humbuckers.

A redesigned preamp gives players unprecedented tone control, while the S-1 switch engages active or passive operation. All models feature a three-band active EQ with switchable midrange frequency.

The basses are complemented by adjustable HiMass top-load or string-through bridges, lightweight tuners with tapered shafts, knurled knobs and aluminum pickguards.

The Precision is available in Ultraburst, Texas Tea, Sinister Red, and Noble Blue finishes. Choose from Sinister Red, Avalanche, and Ultraburst for the four-string Jazz, and Solar Flare, Texas Tea and Ultraburst for the five-string and Meteora.

Head to Fender to learn more.

"Those things still bring me the most fun out of anything," Brian Setzer said of Gretsch guitars in a 2023 Guitar Player interview with contributor Gary Graff. But as he went on to explain, the reason he fell in love with the Gretsch brand in the first place was due to one particular guitarist: Eddie Cochran.

"I bought one in the late 1970s because I wanted to look like Eddie Cochran;" Setzer said. "I didn't even know if they'd sound good. Back then no one knew who Eddie Cochran was, so I found one in the local paper for 100 bucks."

Some two decades earlier, Cochran — who played a Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins hollowbody — had been an inescapable presence on the hit parade as one of the guitarists most vital to first wave of rock and roll. Born in America, Cochran had managed to become a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic with late-1950s hits like "Twenty Flight Rock," "Summertime Blues" and "C'mon Everybody." Artists from the Beatles to the Who celebrated his music, but Cochran was dead well before either group arrived on the scene, his life cut tragically short in a taxi accident in Bristol on the night of April 16, 1960. He died the next day. (More fortunate were his traveling companions: his friend, the rocker Gene Vincent, and Cochran's girlfriend, the songwriter Sharon Sheeley, who wrote hits for RIcky Nelson and Richie Valens, and co-wrote Cochran's own 1959 hit "Somethin' Else.")

Cochran's memory slipped into the distant past as rock and pop grew progressively more advanced in the 1960s and '70s, but Setzer remained hooked to his music, which he'd first discovered as a youngster in the 1960s. He even got to portray the rocker in the 1987 Richie Valens biopic, La Bamba, where he performed "Summertime Blues" in a cameo appearance.

Considering how Gretsch guitars have shaped Setzer's sound — and how he has transformed the brand with his line of signature models — we thought it was high time we spoke with him about Cochran's influence on his guitar tone, music and image. He was only too happy to oblige.

Were you already a 1950s rock and roll fan prior to getting into Eddie, or was he your gateway?

My mom and dad liked ’50s music, but being from New York it was mostly doo-wop, which is great music of course. What I found though is that Eddie Cochran kind of flew under the radar a bit, especially with audiences in later years, where only a handful of his songs were well known. When I discovered Eddie, it was like a whole new world — kinda like, “Now this is what I’m talking about!” [laughs]

The image is a huge part of the appeal of the great ’50s rockers isn’t it?

Yeah, absolutely. To be honest, I saw his reissued album The Legendary Masters hanging up in my local record store, I thought, Oh my god, I want to be that guy! It was the coolest look, and I knew that I wanted to look like that guy before I even heard the music. I had no idea at that point how good he was.

There’s a very subtle nod to Eddie on the cover of Rockabilly Riot – All Original. The clothes you’re wearing are a copy of what Eddie was wearing on the Legendary Masters cover.

Yeah, I copied that outfit exactly. I just couldn’t ever get a good enough picture of the pants. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame had them. They got them out for me so I could take some pictures of them. They just seemed kinda handmade, like someone’s mom had made them or something. They definitely weren’t made by Elvis’s tailor. [laughs]

I always wondered how you knew what color they were, as I’d never seen a color picture of him wearing them.

Yeah, that’s exactly right. Fortunately, they had them put away at the Hall of Fame. That was the exact outfit that I’d worshipped growing up. [laughs]

Did you actually work out licks from the records and that kind of thing?

To a degree, but for me it was always about the feeling, and the song — learning the basis of the solo but not worrying about getting it note-for-note perfect. It was about capturing the feel and the spirit.

Eddie led you to Gretsch. Did you ever experiment with the P90 in the neck pickup, at any time?

I think the whole idea of Eddie was good enough. I didn’t feel the need to seek out exactly the sound that he had. The first Gretsch that I got happened to have the Filter’Tron pickups, and to me, at 17, I thought it was the same thing. I didn’t realize there was a difference. By the time that I did become aware of the P90 thing, I’d already established my sound and I was happy with it.

What were you playing before you got into Gretsches?

I was fooling around with a bunch of guitars to try to find a sound that I liked. My first guitar was a Harmony, but that didn’t quite cut it. After that I had a solid-bodied Rickenbacker and a really nice Stratocaster. I liked the sound of the Strat, but I could never quite settle with the feel of it. When I found the Gretsch, that was just meant to be; everything felt and sounded right. To me it was halfway between a Fender and a Gibson; it had qualities of both of them.

What are your favorite tracks of Eddie’s?

When I heard “Somethin’ Else,” that cemented the fact that I knew what I had to do. Enough of school, this is what I’m going to pursue. [laughs]

I think Eddie’s still pretty underrated. Presumably you’d agree.

Yeah, that’s true. When artists have hit records, that’s what people base their assumptions on and most don’t dig down any further than the hits that they know. Of course the idea behind a hit record is not just to feature yourself on guitar, it’s to have a hit. It’s what serves the song best. When you do dig down a little deeper, that’s when you really understand just how great a guitarist he was.

Did you ever get to play Eddie’s Gretsch?

I did get the chance to play his guitar at his mom’s house. I realized when I played it a little that it had what seemed like Slinky strings on there — the G wasn't a wound string. I asked his mom if they’d ever been changed and she said, “Oh no, absolutely not. They are the strings that were on it when he last played it.” I guess he must have used a banjo string for the E so that he could get a plain G string by moving the high E and B strings down to the B and G slots. The way he strung it — he was way ahead of his time .

It must have been a moving moment to actually play the iconic guitar, particularly knowing it was still strung up from the last show he did.

Oh yeah, absolutely. I remember going into his bedroom, which his mom had kept exactly as it was when he was last there, and seeing he had a tweed Fender Bassman combo. That was a revelation for me, as I’d been plugging my Gretsch into a Bassman, but had never known that Eddie had used one. It’s funny, because you have to remember that amps were so expensive in the ’50s, and it makes you wonder what would make a guitar player decide to play through a bass amp back then. He must have experimented and realized that the Gretsch and the Bassman was a great combination.

It is almost the definitive set up for rockabilly isn’t it?

Well it’s worked for me for all these years, that’s for sure. [laughs]

You got to play Eddie in La Bamba. That must have been almost surreal, to go from being a fan to playing the man himself.

The whole movie was surreal. They had rented a high school, and everyone had to be in character. There was nothing from past 1959 anywhere, you know? I remember thinking, Holy cow, this is as close to the real thing as you can get. It definitely was surreal, and a real special feeling to get that chance to play Eddie, especially with him having had such a huge influence on me.