“It’s clear to see that modelers have won the battle”: Modelers outsold traditional amps and combos in 2025 – but the war between the two might not be over just yet
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/amps/reverb-best-selling-amps-modelers-2025
“One of the most significant artefacts in rock music history”: Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged Martin D-18E – the world’s most expensive guitar – has been donated to the Royal College of Music London
“It was the guitarhe played on the band’s earliest demos and at their early club gigs”: The Harmony Stratotone that Brian Jones used to teach Keith Richards and played on the Rolling Stones debut single fetches $150,000 at auction
“One of the best-sounding headphone amps for guitar I’ve had my hands on”: Blackstar Beam Solo review
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/headphone-amps/blackstar-beam-solo-review
"If you banish the desire for any real bass thump, there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had in the sounds you can coax out of this thing": Yamaha JR1 acoustic guitar review
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/acoustic-guitars/yamaha-jr1-review
“This isn’t a remake. It's an evolution”: The DigiTech Bad Monkey broke the internet with its Klon-aping antics – now it’s back and badder than ever before
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/effects-pedals/digitech-badder-monkey
“On the real Arm the Homeless guitar, a dog chewed the headstock. Other than that, they’re absolutely identical”: Tom Morello has been playing a Fender Arm the Homeless replica live and none of us noticed – now it’s available to buy
“He broke my heart, but at the same time, I was like, ‘Okay, well, I would love to have a Fender Jazz Bass’”: Bootsy Collins' first Fender Jazz Bass has just been sold at auction – and shot past its estimate
“I discovered African blackwood probably around 20 years ago. The first guitar was paired with a cedar top and the volume blew me away”: How a $10K acoustic build put the loud into Lowden – with exotic tonewoods and faultless construction
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/acoustic-guitars/lowden-f50-c-george-lowden
“It’s like getting a pre-washed pair of jeans: they’re broken in so they’re comfortable right out of the store”: The making of the American Professional Classic series – the brand-new “lived-in” (but not relic’d) US Fender line
“Getting a Germanium Boy into Brian May’s hands pronto is a top priority”: Dirty Boy’s pedals are loved by the likes of John Frusciante and Neal Schon – is the Queen guitarist next?
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/guitar-pedals/dirty-boy-pedals
“A tighter, louder and gutsier tone from an already stellar-sounding amp”: Bad Cat Mod Shop Black Cat 30 review
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/guitars/bad-cat-mod-shop-black-cat-30-review
“A warning shot to the competition and a reminder that Fender is still very much a force in the amp modeler market”: All the guitar gear that has caught my eye this week – including a new digital era for EVH
“The SEs were going to go away. We were having trouble with sales”: Paul Reed Smith on the near-fateful end of the PRS SE Series – and what saved it from extinction
“You can get some very mournful sounds out of it as well as in‑your-face. It’s a real old battle-axe”: Gary Moore’s 1963 Telecaster is modded and thrashed to death – and it’s got a tone pot that behaves like a wah
Fender keeps up with Neural DSP in the amp modeler race by giving the Tone Master Pro its first polyphonic synths – included in major free firmware update
The ultimate strap for heavy guitars? D’Addario’s new Comfort strap could be the solution to your back problems – and could have you playing for longer
“Ironically, the quest for a natural sound increasingly meant filling a guitar with wires, batteries and circuit boards”: The challenge of amplifying our acoustics has been one of guitar’s great challenges over the decades – are we nearly there yet?
“Does it sound like a J-45? No. Instead, you get the impression that the instrument has been reimagined through the lens of a master craftsman”: Bourgeois Slope D Standard T/S review
“Virtually indistinguishable from the all-tube original”: EVH signals the start of a brave new era with its first digital combo – which promises authentic Eddie Van Halen tube amp tones
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/combo-amps/evh-5150iii-hypersonic-6l6-combo
