News Latest News from Ultimate-Guitar.Com. en-US Copyright 1998-2026 Ultimate-Guitar.Com. All rights reserved. https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/modules/rss/news.xml.php Sat, 30 May 2026 09:46:31 -0400 Sun, 24 May 2026 18:28:34 -0400 60 Ultimate-Guitar.Com https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/static/_img/logo_trans.png https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/modules/rss/news.xml.php 144 44 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/gear/slash-replaced-his-marshalls-with-magnatones-on-a-gnr-tour-unbeknownst-to-anyone-else-i-was-starting-to-get-tired-of-the-very-predictable-marshall-sound https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/gear/slash-replaced-his-marshalls-with-magnatones-on-a-gnr-tour-unbeknownst-to-anyone-else-i-was-starting-to-get-tired-of-the-very-predictable-marshall-sound Gear: "It was a big revelation because it gave me a kind of clarity."]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 09:46:31 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/gear/alex-lifeson-will-recreate-rushs-classic-guitar-sounds-on-reunion-tour-using-digital-tech-tom-sawyer-limelight-the-whole-gamut https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/gear/alex-lifeson-will-recreate-rushs-classic-guitar-sounds-on-reunion-tour-using-digital-tech-tom-sawyer-limelight-the-whole-gamut Gear: "It's not just the same thing for an hour and a half."]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 08:35:30 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/rockbitchs-genuine-controversy-made-it-nearly-impossible-to-take-their-music-seriously-186800 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/rockbitchs-genuine-controversy-made-it-nearly-impossible-to-take-their-music-seriously-186800 Features: The members of Rockbitch performed nude, threw golden condoms into the audience, and got banned across Europe. But was any of it actually about the music?]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 21:20:30 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/retrospective/john-lennon-went-from-never-to-why-not-on-a-beatles-reunion-it-never-got-to-where-we-all-wanted-it-at-the-same-time https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/retrospective/john-lennon-went-from-never-to-why-not-on-a-beatles-reunion-it-never-got-to-where-we-all-wanted-it-at-the-same-time Retrospective: "To me, if we were to get back together, it would be working together at the studio again."]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 13:57:20 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/who-owns-pink-floyd-waters-got-the-wall-gilmour-got-the-name-and-sony-got-the-catalog-for-400-million-186548 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/who-owns-pink-floyd-waters-got-the-wall-gilmour-got-the-name-and-sony-got-the-catalog-for-400-million-186548 Features: When Gilmour's post-Waters Pink Floyd took an inflatable pig on tour, they added testicles to it so it would be legally distinct from Waters' pig and avoid paying him $800 a night. That level of pettiness defined the split for decades, but both men quietly built empires from their respective halves of a 1987 settlement signed on a houseboat two days before Christmas.]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 12:38:55 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/a-lot-has-been-written-about-whether-alex-was-happy-geddy-lee-on-rushs-synth-era-and-the-bands-relentless-drive-to-evolve https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/a-lot-has-been-written-about-whether-alex-was-happy-geddy-lee-on-rushs-synth-era-and-the-bands-relentless-drive-to-evolve Music News: "We were all for one, and one for all. So we embraced, and Alex embraced, the changes, because it was in our nature to do so."]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 01:48:32 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/gear/fender-sent-a-cease-and-desist-to-prs-maker-of-best-selling-john-mayer-s-type-prs-says-it-disagrees-with-fenders-assessment https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/gear/fender-sent-a-cease-and-desist-to-prs-maker-of-best-selling-john-mayer-s-type-prs-says-it-disagrees-with-fenders-assessment Gear: PRS confirmed it too has been targeted by Fender amid the backlash against the latter company's latest legal move.]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:16:15 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/interviews/devin-townsend-was-completely-theoretically-ignorant-before-the-moth-the-nearly-decade-long-project-that-made-him-start-from-zero https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/interviews/devin-townsend-was-completely-theoretically-ignorant-before-the-moth-the-nearly-decade-long-project-that-made-him-start-from-zero Interviews: UG Exclusive: As Devin admits, the creative process required a few years of additional learning, and there was more than just one reason that the album took so long to pull off.]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 19:00:50 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/nevermind-was-the-explosion-but-pixies-janes-addiction-and-faith-no-more-had-already-lit-the-fuse-186770 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/nevermind-was-the-explosion-but-pixies-janes-addiction-and-faith-no-more-had-already-lit-the-fuse-186770 Features: NOFX's Fat Mike argued Faith No More "kind of did it before Nirvana" with "The Real Thing." Krist Novoselic admitted Nirvana's melodic direction came from listening to R.E.M., and by the time 'Nevermind' dropped, the audience was already there.]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 14:42:26 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/a-critic-called-sister-rosetta-tharpes-music-rock-and-roll-in-1942-chuck-berry-hadnt-recorded-a-note-elvis-was-a-kid-186545 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/a-critic-called-sister-rosetta-tharpes-music-rock-and-roll-in-1942-chuck-berry-hadnt-recorded-a-note-elvis-was-a-kid-186545 Features: In 1938, Tharpe walked into a New York studio and became the first gospel superstar to achieve massive secular crossover success on a major American label. By the mid-1940s, she was overdriving small, low-headroom tube amplifiers to their physical saturation limits and bending notes in ways that wouldn't show up in white rock and roll for another decade.]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 09:54:14 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/rush-was-heavily-in-debt-and-alex-lifeson-risked-becoming-a-plumbing-assistant-then-they-made-2112-that-was-my-protest-record https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/rush-was-heavily-in-debt-and-alex-lifeson-risked-becoming-a-plumbing-assistant-then-they-made-2112-that-was-my-protest-record Music News: "We just say screw everybody, we're just going to make the record that we want to make, and if it fails, then at least it's our thing, we did it."]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 04:02:01 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/gear/fender-responds-to-cease-and-desist-backlash-claims-its-not-after-all-s-type-guitars-just-close-copies-of-the-stratocaster https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/gear/fender-responds-to-cease-and-desist-backlash-claims-its-not-after-all-s-type-guitars-just-close-copies-of-the-stratocaster Gear: The company stated that targets of the cease and desist were free to continue operations if they introduced "relatively minor design changes" to their instruments.]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 23:16:07 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/chris-poland-on-rejecting-mustaines-rust-in-peace-offer-my-handful-of-fans-didnt-even-listen-to-megadeth-so-it-didnt-matter https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/chris-poland-on-rejecting-mustaines-rust-in-peace-offer-my-handful-of-fans-didnt-even-listen-to-megadeth-so-it-didnt-matter Music News: "My career was playing instrumental whacked out fusion."]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 13:28:12 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/tab_spotlight/noah-kahans-the-great-divide-shifts-between-44-and-34-a-beginner-riff-that-teaches-you-to-keep-open-strings-ringing https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/tab_spotlight/noah-kahans-the-great-divide-shifts-between-44-and-34-a-beginner-riff-that-teaches-you-to-keep-open-strings-ringing Tab Spotlight: What makes the song a bit tricky for beginners is the time signature shift from 4/4 to 3/4, where the phrase ends one beat shorter than expected. Learning to keep those open strings sustaining while your fretting hand moves is the real skill the riff builds, helping you move from beginner to intermediate levels.]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 12:05:11 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/david-lee-roth-gets-emotional-as-he-recalls-coming-full-circle-with-eddie-van-halen-30-years-after-their-beginnings-he-sat-down-and-scooted-forward-till-our-knees-touched https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/david-lee-roth-gets-emotional-as-he-recalls-coming-full-circle-with-eddie-van-halen-30-years-after-their-beginnings-he-sat-down-and-scooted-forward-till-our-knees-touched Music News: During the 2006 reunion, Roth and Van Halen were working in vastly different conditions than in the '70s. The dynamic, however, was still the same.]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 04:02:01 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/shut-down-everything-steve-vai-gave-matteo-mancuso-advice-he-now-always-thinks-about-then-vai-ended-up-on-his-new-album https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/shut-down-everything-steve-vai-gave-matteo-mancuso-advice-he-now-always-thinks-about-then-vai-ended-up-on-his-new-album Music News: "It's one thing that I always think about," Mancuso said of the advice he received after Vai offered to collab.]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:26:48 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/gear/opinion-fender-acted-like-peoples-brand-for-years-going-full-gibson-might-signal-bad-news-for-guitar-sales https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/gear/opinion-fender-acted-like-peoples-brand-for-years-going-full-gibson-might-signal-bad-news-for-guitar-sales Gear: The timing of Fender's cease and desist push against S-style builders, from ultra-affordable imports to high-end boutique shops, suggests a company trying to rebalance demand by eliminating competition rather than earning it.]]> Tue, 26 May 2026 22:02:09 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/analysis-john-mayer-has-srvs-texas-flood-dumble-yet-he-proves-tone-is-in-the-hands-what-does-this-tell-us-about-guitar-culture-186734 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/analysis-john-mayer-has-srvs-texas-flood-dumble-yet-he-proves-tone-is-in-the-hands-what-does-this-tell-us-about-guitar-culture-186734 Features: Guitar culture built a system where owning a '59 burst signals seriousness before a single note is played. Mayer had the funds and obsession to reach that system's logical conclusion, but what sets him apart is that he learned from the chase rather than just collecting trophies.]]> Tue, 26 May 2026 18:07:49 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/gear/a-compressor-wont-change-your-tone-the-way-distortion-does-its-about-consistency-and-country-and-funk-players-have-built-entire-sounds-around-it https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/gear/a-compressor-wont-change-your-tone-the-way-distortion-does-its-about-consistency-and-country-and-funk-players-have-built-entire-sounds-around-it Gear: Guitarists usually understand distortion the moment they stomp it on. Compressors are harder to pin down because they work on dynamics. The real controls that shape the sound are attack and release, and cheaper pedals tend to bury them behind a single knob. Once you understand how threshold, makeup gain, and release interact, the pedal stops feeling like an effect and starts feeling like the guitar just got more cooperative.]]> Tue, 26 May 2026 15:01:45 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/soundgarden-were-pulling-apart-during-down-on-the-upside-and-you-can-hear-it-30-years-later-186719 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/soundgarden-were-pulling-apart-during-down-on-the-upside-and-you-can-hear-it-30-years-later-186719 Features: Matt Cameron called the sessions "certainly strained" and the touring even worse, describing "a lot of drinking, a lot of bad vibes, a lot of temper tantrums." Kim Thayil was blindsided by a shift from meticulous layering to raw first-take tracking. Ben Shepherd's personal life was collapsing in the background. Somehow, the tension produced one of the most ambitious albums of Soundgarden's career.]]> Tue, 26 May 2026 12:57:05 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/ex-rainbows-tony-carey-says-led-zeppelins-john-bonham-hated-touring-and-would-have-lived-if-he-was-allowed-to-rest https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/ex-rainbows-tony-carey-says-led-zeppelins-john-bonham-hated-touring-and-would-have-lived-if-he-was-allowed-to-rest Music News: "He wouldn't have drunk nearly as much if he'd been with his family."]]> Tue, 26 May 2026 05:02:01 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/jason-isbell-admits-he-took-a-page-from-the-quiet-beatles-playbook-for-grammy-winning-24-frames-its-the-old-george-harrison-trick https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/jason-isbell-admits-he-took-a-page-from-the-quiet-beatles-playbook-for-grammy-winning-24-frames-its-the-old-george-harrison-trick Music News: "It works every fucking time."]]> Tue, 26 May 2026 03:02:01 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/retrospective/dave-mustaine-says-def-leppard-lost-the-riff-after-pyromania-and-he-stopped-listening https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/retrospective/dave-mustaine-says-def-leppard-lost-the-riff-after-pyromania-and-he-stopped-listening Retrospective: "You can tell when guys start writing ballads, the riff starts to go away."]]> Tue, 26 May 2026 00:16:37 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/i-didnt-think-grunge-was-going-to-kill-it-faster-pussycats-guitarist-loved-alice-in-chains-before-they-were-signed-then-his-label-fired-everyone-and-dropped-his-band https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/i-didnt-think-grunge-was-going-to-kill-it-faster-pussycats-guitarist-loved-alice-in-chains-before-they-were-signed-then-his-label-fired-everyone-and-dropped-his-band Music News: "There was always bands like Metallica and Bon Jovi, and you're a fan of them, you're a fan of that, whatever. So, I didn't think about it in that term, about, 'Oh, grunge is going to kill it.' I don't think so."]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 17:23:04 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/tab_spotlight/lazarus-by-david-bowie-the-devils-interval-is-why-it-sounds-like-a-farewell-that-never-resolves https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/tab_spotlight/lazarus-by-david-bowie-the-devils-interval-is-why-it-sounds-like-a-farewell-that-never-resolves Tab Spotlight: The song runs on a simple Am-to-F progression, but the tritone lurking between B and F is what makes it so unsettling. Bowie, writing about his own death, leaned into it. The result is a song that never resolves, because it was never meant to.]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 13:35:42 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/chris-holmes-says-eddie-van-halen-vs-randy-rhoads-rivalry-was-between-the-fans-addresses-evh-rumor-of-turning-his-back-to-audience https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/chris-holmes-says-eddie-van-halen-vs-randy-rhoads-rivalry-was-between-the-fans-addresses-evh-rumor-of-turning-his-back-to-audience Music News: "If you go to a Quiet Riot party, you smoke Sherman cigarettes and drink Perrier. You go to a Van Halen concert, you smoke marijuana and drink Schlitz Malt Liquor and beat each other up."]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 11:55:31 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/guitarist-amir-derakh-impressed-ozzy-osbourne-but-lost-the-gig-to-zakk-wylde-he-says-wendy-dio-connection-worked-against-him https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/guitarist-amir-derakh-impressed-ozzy-osbourne-but-lost-the-gig-to-zakk-wylde-he-says-wendy-dio-connection-worked-against-him Music News: "I was connected to Wendy Dio, so they didn't want to deal with that whole thing."]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 04:02:02 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/some-people-will-never-forgive-us-for-going-on-with-someone-else-geddy-lee-on-why-rush-made-the-non-competitive-choice-with-neil-pearts-successor https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/some-people-will-never-forgive-us-for-going-on-with-someone-else-geddy-lee-on-why-rush-made-the-non-competitive-choice-with-neil-pearts-successor Music News: "She has the guts to sit in that seat, to accept that gig and take whatever fans are going to dish out."]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 23:51:47 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/eric-clapton-quit-the-yardbirds-at-their-commercial-peak-to-play-pure-blues-then-someone-spray-painted-clapton-is-god-on-a-london-wall-186707 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/eric-clapton-quit-the-yardbirds-at-their-commercial-peak-to-play-pure-blues-then-someone-spray-painted-clapton-is-god-on-a-london-wall-186707 Features: "Clapton Is God" is an old meme about Eric Clapton's skills, but there's a deeper story in how he earned the moniker.]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 19:46:25 -0400 https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/guitar_of_the_week/bolt-blue-has-colored-pencils-and-epoxy-for-its-explorer-type-body-10-pounds-4800-and-one-seymour-duncan-jb https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/guitar_of_the_week/bolt-blue-has-colored-pencils-and-epoxy-for-its-explorer-type-body-10-pounds-4800-and-one-seymour-duncan-jb Guitar Of The Week: Burls Art has built guitars from jawbreaker candies, copper, and epoxy before, but the Bolt - Blue might be the most visually striking yet. With a roasted neck, dark wood fretboard, and minimalist controls, the build lets the colored pencil body do the talking]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 18:28:34 -0400