Fender goes oddball on a budget with Squier Paranormal guitars

Like Fender’s Parallel Universe guitars, the Squier Paranormal series explores bizarre model combinations and “what if?” oddities, but at more budget-friendly price points. The latest release includes a 12-string Jazzmaster, a Strat with Gibson appoint… Continue reading Fender goes oddball on a budget with Squier Paranormal guitars

Review: EVH Wolfgang Special is a catalogue of Eddie’s brilliant ideas

Eddie Van Halen was more than just a keyboard player. He was also pretty good at guitar, and throughout his long career, he proved himself an extraordinary technical innovator. Frequently, these innovations were extremely violent. He’d attack a guitar … Continue reading Review: EVH Wolfgang Special is a catalogue of Eddie’s brilliant ideas

HyperSwitch allows players to reconfigure guitar pickups using a mobile app

The pickups assigned to the different positions on an electric guitar’s toggle switch are preset by the maker, and tweaking them involves breaking out the soldering iron and lots of experimenting. The HyperSwitch uses the power of a smartphone and a Bl… Continue reading HyperSwitch allows players to reconfigure guitar pickups using a mobile app

Foiled again: We’ve been playing Fender’s new gold-foil Telecaster

While the history of these things gets pretty murky, most folk seem to agree on a few things about gold foils: firstly, they hit the market around the middle of the 20th century, embedded in cheap guitars from Harmony and Teisco. Secondly, they’ve got … Continue reading Foiled again: We’ve been playing Fender’s new gold-foil Telecaster

Positive Grid takes guitar amp modeling portable with the Spark Go

Though guitar amp and effects modeling has been around for a while, Positive Grid shook things up in 2019 with the launch of the Spark – an impressively flexible and affordable tone master. The company downsized the format for the Mini last year, and h… Continue reading Positive Grid takes guitar amp modeling portable with the Spark Go