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The big-toned guitarist talks about his latest songs, discovering the allure of acoustic guitar, and the power of dividing by two.Joe Bonamassa tends to go big. Big tones, big solos, big tours, a big gear collection, and a big road backline. His touring B rig boasts two Marshall Silver Jubilees, two Van Weelden Twinklelands, a Dumble Overdrive Special, a Benson rotary speaker, and a pair of his signature Fender High Power Twins. There’s also his A rig. That’s big.And yet, as Bonamassa spoke from his hotel room in Frankfurt, Germany, he was planning to quietly celebrate his 48th birthday over pizza with his band. Then get a good night’s sleep. And recently he’s truly fallen in love with unplugged acoustic guitar—although when he used one to cut a song for his new album, Breakthrough, he ran it into a Fender DeVille and says, “It just exploded.”That’s logical. Every great guitarist is a master of dynamics. And that sense of difference and balance reverberates in Breakthrough’s 10 songs, from the hard-edged, riff-driven title track, which features some blasting solos and stellar wah guitar, to the classic soul-pop flavor of “Life After Dark,” with its potent sustain and expressive bends, to the slide-dappled boogie of “Drive By the Exit Sign.” Like nearly every post-Cream Eric Clapton album, regardless of how steeped in rock, pop hooks, and other flavors Breakthrough’s songs are, there is always the taste of blues, his bedrock, in the palate—whether it’s a lick, or a tone, or phrasing. And like Clapton, he uses expert songwriting to transcend the limitations of the timeless genre in the modern music marketplace. Still, it’s extraordinarily pleasing when Bonamassa goes all in on the slow blues “Broken Record,” a full-hearted essay in expressive playing and singing, evocative of Gary Moore.When we spoke, Bonamassa talked about how acoustic guitar has impacted his evolution as a guitarist, explained the significance of the new album’s title, his DIY business model, and the power of dividing by two. Joe Bonamassa’s Gear(Note: Joe has similar A and B rigs that are hopscotched to suit tour logistics.)The B RigGuitars’77 Gibson Explorer’63 Gibson Sunburst ES-335 with Bigsby’62 Gibson Cherry ES-335 ’63 Gibson SG’54 Gibson Les Paul Jr. (all maple)’54 Gibson Les Paul conversion ’59 Gibson Les Paul “Snake Bite’’69 Gibson Les Paul “Royal Albert”’55 Fender Strat’59 Fender Strat (refinished)’53 Fender Tele’68 Fender Tele (wide range humbucker in neck)EffectsDunlop Joe Bonamassa Signature Cry Baby wahLehle 1@3Dunlop Joe Bonamassa Signature Fuzz FaceEHX Micro POGVintage Ibanez Tube ScreamerWay Huge Conspiracy TheoryMXR Micro FlangerBoss DD-2Hughes & Kettner Rotosphere MkIIStrings, Picks, & CablesErnie Ball (.011–.013–.018–.030–.042–.052)Dunlop JB Jazz III Gold picksKlotz cablesAmps (with settings)2 Marshall Silver Jubilee 2555s (presence, 4; bass,10; midrange, 6; treble, 4; out master, 10; lead master, 6; input gain, 5.5; each amp runs through half of a split Van Weelden 4×12 cabinet with Electro-Voice speakers)2 Van Weeldon Twinkle Lands w/Twinklelator buffered effects loop (volume, 6; bright, on; deep, on; hot, on; treble, 6; midrange, 6.5; bass, 4; level, 6.5; ratio, 7; master, 7; brilliance, 6.5; each amp runs through half of a split Van Weelden 4×12 cabinet with Electro-Voice speakers)Twinkelator effects loop settings: send, 7; return, 7; bright, offDumble Overdrive Special head (volume, 5; British, off; deep, off; rock, on; treble, 4; midrange, 6; bass, 4; overdrive level, 4; ratio, 6.5; master, 4; presence, 6; into 2×12 with TC Electronic Stereo Chorus)Benson Rotary Speaker2 Fender signature Joe Bonamassa High Powered Twins (volume 9; bright on; treble, 9; bass; 0, midrange, 9, presence, 7.5)2 Kikusui PCR2000MA Power SuppliesJoe, when you’re at home hanging out with a guitar in your hands, what do you play?You know, up until about five or six years ago, my answer would be completely different. I bought a guitar—a 1941 Martin 000-45, and it’s mint. It’s the one they based my model on. And it was so clean that I couldn’t play it. It’s so preserved. And right after that, I got a 1942 000-18 from my friend Jim Hauer in Dayton, Ohio, at Hauer Music. And once I had the neck set and it came back, I was like, “You know what? I get it now. I get the acoustic.” I’ve played a bunch of herringbones and stuff, but I was so focused on electric that acoustics would all sound the same to me. And then at some point, I said, “My God, I get it!” For years, I would just say I’m an electric guitar player, but I had that moment with the acoustic. So when I play at home, I vacillate between two guitars.I have a room in my house in California … it’s, it’s … well, it’s documented how diseased I am. But if you can picture it, if I’m not playing electric, which is only if I’m working on something, I will pick up a 1929 000-42 Martin or a Joe B. Brazilian that Martin made me. It makes me happy. And I’ve found that my accuracy on the electric has improved by embracing the acoustic. I find, especially in the studio, if I’m producing a record and I’m playing on it, just the changes, my chordal accuracy, is a lot better. And I finally figured out a way to, especially soloing-wise, embrace what Leslie West told me. Thirty years ago, his advice was to divide by two. He came to the studio in Ithaca, New York, when I was a kid working with Tom Dowd on what would be my first solo album. This was pre-production, and he guested on a track. And he, in that voice, goes: “You know, Joe, you’d be my favorite guitar player if you’d just divide by two.” I’m like, “You mean half as many notes?” He goes, “Right. Keep doing what you’re doing and divide by two.”“For years, I would just say I’m an electric guitar player.” Now, I’ve noticed a change in my playing. Especially when I’m touring and we’re playing big venues over here, I’ve been using “divide by two.” That and the acoustic thing I’ve been embracing for the last, say, 24 to 36 months has been paying off. Every once in a while you break through a frontier you didn’t even know you were gonna break through or didn’t even know existed.I know I’m a paradox, but when I’m off the road, I try to avoid loud music and crowds. So I don’t play electric at home very loud, and I play these acoustics. When I plug a Les Paul into a Marshall or Fender Strat into a black-panel Princeton, the sounds you expect are going to come up and then it’s up to you to create something. But the acoustic … you’re just kind of wide open. I find that I’m coming up with more original ideas just by not playing electric when I’m home. When you prepare for an album, are there some foundational guideposts or a specific artistic goal you’re working toward?Historically, it was always like: this is the theme, this is what we’re doing, let’s execute it. And we have five days or seven days to do it. This record was different because I approached this album from the point of view that the world does not need another Joe Bonamassa record. So I’m trying not to repeat myself. That’s why we ended up with 20 songs that got jettisoned; 10 of which got jettisoned because we were like, yeah, I’ve heard that before. And we tried to concentrate on things that I haven’t done before, but when you have 50 albums out, including the live stuff, before you even get to the side projects, it’s hard. I think this is my 17th studio solo album.We did this in three sessions, in Santorini, Greece; Nashville; and L.A.—with totally different approaches on each. The Santorini stuff has a certain sound because of the way we recorded it and the lack of options. I was just using the studio guitars. Like the song with Sammy Hagar, “Fortune Teller Blues”—the only guitar that was actually going to stay in tune was an Ovation acoustic, so I plugged it into a Fender Hot Rod DeVille, and it just exploded into the mic. I was like, “Okay, now that’s an interesting sound.” I had that and a Slash Les Paul, and I noticed that the pickups were hotter than what I was used to, but I just embraced it.You just have to wrap your head around it. Any guitar that’s not in your normal comfort zone, just pretend it’s the only guitar you own. Because I bought plenty of guitars over the years from people who played them their whole lives and that’s the only guitar they owned. They did their whole musical life on that one guitar and they figured it out, you know?Sometimes, having fewer tools is a lot better. A few records ago, I stopped bringing 40 guitars to the studio. How many Telecasters do you need? Pick one that stays in tune. How many Les Pauls do you need? The one you play every day. And then you bring the flavors: the 12-string electric, the acoustic, whatever. And I always bring my live rig and a couple of different things, like an AC30 or some sort of JTM45. Sometimes, as a collector, you’ve got to justify owning all this stuff. It’s like, man, I paid all this money for this thing; I’m gonna play it!“Every once in a while you break through a frontier you didn’t even know you were gonna break through or didn’t even know existed.”Well, you don’t have to justify it to me. When I was starting to play, I had a friend who said, “You should have as many guitars as you want.” I took that to heart.On the internet sometimes, the notion is that I’m depriving other people of having these guitars, because I have such a large collection, one of the biggest in the world. It’s such specious reasoning. How many of these guitars are for sale right now … at the Dallas Guitar show, the Heritage auction, Reverb, eBay, every guitar shop? They’re out there. I’m surprised by some of the conversations I see about you online from the blues police. Complaints that if Joe wasn’t out there, some old bluesman of note would have those gigs. Except for Buddy Guy, nobody who was a sideman for Muddy Waters has a shot at headlining, say, Royal Albert Hall. There’s a lack of critical thinking. You know all the gigs that I do, the arenas that we’re playing over here? Do you know who the promoter is? Me. So I’m not taking anybody’s gig. I’m creating my own weather pattern. Twenty years ago, we started promoting our own shows. It’s proof of concept. Many times was I told, and anybody in this genre has been told, “See those big places over there? Those are not for you. Musicians like you don’t get to play those places.” Well, somebody had to try, and we wouldn’t still be doing that if nobody showed up. I can do everything but make them come out. And if people have a problem with that, if people have a problem with the guitar collecting that I do and the success I’ve had, that’s on them. It’s not on me to apologize for any of it. Because I grew up lower middle class in Utica, New York, and decided that I was gonna do something with my life or die trying. There’s always someone who works harder, who deserves it more than you. You have to just accept that. Then, there’s some luck involved. And what we’re doing as a team is connecting. That’s the records, the production, the marketing, all of it. There’s something there that’s connecting to a wider group of people that don’t normally go to blues shows.“I approached this album from the point of view that the world does not need another Joe Bonamassa record.”You mention a “do or die” attitude. At one point, you were trapped in the blues barbecue joint circuit, before you worked your way out.It always felt that way. The really magic moment for me was 2009 at the Albert Hall when Eric Clapton came out to play with me, and I will always be extremely grateful to him for that. But you realize that if that was May 5, the day after that show, May 6, we were broke. We had put all of our money in the DVD we made there. And when it came out, it did okay. And we had just enough money to keep the machine going and try to build. And then it hit PBS. And after PBS, life changed about six months later. But when you’re watching somebody on a DVD seemingly have it all, sometimes the story behind the scenes is way different than the reality.Getting back to Breakthrough, it’s an eclectic album, and you’ve been co-writing with some of the most respected songwriters in Nashville roots music, like Tom Hambridge, Gary Nicholson, Keb’ Mo’. And is there something of a personal breakthrough that sparked the title?I think there is a meaning there. I’m trying not to repeat myself, but not abandon ship. The only thing I’ve abandoned is the notion that anything I’ll do will be pop music at all. I’m a niche guy. I don’t have a radio voice. I’m not looking to get invited to the Met Gala.I’ve written a lot of songs for other people as well, like Jimmy Hall and Eric Gales. You’ve got to come in with some sort of idea, riff, or a title. A title is great because you can write something about that. A riff is like, “Okay, then what are we going to say?” Then you’ve just got to have a conversation and start riffing on it. You try to find a broader concept and try to make it something that’s personal to you that will also be personal to your co-writer and the audience.It surprises me when I go into these old tracks, live, and people start applauding. I’m like, “I had no idea you guys even knew this song.” I just assume everything I put out over my life has not been a hit, and we’ve survived and navigated like that, almost like a jam band.”I’m not looking for a hit. And I don’t want anything to do with that shit that’s coming out of Music Row. None of it. And I’m not looking for radio. So it’s, “Let’s have fun and write a six-minute banger, shall we? With a big fat guitar solo that has no chance of being played on the radio.”“Any guitar that’s not in your normal comfort zone, just pretend it’s the only guitar you own.”Speaking of big fat guitar solos, my favorite song on the album is “Broken Record.” I’m a sucker for a slow blues, and over its 7 minutes, it goes to a lot of interesting places and has a cool tonal palette. I even like small, nerdy things about it—like the way the delay hangs at the end of the song. How did you put the tonal palette together for that one?I remember this: The solo that’s on there was basically a placeholder because I got the call to pick up my car at the shop. I’m at the console, dialed up a quick sound, get a call from the mechanic going, “Hey, your car’s ready.” I called the Uber, and as I’m waiting for the Uber to take me to get the car on a Friday afternoon, because I didn’t want to leave it over the weekend, I go, “Let me just give you a placeholder and I’ll be back in a half hour.” I come back in a half hour and everybody’s going, “I think that solo’s good.” And I go, “Okay.” And it was literally just stream of consciousness. The whole song—vocals, everything—was done in an afternoon. And that’s the way I like to work. I like to cut in the morning, get the two or three that we’re gonna do that day, buy the band lunch, tell them to fuck off, then I’ll sing and play, and that’s it. You’re gonna sing, play, and once you’re happy, that’s it. If you’re prepared and know how to do it and hit the marks, three takes of vocals, we’ll comp it, done, move on. We’re at dinner by 6 o’clock. I learned that from Kevin Shirley. [The producer who’s frequently collaborated with Bonamassa since 2006’s You & Me and returns for Breakthrough.] You burn very intensely from about 10 a.m. to about 5:30 or 6, and that’s it. I’m not a night owl in the studio. I want to talk to you a little bit about Journeyman Records, which is a pet project label of yours and your manager, Roy Weisman. What’s the impetus? What do you get from it personally? We have Joanne Shaw Taylor and Robert John, and we’ve invested in those two because what we see in them is little glimpses of what was happening with me right before it hit. You’re a very talented artist, but if a tree falls in the woods and nobody’s there to hear it, does it sell any tickets? [laughs] No. I learned that. So we’ve created a vertical integration of business for those artists—everything from concert promotion to T-shirts to having ownership of their masters.If I said to you 20 years ago that I do my own T-shirts, I do my own record company, and I promote my own shows, the notion, on Sunset Boulevard at the Chateau Marmont, would be, “This person clearly is not talented and has to do it by themselves because nobody will help them.” Now, the conversation taking place is, “My god, I gotta re-record my album because I don’t own my masters.”So we’re using Journeyman Records as a proof of concept. It’s like, if I could do it, anybody can. It just takes hard work. And Vince Gill said it best: “If you don’t bet on yourself, how are you going to get anybody to bet on you?” And that’s so true. Maybe it’s ego, it’s bravado, it’s blind belief … whatever you want to call it. It is so important to have that chip on your shoulder before you even enter into this. Because if you don’t believe in what you’re doing, you’re going to encounter some headwinds that may not be surmountable. YouTube ItThis performance from the Rudolf-Weber Arena in Oberhausen, Germany, is from April 29, 2025 and showcases Bonamassa’s range as an artist.

Are you looking for a flexible amp modeler for the stage, studio, or home? In this in-depth demo, PG contributor Tom Butwin takes you through gigging, practicing, and recording with two compelling options: the touchscreen-powered Hotone Ampero II and the tactile, amp-style Blackstar AMPED 3. Hotone Ampero II Amp Modeler and Effects Processor Pedal

Amp Modeler & Effects ProcessorBlackstar Dept. 10 AMPED 3 100-watt Guitar Amplifier Pedal

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Following his historic three-night stand at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom earlier this year — hailed by BILLBOARD as “a religious experience” and moving NPR to rave “Paul McCartney has so much swag it’s ridiculous” — Paul McCartney and his acclaimed Got Back Tour will make their wildly anticipated return to North America this fall.Got Back’s 2025 run of 19 newly announced dates marks Paul’s first extensive series of shows across the US and Canada since 2022. The tour kicks off September 29th with Paul’s Greater Palm Springs area live debut at Acrisure Arena and runs through to a November 24-25th finale at the United Center in Chicago. Got Back 2025 will feature Paul’s long-awaited return to Las Vegas, Denver, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Tulsa, New Orleans, Atlanta, Nashville, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Montreal, and Hamilton – plus a few cities that will be hosting their first-ever Paul McCartney concerts, Albuquerque and the aforementioned Greater Palm Springs area.General on sale for these Got Back tour dates will begin July 18th at 10am local time. For further information, pre-sales etc., check paulmccartneygotback.com.Irrefutably one of the most successful and influential singer-songwriters and performers of all time, McCartney’s concerts bring to life the most beloved catalogue in music. With songs like “Hey Jude,” “Live and Let Die,” “Band on the Run,” “Let It Be” and so many more, the Paul McCartney live experience is everything any music lover could ever want from a rock show and more: hours of the greatest moments from the last 60 years of music – dozens of songs from Paul’s solo, Wings and of course Beatles songbooks that have formed the soundtracks of our lives.Paul McCartney launched his Got Back tour in 2022 with16 sold out shows across the US that led up to his history-making set at Glastonbury in June 2022. In 2023 Paul performed 18 shows as Got Back rocked through Australia, Mexico and Brazil. In 2024, Paul amazed capacity crowds at more than 20 dates spanning from South America and Mexico to the UK and Europe. Paul and his band have performed in an unparalleled range of venues and locations worldwide: From outside the Colosseum in Rome, Moscow’s Red Square, Buckingham Palace, The White House and a free show in Mexico for over 400,000 people to the last ever show at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park where The Beatles played their final concert in 1966, a 2016 week in the California desert that included two headline sets at the historic Desert Trip festival and a jam-packed club gig for a few hundred lucky fans at Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, two Glastonbury Festival headline slots, rocking the Bowery in New York City for a week of spontaneous club shows, and even one performance broadcast live into Space!Featuring Paul’s longtime band – Paul “Wix” Wickens (keyboards), Brian Ray (bass/guitar), Rusty Anderson (guitar) and Abe Laboriel Jr (drums) – and constantly upgraded state of the art audio and video technology that ensures an unforgettable experience from every seat in the house, a Paul McCartney concert is never anything short of life-changing. The Got Back Tour also features the Hot City Horns — Mike Davis (trumpet), Kenji Fenton (saxes) and Paul Burton (trombone) — who first joined Paul in 2018 to perform at Grand Central Station ahead of embarking on the Freshen Up World Tour in the same year. PAUL McCARTNEY – GOT BACK 2025September 29 — Palm Desert, CA — Acrisure ArenaOctober 4 – Las Vegas, NV — Allegiant StadiumOctober 7 – Albuquerque, NM — Isleta AmphitheaterOctober 11 – Denver, CO — Coors FieldOctober 14 – Des Moines, IA — Casey’s CenterOctober 17 – Minneapolis, MN — U.S. Bank StadiumOctober 22 – Tulsa, OK – BOK CenterOctober 29 – New Orleans, LA — Smoothie King CenterNovember 2 – Atlanta, GA — State Farm ArenaNovember 3 – Atlanta, GA — State Farm ArenaNovember 6 – Nashville, TN – The PinnacleNovember 8 – Columbus, OH — Nationwide ArenaNovember 11 – Pittsburgh, PA — PPG Paints ArenaNovember 14 – Buffalo, NY — KeyBank CenterNovember 17 – Montreal, QC — Bell CentreNovember 18 – Montreal, QC — Bell CentreNovember 21 – Hamilton, ON – TD ColiseumNovember 24 – Chicago, IL — United CenterNovember 25 – Chicago, IL — United Center

Following his historic three-night stand at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom earlier this year — hailed by BILLBOARD as “a religious experience” and moving NPR to rave “Paul McCartney has so much swag it’s ridiculous” — Paul McCartney and his acclaimed Got Back Tour will make their wildly anticipated return to North America this fall.Got Back’s 2025 run of 19 newly announced dates marks Paul’s first extensive series of shows across the US and Canada since 2022. The tour kicks off September 29th with Paul’s Greater Palm Springs area live debut at Acrisure Arena and runs through to a November 24-25th finale at the United Center in Chicago. Got Back 2025 will feature Paul’s long-awaited return to Las Vegas, Denver, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Tulsa, New Orleans, Atlanta, Nashville, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Montreal, and Hamilton – plus a few cities that will be hosting their first-ever Paul McCartney concerts, Albuquerque and the aforementioned Greater Palm Springs area.General on sale for these Got Back tour dates will begin July 18th at 10am local time. For further information, pre-sales etc., check paulmccartneygotback.com.Irrefutably one of the most successful and influential singer-songwriters and performers of all time, McCartney’s concerts bring to life the most beloved catalogue in music. With songs like “Hey Jude,” “Live and Let Die,” “Band on the Run,” “Let It Be” and so many more, the Paul McCartney live experience is everything any music lover could ever want from a rock show and more: hours of the greatest moments from the last 60 years of music – dozens of songs from Paul’s solo, Wings and of course Beatles songbooks that have formed the soundtracks of our lives.Paul McCartney launched his Got Back tour in 2022 with16 sold out shows across the US that led up to his history-making set at Glastonbury in June 2022. In 2023 Paul performed 18 shows as Got Back rocked through Australia, Mexico and Brazil. In 2024, Paul amazed capacity crowds at more than 20 dates spanning from South America and Mexico to the UK and Europe. Paul and his band have performed in an unparalleled range of venues and locations worldwide: From outside the Colosseum in Rome, Moscow’s Red Square, Buckingham Palace, The White House and a free show in Mexico for over 400,000 people to the last ever show at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park where The Beatles played their final concert in 1966, a 2016 week in the California desert that included two headline sets at the historic Desert Trip festival and a jam-packed club gig for a few hundred lucky fans at Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, two Glastonbury Festival headline slots, rocking the Bowery in New York City for a week of spontaneous club shows, and even one performance broadcast live into Space!Featuring Paul’s longtime band – Paul “Wix” Wickens (keyboards), Brian Ray (bass/guitar), Rusty Anderson (guitar) and Abe Laboriel Jr (drums) – and constantly upgraded state of the art audio and video technology that ensures an unforgettable experience from every seat in the house, a Paul McCartney concert is never anything short of life-changing. The Got Back Tour also features the Hot City Horns — Mike Davis (trumpet), Kenji Fenton (saxes) and Paul Burton (trombone) — who first joined Paul in 2018 to perform at Grand Central Station ahead of embarking on the Freshen Up World Tour in the same year. PAUL McCARTNEY – GOT BACK 2025September 29 — Palm Desert, CA — Acrisure ArenaOctober 4 – Las Vegas, NV — Allegiant StadiumOctober 7 – Albuquerque, NM — Isleta AmphitheaterOctober 11 – Denver, CO — Coors FieldOctober 14 – Des Moines, IA — Casey’s CenterOctober 17 – Minneapolis, MN — U.S. Bank StadiumOctober 22 – Tulsa, OK – BOK CenterOctober 29 – New Orleans, LA — Smoothie King CenterNovember 2 – Atlanta, GA — State Farm ArenaNovember 3 – Atlanta, GA — State Farm ArenaNovember 6 – Nashville, TN – The PinnacleNovember 8 – Columbus, OH — Nationwide ArenaNovember 11 – Pittsburgh, PA — PPG Paints ArenaNovember 14 – Buffalo, NY — KeyBank CenterNovember 17 – Montreal, QC — Bell CentreNovember 18 – Montreal, QC — Bell CentreNovember 21 – Hamilton, ON – TD ColiseumNovember 24 – Chicago, IL — United CenterNovember 25 – Chicago, IL — United Center

This Fujigen-built import required emergency surgery after an unfortunate break. Have you ever broken a bone? Strange question, I know, but my son, on the second day of football practice, broke his big toe. They were doing “bear crawls” on all fours when his left sneaker flew off and his big toe drove into the gym floor. It’s such a bummer since he loves sports, and he’s going to be recovering for most of the summer. But as we were sitting in the ER, it occurred to me that I’ve never broken a bone. I’ve had torn ACLs and other knee issues from playing sports, but never busted a bone. My mom used to say that if you could separate me in half, I would be two normal-sized people! Maybe my bones were built to hold two people or maybe I’ve been lucky, especially given how many contact sports I played into my 20s.It all made me think of vintage-style guitar-neck profiles. If you’ve ever held or played a guitar from the ’40s, ’50s, or early ’60s, you know that there was great variation in neck depth and shape in those days. Back then you’d find wide fretboards and deep-V shapes—all sorts of interesting feels, in comparison to the standard-sized necks we experience today. Even if you want a guitar with a so-called ’50s profile, it’s still not often a true representation. When you examine the early import guitars, especially from Japan, you’ll see a wide variation that can give rise to nice little surprises if you’re looking for something different. Quite often, the wood factories that were churning out guitars back in the day were simply converted furniture plants. They knew how to build stuff right. I know, because my literal superpower is breaking stuff, and I’ve never broken a single Japanese import neck on any guitar I serviced, except for the guitar presented here.“The VN-4 hails from around 1964 and was among the first electric guitars made by the two Japanese factories.”Many of these early imports had weak and ineffective truss rods, or even no truss rods at all. Rather, the neck thickness and wood quality provided sufficient strength. Adjustability? Well, once you understand neck angle, a few shims in the neck pocket can get you rockin’. All this stuff I learned from my favorite guitar tech, Dave D’Amelio. He showed me most of what I know about neck issues, but I always lacked his finesse. And while trying to adjust the neck on this Lindell VN-4, the headstock just snapped off, a truly awful feeling. (Imagine that happening to a vintage Les Paul!) Maybe it was because these old Fujigen-made guitars employed a 27″ scale on any model that used four pickups. Why? Because the designers thought that a longer neck with four pickups simply looked more pleasing. (That’s information told to me from the actual designers.)This Lindell-badged guitar had its wood made at the Matsumoku factory in Matsumoto City. Then the guitar was finished at the Fujigen factory, which was also in Matsumoto. Switches galore and pickups that carry a punch, the VN-4 hails from around 1964 and was among the first electric guitars made by the two Japanese factories. These “clam-shell” tremolo units are kinda awful, but I really like the raised metal pickguards, which help cut down on noise. The plates that house the electronics (complete with on/off for each pickup and two roller volumes) act as a great ground for everything and I sometimes wonder why the idea fell out of favor. I mean, raised pickguards like these minimize wood removal. You can use a standard guitar body and simply attach any pickup and electronics configurations. Then again, I have weird tastes, so…Right now I have a few of these sitting around in my basement studio. I would always save parts and guitar bits and simply reuse everything to create something new, which I believe every player should try. I think of Eddie Van Halen and Brian May and their handiwork. My son has a six-week recovery ahead, and I was thinking about projects for us. Maybe I’ll enlist him as an apprentice in my guitar laboratory. At least it’s safer than football!

Proper bus routing and submixing techniques will increase your efficiency in the studio and raise your DAW’s tracking power.Nothing can make you sweat quicker than having computer-related issues when tracking an artist or a band: millisecond delays in headphone mixes, plugins lagging, glitchy performance from your DAW. Even if you’re tracking only yourself, it is frustrating and breaks your creative flow. For this Dojo, I want to give you some tips for staying in the flow and keeping your cool.Harnessing the Power of Buses and Submixes.For the modern guitarist venturing into home recording, your computer’s power and your DAW can be both a blessing or a bottleneck. As creative possibilities expand, so does the strain on your computer’s CPU. Fortunately, one of the most powerful tools for optimizing your recording workflow and CPU usage comes from the tried-and-true, old-school, analog domain: proper bus routing and submixing techniques.Efficient Signal FlowIn the world of digital recording, a bus is essentially a virtual pathway that allows multiple audio tracks to be routed to a single auxiliary (aux) track. This aux track can then be processed with effects like reverb, delay, EQ, or compression, applying the same settings to all routed tracks simultaneously. For guitarists, this is particularly useful when layering rhythm tracks, harmonies, or ambient textures that all benefit from similar effects.Why Use Buses?CPU Efficiency: Instead of inserting the same reverb plugin on five different guitar tracks, route all of them to a bus with a single reverb instance.Consistent Sound: Buses help glue multiple guitar tracks together, ensuring a cohesive tone.Simplified Mixing: Adjusting levels or automation on a single bus affects all associated tracks, saving time and effort.Submixes: Organizing Your Sonic PaletteSubmixes are essentially buses with a specific organizational role. In larger sessions, creating submixes for instrument families (e.g., drums, guitars, vocals) helps maintain clarity and control. For home-recording guitarists, a common approach is to create submixes for:Clean guitarsOverdriven/distorted guitarsAmbient or effects-heavy guitarsEach submix can have tailored processing chains appropriate to the tone and role of those particular guitar parts. For instance, you might apply light compression and stereo widening on clean guitars, while distorted parts could benefit from dynamic EQ and multiband compression.“Another great trick if you’re running low on CPU power with a large track count is to bounce or ‘render in place’ any finalized parts.”Practical Setup ExampleLet’s say you’ve recorded:three rhythm guitar tracks (L, R, center)two lead parts with delayone ambient swell trackThen set up three stereo buses and route rhythm guitars (three tracks) into stereo bus one, leads (two tracks) into stereo bus two, and finally the ambient guitar to a more generic stereo bus that will be used by other tracks in your mix and to bring some cohesion. Lightening the CPU LoadModern plugins can be CPU-intensive, especially convolution reverbs, amp simulators, or complex modulation effects. Routing similar instruments through buses allows you to:Use one amp sim plugin on a bus during the writing/mixing phasePrint or freeze tracks with final effects before the mastering stageAutomate bus bypassing when a group isn’t active in a section to reduce processingAnother great trick if you’re running low on CPU power with a large track count is to bounce or “render in place” any finalized parts. Once you’re happy with a guitar tone, turn it into a static audio file, removing the need for real-time plugin processing.Classic TechniquesFinally, in classic pop production—think the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, or Michael Jackson—engineers relied on submixes even in the analog domain. Drums, guitars, vocals, and backing vocals were often premixed to stereo stems to facilitate real-time mixing without modern automation.Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound famously involved routing dozens of instrumental layers into a single bus and feeding that into a reverb chamber. The result was a lush, unified soundscape. This same idea applies today: Guitar tracks layered for harmonic richness can be routed into a reverb bus to achieve that enveloping texture.Smart Routing, Better ResultsCreating buses and submixes may seem like advanced engineering, but it’s simply smart organization. For the home-recording guitarist, this practice not only streamlines workflow but also ensures a more professional-sounding mix. By mimicking tried-and-true studio practices as well as optimizing for CPU load, you can focus less on troubleshooting and more on making music.So, whether you’re recording your next EP or collaborating online, harness the power of bus routing to bring clarity, control, and character to your guitar tracks. Until next month, namaste.

Check out the new track and video from Friendship Commanders, “Melt” ahead of their two-single July 15 release of this song alongside the track “Keeping Score,” out via Magnetic Eye Records.
The post Video Premiere: Friendship Commanders – “Melt” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.