Editor’s note: We selected Eric Clapton as the subject of this month’s Iconic Rigs well before the recent news broke about Eric Clapton’s difficulty in playing guitar due to peripheral neuropathy. We at zZounds were saddened by the news and wish for a full recovery for Eric. This installment of Iconic Rigs serves to pay tribute to him. There […]
We were lucky to host Red Witch founder Ben Fulton at zZounds HQ not long ago and he graciously sat down with us to give us the lowdown on his boutique pedal range. From early Red Witch creations like the Empress Chorus to the compact, budget friendly Seven Sisters line, there’s a spectrum of sounds coming from […]
Are six strings not enough anymore? For guitarists playing various styles of metal, jazz, ambient and experimental music, the range of a six-string guitar (even when down-tuned) may not provide enough low end. Ever since models like the Ibanez Universe charted the course for 7-string guitars in the early ’90s, manufacturers have continued to refine these extended-range […]
Over the course of Black Sabbath’s long and storied history, there always remained one key component of their sound: guitarist Tony Iommi. Gilded in absolutely legendary status, he remains one of the pivotal guitarists who helped to establish and define what the true sound of metal guitar was and still is today. When delving into […]
On Sunday night, Nick Jonas did something every guitarist has done likely in the hundreds of times. He flubbed a solo. For Nick though, it didn’t happen in a garage around friends or at a bar with a dozen already buzzed patrons. It was at the 51st Annual American Country Music Awards held in the […]
Since its late 2015 release, the Moog Mother-32 semi-modular analog synthesizer has become one of Moog’s fastest-selling instruments of all time. A powerful little synth/sequencer for a remarkably low price, the Mother-32 deserves all the buzz it’s garnered, and then some. At the Moog Sound Lab in Asheville, North Carolina, we sat down with two […]
If I asked you to name the most iconic and influential rock guitarist of the past, say, 50 years, I’d bet a considerably large sum of money that you’d say none other than Jimi Hendrix. There are several reasons why he is considered to be so important, but the most striking thing was his brazen, […]
This month, we’re plugging in the stripped-down Fret-King Esprit I and the gain-heavy Walrus Audio Iron Horse Distortion for a relentless riff session. This month, we’re finally pairing up two pieces of gear we’ve had our eyes on for a while now. Ever since the Fret-King Esprit I showed up at zZounds HQ a few months […]
Iconic Rigs on a Budget is a companion to our Iconic Rigs series at zZounds, where we show you the gear of legendary guitarists. Here on the zZounds Blog, we’ll help you get really, really close to that sound without blowing your tour budget. This month: get the Brown Sound with just a single pedal! (Hot […]