The avant-garde Mexican rockers employ all genres and a giddy love for effects to express haphazard riffs, and above all, maintain a value for melody and a message.
Descartes a Kant’s Victims of Love Propaganda greets you with a pitch-shifted voice straight out of a nightmare, coughing and announcing, “Now, let’s take a moment to discuss the current theories about the biological basis of looooove...”
Next thing you know, you’re being pounded over the head by the opening riff of a song called “You Assfucked My Heart.” Acting as the album’s overture, the distortion-soaked track cycles through a series of tight breaks, tense riffs, and a searing saxophone solo, never settling long enough to catch a breath.
The songs that follow scream with the impulsive intensity of avant-garde bands like Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, and Naked City. While shock and awe leads the way in the Guadalajara, Mexico-based band’s music, it isn’t all Descartes a Kant is about.
When Descartes hits the stage, the mayhem really gets unleashed. Guitarist/vocalists Sandrushka Petrova and Dafne Macías lead the group with frenetic energy, performing unison moves amidst flashing emergency lights, surrounded by the rest of the band members in hazmat suits. Their high-powered live show and deep embrace of varied sounds has helped Descartes a Kant secure gigs around the world with a diverse set of heroes, such as Sonic Youth, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Slayer, and Dave Lombardo’s Dead Cross.
While Victims of Love Propaganda is Descartes a Kant’s third studio album, it’s the band’s debut release in America. This time around, they worked with legendary engineer and producer Steve Albini (Nirvana, Pixies, Jesus Lizard) at his Electrical Audio studios in Chicago. Albini’s analog recording approach helped give Victims of Love Propaganda a direct, in-your-face sound that serves to make the record sonically explosive.
Premier Guitar sat down with Petrova and Macías to discuss their relationship-focused concept album, calculated songwriting approach, and elaborate live shows. While the band is obviously detail oriented, they keep their eyes on the big picture—unconcerned with obsessing over gear, instead considering how to get the most effective songs to deliver what they want to say.
—Sandra Petrova
How did the band form and how long have you been together?
Sandra Petrova: I started this band in a non-pretentious way, not knowing it was going to be like a serious relationship. It started in the bedroom in 2001 in Guadalajara. In 2005, Androv the keyboard player, Dafne, and our previous drummer joined and we released our first album in 2007. To me, that’s when the band started in a serious form and we’ve been working ever since, like a functional/dysfunctional family. In 2010, Christy [Ana Cristina Mo], Mo [Memo Ibarra], and the drummer [Jorge Chavez] joined.
Let's talk about the band’s name. It’s two philosophers, Rene Descartes and Immanuel Kant.
Petrova: Basically, it’s like an analogy to this confluence of postures and ideological philosophy shit that is much like what happens with our sound. If you see genres like ideas, they all come together in this unique, alien, punk music that includes lots and lots of musical forms. Although they’re opposite, it doesn’t matter.
What kind of scene did the band develop in? Were you playing with mostly heavier bands?
Petrova: It was a local scene [in Guadalajara, Mexico]. We’re a band that plays with any kind of band. I think we’ve never felt like we belonged to a scene. That makes possibilities huge, to try to live with all this music that is happening in our country, so we can play one day with a ska band or…. what’s the craziest?
Tidbit: Descartes a Kant recorded its U.S. debut, Victims of Love Propaganda, using an analog approach with legendary producer/engineer Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago. Before entering the studio, the band mapped out an ideal guitar sound and assembled a new pedalboard from scratch specifically for the album.
Dafne Macías: Like a salsa band, mariachi....
Petrova: Mariachi in Russia! That sounds very weird. But, I think that that’s the cool part of this: like we don’t belong to one thing, but to everyone and everything.
Your songs tread a lot of ground and seem to draw on a wide variety of material. A song like, “You Assfucked My Heart,” the first track on Victims of Love Propaganda, is based on heavy riffs, extreme vocals, and has a screaming John Zorn-style sax solo—it’s brutal! But then “Motion Picture Dreamboy” is almost like a ’60s girl-band song. How do you pull together such wide influences?
Petrova: Yeah, as you said, the influences are very diverse. I see it almost as like a polyamorous relationship with music. And everything fits. It wasn’t this conscious process like, “Oh, I want to sound so weird and crazy and just put all this together like a collage.” But it was like, “What if we kind of fuck around with structure and we put all this stuff together and maybe it makes sense or maybe we can stop making sense.” Obviously, Mr. Bungle is a direct influence and I think every member of this band has a love for [Mr. Bungle vocalist] Mike Patton projects.
A band like this is not a jamming kind of band. It’s not just like a huge accident that happens; it does have layers. I write a lot of the songs, but also this record was very collaborative because some songs or parts of them were written by the bass player, some lyrics were written with my brother and a friend of mine who is a psychiatrist, and then some arrangements, vocal arrangements, were written by Dafne. So, I think we came to this point to learn how to work together with an idea that probably I incept.
The trio of females on guitar in Descartes a Kant are a far cry from traditional performers. They’re constantly passing the guitar around onstage, each taking turns on riff duties. From left to right: Ana Cristina Mo, Sandra Petrova, and Dafne Macías. “It’s kind of complex,” says Petrova. Photo by Andy McCormick
How does the songwriting process work for you?
Petrova: It’s a very intimate process to me. Songwriting is not jammy—it’s not coincidence. I'm not a jamming person at all. I calculate everything. But music comes after what you want to say. I think I trust a lot in the melody. Everything starts from the melody, which is the center element to me. I think this is the record where harmony has more protagonism. It’s more elaborated than in the other records. It’s more like a songwriter thing. You can play these songs with a guitar and vocals or piano and vocals and I think that wasn’t something that happened easily in the other records.
I don’t wanna sound like or say it or admit, but I’m a control freak. I have to write everything and see that it’s perfect before I show it to someone.
Does that leave a lot of room for you to create your parts, Dafne? How do you approach playing new songs when Sandra brings them to you?
Macías: Sandra’s work is very diverse. Sometimes compositions are so structured that there’s no space to include my own part. The mission then becomes to achieve the necessary sound and interpretation so the composition sounds as it’s intended. Some other occasions, like for example, in “Lovely Lips,” Sandra would send a demo that, although it’s pretty clear, it does have some room. The ideas I develop are within the context of the musical discourse previously established, and the goal is to enrich this idea and achieve its maximum potential.
I’m curious about your guitar influences.
Petrova: In my case, for most of my life I was a very anti-solo person. I’m drawn to guitar playing that’s kind of fucked up and weird. I can say that one of my recent influences is Annie Clark and her way to just create this beautiful language with her guitar and her riffs and her fuzz pedals. Also [Sonic Youth guitarists] Thurston [Moore] and Lee Ranaldo. I think they marked us in very specific ways.
Macías: Sonic Youth, Pixies, Pavement—that kind of sound was very important to me when I was young. Now there are a lot of feminine figures making interesting stuff with guitar, like a very particular sound. Annie Clark is one of them of course, and Kim Gordon [of Sonic Youth]. Even though she played bass for most of her career, now she's playing guitar in what I think is a very interesting way, through feminine eyes.
You recorded this album with legendary engineer Steve Albini at his studio, Electrical Audio. He’s worked with a lot of your influences: Has it been a long-term goal of yours to work with Albini?
Petrova: I think we never imagined ... when we were on the plane heading to Chicago, I was thinking [Nirvana’s] In Utero was my first album I paid for and that if someone told the young me that someday I was gonna be recording with that producer, I wouldn’t believe it. We didn’t even think that we would record out of Mexico.
How did it come about for the band to record at Electrical Audio?
Petrova: It just came out of nowhere because we started working with this New York manager. He’s someone who wants to help the band and he suggested it would be cool if we started work here in the States, and suggested someone like Steve Albini would be cool. I was like, “Haha, yeah, it would be cool.” The idea kept moving until it materialized.
Sandra Petrova’s Gear
GuitarsFender Jaguar
Fender Mustang
Amps
Fender Twin Reverb
Effects
Eventide PitchFactor
Death By Audio Apocalypse
DigiTech Whammy
Electro-Harmonix MicroSynth
Fender Runaway Feedback Pedal
Strings and Picks
Raven Picks .60 mm
Fender .009–.042 gauge strings
Dafne Macías’ Gear
GuitarsFender Squier Jagmaster
Fender Jazzmaster
Amps
Roland Jazz Chorus
Effects
Eventide H9 Max
Eventide PitchFactor
DigiTech Whammy
Electro-Harmonix MicroSynth
Boss OD-20 Drive Zone
Dwarfcraft Devices Eau Claire Thunder
Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor
Strings and Picks
Raven Picks .80 mm
Fender .010–.046 gauge strings
Was the result everything you hoped for?
Petrova: It was a mind-blowing experience for all of us that marked us in so many ways and made us learn and made us more capable and focused. Recording on analog is something we’d never done before and it’s way different in a time when we’re so used to the undo process! And undo and undo and let’s make another take and open millions of tracks and it’s very easy. We were thinking, “Hey, this is how old-school bands made records.” You have to play the whole way and the whole take and do your better take. You can’t waste your studio time or the tape.
The sound of the record is huge! There are lots of really crazy guitar tones and wild effects. What was your setup like?
Petrova: Something interesting to this record is that the sound of the guitars was worked out before going to the studio with Steve Albini. We were trying to find that every element in the songs sounded like it was going to be recorded. We just got this new gear and we formed a new pedalboard from scratch and we started to search for this ideal guitar sound. To me this is the best guitar sound that we’ve ever made, and it’s like that live so it’s super cool.
I have a very Eventide-phased sound. I think Eventide is essential for the songs coming out the way they came. It’s a very helpful, fun, crazy tool. For fuzz, I have an Apocalypse from Death By Audio, a [DigiTech] Whammy, and the [Electro-Harmonix] MicroSynth. We like that synthetic guitar sound. Crazy, but it seems like sometimes we don’t want a guitar to sound like a guitar in a traditional way. I have a very weird pedal that doesn’t exist anymore. It’s from Fender; it’s called the Runaway, and it’s a feedback pedal but the feedback is so beautiful. It’s very fun. It has this octave up or octave down or a fifth up, so I just use it in the song “Suppertime Rules,” but it’s totally worth it.
Macías: I have kind of the same gear Sandra has, because it was a mission to accomplish the sound of the way she recorded the demos. I have an Eventide, a Whammy, I have a fuzz from Dwarfcraft Devices, an [Electro-Harmonix] MicroSynth, an [Eventide] PitchFactor, which I love, and a distortion pedal from Boss. I have a noise gate also because it’s very difficult to control all the feedback stuff.
Petrova: Because in this band, silence is very important. It’s like it has the same importance as sound, so we have to shift from very noisy to silence—so we need this kind of noise gate to silence everything.
Descartes a Kant’s principal songwriter, Sandra Petrova, gets serious on a Fender Mustang during a performance at Guadalajara, Mexico’s Teatro Diana in April 2017. Petrova prefers this model for all her guitar work, from writing songs to playing live. Photo by Charles Pinet
What about guitars and amps?
Petrova: Fender, 100 percent. This album was written and recorded with the same guitar. Albini had a lot of guitars but we were like, “No, let’s take our guitars.” I prefer using a Twin Reverb live and in the studio.
A Mustang seems to be my favorite right now. I have a Stratocaster and a Telecaster that are just asleep in the rehearsal room waiting for me to visit. The Mustang has this quality I got very used to when I was writing the songs, so I wanted the exact same sound. But, also anatomically speaking, it’s very light, so in our live performance that’s a very important factor because it allows me to have more movement onstage and to not feel like I’m carrying this super heavy thing.
Macías: Like a Stratocaster!
Petrova: Yeah, because, you know, it’s very theatrical and it’s very active and we’re like maniacs onstage, so when I tried the Mustang it was like, “Whoa, this is my guitar. This allows me to be my better live version.” So, it’s important.
I’m not very specific. I’m not a guitar nerd at all. Someone was asking me the other day about stuff I don’t believe I need to make songs. I could write my songs with any guitar, I just prefer these. When we use Marshalls, it’s like, we can’t do that. It’s like kissing someone and you don’t know what’s wrong but you know something’s wrong. So my approach to music is far from gear-ish and it’s far from technical.
Macías: I use the Jagmaster. I love that sound—I love it! I think it has the best of the two worlds. It can accomplish a very clean and round sound, but also it can be very loud and have a very good response to distortion. So, I love Jagmaster. I want to marry one!
I have a Jazz Chorus from Roland. I prefer to use Fender, but I don’t have one. I’m poor! But I like the sound of that amp because it’s the same idea as a Jagmaster: It responds to a very clean sound but functions very well with distortion.
You’re both running around onstage a lot of the time. Do you consider the theatrical production while you’re writing and recording and deciding on your guitar parts, or does that come after you’re finished with the music?
Petrova: Sometimes, before music or before arrangements, there’s this idea of, “What we can do live?” We admire a lot of artists, like David Byrne or Laurie Anderson, that can maintain this perfect balance between making this amazing weird show but also music that is impeccable.
Writing the songs, you can see and visualize, “This has to have this performance,” so it doesn’t matter who plays the guitar. It’s not like, “I’m the guitar player, I have to play all the songs,” so that’s when Christy
is very important in the equation, because she plays the riffs and we can express more actively what the song wants to say. Live we are changing guitars and just taking them on and off and passing them to Christy and Christy sometimes plays my guitar or Dafne’s guitar. It’s kind of complex.
Victims of Love Propaganda is a concept album that you call “emotional porn.” Can you expand on that a little?
Petrova: It talks about the way we live relationships and how our society has influenced the way we go through these relationships. “Until the Day We Die” is a very direct and emotional lyric that in four verses describes how a marriage or a long-term relationship can go fading out to the point that you just feel psychotic and questioning a lot of things in these rules of being in a couple and how sometimes if you pay attention, you will see this manipulation and wanting to control the other person. Ego is very involved in our decisions and the things that affect us as human beings in these relationships, so it does talk about romantic projections and this idea of wanting to be with someone ’til the day you die. Is that absolutely necessary? Is that something beyond our control, something we’re programmed with? So that’s one example of how the songs open these conversations. But it’s not pretending to be a conclusive work, because the subject is so complex and there are a lot of layers to talking about relationships and humans and the way we interact. So it’s kind of just having these questions and opening them to the world and showing the devastation behind it. It’s intense and it’s from a very female perspective.
“Crime Scene” is a song about the death of a relationship. It talks about how when you get out of a relationship, you’re like your own forensic team, researching. Whose fault is this? Who is responsible for being in this? And you just see this mayhem, and in a symbolic way, you just open your eyes and everything is blood, all over the place. And you’re looking at the injured people and you’re one of them, but also you’re like the victim and the victimizer and the perpetrator and everyone has their part and it’s your job to assume your part of the mess. When we perform it live, we all have these forensic suits and it’s someone waking up in the middle of a crime scene.
I think, that’s the album: The register that something happened and it was lived from a specific way and from very tricky perspectives but the big metaphor is an exercise to see and to evidence a relationship.
YouTube It
Petrova and Macías are in sync in their movement and guitar action in this live performance of “Crime Scene.” They make excellent use of space and dynamics to build tension between the quiet, arpeggiated figures and the giant riffs in the rock-out sections. Get a good sense of their tastes in heavily effected tones throughout and check out the twisted, pitch-shifted melody the pair of guitarists play together at 2:42.
See and hear Taylor’s Legacy Collection guitars played by his successor, Andy Powers.
Last year, Taylor Guitars capped its 50th Anniversary by introducing a new guitar collection celebrating the contributions of co-founders Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug to the guitar world. The Legacy Collection revives five of Bob Taylor’s classic acoustic models, curated by the legendary luthier and innovator himself. “To imagine that we’re doing guitars that harken to our past, our present and our future all at the same time,” Bob says, “I really like that.”
In developing the collection, Bob preserved the essence of his originals while integrating performance and playability upgrades introduced during his tenure as designer-in-chief. “It’s an up-to-date version of what those guitars would be,” Bob explains, “but with the same sound.”
Visually, these guitars feel classic—clean, understated and unmistakably Taylor. While Bob’s original aesthetic preferences are showcased in his Legacy models, the nod to the past runs deeper than trade dress.
From his earliest builds, Bob favored slim-profile necks because he found them easier to play. That preference set a design precedent that established Taylor’s reputation for smooth-playing, comfortable necks. Legacy models feature slim mahogany necks built with Taylor's patented New Technology (NT) design. “My first neck was a bolted-on neck but not an NT neck,” Bob says. “These are NT necks because it’s a better neck.” Introduced in 1999, the NT neck allowed for unprecedented micro-adjustability while offering a consistent, hand-friendly Taylor playing experience.
What makes this collection unique within the Taylor line is Bob’s use of his X-bracing architecture, favoring his time-tested internal voicing framework over more recent Taylor bracing innovations to evoke a distinctive tone profile. Since Andy Powers—Taylor’s current Chief Guitar Designer, President and CEO—debuted his patented V-Class bracing in 2018, V-Class has become a staple in Taylor’s premium-performance guitars. Still, Bob’s X-bracing pattern produces a richly textured sound with pleasing volume, balance and clarity that long defined the Taylor voice. All Legacy models feature LR Baggs VTC Element electronics, which Bob says “harkens back to those days.”
The team at Taylor thought the best way to demonstrate the sound of the Legacy guitars was to ask Andy Powers, Bob’s successor, to play them. A world-class luthier and musician, Andy has spent the past 14 years leading Taylor’s guitar innovation. In addition to V-Class bracing, his contributions include the Grand Pacific body style, the ultra-refined Builder’s Edition Collection, and most recently, the stunning Gold Label Collection.
Below you’ll find a series of videos that feature Powers playing each Legacy model along with information about the guitars.
Legacy 800 Series Models
First launched in 1975, the 800 Series was Taylor’s first official guitar series. Today, it remains home to some of the brand’s most acclaimed instruments, including the flagship 814ce, Builder’s Edition 814ce and new Gold Label 814e.
The Legacy 800 Series features the 810e Dreadnought and two Jumbos: the 6-string 815e and 12-string 855e. Each model serves up a refined version of the Dreadnought and Jumbo body shapes Bob inherited from Sam Radding—the original owner of the American Dream music shop where Bob and Kurt first met. “I was making my guitars in the molds that Sam had made at American Dream,” Bob recalls. “There was a Jumbo and a Dreadnought. That’s all we had.”
All three Legacy 800 Series guitars feature one of Bob’s favorite tonewood combos. Solid Indian rosewood back and sides are paired with a Sitka spruce top, yielding warm lows, clear trebles and a scooped midrange.
Aesthetic appointments include a three-ring abalone rosette, mother-of-pearl Large Diamond inlays, white binding around the body and fretboard, and Bob’s “straight-ear” peghead design. Both Jumbo models also showcase a mustache-style ebony bridge—a nod to Bob’s early Jumbo builds.
Legacy 810e
The 810 Dreadnought holds a special place in Bob Taylor’s heart. “My first 810, the one I made for myself, was a thrilling guitar for me to make,” he says. “It’s the one and only guitar I played. It didn’t matter how many guitars we made at Taylor, that’s the one I took out and played.” The Legacy 810e brings back that bold, room-filling Dreadnought voice along with the easy playability expected from a Taylor.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 810e | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 855e
Taylor’s first 12-strings found an audience in 1970s Los Angeles. “I was making guitars that would find their way to McCabe’s in Santa Monica and Westwood Music,” Bob says, “and these guitars were easy to play. Twelve-strings were a popular sound in that music. It was a modern country/folk/rock music genre that was accepting our guitars because they were easy to play. They also liked the sound of them because our guitars were easier to record.” The Legacy 855e, with its resonant Jumbo body, slim neck and gorgeous octave sparkle, carries that tradition forward.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 855e | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 815e
The Legacy 815e revives Taylor’s original Jumbo 6-string, delivering a big, lush sound with beautifully blooming overtones.
Legacy Grand Auditoriums
In the early 1990s, Bob Taylor heard a consistent refrain from dealers: “Not everybody wants a dreadnought guitar anymore.” Players were asking for something with comparable volume but different proportions—something more comfortable, yet still powerful. This feedback inspired Bob to design a new body style with more elegant curves, more accommodating proportions and a balanced tonal response. The result was the Grand Auditorium, which Taylor introduced in 1994 to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
Thanks to its musical versatility and easy playability, Bob’s Grand Auditorium attracted a wide variety of players. “We came into our own with our Grand Auditorium,” he says. “People were describing it as ‘all around.’ It’s a good strummer and good for fingerstyle, but it’s not totally geared toward strumming or totally geared toward fingerstyle.” Also referred to as the “Swiss-Army Knife” of guitars or the “Goldilocks” guitar, the GA quickly became a favorite among guitarists across playing styles, musical genres and different playing applications including recording and live performance. “That guitar made studio work successful,” Bob says. It gained a wider fanbase with the debut of the “ce” version, which introduced a Venetian cutaway and onboard electronics. “That became one of our hallmarks,” says Bob. “If you want to plug in your guitar, buy a Taylor.”
Today, the Grand Auditorium is Taylor’s best-selling body shape.
The Legacy Collection features two cedar-top Grand Auditoriums inspired by past favorites: the mahogany/cedar 514ce and rosewood/cedar 714ce. Both models incorporate Bob’s original X-bracing pattern for a tonal character reminiscent of their 1990s and 2000s counterparts. Shared aesthetic details include a green abalone three-ring rosette, ebony bridge pins with green abalone dots, a faux-tortoiseshell pickguard and Taylor gold tuning machines.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 815e | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 514ce
The Legacy 514ce features solid mahogany back and sides paired with a Western Red cedar top, yielding a punchy midrange and dry, woody sonic personality that pairs beautifully with cedar’s soft-touch sensitivity and warmth. It’s a standout choice for fingerstyle players and light strummers who crave nuance and depth. Distinct visual details include faux-tortoise body and fretboard binding, black-and-white top trim, and mother-of-pearl small diamond fretboard inlays.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 514ce | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 714ce
The Legacy 714ce also features a cedar top, this time matched with solid Indian rosewood back and sides. The result is a richly textured sound with deep lows, clear trebles and a warm, mellow response. Inspiring as it is, this specific wood pairing isn’t currently offered in any other standard Taylor model. Additional aesthetic details include green abalone dot fretboard inlays, black body and fretboard binding, and black-and-white “pinstripe” body purfling.
While the Legacy Collection spotlights Taylor’s past, newer models from the Gold Label, Builder’s Edition and Somos Collections show the company’s legacy is always evolving. Explore the Legacy Collection at taylorguitars.com or visit your local authorized Taylor dealer.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 714ce | Playthrough Demo
Guest picker Ally Venable
Blues rocker Ally Venable joins PG’s editors to imagine what their dream late-night band would sound like.
Question: What’s your dream late-night show band?
Ally Venable - Guest Picker
By FifthLegend from Eagan, Minnesota, United States of America - Thundercat, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70617212
A: For my late-night show's house band, I’ve assembled a dream team. This ensemble inspires me with their unparalleled musical talents and diverse backgrounds. Chris Layton’s drumming is unmatched and he will provide a solid foundation. I’ll have Jon Batiste on keys. His creativity and energy is boundless. Eric Gales would be on guitar. I love how emotive his music is, and I strive for that type of connection within my playing as well. Finally, I’d have Thundercat on bass. His playing is infused with jazz and funk sensibilities that would tie the whole sound together in an interesting way.
Obsession: My current obsession is shifting my approach to playing—focusing on connection over applause. Instead of chasing technical perfection or crowd reactions, I’m leaning into the emotional and spiritual side of music. It’s about creating moments that resonate deeply, whether it’s with myself, my bandmates, or the audience.
David Saenger - Reader of the Month
A: I love the idea of supergroups and how each of the players would interact. On guitars I would have Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme) and Isaiah Sharkey. My drum and bass combo would be Stewart Copeland (The Police) and Mohini Dey. On keys and sax, I would have Herbie Hancock and Joshua Redman. My male and female vocalists would be Corey Glover (Living Colour) and Liv Warfield (Prince). All of these players are fantastic improvisers and really know how to put on an entertaining show in any genre.
Bassist Victor Wooten
Obsession: My current obsession has been bass. My 12-year-old daughter started playing electric and upright bass about two years ago, and it’s been a blast working with her. I’ve been really focusing on having a solid pocket, and it’s forced me to get better at reading bass clef. I’m taking her to see Victor Wooten next week. Can’t wait!
Jason Shadrick - Managing Editor
Jason Shadrick on the SNL stage.
A: The natural move would be to go for a high-energy party band decked out with multiple keyboards, horns, and vocalists. I’d go a different route. I’d go for a more rootsy vibe with Blake Mills leading a band consisting of Jay Bellerose on drums, esperanza spalding on bass, Bob Reynolds on saxophones, and a rotating guest each week. They could cover lo-fi Americana, funky open-tuned blues, and so much more.
Obsession: This month is slightly less obsession and more reflection as this will be my last issue as Managing Editor for PG. Over the last 15 years I’ve worked on 182 issues, which is kinda mind-boggling. I’ve been lucky enough to do some incredible things during my time at PG, including walking through the host door at SNL and spending a few minutes with Brian May. Never could have imagined it. I am very grateful.
Nick Millevoi - Senior Editor
A: I’ve long said that joining one of the late night bands would probably be my absolute top dream gig. So, if I were choosing my own late-night band, from any era, I would go no further than getting a chance to sit with Paul Schaffer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band or G.E. Smith-era Saturday Night Live Band.
Obsession: The late guitarist Jef Lee Johnson, who spent time in Schaffer’s band, had a heavy resume that included stars of all genres from Billy Joel to the Roots to McCoy Tyner. I got to see him play some low-key gigs around Philly, and each rearranged my molecules. It’s only now, years after his 2013 death, that I’ve become obsessed with his discography. Though much of his work was as a high-level sideman, his albums show the broad range of this masterful guitarist, whose tone, feel, and phrasing conveyed the instrument’s deepest emotional capabilities.
Pick one of these stomps, ranging from silicon-driven to germanium-juiced and beyond, to supercharge your signal.
Keeley Electronics Octa Psi Transfigurating Fuzz
Imagine merging a powerful pitch-shifter, octave generator, and an incredible analog fuzz into one intuitive pedal. The new Octa Psi makes that dream a reality!
$249 street
robertkeeley.com
Wampler Pedals Cryptid Fuzz
This unique circuit is capable of reproducing classic immense fuzz tones, and it’s also easy to create unique new fuzz sounds by dialing in the character control.
$199 street
wamplerpedals.com
StewMac Sun Fuzz Pedal
There have been countless replicas and reimaginations of the classic Fuzz Face pedal and more modern Sun Face over the decades. StewMac’s Sun Fuzz gives you the control and tone shaping you’ve always wanted from the originals. For fans of Hendrix, Clapton, or Gilmour, it’s a must-have.
$99 street
stewmac.com
SoloDallas Orbiter Fuzz
A testament to the expertise and perfectionism that has made SoloDallas a mainstay for over 50 major artists. The unique combination of carbon zinc power emulation, internal impedance control, and external fuzz, gain, and bias produces authentic tones ranging from Hendrix psychedelia to singing “American Woman” fuzz.
$249 street
solodallas.com
Dunlop MXR Hybrid Fuzz
This pedal combines two iconic Fuzz Face distortion sounds—snarling, high-gain silicon and the smooth, shaggy warmth of germanium.
$169 street
jimdunlop.com
Dunlop MXR Super Badass Variac Fuzz
This fuzz is a tonechaser’s dream come true, featuring a Variac control that takes you from vintage dying-battery sag to wide-open saturation.
$149 street
jimdunlop.com
At its core is GTRS’ upgraded G151 intelligent system, offering 128 onboard effects, MNRS amp and cab sims, and even 17 guitar emulations—exclusive to this model. Everything is controlled via the eye-catching Super Knob, which changes color to match your preset, as well as through the Bluetooth-connectible GTRS app.
GTRS’ W902 features select tonewoods and construction: an alder body, poplar burl top, and a sleek bolt-on 5-piece neck made from roasted flame maple and rosewood, with satin natural finish and a rosewood fingerboard. The fanned fret design features 24 white copper frets and a stainless zero fret. A pair of GTRS Alnico V pickups and an HL-II bridge deliver a resonant tone, made particularly versatile thanks to the 5-way tone switch and tone knob.
The W902 offers a truly innovative choice for tech-savvy guitarists. Its features include a wireless transmitter, OTG recording, an 80-second looper, metronomes, and a drum machine, the app-supported guitar boasts up to 12 hours of playtime on a single charge (9 hours with the wireless transmitter in use).
The W902 is an upgraded version of the original W900 Intelligent Guitar, and the W902 most notably features an upgraded GTRS Intelligent Processor System, the G151, which even offers upgrades over the GTRS SL810's recently announced G150 system. The G151 system comes with a staggering 128 effects pre-installed, along with 10 of both MOOER's in-house MNRS amp and cabinet simulation profiles. Exclusive to the W902, the G151 system even includes 17 guitar simulation effects, allowing guitarists to emulate the tonal resonance of some of their favorite guitars.
To activate and browse through presets within the G151 system, which can be connected via Bluetooth 5.0, guitarists can use the guitar's Super Knob, which lights up in different LED colors depending on which preset is activated. Of course, users are able to get stuck into and edit the effects chains of presets through the GTRS app, enabling them to craft their own favorites through their mobile device. The guitar still functions without the G151 system; the Super Knob just needs to be turned off, and the W902 is usable as a regular electric guitar.
Within the GTRS app, there is even an 80-second looper, 10 metronomes, and 40 drum machine grooves built in, providing users with an all-in-one suite for guitar practice and composition. This is especially the case when combined with the W902's OTG-recording support, enabling on-the-go recording without the need for a hardware recording setup.
The W902 comes bundled with a GTRS Deluxe gig bag, three guitar wrenches, a USB 3.0 cable for charging, and a user manual. The guitar even contains a wireless transmitter and an integrated 4000mAh Li-ion battery, providing up to 12 hours of continuous use (9 hours with the transmitter in use), allowing users to enjoy the G151 system through headphones or an amplifier.
Guitarists who want to experiment further with the W902’s technology can connect the intelligent system to the GTRS GWF4 wireless footswitch, which is ideal for switching between presets in live scenarios when control through a mobile device isn't practical.
GTRS W902 Guitar construction features:
- Alder Body, 5-Piece Selected Roasted Flame Maple and Rosewood Neck with Satin Natural Finish (C-Shape)
- Bolt-on neck, 25-1/2" scale length, with dual action steel truss rod
- Rosewood fingerboard, 12” radius, 24 white copper (0 fret stainless) fanned frets
- Built-in wireless transmitter
- Super Knob, Volume Control Knob, and Tone Knob, 3-way tone-selection switch
- GLB-P1 Li-ion Battery (4000mAh, up to 12 hours of continuous use, 9 hours with the wireless transmitter in use)
- USB port for charging and OTG recording
- GTRS Deluxe gig bag, 3 guitar wrenches
GTRS G151 Intelligent Guitar System features:
- GTRS G151 Intelligent Processing System (and GTRS App)
- 128 effects, 10 MNRS amp (GNR) and cabinet (GIR) simulation models
- 17 guitar simulations
- 80-second looper, 40 drum machine grooves, 10 metronomes
- Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity
- GTRS GWF4 wireless footswitch support (sold separately)
The GTRS W902 is now available worldwide. For more information visit www.gtrs.tech.