In December of last year, Tony Rice passed away. He was/is my all-time favorite guitarist. Like many of his fans, my love of his playing has likely transcended obsession. In fact, at the time of writing this, I have transcribed over 100 Tony Rice solos. That puts me in a unique position to share with you not only my favorite Tony Rice licks but what I think might be Rice's favorite licks, if the frequency with which he played them is any indication.
These examples can be found in almost every Tony Rice break. They are integral to his sound and they can become part of your sound too. This comes with one small warning though: These licks are not meant to be parroted off this page. A big hallmark of this sound is to use these phrases but to vary them, and create your own versions of them. Let's remember Rice by innovating on his past achievements the same way he innovated on the achievements of the players that came before him.
How to End a Bluegrass Song
One of the most famous and enduring Tony Rice licks is this signature tag. A tag is a common way to end a bluegrass fiddle tune or vocal song, the most generic tag being the ubiquitous "shave and a haircut." In Ex.1, you can see what's called a "double" tag. The first tag ends on beat 3 of measure two, before the open 3rd string on beat 3. The remainder of the lick forms the second tag, which eventually morphs into a variation of the Lester Flatt "G run."
Rice's note choice is predominantly major pentatonic but includes an occasional b3 that always resolve down to the 2 or up to the 3. As I say to my students, "Blue notes need buddies." Playing these pairs of notes with articulations like slides and pull-offs that cross bar lines is an important part of Rice's style.
Tony Rice Ex. 1
Use Your Chords
If you're familiar with triads on the D, G, and B strings, you can turn those into bluegrass licks as well. Rice has used the triads in Ex. 2 in a handful of different and interesting ways. He's used the last two chord shapes to form the main riff for "Me and My Guitar," and employed those same shapes to punctuate the end of his "Cold on the Shoulder" kick-off. Sometimes you can see him expand this idea by using even more chord shapes to descend the neck. He would use something like Ex. 2 in a G major context but would be heavily implying G Mixolydian mode by using the F major and D minor triads.
Tony Rice Ex. 2
That One Lick
I've seen this passage referred to multiple times as "that one Tony Rice lick." He uses variations of this passage to finish breaks in "Your Love Is Like a Flower," "Ain't Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone," and "Gold Rush." It serves the function of a statement piece to assert his personal voice on the instrument before handing off the spotlight to the next instrumental break or verse of a song with vocals.
As you play Ex. 3 be mindful of how you use your pinky. Every note on the 10th fret is played with the pinky, including a brief pinky barre on the 10th fret of the 3rd and 4th strings.
Tony Rice Ex. 3
Pull-Off Central
This lick has been featured in recordings, but I associate it much more with Rice's live sound. Whenever Rice needs a second to think about what to play next, Ex. 4 seems to come to his fingers first. The note choice here lands firmly in the minor pentatonic camp but he manages to create a little bit of an outside sound with the third iteration of the pattern that brings in the b5 at the 6th fret of the G string.
Tony Rice Ex. 4
Escape Notes
Have you ever been stuck up the neck improvising with no idea how to get back down to something more familiar? Me too! So, let me introduce you to escape notes. Sometimes you can find an open string that will continue your line in a linear fashion while freeing up your hand to shift down the neck. Take a look at the F, E, and D eighth-notes in the first measure of Ex. 5. Rather than playing those three notes in position, Rice is using the open 1st string so he has time to shift his hand while continuing his eighth-note line.
There are examples of Rice using variations of licks like this in "Blue Railroad Train," "A Hundred Years from Now," and "Likes of Me." You can use this in a D major context or in a G major context over a D chord.
Tony Rice Ex. 5
Acoustic Bends
It can be done, and in a situation like this we're not necessarily shooting for something perfectly in tune. In Ex. 6 you can see that pulling down on the 4th string at the 3rd fret will bring the note closer to F#, the 3 of the chord, but in practice Rice usually doesn't get all the way there.
Tony Rice Ex. 6
Phrasing
If you asked a random flatpicker at a bluegrass festival to play a Tony Rice lick, they would probably play something like Ex. 7. These types of phrases have endless variations and demonstrate Rice's long-standing influence on bluegrass music. These licks are built from a G minor pentatonic (G–Bb–C–D–F) bone structure but always feature a pull-off from the 2nd fret to the 1st fret on the B string and a slide from 3rd to 4th fret on the G string. This pull-off and slide are great reminders that blue notes need buddies.
Tony Rice Ex. 7
True Minor
Bluegrass isn't all major tunes though. There are standards in minor keys. We're talking about tunes that are actually minor—not just playing minor pentatonic licks over major chords. With that in mind, it would be wrong of me to not mention Ex. 8, one of Rice's favorite improvisational ideas to employ over minor tunes. This kind of lick is all over Rice's original compositions in minor keys and the recordings he made with David Grisman. The idea is framed in a slightly ambiguous way, so you can find Rice using it in A minor and D minor.
Tony Rice Ex. 8
It's an impossible task to completely distill Tony Rice's playing into a single lesson. I would point you to nearly any album in his discography to get the essence of modern bluegrass guitar right from the source. His touch, feel, tone, and vibe forever changed acoustic music and we all will be eternally grateful.
Essential Tony Rice Videos
Tony Rice liked to perform "Me and My Guitar" with an extended jam in the middle. Many licks from this lesson appear in his guitar break at 6:00.
Tony Rice's "Church Street Blues"
There's very little footage of Tony Rice performing his iconic interpretation of Norman Blake's "Church Street Blues." This arrangement may be one of the most difficult to replicate from Rice's catalogue.
Tony Rice's "Old Home Place"
Tony Rice performs on the definitive recordings of multiple bluegrass standards but "Old Home Place" may be the most important. JD Crowe & The New South's self-titled release is considered by many to be a near perfect bluegrass record.
Tony Rice "Shenandoah"
Most folks talk about Tony Rice's hot-style playing but his melodic chord melody approach to guitar is equally impressive. I doubt we'll ever see an accurate transcription or performance of this era of Tony Rice.
California metal giants Deftones returned this year with Private Music, their first album in five years. In support of it, they ripped across North America on a string of headline shows and support slots with System of a Down.
We linked with Deftones guitarist Stef Carpenter for a Rig Rundown back in 2013, but a lot has changed since then (and as Carpenter reveals in this new interview, he basically disowns that 2013 rig). Back in August, PG’s Chris Kies caught up with Carpenter again ahead of the band’s gig in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the guitarist gave us an all-access walkthrough of his current road rig.
This headless, color-shifting Kiesel Vader 8 was the first Kiesel that Carpenter got his hands on.
Kiesel Kavalcade
Carpenter requested Vader models in all-black, all-white, and goldtop finishes, then Jeff Kiesel himself surprised Carpenter with the remainder, including the camo and green sparkle models shown here. Carpenter will choose which guitar to use based on how he’s feeling each evening. To record Private Music, he switched between his trusty ESPs and these new favorites.
Stef’s Selections
One of Carpenter’s two guitar vaults is full of his current favorite ESPs. Of those, this glow-in-the-dark version, along with the pink-finish model, is his top pick. Curious about his pickup configuration? It’s got nothing to do with sound; it’s purely based on how guitarists like Vivian Campbell and Adrian Vandenberg set up their guitars. Carpenter loved the look, so he copied it.
Back to Bogners
Carpenter says he’s had “too many fails” relying on a completely digital rig, so these days he rolls with a hybrid setup designed by his tech, Greg Dubinovskiy, and Dave Friedman, the latter of whom built the rig.
It’s based around these KT88-loaded Bogner Uberschall Uber-Ultra heads, which are wired to two Bogner 2x12 UberKabs (with one Celestion V-30 and one G12T-75 each) and two Bogner 4x12 UberKabs (with two V-30s and two G12T-75s in an X pattern). A Shure Nexus 57 and Shure KSM32 are used to capture the amp sound.
Rack Rundown
Beside the Bogner’s, another rack houses a Shure AD4Q, Radial JX 44, and a Fractal Axe-Fx II. (Carpenter has no desire to upgrade to the latest model.) Lower down, there’s a pair of Rivera Mini RockRecs.
Most of Carpenter’s pedals are shelved below these units, including an Eventide H9, Boss FZ-1, ZVEX Fuzz Factory, custom ZVEX Machine, , Pigtronix Gatekeeper, Xotic SP Compressor, Strymon Mobius, Strymon BigSky, Strymon Timeline, and TC Electronic TC 2290. A Voodoo Lab Hex powers the pedal party.
Stef Carpenter’s Pedalboard
Carpenter’s Line 6 Helix unit is the brain of his setup, and handles all switching. Also on hand are a DigiTech Whammy Ricochet, a Dunlop Volume (X) Mini pedal, and a TC Electronic PolyTune 3 Noir.
The metal giants return to the stage with a show powered by gold-and-black axes and pure tube power.
Except for two new singles in 2020, alt-metal icons System of a Down haven’t released new music in 20 years. But luckily for their fans, System—vocalist Serj Tankian, guitarist/vocalist Daron Malakian, bassist Shavo Odadjian, and drummer John Dolmayan—took their catalog of era-defining, genre-changing hard-rock haymakers on tour this year across South and North America.
PG’s Chris Kies connected with Malakian onstage at Soldier Field in Chicago ahead of System’s second show at the football stadium. Malakian and his tech, Patrick Lachman, explained how some color-coded Gibson, Ibanez, and Friedman gear give Malakian the fire he needs to burn through the band’s legendary set.
This Gibson SG is brand new and “hot off the presses,” per Malakian’s tech, Lachman. Built in Gibson’s Custom Shop, it’s got Seymour Duncan Custom Shop pickups. On this run, he starts shows on this guitar, and will typically switch things up after about 10 songs.
Malakian plays custom, extra-pointy Dunlop picks, and runs all his axes with a custom set of Ernie Ball strings (.010–0.50). System’s catalog, and therefore Malakian’s guitars, are predominantly in drop-C tuning.
Freeze!
Next up during the set, Malakian will turn to his iconic Ibanez Iceman, one of his most heavily leaned-upon toys during this tour. This one has black “secret ninja binding,” his tech quips, virtually invisible to all but Malakian. It’s wired with Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Pearly Gates pickups.
B.Y.O.V.
Malakian always liked how Albert King’s Flying V looked with its Les Paul-style headstock, so when Gibson was making him a V, he requested that it be outfitted with the same look. This one’s rocking a pair of Seymour Duncan Saturday Night Special pickups.
Semi-Hollow Star
This Gibson ES-335, dressed in the same black-and-gold scheme as all of Malakian’s guitars, also came fresh from the Custom Shop for this run of shows.
Old and New, All Tube
Malakian doesn’t have anything against modeling technology, but he prefers to keep things old-school. He runs two generations of Friedman BE-100 heads at the same time: The newer BE-100 Deluxe head (below) is used for dirty tones, while the first-gen BE-100 (above) stays dialed for cleans. They’re connected to two Marshall 4x12 cabinets onstage, dedicated to either the clean or overdriven signals. The speakers are Celestion G12M-70s.
Loaded onto Malakian’s rack above the amp heads are a Shure AD4Q, Radial JX 44, MXR Smart Gate Pro, Voodoo Lab GCX, AmpRx Backline, and Furman PL-Pro DMC.
Daron Malakian’s Pedalboard
Malakian’s switching is handled backstage by his Scars on Broadway bandmate Orbel Babayan via this board. In addition to a Voodoo Lab Ground Control Pro switcher, Akai MPK Mini, and Scarlett Focusrite interface, the board is dead simple, with just an MXR Phase 90 and Boss DD-6 delay. No dirt pedals needed; all Malakian’s drive comes from the Friedman. A Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus fires up the affair.
Linkin Park went on hiatus for seven years after lead vocalist Chester Bennington’s death in 2017, but last September, the band announced that they were returning with new music and a new lineup—including vocalist Emily Armstrong and drummer Colin Brittain. A new album, From Zero, was released in November 2024, followed by the single “Up From the Bottom” earlier this year, and this summer, the band tore off on an international arena and stadium comeback tour. Founding lead guitarist Brad Delson is still a creative member of the band, but has elected to step back from touring. And so on the road, Alex Feder takes his place alongside founding guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, DJ Joe Hahn, and bassist Dave Farrell.
PG’s Chris Kies headed to downtown Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena to meet up with Mike Shinoda, plus techs Mark, Ben, and Tracy, to learn how the band pulled off their much-anticipated gigs this year.
This is Shinoda’s “workhorse” Strat, a longtime trusted pal that’s featured on songs like “What I’ve Done.” There have been plenty of times when Shinoda gets bored on tour, and at one point, he started painting his guitars to keep himself occupied—including this Strat.
Painted PRS
This PRS is from the band’s Meteora-era, a definitive instrument in the early years of the band. Again, the guitar’s aesthetic customizations were executed by Shinoda himself, with ink markers, spray paint, and a paint pen—plus some custom “etchings” on the fretboard. This and his other guitars are outfitted with custom Kill Spencer straps.
Blackout
This black Gibson SG came into the picture around Linkin Park’s third record, 2007’s Minutes to Midnight.
Empty Spaces
With new vocalist Armstrong’s voice filling a different spot in the band’s sound, Shinoda has adjusted some of his tunings and playing. This Fender Blacktop Baritone Telecaster helps give Armstrong’s voice space and keeps everyone in their sweet spots, frequency-wise.
Hybrid Theory Heavy
This 2008 PRS Custom 24 is a replica of Delson’s Hybrid Theory-era PRS, and sports Paul Reed Smith’s autograph on the back. It lives in drop C-sharp tuning, and if Delson is playing it, it’s loaded with D’Addario NYXLs (.010-.052). When Feder’s at the wheel, he goes for heavier top strings mixed with Delson’s packs, for a gauge range of .054-.044-.032-.017-.013-.010.
Another PRS, finished in grey and tuned to drop D sharp, features the Minutes to Midnight logo and gets brought out for “One Step Closer.” A sunburst PRS DC3 is equipped with even heavier strings for a drop A tuning: A-E-A-D-G-B.
’61 Standard
This Fender Custom Shop Rory Gallagher Stratocaster has become a staple of the live show. It’s part of a set of three that were created for Delson, designed and relic’d to mimic a 1961 Standard Stratocaster. It stays in drop D, with Delson’s standard .010-.052 strings. He uses .72mm Dunlop picks, while Feder uses slightly heavier .88mm picks.
Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, and Alex Feder’s Rack Systems
Delson’s rig (used by touring member Alex Feder) lives on the left side of this rack, while Shinoda’s takes up the right. They both include a Radial KL-8, two Radial JX44s, two Shure AD4Qs, and two Fractal Axe-Fx III units. Shinoda’s setup also includes two Electro-Harmonix HOG2 pedals. The fractals use IRs that were captured by old FOH engineer Pooch, using a Randall cabinet.
MIDI handles all of the changes for the show, though there’s a Fractal FC-12 foot controller on hand in case of emergency for manual switching. Fred Carlton of Nerdmatics, who built the Linkin Park rig for this 2024-2025 run promoting From Zero, shared some more information with us after filming: “The backline gear consists of about 11 computers running Ableton, all receiving locator information from the main playback computers. We maintain redundant computer systems for Joe Hahn’s DJ rig, Mike Shinoda’s keyboard rig, the Audio FX rig, and the Playback system. Single-computer setups are used for both guitar rigs and the bass rig, as these stations only send MIDI patch changes and do not handle audio. Additional single-computer systems are in place at Monitor World, FOH, and within the Visual department.
Each station carries an updated timeline of the show, allowing techs to insert automation data such as MIDI or timecode to control their systems. Once changes are made to the main Ableton session, we distribute updated .ALS files to all departments, enabling them to integrate their specific data into the new timeline. This workflow allows us to implement changes quickly while keeping all departments aligned. Having separate computers also gives each tech the ability to test their own system independently. In the event of losing RTP network connectivity, they can punt the show locally without relying on external automation.”
Sharpened with Precision
This Fender Custom Shop Precision bass is Dave Farrell’s go-to, his tech Tracy explains. It’s tuned to either drop D or standard, and Farrell uses Ernie Ball Bass Hybrid Slinky strings (.045-.105) with Dunlop .88mm picks.
Ernie Ball Basher
This beloved Ernie Ball Music Man StringRay, with active electronics and neck-through construction, is the second-most used bass in the rack, and comes out for hits like “Papercut” and “In the End.” It’s tuned to drop C-sharp.
Mum Knows Best
Though his other StingRay gets more play, this is the original item, which Farrell’s mother bought for him. It gets tapped for tracks “Somewhere I Belong” and “Faint.”
Dave Farrell’s Rack
Along with the same accoutrements (Radial KL 8 and JX 44, Shure AD4Q), Farrell also uses a pair of Fractal Axe-Fx IIIs, and runs three signals—one of an Ampeg SVT model, a Marshall JMP-1 model, and a clean direct signal, run through emulations of two Ampeg 4x10 speaker cabinets—to front of house, which can mix and match between the three as needed.
The prolific Australian guitarist brought his mastery to east Nashville, where we got a look at the gear he’s trusting overseas.
Adam Miller has been compared to plenty of his most sacred influences—Tommy Emmanuel, Chet Atkins, Charlie Hunter, Bill Frissell—but he’s certainly carved a path of his own. This year alone, he’s released three records and undertook a U.S. tour to bring his delightful mix of jazz, groove, and beyond to eager listeners.
Before his show at the Underdog in east Nashville, Miller took some time to show PG’s Chris Kies around his trusted tools for international touring, including a gorgeous custom Huber electric, a Collings acoustic, and some key items on loan.
Calling a Huber
This custom-built Huber electric, by German luthier Nik Huber, was crafted over the last five years, working in elements of Miller’s previous Huber and several other designs. It has a heavily chambered mahogany back and redwood top, bolt-on maple neck, rosewood fretboard, trapeze tailpiece, and nylon saddles, plus Kloppmann Electrics mini humbuckers and a single 250k volume pot, which rolls off for a jazzy archtop sound. Miller strings it with D’Addario NYXLs (.011–.049s).
Borrowed Bari
Since Miller can’t bring all his favorite instruments on tour, he often borrows guitars from local friends and fans on tour, like this baritone Novo Serus J.
Collings Calling
Miller bought this Collings acoustic at Gladesville Guitar Factory, just outside Sydney, about 10 years ago. He runs it with a Seymour Duncan Wavelength duo pickup system, but swapped out the kit’s undersaddle piece for soundboard transducers and modified “the circuit so they’re at a crossover, so you’re only hearing the bottom end of them and all the top end’s coming from the condenser mic.” He uses D’Addario Nickel Bronze (.012–0.53s) on his acoustic.
Can I Bum a Studio Sig?
Miller has been a Two-Rock devotee since 2007, and on one of his first trips to the U.S., he visited the factory and picked one up. He doesn’t travel with his unit, so he borrowed this one from Nashville legend Cory Congilio. For Miller, an amp is the soundboard for an electric guitar; if he doesn’t have a Two-Rock, he struggles.
Adam Miller’s Pedalboard
Miller’s Collings runs into a Grace Design ALiX preamp, which helps him fine-tune his EQ and level out pickups with varying output when he switches instruments. For reverb, sometimes he’ll tap the Strymon Flint, but often he’ll let the front of house weave it in.
Aside from the ALiX and Flint, Miller relies on a Vemuram Jan Ray, Free the Tone SOV-2 Overdrive, Chase Bliss Mood, and Line 6 DL4 Mk II.
Miller’s Collings runs into a Grace Design ALiX preamp, which helps him fine-tune his EQ and level out pickups with varying output when he switches instruments. For reverb, sometimes he’ll tap the