
Get inspired by these up-and-coming guitarists who are blazing paths for the next generation and giving us something to believe in.
Social media has changed the game for musicians in all the ways. Love it or hate it, you can find dozens of super-shredding guitar prodigies in a simple scroll. You can bypass the middleman and send your creations out to the world via your own platform. But besides having talent, luck, and savvy, it takes something exceptional to breakthrough today’s saturation. We’d like to introduce you to 10 inspiring young players who possess exciting qualities that truly transcend. The future of guitar is bright in these hands.
1. Andy Pitcher: In Search of Future Weirdness
Andy Pitcher
If you’ve heard Andy Pitcher play guitar, it was most likely on Instagram, where he’s carved his own deep-cut niche in the guitar-demo world. Whether on his page or a manufacturer’s, Pitcher reaches beyond the common uses of gear to dig deep, displaying how a piece inspires him to find new sounds within his own self-described “weird style.” His usage might not speak to the common guitarist, but adventurous players will hear something in Pitcher’s esoteric techniques—wide-finger extended chords to demonstrate an off-kilter fuzz or banging on his guitar’s body to coax chaos out of a granular delay—that speaks to their own sonic-pioneering instincts.
Forward-thinking jazzers like Bill Frisell, Mary Halvorson, and Pete Cosey are big reference points for Pitcher’s style. But it’s often the gear itself that inspires his playing, and he credits a particular green Line 6 as an early essential piece: “I looked for ways to sound like John Coltrane’s Verve era and found a lot of that from the DL4,” he explains. Pitcher is quick to shout-out skateboarders Gou Miyagi and Rodney Mullen as foundational influences, the latter of whom, he says, “taught me how to play guitar because of how he talked about learning to skateboard in his autobiography.”
Ultimately, Pitcher confesses, “I love the instrument, but I’m not that interested in what’s been done with it.” Instead, he’s interested in looking ahead, and calls the guitar “the greatest sound producer.” As a collaborator, Pitcher says artists will often reach out to him in search of non-traditional sounds, specifically “super-noisy guitar, or stuff that is kind of a synth, kind of a string section, and kind of a guitar.” He can be heard doing the former on The Armed’s gleefully chaotic Ultrapop—which features Pitcher’s live-wire guitar playing on the explosively unhinged “Faith in Medication”—and the latter on singer/songwriter Motyka’s If All I Do Is Wait and By Keeping Spring.
The guitarist is currently working on a new collaboration with Kurt Ballou and Urian Hackney, and he has an album in the can with Gabriel Marin’s Social Assassins. Equipped with his off-kilter crew of guitars—a Tao T-Bucket, a New Complexity Harmonic Master 12, and a T-style partscaster fitted with a Cicfi Nexus 6 hexaphonic pickup—Pitcher’s ears are always searching the sonic horizon for the sound of the future. —Nick Millevoi
Inorganic Body | Mask Audio Electronics MAYBE? | Andy Pitcher's Machine Music
Pitcher uses the ostensible gear-demo format for his adventurous compositional and expressive needs as he seems to imagine Aphex Twin with a guitar obsession.
2. Annie Wagstaff: Neo-Soul Chops Meets Modern Pop
Annie Wagstaff
In the era of social media, trying to cut through the noise is a challenging task. London-based guitarist Annie Wagstaff, who goes by annieplaysguitar on Instagram, has done just that with her soulful pop-centric style. At 26, she’s becoming an in-demand session player in addition to releasing electro-pop singles under the name ANNI.
Growing up, she was inspired by the pop music of day. “One of the first songs I learned on guitar was by the Fratellis,” mentions Wagstaff. “I wasn’t really listening to all the classics. I wasn’t nerding out on Eric Clapton or Hendrix. That wasn’t me at all.” The absorption of modern influences and eschewing of the tried-and-true rock/blues legends forced Wagstaff away from typical guitar cliches. After studying music in college, she headed to Berklee for a summer and was exposed to a level of playing that “was in another league.” After that momentous experience, she rededicated herself to the craft and started to post snippets of her playing on Instagram.
That’s how producer Rodney Jerkins (Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga) first heard Wagstaff’s playing. That led to a request that she lay down some guitars on a track. There was one catch—he couldn’t tell her who it was for. After a few hours, she sent the tracks off and didn’t hear much. “Six months later I get a message saying, ‘Congrats you’re on a Justin Bieber track,’” says Wagstaff.
On the wall in her apartment is a grid that shows the progress of her upcoming project. “I’m just trickling songs out at the moment,” says Wagstaff. Although the planned eight-song project walks the line of being a full album rather than an EP. As of now, there are four tracks out in the world, with several more coming soon. “I don’t really think of it as an ‘album’ but more as just a bunch of songs.” —Jason Shadrick
ANNI - Sinner - Official Lyric Video
Wagstaff shows off her impeccable home productions skills along with her multi-instrumental chops and neo-soul fills on the verses on this mid-tempo pop gem.
3. Cecil Alexander: Bop Meets Blues
Cecil Alexander
Photo by Eunice Beck
Jazz has long been dubbed as too intellectual or “weird” for most listeners, but Cecil Alexander wants to change that. Alexander is a modern-day throwback to the era when the blues was the centerpiece of modern jazz. His full-bodied tone might be traditional, but his mastery of modern language and feel points directly at the future. He just started as an assistant professor at Berklee (his alma matter) and will be releasing an album, Introducing Cecil Alexander, on Kurt Rosenwinkel’s Heartcore label.
The comparisons to George Benson and Grant Green are natural as Alexander’s picking style is both percussive and fluid. After his time at Berklee and subsequently pursuing his master’s degree at William Paterson University, Alexander began to rack up accolades and awards. He won the 2017 Wilson Center Jazz Guitar Competition and the 2018 Lee Ritenour Six String Theory Competition. On top of all that, he was a finalist at the 2019 Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Guitar Competition. “That competition gave me a clearer idea of what direction I wanted to go in,” says Alexander. It took him back to his prime jazz influences such as Wes Montgomery and Green, and solidified his approach for his debut album.
An organ trio has always been a welcome setting for blues-drenched jazz guitar, and you can hear how razor-focused Alexander is throughout his debut. Rounding out the trio is organist Will Gorman and drummer Steven Crammer, both former classmates of Alexander. The tunes are exciting and swinging, with Alexander’s bluesy bop leading the way. Not bad for a kid growing up in the rather slim music scene of Muskegon, Michigan. —Jason Shadrick
Introducing Cecil Alexander - Shug (Official Video)
The melody to Alexander’s “Shug” gives a nod to the angular beauty often found in Rosenwinkel’s playing. Recorded in a single day, his debut album is a masterful showcase of how to combine a traditional tone with a modern approach.
4. Hayden Pedigo: Acoustic Trickster
Hayden Pedigo
Photo by Abigail Clark for Pulp Arts
Humor and music famously struggle to get along, but there are masters who successfully walk the line. Throughout the genre-defying multimedia performance art that evolves naturally from his wildly creative intuition, Hayden Pedigo successfully balances the earnest sincerity of his acoustic-guitar instrumentals with his “trickster manifestations.”
In 2018, the then-24-year-old guitarist created a spoof gonzo-style ad announcing his run for city council in his hometown of Amarillo, Texas. When the local news station ran a piece on his candidacy, Pedigo decided to run a sincere campaign. He lost the race, but became the subject of the documentary Kid Candidate, released in 2021 and recently acquired by World Channel’s America ReFramed documentary series.
Pedigo’s fashion trajectory started similarly. Leading up to the release of last year’s Letting Go—a collection of lush alt-Americana instrumentals for modern times—Pedigo made some “stupid, satirical fashion posts” on social media. He caught the attention of a casting agent, and last fall he walked in the Gucci Love Parade show on Hollywood Boulevard—which has stoked his interest in extreme fashion.
Guitar music may be just one element of Pedigo’s creative personality, but it’s a foundational one. “I approach the guitar like Harmony Korine would a camera, and I approach my comedy like John Fahey … the original influence that got me going,” says Pedigo.
While he’s humbly self-deprecating about his “hilariously slanted” guitar abilities—he points out that he doesn’t use tuners or metronomes—because they’re mostly geared toward his own writing, Pedigo’s playing, especially on Letting Go, displays a dedication to refined compositional craft and well-executed technique. His process includes patient experimenting as he searches for a tuning to inspire his next song. “I like to look up artists I don’t really listen to and use tunings they use,” he explains, citing Joni Mitchell and metal bands—which might explain the corpse-paint-wearing protagonist in his “Letting Go” video.
Pedigo recently switched from a Blueridge BG-60 dreadnought—his main guitar for a decade and the source of the warm, articulate tones on his records thus far—to a custom build from luthier Theo Nicholas of Opus Acoustic, which he uses on his recently finished next release. He promises the next record is his best yet and assures “the influence of absurd fashion now shows up in the music.” —Nick Millevoi
Hayden Pedigo Live at the Lonesome Lounge Sessions
Switching from acoustic to electric, Hayden Pedigo plays a set of songs from his 2021 release, Letting Go, for Texas Public Radio and talks about his music and memes.
5 and 6. The Linda Lindas: Teenage Tigresses Roar
Bela Salazar of The Linda Lindas
Photo by Martin Wong
Sometimes, art imitates art. The four girls in Los Angeles-based punk outfit the Linda Lindas—ages 14 to 18—named their band after the movie Linda Linda Linda, about four teenaged girls in Japan who form a punk band to play their school’s cultural festival. But the Linda Lindas are far better than their fictional counterparts, creating a blissful din reminiscent of early Ramones and heavier stuff. In just four years, they’ve won Tom Morello, Thurston Moore, Flea, Carrie Brownstein, and Kathleen Hanna as fans, scored Amy Poehler’s movie Moxie, signed to Epitaph Records, performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, toured Europe and Japan, and played Riot Fest. Damn!
A tipping point came in May 2021, when the Los Angeles Public Library posted a video of the Linda Lindas, which includes guitarists Bela Salazar and Lucia de la Garza, playing their song “Racist, Sexist Boy” as part of its TEENtastic Tuesdays series. More than 1.5-million views later, they seem and sound unstoppable.
Lucia de la Garza of The Linda Lindas at Pitchfork Fest.
Photo by Martin Wong
The tag team of de la Garza and Salazar conjure a formidable wall of tone. Salazar, who’s been studying classical and flamenco guitar since sixth grade, and de la Garza, who started playing at the band’s inception and now studies jazz, use Ernie Ball Music Man models as their main instruments: a Mariposa and a St. Vincent Goldie, respectively, “with the heaviest gauge Elixir strings you can get, because we break a lot of strings,” Salazar notes. A handful of EarthQuaker pedals—leaning hard on overdrives—and Fender amps complete their sonic thumbprint.
“We’ve been incredibly blessed, to have done all these things, but we’re really just scratching the surface,” says Salazar. “We’re still working on what our sound is.” Adds de la Garza, “We wrote and recorded Growing Up during the height of lockdown, so we’re now just starting to write songs together.” Nonetheless, that February-released debut album is thunderous, hooky, and cohesive, with strong vocal performances from all the Linda Lindas, who are completed by drummer Mila de la Garza and bassist Eloise Wong. Growing Up also displays elements of ’60s/’80s girl-group harmony and flourishes of elegant chording alongside the glorious grind. “We listen to a lot of different kinds of music,” de la Garza acknowledges, “and we’re just starting to incorporate all those influences.”
PS: Chrissie Hynde, Bela Salazar would really like to meet you. —Ted Drozdowski
The Linda Lindas - "Growing Up"
The official video for the Linda Linda’s joyful, insightful tribute to youth, "Growing Up,” perfectly captures the band’s punky exuberance—and a lot of cats in dresses, hats, and wigs. It’s a winning combination.
7. Marcin Patrzalek: One-Man Orchestra
Marcin Patrzalek
When Polish acoustic guitarist Marcin Patrzalek performed a medley of Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5” with System of a Down’s “Toxicity” on America’s Got Talent, judge Howie Mandel said, “You didn’t play the guitar … you murdered the guitar.”
Howie’s not wrong! Marcin’s fire-powered, flawlessly frenzied, and downright mesmerizing arrangements of classical works and rock songs like Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” have millions of views on YouTube. The reason the 21-year-old is connecting with masses is not because of his song choices per se, but because he shatters the expectation of what can be done with two hands and six strings. The passion he radiates while playing such complicated guitar flows through him like a vessel, almost with no filter.
Marcin says he was fortunate to have “an extremely eccentric” classical guitar teacher, Jerzy Pikor. “If you watched the movie Whiplash, that’s him,” he says, laughing. But that was just an entry point. Marcin’s father is “a metalhead” who guided his curiosity toward that genre. In a Zoom interview from Warsaw, Marcin expressed admiration for Animals as Leaders, Loathe, and Polyphia, but revealed the artist who currently inspires him the most is Spanish singer Rosalía because “her music pushes the envelope.” Drawing comparisons to percussive pioneers like Michael Hedges, Tommy Emmanuel, and Kaki King is an honor for Marcin, but he has a singular view on where he wants to take it. “There’s a lot of people who treat guitar in a linear fashion,” he says. “What I want to do is stir some controversy in what the instrument can be.”
He’s certainly grabbing attention with his mind-blowing playing style: He sounds as full and grand as an entire collective of musicians. Marcin is one person with one guitar, an Ibanez AE900 with Fishman pickups. A new collaboration with Ibanez is underway, though, and while Marcin wouldn’t discuss his new guitar yet, you can see him play it in his recent video of Beethoven’s “Für Elise” on YouTube.
In March, Marcin was part of the 2022 Classical Spectacular, an annual event of seven concerts where he was a special guest with London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. “We did 15 minutes just dedicated to me and my style with the backing of the full symphony orchestra behind me in the Royal Albert Hall,” he says. “There’s no more iconic venue. To me that was such a step up, I never expected to play in that sort of a venue ever in my life.”
In early 2023, he’ll release his solo debut album, which he feels will be a true artistic statement. “I have the whole track list set, I’ve invited the guests, all have accepted. It has a title, it has a concept, and it’s a little controversial, I can say that.”
—Tessa Jeffers
Marcin - Kashmir on One Guitar (Official Video)
Marcin Patrzalek’s solo guitar arrangement of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” gets a spirited, genre-blending treatment of percussive tapping, breakneck fingerstyle shredding, and even flamenco.
8. McKinley James: Reverb and Ectoplasm
McKinley James
Photo by Alejandro Menendez
McKinley James teaches old ghosts new tricks.
With the reverb on his Fender Super kissing 5, a deep pocketful of razor-sharp licks, a way with vibrato that makes his bent strings shake dance, and a ringing tenor vocal style that rises and falls with the emotional tides of the songs he performs, Nashville’s James evokes the spirits of his Chicago blues idols Magic Sam Maghett and Otis Rush. But he puts them to work in his original music over a foundation of rock and soul that sounds perfectly attuned to a pop-music landscape that’s been reformed by the likes of the Black Keys and Alabama Shakes.
At 21, barely, James has already been breathing fire for years. He started playing B-3 at age 9, but at 10 flipped to guitar when his allegiance to Booker T. & the M.G.’s switched from the band’s leader to Steve Cropper. He’s already got two singles and three EPs in his backpack, including last year’s Still Standing By, produced by Dan Auerbach, and the newLive!, a pawful of tracks cut while opening dates for the Mavericks. Live! captures his way with melody and hooks—he got schooled by Auerbach on the latter while making Still Standing By—on the percolating “Cut You Loose” and the slow burner “Till Its Gone.”
“I love blues and soul music, and old rock ’n’ roll, like the Sonics and Link Wray, but I listen to modern pop music, too,” he says, “so I like to stay true to my roots but write songs that people into different styles can enjoy.” He also loves his custom TK Smith RoadMaster guitar, a lightweight P-90 beast that howls when plugged into his Super Reverb with a preamp tube pulled—a trick to decrease headroom and output he learned from fellow Nashville guitar ace JD Simo.
Most Monday nights, James can be found at East Nashville indie-music Mecca the 5 Spot, where he summons the patron saints of gritty, old-school blues along with another guitar conjurer, Patrick Sweany, in the Tiger Beats—perhaps the finest blues cover band I’ve heard. And I’ve heard thousands. When they set fire to classics like “Long Distance Call,” somewhere, Muddy Waters is smiling. —Ted Drozdowski
The Tiger Beats feat McKinley James / LIVE at 3rd & Lindsley Nashville
McKinley James trades licks with Patrick Sweany in the Tiger Beats, conjuring the spirits of Magic Sam and Otis Rush in his reverb-soaked tone and pointed notes and fills, as well as his arching vocal phrases.
9. Melanie Faye: Fingerstyle for the Future
Melanie Faye
Photo by Sam Blakelock
“It sounds, like, angelic … it sounds like heaven shining through,” says Melanie Faye in her Fender Player Series demo about the tone of the Strat she’s playing, and her comment gives a glimpse into her flavor of R&B and soul-infused guitar playing. She broke through as a guitar star in 2017, when one of her Instagram videos went viral, helped in part by artist SZA sharing it to her millions of followers. The clip that changed everything shows Faye playing an original instrumental fingerstyle on a blue Strat, sitting on her bedroom floor with a Jimi Hendrix poster behind her.
Faye, age 24, started her guitar journey at 11, after becoming intrigued while playing Guitar Hero. She attended Nashville School of the Arts, which gave her a good foundation in jazz guitar. She prominently uses those jazz chords in her neo-soul grooves but doesn’t consider herself a jazz player. Effortless and bright, her fingerpicked slides and pull-offs show a shockingly high level of musicianship, and when you consider that she’s playing her own compositions, it’s no question why she’s a star on the rise.
Faye’s resume of collaborations is diverse and impressive, including Maggie Rogers, Willow Smith, H.E.R., Masego and Hayley Williams. Her guitar of choice is the Stratocaster, but she was comfortable as a clam with a D’Angelico semi-hollowbody in her tribute to Jimi Hendrix and Mariah Carey at the 2018 Summit LA18 (her renditions are gorgeous, like butter). Faye, an industrious artist who is also a bassist and producer, recently started giving lessons to aspiring players.
“I’ve honestly put literal blood, literal sweat, and literal tears into playing guitar,” Faye says, and it shows in the authenticity of her 2020 self-titled EP. “Super Sad Always” and “It’s a Moot Point” particularly reveal a triple-threat: flawless guitar tone and inventive phrasing, an ability to write heartfelt songs, and silky-smooth vocals. Faye is a virtuoso, but as a songwriter she’s using her tools to tell stories, not to flex chops on social media. As one fan adeptly commented on her YouTube page: “This is what every guitar player wants to be when they grow up.” —Tessa Jeffers
Melanie Faye: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
In this pandemic-era NPR Tiny Desk Concert, Melanie Faye starts off with the intro to “Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix, and flows seamlessly into her own song, “Super Sad Always.”
10. Steve Lacy: R&B Auteur
Steve Lacy
At 24 years old, Steve Lacy has racked up enough credits—alongside artists like Thundercat, Solange, and Vampire Weekend, and as a member of the Internet—to call himself an industry veteran. But it was working with hip-hop’s poet laureate Kendrick Lamar on “PRIDE.” from 2017’s DAMN. that put him on a lot of radars. And not just because he was so young when they collaborated, or that Lacy’s warbly guitar-heavy beat is so commanding. Instead, the big attention-grabber was that he made his track for the Pulitzer Prize-winning record on his iPhone 6. It wasn’t the only time he’s used the now-ancient Apple device to efficiently capture his lo-fi brilliance, just the most notable, and Steve Lacy’s Demo—from the same year—showed the full depth of his no-frills iPhone-created magic.
Despite his hip collaborative resume, Lacy’s solo records—for which he’s received one Grammy nom thus far—show a visionary mind at work, and his guitar is an essential part of his sound. On this year’s studio-recorded Gemini Rights, Lacy uses punchy guitar parts with simple tones—often dosed with light modulation or wah/envelope filtering—to great effect as he stacks and interweaves layers of rhythm-guitar figures to create big moods. On “Buttons,” for example, Lacy separates each of the song’s sections with a different approach to his instrument. The song starts with an intentionally loose counterpoint intro, and in the verse, droney bends and single-note stabs punctuate his sparse vocal melody. The short bout of guitarmony to close delivers a major payoff.
Guitar arranging takes precedent over detailed performance, and Lacy seems more focused on masterfully creating vibe with each of his tracks. His writing and production techniques call to mind the names of all the classic soul auteurs—notably Stevie Wonder, Sly, and Prince. And like those artists, Lacy’s progressive R&B takes in modern sounds—in his case, this includes hip-hop, punk, and emo—to create something that we haven’t heard before, from a singer/songwriter, producer, or guitarist. —Nick Millevoi
Steve Lacy Dark Red Live at Coachella 2022
Steve Lacy and his chorused Strat lead his band and this year’s Coachella audience through a singalong version of “Dark Red” from 2017’s 14-minute Steve Lacy’s Demo.
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The author, middle, with bassist Ross Valory (left) and Steve Smith (right) of Journey.
Do you know who’s hanging around your gigs? Our columnist shares a story about the time Journey’s bassist was in the audience during soundcheck.
I’ve always loved what I do for a living. Even long before it became a career, doing the work every day to get better was something I fell in love with right away. As a result, I’ve never had any issues with stage fright or nerves when it comes to performing—even if there are some mega-influential or important musical people in the room.
Luckily, throughout my career, I usually only find out if there’s been someone major in the audience after the show. I’m not very social on tour these days. I’m the last one to soundcheck or show and the first one out of the venue afterwards. I’m often asleep in the hotel before some of the rest of the band have even left the venue.
But once in a while, I do get caught off guard—and this little story from a night on tour last week highlights how you just never know who’s listening … or watching.
I’ve been playing with Steve Smith (former drummer of Journey and inductee of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame) for over 10 years, first as sidemen with Mike Stern in a band with Randy Brecker, and for the past five years as a member of Steve’s band Vital Information. Throughout that entire time—hundreds of shows, rehearsals, soundchecks, recording sessions, and clinics—I haven’t once played a Journey bass line around him.
It’s that thing of being way too on the nose to even hint at. Knowing that the Journey chapter of Steve’s life is musically very much in the past, it honestly just never crossed my mind. So, what on earth possessed me to start playing the bass line to “Any Way You Want It” during soundcheck in Oakland last week?!
I don’t even get through the first two bars of the song when I hear, “Looks like I’ve been rumbled….” I look up, and there’s Ross Valory, the original bass player for Journey.
I had never met him. I had no idea anyone besides the band and the crew were even in the venue during soundcheck. Aside from the embarrassment of doing that in front of one of your bass heroes, it really got me thinking about how you just never know who is listening.
I don’t know who the phrase “be ready when the luck happens” should be credited to—or if that’s exactly how it was originally said—but I’ve thought about little else since my Ross Valory moment. If you’re considering a career in music, or working to further the one you already have, it might be something worth thinking about for yourself.
“I had no idea anyone besides the band and the crew were even in the venue during soundcheck. Aside from the embarrassment of doing that in front of one of your bass heroes, it really got me thinking about how you just never know who is listening.”
Like I said before, I’ve been in love with the work since the beginning. I still set aside vast amounts of time every day to practice and work on my music. I’m constantly tinkering with my goals, large and small. I’m realistic about the time it will take to reach them, the work I need to do to get there, and the fact that some goals may well change over time—and I have to be totally okay with that and adapt as quickly as possible.
The success of the work and the attainment of the goal is also going to rely at least a little bit (and if I’m being honest, sometimes a lot) on luck. Being ready to capitalize on luck involves constantly updating my daily routine. I have to find the balance between working on very specific elements of my playing for long periods of time, and letting them go once I know they’re an internal part of my vocabulary.
Jazz pianist Chick Corea talked about memorizing versus knowing a piece of music. When you read through a chart and start to memorize it, you’re essentially just taking the music from the sheet and creating a picture of it in your brain. You then end up looking for that picture the next time you want to play it—and all you’ve done is take away the physical paper while keeping the concept of reading. That’s not knowing the material like it’s a natural part of your vocabulary. The repetition I aim for in my daily routine is what helps me play the language of music as fluently as I speak English.
The confidence gained by putting in the work can make you so much more ready for your moment than you’ve ever been before.
Set goals, love the work, and always be ready.
You never know who’s listening….
Empress Effects is proud to announce the release of the Bass ParaEq, a bass-specific parametric EQ pedal.
Building on the success of their acclaimed ParaEq MKII series, which has already gained popularity with bassists, the Bass ParaEq offers the same studio-grade precision but with features tailored for bass instruments.
Basses of all types – including electric and upright basses with active and passive electronics – can benefit from the Bass ParaEq’s tone-sculpting capabilities.
The new pedal follows the success of the Empress Bass Compressor and ParaEq MKII Deluxe, which have become some of the company’s best-reviewed and top-selling products. The Bass Compressor’s popularity confirmed what Empress had long suspected: bassists are eager for tools built with their needs in mind, not just adaptations of guitar gear.
The Bass ParaEq retains the line’s powerful 3-band parametric EQ and studio-style features while introducing a bass-optimized frequency layout, a selectable 10MΩ Hi-Z input for piezo-equipped instruments, a dynamically-adjusted low shelf, and automatic balanced output detection—perfect for live and studio use alike.
The Bass ParaEq also offers an output boost, adjustable by a dedicated top-mounted knob and activated by its own footswitch, capable of delivering up to 30dB of boost. It’s perfect for helping your bass punch through during key moments in live performance.
Whether dialing in clarity for a dense mix or compensating for an unfamiliar venue, the Bass ParaEq offers precise tonal control in a compact, road-ready form. With 27V of internal headroom to prevent clipping from even the hottest active pickups, the Bass ParaEq is the ultimate studio-style EQ designed to travel.
Key features of the Bass ParaEq include:
- Adjustable frequency bands tailored for bass instruments
- Selectable 10MΩ Hi-Z input for upright basses and piezo pickups
- Auto-detecting balanced output for long cable runs and direct recording
- Three sweepable parametric bands with variable Q
- High-pass, low-pass, low shelf, and high shelf filters
- Transparent analog signal path with 27V of internal headroom
- Buffered bypass switching
- Powered by standard 9V external supply, 300mA (no battery compartment)
The Bass ParaEq is now shipping worldwide. It can be purchased from the Empress Effects website for $374 USD and through authorized Empress dealers globally.
The veteran Florida-born metalcore outfit proves that you don’t need humbuckers to pull off high gain.
Last August, metalcore giants Poison the Well gave the world a gift: They announced they were working on their first studio album in 15 years. They unleashed the first taste, single “Trembling Level,” back in January, and set off on a spring North American tour during which they played their debut record, The Opposite of December… A Season of Separation, in full every night.
PG’s Perry Bean caught up with guitarists Ryan Primack and Vadim Taver, and bassist Noah Harmon, ahead of the band’s show at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl for this new Rig Rundown.
Brought to you by D’Addario.Not-So-Quiet As a Mouse
Primack started his playing career on Telecasters, then switched to Les Pauls, but when his prized LPs were stolen, he jumped back to Teles, and now owns nine of them.
His No. 1 is this white one (left). Seymour Duncan made him a JB Model pickup in a single-coil size for the bridge position, while the neck is a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Staggered. He ripped out all the electronics, added a Gibson-style toggle switch, flipped the control plate orientation thanks to an obsession with Danny Gatton, and included just one steel knob to control tone. Primack also installed string trees with foam to control extra noise.
This one has Ernie Ball Papa Het’s Hardwired strings, .011–.050.
Here, Kitty, Kitty
Primack runs both a PRS Archon and a Bad Cat Lynx at the same time, covering both 6L6 and EL34 territories. The Lynx goes into a Friedman 4x12 cab that’s been rebadged in honor of its nickname, “Donkey,” while the Archon, which is like a “refined 5150,” runs through an Orange 4x12.
Ryan Primack’s Pedalboard
Primack’s board sports a Saturnworks True Bypass Multi Looper, plus two Saturnworks boost pedals. The rest includes a Boss TU-3w, DOD Bifet Boost 410, Caroline Electronics Hawaiian Pizza, Fortin ZUUL +, MXR Phase 100, JHS Series 3 Tremolo, Boss DM-2w, DOD Rubberneck, MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe, Walrus Slo, and SolidGoldFX Surf Rider III.
Taver’s Teles
Vadim Taver’s go-to is this cherryburst Fender Telecaster, which he scored in the early 2000s and has been upgraded to Seymour Duncan pickups on Primack’s recommendation. His white Balaguer T-style has been treated to the same upgrade. The Balaguer is tuned to drop C, and the Fender stays in D standard. Both have D’Addario strings, with a slightly heavier gauge on the Balaguer.
Dual-Channel Chugger
Taver loves his 2-channel Orange Rockerverb 100s, one of which lives in a case made right in Nashville.
Vadim Taver’s Pedalboard
Taver’s board includes an MXR Joshua, MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe, Empress Tremolo, Walrus ARP-87, Old Blood Noise Endeavors Reflector, MXR Phase 90, Boss CE-2w, and Sonic Research Turbo Tuner ST-200, all powered by a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus.
Big Duff
Harmon’s favorite these days is this Fender Duff McKagan Deluxe Precision Bass, which he’s outfitted with a Leo Quan Badass bridge. His backup is a Mexico-made Fender Classic Series ’70s Jazz Bass. This one also sports Primack-picked pickups.
Rental Rockers
Harmon rented this Orange AD200B MK III head, which runs through a 1x15 cab on top and a 4x10 on the bottom.
Noah Harmon’s Pedalboard
Harmon’s board carries a Boss TU-2, Boss ODB-3, MXR Dyna Comp, Darkglass Electronics Vintage Ultra, and a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus. His signal from the Vintage Ultra runs right to the front-of-house, and Harmon estimates that that signal accounts for about half of what people hear on any given night.
Kiesel Guitars has introduced their newest solid body electric guitar: the Kyber.
With its modern performance specs and competitive pricing, the Kyber is Kiesel's most forward-thinking design yet, engineered for comfort, quick playing, and precision with every note.
Introducing the Kiesel Kyber Guitar
- Engineered with a lightweight body to reduce fatigue during long performances without sacrificing tone. Six-string Kybers, configured with the standard woods and a fixed bridge, weigh in at 6 pounds or under on average
- Unique shape made for ergonomic comfort in any playing position and enhanced classical position
- The Kyber features Kiesel's most extreme arm contour and a uniquely shaped body that enhances classical position support while still excelling in standard position.
- The new minimalist yet aggressive headstock pairs perfectly with the body's sleek lines, giving the Kyber a balanced, modern silhouette.
- Hidden strap buttons mounted on rear for excellent balance while giving a clean, ultra-modern look to the front
- Lower horn cutaway design for maximum access to the upper frets
- Sculpted neck heel for seamless playing
- Available in 6 or 7 strings, fixed or tremolo in both standard and multiscale configurations Choose between fixed bridges, tremolos, or multiscale configurations for your perfect setup.
Pricing for the Kyber starts at $1599 and will vary depending on options and features. Learn more about Kiesel’s new Kyber model at kieselguitars.com