Why British guitarists Dan and Ben Guts divide frequencies and multiply feedback and intensity with such distinctly un-metal instruments.
The next time you visit England (because who doesnāt hop across the pond on occasion?), take a trip to Brighton, a small coastal city just south of London. Brighton is something of an artistic enclave and boasts a thriving poetry scene, alternative art spaces, and even world-famous street art (like Banksyās āKissing Policemenā). But Brighton isnāt just galleries and pretentious cafĆ©s. Hidden amongst the poets and beautiful people, youāll find the scruffy, noisy, yet eminently lovable extreme mathcore band, the Guts.
The Guts play guitar-centric metal and feature the twin-guitar attack of Dan and Ben Guts. Dan and Ben are not brothers and āGutsā isnāt their real last name, but the Guts see themselves as mathcoreās answer to the Ramones. They may also be mathcoreās answer to Sly and the Family Stone, in that four of their five members take turns singing lead. The rest of the band is composed of drummer Weezey, bassist Joe, and keyboardist Connor.
Dan and Ben like it loud and fast, and their live show is relentless. They stand in the pit, in front of the stage, and are usually in constant motion. āWe were playing a show in Blackburn, or Darwen, which is in the North of England, and I finished the gig outside the venue, still playing, in front of the bouncers,ā Dan says, which also explains why he uses a wireless unit. āAs soon as I got one, everyone else in the band got one as well. They were jealous of the fact that I could just move around.ā
Dan plays the bandās upper register, fingernails-on-the-blackboard guitar parts and generates his sounds via a Mexico-made Fender Strat. āWe were working with a producer about a year ago,ā Dan says. āHe said, āThe less you can be a clichĆ© metal band the better.ā Itās a bit more fun to go to a metal gig with a cute little guitar thatās going to make screechy noises. I used to play a big Jackson with a Floyd Rose and it was just too much work. The Strat is fun and makes all the noises that I like to make.ā
āDan Guts
Ben, on the other hand, plays a mutant 5-string hollowbody Gretsch Streamliner. āIām still building up the confidence to take the machine head off the guitar,ā Ben says. āTo wear it on my sleeve and be like, āYou know, I like playing five strings.ā I have no interest in using the high E string. I donāt really try to get good with jazz chords or things like that. Not because I think theyāre useless, but because I am too preoccupied doing my chuggy shit.ā
Their new EP, Flesh, was recorded at Small Pond Studios in Brighton and the guitar parts, although overdubbed, were recorded as complete takes. The goal was to keep the energy live and heavy. We spoke with Dan and Ben and discussed how they writeāand rememberātheir complex, intricate music, how they approach being a two-guitar band, and why Ben canāt seem to get enough feedback.
Did you take guitar lessons?
Dan: I took lessons for about two years, but from then on I was self-taught. I became more obsessed with songwriting than learning the ins and outs. I would rather discover what sounds good for myself than learn instructionally. But I did have a teacher who was very good and he taught me a lot of the basics that you need when you start. I started playing drums first. I was taking drum lessons from the age of 10 and, at some point, I either got bored or I realized I couldnāt write songs with just drums, so I figured I would do a little bit of guitar. And then guitar just took over.
Ben: I took lessons for a year or two, however, Iāve always had a really rubbish work ethicāreally shitty attention span. Iām dyslexic as fuck as well. I didnāt go to a lot of my guitar lessons and I didnāt try very hard at obtaining a lot of the music theory teaching. I just wanted to build a relationship with playing guitar and find a way to express myself through it.
Although the Guts tracked their new album, Flesh, layer-by-layer in the studio, Ben and Dan played their guitar tracks as complete performances for each song, with minimal overdubbing.
The reason Iām asking is because whenever I speak with someone who plays complex, intricate music, Iām curious to learn where that came fromāwas it organic or were you music school nerds gone bad?
Dan: I think it comes from the drumming. The mathcore genreāthe subgenre everyoneās calling math rock these daysāis stuff thatās rhythmically interesting. I never wanted to completely drop the idea of drums and it was always way more fun to screw around with rhythms than to become a master shredder or anything like that. Itās always been about rhythm and that attests to the fact that I learned drums firstāthat was a good skill to take over to guitar.
Ben: As a young person, my influence was about vibe more than figuring out the right guitar parts to play or figuring out where a guitar would work or how to use it. In this really heavy, aggressive music, my love for playing guitar was all about how to use it to create this huge, monstrous, musical vibe, and guitar was my instrumental choice for getting into that. Like Dan, I actually started on drums and guitar playing has always been slightly more of a rhythmic and percussive affair than actually finding the notes, keys, and modes.
Your rhythmic concept isnāt so much about working in odd meters, like doing a jam in 7. Really, itās rhythmically fluid.
Dan: I think we have short attention spans. Weāll be jamming a sectionāit might just be 4s, but letās say it is in 7ābut even then, after about four bars weāll think, āThis is getting a bit boring now. We should throw in something else.ā As long as it still kind of grooves a bit, weāll throw in something that makes it fun for us. If we enjoy it, other people will. I think thatās probably where it comes from.
Before switching to his hollowbody Gretsch, Ben Guts was playing a Gibson Midtown Custom, but after breaking its headstock for a second time, he decided, āIf I pay to get this fixed again, Iāve almost paid for a new guitar.ā
Photo by Ian Coulson/IC Media
Do a lot of your songs start out as jams in rehearsal?
Ben: Yeah. We have the occasional song that is brought to practice, but the huge majority of our songwriting is done in practice with all five of us there. Weāll write a riff that has a vocal line attached to itāsomething kind of cool, edgy, and aggressive, something that has a real kick to itāand then weāll spend two to four hours going to the next section. Our sections are never written to offend the section before. We never write sections that are specifically to fuck with whatever came before it. Itās just our progression of going from one section to the other and thinking, āWhat is going to work here?ā Itās like when youāve got Lego as a kid and youāre smushing the pieces together. Youāve got different bits stuck together and maybe it looks cool in the end.
The contrasts can be very extreme. Youāll go from something rhythmic and intense to something spacious and atmospheric.
Ben: Yeah, because we just find ourselves there. For me, writing musicāespecially with this groupāas a band was always about guiding an atmosphere and creating a piece of artwork that has movements and cool bits in it. When we break into this huge open space, coming from this hectic hurricane of riffs and beats, itās really, āWhat can we do that will then turn this into something else?ā
Thatās a very classical approach to writing. Youāre not writing verse/chorus pop songs.
Ben: Escaping from verse/chorus/verse/chorus wasnāt completely intentional. Itās just a natural thing for us. Weāre trying to write really fucking crazy, really hectic music, which is going to be an assault on the senses, but also a vibe that one can fuck with a bit but also keep interesting. Itās also important to me that there are always a few sections that are groovy, easy, and that you can bop to.
Dan: Between the Buried and Me sold me that concept very hard. That was a bit of a revelation. Maybe I was 17 or 18 when I first heard them. I thought, āWow, these songs are more of a journey than a pop hit. I can go back to these and every time I listen it will be the same journey, but Iāll hear something different that will catch me off guard.ā So from a young age, I brain-trained myself to hateā¦. What do they call it? The rondo? I think thatās the musical term for it. I thought, āWhy does it have to be like that? Why canāt it be more fun all the time?ā Sometimes we have to second-guess ourselves, like, āIs this a song anymore? Do you we need to repeat a section to make it sound like a song?ā So we do have that battle. A lot of that also comes from playing the live show. We want to keep people on their toes. A lot of it is geared toward surprising people as much as possible.
Guitars
Gretsch Streamliner
Amps
Marshall JCM2000
Marshall 4x12 cab
Effects
Electro-Harmonix POG2
Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
Line 6 Relay G30 Wireless System
Strings and Picks
DāAddario strings (.010ā.046)
Dunlop 1 mm picks
How do you remember so many different sections? Do you practice at home on your own or just review it over and over again at rehearsals?
Dan: A bit of both. The second song we ever wrote took us about two months to write. Itās a track called āNecklace,ā which is probably our punchiest one. Depending on how much weāre gigging, it still might take that long to write a song, but sometimes they just come out of the bag in one session. Not very often but sometimes. Theyāre a labor of love. We did a couple of songs that we had finished, but when it came to recording, we were a bit bored with them so we threw in some more stuff. By the time weāve learned how it is the first time around, itās not so hard to remember just a little tweak.
Ben, you were saying you try to make sure some sections groove as well.
Ben: I listen to a lot of beat-down music and I listen to a lot of houseāmusic that one can naturally get the tempo of. Itās usually in 4/4. I like that kind of music because it makes me want to dance. At the same time, being in a mathcore band and writing complex musicāI want it to make me move. That feeds into our writing a lot. Weāll write some really crazy sections that are hard to do, but then weāll wind it back. The whole piece of artwork is important: to round it off and bring it somewhere. Iāve always been an artist before a musician. Not in the sense that I would regard other mediums as more important than music, but writing music for me is about creating something that I just like the idea of, as opposed to expressing myself as a guitarist. Dan is a much more technical player and is someone whoās really got his eye on the ball in terms of guitar. Iām more of an arranger and try to create a whole piece.
Talk about working with another guitar player. How do you distinguish your tones and keep from stepping on each otherās toes?
Dan: We kind of lucked out. Ben loves his dirge and his duuunngg and I really like my noodles and my trebly, high-pitched, standard-tuning, horrible dissonant things. I think it was a bit of a coincidence that we ended up balancing each other nicely. I have this Fender Strat that plays these bite-y chords and Ben has a big hollowbody that does all the lows. They both even each other out. I mean, if we were playing the same guitar in the same way, there really would be no point.
Dan Guts chose a Mexico-made Fender Stratocaster as a sort of anti-metal guitar, after playing a Jackson with a Floyd Rose. Defying expectations is part of the bandās game plan. Photo by Ian Coulson/IC Media
Do you see it as two instruments: guitar A and guitar B?
Dan: Yeah, like Ben said before we started, āDanās lead and Iām rhythm.ā Itās not exactly that, but thatās the easiest way to describe it. Itās more of a tonal difference. Ben very much plays the lows and I very much play the highs. Thereās the occasional showboat riff, but thereās not much shredding and thereās not much lead. Itās all just very percussive.
Ben, I was surprised to see that you play a hollowbody Gretsch. How did that happen?
Ben: My Gretsch Streamliner is fucking cool. I got into hollowbody guitars about five or six years ago, and since I bought my first one, Iāve never bought a solidbody since. I can try to justify it from a guitar playerās perspective, but I like the way they look and I like the vibe that surrounds them. For years, I had a Gibson Midtown Custom and a Gibson Midtown Standard, and those two guitars I absolutely loved. The Gibson Midtown Custom is probably one of the best things Iāve ever owned. It was perfect: It had amazing resonance, it had a huge body, it had a huge, strong sound. It was great at pinches and it sounded really aggressive. I now play a Gretsch Streamliner because I broke the headstock off my Gibson Midtown twice, and upon breaking it the second time, I thought, āIf I pay to get this fixed again, Iāve almost paid for a new guitar.ā So I bought a new guitar, which is the Gretsch Streamliner.
I like to make.ā āDan Guts
Yeah, you shine a torch [Editorās note: Thatās āflashlightā in America] through one end it shines right out. I can throw that thing around and I can slam the hell out of it and itās just so easy to handle because itās so light.
How do you keep feedback under control?
Ben: We donāt. When the guitars are squealing and itās too much noise, I like that. I try to write that into our music and I try to make it part of the attitude of the music. The guy that sold me the Gretsch, I told him what I was going to play on it and he said, āDude, you realize this is just going to scream at you the whole time?ā I said, āYeah, sign me up. Letās do it.ā I like the feedback. I don't use the neck pickup on the Gretsch, so I have that one turned down. If I really need to kill the guitar and Iām away from my tuning pedal, I just flip the switch. Generally speaking, the feedback is part of our live show. On that note, our first EP was recorded with some friends who have a home studio, and me and Dan did our guitar takes, got them straight, and then I sat down with the producer and recorded loads of different feedback and guitar scratching.
Guitars
Mexico-made Fender Stratocaster
Amps
Blackstar Series One 100-watt head
Marshall ATV150H head
Blackstar 4x12 cab
Effects
Electro-Harmonix POG2
Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
Line 6 Relay G50 Wireless System
Strings and Picks
Ernie Ball Super Slinky strings (.009ā.042)
Dunlop 0.6 mm picks
You inserted that after the fact?
Ben: Yeah, to get the tone right in the studio. The feedback wasnāt really there and I said to the producer, āI really want it to squeal when the guitars are playing.ā We went back and recorded squealing. I coproduced it with him and put in squeals where they would fit.
Do you record live with everyone in the same room?
Dan: None of it is done live. We track everything. But with Flesh, the one we just released, everything was one take. Our producer said, āWe want it to sound live and we want it to sound heavy, so weāre going to do everything in one takeāāwhich is a bit daunting. We did three or four takes, picked the best from start to finish, and didnāt overdub anything except for bites [short individual sections].
Do you get your distortion from the amp, or do you use a pedal?
Dan: From the amp. Iāve steered away from the world of pedals. In my old band, I used a lot of pedals and I was tap dancing a lot on them, but our live show is me and Ben playing in the pit in front. We donāt really ever play onstage, so to have our pedals down there or far away is ridiculous if we have to use them. We both have an Electro-Harmonix POG2, which I have on all gig and all practice. I have a bit of each octave slightly lowerāwhatever distortion you have on, itās just amplified by the addition of those octaves.
Ben: I use the Marshall JCM2000 and I use the distortion on the amp. I have an Electro-Harmonix POG, but mineās not on all the time. I just use the POG to make it really dirty. The JCM2000 is wonderful. Itās really strong, itās really beefy, it has serious body. Thatās how I play a full-on hollowbody Gretsch and still make it wo⦠because of that amp.
Intense, chaotic, and riveting, the Guts blast through āSlipped Discoā from their recent album Flesh. And yeah, theyāre smashing the fourth wall big time.
IK Multimedia is pleased to announce the release of new premium content for all TONEX users, available today through the IK Product Manager.
The latest TONEX Factory Content v2 expands the creative arsenal with a brand-new collection of Tone Models captured at the highest quality and presets optimized for live performance. TONEX Tone Models are unique captures of rigs dialed into a specific sweet spot. TONEX presets are used for performance and recording, combining Tone Models with added TONEX FX, EQ, and compression.
Who Gets What:
TONEX Pedal
- 150 crafted presets matched to 150 Premium Tone Models
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- 106 new Premium Tone Models + 9 refined classics for TONEX MAX
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Gig-ready Tones
For the TONEX Pedal, the first 30 banks deliver an expansive range of amp & cab tones, covering everything from dynamic cleans to brutal high-gain distortion. Each bank features legendary amplifiers paired with cabs such as a Marshall 1960, ENGL E412V, EVH 412ST and MESA Boogie 4x12 4FB, ensuring a diverse tonal palette. For some extremely high-gain tones, these amps have been boosted with classic pedals like the Ibanez TS9, MXR Timmy, ProCo RAT, and more, pushing them into new sonic territories.
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TONEX Pedals are ideal for adding classic effects to any pedalboard. The next 5 banks focus on stompbox captures, showcasing 15 legendary overdrive, distortion, and fuzz pedals. This collection includes iconic models based on the Fulltone Full-Drive 2, Marshall DriveMaster, Maxon OD808, Klon Centaur, ProCo RAT, and more.
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The last 5 banks are reserved for bass players, including a selection of amp & cab Tone Models alongside a few iconic pedals. Specifically, there are Tone Models based on the Ampeg SVT-2 PRO, Gallien-Krueger 800RB, and Aguilar DB750, alongside essential bass pedals based on the Tech21 SansAmp, Darkglass B7K and EHX Big Muff. Whether it's warm vintage thump, modern punch, or extreme grit, these presets ensure that bassists have the depth, clarity and power they need for any playing style.For more information and instructions on how to get the new Factory
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Well-designed pickups. Extremely comfortable contours. Smooth, playable neck.
Middle position could use a bit more mids. Price could scare off some.
$2,999
Ernie Ball Music Man StingRay II
A surprise 6-string collaboration with Cory Wong moves effortlessly between ā70s George Benson and Blink-182 tones.
Announced at the 2025 NAMM show, Cory Wongās new collaboration with Ernie Ball Music Man scratched an itchānamely, the itch for a humbucker-loaded guitar that could appease Wongās rock-and-R&B alter ego and serve as complement to his signature Fender Strat. Inspiration came from no further than a bandmateās namesake instrument. Vulfpeck bassist Joe Dart has a line of signature model EBMM basses, one of which uses the classic StingRay bass body profile. So, when Wong went looking for something distinctive, he wondered if EBMM could create a 6-string guitar using the classic StingRay bass body and headstock profile.
Double the Fun
Wong is, by his own admission, a single-coil devotee. Thatās where the core of his sound lives and it feels like home to him. However, Wong is as inspired by classic Earth, Wind & Fire tones and the pop-punk of the early ā90s as he is by Prince and the Minneapolis funk that he grew up with. The StingRay II is a guitar that can cover all those bases.
Ernie Ball has a history of designing fast-feeling, comfortable necks. And I canāt remember ever struggling to move around an EBMM fretboard. The roasted maple C-shaped neck here is slightly thicker in profile than I expected, but still very comfortable. (I must also mention that the back of the neck has a dazzling, almost holographic look to the grain that morphs in the light). By any measure, the StingRay IIās curves seemed designed for comfort and speed. Now, letās talk about those pickups.Hot or Not?
A few years ago EBMM introduced a line of HT (heat-treated) pickups. The pickups are built with technology the company used to develop their Cobalt and M-Series strings. A fair amount of the process is shrouded in secrecy and must be taken on faith, but EBMM says treating elements of the pickup with heat increases clarity and dynamic response.
To find out for myself, I plugged the StingRay II into a Fender Vibroverb, Mesa/Boogie Mark VII, and a Neural DSP Quad Cortex (Wongās preferred live rig). Right away, it was easy to hear the tight low end and warm highs. Often, I feel like the low end from neck humbuckers can feel too loose or lack definition. Neither was the case here. The HT pickup is beautifully balanced with a bounce thatās rich with ES-335 vibes. Clean tones are punchy and brightāespecially with the Vibroverbāand dirty tones have more room for air. Individual notes were clear and articulate, too.
Any guitar associated with Wong needs a strong middle-position or combined pickup tone, and the StingRay II delivers. I never felt any significant signal loss in the blended signal from the two humbuckers, even if I could use a bit more midrange presence in the voicing. The midrange gap is nothing an EQ or Tube Screamer couldnāt fix, though. And not surprisingly, very Strat-like sounds were easy to achieve for having less midrange bump.
Knowing Wongās love for ā90s alt-rock, I expected the bridge pickup to have real bite, and it does, demonstrating exceptional dynamic range and exceptional high-end response that never approached shrill. Nearly every type of distortion and overdrive I threw at it sounded great, but especially anything with a scooped-mid flavor and plenty of low end.
The Verdict
By any measure, the StingRay II is a top-notch, professional instrument. The fit and finish are immaculate and the feel of the neck makes me wonder if EBMM stashes some kind of secret sandpaper, because I donāt think Iāve ever felt a smoother, more playable neck. Kudos are also due to EBMM and Wong for finding an instrument that can move between ā70s George Benson tones and the hammering power chords of ā90s Blink-182. Admittedly, the nearly $3K price could give some players pause, but considering the overall quality of the instrument, itās not out of line. Wongās involvement and search for distinct sounds makes the StingRay II more than a tired redux of a classic modelāan admirable accomplishment considering EBMMās long and storied history.
Ernie Ball Music Man StingRay II Cory Wong Signature Electric Guitar - Charcoal Blue with Rosewood Fingerboard
StingRay II Cory Wong - Charcoal BlueThe Melvins' Buzz Osborne joins the party to talk about how he helped Kurt Cobain find the right sounds.
Growing up in the small town of Montesano, Washington, Kurt Cobain turned to his older pal Buzz Osborne for musical direction. So on this episode, weāre talking with the Melvins leader about their friendship, from taking Cobain to see Black Flag in ā84 to their shared guitar journey and how they both thought about gear. And in case youāve heard otherwise, Kurt was never a Melvins roadie!
Osborneās latest project is Thunderball from Melvins 1983, something of a side trajectory for the band, which harkens back to this time in Osborneās life. We dig into that and how it all relates and much more.
Adding to the companyās line of premium guitar strapsand accessories, Fairfield Guitar Co. has introduced a new deluxe leather strapdesigned in collaboration with Angela Petrilli.
Based in Los Angeles, Petrilli is well-known to guitar enthusiasts around the world for her online videos. She is one of the video hosts at Normanās Rare Guitars and has her own YouTube lesson series, the Riff Rundown. She also writes, records and performs with her original band, Angela Petrilli & The Players, and has worked with Gibson, Fender, Martin Guitars, Universal Audio, Guitar Center and Fishman Transducers.
Angela Petrilli's eye-grabbing signature strap is fully hand cut, four inches wide and lightly padded, so it evenly distributes the weight of the instrument on the shoulder and offers superb comfort during extended play. The front side features black "cracked" leather with turquoise triple stitching. The "cracked" treatment on the leather highlights the beautiful natural marks and grain pattern ā and it only gets better with age and use.The strapās back side is black suede for adhesion and added comfort, with the Fairfield Guitar Co. logo and Angela's name stamped in silver foil.
Features include:
- 100% made in the USA
- Hand cut 4ā wide leather strap with light padding -- offering extra comfort for longgigs and rehearsals.
- Black suede back side avoids slipping, maintains guitarās ideal playing position.
- Length is fully adjustable from 45ā - 54ā and the strap has two holes on thetailpiece for added versatility.
The Fairfield Guitar Co. Angela Petrilli signature strap is available for $150 online at fairfieldguitarco.com.