"A 2000 black lacquer electric guitar with mahogany neck and pearl inlay fingerboard. Marked with number 9005. Printed on rear of neck, "" Crafted by Jim Foote and Ken Hitsman"". Slash played this guitar on Guns N' Roses' UYI tour for the track ""Double talkin' jive."""
“There are other worlds (they have not told you of). They wish to speak to you.” —Sun Ra
Middle Eastern or Mediterranean guitar music is an entire musical world with its very own guitar heroes, legendary solos, coveted gear, mysterious deaths, and (of course) some wigs as well. As the ’60s arrived with a fresh wave of guitar madness, musicians worldwide chose the electric guitar as their voice, working it into their region’s musical vocabulary, which was often based on the local folk instruments. Guitarists like Omar Khorshid and Aris San created guitar history as they infused their regional influences with their new love of the electric guitar and brought a new style of playing to life. To me, these two legends are the Middle Eastern equivalents of the Western guitar world’s beloved Jimi and Jimmy.
A little bit about our stars: Omar Khorshid of Cairo, Egypt, took part in monumental recordings, often with Strat in hand. He played with Oum (also known as Umm) Kolthum, one of the most renowned vocalists in Arabic music. His collaborations with Hany Mehanna are pure Middle Eastern psychedelia. He has an extended list of covers of western tunes (including “Popcorn” and The Godfather theme), and his music goes everywhere from soloing along with huge orchestras to trippy tunes with just synths and drum machines. Khorshid’s playing is always spot on, tasteful, and with the melody as the top priority.
Aris San is from Greece, and his life story makes those of Elvis, Hendrix, or Cobain seem mundane by comparison. With an incredible voice and an ability to bring bouzouki chops to the electric guitar, San’s style is second to none. Shifting from various random European guitars, Aris eventually championed the Gibson ES-335 and turned himself into a musical powerhouse with a massive recording catalogue. At one point he even had his own music club in New York (donning the aforementioned wig). After a few encounters with the New York underworld, he returned to Europe and rumors abound.
Let’s dive into some of the techniques and tools that make this music so special. The more you practice and study them, the more you can add to your own music and enrich your style.
Scales of Choice
Here’s one interesting scale out of a vast melodic world of Middle Eastern music. It’s a great place to start as you’ll quickly realize this scale is used everywhere, which is why it has so many names. This scale appears in many a Kirk Hammett solo, as well as in Eastern European klezmer music. It’s the fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale and is also called Maqam Hijaz, Ahava Raba, and Phrygian Dominant. Check out Ex. 1 and then listen to Aris San’s “Mish Mash.”
Ex. 1
Ex. 2 is reminiscent of Khorshid’s take on the tune “Habbina Habbina,” written by Farid El Atrash.
Ex. 2
Glissando
The Middle Eastern guitar style features guitarists who can play melodies with a deep vocal quality and a round, lyrical feel to their phrasing. A glissando, or slide, is an expressive tool that is often used in that way. Ex. 3 is similar to what Khorshid played with Oum Kulthum, keeping it classy as he takes his solo with the orchestra.
Ex. 3
Here’s another example (Ex. 4) by Yehudah Keisar, an incredible guitarist from the generation of musicians who followed the rise of Aris San. Keisar made a big contribution to the repertoire.
This is from the hit song “Basbusa” by Shariff, which was produced and played by Keisar.
Ex. 4
The 1980s era of recordings incorporated more drum machines and had a guitar tone consistent with 335’s plugged right into the PA with a short digital delay on them. That gave the player a quick, tight sound that worked perfectly for these melodies.
Right Hand Rhythmic Picking
Percussion and rhythmic elements play a central role in Middle Eastern music. That’s why you would sometimes see Khorshid playing with three percussionists on the bandstand. Here’s one example of that amazing line up:
Check out the rhythmic opening guitar part and how it sits perfectly together along with the percussion, and then try Ex. 5.Another example of tight rhythmic playing is on the opening bars of Aris San’s “Dam Dam,” which you can find in Ex. 6.
Ex. 5
Ex. 6
Harmonizing
Harmonized guitar parts were always a great device to strengthen melodies, long before the days of arena rock or the Eagles. Here’s the traditional Greek song “Afilotimi” in Ex. 7 to showcase that technique. You can play this with another guitarist, multitrack it, or even dare to play both intervals at once.
Ex. 7
Trills and Embellishments
Trills give the music its nuanced accent and dialect. Some are easy to pick up while others are a little trickier. This last piece is by Moshe Ben-Mosh, another pivotal guitarist who recorded and produced many hits with an emphasis on his Yemenite-Jewish roots. Here’s the title track from the Haim Moshe album Ahavat Chayai which was released in 1982.
Our final example, Ex. 8, covers the points we went over about trills. Notice how many of our examples are played across a single string, which echoes the regional folk instruments, such as bouzouki, oud, and baglama. It’s a doozy, but taking the time to learn it slowly and gradually will help to internalize all the techniques listed here. Practice slowly and make sure you dance to the music!
Big Brave, from left: drummer Tasy Hudson, vocalist/guitarist Robin Wattie, and guitarist Mathieu Ball.
Photo by Big Brave
For years, an old upright piano soundboard had sat in the hallway of the tattoo studio where Robin Wattie worked. Wattie, the vocalist and guitarist of Montreal experimental post-rock trio Big Brave, knew it was destined for the garbage dump, but neither she nor any of her coworkers wanted to actually carry it to the curb. Wattie’s bandmate, guitarist Mathieu Ball, had walked by it plenty of times, but one day, he got a notion: It’d be fun to make use of the piano strings still tensed inside the soundboard.
Wattie worked down the hall, listening as Ball spent an afternoon using vice grips to snap the wooden pegs holding the lowest strings, each one cracking loose with a thunderous PLUNK. Ball estimates that he extracted 50 strings that day; 50 violent PLUNKS cutting the air of Wattie’s studio. “It was really, really funny to listen to,” says Wattie. “Also, like, the swearing.”
Ball, a woodworker, disappeared for a day. He returned with “the Instrument:” a stringed instrument made of a maple plank, measuring 9" wide and 5' long, strung with the salvaged piano strings. With the Instrument assembled, Big Brave had a new task: figuring out how to play it. “It’s not something that comes with a manual,” says Ball. He used a double bass bow to generate sounds; Wattie used mallets, and drummer Tasy Hudson took a turn, muffling it with a pillow before striking with the mallets.
Wattie hides behind the Instrument, which was built from the carcass of an old piano in her tattoo studio.
This learning process was happening at Seth Manchester’s Machines with Magnets studio in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where the band was slated to create a collaborative record with experimental metal duo and Rhode Island natives the Body. When that band couldn’t make the sessions, Big Brave decided to record their experimentations with the Instrument; learning to play it, writing the songs, and recording them all happened at the same time. The result is OST, a collection of eight compositions centered on the Instrument. Wattie thinks that for followers of the band, it will be the most “challenging” music they’ve ever released.
That’s probably true, even though Big Brave’s music has never been particularly accessible. The songs on OST are sparse, shapeless, and heavy, taut with tension and discomfort. The Instrument is accompanied only sporadically by moments of percussion, electric guitar, or voice, and its essential sound is not melody-driven. “Is it an eerie-sounding record?” wonders Ball. “What’s really interesting is that you can’t really play chords on the Instrument. If you pluck a single string, it sounds kind of dark on its own. To me, that’s the fundamental sound.” That’s okay for Big Brave: “I don’t think we’ll ever be making happy music,” continues Ball, “because it’s not the world we live in.”
At left, a close-up of the Instrument’s “headstock.”
“We’re big-feeling people,” adds Wattie. “We do have a lot of joy, and we try our best to find joy. It’s really hard to, but this is kind of what comes out. It’s not in us to make happy music, because if it was, then we would make happy music.”
The record’s most unnerving and intense moments are on “innominate no. vii.” Ball’s vocals on the track are frightening and tortured, beginning as deep, uncomfortable groans before crescendoing into throat-cleaving screams. “I guess I’m only comfortable doing that in the studio,” says Ball, “but that’s how I want to just be walking down the street all the time. Luckily, we get to do it in the studio where people don’t cross the sidewalk.”
“I don’t think we’ll ever be making happy music, because it’s not the world we live in.” - Mathieu Ball
Ball and Wattie met while studying visual arts in Montreal, and Ball introduced his new friend to minimalist composers like John Cage, Tony Conrad, and Steve Reich. Ball became Wattie’s “unofficial guitar coach,” and imparted a critical lesson: If it sounds good to you, then that’s all you need to know.
Big Brave was initiated around the values of minimalism, tension, and space in sound, and OST is certainly the most extreme exploration of those values. Ball describes it as a “process-based project,” where the act of creating came first, and the conceptualizing and thinking came later. “I felt so free,” Wattie smiles, recalling the sessions in Rhode Island. “Playing the guitar, for me, is a bit of a weighted thing. I’m kind of bogged down by having to prove myself all the time on the guitar, even though now I don’t necessarily have to because of where we are. I love not knowing how to play an instrument, because the shit that you can come up with from not knowing, because you’re not bogged down by the technicalities and theory and all of this stuff. I’m not classically trained at all, clearly. It’s really freeing, especially when no one else knows how to play it, because there’s not a proper way to play this instrument.”
“We’re gonna burn it so no one will ever get to learn how to play it,” quips Ball.
The Instrument also appears on the cover of Big Brave’s new album, OST.
As they’ve grown together as a band, Big Brave have turned more and more to the unexpected and incidental elements of their music. They never say no to an idea one of them brings to the table. Saying no without trying something is “a bad idea for so many reasons,” says Wattie. The approach is also partly a rejection of the ultra-professionalization of music work. “It’s what we’ve been doing more and more, just fully deconstructing and rejecting technicality, and making simpler and simpler music,” says Ball. “Like utilizing feedback that’s seen as a bad thing. There’s more and more mistakes in our music that I just see as character, like a buzzy string. It’s adding character to music that gets lost when something is too perfect.”
“There’s some beauty about not knowing what you’re doing.” - Robin Wattie
The approach reminds Wattie of Nan Goldin, the untrained photographer whose work influenced the fashion world. Wattie appreciates the same untrained character in visual art. “I really love seeing people’s drawings who aren’t technically trained,” explains Wattie. “They’re like, ‘I love to draw, but just for myself.’ I want to see it because it’s some of the loveliest drawings I’ve ever seen. It shows how they think about lines and color and how they make up a composition. It’s also why I’m okay with not knowing how to play the guitar, to a point.”
On a few occasions, Wattie has heard from thoroughly trained musicians who, in some ways, regret their training, and envy her lack of it. “It was engrained in them that this is correct,” she says. “It’s impossible to unlearn for them. There’s some beauty about not knowing what you’re doing.”
YouTube It
Ball, Wattie, and Hudson float through waves of feedback and distortion for a live performance of their 2024 song “Theft” in Montreal’s Studio Concrete.
Following the successful launch of itsGold Label Collection in January 2025, Taylor Guitars, a leading global builder of premium acoustic guitars, today announces the expansion of the collection with a suite of new Gold Label Grand Pacific models. The new models mark the second wave of guitar models in Taylor's exploration of warm, heritage-inspired acoustic flavors, featuring Taylor master builder Andy Powers' reimagined Grand Pacific body shape, a round-shoulder dreadnought, now with a deeper body design that delivers enhanced sonic fullness and low-end expansiveness.
Gold Label Grand Pacific: Deeper Body, Deeper Sound
The new Gold Label models feature a Grand Pacific body that's 3/8-inch deeper than Taylor’s standard Grand Pacific design, giving these guitars extra "lung capacity" and a deeper resonant frequency. This translates into more low-end power and projection — providing greater sonic push toward an audience or microphone while maintaining pleasing musical clarity. Even the treble notes have enhanced warmth and depth.
The Grand Pacific bodies are voiced with Taylor’s proprietary Fanned V-ClassTM bracing architecture — exclusive to the Gold Label Collection — a new variant of its award-winning V-Class bracing platform that here adds midrange richness, enhances the sonic depth, and creates the pitch accuracy that V-Class is known for. While Fanned V-Class is also used to voice the Super Auditorium body style that made its debut as part of the original Gold Label launch in January, the Gold Label Grand Pacific leans even more toward a warm, powerful sound.
"Compared to the Super Auditorium body, the curves and depth of the Grand Pacific produce even more volume and tonal dimension," says Andy Powers, Taylor's Chief Guitar Designer, President and CEO. "Its voice is earthy, honest and uncomplicated. It’s a reliable acoustic workhorse — both seasoned and soulful."
The mahogany/torrefied spruce pairing produces a woody, warm voice with focused midrange character. The Indian rosewood/torrefied spruce combination delivers lush rosewood depth and complexity with enhanced warmth from the torrefied top. All models feature gloss-finish bodies.
Distinctive Gold Label Aesthetic
Fitting into the distinctive design aesthetic of the Gold Label Collection, all Grand Pacific models feature Andy Powers' modified headstock shape with an angled back cut and script-style Taylor logo inlay, a different pickguard shape, and a Honduran rosewood Curve Wing bridge. Clean, understated appointments reflect a down-to-earth, workhorse spirit, including:
"Crest" inlay motif in cream featuring simple dot/diamond position markers in the fretboard crowned with a new headstock inlay
Cream binding with simple black/white top purfling and a single-ring rosette in cream and black with black/white purfling
Taylor Deluxe Hardshell Case with "British Cocoa" vinyl exterior
Revolutionary Action Control Neck™ Technology
All Gold Label Grand Pacific models feature Taylor's patented Action Control Neck™, which combines the tonal benefits of a long-tenon neck joint with unprecedented ease of instant string height adjustment. The long tenon extends deeper into the guitar body and, together with the heel structure, enhances the wood coupling to produce greater low-end resonance and a sound comparable to traditional neck designs.
Unlike Taylor's existing neck design that incorporates tapered shims to calibrate the neck angle, the Action Control Neck™ is shimless. The string height can be adjusted in seconds by using a quarter-inch nut driver (or standard truss rod wrench) on a bolt in the neck block, accessible inside the soundhole. Neither the neck nor the strings need to be removed to make adjustments.
"The design serves players by allowing them to adjust their string height for different playing styles, applications or climate conditions as often as they like," added Powers.
Street pricing for the new Gold Label models are as follows:
Gold Label 517e - $2,599
Gold Label 517e Blacktop - $2,799
Gold Label 517e SB - $2,799
Gold Label 717e - $2,799
Gold Label 717e SB - $2,999
Gold Label 717e Blacktop - $2,999
For more information on the Gold Label Collection and more, visit taylorguitars.com.
Epiphone introduces the Jeff Beck 1954 Oxblood Les Paul, a tribute to the iconic guitar immortalized on the cover of Jeff Beck's groundbreaking album. Featuring Gibson USA pickups, solid wood construction, and premium electronics, this limited edition guitar is a must-have for fans and collectors alike.
For over 150 years, Epiphone has been a leading innovator in instrument design. By leveraging its iconic past and leaning into the future, Epiphone has set the stage for the next era of sound for present and future generations. Epiphone’s game-changing Inspired by Gibson Custom Collection, developed in close collaboration with the skilled luthiers at Gibson Custom Shop in Nashville, Tennessee, continues to expand, establishing a new tier of premium Epiphones for every stage. Featuring Gibson USA pickups and premium electronics, world-renowned Gibson “open book” headstocks, solid wood construction, and one-piece necks, Epiphone’s Inspired by Gibson Custom Collection brings Gibson Custom designs to the masses, adding to Epiphone’s full array of instruments for all player levels.
Today, Epiphone is proud to introduce the JeffBeck1954OxbloodLesPaul from Epiphone, an Inspired by Gibson Custom recreation of one of the most famous guitars in history–JeffBeck’s famous Oxblood, the heavily modified 1954LesPaul that was immortalized on the cover of his groundbreaking 1975 album Blow by Blow. The world-famous guitar is now available worldwide at Authorized Epiphone dealers, the Gibson Garage in Nashville and London, and online via epiphone.com.
“Bringing the Epiphone version of the infamous ‘Oxblood’ LesPaul to life was something JeffBeck wanted, and the team has now truly delivered,” says Lee Bartram, Head of Commercial and Marketing EMEA at Gibson. “Making this guitar accessible to a wider market was important to Jeff and his family; this Epiphone guitar turned out truly exceptional and is a worthy tribute to the legacy of a legend.”
In the minds of many of his fellow guitarists, as well as those of countless fans, JeffBeck remains one of the finest players ever to pick up the instrument. From his early work with the Yardbirds to his work with the JeffBeck Group, Beck, Bogert & Appice, as a session musician and throughout his solo career, JeffBeck was one of the most influential lead guitarists of all time. A guitarist’s guitarist and sonic innovator, Beck was a master of genres who played rock, blues, hard rock, and jazz fusion, and helped popularize the use of feedback, fuzz pedals, and distortion, influencing countless players to this day with his inimitable style. An eight-time GRAMMY® Award winner, including six times for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, JeffBeck also received the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: as a member of the Yardbirds and as a solo artist.
Known to millions as the Oxblood due to its unique chocolate brown/oxblood finish, JeffBeck’s heavily modified 1954LesPaul™ was immortalized on the cover of Blow by Blow, his groundbreaking first solo album. This past January, the original Oxblood recently sold at auction for a record-setting $1.3 million. In 2009, Gibson Custom first recreated the Oxblood in a limited edition run of only 50 aged guitars, which collectors still highly value. Now, Epiphone, in collaboration with Gibson Custom, is immensely proud to introduce the JeffBeckOxblood1954LesPaul™, based on his iconic 1954LesPaul. It features a mahogany body with a maple cap, a one-piece mahogany neck with a long neck tenon and a JeffBeck Custom Large C neck profile, a rosewood fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and aged mother-of-pearl trapezoid inlays, and a Gibson “open book” style headstock with an Epiphone logo inlaid in aged mother-of-pearl. The headstock is equipped with a low-friction Graph Tech® nut and Schaller M6 90 tuning machines. It is powered by a pair of USA-made Gibson Custombucker humbucker™ pickups that are connected to CTS® potentiometers and Mallory capacitors using 50s-style wiring. Other thoughtfully considered details are included to match the original guitar, including gold Speed knobs, a LesPaul pickguard with a gap above the bridge pickup, and a Gibson Historic Wraparound bridge. It comes packaged in an Epiphone hardshell guitar case with Inspired by Gibson Custom graphics and includes a vintage-style replica strap. The EpiphoneJeffBeckOxblood1954LesPaul is available for a limited time, so do not miss this rare opportunity to own an accessible tribute to one of the world’s most famous, cherished, and valuable electric guitars and the master instrumentalist who made it famous–JeffBeck.
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram's highly-anticipated new album, Hard Road, is set to be released on September 26. The album will be available in various formats, including limited-edition vinyl. Kingfish will embark on a North American tour followed by shows in the EU and UK. Don't miss out on this epic "Hard Road Tour" experience!
Voodoo Charm - YouTube
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GRAMMY® Award-winning blues, rock ‘n’ roll, soul, and R&B musician Christone “Kingfish” Ingram has unveiled his much-anticipated new album, Hard Road, arriving via his own Red Zero Records on Friday, September 26. Pre-orders/pre-saves are available now. Hard Road will be offered in a wide range of formats, including digital, standard Green & White Swirl vinyl, and limited-edition of 500 Purple & Gold Swirl vinyl, available exclusively via the official Christone “Kingfish” Ingramwebstore, 100 of these will include a special Golden Ticket insert that will give winners a pair of tickets to a Kingfish show of their choice.
Kingfish’s fourth collection and first new studio album since 2021’s GRAMMY® Award-winning 662, Hard Road is heralded by today’s premiere of the fiery first single, “Voodoo Charm,” available everywhere now.
“I’m definitely excited to drop the first track from Hard Road. ‘Voodoo Charm’ is a high-tempo one that I look forward to playing live, and I also think it will set the stage for what’s to come with my third studio album,” said Ingram. “I hope people dig it and have some real anticipation for what’s in store.”
Widely regarded as one of contemporary blues’ most dynamic live performers, Kingfish will celebrate Hard Road on an epic North American tour that includes headline dates, top-billed festival performances, and more with dates currently underway and then continuing through October. From there, Ingram will take “The Hard Road Tour” across the Atlantic for eagerly awaited shows in the EU and the UK, set to visit Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom through November. 2026 will then see Kingfish making headline appearances on both the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise #44: Eastern Caribbean (January 24-31, 2026) and Jam Cruise 22 (February 7-12, 2026). For complete details and ticket information, please visitwww.christonekingfishingram.com/kingfish-tour.
A native son of Clarksdale, Mississippi — a city steeped in blues history — Christone “Kingfish” Ingram stands at the crossroads of legacy and innovation, channeling the spirit of the Delta while fearlessly reshaping its future. His mastery of the guitar, steeped in the tones of B.B. King, Albert King, and Buddy Guy, first turned heads when he was still a teenager. But what sets Ingram apart is how he’s expanded the form, blending in funk, soul, hip-hop, pop, and jazz to create a modern blues fusion that resonates across generations and genres. 2019’s debut album, Kingfish, topped Billboard’s “Blues Albums” for an incredible 91 weeks and earned him his first GRAMMY® Award nomination, plus three Blues Music Awards, including “Album of the Year.” Kingfish followed up with 2021’s 662, titled after his Mississippi area code, which won both the GRAMMY® Award and Blues Music Award for “Best Contemporary Blues Album.” In 2023, the incendiary Live In London received yet another GRAMMY® Award nomination as well as his second Blues Music Award for “Album of the Year” and third consecutive triumph in the “Best Contemporary Blues Album.”
Now, with Hard Road, Kingfish reflects on a journey that’s taken him from local prodigy to global torchbearer for a new era of blues. Executive Produced by Ingram and Ric Whitney for Red Zero Records with production support from Patrick “Guitar Boy” Hayes, Nick Goldston, and Tom Hambridge, the album marks Kingfish’s most introspective and ambitious project thus far, lyrically, emotionally, sonically, and thematically. Songs such as “Bad Like Me” and “Nothin’ But Your Love” explore love, loss, identity, perseverance, and personal growth, but with a harder, emotionally rich edge to Ingram’s signature sound. As always, Kingfish’s renowned guitar work is both explosive and tender, a fusion of rock and R&B sensibilities with vulnerable, honest, resilient blues at its heart. A true statement of purpose from an artist who has already made history and is only getting started, Hard Road is infused with the wisdom of someone who’s lived through transformation, seen the world, and returned home changed.
“This record comes from real-life reflection,” says Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. “I’ve been balancing fame, heartbreak, love, and relationships while trying to stay grounded, touring, creating, and maturing. These songs are about owning my story. They’re about learning to see myself clearly and seeing others with more compassion. That’s changed the way I write, the way I play, and the way I live.”
