Darkglass® Electronics announces the launch of the Anagram Marketplace, a significant expansion of its Anagram™ bass platform introducing a growing ecosystem of third-party plugins and tools. Designed to extend the capabilities of Anagram beyond its original feature set, the Anagram Marketplace enables users to access, share, and integrate new sounds and processing tools while opening the platform to trusted developers, engineers, producers, and sound designers. By bridging the gap between studio-based workflows and real-world performance environments, the Anagram Marketplace positions Anagram as an evolving platform shaped by its user community.
Think of it like an App Store. Building on Anagram’s core processing architecture, including its hexacore processor and 32-bit/48kHz audio engine, the Anagram Marketplace expands the system’s functional scope by enabling support for external plugins that were previously limited to desktop environments. At the time of launch, the Anagram Marketplace has already partnered with some established plug-in developers like Nembrini Audio, Bogren Digital, and DoGood Sounds.
The Anagram Marketplace complements Anagram’s existing blocks-based architecture, where users can construct signal chains in series or parallel configurations. With the addition of partner-developed plugins and processing blocks, users gain access to an expanding library of tools that can be incorporated into their existing signal paths. This approach extends the platform’s flexibility over time, allowing workflows and signal chains to evolve as new tools and ideas are introduced.
From a user experience perspective, the Anagram Marketplace integrates into the broader Anagram ecosystem, where its high-resolution touch display and control modes - Preset, Scene, and Stomp -continue to provide direct access to signal chains and parameter control. As new plugins and blocks become available, users can incorporate them into familiar control structures without disrupting established workflows, supporting a streamlined approach to exploration and implementation.
The introduction of the Anagram Marketplace also reinforces Anagram’s integration with the wider Darkglass ecosystem. Alongside access to partner-created plugins, Darkglass will continue to deliver free software updates, including new blocks, features, and ongoing performance improvements. Together, these updates and the Anagram Marketplace ecosystem create a platform that continuously expands, ensuring users have access to new tools and capabilities without requiring added hardware.
In practical use, the Anagram Marketplace enables musicians, producers, and content creators to extend their setups with new processing tools while keeping a consistent workflow across studio, rehearsal, and live environments. By enabling access to a broader range of plugins and community-driven development, the platform supports faster iteration, expanded creative options, and a more connected approach to sound design and performance.
The Anagram Marketplace is available now to Anagram users. For more information, visit www.darkglass.com.
Sadler Vaden is a jack of all trades. He's a consummate pro musician that's spent nearly 15 years as Jason Isbell's stage-right, guitar-slingin' sideman. He's released four solo albums under his own banner [ 2012's Radio Road, 2016's Self-Titled, 2020's Anybody Out There? & 2024's Dad Rock] solidfying his spot as singer-songwriting, guitar-playing bandleader. He's becoming a fixture in the Nashville producer community including overseeing firebrand Morgan Wade's releases Reckless & Psychopath. And now acknowledging his talent, dedication and grind, Gibson has honored Vaden with his own SG that was based on his longtime No. 1 that was a gift after his previous Solid Guitar was stolen. PG host John Bohlinger explores all this in Sadler's journey while also picking his brain about slide guitar.
Pure Tone and AxLabs Hardware are proud to announce the release of the new Pure Tone Mono Shunt Output Jack, expanding the capabilities of the trusted multi-contact jack design for use across amplifiers, pedals, and instruments.
Building on the proven success of the original Pure Tone 1/4" mono jack, the new Mono Shunt version incorporates an integrated shunt connection, allowing for more advanced wiring configurations and added functionality in a variety of applications.
The integrated shorting feature keeps the switched terminal closed when no plug is inserted, most often used in amplifiers to ground the circuit and help eliminate hum. It can also be used as a speaker output jack, grounding the output when no speaker is connected to provide an added layer of amplifier protection, among other applications.
At the core of the design is Pure Tone’s patented multi-contact system, which provides several contact points on both the tip and sleeve. This design ensures superior signal retention, reduced noise, and a more secure connection compared to traditional single-contact jacks.
As with all Pure Tone Jacks, the new Mono Shunt Output Jack is constructed with high-quality beryllium copper contacts, with no pot metal alloys used, offering exceptional conductivity, long-lasting spring tension, and increased durability for demanding environments.
The Pure Tone Mono Shunt Output Jack is a direct replacement for standard 1/4" mono jacks, making it easy to integrate into existing designs or upgrades.
The new jack is available now at AxLabsHardware.com and through authorized Pure Tone dealers and distributors worldwide.
There’s a peculiar stillness before you play a note—a guitar rests in your hands, mute but full of promise. At this point, it’s only a wooden slab and six lengths of wire stretched over a fretboard. To me, the silence isn’t empty; it’s a blank canvas. You inhale, grip the pick, and then everything happens. The strings yield divine vibrations that bloom outward into the air, and suddenly the room has changed. Now, something exists that didn’t before. Sound, shape, and emotion, all conjured from nothing more than human touch. That’s the closest thing to real magic that I know.
The first notes I heard played on an electric guitar is a memory etched on my brain. It was just a solo instrument playing “Greensleeves” in a school gymnasium, but it exploded my world like a hydrogen bomb. As the echo of the last phrase vanished with my memory as its only trace, I knew I wanted to know more and to be able to create it for myself. How could a sound do that? Of course, physics has its explanations: tension, mass, vibration, frequency—all neat equations and mechanical truths. But none of that accounts for why it felt alive, or how those vibrating wires could make me feel emotion. When you speak through your guitar, we listen with our soul. That sound threads through air and touches memory and longing—tugging at places words alone rarely reach.
Every guitarist knows this mystery without a name. You start with nothing, and then by will, motion, and a leap of faith and courage, you fill the void. And in that instant you’re part of something bigger than just craft. With a simple downstroke, struck just right, it becomes a kind of invocation. The guitar answers, and for a moment, the world rearranges itself around what you’ve made. It’s addictive, and still, after all these years, I find it one of the most satisfying things imaginable.
The funny thing about making music is that you can’t keep it. As soon as you release a note, it begins to evaporate. Like smoke from a candle, it curls, scatters, and is gone. Recording can preserve its outline, but never its heat. That impermanence is part of the spell. To play or to listen is to accept loss in real time, to chase beauty that dissolves even as you hold it.
To me, one of the most amazing things about musical sound is that listeners can be affected from a room away. They don’t have to know the names of the chords, perhaps they haven’t a clue about time signatures or key. And no matter how you meant it to feel, each ear interprets it slightly differently. Silence reasserts itself after every phrase. The last note of a song lingers like warm breath on glass, slowly fading back into the nothing it came from. If you listen closely, you can almost hear the quiet sigh of the instrument settling again, waiting for the next spark. Music teaches you to love that push and pull and to understand that transience doesn’t make it less real. It makes it miraculous.
Music isn’t about permanence or perfection. It’s about summoning something beautiful, letting it live, and then letting it go. The player becomes a temporary bridge between silence and the sublime, transforming space into meaning and returning it to the void. That’s the enchantment of the guitar. You make something from nothing, it touches someone, and then it’s gone—leaving only the echo of what was felt, and the faint shimmer of its magic in the ether.
In a way, making music is a lot like life itself. You begin with the raw ingredients and strike out to make something meaningful to you and others around you. Despite its power in the moment, it is fleeting and impermanent. Enjoy every moment, every note and chord.
Gibson proudly introduces the Jake Kiszka SG Standard, a guitar born from the bond between a modern rock ’n’ roll trailblazer and the iconic SG that helped define his voice. Jake Kiszka—guitar hero and founding member of Greta Van Fleet—built his sonic identity around his cherished 1961 SG, a guitar he describes as inseparable from his artistry: “The ’61, this particular model, has defined me as a player, and I think I’ve defined it in return.” With that legacy in mind, Gibson USA artisans have crafted a new instrument that honors the spirit, shape, and soul of the original, while embracing the demands of today’s musical landscape. Handcrafted in Nashville and produced in a limited run, the Jake Kiszka SG Standard is now available worldwide at authorized Gibson dealers, Gibson Garage locations, and on www.gibson.com.
The Jake Kiszka SG Standard captures the essence of the legendary ’61 SG through its elegant contours, deep-edge beveling, and unmistakable double‑cutaway design. Its SlimTaper™ mahogany neck leads players into a rosewood fretboard fitted with 22 medium jumbo frets, each framed by acrylic trapezoid inlays that lend an ethereal glow under the stage lights. A Graph Tech® nut and Gibson Vintage Deluxe tuners with keystone buttons provide exceptional tuning stability, making the guitar as reliable as it is expressive.
Jake Kiszka will be celebrating the launch of this new guitar at the Gibson Garage Nashville today, Thursday, April 23. Music fans are invited to join a special in-store Q&A with Jake, andMat Koehler, Vice President of Product at Gibson, to mark the occasion. This intimate conversation will highlight Jake’s creative journey as the new signature model debuts. Fans should plan to arrive at the Gibson Garage early for guaranteed entry.
Anchoring the guitar is an ABR‑1 Tune‑O‑Matic™ bridge paired with a Stop tailpiece, positioned beneath a classic Sideways Vibrola™ cover. While visually faithful to Jake’s 1961 SG—affectionately known as the Beloved—the Vibrola unit has been intentionally locked, delivering the iconic aesthetic with the enhanced stability and functionality of a fixed tailpiece. This detail reflects Jake’s own balance of timeless character and modern performance.
Electronics have been tailored with equal precision. A pair of T‑Type humbuckers™ brings roaring dynamics, articulate clarity, and high‑end bite, giving players access to the tonal force that drives Jake’s signature sound. Each pickup is paired with independent volume and tone controls featuring Orange Drop® capacitors, ensuring a wide expressive range with exceptional tonal consistency.
Finished in a stunning Faded Vintage Cherry gloss nitrocellulose lacquer, the Jake Kiszka SG Standard is crafted with exemplary attention to detail that defines a Gibson USA masterpiece. Each limited‑edition guitar arrives in a black Modern hardshell case adorned with Jake’s custom doubloon logo. Inside, players will find both a standard installed backplate, as well as a hand‑signed and stamped Jake Kiszka backplate, along with a custom leather strap featuring his metallic coin pendant.
As the GRAMMY® Award-winning Greta Van Fleet continues to dominate global stages and shape the future of rock ’n’ roll, Jake Kiszka’s impact on a new generation of players is unmistakable. His SG has been a steadfast companion throughout his musical journey, and now, that legacy can become part of yours. The Gibson Jake Kiszka SG Standard is available in limited quantities, offering players a rare chance to wield an instrument built from modern artistry, rock history, and uncompromising craftsmanship.
