
Lead guitarist of Maná, one of the best-selling bands in Latin-America, collaborates with Gibson Custom Shop to create his first-ever signature.
Gibson Custom Shop presents the Sergio Vallín 1955 Les Paul Goldtop. This new Gibson artist model has the all the features and performance that Sergio requires, including a lightweight mahogany body with a two-piece plain maple top and a mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard and ’59 Rounded C profile. It is also equipped with Kluson reissue tuners, a Bigsby B7 vibrato and features custom aging from the Murphy Lab. The electronics include a custom P-90 Soapbar pickup in the neck position and a bridge Custombucker, giving it sonic versatility.
Born and raised in Mexico City, Sergio Vallin, is the 4x Grammy, and 8x Latin Grammy award-winning, and 19x Billboard Latin Music Award-winning lead guitarist for global superstars, the influential rock band, Maná. With his wide-ranging, and innovative universal sound, Sergio’s work as a solo artist and producer/arranger have led him to collaborate with some of the industry’s greatest heavyweights. Sergio recently released his second solo album Microsinfonias which features songs with Santana, Fher Olvera frontman of Maná, Alejandro Sanz, Arturo Sandoval, Steve Vai, and more.
Sergio Vallín 1955 Les Paul Goldtop | Gibson Custom Shop
"I feel thankful and honored, a Les Paul with my name, I just can't believe it,” says Sergio Vallín. “This guitar is an extension of my hands and my soul. I remember seeing Les Paul play at a show in New York, I met him backstage, and he said, ‘if I stopped playing, I would die’. I feel honored to be carrying on Les Paul's legacy, and I thank Gibson for honoring not only my work, but also for recognizing the importance of Latin music.”
Sergio adds, "For Latin musicians it's so hard to imagine the idea of having a signature model, and I hope this is just the first of many, because there are so many amazing guitar players and musicians in Latin America who deserve their voices to be amplified and honored by a guitar brand that we all love so much.”
$7,999.00 USD. Explore the new Sergio Vallín 1955 Les Paul Goldtop on www.gibson.com.
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Roger Waters is set to release a Super Deluxe Boxset of The Dark Side Of The Moon Redux on March 14, 2025. The Boxset includes a live album from his sold-out London Palladium shows, gold vinyl, CD, Blu-ray, and a track-by-track video interview.
The Super Deluxe Boxset includes:
- The Dark Side Of The Moon Redux on gold vinyl (2LP), CD, Blu-ray: Dolby Atmos Mix, 96/24 Audio.
- The Dark Side Of The Moon Redux Live on gold vinyl, CD, Blu-Ray, 96/24 Audio
- Roger Waters Track by Track video interview on Blu-ray
- Four 4 x 10-inch Vinyl from the original Redux album cut at 45 RPM for: Money, Time, Speak To Me/Breathe and Us & Them, each with an artwork etched B-side.
- A 40 page Commemorative Book of Photographs from The Making of the Album, Rehearsals, and Roger Waters Redux Live at The London Palladium.
- Initial Boxset orders from the official store include a signed print by Roger Waters
Waters Quote:
“All that is gone, all that’s to come? Looking back or looking forward, Dark Side of the Moon offers you choice. The choice is yours. Darkness or the Light”.
Track listing:
The Dark Side Of The Moon Redux studio album and Roger Waters Live album:
“Speak to Me”
“Breathe”
“On the Run”
“Time”
“Great Gig in the Sky”
“Money“
“Us and Them”
“Any Colour You Like”
“Brain Damage”
“Eclipse”
The Dark Side Of The Moon Super Deluxe box set Redux credits include: Roger Waters: Vocals / Gus Seyffert: Bass, Synth, Backing Vocals / Joey Waronker: Drums, Percussion / Jonathan Wilson: Guitars, Synth / Johnny Shepherd: Organ, Vocals / Via Mardot: Theremin, Vocals / Azniv Korkejian: Vocals, Percussion / Jon Carin: Keyboards, Lap Steel, Synths, Organ, Vocals / Robert Walter: Piano, Harpsichord, Synths / Strings: Gabe Noel: String Arrangements: Gabe Noel
Recorded live at The London Palladium // Produced by Gus Seyffert and Roger Waters // Mixed by Sean Sullivan, Darrell Thorpe, Roger Waters and Gus Seyffert // Mastered by Dave Cooley, Elysian Masters // Art Direction and Design: Sean Evans // Photography: Kate Izor.
For more information, please visit rogerwaters.tmstor.es.
Roger Waters - THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON REDUX SUPER DELUXE BOXSET - YouTube
Guest Picker - Ariel Posen
The past year was full of new sounds and discoveries. Ariel Posen and Jeremy Jacobs join the PGteam to highlight what popped out to them over the last 12 months.
Q: What was your biggest guitar discovery of 2024?
Guest Picker - Ariel Posen
A: Twenty-twenty-four was a year of discovery and re-discovery for me. I tend to come back to records and artists that I haven't listened to in a long time and get back into them with a new-found excitement. In regards to guitar discovery, at the end of 2023 I got into Paramore for the first time, specifically their last album, This is Why. I don't really listen to guitar music these days, but I'm always infatuated by the extreme detail of finely crafted guitar parts that help serve the song, and that album is full of that stuff. In terms of rediscovery, I spent a lot of time digging back into early George Harrison, Christopher Cross, and some specific Steely Dan records. Seems to be a theme there. I love all that stuff but haven't really given it time in a while; that changed this past year.
Obsession: Doechii. Watch her Tiny Desk video. She's incredible and the band is too. I get goosebumps every time I watch it, and I watch it once a day.
Reader of the Month - Jeremy Jacobs
A: I was turned on to Mk.Gee after seeing his performance on SNL and immediately fell in love with the vibe. I’m always trying to keep an ear to the ground for new, innovative guitar sounds, and his unique approach to creating guitar tones was really refreshing and inspiring. I love the blend of retro ’80s synth sounds and modern digital guitar production.
Obsession: Jim Lill’s video series on YouTube experimenting with guitar tone. He’s like the Mythbusters of the guitar community and it’s really shaking things up! He’s taking a very scientific deep dive into commonly held beliefs about what makes certain equipment “sound good” and has returned some truly shocking results. I’m thinking about guitar gear in a totally different way thanks to his work.
Managing Editor - Jason Shadrick
A: Big delays and reverbs finally got to me in 2024. Typically, I would favor a modest spring or room setting, but a few gigs this year pushed me into more ambient territory. It’s incredible how the sound of space affects your touch on the instrument. My playing has become more melodic and intentional—but I’m still not digging the shimmer vibe.
Obsession: Noel Johnston’s YouTube videos from his Creative Fundamentals class have been warping my brain. Fair warning: They do require a bit of theoretical knowledge to get the most out of them. However, his triad workouts are a great way to start to visualize different shapes all over the neck—no matter what key.
Assistant Editor - Luke Ottenhof
A: Last year, I discovered germanium. This isn’t strictly true; I’ve used germ pedals in the past, but I never connected with the transistors until I picked up the Death by Audio Germanium Filter. Now, all I want is sweet, gnarly, splatty germanium grossness on whatever I play. The problem is it doesn’t really fit with my band’s sound. I predict many arguments in 2025.
Obsession: Figuring out ways to make, share, and celebrate music outside of the too-powerful platforms that have monopolized our arts and culture. Thankfully, there are loads of people way smarter than me working with each other to build new networks and meanings for music, including some that would be musician-owned. The future is bright—if we want it!
Oni’s guitar duo cover 16 strings between them with a pair of Neural Quad Cortexes and some choice patches.
Jared Dines had been writing for Canadian metalcore outfit Oni—fronted by Jake Oni—for a few years before Jake invited Dines to join him onstage. Dines had just two days to learn the entire set before rehearsals began. But Eric Palmer can one-up him. He was teching for the band when Jake conscripted him—with just one day to pick up the set before a performance. Palmer rose to the occasion, and he and Dines have formed Oni’s two-guitar tornado for the past year.
Ahead of their gig at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl in December, Dines and Palmer walked PG’s Chris Kies through their spartan, one-guitar rigs—no backups, no mercy.
Brought to you by D’Addario.8 is Great
Eric Palmer is used to playing 7-string axes, so this limited-run 8-string Jackson Concept Series MDK8 HT8 MS Modern Dinky didn’t take long to get used to. The Korea-made flamethrower has a basswood body, a 3-piece maple/wenge/mapleneck, and a compound radius ebony fretboard (12" to 16"). It also boasts a dual scale length—25.5" to 27.5"—and is loaded with Fishman Fluence Modern pickups, which feature two voicings selected by a push-pull switch. Palmer had this one upgraded to a 5-way switch to access split-coil sounds, and he got rid of the tone knob. “All gas, no brakes,” as PG’s Perry Bean would say.
Petrucci Power
Jared Dines also needed an 8-string for Oni, so Ernie Ball sent him this Music Man Majesty 8, a John Petrucci signature model. It’s got Fishman’s Powerbridge piezo system, which sees action on the song “Control.” Dines attached his own string clamp behind the nut to halt noise.
Double Quads
Dines and Palmer both rely on Neural DSP Quad Cortexes on this Oni tour. Their units are mounted on Temple Audio pedalboards, and both guitarists use the Architecture: Gojira X patch for their heavy sounds, and a Roland Jazz Chorus sound for cleans. Both Dines and Palmer employ a MIDI switching system that they pulled from Aaron Marshall’s Rig Rundown, and run their signals from direct to front of house.
The author found this one-of-a-kind tremolo/vibrato/sound-altering modulation box at Quattro Music Company in Thomas, West Virginia.
Producer and roots-guitar veteran Michael Dinallo pens his unabashed love letter to tremolo, with fond recollections of vintage Fender and Gibson amps, Dunlop’s TS-1, and a one-of-a-kind mystery modulator.
Tremolo is my favorite effect to modulate a guitar’s sound (and I love vibrato, too). I love it so much that it’s part of the moniker of the production team I had with the late Ducky Carlisle—the Tremolo Twins—as well as our Trem-Tone Records label. You might recognize Ducky from his many engineering credits, including Buddy Guy, or our work together on albums like Stax veteran Eddie Floyd’s heralded Eddie Loves You So, from 2008.
For me, the golden period of tremolo was the early 1960s. The brown-panel Fender amps of that period have astounding harmonic tremolo, as do the Gibson amps from that period. I have a 1963 Gibson GA-5T Skylark that has a tremendous tremolo circuit. I used that amp for all the guitar parts I cut on my new album, The Night’s Last Dance,as well as all the records I’ve worked on over the last four years, either as producer or player. My favorite, though, is the 1963 2x10 Fender Super—also a brown-panel amp. It can be so soupy that, if multi-tracked, it can almost induce seasickness.
But there are so many choices and classic sounds. The Magnatone and Lonnie Mack jump to mind, or the use of a Leslie cabinet for guitar, which is another sound I love as both player and producer. Two of the most distinct and famous uses of tremolo, to my ears, are Link Wray’s “Rumble” and Reggie Young’s arpeggiating opening chord on “The Dark End of the Street” by James Carr. There is a shimmery quality to big chords drenched in a slow tremolo, especially if the part is doubled. From a production standpoint, it adds depth to a track, even if it’s mixed way in the back.
Let’s talk about doubling a tremolo part. Once in a while you can get lucky and have the amp cycle the wave at just the right time as you hit the record button. But most often not. Usually this is not a big deal and adds to the depth of the bed part being recorded. Sometimes, though, it has to be a tight double. That’s when I’ve spent much time guessing at the cycling and trying to hit it just right. It’s a blast when you do.
One of my favorite experiments with tremolo was setting up two amps—a brown-panel Fender Vibroverb and a brown-panel Fender Concert—in a V-shape. The amps were set to the same volume and approximately the same tone settings. Using a stereo mic in the middle of the V, we recorded it to one track. We had to keep tweaking the individual tremolo settings in an effort to not have them cancel each other out. But what a huge, lush sound!
“There is a shimmery quality to big chords drenched in slow tremolo, especially if the part is doubled.”
There are many tremolo pedals and recording plugins these days, and they’re all good, but nothing quite captures the sound of an internal tremolo circuit. You can avoid chasing their cycles, too, if a pedal has a tap-tempo function. But what fun is that?
The one tremolo pedal, for me, that comes the closest to an in-amp circuit is the now-vintage Dunlop TS-1. Thirty years ago, I needed a tremolo pedal for my road amp—at the time, a 1994 Fender tweed Blues DeVille. I found Dunlop’s big, honking purple metal box with “tremolo” written across the front in wavy yellow letters. You can get wide, sweeping tremolo or set it to a hard, choppy setting where the volume completely disappears. I’ve used both applications effectively. The hard trem is great for the last chord of a song, especially live, hitting like a boxer sparring with a weighted, hanging bag—especially if you’re diving into a psychedelic ending. And, of course, mixing in other modulation effects, such as flanging or phasing, adds another twist.
I found the most unique tremolo/vibrato/sound-altering modulation box I have at Quattro Music Company in Thomas, West Virginia. It’s not a pedal per se; it’s circuitry housed in a cigar box with so many knobs and switches and variations that I still have not exhausted all the possibilities. It’s a one-off. I was told it was the only tremolo box the inventor made. Combining it with a front-end boost and diming an amp produces otherworldly sounds. I’ve used it on a couple of recordings: “Never, No More (A Reckoning)” by Keith Sykes and me, and “Time Machine” by the Dinallos (where we were joined by Nashville’s famed singing siblings, the McCrary Sisters). With the latter, it’s most obvious as a tremolo device, and on the former it’s as a sound-altering gizmo that enhances the guitar leads.
Of all the toys in the arsenal that guitarists have, I’ve gotta say, long live tremolo!