Djentlemen Jake Bowen, Mark Holcomb, and Misha Mansoor show off their cavalcade of signature gear from Ibanez, PRS, Jackson, Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, Bare Knuckle, and Peavey—and then explain how digital modelers continue shaping and shifting their sound.
Our third Rig Rundown with Periphery’s Jake Bowen, Mark Holcomb, and Misha Mansoor—at Nashville’s Marathon Music Works on April 2—caught the band on their final tour stop for a spring run in support of the brand-spankin’-new Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre. Our time with the triumvirate of tone reminded us that these fellas never rest their ears. They know gear and how to make it work for them. That’s why each of them has spent extensive time in several R&D collaborations with some of the biggest, most influential companies in guitardom. This time Bowen, Holcomb, and Mansoor all dish on the evolutions of their signature gear and how everything meshes and molds together for the greater, Transformer-like machine that is Periphery. Whether it’s going up to 27 frets, utilizing Alnico 8 magnets, or adding an Evertune bridge to compensate for deeply dropped tunings, this trio of tone hounds will sniff it out. Let’s dig in!
Brought to you by D’Addario XPND Pedalboard.
Final Fantasy 27
Jake Bowen busted out this blue belle first because it’s his most-recent signature—an Ibanez JBM9999 that features a basswood body in their RGA shape, a 5-piece maple-walnut neck, a bound-ebony fretboard, a 25.5" scale that crams in 27 frets, Gotoh MG-T locking tuners, and Ibanez’s Gibraltar Elite bridge, plus it comes loaded with a fresh set of Bowen’s latest signature DiMarzio Mirage humbuckers. The neck model is a custom-voiced, Strat-style, single-coil-sized humbucker that incorporates some finessed tones via the 5-way. Position one and five are standard and individually engage the bridge and neck humbuckers (respectively). Position four puts the neck humbucker into parallel mode. The center slot gets both humbuckers involved, while position two selects the bridge side of the neck humbucker and the neck side of the bridge humbucker. The reason Jake opted for the single-coil-sized humbucker was to inspire fans who want to swap in their favorite single-coil pickups without any extra routing.
Ibanez is known for their wild combinations of letters and numbers for product cataloging, but the 9999s have a significance to Bowen … beyond sounding like an injury law firm’s phone number. He’s a superfan of the Final Fantasy world and 9999 is the max damage you can get in the earlier games, so Bowen requested that gamer Easter egg and they obliged. All his 6-string signatures take Horizon Devices Progressive Tension Heavy 6 strings (.010–.014–.019–.030–.042–.058).
Back in Black
Bowen commissioned this sleek JBM9999 from Ibanez’s L.A. Custom Shop. It matches all the previous model’s accoutrements but shakes it up by including an Evertune bridge. That appointment means it comfortably rides in G–G–C–F–A–D tuning and sees the stage for “Reptile” and “Zagreus.”
The Mojo Machine
This JBM9999 has a few different wrinkles than the previous two. It has a roasted-maple neck and fretboard, and while the single-coil-sized neck humbucker looks like another Mirage model, it’s actually DiMarzio’s The Chopper. That pickup worked as a starting point when Bowen was testing out their rail hum-canceling Strat pickups, and that ultimately led him to the voicing of his signature Mirage version.
Knight in White Satin
Lastly, here’s Jake’s signature Ibanez JBM100 7-string, stocked with his original signature DiMarzio Titan ’buckers, that was shown off in the 2017 Rundown. His first standard sig model was generally done in a matte black finish, but he wanted something special and felt the gold pickup covers would really pop with a white finish. The JBM100s have a mahogany body/maple top configuration.
A $200 Private Stock PRS?!
Back in 2016, Mark Holcomb ordered this 7-string custom from PRS’ Private Stock team. It’s based on his 2015 signature model, but with all of Paul Reed Smith’s bells and whistles. A few things make this guitar unique to PRS’ signature artist roster in that it has a 26.5" scale length, a flat 20" radius on the fretboard, and Holcomb’s first signature Seymour Duncan Alpha & Omega humbuckers.
When it was built, PRS sent the special instrument via FedEx (signature required), and it was left by the delivery person without Holcomb’s John Hancock outside his Austin, Texas home. It was swiped by a porch pirate and assumed to be gone forever. Mark rallied his online followers to get the word out and a fan recognized it in a flea market 60 miles south of Austin. The kicker: It was being sold for $200! The fan bought the guitar and returned it to Mark. The best part, Holcomb didn’t let the sloppy bandit deter him from touring with it as he uses it on “Ragnarok” and other low-tuned riffers. He laces all his 7-strings with Progressive Tension Heavy 7 (.010–.014–.018–.028–.039–.050–.065).
Holcomb Burst
For any Periphery songs that only require a standard 6-string attack, he shoulders his brand-new 2023 PRS SE Mark Holcomb that is off-the-shelf stock. Ingredients include a mahogany body topped with a quilted maple top that incorporates an elegant violin carve, a satin maple neck with 24 frets, an ebony fretboard with a flat 20" radius, a 25.5" scale length, and this one leaves the factory with Holcomb’s just-released Seymour Duncan Scarlet & Scourge humbuckers. Controls are just a 3-way pickup selector, master volume, and push/pull tone knob for coil splitting. Holcomb puts Horizon Devices Progressive Tension Heavy 6 strings on all standard guitars.
7th Heaven
This is Holcomb’s PRS SE SVN signature that is identical to its little brother, but has the added string and a 26.5" scale.
Evertune Eviscerater
For the set opener “Reptile,” Holcomb enlists this PRS SE SVN signature that was modded with an Evertune bridge to accommodate “the stupid-low G tuning” that Mark stumbled upon while riffing away on vacation in Spain.
Reptilian Rocker
For the band’s rumbling G–G–C–F–A–D tuning, Misha Mansoor grabs this Jackson USA Misha Mansoor Signature Juggernaut HT6. Its DNA starts with a caramelized basswood body, caramelized quartersawn maple neck and fretboard, 24 jumbo stainless-steel frets, a Graph Tech TUSQ XL nut, a 25.5" scale, Hipshot open-gear locking tuners, and Misha’s signature Bare Knuckle Ragnarok humbuckers. He puts Horizon Devices Progressive Tension Heavy 6 strings on it. And it has a retro-fitted Evertune to keep things tight, prompting Mansoor to commented that “this tour is the most in-tune ‘Reptile’ has ever sounded. It’s been wonderful.” He notes that he recorded nearly all his parts for Periphery’s last two albums with this silver siren.
Orange You Glad
A few years back, Mansoor listed a bunch of gear on Reverb during an equipment purge. He almost listed this one but had second thoughts and is very glad he didn’t. His tech Vinnie gave it some serious TLC and it’s back in the rotation. A cool tidbit about this first-generation Jackson USA Misha Mansoor Signature Juggernaut HT7 is that it has a stunning quilted maple cap sitting over a roasted basswood body. There was a slight blemish on its top, so to salvage the build Misha suggested painting over the quilt, but leaving the edges exposed for a quilted binding effect. It sees work for “Ragnarok,” in their unique variation of drop-A-flat tuning (F#–D#–G#–C#–F#–A#–D#).
Snobs Need Not Apply
Another staple for Mansoor during Periphery’s live set is this import Jackson Pro Series Signature Misha Mansoor Juggernaut HT7 in shimmery blue sky burst. Many of the same appointments are here: a basswood body and a caramelized maple neck and fretboard. The stock models roar with a set of Jackson MM1 humbuckers, but Mansoor opted to upgrade with a set of Bare Knuckle Ragnaroks.
Easy Peasy
“This thing just shreds, man. It’s just so easy to play and it doesn’t fight me for the little note-y bits in ‘Marigold.’” The set closer puts this matte Jackson USA Misha Mansoor Signature Juggernaut HT6 into drop-C tuning. Mansoor is a mega car enthusiast and Formula 1 fan, so he had Jackson put this one in matte red to match Ferrari finishes.
Pass the Scalpel, Please
This might look yet another Jackson USA Misha Mansoor Signature Juggernaut HT6 with a basswood core and quilted maple top, but it has a mahogany body and flame maple cap for a darker sound and heftier weight. Misha’s signature Bare Knuckle Juggernauts give this baby a bite. Mansoor says the Ragnaroks are a sledgehammer, whereas the Juggernauts are a precision tool.
All in the Family
Misha and Jake have nearly identical setups and patches when it comes to amps and effects. Both are using Peavey Invective120 heads—a design alliance with Mansoor—that each run their own Fractal Audio Axe-Fx II XL+ units through a Peavey Invective 412 and out to FOH. The cabinets are loaded with two pairs of Celestion speakers: Vintage 30s and Creambacks. Mark uses a Fractal Audio Axe-Fx II XL+, but his is juiced by a Seymour Duncan PowerStage 700. He also has a Peavey Invective 412 cabinet onstage. In addition to live stage audio via 4x12s, each guitarist relies on Sennheiser EW IEM G4 Wireless In-Ear Monitor and side fills for a complete sound. And the three amigos plug their shred sticks into Shure ULXD4Q Wireless Units.
- Haunted Shores’ Misha Mansoor and Mark Holcomb ›
- PRS Guitars Unveils SE Signature Model with Periphery’s Mark Holcomb ›
- Jackson Releases Misha Mansoor Signature Juggernaut Guitars ›
- Prog-Metal Pioneers Periphery Raise the Bar for Djent - Premier Guitar ›
Samantha Fish: “Leaning Into the Edges—That’s Where the Real S**t Lies.”
In recent years, Samantha Fish’s most often-used guitar was this alpine white Gibson SG, but it ran into some issues last summer—“I ended up having to reglue the neck”—and it is now on hiatus.
The rising blues-rock star has made a dozen records, topped roots-music charts, played 150 dates a year, and opened for the Rolling Stones. Now her new album, Paper Doll, finds her at a hard-playing creative pinnacle.
Samantha Fish is moving in new circles these days—circles occupied by the kind of people you see a lot on classic-rock radio playlists. First there was the invitation from Eric Clapton to play at his 2023 Crossroads Guitar Festival in L.A. Then there was the summer ’24 slot on Slash’s S.E.R.P.E.N.T. tour, followed by the Experience Hendrix tour, on which she dug into Jimi classics in the company of Eric Johnson, Dweezil Zappa, and other luminaries. And, oh yeah, she opened for the Stones in Ridgedale, Missouri, on the final date of their Hackney Diamonds jaunt. That’s right, the Rolling Stones.
If you’re already a fan of Fish’s tough Delta-mama singing and high-temperature guitar work, you’ll probably think that all this is just as it should be. You gotta reap what you sow eventually, right? And Fish has been sowing for a long time, from her bar-band days in Kansas City 15 years ago through eight rootsy, eclectic albums as a leader (not counting the two early-2010s discs she cut with Dani Wilde and Victoria Smith as Girls with Guitars, or her 2013 outing with Jimmy Hall and Reese Wynans in the Healers, or 2023’s tangy swamp-rock collaboration with Jesse Dayton, Death Wish Blues) to her current tour schedule of about 150 dates per year in North America, the U.K., Europe, and Australia.
Still, even with such a solid career foundation to draw on, mixing and mingling in the flesh with folks you’ve known all your life as names on record covers could be a little intimidating. Is it? “You know, I don’t ever think about it in those terms,” Fish says on the phone from her home in New Orleans. “So when you lay it all out there like that, it feels like, ‘Aw shit, that’s crazy.’ I mean, it is crazy. When I think about the goals that I’ve made over the years … honestly, I’ve crossed off a bunch of things that I thought were even ironic being on the list, because they just seemed so far-fetched. Every interview I’ve ever done, they were like, ‘If you could ever open up for somebody, who would it be?’ And I always said the Stones, ironically. Cause when the hell’s that gonna happen? I’m a guitar player from Kansas. That’s nuts.”With her Stogie Box Blues 4-string, heavy hitting style, and wide array of blues and rock influences, Fish is an artist of a different stripe.
Photo by Jim Summaria
Fish spits out the sentences above in a fast, excited spray, one word tumbling over another. Then she pauses for a second, and it’s clear that wheels are turning in her head. Her voice gets more playful. “I’m gonna start speaking some even wilder things into existence just to see what happens,” she cracks, her grin nearly audible over the line. “A billion dollars!No, money’s evil, but you know what I mean.”
“I wanted to lean into superpowers.”
Given her formidable chops, it’s not that daring a leap to suggest that Fish could be capable of playingsome wilder things into existence, too. She’s certainly off to a good start with the just-released Paper Doll, her ninth solo album overall and third for Rounder Records. Whether your personal taste leans more toward nasty string-snapping riffs (the aptly titled “Can Ya Handle the Heat?”), sizzling slide escapades (“Lose You”), or high lonesome twang (“Off in the Blue”), you can’t deny that the album’s loaded with prime guitar moments. And its two longest tracks, “Sweet Southern Sounds” and “Fortune Teller”—“longest” being a purely relative term (they’re both under six minutes)—offer listeners just a taste of the neo-psychedelic fantasias that can occur when Fish stretches out in concert.
“People always come up to me and say, ‘You’ve got to figure out a way to capture the live feeling on a record,’” she reports. “Sometimes you go into the studio and it’s like, ‘Shit, I gotta make the song work for vinyl, so let’s cut it down,’ and you end up hacksawing away some of these parts that are kind of the feeling and heartbeat of the song. This time we set out to make something that felt live.”
Fish made her recording debut in 2009 as the leader of the Samantha Fish Blues Band, with the punny-titled in-concert indie album Live Bait.
Photo by Curtis Knapp
That’s one way in which Paper Doll differs dramatically from its predecessor, 2021’s Faster, which delved into a poppier territory of synths, beats, and high-tech production (and, in this writer’s opinion, did so with great effectiveness; one of Faster’s highlights, “Hypnotic,” sounds like it could have been recorded at a late-night dance club hang with Prince and the Pointer Sisters). In contrast, obviously electronic sounds are nowhere to be heard on the new disc, and the music referenced stays firmly in the American roots category: soul, rock, country, juke-joint blues. For some artists, a stylistic shift like this could be seen as a retrenchment, but for Fish, it’s the result of a major departure. This is the first time she’s ever used her road band—keyboardist Mickey Finn, bassist Ron Johnson, and drummer Jamie Douglass—to make a studio album.
“Everybody’s scratching their heads about what genre this falls into, but I know where every song started—with a blues riff.”
“Usually,” Fish explains, “I’ve worked in studio situations where there’s been a producer and they want to put the people they know together. So it was cool to bring in the band that I’ve been playing with for the last couple of years instead of session musicians. I feel like the dynamic was different—the familiarity, and just kind of knowing where the others were gonna go. It might be a minute difference to a listener, but for the players in the room, it helped breed another sensibility.”
Also helping in that department was producer Bobby Harlow, late of Detroit garage-rock revivalists the Go. Paper Doll is the second Fish album that Harlow’s produced; the first was 2017’s Chills & Fever. But whereas that album was all covers, the focus this time was on original songs, more than half of them co-written by Harlow with Fish before he was even considered to produce the album.
“Last March, Bobby came out to a show we did in Detroit,” Fish recalls. “We went out to lunch, and because I was working on writing songs, I asked him to do some co-writing with me, because I love the songs he wrote for the Go. He’s really fun to be in a room with when you’re making something, because he’s incredibly devoted to it. So we started writing, and then a few months later the label was like, ‘We gotta make this album, who’s gonna produce it?’ Well, we’re on the road all summer, so I don’t know when y’all expect us to do this record. But Bobby was available, and it was like the universe bringing us back together. He was passionate about the kind of songs I was writing, and he understood where I wanted to go with it.”
Samantha Fish's Gear
Before finding her SG, Fish’s main guitar was her Delaney signature model thinline style, with a fish-shaped f-hole.
Photo by Frank White
Guitars
- Alpine white Gibson SG
- Gibson Custom Shop ES-335
- Delaney 512
- Stogie Box Blues 4-string
- Danelectro baritone
Amps
- Category 5 Andrew 2x12
- Fender Hot Rod DeVille
Effects
- Dunlop volume pedal
- Analog Man King of Tone
- JHS Mini Foot Fuzz
- Electro-Harmonix Micro POG
- MXR Carbon Copy
- Boss PS-5 Super Shifter
- Voodoo Lab Pedal Power ISO-5
Strings, Picks, & Slides
- Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys (.010-.046)
- 1.0 mm picks (any brand)
- Various brass and ceramic slides
And where was that? “I wanted to lean into superpowers,” Fish quickly answers. “What are my strengths, what are the things that people know me for and recognize me for, and what can I amplify to make this a real statement record? It’s funny, because everybody’s scratching their heads about what genre this falls into, but I know where every song started—with a blues riff.”
Born out of the blues it may have been, but when the Paper Doll material reached the studio (actually, two studios: the Orb in Austin and Savannah Studios in L.A.), it went through some changes, partly due to the band’s contributions, partly due to Harlow’s conceptual leaps. “Bobby’s like a musicologist,” Fish says approvingly. “He’s deep. He pulls from so many different spaces, and he’s definitely introduced me to some things that I wasn’t hip to over the years. That’s done a lot to shape my musical tastes.” If you’ve had the significant pleasure of attending one of the many gigs in which Fish breaks out proto-punk nuggets like the MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams” and Love’s “7 and 7 Is,” well, now you know the guy to thank.
“This time we set out to make something that felt live.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, one of Paper Doll’s best tracks, “Rusty Tazor,” is a similar romp through the garage. In a rare case (for this album) of the producer bringing in someone he knows, Harlow tapped Mick Collins of cult faves the Gories and the Dirtbombs for backing vocals. “He adds such a personality to that song,” Fish says. “And I’m a punk rock fan. I love that whole era. I just love this raw, uninhibited way of playing. There’s nothing precious about it. Leaning into the edges—that’s where the real shit lies.”
Because the Paper Doll sessions took place in between periods of touring, Fish only brought her road instruments, including a new white Gibson SG and Stogie Box Blues 4-string cigar box guitar (see sidebar for more on her personal collection). But both the Austin and L.A. studios presented plenty of other options. “A ton of guitars,” Fish remembers with a laugh, “in varying degrees of disrepair. I used a rather unruly [Gibson ES-] 335 in Savannah for ‘Sweet Southern Sounds.’ You know how some guitars fight you when you play them? Well, I like a little bit of fight, but not so much that I’m pulling the strings out of the saddle, and it was fighting me like that. It was hard to push the strings down, I could only bend in certain places. But that just made the performance more intense, and it sounded good. There was also a Tele and a Strat that they had at the Orb. We had so many tools at our disposal, it was like, ‘Let’s go nuts and play with everything we can.’”That choice of m.o. also sounds like a positive way to respond to a career moment that Fish calls “an incredible ride. Especially in the last year-and-a-half, two years, it’s just upped the ante even more. There’s nothing more to do, really. I went out, I played to the best of my ability and I did the thing that I’ve been working hard to do for the last 15 years or so. And it’s awesome to be able to show up in that capacity and perform alongside people that I’ve really looked up to. I just feel grateful. I know I’m lucky.”
Fish’s Favorites
Fish has a brawling style of playing slide, often on her cigar box. “Lose You,” on her new album, is especially representative of her approach to the classic blues technique.
Photo by Jim Summaria
For nearly a decade, Samantha Fish’s primary stage axe has been a 2015 alpine white Gibson SG that she bought new online. She’s still got it, but last year it ran into some trouble. “I ended up having to reglue the neck over the summer,” she says, “and it’s been having tuning issues. So Gibson sent me another white SG that’s just beautiful, in great shape. The neck’s a bit fatter, which is cool, different from mine. I’ve been using that one a lot”—indeed, the new SG is all over Paper Doll. “I’ve hung onto it, and I feel bad about that. I don’t want to be the person who borrows a guitar and keeps it. But it just played so great, and it was like, ‘I need this thing. What can I do to keep it?’ Luckily, the people at Gibson have been so good to me over the years.”
An even more recent addition to Fish’s electric arsenal is a Custom Shop Gibson ES-335 in silver sparkle finish, purchased in the fall at Eddie’s Guitars in St. Louis. “Because I played a 335 on ‘Sweet Southern Sounds’ in the studio, I was like, ‘Well, I’m gonna need one live, so of course I have to get this one!’ I’ve always wanted a silver sparkle, and this one is pristine. I’m so scared of the first scratch I get on it, or buckle rash. I’m probably gonna cry!”
Fish hasn’t been playing her Delaney SF1 Tele-style “Fish-o-caster” so much recently, but another Delaney model, the hollowbody 512, is still getting lots of action (often tuned to open D for slide use), as is her Stogie Box Blues 4-string, equipped with a P-Bass pickup. Her Danelectro baritone, Bohemian oil-can guitar, and clutch of Fender Jaguars are also safe at home, along with her current acoustic main squeeze, a new Martin D-45.
YouTube It
Samantha plays Jimi in this September 2024 performance from the most recent Experience Hendrix tour. The selection: “Fire.”
Versatile guitarist Nathaniel Murphy can be seen and heard on YouTube and Instagram, where he has over 450,000 followers, and demos for Chicago Music Exchange.
Nathaniel Murphy and Steve Eisenberg join the PG staff to wax poetically on what their signature pedal might sound like.
Question: What would your signature pedal sound like?
Guest Picker - Nathaniel Murphy
A: My signature pedal wouldn’t even really be my sound. It would have all of The Edge’s exact sounds and settings in one pedal as presets. No messing with switches or dialing in tones, just cycle through presets and it sounds exactly like “Pride (In the Name of Love),” “Mysterious Ways,” or “Where the Streets Have no Name.” It would be purely just for fun to jam at home. My own pedal would probably just be a reverb!
While recovering from a hand injury, Nathaniel Murphy “really got into picado technique and would watch Paco De Lucia and in particular Matteo Mancuso (above) vids and lessons.
Obsession: Well, I’ve just spent six weeks in a cast after a wrist fracture—very scary. During that time I couldn’t use my fretting hand so I worked on my picking hand. I really got into picado technique and would watch Paco De Lucia and in particular Matteo Mancuso vids and lessons. It’s been really refreshing and also fun working on a new technique for me, even though it’s incredibly tricky and progress is slow. But I love the challenge of it.
Reader of the Month - Steve Eisenberg
A: My signature pedal would be simple to use, have the capability of being shaped with iPhone-app based effects, and expand features as my guitar adventure grows in scope. I’m very much in the experimentation stage with my pedal work, and having direction and guidance available on an iPhone has helped me navigate in a way that ensures I’m meeting some of my guitar-adventure goals.
Obsession: Through the guidance of my instructor, I am exploring fingerstyle guitar, as it has motivated me away from just chord shapes and scale work. I was feeling a little stuck, and using the fingers of the right hand has allowed me to increase my dexterity and coordination, and motivated me to practice more often.
Gear Editor - Charles Saufley
Mr. Saufley, represented by a mallard.
A: The foundation of my signature pedal is the guts of a 1968 Vox Starstream guitar, which is made up of a Vox Distortion Booster fuzz, a Vox Repeat Percussion tremolo, and Vox Treble Booster. Sonically speaking, this is like donning a psych-punk freakbeat cape. Just before the Distortion Booster there is a Grampian 636 reverb preamp circuit to fatten up and color the works. After the freakbeat section, there will be a de- and re-constructed Roland RE-201 Space Echo. Most of the pedal enclosure will be made up of clear Lucite (illuminated by alternating-color lamps), so I can observe the tape swirling within. The RE-201’s spring reverb, meanwhile, will be suspended in its own flip-up Lucite case which will sit on dampers to insulate it from floor vibration. Hopefully, it will sound like Lee “Scratch” Perry producing Love’s “7 and 7 Is”.
Obsession: The first sounds and green and gold flashes of early spring—and the wakeful energy, ideas, and inspiration it brings.
Giving some love to Love!
Art Director - Naomi Rose
A: The enclosure would be hex color #00b4c1—branded as NAOMI blue—checkerboarded with alternating boxes of NAOMI blue glitter flock and matte NAOMI blue. The footswitch would be a bulbous orange rubber material so it’d feel squishy when stepping on it whilst playing barefoot. It would have a kick-out stand in the back like a picture frame, so when it's not in use, it could stand angled on a shelf to be admired. It would be called Ruckus because that's my middle name. What would it DO? That's a secret I will not be sharing at this time.
Our graphic designer’s dream pedal brought to life.
Obsession: Silence. I hardly listen to music or podcasts these days. When I don’t have outside noise, I tend to self-narrate in my head, which leads to making ridiculous little made-up songs throughout the day. These will oftentimes spark cool ideas and manifest into actual songs that I end up recording and producing. Even in the mundane, inspiration is everywhere. Sometimes getting rid of distractions helps you notice it more.
With ultra-lightweight construction, slim neck profiles, and a quick-swap pickguard system, Venus Revolution guitars provide tonal versatility and personalized flair.
Venus Guitars, a bold new name in the music world, has officially launched with a mission to empower female musicians with thoughtfully crafted gear designed specifically for them. Driven by the belief that every player deserves an instrument that fits, inspires, and elevates them, Venus Guitars is setting a new standard for inclusivity and performance in the music community.
At the heart of the Venus Guitars launch are the three distinct Venus Revolution guitar models, each thoughtfully designed to cater to a range of players and budgets while maintaining the brand's core ethos of comfort, customization, and quality:
Venus Revolution: Perfect for players seeking an accessible yet high-performing instrument, this model sports the innovative Quick-swap pickguard system and ergonomic hourglass design that define the Venus Revolution series. Weighing just 5.5 pounds, Venus Revolution offers a lightweight white jabon body, slim roasted maple neck, and rosewood fingerboard, plus dual humbuckers with coil-splitting for tonal versatility. Priced at $899
Venus Revolution Elite – Blue Morpho: Expertly crafted in the USA, this high-end model boasts a roasted basswood body, a figured roasted maple neck, and a royal black fingerboard for enhanced resonance and stability, and weighs less than 6.5 lbs. Its shimmering color-shifting blue finish and Quick-swap customizable pickguards ensure it stands out on any stage. DiMarzio Air Classic pickups deliver a rich, dynamic tone, while the Sophia 2-22 Deluxe Trem ensures smooth, expressive playability, and the proprietary bolt-on mounting system enhances sustain. Priced starting at $2799
Venus Revolution Elite – Dark Roast: Another USA-crafted masterpiece, the Dark Roast model features a roasted basswood body, a figured roasted maple neck, and a royal black fingerboard, also weighing less than 6.5 lbs. DiMarzio PAF 36th Anniversary pickups provide vintage-inspired tones, while the the Hipshot US Contour Trem ensures smooth, precise vibrato control. Its rich woodgrain finish offers timeless elegance and dynamic tonal flexibility for players who value simplicity and sophistication. Priced starting at $2799
Venus Revolution guitars are designed with innovation and inclusivity at their core. Here’s what makes them unique:
- Ultra-Lightweight Construction: At around 6 pounds, these guitars are designed for maximum comfort without sacrificing tone or durability.
- Slim Neck Profile: Crafted with smaller hands in mind, the slim roasted 24" scale maple necks ensure smooth and effortless playability.
- Quick-Swap Pickguard System: Customize your guitar’s look in seconds by changing the shape or color of the pickguard—no tools required.
- Tonal Versatility: High-quality pickups deliver a wide range of tones, from warm cleans to beefy, powerful overdrive.
- Personalized Flair: Optional medallions and unique finishes allow players to make their Venus Revolution truly their own.
"The Venus Revolution isn’t just a guitar—it’s a statement,” shares Christine Taunton, Product Specialist and spokesperson for Venus Guitars. “It’s an instrument that reflects who you are as an artist and a player. Venus isn’t just about filling a gap—it’s about creating instruments that make women feel powerful, seen, and unstoppable."
For more information, please visit venus-guitars.com.
Introducing the Venus Revolution Guitar - YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.Small spring, big splash—a pedal reverb that oozes surfy ambience and authenticity.
A vintage-cool sonic alternative to bigger tube-driven tanks and digital springs that emulate them.
Susceptible to vibration.
$199
Danelectro Spring King Junior
danelectro.com
Few pedal effects were transformed, enhanced, and reimagined by fast digital processors quite like reverb. This humble effect—readily available in your local parking garage or empty basketball gymnasium for free—evolved from organic sound phenomena to a very unnatural one. But while digital processing yields excellent reverb sounds of every type and style, I’d argue that the humble spring reverb still rules in its mechanical form.
Danelectro’s Spring King Junior, an evolution of the company’s Spring King from the ’aughts, is as mechanical as they come. It doesn’t feature a dwell control or the huge, haunted personality of a Fender Reverb unit. But the Spring King Junior has a vintage accent and personality and doesn’t cost as much as a whole amplifier like a Fender Reverb or reverb-equipped combo does. But it’s easy to imagine making awesome records and setting deep stage moods with this unit, especially if 1950s and 1960s atmospheres are the aim.
Looking Past Little
Size factors significantly into the way a spring reverb sounds. And while certain small spring tanks sound cool—the Roland RE-201 Space Echo’s small spring reverb for one—it’s plain hard to reproduce the clank and splash from a 17" Fender tank with springs a fraction of that length. Using three springs less than 3 1/2" long, the Accutronics/Belton BMN3AB3E module that powers the Spring King Junior is probably not what you want in a knife fight with Dick Dale. Even so, it imparts real character that splits the difference between lo-fi and garage-y and long-tank expansiveness.
In very practical and objective terms, the Danelectro can’t approach a Fender Reverb’s size and cavernousness. Matching the intensity of the Spring King Junior’s maximum reverb and tone settings to my own Fender Reverb’s means keeping dwell, mix, and tone controls between 25 to 30 percent of their max. Depending on your tastes, that might be a useful limitation. If you’ve used a Fender Reverb unit before, you know they can sound fantastically extreme. It’s overkill for a lot of folks, and the Spring King Junior inhabits spaces that don’t overpower a guitar or amplifier’s essence. Many players will find the Spring King Junior simply easier to manage and control.
There are ways to add size to the Spring King Junior’s output. An upstream, edgy clean boost will do much to puff up the Danelectro’s profile next to a Fender. The approach comes with risk: Too much drive excites certain frequencies to the point of feedback. But the Junior’s mellower sounds are abundant and interesting. Darker reverb tones sound awesome, and combined with modest reverb mixes they add a spooky aura to melancholy soul and spartan semi-hollow jazz phrasings—all in shades mostly distinct from Fender units.
Watch Your Step!
Spring reverbs come with operational challenges that you won’t experience in a digital emulation. And though the Spring King Junior is well built, its relative slightness compounds some of those challenges. The spring module, for instance, is affixed to the Spring King Junior’s back panel with two pieces of foam tape. And while kicking a spring reverb to punctuate a dub mix or surf epic is a gas, the Spring King Junior can be susceptible to less intentional applications of this effect. At extra-loud volumes, the unit picks up vibrations from the amplifier’s output when amp and effect are in tight proximity. And sometimes, merely clicking the bypass switch elicits an echo-y “clank”. This doesn’t happen in every performance setting. But it’s worth considering settings where you’ll use the Spring King Junior and how loud and vibration-resistant those spaces will be.
Though the Spring King Junior’s size makes it susceptible to vibration, many related ghost tones—taken in the right measure—are a cool and essential part of its voice. It’s an idiosyncratic effect, so evaluating its compatibility with specific instruments, amps, studio environments, and performance settings is a good idea. But for those that do find a place for the Spring King Junior, its combination of tone color, compact size, and hazy 1960s ambience could be a deep well of inspiration.