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INSANE: 3 | Vintage Vibes

“With locking tuners and hard-tail bridges, these are built to play hard”: Fender stealth-launches limited edition Player II Advanced – an HH Telecaster and HSS Strat with ebony fingerboards and loaded with Seymour Duncan pickups

Available now from select retailers, these rock and metal-friendly FSR models sport a hot-rodded vibe with black hardware, locking tuners, and hard-tail bridges as standard

MusicRadar

“Vintage charm and modern performance”: Gretsch and Guitar Center go green with an exclusive Streamliner that features some rather unusual f-holes

Available exclusively at Guitar Center, the $549 six-string aims for tonal versatility with the help of a rather peculiar semi-hollow design

Guitar World

“I used to visit my local GC frequently. That all stopped when they started locking everything up”: How can Guitar Center improve its stores and reclaim its former glory? Guitar World readers have their say

A recent interview with Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto sparked an outpouring of comments from Guitar World readers, all of whom have offered their two cents on how the retailer can get back on its feet

Guitar World

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“I said, ‘I used to have a Les Paul Custom and I sold it like an idiot.’ Eric said, ‘Oh, I have one of those at home somewhere…’” Gibson unveils the Eric Clapton 1958 Les Paul Custom – a recreation of the Disraeli Gears LP that now belongs to Albert Lee

The Murphy Lab-aged LP faithfully recreates the original model, but Clapton has added a few personal modifications to the reissue

Guitar World

“I was impressed how the DNAfx stood up against my bandmate’s Kemper”: Can a budget Harley Benton prog metal rig rival a Strandberg and Kemper? I took both to a rehearsal room to find out

As the budget gear market continues to make strides, I pitched my high-end live rig against the cheapest alternative rig to see if the 94% price difference is justified

Guitar World

“He went to Guitar Center and did the most humble thing. He bought a $200 Yamaha acoustic. He didn’t show up with a $2,000 guitar and he could have”: Bob Dylan may have played Gibson, but Timothée Chalamet started his transformation with a budget acoustic

The actor was fully equipped with high-end Gibsons for A Complete Unknown – but picked out a budget-friendly Yamaha when he first started taking guitar lessons

Guitar World

“The recent wildfires have deeply impacted our artists and friends in Los Angeles”: Gibson has pledged an initial $250,000 to L.A. wildfires relief

Gibson and its philanthropic division Gibson Gives are also joining forces with Guitar Center, the NAMM Foundation and MusiCares – as well as numerous humanitarian aid organizations – to support impacted communities

Guitar World

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“Los Angeles musicians and artists, we’re with you, and we’re here to help”: Guitar Center launches initiative to replace music gear destroyed by L.A. wildfires

MusiCares, the NAMM Foundation and Sweet Relief Musicians Fund are among other organizations providing financial assistance to impacted L.A.-based musicians and music industry professionals

Guitar World

This is not a typo – you can save more than $1,000 on a Universal Audio guitar effects bundle in what is hands-down the biggest Black Friday gear deal you’ll come across this year

Six plugins inspired by legendary effects pedals and rack units beloved by the likes of Pink Floyd, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers and countless others are included in the absurdly discounted bundle

Guitar World

I went completely ampless for the first time this year – and with huge Black Friday discounts on Line 6 Helix, TONEX, and Quad Cortex modelers, now is the perfect time to join me

Guitar Center and Sweetwater have slashed the prices across its Helix, TONEX and Quad Cortex inventory, so if you’re tempted to take the leap for a rig replacement, now is the perfect time

Guitar World

“One of our first and most important Cry Baby artists”: Eric Clapton was one of the Cry Baby’s earliest champions – now he’s been awarded a gold signature version of his favorite wah pedal

The special edition wah will help raise funds for Clapton’s Crossroads Centre

Guitar World

“Good thing the custom shops are up high!”: Guitar Center in Sherman Oaks flooded after car ploughs into fire hydrant

Stock could be seen “pouring out through the front and rear exits” of the Los Angeles store

MusicRadar

“I planned to go out with Ministry. But then Madonna said, ‘I want Monte here – even if he’s just standing and holding a guitar’”: Monte Pittman on his crazy journey from Guitar Center to Ministry via Prong and Madonna – and his band with Adam Lambert

It might seem strange that a dude best known for playing guitar lines for pumping, thumping dance songs is now blowing eardrums with industrial metallers Ministry. But Pittman says he’s right where he belongs. This is his remarkable story

Guitar World

“In Guitar Center, people would think I was playing for the first time – but I promise you, my band makes better music than 80% of them”: Meet Chat Pile, the sludge metallers shouting down the “tone lords” and “goobers” ruining guitar culture

The self-taught DIY quartet are making seismic waves across the noise rock scene – and they’re doing it with cult electrics, solid-state amps and a baritone that’s neither a “djent stick” nor “a surf guitar made of plastic”

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“We drove to a Guitar Center, ran in just before closing and bought a Fender P-Bass… we re-tracked almost every song on Enema of the State with it”: Mark Hoppus charts his bass origin story, embracing amp modelers and switching from Ernie Ball to Fender

In a rare interview, the blink-182 bassist shares his tone secrets, the bassline he still struggles to play, and how Ned’s Atomic Dustbin changed the way he approaches the bass

MusicRadar

“There was a Deluxe Reverb already there, turned everything up to 10, plugged the guitar in and said, ‘Roll tape!’ And that was it”: How Skunk Baxter grabbed a six-pack, a $35 guitar and tracked Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff in one take

First-call session ace Jeff “Skunk” Baxter says the opportunity to track one of disco’s greatest anthems nearly passed him by, but when it arrived it went like a flash

Guitar World

“He said, ‘We should make it look older.’ We’d hit it against curbs, use sandpaper, and put polish remover on the frets”: Julian Lage radically DIY aged his father’s prized Telecaster “before relic’ing was a thing”

The jazz virtuoso has a close bond with the Telecaster, and one of his earliest experiences with the model involved some drastic relic'ing methods

MusicRadar

"The world's first medieval electronic instrument": Teenage Engineering announces medieval-themed version of the EP-133 K.O. II sampler

Decked out in gold with Latin labelling, the EP-1320 Medieval arrives with an extensive bank of medieval-inspired samples that features farm animals, witches and "rowdy peasants"

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Guitar World

“It’s extremely rare that this happens”: Guitar Center staff find thousands of dollars’ worth of drugs stashed inside guitar amp

A Guitar Center spokesperson confirmed that the employees at the Lawrenceville, Georgia store are cooperating with law enforcement

MusicRadar

"It's extremely rare that this happens at any business": Thousands of dollars of drugs found hidden in an amp by shocked Guitar Center employees

"Police say that the cocaine and the meth that they found stuffed inside the equipment was never meant to show up at the business"

MusicRadar

"It's become the best guitar for really every genre, at every point in time, for those that choose to use it": See Julian Lage make the new Fender Player II Tele sound truly world-class

A Tele demo/love letter from one of the very best guitar players around right now

Guitar World

“I lost my footing with the guitar off the hook. I get up thinking, ‘I've broken the guitar.’ I couldn't believe it”: When he was 15, Jared James Nichols played a high-end Flying V at a guitar store – but it almost ended in total disaster

As a youngster, Nichols would frequent his local Guitar Center – and he wouldn't be afraid to try out the more expensive guitars on show...

Guitar World

“She was about to lose her house, but the money she got from me via Guitar Center ultimately saved the situation”: Joe Bonamassa’s pre-war Martin was the ultimate “museum-grade” find – now it’s reborn as his first Martin signature

Bonamassa’s astonishingly clean Martin 000-45 was handed down as a family heirloom before he bought it and took it to the firm’s Nazareth base for close inspection

Guitar World

“This recognition holds immense significance for me”: Gary Clark Jr. joins Carlos Santana and Van Halen on Guitar Center Hollywood’s iconic RockWalk

The RockWalk ceremony made its return to Los Angeles for the first time in six years

Guitar World

“It was an insane, bare bones show”: Primus's Les Claypool and Ler LaLonde were just forced to play a gig with brand new gear from Guitar Center – and yes, they still sounded exactly like Primus

The instruments the band purchased and played onstage are now set to be auctioned off, with all proceeds going to St. Judes Children’s Hospital

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