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XLR MAG

Ultimate Guitar

12 stories

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsFender Coronado Wildwood: The '60S Hollowbody Dyed While The Trees Were Still Growing [News] Guitar Of The Week : Accounts of the process differ, but by July 1968, the colored beech added just over 40% to the price, and by 1970, Fender's catalog listed Antigua as the only finish.

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsScott Ian Says Anthrax Rushed Their Classic Album: 'The Arrangements Are Not Right In My Head' [News] Music News : The guitarist blamed a tour deadline with Iron Maiden and said at least four songs could have used a few more weeks of work, though he still loves half the record.

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsHow Al Di Meola Delivered Shred Years Before The '80S Boom With 'Land Of The Midnight Sun' [News] Features : "The guitars were so loud in the mix."

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsI Had To Open Up My Own Cabs To Find Their Ohm Ratings. Here's How To Match Any Cab To Your Amp [News] Gear : A multimeter, the labels on the speakers and a look at the wiring will tell you what an unmarked cab is rated at.

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsHow Robert Fripp Played The Feedback Lead On David Bowie's 'Heroes' By Standing At Measured Distances From The Monitors, And How To Get It With A Digitech Freqout [News] Tab Spotlight : He had one free weekend, showed up in Berlin with a guitar and no amp, and the track was played so loud it was deafening.

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsIn 1977, American Radio Suspected A Secret Beatles Album Had Been Released Under A Fake Name [News] Trends : "Deaf Idiot Journalist Starts Beatle Rumour."

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsBoss Unveils New Katana-25 Practice Amp. What Do You Get For $199.99? [News] Gear : The compact little unit seems perfect for home practice settings, but can still pack a bit of a punch.

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsPrince Had A Business Idea So Good, Billboard Changed Its Rules Because Of It: His Guitarist Reveals How Much Music Was In His Vault [News] Features : Levi Seacer Jr. traces the 2004 "Musicology" ticket bundle back to an earlier push to sell CDs at the merch table, and recalls the three thick binders that cataloged the vault's songs.

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsRobin Trower Explains Why Guitarists Shouldn't Learn Other People's Licks: 'Create Your Own Thing' [News] Music News : "It may be putting a block on you creating your own thing."

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsEpiphones With 25.5-Inch Scales And A Baritone Lp? $1,499 For The Revamped Prophecy Series, Including Sg, Lp, Flying V, And Victory Fr [News] Gear : Every model gets a thermally aged Hyperglide maple neck, 24 stainless steel frets, and custom-voiced Fishman Fluence pickups, which offer modern active, PAF-style, and single-coil-style tones.

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsAlex Skolnick On One Aspect Of Guitar Playing He Still Sometimes Challenges Him: 'It Has To Be Very Precise' [News] Music News : "You do have to sort of work up to it."

Ultimate GuitarGuitarsAdrian Belew On How The Infamous Zappa And Bowie Exchange Actually Ended: 'That Went Rather Well' [News] Interviews : UG Exclusive: Frank Zappa answered David Bowie's pitch for Adrian Belew with three blunt replies, then told Belew to take the job, the guitarist recalled.

On the calendar

· Trade shows and launch events, this week's stories from each corner of the industry, and what its press is covering.

On view

This week, from that corner the newest stories from the corner of the industry you picked

The wire their own posts, translated

How records get made in 2026 from the industry's own reports

Sources

Fetched every six hours, linked to the original

About

Three pins, and nearly every signal in this business passes through them.

The magazine is named after the cable: the microphone in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX run that fires the lights. Studio, stage and rig share the same cable. Most magazines pick one of the three. This one covers all of it, because the people we read do too — the engineer mixing a record on Tuesday is on front of house by Saturday.

Around a hundred and sixty sources, in English, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Chinese and Italian: makers and their release notes, reviewers who put a hand on the thing, studios and touring crews, the producers and collectives surfacing this month and the scenes they came out of. Synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lighting. What the trade is talking about is counted and plotted. The editor's letter has just started; it will find its rhythm.

For each story: a headline, a short excerpt, one picture and the link out. We never reprint the article, and the picture belongs to the maker or the photographer. A German review appears in German and a Japanese one in Japanese, as the writer published it; the link goes to the original.

Nothing is sold on this site. When a link leads to a shop, it is the maker's shop, not ours.