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XLR is a magazine, a radar and a diary about music gear and the making of music — for the people who make records and put on shows, wherever they do it.

The name is the three-pin connector that every signal in the business passes through: the microphone on stage and in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX cable that runs the lights. Studio, stage and lighting rig share it, and so does this magazine. Every few hours XLR collects what the makers shipped, what the reviewers heard, what the studios and the touring crews are doing, which producers and collectives are surfacing and what they are saying — synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lights, the rooms and the people — from a few hundred sources in English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese and more, then plots what is moving. The editor writes a letter every few days. Nothing is sold here; when a link leads to a shop, that is the maker's shop, not ours.

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No TrebleGuitars

David Emm’s Ultralight Bass Combines Swiss Craftsmanship and Nylon Strings

September 14

David Emm’s Ultralight Bass pairs a streamlined Swiss-built design with a short scale, a fretless fingerboard, nylon strings, and an RMC piezo bridge.

Acoustic guitars Bass

Read at No Treble ↗

Readers’ Favorites: The Nadacaster Bass, Joe Dart, Dane Alderson, and More

Guitars“Classical guitar is under-appreciated in heavy music. No-one would think it could hold a drop A# tuning”: Alt-rock nomad Emma Ruth Rundle on channeling Smashing Pumpkins, her nylon-string awakening, and what made her sell her beloved Gibson SG Guitar World

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David Emm’s Ultralight Bass Combines Swiss Craftsmanship and Nylon Strings

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Guitars“Classical guitar is under-appreciated in heavy music. No-one would think it could hold a drop A# tuning”: Alt-rock nomad Emma Ruth Rundle on channeling Smashing Pumpkins, her nylon-string awakening, and what made her sell her beloved Gibson SG Guitar World