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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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Guitar WorldGuitars

“We tell our guitar techs we’re sorry profusely. I feel horrible for making theirlives miserable”: Mark Holcomb on how Periphery harnesses super-heavy guitars for a super-heavy album that takes djent to a dark place

September 13

There comes a point in every long-running band’s career when the unpredictable becomes, well, predictable. For progressive metal titans Periphery, who over the past decade and a half have defined modern djent through a s

Electric guitars & amps

Read at Guitar World ↗

“Gibbons has used his frequently on ZZ Top albums – he often plays through two at once”: Meet the world’s first ‘pedal’ – a steampunk wonderland you need Windex to use

Guitars“Gibbons has used his frequently on ZZ Top albums – he often plays through two at once”: Meet the world’s first ‘pedal’ – a steampunk wonderland you need Windex to use Guitar World

“The first thing he said to me was, ‘You’re in the band, but you gotta get a new guitar. You can’t play that SG’”: Neil Giraldo on how a push from Rick Derringer led him to the B.C. Rich Eagle

Guitars“The first thing he said to me was, ‘You’re in the band, but you gotta get a new guitar. You can’t play that SG’”: Neil Giraldo on how a push from Rick Derringer led him to the B.C. Rich Eagle Guitar World

“I’m not trying to toot horns, but Joe Bonamassa said there are only a few guitar players that can do the Albert King bends correctly, and he said my name”: From teenage rigs to stage disasters – the life and times of Eddie 9V

Guitars“I’m not trying to toot horns, but Joe Bonamassa said there are only a few guitar players that can do the Albert King bends correctly, and he said my name”: From teenage rigs to stage disasters – the life and times of Eddie 9V Guitar World

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“We tell our guitar techs we’re sorry profusely. I feel horrible for making theirlives miserable”: Mark Holcomb on how Periphery harnesses super-heavy guitars for a super-heavy album that takes djent to a dark place

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Guitars“Gibbons has used his frequently on ZZ Top albums – he often plays through two at once”: Meet the world’s first ‘pedal’ – a steampunk wonderland you need Windex to use Guitar World

Guitars“The first thing he said to me was, ‘You’re in the band, but you gotta get a new guitar. You can’t play that SG’”: Neil Giraldo on how a push from Rick Derringer led him to the B.C. Rich Eagle Guitar World

Guitars“I’m not trying to toot horns, but Joe Bonamassa said there are only a few guitar players that can do the Albert King bends correctly, and he said my name”: From teenage rigs to stage disasters – the life and times of Eddie 9V Guitar World

GuitarsPink Floyd has a Dark Side of the Moon guitar pick made from gold – and it’s one of the most expensive guitar picks ever made Guitar World

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