Rig Rundowns

Swarms of musicians and guitarists have found social media’s current 60-second attention span inspirational and fruitful. But what happens after that first minute? Well, for TikTok bass tycoon Blu DeTiger, you become a shooting star. However, her story isn’t that sudden or serendipitous. She’s been working towards the spotlight since she first picked up the bass to jam with her drummer brother, Re...

We revisited setups for  Anthrax ,  Megadeth ,  Guthrie Govan ,  Bonamassa , and others, introduced ourselves to  Cory Wong 's and  Wolf Van Halen 's gear, but who's guitarsenal got the most clicks? Brought to you by D’Addario XPND Pedalboard:  https://ddar.io/xpnd.rr Mentioned in this episode: Check out D'Addario's latest here: https://ddar.io/wykyk-rr

Inspired to by play guitar by his 6-stringing father,  Shawn Tubbs  emerged from the Christian-music scene. By his late teens, he was doing club and session gigs, and became part of The Violet Burning. In 1992, he played with  Stone Temple Pilots  on an episode of  MTV Unplugged , then got deeper in the high-profile Nashville session scene, and began touring with Carrie Un...

When you produce acts like Taylor Swift,  Fall Out Boy ,  Panic at the Disco , Weezer,  Green Day ,  Pink , Rayland Baxter,  Keith Urban , and Harry Connick Jr., it’s hard to find time for your own music. Yet in 2022, Butch Walker managed to release his 10th album,  Butch Walker as … Glenn —a surprising tribute to the ’70s piano-rock balladeers that were among the rul...

Trivium steadily raised its metal flag through the old-fashioned method—relentless touring. The band took any and all opening slots, priming crowds for Metallica, Iron Maiden,  Killswitch Engage , Machine Head,  DragonForce ,  Korn , and  Megadeth  before graduating to headliner status. That constant grind was fueled by 10 full-length releases that incorporate varying tint...

Rut busting and reconstructing has probably been happening since the discovery of fire and advent of the wheel. Guitarists confront it each time they pick up a new instrument to avoid predictable patterns and tones.  Premier Guitar  contributor (and recent Rig Rundown subject)  Pete Thorn  has addressed this by  suggesting several practices  to approach our beloved 6...

The Smashing Pumpkins ' first two albums,  Gish  and  Siamese Dream , were a huge part of the soundtrack for the early ’90s alternative rock revolution. Still sounding revolutionary all these years later, the band’s leader, Billy Corgan, recently brought the Smashing Pumpkins to Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena for the Spirits on Fire tour, on the heels of their 11th studio album,&nbsp...

If you were to ask my wife, “What two things sum up Chris?” … she’d likely respond with “grilled meats and heavy metal.” So, given the chance to interview the self-appointed (and unchallenged) founders of “Drive-Thru Metal” that solidified their crispy claim with classic cuts “Frying Pan,” “Sweet Beef,” and “Pair-a-Buns,” I ordered a full plate. The thing is, you don’t just interview guitarist Sla...

Pete Thorn has constructed a dream career on being heard, not seen.  He’s toured the world backing   Chris Cornell , Don Henley,  Melissa Etheridge , Jewel, and Japanese rock icon Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi (even performing at Mt. Fuji for over 100,000 fans on the biggest concert stage ever assembled in Japan). For a self-proclaimed “guitar nerd” ( check out Pete’s 2011 album under the same...

When Joe Robinson was learning to play in the remote village of Temagog, New South Wales, Australia, YouTube was his teacher. Then he discovered Tommy and Phil Emmanuel—Australia’s sibling 6-string slicers—and set out on a path that would lead him to Nashville, where he’s been a part of the city’s guitar cognoscenti for the past 13 years. At 31, Robinson’s fans include  Tommy Emmanuel  (...

When Chris Shiflett left No Use for a Name and joined the Foo Fighters in 1999, he almost had no gear. The band was rehearsing to support their third album,  There Is Nothing Left to Lose , and leader Dave Grohl was doing an inventory check on their newest member. “Dave asked me how many guitars I had, and I said, ‘Well, I have two, but one has a broken headstock,’” recalls Shiflett. “Dave ch...

Since  Marcus King’s  previous  Rig Rundown  in 2017, he’s made two albums—produced by  the Black Keys’  Dan Auerbach—and scored a Grammy nomination. He’s also busted out his own signature Orange amp with an allusive name, and upped his profile, stepping from clubs to big halls. Not bad for a South Carolina kid with blues in his bloodline. And, really, not entirely un...

What would you get if you put the heaviness of Converge, the industrial sounds of Nine Inch Nails and Type O Negative, the catchiness of ’90s metalcore, the frantic delivery of Black Flag, and the sampled-chopped-and-glitched production of hip-hop into a blender and hit liquefy? You’d get 100 percent of your daily intake of Code Orange. The band was formed—as the Code Orange Kids—in 2008 in Pittsb...

Amyl and the Sniffers are pragmatic. They rock fast and write and record even faster. Legend has it they knocked out their debut EP, 2016’s  Giddy Up,  from start to finish in just 12 hours in the band’s shared home. And their Australian Recording Industry Award-winning (Best Rock Album) self-titled full-length debut is a sweltering, swaggering, scallywag’s set of 11 songs that clock in...

If you’re a devoted follower of the  Rig Rundown series , you’ve probably noticed our recent rash of thrash. We’ve featured nearly every corner of the genre—heavyweights  Megadeth , torchbearers  Anthrax , revivalists  Municipal Waste , and, now, pioneers Exodus get their (re)visit. Their four-decade reign and 11 gnashing albums are brimming with sinister, trouncing, wood-split...

Death metal  is a genre built on precision and power. Chelsea Grin’s articulate picking and gut-rattling riffs are its foundation. But thanks to a rotating cast of ripping guitarists (including Rig Rundown alumnus  Jason Richardson ), their five albums have shown subtle brick-and-mortar flair by incorporating elements of djent, metalcore, doom, black metal, and even post-hardcore. The cu...

If you’ve perused YouTube for videos dealing with triple rectifiers,  5150s , the cheapest guitars imaginable, or absurd gear listings on eBay and Reverb, you most certainly know  Ryan “Fluff” Bruce . The mastermind behind  Riffs, Beards & Gear  has amassed over 400K subscribers and nearly 100 million views since starting his channel in 2006. His charm is a mixture of quali...

Anthrax went to church when they brought their Covid-delayed 40th anniversary tour to Nashville—the Mother Church of Country Music, that is, aka the Ryman Auditorium—on August 15. And  PG ’s Perry Bean was there to welcome the thrash metal royals and talk with guitarists Scott Ian and Jon Donais, and bassist Frank Bello. Some things have changed in their gear since our  earlier Rundown ,...

Thrash metal  has seen a resurgence since its ’80s heyday.  Megadeth  earned a Grammy for their 2016 album  Dystopia , and very recently  Stranger Things ’ brave headbanger Eddie Munson brandished a  B.C. Rich  Warlock for a literally death-defying performance of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” that catapulted the song into widespread pop-culture consciousness. B...

After moving back to New York City, Joe Bonamassa spent some lockdown time in Germano Studios in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood, tightly winding the music for his latest album,  Time Clocks . His longtime producer Joe Shirley had to work with the powerhouse guitarist remotely, from his home in Australia. Yet the result is as seamlessly Bonamassa as ever, with riveting guitar work that has echo...

Grammy-winning metal legends Megadeth and their massive headlining 2022 run hit Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on May 5. Before the headbanging started,  PG ’s Chris Kies talked gear with Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine, who ran down the specs of  his signature Gibson Flying V  and showed us why it’s the best body shape for ripping onstage. The band’s dangerously dexterous lead guitari...

“Supergroup” is a tired, overused term in music. However, when musical aces like guitarist  Guthrie Govan , bassist Bryan Beller, and drummer Marco Minnemann jam… they are an unrivaled force of nature. Each player has a remarkable resume: Govan has worked with  Steven Wilson , Hans Zimmer, and Asia; Beller with  Satriani ,  Vai ,  Dethklok , and  Dweezil Zappa ; and M...

It’s common for prog bands to create a fictitious narrative for their concept albums. Often, the lyrics tell a linear story, while the adventurous, experimental, and elevated musicianship provides emotional support and dynamism to the album’s arc. Some ambitious wordsmiths may even spread their yarn over two albums or releases, but Coheed and Cambria’s Claudio Sanchez has penned an entire science...

Any band that hammers along for 43 years should be praised. But for a hardcore outfit that first seethed “I don’t wanna live / To be thirty-four / I don’t wanna die / In a nuclear war” 42 years ago on their 1980 debut  Group Sex , pushing on for over four decades is a bit of a miracle. The Circle Jerks should be honored with a skanking statue in their hometown of Hermosa Beach, California. “I...

Over the past decade and through four albums, Foxing has shown a lot of musical personalities. They’ve embraced the quirky, eclectic folk of Neutral Milk Hotel. Guitarist Eric Hudson has shown off some deft fretwork wrapped around complex rhythms similar to  Tiny Moving Parts ’ Dylan Mattheisen. They’ve dabbled in complicated, ambiguous instrumentation that echoes Radiohead. Most recently, th...