The original Triple Rectifier arrived shortly after the Dual Rectifier in 1992, adding a larger power transformer, two additional power tubes, and a third rectifier tube for 150 watts of output. The design delivered additional low-end growl and headroom, helping the Rectifier series become a staple of ’90s metal, nu metal, and hard rock.

The reissue retains the original two-channel configuration, with Orange/Vintage and Modern/Red modes covering the Rectifier’s classic range of aggressive high-gain tones. Channel Cloning allows either mode to be applied to both channels, while an improved Clean mode provides greater clarity than the original amplifier.

Each channel features dedicated Gain, 3-band EQ, Master, and Presence controls. The amp also includes a Bold/Spongy Power switch for Variac-style response changes, along with a Rectifier switch that lets players choose between tube and silicon-diode rectification.

A Bias switch provides compatibility with both 6L6 and EL34 power tubes, while the Slave Out sends the preamp and power amp signal at line level for use with an IR loader. An effects loop is also included for integrating pedals and other external processors.

Get the Mesa/Boogie ’90s Triple Rectifier 150-watt Amplifier Head here for $3,199.

The Olympic Special features a Mahogany slab-style body with the model’s asymmetrical double-cutaway shape and a set-in Mahogany neck carved to the Olympic Special profile. The 24.75″-scale neck features a Rosewood fingerboard with a 12″radius, 22 medium-jumbo frets, and pearloid dot inlays.

At the center of the guitar is a single PowerHammer ProBucker humbucker in the bridge position. It’s wired directly to a single volume control, leaving out both a pickup selector and tone control. The volume knob can therefore be used to manage everything from cleaner sounds to full-on overdrive, while an on/off toggle serves as a kill switch for stutters and hard stops.

The hardware is similarly straightforward, with an adjustable wraparound bridge, Graph Tech nut, and die-cast tuners. Nickel hardware and a Double Classic White pickup cover provide contrast against the guitar’s finish.

The guitar also features a gold reproduction of Joan Jett’s signature on the back of the classic Olympic Special headstock, along with an artist sticker set. The asymmetrical body and long upper horn provide access to the upper frets, while the lightweight construction keeps the guitar manageable during long sets.

Get the Epiphone Joan Jett Olympic Special for the extremely reasonable price of $599 right here.

The Green channel of the EVH 5150 Iconic Series 15-watt Amplifier Head offers clean and overdriven tones, while the Red channel is designed for higher-gain sounds and includes a dedicated Burn setting. Both channels feature independent Gain and Volume controls, while a shared 3-band EQ and global Resonance and Presence controls provide additional tone shaping.

The amp also includes a built-in noise gate on the second channel, designed to reduce hiss and hum without interfering with playing dynamics. A footswitchable Boost adds 10dB to the lead channel, while onboard reverb provides additional depth.

Despite its 15-watt output, the 5150 Iconic is designed to work across a variety of playing environments. A power reduction circuit allows for lower-volume operation, while the speaker-emulated output provides a straightforward way to send the amp’s sound directly to a recording setup or PA. Dual parallel speaker outputs and selectable impedance provide additional cabinet flexibility.

An effects loop is also included for integrating pedals and external processors, making it easier to incorporate effects into the amp’s signal chain. The EVH 5150 Iconic 15W Head comes housed in a textured vinyl cabinet with a brushed aluminum front panel, black steel grille, and EVH and 5150 badges. A two-button footswitch and 5-foot speaker cable are included.

Get the EVH 5150 Iconic Series 15-watt Amplifier Head here for $659.99 in either Ivory or Black finishes.

The Keeley Nocturne is a reverb pedal developed alongside guitarist Andy Timmons. It features three reverb modes: Keeley’s Spring reverb, a studio-inspired Plate setting, and the Nocturne setting, which is based on Keeley’s HALO delay algorithm. The pedal offers Tone, Decay, Level, and Modulation controls, along with alternate controls for HPF and Pre-Delay. It also supports mono or stereo operation, expression control, remote switching, and MIDI, with up to 72 recallable presets.

The Keeley Halo Core is a streamlined version of the Halo Andy Timmons Dual Echo. It uses DSP to deliver true stereo operation and offers three modes: Andy’s Halo effect, Quarter Note, and Dotted Eighth. A Tap Tempo footswitch provides timing control, while Infinite Hold can be used for extended ambient effects. Alternate controls provide access to HPF, Tone, and Saturation adjustments, and the pedal can be switched between Trails and True Bypass as well as All-Wet and All-Dry operation.

Finally, the Keeley Zoma combines tremolo and reverb in three different effect pairings. The first uses spring reverb with sine-wave tremolo, while the PH setting combines plate reverb with harmonic tremolo. The third setting pairs plate reverb with pitch-shifting vibrato. Zoma features a three-knob interface with additional parameters available through its Alt function, along with the ability to switch the order of the reverb and tremolo circuits.

All three pedals are available now exclusively through Sweetwater in the Voyage Edition finish. Check ’em out here.

The Echoflanger Reissue faithfully recreates the original pedal’s four modes: Filter Matrix, Flange, Chorus, and Slap Back. Filter Matrix disables the LFO to create a fixed comb filter, while Flange provides the pedal’s sweeping modulation. Chorus offers a modulated echo for lush, shimmering textures, and Slap Back removes the modulation for a short echo effect.

Electro-Harmonix has also added two combination modes to the reissue. Slap Back + Filter Matrix combines the fixed comb filtering of Filter Matrix with the short delay of Slap Back, while Chorus + Flange recreates the unusual setting Belew discovered by positioning the Mode knob between the original pedal’s Flange and Chorus settings.

The pedal features Feedback, Rate, Width, Tune, Mode, and Volume controls, along with a rear-panel Blend switch that determines whether the dry signal is included in the output. Stereo Outputs are also included, as is true bypass switching with mechanical relays.

While the Echoflanger can deliver conventional chorus and flanger sounds, its combination of unusual modes and extreme settings makes it particularly suited to the kind of unconventional textures that made Belew’s playing so distinctive.

Get the Electro-Harmonix Adrian Belew Echoflanger here for $239.

The headline addition to LUNA Free is LUNA Play, built to make capturing musical ideas as fast as possible. It automatically detects connected instruments, sets appropriate levels, and suggests matching UAD plugin presets, while also letting users isolate individual tracks to jam along with existing songs without manually setting up a session.

Beyond LUNA Play, the free tier also picks up Folder Tracks, an updated Piano Roll with scale-aware editing, Adaptive Grid, Clip Gain Automation, four-track stem separation, Record FX, Strip Silence, Click Track Automation, mono inputs for stereo tracks, and Chord, Key, and Time Signature Rulers — all at no cost.

For deeper functionality, LUNA Studio is available as a one-time €199 purchase. It builds on the free tier with LUNA Extensions featuring tape and console emulations modeled after API, Studer, and Ampex gear, six-track stem separation, audio-to-MIDI conversion, automatic lyric transcription, and chord extraction. LUNA Studio also bundles in UAD instruments and plugins, along with Celemony Tonalic Elements, Dreamtonics Synthesizer V2 Core, and Topline Vocal Tune.

In total, LUNA Studio includes 33 UAD plugins and virtual instruments spanning nine instruments and effects, 13 channel strips and EQs, five reverbs and modulation effects, three guitar amplifiers, and three audio cleanup plugins.

Notable inclusions are the API Vision Console Channel Strip, Teletronix LA-2A and 1176 FET compressors, the Fairchild Limiter Collection, Studer A800 and Ampex ATR-102 tape emulations, and guitar amp models like the Showtime ’64 and Ruby ’63 Top Boost. Hardware Inserts also let users integrate their own analog gear directly into LUNA’s console, with the software handling routing and delay compensation automatically.

For users who want the full software library on an ongoing basis, Universal Audio is also launching UAD Spark Studio, a new subscription that bundles LUNA Studio with more than 70 native UAD plugins and virtual instruments, including titles from Neve, Ampex, and Lexicon, as well as instruments like Minimoog, PolyMAX, and Electra88. UAD Spark Studio is priced at $19.99 a month or $149.99 annually.

LUNA Free remains free, LUNA Studio is available now as a $199 one-time purchase here via Sweetwater, and UAD Spark Studio is available via subscription.

Anyway! The neck is a 9-piece Wenge/Purpleheart/Maple build, sculpted into a Custom C shape designed for fast, fretboard-spanning lead work. It’s topped with a 14″-radius Ebony fingerboard and 22 Jescar premium German silver frets. Aluminum ring fingerboard inlays and Luminlay side markers add to the guitar’s distinct visual identity.

Pickups are a set of NJ Signature Atom-Buckers, built with Alnico III magnets for a darker, moderate-output tone with full mids and soft highs. Schecter notes the pickups respond well to picking dynamics at lower gain — suited to jazz fusion or classic rock tones — while still delivering aggressive growls and metallic screams when pushed through high-gain amps or modeling presets. A 5-way Super Switch expands the pickup-switching options beyond a standard configuration, paired with Master Volume and Master Tone controls.

Hardware includes a Hipshot Ibby HM bridge, Hipshot locking tuners, and a Graph Tech Black TUSQ nut, a combination built to hold tuning stability through Johnston’s demanding playing style.

The Schecter Nick Johnston USA Signature is available now in limited quantities through Sweetwater for $6,499. Here’s hoping they drop a more affordable version soon, as most companies usually do after the release of something this pricey.

Larva Morphing Phaser

The Larva is a 6-stage analog phaser split into two independently switchable sections, each with its own Rate and Depth controls. Players can swap between the two voices with a footswitch or morph continuously between them for evolving, textural transitions. Each side of the pedal can be set to one of three modes – Phaser, Vibee, or an isolated Preamp mode for pure saturation – giving access to two dramatically different tones on tap.

A Ramp control adds further shaping with three selectable shapes, paired with a bar of status LEDs for visual feedback on the ramp’s speed, and a Tap Ramp function for easy tempo-syncing. The pedal’s built-in preamp section, controlled via a dedicated knob, can be blended with the phaser voices or used on its own as a standalone boost – and the bypass LED doubles as a meter for monitoring preamp saturation.

Pollinator Hazee Delay

The Pollinator is a modulated delay built around eight distinct modes split between two categories: Filter and Trem. Each category includes four algorithms – forward repeats, forward repeats with an octave up, reverse repeats, and reverse repeats with an octave up – while modes 2 and 7 unlock special Queen Bee settings that use a double-speed buffer to generate blooming, octave-up echoes.

Controls are kept straightforward, with Time, Feedback, and Mix functioning as expected, and a Mod knob setting the rate of whichever modulation type is active. The pedal avoids menu diving in favor of a clean, direct layout, aiming to make its more experimental sounds accessible without added complexity.

Both the Larva and Pollinator Hazee Delay are available now in the new Buzz Wave finish, exclusively through Sweetwater.

At the core of the M-6 EverTune 30 is EverTune’s constant tension bridge system, engineered to hold precise tuning and intonation across the entire neck regardless of environment – a feature that becomes especially valuable at this guitar’s extended scale, where standard hardware would typically struggle with tension and stability.

Construction is bolt-on, pairing a Mahogany body with a Maple cap. The neck is an extra-thin U-shaped three-piece Maple design, topped with a Macassar Ebony fingerboard and 24 extra-jumbo stainless steel frets, giving players a familiar six-string feel despite the drastically extended scale length. Black hardware and LTD locking tuners round out the build for tuning stability and a cohesive, blacked-out aesthetic.

Electronics come from a single Seymour Duncan MortalCoil 3-Voice active bridge pickup, with a 3-way toggle switch letting players select between its three distinct voicings to match the guitar’s extreme tonal range.

Get the ESP LTD Black Metal M-6 EverTune here for $1,399.

If this is you, then you might not realize how important and powerful your new role as bass player is – or can be, if you know how to do it right. That’s why I’ve put together this guide for you to make the most of your new position, with some quick tips and tricks to make your bandmates wish it was them that got demoted.

The bass I’m using in this video is the Mayones ORI, which is a thing of beauty and devastation, and I’m playing it through the Spectre Digital Element Bass all-in-one bass processing plugin. If you want my Element preset from the video, you can get it here.