Aug 17, 2026 — Aug 23, 2026
It was a heavier week than the gear headlines first suggested. ZZ Top lost longtime drummer Frank Beard on August 17, and Down announced Volume V, their first album in twelve years. On the gear side, Ibanez handed Wes Hauch a $9,999 Japan-built Custom Shop Iceman seven-string, Fender pulled the Nocaster and a baritone back into its 75th-anniversary Telecaster run, and JAM Pedals teamed up with King Gizzard's Stu Mackenzie on a pedal built to sound like a dying pawn-shop amp. Away from new releases, a rare second-camera view of Jimi Hendrix's Woodstock set finally surfaced, and session legend Chris Spedding shared a lymphoma diagnosis that's kept him off the road.
The week by the numbers
- stories
- 11stories
- new products
- 5new products
- brands
- 7brands
- artists
- 8artists
7 gear · 3 players · 1 music
Most active topics: Electric Guitar (5), Pedals (2), 7+ String Guitars (1), Baritone Guitars (1)
🚨 Top stories this week
Frank Beard, ZZ Top's drummer for more than five decades, dies at 77Beard died on 17 August at his Texas ranch; Billy Gibbons says ZZ Top will keep performing, and the band played its first show without him five days later.
Ibanez gives Wes Hauch a Custom Shop Iceman 7-string, and a $9,999 price tagThe ICWH727 is billed as Ibanez's first commercially available Custom Shop 7-string and the first Japan-built Iceman in more than 30 years, which is the company's explanation for preorders opening near ten grand.
Fender's second wave of 75th Anniversary Teles brings back the baritone and the NocasterA Player II Baritone Telecaster returns a 27-inch-scale Tele to the standard catalog, joined by an American Vintage II 1951 Nocaster and new Player II Telecaster and Precision Bass colorways.
Newly surfaced Woodstock footage shows Jimi Hendrix's set filmed from the stage'Jimi Hendrix: Live at Woodstock - A Second Look' premiered on 18 August, built around half-inch videotape a 22-year-old drama student shot about 15 feet from Hendrix in 1969.
Walrus Audio's Canvas Expression pedal drops the pot for a contactless magnetic sensorThe $299 expression pedal reads its position with a magnetic sensor instead of a potentiometer or gears, and carries Expression, MIDI, USB-C and CV outputs plus a web editor for tapers and assignments.
🎸 Gear worth a look
Epiphone Launches Lzzy Hale Explorer Custom in Black Diamond Holographic SparkleThe Halestorm singer's newest signature is an all-black Explorer with a holographic sparkle finish and mirror pickguard, out worldwide now.
Charvel adds four Pro-Mod Plus Dinky DK24 models aimed squarely at metal playersThree new humbucker-loaded configurations and one HSS join the Pro-Mod Plus DK24 line, with Floyd Rose or hardtail bridges, Seymour Duncan pickups and finishes running from satin black to a green ombre called zombie face.
Gretsch wraps a limited-edition Penguin in Light Blue Pearl with a String-Thru BigsbyThe G6134T-58 Limited Edition Penguin pairs a chambered mahogany body and TV Jones Ray Butts Ful-Fidelity Filter'Tron pickups with a rarely seen string-through Bigsby, listing at $3,799.99.
JAM Pedals and King Gizzard's Stu Mackenzie Release the Tiny Amp DestroyerA three-footswitch gain pedal built to recreate the blown-out sound of a cheap pawn-shop practice amp, developed with King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's Stu Mackenzie.
