Guitar Tabloid — The week in guitar YouTube

Guitar Tabloid: 3 Oct to 9 Oct 2026

Guitar Tabloid, Week ending Friday 9 October 2026: Bradley Hall comes clean, mostly in his own voice; Dentists bite back; Guitarists hear active pickups, even when there aren't any

Headlines

From Bradley Hall’s video “Do I Use AI In My Videos? (Time To Come Clean)”

Bradley Hall comes clean, mostly in his own voice

Bradley Hall says he is waiting on an emergency visa appointment after being deported from Brazil, and that his Guitar School channel uses an AI clone of his own voice for some theory voiceovers.1

From John Nathan Cordy’s video “Jared James Nichols THREATENED for Blues Dentist Comments”

AS SEEN ON 2 CHANNELS

Dentists bite back

Jared James Nichols has received threats after telling Ola Englund that most vintage guitar collectors can't play, a group he summed up as dentists; he has since posted a clarification that guitars should be played.2

From SpectreSoundStudios’s video “Guitar Players Can't Hear Their Own Bullsh*t!”

Guitarists hear active pickups, even when there aren't any

At Guitar Summit, nobody in Glenn Fricker's blind test could reliably pick active pickups from passive ones, and many heard actives in a control round that had none.3

From Ola Englund’s video “SWOLA305 - SLIPKNOT'S NEW ALBUM IS GONNA HURT SOME FEELINGS”

Slipknot warns of hurt feelings

Jim Root says the next Slipknot album will be heavier and less polished than "The End, So Far", tracked more live with Eloy Casagrande in the room.4

From Sonic Drive Studio’s video “Do tube amps have a future? (Discussion)”

Tubes running low

At a Guitar Summit panel, Andreas of Tube Amp Doctor said Chinese tube factories are considering closing, which could leave one factory in Europe making the valves for everyone.5

Who's Beefin'

Jared James Nichols vs The Dentists

Heat: 3/5

Jared James Nichols has criticised vintage collectors who buy guitars and don't play them, and narrowed the charge to one profession: "You're a dentist and your value is based on a guitar that is worth something." Guitar World picked it up, and so did John Nathan Cordy, under a title saying Nichols has been THREATENED. The only threat we can source is from Dr. Vic Swinson on Tone Nerds Live: if Nichols comes into his office, he will be told how many times a day to brush his teeth. Nichols has struck a nerve.6

Bradley Hall vs The Industry

Heat: 2/5

In a video titled "Do I Use AI In My Videos? (Time To Come Clean)", Bradley Hall turned on D'Addario over a string advert in which, he says, a man with an eight-string mimed along to an AI track. He then widened the field: "nine out of ten brands that I've worked with over the years are completely incompetent, guys." He did not name the tenth. Meanwhile, commenters have accused his game development work of being vibe-coded. He says it isn't.7

Glenn Fricker vs Pickup Companies

Heat: 3/5

Glenn Fricker wants pickup makers to prove a $300 pickup beats a $50 one, with no marketing and no adjectives. Then he turned on the people buying them. His opening line: "Guitar players are completely full of s***. There is no myth they won't believe, no story they won't open their wallets for." The video is called "Guitar Players Can't Hear Their Own Bullsh*t!" Its audience is guitar players.8

Danny Sapko vs Charles Berthoud

Heat: 1/5

Danny Sapko went through the names he has called Charles Berthoud over the years, then gave his motive: "I envy him... I'm bloody jealous of him." Both men play bass, so this may be the first you've heard of it. We love both of these dipsticks at the Tab, even if they are B*ssists.9

Old Man Yells at Cloud

The cloud is currently composed of 40% algorithms, 30% AI dread, 20% mourning for the monoculture and 10% over-A&R'd pop stars.10

The death of colour. In "Everything In Its Wrong Place... The Death of Musical Color", Rick Beato names Radiohead's "Everything in Its Right Place" as the last peak of interesting harmony. After that, he says, the internet turned popular music grey. He has identified the culprit: "That's why there's no monoculture anymore... Because everything is controlled by algorithms." He said so on YouTube.11

Nothing to rebel against. Then came the sequel: "Because there's no monoculture, there are no subcultures. Because there's nothing to rebel against." The cloud would like it noted that it is still here, and still being yelled at. Rick did not mention Shinedown this week. That is one way to rebel.12

From the guest chair. Aaron Dessner of The National sat down with Rick to talk about writing with Taylor Swift and Noah Kahan, and delivered the week's longest weather report: "I feel like we're in some dystopian, parasocial, like, flashpoint in human history with the way AI is, like, impacting everything, and definitely coming into music in ways that you can hear and that you can't hear." He also said that even huge artists are "still being over A&R'd by people that are thinking about like commercial performance." He did not say which ones. It came 93 minutes into the interview.13

Elsewhere, on his own channel. Bradley Hall yelled at the cloud and at everyone else yelling at it: "every drama YouTuber on the planet is hopping on the anti-AI bandwagon for some cheap views." He said it in a video about AI titled "Do I Use AI In My Videos? (Time To Come Clean)".14

The Tab says

This was the week guitar YouTube decided AI is the enemy. Rick Beato mourned the death of musical colour. Aaron Dessner called it a dystopian flashpoint. Bradley Hall laughed at the anti-AI bandwagon, then admitted his second channel uses a clone of his own voice. Ryan Burke is fighting back with handwriting.

Meanwhile in Mannheim, Glenn Fricker offered $1,000 to anyone who could pick an active pickup blind. Nobody could. In the round with no active pickups at all, plenty of people heard one anyway.

So we're not too worried about AI fooling guitarists. We've been fooling ourselves for years, and we're much cheaper.

Finally, Bradley also put an enhanced female version of himself on a video thumbnail. It's a terrible day to have eyes.

The Creator Desk

Tone Nerds

  • On the Jared James Nichols dentist saga, they played the reply from Dr. Vic Swinson, a dentist: "JJ, you take that, and if you come into my office, I will be telling you how many times a day to brush your teeth."15
  • The interview with Jemmuel Magtibay promised to reveal what the Grand Ole Opry smells like. 84 people watched to find out.16

John Nathan Cordy

  • Cordy reports that Jared James Nichols has received threats after telling Ola Englund that vintage guitar owners who can't play are dentists. Cordy thinks the insult is out of date, because the people who can afford those guitars now are "Finance bros or executives, your Bud Cole types."17
  • 3 October: "The NACHO Tele That Changed EVERYTHING in my Gear World - 2 Years On". 4 October: "The Problem With My Nacho - I'm Embarrassed". The problem was solved by raising the pickups and changing the strings.18
  • Five of his 14 titles this week name Fender. In "Are Fender OUT OF TOUCH With REAL Guitarists?" he objects that Fender announced its new website through Forbes. Citing interim chief marketing officer Kelly McGrath, he says the old site was "very transactional". It was, in its defence, a shop.19

Danny Sapko

  • "This is HUGE news." turned out to be a viewer's email about Charles Berthoud and James Blunt.20
  • Sapko on the rivalry: "I envy him... I'm bloody jealous of him."21

SpectreSoundStudios

  • Glenn Fricker offered $1,000 at Guitar Summit in Mannheim to anyone who could pick the active pickup in a blind test. Nobody managed every round. In the control round, four passive guitars and no active pickup at all, many found one anyway.22
  • His opening statement: "Guitar players are completely full of s***. There is no myth they won't believe, no story they won't open their wallets for."23

Davie504

  • Davie504 went to Italy to play Matthias Kranz's spinning 18-string bass, after Charles Berthoud and Rob Skellon had already played it. He found it incredibly painful to play. For once a bass outnumbered a guitar on strings, three to one.24
  • The video has 3,847,219 views, more than twice those of every other video on this desk combined.25

Ola Englund

  • Ola reports that Jim Root says the next Slipknot album "is apparently gonna hurt some feelings". The plan is heavier and less polished than The End, So Far, with more live tracking and Eloy Casagrande playing in the room with the band.26

Bradley Hall

  • Bradley Hall says he is waiting on an emergency visa appointment after being deported from Brazil, and that the Brazilian Embassy in London "took a keen interest in my case". He expects it could be weeks or months before he returns.27
  • "Do I Use AI In My Videos? (Time To Come Clean)" came clean: his second channel, Guitar School, has used a clone of his own voice for some theory voiceovers. He says a stutter makes recording them slow.28
  • He called a D'Addario string advert, in which a man with an eight-string mimed to an AI track, "so fucking dumb", then ruled more broadly: "nine out of ten brands that I've worked with over the years are completely incompetent, guys." He did not name the tenth.29

Riffs, Beards & Gear

  • "BOSS Has Official Pedal Plugins...And They RIP!" carries YouTube's paid promotion label. The sponsor is BOSS.30
  • Fluff gave the MDL Tone Divine Destruction drum plugin 10 out of 10 for being mix-ready with no external processing needed, which is more than can be said for most drummers.31

60 Cycle Hum

  • Ryan Burke's plan for fighting back against AI is handwriting. "I've been noticing that AI has kind of killed the effectiveness of fonts, of typefaces." He is giving away the original thumbnail art.32

Rick Beato

  • "Everything In Its Wrong Place... The Death of Musical Color" starts with the colour of cars and ends at Radiohead. Along the way: "Because there's no monoculture, there are no subcultures. Because there's nothing to rebel against." It has 668,259 views, which is roughly a monoculture.33
  • His guest Aaron Dessner, who has written with Taylor Swift, said of AI: "I feel like we're in some dystopian, parasocial, like, flashpoint in human history with the way AI is, like, impacting everything."34

Rob Chapman

  • Rob Chapman's emergency guitar shopping trip in Austin ended at Guitar Center with a PRS SE. A Gibson SG was tried and found not versatile enough.35
  • At the Crossroads Festival he played the original Dumble Overdrive Special, No. 1, which he says still sounds incredible. The video also found room for UFO jokes.36

Bernth

Bernth did not upload this week, which for once matches the Escape the Internet branding.

The Beef League

23 beefs in 4 weeks so far

Beef of the week

Jared James Nichols vs The Dentists

Heat: 3/5

Top of the league: sixstringtv, heat 22 from 5 beefs.

League table
PosClubPHeatBestForm
1 sixstringtv 5 22 5 5 4 4 4 5
2 SpectreSoundStudios 4 12 3 3 3 3 3
3 KDH 🛡️ 2 6 5 5 1
4 Sonic Drive Studio 2 6 4 4 2
5 Fender Company 2 6 3 3 3
6 John Nathan Cordy 2 5 3 3 2
7 The Guitologist 1 5 5 5
8 60 Cycle Hum 1 4 4 4
9 Jacobra 1 4 4 4
10 Music is Win 1 3 3 3
11 Peavey Company 1 3 3 3
12 Tim Pierce Guitar 1 3 3 3
13 2 Danny Sapko 2 2 1 1 1
14 New Bradley Hall 1 2 2 2
15 2 Rick Beato 1 2 2 2
16 2 The Editor 1 2 2 2
17 New Charles Berthoud 1 1 1 1
18 2 Rhett Shull 1 1 1 1
19 2 TheGuitarGeek 1 1 1 1

Heat is Who’s Beefin’s rating out of five, added up over the season. P is beefs played; form is the last five, newest last. 🛡️ is beef immunity, won in a special edition: a beef aimed at them still counts as played, for no heat.

Sources

  1. Bradley Hall, 0:44: "I got in contact with the Brazilian Embassy in London, and they took a keen interest in my case. You know, they said that this should definitely not have happened. It was a complete disgrace, to be honest, that they did this to me." · Bradley Hall, 15:25: "we've used this in a few videos in some sections where it's just sort of, like, voiceover, where I'm explaining, you know, some sort of music theory concept over some diagrams and notation and stuff." ↩︎

  2. John Nathan Cordy, 4:14: "90% of these vintage guys, you hear them play and you go, 'Dude, you can't even play the guitar.' They're like, 'This is a '59 Les Paul. Oh, don't touch it. Don't even look at it. You're a dentist and your value is based on a guitar that is worth something.'" (Jared James Nichols) · Tone Nerds, 22:05: "90% of these guys, you hear them play and go, 'Dude, you can't even play guitar.'" (Micah McCuistion reading Guitar World headline) ↩︎

  3. SpectreSoundStudios, 0:29: "Guitar players can't hear the difference between an active and a passive. And I'm so sure of that fact that I'm going to go to the greatest guitar show on earth and give away $1,000 to anyone who can prove me wrong." ↩︎

  4. Ola Englund, 3:36: "He said they're going to get really busy in the studio and that the new album is apparently gonna hurt some feelings." ↩︎

  5. Sonic Drive Studio, 34:37: "So our job is to keep the ones which are still here, to keep them survive." (Andreas) ↩︎

  6. John Nathan Cordy, 4:23: "You're a dentist and your value is based on a guitar that is worth something." (Jared James Nichols) · John Nathan Cordy, Jared James Nichols THREATENED for Blues Dentist Comments (whole video) · Tone Nerds, 22:12: "Jarred James Nichols has no time for blues dentists collecting vintage guitars." (Micah McCuistion reading Guitar World headline) · Tone Nerds, 24:01: "JJ, you take that, and if you come into my office, I will be telling you how many times a day to brush your teeth." (Dr. Vic Swinson) ↩︎

  7. Bradley Hall, Do I Use AI In My Videos? (Time To Come Clean) (whole video) · Bradley Hall, 10:54: "Like the whole Daddario thing a while back, which was so fucking dumb, where, like, they released, you know, some new guitar strings. Wow. And that advert for it was just, like, some dude with an eight string, like, miming along to some AI track." · Bradley Hall, 11:24: "nine out of ten brands that I've worked with over the years are completely incompetent, guys." · Bradley Hall, 17:33: "it's really disappointing to see, like, so many comments and replies of people saying, 'Oh, obviously fucking vibe-coded, mate. It's obviously AI. What the fuck, man?'" ↩︎

  8. SpectreSoundStudios, 14:15: "If you're going to tell somebody that they need a $300 pickup instead of a $50 one, you'd better be able to demonstrate why. Not with marketing, not with words like 'warm' or 'organic' or 'aggressive.' You need to be able to prove it." · SpectreSoundStudios, 0:00: "Guitar players are completely full of s***. There is no myth they won't believe, no story they won't open their wallets for." · SpectreSoundStudios, Guitar Players Can't Hear Their Own Bullsh*t!: YouTube labels this video “Includes paid promotion” ↩︎

  9. Danny Sapko, 0:18: "I envy him... I'm bloody jealous of him." ↩︎

  10. Rick Beato, 5:38: "That's why there's no monoculture anymore... Because everything is controlled by algorithms." · Rick Beato, 1:24:18: "I feel like we're in some dystopian, parasocial, like, flashpoint in human history with the way AI is, like, impacting everything, and definitely coming into music in ways that you can hear and that you can't hear." (Aaron Dessner) · Rick Beato, 5:49: "Because there's no monoculture, there are no subcultures. Because there's nothing to rebel against." · Rick Beato, 33:11: "I've seen it go wrong, even for huge artists who you would think have the ability to self-determine. They're still being over A&R'd by people that are thinking about like commercial performance." (Aaron Dessner) ↩︎

  11. Rick Beato, Everything In Its Wrong Place... The Death of Musical Color (whole video): modern music · Rick Beato, 5:38: "That's why there's no monoculture anymore... Because everything is controlled by algorithms." ↩︎

  12. Rick Beato, 5:49: "Because there's no monoculture, there are no subcultures. Because there's nothing to rebel against." ↩︎

  13. Rick Beato, How An Indie Rock Icon Became Pop's Biggest Songwriter (whole video) · Rick Beato, 1:24:18: "I feel like we're in some dystopian, parasocial, like, flashpoint in human history with the way AI is, like, impacting everything, and definitely coming into music in ways that you can hear and that you can't hear." (Aaron Dessner) · Rick Beato, 33:11: "I've seen it go wrong, even for huge artists who you would think have the ability to self-determine. They're still being over A&R'd by people that are thinking about like commercial performance." (Aaron Dessner) ↩︎

  14. Bradley Hall, Do I Use AI In My Videos? (Time To Come Clean) (whole video) · Bradley Hall, 2:17: "every drama YouTuber on the planet is hopping on the anti-AI bandwagon for some cheap views." ↩︎

  15. Tone Nerds, 24:01: "JJ, you take that, and if you come into my office, I will be telling you how many times a day to brush your teeth." (Dr. Vic Swinson) · Tone Nerds, 22:05: "90% of these guys, you hear them play and go, 'Dude, you can't even play guitar.'" (Micah McCuistion reading Guitar World headline) ↩︎

  16. Tone Nerds, Jemmuel Magtibay Talks Guitars and What the Grand Ole Opry Smells Like (whole video) ↩︎

  17. John Nathan Cordy, 4:14: "90% of these vintage guys, you hear them play and you go, 'Dude, you can't even play the guitar.' They're like, 'This is a '59 Les Paul. Oh, don't touch it. Don't even look at it. You're a dentist and your value is based on a guitar that is worth something.'" (Jared James Nichols) · John Nathan Cordy, 7:08: "general dentists I don't think are any longer the people that can afford these. I think the people that could afford these would be kind of finance bros... Finance bros or executives, your Bud Cole types." ↩︎

  18. John Nathan Cordy, The NACHO Tele That Changed EVERYTHING in my Gear World - 2 Years On (whole video) · John Nathan Cordy, The Problem With My Nacho - I'm Embarrassed (whole video): Fender Nacho Telecaster ↩︎

  19. John Nathan Cordy, Are Fender OUT OF TOUCH With REAL Guitarists? (whole video) · John Nathan Cordy, 3:55: "The previous site had been, according to interim chief marketing officer Kelly McGrath, very transactional and built on an assumption that people came to Fender.com already knowing what they wanted and were looking to buy directly." · John Nathan Cordy, 1:15: "I feel like it almost feels like Fender are talking and making signals to other people within the business space and the executive sort of space about what is going on, more than actually communicating to us as guitarists what is going on." ↩︎

  20. Danny Sapko, This is HUGE news. (whole video) ↩︎

  21. Danny Sapko, 0:18: "I envy him... I'm bloody jealous of him." ↩︎

  22. SpectreSoundStudios, 0:29: "Guitar players can't hear the difference between an active and a passive. And I'm so sure of that fact that I'm going to go to the greatest guitar show on earth and give away $1,000 to anyone who can prove me wrong." ↩︎

  23. SpectreSoundStudios, 0:00: "Guitar players are completely full of s***. There is no myth they won't believe, no story they won't open their wallets for." ↩︎

  24. Davie504, This SPINNING Bass Guitar Broke the Internet... so I played it. (whole video) · Davie504, 0:06: Matthias Kranz Spinning Bass ↩︎

  25. Davie504, This SPINNING Bass Guitar Broke the Internet... so I played it. (whole video) ↩︎

  26. Ola Englund, 3:36: "He said they're going to get really busy in the studio and that the new album is apparently gonna hurt some feelings." ↩︎

  27. Bradley Hall, 0:44: "I got in contact with the Brazilian Embassy in London, and they took a keen interest in my case. You know, they said that this should definitely not have happened. It was a complete disgrace, to be honest, that they did this to me." ↩︎

  28. Bradley Hall, Do I Use AI In My Videos? (Time To Come Clean) (whole video) · Bradley Hall, 15:25: "we've used this in a few videos in some sections where it's just sort of, like, voiceover, where I'm explaining, you know, some sort of music theory concept over some diagrams and notation and stuff." ↩︎

  29. Bradley Hall, 10:54: "Like the whole Daddario thing a while back, which was so fucking dumb, where, like, they released, you know, some new guitar strings. Wow. And that advert for it was just, like, some dude with an eight string, like, miming along to some AI track." · Bradley Hall, 11:24: "nine out of ten brands that I've worked with over the years are completely incompetent, guys." ↩︎

  30. Riffs, Beards & Gear, BOSS Has Official Pedal Plugins...And They RIP!: YouTube labels this video “Includes paid promotion” · Riffs, Beards & Gear, 1:07: Boss Effects Pedals (Roland Cloud) ↩︎

  31. Riffs, Beards & Gear, MDL Tone Divine Destruction | Full Mix & Plugin Walkthrough: MDL Tone Divine Destruction ↩︎

  32. 60 Cycle Hum, HOW TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST AI (whole video) · 60 Cycle Hum, 6:10: "I've been noticing that AI has kind of killed the effectiveness of fonts, of typefaces." ↩︎

  33. Rick Beato, Everything In Its Wrong Place... The Death of Musical Color (whole video) · Rick Beato, 5:49: "Because there's no monoculture, there are no subcultures. Because there's nothing to rebel against." ↩︎

  34. Rick Beato, How An Indie Rock Icon Became Pop's Biggest Songwriter (whole video) · Rick Beato, 1:24:18: "I feel like we're in some dystopian, parasocial, like, flashpoint in human history with the way AI is, like, impacting everything, and definitely coming into music in ways that you can hear and that you can't hear." (Aaron Dessner) ↩︎

  35. Rob Chapman, Emergency Guitar Shopping in Austin! (whole video): PRS SE · Gibson SG ↩︎

  36. Rob Chapman, I Played The Holy Grail Of Guitar Amps (whole video): Dumble Overdrive Special (Original No. 1) ↩︎