Guitar Tabloid — The week in guitar YouTube

Guitar Tabloid: 17 Oct to 23 Oct 2026

Guitar Tabloid, Week ending Friday 23 October 2026: Jacobra catches Jacobra; Sapko defends the outfit, in the outfit; Bradley Hall makes the guest list

Headlines

From Jacobra’s video “Jacobra faked his guitar playing and got CAUGHT”
Picture: Jacobra

Jacobra catches Jacobra

Jacobra, who makes videos exposing guitarists who mime, has admitted miming two of his own, a playthrough from years before the series and a recent video for his band Dark Watch, and says miming to promote music is not the same as faking skill.1

From Danny Sapko’s video “This is not racist, you tw*ts”
Picture: Danny Sapko

Sapko defends the outfit, in the outfit

Danny Sapko put his DIY Chinese costume back on to answer viewers who called it racist, walked them through the Qing and Tang dynasties it borrows from, and says the series on bassists from other cultures will carry on.2

From Bradley Hall’s video “home.”
Picture: Bradley Hall

Bradley Hall makes the guest list

Bradley Hall is home in Brazil a month after being deported over a visa mix-up, thanks to the manager of the Brazilian embassy in London turning out to be a fan, which he admits got him preferential treatment.3

Picture: Bernth

Three guitarists and a bassist escape the internet

Bernth, Charles Berthoud, Ola Englund and Mike Dawes will tour Europe and the UK as Escape the Internet II in February and March 2027.4

From John Nathan Cordy’s video “Joe Bonamassa Says the LAST THING Tube Amp Manufacturers Want to Hear”
Picture: John Nathan Cordy

Bonamassa finds a tighter Twin

Joe Bonamassa, a famous collector of vintage tube amps, told Guitar World he now prefers Fender's digital Tone Master '59 Twin to the tube amp on stage, and his signature model costs about £2,000, which John Nathan Cordy says would buy a quality tube amp twice over.5

Man buys Gibson nobody has heard of, asks Facebook

A Gibson USA Billy Gibbons Pearly Gates Les Paul has surfaced ahead of launch after its owner posted it on Facebook looking for information, and Trogly says the box tag makes it look genuine, though in the days of AI he can't be sure.6

The Big Story

Other people's guitar, done our way

From Andertons Music Co’s video “A New Era for PRS Guitars! - PRS Tekton Series”
Picture: Andertons Music Co

This week PRS launched the Tekton, a family of four thin, offset-body guitars made in its Maryland factory and billed as the thinnest it has put into production. Paul Reed Smith, who founded the company, gave Andertons the brief in one line: "It's what other people do, but done our way." What other people do turns out to be a flat 16-inch fretboard, 24 stainless steel frets and a bolt-on maple neck. Tekton, Trogly explains, is an old Greek word for a craftsman, which is a lot of name for a bolt-on. Done their way, for once, includes the price: $2,899, the same as Fender's Ultra Lux, and by Phillip McKnight's reckoning one of the most aggressively priced USA guitars PRS has put out in years.7

There is no bird inlay and no option for one, and most of the tops are figured mango, not maple. The pickups, called Stylus, have square bobbins designed from the start to be seen without a cover. Paul Reed Smith told Andertons they are called "squabbins", and then said it again.8

What is inside them is less settled. In Rob Chapman's video, the person showing him the guitar didn't yet know what the magnets were, while Trogly and Ryan Bruce of Riffs, Beards & Gear both say Alnico 5. The nut is a proprietary material, and when Trogly asked, PRS declined to say more. So he polished the nut with steel wool. It got a little shinier.9

Rob Chapman called it one of the best guitars he has ever played, and Ryan Bruce named it his favourite of the dozen or so PRS guitars he has owned. Both videos are labelled paid promotion. Chapman billed his as an exclusive first look. It went up 12 seconds after Andertons' and three hours after Bruce's.10

Phillip McKnight had had one for months. About two weeks before release he took it to a local shop and let around 12 viewers play it. The verdicts split two ways: the best PRS ever made, or amazing quality that simply wasn't their thing. McKnight sided with the first group.11

Trogly, whose guitar PRS sent over for the review, was in the second group and said he didn't much like it. The flat neck, he said, is "Perfect if you're a shred guitar player and actually know how to play past the 12th fret," which he counted himself out of. His fix is a fifth model, the VIN, for vintage, with a rounder neck, a curvier fretboard and more traditional pickups. That would be quite a lot like a PRS.12

The guitars are shipping. McKnight hopes a cheaper SE version will follow. When Lee Anderton asked whether one was coming, Paul Reed Smith said: "Well, you can ask me. I don't even know."13

Who's Beefin'

Jacobra vs David

Heat: 4/5

Jacobra uploaded a video about himself, in the third person, titled "Jacobra faked his guitar playing and got CAUGHT". It opens with a critic he had banned from his Discord, and his ruling: "You called my Discord a cesspool. That's why I banned you." A viewer named David has accused him of narcissism. Jacobra read the charge out: "Or, you might think like David here, that I'm a hippo... that I'm a hip... Wait, that I'm a narcissist?" He reached the word on the third attempt, and it was a different word. He then corrected David's theory, since the sweep David called quarter notes is in eighths: "Go figure, a guitar player doesn't know his subdivisions."14

Glenn Fricker vs His Comment Section

Heat: 3/5

Following on from Glenn Fricker's blind test of active and passive pickups, the people who own them have notes. CowSystem says the differences are visible, not audible. Stale calls him arrogant and says the Neve console skewed the results. Andrew says he doctored the tracks to make the pickups sound the same. Fricker denies all of it, the last one most loudly: "You think I'm going to sit here and fuck with the tracks, trying to get them to all sound the same? I don't have to!" The Neve console has not commented.15

Danny Sapko vs YouTube Viewers

Heat: 2/5

Some viewers say Danny Sapko's outfit was racist. He says it wasn't, and opened the video with his ruling on them: "What a big bloody bunch of plonkers some of you lot are, man." The title, "This is not racist, you tw*ts", had already said the same thing with one letter tactfully removed. The video put it back.16

Trogly vs Adam Savage

Heat: 2/5

Adam Savage put out a video billed as upgrading a Gibson Les Paul. The guitar was a Tokai. Trogly: "Adam Savage has clickbaited the entire guitar community." Trogly then went on a Tokai guitar hunt, which is the clickbait working.17

Old Man Yells at Cloud

Rick Beato did not yell this week. He sat down with Bernie Taupin and let him do it.18

Bernie Taupin, on Rick's show, on what modern production has done: "Now you can make an album on your phone, you know. Not one that I want to listen to." He added that it is "processed to death". Rick has been saying this for years. This week he got to nod.19

The Creator Desk

👑 Danny Sapko

  • Danny talked viewers through the costume: Qing Dynasty headwear, a shirt inspired by the Tang Dynasty, and a moustache based on Confucius, "not Hulk Hogan". His summary of the look: "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dipstick."20
  • His Ukrainian grandfather escaped a Nazi child labour camp, settled in Bradford and worked 35 years for British Rail. Asked by a newspaper for his life's highlight, he said: "Well, one day when I was working on the trains, I met the band Smokey." Danny: "Each to their own."21
  • His five-string bass raffle raised over £2,000 for Punk for the Homeless, and Cash, whose bass was broken on a flight, has a new one.22

Jacobra

  • The old playthrough he mimed was "Amaterasu". On the recent one: "I did mime another video recently. My band, Dark Watch, just released our new EP." The confession doubles as a release announcement.23
  • He says miming to promote music is not the same as faking skill: "But when you film something showing that you're not faking it, but that's a lie, I don't like that." He calls himself "a fairly average guitar player". We have downgraded ourselves accordingly.24
  • The confession was sponsored by an X-Vive wireless. He tested the wireless against a cable and says they're indistinguishable. For once, a Jacobra video asks us to trust our ears.25

John Nathan Cordy

  • "one of the biggest problems that all of us face when it comes to using a digital modeler is around this option paralysis". His viewers know the feeling. He uploaded about two videos a day this week.26
  • Joe Bonamassa told Guitar World that the digital Tone Master '59 Twin was "punchier, clearer, tighter" than the tube one and "stays pretty stout all the way through". His summary: "We're in anti-Joe B land, all the way, digital, solid-state." The adjectives are still vintage.27
  • "This Was a REALLY DUMB IDEA but it ALMOST WORKED - CRANKED TUBE AMPS AT HOME?" was a cardboard box around a speaker cab. It stopped neither the volume nor the bass. It took some of the high end off. The first half of the title held up.28

Ola Englund

  • Ola's album The Neverending Story is finally out. On the vinyl: "printing vinyl today is a fucking gamble". The cover appears to bring back Artax, last seen in the Swamp of Sadness. In metal, that counts as a happy ending.29

Stevie T

  • Stevie T had children write and direct a music video for a serious emo song. It features a pink dress, a poop emoji hat and a zombie pigman, and seems made for viewers about the age of the directors.30

Phillip McKnight

  • Rob Chapman called the PRS Tekton one of the best guitars he has played. Ryan Bruce called it his favourite PRS. McKnight called it the best PRS he has played, and his was the only one of the three not labelled paid promotion.31
  • Two days later he uploaded "This Guitar Makes Expensive Guitars Hard To Sell", about a Schecter Omen Extreme Lunar Edition.32

KDH

  • KDH toured Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center and was shown unreleased PRS models, including a Macari with a tremolo. On the Tekton: "it feels very Mayones, kind of, but like Ibanez-y Mayones."33

Charles Berthoud

  • Charles Berthoud played "Smooth Criminal" on bass in Beijing. According to the title, the crowd was stunned. Audiences often are when a bassist is given a solo.34

Music is Win

  • Tyler Larson showed viewers how to properly try out a guitar in a shop, using a 1961 Stratocaster at Andertons, which is how most of us do it.35

Bernth

  • Bernth has announced a second escape from the internet: Escape the Internet II, 23 cities across Europe and the UK in February and March 2027. We'd usually recommend keeping escapes quieter.36
  • Bernth titled his video "The Iconic Metal Song NOBODY Can Play", about the "Tornado of Souls" solo, then played it. So what does that make him?37

Mimisounds

  • Mimisounds did not upload this week. Danny Sapko stood in: "Here's my shite Mimi Sounds."38

The Beef League

28 beefs in 6 weeks so far

Beef of the week

Jacobra vs David

Heat: 4/5

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 5 15 3 3 3 3 3 3
3 7 Jacobra 2 8 4 4 4
4 2 Danny Sapko 4 7 3 1 1 3 2
5 2 KDH 🛡️ 2 6 5 5 1
6 2 Sonic Drive Studio 2 6 4 4 2
7 2 Fender Company 2 6 3 3 3
8 1 John Nathan Cordy 2 5 3 3 2
9 1 The Guitologist 1 5 5 5
10 1 60 Cycle Hum 1 4 4 4
11 Music is Win 1 3 3 3
12 Peavey Company 1 3 3 3
13 Tim Pierce Guitar 1 3 3 3
14 Bradley Hall 1 2 2 2
15 Rick Beato 1 2 2 2
16 The Editor 1 2 2 2
17 New The Trogly's Guitar Show 1 2 2 2
18 1 Charles Berthoud 1 1 1 1
19 1 Rhett Shull 1 1 1 1
20 1 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. Jacobra, 6:36: "I did mime another video recently. My band, Darkwatch, just released our new EP. The Mortal Codex: Eulogy 1." · Jacobra, Jacobra faked his guitar playing and got CAUGHT (whole video) ↩︎

  2. Danny Sapko, 3:11: "I see nothing wrong in celebrating Chinese culture in this way, even when there's more than just a hint of tongue-in-cheek about it." · Danny Sapko, This is not racist, you tw*ts (whole video) ↩︎

  3. Bradley Hall, 1:18: "I contacted the Brazilian embassy in London, and as it turns out, biggest coincidence in the world that the manager at the embassy in London happens to be a fan of mine" · Bradley Hall, 3:59: "because of my online status, I suppose I was able to get, you know, like preferential treatment" · Bradley Hall, home. (whole video) ↩︎

  4. Bernth, 5:29: "I'm hitting the road with Olah Englund, Charles Bertou and fingerstyle legend Mike Dawes and we're bringing some absolutely crazy guitar performances all across Europe and recently added also the UK." ↩︎

  5. John Nathan Cordy, 0:11: "Man, I think that sounds better to me. So I used it on the gig, and it was punchier, clearer, tighter" (Joe Bonamassa) · John Nathan Cordy, 6:20: "someone that's got you know oodles and oodles and oodles like millions of pounds worth of vintage gear vintage amps" · John Nathan Cordy, 6:36: "when you see the price of two thousand pounds and then you look at what you could get for that kind of money... you could get a real a real quality all tube amp for less than half the money" · John Nathan Cordy, Joe Bonamassa Says the LAST THING Tube Amp Manufacturers Want to Hear (whole video) ↩︎

  6. The Trogly's Guitar Show, 0:37: "Look, someone already has one. Before the Collector's Edition was even officially sent out." · The Trogly's Guitar Show, 1:28: "But in the days of AI, how do we know that this is even legit? Well, I suppose we don't, but it looks believable enough so far." · The Trogly's Guitar Show, 2:21: "the person who has this guitar posted this on Facebook. He was just looking for information because he bought the guitar and can't find another one anywhere." · The Trogly's Guitar Show, LEAKED New Gibson Has 3 Unique Specs! (whole video) ↩︎

  7. Andertons Music Co, 4:44: A New Era for PRS Guitars! - PRS Tekton Series · The Trogly's Guitar Show, 0:06: "They certainly seem to be really excited about these things, so, wow." · Phillip McKnight, 0:00: "This is a new line of guitars... This particular line of guitars is made in the USA... These guitars come in at $2,899, made in the Maryland factory, and that's the starting price." · The Trogly's Guitar Show, 0:21: Tearing Apart the New PRS Tekton (To Learn Its Secrets!) · The Trogly's Guitar Show, 7:14: "It's an old Greek word that essentially means craftsman, many times pertaining to wood." · Phillip McKnight, 6:41: "priced at the same price point as the Fender Ultra Lux series guitars... probably one of the most aggressive priced PRS USA guitars they've put out in years." ↩︎

  8. Phillip McKnight, 2:51: A Deep Dive Into The New PRS Tekton · The Trogly's Guitar Show, 2:20: Tearing Apart the New PRS Tekton (To Learn Its Secrets!) · Andertons Music Co, 8:48: A New Era for PRS Guitars! - PRS Tekton Series · Andertons Music Co, 9:24: "And we call them squabbins, which is square bobbins." (Paul Reed Smith) · Andertons Music Co, 9:28: "Squabbins." (Paul Reed Smith) ↩︎

  9. Rob Chapman, 6:55: PRS Did WHAT?! Exclusive First Look at the Tekton · The Trogly's Guitar Show, 4:21: Tearing Apart the New PRS Tekton (To Learn Its Secrets!) · Riffs, Beards & Gear, 1:58: The PRS For People Who Don't Play PRS? · The Trogly's Guitar Show, 18:22: YouTube labels this video “Includes paid promotion” · The Trogly's Guitar Show, 18:48: "I actually took some light steel wool to see if it would polish off, and it did not come off, but it did, you know, make it a little bit shinier." ↩︎

  10. Rob Chapman, 9:29: PRS Did WHAT?! Exclusive First Look at the Tekton · Rob Chapman, 2:52: YouTube labels this video “Includes paid promotion” · Riffs, Beards & Gear, 0:30: The PRS For People Who Don't Play PRS? · Riffs, Beards & Gear, 5:46: YouTube labels this video “Includes paid promotion” · YouTube upload times, 20 Oct 2026: Riffs, Beards & Gear 13:00:27 UTC, Andertons Music Co 16:00:26 UTC, Rob Chapman 16:00:38 UTC · Rob Chapman, 9:29: "Thank you for watching this exclusive video, and thank you to PRS and Guitar Center for giving me the opportunity." ↩︎

  11. Phillip McKnight, 9:51: A Deep Dive Into The New PRS Tekton · Phillip McKnight, 8:29 · Phillip McKnight, 8:59 · Phillip McKnight, 6:29 · Phillip McKnight, 9:51: "it's been here for months in a dry climate." ↩︎

  12. The Trogly's Guitar Show, 0:00: Tearing Apart the New PRS Tekton (To Learn Its Secrets!) · The Trogly's Guitar Show, 31:19: YouTube labels this video “Includes paid promotion” · The Trogly's Guitar Show, 32:08: YouTube labels this video “Includes paid promotion” ↩︎

  13. The Trogly's Guitar Show, 6:02: Tearing Apart the New PRS Tekton (To Learn Its Secrets!) · Phillip McKnight, 22:23: A Deep Dive Into The New PRS Tekton · Andertons Music Co, 14:49: A New Era for PRS Guitars! - PRS Tekton Series ↩︎

  14. Jacobra, 7:08: "Or, you might think like David here, that I'm a hippo... that I'm a hip... Wait, that I'm a narcissist?" · Jacobra, Jacobra faked his guitar playing and got CAUGHT (whole video) · Jacobra, 0:33: "You called my Discord a cesspool. That's why I banned you." · Jacobra, 7:39: "Hence why you pointed out that it's just a quarter note sweep. Although, really, it's an eighth note sweep. Go figure, a guitar player doesn't know his subdivisions." ↩︎

  15. SpectreSoundStudios, 2:43: "I think you're kind of missing the point. It's already clearly established that yes, we can see differences between pickups, but when we take the visual away, can we actually hear them?" · SpectreSoundStudios, 5:57: "Not once have I ever said that I needed the Neve console, or is it going to give me a sonic advantage over software. Never once have I said that." · SpectreSoundStudios, 12:38: "You think I'm going to sit here and fuck with the tracks, trying to get them to all sound the same? I don't have to!" · SpectreSoundStudios, I Made a Scientific Test. THEY got Mad. (whole video) ↩︎

  16. Danny Sapko, 0:00: "What a big bloody bunch of plonkers some of you lot are, man." · Danny Sapko, This is not racist, you tw*ts (whole video) · Danny Sapko, 6:02: "I shall continue to celebrate the basis of the world in my own way, you set of twats." ↩︎

  17. The Trogly's Guitar Show, 0:19: "Adam Savage has clickbaited the entire guitar community." · The Trogly's Guitar Show, Clickbaited into a Tokai Guitar Hunt! (whole video) ↩︎

  18. Rick Beato, How Bernie Taupin and Elton John Became The Greatest Songwriting Duo (whole video) ↩︎

  19. Rick Beato, 37:45: "Now you can make an album on your phone, you know. Not one that I want to listen to. No, I know, and it's processed to death, and it sounds like complete shit, you know." (Bernie Taupin) · Rick Beato, How Bernie Taupin and Elton John Became The Greatest Songwriting Duo (whole video) ↩︎

  20. Danny Sapko, 1:17: "the Qing Dai Guan Mao, the official Chinese headwear from the Qing Dynasty" · Danny Sapko, 1:40: "and of course the DIY moustache, based on the legendary facial hair of Confucius, not Hulk Hogan" · Danny Sapko, 2:49: "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dipstick." ↩︎

  21. Danny Sapko, 3:35: "when my Ukrainian grandfather was captured by the Nazis and forced to work in a child slave labour camp... he managed to escape the camp, somehow, and eventually after the war made his way to Bradford, West Yorkshire." · Danny Sapko, 3:53: "He worked for British Rail for 35 years" · Danny Sapko, 4:06: "Well, one day when I was working on the trains, I met the band Smokey." · Danny Sapko, 4:12: "Each to their own." ↩︎

  22. Danny Sapko, 6:23: "we have raised over £2,000 for Punk for the Homeless" · Danny Sapko, 6:40: "remember Cash from the last video, who had his bass sadly broken on South African airlines? Well, I am very pleased to tell you that a brand new instrument has just arrived at his door." ↩︎

  23. Jacobra, 6:36: "I did mime another video recently. My band, Dark Watch, just released our new EP. The Mortal Codex: Eulogy 1." · Jacobra, Jacobra faked his guitar playing and got CAUGHT (whole video) ↩︎

  24. Jacobra, 3:44: "But when you film something showing that you're not faking it, but that's a lie, I don't like that. And I don't think you want to be lied to either." · Jacobra, 3:19: "I hope not, because I'm a fairly average guitar player." ↩︎

  25. Jacobra, 1:49: "I recorded a little test of the tone from the wireless versus using a cable, and they're indistinguishable." · Jacobra, 1:07: "this video is sponsored by X-Vive." ↩︎

  26. John Nathan Cordy, 0:19: "one of the biggest problems that all of us face when it comes to using a digital modeler is around this option paralysis" · John Nathan Cordy, The Problem with EVERY Digital Modeler and Amp Sims - TOO MANY OPTIONS (whole video) ↩︎

  27. John Nathan Cordy, 0:11: "Man, I think that sounds better to me. So I used it on the gig, and it was punchier, clearer, tighter, and what I didn't realize until having something to compare it to was the fact that over the course of the evening, the amp doesn't get super hot and start sagging even more." (Joe Bonamassa) · John Nathan Cordy, 4:20: "why is it that the the only expensive digital modeling amplifier there is really expensive is made by Fender" · John Nathan Cordy, I HAD To Try a Fender Tone Master Princeton - First Impressions (whole video) · John Nathan Cordy, 0:22: "So it stays pretty stout all the way through. We're in anti-Joe B land, all the way, digital, solid-state" (Joe Bonamassa) · John Nathan Cordy, 0:15: "Do you want to check out my Princeton Tone Master?" (Anthony, as Cordy tells it) ↩︎

  28. John Nathan Cordy, This Was a REALLY DUMB IDEA but it ALMOST WORKED - CRANKED TUBE AMPS AT HOME? (whole video) · John Nathan Cordy, 0:00: DIY Cardboard Iso Cab ↩︎

  29. Ola Englund, 14:31: The Neverending Story (Ola Englund album) · Ola Englund, 14:10: "printing vinyl today is a fucking gamble" ↩︎

  30. Stevie T, I Hired KIDS To Direct My Music Video... (whole video) ↩︎

  31. Rob Chapman, 2:52: "It's one of the best guitars I've ever played. It's up there." · Riffs, Beards & Gear, 0:00: PRS Tekton · Phillip McKnight, 0:29: PRS Tekton ↩︎

  32. Phillip McKnight, This Guitar Makes Expensive Guitars Hard To Sell (whole video) · Phillip McKnight, 0:41: Schecter Omen Extreme Lunar Edition ↩︎

  33. KDH, Inside an INSANE GUITAR WAREHOUSE - Chuck Levins (whole video): PRS Tekton · KDH, 2:20: PRS Macari with tremolo · KDH, 2:48: "it's, to me, just holding it, it feels very Mayones, kind of, but like Ibanez-y Mayones." ↩︎

  34. Charles Berthoud, Beijing Crowd STUNNED By Smooth Criminal Bass Solo (LIVE) (whole video) ↩︎

  35. Music is Win, How to PROPERLY Try Out a Guitar in a Guitar Store (whole video) · Music is Win, 2:55: Fender '61 Stratocaster ↩︎

  36. Bernth, 5:29: "I'm hitting the road with Olah Englund, Charles Bertou and fingerstyle legend Mike Dawes and we're bringing some absolutely crazy guitar performances all across Europe and recently added also the UK." · Bernth, The Iconic Metal Song NOBODY Can Play (whole video) ↩︎

  37. Bernth, 0:47: "So today we're gonna take a closer look at this legendary solo, figure out what makes this one tiny little section so difficult, and of course see if I can actually play it." · Bernth, The Iconic Metal Song NOBODY Can Play (whole video) ↩︎

  38. Danny Sapko, 2:31: "Here's my shite Mimi Sounds." ↩︎