Guitar Tabloid — The week in guitar YouTube

Guitar Tabloid: 31 Oct to 6 Nov 2026

Guitar Tabloid, Week ending Friday 6 November 2026: Jacobra checks the ingredients on Wendy's album; Rhett Shull clones a plugin he already owns, then predicts the end of plugins; Katana 25 fails to connect with Phillip McKnight

Headlines

From Jacobra’s video “Wendy’s released an AI music album and LIED about it”
Picture: Jacobra

Jacobra checks the ingredients on Wendy's album

Jacobra says the instrumentals on Wendy's new pop-punk album were largely made with AI tools such as Suno, pointing to drum parts that would need a third arm and that the drummer in Wendy's own studio video never plays, which Wendy's denies and producer Matt Squire hasn't addressed.1

From Rhett Shull’s video “I Think AI Just Killed The Plugin Industry”
Picture: Rhett Shull

Rhett Shull clones a plugin he already owns, then predicts the end of plugins

Rhett Shull used Claude Code to clone his favourite paid compressor plugin in half an hour, after it declined to copy the code because that is copyrighted, says he will probably delete the copy, and calls it possibly "the beginning of the end" for plugin companies of every size.2

The Big Story

Thirty minutes to Squish Comp

From Rhett Shull’s video “I Think AI Just Killed The Plugin Industry”
Picture: Rhett Shull

Rhett Shull spent half an hour and $10 to $15 of AI time cloning a compressor plugin he already owns, which is what Behringer says it will charge for one of its promised new pedals. The copy never left his computer, and he says he will probably delete it. He still calls it possibly the beginning of the end for the industry that made it.4

The tool was Reverse Engineer Anything, a viral add-on for AI coding agents such as Claude Code that takes software apart so the AI can rebuild it. Shull has "literally zero experience" of programming, and a few weeks ago he didn't know what "GitHub repo" or "decompile" meant either. He calls himself "your stereotypical vibe coder", and says friends who are actual software engineers told him vibe coding "is not necessarily the best thing". He pointed it at his favourite compressor plugin and asked for a copy that would run in his recording software.5

Claude decompiled the plugin, then told him it would not copy the code, because that is copyrighted. It rebuilt the sound and the controls instead, and named the result. "I didn't name it Squish Comp. Claude did." The code underneath is new, "as I understand it", says the man with zero experience of code. He calls the result fantastic, and says he doesn't condone it, because the original comes from "a pretty small developer".6

Next, Shull set Claude on the firmware of his old Line 6 HX Stomp XL, to make it run Neural Amp Modeler profiles. He says he "got a significant way through the process" before reading an article on Guitar Bomb about someone who had already done it: "Someone beat me to it."7

Behringer, meanwhile, announced the Kik, a $150 clone of an older Akai sampler, with open firmware that Shull says will let "vibe coders" write their own. Most software engineers hope firmware is someone else's job. Akai answered with an open SampleKey of its own.8

Modellers were going to be the end of something too. The same week, Mike Cole, "an amp modeler player myself", ran through the "tube amp killers", and at Andertons Rick Graham said he wanted to "go back to f**king amps". After half an hour of comparing his Fractal with valve amps, the verdict was "I don't care which one of these three you're playing through. It all sounds amazing." They agreed to take both to that night's show.9

Who's Beefin'

Jacobra vs Wendy's

Heat: 4/5

Wendy's has released a music album, and that is not even the complaint. Jacobra says its instrumentals were made with AI and passed off as live studio recordings, and points out that D'Addario also said its string advert music wasn't AI, then admitted it was. His theory of producer Matt Squire, who hasn't commented: "He planned on re-recording all the guitars, but got lazy on a few leads here and there." Wendy's says it isn't AI. Jacobra: "So no, we can't just take Wendy's word for it." Wendy's spent the 1980s asking "Where's the beef?" It's here, and for once it's literal.10

Old Man Yells at Cloud

The cloud gets an apology. Rick Beato heard Gracie Abrams, the director J.J. Abrams's daughter, sing live and liked her voice. Then he admitted he was "as guilty as anyone" of the "nepo baby" talk. The video is called "How Did I Miss This?"11

Guest shouter: Glenn Fricker. On his own channel, in "Your Expensive TOY Just Got OBLITERATED!", Glenn Fricker described something as "a wall of sonic misery so intensely awful that I can only describe it as almost as bad as modern prog metal." Almost. Prog metal keeps the title, and is still on its third solo.12

Guest shouter: Trogly. In his own video on Gibson's November offerings, Trogly addressed the company directly: "Gibson, polish your frets. Come on, this is your stock photo." Of all the pictures available, Gibson chose that one.13

The Toan Tribunal

Tim Pierce

  • Tim Pierce and his guest agreed that new guitars beat vintage ones, and compared them to Ferraris. Tim called the Suhr Andy Wood signature one of the best playing guitars he owns, one of the best sounding, and one of the most stay-in-tune. His guest was Andy Wood.14

SpectreSoundStudios

  • His Schecter Tempest review, labelled as including paid promotion, finds it a better studio guitar than an $8,000 Gibson. On Gibson: "It's not some irrational hatred for the brand. It's because I've seen firsthand what happens when you bring one into the studio."15

TheGuitarGeek

  • Fender's Kim Gordon Jazzmaster "strips away the unnecessary clutter", which TheGuitarGeek identified as "marketing words", and the clutter turns out to be the rhythm circuit ("Travesty."). In the US it costs about $200 more than a Player Jazzmaster. "In the UK and EU... this signature model is twice the price." He called it "a tarted up Fender player Jazzmaster".16

John Nathan Cordy

  • 31 October: "HUGE MISTAKE - I've Been Playing the WRONG Amps My Whole Life". 1 November: "Buying Guitars and Gear Is Making Me a WORSE GUITARIST", about a Strat he had just bought. 4 November: "I've Been an IDIOT - the TRUTH About Relic Guitars", in which he tried relicking a guitar with household chemicals and tea bags.17
  • 3 November: "The BEST Clean TONES I've Played in AGES", for the Tone King Imperial. 5 November: "I've Never Heard My Guitars MORE CLEARLY Than with THIS Amp", for a Yamaha acoustic amp. Both carry the paid promotion label. At Cordy's rate, an age is two days.18

Ola Englund

  • Last week Ola told PRS that Tekton "is not a good name". This week his own brand, Solar, launched the S1.6 PP, and Ola introduced it: "Funny, funny, funny, funny PP for... yeah, whatever." He did not say what the PP stands for.19

Mary Spender

  • "The Future of This Channel" is, Mary Spender says, "actually a title I've used a few times before". Ten years and about 800 videos in, she's "making fewer videos because I'm spending so much time trying to make better videos", and the plan is simpler: "Not every video needs to take weeks to edit. Sometimes I think it should just be a video." It runs 29 minutes, in 14 chapters.20

Riffs, Beards & Gear

  • Fluff called ReactorDSP's Cab Reactor Driftwood "everything I've ever wanted in a cab loading plug-in": $70, one-time, lifetime updates. Not sponsored, he says, and its maker is "a homie of mine". The same week, Rhett Shull said nobody will pay "a hundred, two, three, four, even $500" for a plugin anymore. Seventy slips under the bar.21

The Guitologist

  • The Guitologist's only upload this week was a sponsored shootout between two gaming chairs.22

Tone Nerds

  • In a blind test, the $2,249 Fender Ultra II Stratocaster came third for sound. The $328 Harley Benton came first for playability. The video is titled "Don't Buy a Strat Until You Watch This Blind Shootout", so 1,170 people may now go ahead.23

Bradley Hall

  • Bradley Hall set out to be "the bravest souls on the internet" by ranking cancelled metal bands on the music alone. Trash tier went to Slaughter to Prevail, not over the frontman's past, which he waved off as "an honest pleb at least", but because the music is "so fucking boring".24

The Beef League

30 beefs in 8 weeks so far

Beef of the week

Jacobra vs Wendy's

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 Jacobra 3 12 4 4 4 4
4 Danny Sapko 🛡️ 4 7 3 1 1 3 2
5 KDH 2 6 5 5 1
6 Sonic Drive Studio 2 6 4 4 2
7 Fender Company 2 6 3 3 3
8 John Nathan Cordy 2 5 3 3 2
9 The Guitologist 1 5 5 5
10 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 The Trogly's Guitar Show 1 2 2 2
18 Charles Berthoud 1 1 1 1
19 Rhett Shull 1 1 1 1
20 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, 8:35: "I think what happened is this self-proclaimed tech nerd used AI, like Suno, to generate some songs." · Jacobra, 4:06: "Well, okay, he didn't play a flam at all, yet clearly we hear flams plus a cymbal in the track." · Jacobra, 7:06: "And the producer, Matt Squire, has not made a public statement about whether this is AI or not." · Jacobra, Wendy’s released an AI music album and LIED about it (whole video) ↩︎

  2. Rhett Shull, I Think AI Just Killed The Plugin Industry: Claude Code · Rhett Shull, 3:17: "Claude did point out after it decompiled the plugin software and told me that it was not going to copy the code, because that is copywritten." · Rhett Shull, 4:29: "I'll probably just delete it. I have the actual plug-in" · Rhett Shull, 5:08: "I think this might be the beginning of the end for small, medium, and even large sized companies who have a full business derived from developing software plug-ins for DAWs." ↩︎

  3. TheGuitarGeek, 16:57: "But the real news here is that this is the first Katana with a flipping screen on it." · Phillip McKnight, 4:51: "It said, 'We'll send you a code.' They didn't send a code." ↩︎

  4. Rhett Shull, 2:25: I Think AI Just Killed The Plugin Industry · Rhett Shull, 4:29: "I'll probably just delete it. I have the actual plug-in" · Rhett Shull, 4:29: "10 to 15 bucks in token spend." · TheGuitarGeek, 13:53: "They are preparing to drop between 200 and 300 all metal analog and digital guitar pedals... targeting a retail price of just 10 to 15 notes each." (TheGuitarGeek reading Behringer) · Rhett Shull, 4:17 · Rhett Shull, 5:08 ↩︎

  5. Rhett Shull, 1:17: "for those of you that might be watching this and don't understand half the words that I'm saying right now, GitHub repo and decompile, it's okay. A few weeks ago, I was in your position." · Rhett Shull, 1:27: "literally zero experience or knowledge when it comes to programming or writing software, writing code. I am your stereotypical vibe coder" · Rhett Shull, 1:40: "software engineers, that are actual programmers, vibe coding is not necessarily the best thing" · Rhett Shull, 2:37 ↩︎

  6. Rhett Shull, 3:17: "Claude did point out after it decompiled the plugin software and told me that it was not going to copy the code, because that is copywritten." · Rhett Shull, 2:54: "Now, I didn't name it Squish Comp. Claude did." · Rhett Shull, 3:36: "the actual code underneath the hood is not a clone of the actual paid software that I bought years and years ago. Again, as I understand it." · Rhett Shull, 4:29: "this is not something that I condone" · Rhett Shull, 4:46: "the plug-in in question that I cloned is from a pretty small developer." ↩︎

  7. Rhett Shull, 5:58: "To be honest with you, I got a significant way through the process." · Rhett Shull, 6:13: "I figured out someone beat me to it. Someone's already done this. This article I found on Guitar Bomb" ↩︎

  8. Rhett Shull, 9:49: "Behringer announced the Kik, which is $150 clone of an older Akai sampler unit... from the jump, they have announced that they are embracing the open source approach." · Rhett Shull, 9:49: I Think AI Just Killed The Plugin Industry · Rhett Shull, 10:30 · Rhett Shull, 10:05: "They're going to allow vibe coders to effectively write their own firmware" ↩︎

  9. Mike Cole, 15:55: "As an amp modeler player myself" · Mike Cole, 4:15: "we do need to get to our second of our tube amp killer units." · Andertons Music Co, 0:58: "let's go back to f**king amps." · Andertons Music Co, 35:21: "I think I've sat through this and gone, if I'm in the audience, I don't care which one of these three you're playing through. It all sounds amazing." · Andertons Music Co, 35:54: "So shall we, should we take my rig and the Fractal with the FR tonight?" ↩︎

  10. Jacobra, Wendy’s released an AI music album and LIED about it (whole video) · Jacobra, 4:24: "they're purposely deceiving the audience into believing these are live studio recorded drums." · Jacobra, 6:11: "Remember how recently D'Addario said that their string ad wasn't AI-generated?" · Jacobra, 6:30: "D'Addario told us the truth, that it was indeed AI-generated music." · Jacobra, 9:01: "He planned on re-recording all the guitars, but got lazy on a few leads here and there." · Jacobra, 7:06: "So no, we can't just take Wendy's word for it." ↩︎

  11. Rick Beato, 5:36: "I'm as guilty as anyone talking about, you know, people that need to be rich in order to be pop stars these days, or to be a musician at all. You have to come from a rich family or something, you know, this whole Nepo baby thing." · Rick Beato, How Did I Miss This? My Take On Gracie Abrams (whole video) ↩︎

  12. SpectreSoundStudios, 5:53: "It was a wall of sonic misery so intensely awful that I can only describe it as almost as bad as modern prog metal." · SpectreSoundStudios, Your Expensive TOY Just Got OBLITERATED!: YouTube labels this video “Includes paid promotion” ↩︎

  13. The Trogly's Guitar Show, 2:16: "Gibson, polish your frets. Come on, this is your stock photo." · The Trogly's Guitar Show, New Change to the 50s Les Paul Standard! | New Gibson Offerings Nov 2026 (whole video) ↩︎

  14. Tim Pierce Guitar, The PRO Guitarist Knows What You DON'T (whole video) · Tim Pierce Guitar, 10:51: New Guitars vs Vintage Guitars · Tim Pierce Guitar, 3:54: "This is Andy's signature guitar." · Tim Pierce Guitar, 4:01: "It's one of the best playing guitars I own." · Tim Pierce Guitar, 4:03: "It's one of the best sounding guitars I own." · Tim Pierce Guitar, 4:09: "And it's one of the most stay-in-tune guitars I own." ↩︎

  15. SpectreSoundStudios, Your Expensive TOY Just Got OBLITERATED!: YouTube labels this video “Includes paid promotion” · SpectreSoundStudios, 4:10: Schecter Tempest · SpectreSoundStudios, 2:49: "And that is why I don't care for Gibsons. It's not some irrational hatred for the brand. It's because I've seen firsthand what happens when you bring one into the studio." ↩︎

  16. TheGuitarGeek, 1:12: "This signature model strips away the unnecessary clutter to create a lean, aggressive alternative rock workhorse." · TheGuitarGeek, 1:25: "Those are marketing words." · TheGuitarGeek, 1:59: "the upper horn rhythm circuit has been completely eliminated. Travesty." · TheGuitarGeek, 3:30: "This is a tarted up Fender player Jazzmaster" · TheGuitarGeek, 3:59: "this signature model is twice the price of a player to Jazzmaster. And I just can't get behind that." ↩︎

  17. John Nathan Cordy, HUGE MISTAKE - I've Been Playing the WRONG Amps My Whole Life (whole video) · John Nathan Cordy, Buying Guitars and Gear Is Making Me a WORSE GUITARIST (whole video) · John Nathan Cordy, I've Been an IDIOT - the TRUTH About Relic Guitars (whole video) ↩︎

  18. John Nathan Cordy, The BEST Clean TONES I've Played in AGES - Tone King Imperial First Impressions: YouTube labels this video “Includes paid promotion” · John Nathan Cordy, I've Never Heard My Guitars MORE CLEARLY Than with THIS Amp Yamaha aCompass 60: YouTube labels this video “Includes paid promotion” ↩︎

  19. Ola Englund, 6:16: "That is not a good name." · Ola Englund, 0:34: "This is our new S1.6 PP..." · Ola Englund, 0:38: "Funny, funny, funny, funny PP for... yeah, whatever." ↩︎

  20. Mary Spender, 2:13: "So this video titled 'The Future of This Channel', which is actually a title I've used a few times before" · Mary Spender, 1:59: "I'm making fewer videos because I'm spending so much time trying to make better videos." · Mary Spender, 23:54: "Not every video needs to take weeks to edit. Sometimes I think it should just be a video." ↩︎

  21. Riffs, Beards & Gear, 12:54: "This plug-in is everything I've ever wanted in a cab loading plug-in, honestly." · Riffs, Beards & Gear, 13:22: "it's a one-time purchase of $70 with lifetime updates" · Riffs, Beards & Gear, 0:58: "this is not a sponsored video." · Rhett Shull, 5:29: "it becomes a hard sell to ask someone to spend a hundred, two, three, four, even $500 or more on a piece of" ↩︎

  22. The Guitologist, Boulies Master Rex 2026 VS SecretLab Titan Evo XL | OFFICE GAMING CHAIR SHOOTOUT: YouTube labels this video “Includes paid promotion” · Boulies Master Rex 2026 ↩︎

  23. Tone Nerds, Don't Buy a Strat Until You Watch This Blind Shootout (whole video) · Tone Nerds, 11:54: Fender Ultra II Stratocaster · Tone Nerds, 1:14: Harley Benton ST Modern Plus ↩︎

  24. Bradley Hall, 0:32: "today we're going to try and be the bravest souls on the internet and separate the art from the artist." · Bradley Hall, 17:36: "He might be a massive pleb, but an honest pleb at least." · Bradley Hall, 17:54: "their music is so fucking boring" · Bradley Hall, Ranking CANCELED Metal Bands (How Good Are They REALLY?) (whole video) ↩︎