Jiorocker.com ((top)) May 2026

Stop looking at Gibson. Start looking at and Bacchus .

Bands like Tricot , Ling tosite sigure , and the new wave of “post-Visual Kei” acts are ditching pristine cleans for what engineers call “aggressive transparency.” They are running high-output humbuckers into cranked solid-state preamps (think Boss Katana or the elusive Yamaha RA-series) to achieve a squishy attack that compresses just before it breaks. jiorocker.com

Japanese rock guitarists treat the instrument as a percussive tool first, a melodic tool second. They use the edge of the pick, hit the strings at a 45-degree angle, and rarely use palm muting in the metal sense. Instead, they "knife mute"—cutting the string with the side of the picking hand to create a tick sound that sits in the mix like a drum hit. Let’s get practical. Load up your DAW or just crank your amp. Stop looking at Gibson

Producers like Yoshiaki Fujisawa (the mastermind behind the Given and Bocchi the Rock! mixes) have introduced a concept called "Dynamic Silencing." In Western rock, the rhythm guitar is a wall. In J-Rock, the rhythm guitar is a net—full of holes that let the bass and drums punch through. Japanese rock guitarists treat the instrument as a