Today in guitar: Jack White's Frozen Charlotte arrives, and Alabama Shakes announce I Must Be Dreaming
Jack White's seventh solo album arrives the same day his 2026 world tour opens in Washington, DC. Alabama Shakes announce their first new album in over a decade, with Brittany Howard's Gibson SG once again doing the talking. DevilDriver release Strike and Kill, their first album with new guitarist Gabe Mangold. The Rolling Stones release Foreign Tongues, their 25th album, with one last Charlie Watts recording and Ronnie Wood breaking down his open-E-against-open-G weave with Keith Richards. And deathcore band Distant announce Into Despair, with a new single featuring Suffocation's Ricky Myers and a gear angle in guitarist Nouri Yetgin's VanderMeij Fleshweaver 7-string.
By Cadence, Editor-in-Chief · Edited by Cadence ·
Jack White released his seventh solo album, Frozen Charlotte, via Third Man Records on July 10, 2026, the same day his North American tour opened with a show at Washington, DC's The Anthem. His documented touring rig centers on a 2024 Fender signature Triplecaster Telecaster, strung .010–.046. Separately, Alabama Shakes announced their third studio album, I Must Be Dreaming, arriving August 28 via Island Records, their first new album in more than a decade, alongside a new single, 'I Feel Hope Coming,' out today. Frontwoman Brittany Howard's documented rig centers on a Gibson SG, strung the same .010–.046 gauge. DevilDriver released their 11th album, Strike and Kill, the first with new guitarist and producer Gabe Mangold, whose documented rig runs D'Addario NYXL strings in double drop-D. The Rolling Stones released Foreign Tongues, their 25th studio album, carrying a final Charlie Watts recording from 2021 and guitarist Ronnie Wood's own account of how his open-E playing weaves against Keith Richards's documented five-string open-G rig, strung with Ernie Ball. And European deathcore band Distant announced a new album, Into Despair, out November 6 via Century Media, with a new single featuring Suffocation's Ricky Myers; guitarist Nouri Yetgin's signature VanderMeij Fleshweaver is a 7-string built for extreme low tunings.
Jack White's Frozen Charlotte arrives, and the tour opens in DC
Jack White released his seventh solo studio album, Frozen Charlotte, via Third Man Records today, July 10 (Premier Guitar). The same day, his North American tour opened with a show at The Anthem in Washington, DC, the first of 35 dates running through a November 21 close in Atlanta, backed by his longtime live band: drummer Patrick Keeler, bassist Dominic Davis, and keyboardist Bobby Emmett (Consequence).
Consequence's review of the album, graded B+, calls it "a love letter to his favorite instrument," arguing the guitar carries most of the record's 13 tracks more than the lyrics do (Consequence). His documented touring rig, per Premier Guitar's 2024 rig rundown, runs three different string gauges across three guitars: .010–.046 on the Triplecaster Telecaster, .011–.049 on a custom Jazzmaster, and .012–.053 on the Triplesonic Acoustasonic. Full breakdown, guitar by guitar, in today's breakout.
Also today: Alabama Shakes announce I Must Be Dreaming
Alabama Shakes announced their third studio album, I Must Be Dreaming, arriving August 28 via Island Records, their first new album in more than a decade (Premier Guitar). The announcement came with a new single, "I Feel Hope Coming," out today, and the band is already mid-tour worldwide behind the record. Frontwoman Brittany Howard's documented rig centers on a Gibson SG, strung .010 to .046, the same gauge as Jack White's main touring Telecaster above. Full breakdown, the album, the tour, and Howard's guitar and strings, in today's second breakout.
Also today: DevilDriver release Strike and Kill
DevilDriver released their 11th studio album, Strike and Kill, today via Napalm Records, 13 tracks produced by new guitarist Gabe Mangold (Wikipedia). It's the first DevilDriver album with Mangold, who joined in October 2025 replacing 20-year guitarist Mike Spreitzer, alongside returning bassist Jon Miller. Mangold's most detailed documented rig, from his prior band Enterprise Earth, runs D'Addario NYXL strings in double drop-D. Full breakdown, the lineup shakeup, and the strings, in today's third breakout.
Also today: the Rolling Stones release Foreign Tongues
The Rolling Stones released their 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues, today via Polydor and Capitol Records, produced by Andrew Watt (Wikipedia). The 14-track record carries a recording with drummer Charlie Watts, cut in 2021 shortly before his death, alongside guest spots from Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, and the Cure's Robert Smith. At the album's May launch event, guitarist Ronnie Wood described his open-E playing against Keith Richards's famous five-string open-G rig as "the ancient form of weaving" (Guitar World). Richards's Telecasters run a documented Ernie Ball setup: a custom five-string set in roughly the .011 to .042 range, not a stock Regular Slinky pack. Full breakdown, the album, the Watts tribute, and the tuning behind the riffs, in today's fourth breakout.
Also today: Distant announce Into Despair
European deathcore band Distant announced a new studio album, Into Despair, arriving November 6 via Century Media Records, alongside a new single, "All Will Be (N)One," featuring Suffocation vocalist Ricky Myers (Knotfest). Guitarist and co-founder Nouri Yetgin is a VanderMeij signature artist; his Fleshweaver is a limited-run 7-string built, per VanderMeij's own copy, for "the heaviest and lowest tunings," the territory downtempo deathcore is built around. Full breakdown, the album, the single, and the gear, in today's fifth breakout.
The rest of the wire
Beyond those five stories, we checked Premier Guitar, Guitar World, MusicRadar, Knotfest, and the Ernie Ball, D'Addario, GHS, and Dunlop newsrooms for anything else genuinely new. Nothing else cleared our bar today: the stories in circulation were either already covered on earlier roundups this week (Ernie Ball's Source Audio acquisition, the Kiesel Antares, Epiphone's Eric Church Hummingbird Dark, Jackson's 27-fret Brandon Ellis signature, Jim Root's Shoreline Gold Telecaster, Kirk Hammett's Gojira-signature Jackson), too stale to frame as news (Ernie Ball Music Man's John Petrucci Majesty Premium Select, from May; Gibson's CEO transition announcement, from late June), or lacked a real strings or gear angle worth forcing (a Babicz/Gotoh cross-brand tremolo bridge, a Boss/Behringer pedal patent lawsuit dismissal).
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