The Warning’s Dany Villarreal on her guitar collection: “I have them stored in a very special place in my basement… and in my heart”
The Warning were just kids when their cover of Metallica’s Enter Sandman went viral. In the decade-plus since, they’ve released four albums, been nominated for a Latin Grammy and toured with Evanescence, Foo Fighters, Halsey and Yungblud.
But before all that, they were just three sisters playing the Rock Band video game at home in Monterrey, Mexico. “I actually started with a plastic guitar,” Daniela “Dany” Villarreal, vocalist and guitarist for the band, says.
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From there, she moved to the acoustic guitar, starting with a Taylor GS Mini. Her first electric guitar was a semi-hollow Ibanez, but Villarreal was still quite young, and the guitar was too unwieldy for her small size, so she ended up switching to a Stratocaster.
“My relationship with guitars throughout time was a process of me finding the right sound, the right guitar,” she explains. “Since I started at a very young age, I didn’t quite necessarily get into the specifics from the get-go. I was just focused on learning guitar, but not finding my guitar, what I wanted to sound like, what I was comfortable with.”
That changed when The Warning went into the studio to work on their 2022 album Error, with producer David Bendeth, and he recommended Villarreal try a PRS guitar. “We just clicked,” she says. “It was so comfortable. It just felt completely right. And the more I played it, the more I found quirks in the sound, what I wanted to be, what I wanted to evolve into, and it became my teammate for sure.”
Dany Villarreal performing with a PRS guitar. Image: Press
Double Duty
The Warning are gearing up to release their fifth album, Everything’s Falling, on August 28, which sees them incorporating pop elements (Bloodsport), metal-style screams (Ego) and reggaeton beats (Bruises), into their signature hard rock sound, defined by blaring guitars. The band is rounded out by Villarreal’s younger sisters Paulina “Pau” Villarreal on drums and Alejandra “Ale” Villarreal on bass, and while all three sisters contribute vocals, Dany is the lead vocalist as well as the sole guitar player.
With dual duties comes additional challenges, one being differentiating the guitar melodies from Villarreal’s vocals, since they often occupy the same range. This has pushed her guitar playing into the lower end. “I’ve fallen in love with low-key trying to play the bass on a guitar,” she laughs.
There was another function Villarreal had to juggle on this record. “We’ve applied a new pedal to this album, sound-wise, that made the album what it is, I think,” she says. “It’s a very unique pedal. It’s called The Noise pedal [by Tallon Electric – Ed]. It’s a very indie pedal, but it just makes noise.” But it does mean that on top of singing and playing guitar, Villarreal also now has to operate a pedal with her foot, like on the groove-filled track Bruises.
It took several different guitars to achieve the dynamic, electrifying sounds of Everything’s Falling. Below Villarreal talks Guitar.com through the most treasured and meaningful guitars in her collection, , including her brand spanking new PRS signature model:
Dany Villarreal with her signature PRS Astryx. Image: PRS
PRS Astryx
Announced just this week is Villarreal’s very first signature guitar, created in partnership with PRS. The Astryx is based on the iconic Custom 24 model, but with a variety of visual and spec flourishes. For example, the fretboard is ebony instead of the usual rosewood, while an inlaid sun adorns the twelfth fret. The sun theme continues with the guitar’s striking purple, red and orange top finish, which is intended to evoke a sunset. “I had never had the experience of trying to put myself, my personality into a guitar, and having that be me,” she says. “I’m completely in love, and it’s my favorite guitar.”
It took about a year of production, with Villarreal even going to the PRS factory in Maryland to watch how the guitar was made. “I feel like it’s a very big step as a guitar player, and it’s gonna be one of the highlights in my timeline as a guitar player,” she says. Just 200 of these unique instruments will be made for sale, with each one featuring an autographed backplate.
Dany Villarreal with her signature PRS Astryx. Image: PRS
Gibson Les Paul
Early in her career, Villarreal got her hands on a Les Paul. “[It] is one of my very first guitars ever that I had a hard time letting go of,” she says. “Once I found a Les Paul, it was just like, ‘I love this guitar.’ It eventually became a problem for my back as a growing child because it was very heavy.”
The Les Paul didn’t make it into her touring set, but she held onto it. “I always invite my Les Paul over to the studio because I do feel a strong connection with it,” she adds. “It’s more of a nostalgia thing to have it with me there. We didn’t use it that much but there’s something about maybe playing a basic rhythm, strum-out chords with a Les Paul that just hits right.”
Dany Villarreal performing with a Fender Stratocaster Baritone. Image: Press
Fender Stratocaster Baritone
This custom twin-humbuckered beast, and other Fender baris, have helped Villarreal reach those lower tones, which have shaped The Warning’s sound. “I have been loving the baritone feel and mid-range that it gives me between the bass and a guitar,” she explains. “It just makes the songs feel so powerful. So I’m really having so much fun exploring that baritone world.”
When it was time to work on Everything’s Falling, the baritone guitars played a key role. “I think I was even surprised how much we used baritone guitar in this album because I started using baritone guitars more as a layer than as a main guitar, and that was not the case for this album,” she says. “We went fully with the main guitars being the baritone guitars.”
They weren’t the only Fenders she used in the studio. “With little arrangements and things where I wanted to be a little bit more delicate, I went with a Telecaster, which is not something I usually use on tour – it’s mainly studio vibes,” she laughs. “And we would figure out at that point what the song was asking for guitar-wise.”
But for writing, she prefers the Fender Acoustasonic. “I usually go full acoustic, which is weird because [we play] rock and roll, but it’s my comfort guitar, and I keep that in my room…. But whenever I have an itch, I just [go for the] Acoustasonic, and it’s my favorite guitar to… explore with,” she says.
Manson Oryx VI
The Warning are big fans of Muse and in 2023, they got the opportunity to support them on tour. While playing a show in Mexico, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy asked Villarreal her favourite colour. “I didn’t know what he was talking about,” she recalls, but she answered with mustard yellow. The Warning ended up joining Muse for a few dates on the United Kingdom leg later that year. On the last show they played together, Bellamy surprised Villarreal by knocking on her dressing room door with a guitar in hand.
“I actually had a time where I played Manson guitars a lot because of him, and I couldn’t believe I was being gifted one by him,” she says. “I played it that very same day. I was just like, ‘I’m gonna test this out on stage, see how it goes,’ and I love it so much.”
But Villarreal’s reluctant to bring it on the road. “We had a jump scare,” she explains. “I took it out on tour, and it did not arrive [at] the final destination. It got lost in some of the airports, and I was like, ‘You know what? This is the only guitar I have gifted [to] me from Matt Bellamy. I’m gonna stop touring with it. I’m gonna keep it safe.’” She keeps it in her home studio. “I take very good care of it now because it really is very very special to me,” she says.
Dany Villarreal with a Gibson Explorer. Image: Press
Gibson Explorer
In The Warning’s music video for the brash, swaggering single Ego, Villarreal’s holding a white Gibson Explorer with a similar story behind it. The Warning were playing in Texas in 2022 – on a bill that included Halestorm, The Pretty Reckless and Lilith Czar – when Halestorm frontwoman Lzzy Hale walked onstage with a white Gibson Explorer. “And she kneels down [as] if she is asking for my hand in marriage,” Villarreal remembers.
Villarreal assumed Hale was letting her borrow one of her guitars for that set, but when she went to return the guitar after playing, Hale told her to keep it. Hale had herself previously been gifted a guitar by Shinedown’s Jason Todd. “She felt super inspired, and she wanted to keep that tradition going,” Villarreal adds. “And seeing me so young and being a woman on stage, rocking out, and specifically in rock and roll, she felt it was the right moment to give one to me.”
Villarreal’s looking forward to following Hale’s example. “I love each and every one of [my gifted guitars], and I hope I can be that person too,” she says. “I would love to be a gifter of guitars that I like to guitar players that inspire me and want to inspire.”
But, like the Manson, Villarreal doesn’t road-test her gifted guitars. “I have them stored in a very special place in my basement and in my heart,” she says.
Dany Villarreal performing with the PRS Orianthi. Image: Press
PRS Orianthi
Villarreal once mentioned in an interview that she admired Orianthi’s signature PRS guitar. It just so happened that Villarreal and Orianthi, both PRS artists, ended up sharing the stage as part of PRS’s 40th anniversary event last year. “After the performance was done, she just handed it to me,” Villarreal remembers. “I was like, ‘No way, this is insane!’ And it’s even [the] cherry on top that it was the guitar that she played that night with me on stage.”
While she’s been hesitant to take her gifted guitars for a spin live, she did make an exception. “It had to have a moment on stage, so I did play with it for one of the biggest shows in our career, which was Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City,” she explains. The three sold-out shows last year were recorded and the concert film was even screened in movie theatres. “It’s forever now there as the day I played with the Orianthi guitar,” she says.
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