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April 2025

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115 articles

April 12
- “It holds its own purely as a playable guitar. It’s really cool for the traveling musician – you can bring it on a flight and it fits beneath the seat”: Why Steve Stevens put his name to a foldable guitar
- “I was in a frenzy about it being trapped and burnt up. I knew I'd never be able to replace it”: After being pulled from the wreckage of a car crash, John Sykes ran back to his burning vehicle to save his beloved '76 Les Paul
April 11
- “A virtuoso beyond virtuosos”: Matteo Mancuso has become one of the hottest guitar talents on the planet – now he’s finally announced his first headline US tour
- “His songs are timeless, you can’t tell if they were written in the 1400s or now”: Michael Hurley, guitarist and singer/songwriter known as the ‘Godfather of freak folk,’ dies at 83
- “Finely tuned instruments with effortless playability and one of the best vibratos there is”: PRS Standard 24 Satin and S2 Standard 24 Satin review
- “The future is pretty bright”: Norman's Rare Guitars has unearthed another future blues great – and the 15-year-old guitar star has already jammed with Michael Lemmo
- “I said, ‘Mike, I don’t know how to tell you this, but that’s a note-for-note guitar solo from...” Mike McCready stole his Alive solo from Kiss – but Ace Frehley had already stolen it from another legendary classic rock band
- The guitar gear releases you might have missed this week, from Martin and Fender to Tone King and D'Angelico
- Guitar World deals of the week: save $600 on a Gibson Les Paul, get a Fender Strat with $380 off, plus all the week's best deals on guitar gear
- “You run scales so when inspiration and instinct kicks in you're able to keep up with it”: Larkin Poe's Rebecca Lovell explains her “hunt and peck” approach to guitar solos – and how scales can make all the difference
- Epiphone brings one of Gibson’s most desirable one-off finishes to the masses with Guitar Center-exclusive Widow Les Paul – but it’s been given a twist
- “I wanted to play more, and it was inappropriate with Eric or Roger. I was not the lead guitarist, and I wanted to be”: Clapton, Waters, Satriani and me – Andy Fairweather Low on his greatest collaborations and finally taking center stage
- “There are so many sounds to be discovered when you get away from using a pick”: Jared James Nichols shows you how to add “snap, crackle and pop” to your playing with banjo rolls and string snaps
- Celebrated jazz guitarist George Freeman, best known for his work with Charlie Parker and Gene Ammons, has died aged 97
April 10
- “After I made the RD with Epiphone I found it wasn't actually that comfortable to play live”: Bring Me the Horizon’s Lee Malia is no stranger to signature offsets – but he wasn’t too fond of his first
- “Tom would say, ‘Play your guitar with a car key.’ It was very experimental”: Little Feat's Fred Tackett recalls Tom Waits' left-field approach to guitar playing – and his one-of-a-kind studio sessions
- I spent way too long looking through all 372 deals in the Thomann Easter sale – here are the 5 I’d buy
- “Seeing friends and heroes of mine having their solos plagiarized broke my heart”: Giacomo Turra used their solos note-for-note for his own viral content. Now the guitarists who had their playing “stolen” are speaking out
- Guitar Center’s massive Guitar-A-Thon sale has landed, and there's $600 off one of my favorite Gibson Les Paul finishes and a host of exclusive models from Epiphone, Taylor, and more
- “Something’s stirring behind closed doors…” Joe Satriani plays For the Love of God? Steve Vai and Satch tackle each other’s most iconic leads in first SatchVai Band rehearsal footage
- “Eric’s standing there drinking an orange juice. He looks at me and says, ‘Been doing this a while, have you?’” When Eric Clapton saw an up-and-coming Tommy Emmanuel play for the first time
- “While the odd corner has clearly been cut, these are true Gibsons with all the individuality that this brand exhibits”: Gibson J-45 Special and Hummingbird Special review
- “It’s one of the most beautiful, living, breathing pieces of art – all the grime has just aged into the wood”: Margo Price on playing Willie Nelson’s Trigger, growing up with Gibson and bringing her signature J-45 to life
- “I’ve got a friend in a well-known band, and he says Martins have unnecessary bottom-end. My retort was always: ‘Well, you need to learn to play properly’”: Johnny Marr on the magic of his 7-string signature Martin – and his fight with capo addiction
- June 2025 Guitar World lesson videos and more
- Don't let chord inversions bamboozle you. It's simply the case of shuffling the notes around
April 9
- “Fender has stripped back the price – but has it gone too far paring back the sounds, too?” Fender Standard Acoustasonic Telecaster review
- “You're getting the most precisely built, easily adjustable guitar we've ever made”: Taylor Guitars just announced a guitar neck innovation that allows players to micro-adjust string height “in seconds” – without removing the neck or strings
- “I was like, 'I'm a kid. I should apply. He's gonna say no, right?' But he said yes”: This 12-year-old heavy metal prodigy never expected to be mentored by a former Megadeth guitar player – but that’s exactly what happened
- “It's like the guitar is built for 10 fingers and two hands and he's got three hands and 17 fingers”: He was called “The Humbler” and regarded as one of the world's greatest under-the-radar guitarists – and he would solo with a beer bottle and a towel
- "A traditionally spec'd, workhorse machine that sounds like a Les Paul should while offering some limited-edition aesthetics": Gibson Les Paul 60s Double Trouble review
- “I asked him to get me four bass strings because I only had a $29 guitar from Sears”: Bootsy Collins is one of the all-time bass greats, but he started out on guitar. Here’s the sole reason why he switched
- “This isn’t just a makeover. It’s a full-on glow-up”: Martin’s Junior Series Dreadnought is the best all-round acoustic electric guitar on the market – now the entire range has been given its most significant upgrade yet
- “I was reluctant, even in Rush, towards the end – I was not playing nearly as many solos. I just wanted to get away from that”: Alex Lifeson on his complicated relationship with guitar solos – and why he cut down on leads in Rush's later years
- “I got that bass for $50 off this coke dealer. I don’t know what Jaco did to it, but he totally messed up the insides!” How Cro-Mags’ Harley Flanagan went from buying a Jaco Pastorius bass on the street to fronting one of hardcore’s most influential bands
- “I don’t only think in barre chords – that’s a slightly arrogant statement to make”: Brian May and Roger Taylor disagree about their guitar contributions to Taylor’s Queen tracks
- “He didn’t sound like any other previous Whitesnake guitarist. His thumbprint is an indelible part of that record”: Remembering John Sykes, the journeyman virtuoso who made his mark on both Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake
- “My worst case of buyer’s remorse? An impulse-buy banjo. I was third-wheeling on a date, and I felt awkward”: Yvette Young on how to buy a guitar, and why – maybe – you should think twice before lending anyone a beloved acoustic
- “It’s the guitar I’ve dreamed of making for years”: Jackson and Bring Me the Horizon’s Lee Malia champion the rise of the metal offset with new signature Surfcaster
April 8
- "I never use my tube amp at home now, because I have a Spark Live": 5 reasons you should be picking up the Positive Grid Spark Live in the massive Guitar Month sale
- “The ‘Destruct’ button really sets it apart from just about any other Tele”: Fender and Mike Campbell recreate the Red Dog – The Heartbreaker’s heavily modded 1972 Telecaster, which he played with Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac
- “What’s going through our mind is ‘What the…?’ And if you see Bob’s face, you could see he’s thinking the same thing”: When Bob Dylan played with an LA punk band to promote the album he made with Mark Knopfler
- “Trent Reznor told me, ‘You’re by far the best guy that we’ve tried. I would love to have you in the band’”: Richie Kotzen came close to joining Nine Inch Nails – but one detail stopped him getting the gig
- “It’s become a bad habit. I bought a 1955 Tele and turned it over to carve my initials into the back. My friend screamed, ’Don’t do that!’” Kirk Hammett on his favorite Metallica solo and tone – and his most prized purchases from other guitar heroes
- “In the beginning, I was a terrible rhythm player. I avoided it like the plague”: Martin Barre once distanced himself from rhythm playing – but some Steve Lukather wisdom changed his mind
- “Ibanez and Japanese brands in general were irritating the hell out of Gibson, Fender and other US companies targeted by copyists”: From copies to innovations – the origin and rise of Japanese electric guitars (and the truth about ‘lawsuit’ guitars)
- “One of the most unbelievable things I’ve ever seen in music”: Popular social media guitarist Giacomo Turra accused of stealing other musicians’ songs for content
- “That is how you make an entrance!” Jack Black mimes on a Minecraft’d Flying V as Kirk Douglas nails the Sweet Child O’ Mine solo on Jimmy Fallon
- “I said, ‘If I could have it my way it would sound like this,’ and I pulled the bass guitar out of the mix”: Why Prince stripped the bassline from one of his biggest hits
- “The original Jordan Boss Tone was probably used by four out of five garage bands in the late ’60s”: Unpacking the gnarly magic of the Jordan Boss Tone – an actual guitar plug-in that delivers Dan Auerbach-approved fuzz
April 7
- “What they do harkens back to classic rock and real musicianship”: Amadou Bagayoko, singer and Malian guitar great, dies at 70
- “They said, ‘The Ace Hotel have you on camera leaving with the guitar.’ I was like, ‘I thought it was a gift!’” Machine Gun Kelly on the time he stole a cheap Martin from a hotel – and was billed $5,000
- “I had never done that before. I thought Jimmy was going to go, ‘Nice one’ – he looks at me and goes, ‘Don’t you ever do that again’”: That time Chrissie Hynde enraged one of her Pretenders bandmates because she stopped playing mid-gig
- “Dave was the master of some of the most iconic basslines in music history”: Dave Allen, former Gang of Four bassist and post-punk heavyweight, dies aged 69
- “I never met anyone who was his own person as much as Al was”: SSD guitarist and hardcore pioneer Al Barile dies aged 63
- “The main acoustic is a $100 Fender – the strings were super-old and dusty. We hate new strings!” Meet Great Grandpa, the unpredictable indie rockers making epic anthems with cheap acoustics – and recording guitars like a Queens of the Stone Age drummer
- “We go and look in the garage – it was there. It hadn’t been looked at for 20 years and was sad and falling apart. It was like, ‘Help me!’” James Dean Bradfield on unearthing his rare “birthright” guitar, gear epiphanies and why Robert Smith is underrated
- “I think Pantera might’ve talked about this in Hot and Heavy”: Kayla Kent nails Eddie Van Halen’s Ice Cream Man solo in the style of Dimebag Darrell
- “The most convincing acoustic tone from an acoustic electric that we’ve yet heard”: LR Baggs AEG-1 review
- “You can almost hear the music in your head when looking at these photos”: How legendary photographer Jim Marshall captured the essence of the Grateful Dead and documented the rise of the ultimate jam band
April 6
- “To be honest, I didn’t like Stevie’s tone as much in the heavy Dumble period. It sounded a little tight to me”: Ian Moore on jamming with the Stones, writing with Billy Gibbons, and discussing those SRV comparisons – with Stevie Ray Vaughan
- “At some country show I was playing, my dad saw one lying on the floor that somebody left or dropped. I had never seen one before”: He started playing at the age of three, and at 13, he came across something that would help define his unique sound
- How to play slap bass: an essential guide to slapping and popping
- “It's the most significant development in the last 50 years. Everything else has just been a little tweak on something Leo Fender or Les Paul did”: Once Allan Holdsworth picked up a headless Steinberger, there was no turning back
April 5
- “I got together with Jeff a few years ago. The famous white Strat was sitting on the couch so I said, ‘Jeff, pick it up and play it!’” Rockabilly rover Mick Rogers on playing with Frank Zappa, touring with Kiss, and rootsy jams with Jeff Beck
- "The Standard Stratocaster has all of the classic Strat sounds at its disposal. You’ll just have to work a bit more to uncover them": Fender Standard Stratocaster review
- Bass chords: shapes that work on bass guitar – and go beyond the power chord
- “Not everybody has a high standard. A lot of indie people think playing too good is a bad thing”: Billy Corgan on the difference between rock and “indie” guitar players
April 4
- “This is a powerhouse of a stompbox that manages to keep things simple while offering endless inspiration”: Strymon EC-1 Single Head dTape Echo pedal review
- “I'd sit there with my guitar and that was my education. This show gave me purpose, it gave me hope”: Gary Clark Jr. dons a Strat to cover Stevie Ray Vaughan classics at Austin City Limits' 50th Anniversary televised special
- “There was never any half-measures with Gary. If he didn’t like something he’d soon tell you to f**k off”: In July 1979, Gary Moore stormed off stage and officially left Thin Lizzy – now, guitarist Eric Bell reveals the real reason why
- “One of the coolest guitars I own”: Dweezil Zappa has some absolutely wild guitars in his vault – but his insane one-of-one fretless Gibson SG is one of his favorites
- “Delivers the same tones that made the original popular with legends”: Rotosound’s ultra-rare fuzz pedal has been reissued – bringing Jimmy Page-approved fuzz magic to the masses
- “Maybe we could buy a 12-string and have it sawed in two”: Kevin Bacon and Jimmy Fallon rewrite Bryan Adams’ Summer of ’69 – and make it all about six-strings
- “It's getting harder for him. But I've seen people younger than him in wheelchairs on stage doing what they do”: Ritchie Blackmore suffered a heart attack last year – and a return to Europe has been ruled out for the time being
- “A classical guitar for the modern era, with all the specifications expected by the seasoned player”: Harley Benton seizes on the Polyphia-led nylon-string revival with a versatile acoustic-electric for under $300
- “That’s the same guitar I’m playing on stage with the band and on tour with Green Day in front of 50,000 people”: Billy Corgan on why he plays off-the-shelf Reverends – and isn’t fussed about playing expensive guitars
- “The guitar work on her tracks is perfectly wonderful without me, so I decided to throw some mud at the wall”: Pete Townshend passes the torch to the next generation as he lends his guitar chops to emerging Dutch guitarist's latest record
- “You have to fight to be heard in metal. But you have to give them something worth fighting for!” 20 metal bassists who took heavy bass playing in new directions
- “What you hear on Stratus is pretty much the first take. Tommy Bolin's guitar playing is some of the best that ever was”: Legendary sideman Lee Sklar reveals the studio secrets behind his incredible career
- “I played the national anthem at a football game on a Les Paul with a Floyd Rose. I turned my back for five minutes and it got stolen”: Orianthi names her favorite guitars – and tells us why her PRS sounds better than a holy grail Les Paul
- “I did the intro to The Killing Moon without thinking. We went for a curry – and the engineer spotted that run and put it at the start”: How happy accidents, disastrous finances and an un-tuneable 12-string made Echo and the Bunnymen’s classic album
April 3
- "The amount of functionality stuffed into this mini pedal is, quite frankly, astounding": IK Multimedia Tonex One Joe Satriani review
- “A new drummer affects everyone in Dream Theater. We all play off the time keeper”: John Myung on how the return of Mike Portnoy has changed the band – and his bass playing
- Joni Mitchell described it as ‘fly fishing’ and Jeff Beck was a master of the craft – learn how to use volume swells like guitar legends Eddie Van Halen, Allan Holdsworth and Larry Carlton
- “I was working with David Gilmour and I said, ‘I can't work out how to play this.’ He couldn't either’”: Phil Manzanera tried to relearn one of his classic riffs after it was sampled by Kanye West and Jay-Z – and even the Pink Floyd hero couldn’t help him
- “I freaked out when I saw it on stage. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s it. That’s the guitar I worked on’”: It went viral with John Mayer, but 50 years before he played it, this mystery Martin began an incredible untold story
- “Slapping was a matter of natural evolution”: 21 slap bass legends who made thumpin’ and pluckin’ their own
- “I could barely play his guitar. He had 12s on the top. It was like a G string. I was like, ‘How do you do that?’”: Huey Lewis and the News' Chris Hayes looks back on his friendship with Stevie Ray Vaughan – and the blues great's notorious guitar setup
- “The Charvel is something Mike had at the house. The idea was to be able to cover pads, synth sounds and faux acoustic sounds”: From Raphael Saadiq to Mk.gee, Andrew Aged is on a quest for guitar reinvention – one guitar mod and off-kilter pedal at a time
- “That was the first time I’d ever listened to one and gone, ‘What is that? I want to learn how to do that’”: Justin Hawkins is known for his rock chops – but a soul and reggae legend inspired him to break the rules
- “My wife heard Locomotive Breath on the radio. She said, ‘I wish you played like that now.’ I was a bit upset”: Martin Barre on revisiting Jethro Tull, Leslie West – and the bootleg Les Paul that bent like a banana
April 2
- “Mick Ronson came to see one of the Springsteen shows, and he was just so proud of me. He had a classic rock ‘n’ roll existence, but I love him for all that”: Shane Fontayne on the kindness of Ronson, serving the Boss – and playing Stairway for Jimmy Page
- “These guys started the band the same year I was born – they have a whole world of history together”: How Nicole Row went from a wild ride in Panic! at the Disco to laying down the low-end in Incubus – and rerecording their biggest album
- “Who doesn't want to hear the recording of Ted Nugent and Eddie Van Halen jamming?” Ted Nugent's colossal archive includes sessions with EVH, Billy Gibbons and the Mothers of Invention
- “I started on guitar because I wanted to be in a band and meet girls. Richie wanted to be a guitar player, because he wanted to play guitar”: Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen come from different worlds, but it all comes back to the blues
- “It went wrong since Corona”: Bax Music, one of Europe’s largest musical instrument retailers, files for bankruptcy and ceases operations
- “If you’re youngish, cute-ish and can play that axe, you’re for me”: Chaka Khan is holding open auditions to find a new guitar player – but she’s got some very specific requirements
- “I walked in and said, ‘Can I get that guitar, the one at the end there?’ He looked at the name on the credit card and then looked up at me”: Chrissie Hynde on that one time she bought her own signature guitar off the shelf
- “I wasn’t into King Crimson at all. Definitely not my kind of music”: How Andy Summers formed one of the 1980s’ most unlikely guitar partnerships with Robert Fripp – despite not being especially keen on some of his work
- “He fined me 50 bucks and fired me, even though I didn’t mess up”: The bassists of James Brown reveal what life was really like playing alongside the Godfather of Soul
- “If you’re in the market for a single-cut on steroids with vintage charm, this is the one to wield”: Heritage Guitars Custom Shop Core Collection H-137 review
April 1
- “Wins out on battery life, stealthy aesthetics and its well-judged Cable Tone feature”: Blackstar Airwire i58 review
- “Affordable versions of the three best basses I've ever held in my hands”: Sterling by Music Man completes its trilogy of Joe Dart signature models with a trio of made-to-order basses that cost less than $500
- “Blurs your bassist so the mix stays focused on where it really matters”: From feline fuzz pedals to Bootsy Jooce, the April Fools Day guitar gags are out in full force this year – and we've rounded up the best
- “I get asked, ‘What’s it like being a one-hit wonder?’ I say, ‘It’s better than being a no-hit wonder!’” The Vapors’ hit Turning Japanese was born at 4AM, but came to life when two guitarists were stuck into the same booth
- “After his successful election, we sell this kind of guitar in the U.S. We once got an order with 12,000 guitars”: New documentary appears to confirm that Trump Guitars are being manufactured in China
- “Let's play... you start it off now, Stevie”: That time Stevie Wonder jammed with Stevie Ray Vaughan... and played SRV's number one Strat
- “The all-in-one music creation companion”: Donner’s HUSH-I PRO offers built-in FX and onboard IRs – and it could be the ultimate travel guitar
- “The bass is the instrument you need to play the longest to become truly funky”: 20 funk bass legends who took low-end groove to new heights
- “There’s an art to simplicity, and Jason Newsted brought that art. Cliff Burton was more aggressive, and a busier player”: The bassists of Metallica
- “We set out to put our thoughts and musical ideas out there, hoping they’d be appreciated. That’s proved to be true”: Sampled by Grandmaster Flash, De La Soul and the Fugees, Cymande shaped the sound of hip-hop. Now they’re back to claim their legacy
- “I got the impression that he needed to be quite forceful to get his songs onto Beatles records”: George Harrison orchestrator John Barham reflects on their shared love of Indian music and being conducted by Phil Spector
- “When I saw it, I couldn’t believe how cool it was”: Joe Satriani is selling one of his rarest guitars – an ultra-ambitious Ibanez Y2K Crystal Planet prototype
- “Our goal is to stay at the forefront of amplification innovation”: How Seymour Duncan set out to create the ultimate bass amp solution by pushing its PowerStage lineup to greater heights