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September 2024

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289 articles

September 30
- “If the company won't step up, the forums will”: After she was revealed as a potential Pantera guitarist, Kramer offered Kayla Kent a guitar – but when it turned down her ideas, a Kramer fan group built it instead
- “I have convinced myself that they are the best actual rock band in the world at the moment”: September 2024 Guitar World editors' picks
- “Every time I play with a session musician, they’re like, ‘What are you doing? What chords are you playing? That chord doesn’t even exist!’” Why Gen Z guitar star Beabadoobee’s chords have confused her fellow guitarists – but won over Rick Rubin
- “A superb drive that plays well with others”: J. Rockett’s new Phil X signature overdrive/boost is a ‘backline lifesaver’ that promises to make any amp sing
- “The next generation of the legendary overdrive”: The Nobels ODR has long been one of session guitar pros’ secret weapons – now two new pedals have refined the design based on player requests
- “I don’t normally enjoy co-writes, but when Billy Corgan says he wants to work on your stuff, you say yes”: Rosie Bones on her guitar chemistry with Carmen Vandenberg, Corgan collabs – and why Bones UK doesn’t need a bassist
- “I would show him the lick. He's like, ‘Why don't you just play it? You sound just like me, anyway!’” Dweezil Zappa says he recorded Eddie Van Halen playing a “greatest hits guitar solo” at 5150 for an unreleased project – and had to give EVH pointers
- “Redefines delay effects to create a pedal like no other”: The Dark Cloud is the final pedal Diamond designed before the revered effects firm closed down – now it’s finally seeing the light of day
- “I didn’t tell anybody when I started playing the guitar. Then I entered a talent contest and I played The Star-Spangled Banner with my teeth – and I won”: Why Steve Vai kept his guitar playing a secret when he first started
- “You can look at Nashville pre-Kris and post-Kris, because he changed everything”: Kris Kristofferson dies aged 88
- Long before shred took hold, instrumental electric guitar was pioneered by players like Link Wray, Les Paul and Hank Marvin – and their groundbreaking contributions shaped the sound of every guitarist who followed
- “I don’t know what kind of music this is!” Even Trey Anastasio doesn’t know how to describe his otherworldly playing in Phish – but his unique blend of guitar styles makes him a force to be reckoned with
- “I went backstage and said to Rory, ‘There’s a guy out there called Slash who’s come to see you…’ Rory’s eyes lit up”: The night Rory Gallagher gave the Guns N’ Roses guitarist a taste of affordable Gibson via his 1960 Melody Maker
- “By their very nature, electric 12-strings are quirky… But surely there’s no cooler instrument on which to progress your jangly journey”: Gibson Custom Shop 1965 Non-Reverse Firebird V 12-String Reissue review
September 29
- “I would call our approach organized chaos, but it drove Allan Holdsworth up the wall”: John Wetton has been the bass force behind a peak-period King Crimson lineup and two prog rock supergroups
September 28
- “Thrill-seekers wishing to add ear-melting fuzz to their bass will be in tonal nirvana”: Goliath FX Hornburg Fuzz review
September 27
- “Tailored for his percussive playing and highly technical style”: Ibanez finally honors prog guitar hero Manuel Gardner Fernandes with his first signature model – and it’s a radical reimagining of the firm’s most daring design
- “The mightiest guitar tone and performance monster per square inch”: Kemper responds to the Neural DSP Nano Cortex with not one, but two new upgrades for its Profiler Player – but you'll have to pay
- “He'd be like, ‘Yeah, when you're sitting in, you can just use mine.’ I was like, ‘I can?!’” Larkin Poe's Rebecca Lovell on the time Elvis Costello let her borrow his famed Fender Jazzmaster
- “Pat and Joe came to the shop, and he loaned the money to Joe to buy the guitar. He bought it for $250”: Gibson unearths the forgotten history of Joe Staunton’s mystery “Orphanage Burst” – a ‘59 Les Paul like no other
- “The first time I saw a D'Angelico guitar, it was in a video from Isaiah Sharkey and Melanie Faye. I immediately tried to find a store that had them”: D'Angelico teams up with funk sensation Giacomo Turra on a '60s-inspired signature model
- “He taught me how to play songs by Dream Theater, Iron Maiden and King Diamond… though I remember giving up on some of the John Petrucci solos!” Tor Oddmund Suhrke on guitar lessons with Ihsahn and casting musical illusions with Leprous
- “Joe and I had been hanging out, secretively making music, knowing that one day we'd do something. Four sessions later, we had an album”: How Glenn Hughes brought his low-end expertise into the spotlight with Joe Bonamassa and Black Country Communion
- “One thing I won’t waver from is a chorus effect on my clean tone. I love the underlying sadness it gives, even if you’re playing something happy”: Los Bitchos guitarist Serra Petale on repurposing ’80s sounds and the tone so good she wanted to eat it
- “I could see Brian was thinking about something, and he said, ‘How would you feel about using one of my Brian May guitars?’” Queen’s second guitarist, Jamie Moses, on how Brian May convinced him to switch from a Strat to a Red Special
- “A one-of-a-kind experience where creativity knows no limits”: Fender partners with video game franchise Monster Hunter for a wild Telecaster that glows red in the dark – and has a literal scratchplate
- What are 6/9 chords? Meet 5 chord shapes that make perfect set closers – and murder mystery soundtracks
- “The classic British sound of a Laney amp on your pedalboard”: Laney Black Country Customs Ironheart and Lionheart LoudPedals review
- “I walked through the ‘Nothing To Declare’ lane, though it was in an embarrassment of a guitar case at that point”: The remarkable story behind Rory Gallagher’s 1968 Coral 3S19 Electric Sitar
- December 2024 Guitar World lesson videos and more
- “Sets a new benchmark for guitar amp plugin performance”: Blackstar and Jared James Nichols blur boundary between physical and digital amp releases with ground-breaking signature amp and plugin launch
- Perry Farrell punched Dave Navarro in the face backstage, alleges Jane’s Addiction guitar tech as he reveals the background to the band’s onstage fight – and the dramatic aftermath
September 26
- “A bevy of enhancements for endless tonal possibilities”: Boss just gave players another reason to give its flagship touchscreen GX-100 amp modeler a try with huge firmware update
- “Most musicians can relate to being at the grocery store, humming riffs into their phone and looking like a weirdo in aisle six”: With Thick Riff Thursdays, producer Nick Broomhall is teaching guitarists how to nail the sound in their heads
- “I think of the guitar as a punctuation to the vocal. It's about, ‘How can I be an exclamation point?’” Cage The Elephant guitarist Nick Bokrath explains his unique guitar grammar – and the innocence of pedal steel
- “People drive for miles to trace Jeff’s steps in Memphis”: The home where Jeff Buckley was working on his Grace follow-up right before he died is being made into a 'tribute' Airbnb
- “Out of nowhere the phone rings and there’s a guy saying, ‘It's Edward Van Halen.’ 15 minutes later, he’s at the house with a guitar”: Dweezil Zappa on the first time he met Eddie Van Halen – after the guitar great unexpectedly called him
- Former Red Hot Chili Pepper guitarist Josh Klinghoffer set to be charged with vehicular manslaughter following fatal accident involving a pedestrian
- “Players have been requesting a reissue of this model for decades”: Epiphone has brought back its quirky cult classic 1970s Grabber bass beloved by Gene Simmons, Krist Novoselic and Mike Dirnt
- “It’s amazing and hands down the best one I’ve ever played”: Keith Urban on what it’s like to play through the Dumble that John Mayer used during his blues trio days – and how it became his main amp
- Neural DSP Quad Cortex vs Nano Cortex: Which should you choose?
- “There was a boy playing some Lonnie Donegan songs on acoustic guitar. He said, ‘If you bring your guitar to school, I’ll show you some chords’”: Jimmy Page reflects on his guitar journey as the British Embassy celebrates his achievements
- “The Rolling Stones gig is the culmination of my childhood dreams – I figure now that I've played with Miles, Sting, Herbie Hancock, Peter Gabriel, and Madonna, I've pretty much covered it”: Darryl Jones looks back at the path that led him to the very top
- Open G minor chords: 5 shapes you need to know
- “It’s built for powerchords that snarl and growl”: Epiphone Yungblud SG Junior review
September 25
- “The guitar I wanted to play did not exist. What I wanted was a cross between a Gibson and a Fender”: New Eddie Van Halen documentary traces the guitar journey that led him to create the Frankenstein – and it's narrated by the man himself
- “Any kind of extended solo, my left arm would just cramp up. It was frozen. I was definitely overdoing it”: George Lynch opens up about his bodybuilding days – and how it impacted his guitar playing
- “Dialing in these inspiring studio grade tones has never been easier and never sounded better”: Walrus Audio responds to player feedback and overhauls its flagship Mako pedal line with new MkII series
- “We went to Billy Corgan’s place in Chicago. He said, ‘When you think you’ve got a chorus, just write another one’”: Bones UK’s Carmen Vandenberg on going hard to make Soft – and the Jeff Beck pedal that won’t leave her ’board
- “I can’t stop being bewildered by all these people who say, ‘That guy sucks!’ I’ve got news for you – you don’t get to where you’re at if you suck! Okay?” Kirk Hammett on why bad solos are dying – and dealing with armchair guitar critics
- “It has taken us a long time to get this package perfected. I’ve got everything in here that I could dream of”: Keeley spent three years crafting the Octa Psi – a crazy 3-in-1 octave/pitch-shifting/fuzz pedal
- “I handed him the guitar at the end saying, ‘You can keep that!’ And the next day it had millions of views”: Yungblud explains why he’s been giving away his new Epiphone signature models at shows
- “It creates the illusion of speed and intricacy”: Inside the evolution of selective picking – one of modern guitar’s most expressive techniques
- “I would use the semi-hollow and get a lot of comments about it. And I’m like, ‘Well, you can’t buy one. It was made in Private Stock, and it’s just a one-off’”: PRS has teamed up with David Grissom for a new DGT Semi-Hollow – but it’s seriously limited
- “Delivers the OG of bold chorus sounds. We’re thrilled to authentically bring that tone back to pedalboards”: Warm Audio debuts its take on the revered vintage chorus beloved by John Frusciante
- “It wasn’t just a concert – it was a defining cultural moment”: Gibson honors one of B.B. King’s greatest live performances with knockout ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ ES-355
- “I’m almost getting scared about my love affair with this guitar – I’m worried what I would do if something happened to it”: Trey Anastasio on the creation of his “perfect” custom Languedoc guitars – and the genius who made them (who only sees mistakes)
- “The overall playability and the fast response just make it a pleasure… Add in those Seymour Duncans and you begin to think, all in, this is a little under-priced”: Chapman Law Maker Legacy review
- “I always say blues isn't about the blues scale or the minor pentatonic scale. It's not scaley music – it's pattern music”: Sue Foley shows you how to stop your blues solos from sounding “scaley”
September 24
- “This instrument was such an incredibly special guitar to Jimi”: Jimi Hendrix’s iconic ‘Izabella’ Woodstock Strat is going on the Experience Hendrix tour – and it’s being played by the guitar heroes involved
- “He was an electric performer and beloved musician and he will be missed”: Freddie Salem, former guitarist for Southern rock band Outlaws, dies at 70
- “The magic that made these amps so legendary with more customization than we've ever put in a pedal”: Universal Audio’s Enigmatic ’82 is now the Dumble pedal amp to beat – offering iconic mods and three decades worth of ODS sounds in one stompbox
- “I use a lot of chords with open strings. The guys in the Heartbreakers used to laugh at me, saying, ‘You’re doing the bagpipes again!’” Mike Campbell on his unorthodox guitar style – and how Tom Petty saved his definitive Breakdown lick
- “I worked at a studio and the band would leave their guitars there. I'm left-handed so I couldn't restring them. I just played it upside-down”: Seal wrote his breakthrough hit Crazy after learning two basic chord shapes on a borrowed guitar
- “You put a Flying V next to a Les Paul, next to a Strat, on the floor, it won’t do anything. It becomes something with the person who picks up the guitar”: Michael Schenker reveals the story behind his longstanding love affair with Flying Vs
- “We put out Rock in a Hard Place and went out on the road, which was the definition of the word ‘fiasco.’ Too many shows ended early due to the excessive use of chemicals”: Tom Hamilton on Aerosmith’s past challenges – and why they still have a future
- “I was literally sat backstage playing it through a Twin Reverb and it sounded exactly like Pretty Vacant”: Yungblud on what it was like to play Steve Jones’ Sex Pistols Les Paul
- “Back in the ’60s, none of those guys had Pro Tools. It had to be that take – and there’s a reason those recordings are still loved today”: Cash & Carter’s Ross O’Reilly is using a one-take guitar approach to write new songs for the old frontier
- “It's disappointing when someone you admire talks out their ass about you”: Megadeth fire back at Peter Frampton – who claimed the band damaged a stage during their soundcheck
- “Contrast is more important than the tone itself. If you just have the hardest, heaviest tone as a constant you get numb to it”: How Zeal & Ardor are adding light and shade to black metal with plastic guitars, chunky strings and unlikely tube amps
- “At this level and price it’s a serious starter, spare or – as it ever was – a wicked slide guitar”: Guild Polara Deluxe review
- “Butch Trucks said, ‘We should all go hear my nephew play. He’s amazing and he's 11.’ We're all like, ‘Yeah, okay…’” Warren Haynes recalls the first time he witnessed a young Derek Trucks play guitar
- Open C chords: 5 shapes you need to know
September 23
- “Sleek, reliable, and built to withstand the rigors of regular use”: Mooer just launched a $45 wireless system – is the Air P05 cheap enough to convince you to cut the cord?
- “I begged to have an electric guitar. I walked in Christmas morning and I could see the silhouette of it, and my heart dropped”: Eddie Vedder recalls the time he received his first guitar – and mistook it for a vacuum cleaner
- “I developed my playing style from being in bars, playing solo. People are shouting over your music... silences make them notice themselves – and then they notice you”: Ani DiFranco on the dark arts of acoustic – and why she’s over online ‘performers’
- “My wife pulled up a video of Linkin Park at Rock In Rio in front of 85,000 people, and my daughter goes, ‘Who's that?’” Mike Shinoda tried to give his daughter guitar advice – but she ignored him
- “We had an instant kinship… the first thing he did was give me a couple of guitars”: Elusive neo-soul artist D'Angelo flexes his guitar skills on a G&L Superstrat given to him by a music icon in newly discovered interview footage
- “When I hear a great guitar solo on a tune in 2024, I get very excited”: John Mayer praises top-tier lead effort from young Berklee grad as one of this year’s must-hear guitar solos
- “If you’re going to make instruments in 100 years, you better be growing that supply chain, not barely maintaining it”: When the guitar world’s most prized woods are endangered, how can we ensure the future of tone?
- “Perfectly executed with an extraordinary range of voices… If you can imagine it, PJD can probably build it for you”: PJD Custom Carey Elite and Carey Custom review
- “He looked at it, closed the case and said, ‘Let’s get out of here before they realize what they’ve sold you’”: How Rory Gallagher grabbed his iconic 1963 Gretsch Corvette for the princely sum of $150
- “Ibanez strives daily to be the cutting-edge guitar brand. This approach will never change”: How Ibanez is flipping the script on everything you think you know about acoustic guitar design
September 22
- “It’s sloppy and out of tune, but it seems to benefit the track”: How Ryan Martinie redefined metal bass playing for a new generation with Mudvayne
September 21
- “There were no fret markers on it, so all I could do was try to keep a straight face and guess!” Fretted, fretless, double bass, eight-string – Sting is unstoppable on bass. Here’s how he developed his style
- “Fret-hand muting is a technique that’s not often talked about, but I find it invaluable while using an overdriven tone”: How fret-hand muting can clean up your picking technique – especially with gain
September 20
- “Borland isn't just a guitarist. He’s redefining what it means to be a rock star”: Wes Borland’s go-to Limp Bizkit amps and effects pedals have made available as a signature Tonality plugin by STL Tones
- “One of the most important guitars in the entire history of bluegrass music”: The 1942 Martin D-18 that Lester Flatt used to forge the very sound of bluegrass is going up for auction
- “An elegant piece that represents one of the most legendary names in guitar design”: Gibson celebrates its 130th anniversary and honors the firm’s founder with limited edition Orville Gibson J-45
- “Genuinely collectible art pieces that sound and play as amazing as they look”: Vernon Reid’s eagerly awaited Reverend signature series is finally here – along with a new Greg Koch S-style
- “I didn’t spend more than 20 or 30 bucks on any of them”: King Gizzard’s new album was recorded with amps from pawnshop chain Cash Converters
- “We intend to play as many places as possible and see you all for the one last time”: Uriah Heep announce extensive farewell tour that could last up to 3 years
- “The initial contact from Ice-T was for permission to use the song, but I thought I might offer to play on it as well”: Body Count and David Gilmour release radical reimagining of Comfortably Numb in 2024’s most surprising crossover
- “Everywhere I go someone knows my name because of that bass solo. It’s not like with Michael Jackson – I don’t get mobbed – but I am famous”: How Willie Weeks' unbelievable solo on Donny Hathaway's 1972 Live album made him a bass legend
- “That was a blast of funk sunshine”: Blu DeTiger and Giacomo Turra jamming on an NYC rooftop is the funkiest thing you'll hear this week
- “It may be the first dedicated guitar effect”: From its journey from amp to stompbox to how it works, this is everything you need to know about tremolo
- “Even for a beginner to pick it up and play it, it almost plays you. I can tell you, it brings power to your hands”: The story of Rory Gallagher’s 1932 National Triolian – the resonator that had all the mojo but not the volume for his raucous live show
- The acoustic guitar is one of the world’s most versatile instruments – and these licks prove it can handle anything from folk to metal
- “When it comes to heavy rock, the definitive icon always has been RG”: How Ibanez raised the bar for high-performance electric guitar with the RG
- “Many single-channel amps are voiced for a specific gain level and only shine in that sweet spot. Not this one”: PRS DGT 15 Head review
September 19
- “Here to make bold statements”: Harley Benton brings an elusive Gibson-inspired finish back for the masses in latest sub-$350 335-a-like – which is joined by an equally affordable semi-hollow bass
- Dave Navarro looks to put Jane’s Addiction drama behind him by announcing his next gear venture – the Supreme Cry Baby wah pedal
- “The future of heavy metal”: America’s Got Talent viral metal star and 11-year-old shredder Maya Neelakantan joins Testament onstage
- Boss CE-5 settings you need to try: how to get the best out of the industry-standard chorus pedal
- “There’s so much we are working on, I'd rather keep my eyes forward. We’ll ultimately emerge stronger”: Why Chase Bliss has been forced to discontinue 5 of its finest pedals – and what it means for the firm's future
- “I felt like Ken Parker had taken 20 years to eliminate all the things that normally go wrong with a Fender or Gibson”: Adrian Belew on how he persuaded the famed luthier to create his mind-bending signature Parker Fly
- “Bearing in mind the colossal success of The Police, isn’t it odd that no-one has ever surfaced to say, ‘By the way, I modded that guitar?’” Investigating the mystery mods of Andy Summers’ mongrel Telecaster
- Guild just dropped some of the most affordable guitars it has ever produced – and these $300 models are keenly spec'd, too
- “Jeff was extremely adept with a bottleneck, but he could also manipulate the whammy to get a slide effect when the mood took him”: How Jeff Beck made his whammy bar sound like a slide – his soloing secrets revealed
- “This guitar is among the top 10 Stratocasters from the 1950s. If the Lord Almighty ever wanted to carve a guitar neck, this is the template he should use”: Before Lake Placid Blue there was Moreno Blue, and it makes this ’57 Strat a true unicorn
- “I feel like a Telecaster just makes you play differently – for me, it’s a pretty unforgiving guitar”: Tyler Bryant on the new Tele that rivals his beloved ‘Pinky’ Strats – and how he’s journeying beyond “bone-headed rock ‘n’ roll”
September 18
- “The neck is essentially twice the thickness of many standard necks. It was like, ‘Let’s see how big we can go – let’s go for a record-breaker’”: The making of Phil Collen’s monster new Jackson Tele-style
- “In my early years of gigging, I wish I had a portable setup that could gig anywhere”: Ed Sheeran grows his gear brand with the Sheeran Busker – a portable PA for aspiring street performers
- “John was goofy, gawky, and really tasty. I took him on the road, and he would steal the show every night”: Michelle Malone on John Mayer's early days and how she ended up becoming his mentor
- “On the chorus setting, this feels like a churning wave – with reverb, it's a monster growing out of your guitar”: Rainger FX has found a way to make distortion pedals fresh again – fade-in multi-FX
- “Quite often we hear really good artists say ‘the guitar feels like home but it rings so well.’ That’s music to our ears”: Joe Knaggs on the tonewoods, inspirations and philosophy behind Steve Stevens’ favorite high-end guitar company
- “Rory was a peaceful man, but I thought he’d thump poor Chris on the spot”: The story of Rory Gallagher’s 1959 Fender Esquire, the guitar crushed on a runway with a refinish job worth fighting over
- “This has been part of the vision for a long time – pretty much when the Quad Cortex came out”: Neural DSP takes the fight to TONEX and Kemper by unveiling the Nano Cortex – its vision of the ultimate compact all-in-one rig solution
- “As a compact amp modeler/cab simulator/Capture device, this is perhaps the best option out there, screen or no screen”: Neural DSP Nano Cortex review
- “Paul was like, 'Good God, what are you asking for?' I'm like, 'I'm just asking for a little struggle!'” Keith Urban is working with PRS on a new Tele-style guitar – and he wants to break the company's rules
- “There are so many emulators of Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Eddie Van Halen, but no one has been able to play like Frank Gambale”: Matteo Mancuso names 10 guitarists who shaped his sound
- “The boutique amp market thrives and exists as it does today largely thanks to Mike Soldano”: From Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai to Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler, the Soldano SLO-100 changed the sound of shred and blues alike
September 17
- “Enhanced string-to-string balance with increased clarity and sustain”: Seymour Duncan’s Rail Series reimagines its most popular pickups for high-gain setups
- “A musical experience that transcends sound”: Martin’s 'Life is Good' LX1 has been built to “spread good vibes” – and it might be the ultimate campfire acoustic
- “If you’re making music that’s got guitar on it, and not reaching the masses, you might be like, ‘Wow, people just hate guitar music.’ Well, I don’t think we can blame the guitar...” FINNEAS on bringing guitar back to pop and revamping the Acoustasonic
- “Be intentional about where you’re picking. Moving from the bridge to the fingerboard is as dramatic as switching pickup positions on an electric”: 21 ways to get more from your acoustic guitar
- “It's by far the most affordable pedal we’ve ever made”: Beetronics introduces the Tuna Fuzz – a vintage-style fuzz pedal in a tuna can
- “We mixed innovation with history, and did something we think Leo Fender would be very proud of”: Jack White’s new Fender Signature Collection pushes the boundaries of guitar and amp design – and brings his wild custom Telecaster to the masses
- “I'm often working in fractions of a millimeter in dentistry – and with guitar, too, even the slightest movements can make all the difference”: How shredding dentist Steve Dadaian landed his dream collaboration with Dream Theater’s Jordan Rudess
- “Learn how to play – because if you can’t play, you’ll find a pedal and you’ll cheat”: Dave Mustaine on guitar collecting, switching to Quad Cortex and why some players are “living a lie” with stompboxes
- “If it were up to just him, he’d be back on tour… but it's not up to just him”: REO Speedwagon to stop touring due to “irreconcilable differences”
- “It’s capable of being terrifyingly loud. When we launched the LFR-412 at NAMM 2024 we couldn’t turn it up beyond 2”: How Laney brought volume and best-in-class tone for digital rigs with the world’s loudest active guitar cabinet
- “The essential Les Paul, reimagined and updated for today’s players”: Gibson has relaunched its Les Paul Studio – and given the gateway LP its best update yet
- “Tony Rice said, ‘This is the sound you should be going for – you just need to put it in a bigger package’”: How Dana Bourgeois led the OM-style guitar renaissance and turned Bourgeois Guitars into a guitar craftsmanship powerhouse
- “It actually goes up to infinity, which is what true tape flanging sounds like”: Beloved by Pat Travers and Adrian Belew, the A/DA Flanger was one of the greatest guitar effects of the ’70s
- “A solid practice resource and a useful tool for creative composition”: DigiTech JamMan Solo HD review
- “The gap wasn’t just a minor inconvenience – it was a fundamental disconnect between what was available and what I truly desired”: Balaguer is the progressive guitar expert leading the way in high-performance offsets
- “Andy’s passing left us all absolutely devastated. I’ve been wanting to celebrate his life and contribution to music”: The Smiths drummer Mike Joyce launches Crowdfunder for Andy Rourke tribute mural
September 16
- “If you’re a country music fan, who doesn’t put these guys on their Mount Rushmore to record with?”: Vince Gill, John Osborne and Brent Mason tapped for a new single – and it's an all-star tribute to the Telecaster
- “We’re not even going to try to dabble in digital modeling. Everyone else can do it better”: Orange explains why it's not joining the amp modeling race
- “I’m so grateful for the strong American audience I’ve gained online. It’s about time I rock out with them in person”: Sophie Lloyd announces her debut solo US show – and marks the occasion with a shred reimagining of Alice Cooper’s Poison
- How to Get Your Music on Spotify with Distrokid
- “The band have made the difficult decision to take some time away”: Jane’s Addiction cancel remaining tour dates as Dave Navarro says “goodnight” to the group following onstage altercation with Perry Farrell
- “You can rehearse until you're blue in the face, but once you hit the stage and the lights go out, all bets are off”: Steve Vai and Adrian Belew tackle King Crimson classics as their much-anticipated Beat tour kicks off
- Kick up your acoustic tone with FU-Tone’s high-performance titanium and brass bridge pins
- “I saw a kid holding that guitar out for me to sign it. But the train was already moving… I’m thinking, ‘Man, I gotta get the kid’s number to see if I could buy it back’”: Joe Perry on the one guitar he regrets selling
- “He continued to perform around the world throughout his career, carrying the torch for the Cash music legacy”: Tommy Cash, country artist and Johnny Cash's younger brother, dies at 84
- “The blues deserve a chance… My love really sits with that genre of music”: Jackson 5 guitarist and singer Tito Jackson has died aged 70
- Introducing Rhythmically Dependent Alternate Picking, the lead technique that makes fast guitar lines flow better than ever before
- “Fender mentioned that for the Tone Master Pro it takes about 3 months to model a channel. With TINA, we've got that down to hours”: How Neural DSP changed the digital guitar gear game with the help of a robot called TINA
- “It’s so difficult. The guitar has got a life of its own and it’s got to move on”: Why Rory Gallagher’s iconic Strat is up for auction now – and the political pressure to keep it in Ireland
- “You have more tone, more sustain and more stability. It’s like the best just got better”: How Eastman realized its vision for the future of the electric guitar with the D’Ambrosio range
- “Why are the single-pickup models of particular interest? Well, they really can sound better”: The Gibson ES-330T might have been the “runt of the litter”, but its unusually positioned P-90 pickup offers a unique experience among Gibson hollowbodies
- “Since the Sphere, we have begun using iso cabinets for the speaker cabinets and the Leslie, leading to all the amps and speakers being off-stage”: Trey Anastasio’s tech, Justin Stabler, reveals all about the Phish frontman’s new live guitar rig
- “Paul was a guitarist who switched to bass because the group needed one, as this song proves”: Did Paul McCartney fumble a note on this classic Beatles bassline?
September 15
- “I had the audacity to say, ‘Are we gonna rehearse, Mr. Berry?’ He whipped around and yelled, ‘We don’t rehearse rock ‘n’ roll!’” Session great Carlos Alomar on his time as Chuck Berry’s rhythm guitarist
September 14
- “It was a bit of a number for me to have to dare to tell George Harrison not to play guitar. It was like an insult”: Paul McCartney turned down George Harrison's proposed guitar parts for Hey Jude
- “We grabbed a taxi home, but I left the bass in the trunk. I woke up in the middle of the night and started freaking out”: Viral bass hero Blu DeTiger just gave the Fender Jazz Bass a radical revamp – but she started on a Gretsch she left in a cab
- Jane’s Addiction end show early after Perry Farrell punches Dave Navarro mid-solo, forcing guitar tech to intervene
September 13
- Download and stream the audio from Total Guitar 389
- “Higher quality delay and reverb algorithms, and augmented looping engineered to withstand the rigors of touring”: Mooer has seriously upgraded Devin Townsend’s wild signature Ocean Machine pedal – with an expanded looper and superior ambient tones
- “Astonishingly, his continued non-acknowledgment as a near direct tonal descendant of Jimi Hendrix continues to this day”: Vernon Reid names the ’70s guitar hero who is still overlooked – despite playing with Hendrix
- Guitars make a comeback at this year's MTV VMAs – spearheaded by Lenny Kravitz, Halsey and Shawn Mendes
- “It must have taken two weeks of tweaking to wrestle that thing to the point where it would stay in tune”: Joe Satriani called on Eddie Van Halen’s techs to figure out how to make his Frankenstein playable
- “All of my favorite ones were huge. I wanted to have three-in-one in a smaller footprint”: Cory Wong’s new signature wah/expression/volume pedal might be the space-saving stompbox your pedalboard is crying out for
- “When Oasis recorded Supersonic, all he had was an Epiphone Les Paul Standard”: Oasis reunion hype reaches fever pitch as Noel Gallagher’s Definitely Maybe LP smashes its auction estimate
- “When Rihanna's team reached out to me, I said, ‘Why would you want to use me? Like, I do what I do’”: Nuno Bettencourt explains why he accepted the role of Rihanna's go-to guitarist
- “A truly outrageous Superstrat”: Justin Hawkins channels the spirit of Eddie Van Halen’s legendary Frankenstein with his new ridiculously relic’d Atkin signature guitar
- "This is an excellent, compact pedal that helps you tune accurately and quickly": Peterson StroboStomp Mini review
- “They’ve basically solved all of the problems that existed here”: Line 6’s $179 POD Express just became a pedalboard must-have after “game-changing” new update
- “He taught me that it was OK to play the music you wanted to play. He was my mentor and a surrogate father, too”: Why John Mayall was the godfather of British blues guitar
- He's the Grammy-winning Ibanez signature artist who has been setting the standard for jazz-fusion guitar since the mid-'70s – his style is so iconic, he even has a lick named after him. Learn how Pat Metheny's soloing approach can elevate your jazz game
- “You could sing along to the songs – including the solos. You can really mess a song up by playing the wrong solo. You can put people off”: Phil Collen on Def Leppard x Tom Morello, his love of thick guitar necks – and why Pyromania still blows him away
- “They really should replicate that, because it just has some magic”: Alex Skolnick on Criss Oliva's favorite guitar, “the Gargoyle” – the ESP Superstrat he likens to Billy Gibbons’ Pearly Gates Les Paul Standard
September 12
- “You almost forget you’re playing a carbon fiber guitar… this is a lifestyle instrument that is ready for the stage, the studio and even the great outdoors”: KLOS Guitars’ Grand Cutaway Mini is made to go with you – wherever you want to play
- “When I was playing with Prince, I saw how he was using it and I just saw his swag with it, so I kind of adapted it”: MonoNeon reveals the one pedal Prince urged him to use, now a staple in his bass rig
- “I had a little too much Jack Daniels and went to sleep. Early the next morning, I woke up to Eric and George playing ukuleles at the foot of my bed”: Session pro George Terry recalls the first time he met a Beatle
- Stephen Carpenter reveals when he expects to return to live duties with Deftones
- Fender Player 1 vs Player 2: should you upgrade?
- “This guitar holds the magic of Malmsteen’s fast-paced, virtuosic playing”: One of Yngwie Malmsteen's main Fender Strats is up for grabs – and it comes with a free Ferrari
- “We got a bang on the door and it was Eric's security. That was embarrassing – he might have thought it was me making this racket”: That time Ritchie Blackmore disturbed Eric Clapton by cranking Marshalls in a hotel at 3am
- “When I came back into Lynyrd Skynyrd, I knew that Free Bird was going to be my lead. I was the drummer in Muscle Shoals when we cut the original. I watched Allen. I knew the licks”: Rickey Medlocke unpacks his history with Skynyrd – and that guitar solo
- “This way, there’s a straight-line connection between the solo and the song itself”: Trying to craft a memorable solo? Revisit hooks from a song’s melody
- “The playing is fiery, the lines are emotionally powerful and the melodic ideas and phrasing are perfect”: Joe Bonamassa pays tribute to his favorite guitar player of all time
- “Provides Marshall Plexi fanatics with the dynamic, bone-crushing tones of their dreams and then some”: Suhr SL68 MkII head review
- Open Csus2 chords: 5 shapes you need to know
September 11
- “They brought Orange stacks to a Tiny Desk”: Mdou Moctar delivers scorching solos at the NPR offices – and even ditches his Strat for an Acoustasonic
- “When I encounter Kurt Cobain’s Sky Stang I, I'm evaluating it like a tech. Then I'll have a beer and go, ‘Did that just happen?!’” From fixing Lennon’s Framus to giving Prince's Cloud III a CAT scan – it's all in the life of an A-list guitar appraiser
- Acoustic guitars FAQ: from understanding tonewoods to the different sizes available, get to know your acoustic with these common questions answered
- “I find it hard to believe we'll never play again. I refuse to consider it over”: Aerosmith may have retired from touring, but bassist Tom Hamilton says it might not be the end for the band
- “I think we changed him as much as he changed us – he was loving the guitar solo thing by the end”: David Gilmour on how he won over Luck and Strange’s solo-sceptic producer
- Download and stream the audio from Guitar Techniques 366
- “My band and crew hadn’t worked in three years so we plowed on – eight epidurals later and 180 opium tablets, I made it through the tour”: Blackie Lawless on touring, talking solos with David Gilmour – and that time W.A.S.P. bought 52 Marshall heads
- “Ed Van Halen was a lot more than his tapping solo. Unfortunately, all the other players in LA thought it was all tapping and dive bombs, and they became cartoon versions of Eddie”: Pat Travers recalls how EVH gave rise to caricature impersonators
- “It was the pick my playing had been waiting for”: I’ve been on a quest to find the perfect pick – and it didn’t just improve my tone, it made me a better player
- “He wants to come on stage and play Joey's guitar part with you guys to honor his friend. We'll do that”: Fan plays guitar onstage with King Gizzard in memory of his friend who died in an avalanche
- “There’s spite and aggression in the performance”: Unreleased Prince documentary suggests his iconic While My Guitar Gently Weeps solo was an “act of revenge” against Rolling Stone
- “At a certain point we couldn’t get into 606 anymore. Some band called the Foo Fighters had it booked out for a month”: Scott Ian and Jonathan Donais check in from the studio to explain why the new Anthrax record will “punch people in the face”
- Cook up your own “musical gumbo” with this lesson in how to use bluegrass alternate picking in rock
- They may have lit the fuse for high-voltage rock, but The Kinks are much more than You Really Got Me – and Ray Davies’ inventive acoustic style influenced a generation of players, including Pete Townshend
- “It reminds me of a saturated Clapton mid-boost or tubular Santana tone. It’s a very handy thickener for single coils”: Black Ice Boost review
September 10
- “Pays homage to vintage legends while infusing innovative features”: Ashdown’s mid-priced SX range looks to put a modern spin on classic tube amp tones
- “I never liked the idea of getting lessons from a guitar player, and thought it would be more useful to learn from someone who didn’t play the guitar at all”: Lo-fi guitar hero Mk.gee on why he decided to learn guitar basics from an upright bassist
- “This bass is a reflection of everything I love about playing”: Fender honors viral bass sensation Blu DeTiger with a stunning Sky Burst Sparkle signature Jazz Bass – and it sounds as good as it looks
- “I’m sick of people saying Walk On the Wild Side is a classic. I got paid £12, and David Bowie didn’t even show up”: Session bass legend Herbie Flowers on the making of Lou Reed’s 1972 hit – and the hardest session he ever did
- “I remember trying a Telecaster and finding the sliding so complicated, like a mountain between one fret and the other. I hated it. That’s why I stuck with Jazzmasters”: Hinds talk learning guitar on the road, recruiting Beck – and rebuilding the band
- “Created in response to player requests for the return of this ’80s-era cult favorite”: Gibson channels Superstrat and PRS vibes as it revives its Victory model for the first time in 40 years
- “You're going to come and upstage me? OK, great”: David Gilmour surprises pub-goers with acoustic rendition of Pink Floyd classic accompanied by daughter Romany
- “If there is a Jane’s Addiction in 2025, there will be new music. But you never know if there’s going to be a band at all”: Eric Avery on overcoming JA’s “unthinkable” time without Dave Navarro and his brief stints with Metallica and Smashing Pumpkins
- "I’ve been a Steve Vai fan since I was 15, and never thought I’d ever get the chance to do something amazing with him": Slipknot's Corey Taylor collaborates with his hero Steve Vai on new Billy Morrison track
- “I learned the hard way many years ago that daisy chains are not reliable!” Serena Cherry shares her pedalboard secrets and admits she’d feel naked without “big, cavernous reverb”
- “Both wahs sound fantastic, and it’ll come down to whether you dig a wah with a more vintage quack or an articulate sweep”: Vox V846 Vintage and Real McCoy Wah review
- Open Gsus4 tuning chords: 5 chords you need to know
September 9
- “People who buy million-dollar guitars are the same as people who buy Rolls-Royces. If you’re not going to use it, it doesn’t make any sense”: Slash on the benefits of affordable guitars – and why overspending on gear is “absolutely not worth it”
- “‘What are you still doing at home? You’re supposed to be on a flight going to Detroit to audition.’ That was my introduction to P-Funk”: DeWayne Blackbyrd McKnight on how he came to join George Clinton's legendary music collective
- “Over the years I’ve realized I thrive most when I’m actively working with my bandmates behind the scenes”: Linkin Park guitarist Brad Delson explains why he's decided to sit out the band’s comeback tour
- “He scoured the globe to find these guitars. I had given many away or sold them through the years, but he tracked them down”: A 1,000-page book showcasing Steve Vai’s iconic guitars has been announced – and it will be joined by a super-limited Ibanez JEM
- “I told Lou Reed, ‘Can I get the double bass out of the car? Because this song is a bit jazzy’”: British bass legend Herbie Flowers, best known for his work with David Bowie and Paul McCartney, dies aged 86
- “We may be able to make good-sounding instruments out of any material”: Yamaha’s Upcycling initiative turns scrap instrument offcuts into one-of-a-kind guitars – and it could transform the guitar-building industry
- Boss discontinued the Katana:GO mere months after launching it – these are 4 headphone amps you should try instead
- “It’s amazing to see Adrian Belew and Steve Vai playing together. My temptation is to pick up the camera! I have to remind myself to stick to my job playing bass”: For the King Crimson-channeling Beat tour, Tony Levin is a virtuoso among virtuosos
- “I’ve done somewhere close to 30,000 fret jobs. Holding a crowning file for that many hours a day will tear you up if you’re not careful”: How fixing thousands of guitars changed the way Tulsa blues cat Seth Lee Jones plays the thing
- The “train beat” is a staple of country and blues music – and learning to play over it will hone your hybrid picking and timing
- “If you talk about rare unicorns, that's the amp. To have something that John Mayer himself couldn't distinguish from the real thing, that’s something we would love to do”: The Neural DSP team reveal the vintage amp they dream of one day modeling
- He’s played with Michael Jackson, Elton John and three of the Beatles, and was a world-class soloist while still in his teens – why Toto guitarist Steve Lukather is one of rock’s greatest players
- “A unicorn in the guitar world, and for its price, playability and tones, it is a magical beast to rein in”: Danelectro Doubleneck review
- “I couldn’t work with John Lennon and Paul McCartney. I’d end up being beaten to death”: When we locked horns with Lemmy to talk Motörhead, Marshalls and why he wouldn’t fit in with one of his favorite bands
September 8
- “I wrote that bassline when I was 16. I saw this dude slapping the hell out of a bass at a music store – the tumblers clicked in my head. I took a bus home, picked up my bass, and I was doing it!” Fishbone’s Norwood Fisher names his 10 best basslines
September 7
- “Someone told me you can’t play slap bass on a fretless, but when Prince picked up my bass he slapped the heck out of it!” Esperanza Spalding on jamming with Prince, and her stunning Justin Bieber upset
- “We end up drinking until 5 in the morning. I wake up with the worst hangover of my life, and now I’ve got to play with Metallica”: How a late-night drinking session with Lars Ulrich almost ruined Robert Trujillo’s Metallica audition
September 6
- “We feel really empowered with this new lineup, their world-class talents, and the vibrant new music we’ve made together”: Linkin Park unveil new-look lineup, drop new single The Emptiness Machine
- “I thought it was a bunch of noise. I left. Later, it almost felt like Jimi Hendrix was saying, ‘I'll make sure you never forget my name’”: Frank Marino on the time he left a Hendrix gig early – and the truth behind the bizarre Hendrix haunting story
- “There are a lot of guitars reaching the end of their playable lives – we want to make them useful again”: Re-Tuned turns old acoustic guitars into Bluetooth speakers
- “Delivering a resonance that speaks directly to the soul of your music”: The Hagstrom Megin is a double-cutaway guitar built for maximum tonal resonance to “unlock its tonal magic”
- “A fan-favorite packaged down without compromising on quality and tones”: Amp-modeling multi-FX for $82? Harley Benton has somehow made its flagship floor modeler even cheaper
- “I heard some criticism that I didn’t play the parts enough like Criss, but I didn’t want to just go in there and try to be a clone of him”: When Alex Skolnick quit Testament – and was recruited to replace the late Criss Oliva in Tampa metallers Savatage
- Jeff Hanneman is a metal god whose evil phrasing and brutal downpicking gave thrash kings Slayer an unholy dimension
- “In terms of electric guitars, I’ve never used anything other than Fender in my life”: UK post-punk band English Teacher just won one of the most prestigious prizes in music – and it all started with Fender
- “We don’t want to use guitar solos as a crutch. You know – ‘after the bridge, solo!’ When I do play a solo, I want it to stand out”: Following mega-tours with Muse and Royal Blood, sister act The Warning are riff rock’s next big success story
- “Anyone looking for a budget acoustic with retro looks will be charmed by ol’ Mr Dandy. It’s a hard guitar to put down”: Gretsch Jim Dandy Concert review
- “If somebody said there was a valve amp in the room, you wouldn’t contradict that”: Discover BOSS’ Katana Gen 3 range – an upgraded amp family that offers something for every player
September 5
- “They asked Billy Gibbons, John Mayer and me. I wish this would make me sound like Jeff Beck, but it won’t”: Steve Lukather confirms Jeff Beck guitar tribute project as he wields his iconic White Strat to cover Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing
- “I didn’t know Corgan, but I knew he wasn’t the easiest person to work with. I thought, ‘This isn’t going to last but it’ll be interesting’”: Jane’s Addiction’s Eric Avery on his brief stint with the Smashing Pumpkins and what he learned from Billy Corgan
- “We were trying to put blues riffs on dance beats. We wanted to see what happens if you fuse those two worlds”: Meet Daniel ‘Dafreez’ Johnston, the “blues rave-up” pioneer combining folk fingerstyle and EDM
- “Very much the upgrade that was needed for one of the most popular headphone amps for guitar”: Fender Mustang Micro Plus review
- “A significant leap forward in both technology and user experience”: Fender’s Mustang Micro Plus looks to fill the void left by the Boss Katana:GO by making the firm’s market-leading headphone amp better than ever before
- “I drank my liver into submission and snorted a mountain of cocaine, and I didn’t die. Now I’m trying to stay away from that stuff so I can still be around. I keep myself really busy with music”: The redemption of High on Fire and Sleep icon Matt Pike
- “It was suggested we try making a Dumble-style clean. They’re so mystical – I’d never played one. You can look at the circuit and still be none the wiser”: The unstoppable rise of Victory Amps – and what comes next
- “We're witnessing history in the same way that the Beatles changed the music industry in the early 1960s”: Gibson reveals Taylor Swift’s go-to guitars during the Eras tour and hopes for a signature model
- “I’d be playing the synth, thinking, ‘Peter, do you see this? Sting is playing that part – and you don’t mind when Sting does it!’” Tony Levin explains the origins of his Funk Fingers appendages – and the friendly rivalry they sparked with Peter Gabriel
- “We shared a depth of understanding that most people can only hope to achieve in a lifetime”: Hear Eddie Van Halen solo again in an unreleased preview of the last song he worked on with his brother
- “Reveals why the original 2290 has remained a permanent fixture in pro guitarists’ rigs for four decades”: TC Electronic TC 2290P Dynamic Digital Delay review
- Exhausted all the conventional open tunings? Try the adventurous Aadd9 tuning: here are 5 chord shapes you need to know
- “A staple for pro players revered for its rich hybrid sound": Boss brings back a legendary delay loved by Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai and Steve Lukather in its most compact and affordable form yet
September 4
- “When David Bowie and John Lennon came in, the whole place stopped. I stopped recording – and then it was just us”: Carlos Alomar recalls playing guitar on Fame with two rock icons – and why he turned down dinner with a Beatle
- “Imagine the dirtiest Les Paul on the planet, but even worse”: Jared James Nichols is reviving a storm-destroyed Gibson – a 1975 Custom that was being played when its original owner died
- “Someone dosed Eric Clapton with LSD, and I had to take over”: George Terry says he had to step up during Clapton's bad nights on the road in the ’70s – but it wasn’t always the guitar hero’s fault
- “You can dial in a potent boost, but also set the pedal to use purely for tonal tweaking”: Electro-Harmonix LPB-3 review
- “People are responding because of the realness and vulnerability, instead of that persona of a drunk rockstar”: Koe Wetzel abandoned his party animal image to show who he really is on 9 Lives, and found a new reason to play his beat-up Gibson J-200
- “A celebration of Dimebag’s timeless influence”: Dimebag Darrell’s Warhead amp has been revived as a compact lunchbox head – and it was tested during Pantera rehearsals
- Familiar with the blues? Then you shouldn’t have any problems transitioning to country. In this country guitar masterclass, we teach you everything you need to know to make it in Nashville
- “When I heard Nirvana’s Live at Reading it became less about learning solos than putting the guitar in front of an amp and making it scream”: Fontaines D.C.’s Carlos O’Connell on playing Rory Gallagher’s Strat and why a spring reverb is the best overdrive
- “All of a sudden out of the blue I didn’t have any control of this arm”: Brian May recovering after suffering “minor stroke”
- “Offset guitars can be really clumsy, but that makes me approach them differently. I kept hitting the kill switch mid-solo, thinking, ‘Why is this here?!’” Samantha Fish on how Kurt Cobain turned her onto the Fender Jaguar
- “We got together in someone's apartment in the Village and were jamming, trying to see what we could come up with”: Andy Summers on his longstanding relationship with Robert Fripp – and their surprise new collab album
September 3
- “It’s interesting how something so subtle can be so dramatic on the player’s end”: Seymour Duncan supercharges two classic Billy Gibbons guitar tones with new signature Tele and Les Paul pickups
- “The culmination of 45-plus years developing a sound that’s perfect in every possible way… Prepare to be amazed”: MXR’s new Yngwie Malmsteen signature overdrive pedal could be its most dynamic overdrive to date
- “Mick Jagger was moving around like a marionette, responding to every squeak coming out of my guitar”: Eric Bazillian on playing with a Rolling Stone, writing Joan Osborne’s One of Us – and helping Cyndi Lauper find a career-defining hit
- “Allan recorded a bunch of takes. He apologized, saying they all sucked… Of course, every note he played was miraculous”: Grammy-nominated virtuoso Alex Masi on why he turned down Stevie Ray Vaughan, his Allan Holdsworth collab and time with Shawn Lane
- “Why wouldn’t you stay in the Sphere and make a lot of money? Because it’s not as much fun. It doesn’t last forever. Look at how many musicians have passed away. What are you going to do with what you have?” Trey Anastasio explains Phish’s joyful rebirth
- “A player who took the instrument to places no-one else had ever gone before”: Epiphone’s Jimi Hendrix ‘Love Drops’ Flying V recreates the guitar great’s most psychedelic model
- How to play surf music on guitar: 3 techniques that will make your playing sound authentic
- Open G tuning chords: 5 shapes you need to know
- “The greatest fellowship one could imagine”: The Old Blood Noise Endeavors Western-themed Pardner is a fuzz that can ‘lasso’ to another pedal to shape its tones
- “Her number one piece of feedback is to be quieter. Sometimes, we bicker and maybe I win”: FINNEAS reveals his guitar technique debates with Billie Eilish
September 2
- Did Tim Henson just tease the arrival of his first Japanese-made Ibanez signature guitars – and a new 8-string?
- “Finely tuned to replicate the rich and warm tones of a tube amp”: Ashdown is so convinced its new budget amp range offers killer tone, it’s literally called it Killer Tone
- “The idea is to be versatile, and nothing beats Engl for doing that exceptionally well – it's all tube all the time”: Steve Morse’s new signature amp stakes its claim as one of the most feature-packed 20W tube heads on the market
- “The strap came loose, the amp was up, the guitar was up, and the neck broke off. Bob turned around like, ‘What are you doing back there?’” Mike Campbell recalls breaking his guitar in front of a live audience – in the middle of a Bob Dylan show
- “A titan in the industry who helped shape the LA studio sound of the 1980s”: Renowned luthier and Superstrat pioneer James Tyler passes away, aged 72
- “If we’re able to reach millions of people with this stupid solo, then obviously we’re doing something right”: Corey Feldman discusses his limits as a guitar player, copping David Gilmour’s tone and why his viral guitar solo really is a joke
- “We were at an EMI dinner, and David Gilmour was there. I said, ‘By far, you’re my favorite guitar player. How do you come up with those melodies?’” W.A.S.P.’s Blackie Lawless on the invaluable advice he received from the Pink Floyd icon
- Eric Stewart worked with Paul McCartney and ABBA’s Agnetha Faltskog, but as guitarist for 10cc, he created one of the most thrilling pop sounds in British music history
- “I always wanted to play with my fingers, but now I was forced to”: When his keys player quit, McKinley James had to rethink his playing style to play in a duo – and he did it without turning to pedals, because “none of my heroes did”
- “The main secret behind those classic grunge sounds is that they were loud. You need a high-volume amp…” Enumclaw are on a quest for alt-rock tone nirvana – using other people’s guitars and The Smashing Pumpkins’ fuzz pedal
- “I’m like the power forward on a basketball team – I bring out the best in my teammates”: A pillar of the L.A. session scene, Bob Glaub might be the most famous bass player you’ve never heard of
- “He plays five notes, and those five notes said more than any of these metal shredders could ever wish they could say”: Grace Bowers on how B.B. King completely changed her perspective on what makes a good guitar solo
September 1
- “Prince picked up my bass – but it was tuned to Eb, so he just found one note that worked and he stayed on it the entire song”: Raphael Saadiq on playing with Prince, D'Angelo and the “dead” 1962 Fender that put the vintage in Instant Vintage
- “I gave him 35 bucks for the guitar, bought a six-pack of Bud, went down to the studios and they played me the song. Recorded it in one take”: Skunk Baxter on how he recorded his classic Hot Stuff solo on a cheap guitar he bought right before the session