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October 2024
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199 articles
- October 17
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- “We decided, ‘Let's take the Jazzmaster out and put the Meteora in there to see if it's gonna work’”: Why Fender chose the Meteora over the Jazzmaster for its American Ultra II series
- “I was like, ‘The dummy pickup in Frankenstein? You really think that’s sacrilege?’ I thought replacing it with something that worked was a good idea”: Joe Satriani on what it takes to play Van Halen live – custom amps, power tools, and, above all, guts
- “One of the world’s most recognizable guitars”: Rory Gallagher’s 1961 Fender Stratocaster sells at auction for a whopping $1.16 million
- He’s a drop D master who fuses monstrous powerchords, haunting single-note melodies and off-kilter time signatures in one of prog-metal’s most technically ambitious bands – learn how Adam Jones forged his rhythmically audacious Tool riffing style
- “In Guitar Center, people would think I was playing for the first time – but I promise you, my band makes better music than 80% of them”: Meet Chat Pile, the sludge metallers shouting down the “tone lords” and “goobers” ruining guitar culture
- “I’ve probably had an equal number of guitars stolen as what I’ve sold”: Joe Perry names the desert-island pickup that nobody talks about, explains why there are no bad tones, and makes an appeal for the cheap guitar he foolishly sold and wants back
- “One of this year’s most versatile electrics – and you don’t need to be a Rush fan to appreciate it”: Godin Lerxst Limelight review
- “Clearer, louder, and more resonant sound”: Furch challenges Gibson, Ibanez and Taylor acoustic innovations with the Booster Soundport – which promises to change the way you experience the acoustic guitar
- Two of today’s brightest guitar talents, Marcus King and Grace Bowers, team up for a surprise solo-fueled rendition of a Kris Kristofferson classic on stage in New York
- “You get that Guild sound at an incredibly accessible price”: The 300 Series brings that rich Guild tone, prized by everyone from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Paul Simon and Eric Clapton to a $299 acoustic build
- “Arguably one of the most significant Beatles and Lennon artefacts to come to market”: John Lennon’s first Vox amp – used at the Cavern and to record Please Please Me – is headed to auction
- “Name a jazz player that means something. You can be respected by musicians, but the rest of the world doesn't care. That music is intended to show off how well you play”: Gene Simmons on why technical skill doesn't really matter
- “I got to meet the new British Rock Royalty tonight”: The Last Dinner Party's Emily Roberts moonlighted as Brian May in a Queen tribute band – now the guitar legend is endorsing her band
- “One of Japan’s most well-loved guitarists”: Epiphone’s latest Takahiro Matsumoto signature is based on a hugely desirable 1955 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop – and honors the player behind Japan’s best-selling musical act
- The Doors’ Robby Krieger ditches his Gibson SG for a cardboard Telecaster to deliver his own take on a blues classic
- October 16
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- “They’re all little pieces”: AI-aided Eddie Van Halen solos could be a possibility, according to Alex Van Halen
- “I see people my own age in the audience, and their minds are blown. I’m making this stuff sound new to them”: Grace Bowers on her dizzying rise as the world’s next guitar hero, breaking the law to hone her chops, and why she’s “not a natural”
- “Pete Townshend said, ‘I wish I could play like you.’ I thought, ‘I wish I could come up with the three chords you take to the bank!’” How Caleb Quaye became Elton John’s go-to guitarist – and took over Jimmy Page’s session work
- “Lee embraced the athleticism of the ’80s while remaining rooted in the hard rock fundamentals of the ’70s”: Friedman and Jake E. Lee’s signature IR-J looks to deliver the guitar tones of “two great eras” in a single pedal amp
- “We drove to a Guitar Center, ran in just before closing and bought a Fender P-Bass… we re-tracked almost every song on Enema of the State with it”: Mark Hoppus charts his bass origin story, embracing amp modelers and switching from Ernie Ball to Fender
- “He was backstage in the Marquee cleaning off his guitar and said, ‘Look!’ The paint was starting to come away in chips – he was almost crying”: How Rory Gallagher's 1961 Strat got its now-iconic relic’d finish
- “I was quite enamored by Gretsch guitars. Over the years, I started to collect them – I probably own most of them”: Gretsch honors Depeche Mode icon Martin Gore with a stunning signature based on one of his prized vintage guitars
- “Slash’s wife grabbed hold of the steering wheel because he was heading toward a canyon. We were in the back seat going, ‘Nooo!’” Jamie Moses on the wild ride of playing with Brian May, hanging with Slash and his time as Queen’s second guitarist
- “Jeff Beck gave me his gold J Rockett Archer, based on the Klon. That can never leave”: Featuring a Joe Bonamassa wah and an overdrive gifted by Beck himself, Carmen Vandenberg’s pedalboard is a tour de force of tone
- “I felt connected to my Strat in a way I hadn’t in a long time”: I’ve spent years searching for the perfect Stratocaster strings – and after playing John Mayer’s Silver Slinky set for three months, I think I’ve finally found them
- “Chris was in a very fragile part of his life. He started playing bass… He got so into it he started bleeding. I said, ‘This is the man you want.’ And then he died”: Alex Van Halen reveals his and Eddie’s secret jams with Chris Cornell
- "The sound is warm and inviting, with a powerful low-end thump that only comes from a jumbo acoustic": Guild F-55E review
- “The moment I said we gotta acknowledge Ed, Dave popped a fuse… The vitriol that came out was unbelievable”: Alex Van Halen reveals the real reason why the Van Halen tribute didn’t happen – and the advice Brian May gave him about the tour
- “As familiar and enjoyable as your favorite pedals”: Fractal unveils the VP4 – an effects-only 'virtual pedalboard' launched to take on the Line 6 HX Effects
- October 15
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- Former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee shot multiple times in Las Vegas – now “fully conscious and doing well in an intensive care unit”
- “What we have in common is that we don’t shred for the sake of it. In my case, it’s because I can’t!” Brian May on his unlikely guitar kinsmanship with Steve Cropper and Billy Gibbons
- “It’s probably impossible to prove, but it’s likely that the Martin dreadnought is the most recorded guitar in history”: How the Martin D-18 and D-28 changed the world – and became the definitive acoustic guitars
- Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton may have been masters of ’60s lead playing, but Pete Townshend was the god of rhythm guitar – and he was just as unhinged on the acoustic
- “He seemed to get so much out of so little, didn't he?”: Former Primal Scream guitarist Barrie Cadogan reacts to playing Rory Gallagher’s golden-era Gibsons
- “Designed to provide unmatched freedom and sound clarity”: Xvive’s U8 clip-on wireless system comes ready-mounted with a mic – and it could be a serious problem solver for acoustic players
- “Massive tones that obliterate like Godzilla bouncing the bullet train to oblivion… it’s completely unlike any other fuzz and/or octave effect out there”: Electro-Harmonix Lizard King Octave Distortion review
- “The sports car versions of all our classic models”: Fender’s new top-of-the-line American Ultra II guitars are more advanced than anything it has produced before – and feature its fastest necks yet
- “They’re a lot tighter and smoother. You can hear more guitar, and these are far superior to all the other versions of these tracks”: Never-before-heard Jimi Hendrix demos are up for auction – and expected to sell for $260,000
- “They had a fantastic ’64 Strat that we would fight over. The first one in would get to use it”: Wunderhorse turned up to the birthplace of Nirvana's In Utero, borrowed some guitars – and made one of the year’s best alt rock records
- “He turns back to where all the guitars are and the double-neck is gone, stolen from the stage while the lights are down”: Nuno Bettencourt’s custom Washburn N-8 double-neck was stolen from an arena stage – but made a remarkable return
- “I worked on that crazy Fender Twin and never understood how it made such fabulous noise”: Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Twin Reverb amp, used in the recording of Texas Flood, Bowie sessions and live shows is up for sale... for over $600,000
- “A man bought this signed Taylor Swift Guitar at a charity auction for $4000, then proceeded to smash it with a hammer”: This Taylor Swift-signed guitar was smashed at auction and went viral – now it has been sold at an even higher price
- October 14
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- “As if its tone has been perfected over years of fireside strumming”: Guild has given its retro DS-240 Memoir series a makeover for the first time in five years with two classy new colorways
- “Probably the broadest, most accessible guitar mag in the world... It has been an absolute privilege”: Total Guitar to close after 30 years in print
- “I wanted to sound like Jimi Hendrix on his first album. It was good to have that there for a while”: Brian May reveals the off-the-wall Red Special mod from his pre-Queen days that he ended up removing
- “I wrote that riff on the Fender six-string bass. I saw Peter Green with Fleetwood Mac pick one up. I thought, ‘I’m gonna get one’”: Joe Perry on how he ditched his Les Pauls and Strats to write an Aerosmith classic
- “All-stars like Phil X, Jimmy Herring, Derek Trucks and Richard Fortus have sung the Hyperdrive’s praises. Now a new IAM overdrive/boost pedal has entered Earth’s atmosphere”: Interstellar Audio Machines Supernova Zoeldrive review
- “The British Invasion brought awareness to the music, but not the culture. They were great guitarists, but they weren’t as good as Robert Johnson”: Jontavious Willis has become one of acoustic blues’ most exciting voices – just don’t say he’s the future
- Fender Mustang Micro vs Mustang Micro Plus: is it worth upgrading?
- “It never existed before, at least to my knowledge”: Jacob Collier’s custom five-string Taylor – which paved the way for his game-changing Strandberg – has been launched as his latest signature guitar
- He was a ’60s blues firebrand straight out of the “Surrey delta”, before he switched to the Strat and mastered a touch that has never been rivalled – here’s how Jeff Beck forever reshaped the way guitarists think about ‘feel’
- “When you follow this path, all roads lead to one man: Alexander Dumble”: Ian Moore on Dumble's inspiring legacy, the “snake oil” around the iconic amp-maker – and his own quest to design the perfect amp
- “I was truly terrified. In the first few months, I was on the same stage as every one of my heroes: Mike Bloomfield, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix”: Martin Barre explains why his early days with Jethro Tull were a trial by fire
- "There’s a beautiful warmth and roundness that makes for an incredibly pleasant playing experience, encouraging hours of enjoyment": Yamaha CG192C review
- “I was broke and working in a car wash, and saw an ad in the paper for a ’52 Telecaster. I went to the guy’s place – it turned out to be Norm from Norman’s Rare Guitars”: The Band's Jim Weider on how he bagged his career-defining Fender Telecaster
- October 13
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- “There was one gig where Eric and I stopped playing for two choruses. Jack didn’t even know”: Cream were one of the loudest rock bands of their time – but the excessive volume tore the band apart
- “I got a call – ‘I’m putting a super band together, and I want you to be one of the guitar players.’ The other guitarist was Neal Schon from Santana”: How Les Dudek joined Journey “for two hours”
- October 12
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- “The only person to get a good sound out of that bass was Berry Oakley. It's got so many pickups!” Berry Oakley set the template for the Allman Brothers Band with a modified ’72 Jazz Bass, known as ‘The Tractor’
- “I tried it fingerstyle, and that didn't work. As a joke, somebody said, ‘Why don't you try slap bass?’ Everyone was laughing. Then we went back and listened to it…” Chris Wolstenholme switched up his tone and technique on Muse’s The Resistance
- “When you played with John Lennon, you could feel him listening to you. He didn't bother or bug you at all”: Unsung ’70s session bass ace Gordon Edwards recalls his time with John Lennon on his fourth post-Beatles album
- October 11
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- Download and stream the audio from Total Guitar 390
- “The same high-quality performance at an even more budget-friendly price point”: Harley Benton has made its absurdly affordable ST-Modern lineup even cheaper with a range of $200 HSS S-types
- “I took the neck off my Strat, put it on a Tele, and ended up with my ‘FrankenTele’”: Steve Morse modded the heck out of his first serious guitar, and it became the blueprint for his signature Ernie Ball Music Man model
- “Unparalleled playability with a fuller, more robust metal tone”: Strandberg extends its Boden Metal lineup with new finishes – and a series-first spec
- “What a ride…” Guitar Techniques magazine is closing after 30 years of in-depth tuition from some of the world’s greatest guitarists
- “A finish that’s a true work of art”: Tosin Abasi and Ernie Ball Music Man’s Kaizen has a new Gallium finish that features actual silver – and it uniquely oxidizes depending on how you play it
- “I doubt there’s going to be another Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page or Eddie Van Halen”: Joe Perry on why the age of the guitar hero might be over – even though the instrument still has a bright future
- “Billy had already played half a solo. The producer said, ‘Can you play the other half?’ I said, ‘Can’t you give him a whole solo and me a whole solo?’” Brian May explains why he was reluctant to share a solo with Billy Gibbons – and what changed his mind
- Guitar World deals of the week: save a massive $500 on a Schecter, nearly $400 off a Gibson, plus all the week's best post-Prime Day guitar deals
- “I couldn’t do all the licks and Jimmy Page stuff. By not being able to play properly and discovering echo units, I came upon some monstrous sounds, purely by accident”: Robin Guthrie on how he conjured the haunting tones of Cocteau Twins
- “The idea behind this pedal is to make clean guitar as fun as overdriven guitar”: Chase Bliss is on a mission to make you rethink clean guitar tones with the “very fun” Clean compressor
- “I spent a whole year without being able to do anything on the guitar, which was really scary. I thought, ‘OK, maybe I’ve lost it for good’”: How Neige’s ascent from the creative abyss led to Alcest’s most ethereal and life-affirming album
- With Bob Rock and Rick Rubin at the helm, he recorded some of rock’s most iconic riffs, and launched side-projects with Jerry Cantrell, John Corabi and The Alarm’s Mike Peters – how Billy Duffy’s guitar playing built a Cult following
- “The concept or technology might not be new, but the execution, in such a perfectly made guitar, takes some beating”: PRS SE Custom 24 Semi-Hollow Piezo review
- “The world's most authentic amp models, no UA hardware required”: Universal Audio takes its Edge-approved amp pedals to the digital realm for the first time with $299 plugins
- “I played a Gibson SG Junior. It was the guitar I used in my punk band – when my apartment got broken into in New York, it got stolen”: Yes, Rick Rubin played the opening riff on Beastie Boys’ No Sleep Till Brooklyn – he looks back at recording a classic
- “Blazes a trail into new sonic territory”: Fender gives the Cabronita Telecaster a radical mini-humbucker revamp by loading the Gretsch/Fender hybrid with new high-end pickups
- “There seems to be an idea among guitarists that something as remarkable as a box that creates a perfect echo is old, played out or overused”: Why Jonny Greenwood downsized his rig to just a guitar, amp and delay pedal to write the Smile’s new album
- “Jimmy Page was in the control room window, waving madly. I was in the middle of the solo, and I thought, ‘Sorry, but I can’t stop.’ I just turned my back”: Martin Barre on the time Jimmy Page nearly cut him off mid-Aqualung solo
- October 10
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- “He had it in a case and said, ‘I don’t play it. Do you want it?’ I was like, ‘There’s no way I can take that from you’”: Olivia Rodrigo guitarist Daisy Spencer reveals how a stroke of good luck landed her the 1972 Fender Strat she plays onstage
- “I quit teaching art to go tour and be a musician. I didn’t sign up for the drama, or the stalkers, or the business side”: Yvette Young almost left music before taking a radical solo turn – but she’s not done with Covet
- “I’ve always said that I don’t play the guitar, I play the string”: John Mayer ends years-long search for his ultimate string set with the Ernie Ball Silver Slinky – a new signature set that brings the guitar hero’s custom gauge to the masses
- “I wasn’t interested in learning the ‘correct’ style of playing bass. I was going back to guitar”: Larry Graham explains how his unorthodox six-string style invented slap bass
- “The world's greatest guitarist is what everyone says. It's kind of a dicey title. You never liked it”: Alex Van Halen reveals the unease Eddie felt with being labeled the best guitar player on the planet in new excerpt from tell-all memoir
- “It's tough for me to talk about giving them up... They came in my life at different times, but they all had meaning”: George Benson is selling his studio-and-tour-used rare and vintage guitars
- “I saw this video of a 10-year-old Japanese girl shredding Paul Gilbert solos. I figured, ‘This can’t be about brute physicality. It’s about touching the guitar the right way’”: Karl Sanders on technical epiphanies – and why Nile needs three guitarists
- “I don’t think he was very happy about the situation. I would hope he might have thought, ‘Oh well, at least somebody that can write a good song has taken my part’”: Crowded House’s Neil Finn on replacing Lindsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac
- “There was this thing I was trying to create that didn't exist”: Gretsch and super-producer Jack Antonoff combine the Fender Jazzmaster with an oddball vintage Gretsch to create the Grammy-winner’s “dream” signature guitar
- Pat Metheny called him “the father of modern jazz guitar”, while Mike Stern, John Scofield and Julian Lage worshipped his playing – here's how Jim Hall revolutionized modern jazz
- “There’s even a button I can press where it turns into a Leslie”: Richie Kotzen explains why he ditched a regular pedalboard for an all-in-one pedal from the creator of the SansAmp
- “Each guitar sounded stunningly warm, natural and lush… like putting your ear in front of the guitar’s soundhole, only much louder”: Circa ’74 150-10 Acoustic/Vocal amplifier review
- October 9
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- “When Guitar Player made its debut in 1967, it marked a new era for guitar”: Guitar Player magazine to cease print publication
- Download and stream the audio from Guitar Techniques 367
- “The entire creative process in a single guitar”: Yamaha takes on LAVA with a new TransAcoustic that delivers smart guitar specs in a traditional high-end build
- Watch Neil Young and John Mayer trade solos in a ferocious rendition of Rockin’ In The Free World with Stephen Stills
- Mooer's massive up to 30% Amazon Prime Day effects sale includes Devin Townsend's formidable Ocean Machine II
- “Not many bands of Tetrarch’s nature play guitar solos – I've had to learn how to fit our style and not just play some dad-rock solo”: Diamond Rowe is bringing lead guitar to nu-metal – complete with a history-making signature model from Jackson
- “Early Telecasters tend to get a bit muddy. It's hard to get a really nice, punchy bright front pickup”: Joe Bonamassa fits a budget Squier Tele with his new Seymour Duncan 1950 Broadcaster pickups – and tests it against the vintage Fender original
- “The decline of America’s biggest guitar companies during the ’70s was essentially a hangover from the over-ambitious reaction to the Beatlemania-inspired guitar boom of the ’60s”: Why the ’70s was a time of innovation and folly for guitar gear
- “Ash and mahogany bodies available in never-before-seen colors”: Fender’s Player II range has been expanded with new tonewoods and forgotten finishes unearthed from the archives
- Positive Grid’s Spark Go just dropped back to its insane pre-order price for Prime Day
- They pioneered ‘Heavy Melody’, spearheaded grunge and blazed the trail for drop D tuning – King’s X are one of rock’s most singular bands, and Ty Tabor is a master guitarist who fuses the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix in his supernova style
- “The project was meant to present a lot of interplay between us”: Meet Asymmetric Universe, the Italian brothers who graduated from theme park music and video game scores to world-beating jazz-djent
- “One of the most user-friendly instruments of its kind”: Chapman Law Maker Baritone review
- “The game shaped my experimental approach to guitar. On really tricky levels, I’d put the controller in my lap and hammer the buttons super-fast”: Yasmin Williams on how Guitar Hero inspired her lap-tapping acoustic technique
- October 8
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- “It's every bit as good as a Flying V of old, except you don't have the liability of bringing out a unicorn guitar”: Joe Bonamassa's 1958 “Amos” Flying V was owned by Norm Harris and featured in Spinal Tap – now it's been recreated by Gibson's Murphy Lab
- “Paul can often be heard saying, ‘This is our time’”: PRS just gave its affordable SE range a huge overhaul – from the long-awaited lefty John Mayer Silver Sky to a daring new piezo design
- Guitarists, the Amazon Big Deal Days are all about accessories - here's 7 essential picks for you
- “The first night I was in London, I met Gary Moore. Scott Gorham said, ‘We’re going down to this pub. It’s a jam night.’ When I saw him play I was knocked out”: Pat Travers on Thin Lizzy, Gary Moore – and what guitarists got wrong about Eddie Van Halen
- “Once the modelers caught up to tube amps in their tone, it was all over for me”: Mark Hoppus explains why he switched to Kemper and Quad Cortex for blink-182’s mammoth arena shows
- Get ahead of the Black Friday game with the Beat the Rush sales event on Reverb– up to 44% off guitar gear
- Amazon who? Sales at Guitar Center, Fender, Positive Grid and Sweetwater are kicking Prime Day to the curb
- “I apologize for what’s about to happen”: Steve Morse becomes the latest guitar hero to pay tribute to the late Jeff Beck with a stirring rendition of his signature tune, Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers
- “He said very politely, ‘Can I get up on stage with you and use your guitar?’ It was very overwhelming to play with a Beatle”: That time Ritchie Blackmore and George Harrison jammed Little Richard at a Deep Purple concert
- With $200 slashed off the Fender Tone Master Pro, I'm considering ditching the amps and finally going digital
- “People might think, ‘Oh, that's so easy. There's nothing happening. It's only three chords.’ But it's not – it's as exciting as you make it”: Blues veteran Sue Foley on why turnarounds are essential to any great blues solo
- “David Bowie asked me if I wanted to go out to dinner with John Lennon! I had a big ‘dilemma’ moment; I was hearing certain musical things in my head. I didn’t wanna go out and lose myself”: Carlos Alomar on making Fame, Heroes – and Bowie’s Berlin era
- “I played him Metallica as an example of what I thought was wrong”: How Rick Rubin shaped the sound of Slayer’s classic Reign in Blood record by ignoring heavy metal norms
- “What you guys probably didn't know was that was the first time I've touched that guitar for two months”: Brian May is back on stage following a recent minor stroke
- “When we finished playing, Bill Clinton came up and introduced himself – with the Secret Service all around. A couple of weeks later, I got this envelope in the mail from the White House”: Jimmy D. Lane was raised among blues greats, but found his own way
- “In the past five years, I’ve seen a revival of my Kiss era… I’m always flattered that it’s not just the music that moved them – the guitars I played also matter”: Bruce Kulick is launching a custom ’80s-style guitar line that pays homage to his Kiss days
- Forget Amazon's Big Deal Days sale, Guitar Center's Guitar-A-Thon is primed and ready with up to $430 off select D'Angelicos and up to $300 off Martin
- 5 dissonant guitar chords that hold unexpected delights – including one of Alex Lifeson's favorite shapes
- October 7
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- “I think it makes me sound more like Hendrix, don’t you?” David Gilmour saves Comfortably Numb performance after his Jimi Hendrix guitar strap snaps mid-song
- “When we started in 1966, Eric and Jack had one Marshall each. Then it became a stack, then a double stack, and finally a triple stack”: Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker recount the wild story of Cream, rock's pioneering power trio
- “When you gonna be a frontman, I like frontmen that play guitars, not bass”: Super-producer Raphael Saadiq on why it's challenging to be a lead singer and dig in on bass at the same time
- “You have to make sure water doesn’t spill out when you’re playing”: Fully functioning aquarium electric guitar becomes reality after luthier brings absurd AI design to life
- “You have to be secure in yourself. I'm not intimidated to tell you to buy a Keeley pedal. If that tears my business apart, then my business sucks”: How Josh Scott built one of the world’s leading pedal firms by recommending his rivals
- “The perfect online guitar lessons platform if you’ve already got some playing under your belt”: Til review
- “Usually you hear it coming out of your amp. Here, you feel it all around you”: Paul Davids once visited a nuclear power plant to find the world’s most incredible reverb – now it’s been turned into a signature ambient pedal
- “Jeff would sound like Jeff no matter what you put him through. That was his test for me, too. I was 23. I was so scared, but I passed the test”: Carmen Vandenberg and Rosie Bones explain the joy and challenge of playing with the late, great Jeff Beck
- “I asked Paul McCartney to play bass on a Rolling Stones song: silence for 10 seconds, then ‘Yeah, I’d love to’”: Super-producer Andrew Watt reveals his secret to convincing music legends to collaborate
- “Precise, immersive sound in any setting”: Positive Grid’s new AI-equipped Spark EDGE might be the ultimate PA for busking guitarists
- “The band had come on, but no Rory: most unusual. He was in a state of shock and couldn’t bring himself to step on stage”: The night Rory Gallagher was spooked by his childhood hero – as the Royal Albert Hall waited in anticipation
- Loved by Yngwie Malmsteen, Santana and Slash, the harmonic minor scale is an essential part of every guitar player's vocabulary – and it's more versatile than you might expect
- “A very playable, quality guitar for bridge-heavy rock – just don’t expect it to do everything”: ESP LTD EC-201FT review
- “I remember when Fender started doing this, I was like, ‘Why would anyone purchase something that’s pre-worn?’” Solar continues its relic awakening with “extremely worn and torn” Relik Series
- October 6
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- “I was hanging out in the control room, and Dickey got the idea of putting some guitar parts at the end… I pretty much played half of the lead guitars, but people don’t realize it”: How Les Dudek ended up on the Allman Brothers Band’s Ramblin’ Man
- “I didn't want to record a famous Jaco song, but Gil Goldstein found this tape for me – it was Jaco playing piano”: How Richard Bona found a rare Pastorius tune for his Brazilian-inspired solo album
- October 5
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- “There are a lot of electric players that just cannot play a nylon-string guitar”: Al Di Meola on why he opts to practice on an acoustic guitar – even when preparing for electric-heavy tours
- “I was just looking for a story to tell the grandkids. It was Flea who said that I might get the gig”: Jane’s Addiction bassist Eric Avery recalls his 2003 audition for Metallica
- October 4
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- “It feels a bit wrong to play it. But I don't think anyone who has a guitar that they love would want it to never be played after their death”: Fontaines D.C. guitarist Carlos O'Connell reacts to playing Rory Gallagher's prized guitars
- “This creature has everything but the kitchen sink”: Meet the Koch Ness Monster – Greg Koch’s monstrous new multi-effects pedal, which offers an army of Jam Pedals effects
- “I’m still in shock that I’m getting inducted for a second time”: Wolfgang Van Halen, Zakk Wylde and Andrew Watt to headline Ozzy Osbourne tribute at all-star Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony
- “I felt some responsibility to keep guitar playing alive”: Nuno Bettencourt once vowed to keep Eddie Van Halen’s guitar fire burning – now he’s using his custom Washburn ‘Bumblebee’ to cover Van Halen with Extreme
- “I played poker with Freddie King during one of the tours he did with Eric Clapton. I lost half my tour money!” Session legend George Terry on eating Whoppers with Diana Ross and high times as Eric Clapton’s go-to ’70s six-string lieutenant
- “On my 18th birthday, my brother bought me my first Stratocaster. I thought it was a copy, as I didn’t see the Fender logo. One day, I took the neck off and saw ‘9-58’ inside…” Blackbyrd McKnight on his mysterious Strat and the ’70s jazz-funk explosion
- “I bought it for £300. I showed it to the then-CEO of Epiphone, and said, ‘These guys over in the UK are having a lot of fun. I want in’”: Joe Bonamassa reveals how a cheap knockoff Les Paul kickstarted his partnership with Epiphone
- “I asked Jimmy for advice, and if it was OK to keep doing what I'd been doing. It could be seen as creepy!” Mr. Jimmy, aka Akiro Sakurai, has dedicated his life to becoming Jimmy Page – and he received some sound advice when he met the Led Zeppelin legend
- “When I picked up a guitar, I held it righty, but the pick never felt right in my hands, so I started to make up my own technique”: Jared James Nichols reveals how he developed his unique fingerstyle technique – and the perks of going pick-less
- “It’s always been such a special song to me, and I just love Jimmy Page’s playing on that”: Grace Bowers is the hottest name in blues right now – and she’s taken a rare acoustic turn to cover Led Zeppelin on her new single
- He released his first album at 18 and rose above the Stevie Ray Vaughan comparisons to become one of the blues’ most respected guitarists – here’s how Kenny Wayne Shepherd became a modern-day master of the Stratocaster
- “Built to a standard that few can come close to – and for a grand under a Fender Custom Shop Strat”: Patrick James Eggle 96 Rob Harris Signature review
- “He took it on tour, beat the heck out of it, then painted it. This is a family heirloom now”: Joe Satriani gifted Steve Vai his relic’d, custom-painted Ibanez signature – now it’s one of Vai’s most treasured guitars
- “At home I have this thing that’s now 30 years old called a Zoom”: David Gilmour has one of the most revered guitar tones of all time – but he still uses a 30-year-old Zoom multi-FX for his home demos
- “Everyone I've ever met that I worshipped has been a disappointment, so I want to keep him as my hero”: Geezer Butler names his favorite bassist of all time
- Meet the ‘Les Pallet’ – an utterly absurd electric guitar that has been (quite literally) fashioned from a shipping pallet
- October 3
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- “John Mayer had Paul build a guitar for him for the Dead & Company. He wanted one guitar all night. I thought, ‘Let’s see if I can get back to that’”: Keith Urban on working with PRS on a ‘do-it-all’ guitar build – and why SRV is still number one
- “I discovered how I had full access to the neck”: Why Grace Bowers prefers the Gibson SG to the Les Paul
- “Inspired by over a decade of electric guitar string research”: Ernie Ball Music Man’s new Sabre HT features pickups inspired by its guitar string innovations
- “There were these preposterous rumors that had to do with me going to the hospital and being visited by the spirit of Jimi Hendrix. It was ridiculous. I went to hospital in 1968, Hendrix died in 1970”: Frank Marino on Mahogany Rush’s ‘70s awakening
- David Gilmour tells all, plus Slipknot and Joe Bonamassa's ode to Eric Clapton's Fender years – only in the new Guitar World
- “That thick sound you need for heavy metal – it’s all about the Les Paul. There’s no other guitar with the same kind of bottom-end as a Gibson”: Serj Tankian reveals he has a Gibson signature model on the way
- “He’s enabled fans to achieve the iconic blink-182 tone they've always dreamed of”: Mark Hoppus combines Jaguar, Precision and Jazz Bass parts on his new Fender signature model – including unique reverse-mounted pickups
- “I think it’s a national treasure that should stay here. I threw in a couple grand into the GoFundMe anonymously”: Joe Bonamassa throws his support behind the movement to keep Rory Gallagher's famous Strat in Ireland
- “A complete all-in-one solution”: IK Multimedia takes aim at the Neural DSP Nano Cortex with mammoth free TONEX upgrade – making the amp modeler more versatile than ever
- “One of the holy grails of historic Beatles guitars”: George Harrison’s Futurama – which starred in over 300 early Beatles shows, including the Fab Four’s historic Hamburg tour – is heading to auction
- “He said, ‘Caleb, I like what you're doing. I've got all this work lined up for Jimmy Page, but he doesn't want to do it anymore’”: How Elton John and Hall & Oates guitarist Caleb Quaye inherited the Led Zeppelin legend’s studio work
- Want to master funk guitar? You’d better familiarize yourself with ‘chanking’ and shell chords – two essentials of game-changing James Brown guitarist Jimmy Nolen
- “That beautiful thick Irish accent could melt anyone’s heart. And the lady ended up selling the guitar to Rory for $50!” How Rory Gallagher’s sweet talk secured him his bargain ’61 Kay Value Leader – with a little help from Eric Clapton
- “This all-original distortion circuit is a home run for fans of ’90s guitar tones”: JHS Hard Drive review
- “It's scary when you haven't played for quite a while and can't remember the riff to Seek & Destroy”: James Hetfield reflects on the anxieties he experienced after stepping away from the guitar for too long
- October 2
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- “The Allman Brothers were unbelievable. When Duane came to the studio to play on Layla, I was so taken with him that I started ignoring my own band”: How the 1970s became the greatest decade for rock guitar
- “I went to his house one day, and he said, ‘What’s in my attic? Climb up there and have a look.’ He gave me the 12-string I used on Nights in White Satin”: How Justin Hayward ended up with Lonnie Donegan’s 12-string – before Donegan took it back
- “A historic collaboration”: Tetrarch’s Diamond Rowe becomes Jackson’s first female signature artist with the launch of her groundbreaking new signature guitar
- “I don't think about technique at all now. I want people to hear my guitar tone and be confused about how I got it”: Yvette Young explains why she's rebooting her a solo career – and redefining her guitar playing along the way
- “John Mayall’s ability to nurture blues guitar prodigies is comparable to Yoda’s knack for training hot Jedi prospects”: From Eric Clapton to Peter Green, Mick Taylor and more – a guide to blues legend John Mayall’s ’60s Bluesbreakers guitarists
- “Mike shows us an acoustic demo on cassette and plays it in the car. It’s what ends up being Drive. It was a great guitar line – I just needed to get the hell out of the way of it”: OG Incubus bassist Dirk Lance on how Drive taught him to stop overplaying
- “A tribute to the era that helped shape the modern steel-string acoustic”: Martin has introduced an all-new body shape that delivers dreadnought tones from a smaller build
- “She said this model was made shortly after Jeff Hanneman passed away and this was a very, very limited edition”: America's Got Talent sensation Maya Neelakantan gifted a rare prototype of the late Slayer guitarist's signature model by his wife
- “Players once again have the opportunity to discover the magic of this classic”: Gibson has brought back the ES-330 – reviving one its most iconic hollowbody models for the first time in years
- From “vicious” lines inspired by Stevie Ray Vaughan to ice-cold leads in the style of Albert Collins, Philip Sayce channels the blues licks of the greats – and his masterclass will supercharge your pentatonic solos
- “My Reverend feels sturdy. I don’t like when it feels like the guitar I’m playing is gonna break. Vintage guitars scare me!” Meet Hello Mary’s Helena Straight, the ’90s-inspired, time signature-twisting player whose guitar caught the Cure’s attention
- “Cort really is to be congratulated once again for delivering on its Masterpiece promise”: Cort Abstract Delta and Modern Black review
- “I sold 120 of them because I don’t have room for them anymore”: Mike Campbell says he's quit buying guitars, despite his continuing “obsession”
- October 1
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- “It became my life’s work to eliminate every obstacle to playing live acoustic guitar. The AEG-1 is the realization of this philosophy”: Did L.R. Baggs just unveil this year’s most forward-thinking acoustic guitar design?
- “I’ve seen some unplayable instruments made in this country. I’ve also played some real gems not made in the US”: Paul Reed Smith explains why the country a guitar is made in doesn’t matter
- “Mike’s ’59 Les Paul was sitting on a stand. I thought, ‘What are the chances of this happening again?’ After the song, he turned around and goes, ‘What are you doing?’” When Les Dudek guested with Mike Bloomfield (without him knowing)
- “I always try to get her to play as much as she’s willing to… I really like her sensibilities”: Billie Eilish goes electric with a Fender Telecaster at tour debut, following guitar lessons from brother FINNEAS
- Taylor once released a replica of The Last of Us’ iconic acoustic guitar – in a full-circle moment, the real-life version will appear in season two of the video game’s blockbuster TV adaptation
- “I was in the studio, and the phone rang. It was Lou Reed. I’d never met him. He called me, saying, ‘I saw a picture of you with this guitar…’” Joe Perry on Aerosmith’s roaring ’70s, writing Dream On – and being a B.C. Rich early adopter
- “Our philosophy is that you should not be limited to a budget to buy the instrument of your dreams”: Harley Benton is now shipping its ultra-affordable guitar gear direct in the US for the first time via a new Reverb store
- “Any kind of technical guitar playing was mocked and frowned upon”: Mick Thomson explains why his solos were erased from Slipknot’s debut album – and how he reacted
- “I guess we don’t need the wall hanger…” Texas man reportedly pays $4,000 for Taylor Swift guitar – and immediately smashes it with a hammer
- “I can already tell you this sounds better than one of my original ’55s”: Joe Bonamassa’s 12th Epiphone signature guitar is his first with P-90s – and features one of the rarest Les Paul finishes ever made
- “The Black Crowes got thrown off the ZZ Top tour. We picked up where they left off… Every night the tour manager warned us when the explosions were going to go off”: Michelle Malone gave up sax for guitar – and had John Mayer “begging” to join her shows
- “It certainly would pass a blindfold comparison with me. Why wouldn’t it?” David Gilmour says he can't tell the difference between his signature Fender and his original Black Strat
- Everybody knows John Petrucci for his God-like shredding abilities, but the Dream Theater virtuoso’s next-level rhythm playing deserves more attention
- “It passed almost every test with flying colors… tidy to play with a great range of tones”: Squier Limited Edition Classic Vibe '60s Telecaster SH review