Latest articles by Amit Sharma
Robert Trujillo: “We have more riffs than we know what to do with. With every handful of riffs we get out of Kirk, there’s another 500 we didn’t hear”
Now a 20-year veteran as Metallica bassist, Trujillo details the secret weapons that locked in with James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett's guitar tones on 72 Seasons, and the key to getting extra grit from fingerstyle bass
George Lynch shows us what’s on his pedalboard
Make that pedalboards, as Mr Scary reveals his fly-in ’board and his more well-stocked, Jeff Beck-inspired offering – and reveals what pedal he can’t live without
Steel Panther’s Satchel: “I really like the sound of single-coil pickups. It makes me play differently and feel like I’m David Gilmour. Or Yngwie!”
Steel Panther’s resident shredder discusses everything from Paul Gilbert’s picking method to super-expensive Strats, and explains why he doesn’t use amps in the studio
Session guitar legend Michael Landau reveals what it takes to play with the biggest artists of all time and explains why “Strats are the ultimate couch guitar”
As Fender releases two signature Stratocasters for the session guitar hero, he reflects on recording with the likes of Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Joni Mitchell – and what it’s like to play on a Pink Floyd track in front of David Gilmour
How a Slash superfan ended up trading guitars with his hero… three times: “I was wondering if it was real life or if I’d died”
Guitar collector Todd Puma shares the surprising story of how he came to own a trio of the Guns N’ Roses legend’s personal Les Pauls – and why he bought two of Gibson’s ultra-limited Murphy Lab Greeny models
Ally Venable on Les Pauls: “They’re not just one-trick ponies – if you experiment with the controls, you can get a lot of different tones out of them”
The Texan blues hot-shot talks Gibson's famous single-cut, the Wounded Warrior she calls her own and that time Billy Gibbons told her she was playing Sunshine of Your Love wrong
Michael Landau recalls recording guitar in front of David Gilmour: “Playing for Pink Floyd was one of the most bizarre things ever”
The session heavyweight was once brought onboard to record a lead line that Gilmour “didn’t want to do”
Crown Lands’ doubleneck devotee Kevin Comeau on his fearless guitar/bass multitasking, recording with Alex Lifeson’s acoustic and why Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream is a tonal benchmark
Comeau unpacks his multi-instrumentalist approach on the Rush disciples’ impossibly expansive sound, and explains just exactly where he got that super-cool doubleneck
Gabriel Akhmad Marin: “I don’t play many chords. I’m more of a melodic single-note player, and the fretless guitar is a great instrument for that”
Meet Consider the Source’s fusion wizard, who’s channeling the sounds of Eastern Europe and Asia through his fretless guitar and a trio of pedalboards
Kirk Hammett explains why he uses wah so much: "I can't think of anybody who uses the wah pedal as much as I do – I'm not ashamed of it"
The Metallica guitarist addresses criticism of his frequent use of the effect and explains what it unlocks in his playing
Al Di Meola on Gibson Les Pauls: “My 1971 Custom is obscenely heavy and growls like nothing else”
The maestro of jazz-rock discusses his relationship with the iconic Gibson single-cut, and the man who designed it
Satchel used a plugin rather than a real amp for most of his solos on the new Steel Panther record: “I don't think people can tell the difference”
The glam metal player thinks that guitarists’ obsession with gear is dangerous: “If you keep f***ing around, you won’t write a song”
Jared James Nichols: “I was playing a lot of Strats and Telecasters. And then I tried a Les Paul Standard. The first thing I thought was, ‘Holy f**k, this feels like a Cadillac!’”
When it comes time to unleash a vulgar display of Blues Power, it’s all about expression – JJN explains why the Les Paul is “the best tool for the job”
U2’s Adam Clayton: “The bass has to either be sexy or aggressive, or it shouldn’t be there as far as I’m concerned”
The bassist for one of biggest rock bands of all time on cramming a stadium-ready rig into Fender’s first-ever signature bass amp, what prompted him to play an Ibanez on one of the group’s most iconic songs, and why he’s only just started exploring five-strings four decades into his career
Slash on his love of Les Pauls: “That Kris Derrig Les Paul came in the 11th hour when we were doing Appetite. It just sounded f**kin’ perfect – like a gift from on high”
The Guns N' Roses guitarist and rock icon talks about the guitars he treasures most – including buying and returning Joe Perry's Dark Burst LP – and reveals how his love for Les Pauls has inspired and shaped him as a player...
Joe Bonamassa on why he loves the Gibson Les Paul: “Pretty much all of the English guitar legends of the 1960s, that’s what they were holding”
Joe Bonamassa has a dazzling array of guitars – but he always goes back to the ’59 LP he describes as “perfect” for him...
Wes Borland on how he ended up playing guitar like a trombone, why he loves four-string electrics, his “out-of-control” gear habit – and what's next for Limp Bizkit
One of metal's most idiosyncratic players is selling off a vast array of gear from his collection – he tells Guitar World about making the tough decisions, and what survived in his current epic guitar rig
Epiphone Adam Jones Silverburst Les Paul Custom review
The Tool guitarist's lower-priced signature model is, quite literally, a work of art – and quite possibly the best Epiphone Les Paul ever made
Nuno Bettencourt reveals the most important pedal in his guitar rig: “I tried playing without one and f**kin’ hated it!”
The unlikely stompbox is integral to the Extreme virtuoso’s searing distorted tone, even if he admits, “Other players think it’s not doing anything and would probably wonder if the battery is dead”
The 50 greatest guitar riffs of all time
From metal to rock, punk to grunge, these are the best guitar riffs ever recorded, as voted for by you
How Jeff Beck changed guitar music forever
Guitar’s own Pablo Picasso, Jeff Beck was the guitar hero’s guitar hero, whose pioneering style hot-wired the instrument and made it succumb to his spell
Steve Vai: “Everything I play, in mind, I derive from the blues scale. It just might not sound that way when you hear it against all those weird chords”
Steve Vai tells the amazing story of his ‘lost’ album with Johnny ‘Gash’ Sombrotto – biker music where he “shut up and played rock guitar” on songs written to “make people put their fists in the air”
Al Di Meola: “Les Paul would get on his knees to get an up-close look at my hands and say, 'Do that again – I don’t understand how you just played that!'”
The fusion virtuoso recalled the time Les Paul offered up some especially high praise for his playing style, saying the entire experience was “almost like a dream”
Wolfgang Van Halen: “You can feel the history emanating out of the Frankenstein. Picking up that guitar is almost a religious experience”
With a new album and a new signature EVH guitar, 2023 is shaping up to be another big year for Wolfgang Van Halen. He tells us what’s in store – and recalls the time he broke one of his dad’s guitars
