Latest articles by Jamie Dickson
“Epiphone will always be Gibson’s older brother, and its history is perhaps the most interesting of any guitar brand”: Celebrating 150 years of Epiphone – from luxury archtop maker to budget builder and rock icon
As Epiphone commemorates a century-and-a-half in business, we enlist the help of vintage guitar experts and Gibson’s own archivists to tell its remarkable history
“Tone is so important to me. Whenever I go to a show and there are good guitar sounds, I soak it in”: For Emily Wolfe, the tone is as important as the hooks – and her Epiphone signature model is key to her explosive sound
Wolfe’s evocative music draws upon both Motown and Zeppelin but has a taut and soulful contemporary edge. We joined the Texan on tour to learn all about it…
“It feels like total blasphemy!” Chris Shiflett on why he joined the modeler movement and switched from tube amps to amp sims
The amp aficionado flipped the script for his recent solo tour, which demanded an entirely new approach to guitar setups from the Foo Fighter
“When I started collecting, the cut-off for desirability was 1965 – anything after that, forget it. That’s all changed completely”: The Fender Stratocaster is the most famous electric guitar of all time – but what was the greatest Strat ever built?
The Stratocaster is the original guitar for all seasons. But which version represents the pinnacle of its evolution? We take a deep dive into Leo’s masterpiece, in the company of experts, to try to find an answer…
“In a funny way, the Super Distortion is the SM57 of the guitar pickup business. It’s got a s***-ton of hits”: Larry DiMarzio on the humbucker that changed the game
In the early ’70s, Larry DiMarzio single-handedly kickstarted the entire aftermarket pickup industry with his hot-output Super Distortion. We met NYC’s king of tone to find out how he did it
“It needs a tune – but we’ll do that free of charge!” Meet the Gibson Firebird that Jimmy Page lost in a drinking game with John Bonham
This heavily modified Non-Reverse Gibson Firebird III is a lost Led Zeppelin guitar with a fascinating history – we get the story behind the Page-owned beauty and the buoyant market for Gibson’s under-appreciated cult hero
Gibson’s Mat Koehler says he rates this guitar among the most “beautiful designs ever to come out of Kalamazoo” – and it’s an Epiphone
“Clearly positioned as the pinnacle flat-top that Gibson made” – the acoustic guitar now has a modern equivalent that Koehler reckons punches well above its weight
“On a quick trip to interview Paul Reed Smith I was told we were going to the White House so I’d better pack a suit”: Celebrating 500 issues of Guitarist, one of the world’s greatest guitar magazines
From playing Eric Clapton’s Strats to narrowly avoiding knocking out Slash, Guitarist editors past and present share their favourite – and sometimes most embarrassing – memories of working for the esteemed UK publication
“The apocalypse will happen before most of our pickups ever take a dump”: Jason Lollar on what drives him to make better pickups than anything that’s gone before
Jason Lollar, the man behind Lollar Pickups, is one of the most respected pickup makers in the world. He shares his design secrets and guitar tone philosophy
“As an entry into the brand, you’re getting traditional woods, upgraded hardware and premium pickups”: How the Player Series became Fender’s best-selling guitar line
As the Player Series celebrates its fifth anniversary, Fender’s director of product, Allen Abbassi, tells us its story behind the top-selling range and what the future might hold
“Ritchie Blackmore’s phrasing is so cool – he just played with so much fire”: Pete Thorn and James Cole on how they replicate iconic solos and tones in The Classic Rock Show
We join the YouTube guitar star and his co-guitarist (and racing car driver) to find out how they’ve nailed the sound of legendary hits from the ’70s and beyond
Vintage resonators, budget rarities and seaweed-hued semi-hollows: inside Peter Green’s guitar collection
With over 100 of his guitars coming up for auction, we examine some gems from the Fleetwood Mac founder’s personal collection – some of which are surprisingly affordable
How to tell a good ’70s Fender Stratocaster from a bad one
Strat expert Julian White of World Guitars urges a cool head and a judicious eye when considering Stratocasters built during the bell-bottom era
Is this the guitar Keith Richards used at the Rolling Stones’ first-ever gig?
Many British guitar heroes of the ’60s started out on budget archtops that retain nostalgia value today. But what if you thought you had found Keef’s actual guitar?
Kirk Hammett: “Maybe the age of active pickups is over”
The Metallica guitarist says PAFs age better and he has been swayed away from active humbuckers for lead work – and James Hetfield agrees
How Gibson developed the mini-humbucker, its underrated ‘other’ pickup
Small size, big tone, and maybe just the sound you were looking for all along. After all these years in the shadow of the PAF, we trace the history of the unsung hero of pickups
Kirk Hammett says he prefers the Epiphone Greeny to the $20k Gibson Custom Shop version – here’s why
The Metallica man says they’re all great “but my favorite version of Greeny is probably the Epiphone”
Eric Bibb: “I find the most effective songs, the ones that resonate most with the people who hear my music, are songs that come fairly quickly”
With his new album, Ridin', Bibb paints moving, historical portraits of people on the road to a better life – with help from a six-string banjo and a host of acoustic possibilities
Six-string psychonaut Kavus Torabi on the mythology of Gong, Hotel California moments with Steve Hillage and his epiphany with scales
Torabi plays in some of Britain’s most out-there bands, fronting Gong to playing with Steve Hillage and former snooker champion Steve Davis. We join him on the search for Utopia
Jeff Beck in his own words: “My Strat is another arm – it’s part of me. It doesn’t feel like a guitar at all… It’s a tool of great inspiration and torture”
In these classic interviews, the late Jeff Beck, a man who typically preferred to let the guitar do the talking, looks back on his career and discusses his gear discoveries and creative epiphanies
Paul Reed Smith explains exactly what makes a great electric guitar – including the exact amount of time it should sustain
Tone, the master guitar builder says, "is a complicated equation"
You’re not ready for these Teles: meet the rarest Fender Telecasters ever built
From early prototypes to crushed-glass finishes and body contour experiments, these four unicorns tell the story of the Telecaster – and the evolution of the electric guitar itself
Francis Rossi: “You really need to be a s**t-hot player to make a Telecaster sound good. Particularly when playing lead”
Status Quo’s Francis Rossi on baiting the purists, swapping guitars with Badfinger, and why he’s not an all-time-great Tele player
John Osborne: “The Telecaster is the most versatile guitar out there… Its simplicity allows you to find your voice. It’s a desert island guitar”
The Brothers Osborne guitarist on how he discovered the Tele, trading up and why bad B-Bender technique is like too much cologne…
Andy Fairweather Low: “I got Fender to make me an Esquire tuned to A... a beast. I tried using that with Eric Clapton and he said, ‘Put that away! Play a proper guitar’”
Defiantly old-school in his approach to music-making, with a delightfully quirky taste in guitars to boot, everybody’s favourite sideman has a new solo album, Flang Dang
