Latest articles by Jonathan Horsley
“Didn’t want to re-invent the wheel, just wanted to make a wheel that could sound beautiful... or rip faces off”: Silktone unveils the Overdrive+, a drive/boost twofer that plays naughty or nice
Dial in some tone-sweetening heat or high-gain saturation for ripping leads, the choice is yours... Neat. But it's the “Strangle/Raw” boost modes that make this a very different animal
“Eric came in, played great, just one tasty lick after another. Jeff Beck’s contribution was spellbinding”: Mark Knopfler enlists Clapton, Townshend, Iommi, Slash and dozens more for all-star charity single
Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes raise funds for teenage cancer charities with an epic version of his Local Hero theme, featuring Jeff Beck’s final recording, and over 50 guitar legends – including David Gilmour, Joan Armatrading and Brian May
“It was a huge risk – to this day I’m wondering if I pulled it off or not. But it was how I felt inside. I didn’t want picture-perfect solos”: Kirk Hammett reflects on his all-improv lead approach – and explains why he doesn’t sweat onstage mistakes
Kirk Hammett looks back on a landmark year in Metallica, reveals how Joe Bonamassa helped him snag one of the rarest Les Pauls ever made, and explains what caused him to mess up the intro to Nothing Else Matters – and why it doesn’t matter
“A lot of kids think drop-tuning is this new thing that just came out and it’s like, ‘No way, Jimi Hendrix was doing that stuff a long time ago!’” Eric Gales on the lasting influence and innovations of the ultimate electric guitar icon
Gales says he wears his Hendrix influence with pride. Here, one of today’s greatest blues-rock guitarists shares his insight on the visionary and fearless experimentalist
“Joe Bonamassa texted me and said, ‘I know you love that black Les Paul. It’s at Carter Vintage right now. Call them ASAP!’”: Kirk Hammett says he only got his ultra-rare Factory Black ’59 Les Paul thanks to the help of his collector friend
The Metallica guitarist also reveals he had “30 guitars stolen” in a previous attempt to buy the unicorn electric guitar
Jazzmaster back scratchers, tweed amp humidors and, erm, shower curtains: Here are the wild Joe Bonamassa collectibles you didn't know you needed in your life
Move over KISS and Cory Wong – the President of Nerdville wins the award for the most amazing merch catalog ever
“Big jets moving, bombers, people in battle, distress, crying – the Vietnam War added a lot of darkness to his playing”: Kirk Hammett on how Jimi Hendrix’s guitar style helped birth metal and psychedelia
The Metallica man and Hendrix fan argues that the guitar icon's influence on metal is under-appreciated
Alien rhythms, god-level chops and samurai guitar duels: these are the best guitar albums of 2023
Guitar World staff and readers reflect on the finest fretwork captured on record this year
“At its best, the solo can tell a story, give us a sense of spectacle, and even offer a window into a player’s soul”: These are the best guitar solos of 2023
Guitar World staff and readers choose the outstanding lead efforts of the year – including “this decades's Eruption”
“We called that riff ‘The Batman Riff’”: Kirk Hammett admits Metallica lifted the Batman theme on 72 Seasons
Thought that riff in Shadows Follow sounded awfully similar to a certain classic superhero theme? Turns out Metallica knew exactly what they were doing
“A rhythmic motif so simple that even the most basic living organisms on this great planet can get down to it”: These are the best guitar riffs of 2023
Guitar World staff and readers name the finest riffs of the year – a list that unites the worlds of metal, rock, indie and more…
“I hate to say it, but non-musicians – who are the majority of the listening world – are not going to remember guitar solos”: Kirk Hammett says it doesn’t matter how good or flashy a solo is – most people are going to forget them anyway
According to the Metallica maestro, the average music listener doesn't share a guitar player's enthusiasm for a ripping solo
Warren Haynes lends his epic solo chops to Dinosaur Jr. as he jams Neil Young and the Cure with J Mascis
The Gov’t Mule frontman became the latest high-profile guest on Dinosaur Jr.’s tour celebrating 30 years of Where You Been, when he joined them at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in New York
Myles Goodwyn, April Wine frontman and Canadian rock legend, dies aged 75
Goodwyn had stepped down from touring with the Canadian Music Hall of Famers in recent months
Harley Benton launches new DIY guitar kits – and one lets you carve the body yourself
Forget dry-walling and tiling the bathroom. Here's a DIY project we can all get behind
Paul McCartney’s “Paul McCartney Woz Here!” Hofner bass and a ’62 Strat played by the Beatles are headed to the auction block – and big money bids are forecasted
Elvis’ “Loving You” Gibson LG-1 acoustic has left the building, too – a little less conversation, a little more auction…
“Geordie was a true inventor of a massive sound that has influenced so damn many of us”: Killing Joke guitarist Geordie Walker has died, aged 64
Tributes pour in for the post-punk trailblazer whose influence was felt far and wide across rock and metal, with the likes of Metallica and Nirvana indebted to his vision for guitar
“This is nuts and my jaw is on the floor with how badass this one is. I am in Tone Heaven!” Jared James Nichols just got a ’57 Les Paul with the craziest refurb ever
In vintage guitar circles, they would call this 1957 Les Paul Standard a ‘turd’, but this glorious-looking instrument was one of the first Standards to be fitted with humbuckers – and it sounds the business
“A must-have for guitarists in pursuit of those legendary Beatles tones”: Aclam unveils The Mocker, a Fab Four-inspired fuzz pedal
All this Beatles talk got Aclam so excited it dug deep for some NOS Philips OA200 diodes for its take on the Vox UL730 series fuzz circuit – and it got a little weird with the AI on the demo video…
“I was blown away by how it sounded”: After 30 years of Marshall stacks, Slash has switched to Magnatone – and a “killer” new signature amp is in the works
Is this the end of an era as the Guns N’ Roses rock legend joins Billy Gibbons and swaps Marshall for Magnatone?
Kirk Fletcher makes a triumphant return to the stage following his recent stroke – and his blues chops were in full working order as he jammed with Joe Bonamassa in Tulsa
The modern blues maestro suffered a stroke onstage in July, with Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith launching a fundraising auction to support Fletcher with his medical bills
It’s official: pairing your guitar’s pickups with your amp’s speaker “like fine wine and cheese” is a thing – find out why it makes all the difference to your tone
Why the pickup and speaker combo is one of the key partnerships in your mission to achieve better tone
“I wanted to create an instrument that had that beautiful old-school P-90 sound”: Knaggs unveils the Billy Morrison Keya-J-M, a Fralin-equipped high-end signature model for the Billy Idol guitarist
Morrison's new signature model is a thicker-bodied version of Knaggs' Keya J P2, and with hum-canceling P-90s it looks a bona-fide rock 'n' roll machine
Supro seeks to “redefine the pinnacle of Supro tube amp tone” with the Custom Amplifier series, hand-built in the USA
Two “ultra premium” tube amp combos will be available, promising gourmet tone wrapped in delectable aesthetics
“You don't run into amps with that kind of clean channel that also have this incredible gain sound”: Revv debuts the D40 Dynamis, a vintage-voiced tube head with onboard Two Notes Torpedo tech
Sweetening traditional tube amp tones with 21st-century technology, the D40 Dynamis arrives with a formidable array of features – and has the Shawn Tubbs seal of approval
