Latest articles by Tom Poak
Win a PRS Guitar signed by Creed!
Guitar World has teamed up with Creed and you could win a Tremonti PRS Guitar signed by all members of Creed
Nancy Wilson, Nita Strauss, Lita Ford and more to head up women-only Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp
Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp announce the details of their third annual women-only camp
"I was ill and when I picked the guitar up again, I wasn't playing Joe Satriani stuff – I was struggling to play Oasis!" Jack J. Hutchinson on how illness changed his playing style and his Black Crowes-inspired pedalboard
British blues guitarist and songwriter Jack J. Hutchinson on pedals, power trios, solos – and the illness that derailed his career
"When I was 14 I saw George Thorogood and thought, ‘That’s cool – I’m going to do that’”: Ruzz 'Guitar' Evans on the two pedals and amazing pickups behind his rock 'n' roll tone
Pedalpocalypse: Ruzz 'Guitar' Evans of Ruzz Guitar's Blues Revue on the two pedals and amazing pickups behind his rock 'n' roll tone
“We did a Pepsi Challenge on the Klon!” Henry James of Robert Jon & The Wreck names his favorite pedals – and his no. 1 Klon clone
It's the return of Pedalpocalypse, “the Desert Island Discs for pedals”, with Henry James from Robert Jon & The Wreck and King Tree & The Earth Mothers on the three pedals he would take with him in the event of a future lockdown
Green Day's Mike Dirnt wrote the bassline for Longview on LSD: "Later, it took me a long time to be able to play it, but it made sense when I was on drugs"
In praise of Dookie, the 1994 album that put Green Day on the pop-punk throne
Deon Estus moved to Dublin to play with Phil Lynott. He ended up giving George Michael (and Wham!) groove
George Michael could play bass – but it was Deon Estus who gave his songs groove, especially on 1987's Faith album...
"I never wanted to be just the bass player, plonking away. I played a lot of notes – too many sometimes!" Trevor Bolder and the low-end magic of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust
The Lowlist Ziggy Stardust was recorded in just one day. It made David Bowie a star. But bass players could only hear Trevor Bolder...
Level 42's debut album: a Britfunk classic that took slap bass and bent harmonics to a new, uh, level
It's 1981 and the bass players of the UK are looking at their thumbs and wondering if they can keep up…
The Lowlist: Primus' Sailing The Seas Of Cheese – a weird mix of twisted basslines, warped lyrics and general weirdness
For the second Primus album, Les Claypool decided that he was bored with the 4-string and his playing needed something to "blow it wide open". Cue 6 string fretless mania…
"With no disrespect to Cliff Burton, I think my picking brought a new tightness to Metallica. Cliff's sound wasn't very defined": An interview with Jason Newsted on the release of The Black Album
From the Bass Player archive: Jason Newsted on picking vs fingers, the gear and technique behind The Black Album and how it feels to fill Cliff Burton's shoes...
Watch Mountain’s Felix Papplardi and Leslie West tear Pennsylvania a new one on Mississippi Queen as they redefine ‘heavy’ for the 70s
“All stoner and doom bands are foam in the wake of Mountain!” An unmissable performance that generated some amazing YouTube comments
The Lowlist: Blondie’s Parallel Lines – the album that defined New Wave
The rhythm section was "was totally out of whack". The producer was "like Adolf Hitler". But out of it all came an all-time classic.
The 1973 Paul McCartney TV Special is not only the most ’70s thing you’ll ever see, it’s a fascinating snapshot of a post-Beatles McCartney
50 years ago, the James Paul McCartney TV special hit the screens. Born out of acrimony, and panned by critics, it’s a flawed but fascinating insight into McCartney’s mindset
Watch Donald “Duck” Dunn as Booker T and the MGs blow minds in Norway in 1967
On 7 April 1967, the Stax/Volt Revue hit Europe. Norwegian TV caught them in action in Oslo. What’s Norwegian for “locked in”?
Watch Ronnie Wood and Ronnie Lane trade guitar and bass solos with the Faces on Paul McCartney's Maybe I'm Amazed
The two Ronnies letting rip will brighten your day.
Why Thin Lizzy's Live and Dangerous is one of the greatest live albums ever released
Unfairly maligned as an album "fixed in the studio", a new version of Live And Dangerous proves Lynott and co didn't need overdubs
Jet Harris was Britain’s first bass guitar player, the first to own a Fender Precision, and its first rock ’n’ roll hellraiser too
Fights, car crashes, affairs with starlets – Jet Harris set the template for British bass players and bad behaviour, and along the way inspired everyone from McCartney to Lemmy
Paul Simonon: “I couldn't hear the bass on The Who, but with reggae I could work out the basslines and play along”
The former Clash bassist chats with Guy Pratt about how he learned to play, Norman Watt-Roy, negotiating with Tony Allen and John Entwistle's watch
