Features archive

July 2022

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65 articles

July 29
- Vito Bratta reflects on the ‘80s, when White Lion were kings of the hard-rock jungle, and the guitar rulebook was being rewritten by Eddie Van Halen
- Derek Trucks on the magic of Pink Floyd: “David Gilmour created his own universe on guitar through his tone and approach”
July 28
- Ida Mae’s Chris Turpin: “Most guitars are good for something. Even bad guitars can be fantastic because they force you to play a different way”
- The story of Gibson’s Thunderbird – the tricky, difficult but brilliant design that modernized bass guitar
July 27
- Johnny Marr: “If there’s a room full of guitar players, I’m the last to leave, man. I’m just as hooked as everybody else, and I have been since I was 5 or 6”
- Rudy Sarzo on the rising star of Randy Rhoads: “The first time I saw Quiet Riot... I thought to myself, ‘That’s a rock star in the making right there’
July 26
- Warren DeMartini on the ‘80s: “Everybody wanted to play like Eddie, and every band wanted to hit it big like Van Halen”
- How the advent of speakers using neodymium magnets enabled bigger sounds from lighter cabs
July 25
- Why Gibson’s Elvis SJ-200 has us all shook up
- 30 years of Eastman: revisiting the golden age of handcrafted guitar making
- Delicate Steve: “The only technical advice I have discerned about playing guitar is that I like it to be really, really loud”
- Vance Joy: “A lot of the songs on this album were inspired by my own experiences”
July 23
- Download and stream the audio from Total Guitar 361
July 22
- Bigsby vibrato tailpiece: everything you need to know about the iconic tremolo system
- Guthrie Govan shares the story behind his latest signature Charvel
- Nile’s Karl Sanders: “If you took all the guitars out of Saurian Apocalypse, it would be an ambient/meditative record. But I like playing guitar, so there’s guitars”
- WAAX: “It kind of sounds awful, but in this amazing way”
July 21
- Guns N' Roses' Slash and Izzy Stradlin: "We wanted the necessary studio polish, but with the live, raw feeling intact"
- Imperial Triumphant’s Zachary Ezrin on his wild approach to guitar: “There’s tons of cool stuff you can do when you stop caring about hitting the note perfectly”
- The history of Fender’s sparkle finishes
- Angie Swan takes us behind the scenes of David Byrne’s American Utopia and reveals how it changed the way she plays guitar
July 20
- …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead: “We’ve just become gearheads in the last couple years. Before we were like, ‘Whatever, if you plug it in and it works, f**k it!’”
- Carlos Santana: "You'll get scratched once in a while when you jam with other people. But that's all part of it. You have to be bold"
- When should you change your guitar pickups?
- Download and stream the audio from Guitar Techniques 338
July 19
- Why don’t more guitars come with different brands’ pickups mixed and matched?
- Introducing bubble harmonics, a new guitar technique inspired by EVH and Alan Gogoll, pioneered by Atlanta guitarist Donn Aaron
July 18
- 35 years of Fender Mexico: a timeline
- How ThorpyFX harnessed Syd Barrett’s signature Selmer tones for the Scarlet Tunic
- Soccer Mommy: “I wanted there to be this mix of evil and light”
- In search for the perfect melody with Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s Joe White and Frank Keaney
July 15
- Dimebag Darrell – the Far Beyond Driven interview: “I knew it was going to be one bad motherf**ker – refreshing, new, and that’s what it was”
- The story of Randy Rhoads’ long-lost Jackson RR3 prototype – and why it is now going up for auction
- Grace Cummings: “There’s a certain warmth that you get out of an older guitar that’s been played and played and played”
- John McLaughlin: “I fell in love with the guitar and even started sleeping with it, that’s how much I loved it”
- Spacey Jane: “We wanted to be more intentional with our songwriting on this album”
- Meshuggah’s Mårten Hagström and Animals As Leaders’ Tosin Abasi on the expansive possibilities of the 8-string
- Live Review: Short Stack, Melbourne 08/07/22
July 14
- Meet Ghalia Volt, the electrifying one-woman blues band
- 50 years of Ibanez in the USA: the unstoppable rise of the pioneering Japanese guitar brand
July 13
- Dave Young: “When you were forced to transcribe stuff from records, that taught you something. It developed your ear and your sense of songwriting”
- George Lynch recalls the time he subbed for Randy Rhoads
July 12
- How Andrea Ferrero triumphed over adversity to become one of Netflix’s top session guitar players
- Metallica’s Kirk Hammett on Pink Floyd’s Shine on You Crazy Diamond
July 11
- Scandal’s Haruna and Mami talk Fender signature guitars, custom amps and taking their effervescent pop-rock sound global
- Bassbaba Sumon on overcoming relentless setbacks, studying Stu Hamm and bringing Bengali scales to rock bass
- Joe Satriani on his love of Marshall amps: “If there was ever an amp that makes you feel self-conscious yet emboldens you to play like a giant, it’s a Marshall”
- Maddy Jane: “For a time, I was wondering if I was even going to write more music”
July 8
- Larry McCray: “When I saw Gary Moore’s live show and heard the sound that he was getting, I was like, ‘Man, I’ve got to come up with something a bit more powerful’”
- The legend and legacy of Randy Rhoads’ iconic Jackson Concorde
- Phil Jamieson: “Grinspoon is great, but I got to a point where I wanted a little bit more creative control”
- Muse’s Matt Bellamy on the genius of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon – “You get this feeling of floating around indefinitely when you’re listening to David Gilmour play”
July 7
- Andy Summers: “The Every Breath You Take riff has become a kind of immortal guitar part that all guitar players have to learn”
July 6
- Matt Heafy: “I knew me and Gerard Way doing a track together would break the elitist mindset of what black metal can be”
- Squier Bullet vs Affinity: Which one is right for you?
- Placebo’s Stefan Olsdal: “The moments we shared with Bowie, the titbits of advice – they’ve all stuck with us. Having him work with us gave us confidence to keep going”
- Zakk Wylde remembers tackling Randy Rhoads’ guitar parts for the first time
July 5
- I worked in music retail for years – here are 6 ways to ensure you save money on your next guitar
July 4
- Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx: “My job is to support the song and be super tight with my drummer. If there’s any room in there, I might throw in something melodic”
- How James Bay made Fender history with his rule-breaking Pink Lemonade Mustang
- The history of modded Marshalls
- King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: “The moment that it doesn’t come easy, that’ll be the moment where we don’t do it anymore”
July 2
- Kirk Hammett: “I was pretty active during Covid, writing a ton of different types of music. I wrote Metallica music, Portals music – all different types of music”
July 1
- 11 essential Willie Dixon covers
- King Stingray: “We feel very optimistic about music and our lives because of our amazing leaders”