Features archive

June 2023

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76 articles

June 30
- "I'd sweat so much I had to test my basses by dunking them in water!" True story: Jason Newsted sweated so much with Metallica that his basses would short-circuit
- “When I got the Strat, I was like, ‘The bitch is back!’”: Why Palehound’s El Kempner is re-embracing solos – and the Stratocaster – on one of 2023’s essential indie-rock releases
- Alter Bridge's Myles Kennedy: 10 guitarists who shaped my sound
June 29
- Keith Richards and Eric Clapton worshipped her solos, and Elvis idolized her sound: how Sister Rosetta Tharpe became an electric guitar trailblazer
- Christian themes, riffs as pretty as they are violent and chords above the 12th fret: how Liturgy’s Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix is radically warping black metal conventions
- This unassuming guitar teacher’s epic America’s Got Talent audition went viral. Here’s how he landed – and nailed – the gig of a lifetime
- How Drain’s Cody Chavez made one of this year’s finest hardcore albums using an arsenal of Jackson Dinkys – and an LTD that got run over by a car
- Download and stream the audio from Total Guitar 373
June 28
- “I don’t think George was too pleased with what I did with the bassline; I mean, I had to sell it to him!” Did Paul McCartney overplay on this Beatles’ Abbey Road hit?
- From rocket-shooting Les Pauls to 'bananas' Superstrats: 10 iconic Kiss guitars that powered rock's most outrageous band
- When Bootsy Collins met Larry Graham: “He handed me his bass, and I said, ‘Don't even try it. You play the bass, and I'll just watch’”
June 27
- “You can see Zakk’s deep love and respect for Dimebag – that’s the reason I’m there, too”: Dime’s tech Grady Champion talks getting back on the road with Pantera
- Watch the world’s ‘leading solo bassist’ play four different bass guitars at the same time
- Rival Sons’ Scott Holiday: “I don’t need to play all the notes at a very high speed. I can appreciate that in players, but I’m looking for texture and color”
- The Offspring's Noodles on why he picks Ibanez Talmans over Les Pauls – and that time he played James Hetfield's Explorer
June 26
- “With those thicker strings he used, it was like he was in a battle, fighting them with his fingers”: How Stevie Ray Vaughan made Texas Flood
June 25
- "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
June 23
- Joe Bonamassa called him his new favorite player and Steve Vai hailed him as the evolution of guitar: how Matteo Mancuso developed a technique like no other
- Listen to Geddy Lee’s isolated bassline on Freewill. The Rush song Alex Lifeson said was their “most ambitious”
- Norma Jean’s Grayson Stewart reveals what’s on his pedalboard(s)
- Nate Watts picks his top 5 Stevie Wonder basslines
- This Instagram account is the guitar-building ASMR you didn’t know you needed
- Vintage resonators, budget rarities and seaweed-hued semi-hollows: inside Peter Green’s guitar collection
June 22
- Meet HMLTD’s Duc Peterman, the jazz-schooled guitarist who rejects the “macho side of guitar playing” and wants his tones to sound like a giant parasitic worm
- Neil Giraldo: “As much as I loved Jeff Beck, I never wanted to be him. I wanted to be Pete Townshend. I wanted to be the writer. I wanted to play chords”
- How the guitarist from Incubus ended up writing one of the biggest riffs of the 21st century… with Avicii
June 21
- Download and stream the audio from Guitar Techniques 350
- The 12-string guitar that defined the ‘60s: in praise of the Rickenbacker Capri
June 20
- The Black Crowes' Rich Robinson names 11 guitarists who shaped his sound
- Ayla Tesler-Mabé: “I’m not sure I want to hear a purely improvisational solo... My favorite solos are the ones that are singable”
- When Zakk Wylde needed a hand with Dimebag Darrell’s guitar parts, where did he turn? To Ola Englund’s YouTube channel, of course
June 19
- Guy Pratt: “I always thought that the second I walked out the studio, the producer would be on the phone to Pino Palladino”
- His playing took Eric Clapton’s breath away and David Bowie called him the most exciting guitarist since Jeff Beck: how Stevie Ray Vaughan became a blues guitar hero
- Dave Mustaine explains why "it's not really that hard to shred fast" and what makes his Gibson and Epiphone models impossible to tell apart
June 16
- In praise of the Fender Duo-Sonic, the electric guitar for students that the pros grew to love
- Types of guitar bridges explained
- Richie Faulkner: ”Judas Priest came from a place of progressive blues. The seeds of metal were sewn through the blues – that's the true heritage of heavy metal”
June 15
- "Imagine Cream with Bill Frisell on guitar and Charlie Haden on bass": Charlie Haden's guide to his best work, from jazz to blues and beyond
- Snarky Puppy's Michael League: “I’m a 4-string guy. I just play better when I have less to work with”
- "You can’t talk about distorted bass without mentioning Ace of Spades": Listen to Lemmy’s isolated bass on Motörhead’s born-to-lose anthem
June 14
- Steve Howe once took a chisel to a 1955 Fender Telecaster to make it more Gibson
- The evolution of fuzz pedals: how the wildest drive of all conquered the radio – and our pedalboards
- Muse fans are going crazy for Matt Bellamy’s astonishing mirror mask guitar – we found out how Manson made its most ambitious design yet
- Meet Towa Bird, the TikTok star who channels Jimi Hendrix and thinks guitar solos are “arrogant” – but tears up the fretboard anyway
June 13
- Meet RVG, the Melbourne post-punks redefining the indie guitar hero with $5 Partscasters and Kate Bush’s acoustic guitar
- Ana Popović: “I don’t want anything that is not legit on my stage. When it’s a cheap drum kit or a cheap bass, I hear it and it bothers me”
- How a pair of weight-lifting gloves helped Louis Johnson play slap bass
- Zakk Wylde: “The sound of Pantera comes from Dimebag’s love for Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads. The playing is rooted in precision”
- Nick Johnston names 10 guitarists who shaped his sound
June 12
- 5 reasons why you should buy a modeling amp over a tube amp
- How the guitar played a surprisingly important role in Jurassic Park’s most iconic scene
- How CLT DRP’s Scott Reynolds is pushing electric guitar tone to new limits via a monster 40kg pedalboard
- Steve Lacy on how Jack White and Scott Pilgrim inspired his fuzz-equipped Strat, creating Fender’s first “pink sunburst” and why he loves affordable multi-FX pedals
June 11
- Marcus Miller's The Sun Don't Lie: the moment Miller proved he was more than just a slap monster
June 9
- Tom Hamilton: "I thought, I'll be damned if I'm going to play eighth-notes on the root all my life!"
- Mikey Way: “I was borderline terrified a lot of the time My Chemical Romance was active. I was learning the bass in front of 20,000 people every night!”
- How to tell a good ’70s Fender Stratocaster from a bad one
June 8
- “It was one of the few tunes that the band didn’t try to play live, but it’s definitive Jaco”: Discovering Jaco Pastorius and the making of Havona
- Indigo De Souza: “I was bullied a lot in school and had a really hard time. Guitar ended up being like a space of safety for me”
- Is the 4x12 guitar cabinet still relevant today?
June 7
- The strange history of Hugh Cornwell’s Höfner S7L – the ‘Razorwood’ electric guitar made famous by The Stranglers
- Paul Weller: “People should check out some of my bass playing on that first solo album”
- That time Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner jammed with Tool: “It was pretty daunting... let’s just say it wasn’t like jamming some AC/DC”
June 6
- Introducing Paoletti Guitars, the firm that builds electric guitars from old wine barrels
- Marty Stuart: “It started with my Clarence White Telecaster. That old guitar is kinda like an invisible band member. It has a tone of its own”
- Meet Dante Frisiello, Steve Vai's new guitar sideman who went from law school to playing with his hero
- When Cliff Burton met Geddy Lee: “He started pacing, he started smoking pot, and he was like, ‘Oh my God!’”
June 5
- Is this the guitar Keith Richards used at the Rolling Stones’ first-ever gig?
- Eric Gales on his jam with Stevie Ray Vaughan: “Right at the end I asked him to sign an autograph for me – and he said, ‘Only if you sign one for me first!’”
June 4
- Level 42's debut album: a Britfunk classic that took slap bass and bent harmonics to a new, uh, level
June 2
- Veteran record producer Don Was names his 5 all-time favorite bassists
- Vinnie Vincent's 10 most explosive solos
June 1
- How guitar frets evolved and changed the course of guitar-playing history
- Why the 4x10 Bassman is considered the best-sounding Fender amp of all time
- Graham Nash: “The acoustic guitar touches the heart faster. It’s much more human and personal than electric guitar”
- Celebrating 50 years of The Dark Side of the Moon: inside the magical guitar sounds of Pink Floyd’s masterpiece