Features archive
February 2024
Filter
75 articles
- February 29
-
- “I’ve done gigs where they’re like, ‘You’re good for an Instagram guitarist.’ I was like, ‘I’m not one!’” Meet George Collins – the Bieber-backed British Berklee grad navigating Nashville as part of the next generation of session players
- “This is f**king 4K s**t”: Erik Rutan and Rob Barrett on why Chaos Horrific is one of the grimmest releases from the Cannibal Corpse death metal meat grinder
- “If I knew I was gonna influence thousands of guitar players, I woulda practiced more!” Ace Frehley struts down memory lane to shoot down Kiss myths and reveal the secrets behind an era-defining sound
- “I’m excited to infuse some nasty, dirty, effects-laden stuff into Gwar and make it sound disgusting sonically… And I think I’m gonna have a mullet”: Gwar’s new guitarist Tommy Meehan gets set to destroy
- February 28
-
- “I did this full-on ritual where I set up a circle of pedals, stayed inside of it and wrote a bunch of demos”: How Chelsea Wolfe reinvented her guitar playing with tarot cards, meditation and effects… lots of effects
- How to set up your room for guitar recording success
- “Slap bass has that metallic sound, like a hammer. If you played bass with a pick it wouldn’t sound the same. Actually, I did that on Epic”: How Billy Gould crafted his driving bass tone on Faith No More’s biggest hits
- Feel like your playing is stuck in a rut? You need to face up to your weak points – it will make you a more well-rounded guitarist
- “People will write about how certain songs don’t have guitar in them, and I chuckle because it’s all guitar! It thrusts its hips the way nothing else can”: How Torres uses her Telecaster as a divining rod for strut and glitter
- “Many people think I was doing it all on the Rickenbacker in the ’80s, but a lot of the clean arpeggio stuff was done on a Les Paul”: Johnny Marr on the most prized guitars in his collection – and why they might not be what you expect
- February 27
-
- “If I had tried to be another Ron Carter I would have failed. I don’t think that’s what Miles was looking for”: Dave Holland on the making of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew
- “I couldn’t even walk, but I thought, ‘At least I can play guitar!’ When I picked one up, I just couldn’t. That was the final straw”: Deryck Whibley had to rebuild Sum 41 after nearly dying – so why is he ready to break up the band?
- “Music saves many of us – yet we often lose the people who gave us that music to the very thing their music saves us from”: The tragedy that led Sully Erna to create the Scars Foundation
- February 26
-
- “I know my limitations, but at the same time I’m really pushing myself to be a better guitar player”: Billie Joe Armstrong on ripping solos like Angus Young – and what Green Day have in common with Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran
- “Roger Glover got me into Jaco. I heard the stuff he was doing with Weather Report while Priest were at the same studio in the ’70s”: Judas Priest’s Ian Hill names 8 bassists who shaped his sound
- February 25
- February 23
-
- “We tune to C#, which creates sourness. It’s not a tuning a lot of guitarists want to stay in – it’s kind of out of tune. We create something evocative in that dissonance”: How Sleater-Kinney use guitar as an agent of beauty and chaos
- “Thom Yorke called Colin Greenwood the secret weapon to Radiohead, and I think he was right”: John Garrison on the 5 bass albums that shaped his sound
- Why the Celestion G12T-75 is one of the guitar world’s most divisive speakers
- “Am I a good bassist? I’m a f**king good bassist!” Sting on bass playing, Cream and his “battered looking” P-Bass
- February 22
-
- Everything you need to know about guitar compression: its history, how it works and how it can make your guitar sound better than ever before
- “I started out playing a Telecaster. One day, I heard someone playing a Gretsch – I said, ‘What is that? That’s the sound I’m looking for!’” Portugal. The Man’s John Gourley joins a fresh wave of signature artists updating Gretsch for a new generation
- February 21
-
- “This guitar gives you a piece of me. In fact, I just used one of the Epiphones to do some recording, and I’ve played them onstage, too”: Adam Jones discusses the evolution – and future – of his signature 1979 Les Paul Custom
- “You feel the whole guitar shaking as you’re playing it, especially when you run it through an amp”: How Mule Resophonic Guitars is reinventing the resonator
- “I was 100% better on guitar when I was 15. Technically, I’m a much worse guitarist now – but I’m a better songwriter”: Meet Sprints, the Irish garage rockers cranking Boss Katanas in stadiums
- February 20
-
- “Rubber-bridge guitar is another sonic hemisphere that existed this whole time but was going untapped. It’s really special”: Ariel Posen on his adventures in tone – and why songwriting is like hitting the gym
- How does a Welsh rock band that trades in “filthy, nasty guitar tones” end up writing a song with Brian Johnson of AC/DC? Himalayas’ Mike Griffiths explains the story behind their “unexpected gift”
- “The higher end the guitar, the more robust the demand is”: Why are guitars getting more expensive? We spoke to the world’s biggest guitar companies to find out
- “It’s an anti-establishment statement – I’m trying to make it okay for jazz guitarists to go out with their metal guitars”: Meet Cecil Alexander, the prog-loving jazz guitarist who’s challenging elitism by shredding bebop on a Jackson
- February 19
-
- “In pop-punk, you have to be able to sing any guitar part. To have a shreddy solo feels like a waste – it just shows off that individual’s musicianship and doesn’t do much for the audience”: Neck Deep on how to write the perfect pop-punk song
- “I’ve always picked up my dad’s guitars, but I wasn’t that serious about it. Then I realized it was natural to me – it was so deep in my soul I didn’t have a choice”: Thurston Moore loved her demos. Now Devon Ross is journeying from actor to guitarist
- February 17
- February 16
-
- “I loved the sound of doubled guitars, but it just becomes a slog. I couldn’t hate the process more… it goes right against the immediacy I wanted for this record”: Why Jawbox hero J. Robbins changed his attitude to recording… and smashing guitars
- “Technical playing can get cleaner, and that’s possibly even more challenging than just being faster”: We met the academics who study shred guitar for a living – they explained why it’s changed dramatically since the ’80s, and the 3 ways it can develop
- “I was never a huge Led Zeppelin fan, but I always loved that song, and the open strings just set it up for bass”: Watch Stuart Hamm’s bass arrangement of Led Zeppelin’s Going to California
- February 15
-
- “I hate punching in. If you don’t have your bassline down, you shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing”: Rex Brown reveals the tricks behind his super-heavy bass technique
- “I’d always borrow guitars, but after we signed to this asshole label, one of the guys gave me the Jazzmaster. I’ve never had a reason to get another guitar”: Jason Lytle on Grandaddy’s emotional return and his ’70s Fender devotion
- “I get to call out wrongdoing and injustice. I get to be really angry – ‘I can’t find the words, so here’s a guitar solo that explains it’”: How Emily Wolfe uses her music as therapy
- February 14
-
- “I never have boundaries regarding the gear I use – my rule is simply to follow my ears”: Dirty Sound Magnet sound like Hendrix meets the Doors by way of Zappa – Stavros Dzodzos explains how analog adventurism fuels their psychedelic sound
- “I used to not bend strings at all, but I started doing it as a joke to make my friends laugh when I played classic rock riffs – it became this massive part of my playing”: Omni’s Frankie Broyles on his unlikely journey to post-punk transcendence
- “Music saved me from a lonely existence, and now it’s teaching me how to relate to others and how to relate to myself”: Mat Davidson, aka Twain, found belonging with a guitar in his hand
- “I strived to get an electric guitar to respond like a fingerpicked, open-tuned acoustic for decades. I went about it wrong”: Ex-Black Crowes guitarist Luther Dickinson on why he never dug his first signature Gibson – and how its followup went MIA
- February 13
-
- Should you play guitar with a pick or fingers? We weigh up the tone and technique benefits of both approaches
- “The Bulls loved it immediately. Michael Jordan loved it”: He appeared on smash hits by Kate Bush and Paul McCartney, but this unsung session guitar hero's most popular solo can be heard in one of the most iconic sports anthems of all time
- “I have that Eddie Van Halen mentality of ‘it doesn’t really matter what it looks like – I wish someone would teach me, because it’s just been me destroying stuff!” David Pajo on modding guitars, Gang of Four and the launch of his lost folk-rock album
- February 12
-
- “I love Gibson – I always have. Even though people like Slash play Les Pauls, for me they work better in a jazzier sound-world”: Jimmy Page was bowled over by her playing. Now Rosie Frater-Taylor is injecting jazz solos into pop for an all-new sound
- “Sometimes it’s not really about complexity. There are some jazz tunes that are incredibly simple like AC/DC”: How Matteo Mancuso is redrawing the frontier for guitar and unlocking the fretboard one chord at a time
- February 9
-
- “I think someone should – or I hope someone will – take a genre of music that isn’t known for guitar and apply guitar to it”: Andy Partridge thinks you can be a great player or a great writer, but not both
- “My best advice to all guitarists is to sit down and write the things you practice”: Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale talks tone tips, meat and potatoes rock, and reveals how a fan gave her an original Klon Centaur
- “The best guitar solo is a song within a song. I’ve been doing that my whole career”: Ace Frehley on the mystery of his guitar style, influences, and how his genius IQ works best when he's half-awake
- “Cheap instruments can be amazing and expensive ones can be totally wrong. Don't let the price tag fool you.” London bassist Dave Edwards on the beauty of his Aria Pro-II Precise Bass
- February 8
-
- “I didn’t play with a Big Muff for a long time and felt like a fraud”: Mudhoney’s Steve Turner and Mark Arm like to lose control, but without straying too far from their comfort zone
- “It’s heavy, thick and unique. It feels great, and the neck is incredible. And it’s heavy; but that’s okay because the weight of a guitar is very important to me. The thicker the better”: If you pick up Bill Kelliher’s new ESP guitar, you’ll know about it
- “Basically, I climb up telegraph poles late at night, tear down the cabling with my bare hands and use that to string my guitar!”: Jon Gomm on how he's using wild tunings, giant strings, and lessons from Jeff Beck's whammy work to redefine the acoustic
- February 7
-
- “I felt like I’d stumbled upon this magical sound radiating off people’s turntables… my Strat and Gretsch together had this sound of one guitar, even when it was two”: As Randy Bachman prepares to part with his guitar collection, he’s still burning bright
- “Musically, Eric was a very generous guy. I loved working with him because he encouraged me to play”: How Eric Clapton used Roger Waters, George Harrison, and Stevie Ray Vaughan as foils to survive the ‘80s – the decade he was not prepared for
- Boss GT-1000 Core vs HX Stomp: which amp and effects modeler should you pick?
- February 6
-
- “Take Jeff Beck, David Gilmour and Allan Holdsworth – Alan should be seen as being in that company”: Remembering the late Alan Murphy, the player Fender trusted as a tone consultant, who played with Kate Bush, Go West, and more
- “Steve Vai and Joe Satriani’s setups are amazing examples of streamlined innovation. But with my maple neck Strat, it would be hard to do what they’re doing”: Eric Johnson on G3, profilers, and the custom pedal he “might actually put on the market”
- “The drum, it is the heartbeat, and the bass, it is the backbone” Listen to Aston “Family Man” Barrett’s isolated bassline on Bob Marley’s Is This Love
- “His sound was reggae. He was an utterly beautiful force”: Tributes paid to Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett, who has died aged 77
- February 5
-
- “I’ve been playing for seven years but I only learned the pentatonic scale three years ago!”: She’s only just started exploring music theory, but that hasn’t stopped 17-year-old Grace Bowers from grabbing her blues heroes’ attention
- “These guitars illustrate the musical journey of one of popular music’s greatest artists”: Inside Christie’s’ epic $11.2 million Mark Knopfler guitar auction
- February 3
- February 2
-
- “I’ve had all of the great guitarists in the world say to me, ‘Pete, you’re not in the top 10 for virtuosity, but you’re certainly No. 1 as an acoustic rhythm player’”: Pete Townshend on Who’s Next, Lifehouse, and fun times with Superstrats
- “I think Metallica thought that I knew who they were. I didn’t. They thought I was in awe of them – not true… it wasn’t enjoyable”: Whiskey in the Jar was the hardest song Thin Lizzy’s Eric Bell ever tackled, and he didn't enjoy playing it with Metallica
- “Jimi was a genius guitarist, but the recording sessions were chaos, and onstage, it was getting ridiculous”: Why Noel Redding quit the Jimi Hendrix Experience
- Everything you need to know about a guitar's action: what it is and how to adjust it on your electric guitar
- February 1
-
- “Finding something that defines you – even if it’s not flashy – is the key. It could even be limitation that makes you stand out”: Mustard Plug’s ska punk stalwart Colin Clive on why your playing must have a personality
- “He showed complete mastery of the bebop jazz language – a language invented on horns”: Celebrating Joe Pass, jazz guitar’s great re-inventor – and a player who had the rare ability to nail sax lines on a six-string
- “The acoustic guitar is the most punk rock instrument because it’s the most independent. You don’t even need an amplifier!” Laura Jane Grace might be an obsessive collector – but all she really needs is a Yamaha acoustic
- How the Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins became a rock ’n’ roll icon, played by Pete Townshend, Randy Bachman and more – before enjoying a triumphant second act in the hands of Brian Setzer
- “You could play a one-string bass with a pick and still create amazing music”: Billy Sheehan disputes his reputation as “an overplaying icon of lead bass”
- Download and stream the audio from Guitar Techniques 358
