Features archive
March 2024
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99 articles
- March 31
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- “John Lydon once made a stab at poaching Flea for Public Image. At which point Flea keeled over and passed out”: Anthony Kiedis takes a nostalgic look back at Flea’s finest hour from Blood Sugar Sex Magik
- “Bono always wanted me to play that part with a pick, but I get a different reaction from playing bass with my fingers. There’s nothing quite like that contact of pulling the wires”: Adam Clayton on the U2 sound
- March 30
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- “I’d never buy one from the ’70s because I’ve always felt that there’s no such thing as a good guitar from that decade”: Robby Krieger on what makes his 1968 Gibson Barney Kessel special
- The smallest, the simplest, the best? Why the MXR Phase 90 remains a pedalboard classic, beloved by EVH and Gilmour enthusiasts the world over
- March 29
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- The Gibson ES-335 has been played by greats including Eric Clapton, B.B. King and Larry Carlton – here’s why guitarists can’t get enough of the iconic semi-hollow
- “An American Strat can be great, but there’s something about the tone versatility with my Japanese Strat that can’t be matched”: Meet Alena Ciera, guitarist for David Byrne and CeeLo Green
- “I totally respected Jaco's bass playing, but that 16th-note triplet funk thing – it just wasn't in his repertoire”: Weather Report drummer Chester Thompson on why Jaco Pastorius struggled to swing
- “It’s nothing crazy, but I have some weird, oddball sounds if needed”: Alex Skolnick reveals what’s on his pedalboard
- “People tell me I’m one of the godfathers of shredding… I don’t know. I play loud, aggressively, and with some flair. I’m just out there doing me”: Did Michael Hampton really land his P-Funk gig by playing Eddie Hazel’s Maggot Brain solo note for note?
- March 28
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- Fender Play vs Yousician: Which online lessons are right for you?
- “I saw this video of somebody breaking down Heart of Glass. The guy said, ‘Here’s Chris Stein’s guitar part.’ I was like, ‘No, that’s my guitar part’”: Frank Infante sets the record straight on his iconic Blondie riffs and solos
- “I have these big meat hooks, so I can pick up a lot of wonderful guitars, but if I played them for two hours, I’d be cramping. I only have one guitar that I didn’t build”: Meet bluegrass-shredding luthier Dan Wetzel
- From King Crimson to A-list hired gun with Talking Heads, Frank Zappa and David Bowie, Adrian Belew created his own language on the guitar – here are his 10 greatest guitar moments
- Download and stream the audio from Total Guitar's Guitar Heroes
- Download and stream the audio from Total Guitar 383
- March 27
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- Download and stream the audio from Guitar Techniques 360
- “I remember my first lesson with Joe. I had a guitar and a set of strings. I’d never really played. I didn’t know how to tune or string it”: Steve Vai and Joe Satriani discuss the evolution of guitar playing, and what they taught each other
- Gibson Les Paul vs Fender Stratocaster: Which is right for you?
- “I was sitting around my house, drinking too many margaritas because I thought the world was ending. I got a call asking if I’d be interested in playing with St. Vincent”: Jason Falkner’s “oddball” guitars took him from Jellyfish to Beck and St. Vincent
- March 26
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- “I gave my vintage Jazzmaster to a girl after a show in Liverpool. 30 years later she sent me back the guitar. It’s like it died and went to heaven and came back to me”: The miraculous return of US shoegaze pioneers Drop Nineteens
- "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
- “I’m constantly thinking about my pick angle, how that translates the way I feel in that moment: how can I add more emotion to this part than I did last night?” Tyler Tomlinson on bringing Satch and Vai to Morgan Wallen’s country vibe
- “Richard Fortus messaged me and said, ‘I’ve shown Slash your guitar and he likes it, too…’ After that, the phones didn’t stop”: How a small UK boutique builder became a Guns N’ Roses favorite and the next big name in retro-inspired electric guitars
- March 25
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- “People should really do their homework and learn about the history of music and what came before whatever style you wanna do”: Logan Ledger on paying his dues – and what he learned from Clarence White and Waylon Jennings
- “Just as I was setting up the mic, Jimi started playing, and man, my brain froze. In that second, my life changed”: Eddie Kramer on working with Hendrix, Kiss, Jimmy Page and why guitar players should think more analog
- “I love a lot of those classic players. I just didn’t want to play like them. Like Captain Kirk, I wanted to go where no-one’s gone before!” Yngwie Malmsteen names 11 guitarists who didn’t shape his sound – but he still thinks are great
- “I gravitate more towards Victor Wooten than the straight-up shredding of Billy Sheehan, but I’ve ripped pages from both books”: Jacob Umansky unpacks the origins of his cutting-edge slap technique
- March 24
- March 23
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- “Both Joe and Guthrie play a mean, funky rhythm guitar on a song like Stevie Wonder’s Superstition. That counts for more than you think”: Bass supremo Bryan Beller reveals what it’s like to play with Joe Satriani and Guthrie Govan
- “I loved rock, but I always listened to hip-hop, too. After a session with Ice Cube, the whole hip-hop guitar thing on the West Coast kicked off for me”: Session ace and Wu-Tang Clan MD Stone Mecca talks gear, Snoop Dogg and his self-taught style
- “Playing with a pick is not something you learn over the weekend. It requires the same commitment as learning to play upright bass with a bow”: Listen to Anthony Jackson’s landmark bassline on the O’Jays’ For the Love of Money
- March 22
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- “We’ve always played fast, and that hasn’t changed. But the big thing is finding new notes that instantly fit within that zone”: Herman Li on DragonForce’s new era of maximalist shred, AI in music and the fine art of string bending
- I’ve tried every home practice solution under the sun, but nothing stuck. Then I plugged in a headphone amp – and now I’m playing for hours
- Everything you need to know about acoustic guitar neck joints – how they work, and why they matter for your tone
- “I don’t care how special or what year something is – if it’s not going to stay in tune, it’s useless… I need things dialed in”: Danny Rader on navigating Kenny Chesney’s triple-guitar lineup and why the Fractal Axe-Fx is his go-to for huge country shows
- March 21
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- “Adam wanted to completely change everything. His band had hit a brick wall”: How Marco Pirroni teamed Link Wray with Les Paul Juniors to make Adam and the Ants’ ’80s-defining Kings of the Wild Frontier
- “I’m happily surprised when I hear solos on the radio. I wish they were more present. To hear a solo longer than 20 seconds in modern music is a rarity”: Meet Kelly Green, the Instagram ‘guitar queen’ who never plays the same solo twice
- A beginner’s guide to the Gibson Byrdland – the cult classic archtop that took flight after a request from two Nashville guitar aces
- March 20
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- “It’s like Brian May walked over to his tone booth and just turned it up to 11!” Kirk Hammett names his favorite Queen song – and it’s a seriously deep cut
- “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
- “I met Ritchie Blackmore during the Sepultura days. At first, he wasn’t interested in talking to anybody. But the minute I asked, ‘Do you like football?’ he said, ‘Yes – come with me!’” Max Cavalera names 10 guitarists who shaped his sound
- “George Martin wasn’t going to leave his own studio, and Jeff never gave directions or said much, so there was nobody telling us what to do”: Listen to Wilbur Bascomb’s bassline on Jeff Beck’s Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
- “Mötley Crüe was a whole different animal from what I’m doing. Writing the anthems was what the band was all about. Then it got a little sideways…” Mick Mars opens up on the highs and lows of life in Mötley Crüe – and his solo rebirth
- “My being fired was premature… We’d wrapped pre-production on Killers but I never got the chance to record”: Meet Dennis Stratton, the man who brought harmony guitars to Iron Maiden
- March 19
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- “Every band wants to have a Sgt. Pepper’s type of moment. And American Idiot was that moment for us”: Billie Joe Armstrong on the making of the magnum opus that saved Green Day
- “I was playing a gig with Jack Bruce and one of my amps suddenly burst into flames!” Robin Trower's onstage disasters and famous firsts
- “Jack loved that a kid like me, with a blue mohawk and plaid guitar, was making the songs my own – playing Cream and doing divebombs in the corner”: Blues Saraceno toured with Clapton’s Cream bandmates, recorded for Cher and had a bumpy ride with Poison
- “Jaco’s groove is like a fingerprint – nobody can duplicate it”: Listen to Jaco Pastorius’ isolated bassline on Weather Report’s Barbary Coast
- March 18
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- “At some point I might come up with a new single-cut unique enough not to upset anybody”: Nik Huber on the perils of riffing on the classics and the evolution of his powerhouse boutique brand
- “If you’ve ever seen Slash give that look to whoever when they hit a bad note… You get that look once, man. You don’t want it twice”: Gilby Clarke survived a baptism by fire in Guns N’ Roses – but one day the pay checks stopped coming
- March 17
- March 15
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- “If the mini-humbucker had remained exclusive to Epiphone, it may have been a mere footnote. It developed a following because they ended up in Gibson guitars”: The mini-humbucker’s surprising history – and why it deserves more love
- “Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Ry Cooder, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Healey and Buddy Guy... I naturally gravitated towards a Strat because my main influences were all playing them”: Philip Sayce on why the best studio magic is live
- “I was young, I had never been in the studio, and I had no idea what to expect… I took a lot of inspiration from Tom Scholz’s ’board”: Grand Funk Railroad’s new guitarist Mark Chatfield goes way back with the band
- March 14
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- “I was scared to death. Miles didn’t say a word to me. Afterwards, I asked what he thought of my playing. He said, simply, ‘It was cool’”: T.M. Stevens on playing with Miles Davis and James Brown – and what went wrong on Vai’s Sex & Religion project
- “We lived on a train for 15 days and played 65 shows. The boxcar was a stage, and we would pull into towns that don’t get live music very often”: How Tenille Townes is taking her country sound to the people
- “Fretless guitars are freeing. I’m trying to convince more bands to experiment with them. You can escape from whatever box you’re in”: Fretless guitars can change your perspective on the instrument – just ask Dead Poet Society’s Jack Collins
- March 13
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- “I was gonna have a year off after Knebworth, but when John rang up saying, ‘Look, I’ve got these tunes,’ I thought, ‘I’m in, mate’”: Liam Gallagher on why John Squire is like Hendrix and the best guitarist of his generation
- “There’s a different dynamic to distorted slide playing – a fully distorted slide guitar is an incredibly noisy beast”: Meet the guitarist fusing Western slide and black metal – with devastating results
- “I had no idea what the hell I was doing! I couldn’t speak English. But Paul was so kind. Through a translator, he said, ‘Just relax. I love the way you play’”: How Bakithi Kumalo became go-to bassist for Paul Simon, Cyndi Lauper and Tedeschi Trucks Band
- “I must admit, it looked and sounded phenomenal, but the poor girl was crushed to smithereens… I was totally heartbroken”: How Ted Nugent accidentally destroyed his first Gibson Byrdland
- March 12
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- “I have the heaviest boost pedal in existence – it’s a Marshall half-stack that I switch on when the sound needs to be bigger”: DeWolff’s Pablo Van De Poel on his life in gear – and a rig that is not to be trifled with
- “My tone is already destroyed by the time it gets to the amp”: Yard Act are redefining post-punk guitar with plugins and ‘cheapo’ gear – and they reckon a Squier Bullet Tele sounds great DI’d
- “Chord voicings, amps and dynamics are all elements of how I solo. I’m not a guy who improvises… I use well-thought-out lines that are outside the box”: Yiannis Papadopoulos on taking Scott Stapp to a higher power
- “Freddie was a good riffmeister! He was a devotee of Jimi Hendrix. People think he was just concerned with the lighter stuff but it’s not true. He did enjoy the heavy stuff”: Brian May reveals the inside stories behind 13 classic Queen tracks
- March 11
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- “Poverty accounted for many of my choices – I had this knockoff, fake Tele I used on Rain Dogs… It was awful but also beautiful”: Marc Ribot on recording Tom Waits classics with cheap gear, and why ‘How can I destroy it?’ is one of his session mantras
- “I’ve used Gibsons and Fenders in the past, but, honestly, nothing compares to how good my signatures sound. It’s almost a joke!” How Nick Johnston found tonal nirvana by plugging straight into the amp
- “Jimi Hendrix scared me. Learning about the Hendrix E chord was amazing… I figured out where to put my fingers and kinda eked it out on my own”: Steve Lukather names the 12 guitarists who shaped his sound
- March 9
- March 8
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- “Let's do that again!” This compilation of fiery Sister Rosetta Tharpe guitar solos shows how her revolutionary playing inspired blues-rock greats like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and the Rolling Stones
- “I'm a completely different bass player now… When I was in Jeff Beck's band, I hadn't even been playing for four years!” Tal Wilkenfeld on her evolution from bass phenomenon to solo artist
- “A collector turned up with a Cherry Red Flying V and I was like, ‘Are you sure you want to customize that?’ It was such a beautiful thing already!” Meet the English entrepreneur who covers guitars with crystals for a living
- “I watched a lot of people chase guitars and amps to try to find themselves, like, ‘No, it’s the next guitar. Maybe that will be the one.’ I didn’t do that”: How Joyann Parker discovered that tone is in the fingers – and music can change minds
- “The first song I learned was The Beatles’ Blackbird. I’m still a pretty good fingerpicker, if nothing else!” Katy Kirby on jumping into guitar at the deep end – and why she made new album Blue Raspberry as uncool as possible
- “Bass is the underdog. You’re not the singer or the guitarist – you’re the glue that holds it all together”: Lisa Dodd on leaving the soloing to Billy Sheehan – and staying in the “money zone”
- “On four-strings you have to jump to get the second octave, but on the five-string it’s right there”: Mohini Dey reflects on her switch to five-string basses – and the advice her dad gave her about Jaco
- “It didn’t sound right with just one guitar lead, so why not have two?” Mary Timony on her multiversal lead lines and why the Depression-era Gibson acoustic is the ultimate six-string survivor
- March 7
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- “I would prefer no solo in a song to a solo that’s just an obligation”: Marty Friedman sets the record straight on guitar solos
- “Randy Rhoads trusted me. He put his reputation with Sharon and Ozzy on the line to bring me in”: Rudy Sarzo talks Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne and reshaping his bass tone for Whitesnake
- “I built a trailer that was big enough for me and eight guitars. Then I proceeded to travel, seeing everything that was out there”: How Gabe Mangold tracked a death metal record in the desert – and how the Quad Cortex redefined his songwriting
- “My headless six-string is the color of Hannibal Lecter’s couch… and I have an Oxblood Red model inspired by his office!” How Ihsahn combined horror scores, blastbeats and space-age guitars for a black metal album to eclipse ’em all
- “He had an acoustic guitar and he started playing this little melody for the bridge… It felt magical – like classic Smashing Pumpkins”: Code Orange on their spellbinding Billy Corgan collaboration and how simplification brought honesty to their playing
- March 6
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- “Rod Stewart wooed me to come out on tour and I agreed – then I decided not to do it. He said, ‘Oh, I bet you’re going out on tour with Robert’”: Eddie Martinez on playing with Blondie, Run-D.M.C. and that solo in Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love
- “It’s the higher-profile artist associations that tend to attract the big money – things like your Pearly Gates and your Jimmy Pages”: Why Gibson’s replicas of famous Les Pauls are commanding almost as much as vintage guitars
- “I don’t know what it is about my Tele, but it’s special. Roy Buchanan tried it and wanted to buy it! I said, ‘No way in hell I’m giving that up’”: Russell Javors on his wild ride with Billy Joel – and his friendship with Les Paul after he was let go
- “Don’t sell your first bass. Even if you never play it again, in later life you’ll wish you still had it”: With a stage name coined by Bootsy Collins, Freekbass names the one bass that “like an idiot” he ended up selling
- March 5
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- “Jimmy Page once said to me, ‘Have Gibson not been onto you?’ And I said, ‘No, maybe I play too many Strats.’ I think it’s more likely they don’t know who I am”: John Squire opens up on his return to music with Liam Gallagher – and why he’s no guitar hero
- “Denny was an outstanding vocalist and guitar player with a fine sense of humor”: Remembering Denny Laine – the guitarist who co-wrote Paul McCartney’s biggest ’70s hit
- “No-one was looking at the Strat when Yngwie picked one up in ’86 – everybody had left it behind after Hendrix. It just continues to reinvent itself and get rediscovered”: Justin Norvell has to guard Fender’s glittering past, while securing its future
- “Robin Trower’s guitar sound was the loudest I’ve ever heard. He had two Fender Twins, and he smoked both by the end of the night”: Buzz Osborne names the 11 guitarists who shaped his sound
- March 4
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- “In 2005 I loaned my SG to a friend… It remained lost. In 2019, I walked into a thrift store – and behind the counter was my guitar”: Phantom Planet’s Alex Greenwald on finally tracking down the missing Epiphone that soundtracked The O.C.
- “I became this musician because of jazz. I mean, I still wake up every day and work on Charlie Parker’s Hot House!” Even with a broken finger, Helmet’s Page Hamilton is one of the all-time great heavy riffsmiths – but he owes it all to jazz
- “I’m excited to bring my spice to the Megadeth soup. We’ll maybe look to get back to the roots. Maybe you’ll hear some Rust in Peace vibes”: Teemu Mäntysaari reveals how he landed (and nailed) the Megadeth gig – and the band’s new album plans
- “We are guided by the saying, ‘Sustainability is a journey, not a destination.’ There is always more to do”: Guitar brands are working towards sustainable tone – but there’s more to it than just changing tonewoods
- March 3
- March 2
- March 1
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- “George owned many, many instruments, and all of them were in storage – with the exception of the ones I made for him”: How Bernie Hamburger’s Hamburguitar became a favorite of George Harrison
- “I did everything by working my ass off. I played in bars six nights a week, 300 shows a year, three one-hour sets every night for eight years with no record deal”: Evanescence’s Troy McLawhorn on his guitar firsts, favorites and embarrassing moments
