Features archive
June 2024
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100 articles
- June 30
- June 28
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- “If you’re new to slide playing, try a higher string action until you get used to using it”: How to set up your guitar for slide
- “I went down to Guatemala pretty broken and fairly convinced my career was done”: Thunderpussy’s Whitney Petty on how the Mike McCready-approved rockers were restored by fire to reemerge triumphant with an album of Led Zeppelin-sized riffs
- “It was tone-chasing for people who couldn’t afford real amps and nice microphones”: Djent’s key players on the unlikely origins – and experimental techniques – behind modern metal’s most influential sub-genre
- “James would always try to break you down. Any time you played a great gig, he'd call you into his dressing room and say, ‘You just ain't on it. You ain't on the one!’” If you play funk, you owe Bootsy Collins – the bass legend who played with James Brown
- June 27
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- “Every guitar is like an investment on the channel. People like seeing the guitar for the artist”: YouTube lesson guru Mr. Tabs doesn’t just play the part – he buys the right guitar for the part… and the right outfit, too
- “Weirdly, I can’t seem to play on 22 frets. It’s this symmetry thing that freaks my mind out, so I need 24”: Meet Jack Gardiner, the Tom Quayle-taught virtuoso turning Baby Shark and Wheels on the Bus into blistering fusion guitar workouts
- “You wouldn’t think it with hip-hop music, but the Metal Zone is the perfect effect for cutting through the mix”: Stone Mecca reveals what’s on his pedalboard – and why he’s analog all the way
- “I got to meet all the people that make the guitars, and I was blown away by how many women were in there. Women never get the cred”: Susan Tedeschi on the making of her long-awaited signature Telecaster and the next generation of blues guitar heroes
- June 26
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- “When I first visited the Rickenbacker factory, I thought I was going to get a hero's welcome. But they were like, ‘Come take a look at our repair room’”: Why Chris Squire’s relationship with Rickenbacker got off to a rocky start
- “My Suhr looks like it was dragged behind a school bus on lava rock, and that’s just fine by me”: Jennifer Batten shares her gear epiphanies – and how she felt letting go of the Washburn she used with Jeff Beck and Michael Jackson
- Expensive vs cheap guitar cables: does spending more make a significant difference?
- June 25
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- Download and stream the audio from Total Guitar 386
- “Most of the reactions have been one of surprise: ‘How could you make a Strandberg this affordable?’” Ola Strandberg brought headless guitars back from the dead. Now he wants to take them to the masses with his first sub-$1,000 electric
- “No-one is handing out medals for owning a guitar by a prestige maker”: Guitar prices and the conundrum of high-priced budget electric vs entry-level big-name model – which to choose and why the decision is getting tougher
- “The range of music I’ve had to play in the last year is so vast”: How Sophie Giuliani went from ballet dancer to Olivia Rodrigo’s guitarist – and what she learned from John Mayer
- “The idea is to be felt and not seen. A lot of that came from when I was in Jethro Tull”: Jonathan Noyce on how playing with Martin Barre and Gary Moore honed his “stealth bass” approach – and his final days with the late Irish guitar legend
- June 24
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- Download and stream the audio from Guitar Techniques 363
- “Stepping into the Slayer situation and learning 19 songs on the flight over to Europe made a good impression”: How Phil Demmel nailed one of the biggest gigs in metal – and became Kerry King’s six-string wingman
- “Nick’s knowledgeable depth, thoroughness and fairness in his reviews earned him a distinguished position as a true authority”: Remembering Nick Guppy, Guitarist magazine’s guitar amp guru
- “Chrissie Hynde and Linda McCartney were friendly. She said that Paul was looking for a guitar player”: Robbie McIntosh on a playing career running from the Pretenders to John Mayer – and the knock-off Japanese Strat he used on tour with a Beatle
- June 23
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- “The producer showed me a great recording trick – he covered my pick with a thin layer of paper. The sound was pure Bowie”: He played with John Squire and KT Tunstall. Now George Vjestica is exploring his experimental side as one of Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds
- “There aren’t many bassists that could do this job. Playing with Metallica is the most demanding gig there is”: Robert Trujillo reflects on the legacy of Jason Newsted and Cliff Burton
- June 22
- June 21
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- “You can play a million notes and have no sense of feel, rhythm or intensity. B.B. King could take one string, one note, one finger and knock over a mountain”: Lenny Kravitz on the pitfalls facing modern players, and why simple is the hardest thing to do
- “St. Vincent is one of the best players in the world right now… she has that Jeff Buckley thing going on”: Royal Blood’s Mike Kerr names 10 guitarists who shaped his bass sound
- “People use them for fashion and shock factor. Your guitar is your workhorse, but on stage, it’s also your prop”: Phoebe Bridgers is playing B.C. Rich. Willow and Pete Townshend are picking up Jacksons. Have metal guitars gone mainstream?
- June 20
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- “Considered by many to be one of the best cheap electric guitars of all time”: In praise of the Danelectro Shorthorn, the primitive budget guitar loved by Jimmy Page, Tom Verlaine and Eric Clapton
- “Had he recorded nothing but the 10-minute Maggot Brain solo, Eddie Hazel’s place in guitar history would be complete”: The 30 best guitarists from New Jersey – from Al Di Meola and Richie Sambora to Gibson's best-selling signature artist
- “We’re trying to be adventurous. I don’t want to write songs that are just excuses for me to play mindless solos”: Meet Tristan Auman, the wildly inventive guitarist who went from gospel to gonzo shred with Sometime In February
- June 19
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- “My feel drives Stephen nuts – he’d rather have a traditional metal bass player who uses a pick and follows his every move. Instead, I counter his every move”: Chi Cheng on his final Deftones album – which took almost three years to complete
- “We cobbled together the Everything I Do solo in 20 minutes. Mutt Lange said ‘Eh, not bad.’ And that was it… We had no clue”: Bryan Adams guitarist Keith Scott on being a low-profile multi-platinum guitar hero – and the hits no one saw coming
- “Now that the years have passed, I can admit that we did make liberal use of Ry Cooder’s amps without his knowledge”: Kid Congo Powers is the journeyman guitarist who fused jazz and punk with the Bad Seeds, the Cramps and Gun Club
- “I was so nervous my foot was shaking on my wah pedal. After the gig someone said, ‘Wow! How are you getting that sound?’” Weird Al Yankovic guitarist Jim “Kimo” West on shaky beginnings, parody rock glory – and his Grammy-winning third act
- “You can barely hear the delay when I play live, but it’s my security blanket”: Vinnie Moore reveals what’s on his ever-changing pedalboard
- June 18
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- “I’d messaged Cory to see if he needed a bassist. He sent me his tour manager’s phone number and said, ‘See you in two days’”: Meet Vincen García, the Spanish bass virtuoso who joined Cory Wong’s band with 48 hours’ notice
- “That’s what sets guitarists apart… how they attack the strings. Stevie Ray Vaughan was the master of that – and I think Slash is right there with him”: Guns N’ Roses producer Mike Clink on having a front-row seat to Slash’s most iconic guitar moments
- “When Fender and Gibson embrace new tech, it’s usually not well received. It’s better to work with a young, disruptive company who wants to break the rules”: Inside Cream Guitars, the no-copy Mexican brand shaking up guitar with color-changing finishes
- Is there a benefit to buying a more expensive guitar as your first?
- “That’s the great thing about making my videos – they’re like demo tapes. They show off my range and versatility”: Larissa Liveir on her journey from engineering student to guitar’s TikTok role model
- “Dime had wanted to do a solo project for years… There was so much second-guessing and worrying about sounding like Pantera”: Inside the making of Dimebag Darrell’s final album
- June 17
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- “Me and Dime were tight – but I don’t like the guitars Dime played. A headstock that looks like a baby guitar? I don't need all that real estate”: Kerry King on his personal history with B.C. Rich and ESP – and why he switched to Dean
- “Thin Lizzy prepared me for Skynyrd. They said, ‘You need to learn these songs note for note.’ I said, ‘I wouldn’t dream of doing it any other way’”: Damon Johnson on having one of rock’s most enviable resumés – and why Eddie Van Halen gifted him a guitar
- “My older content was way more technique-driven… I wanted to become more sophisticated. Virtuoso music can be impressive but extremely shallow”: Martin Miller on how he recruited Paul Gilbert, Lari Basilio and Mateus Asato for his world-beating jams
- June 15
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- “The three-finger thing is actually easy. It’s like learning the patterns on a video game until you conquer it”: Billy Sheehan explains his three-finger plucking technique
- “Sometimes the guitar will tell you what it likes the best. Each piece of wood is different, in the same way that each of us is different”: How to choose the right strings for your guitar (and your playing style)
- June 14
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- “Some say our music has polyrhythm, but it’s simply 4/4. I guess it confuses anyone who hears it for the first time”: How Peter Nordin navigated a 172bpm maze of nightmarish polymetric riffs on Meshuggah’s Future Breed Machine
- “I mentioned Nile Rodgers on the radio. The next day he messaged me to get down to Abbey Road right now”: Meet Alfie Templeman, the rising Gen Z guitar star inspired by ’70s prog and ’80s Bowie
- “Johnny Marr stood there for five minutes watching me use a reverb tank as a guitar bow. He must have thought it was the stupidest thing he’d ever seen”: Meet LA Priest, the inventor-guitarist questioning everything you know about tone
- “I’ve learned to completely let go and say, ‘That’s different… but let’s go with it!’” The Pineapple Thief are one of UK prog’s leading lights – Bruce Soord explains how they crossed the Rubicon with Porcupine Tree’s drummer
- “I don’t think you can overestimate the influence of his sound”: The unsung guitarist who transformed James Brown’s music, and laid a funky path for Nile Rodgers, John Frusciante, Cory Wong and countless others
- “The pre-WWII SJ-200 sounds utterly huge with very deep and punchy bass, strong mids and clear highs”: How Gibson’s legendary SJ-200 acoustic wowed Elvis, Bob Dylan and more to become ‘King of the Flat-tops’
- June 13
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- “Our first show with Van Halen, he was playing a red ES-335. I thought he was a very good player, but not unique. He evolved leaps and bounds”: Rusty Anderson on his session journey – from supporting Van Halen to joining Paul McCartney’s band
- “He even put a +100dB switch on it. It blew out the speakers in the practice room and we’ve never used it again”: HAAL are turning UK post-hardcore upside-down with anti-breakdowns, eight-minute songs and amp-exploding fuzz pedals
- “I knew Beyoncé would really belt it out there, so I wanted to play something more in your face”: Meet the unsung bass hero who laid down one of the noughties’ most irresistible basslines with Beyoncé
- “White Lion was on tour with Aerosmith, and I wanted to switch from Strats and see what Steinberger was all about…”: Vito Bratta on why he made the leap to his iconic ’88 Steinberger GM2T
- June 12
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- “We face our amps backwards so that they can be as loud as possible. Feedback is really important to us”: DIIV are reimagining shoegaze with cheap pedals, communal gear and all-encompassing distortion
- “I love $200 guitars! They’re easier to play and their pickups are very responsive to my style”: Meet Sebastiside, the Colombian virtuoso making waves with budget guitars – and a ground-breaking rhythm technique
- “It’s not about playing whatever the lowest note available is. You have to consider melody, rhythm and harmony”: Listen to John Paul Jones’ isolated bass on Led Zeppelin’s Ramble On
- Squier’s new Limited Edition Classic Vibe models are so desirable, I broke my decade-long guitar buying ban. So how did they get me hooked?
- “Technical bass players might be able to spell it out in print, but if the pocket isn’t there, it’s just dots on paper”: The Meters’ George Porter Jr on surviving Hurricane Katrina, the subtleties of New Orleans funk and his unusual slap style
- "There is no wrong way to play guitar. The instrument can be whatever you make it": The Guitar World team shares the advice they wish they'd been given when they started learning
- “The six-string bass was a phase that all the manufacturers went through. It was never a big seller”: Up close and personal with the 1965 Gibson EB-6D – the super-rare bass that looks like an SG
- June 11
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- How to restring a classical guitar
- “My main recording guitar is a 1959 Jazzmaster. I haven’t changed the strings in eight years! They’re completely dead, but I just love the sound of it”: Grant Nicholas on why he doesn’t mind Feeder being called the UK Foo Fighters – or Smashing Pumpkins
- “He was already in Animals As Leaders – but there we were, playing the Beatles in a bar. I’d be like, ‘What the hell is happening?’” Joshua De La Victoria has gone from prog awakening to one of the genre’s brightest guitar talents
- “Everything we’ve recorded before sounded digital and almost heartless, so I went back to analog”: Unprocessed’s Manuel Gardner Fernandes on his return to tubes – and why Polyphia’s support means more than anything
- “Bernie went into the studio with a host of guitars – but ended up using this £125 Squier for 95% of the sessions. It was one of the best Strats he ever played”: Inside the Bernie Marsden guitar auction – featuring rare Strats and a Greeny-esque ES-335
- June 10
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- Should you learn acoustic guitar before electric guitar? Plus 3 other beginner guitar myths busted
- “While Les Paul may not have been the first to use tape for echo effects, he was certainly at the forefront”: The history of delay, from studio guitar reel-to-reel experiments to Line 6 and the rise of digital
- “Ronnie Wood has a ’55 hardtail Strat and that one was incredible. And then Nile Rodgers’ Hitmaker Strat – that one’s incredible”: Fender’s Master Builders on what makes a good Stratocaster – and the best Strats they’ve ever played
- “I played House of the Rising Sun in my fifth-grade talent show. Afterward Stevie Ray Vaughan walked up and said, ‘I play guitar, too’ and our friendship began”: Meet Rocky Athas, the guitarist who went to school with SRV and inspired Brian May to tap
- “My hand was starting to swell up and blood was coming out of my ears. If I hadn't worked on that stuff, there's no way I could have done it”: Basil Fearrington breaks down his bassline on Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s Back Together Again
- June 9
- June 8
- June 7
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- “Jimmy Page said, ‘Wow, I love the way you play that song.’ I was like, ‘God, I could die now’”: Heart’s Nancy Wilson on their long road to the top, grunge friends – and that cover of Stairway to Heaven
- “I played the solo perfectly – and there was silence in the room. It was crickets. Everyone was looking down, I couldn’t believe it”: Elliot Easton on The Cars’ early years – and the guitar solo that moved him to tears of rage
- June 6
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- “At the beginning John Lydon really loved it, and there was a real sense that it was great. And then, of course, it got very dark”: Jah Wobble on PiL, going back to his P-Bass – and why he’s reworking Metal Box
- “After one of the shows, Ginger said, ‘You are a great bass player after all.’ I couldn’t believe it – he’d never once said that in all the years”: In 2005, Jack Bruce reunited with Cream after 36 years – and realized how much his bass playing had changed
- 8 ways to make your beginner acoustic guitar play and sound better
- “There are no shocks on this album. I like bands to stay true to the sound that works. I’m happy that AC/DC have been making the same record for 50 years” Kerry King on his unapologetic solo debut – and how long before Slayer jump back into the coffin
- “I flirted with a more professional-looking ’board on the Periphery tour… but went back to the cracked, Velcro-covered piece of plywood I made with my dad”: It may not be flashy, but Mike Dawes’ acoustic rig is truly mind-bending
- “If you don’t want to play Eruption by Van Halen, don’t practice it. There’s no reason to do it. You want to practice what you want to do”: Buzz Osborne on how he forged a unique voice in heavy guitar playing – and why new guitars are better than vintage
- June 5
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- “Where’s the noise? Where is the ugliness that we find compelling in beauty?” The Dandy Warhols’ Peter Holmström and Courtney Taylor-Taylor on their struggles with the wrong guitars and boring amps, and how they collaborated with Slash
- “I’m funny with amps. I love Marshalls, but I also love old Fender Deluxes. Dumble built one for me just before he passed away. I think it was the last one he ever built”: With Strats, Magnatones, and plenty of all-star guests, Slash embraces the blues
- “I play chords on the bass like a bluegrass or country picker would. It really works with the 12-string”: Dug Pinnick on pushing hard rock’s boundaries with King’s X
- “Guitar’s versatility is unparalleled. But it’s also an instrument with a lot of baggage. We all know the tropes we’re trying to avoid”: St. Vincent on returning to real amps, stealing Josh Homme’s secret weapon – and how she overcame her fear of Strats
- June 4
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- “It's the one he took around with him – the one he went back to the hotel with after gigs”: Up close with the 1974 Martin that Eric Clapton used to write Wonderful Tonight
- “We’ll spend hours trying to get the grossest, most evil sounds we can. We DI’ed a fuzz and it sounded like vomiting”: Battlesnake are the triple-guitar lovechild of Queen, King Gizzard and Judas Priest you never knew you needed
- “Phil and Tommy Emmanuel were so encouraging. Phil said, ‘Most kids are listening to Limp Bizkit, and you’re playing Eric Johnson and Jerry Reed!’” Meet Joe Robinson, the Australian acoustic virtuoso who turned down major labels to make it in Nashville
- “When I sign any guitar I buy, it doubles or triples in price. So I always make money on any guitar I’ve bought”: Ace Frehley on his greatest gear finds – and the guitars he regrets selling
- “I look for musicians who play live and aren’t just farming followers on Instagram. The lifestyle of sitting at an Ikea desk, shredding guitar, day after day… I don’t want any part of that”: Tracii Guns on his favorite modern players and going digital
- June 3
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- “Shania Twain got me into alternate tunings. I use them a lot on gigs now, and they’ve seeped into my solo stuff”: What session bass supremo Derek Frank learned from playing with pop’s A-listers – and how he brings it to his own music
- “I got this tremendous electric shock and fell off stage. I came round with people saying, ‘Are you okay?’ and ‘Is your guitar insured?’” Art-rock’s elder statesman Bill Nelson on his wildest guitar stories – and why he still swears by the Line 6 POD
- “Yes, it did make my guitar look cooler – but it took a bit of getting used to…” I’d always wanted to try a Bigsby, so I put one on my Les Paul. It changed the way my guitar sounded – and the way I played
- “My friends make fun of me because I’ve got a big thing for selling and trading pedals… every pedal I’ve owned, I’ve had twice!” Meet Rory A Green, the Fender-championed, Strat-wielding jazz virtuoso who has a love/hate relationship with pedals
- “Some people really object to the sound of finger noise when they’re playing acoustic, and coated strings definitely mitigate that”: How different strings affect your acoustic guitar tone
- “Some of my first gigs were before I had a driving licence, so I had to walk a mile or two to get to shows”: With the help of Dan Auerbach, Nat Myers is making rootsy blues guitar relevant again – and keeping the one-man ramblin’ band tradition alive
- June 2
- June 1
