Features archive
July 2024
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92 articles
- July 31
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- “A perfect example of interpretive genius from a visionary guitarist”: The 20 greatest guitar cover versions
- “Dirty Deeds… has some more complicated ideas that go up in an Eddie Van Halen kind of way. It reminds me of the kind of things Steve Hackett was doing in 1972”: Black Midi’s Georgie Greep on the high-voltage genius of Angus Young
- Maple vs rosewood fretboards: what’s the difference?
- “I’d cover the strings in cheeseburger grease, barbecue sauce – even blood. I didn’t want the bass to sound like a friggin’ guitar!” Crosby, Stills & Nash’s 1969 debut took bassist Stephen Stills on an unlikely tone journey
- “I love the romance of a guitar with a story. But if you can find a good setup guy, you can take a piece of junk, and it’ll play as good as anything you’ve ever touched”: Larkin Poe’s Rebecca Lovell on why she’s loyal to Fender Stratocasters of all levels
- July 30
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- “Gibson turned conventional design upside-down by using straight lines and angular body shapes, changing the way electrics could look and creating a rare set of future collectibles”: The history of Gibson guitars in 20 defining moments
- “You hear two notes and you know who it is. What a unique thing he created. Without singing a note in his entire life – what a voice”: The life, times and twangin’ tones of rock ’n’ roll pioneer Duane Eddy
- “My band joke that my pedalboard should be called ‘50 Shades of Gain’!” Chris Buck on how a fetish for dirt led to his new signature pedal from ThorpyFX
- July 29
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- “In my experience, 70% of vintage guitars are clunkers – a new guitar will beat their sound and how they play. But if you get that diamond in the rough, it’s next-level”: Wayne Sermon is sneaking vintage guitars into Imagine Dragons’ blockbuster pop-rock
- “It’s such a beautiful instrument. I think when people started hacking them up and putting humbuckers in them, it ruined the look”: Yngwie Malmsteen explains what makes the Stratocaster the perfect electric guitar (and why he scalloped the frets anyway)
- July 28
- July 26
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- “Three songs in, we got into a physical altercation and I decided, ‘I’m done playing this show.’ I took all my Ibanez guitars and threw them into the audience”: Dave Navarro on why he switched to PRS – and Jane’s Addiction’s unlikely rebirth
- “I’d never played a Strat before. But when Audioslave was forming, I was looking for a new guitar. I went into a Guitar Center and found this Strat on the wall. It spoke to me deeply”: Tom Morello on the origins and mods of his Soul Power Strat
- “Nothing was even mic'd up through the P.A. – they just listened to our amps and the two vocal mics. Sometimes we'd just play rubbish”: The Beatles on their struggles to be heard over the screams of Beatlemania – and the toll it took on their performances
- July 25
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- “I nearly got crushed by an elephant while holding it… That guitar has definitely seen some stuff”: Orianthi tells the remarkable story of the rhinestone-encrusted PRS Custom 24 she played with Michael Jackson, 50 Cent… and an elephant
- “Kim Thayil is one of the coolest and most inventive guitar players ever… Chris Cornell is definitely in my Mount Rushmore of singers”: Mark Tremonti weighs in on the biggest bands of the ’90s (including Creed)
- July 24
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- “I didn't record with compression or any of that. I just taped a doubled-up piece of felt over the strings at the bridge”: How Carol Kaye set the tone for Quincy Jones’ Hikky-Burr, the theme for The Bill Cosby Show
- “A fretboard with a flatter radius makes it easier to enjoy a low action with buzz‑free bends”: You should never underestimate the impact of fretboard radius – it dramatically affects the way your guitar plays
- “Billy Gibbons pulls out this big-ass yellow 17-string bass and he’s like, ‘Okay, we’ll play it for a song, right?’” ZZ Top’s Elwood Francis on teching for Joe Perry, lying to Steve Vai – and the curse of playing that viral 17-string bass
- “I do wonder if shoegaze getting pushed into the mainstream might send it down a similar path as grunge… I hope not”: Blushing are riding the TikTok shoegaze revival with a Johnny Marr Jaguar and an ex-Smashing Pumpkin
- July 23
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- Download and stream the audio from Total Guitar 387
- “If you can play a song on the piano or guitar and make people feel something then that’s great... If it doesn’t pass that test, then it’s not good enough”: Conchúr White on going solo, McNally guitars and finding a new voice with fingerpicking
- “Eric Clapton’s roadie brought a Strat with him. I said, ‘Do you want to sell that guitar?’ He said, ‘I’ll sell it to you for £60’”: Ritchie Blackmore on why he switched from the 335 to the Stratocaster – and the one he used to record Smoke on the Water
- “There’s nothing that over-washes the natural sound of the guitar and amp – it’s more or less to embellish it”: Eric Gales shares his stompbox philosophy and reveals how Eric Johnson inspired his pedalboard
- July 22
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- “Hendrix came in at two o’clock in the morning. I can still remember the audience – Rod Stewart, The Beatles, the Small Faces – all of them were silent when Jimi was done”: Junior Marvin on joining Bob Marley – and the night Hendrix shook his hand
- “Josh Homme’s guitar playing is very learned and proper. I’m self-taught, and my style is more unorthodox. My guitar is untamed.” Brant Bjork made his name as Kyuss’ drummer – but he found his voice on guitar
- “I’m still predominantly a Tele player, but I felt like my guitar playing had got a bit stale. I switched to a Les Paul for a year and I think it did the trick”: Joanne Shaw Taylor on rewiring her playing and conquering ADHD in the studio
- “The way the Strat just tore that amplifier up, it was different from anything I’d heard before”: Robert Cray on why he fell in love with the Fender Stratocaster – and how Buddy Guy’s younger brother started it all
- He gave B.B. King “the cold sweats”, replaced Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers and founded Fleetwood Mac – how Peter Green changed the course of British blues-rock guitar playing
- July 21
- July 20
- July 19
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- Should you buy new or second-hand for your first acoustic guitar?
- “I had no idea who Thin Lizzy was. I’d never seen a picture of these guys, never heard their music. But I was told they’d had a hit with Whiskey in the Jar…’” Scott Gorham on his Thin Lizzy audition – and the moment The Boys Are Back in Town “exploded”
- “The White Falcon is a guitar of extreme beauty... there’s just no other way of looking at it. But I really couldn’t get on with it”: Darrel Higham on his Gretsch highs and lows – and why a 21st century rockabilly ace has a cheap Zoom multi-FX in his rig
- “A lot of metal players won’t care – they just want to play metal. But cleans are important to me”: Mark Tremonti on what his signature PRS MT 100 amp has in common with his Dumbles – and why it does more than breathe fire
- July 18
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- “We use 3D modeling tools to design guitar bodies to have target tonal and resonance characteristics”: The innovative tech that brought Yamaha’s groundbreaking 2024 Pacificas to life
- “People quickly realized my guitar was cheaper than a Mexican Strat and better made… I still don’t know how they make it at that price point”: Nick Johnston on how his signature Schecter conquered the world
- “Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page didn’t think a Strat could play the blues. But they all went to buy Strats after they saw me”: Buddy Guy on why the Strat is damn right a blues guitar
- Download and stream the audio from Guitar Techniques 364
- July 17
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- “We set up Eric and Duane in the studio, so they were face-to-face about two feet apart. They could literally touch each other’s guitars if they wanted to”: The Albert Brothers on recording Hendrix, Clapton, the Allman Brothers – and that Layla session
- “I can’t think of any current guitar heroes that I have. All of my guitar heroes are into their seventies or no longer with us”: Towa Bird is one of Gen Z’s biggest guitar stars – and she built her own brand of energetic rock from classic influences
- “Be yourself and play what moves you. James Jamerson said it best: ‘If you don’t feel it, don’t play it’”: Parlor Greens’ Jimmy James is putting the soul back into guitar, groove by groove
- “What does the Strat mean to me? I’ll say this: my grandson is named Fender. What does that tell you?” Los Lonely Boys’ Henry Garza would like you to meet Tejana – a guitar so good even Carlos Santana wanted to play it
- July 16
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- “You can hear the influence of those riffs on Guns N’ Roses, but I’m sure it’s not a conscious thing. It’s in our subconscious, ingrained in our DNA”: Richard Fortus on how Aerosmith changed his life, and what he and Slash learned from Joe Perry
- 5 things people with organized pedalboards always do – and what they buy from Amazon
- The 50 greatest acoustic guitar songs of all time
- “I had to step away from the pointy era. I chose the Strat because I like the way they look and the way they sound… everything about them is me”: Mick Mars on how he found his thrill with the Fender Stratocaster – and the 1954 unicorn that broke his heart
- July 15
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- “I played the slide part of Layla with Eric Clapton… 15 minutes later I was back in the office making copies”: Brian Wilson guitarist Probyn Gregory on living an incredible double life, between desk job and rock star
- “I understand how it may be perceived as our answer to the Stratocaster, but that’s not my intention with this guitar”: How PRS made the SE NF3 – and what makes it different from the Silver Sky
- “I played on about a billion records, and that guitar was on all of them”: Steve Lukather’s Robot Strat is one of the 1980s’ most-heard guitars, and started life as a vintage Fender – before it was modded beyond all recognition
- July 14
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- “If you heard the first demo of that song you wouldn’t believe it!” How Led Zeppelin’s legendary multi-instrumentalist took flight with Them Crooked Vultures
- “We’d all been struggling with the track – I remember Ralph MacDonald’s hands were bleeding!” Longtime David Letterman bassist Will Lee recalls his toughest recording date in NYC
- July 13
- July 12
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- “I get more volume and power when I play with a pick. I’d never be able to play Highway Star with my fingers”: Roger Glover’s isolated bassline on Deep Purple’s Highway Star is a masterclass in high-velocity picking
- “The Strat is a reflection of me – it’s the one thing that’s been consistent in my life”: How her family’s sacrifice started Ana Popovic’s lifelong love affair with the Fender Stratocaster
- “Fans think it’s very cool to see a pregnant lady playing. People are saying I’m the real Thunder Mother!” Thundermother’s Filippa Nässil is riffing and touring all the way through her pregnancy – she explains how she’s adapted her rig to suit her bump
- “Producers and engineers were freaked out by the 12-string. They said, ‘No, that sounds like crap – go back to the Precision direct’”: Cheap Trick’s Tom Petersson on how he pioneered the 12-string bass and influenced a generation of players
- “I gave it to a tennis pro friend years ago. That was a mistake, as he’s left-handed!” Alex Lifeson might have given his Sportscaster to a sportsman, but not before he wrote it into rock history – here’s how a Strat became his go-to for his Rush sound
- July 11
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- “Mick Ronson was the guitarist prior to me. He was one of my heroes, so when I joined that band I had some pretty big shoes to fill”: The Fixx’s Jamie West-Oram on his journey from distorted rocker to new wave guitar hero – and why he's big on Suhr
- “Seymour Duncan went to work. He dragged it through the grass. Put motor oil on it. Chipped it. Frank Zappa said, ‘If you wanted to ruin your guitar, Adrian, why didn’t you loan it to a friend?’” Adrian Belew’s number one Stratocaster has lived a life
- “I don’t know what I’m trying to portray, but it’s always going to be uncomfortable and vulnerable”: Meet Heartworms, the six-string experimentalist who went from busking for rent to playing the Royal Albert Hall with St. Vincent
- July 10
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- “The first three records of our career, everybody was talking about how we were going to fail. Each next step was going to be a disaster”: Mark Tremonti and Scott Stapp on the unlikely rebirth of Creed – and why they’ve always been cool
- “Some of the greatest sounds were created on junk!” Joe Bonamassa reveals the secret to getting great tones from affordable gear
- “You should be recording your guitars with a DI so your tone can be rescued if needed”: Sleep Token and Tesseract’s mixing engineers reveal how to improve your guitar recordings – and it starts with ditching your ego
- July 9
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- “I can put an amp up and 10 minutes into the show it’ll be on fire. It’s just how Joe rolls”: The secrets behind Joe Perry’s awe-inspiring guitar rig by our man on the inside, guitar tech Darren Hurst
- “Even when Freddie was nothing and nobody, he was Jimi Hendrix in his mind. And I enabled him to have that at his fingertips”: Brian May on his symbiotic songwriting relationship with Freddie Mercury – and the guitar innovations he never got credit for
- “If Mick Jagger held a gun to my head, telling me to play Satisfaction I'd have said, ‘Just shoot me’”: Joy Division hero Peter Hook looks back on his genre-defining legacy
- “I’ve heard Jimmy Page liked my attention to detail. So do the work, kids – it pays off!” From Joe Perry to Sheryl Crow, Audley Freed has played with the greats – but nothing beats jamming with Jimmy as part of the Black Crowes
- “I was watching my best friend get eaten alive by heroin. It was amazing how far gone he was, physically, but he was still able to play the shows”: Failure’s Ken Andrews looks back on the fraught creation of 1996 cosmic epic, Fantastic Planet
- July 8
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- “He had this ’65 Firebird III hanging on the wall. It was one of the best guitars I’d ever played. Some weeks later, I dreamed about it. I was like, ‘That’s the Holy Grail!’” DeWolff’s Pablo van de Poel on the quest to land his literal dream guitar
- How to test a beginner acoustic guitar in a guitar store: our step-by-step guide to buying your first acoustic in person
- “I try to mimic robots playing guitar. It’s supposed to sound like a machine”: Introducing thall – the metal genre that’s djent’s colder, more evil younger brother
- July 6
- July 5
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- “I knew that if I wanted to express myself, it was going to have to be through the guitar”: Why every guitarist owes something to the first rock 'n' roll guitar hero, Duane Eddy
- “I keep blowing things up. I need things that are very dependable and findable”: IDLES’ agents of chaos Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan unleashed sonic anarchy on their new record – and coined the indie-rock equivalent of 'djent' in the process
- “I had a ridiculously long, complex chord and key change solo section. And who comes to mind? Steve Vai!” How Billy Morrison assembled a guitar lineup that includes John 5, Steve Stevens and Steve Vai for his triumphant comeback solo album
- “When I learned to drive, I'd drive so fast, and probably quite recklessly, to Appetite For Destruction”: Samantha Fish talks soloing strategies and blues heroes ahead of Slash’s S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival
- July 4
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- “There was an edge-of-your-seat quality about the way my father played. If I have a little bit of that, it’s a great thing”: Duane Betts on balancing the musical legacy of his dad, Allman Brothers legend Dickey Betts
- “When I went into that fire burn I was thinking, ‘What's the worst that could happen?’” That time Rage Against the Machine's Tim Commerford injected himself with steroids then set himself on fire
- “I said, ‘This is what Bill played’ and Mick said, ‘No no, don't play that!’” When he joined the Rolling Stones, Darryl Jones had to change the way he approached classic Bill Wyman basslines
- “It’s a primal, unconscious reaction. An honor bestowed upon only the best riffs”: What’s the science behind a stank face riff? We asked everyone from Mike Stringer to Periphery and Nik Nocturnal to define metal guitar’s ultimate accolade
- “I would need to show you exactly how to tune your guitar. Even at home, some people have trouble. Young guitarists tell me that regularly”: Mdou Moctar has ignored all of guitar’s standards – and become one of the world’s finest players in the process
- July 3
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- “Do I get advantages that other collectors don’t? Absolutely! But I just got a 1959 Les Paul from a music store in Boston. Anybody could have walked in and bought it”: Joe Bonamassa on why he’s no ’Burst hog – and putting on his “British hat” with BCC
- “I remember watching Foo Fighters footage and thinking, ‘I need a band like that!’ No click tracks or extras – just real amps, real drums, real everything”: Meet Lowlives’ Lee Downer, the British rocker who just needs a cranked amp – and 169 guitars...
- July 2
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- “It wasn’t a conscious decision to invent our own scale! The idea was to do something inspired by Jeff Buckley... but we added a mandolin”: The Last Dinner Party’s Emily Roberts is the jazz-schooled Queen-inspired indie guitar hero you’ve been waiting for
- “There’s nothing like plugging into a great amp without anything in front. It’s like Italian food – it doesn’t have to be complicated, and uses great ingredients”: Richie Kotzen was once a Shrapnel shredder – now he’s moving away from “stun guitar”
- “I got food poisoning. When I’d stopped throwing up, the first thing we did was the solo for Love In An Elevator”: Joe Perry on the unlikely origins of Aerosmith’s greatest guitar moments – and the big regret of his 600-strong guitar collection
- July 1
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- “This wasn’t Seth Lover’s instinctual way to create a pickup. This was Les Paul in his ear saying, ‘This is what you should do”: The story – and tones – behind Gibson’s distinctive Alnico V ‘Staple pickup’
- “Gary Moore was a formidable character and seemed a bit moody, but I respected him as a guitarist”: Neil Carter discusses his near 30-year relationship with the British blues rock great – and why, when it comes to UFO, he’s learned to never say never
- “Do I ever feel the need to breakout the shred? Absolutely. All the time”: Meet Lime Garden’s Leila Deeley – the UK guitarist refreshing indie-pop with a heavy-strung Jaguar and a $30 fuzz pedal
- “Me not being in Slayer sucks. I want Slayer to exist. This is the only way I know how to do that”: Thrash icon Kerry King on flying solo, the reunion shows that were never going to happen – and why he doesn’t demo with modelers
- “Slash has jammed with B.B. King – not many rockers could hang with the blues OGs like that”: Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram first heard Slash on Guitar Hero – now he’s hitting the road in the GN'R man’s traveling blues show
