Features archive
November 2024
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90 articles
- November 30
- November 29
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- “I always try to sneak in little things. There was some Super Mario and Inspector Gadget on the last album”: Forget six-string superheroes like Yngwie et al – Joe Cocchi is repping the X-Men for Within the Ruins’ comic book-inspired sequel
- “We hit the stage, and there’s Paul McCartney. He looks at me and he says, ‘Hey, Duff’. All I can think is, ‘Paul McCartney knows my name. How the hell did that happen?!’” Duff McKagan recalls his real-life Spinal Tap moment and meeting his heroes
- “I don’t believe he had any idea how rare it was before he bought it”: Kurt Cobain's $6m MTV Unplugged Martin was a historic guitar even before its Nirvana association, but a mod inspired by one of his guitar heroes made it one of a kind
- November 28
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- “Dave Navarro speaks so romantically when he’s talking about playing guitar – it definitely gave me some inspiration”: Crawlers’ Amy Woodall talks EBows, PA disasters – and what they took from that ill-fated Jane’s Addiction support slot
- “Once modded, it can take you from delicately sparkling cleans to ferociously thrilling crunch”: The Watkins Westminster Mk II is the affordable vintage tube amp you can turn into the best little Marshall you’ve never heard
- “An OCD through a Marshall is the Pixies sound”: Joey Santiago on why he’s a stompbox convert – but still hates the “coffee shop” chorus pedal
- November 27
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- “Live, I like to mostly play on the E and the A strings. I could pretty easily get away with playing a two-stringed bass”: How bassist Dave ‘Phoenix’ Farrell found his sound with Linkin Park
- “Jethro Tull would rehearse at a strict time every morning and then break for lunch. It was like going to work. In Black Sabbath, we never did that”: Tony Iommi on hanging out with Jimmy Page and Brian May, early Sabbath – and his time with Tull
- “I used to get into fights with kids at school who thought Ace wasn’t as good as Jimmy Page. I’d fight for his honor”: Dimebag Darrell and Snake Sabo on their love of Ace Frehley, and how the Kiss legend shaped their playing
- “It’s the old rockers’ guitar. You can wear it all night!” It weighs under 6lbs, has a honeycomb chambered body, you can swap out the pickups, and Billy Gibbons loves it – meet the Newman Honeycomb Junior GT-40 Guitar-X ‘Ultimate Billy’
- “Fender always presented these options in a very low-key way – it was added in very small print in the corner of one page”: Meet the vintage Jazz Bass that's a true Fender unicorn
- “Modding for dummies? Well, some of you more experienced guitar tinkerers might be having a chuckle, but this levels the playing field”: How Gibson’s Quick Connect pickups are the Les Paul mod pretty much anyone can do – no soldering required
- November 26
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- “I only picked up guitar in the first place to impress my father. I didn’t have a true desire to play that great players like Joe Bonamassa did”: Billy Corgan opens up on his guitar insecurities and being cast as the Smashing Pumpkins’ “big, bad Dracula”
- "D'Angelico would make one of the most remarkable comebacks of any guitar brand": Everything you need to know about D'Angelico and why Black Friday is a great time to pick one up
- “I was out with Katy Perry doing a show in Italy, and I got the call to to join Chappell Roan last minute. I had two days to learn the show”: Devon Eisenbarger plays with the world’s biggest popstars – but still jams covers in amusement parks
- “I irresponsibly generalized that the reason people don’t learn theory is because they are lazy. There is another, better reason to not learn it”: That time John Frusciante wrote in to Total Guitar magazine to share his thoughts on music theory
- November 25
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- "It’s not all about the name on the guitar, it’s how you gel with it." Why you don’t always need a big-name brand on your headstock – and 6 guitars that deliver superb value for your money
- “When Clarence White entered the band, it elevated their guitar work. White and Roger McGuinn were electrifying”: Christian Parker on the Byrds’ legacy as folk-rock trailblazers, gear innovators and righteous players in their own right
- “With this band, you learn not to make plans”: Dave Navarro on his fight to beat Covid, and the Jane’s Addiction reunion that – little did he know – was about to come off the tracks
- “AC/DC signed my Strat. I had everybody sign it: Neil Young, Jeff Beck… When Angus saw Beck’s signature he said, ‘Oh, the bouffant!’” Jim Suhler on being married by Billy Gibbons, the advice SRV gave him and why he didn’t pay Joe Bonamassa for a sick solo
- November 24
- November 23
- November 22
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- “Dumble told me to bring it to him because he had a mod he could do. It’s the only Dumble Fuzz Face that I’m aware of”: Kenny Wayne Shepherd on unicorn stompboxes, the quest for feel and why budget guitars can make you a better player
- “It dishonors that brand to say, ‘Now we’re King Crimson.’ But we do have the ability to say, ‘Look, this is legitimate – half of the band is onstage here”: Adrian Belew, Steve Vai and Tony Levin on how they made Beat – with Robert Fripp’s blessing
- “I had to learn all the B-52s’ songs on a red-eye to New York. The tuning was hard to figure out – especially on a plane without a guitar in my hands!” Session pro Greg Suran explains what it takes to play on American Idol – and trade licks with Joe Walsh
- November 21
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- 6 AI-powered guitar tools to supercharge your guitar-playing
- “You’ve got three guitars, and nothing to prove”: Stephen Malkmus, Emmett Kelly, and Matt Sweeney discuss the country tracking tricks, experimentation, and East German fuzz pedal clones that power The Hard Quartet's self-titled debut album
- “I wouldn’t normally be caught dead with a Tele because I think they’re ugly, but that’s the only guitar I used”: Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt and Fredrik Åkesson on their love of “stupid riffs,” and “recapturing that old death metal magic”
- “It would've been almost two hours to get home in traffic. I said to myself, ‘You’re here. Just write a song.’ Within 30 minutes, Pumped Up Kicks revealed itself to me”: How a ’59 Jazzmaster and capture-the-moment attitude keep Foster the People in gear
- November 20
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- “I don’t practice, because I don’t think that practicing in itself is necessary”: Yes icon Steve Howe on why he rarely runs scales, thrashing acoustics – and why you won’t catch him playing unfamiliar guitars
- If tone is really in guitarists’ hands – then we need to pay more attention to our picks
- “Billy Corgan literally said he wanted the ‘Sabbath note.’ He wanted that midrange that Tony Iommi has that really cuts through”: Reverend Guitars’ founders on their wild signature collabs with Smashing Pumpkins, Vernon Reid and Reeves Gabrels
- “Was smoking Hendrix’s Strat my wildest studio experience? Oh, certainly not! We always went full tilt. There was never a dull day!” Steve Cradock on his star-studded session with Paul McCartney, SGs vs Teles – and the joint he laced with Hendrix’s guitar
- “I don’t trespass on people’s style. It’s like, ‘Oh, God, you sound like that guy... Why?’ We’ve already seen that painting, don’t do that. It’s boring”: Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago on living life as an outsider guitar hero
- November 19
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- “Everyone knows Take My Breath Away, the chart-topping ballad from Top Gun. But there’s a good chance you haven’t heard this seven-minute anthem”: David Gilmour's 10 greatest guitar guest appearances, from folk legend Roy Harper to Paul McCartney
- “I stopped caring what people thought. I stopped trying to sound like other people and my sound emerged. It was literally timed with my transition”: Ella Feingold gigged with Erykah Badu and jammed with Prince, but her transition made her a player
- “A lot of my peers have turned to modelers. I’m not there yet. It still feels like an electronic toy to me”: Jerry Cantrell on his love of guitar duos, vibing off Jeff Beck on his solo album – and why he remains a digital tone skeptic
- November 18
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- “We knew we didn’t want to do an acoustic version of Teen Spirit, that would’ve been horrendously stupid”: The story of Nirvana's seminal MTV Unplugged set
- “I was about 11 – not old enough to understand how impactful it was. I understood what happened, but music took away the eerie mood”: Ethan Kahn learned to play after a high school shooting – now his band is championed by William DuVall and Rob Halford
- “I don’t think Bill Carson played it that much. In contrast, I’ve had a couple of George Fullerton’s – and I could tell he smacked his guitars around”: Unpacking the mystery of this one-off 1960s prototype Telecaster, built for a Fender icon
- “My playing has always sucked, but it sells, because I keep it simple, I guess. I’m not a guitar player, I never took the time”: Soul icon Steve Cropper on writing Green Onions, stressing out Brian May – and the secret of Billy Gibbons’ guitar style
- November 17
- November 16
- November 15
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- “I had some friends make fun of me – they would call me the ‘Crazy Tube Guy,’ although in Greek”: Crazy Tube Circuits' Christos Ntaifotis on how his passion for collecting tube amps has inspired one of the most exciting stompbox brands in the world
- “I got a call from Glenn Frey. I just said. ‘Where do I sign?’ Here they were asking me to join the Eagles without playing one lick of music with them”: Timothy B. Schmidt joined the Eagles at the height of Hotel California – and didn't even audition
- “Slash came to the studio, and told Axl that he was on his way to do this with me – Axl was keen to sing a few songs”: Michael Schenker on celebrating UFO with Axl Rose, Slash and Dee Snider, and why he's come full circle with Gibson
- “At the end of a tour Bert said to his roadie, ‘Do you want a guitar? Take your pick.’ And the guy said, ‘Well, I’d like that Fylde...” Gordon Giltrap on why Bert Jansch changed his life – and how he ended up with the folk icon’s ’70s acoustic
- November 14
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- “You should know the music so well that you could still play it perfectly while someone is screaming in your ear”: 15 pro guitarists share their tips for memorizing music
- “The Who, Van Halen – the whole thing where there’s a separate singer from the lead guitar player. That started with Hubert Sumlin and Howlin’ Wolf”: Vernon Reid on the 7 riffs that inspired him, from Hendrix to Chic, Cream, and more
- “People warned me, ‘If you work with Ritchie Blackmore, you could last 5 minutes. He could chew you up, spit you out. You could end up with nothing.’ So I did have to think about it”: Bob Daisley on Rainbow, Ozzy – and pairing up with Randy Rhoads
- November 13
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- “We were opening for ZZ Top at Madison Square Garden. I told the guys, ‘I’ll go out there and blow for 60 seconds, then we’ll go into the first tune.’ I hit the first chord and my Marshall blew up”: Richie Sambora on Bon Jovi's nightmare arena debut
- “My first real gig with The Band was in front of 25,000 people and we had no real rehearsal… We just flew out to Dallas and opened for Crosby, Stills & Nash”: Jim Weider on replacing Robbie Robertson – and the ’52 Tele he got while working at a car wash
- “$499 is incredibly high value for a guitar you can go and buy, and go and gig it. And that’s what I want: it’s not a toy”: PRS’ Jack Higginbotham reflects on the history of the SE line
- “Tom Morello ended up flying to Seattle and doing the vocals with Layne Staley. Tom came back and was like, ‘He’s in really bad shape. It’s scary’”: Martyn LeNoble on a career spent working with alt-rock icons – and the kindness of John Entwistle
- November 12
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- “I was a Brian May obsessive. I had the Star Licks video and had learned it all by the time I was 14”: Hooked on “bombastic lead rock guitar” before catching the songwriting bug, Seb Wesson is on a search for songs with meaning
- “My friend talked to Joe Walsh and gave him my number. Awhile later, I got a message: ‘Adam Jones, this is the Talk Box fairy. Give me a call’”: Tool's Adam Jones on taking cues from Meshuggah, unorthodox pedals, and the trick he learned from Robert Fripp
- “Verböten played right across the street from Wrigley Field. Dave Grohl came with his sister when he was 13 and saw us play”: Jason Narducy on inspiring Dave Grohl, getting R.E.M. cover tips from Peter Buck – and being Bob Mould’s bassist
- “I love driving people crazy. They come and say, ‘How did you do that? I’ve been working for months trying to get that.’ And I say, ‘It’s just a pedal!’” A guide to the untapped guitar playing of David Gilmour’s solo albums
- “My custom-made classical guitar with the synth module was stolen while we were on tour. I got it back thanks to some people who worked with Joe Bonamassa”: Steve Morse on gear-buying, his ‘FrankenTele’ and why he needs four pickups – no more, no less
- “Was that open-string a mistake or pure brilliance? Who cares? It’s a masterpiece”: Did bass maestro Willie Weeks miss a note on this Donny Hathaway classic?
- November 11
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- “Jimi Hendrix was my superhero, and so I threw a bit of his style into the bassline”: How a young Bootsy Collins took the James Brown bass chair to its busiest level on this Bootsy-fied recut from 1970’s Sex Machine
- “Lots of what I play, I wouldn't know how to describe it… I’m following my nose all the time. It’s a process of instinct and desire”: Meet Lazy Day’s Tilly Scantlebury – the UK guitarist-producer summoning sparkling indie tones from secondhand setups
- “Aqualung was Ian’s riff. The solo was all done on the fly. If I hadn’t got it in two takes then it would have been a flute solo. That’s when Jimmy Page came up to say hello”: Martin Barre on Jethro Tull, the Aqualung sessions – and supporting Hendrix
- November 9
- November 8
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- “Wolfgang knows more Intervals songs at any given moment than I do – on guitar and drums”: Intervals' Aaron Marshall on making the impossible possible, and jamming with Wolfgang Van Halen
- “The Janie’s Got a Gun solo had a ratty sound. I had a Chet Atkins signature guitar plugged into a 15-watt Marshall practice amp... the producer said, ‘It sounds terrible’”: Joe Perry on 50 years of Aerosmith, and what it takes to nail his “working tone”
- 7 stocking filler gift ideas under $20 that guitar players actually need
- November 7
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- “It sold for $937,000 to an anonymous buyer who, we assume, doesn't play punk rock for a living”: From Joe Strummer’s Tele to Johnny Ramone's Mosrite, here are the iconic guitars behind the sound of punk – and the modern-day equivalents you can buy today
- “I might have done better in the Bluesbreakers than in the Yardbirds, but I certainly wouldn't have had the same kind of free rein to experiment”: Jeff Beck on his relationship with Eric Clapton, jamming with Hendrix, and turning down John Mayall
- “It took me a while to learn that guitarists can’t play bass. It’s about more than just getting the notes right”: How Mike Rutherford’s ‘lead bass’ approach helped demystify the low-end for prog rock cornerstone Genesis
- “There were nine other bass players. I got the job. Then I was told they were picking me up in three hours for a tour – I had to take it or leave it”: Tony Stevens on his rocky ride with Savoy Brown, Foghat and Midnight Flyer
- “I took over where Billy Gibbons left off and did my half of the solo, and it was a very rare thing. My wife loves it. She doesn’t love anything I do...” Brian May, Billy Gibbons and Steve Cropper on how the three guitar icons learned to play together
- November 6
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- “I remember trying to do pinch harmonics on a 30” Dunable in the studio… it was close to impossible. My fingers were all torn up trying!” Meet Gore. guitarist Alex Reyes – the modeler-melting Texan metal player summoning djent riffs from six-strings
- “You can only imagine the effect this had on the young Keith Richards and Eric Clapton”: 9 must-hear albums that fueled the British blues guitar boom
- “Starting out as a singer, I realized the guitar was the closest instrument to the human voice in terms of expression”: Judith Hill on her journey from backing singer for Michael Jackson, Prince and Stevie Wonder to picking up guitar in her own band
- November 5
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- “This album’s the only one where I’ve sat down and planned out a solo. Otherwise, the record button’s pressed, and I just go, ‘Pentatonic scale!’” Orange Goblin’s Joe Hoare on life’s simple pleasures – Les Pauls, Marshall amps and signature beer
- “I've not got a huge history with Gibson, but this one I bought to have a different tone”: From a forensic Black Strat replica to a Gibson that caught his ear and a ‘90s Zoom unit, here's everything David Gilmour used on his new solo album, Luck & Strange
- “Beat It was interesting. Of course, Eddie Van Halen did the solo. But the rest of the guitars were Steve Lukather and myself...” Session ace Paul Jackson Jr. on how he became Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones’ go-to guitarist
- November 4
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- “I said to him, ‘It needs to be valve. It needs to have that sag, that compression, that you can’t necessarily get from a solid-state design’”: Adrian Thorpe on how he made Chris Buck’s awesome, tube-equipped signature pedal, Electric Lightning
- “I haven't used the Big Muff since 1993. I don’t use that many pedals anymore, but I use them live”: Billy Corgan shares his pedalboard secrets, including the $1,000 pedal he stole from his dad
- “I bought it off a druggie – which I feel terrible about”: From his beloved '59 Strat to his stable of ultra-delicate steampunk guitars, Rick Springfield discusses his guitar journey, and his mission to buy up every instrument he had to part with
- November 3
- November 2
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- “Frank asked me to transcribe St Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast after I told him I’d learned Inca Roads by ear. Maybe it was a challenge to see if I was bluffing!” When bassist Arthur Barrow survived an audition for guitar genius Frank Zappa
- “We did Yellow Brick Road in 16 days! That’s the magic you get with a band like that”: Dee Murray was the centerpiece of the early Elton John band – and the last bassist to play onstage with John Lennon
- November 1
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- “You just heard how responsive these pickups up are… I love the mojo this guitar has”: The PRS S2 line is now packing USA-made pickups – and you can hear the difference
- “It was fun checking out Steve Howe’s gear. He really made the case to me for the guitar stand. You know… the one where your guitar is actually standing!” Hannah Wicklund on opening for Yes and Deep Purple – and her undying love of Anderson Guitars
- Get the most out of Spotify with DistroKid
- “I’ve never played a barre chord in my life. I hate them. You don’t need more than two or three notes to express a chord”: Andy Summers on his “abstracted instrumental” collabs with Robert Fripp, his dream pedalboard, and what he learned from Béla Bartók
- “Nobody ever came to a gig to watch me play guitar. They came to hear me sing. We didn’t have a rhythm guitar player, so I had to cover everything”: Justin Hayward on the life, times and tones of the Moody Blues, and the undisputed power of a dimed AC30
