Features archive
January 2025
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22 articles
- January 9
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- “This epic is Page’s crowning achievement in guitar orchestration”: Led Zeppelin's 50 greatest songs
- “Paul Simon told me what key the song was in, turned off the vocal track and counted me in”: He’s been sampled by Kanye West, and played with Paul Simon, The Black Keys and Tame Impala – yet Delicate Steve is still the best-kept secret in indie guitar
- “There’s an unpredictability that I really appreciate with him. He doesn’t think like other guitar players”: Myles Kennedy reveals what he learned as a guitar player from working with Slash and Mark Tremonti
- January 8
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- “I’ve seen firsthand how technology and innovation have reshaped the six-string landscape”: 5 reasons why new guitar players have never had it so good
- “The Uni-Vibe was an excellent alternative to a Leslie and became a mainstay for Jimi Hendrix”: Everything you need to know about modulation, from Leslie emulators and chorus pedals to bucket-brigade chips and phasers
- “For me, it’s not how many are watching, it’s who is watching – Tosin engaging made me feel like I was doing something right”: Dante Swan is blurring the lines between djent and trap music – and he wants you to steal his riffs
- January 7
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- “For me to be so appreciated, I think I can start to feel guilty and pressured. But I guess it’s a good problem to have”: From playing Steve Vai's guitars to playing with him onstage, Tosin Abasi's rapid ascent made him one of the biggest names in guitar
- “I bumped into Eric in a club and I thought we were going to get into a fight! But he went, ‘Hello, man!’ and gave me a big hug”: Jeff Beck took the Yardbirds in a new direction, but the constant Eric Clapton comparisons took years to shake
- “We knew listeners usually wanted a memorable song rather than an insane guitar solo or riff, but we wanted to be extreme”: Jason Becker and Marty Friedman on their wild ride making Cacophony’s Go Off! – one of the Eighties’ most in-your-face shred albums
- “Like Gretsch’s Duo Jet, it was surely spurred by Gibson’s success with the Les Paul”: The mysterious history of the Guild M-75 Aristocrat, the blue-blooded hollowbody played by John Lee Hooker, John Mayer, St. Vincent and Dan Auerbach
- January 6
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- “Top money buys forensically aged details and incredible craft, but you won’t necessarily hear £5k’s worth of difference in the sonic performance”: How close are Gibson's ’59 Burst replicas and their boutique rivals?
- “Chris Shiflett has this great AC30 from the ’60s – that’s the main amp on the album. That and a Princeton Reverb – until I blew it up”: How one-man blues rock band Steve Hill cheated death – then found redemption at Foo Fighters’ Studio 606
- “This is a guy who worked for Frank Zappa. Frank said to him, ‘Whatever you do, don’t learn how to read music.’ He's all-creative – he's a miracle, really”: Steve Vai on BEAT, being a virtuoso in his 60s – and the Fripp riff he just couldn’t master
- January 4
- January 3
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- “Roxy insisted I have a white Strat – I bought that guitar off Brian Eno, who bought it off his milkman for 30 quid!” Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera on how he found his bargain Firebird and why he has no regrets about rendering a ’51 Tele “valueless”
- “The days of flagship guitars sporting ostentatious tech are long gone”: Why today’s guitars are performing better than ever – not that you’d notice from looking at them
- “I discovered open tunings on the electric because of The Rolling Stones and Keith Richards. It opened up a whole new palette”: Meet Julian Taylor, the Canadian musical encyclopedia who plays a custom Tele called the ‘Barncaster’
- January 2
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- “The top-selling artist acoustics were Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and my guitar, which is insane”: How Orianthi shook up the industry with her signature gear, what she learned from Santana and Joe Bonamassa, and why she’s returning to Alice Cooper’s band
- “Vintage Gretsches can be hit and miss. A former Gretsch employee told me they would go out and have five-Martini lunches and then try to put guitars together in the afternoon”: When Gretsch took on Gibson with the 6130 Round-Up and 6121
- “Samsung wanted to buy my Les Paul. I didn’t want to sell it, so I threw out a stupid price and they said yes. I wish I hadn’t”: Billy Morrison tells the tale of two Les Pauls – one the bargain of the century, the other the one that got away
- January 1
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- "People said I was just jerking off on guitar. There was a point when I thought, ‘Oh, God, they’re right’”: Chris Impellitteri is one of the fastest guitarists of all time – but he realized there was more to life than shredding
- “Bach was one of the only guys who really understood the range of the bass. All his cello pieces are right in the 5-string bass range”: John Myung plays for one of rock’s most ambitious bands, and he’s tackling the challenge with extraordinary discipline
