Latest Features
I journeyed to the only dedicated Fender store in the world – and found out how it could change the future of guitar retail as we know it
From all-star guest appearances to the world’s biggest collection of Custom Shop and made-in-Japan guitars, Fender Flagship Tokyo is the guitar store I’d always dreamed of
“We took 36 hours to cut Good Vibrations. We knew it was a big deal”: Carol Kaye’s 10 greatest basslines
The session legend was responsible for some of the finest bass playing ever committed to tape – here are her best moments
Meet Tim Rockmore, the TV and session veteran who’s recorded entire tracks with a Fender headphone amp
After recording jingles for Sprite, Sears and Pringles, Rockmore learned how to gain attention in a world where you can never overplay, and where the analog-vs-digital amp argument ended 30 years ago
Slayer’s Tom Araya charts his incredible 4-string journey
From starting on a Paul McCartney Höfner ripoff to pioneering some of the heaviest metal ever committed to tape, Tom Araya admits he's no bass virtuoso… but he “can play fast sometimes”
Marty Friedman takes us back to Megadeth’s Countdown to Extinction era to tell the story behind one of the rarest Jackson guitars ever
It was December 1991, and the cover of GW featured Friedman with a prototype Jackson that begged further investigation. Just where was his signature model? And what became of the Firebird-inspired design?
With the return of Mike Portnoy, Dream Theater are fully reborn – and John Petrucci's still not done exploring new guitar frontiers
Wielding naught but his signature Ernie Ball Music Man Majesty, Petrucci has been studying different types of scales and different types of chords – and he says having Portnoy back on the drum stool makes the prog-metal institution feel like they're all 18 again
How Ric Ocasek formed an unlikely partnership with an alt-rock icon
For what would become his fifth solo album, Ocasek reached out to Smashing Pumpkins mastermind Billy Corgan, and came away impressed by his arranging talents and technical abilities
Ace Frehley is practicing more than ever as he keeps his demons behind him and returns to arenas
The Spaceman on his most recent solo album – which won’t be his last – his self-designed $200,000 studio, the state of play with his former Kiss colleagues, and his family connection to an object on the Moon
The creation and evolution of the Stratocaster
Timeless, iconic, yet also indisputably a product of the era in which it was designed, the Stratocaster was shaped in huge part by a few oft-overlooked players – one of whom suggested the whammy bar so he could get more money as a session guitarist
