Inside Zakk Wylde's heartfelt celebration of Pantera's Dimebag Darrell – only in the new Guitar World

In our July issue, we take you deep inside Pantera’s world tour, a tour that finds Black Label Society’s Zakk Wylde filling in for his friend, the late, great Dimebag Darrell, who left us nearly 20 years ago. 

In two exclusive, in-depth interviews – one by Jon Wiederhorn and one by Nick Bowcott, who worked with both Zakk and Dime on their respective Guitar World columns back in the day – Zakk explains how he learned Dime’s guitar parts, the gear he’s using on the tour and the deep emotional aspect of the whole shebang.

We also chat with Zakk’s guitar tech (Stephen Murillo) and Dime’s guitar tech (Grady Champion), who – as a part of the current tour – definitely adds a ton of six-string cred to the Zakk/Pantera proceedings.

On top of all that, we chat with Ola Englund, the guitarist whose YouTube videos Zakk watched to help him nail some of Dime’s solos, we reprint some of our late-2002 interview with Zakk and Dime, and we transcribe Pantera’s mighty Mouth for War.

This issue (aka the July 2023 issue) is available right here, right now!

July GW playlist: Play along at home (or wherever)!

Elsewhere in this issue...

Neil Giraldo, aka Pat Benatar’s right-hand man (and husband), tells us how he wound up with Jeff Beck’s pickups – and why being listed among the generally unsung greats ain't so bad after all.

Alan di Perna recounts the life and times of the Lovin’ Spoonful’s Zal Yanovsky, aka Americana’s guitar godfather.

The history of Aria and Aria Pro Guitars – probably the only story you’ll read this month that mentions both Herb Ellis and Evil Masquerade!

How the ambient music of Hammock is created – a “guitar symphony” with tons of effects but no rules.

GW’s guide to 10 hot recent-vintage fuzz pedals, including something in every price range.

We also have interviews with slide master Debashish Bhattacharya, Loverboy’s Paul Dean, Ayla Tesler-Mabé, the gang from Jesus Piece, Classless Act’s Dane Pieper, Liturgy’s Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix, Drain’s Cody Chavez, Texas pros Ally Venable and Chris Duarte, plus Norma Jean’s Grayson Stewart (who shows off his pedalboard), and Bruce Kulick (who tells us about the album he made in 1985 with Michael Bolton).

In our Columns section, Joe Bonamassa delves into the many sounds of a 1954 Fender Strat, Andy Aledort shares more soloing approaches over relative major and minor chords, Josh Smith shows you how to use chromatic passing tones as connective tissue, and Andy Timmons shows you how to use hybrid picking for lead playing.

Besides the Pantera tune mentioned above, this month’s transcriptions are Going to Hell by the Pretty Reckless and the bluesy Waiting for the Dawn by Walter Trout.

We have reviews of the Mesa/Boogie Mark VII head, the Schecter Guitar Research Machine Gun Kelly PT, Source Audio’s EQ2 and ZIO pedals, and the Shure GLX-D+ Dual Band Digital Wireless Guitar Pedal System.

In Power Tools, Chris Gill explores the history and allure of the simple but lovable Gibson Les Paul Junior.

OK, I have to get back to work on the next issue now (for real). See you in four-ish weeks!

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