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May 2024
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112 articles
- May 10
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- Guitar World deals of the week: save $280 on an Epiphone, get half-price guitar software, plus all the week's biggest savings
- “I was really delving into the nuance of why a guitar sounds the way it does”: One of The Edge's personal Strats is up for auction for a good cause
- “He doesn’t like the sound of new strings. The ones on the guitar for the new album were two years old”: Mdou Moctar prefers old guitar strings – and the Roland Cube is his favorite amp for a very good reason
- “A fantastic replica of this extraordinary guitar. Same dot neck, Bigsby tremolo, and finish. You have to check it out”: Gibson has announced a signature Slash ES-335 – and it includes tickets to an exclusive gig
- Guitar triads are one of the ultimate keys to unlocking the fretboard – here’s how you can use the CAGED system to master them
- “Direct, personalized one-on-one lessons with top instructors from the Fender Play roster”: Fender has announced a major expansion of its guitar learning platform – offering direct access to guitar teachers for the first time
- “I look over to the side and see Joe Walsh while we’re playing Rocky Mountain Way, and I’m transported back to being a kid in my bedroom”: Vince Gill on flying high with the Eagles – and why every vintage gear dealer has him on speed dial
- “Yes, it’s another fuzz box, but it’s one that is particularly inspired”: Walrus Audio Silt Harmonic Fuzz review
- “James really absorbed the dual-harmony thing and took it to heart. He made it his but it was originally Cliff’s”: Kirk Hammett on Joe Satriani’s influence and Metallica’s ’84 masterpiece Ride the Lightning
- “Before there was Muff, there was boost”: Electro-Harmonix has reimagined the 1968 effect that launched the brand as a tone-shaping powerhouse – and it could become your pedalboard’s secret weapon
- May 9
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- “It might be the only chance you’ll get to see this lineup in a live performance”: Three of the biggest guitar and bass YouTubers are going on tour to ‘Escape the Internet’
- “If I overplayed behind a singer, there’d be a fight outside the venue, or a guy waiting for me with a knife!” Marcus Miller on why bands need to offer a “little more love and support for vocalists”
- “I care about my guitar’s wellbeing, but they’re meant to be sacrificed”: Knocked Loose’s Isaac Hale on how his new “hell tone”, a custom Ibanez and ancient mathematics helped the Slipknot support picks reinvent heavy guitar for 2024
- Improve your Fender’s neck playability and reliability with a KLŌS Guitars’ F-Series Carbon Fiber Neck Replacement for Strat, Tele and Jazzmaster
- “It’s a monster – the most powerful Magnatone to date, delivering enough unbelievable tone, gain and headroom to fill a stadium”: Magnatone’s mega-loud signature Slash head the SL-100 is available in new Blackout Edition finishes
- “Partnered with a decent Stratocaster, it’s sonic dynamite that can cover Hendrix, SRV, John Mayer and many more”: Victory The Deputy Compact Head review
- “He was and is the best guitar player I've ever played with”: Ozzy Osbourne reveals the name he rates above all his other guitarist collaborators
- “I note the passing of old friend Steve Albini – certainly gone too soon”: Lee Ranaldo remembers the time Steve Albini made Sonic Youth a guitar with 16 high E-strings – and an inlaid appendage
- “People say, ‘You could afford Buckingham Palace by now if you’d stayed with Genesis.’ But music is its own currency”: Steve Hackett on creative liberation, recording with practice amps and why he used a Brian May Red Special
- “This was one occasion where employing fills and chops in a funk tune really paid off”: Listen to Stuart Zender’s isolated bassline on Jamiroquai's Virtual Insanity
- “I thought I’d make the notes count, like Jeff Beck. It doesn’t sound anything like Jeff, but that was the intention going in!” Phil Collen on how – by accident and design – Def Leppard reinvented rock guitar on classic album Pyromania
- Exercises for bass: 5 ways to improve your bass guitar technique
- May 8
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- “Musician, studio engineer and the mastermind behind some of rock's greatest albums”: Steve Albini, punk guitar icon and producer for Nirvana, Pixies, dies at 61
- “My pickups were tuned in a studio and then tested on the road, the end result being both musical and face melting”: Slipknot's Mick Thomson has just released his much-speculated Fishman Fluence signature pickup set
- “I’m not gonna point fingers, but through all of this, one of the ingredients was not playing ball with everybody else”: Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony sets the record straight on the much-rumored VH tribute project
- “Keep Rude Dude”: Mick Mars’ ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ Kramer appears in Motley Crüe’s You’re All I Need video, features NSFW rear artwork and has just gone up for auction
- “Sharper attack, extended sustain and a warmer tone”: Could brass saddles supercharge your Strat tone?
- “Unlearning our instruments is definitely something we’ve done – we don’t rely on fretboard technique”: BIG|BRAVE conjure some of today’s most thrilling guitar tones with feedback, open tunings and an awful lot of volume
- Boss Katana:Go vs Fender Mustang Micro: which headphone amp is right for you?
- July 2024 Guitar World lesson videos
- “Being close to him is like approaching a source of spiritual energy. I gave him my guitar as a sign of respect”: B.B. King once gifted one of his Gibson Lucille guitars to the Pope – now it’s up for sale
- “When Bob Dylan went electric, this guitar was there”: Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson's much-customized 1965 Telecaster is up for auction and could fetch up to $700,000
- “I’ve never been a shredder. I’m never going to out-do Yngwie Malmsteen. I’m more from the Schenker and Blackmore school”: Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner on the secret to headbanger riffs, and half-nailing, half-blagging the Painkiller solo
- “Paul Reed Smith wanted to do something, but I had to explain it was my dream as a kid to have an Ibanez signature. Paul said he’d do anything to make it happen”: Herman Li on his switch to PRS – and the perils of shredding on waterslides
- Muddy Waters is a blues guitar icon who pioneered the sound of electric guitar in popular music – and invented a new soloing language as he did it
- “Strong choices with the advantage of dual modes”: Ross Pedals review
- “That was one hell of a fall”: Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready falls off stage mid-solo – but doesn’t miss a note
- “Prince was not a guy who would sit around and polish his guitars or even think that much about them – they were tools”: In 2005, Prince’s Cloud 3 sold for $10,000. Now it’s expected to fetch $600,000 at auction
- “Robert had a plan laid out that we would do three records in three years”: Adrian Belew on how King Crimson made an underrated prog classic in “this industrial musical junkyard we created”
- “These won’t last long!” Fender issues surprise limited-edition semi-hollow guitar drop, bringing the Telecaster Thinline to the American Professional II Series and reviving the Stratocaster Thinline
- May 7
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- “You couldn’t sell them and you wouldn’t want to sell them because they’d be just too hard to say goodbye to”: Mark Knopfler on the guitars he couldn't bear to part with, and the six-strings that surprised him on One Deep River
- “The Ford Motor Company had created a color called ‘Daisy Pink’ especially for his aunt. She was famous in her own right and had the paint sent to Fender”: Meet 9 of Fender’s most elusive offset guitars
- “Retains all the charm of the original 1960s classic design in all its vintage glory”: Danelectro has brought back its Big Sitar – with some modern upgrades
- “Open the doors to versatility, creativity, and otherworldly sounds”: Red Witch aims to harness Frank Zappa and Carlos Santana tones with its new sample hold filter pedal – but it’s limited to just 59 units
- “Derek looks so proud during Duane’s solo – like a brother would”: Duane Betts and Derek Trucks trade solos for the first time since Dickey Betts’ passing with emotional cover of the Allman Brothers Band’s Dreams
- “Technically, he was such a gifted and bluesy player. I’m not a really good soloist – but I know how to sit down, learn, and get work done”: Jakob Nowell, son of Sublime’s Bradley, is picking up his late dad’s guitar to reunite the band and the family
- “I thought, ‘OK, I’ll prove myself. I’m not a guy, so if I prove myself a little bit harder, then I might be noticed and taken seriously as a player’”: Nancy Wilson on the making of her acoustic masterpiece turned Instagram guitar staple
- "The glorious neck staining and the warmth of those pickups make the CV 60s Strat a serious guitar that just so happens to look, feel, and sound amazing": Squier Classic Vibe 60s Stratocaster review
- “If it makes it more accessible and achievable for girls to chase their dreams, then it’s a win in my book”: Gibson’s Miranda Lambert Bluebird was its best-selling signature acoustic of the past year. Now there’s a much more affordable Epiphone model
- “You’d be hard-pushed to find a bass sound that you couldn’t gig with almost immediately”: Boss Katana-500 Bass Head review
- “The light weight, raw resonance and superb playability more than tick the working guitar box”: Manson Guitar Works Verona Junior review
- “There’s an early No Doubt song which might as well be full-on heavy metal, if you want to hear Gwen singing for Black Sabbath. And there’s an absolutely shredding solo!” No Doubt’s Tom Dumont names 10 guitarists (and one genre) that shaped his sound
- “This is like a Neural DSP Tinder”: Plini and Mateus Asato go on a guitar virtuoso date to write a song in a day – and the results are jaw-dropping
- “This recognition holds immense significance for me”: Gary Clark Jr. joins Carlos Santana and Van Halen on Guitar Center Hollywood’s iconic RockWalk
- “I was trying to do the ultimate guitar solo”: Lou Reed once recorded a double album consisting solely of guitar feedback – but his label took it off sale after three weeks
- “I was going for a sound where it’s like, ‘Is this person virtuosic, or do they totally suck?’ That’s kind of where I live”: St. Vincent on channeling Neil Young and embracing a less-is-more approach to guitar solos
- “Nobody cares about new material anymore. They just want to hear the old stuff from guys like us”: Alex Lifeson says he’s jamming with Geddy Lee again – but they sound like a “really bad tribute band” at times
- “The bouncers wouldn’t let the audience stand up. That frustrated me to the point that I destroyed my bass guitar”: The Clash's Paul Simonon reflects on that iconic London Calling moment
- May 6
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- ‘Hammer-ons from nowhere’ can blow your guitar playing wide open – and help you craft silky smooth, effortlessly fast and highly impressive solos
- “I've put it through every nightmare scenario it could have been exposed to, and it's been faultless”: ThorpyFX’s Electric Lightning is a tube-driven overdrive/boost pedal built in collaboration with Chris Buck
- “Lightweight construction and exceptional playability”: Can’t afford the Jimmy Page double-neck? Danelectro has you covered with an $899 alternative
- “They probably only made two or three of them, but there’s a signature Burns Chris Stein Scorpion out there somewhere”: Ahead of a new Blondie album, Chris Stein talks folk and jazz influences, fighting with early effects, and his MIDI future
- “It's thrilling that he played my homemade guitar, all those years later”: Brian May pens personal tribute to Duane Eddy, and reflects on the time Eddy played his Red Special
- “Keyboards started coming up a lot more, and so there was a little more of a fight for space with the guitar”: Alex Lifeson looks back on the difficult creation of Rush’s 1984 classic, Grace Under Pressure
- “If you want to bench press 200lbs, you start at 80... You should concentrate on performing with articulation at whatever speed it is”: Kerry King on how to master thrash metal speed riffing
- “It was very tense – he wasn’t at rehearsal... there's too much mystery around him”: Slash almost missed the I’m Just Ken performance at the Oscars
- “It should be – and usually is – pedal-first for us, because pedals can affect your playing so much”: Shoegaze heroes DIIV on how stompboxes formed the building blocks of their new album
- May 4
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- “There’s very little to fault or criticise. The company is back with a new workshop and all guns blazing”: Gordon Smith Grande and Geist review
- “I used to write solos, but there’s a lot of beauty in a more spontaneous take – even an old, known pattern that falls in a different place than usual”: Matheus Canteri is shamelessly blending country with shred – and it’s working
- “Guys would come up and tell me, ‘I can play such-and-such a Tower of Power song note-for-note.’ But who cares?” The magic of Rocco Prestia’s bassline on Tower of Power’s Only So Much Oil in the Ground
- May 3
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- “From 1993 to 2004 those amps were over half of our business”: How the Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier defined the high-gain guitar sound of the 1990s
- Build a whole new lickbag with our country-blues masterclass – featuring licks inspired by Dickey Betts, Albert Lee, and Brent Mason
- “It’s good to see something fresh in dirt pedals – if an almost 60-year-old circuit could be described as such”: Danelectro Nichols 1966 review
- “Eddie Van Halen’s main solo is a greatest hits of all his best guitar licks”: Dweezil Zappa issues update for What the Hell Was I Thinking? – his ambitious mega-track featuring Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brian May and more
- “There’s not a guitar teacher in the world that would ever teach anyone to play a guitar like that”: Buzz Osborne thinks Jimi Hendrix is one of the greatest guitarists ever – but says his technique was “wrong”
- “A cache of beautiful gear used in the studio and on tour”: Gilby Clarke is selling his Guns N’ Roses, Slash’s Snakepit and Heart gear on Reverb
- “Ronnie gave me great advice about building a guitar solo... left to my own devices, it would have been a case of how many notes I could fit in!”: Vivian Campbell looks back on the 1984 Dio classic The Last In Line
- “I swear that guitar plays itself… Who’d have thought a 16-year-old girl like me could suddenly have this crazy connection with Jerry Garcia?” Meet Bella Rayne, the guitarist who jumped from Mom’s Strat to wielding Garcia’s ’Gator onstage
- Guitar World deals of the week: get $600 off a Jackson, up to 15% off Fender Player Series, plus loads more big savings on gear
- Everything you need to know about fretwraps: what are they and do you need one?
- “Thank you for allowing us to serve musicians like you for 100 years”: Sam Ash Music announces it will be officially closing all its stores
- “I’m playing a Strat, too, which you never hear me use”: Slash explains why he swapped his Les Paul for a Stratocaster to cover a Peter Green track on his new blues solo album
- “I’ve typically been afraid of Strats just because they carry so much baggage”: How a gift from Mike McCready helped change St. Vincent’s relationship with the Stratocaster
- “A sophisticated piece of hardware made for the working pro but priced for the serious amateur enthusiast”: Sterling By Music Man Ray34 (PSK) bass review
- May 2
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- “Designed to be the ultimate professional boost, overdrive and distortion device”: Human Technologies’ first-ever stompbox promises to cram “dozens of expensive high-end vintage pedals” into one little box
- “One of the most affordable Klon clones out there, and easily the most entertaining”: JHS Pedals Notaklön review
- “Improvise a musical story that makes sense, and takes the listener on a captivating musical journey”: “Call and response” phrasing can help transform a simple guitar solo into an evocative narrative device
- “It was an insane, bare bones show”: Primus's Les Claypool and Ler LaLonde were just forced to play a gig with brand new gear from Guitar Center – and yes, they still sounded exactly like Primus
- “I view everything from the pick to the speaker as my instrument”: Meet John Frusciante favorite Anthony Pirog – the boundary breaking guitarist who’s jamming jazz, punk and fusion with Fugazi’s rhythm section
- “I don’t really listen to Prince’s guitar playing – it’s very triggering. But I always feel his spirit”: How Purple protege Judith Hill pushed past her ‘black widow’ trolls to discover a new relationship between her voice and her SG
- “Sparkle, jangle and chime, refined”: Gibson’s Non-Reverse Firebird V 12-string revives an ultra-collectible model from 1965 – with a crucial upgrade
- “A true pioneer and bona fide legend”: Duane Eddy, 1938-2024 – the guitar world pays tribute
- “When you blend a Gibson and a Fender together, you get a much thicker sound. That’s a trick I learned from Pete Townshend”: Ace Frehley invites us to his home to talk tone tricks, 10,000 Volts and pawn shop treasures
- “If my sound isn't right, I feel like I'm wearing ankle weights. To me, playing to a good sound is the most inspiring part about playing guitar”: Warren Haynes explains why having a great guitar tone is non-negotiable
- "It delivers a smooth, thick, high-octane overdrive that perfectly captures modern rock and metal, with a full and bright clean tone to match": Vox amPlug3 High Gain review
- Best MIDI controllers for guitar 2024: goodbye to frantic pedal tapping and hello to seamless transitions
- “You have to have your own sound, do it with authority and let it all hang out… If you do that you communicate with your guitar”: Duane Eddy reflects on his signature sound, hanging with Elvis and the story behind his go-to Gretsch
- “Watching a player like Stevie Ray Vaughan play, you begin to understand how much violence the guitar can actually take”: Larkin Poe's Rebecca Lovell on why the secret to great Strat tone is in the right hand
- Matteo Mancuso is one of the hottest guitar players in the world right now – learn four licks in his breathtaking rock fusion style
- “It's an elusive quality that hasn't been captured by modeling amps”: Steve Morse pinpoints the key traits that give tube amps the edge over their digital counterparts
- “That was the one and only thing I found with Strats that I don’t like. I think they’re awful”: Yngwie Malmsteen reveals the one spec of certain Stratocasters he's not a fan of
- “Affordable, direct-to-fan, and simple in every way. It really is a dream come true”: Sterling by Music Man’s first-ever Joe Dart signature model is a made-to-order funk powerhouse that costs less than $400
- How to sound like IV from Sleep Token: "He likes long necks and heavy gauge strings, with 084-010s his set of choice to provide a thick, rounded tone"
- May 1
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- “One of the most successful instrumentalists in rock history”: Duane Eddy, rock guitar pioneer, dies at 86
- “Even Eddie Van Halen – god bless him, I love him – was mainly pentatonic. I was radically different”: Yngwie Malmsteen on Rising Force and the introduction of a neoclassical shred icon
- “It’s a shoo-in for any gigging musician”: Gibson Les Paul Modern Studio review
- “It takes $10,000 a day… the goal of getting on the road, playing in front of fans, outweighs the pain of losing the stuff”: Dweezil Zappa on sacrificing his out-there guitar collection, mixing Hendrix and building an immersive rig
- Donner’s BackBeat is a premium electronic drum kit primed for both practice and performance – and lights up to boot
- “It was very emotional. He said, ‘This is where it belongs’”: Jon Bon Jovi has been reunited with the first guitar he ever owned, 45 years after he sold it
- “A better Djent tone than anybody I’ve heard and his secret sauce is literally pasta remnants”: Guitarist proves anything can Djent by ripping Meshuggah with an elastic band and Tupperware
- “My dad always said, ‘Focus on your rhythm and writing songs.’ But when I got the itch to start doing solos, I got into Eddie Van Halen”: Trev Lukather on the guitar lessons he learned from his dad, Steve Lukather
- Learn how to get gigs and make a living from your music with Solo Acoustic Musician – the ultimate resource for the performing musician