Features

The story of Fanny, one of the world’s first all-female rock bands

By Janelle Borg published 21 April 26

Fanny never topped the charts, but they made fans of everyone from the Beatles to David Bowie – despite constantly having to prove they could play

Keith Richards on his enduring love affair with the guitar – and why he’s still learning at 82

By Joel McIver published 21 April 26

The Rolling Stones icon reflects on life as a rhythm guitar hero, the size of his collection, and how the restriction of five-strings and open tunings blew his mind

Laura Snowden on how downtuning makes classical guitar “creepy” and what she learned from the great Julian Bream

By Amit Sharma published 21 April 26

The classical guitarist's solo debut, This Changing Sky, is a breathtaking work that finds her exploring altered tunings in search of drama

Meet Tigercub’s Jamie Hall, the guitarist Stone Gossard says is “as good as Homme or Morello”

By Phil Weller published 20 April 26

The Pearl Jam guitarist took British alt-rock trio Tigercub out of their comfort zone – leader Jamie Hall was dialing Marshalls to 10, down-tuning a gift from Rabea Massaad, and finding tones that take enamel off your teeth

How XTC battled the “rottweiler” Todd Rundgren – and their record label – to make their breakthrough

By Andrew Daly published 20 April 26

Andy Partridge reflects on Skylarking, a change of direction for XTC that was the most difficult of births under producer Todd Rundgren's direction and the label’s interference

The life and times of Ralph Towner, the endlessly curious frontiersman of acoustic jazz

By Henry Yates published 20 April 26

Taking influence from Indian classical, Brazilian bossa nova and beyond, this late jazz master’s touch and vision equalled anyone on the fusion scene

How Duesenberg Guitars became a major player with original old-school designs – and a little help from Mike Campbell

By Dave Burrluck published 20 April 26

We check in with Duesenberg Guitars’ co-owners, Dieter Gölsdorf and Ingo Renner, to chart 30 years of its best-selling Starplayer

Ariel Posen on Jeff Beck, amp strategies and how his thirst for fresh tones inspired one of the most unorthodox Strats ever

By Mark McStea published 18 April 26

Posen's new album, Bannatyne, finds the Canadian flipping the script for rock guitar, exploring in full the creative potential of that quite brilliant signature Strat of his

From Raye to Zara Larsson, how session pro Liv Thompson learned to nail pop’s big gigs

By Nick Wells published 18 April 26

Having performed everywhere from SNL to the Grammys, Thompson knows a thing or two about the bass and its role in pop

"Modeling tech has gotten so good I doubt many guitarists would be able to tell the difference": Analog vs. digital rig build challenge - here’s how two very different players would spend $2,500

By Daryl Robertson published 17 April 26

One player puts his stake in tubes and pedals; the other in IRs and FRFRs. We gave them both $2,500 to build the ultimate mid-tier rig