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“My headless six-string is the color of Hannibal Lecter’s couch… and I have an Oxblood Red model inspired by his office!” How Ihsahn combined horror scores, blastbeats and space-age guitars for a black metal album to eclipse ’em all
As the Emperor icon returns with the most ambitious album of his career, he dropped by to discuss his fierce picking speed, the influence of film scores, and why you don't need as much distortion as you think
“He had an acoustic guitar and he started playing this little melody for the bridge… It felt magical – like classic Smashing Pumpkins”: Code Orange on their spellbinding Billy Corgan collaboration and how simplification brought honesty to their playing
Reba Meyers and Dom Landolina pull back the curtain and take us behind the making of their adventurous and aggressively iconoclastic new album, The Above – and explain why recording with Steve Albini isn’t like working with any other producer
“Rod Stewart wooed me to come out on tour and I agreed – then I decided not to do it. He said, ‘Oh, I bet you’re going out on tour with Robert’”: Eddie Martinez on playing with Blondie, Run-D.M.C. and that solo in Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love
Martinez is a bona-fide session guitar legend with more hits than Ty Cobb. Here he looks back at some of his biggest tracks, working with “solid cat” David Lee Roth, and saying no to Rod Stewart
“It’s the higher-profile artist associations that tend to attract the big money – things like your Pearly Gates and your Jimmy Pages”: Why Gibson’s replicas of famous Les Pauls are commanding almost as much as vintage guitars
Gibson’s highest-tier replicas are seriously sought after on the collector's market. We find out what all the fuss is about and examine a rare recreation of Jimmy Page’s fiendishly complex #2 Les Paul Standard
“I don’t know what it is about my Tele, but it’s special. Roy Buchanan tried it and wanted to buy it! I said, ‘No way in hell I’m giving that up’”: Russell Javors on his wild ride with Billy Joel – and his friendship with Les Paul after he was let go
Billy Joel’s former right-hand man had given up on music until he accidentally reconnected with his old colleagues – so what does he think of the suggestion that their Lords of 52nd Street group are better than Joel’s current band?
“Don’t sell your first bass. Even if you never play it again, in later life you’ll wish you still had it”: With a stage name coined by Bootsy Collins, Freekbass names the one bass that “like an idiot” he ended up selling
Chris ‘Freekbass’ Sherman on how a Rickenbacker and a BC Rich (via Tiran Porter from the Doobie Brothers) set him on a lifelong low-end path
“Jimmy Page once said to me, ‘Have Gibson not been onto you?’ And I said, ‘No, maybe I play too many Strats.’ I think it’s more likely they don’t know who I am”: John Squire opens up on his return to music with Liam Gallagher – and why he’s no guitar hero
The reclusive guitar great invites us to his studio to talk classic riffs, career-ending injuries, what caused the Stone Roses reunion to fizzle out, and why music keeps pulling him back in
“Denny was an outstanding vocalist and guitar player with a fine sense of humor”: Remembering Denny Laine – the guitarist who co-wrote Paul McCartney’s biggest ’70s hit
The former Moody Blues and Wings guitarist died in December 2023, aged 79, and left a legacy of tastefully crafted songs with a keen sense of melody, and an audience of millions
“No-one was looking at the Strat when Yngwie picked one up in ’86 – everybody had left it behind after Hendrix. It just continues to reinvent itself and get rediscovered”: Justin Norvell has to guard Fender’s glittering past, while securing its future
Fender remains the world’s number one guitar firm, but as the firm’s EVP of Product tells us, it’s thinking about musicians first – not gear – that keeps it top of the pile
“Robin Trower’s guitar sound was the loudest I’ve ever heard. He had two Fender Twins, and he smoked both by the end of the night”: Buzz Osborne names the 11 guitarists who shaped his sound
The Melvins main man picks the jazz, funk and metal players who made him who he is today, recalls the time he heard Jeff Beck’s warm-up routine, and names the unsung ’70s hero who deserves more recognition: “Why aren’t more people talking about him? It makes no sense”
