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“Technical playing can get cleaner, and that’s possibly even more challenging than just being faster”: We met the academics who study shred guitar for a living – they explained why it’s changed dramatically since the ’80s, and the 3 ways it can develop
A new study documents the challenges facing modern-day virtuosos, who not only have to balance perfection and authenticity, but now have to be “10 things that used to be 10 full-time professions”
“I was never a huge Led Zeppelin fan, but I always loved that song, and the open strings just set it up for bass”: Watch Stuart Hamm’s bass arrangement of Led Zeppelin’s Going to California
Stuart Hamm walks you through the highlights of his fifth solo album, including a bass arrangement of a John Paul Jones classic
“I hate punching in. If you don’t have your bassline down, you shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing”: Rex Brown reveals the tricks behind his super-heavy bass technique
Pantera bassist Rex Brown on his precision-engineered picking technique, and why he’s not into “bouncing around with Pro Tools”
“I’d always borrow guitars, but after we signed to this asshole label, one of the guys gave me the Jazzmaster. I’ve never had a reason to get another guitar”: Jason Lytle on Grandaddy’s emotional return and his ’70s Fender devotion
The Grandaddy band leader always preferred “keeping things pure” to achieving greatness – and he’s done almost all of it with the one and only guitar he’s ever needed
“I get to call out wrongdoing and injustice. I get to be really angry – ‘I can’t find the words, so here’s a guitar solo that explains it’”: How Emily Wolfe uses her music as therapy
Bandmates helped the Epiphone signature artist through the pain of delivering the deeply personal songs from new album The Blowback – and she believes the ”tough but beautiful” experience will help others
![Dirty Sound Magnet [L-R]: Marco Mottolini (bass guitar), Stavros Dzodzos (guitar/vocals), Maxime Cosandey (drums)](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/wjqtjU8uisahDGf4NgHzpD-840-80.jpg.webp)
“I never have boundaries regarding the gear I use – my rule is simply to follow my ears”: Dirty Sound Magnet sound like Hendrix meets the Doors by way of Zappa – Stavros Dzodzos explains how analog adventurism fuels their psychedelic sound
Dirty Sound Magnet have the sound of a band trying to shake loose reality. Guitarist/vocalist Dzodzos shares his analog-forward tone approach
“I used to not bend strings at all, but I started doing it as a joke to make my friends laugh when I played classic rock riffs – it became this massive part of my playing”: Omni’s Frankie Broyles on his unlikely journey to post-punk transcendence
Post-punk trio Omni are masters of minimalism, but guitarist Frankie Broyles is having fun with classic rock moves and ZZ Top-inspired tones
“Music saved me from a lonely existence, and now it’s teaching me how to relate to others and how to relate to myself”: Mat Davidson, aka Twain, found belonging with a guitar in his hand
Mat Davidson has played with Big Thief, The Low Anthem and more, but under his own steam as Twain he is chasing new horizons – with the help of the “Honda Civic” of acoustic guitars
“I strived to get an electric guitar to respond like a fingerpicked, open-tuned acoustic for decades. I went about it wrong”: Ex-Black Crowes guitarist Luther Dickinson on why he never dug his first signature Gibson – and how its followup went MIA
The North Mississippi Allstars man has led a storied career. He discusses his surprising jams with Rich Robinson and co, recording with The Replacements at the age of 13, and how his dad (via Bo Diddley) set him on a lifelong open-tuned path
