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September 2024
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62 articles
- September 7
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- “Someone told me you can’t play slap bass on a fretless, but when Prince picked up my bass he slapped the heck out of it!” Esperanza Spalding on jamming with Prince, and her stunning Justin Bieber upset
- “We end up drinking until 5 in the morning. I wake up with the worst hangover of my life, and now I’ve got to play with Metallica”: How a late-night drinking session with Lars Ulrich almost ruined Robert Trujillo’s Metallica audition
- September 6
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- “We feel really empowered with this new lineup, their world-class talents, and the vibrant new music we’ve made together”: Linkin Park unveil new-look lineup, drop new single The Emptiness Machine
- “I thought it was a bunch of noise. I left. Later, it almost felt like Jimi Hendrix was saying, ‘I'll make sure you never forget my name’”: Frank Marino on the time he left a Hendrix gig early – and the truth behind the bizarre Hendrix haunting story
- “There are a lot of guitars reaching the end of their playable lives – we want to make them useful again”: Re-Tuned turns old acoustic guitars into Bluetooth speakers
- “Delivering a resonance that speaks directly to the soul of your music”: The Hagstrom Megin is a double-cutaway guitar built for maximum tonal resonance to “unlock its tonal magic”
- “A fan-favorite packaged down without compromising on quality and tones”: Amp-modeling multi-FX for $82? Harley Benton has somehow made its flagship floor modeler even cheaper
- Guitar World deals of the week: save $200 on a Jackson, grab some bargain price Behringer pedals, plus a free Universal Audio plugin
- “I heard some criticism that I didn’t play the parts enough like Criss, but I didn’t want to just go in there and try to be a clone of him”: When Alex Skolnick quit Testament – and was recruited to replace the late Criss Oliva in Tampa metallers Savatage
- Jeff Hanneman is a metal god whose evil phrasing and brutal downpicking gave thrash kings Slayer an unholy dimension
- “In terms of electric guitars, I’ve never used anything other than Fender in my life”: UK post-punk band English Teacher just won one of the most prestigious prizes in music – and it all started with Fender
- “We don’t want to use guitar solos as a crutch. You know – ‘after the bridge, solo!’ When I do play a solo, I want it to stand out”: Following mega-tours with Muse and Royal Blood, sister act The Warning are riff rock’s next big success story
- “Anyone looking for a budget acoustic with retro looks will be charmed by ol’ Mr Dandy. It’s a hard guitar to put down”: Gretsch Jim Dandy Concert review
- “If somebody said there was a valve amp in the room, you wouldn’t contradict that”: Discover BOSS’ Katana Gen 3 range – an upgraded amp family that offers something for every player
- September 5
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- “They asked Billy Gibbons, John Mayer and me. I wish this would make me sound like Jeff Beck, but it won’t”: Steve Lukather confirms Jeff Beck guitar tribute project as he wields his iconic White Strat to cover Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing
- “I didn’t know Corgan, but I knew he wasn’t the easiest person to work with. I thought, ‘This isn’t going to last but it’ll be interesting’”: Jane’s Addiction’s Eric Avery on his brief stint with the Smashing Pumpkins and what he learned from Billy Corgan
- “We were trying to put blues riffs on dance beats. We wanted to see what happens if you fuse those two worlds”: Meet Daniel ‘Dafreez’ Johnston, the “blues rave-up” pioneer combining folk fingerstyle and EDM
- “Very much the upgrade that was needed for one of the most popular headphone amps for guitar”: Fender Mustang Micro Plus review
- “A significant leap forward in both technology and user experience”: Fender’s Mustang Micro Plus looks to fill the void left by the Boss Katana:GO by making the firm’s market-leading headphone amp better than ever before
- “I drank my liver into submission and snorted a mountain of cocaine, and I didn’t die. Now I’m trying to stay away from that stuff so I can still be around. I keep myself really busy with music”: The redemption of High on Fire and Sleep icon Matt Pike
- “It was suggested we try making a Dumble-style clean. They’re so mystical – I’d never played one. You can look at the circuit and still be none the wiser”: The unstoppable rise of Victory Amps – and what comes next
- “We're witnessing history in the same way that the Beatles changed the music industry in the early 1960s”: Gibson reveals Taylor Swift’s go-to guitars during the Eras tour and hopes for a signature model
- “I’d be playing the synth, thinking, ‘Peter, do you see this? Sting is playing that part – and you don’t mind when Sting does it!’” Tony Levin explains the origins of his Funk Fingers appendages – and the friendly rivalry they sparked with Peter Gabriel
- “We shared a depth of understanding that most people can only hope to achieve in a lifetime”: Hear Eddie Van Halen solo again in an unreleased preview of the last song he worked on with his brother
- “Reveals why the original 2290 has remained a permanent fixture in pro guitarists’ rigs for four decades”: TC Electronic TC 2290P Dynamic Digital Delay review
- Exhausted all the conventional open tunings? Try the adventurous Aadd9 tuning: here are 5 chord shapes you need to know
- “A staple for pro players revered for its rich hybrid sound": Boss brings back a legendary delay loved by Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai and Steve Lukather in its most compact and affordable form yet
- September 4
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- “When David Bowie and John Lennon came in, the whole place stopped. I stopped recording – and then it was just us”: Carlos Alomar recalls playing guitar on Fame with two rock icons – and why he turned down dinner with a Beatle
- “Imagine the dirtiest Les Paul on the planet, but even worse”: Jared James Nichols is reviving a storm-destroyed Gibson – a 1975 Custom that was being played when its original owner died
- “Someone dosed Eric Clapton with LSD, and I had to take over”: George Terry says he had to step up during Clapton's bad nights on the road in the ’70s – but it wasn’t always the guitar hero’s fault
- “You can dial in a potent boost, but also set the pedal to use purely for tonal tweaking”: Electro-Harmonix LPB-3 review
- “People are responding because of the realness and vulnerability, instead of that persona of a drunk rockstar”: Koe Wetzel abandoned his party animal image to show who he really is on 9 Lives, and found a new reason to play his beat-up Gibson J-200
- “A celebration of Dimebag’s timeless influence”: Dimebag Darrell’s Warhead amp has been revived as a compact lunchbox head – and it was tested during Pantera rehearsals
- Familiar with the blues? Then you shouldn’t have any problems transitioning to country. In this country guitar masterclass, we teach you everything you need to know to make it in Nashville
- “When I heard Nirvana’s Live at Reading it became less about learning solos than putting the guitar in front of an amp and making it scream”: Fontaines D.C.’s Carlos O’Connell on playing Rory Gallagher’s Strat and why a spring reverb is the best overdrive
- “All of a sudden out of the blue I didn’t have any control of this arm”: Brian May recovering after suffering “minor stroke”
- “Offset guitars can be really clumsy, but that makes me approach them differently. I kept hitting the kill switch mid-solo, thinking, ‘Why is this here?!’” Samantha Fish on how Kurt Cobain turned her onto the Fender Jaguar
- “We got together in someone's apartment in the Village and were jamming, trying to see what we could come up with”: Andy Summers on his longstanding relationship with Robert Fripp – and their surprise new collab album
- September 3
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- “It’s interesting how something so subtle can be so dramatic on the player’s end”: Seymour Duncan supercharges two classic Billy Gibbons guitar tones with new signature Tele and Les Paul pickups
- “The culmination of 45-plus years developing a sound that’s perfect in every possible way… Prepare to be amazed”: MXR’s new Yngwie Malmsteen signature overdrive pedal could be its most dynamic overdrive to date
- “Mick Jagger was moving around like a marionette, responding to every squeak coming out of my guitar”: Eric Bazillian on playing with a Rolling Stone, writing Joan Osborne’s One of Us – and helping Cyndi Lauper find a career-defining hit
- “Allan recorded a bunch of takes. He apologized, saying they all sucked… Of course, every note he played was miraculous”: Grammy-nominated virtuoso Alex Masi on why he turned down Stevie Ray Vaughan, his Allan Holdsworth collab and time with Shawn Lane
- “Why wouldn’t you stay in the Sphere and make a lot of money? Because it’s not as much fun. It doesn’t last forever. Look at how many musicians have passed away. What are you going to do with what you have?” Trey Anastasio explains Phish’s joyful rebirth
- “A player who took the instrument to places no-one else had ever gone before”: Epiphone’s Jimi Hendrix ‘Love Drops’ Flying V recreates the guitar great’s most psychedelic model
- How to play surf music on guitar: 3 techniques that will make your playing sound authentic
- Open G tuning chords: 5 shapes you need to know
- “The greatest fellowship one could imagine”: The Old Blood Noise Endeavors Western-themed Pardner is a fuzz that can ‘lasso’ to another pedal to shape its tones
- “Her number one piece of feedback is to be quieter. Sometimes, we bicker and maybe I win”: FINNEAS reveals his guitar technique debates with Billie Eilish
- September 2
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- Did Tim Henson just tease the arrival of his first Japanese-made Ibanez signature guitars – and a new 8-string?
- “Finely tuned to replicate the rich and warm tones of a tube amp”: Ashdown is so convinced its new budget amp range offers killer tone, it’s literally called it Killer Tone
- “The idea is to be versatile, and nothing beats Engl for doing that exceptionally well – it's all tube all the time”: Steve Morse’s new signature amp stakes its claim as one of the most feature-packed 20W tube heads on the market
- “The strap came loose, the amp was up, the guitar was up, and the neck broke off. Bob turned around like, ‘What are you doing back there?’” Mike Campbell recalls breaking his guitar in front of a live audience – in the middle of a Bob Dylan show
- “A titan in the industry who helped shape the LA studio sound of the 1980s”: Renowned luthier and Superstrat pioneer James Tyler passes away, aged 72
- “If we’re able to reach millions of people with this stupid solo, then obviously we’re doing something right”: Corey Feldman discusses his limits as a guitar player, copping David Gilmour’s tone and why his viral guitar solo really is a joke
- “We were at an EMI dinner, and David Gilmour was there. I said, ‘By far, you’re my favorite guitar player. How do you come up with those melodies?’” W.A.S.P.’s Blackie Lawless on the invaluable advice he received from the Pink Floyd icon
- Eric Stewart worked with Paul McCartney and ABBA’s Agnetha Faltskog, but as guitarist for 10cc, he created one of the most thrilling pop sounds in British music history
- “I always wanted to play with my fingers, but now I was forced to”: When his keys player quit, McKinley James had to rethink his playing style to play in a duo – and he did it without turning to pedals, because “none of my heroes did”
- “The main secret behind those classic grunge sounds is that they were loud. You need a high-volume amp…” Enumclaw are on a quest for alt-rock tone nirvana – using other people’s guitars and The Smashing Pumpkins’ fuzz pedal
- “I’m like the power forward on a basketball team – I bring out the best in my teammates”: A pillar of the L.A. session scene, Bob Glaub might be the most famous bass player you’ve never heard of
- “He plays five notes, and those five notes said more than any of these metal shredders could ever wish they could say”: Grace Bowers on how B.B. King completely changed her perspective on what makes a good guitar solo
- September 1
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- “Prince picked up my bass – but it was tuned to Eb, so he just found one note that worked and he stayed on it the entire song”: Raphael Saadiq on playing with Prince, D'Angelo and the “dead” 1962 Fender that put the vintage in Instant Vintage
- “I gave him 35 bucks for the guitar, bought a six-pack of Bud, went down to the studios and they played me the song. Recorded it in one take”: Skunk Baxter on how he recorded his classic Hot Stuff solo on a cheap guitar he bought right before the session
