All content archive

June 2025

Filter

Year
Month

273 articles

June 30
- “There’s something endlessly gratifying about a relatively old rock dog learning new tricks – and convincingly pulling it off”: June 2025 Guitar World Editors' Picks
- “Doing this makes me feel like he's always going to be here with me”: Metal guitarist commemorates late father by incorporating his ashes into his Fender Telecaster's neck
- “EET PHO”: Wes Borland cosplays as an ’80s-era James Hetfield while opening for Metallica – complete with a custom troll guitar
- “Aims to capture some of that posh vibe with a far more attainable price tag”: JET Guitars successfully couples high-quality specs and a premium playing experience with affordability in its Elite Series models
- “Steve Vai goes, ‘I’ve been thinking about this a long time. He’s a really good guitar player.’ That’s unusual’”: Paul Reed Smith on the time John Mayer was hailed by a shred hero – and why he found it strange
- “The only guitar I could ever play was the 125, but I wore them out – they were costing thousands to repair. They stopped making them around 1970; I was ready to stop playing”: George Thorogood on his “mutt” amp, and talking shop with Hound Dog Taylor
- With a colossal $1,200 off, have I just found your next guitar purchase? Score massive discounts of up to 60% off in the Sweetwater 4th of July sale
- “Do I really think that the best way for you to start your guitar playing life is chucking it with a chicken and a pound of potatoes in your shopping basket?” Why Andertons’ captain, Lee Anderton, believes there’s still space for dedicated guitar stores
- “Robbo had grown a beard. Phil says, ‘I’m the only one with facial hair, man – you gotta shave that thing off’”: Scott Gorham on his partnership with Brian Robertson – a golden era for Thin Lizzy even if they nearly split up over facial hair
- “This is how it’s done, kids. I need to practice more”: Vivian Campbell names his new guitar hero
- Glastonbury 2025: the iconic guitar moments that stole the show at one of the world's biggest music festivals
- “When you’re a kid, you go, ‘I could never be as good as a real rockstar,’ and here’s a guy that’s amazing, and he’s missing parts of his fingers”: Adam Jones on Tony Iommi’s influence and what took Tool so long to join Black Sabbath’s last hurrah
- Move over Taylor Swift: Olivia Rodrigo is this generation’s Eddie Van Halen – her Glastonbury performance proved it
- “You’ll hear these kinds of licks in the playing of Chicago blues guitar greats like Jimmy Rogers, the Myers Brothers and Luther Tucker”: Sue Foley pays tribute to blues icons Johnny Winter and Muddy Waters with 4 essential soloing licks
- “I buy them out of Sweetwater”: Joe Bonamassa might be the king of vintage gear – but most of his pedalboard is off the shelf
- “We can finally be what I’ve always wanted to be”: Wolfgang Van Halen has dropped his initials from the Mammoth band name – and it’s been a long time coming
- “We did it in this old haunted house, standing in front of this open fire with a couple of Marshalls outside the fireplace... It was two in the morning”: Can't Get Enough was Bad Company's breakout smash, and its harmonized leads were perfect for the era
June 29
- “He hopped on a plane and flew in to do literally 20 seconds of notes... That was the last thing he recorded for the record”: Nile Rodgers worked with Stevie Ray Vaughan during his rapid ascent – and oversaw the guitar hero's final recording session
June 28
- “A guy painted the scratchplate with a ghost, and apparently, he died 2 weeks afterwards”: Yungblud on his vintage “voodoo” ES-330 – which he wants to turn into a signature model
- “I wasn’t credited with any songwriting. That was a pity. But I didn’t make a fuss. I figured Peter was still pretty fragile”: Snowy White on his uncredited role on Peter Green’s comeback LP and how David Gilmour introduced him to the Whammy pedal
- “One heck of a rock ’n’ roll vision that sounds glorious and has huge tonal flexibility. Oh, and it doesn’t look like a Fender!” Newman Honeycomb Senior review
- "Take JHS up on their offer of a refund, or leave on the pedalboard to add that Dumble touch to your rig?" JHS Notadümblë review
June 27
- “We don’t know how much time any of us has, so while you have the opportunity, you should give it a shot”: Eric Gales taps Buddy Guy to pay tribute to his older brother – a forgotten hero of blues guitar
- “It was so hot I had to strap ice packs around my waist”: As Glastonbury Festival kicks off, Chrissie Hynde warns how global warming will likely impact the existence of outdoor summer shows
- “Crafted with performance in mind”: Harley Benton serves big Charvel and EVH energy, paying homage to the golden age of shred with a pair of $500 Superstrats
- “The record company threw the CD and said, ‘Not only are there no singles on this record, there’s no album tracks’”: Gavin Rossdale recalls record labels not believing in what was to become Bush’s most well-known album
- “Korea is one of the most dynamic and exciting music markets in the world”: Fender expands its presence in Asia with the establishment of Fender Music Korea – is a retail store coming next?
- “PRS' most daring signature guitar to date? Without a shadow of a doubt”: Here is all the new gear that has caught my eye this week – including an affordable replica of a $1 million Les Paul
- Guitar Center’s 4th of July sale has arrived early with an enormous up to 45% off, and I’ve spotted $170 off my favorite PRS SE model
- Guitar World deals of the week: save $600 on a Music Man, get $10 guitar lessons, plus all the best early 4th of July sales
- “Greater tonal clarity and definition”: Fender’s Blues Junior is one the most iconic workhorse gigging combos ever made – and now it’s been upgraded for its 30th anniversary
- “A growly tone that no other pedal has": Robert Trujillo’s son, Tye, dips into the signature stompbox world for the first time with a pedal that combines wah, drive and distortion
- “Even after four decades of high-gain amp design evolution, the Mark IIC+’s distortion tones still remain the gold standard”: Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ review
- “I don’t know how he got my address. He sent me a videotape of him jamming his head off. I was like, ‘Who is this guy?’” Buckethead gives rare ‘interview’ to Bootsy Collins – but speaks through his Les Paul
- “Some players will talk about wanting it to be a battle when they’re playing… I’m like, no, I want to make this fun. And I’m driving a sports car”: Winona Fighter’s Coco Kinnon and Dan Fuson on the secrets behind their riotous punk guitar sound
- “Some believe the slab ’boards have a different tone to veneer ’boards, but others think it’s more of a visual thing”: Everything you need to know about pre-CBS Stratocasters – the holy grail of vintage Fender guitars
- “I called everybody! I looked at my heavy-metal Rolodex and just called up friends who Ozzy, Sharon and I had talked about having there”: Tom Morello on honoring Black Sabbath with the biggest metal show ever, and the all-star jam he is most psyched about
- “Weirdly wonderful”: Behringer’s back with another on-the-nose clone – this time of a cult Moog filter pedal from the 2000s
- “My manager said, ‘Wow, you did a good job putting everything back.’ I said, ‘This is what I left behind’”: Joe Bonamassa on the evacuation of Nerdville – one of the world’s latest gear collections – following L.A. wildfires
- “It sold out in two hours. The guy called back asking, ‘Who are you guys? How come people have bought every one of your tickets?’” How Chris Buck and his band, Cardinal Black, took their first U.S. show by storm
- “Peter Frampton messaged me, ‘I don’t understand, this sounds better than my ’39!’” How Gibson’s Murphy Lab acoustics fooled a seasoned guitar connoisseur
June 26
- “We never claimed to be virtuosos, we were virtu-no-sos! Call them overdubs or call them replacing things that weren’t up to snuff. I make no apologies”: Paul Stanley on the success (and controversies) of Kiss' Alive!, and the band's upcoming unmasked gig
- Taylor has introduced one key twist to its new high-end Gold Label Grand Pacific body shape – and it’s had a big knock-on effect on tone
- “‘If you’re serious, here are some things you should be working on.’ One of those was the Nashville Number System”: One of Nashville’s first-call session players on the transcription hack that helped him go from server to working with Post Malone
- IK Multimedia’s TONEX Cab goes above and beyond in a bid to become the FRFR speaker you’ve always dreamed of – and it could completely transform your rig
- “If you seek complete Vox-style satisfaction without shortcomings or compromises, the Era 30 comprehensively delivers on all fronts”: Bad Cat Era 30 review
- “Even though Stevie Ray Vaughan wasn’t playing heavy metal, he had the elements of the style through pure skill alone”: Blues-inspired but metal-trained, he had a top 5 album at 16 – with no spiky guitars in sight. Meet Alien Weaponry’s Lewis de Jong
- “His future is as bright as his talent is undeniable”: Jason Becker hails Matteo Mancuso as a guitar hero destined for greatness – after the two virtuosos meet up
- “I won’t miss being in a band with horrible humans”: Former Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds fuels speculation of tension with his ex-bandmates after calling them out on social media
- “I thought it was food poisoning…” Steven Van Zandt sidelined from Bruce Springsteen tour following emergency surgery
- “I unfortunately had to back out”: Wolfgang Van Halen pulls out of Black Sabbath’s last show – here’s why
- “Gibson had lost the recipe, not only for guitar building but for pickup making based on their original designs. What I was after was making a rock ’n’ roll pickup”: How Larry DiMarzio changed the sound of rock guitar – and redesigned the Strat bridge
- Guitar pick modeling is now a thing: Rainger FX’s Razor Fuzz is a dirt pedal like no other with digital tones of plectrums made from sandpaper and metal
- “There was a drive, a presence – I helped guide him early on. He wanted me to help him not only learn guitar but arrange”: Godfather of ska, Ernest Ranglin, recalls working with a young Bob Marley
June 25
- “My father was a big Pat Metheny fan – hearing him started to make me obsessed with the idea of playing music”: Berklee-educated and endorsed by Strandberg, meet Camilla Sperati – the fusion phenom hand-picked to open for Steve Vai
- “Captures the spirit of 1960s flower power”: Fender Japan taps into the Summer of Love and revives an unconventional classic with new Blue Flower Series
- “I get fingers pointed at me. I get told, ‘You’re the guy who tried to kill Randy Rhoads.’ I laugh it off. He needed to be with better people. How could our split ever be friendly?” Kelly Garni founded Quiet Riot – but it ended with shots fired
- Musician’s Friend just kicked off its 4th of July sale early, and I wasn't expecting to see a gigantic up to $850 off Music Man guitars
- “By the end of it, I struggled a bit. I wasn’t able to be 100% myself playing, because I had to honor the gig, which I did”: Fusion virtuoso Alex Hutchings recalls the pressures of following in Guthrie Govan’s footsteps as Steven Wilson’s guitarist
- “You can do anything with a Stratocaster”: Joe Bonamassa explains how to make any Fender Strat the “Swiss army knife of guitars” – and unlock Gibson-like Angus Young tones in the process
- Behringer makes changes to its $69 Klon copy in the wake of pedal creator Bill Finnegan’s lawsuit
- “Edgar Winter invited me to jam. From the stage, you could see the door, and in walks Buddy. And I said, ‘He showed up!’” Earl Slick on the time he jammed in front of Buddy Guy at the blues great’s club – and won his heart
- “A new evolution for PRS”: Herman Li tears up the PRS template with the Chleo – a signature model 4 years in the making that’s unlike anything the firm has ever done before
- “We had a room full of Nashville session players, and they said, ‘Paul, if we don't use your guitars on the tracks, we get fired’”: Why Paul Reed Smith isn't interested in chasing Fender or Gibson – but is focused on cementing PRS in history
- “This pedal will take you straight to the heart of the action and give an almost limitless palette of sound”: Walrus Audio Qi Etherealizer review
- “It’s very weird and the only song we ever did that on”: Warren Haynes picks his favorite Gov’t Mule guitar riffs and shows you how to play them – properly
- “For the most part, new products in the pedal world are just different colored housings of the same circuits we’ve all been using for decades”: What does a Dumble-whispering tone nut keep on his pedalboard? Ask Kenny Wayne Shepherd...
- “A timely reminder of a true great. Will you sound like him when you plug it in? We wish”: Epiphone Jeff Beck 1954 Les Paul Oxblood review
June 24
- Jeff Beck’s iconic Oxblood Les Paul made history as the most expensive LP to sell at auction – now it’s been revived as an Epiphone signature model
- “I never felt comfortable in standard. In some ways I felt more pressure because the world was so full of great players in standard – I had no interest in competing with them”: Thurston Moore on Sonic Youth’s Sister, and moving from junk guitars to Fender
- A 15-year-old guitarist was brought onstage by Yungblud to riff in front of 30,000 people – and it was only the second time he’d played live
- The Last Editor: The musical life of Chris Bird, the final Editor of Total Guitar
- “I watched her write a song from start to finish on her old beat-up acoustic. I taught myself that song by ear from memory and the rest is history”: Justus West, one of John Mayer’s favorite guitarists, reveals what first got him hooked on the instrument
- “Tom Morello said, ‘I can’t see this going on without Jake E. Lee in there somewhere’”: Ozzy Osbourne’s last show will feature an army of heavy metal greats – but it all hinged on Jake E. Lee’s involvement
- “I could listen to Vernon’s solo on that song a million times. It’s scary and strange, but in a good way”: Frank Swart of Funkwrench Blues has recruited Vernon Reid, Oz Noy and Mike Stern to his cosmic cause – but there’s one solo that haunts him
- “Whatever your opinion is about some music museums, I believe it’s an honor to be recognized”: Wrecking Crew director responds to Carol Kaye’s criticisms of the film – and of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- “Vox AC30s lasted half an hour and Fender Twins lasted an hour. 5150s sounded great for about 10 seconds, then they were fried”: Uli Jon Roth’s struggle to contain his brainchild, the Sky guitar – and why he never played Jimi Hendrix’s black Strat
- “We can see this dividing opinion more than almost any guitar we’ve reviewed”: Atkin JH3001 review
- “He looked like a ripper to me. He didn’t hesitate to climb over the barricade”: Tyler Bryant invites a fan onstage who shreds the roof off after a mighty mid-song guitar transfer
- “I didn’t take it to the extreme of getting into trouble”: Mark Knopfler recorded this solo on a cheap guitar and did “everything wrong” with it – but it’s still his favorite
- “We feel very fortunate to have known, loved and worked with him”: Patrick Walden, Babyshambles guitarist and Pete Doherty collaborator, dies aged 46
- “The biggest pain in all guitar playing”: Jason Isbell names the hardest thing for beginners to learn on guitar – and how mastering it leveled up his own playing
June 23
- “Acoustic guitarists – meet your new best friend”: ToneWoodAmp2 review
- “An amazing and versatile guitarist who had the greatest sense of humor”: Mick Ralphs, guitarist and co-founder of Mott The Hoople and Bad Company, has died at 81
- “At that point, they were making better Les Pauls than Gibson was”: Kiss' Paul Stanley broke new ground by trading his Gibsons for Ibanez guitars – and by teaming up with the iconic Japanese brand for an early signature model
- “Only a guitar player would think it's OK to play bass like that!”: Joe Satriani’s best basslines (yes, he plays bass, too)
- “This is kind of uncommon. A lot of people don't like them”: Molly Tuttle reveals her surprising guitar pick of choice – which has helped shape her distinct bluegrass sound
- “I’ve always wanted to buy a sunburst Stratocaster from Crowley’s”: Joe Bonamassa visits the store that sold Rory Gallagher his iconic ’61 Strat – and buys his own to mark the occasion
- KHDK dives into a Deftones classic with a signature modulation pedal – and it’s the first pedal to ever capture the coveted Digital Bath tone
- “I played the jam with Eric Johnson, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. I was like, ‘Uh, yeah sure. I’ll come and play G3!’”: All That Remains’ Jason Richardson on surviving the ultimate virtuoso jam, despite fearing improv – and why theory is not 'law'
- “It’s built to reflect how I play”: Ryan “Fluff” Bruce’s Sterling by Music Man signature is finally here – and it’s more than $2k cheaper than the premium model
- “Brings the sound of the gods down to the volume-restricted reality of us mere mortals”: Marshall 1959 Modified and JCM800 Modified review
June 22
- “I wanted to have the register like a violin. The luthier said to me, ‘I can build you any guitar you like.’ It was a lightbulb moment for me”: Uli Jon Roth on what you get when you cross a Strat and a Les Paul with a violin hybrid
- “He’d already set everything up... The guitar was radically out of tune and the strings were virtually hanging off it”: Leo Abrahams on his Strat-wrestling initiation with Brian Eno, why he didn’t want to be famous, and what he learned from Paul Simon
June 21
- “I get infuriated by people who insist I should play a 5-string”: Alex ‘V-Man’ Venturella on tone, technique – and how he nailed his Slipknot audition
- “He could take a rock tune like Fleetwood Mac's Black Magic Woman and transform it by adding a hint of salsa clave rhythm”: Remembering Peter Green and Carlos Santana’s supernatural jam at the 1998 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Awards
- “This wasn’t a guy who got better every six months or every week; this was a guy who got better every 60 seconds”: Randy Rhoads became a legend with Ozzy Osbourne, but his incredible playing was evident long before then
June 20
- “Could this bass convert players to fanned frets?”: Dingwall SP1 review
- “I wanted it to be striking, bright, and a baritone so I can use it on tour for the song”: PRS celebrates Ed Sheeran’s collab with Dave Grohl and John Mayer on the F1 movie soundtrack with one-off, racing-themed guitar
- Two world leaders solidify diplomatic relations by delivering their own rendition of an Eric Clapton classic
- “It's best always to just do the same chord and call it different things”: SNL legend Fred Armisen has a signature guitar strap – but there's something not quite right about his guide to chords
- “We all have easy access to the parts needed to make a pickup… You certainly don’t have to start like Seymour Duncan did with a record player’s turntable”: Why more guitar builders are making their own pickups
- “Rates are coming back up, rents very rarely go down, and suppliers are in straitened circumstances”: Is crowdfunding the answer to ensuring guitar stores’ survival? One family-run business has launched an innovative campaign to keep its stores alive
- “I’ve never been one of those guys who will go into a guitar store and play Stairway to Heaven…’” Jim Babjak reveals he once bought a ’70s Les Paul without even trying it – and how it would go on to shape one of The Smithereens' biggest hits
- “It’s a tried-and-true sound that we’ve heard in the soloing of all of our favorite players, from Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter and Leslie West to Eddie Van Halen”: Jared James Nichols explains why we should all be using the blue note in our solos
- “Keith didn't want anything to do with it. He hated my records”: Dann Huff and Keith Urban got off to a rocky start – but they went on to create a string of number 1 singles together
June 19
- “He played upright but wanted to play the P-Bass. Motown said, ‘Nah, you ain't making no money playing that.’ But he said, ‘If you want me, I'm playing the P-Bass’”: Bootsy Collins on the musician that totally “changed his mind” about bass playing
- “Ensures your tuning stays locked no matter how hard you go”: Charvel adds an Evertune to its shred-friendly hardtail Superstrat
- “I wanted to say, ‘There’s nobody out there. We gotta walk away from this.’ But I couldn’t. He was a great player”: The guitarist who saved Thin Lizzy – and made their last album hit like a “sledgehammer”
- “If you stick a modern production tube in an old vintage amp, you may be a little disappointed with the tone”: Do vintage NOS tubes really sound better? Here’s what you need to know
- Electric Legoland: Jimi Hendrix is now available in Lego form – but it’s missing the Strat
- “I’ve seen it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears, some people sound better than all of us playing a cheap Squier Stratocaster”: Charlie Starr on guitar collecting, his vintage Juniors theory – and the time he was gifted a ’58 Les Paul
- “Tubes are overrated. And you never know what you’re going to get overseas. I can’t play through a Marshall JCM – they sound like crap”: Sludge titans Thou have never been afraid to tear up the rulebook – but they do need a spreadsheet for their tunings
- “People tell me that I invented that rhythmic gallop – but I just brought it to the fore”: Iron Maiden remain one of most domineering forces in heavy metal – and bassist Steve Harris has led the charge
- “You were part of a team. There were always 350-400 studio musicians working in the busy 1960s”: Carol Kaye has declined her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction invitation
June 18
- How Ibanez flipped the script for Japanese electrics with the Iceman – a flavor of original cool that Steve Miller and Paul Stanley of Kiss were waiting for
- “Someone sent me a picture and was like, ‘Isn’t this your guitar?’” That time Diamond Rowe saw her signature guitar on stage with one of her biggest influences
- “He needed nobody; Jerry was his only customer”: Tom Lieber apprenticed to Jerry Garcia's guitar builder Doug Irwin in the ’70s – now he’s raising the ’Dead once again
- “The last time I saw one for sale on Ebay, somebody wanted $300 for it”: Session ace Justin Ostrander on the sought-after pill bottle slide used by Duane Allman and Derek Trucks – and how he got one for free
- He played a guitar held together by a belt, was admired by Keith Richards, covered by Springsteen and described by Bert Jansch as “the most underrated guitarist ever” – the life and times of a beatnik folk pioneer
- “Built to make tuning faster, more precise, and effortless”: Band Industries’ Roadie 4 – a noise-immune automatic tuner – builds on its acclaimed predecessor, with some key upgrades
- “This is for the guys that think they know everything about the clone, yet they just want to have a little bit more”: Keeley Electronics adds more compression, suppression, bass, and headroom to the Klon Centaur recipe
- “When I picked up the Fender, it immediately responded to what I was putting into it. So I went out and bought a Tele and a Strat on the same day”: Fender's highly sought-after Richie Kotzen signature Stratocaster has just been rolled out worldwide
- “I used to ask, ‘What was Hendrix really like?’ All Noel would say was, ‘He was a black blues player who took a lot of acid’”: Eric Bell tells the tale of how he joined forces with Noel Redding, after leaving Thin Lizzy as a self-confessed ‘basket-case’
- “We were all ready to become millionaires after a couple of years... He was great at that age. I couldn’t believe it”: How Gary Moore came to join Skid Row at just 15 years old – and why the guitar legend left
- “They understood the sentimentality of these instruments and worked incredibly hard to bring them home”: Heart's stolen instruments have been recovered by the police – with a little help from the public
- I've just found the best streaming deal of the summer – get up to 4 free months of Amazon Music Unlimited right now
June 17
- “You’re talking about somebody who’s touched by the hand of God. You can’t even fathom it”: Paul Gilbert worshipped his playing, he tutored Luther Dickinson, and he remains, decades after his death, perhaps the greatest little-known guitarist of all time
- “I want to share with everyone else what he shared with me”: Marcus King’s vintage Gibson ES-345 has passed through 3 generations of his family. Now, his new signature model brings it to the masses
- Meshuggah pioneered it, Periphery took it to new levels, and John Petrucci thinks it opens up "a new world" – here is everything you need to know about learning 8-string guitar
- “Barracuda is a powerful piece of music that was never intended for political use”: Nancy Wilson speaks out after Donald Trump uses a Heart classic without permission
- “My phone buzzes: ‘Come down and see Robben’s amp.’ I’m stressing out like, ‘Oh, somebody's poured beer in it...’” That time Robben Ford brought his prized Dumble amp to a guitar retreat – and let fans play it
- “Siouxsie tried out her newfound kung fu on me and barged me in the back. That was enough – I walked out and Kenny came with me”: A brawl ended John McKay’s tenure with Siouxsie and the Banshees, but not his influence on a generation of players
- “The guitar that I used on my first album cost me $20, and I got a good sound out of it. It's what you put into the guitar that counts”: He collaborated with Johnny Winter, and was covered by Phish. Son Seals is essential listening for any blues guitarist
- “I bet if it had been Brian May playing this it would have been labeled incredible!” Sam Ryder delivers an electric guitar-driven rendition of the British national anthem – and somehow stirs up controversy
- “He started playing rhythm stuff and asked me to play lead. I said, ‘Pete, it’s your album’”: How Snowy White ended up working with Peter Green on In the Skies – the comeback album that lifted the blues rock legend out of obscurity
- “Most of these dudes don’t fall quite as far as I did. They don’t develop a meth habit and end up shoveling dog s**t for $6 an hour”: Gary Holt on his thrash metal redemption story, balancing Exodus and Slayer – and why even Hetfield cheats on downpicking
- “I would love to work with artists who have already built up beautiful collections and are ready to let a few things go”: Is Gibson about to start selling artist-owned vintage gems?
- “I would listen to Eric, but my responsibility was with the rhythm section”: You know the tune, but maybe not the player – how an unassuming bassist carved out a spot in music history on Derek & the Dominos’ Layla
June 16
- “I first heard him play via a tear-out flexi-disc that was included in Guitar Player magazine back in 1986. I had never heard anything like that in my life!” Joe Bonamassa on the influence of the great Eric Johnson
- Giacomo Turra stole their work – now, Jack Gardiner, Alex Hutchings, and a host of other players have teamed up to deliver the ultimate funk masterclass
- “Will remind me of the hours I spent in the taverns of Azeroth”: Jackson has built a one-of-a-kind World of Warcraft guitar for Malevolence’s Konan Hall – and it was inspired by his in-game character
- Fender re-enters the tuner pedal market with an “ultra-precise” strobe stompbox to rival Peterson and Boss – and it’s more affordable than both
- “I apologize for the broken beer bottle that was thrown at him”: Melissa Auf der Maur surprises fans as she reunites with Billy Corgan to perform a Smashing Pumpkins classic
- “The good news is it was recorded – you can go online and see it. The bad news is that’s because someone stole all the master tapes”: Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter on his supergroup with Joe Walsh, sessions with Joni Mitchell and the voices of Albert King
- “I said, ‘Give me a mop and some cleaning supplies.’ I scrubbed that bathroom and I made it spotless”: Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto is on a mission to raise store standards – and says he’s not above scrubbing restrooms
- “There were all these killer players. I was shy and kind of sat there, but Etta said, ‘I like that little white kid’”: Brian Ray wowed Etta James at 18, lost-out on Shakira and landed his gig with Paul McCartney – after auditioning at the Super Bowl
- “A first in the history of electric bass guitar”: Stephen Malkmus is using his bass string as a guitar strap onstage with his new supergroup – and it looks uncomfortable
- “Noel pointed to my smashed guitar and said, ‘Whose is that?’ Liam said, ‘That’s yours.’ Noel replies, ‘It ain’t mine!’” How an Oasis engineer ended up with the Wonderwall acoustic – after his budget Fender got destroyed in a Gallagher brother bust-up
June 15
- “The boys and I had just gotten off tour. We got a call from our booking agent…” How a “fluke accident” led to Lzzy Hale playing at Dio’s last-ever show
June 14
- “One of the most hotly anticipated gear releases of the modern era has finally landed – and it still managed to sneak in a few surprises”: Here is all the new gear that has caught my eye this week – and, yes, that's a pink Jazzmaster
- “I used a Gibson EB-3 through my time with David, trying to get the same bass sound Andy Fraser got with Free”: How the late, great Trevor Bolder applied melodic flair to anchor this irresistible 12/8 rocker from David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane
- “I went, ‘I’m sorry we all couldn’t do it.’ Tom Morello goes, ‘Well, Dan and Maynard are playing with these people.’ I went, ‘I didn’t know that…’” Adam Jones on why Tool weren’t originally going to take part in Ozzy Osbourne’s last-ever show
June 13
- “More than just a metal machine and I would have no qualms in taking one out for gigs, fresh out of the box”: Spira T-450 TDB review
- “Phenomenal tone at any volume”: Fender’s American Vintage ’62 Super revives a “hidden treasure” tube amp that bridged the gap between two legendary combo designs
- “I’d never heard it like that, apart from on record, because in the days of Zeppelin, I’d do as much as I could with the one guitar”: 25 years ago, Jimmy Page’s live vision for one Zeppelin classic was fully realized – thanks to the Black Crowes
- “Bringing together the analog elements that have defined Supro with state-of-the-art cabinet emulation”: Supro’s new Airwaves combo is a 6V6-driven 1x12 with onboard Two Notes tech for vintage-modern versatility
- “It’s time”: Matt Bellamy channels his inner Meshuggah with a wild new 8-string Manson model – which has already been put to work on a monstrous new Muse song
- “I had three days to learn the entire set… One rehearsal. I met Pink at soundcheck right before the first show then I’m playing in front of thousands and thousands of people”: Eva Gardner on trial by fire with pop megastars and returning to the Mars Volta
- “Reimagining the acoustic experience for daring and adventurous players”: Fender debuts the California Standard Series – bringing its popular budget acoustics to even lower price points
- “Revelator is chock full of riffs. The chorus is just like, ‘What if a war metal band had Portishead chords?’”: Deafheaven’s Shiv Mehra and Kerry McCoy on atonality vs the ethereal, pedalboard thrill-seeking and their return to super-heavy guitars
- Fender promised a tweed version of our top-rated Tone Master FRFR speaker last year – now, it’s finally been announced
June 12
- “Add the hi-hat, and it’s, ‘Tss, tss, kahh, boom, boom-boom, kah, tss, boom, kahh’ etc. We can emulate these different elements on the guitar”: Cory Wong on why approaching rhythm guitar like a drummer makes you a better guitar player
- “I have the first guitar I ever owned – my parents bought it for me in 1967 for $57. It’s a cheap Japanese guitar that I had refinished”: Alex Lifeson on Envy of None’s evolution, moving on post-Rush, and jams and coffee with Geddy Lee
- “I had no idea of the impact that these Instagram videos were having until I went to South Korea. There were 500 people there just to see this ‘Mateus Asato guy’”: How Mateus Asato changed gears from sideman and Instagram guitarist to fully-fledged artist
- Mark Speer has captivated audiences with his genre-blending playing style – but the Khruangbin guitarist claims it's mainly due to playing only one single guitar for over two decades
- “With my wrist, the arthritis and everything, that would be very challenging”: Everyone is expecting Jake E. Lee to play Bark at the Moon at Ozzy Osbourne’s last show – but he has his doubts
- Hardtail Strats, Bigsby-clad Teles, and a pink Jazzmaster: Squier rolls out its 2025 Classic Vibe collection – and heads into unexpected territory
- “When the Ozzy thing came around I was so excited, but also doubting myself. Duff McKagan and Chad Smith were like, ‘You can do it. It's everything you love’”: From Pearl Jam to the Stones, the stars have aligned for Andrew Watt – but he owes it to Ozzy
- PMT, one of the UK’s largest instrument retailers, has been placed into administration – closing all stores and making 96 members of staff redundant
- Black Sabbath! The final interview with Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – all yours in the new Guitar World
- “I had no idea you could get a sound like that”: The player that almost convinced The Office star Creed Bratton to give up guitar altogether
- “He looks at the way the black finish is cracking, takes the finish off, and there's a Paisley staring at him”: Brad Paisley thought he had bought just another ’60s refin Tele – turns out, there was a $30,000 guitar hidden under the spray paint
- “He goes, ‘You’ve got to put a battery in the back.’ I was like, ‘A battery? What are you talking about?’” Zakk Wylde on how a student introduced him to a pickup pairing that would end up defining his sound with Ozzy Osbourne and beyond
- “He dug around and said, ‘You know what this is? It’s one of the Beach Boys amps’”: Ben Harper’s Dumble was inexplicably found at a yard sale – and it had previously belonged to one of the biggest rock bands of all time
- “A sleek new take on a classic machine”: Jackson officially launches its affordable Surfcaster reissue – bringing the cult offset back for a new generation of heavy players
June 11
- “A new type of product”: Line 6 ushers in a bold new era of amp modelers with the Helix Stadium – an extensively upgraded family of touchscreen-equipped floorboards that take the term ‘all-in-one rig’ to unprecedented heights
- “The catalog proclaimed the instrument to be: ‘For the young artist with a flair for showmanship!’”: Guild Starfires appeared in the hands of The Kinks’ Dave Davies and Jerry Garcia, and shook up the electric guitar scene in the early '60s
- Brian Wilson, creative leader of the Beach Boys and transformative figure in pop music, dies at 82
- “Can you imagine Kramer being more successful than Fender and Gibson? It sounds crazy, but Eddie Van Halen made that happen”: H.E.A.T’s Dave Dalone on taking rock back to the future, learning from Gary Moore, and why he's a Kramer man through and through
- “He said, ‘It’s really cool when you watch someone a lot and then you get to meet them in person’”: Marty Schwartz recently bumped into Slash – and it turns out the guitar legend had been watching his videos to brush up his blues chops
- “These instruments are extensions of our musical souls”: Nancy Wilson’s stolen custom Telecaster has been found by police – but the search for a second missing Heart instrument goes on
- “I was broke. I only had $200 and we booked a gig. There was this guitar at a pawn shop that had been there for years...” How George Thorogood stumbled across the Gibson that became his go-to guitar – a week before his first gig with the Destroyers
- “It caught me, this broken guitar amongst all this rubble. Then someone recognized it and reached out”: After a tornado devastated its community, this local music store is fixing guitars damaged in the storm for free
- “A turning point in Orangewood’s evolution”: After bringing the rubber bridge mod to the masses, Orangewood has now launched its first electric – a stunning offset baritone
- Guitar World Discussion: What’s your greatest guitar hero encounter?
- “I went to Chuck Schuldiner’s house and auditioned. I’m sure I played some of it wrong, but I guess it was close enough!” How Bobby Koelble brought his jazz chops to Death – and made one of the greatest metal albums of all time
- “I had that guy on the phone and said, ‘Give me one good reason why we should sell you the guitar?’ He said, ‘The money.’ I said, ‘That’s not a good reason’”: Why Uli Jon Roth turned down a $9 million offer for Jimi Hendrix’s iconic black Strat
- “The world has changed. I can confidently make up my mind to stop”: Former Evanescence guitarist Jen Majura steps away from music industry due to “AI-related developments”
- “There was nothing challenging about it in any way whatsoever”: Robben Ford spent months touring with George Harrison – but the experience didn’t stretch his guitar chops
June 10
- “A lot of people don’t give these guitars any credit because of the short scale and narrow neck... It’s one of the nicest-sounding guitars for jazz”: Debuting in 1955, the Gibson Byrdland was the user-friendly archtop players were waiting for
- “There is a lot of jargon, much of it in Spanish, and an entire vocabulary of new techniques to learn”: Interested in nylon-string guitar but don’t know where to start? Three experts give an introductory guide for the perplexed
- “Khruangbin has made a huge mark on music. They blend cultures and eras into something entirely their own”: For the first time, Fender has launched a signature guitar and bass for the same band simultaneously – with new Mark Speer and Laura Lee models
- Gibson brings back its wild Les Paul acoustic hybrid for the first time in more than 20 years – and it’s unlike any other version that came before it
- “We worked at Guitar Center – There’s an air about people who tell you about their glory days. They’ll play the most expensive guitar for hours, then leave without buying anything!”: The Callous Daoboys on calculated chaos, and their secret “horrid” pedal
- “To scare Randy, I pulled the gun and fired it into the ceiling, thinking that would make him leave. He charged right at me”: Kelly Garni on how a drunken fight with Randy Rhoads spelled the end of his Quiet Riot career
- “He’s gesturing wildly to us and finally he gets the courage to come over. He says, ‘You guys are sitting on the pyro!’” The time Ozzy Osbourne almost blew up Tom Morello and Slash
- “Ever dreamed of owning a piece of Nirvana’s legacy?” A Kurt Cobain guitar pick previously sold for more than $14k – now his MTV Unplugged plectrum is being raffled off for much, much less
- Missed out on tickets to Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s last-ever live gig? Here’s how you can still watch the “greatest heavy metal show ever”
June 9
- “Rory Gallagher and many more legends have relied on this useful effect for just this reason – so don’t be put off by the name”: 20 ways to get more from your pedals
- “A monumental figure, a groundbreaking innovator, and a true pioneer who redefined the landscape of pop, funk, and rock music”: Sly Stone, restlessly creative musical giant who led Sly and the Family Stone, dies at 82
- August 2025 Guitar World lesson videos and more
- “To my utter horror I heard myself noodling all the way through our chat. On Brian’s own guitar!”: The first time I met Brian May – and we were both wearing clogs
- “When I saw Meat Loaf, I said, ‘This is a spoof of Bruce Springsteen, and that’s why I’m doing it’”: Todd Rundgren produced The Band, Grand Funk Railroad and The New York Dolls – but his most successful collaboration was born to poke fun
- “At some point in time, we may have to get our head around the fact that these things we trade will be worth absolutely nothing”: Joe Bonamassa on the one thing you should never do when buying a guitar
- “Nike tried to go direct and pull back from retailers. It got crushed”: Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto may be facing new competition from Fender and Gibson in the retail space – but it isn’t fazing him
- “That’s one of the first things Phil said to me, ‘You’re in, but we gotta change that guitar’”: Scott Gorham may have passed his Thin Lizzy audition – but his budget Les Paul copy certainly didn’t
- “I’ll list them on eBay or Reverb”: Kirk Hammett doesn’t want his guitars to go unplayed – so he’s been secretly selling them online
- “I have the memories”: Wolfgang Van Halen says he’s stopped listening to his dad’s music
- “The perpetrator is in custody now”: Nancy Wilson confirms a man has been arrested for the theft of “one-of-a-kind” Heart instruments – but the instruments are nowhere to be found
- “We teased it as an April Fools. It was intentional to keep people guessing”: Strandberg is working on a headless acoustic guitar – and you may have already seen a prototype
June 8
- “He was like, ‘Dude, you need to give me guitar lessons!’”: Tetrarch's Diamond Rowe reveals the metal legend who asked her for guitar pointers
- “There's a great picture of Eddie, Pat Thrall, and myself backstage. Oh man, we look awesome. Three guitar players, just 24 years old”: Pat Travers recalls the best show he ever played – with Aerosmith, AC/DC, and Van Halen all on the same bill
- “Sly turned his back on me in the control room, giving a shout whenever he heard something he liked”: How Larry Graham’s hand-picked replacement supercharged this 1973 hit for Sly & The Family Stone with an iconic bassline
June 7
- “I think John always thought it was me, Steve, and Paul against him, but it wasn’t quite like that”: Glen Matlock opens up about Sid Vicious replacing him in the Sex Pistols to become one of punk's most iconic figures
- Their ranks have included blues-rock luminary Bernie Marsden, shred god Steve Vai, and journeyman virtuoso Reb Beach – here's the ultimate guide to the A-team guitarists that have shaped Whitesnake's blockbuster, stadium-conquering sound
- “With The Beatles there are two periods: the early albums, where they would recreate what they did live – and the post-’65 overdub era”: Was Paul McCartney singing while he recorded this bass track? There are audible cues in the final mix
June 6
- “The importance of one clear voice playing the melodies and solos are things we take seriously”: Joe Satriani reveals how Satch/Vai’s onstage chemistry works – and why sometimes some songs are best left to Steve Vai
- Guitarists, it’s time to change those strings – bag 25% off D’Addario XS at Guitar Center in celebration of World String Change Day
- “It showed us that a rock band can still bring the house down on such a mainstream platform”: Indian band Girish and the Chronicles deliver searing riffs on America's Got Talent with their hard rock take on an Adele classic
- “A precision tool for modern metal and a well-honed surgical blade for the studio”: Jackson Pro Plus Series Signature Misha Mansoor Juggernaut ET6 review
- “I believe Tommy had lots of songs which were exactly what the band needed. And his style was more akin to Ritchie’s than mine”: Clem Clempson on the return of Colosseum, jamming with Jack Bruce, and that time he auditioned for Deep Purple
- “We got back to the hotel, and when we walked up to the desk, the guy said, ‘There’s a message from David Bowie’”: Fanny's June Millington recalls the band's first encounter with the Thin White Duke, who would become one of their biggest fans
- A pink Daisy Rock acoustic guitar, signed by Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus, has just smashed its estimate as it sells for over $100,000 at auction
- “Freddie is always with me. He was like a brother, and now I have a Mercury on my guitar, too, which makes me very happy”: Brian May on how astronomy, the Everly Brothers and Freddie Mercury influenced the design of his Gibson SJ-200 12-string
- “Swan song folks, it's been a great ride”: Joe Bonamassa adds a ninth Dumble to his collection – and promises it will be his last
- “If something works there, it works everywhere”: Why Josh Homme prefers to write his songs on acoustic guitar first
- “I wanted to come up with a hypnotic riff and had the Rolling Stones’ Miss You in mind”: Jared James Nichols on how Keith Richards and ZZ Top influenced one of his most memorable riffs – and what Eddie Kramer told him about songwriting
- “I was just like, ‘This is a sign, man, because this situation blows right now”: The moment that Andrew Watt dived into production – after starting out his career as a recording musician
June 5
- “It took me a few years to figure out that if you’re going to play Fender guitars, you play with Fender amps”: Ryan Hedgecock stuck to his own creative path, even when Lone Justice were torn apart
- “I only asked them to play on my album because the record company thought a few well-known names would be a good selling point”: Snowy White tells the story of his 1994 collaboration with Gary Moore and David Gilmour
- “We had four guitarists, which was unheard of at that point”: Johnny Hickman on his pre-Cracker band, the Unforgiven, revisiting the Cracker catalog, and big, bone-headed riffs
- “Whatever I’ve done, whatever I’ve made, whatever I’ve turned into has pretty much been built on this thing”: Chris Stapleton shows Josh Brolin the trashed '50s Gibson he bought for just $380 – and that became his most treasured possession
- “He says, ‘Isn’t this a great guitar? I bought it off some guy on the street for 350 bucks’”: How Lita Ford reacted when she came face-to-face with her stolen B.C. Rich Mockingbird – and the only amp she ever returned
- “I’d met Leslie West, and like a lot of guitar players, you couldn’t meet Leslie West and come out unscathed”: Martin Barre explains how the Mountain man influenced his most iconic solo on Jethro Tull’s Aqualung
- “I said, ‘I want to riff through all of my favorite guitarists – doing Jimi Hendrix behind the head, Pete Townshend’s windmill, the Eddie Van Halen hammer thing”: Michael J. Fox and others discuss the Back to the Future guitar – and a clue to its identity
- “It’s a preamp, but it’s got the biggest distortion I’ve ever heard”: Fontaines D.C.'s Carlos O'Connell reveals the secret weapon on his pedalboard – a plain box with one knob and oodles of gain
- “When the Strat wasn't working right during a show, Rory would pick this up”: Rory Gallagher’s back-up ‘Frankenstein’ Strat – gifted to its current owner by U2 – sells at auction for over $50K
June 4
- “It felt like a boot camp... It tested what we were made of”: Fresh off of Jared Dines' ‘instant band’ documentary, Musician Mansion, Chena is ready to introduce her intricate, highly melodic playing to the world
- “I love my Strat; I’m a Strat guy through and through, but I just needed a guitar with humbuckers”: Cory Wong on the making of his signature StingRay and how Vulfpeck just, y’know, made an album during a show
- “Not just another clone but instead a blatant counterfeit of Klon’s legendary pedal”: Klon creator Bill Finnegan is suing Behringer over the design of its Centaur Overdrive
- “It's something a guitar player wouldn't write, it stretches you as a player”: Dave Murray says Iron Maiden stuck out from the pack because because they have a bassist as the lead songwriter
- "Even if you’ve never used a looper before I’d wager it wouldn’t take most guitarists more than 5 minutes to get up and running with it": TC Electronic Ditto 2 Looper review
- “I literally made the change that Eddie Van Halen was known for and was thinking about”: Larry DiMarzio says his revolutionary bridge tweak pre-empted Van Halen’s own mods
- “It’s truly one of the most unique purpose-built instruments I’ve ever seen”: How David Lynch created a five-necked guitar that would make the most of his outlandish playing style – and Kurt Cobain’s luthier brought it to life
- “The only gear I brought was a red Hamer prototype. That guitar is magical. I used it on Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love, David Lee Roth’s California Girls and with Mick Jagger”: Eddie Martinez explains how he helped Run-D.M.C. bring rock to hip hop
- “I’m waiting for the right calibre of player. I can’t just pick somebody off the line”: Scott Gorham doesn’t rule out a future for Thin Lizzy – but he’s biding his time to find the perfect guitar foil
- “Recovery is a long road”: Traffic co-founder and George Harrison session player Dave Mason cancels all of his 2025 tour dates after a health setback
- From Paul McCartney’s Höfner to Dave Grohl’s Trini Lopez and Joan Jett’s Melody Maker – a 1:1 scale photography exhibition of famous guitars is heading to London
- “We’re heartbroken, and we’re asking for their safe return”: Nancy Wilson says two “irreplaceable” instruments have been stolen ahead of Heart’s tour
June 3
- “People are infatuated with heavy solidbody guitars for no real reason. It was a fad, a myth; the more mass, the less it can vibrate and the more the strings have to vibrate, which may be true”: How Rick Derringer helped create the B.C. Rich Stealth
- “8am one morning there was a knock at the door. It was a cop and he said: ‘Do you have a red Gibson guitar SG model?’ I just handed it to him”: Pat Travers owned three Gibsons by the age of 16 – his luck would not last
- “Warm, woody tones and a beautiful vintage character”: PRS celebrates the launch of the first humbuckers with the 40th Anniversary McCarty SC56 – a limited-run, traditionally-styled troublemaker with bags of charm
- “The MC5's roaring distortion sound in a box”: MXR and Daredevil bottle Wayne Kramer’s gritty and explosive tone into the Jail Guitar Doors Drive pedal – and it has Tom Morello’s approval
- “Anyone who has ever heard Toto’s Hold The Line will know he can let it rip with the best of them”: 4 searing blues guitar solo ideas in the style of Steve Lukather
- “Cinema's most influential guitar hasn't been seen in 40 years”: The guitar from Back to the Future's iconic Johnny B. Goode scene has been missing for decades – now Gibson has launched a worldwide search for it
- “You don't have to spend a lot of money to get a great sound”: Joe Bonamassa reveals his go-to rig for guest-spots – and the amp he uses when he doesn’t want to cart out his Dumbles
- “Any distortion came from the amp itself. It was considered a rather clean sound compared to other punk bands”: Joe Genaro on overhead conversations, ad-libs, and making it catchy and funny on the Dead Milkmen’s classic punk debut
- "Engaging the pedal transformed my previously thin and uninspiring tone into a beautifully fat, warm, and full-bodied sound": Audio Sprockets ToneDexter II review
June 2
- “With this pedal, you’re practically getting a Gilmour tone cheat-code”: From totally unique synth pedals to signature collabs and game-changing takes on the classics, here are our 30 favorite guitar pedals from the past 5 years
- “In all the years I’d played with Albert, I’d always wanted to hear him play something in a minor key – and he smoked it!”: Robert Cray tells the story behind the greatest all-star blues team-up of the ‘80s
- “There are so many musicians that, live, you could be blown away by, but once they get into the studio, they can’t come up with parts that will last”: Andrew Watt on the essential studio skill that’s enabled him to work with rock gods and pop icons alike
- “I had this little house in California, back in 1984. My Marshall stacks and a reel-to-reel were set up in the living room. I remember getting my drummer to have a jam at 3am”: From his live show, to cutting classics, Yngwie Malmsteen lives off-the-cuff
- “I’ve never been very confident as a player. I’ve always felt like I had to work hard”: Alex Lifeson is one of the greatest guitarists of his time – but he says he’s often lacked faith in his skills
- “My guitar was busted up on the flight – totally destroyed. When I got to Nashville and told Dan Auerbach, he said, ‘Try something new’”: After her beloved Gibson was ruined on a flight, Valerie June found new inspiration in this iconic acoustic brand
- “I wake up the next morning and my SUV is gone. We had just opened a show for Vince Gill, and he'd signed my Telecaster”: Rascal Flatts’ Joe Don Rooney had just finished a run of shows with Chely Wright – when his very first guitar got stolen
- I’m a professional gear reviewer and my go-to guitar wireless system just got a generous 20% off – here’s why I use it daily
- “Aggressive cutaways, an ultra-thin body, and extreme arm bend”: Kiesel launches the Kyber – a futuristic metal guitar that’s its answer to Strandberg and Abasi Concepts offerings
- “I’ve been stumped to understand how this worked. He didn’t seem to fret notes, so how was he producing chords?”: David Lynch's Parker Fly is up for auction – and it solves one of the big mysteries about his playing
- “The owner refused to believe me and called me a liar. Then I realized the craziest thing...” This luthier was offered the chance to buy a ’90s Les Paul, but something didn’t feel right – it turns out he had the ultimate proof to hand
June 1
- “I’d go down to Manny’s, pick up a Stratocaster and say, ‘This is like a dead tuna’”: Why Larry DiMarzio decided to start a pickup line that would change the face of guitar music in the 1970s
- “You will pick one up and realize it almost sounds too good. There’s something to be said for guitars that are challenging to play”: Dean DeLeo explains why the ‘worst’ guitars are also sometimes the best
- “A friend of mine told me about an open audition for a new artist named Cyndi…”: From his education with Cyndi Lauper and giving Alice Cooper a killer Poison intro, to co-writing with Julian Lennon, John McCurry shares the stories behind his biggest hits