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June 2025

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123 articles

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
- Guitar World deals of the week: save $190 on a Player II Strat, bag a bargain JHS pedal plus some perfect last-minute gift ideas for Father's Day
- “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
- "I don’t care what anyone says, what Paul Reed Smith builds today is what Doug and I made back then”: From the Tiger to the Wolf, meet the guitar maker who bought Jerry Garcia’s wildest designs to life
- “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
- Guitar World deals of the week: save $1,200 on a Boss synth guitar, get $800 off a 7-string Music Man, plus a cheeky saving for World String Change Day
- “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