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December 2025
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66 articles
- December 5
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- “They’ve raised the bar, stretched the boundaries and won the ears and hearts of the young generation”: Tommy Emmanuel names the emerging players who are flying the flag for a new era of Americana and bluegrass
- Flea has announced his debut solo album – but he’s not the only bassist playing on it
- “There was a certain amount of desperation in Frank returning my call and saying, ‘I don't believe you, but get over here and prove it'”: How Mike Keneally landed the Frank Zappa gig – after cold-calling his guitar hero
- “Every time I watch videos of her playing guitar I melt on the floor”: Danielle Haim reveals her biggest guitar influences – and who she believes is one “of the most genius guitar players” of all time
- “This amp has taken me about 10 years to nail down”: A long-lost Beach Boys Dumble that has spent the past 35 years in Hawaii has surfaced – and Jason Momoa is using it on his new album
- “He was going to record it, so they put it on hold so nobody else could. But he didn’t actually record it”: Sheryl Crow says Don Henley told her to stop giving her songs away after she wrote a song for Eric Clapton that never got released
- “The SEs were going to go away. We were having trouble with sales”: Paul Reed Smith on the near-fateful end of the PRS SE Series – and what saved it from extinction
- “When I heard his stuff I was like, ‘This guy’s got the pipes.’ I watched his live stuff and I thought, ‘He’s got it, man!’” Joe Perry on Aerosmith’s surprise Yungblud collab and paying tribute to late Bad Company legend Mick Ralphs
- “You can get some very mournful sounds out of it as well as in‑your-face. It’s a real old battle-axe”: Gary Moore’s 1963 Telecaster is modded and thrashed to death – and it’s got a tone pot that behaves like a wah
- “I never heard from John. He sold the guitar once he got out of rehab. And that was that – I never saw it again”: The incredible story of the Les Paul that Dave Navarro bought for his Guns N’ Roses audition – and ended up giving to John Frusciante
- December 4
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- Fender keeps up with Neural DSP in the amp modeler race by giving the Tone Master Pro its first polyphonic synths – included in major free firmware update
- Guns N’ Roses share 2 new singles ahead of 2026 world tour – could the long-awaited studio album be next?
- “My inspiration for this tune was Flight of the Bumblebee, but through a funky lens, as if Tower of Power had written and recorded the melody”: Cory Wong on how to arrange guitar and keyboards
- The ultimate strap for heavy guitars? D’Addario’s new Comfort strap could be the solution to your back problems – and could have you playing for longer
- “I took it into rehearsals and Frank Zappa said, ‘If you wanted to ruin your guitar, why didn’t you loan it to a friend?’” Adrian Belew shares unseen photos of “the first relic’d guitar” – which he created with Seymour Duncan
- The lost Ace Frehley interview, the year's best new gear and 2025's guitarists of the year – only in the new Guitar World
- “I didn’t want to go down the route of Fenders or Gibsons – I wanted something that sounds and looks different”: She’s Brian May and Johnny Marr’s new favorite guitarist, but The Last Dinner Party’s Emily Roberts still has imposter syndrome
- “Tosin Abasi told me once, the first time he heard us, he said, ‘This music is broken’”: Meshuggah's Mårten Hagström reflects on changing the face of metal guitar
- “Does it sound like a J-45? No. Instead, you get the impression that the instrument has been reimagined through the lens of a master craftsman”: Bourgeois Slope D Standard T/S review
- “Ironically, the quest for a natural sound increasingly meant filling a guitar with wires, batteries and circuit boards”: The challenge of amplifying our acoustics has been one of guitar’s great challenges over the decades – are we nearly there yet?
- “Words fail me in describing his impact on music”: Steve Cropper, 1941-2025 – the guitar world pays tribute
- “I don’t know if Jaco was a Van Halen fan. We were both more intent on getting drunk than anything else”: When Michael Anthony met the self-proclaimed “greatest bass player in the world”, Jaco Pastorius
- January 2026 Guitar World lesson videos and more
- “My playing has always sucked, but it sells because I keep it simple”: Steve Cropper was one of guitar’s most modest yet influential figures. In one of his final interviews, he looked back at making Booker T & the MG’s classics and working with Jeff Beck
- December 3
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- “He helped create some of the most enduring songs in music history”: Steve Cropper, Stax and soul guitar legend, Booker T. & the MG’s co-founder, dies at 84
- “They were trying to sell the guitars to distributors who had no idea who I was, like, ‘Who is this YouTube guy?’” Ola Englund on why he decided to set up his own guitar company
- “Virtually indistinguishable from the all-tube original”: EVH signals the start of a brave new era with its first digital combo – which promises authentic Eddie Van Halen tube amp tones
- “People don't know this. He loved it”: Jeff Beck secretly played a PRS at home – and the company is trying to get it back
- “I am a true enemy of the pick. It’s the most limiting thing in the world”: Marcin on why he will never use a guitar pick
- “Legends never die. They evolve”: Ross Electronics returns under new family stewardship – a year after JHS Pedals’ ill-fated revival
- “I texted Jake and told him, ‘There’s no way in hell I’m taking that solo. You’re going to play it!’” Why Nuno Bettencourt said no when Jake E. Lee asked him to play one of his iconic solos at Back to the Beginning
- “He proved to me long ago that Fender belongs in the world of heavy metal”: Fender honors Iron Maiden’s 50th Anniversary with a stable of limited signatures for Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, Janick Gers and Steve Harris
- “I’m known for these real dumb rock ’n’ roll solos... We don’t think of ourselves as super-pickers”: Primitive solos, Luchador masks, SpongeBob SquarePants? Meet Los Straitjackets, guitar’s most out-there instrumentalists
- “Noel goes, ‘What guitars do you want to borrow?’ I was like, ‘Well, I’ve played that one and it’s incredible. I was going to buy one, but it was about seven grand!’” The story behind Oasis’ new signature guitars
- “Ace was the reason... His image made me go, ‘This is what I want to do with the rest of my life’”: John 5 on his final conversations with Ace Frehley, working on Peter Criss’ new record, and the signature guitar so good he’s written a song about it
- December 2
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- “It’s the size of a big foot pedal. I get all kinds of great sounds out of it, no matter what I plug into it”: Joe Perry used a $219 pedal amp to record most of the guitars on Aerosmith’s new EP with Yungblud
- “I think Jimmy's pointing at Ed, but he motions for me to come over. He said, ‘You have something that these other guys here don't’”: Steve Lukather was hanging out with Eddie Van Halen, when Jimmy Page paid him the highest compliment
- These 30 epic Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are still live - including electric guitars, acoustics, pedals, amps, and software
- “I’d like to get a Flying V. I saw James Hetfield of Metallica playing one live, and I thought, ‘He’s got such a great guitar sound’”: Kim Deal on finally making her solo debut, working with Steve Albini and why she hates bright guitar tones
- “Bob Dylan wrote some notes on a napkin and said, ‘Give this to McGuinn. He’ll know what to do with it.’ It was like the Holy Grail”: Roger McGuinn on the making of The Byrds’ countercultural classic
- “My mom said, ‘What are you doing? Your kind of music has gotten popular. Why are you changing it?’ I thought it was a good idea – just like Mrs. Robinson was a bad idea”: The Lemonheads’ Evan Dando on the art of cover versions
- Epiphone brought one of Gibson’s most desirable one-off finishes to the masses earlier this year – now that Guitar Center-exclusive Les Paul has been given a major Cyber Monday discount
- December 1
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- Want to channel Brian Setzer, Chet Atkins, Duane Eddy, and the legends of rockabilly and country for less than $1,000? You'd be rocka-SILLY to miss this Cyber Monday deal
- Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, but at $400 off, this is the ultimate acoustic deal for Taylor Swift fans this Cyber Monday
- I rigorously tested 14 patch cables in 2025, and five of my top six are heavily discounted this Cyber Monday – fix your pedalboard for as little as $2.49 a cable
- Need to restock your gig bag essentials? These are the last-minute uber-cheap accessory deals you need to quickly jump on
- “For the style, it’s a near-perfect”: We called this do-it-all Superstrat a world-class instrument – now Yamaha’s groundbreaking Pacifica Standard Plus is cheaper than ever before
- MXR’s FOD Drive gets you Billie Joe Armstrong’s Dookie Drive tones in a non-signature pedal, and Sweetwater has just sliced the price by nearly half for Cyber Monday
- $0.38 a pick? You heard that one right – Amazon is offering some killer deals on Dunlop's flagship guitar pick series
- “Gives you the keys to a studio full of classic tube amps, speaker cabs, stompboxes, and effects”: Universal Audio’s amp-emulating pedals have been a huge success – now they’ve arrived in plugin form via the all-inclusive Paradise Guitar Studio
- “He said, ‘You think I’m old. Don’t you ever hold back onstage again”: Tommy Emmanuel on the time Les Paul baited him into bringing his A-game to a jam
- “This is the guitar I wrote and recorded Chasing Cars with”: Snow Patrol auctions off life-changing and career-defining Fender Telecaster for children’s charity
- I will die on this hill: Fender acoustics are criminally underrated. Mine's held its own at a stadium and stages over Europe, so now it’s $80 off for Cyber Monday, I’m picking up a back-up
- This is the biggest guitar bargain we’ve spotted all year – get a $900 D’Angelico for just $399
- The Gretsch Synchromatic Falcon is my guitar of the year. It’s not on sale for Cyber Monday, but I’ve found a look-alike for half the price that still is - but the sale ends tonight!
- A major life change made me realize I need a mini amp – and this is your last chance to bag one for as little as $36
- Martin has been the go-to acoustic guitar brand for the likes of Elvis, Eric Clapton and John Mayer – now you can join the ranks for less than $600
- “Our lawyer called it the most psychopathic contract a session musician could ever be handed”: Six former Cradle of Filth members file lawsuit against Dani Filth and the band’s management
- “Even we don’t fully know what it is yet”: Gamechanger Audio has reimagined the loop pedal with the Recorder
- “Some might be thankful they only made one because Gibson didn’t waste any more wood”: Meet the obscure ’60s Gibsons that prove double-necks were a thing before Stairway to Heaven
- “I really like it. If you’re a young guitar player, that’s money well spent”: John Mayer says this Dumble-inspired pedal amp is a smart investment – and you can still save $50 before Guitar Center's Cyber Monday sale ends
- Dave Grohl's Epiphone signature model broke the Internet last year – now, it can be yours for a fraction of the original price, thanks to this massive Cyber Monday discount
- Going wireless transformed my live performances and with 20% off the Xvive A58 for Cyber Monday, it's time to cut the cord
- "With the Player II Jazzmaster, Fender delivers a contemporary twist on a classic design without losing the original’s soul": score $220 off a guitar I awarded 4.5 stars to for Cyber Monday
- “He said, ‘Have you heard Metallica’s version of Whiskey in the Jar?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘What planet are you living on?’” Thin Lizzy’s Eric Bell on reinventing an old Irish standard as a rock track and performing it with the “cartoon” Metallica
- Cyber Monday guitar deals 2025 LIVE: all of today's biggest savings at Sweetwater, Guitar Center, Fender, Amazon and more
