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December 2025
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240 articles
- December 31
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- “He asked to hear it, so I played it, and he said, ‘I have to play on this. Give me a track’”: How a 20-year-old Steve Lukather beat three seasoned session pros to feature on this ’70s soft rock classic
- “I learned to play everything on it. We wrote our first song as Jonas Brother on that guitar”: In the mid-2000s, the Jonas Brothers exploded onto the scene as a guitar-slinging band for teens – Kevin Jonas looks back on the guitar that started it all
- Looking to kickstart 2026 with a new guitar or pedal project? Here are 12 of my favourite DIY guitar kits, easy mods, and simple pedal builds to help you smash the January blues
- “After it was called the ‘solo of the century,’ I remember saying to Steve Lukather, ‘Come on, this is ridiculous’”: Nuno Bettencourt on turning down Ozzy, Sabbath’s final show and how Extreme finally got their dues
- “The rest of the world didn't know that the world's greatest guitarist was playing a weekend gig at this place in Chelmsford”: The Aristocrats' Bryan Beller recalls the moment he met Guthrie Govan and formed a new kind of supergroup
- “They stole our name, which means Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora were listening to our records. But the main reason people know us is Gary Moore, and that doesn’t bother me at all”: The tale of the original Irish Skid Row
- December 30
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- “I saw a recent video on YouTube on the 10 precursors to heavy metal, and Schizoid Man wasn’t among them. That’s absurd”: Robert Fripp explains how King Crimson paved the way for heavy metal
- “I’ve worked with Lee Sklar. I got to see Anthony Jackson play. I had Pino Palladino on my first album. I’ve been able to absorb that bass-playing mojo”: How the bass guitar became a crucial part of Sheryl Crow’s songwriting process
- “Jimmy Page used one of our guitars. It was some of the best tremolo work I’d ever heard”: Paul Reed Smith on how he built his brand, secret PRS players – and why the internet is wrong about tonewood
- “I was like, ‘It’s time to do your solos.’ He goes, ‘OK, I’m gonna call up my guitar teacher, have him do the solos and then have him teach me’”: Dave Mustaine on the ill-fated guitar appointment that led Megadeth to Jeff Young
- “Those were the cocaine ’80s. They devoted a whole day to auditioning snare drum samples – just to double-up the actual snare”: Nancy Wilson knew Heart had to adapt to survive the excesses of the 1980s – but she didn’t expect their greatest success
- “I was drinking a lot and forgot that I bought it. The folks at Carter Vintage called me and were like, ‘You gonna come get this guitar?’” Marcus King on the vintage guitar he accidentally bought while drunk
- December 29
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- What’s your pedalboard persona? Find out with my pick of stompboxes to match your player identity
- “I kept seeing outdated business models that didn’t make sense in today’s social media-driven world”: The unstoppable rise of signature guitar companies, as explained by Ola Englund
- “I had to go outside to the garbage bags and find the certificate because I’d thrown it away!” The Cult’s Charlie Jones didn’t know about his Grammy win for Please Read the Letter… because he didn’t read the letter
- “When we lost Jeff, his wife wrote to me and said, ‘I’m going to sell the guitars. They keep reminding me of him’”: John McLaughlin remembers gifting Jeff Beck the white Strat that featured on his seminal Wired record – and helped shape his guitar legacy
- “I toured with Stevie Ray Vaughan when he was sober and he was a freak of nature. I couldn’t relate to his playing”: The Outlaws' Henry Paul on opening for The Rolling Stones, finding fame thanks to Lynyrd Skynyrd, and his one-of-one red Gretsch Falcon
- December 28
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- “When Stevie called us, we had to tell him the party was over. We said, ‘We’ve just blown out Stevie Wonder!’” Stuart Zender on sessioning for Stevie Wonder and supplying the funk to Jamiroquai’s first three albums
- “Ken pulled this instrument out of this blanket and I was astonished. My jaw hit the floor. I’d never seen anything like it”: Remembering Ken Parker, the genius luthier who brought us the Parker Fly
- “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
- “I walked in and said, ‘Can I get that guitar, the one at the end there?’ He looked at the name on the credit card and then looked up at me”: Chrissie Hynde on the time she bought her own signature guitar off the shelf
- December 27
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- “We hung out in his hotel room ’til 7 in the morning. He put on Donna Lee – I couldn’t believe it!” When Jimmy Haslip met Jaco Pastorius at Frank Zappa’s studio
- “When I’m at home, I don’t like to touch the guitar”: Why playing less guitar helped Marcus King become a better player and songwriter
- “Teddy was a warm hearted and vital part of The Cure story”: Perry Bamonte, guitarist for The Cure, dies aged 65
- “The fact that I played rhythm guitar on Cold Gin on stage alongside Ace will always seem surreal”: My time with the Spaceman – why Ace Frehley was one hero you had to meet
- “I was auditioning guitar players. One guy comes in with that turquoise guitar. I looked at it and I thought, ‘That’s my guitar’”: Lita Ford had her prized B.C. Rich Mockingbird stolen – but crossed paths with it in the most bizarre circumstances
- “I forgot to turn my guitar off. A lady passed by, and her dress tail hit the G string. I’ll never forget that. I’ve been doing it ever since”: How Buddy Guy accidentally stumbled upon guitar feedback – a tool that would shape his sound and style
- December 26
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- “At the Mark Knopfler sale, I remember seeing people in tears”: A-list guitar auctions are now a firm fixture, and the sums involved are eye-watering. But who is driving the boom – and is it sustainable?
- “Each of them impacted the instrument in their own way, as luthiers, hitmakers, session players, or air guitar-inspiring soloists”: Remembering the guitarists we lost in 2025
- “The last text I got from Oz said, ‘Zakky, sorry, it was like a madhouse back there. I didn’t see you. Thanks for everything’”: Zakk Wylde looks back on his closer-than-close relationship with Ozzy Osbourne, and their final moments together onstage
- “We got on the stage and I just remember watching people walk away before we even started playing”: Brad Whitford and Joe Perry on the time Aerosmith were upstaged by their support act
- December 25
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- “One of the first times I met Noel, I was round his house. He went, ‘This is what I played on Don’t Look Back in Anger.’ I was like, ‘What?’” Gem Archer on the Strat’s secret spot in Oasis history
- “We were informed at the end of Jackson Browne’s set that we were no longer welcome”: Session veteran Tim Pierce opened for The Eagles at one of the biggest gigs in history – and was banned from the concert halfway through
- “If we see something like the DigiTech Bad Monkey overdrive trending, it’s like, ‘Okay, who opened their mouth?’ And it’s usually JHS’s Josh Scott”: From the amp modeling revolution to the demand for dirt, these are the trends driving the used gear market
- “I met my biological father as an adult through a DNA test. I was surprised to find that he’d been infatuated with the guitar his entire life as well”: From childhood abandonment to country stardom, here is the incredible story of Rockie Lynne
- December 24
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- "The neck really doesn’t feel all that different from my Fender Telecaster": Fender California Standard Monterey E review
- “If you just want to capture an idea, you should just be able to press one button and get great tone doing it”: How your phone became an essential part of your guitar rig
- “We know for a fact that not all ’Bursts were great-sounding, but the surviving examples we played lived up to the legend”: I spent an evening with 7 original Gibson Les Paul ’Bursts from 1958 to 1960 – here's what I learned
- “I guess like John Lennon and Brian Jones, we’re not up front, but we keep it all sticking together”: Chris Dreja turned down Led Zeppelin, but he will be remembered as the Yardbirds’ unsung bass hero in a band of guitar superstars
- December 23
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- The Guitar World reviews team's gear of the year 2025
- “When I heard that, my first thought was, ‘Well, you can’t do that on a piano!’” Jared James Nichols teaches an essential guitar playing skill – how to bend the strings expressively
- “I opened my guitar case and nearly fainted – I thought there was a human hand in there”: Motörhead and Girlschool were leading the charge for British heavy metal in the ’80s – guitarist Kim McAuliffe reveals what touring with Lemmy was really like
- “Loog and Gibson have done another great job creating a guitar for young children without patronising them”: Gibson x Loog Les Paul Special review
- “I saw these guys play two years ago, and thought, ‘I’d love to be in a band like that.’ Be careful what you pray for”: Joe Walsh joins The War on Drugs as their surprise guitar hero guest for annual benefit show
- “It has already been publicly exhibited in an academic setting as genuine”: Footage emerges of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Allen Collins learning to play guitar again after the 1977 plane crash that killed three of his bandmates
- “Having Tommy Bolin play on my songs was a compliment, but artistically it ruined it for me. It led to a lot of conflict”: Moxy’s Earl Johnson lost control of his band as they tracked their debut album. After decades away, he might have got it back
- Reverb has unveiled the bestselling pedals of 2025 – and ’80s tone nostalgia rules supreme
- December 22
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- I've been playing guitar for 24 years, and this care package is what every new guitarist needs for 2026
- “I hope your reaction is, ‘I have never heard Van Halen like this’“: New compilation album of old Van Halen rehearsals with Eddie, Alex and Wolfgang has reportedly been released – and it doesn’t feature a singer
- “He mentioned he had a prototype SE Silver Sky that would be a fun platform to make something special”: John Mayer’s signature guitar has been reimagined as the wild ‘Golden Sky’ – and it’s inspired by Jerry Garcia’s Tiger
- “Everything that allowed us to function as a band is gone”: Danish prog-metal band suffers devastating loss after all their gear is destroyed in a fire
- “I didn’t start until I was 21. Most people I know were 13 when they had their first guitar”: Chris Rea, Driving Home For Christmas singer and slide guitar maestro, dies aged 74
- “I swear this guitar is destined to be in your hands. It literally has your initials carved into the headstock”: The strange tale of Marcus King’s latest vintage guitar find – the ‘MK Burst’ 1959 Les Paul
- "I doubt Orange could have made this unit any simpler or more reliable": Orange Valve Tester MKII review
- “A dynamic musical initiative showcasing advanced improvisation”: 3 of today's leading virtuosos have assembled for a US tour – and it involves one of Steve Vai's favorite new guitarists
- “We would like to clarify a few things”: Höfner, maker of Paul McCartney’s legendary Violin Bass, shares statement following bankruptcy filing
- “People get tired of seeing the same guitars everywhere… I started asking custom shops to do things”: The battle to save brick-and-mortar guitar stores – and why high-end electrics are essential to their survival
- “We were joking that we have to make this record absolutely shred and that we needed to put a lot of solos in it. I think we accomplished that”: Megadeth shares new single ahead of farewell record – and it’s a shred guitar celebration
- “We were kind of forced to come up with a solution for playing a show in Antarctica where we couldn’t have speakers”: Why did the world’s biggest metal band switch to amp modelers?
- Alien-shred, Brit-rock royalty, one blues icon and a hardcore superstar: here are Guitar World's Guitarists of the Year 2025
- December 21
- December 20
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- “I had letters threatening me with death for getting Bert Jansch to play through an amp”: The life and wild times of Danny Thompson, the legend of upright bass who “brought greatness to everything he played”
- “He will go down as one of the greatest rock drummers of all time. I can bring him a bass riff in seven-and-a-half and he’ll be right on it”: Justin Chancellor explains how bass fits into Tool’s challenging brand of prog
- “A utopia of modeled guitar tones that will suit pretty much any guitarist out there”: Universal Audio Paradise Guitar Studio review
- “We live in an age where John Mayer’s famed guitar tones can now be accessed by anyone with a laptop”: All the guitar gear that caught my eye this week – including a watershed plugin that the internet can’t stop talking about
- December 19
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- “In my experience, it's the easiest modeler to use live”: Line 6 Helix Stadium XL Floor review
- $22,400 for a Zakk Wylde Epiphone Les Paul? $32,000 for a Squier Bullet Strat!? Joe Walsh gear auction raises huge sums for charity – and raises eyebrows as unexpected guitars attract big money bids
- “Gear is a nightmare. When you play every night, the failure rate goes through the roof”: Award-winning UK indie stars English Teacher on the dangers of self-relic'ing, and why they love Fender offsets “for the same reason any alternative band does”
- “Let’s be clear: performing on my solo records does not equal ownership, authorship, or legacy”: Yngwie Malmsteen hits back at singers who features on his records
- “The engineer switched between them without my knowing. It fooled me”: John Mayer explains what finally convinced him that modeling tech was up to scratch in newly shared signature plugin test footage
- The Line 6 Helix Stadium has already been updated – and it finally rolls out one of the next-gen modeler’s most anticipated new features
- The Silver Sky cements its standing and Gibson makes up ground: Reverb has shared its best-selling guitars list for 2025 – and Fender's Indonesian experiment has paid off
- “Part of my soul is on stage with my favorite band every single night”: Fender Masterbuilder on what it’s like to watch his ultimate guitar hero play the Strat he made for him
- “I was really concerned. I didn’t want to be like Nokia when the iPhone came out”: How Line 6 and Kemper’s early releases inadvertently inspired the creation of their biggest rival
- “They called the police and said, ‘This is Mark Tremonti’s guitar’”: Mark Tremonti once had one of his earliest PRS guitars stolen – but a fan bought it back for him from a Guitar Center parking lot
- “I bought my first Höfner bass in the ’60s. I have loved it ever since”: Paul McCartney pays tribute to Höfner as the legendary German brand’s future hangs in the balance
- “Buddy Guy isn’t just our last living line to the real origins of the blues – he’s a hell of an actor, too”: 25 reasons why 2025 was a great year for guitar
- “There’s a couple guys in the band that were really glad for me to be gone”: Steve Morse opens up on his departure from Deep Purple – and why it was time for him to go
- December 18
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- “This is straight from David Lynch’s studio, and still has his finger cheese and residue all over the fretboard”: David Lynch's bonkers Parker Fly guitar recently sold at auction – and its new owner has put it through its paces
- “Nuno’s shoutout was an emotional moment for me. I was gobsmacked. Without my brother showing me Extreme’s music, I would never have been there”: From Plini to Polyphia, how Rick Graham quietly became one of progressive guitar’s most influential names
- Höfner, the famed instrument maker behind Paul McCartney’s iconic Violin Bass, reportedly files for bankruptcy
- “Washburn didn’t know I was leaving – it was probably a messed-up thing to do”: Nuno Bettencourt gave his new guitar brand its debut at Back to the Beginning – but Washburn had no idea it existed
- “Noel said, ‘Ever been in a band with three guitars? We’ll let Bonehead do Bonehead, and we’ll fit around it’”: Noel Gallagher’s longtime right-hand man Gem Archer takes us inside the Oasis reunion – and how they negotiated their new three-guitar lineup
- “I heard someone playing deep, fiery guitar in the room next door. I thought, ‘Boy, I wish that guy was in the band!’ I looked over the balcony… It was Ace”: The otherworldly life and times of Kiss guitar icon Ace Frehley
- December 17
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- “It's cut so that you can have boobs and play guitar, which is so awesome”: Olivia Rodrigo raves about this guitarist's signature model – and reveals why she's adopted it as one of her go-to guitars
- “A near-perfect TS808-style pedal from the designer of the Tube Screamer that could arguably be the new gold standard”: TWA Source Code review
- “I was saying, ‘It’s going to get hot. It’s going to explode. We’re going to have a fire.’ He was like, ‘Don’t worry about it’”: From Eddie Van Halen’s “uncanny genius” to his brutal crash-testing, inside the making of the EVH 5150 III
- “Keith said he didn’t think he could commit”: The Rolling Stones reportedly cancel plans for 2026 tour
- “The first thing I said to him was, ‘You bought Greeny.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I’ve got it. You want to play it?’” Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith had a chance encounter with Kirk Hammett – and ended up babysitting his iconic Les Paul
- “I just want to keep playing it” - Neural DSP Archetype: John Mayer X review
- “A lot of people got confused. They were like, ‘God, I love that guitar part.’ But actually, it’s a bass”: Fontaines D.C.’s Deego dissects the Joy Division bassline that inspired his bass journey
- “There’s nothing worse than someone saying, ‘You were born with a gift.’ No, I got up every day and picked up that guitar when I was supposed to be doing other things”: Nuno Bettencourt on why he’s finally ready to become a guitar teacher
- “I think they sound in between a Fender and a Gibson”: Blues ace Larry McCray names the unsung guitar brand that convinced him to switch after a life of playing Gibsons
- “He sent me a video of himself playing the Slow Dancing solo through the plugin. That’s when I knew we had it”: Neural DSP unveils Archetype: John Mayer X – a landmark signature plugin that brings the guitar great’s sought-after tones to the masses
- “Bob Dylan had me, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Ronnie Wood, Levon Helm and Paul Butterfield. It wasn’t the greatest music I ever played”: Bob Margolin on The Last Waltz, the jam party afterwards and his years with Muddy Waters
- “Gibson wasn’t the only company to lose its mind in thrall to technology”: The 21st century gear trends that never caught on
- December 16
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- “Within an hour, he got back to me going, ‘This is amazing. I’d love to come and play it.’ A week later he was in my house”: How Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien got hooked on one of the world’s most unconventional guitars
- “It stacks brilliantly and the additional modes are super-useful”: DOD Overdrive Preamp 250-X review
- “I was recording with Jerry Garcia, but I still had to ride my bike to school and keep my grades up, or else my parents would throw my guitar in the trash”: Starship trooper Craig Chaquico on “corporate rock”, and life as a teenage guitar whiz
- “My friend told me I couldn’t even play a 6-string bass – so I had to learn it to prove him wrong!” Meet 7-string bass wizard Dylan Desmond, whose accidental two-handed tapping powers doom’s most adventurous low-end
- “The time has come to properly address my illnesses and deal with them”: Biffy Clyro bassist James Johnston steps back from band to address mental health and addiction issues
- “It’s incredibly light, almost like a toy. But it’s not a toy – it’s an incredible instrument I’m about to use to play to 50,000 people”: Polyphia’s Tim Henson on making his game-changing Ibanez that started a nylon-string revolution
- December 15
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- Slash and Bruno Mars jam Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit – as Yungblud, Brandi Carlile and more feature during billionaire’s star-studded Christmas party
- “I’m very grateful to have it and be its current custodian”: The surprising Cinderella story of the vintage Nocaster that connects a glam metal star to Keith Urban
- “Gary was great on a 335 – he really, really pulled the expression out of that guitar”: Greeny and his Strats were his superstar electrics, but these ‘60s Gibson semi-hollows were Gary Moore’s workhorses – and they’ve still got the blues mojo
- “The beginning of new relationships between Fender and Korean artists”: Fender unveils its first-ever signature guitar with a South Korean artist – and it’s a streamlined Strat with a trick up its sleeve
- “It’s insane. He died aged 25, only guitar players remember him, and yet he was the sound of the Pretenders”: Chrissie Hynde pays tribute to the underrated guitar hero who defined the Pretenders
- “There’s still a ton happening behind the scenes”: Tommy Thayer says there is still more in store for Kiss
- “Thank you for giving us so much joy. Life and talent always turned up to 11”: Spinal Tap director Rob Reiner and wife Michelle found dead at their LA home
- Pat Metheny called him “the best guitar player I’ve heard in maybe my entire life” and he recorded his last two albums in the same day – meet Pasquale Grasso, the guitarist taking jazz into the future
- “Every time I go to plug in, it feels like Christmas. I knew it was going to be useful. I just didn’t realize how useful”: Steve Vai on the first mini amp he found that could truly punch above its weight
- December 14
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- “It's a Bad Monkey, turned up to 11”: DOD Badder Monkey review
- “To think that Jamerson could compose this entire bassline spontaneously and still be locked into the groove is astounding. That's his genius”: How Motown hit-maker James Jamerson funked up a Christmas classic on this 1968 holiday gem
- “Al Di Meola would call Yamaha and other companies, and say, ‘I think you need to pay attention to what’s going on here’”: Paul Reed Smith pitched his guitar designs to major brands, including Kramer and Yamaha – they all said no
- “I knew the Silver Sky would take years to take its place in the world. And I say this cautiously, but it feels like it’s become pretty widely accepted”: How John Mayer and Paul Reed Smith made the Silver Sky
- “It’s taken its time, but finally one of rock music’s most iconic instruments has been launched as a signature run”: All the guitar gear that has caught my eye this week – including a follow-up to the internet-breaking Bad Monkey story
- December 13
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- “Robert said, ‘Would you be prepared to play bass?’ And I thought, ‘Four strings, six strings... what could be the problem?’”: Greg Lake started out as a guitarist – before being convinced by Robert Fripp to switch to bass when joining King Crimson
- “Keith said, ‘Are you sure you want to be the meat in this sandwich?’ I walked out convinced I’d never see them again”: How John Mayer and Bob Dylan producer Don Was first ended up working with the Rolling Stones
- “I wanted it to be a workhorse I could bash around, beat up, hit with metal pipes and get thrown into kegs without breaking in half”: The making of Jim Root’s Telecaster, the guitar that brought Fender into the modern age
- December 12
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- “We were told they’d all gone down. You’ll never see a house full of people get so quiet, it was pin-drop silence – eventually we found out Buddy and Eric were okay”: Veteran bluesman Larry McCray recalls the night Stevie Ray Vaughan died
- “Dad let me organically follow whatever I wanted. That was his main mantra: ‘Just play.’ It’s that simple”: Wolfgang Van Halen on Allan Holdsworth, unintentional Van Halen-isms, and his go-to guitar-test riffs
- “The moment I discovered what it feels like to teach yourself a riff that you love, I was hooked. It feels like you're riding the universe”: Hole and Smashing Pumpkins' Melissa Auf der Maur reveals the bassists who compelled her to pick up the instrument
- “I remember thinking, ‘This is like Eddie Van Halen’s death.’ He influenced so many, and he was one of a kind. His legacy is monumental”: Bruce Kulick remembers Ace Frehley, and the Frehley-era Kiss song that caused him the most trouble
- Master the 12-string guitar: restringing, tuning and strumming made simple
- "Brings a different vibe for Gretsch to an accessible price point": Gretsch Streamliner Jet 1 Pickup review
- “Arguably the greatest year in rock music history”: Warren Haynes to play legendary Jerry Garcia, Dickey Betts and Mike Bloomfield guitars at Gov’t Mule NYE show – honoring the music of 1971
- “When people ask, ‘Why do you need so many?’ They don’t get what it is to be a collector. You have the ability to preserve things”: Joe Bonamassa on why he takes gear collecting so seriously
- “I had to reassess why I was even playing. I stopped playing electric guitar for a year”: Steve Stevens says going on tour with Van Halen made him rethink his relationship with the guitar – and it gave way to one of his most experimental albums
- December 11
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- “I think people pay for their biases – people will pay more to reinforce the incorrect opinions that they already have”: Jason Isbell on why Mexican-made guitars should not be underestimated
- “His towering generational talent created the kind of multicultural American music that reached far beyond America itself”: Raul Malo – genre-blending frontman for The Mavericks – dies aged 60
- “I don’t need tons of gain on my guitar because everyone else is distorted!” Joe Bonamassa reveals the secret to writing heavy riffs – and his methods might surprise you
- “I can’t say how he got the variety of sounds he did. They broke the mold when they made him”: This late rock guitar legend doesn’t get the credit he fully deserves, according to Paul Rodgers
- “Full shred combined with maximum chug”: Solar Guitars breaks new personal ground with its latest Assassin Series model – which offers a firm-first fret count of 27
- “My hand to God, I didn’t intend to hurt Ace or his legacy”: Gene Simmons apologizes for previous comments saying Ace Frehley dying due to a series of “bad decisions”
- “I turned into a Strat player. I never thought I would”: Danielle Haim on her guitarist-for-hire days with Julian Casablancas, I Quit energy and Haim’s historic Grammy nomination
- “We found it. We built it”: A forgotten design for the Big Muff 2 spent 50 years buried in dust – now JHS Pedals and Electro-Harmonix have unearthed it and turned it into a reality
- “Back in the heyday we had huge touring budgets and room for large travel rigs. Now you can store all your amps on a USB stick”: The greatest guitar gear of the 21st century (so far)
- December 10
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- “Noel has said, ‘No rest for the immensely talented,’ so take that how you want”: Gem Archer hints at Oasis' next move
- “A true gift, 2 years in the making”: Brian May gifts Tony Iommi a custom Red Special replica – but it’s taken some inspiration from his legendary 'Old Boy' SG
- “He would have wanted his fellow musicians to receive everything to which they are entitled”: The estates of Jimi Hendrix’s bandmates are suing Sony over streaming rights
- “There is a lot of fun to be had by putting random alternative bass notes under a chord”: Pete Townshend, Ray Davies and David Bowie all used third inversion chords – here’s why (and how) you should, too
- “One of the most significant artefacts in rock music history”: Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged Martin D-18E – the world’s most expensive guitar – has been donated to the Royal College of Music London
- “It’s clear to see that modelers have won the battle”: Modelers outsold traditional amps and combos in 2025 – but the war between the two might not be over just yet
- “We are big fans of tube amplifiers. There’s no substitute for playing an amp in a room”: From amps to plugins, Tosin Abasi teases the next evolution of Abasi Concepts
- “It was the worst guitar I’d ever played. I’d spent all my money making it. I was stuck with it. So I started writing songs”: Arm the Homeless was a disaster, then it changed rock history. Tom Morello reveals how Fender replicated its misfit charms
- “It was the guitar he played on the band’s earliest demos and at their early club gigs”: The Harmony Stratotone that Brian Jones used to teach Keith Richards and played on the Rolling Stones debut single fetches $150,000 at auction
- “Do you see Taylor Swift shredding scales? I don’t think so”: Wolfgang Van Halen on how fans unfairly critique his guitar playing because of his father – and why shredding like Eddie isn’t important
- December 9
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- “One of the best-sounding headphone amps for guitar I’ve had my hands on”: Blackstar Beam Solo review
- “When people throw around the Lennon/McCartney comparison to Bob Mould and Grant Hart, I think that’s fair”: Greg Norton believes Hüsker Dü were always going to break up, but it happened too soon
- “Being in the same band with Joe felt like watching a childhood fantasy step out of my teenage brain”: Steve Vai and Joe Satriani announce the return of the SatchVai Band with their debut U.S. tour – and tease an upcoming album
- “The guitar I learned to play on isn’t worth much, but I’ve played it at thousands of concerts and hundreds of recording sessions”: He’s performed on over 500 albums. Now Marcus Deml is making breathtaking guitar instrumentals under his own name
- "If you banish the desire for any real bass thump, there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had in the sounds you can coax out of this thing": Yamaha JR1 acoustic guitar review
- “On the real Arm the Homeless guitar, a dog chewed the headstock. Other than that, they’re absolutely identical”: Tom Morello has been playing a Fender Arm the Homeless replica live and none of us noticed – now it’s available to buy
- “The guy met me in a Tower Records parking lot and gave me that bass... I’ve recorded every record on it since I got it”: How Flea landed his cherished 1961 Fender Jazz Bass after finding a seller during the early days of Twitter
- “This isn’t a remake. It's an evolution”: The DigiTech Bad Monkey broke the internet with its Klon-aping antics – now it’s back and badder than ever before
- “It was a little hard bouncing between classes and playing gigs like Coachella. Now I’m out of school, I can devote all my time to being a musician”: Is Brandon ‘Taz’ Niederauer guitar’s next superstar?
- December 8
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- “Tuning it was really hard… especially because I was stoned a lot of the time”: Joe Walsh walks you through the guitars he’s selling at auction – including one with a Morse code fretboard
- Tetsu Yamauchi, former bassist of Free and the Faces, has died at 79
- “We are building a system to stimulate and retrieve energy to Earth”: Electro-Harmonix wants to harness the magnetosphere’s energy to solve the AI power crisis
- “It’s like getting a pre-washed pair of jeans: they’re broken in so they’re comfortable right out of the store”: The making of the American Professional Classic series – the brand-new “lived-in” (but not relic’d) US Fender line
- “I discovered African blackwood probably around 20 years ago. The first guitar was paired with a cedar top and the volume blew me away”: How a $10k acoustic build put the loud into Lowden – with exotic tonewoods and faultless construction
- “Moments like this don’t happen in real life”: Jared James Nichols spotted a pedal builder in the audience at one of his gigs – then handed him his guitar mid-solo
- “There is no greater story of triumph than that of B.B. King. I’m humbled to help bring it to life”: A B.B. King biopic is on the way – and it will chronicle the blues legend’s life, legacy and Lucille
- “I step back and I’m like, ‘Don’t think about it. Maybe you nailed it, maybe you didn’t’”: John Mayer names his favorite solo with Dead & Company – and plays it live on air
- “He broke my heart, but at the same time, I was like, ‘Okay, well, I would love to have a Fender Jazz Bass’”: Bootsy Collins' first Fender Jazz Bass has just been sold at auction – and shot past its estimate
- “I got bored with Miles Davis. He was like, ‘Robben, play that just like the record.’ And I didn’t join Miles Davis to do that”: Robben Ford explains his dalliance with Davis, Joni Mitchell’s fuzz tips – and how Jeff Beck got him back on the Strat
- December 7
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- “He said, ‘I canceled a gig to come watch you play, could I steal some licks from you?’ That’s when we got to know each other”: Buddy Guy recalls the first time he met Jimi Hendrix
- “Getting a Germanium Boy into Brian May’s hands pronto is a top priority”: Dirty Boy’s pedals are loved by the likes of John Frusciante and Neal Schon – is the Queen guitarist next?
- December 6
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- “Rickenbacker had a doubleneck guitar and bass, so I bought one. Then Fender came to me and said, ‘Why are you playing that?’” How Moody Blues bassist John Lodge found another gear with a Fender double-neck that was half P-Bass/half Telecaster
- “I’d met Elvis Presley’s guitar player, who told me James Burton used banjo strings...” How Ritchie Blackmore came across an obscure string mod that introduced him to a whole new sound – and why it didn’t work for him
- “A warning shot to the competition and a reminder that Fender is still very much a force in the amp modeler market”: All the guitar gear that has caught my eye this week – including a new digital era for EVH
- “A tighter, louder and gutsier tone from an already stellar-sounding amp”: Bad Cat Mod Shop Black Cat 30 review
- “He was completely ignored by the guitar press of that time period”: Vernon Reid on the guitarist he believes is massively underrated – even though he kept “the Hendrix voice” alive
- 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
