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June 2026

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249 articles

June 30
- "A big part of the appeal is the build quality, which truly stands out at this price point": Gretsch Electromatic Premier Jet review
- “Ladies and gentlemen, we are in the era of Sexy Djent”: June 2026 Guitar World Editors' Picks
- “While the 6-string is my comfort zone, I missed the physical freedom of the 4-string bass”: Ernie Ball and Fender top this month's low-end releases with signature models celebrating two of the bass world’s most influential voices
- “I clicked on it and honestly was kind of freaked out”: AI guitar YouTubers? Rhett Shull issues warning after finding AI versions of his content
- Bob Dylan loses another guitarist as Bob Britt quits after more than 5 years in his band
- “I have to play through the pain”: Mahogany Rush legend Frank Marino announces return to the stage despite debilitating hand injury and retirement
- Darkglass becomes a surprise rival to Neural DSP and Line 6 with its first guitar-based modeler – but there’s a catch
- “The store said, ‘We can’t get an amp before your gig.’ This gentleman walked up behind me and said, ‘You can use mine.’ It was John Entwistle”: Martyn LeNoble was once in desperate need of bass gear – and The Who’s low-end legend came to his rescue
- “The label president said, ‘Angelo, I thought you were fast?’ I was taken aback. Then he said, ‘I want you to overplay all the time.’ He wanted the record to be abrasive”: Michael Angelo Batio tells the story of Nitro, hair metal’s most extreme band
- “Just about every blues show I attended in the ’80s and ’90s started with an uptempo shuffle like this”: Joe Bonamassa on the Eric Clapton classic that’s essential learning for any blues soloist
June 29
- “The label says, ‘We need five more Wait and Bleeds.’ I was like, ‘We're really not that band. You sell our records and we'll make them, okay?’”: Mick Thomson reflects on Slipknot's Wait and Bleed, label pressures – and sticking to their own guns
- "It’s easy to see why Baum has seemingly emerged from nowhere when it’s delivering guitars this good": Baum Guitars Carve review
- The ultimate drop-tuning pedal? Solar Guitars reckons the Chug Capo can outdo DigiTech and Boss
- “I’m a firm believer that if you put a truss rod in a guitar, it sucks the tone out of it”: Simon McBride has a hot tone take you’ve probably never heard before
- “It was a nightmare. My only experience was playing in my room where I was alone”: Laura Cox on the challenges of transitioning from YouTube to the studio – and how to conquer them
- JHS Pedals corrects its biggest error with the relaunch of the DIY Dumble pedal – complete with a clone of John Mayer’s ultra-rare boost
- “There was a message from Jason Momoa – a video of him in his car saying, ‘You gotta call me. Here's my number’”: Jason Momoa saved their career. Keanu Reeves rocked up to a show. Flea let them crash at his house. How did the Bobby Lees get here?
- “It took me 10 or 11 takes to get the timing on the intro right. Jimi easily could have just done it”: The life and times of Dave Mason, the former Traffic guitarist who made a habit of playing on iconic tracks
- “He would show up in a station wagon full of Les Pauls, Teles and Strats. I bought probably 20 pieces from him over the years”: The classic (and unlikely) gear behind the Eagles’ Hotel California
- Did you miss Amazon's biggest sale of the year so far? Well, luckily, these 16 outstanding Prime Day guitar deals are still live – save on guitars, pedals, amps, accessories, and more
June 28
- “I bought it for 100 bucks. The guy didn’t think it was fixable. Years later, he came to a show and saw me playing it. He was mad – said I took advantage of him”: Jeff Tweedy says his mom has an eye for guitar bargains – these are the cheapest gems yet
- My pick of the best new guitar gear launched this week – and the new drops you might have missed
- “I was driving home, and I thought of this chord sequence. I was about 20 minutes away from the studio. I turned around and went back”: Robert Smith on the flash of inspiration that shaped the Cure's biggest hit
June 27
- “Little Simz asked me to play some shows, but the dates clashed with a family holiday. She asked again a month later, and I ended up playing Glastonbury”: How Marla Kether landed the Little Simz gig and made her debut on the UK’s biggest festival stage
- “Jack had this roaring, growling thing that would start at the bottom and twine all the way up. I’d never heard bass like it”: A guide to the basses, amps, and signature tone of Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady
- “A seriously elegant, feature-rich and capable instrument”: Ornamentation? Check. Booster soundport? Check. Furch’s new Red Series acoustic is the $7,000 guitar that dreams are made of
- "It’s a tale of two halves – I found the clean tones to be quite lackluster": Gretsch Electromatic Jet Baritone review
- “We needed to avoid parasite noises when you slide your fingers along the strings”: Peppino D’Agostino on his nylon-string collab with a neuroscientist that could literally heal your mind
June 26
- “I’m exploring my voice as a guitarist, and I’m trying to write in a space without rules – no genres, no time lengths”: Steve Vai, Nita Strauss... Bella Perron? Why the former Plush guitarist could be our next Ibanez-toting guitar superstar
- “A no-nonsense digital amp alternative that avoids the overly complex modeling options currently trending”: Kustom Amplification Carbon 100 review
- “I wanted to know how he got the top note on Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers”: How Jeff Beck and Brian Robertson swapped guitars – and brought guitar synths to Motörhead
- “Very few people know these exist, and this one may be the only surviving version that is fully intact”: A 1960 Les Paul Custom in Cherry? This vintage stunner was once owned by Neal Schon – and it might well be a true unicorn
- Didn’t find a Prime Day guitar bargain this year? These 3 shops have kicked off their July 4th sales already and I've picked my highlights
- Bob Dylan has just recruited one of the world's greatest jazz guitarists – and no one quite knows what's going on
- “Every detail of this series reflects Kramer at its best”: Kramer goes for gold with its 50th Anniversary collection
- $600 off a Strandberg, $200 off a Bonamassa favorite, and a slew of wallet-friendly beginner models – these are the Prime Day electric guitar deals worth considering before the sale ends at midnight
- Prime Day guitar deals 2026 LIVE: last chance to save on guitar gear at Amazon, Sweetwater, Guitar Center, Fender and beyond
- “I knew about it for years. I couldn’t tell anyone”: Eric Clapton's ‘Summersburst’ Les Paul – used on Cream's debut album – has finally been unearthed after 60 years
June 25
- “Gibson is part of my DNA. It's been the honor of my life to help lead it and to work alongside the people who bring this company to life every day”: Cesar Gueikian to step down as CEO and President of Gibson
- “The Back to the Beginning thing was just getting bigger and bigger. It's been a wild year since that gig”: Yungblud’s right-hand man Adam Warrington talks Idols, smashed gear – and keeping big-rig arena shows alive
- “He plugged it in and we both shut up and went, ‘This is an amazing guitar.’ It just sounded extraordinary”: How a friendly rivalry with Jake Kiszka helped Chris Turpin bag this stunning double-cut
- “He spent 20 minutes ripping out all of the padding from the case. He was unable to put it back together”: Blues band film TSA agent ruining $380 guitar case during pre-flight inspection
- “I was able to tap into the Tony Iommi and Jimmy Page-ness of it all. From that time, these big-ass riffs have been low-hanging fruit”: Tom Morello’s riff writing formula – and his 36-hour race to make a Final Fantasy song
- “I said, ‘But Ed’s still alive. He’s still making amazing records. He’s still on tour. What guitar player would ever try to imitate him while he’s still working?’”: Joe Satriani recalls being approached by David Lee Roth for a Van Halen cover band
- Boss stompbox prices just dropped even further for the final day of Prime Day – you've got less than 24 hours to pick up one of 13 iconic Boss pedals still on sale
- “G&L is back for a short time”: The last G&L guitars ever made are now hitting stores – but you won’t find them everywhere
- Angine de Poitrine just upgraded their main guitar-bass hybrid – could a Godin signature model be on the way?
June 24
- “I’m not going to tell you which ones they are”: John Mayer has been using his plugin in the studio, and he doesn’t think you’ll notice
- “He was like, ‘If you want to be a real guitar player, you got to play righty. They don’t make great left-handed guitars’”: The advice Jared James Nichols took – and the bad advice he ignored – to develop his electric fingerstyle
- Amazon Prime Day wraps up tonight but there's 8 massive guitar sales that are just getting started, with savings that will stretch well into next week
- Time is ticking on Prime Day, so this is your last chance to stockpile accessories – I've hunted down 11 affordable guitar essentials, starting from as low as $4.99
- “I got really disillusioned with my playing... There were these other guitarists coming up around the block, and they could really play”: How the ’80s guitar scene left Jeff Beck feeling like an “observer”
- “I got the engineer sitting here, Gene’s standing up, Paul’s on the other side, looking at me. He goes, ‘We need an eight-bar solo’”: The short-lived Kiss guitarist who was supposed to succeed Ace Frehley
- Prime Day is the place to upgrade your guitar cable game, with up to 66% off leads and patch cable bundles – but the savings will end tonight
- A massive 35% Prime Day discount just took this already affordable multi-effects pedal into a completely different territory - find out why 200+ guitar players picked up this Mooer pedal in the last month on Amazon
- This reverb pedal blew my mind last year, and now it's 20% off for Prime Day – thanks to its dual-engine and intuitive layout, this is a serious and capable reverb, and a no-brainer at this price
- A mad idea made real: Meet the ADDAC Four String, a modular synth and lap steel hybrid that looks totally bonkers
- “Once again, Chris wanted to save Soundgarden. We all knew there was unhappiness”: Sleep’s new guitarist was once nearly drafted into Soundgarden
- Fender vs Everyone: what you need to know as the world’s largest guitar firm takes on, er... the world
- I've set up hundreds of guitars with these 7 essential tools, and the final hours of Prime Day are your last chance to get them at a discount – deals start from just $8.99
- “One night, Duane was sitting on the floor playing slide. I said, ‘You’ve got to show me how to do that’”: Don Felder on what he learned from Duane Allman, how many guitars are in his awe-inspiring collection and why he isn’t stopping any time soon
- “Without you, we wouldn’t be here”: He played bass with Robert Plant, gave Tony Iommi his sound and created an iconic British amp brand – the life and times of Lyndon Laney
- “The engineer claimed to me that he would overdub his own guitar tracks in place of Mars’. Not even the band knew about it”: The wild times and recording tricks behind Mötley Crüe’s game-changing sophomore album
June 23
- We bought, tested, and ranked 8 dirt-cheap Amazon pedals – now 7 of them have hit a new low price in the Prime Day sale, but hurry, you only have a few hours to grab one!
- "An impressive drive/boost pedal with a unique Body control": Mad Professor Little Green Wonder review
- “My guitar is a tool. I want it to do exactly what I need it to, so we took out all the ‘extra’ stuff”: Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth collaborator Jon Jourdan joins forces with PRS on a no-frills, single-pickup guitar
- “I was 38 when we went on tour with Pearl Jam. A long time ago, I’d given up on the dream of something like that happening”: Dead Pioneers on how indigenous politics and pedal-builds have powered them to punk glory
- “My production manager, my sound tech, even my other guitar player… they were all telling me it sounds better. I was like, ‘I know!’” Joe Bonamassa explains what made him finally admit defeat and go digital
- “Can't wait to celebrate 90 years of living, loving, and playing the blues”: Buddy Guy's 90th birthday party could be the gig of the year – and Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, and Joe Bonamassa are all invited
- “Dave had something so many guitar reviewers lack”: Remembering Dave Burrluck, our colleague and friend – and a guitar journalist who changed the game
- I’ve just found two of Amazon’s best value beginner acoustic guitar deals to get you started from only $105 – plus save on a gigbag and tuner for the ultimate beginner bundle
- You might get a strange look packing this futuristic frame into your luggage, but this 4.5 star rated travel guitar is an absolute bargain for just $370 in the early Prime Day sales
- Prime Day guitar deals 2026 LIVE: last chance to save on guitar gear at Amazon, Sweetwater, Guitar Center, Fender and beyond
- “Bob Rock said, ‘OK, tune up, and we’ll do the rhythm for this song now.’ I was like, ‘What?’” Kirk Hammett didn’t play rhythm guitar on Metallica's first five albums. That all changed with 1996’s controversial Load
- “I’ve never been very confident as a player. I’ve always felt like I had to work hard, and maybe I didn’t appreciate that I have a natural talent for playing guitar”: Alex Lifeson’s 20 greatest guitar moments in Rush
- “My suggestion is to pick really hard and dig in”: Mike Stringer gives us an “unapologetically heavy” lesson in how to combine power chords with hammer-ons and pull-offs
June 22
- “It can be your Fuzz Face stand-in for Hendrix-style sounds – but it does a whole lot more”: Strymon Canoga Vintage Silicon Fuzz review
- “How many times have you gone to see a band, watched them set up full stacks and massive pedalboards, and then they just suck?” Why Converge’s Kurt Ballou uses digital amp modelers live (even if he disappoints gearheads)
- Kirk Hammett tumbles off stage as Metallica pay tribute to Thin Lizzy in Ireland
- “Without that song, I might be working at Burger King right now”: Nuno Bettencourt names the Extreme track that changed his life overnight
- “If I don’t do this right, if I don’t serve this justice, then my life will be over”: Wolfgang Van Halen opens up on his Van Halen cover anxiety at Taylor Hawkins tribute concert
- This unbelievable Squier Strat Prime Day deal sold out in one day – now I've tracked down an alternative that's even better value. But you'll need to be quick as the deals end tonight!
- “Most retailers simply make copycat products and charge a little less. That’s completely uninteresting to me”: Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto aims to defy skepticism with his new house brand – and insists we don’t need more Les Paul or Tele clones
- “We end up drinking until 5 in the morning. I wake up with the worst hangover of my life, and now I’ve got to play with Metallica”: How a late-night drinking session with Lars Ulrich almost ruined Robert Trujillo’s Metallica audition
- “We urge Fender to stop issuing cease and desist demands against manufacturers, distributors and dealers and to return to a fair, cooperative partnership”: Thomann, the world’s largest music retailer, is suing Fender over cease-and-desists
- “I couldn’t imagine them being put away and left unplayed”: Johnny Marr to sell nearly 100 pieces of gear at auction – including prized Smiths-era guitars
- “The Revstar is doing really well right now. I think that’s because it’s so different to what other major brands like Gibson and Fender are putting out”: Inside 60 years of Yamaha guitars – how the Japanese firm forged its own six-string path
- “Its popularity extends beyond jazz boundaries – notable players include Steve Howe, B.B. King and even John Frusciante”: Why Gibson’s longest-running production electric remains one of the world’s more affordable vintage guitars
June 21
- “To show you how much we trust this product, we’re going to throw it off a bridge”: This magnetic modular pedalboard could change the way you use your pedals – and it’s undergone the most extreme demo
- “A versatile boost/drive asset for your signal chain”: Flattley The Joker review
- “What an amazing gift. Only years later did I realize he'd dropped my SG and put a crack in the neck”: Why Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard played an obscure Fender model early in his career – and the reason he's picked it up again after two decades
June 20
- Fender just announced its biggest mid-year gear drop yet – here’s everything you need to know
- “I didn’t want a lot of new friends. I’d just signed quarter-million-dollar record deal at 15 years old”: Eric Gales signed a six figure deal as a teenager and his classmates had no idea
- “It’s called Bruno…. They blowtorched it and scraped it up”: Steve Vai is bringing his original For the Love of God Ibanez with him on tour – but he isn’t playing it
- “Eric Clapton isn’t God. Jack Bruce is. When I was 14 I sprayed his name on my bedroom wall in luminous paint to remind me who the greatest bass player in the world is”: Jeff Berlin on meeting his bass hero – and playing White Room alongside him
- “The lower mids and bass vibrate through your body – it’s tone you can feel”: Gibson J-185 Century 12-Fret and J-45 Century 12-Fret review
June 19
- My pick of the best new guitar gear launched this week – and the new drops you might have missed
- “I got to play a show in front of my daughter, something I never thought I’d get to do again”: Chad Gilbert riffs with New Found Glory again as he returns to the stage in wheelchair mid-cancer battle
- “I’m sick of people saying Walk On the Wild Side is a classic. I got paid £12, and David Bowie didn’t even show up”: Session bass legend Herbie Flowers on the making of Lou Reed’s 1972 hit – and the hardest session he ever did
- “We were in his dressing room, I was having a peek at his guitar… and he went, ‘Nobody touches it!’” Keith Richards on the time Chuck Berry punched him
- “I’d given up hope. Then Wendy Dio called me. She asked how I’d feel playing in front of 20,000 people”: Rowan Robertson was 17 years old when he joined Dio. He looks back on how he got the gig – and why it all came to an end after one album
- “It’s like Shangri-La. It’s an oasis for guitar players”: You can now watch the Norman’s Rare Guitars documentary online for free
- “It was identical. Same room, same guitar, same movements. It was literally my video… except I’d been replaced”: Guitarists are having their videos stolen, replaced by AI and used to scam people out of money – and nobody is doing anything to stop it
- “There’s a lot of gear I had to get rid of because rent was due. I was always paid as a sideman – there were only a few moments where I was paid decent money”: Marc Ford’s life in guitars
June 18
- Fender's limited edition Player Fusion range has taken its entry level electrics in a radical hard rock direction
- The Fender legal furore is a damn shame, because Squier just launched its coolest guitars in years
- “A choice no-one would have seen coming”: Matt Pike has quit doom-metal icons Sleep – and his surprise replacement has been announced
- "An unforgiving beast, but the sort of amp I would urge every player to experience at least once": Marshall x Jimi Hendrix 60th Anniversary JMH Half Stack review
- “There are 1000s of hours on that guitar. I learned everything on it”: The teenage blues sensation hailed as the next Stevie Ray Vaughan has had his main guitar stolen – and Joe Bonamassa has issued a public plea for its return
- “I have no idea what the first song I learned was. My memory has been worn down by copious LSD experiments”: Billy Squier on saving his ’59 Les Paul from a fire, the world’s greatest Marshall and why he stopped practicing
- “Look for ones built from 2013 onwards… Gibson changed a lot of things and they became much, much better guitars”: How to get a bargain on a Les Paul Standard ’Burst reissue
- “These days I would be reluctant to say that Gibson invented the archtop”: The untold history of German guitar building
- “I didn’t like it, but Tom said, ‘No, it’s great. Now you’ve got to double it’”: Mike Campbell on the riff he wanted to ditch – but Tom Petty made him double down
- “Someone in the band screamed, ‘Don’t you know what a privilege it is to play with Frank? How can you ruin his music?’” The notorious final tour of the Zappa band, and his bassist’s role in its demise
June 17
- Yvette Young has a new piece of signature gear – and it might be the one stop shop for all the ambient prog rock tones you’ve been waiting for
- “It’s like the wind is at your back when you’re playing it”: The difference between a PRS Silver Sky and Fender Stratocaster, according to a blues hero who plays both
- “The most important and influential bass guitarist in the 66-year history of the Precision”: Fender honors legendary Motown bass great with recreation of James Jamerson’s workhorse bass
- Polyphia announces 2026 world tour – and they're bringing two of the biggest names in guitar playing with them
- “In musical hierarchies, there was Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, and I was like, ‘Where am I?’” Ed O’Brien opens up on his guitar insecurities in Radiohead
- “I’m creating music for the girls in the front row. Not the weird dude with a tripod trying to look up my shorts”: Grace Bowers has returned to YouTube and launched a new era on her own terms
- “We started talking about Black Sabbath, and Buzz goes, ‘You know they did this thing called drop D.’ We said, ‘What’s that?’” Kim Thayil on how Soundgarden took rock guitar into the superunknown – and the unfinished Chris Cornell tapes
- Was Neal Schon the godfather of ’80s glam metal? Tracing the surprising origins of Mötley Crüe’s seminal Looks That Kill riff
June 16
- “We had a new guitar tech. The first thing he did was cut all the guitar strings off. It was devastating”: Why Kurt Vile prefers older guitar strings – and hardly ever changes his
- “There was a lot of interference and push to be commercial. We went along for the ride – and got left in the middle of nowhere”: The thrash metal bands who deserved to make it – but didn’t
- “The downpicking approach was inspired by competition between Dave and I. Like, ‘Here’s a riff… Wait, you can’t play that. Hahaha!’” How James Hetfield wrangled Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax for metal’s biggest reunion
- “My next-door neighbor was Paul McCartney. We got to talking, but I never told him who I was. I had this fear that he wouldn’t know me”: YouTubers, sloppy solos, Paco de Lucía’s darkest tour secrets… in conversation with Al Di Meola and Julian Lage
- “Alex and I looked at each other and went, ‘Wow, I think we have a drummer… Now what do we do?’” Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson on the inside story behind the Rush reunion
- “We are not going to let the legacy be erased, nor are we going to let it be diluted”: Fender CEO addresses Strat cease-and-desist backlash
- “I opened for Brad Paisley and his tech jokingly said, ‘Don’t do the B-Bender thing. That’s Brad’s thing’”: John Osborne on the time he got warned off the B-Bender – even though he didn’t have one
June 15
- “That is the most ‘Seattle’ riff I’ve ever heard in my life”: The recording of Nirvana's Bleach – and the band's “ultimate grunge song”
- “A full circle moment after all these years of making music side-by-side”: Billy Idol and Steve Stevens inducted into Guitar Center’s Hollywood Rockwalk
- “I want three Telecasters, rather than just one, because they’re sufficiently different to justify it!” Everything you need to know about 1950s Telecaster pickups – and how to build your own replicas
- Alex Lifeson’s Rush reunion live rig has been revealed – and there’s not an amp in sight on the Fifty Something tour
- “I must have rewound that solo on cassette 300 times, trying to understand what I had just heard”: Nuno Bettencourt pays tribute to Yngwie Malmsteen – and names the one thing most people get wrong about his playing
- “Dime played Dean Zelinsky’s MLs when he had braces on his teeth, and he died with one in his arms”: Dime Guitarz has officially launched – and its first model pays tribute to the Pantera legend’s most iconic guitar
- “Steve Albini died, a friend died, my father died, the father of my wife died. But I want to focus on the positive”: How a composer's approach and 40 DD-3 pedals helped noise masters MONO to heal their grief
- “It’s something I’ve always done all my life, and I can’t get away from it. I have to remind myself it’s okay to play the tops of chords”: Doug Gillard of Guided By Voices on finally going solo again – and the playing quirk he can’t shake
June 14
- “Van Morrison didn’t speak to us, and we didn’t speak to him. We just started playing through the charts”: How jazz bassist Richard Davis helped shape Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks
- “A lot of cats say you don’t have to play fast, but it can cause you to phrase better”: Why bebop master Wes Montgomery never used a guitar pick – and only played using his thumb
- “Paul went, ‘What are you gonna’ play?’ ‘I don’t know.’ There’s George Martin in the control room, a 50 piece orchestra waiting on me in the studio”: How Wings guitarist Henry McCullough recorded his one take solo on My Love
- “I showed up, plugged in, and it was over. Then I saw a video and thought, ‘I’m glad I didn’t dream it’”: When two of the world’s finest guitar players joined forces – Julian Lage on his jam with Derek Trucks
- “Weird, small, brilliant, respectful of pedalboard space. What more could you need?” This week’s hottest new guitar gear – including Alex Lifeson’s ES-355, Charvel’s US return and Ed Sheeran’s new Orange squeeze
June 13
- “I wrote 17 themes. Then they came back and said, ’Yeah, they’re great. Can you do another 12?’” How Barrie Cadogan wrote the Better Call Saul hook – one of TV’s greatest guitar theme tunes
- “The two heads onstage are now fake because Dom smashed so many amps”: How Yungblud’s guitar-throwing habits are forcing his guitarist to rethink his live rig
June 12
- "Tubes are not going to be around forever. But if this is the future of guitar amps, I’m OK with it": EVH 5150 III Hypersonic 6L6 2x12 review
- Keanu Reeves reveals the most important bass lesson he learned from Flea
- “One of the customs guys in Canada decided he hated Black Sabbath, so he smashed the neck with a hammer”: How Geezer Butler’s P-Bass survived a Sabbath hater’s attack – and ended up on the band's most iconic tracks
- The most advanced gig bag ever created? D’Addario has launched climate-controlled guitar cases with integrated humidity control
- “The bar made no profit from it, especially since producing costumes like these is not exactly cheap”: It turns out the fake Russian Angine de Poitrine isn’t actually a real band. Here’s what actually happened
- What are your thoughts on the new Polyphia single?
- “Be mercenary – get rid of five guitars to get one incredible piece”: 25 tips for finding your dream guitar (for the right price)
- “I fell in with some Texas boys and started jamming. They had these G&Ls. The first time I picked one up, I fell in love”: Jerry Cantrell on the magic and mods of his iconic “Blue Dress” G&L Rampage – and his gift from Eddie Van Halen
- “It was the nicest guitar at NAMM”: The Gold Caged Steelcaster is a $15,000, 24-carat T-style inspired by a Cadillac – and it takes James Trussart’s metalwork lutherie to new levels
June 11
- “We’re trying to bring more energy by making it heavier”: Polyphia have invented a new genre with their rave riffing new single, CAN YOU FEEL IT
- “I just don't like chords – I don't like playing them. Music is much more interesting when everybody plays a harmonic line that creates a wider picture”: How Death Cab for Cutie found their second act – by embracing the weird, and guitars from their past
- Pinch harmonics made easy: how to get the perfect squeal
- “A direct line back to where it all started”: Charvel returns to California with new USA-made Neo-Classic Superstrats
- “Ed’s own techs said the only person that could help was this girl outta Nashville. Joe called me and said, ‘Apparently I should be talking to you’”: How Joe Satriani found the amp builder for his dream Eddie Van Halen tone
- “She was a complete stranger. She was a bit intimidated at first because she’d heard of the band, but she wasn’t a Rush fan”: Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee on Anika Nilles’ rollercoaster audition for Rush's Fifty Something tour
- “Music doesn’t start in arenas or on streaming platforms. It starts in bedrooms and on street corners”: Ed Sheeran launches signature Orange amp range - could it topple the Roland Cube as the busking combos to beat?
- “I jammed with Prince once, and he was like, ‘What is that effect you have on your guitar?’ I said, ‘Nothing.’ He couldn’t believe it”: Lenny Kravitz on the time he blew Prince’s mind with his guitar tone
- “A proactive step to position these iconic brands for long-term success”: Dean Guitars owner files for bankruptcy
- “The guitar is based on a Strat I have, as well as my Jazzmaster. I’m biased, of course, but it sounds really good!” Guitar tone gourmand Ariel Posen spills the secrets to his sound
June 10
- “I looked at him like he had two heads and said, ‘Let me get this straight – you’re going to fire Jake E. Lee from his own band?’” Greg Chaisson waited years to reunite with Jake E. Lee. But then he had to quit, and couldn’t say why
- “I wanted to leave, but I didn't have the guts to quit. Just as I reached for the phone, it rang. ‘Hi, Flea, you’re fired’”: The call that ended Flea’s days as a pick-playing punk and set him on the path to worldwide fame with the Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Epiphone launches hotly anticipated reissue of Alex Lifeson’s iconic ES-355 – just in time for Rush's return to the stage
- August 2026 Guitar World lesson videos and more
- A signature electric for a fictional guitar hero? PRS has launched a new SE model for an anime character
- “We have regularly heard players request one change”: Gibson gives in to overwhelming fan demands and supercharges its Victory shred machine with one key upgrade
- Give your guitar-obsessed dad something he'll actually use this Father's Day – including a best-in-class desktop amp, an intriguing way he can recycle old guitar strings, and more
- “So common that it is depicted as a generic electric guitar in a dictionary”: When Fender went to court and lost – the 2009 court ruling that failed to trademark the Stratocaster
- “It is good news. Better than I expected”: Höfner has been bought out after filing for bankruptcy – and will be backed by Thomann for a new era
- “Possibly the best Revstar yet”: Yamaha 60th Anniversary RSP20B and RS02CB Chris Buck review
- “I was just playing, warming up for the show, and Glenn comes busting in… ‘What the hell’s that?’ ‘I don’t know, it’s just this lick I warm up with.’ He said, ‘No, that‘s an Eagles song, dude!’” The making of the Eagles’ 1976 masterpiece Hotel California
- The $330,200 Fender Telecaster that connects Danny Gatton to Lou Reed
June 9
- “I’ve been playing B-benders since 1999, so I was eager to get my mitts on this guitar”: Fender John Osborne Telecaster review
- “I woke up hallucinating. It felt like a really bad acid trip. I tried to talk about that in the song”: Failure’s Ken Andrews is one of alt-rock's most influential tonesmiths. He talks teaming up with Hayley Williams and his return from near-death
- “I was like, ‘Oh, this playing sounds weirdly familiar.’ And then I found the video. It was lifted note for note”: The moment Jack Gardiner realized Giacomo Turra had lifted his licks
- Extreme and Red Hot Chili Peppers classics among first tracks confirmed for Guitar Hero's spiritual successor, Stage Tour
- “Clapton in Crossroads, Gilmour in Comfortably Numb and Peter Green in Black Magic Woman… all have their own take on how they approach rhythms in the phrasing”: The secret to great guitar solos isn’t technique – it’s rhythm
- “The P-90s in it are ridiculously good. I’m still trying to work out quite why they’re as good as they are, if I’m honest”: What makes this 1957 Les Paul Special such a smokeshow?
June 8
- “I found myself sitting next to Keith Richards – just two guys playing the guitar. Doesn’t get much better than that!” From Eric Clapton to Daft Punk and Avenged Sevenfold, Greg Leisz has played with everyone. But don’t call him a session guitarist
- "A genuinely brilliant guitar that can do far more than its heavy metal aesthetic suggests": Ibanez Iron Label AZ41B1 review
- “In ’84 that was it. We were done. I was completely bankrupt. It was devastating”: How Mike Matthews saved pedal pioneers Electro-Harmonix from the brink – and managed to secure its longterm future
- “They don’t even say it’s not a real band. And they have a one-neck guitar”: A fake Angine de Poitrine has been passing themselves off as the real deal in Russia
- Rush play first show in 11 years, armed with double-neck guitars and deep cuts
- “Everyone in the room thought I was buying it. Maybe it helped – people weren’t bidding the way they were on some of the other guitars!” What Derek Trucks made of Jerry Garcia’s $11m Tiger guitar
- “We continue to fight for the return of Darrell’s guitar designs”: Dimebag Darrell’s estate responds after court rules in Dean’s favor in legal dispute
- Ed Sheeran is about to launch another piece of signature gear – and he’s already gifted it to a young fan
- Ancoats Granada Special review – a unique modern-retro design with a fresh approach to relic’ing
- “When Ozzy approached me, there was an inner warning light that said, ‘Don’t do that because you have just left UFO and Scorpions’”: Michael Schenker on his lifelong pursuit of self-expression and track-by-track guide to Don't Sell Your Soul
June 7
- “A fine, gig-ready instrument with a very good array of sounds on tap as well as premium build quality”: Taylor Gold Label 710E review
- “I wasn’t shocked by Angine de Poitrine. Microtonalism has always been there. When Hendrix played 20 cents sharp, it’s the most beautiful thing he played”: David Torn is playing louder and heavier than ever, leaving a trail of trashed bridges in his wake
- “It’s fine to become a technical monster, but if you can’t come up with a good bassline it’s useless”: Lee Sklar shares his secrets for finding the perfect groove in the studio
- Who’s the greatest Stratocaster player?
June 6
- “When Squeeze were first successful, we essentially had to dumb down to fit in with what was going on”: Glenn Tilbrook on the sounds that gave Squeeze a push, and the resurrection of the English rock legends' early recordings
- Troy Van Leeuwen debuts stunning Squier 12-string Telecaster while performing live with Michael Stipe on Jimmy Kimmel
- “A clone of a clone of a clone? Sounds ridiculous. Take my money now”: This week's hottest new guitar gear – including an AI-powered amp that wants to change the way you create tones
- “I borrowed that lick from Willie Weeks. By the time we hit my hometown, I had the entire solo under my fingers”: How Gerald Johnson’s twisting bassline culminated in a full-on solo – a rarity for a 1973 rock track
June 5
- “The knife flipped and hacked right on my knuckle… I play guitar in a weird way”: The bizarre gardening accident that changed the way Phoebe Bridgers plays guitar
- “He added his signature screaming guitar parts, and there it was”: Slash, Tim Henson, Guthrie Govan and Steve Vai have been assembled for an unlikely collaboration album – and it’s filled with A-list players
- “My guess was it was the PRS NF. So cool to know it was this”: New guitar, who dis? John Mayer just debuted his stunning new boutique T-style on his new collab with Lainey Wilson
- “We need our community’s help”: California music store appealing for aid following the theft of four Fender Custom Shop Stratocasters
- 15 hotshot NYC guitarists that prove the Big Apple’s still got some bite – from the Rat Queen to the most-hyped indie band on the planet
- “I don’t know how to say this without bragging”: This guitarist butchered classic riffs at Guitar Center to rage bait fellow customers. Then Jack White sent her his guitar
- “I found him at the studio. I said, ‘You never called me back. I got nothing going on my career, you left me in the lurch’”: Pete Townshend offered Peter Frampton his place in the Who – then blanked him
- “I’ve tried Strandbergs and other ergonomic guitars. They were all close, but they weren’t it”: Meet the Afghanistan war veteran who made it his mission to design the ultimate ergonomic guitar
- “I was just jamming to the track, and Michael came down with Brooke Shields. I asked, ‘Is this cool?’ He said, ‘Anything you want, Slash’”: The surreal beginning to Slash’s musical relationship with Michael Jackson
- “Some of these guitars have doubled in value between 2019 and now”: The best guitar bargains on Reverb – and how to get more for your old gear
June 4
- Fender keeps the pace with Neural DSP and Line 6 with a bumper firmware upgrade that gives players 15 new reasons to try the Tone Master Pro
- “I was broke, so I said yes to everything. I just knew I could never have a normal job”: How Henrik Linder went from struggling music student to overnight success with Dirty Loops
- If you learn one thing from Jake E. Lee it should be this: unlock bigger stretches for better shredding
- “Even the most cynical guitar techs were impressed”: The wireless system that finally convinced Radiohead to ditch their guitar cables for good
- “This might be the last time the Hydra comes out on tour”: Steve Vai might be retiring his monstrous triple-neck Ibanez
- Epiphone launches $229 Hummingbird Tribute to the acoustic beloved by Bob Dylan, Jimmy Page and Keith Richards
- “I was on the way to Eric Clapton’s Crossroads festival and I got a DM from John Mayer…” Tom Misch on the time his guitar hero reached out of the blue and offered to join him on stage
- “I snapped, flipped him off, grabbed my coat, and stormed out of the studio. I told him to ‘get Steve Vai’”: Kim Thayil reveals his battles over Soundgarden’s Superunknown and Black Hole Sun
- “I can’t stand Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing”: The Jesus and Mary Chain call Eddie Van Halen one of the “worst guitar players in the world”
- “Without the guitar, I’d probably be a professional dog-walker or in jail”: The life and times of Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell
- “He was extremely let down by his manager. The guy ripped him off of so much money. To get Peter to talk about that, it was very painful”: Behind the scenes of the Peter Frampton documentary
- “I got wrecked, paranoid, the whole thing... and then they hit this riff that I still remember. I just wept”: Paul McCartney on the life-changing moment he saw Fela Kuti live while smoking with Ginger Baker
June 3
- Ace Frehley's main Kiss guitar, the 1975 “Budokan” Gibson Les Paul, sells for over half a million dollars at auction
- "The price might be chunky, but the playing experience, build and sonic delivery are tough to argue with": Ibanez Alpha A528 review
- “More Tim Henson than Bob Dylan”: An Elvis Presley guitar and Bob Dylan’s ultra-luxe custom Strat are up for sale – and could fetch a combined $1.5 million
- “Stone Gossard is the reason I picked up guitar in the first place. Having a front row seat to his playing has been amazing”: Josh Klinghoffer on Chili Peppers vs. Pearl Jam and playing in Andrew Watt's new wrecking crew
- “I kept seeing him out the corner of my eye, where he’d be with his guitar”: Mastodon’s first single with their new guitarist is a powerful tribute to Brent Hinds
- “It was the biggest mistake of my career”: JHS Pedals once mistakenly put an ultra-rare Dumble boost circuit into one of its DIY pedals – now it’s been launched as an $89 standalone stompbox
- “I was like, ‘Let’s freshen up the electric guitar.’ 60 years later, you’re still putting out tributes to the station wagon”: The story of John Mayer’s Fender fallout – and how it gave birth to the Stratocaster’s biggest rival
- “I wanted to dislike it!” Is Joe Bonamassa warming to modeling amps? He’s taken a Fender Tone Master on tour
- Best octave pedals for bass 2026: Pitch-shift your playing with my pick of essential pedalboard additions
- “I’ve got a little story about a chord you might like”: Paul McCartney is challenging fans to work out the mystery guitar chord that inspired his new album – and we’ve figured it out
- “It’s possible to play a great solo without many notes if the rhythm is interesting”: How to funk up your blues solos
- “Even though it’s a budget guitar, it’s great. Paul Stanley used to smash one up at the end of KISS shows”: The amps that defined punk, the custom electric that was “painted in a shed” – Bruce Watson on the gear behind Big Country’s sound
June 2
- “It’s a genuinely unique instrument – and it always raises a smile”: Nigel Tufnel's “World on Fire” guitar, used during Spinal Tap's Live Earth performance, is headed to auction
- “He only ever said one thing to me about sounding like anyone he’d played with before”: Rowan Robertson on the key piece of advice he received from Ronnie James Dio on how to faithfully play Tony Iommi’s riffs
- "Where many modeling amps of this ilk fail to impress me, I found the Reactor to be incredibly receptive, balanced and warm": Positive Grid Reactor 100 Intelligent Guitar Combo Amp review
- “A turning point for the industry”: TONE3000’s new A2 NAM modeling tech beat some huge hitters in a blind listening test – and it’s completely free to use
- “I was a child – he’d choose which records I would get royalties on and which I didn’t. He was stealing my money, and I didn’t realize it”: The untold story of “The Lost Beach Boy” David Marks
- “I suspect Fender decided against building Thinlines with this specification because they would have been too expensive to manufacture”: What two 1967 prototypes tell us about the evolution of the Telecaster Thinline
- Positive Grid branches out from the Spark with the Reactor – an AI-powered combo that can generate tones from images and adapts to your playing
- “Damon got very good, so it was pretty hard to write with him around – especially when he was rejecting your songs”: How Graham Coxon came out from his Blur bandmate’s shadow
June 1
- “If anybody could play like that, they must be crazy”: How Dave Davies wrote the savage solo for the Kinks’ breakthrough hit
- “If you think this is a bunch of throwaway crap to suck the dollar out of poor, unsuspecting Van Halen fans, it’s not”: Eddie Van Halen’s soon-to-be-released recordings are going to blow you away, according to Steve Lukather
- “I did four or five songs, then Ozzy said, ‘Welcome aboard’. I would have loved to have spent more time with him”: Randy Rhoads was his guitar teacher. Then he ended up in Ozzy Osbourne’s band
- “It’s a one-string instrument with a handle on it, and I hit it with a stick”: Les Claypool’s bonkers one-string leads the biggest (and strangest) bass releases of the month
- “Quirky and off-the-wall, it’s waiting to throw a spanner in the works of your guitar tone”: Electro-Harmonix Pico Atomic Cluster review
- “Everyone who is anyone has used one at some point in their careers”: The story of the Boss digital delay pedal that changed the world
- “He took some small songs of mine that nobody paid any attention to and turned them all into classics”: 11 cover songs that Jimi Hendrix made his own – including one that became Eric Clapton’s favorite Hendrix track
- Best overdrive pedals for bass 2026: The ultimate in bass saturation at all price points