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July 2026

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265 articles

July 31
- “Well, I’ve always said that if they wanted me to reform, I would do it”: Steve Hackett says he would be up for a Genesis reunion tour with Phil Collins – but could it happen?
- “He solobombs in to drop some terrifyingly clean sweep passages. Modern technical guitar playing doesn’t get better than this”: July 2026 Guitar World Editors' Picks
- "The build quality is superb, it plays like a dream, and unlike other guitars in this price range, the electronics don’t let it down": Sire Larry Carlton S7 Ash Top review
- “I was geared up to play Steve Vai solos. But they sent me in a completely different direction”: How John Squire’s replacement had to reinvent his playing when he joined the Stone Roses
- “Me and my dad went to pick it up from a woman’s house and it turns out it was her ex-husband’s. Somewhere out there is a guy wondering where his Strat went!” Zac Schulze on the ultimate eBay bargain Strat, and the greatest blues tone ever
- “He’s pretty fearless in the studio. You just gotta trust him and know it’s gonna work, ‘cause there’s a lot of experimentation”: Dominic Davis on growing up with Jack White and what he’s learned playing bass with him
- “I did say to him, ‘Do you want to play on something else?’ He said, ‘No. Your solos are good. I don’t need to play’”: Tony Iommi reveals Brian May’s role on his upcoming solo record
- “It’s the actual composer, the actual score – the riffs played properly loud in a room that can withstand all the ripping and tearing”: Mick Gordon to perform Doom score live for the very first time next year
- “A celebration of legendary bass tone”: Geezer Butler gets a limited-edition combo and Dingwall honors a modern metal great in July’s biggest bass releases
July 30
- “I wanted to make sure it was perfect. A completely different type of Kramer”: Kramer and Malina Moye make history with the underrated modern guitar hero’s first signature model
- “We’re genuinely sorry for the delay in response and confusion it caused”: D’Addario sets the record straight over generative AI accusations
- “I contacted Stevie Ray Vaughan’s amp tech. He approached amps the way a tailor fits a suit. Watching him work was like seeing magic happen”: Philip Sayce on the gear that changed him – and how he learned to wield it
- “You could just play different voicings and inversions of A7 over this groove all day long and it’ll sound great”: How to build a compelling rhythm guitar part with triads
July 29
- “He would text me, ‘I'm in pain. This thing, it's getting me down.’ I would just say, ‘You're the strongest man I know’”: Ozzy Osbourne's best friend on the legend's final days
- “Alex Lifeson went off on loose-limbed benders, taking madcap detours and stretching out phrases just to see where they’d land”: Rush deliver the thrill of mastery at Madison Square Garden – live review
- "Any aspiring dirt purveyor worth their salt will naturally gravitate toward the HalfLife’s crushing wall of sound" EarthQuaker Devices Sunn O))) HalfLife Octave Distortion & Booster review
- “Unrecognizable. Make it right”: Guitarist calls out American Airlines after his acoustic was returned to him in pieces
- “Cover music has been analog AI for a long time”: Fender CEO Bud Cole under fire from online guitar community for AI comments
- “There was really no plan, but festivals started making offers. Our manager got us on a call, and I was basically crying – it's what I’d been waiting for”: Chris Caffery on the return of Savatage, and his guitar partnership with the late Criss Oliva
- “We’re not trying to prove anything – it rocks”: Tony Iommi announces first solo album in 21 years – hear the new single, World Alone
- Glen Hansard, celebrated Irish singer-songwriter and star of Oscar-winning movie Once, dies in motorcycle crash
- “Small does not have to mean less”: Orange puts a Terror twist on one of its most popular modern amp series with new Baby lunchbox head
- “I’ve been playing the same bass since the ’80s. It’s the only one that could survive a Bad Brains show”: Why Bad Brains icon Darryl Jenifer traded punk for instrumental jazz – without changing his bass
- Japanese man arrested for 7 years of loud guitar playing, has 40 guitars seized
- “I got to play Gary’s Les Paul from the Lizzy days. It was quite difficult, the action was horrendous. He had big, big hands”: Brian Robertson busts myths and shares war stories from Thin Lizzy’s glory days
- “We were going to form a group at the time of the Beck’s Bolero sessions”: Jeff Beck was going to be part of the original Led Zeppelin, according to Jimmy Page
- “Even at nearly 80, he was still creative and highly motivated, looking forward to what his next range of guitars might be”: Remembering the late Alan Entwistle – pickups guru, guitar electrics whiz and repairman to the British blues boom
- “Sho-Bud is not simply a brand. It is part of the sound of American music”: An iconic pedal steel guitar firm is launching its own record label
July 28
- “Every note comes out with abundant punch and clarity. You could immediately slot it into a mix”: Ibanez Mode MDM1300 review
- If you learn one thing from Buddy Guy it should be this
- “A dream that’s been years in the making”: Harley Benton joins the relic bandwagon with $238 hand-aged guitars
- “I remember one really beautiful Fender Stratocaster – I watched in horror as he destroyed it during the encore”: Jimi Hendrix's roadie explains why the icon smashed his guitars
- “The music is really interesting. But the backlash has already started”: Love them or hate them, Angine de Poitrine draw real crowds – so why is the viral duo so divisive?
- “They gave me a hard time when I brought it through customs. I thought, ‘Are they going to take it off me?’” Steve Hackett on the guitar that defined his Genesis sound – and how he bought it for a bargain price
- “He’s been a leader with the company since the beginning”: PRS has appointed the first CEO in its history – what does that mean for the brand going forward?
- “I had a few million views before going on stage. I had this pressure”: Laura Cox on taking her sound from YouTube to the studio and the stage – and the release from playing with “real people”
July 27
- Jack White’s Third Man Hardware has launched a fuzz pedal with Beetronics that looks like a can of tuna
- “A holy grail artifact from the peak of their stadium-rock dominance”: Eddie Van Halen’s old guitar tech and a superfan have helped put together ‘the ultimate Van Halen guitar auction’
- “Clearly not the same as the original”: D’Addario under fire for allegedly faking its response to AI accusations
- “I understand it’s a shock. It’s gonna be an honor stepping into his shoes”: Gus G joins King Diamond as Andy LaRocque steps down after 40 years
- “You can usually hum your favorite songs. A lot of virtuosic players these days write music most people would struggle to sing back”: Meet Opal Ocean, the Aussie duo reimagining flamenco guitar
- “Clapton kept calling Andy Summers and said, ‘You need to sell me your guitar. I’m going to record Fresh Cream and I need a Les Paul – that’s the sound I want’”: The hidden history of Eric Clapton’s 1960 Summersburst Les Paul Standard
July 26
- “The original owner was a schoolteacher. It had been under her bed for 15 years in its case”: How a forgotten 1969 Jazz Bass became the go-to studio instrument for one of London’s top session bassists
- The most difficult job in guitar maintenance? How to make and install an ES-335 wiring harness – and why it's easier than you think
- Switching guitar chords is one of the hardest parts of learning. This exercise will help you master changing chords faster
- “That’s one thing I don’t like… It’s a completely different scene”: Jimi Hendrix never understood why people pitted him against Eric Clapton
- “Strangely unique after all these years”: Danelectro Dan O Cool and Dan O Mano review
July 25
- “The key is to know when to walk and when to run, or when to stomp and when to noodle... Don’t mess with a great groove”: John Paul Jones breaks down four Led Zeppelin classics, and how they demonstrate where and when to leave space
- “Somebody handed me a ’59 Les Paul and said, ‘That’s yours to play.’ I went from poverty one minute to having the world’s ultimate guitars in my care”: The underrated Stone Roses guitarist whose life changed completely after landing the highly-coveted gig
- “I tried to play rock stuff. I didn’t particularly like jazz – I couldn’t hear what was happening in it”: The pioneering jazz guitarist who bridged Jimi Hendrix and Wes Montgomery – and was gone too soon
- “A step towards the upper echelon of acoustic guitar lutherie at a very reasonable price”: Cort Gold-A10 Cocobolo review
- “If the Beatles started with a regular D major, rather than D6, it would definitely lose something”: 5 chord voicings that are a songwriter’s best friend
July 24
- “We will no longer be able to absorb those costs”: US/Canada trade war spells more bad news for guitarists who love digital effects
- “There’s absolutely no doubt this is dream distortion pedal material. But at $415, it’d be hard to justify”: My pick of the best new guitar gear launched this week – and the new drops you might have missed
- Fender Japan reimagines the hits with the Active Modern series – let’s hope the US branch is taking notes
- Gretsch launches $249 Streamliner CVT – and it has rock and metal players in its sights
- “I was really at the point where… nobody knows who I am and I don’t want my name on the guitar”: The unsung guitarist who shaped one of PRS’s most sought-after models
- “I wanna say from the bottom of my heart, I’m sorry. I hope you’re well”: Sammy Hagar sends David Lee Roth support after sudden tour cancellation
- “Around 4am, Jimi decided we should do some playing – fortunately, I had my Guild with me. It ended up as Voodoo Child”: How Jefferson Airplane's Jack Casady wound up recording one of Jimi Hendrix's greatest studio jams
- Gibson announces opening of third Garage, and second in the US
- “We made a choice to demo these products in a fully produced mix. It backfired”: D’Addario denies using AI to make the music in string demo video
- “Billie plugs in, puts the guitar on, and plays When I Come Around. He’s like, ‘That's the sound’”: The story of the Marshall Billie Joe Armstrong amp – its first artist signature in 14 years
- “I was in this fold-out chair. The DI was so terrible, because it was going through a generator. It added to the character”: How one of the year’s best metal albums ended up being recorded in Airbnbs, a shed and an RV
- “He plays those little Taylors. I’m always like, ‘Come on, play a proper guitar’”: Graham Coxon’s thoughts on Damon Albarn as a guitar player
July 23
- “A desirable icon of ’80s nostalgia and futuristic innovation”: How Steinberger started the headless revolution – with a little help from Eddie Van Halen and Allan Holdsworth
- “They were all having a difficult time, having lost a bandmate and a good friend. It was a dark moment, and I was in the middle of it”: Robert Sarzo was hired and immediately fired as Randy Rhoads’ replacement – but he has no regrets
- “To this day, I find it incredibly ironic and hilarious that it turned into a song, especially such a successful one”: How Slash’s throwaway riff became the most successful Guns N' Roses song ever
- “Bob Ezrin was recording and I changed to a different guitar. Within five seconds, he stopped the tape and said, ‘There’s something wrong…’” Simon McBride on Deep Purple’s new golden age of heavy
- “The first accessible guitar ever made”: Blind guitarist didn’t realize fret markers were a thing – until he was given a game-changing guitar with a tactile ‘navigation neck’
- “I played a Gretsch and then played the Flying V, and I couldn’t tell the difference”: Brian Setzer on the unlikely Gibson guitar that’s most like his iconic Gretsch
- “I got it for 800 bucks, and it became an important guitar. I took it over to Jake Kiszka’s house – he whipped out a case and he had the same one”: Mirador’s Chris Turpin on the ‘sleeper’ star of his vintage guitar collection
July 22
- “The cleaning lady came the next morning and everyone was on the floor. Mick Jagger had his head up inside the bass drum”: The incredible life and times of Hubert Sumlin, one of the blues' greatest guitarists
- “I gave Eddie Van Halen the parts, and the next time I saw the guitar he had used a spray can to paint it white with black stripes”: How Charvel spawned a custom shop revolution – and became the premier guitar maker in the age of shredders
- “The thought process is, which notes should sting, which notes should moan, and how can I effectively express emotion”: From B.B. King to Eric Clapton and Otis Rush, the blues is the core element of Joe Bonamassa's playing
- “Randy said, ‘Maybe if you tried it in this key…’ He had the patience because he was a guitar teacher. He wouldn’t intimidate me. Because I’m quite easily intimidated”: Ozzy Osbourne on his special writing dynamic with Randy Rhoads
- “He had a kind of caveman instinct”: Was David Bowie a good guitar player? Adrian Belew, Peter Frampton and more weigh in
- A year on from the tragic passing of the great Ozzy Osbourne, we dive into the secrets behind Randy Rhoads’ guitar tone on the iconic Crazy Train – and lift the lid on how to nail the sound on a budget
- “I still can’t believe that he’s not here with us. There will never be another Ozzy”: Tony Iommi shares Ozzy Osbourne tribute on the first anniversary of his death
- “Rik told me, ‘Don’t hold back. Do your thing. I don’t want people to see a diluted Phil X, so be you.’ He’s right. I’ll be me”: Phil X on taking to the stage with Canadian rock heroes Triumph – and how he’s switching up his Bon Jovi rig for the occasion
July 21
- “Those Dookie mods pay dividends – this is the sound in every Green Day fan's head”: Marshall Billie Joe Armstrong Signature 1959BJA review
- "It is not the widest selection of sounds, but what it does do is almost universally brilliant": Darkglass Anagram Limited Edition Guitar Essentials review
- “It’s like if you found out Harry Potter’s scar wasn’t from battling Voldemort but done under anesthetic on Harley Street”: The case for and against guitar relicing
- “I was just sick of the white blues rock thing. The whole mentality seemed stupid”: Why The Edge was always destined to become a different kind of guitar hero
- “After the second or third song, people get over the shock of seeing Johnny Depp up there with a guitar. And it’s legit”: Joe Perry on what it’s like being in a band with one of the world’s biggest movie stars
- “Frets are necessary, like a baby walker that a small child uses to learn to walk. But after a certain point they can become restrictive”: How a Greek Orthodox priest went viral by turning church hymns into fretless eight-string metal ragers
- “Gibson would have been aware of the popularity of Fender vibratos and maybe considered Bigsbys to be too expensive or too closely associated with Gretsch. Either way, the company devised its own”: What this Golden Era ’63 SG tells us about Gibson design
- “Second song in, the amps blew up. You can hear Jagger apologizing to the crowd, ‘We’re trying to get it together up here. Maybe we’ll do a couple of acoustic ones’”: How a revolutionary amp nearly derailed the Rolling Stones’ 1969 US tour
July 20
- Ibanez’s AZ Series has a guitar for every genre, budget, and playing level – and it keeps getting better
- “I asked David, ‘Any suggestions?’ He said, ‘Think Ritchie Blackmore.’ I didn’t expect that”: When David Bowie asked Robert Fripp to play like a Deep Purple legend
- Martin caves to player demand and revives its smallest guitar body shape – but it’s not tuned like your regular acoustic
- “His impact will live on for generations”: Wayne Charvel, legendary luthier who built guitars for Eddie Van Halen and gave rise to the Superstrat, dies aged 85
- “We told their manager we were open to making them a guitar. Two weeks later they were touring our factory”: The making of Angine de Poitrine’s new Godin double-neck – and why it’s not a signature model (yet)
- "There’s something about the pure honesty of a tube amp that can’t be topped”: 5 reasons I think digital modelers still can’t win the gear war
- “She was such a force. She made so many feel so seen”: L7 bassist Jennifer Finch, who changed the game on and off the stage, has died aged 59
- “I had to make sure he had all the tones he needed – the intro to Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love is like taking a flint and stone to make a spark”: How a glam-metal guitarist built Joe Satriani an amp that captured Eddie Van Halen’s tone
- “I heard this car come roaring up… Jeff’s coming out and he’s holding this guitar. He said, ‘Here, this is yours for getting me in the Yardbirds’”: The story of the Fender Telecaster that unites Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page
July 19
- “Those records made me think the guitar could be as good as jazz. Up until then, the electric guitar was a stupid instrument to me”: The songs that made Tom Verlaine take the guitar seriously
- “Jeff’s like, ‘That’s the most expensive guitar in this building.’ I was like, ‘Get it away from me’”: Jeff Tweedy opened his guitar vault for this cult indie artist – and it put him on edge
- “Back then, he didn't know anything about electric guitar… It was like, ‘Don't worry Bob, I'll adjust the amp for you, it sounds great, don't worry’”: Robbie Robertson on Bob Dylan's rocky electric transition
- "It gives the Custom Shop ‘54 pickups in my own Strat a run for their money": Fender Vintera III Late '50s Stratocaster review
- Two essential G chord shapes: when to use each finger position and why
July 18
- “The only way for me to play it was to sit in a chair. I had to explain that to the audience. It was quite embarrassing”: The guitar solo Joe Satriani wished he never wrote
- “Mitch has finally got the intro and then… crash! It's Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones. He stumbles in, and he's out of his mind!”: Inside the chaotic sessions that produced Jimi Hendrix's classic rendition of All Along the Watchtower
- “I was getting calls from George Harrison and Eric Clapton’s group. They were working together. And what were they interested in? The J-180 and J-185”: Inside Gibson's Century Collection acoustics – and the role the Rolling Stones and Beatles played
- “He fired a shotgun out of a window into a bird sanctuary. When we heard the bang, we said to the tour manager, ‘You need to take that gun off him!’” The Sweet's last man standing Andy Scott on wild times and triumphs in glam's most influential band
July 17
- "Once I'm playing, the Hush X Live feels much more like a 'real' guitar than the novelty I was first expecting." Donner Hush X Live review
- “Suddenly I’m running my bass through this old Marshall guitar amp, but it absolutely roared”: How an off-the-cuff studio experiment unlocked one of Mastodon’s biggest bass sounds
- “Ozzy was used to Les Pauls from Zakk Wylde and Randy Rhoads. He kept asking me if I could play one”: Gus G on whirlwind days with Ozzy Osbourne, his rock-star Guitar World cover shoot, and his difficult choice of guitars
- “It's an amp for when you feel the need to give the FOH sound engineer a nervous breakdown”: My pick of the best new guitar gear launched this week – and the new drops you might have missed
- “A rare and often overlooked chapter in amplifier history”: IK Multimedia makes 9 elusive lost era Fender amps available as a TONEX plugin
- “When John smashed that guitar above my head, I knew it was coming. But it was terrifying nonetheless”: Stephen Bishop on friendship, luck, and his impossible-to-miss Ferrington guitar
- “Thomann isn’t a small independent guitar builder... It is one of the world’s largest instrument retailers and the owner of one of Europe’s largest guitar brands”: Fender fires back at Thomann and sues for copyright infringement – read the full statement
- The pedal that made me ditch my tube amp – and why I'll never go back
- “His death was an incredible loss, not only for the band but for guitar fans as well”: Every Deep Purple guitarist, from Blackmore to McBride
- 10 misunderstood guitar pedals that became modern classics
July 16
- “A full-bodied response that would undoubtedly work a treat with flat-wound strings”: Fender Vintera III Late ‘60s Precision Bass review
- “I let it go to voicemail. It said, ‘Hello, this is Eric Clapton. This may sound like a hoax, but it’s not’”: Slowhand tried to invite Derek Trucks onto his album with JJ Cale – but he thought it was a prank call
- “A Strat gives me all the sounds I want. When I hear that tone, I’m like, ‘That's what a guitar is supposed to sound like’”: He’s jammed with Grace Bowers and collab’d with Cory Wong – now Devon Gilfillian wants to introduce “Nashville Soul” to the world
- “We’d just played the Black Sabbath farewell show and I thought, ‘What’s the worst that can happen if we ask Geezer to guest on our album?’” How Troy Sanders landed one of metal’s greatest bassists for a guest spot on Mastodon’s new album
- “Frank took an extended 10-minute solo. I walked off stage. David Bowie and Iggy Pop were standing there”: Adrian Belew on how he went from playing with Frank Zappa to joining David Bowie’s band
- The pedal that changed me – I asked the Guitar World staff to name the stompboxes that actually made a difference to their playing
- The Edge’s mirror ball Les Paul was one of his most experimental U2 guitars – now it’s up for auction
- “The bridge is Deftones. They still sound really good to us now. From there we found shoegaze”: Meet Ulrika Spacek, the nu-metalheads who transformed into hypnotic ’90s alt-rockers
- “It’s surprising to discover how much we rely on patterns and shapes – and this can be at the expense of thinking melodically or rhythmically”: Why four notes and the truth are all you need for a great slow blues solo
- “When I first played Jump for the guys nobody wanted anything to do with it. Dave said I was a guitar hero and I shouldn’t be playing keyboards”: The story of Van Halen’s 1984, and the end of the David Lee Roth era
- Sort out your ’board! 7 pedalboard accessories to tidy up your stompbox setup
July 15
- "A very persuasive showcase for Fender's dark horse guitar model": Fender Vintera III Mid '60s Mustang review
- Kiss to celebrate Ace Frehley's legacy with all-star tribute
- “It’s just a Japanese knockoff of a Tele, but it’s just as good, if not better. It sounds better recorded – it cuts through”: How Greg Freeman is rewriting the country guitar rulebook
- More new guitar body shapes? Kiesel continues the push to keep the electric guitar fresh by launching a daring metal offset
- Phoebe Bridgers brings Joe Bonamassa-backed teenage guitar prodigy and Kiko Loureiro’s protege along for Tonight Show Performance
- “One of the rarest and most revered hard rock icons”: Gibson has revived one of the most sought-after guitars it has ever produced
- “Rock ’n’ roll is full of borderline despots”: Why does Bob Dylan get through so many guitarists?
- “I did get some bad reviews. Some people called me ‘the guy who ruined the Pretenders’”: Robbie McIntosh on his trial by fire when he replaced the late James Honeyman-Scott
- Yamaha confirmed to be among Fender’s cease-and-desist targets
- “The biggest mindset shift is that guitarists should think of themselves as athletes”: As arthritis creeps into the hands of aging guitar heroes, what can we do to prolong our peak playing days?
- “Resolving with a more conventional blues phrase sounds really cool and satisfying”: Corey Congilio on how to add harmonic depth to your solo improvisations
- “It’s rewarding to learn your favorite solos note for note, but studying the chord progression underneath will put your own spin on things”: 10 great guitar looping songs that will help you hone your playing
- Analog vs digital pedals: what's the difference? And is one really better than the other?
July 14
- “Höfner offered me this weird-shaped guitar. I said, ‘What the hell is that?!’ They said, ‘It doesn't have a name yet, but we want you to try it’”: Hugh Cornwell on The Stranglers’ biggest hit, hating Twin Reverbs, and his bizarro Höfner
- “I FaceTimed with her parents and said, ‘I like your daughter’s playing. She’s a natural. She plays like Gary Moore’”: How 22-year-old Anna Cara landed the gig of a lifetime with Alice Cooper
- “Whether the long story he gave was real or not, it doesn’t matter”: Teen blues prodigy reunited with his stolen Stevie Ray Vaughan Strat
- Manuel Gardner Fernandes breaks down the 5 techniques that define his sound
- “When I picked one up for the first time, I knew it was going to be special”: Periphery’s Jake Bowen jumps ship from Ibanez and joins Strandberg
- “Punk rock and alternative music would not be what it is or where it is without her”: L7 bassist Jennifer Finch reveals aggressive brain cancer diagnosis ahead of band’s farewell tour
- “The crowds hated us! They were only there to see Stevie Ray, and they didn’t give us a chance... One night he called me on stage, and he handed me a Strat”: Brian Setzer on what he learned playing Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Stratocaster
- “If you'd blind A/B'd me between the original amp and this, there's no way I could have told the difference”: How Laney is distilling its mightiest amps into pedal-sized powerhouses – in collaboration with Billy Corgan, Tom Quayle and Martin Miller
- “When you feel like your hands aren’t doing well, and you’d like to take a day off, that’s the day you try and play more”: How Rik Emmett tackled the Triumph reunion tour, with added Phil X
- Shoegaze guitar has never been bigger – and these 5 pedals are a shortcut to its otherworldly tones
- How Eventide ushered in a new era for the H9 and made one of the world’s most acclaimed multi-effects more intuitive than ever
- “Kurt would always say, ‘I’m gonna get a Chet Atkins.’ But he never did. It wasn’t until he died that I went and looked at one”: Courtney Love refused to turn Celebrity Skin into “a grieving widow’s memoir” – but she paid tribute with the gear she played
July 13
- “I was just playing an SE, and he said, ‘I want to support you. You're great. I think you deserve to be playing on a USA model’”: How a fan made Sophie Burrell's dream guitar a reality – and changed the course of her career
- “We’re thrilled we’ve got other members who are just over the moon to be in the band with us”: Mastodon share new single with Josh Homme – and add another member to the band
- Bob Dylan debuts his third new guitarist in three weeks
- “I always felt like Fender hit the sweet spot with those guitars. All my heroes – Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Knopfler, Buddy Guy – were playing them”: Philip Sayce on the greatest Strats, his tone secrets – and why he always has a Silver Sky in the mix
- “Dave had a beat-up, noisy cassette of Steve Vai. We listened together in some garage with the tape player on the fender of a car. I said to Dave, ‘That’s the guy’”: How David Lee Roth put Van Halen behind him with one of rock's greatest supergroups
- “You can spend, like, 50 bucks, buy a chorus and a DS-1, and get Kurt Cobain’s sound”: Pedal sales are booming despite the modeler movement, and this man can tell you why
- “Marshall’s first signature amp in 14 years”: Marshall launches Billie Joe Armstrong artist head – and it’s inspired by his first guitar
- “I cannot endorse it. There’s misinformation in it about our early recording sessions”: Dave Davies denounces new Kinks book – and those Jimmy Page rhythm guitar rumors are at the center of it
- “Die-hards will be saying, ‘That’s not a Les Paul!’ But playing and living with an LP of this weight is simply a pleasure”: Gibson Les Paul Studio Double Trouble review
- The guitarist's guide to MIDI: how to get more from your pedalboard and stop the tap dancing
- “A guitar pedal that gives you the sound you have in your head but can't buy off the shelf”: Meet Emmergy FX, the British boutique pedal builder concocting effects for Slowdive and Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien
- From basements to one of the biggest movements in guitar tone: 12 iconic stompboxes that built the boutique pedal boom
- Fender hits used guitar store with cease-and-desist over alleged trademark infringement
- Why the IK Multimedia TONEX ONE+ might be the only modeler you ever need – and how it could revolutionize your rig forever
July 12
- “I bought a tiger-stripe Les Paul and started playing it on stage. I broke the neck, got it back and it sounded better. Then I was even more attached to it!” Kirk Hammett on Gibsons, the magic of Greeny and why he thinks the age of active pickups is over
- “I was watching Taxi Driver – a bass was sitting on my lap, and I was just hitting the strings. A commercial came on and I realised I’d written an entire song”: How Flea accidentally wrote one of his funkiest basslines
- “Paul really misses being in a band. His joy of just being in that context is great”: Keith Richards on why Paul McCartney’s collaboration with the Rolling Stones meant so much
- “I saw Taste on TV when I was 11 – this noise just transfixed me. I decided there and then that I wanted to be Rory Gallagher”: 18 of the greatest Irish guitarists of all time
July 11
- “What I do can't be put into any corner. I want to do it all”: Lowell George called beer bottle slide master Danny Gatton “the best player in any style that I've ever heard.” In a rare interview, “The Humbler” reflects on his trailblazing career
- “Everyone was telling us we sucked. We were the outcast band, and every other high school band at that time talked smack about us”: How Death overcame the odds to bring death metal to the world
- “I got a hold of a little psychedelic substance and tripped out all night. By morning, I said, ‘I’m a bass player!’” How a psychedelic-fueled studio session set Ron Blair on the path to becoming a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
July 10
- “A must-have producer’s plugin for just how much ground it covers”: MixWave Yvette Young Plugin review
- “I started playing some of Steve Cropper's riffs to him and told him how much Soul Man influenced one of our songs. He giggled and was very tickled by that”: Jimmy James on taking Parlor Greens’ funky sound “to the cosmos”
- “You couldn’t tell the difference between the Squier and the Fender. I played them live, and I couldn’t tell”: John 5 on the Squier Telecaster that competes with Fender
- “I only ever use a slapback, so why can't I stop thinking about a $679 delay pedal?” My pick of the best new guitar gear launched this week – and the new drops you might have missed
- “From the minute their song came out, my email flooded with people going, ‘Have you heard this song by Coldplay? They ripped you off, man’”: When Joe Satriani took Coldplay to court – and sued them over one of their biggest hits
- Flying with your guitar – do you have a nightmare story?
- “Primal Scream was the loudest band I’ve ever played with. We were using Super Leads and cranking them”: Little Barrie’s Barrie Cadogan on tone secrets of the alt-blues power trio and pinch-me moments with Liam Gallagher and John Squire
- “My favorite Ibanez was always the 550. That’s not to say I felt I needed to improve on it, but I wanted to make one RG that had all my favorite variables”: Nili Brosh on Danny Elfman, shredding with intent and augmenting Ibanez's most popular guitar
- “We left the track and went back out on the road. Two weeks later I hear it on the radio. I said, ‘No, that was just a demo!’ They said, ‘No, it’s a hit’”: Why Keith Richards never wanted anyone to hear his Satisfaction guitar riff
July 9
- Get almost $1k of guitar tuition from our number one platform for only $99 with this epic Summer Black Friday deal – including full access, plus bonus gifts
- "It’s deceptively versatile – I can see it finding fans beyond just those who worship at the temple of Wes”: Jackson Pro Series Signature Wes Borland King V review
- “The energy, the rock ‘n’ roll... You are a rock star, young lady”: This 16-year-old guitarist just stunned America’s Got Talent by two-hand tapping over a Cranberries classic
- Strymon’s TimeLine MX might be the most advanced delay pedal on the planet – but it will cost you nearly $700
- I've found serious shredders, iconic amps, and dirt-cheap pedals in Guitar Center's huge up to 25% off guitar sale – including $288 off a shred-ready Schecter
- “We thought the band was over. He's crossed the line – he's gone too far”: Mastodon open up about their relationship with Brent Hinds – and the devastating brain injury that nearly ended everything
- “I don't have enough breath, and you don't have enough tape, for me to explain that even remotely”: How Dimebag Darrell pushed Pantera bassist Rex Brown to his limit
- “We were all young and naïve. He was just a waste of time. He just sat there with his feet up reading Country Life”: How Iron Maiden forged their debut album with a lazy producer, a dodgy mix and Paul Kossoff's ’57 Strat
- “When you notice one of these signs, it’s probably time to open a fresh set of strings”: When should you change your guitar strings? We asked the world’s biggest string brands to get the definitive answer
- Court dismisses Behringer’s lawsuit against Boss over “knock off” polyphonic tuner
- September 2026 Guitar World lesson videos and more
- “I knew the guitar was valuable, but this was before Slash blew up, so nobody really wanted Les Pauls. They all wanted Charvels”: Billy Duffy on his greatest guitar deals – and the one he regrets selling to Bob Rock
- “I look at it as a cool tool that can enable me to compose riffs lower than anything else I’ve ever played”: Mike Stringer on how 8-string guitars take him outside his comfort zone in search of creative dissonance
July 8
- “This punchy little amp is a more serious tool than it might seem at first glance”: Orange Outlowd by Ed Sheeran ES60 review
- “The spirit of the Ramones is alive in every backyard punk show, punk club, and festival”: Billie Joe Armstrong teams up with Blink-182 and Rancid members for Ramones-honoring supergroup
- Two of the biggest names in guitar hardware have teamed up for a new take on the tremolo
- “One of the most creative and respected effects platforms in our industry”: Ernie Ball has acquired pioneering pedal firm Source Audio – what does it mean for the brands and the guitar market at large?
- "It's not the norm, but maybe it should be": Gibson Les Paul Special with Mini Humbuckers review
- “I got a call from my brother. He said, ‘Ozzy wants to talk to you.’ Ozzy tells me that Randy died, and asks if I’m available’”: The guitarist who was hired to fill in for Randy Rhoads – only to be fired immediately afterward
- Epiphone’s Eric Church signature Hummingbird Dark comes with a whiskey made using Gibson tonewood offcuts
- “There were just ideas pouring out of him… then he got on that helicopter and took off”: The legacy of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and what could have been
- “It was supposed to show up at my house. It completely disappeared”: Johnny Marr steps in to help after FedEx loses session player’s vintage guitar
- “I had no money. I couldn’t pay for it, so I borrowed it and never took it back”: How Ronnie Wood began his path to rock royalty with a stolen Fender bass
- “He did all the Ozzy stuff you’d think he would do – he got down on his knees and performed. I was like, ‘Oh, my God. This is so weird’”: A hair-metal hero turned nu-metal synth-guitar maverick who impressed Ozzy Osbourne – who is the real Amir Derakh?
- “I had too much Jager pre-show… I was puking as they were announcing my band!” Devon Allman on his worst onstage moment – and three all-star encounters he’ll always remember
- “It was kind of a wild idea in 1960 to call a guitar a Hummingbird. As wild as calling your band The Beatles”: How Gibson became an icon of acoustic guitar – 100 years on from its first flat-top
- “The sandpapery grittiness, long described as an Orange hallmark, is less apparent and a smoother, more fluid voice takes its place”: Orange OR60 review
July 7
- “There was deep weathering after decades of abuse. As for the guitar – that looked pretty good”: Eric Clapton’s long-lost Les Paul has re-emerged after 60 years – the weird trend of famous guitars going missing, and coming back
- “I think people got scared to play it”: Guitar Center CEO on why Stairway to Heaven was banned in guitar stores
- In 1980, Led Zeppelin had new life, and were moving into a new era as a band – then tragedy struck. This was their final show with John Bonham
- “I played that lick and went home. An hour later, the phone rang. Tom said, ‘You’ve got to come back. We want to put that lick you played at the front of the song’”: How Mike Campbell's throwaway lick shaped a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers classic
- “This makes it feel exciting all over again”: Jim Root’s signature Fender reinvented the Telecaster and was praised by John Mayer – now it’s back with a key twist
- Telecaster maple latte, anyone? Fender has launched its first standalone coffee shop in Japan
- “I’d been using Marshall for so long that I’d never listened to anything else. I never gave anything else a shot”: Slash on what made him finally change up his sound – and why we’re living through a renaissance for blues guitar
- “We were part of the Manchester punk explosion – The Sex Pistols and the Clash were exciting and glamorous, we were quite avant garde”: Steve Diggle on the Buzzcocks’ surprising legacy and why he still relies on a 50-year-old solid-state amp
- “He grabbed a guitar and strummed it. I said, ‘What the hell tuning is that?’” Charlie Starr on the joys of fingerpicking in Csus2 – the open tuning that doesn’t have a bad chord anywhere
July 6
- “Dreams come true”: Kirk Hammett adds Gojira guitarist's signature guitar to his touring arsenal for Metallica's London extravaganza
- “I’m giving all the profits to real musicians, whose work AI stole in the first place”: Human musicians form tribute band to viral AI group Velvet Sundown to fight back against AI music
- “Long before King Edward, there was King Luis”: Nuno Bettencourt pays tribute to his first guitar hero as he brings his brother on stage to shred an Extreme classic
- “I’ve got numbness in my hands… I can’t really talk, walk, play or sing”: Matt Skiba’s Alkaline Trio cancels tour dates at last minute following serious medical issues
- “It was only supposed to be a joke”: Relic’ing guitar stickers are now a thing
- “I got a call from Keith Richards. He acted like he had known me for 20 years. He asked me to come over and play. They wanted me to join – I couldn’t believe that”: Why Jeff Beck turned down The Rolling Stones
- “He handed me a 1970s maple-neck, Walnut-finish Mustang Bass loaded with flats. I was instantly hooked”: What this perfect pair of vintage Fenders tells us about collecting gear
- “If we’re lucky he made it to part of a soundcheck. If we weren’t, he’d just show up at the beginning of the gig, and call his tunes in whatever keys he felt like”: Marc Ribot reveals just how hard Chuck Berry was on other guitarists
- “I’m probably gonna get 150 guitarists telling me how I’m doing this wrong, but this is just what works for me. My ’board is a hot mess”: Samantha Fish on finally meeting her fans’ demands and why the SG is the one
July 5
- “Working with Hans was great, but the parts were originally composed on a piano – they were written for 10 fingers”: Inside Johnny Marr's blockbuster guitar contributions to Inception
- “We finished my solo record. Alex heard it, and he goes, ‘Hey, why didn't we put that on a Van Halen record!’” Sammy Hagar reveals the Eddie Van Halen-produced track that could have been on a Van Halen album
- “I can hear a lot of Ritchie Blackmore fans crying out, ‘No! He’s using digital stuff!’” Simon McBride is ditching stacks for modelers and transforming Deep Purple’s sound
- “He wasn't a fan of tapping or thumbstyle playing. Then he called and gave me one of the highest compliments I've ever received”: How Victor Wooten created one of the most groundbreaking bass albums ever recorded – and won over Anthony Jackson
July 4
- “I walked into Guitar Center, saw this Tele and thought, ‘This is incredible.’ It’s the guitar that got me endorsed with Fender”: The guitar that changed John 5’s life
- “Robert asked, ‘Do you know a Led Zeppelin song called The Ocean?’ I just casually answered, ‘Yeah, I know that song’”: Robert Plant bassist Viktor Krauss on the genius of the legendary frontman – and the inspiration he gets from his sister Alison
July 3
- “They gave a guitar endorsement to a drummer, and I thought, ‘Man, this is not where I want to be’”: Dave Mustaine on why he left Jackson Guitars… then tried to buy the company
- This weekend’s 4th of July guitar sales blowout is officially the biggest wave of discounting I’ve seen outside of Black Friday – shop 10 mega sales with up to 60% off here
- “We didn’t have time to fix it, so I traded it for a Fender Twin. But I know where they are”: Jeff Tweedy on the two guitars he regrets selling – and how Billy Gibbons ended up with them
- “His dedication to Gibson’s quality and legacy is beyond reproach”: 5 ways Cesar Gueikian transformed Gibson – and proved to be a very different kind of guitar CEO
- “I got this for half the price it was worth… I felt kind of bad about it”: Kirk Hammett bought Neal Schon’s Les Paul for so little that he offered it back to his hero
- “People hated us, bullied us, threw stuff at us and even threatened to beat us up. But they didn’t leave”: The strange guitar journey of Devo’s Bob Mothersbaugh
- “The argument about string gauges is the silliest thing a guitarist can engage in”: John Mayer on what really matters when choosing the guitar strings you use
- “It could give my Quad Cortex mini a run for its money”: My pick of the best new guitar gear launched this week – and the new drops you might have missed
- Loved by George Harrison, the Isley Brothers and Rush’s Alex Lifeson, the Maestro PS-1 Phase Shifter changed the face of popular music – but it sure was bulky
- “I said to Andy, ‘Is he gonna be into this? Because it’s a punk tune and I want overdriven bass. It’s gonna be simple, no mucking about’”: Mick Jagger on recruiting Paul McCartney to play bass on the Rolling Stones' upcoming album
- “Altered tunings obliterated my knowledge of the fretboard. I just put my hands on the guitar, started playing, and found I was using only my ear. It was liberating”: Bentley Anderson is imagining a strange new future for guitar music
July 2
- “I miss my brother… But I’d always had it in the back of my mind that if the Heartbreakers ever retired, I would make this my purpose”: Mike Campbell on finding a new life in The Dirty Knobs, and why we should listen to what our guitars are telling us
- “My body and mind are dealing with something completely out of my control”: The Jam bassist Bruce Foxton reveals Parkinson's Disease diagnosis
- “Roth came over to me – he was wearing this little vest, had a cane, and his hair was dyed like a skunk. He said, ‘How do you like my boys?’” How Michael Anthony went from playing backyard parties to sellout crowds with Van Halen
- Gibson gives the Les Paul a Fender twist with the Long Scale Custom
- “Alex said, ‘I don’t want to play my double-neck – it’s too heavy.’ I said, ‘I’ll do it!’ He lent me his white Gibson EDS-1275 for Stairway”: How Crown Lands went from Rush’s spiritual successors to playing Led Zeppelin with their heroes
- “It has evolved into a completely different guitar”: Would you like some guitar with your fretboard? Jackson has just introduced a 27-fret monster signature model for Brandon Ellis
- As a hopeless Gibson and Epiphone addict, these 4th of July deals are seriously testing my willpower – score up to $899 off a Gibson Les Paul Modern, as well as hundreds off Epiphone Joe Bonamassa, Jeff Beck and Jerry Cantrell signature models
- “Even if it doesn’t survive, you can just get a screwdriver and screw it back together”: Bill Frisell on why the Telecaster beats the archtop as the touring jazz guitarist’s best friend
- “I saw a kid holding that guitar out for me to sign it. But the train was already moving… I’m thinking, ‘Man, I gotta get the kid’s number to see if I could buy it back’”: Joe Perry on the one guitar he regrets selling
- “I was like, ‘I’m standing in the middle of these young school children destroying my guitar – for this?!’” With a parts-caster his dad found on the street, and a TikTok-inspired rhythm guitar style, hardcore phenoms Hammok are reinventing the genre
July 1
- “My guitar wouldn’t stay in tune. Eddie said, ‘You know what? I bet you’re a bass player.’ That was the beginning of it all”: How Jack White’s brother Eddie turned a childhood friend into a bassist – before Jack invited him to join his solo band
- Bob Dylan's second new guitarist in two weeks just went from gigging to 150 people to playing with an icon
- The man set to become the next Prime Minister of the UK is also an avid guitar player – and he’s jammed with a Stone Roses guitarist
- “We didn’t think he was up to it. He was perfectly capable of playing the major and minor chords in the right place, but not the lead”: Brian Robertson’s early reservations on Scott Gorham joining Thin Lizzy
- “My manager told Eric, ‘You should meet this young artist I'm working with. He's a funny guy – I think you’d like him’”: How a ’70s soft rock icon ended up recruiting Eric Clapton on his debut album
- Making money from your guitar tones? STL Tones is letting you do just that – and it’s already generated $2.5million in artist royalties
- Celebrity guitar auctions: teenage dreams or billionaire boys’ club? How A-list gear sales became the hottest ticket in town
- Guild’s S-300 offset returns nearly 50 years since it was deemed too radical for its time
- “They’re getting harder to find and almost unobtainable at this point”: Fender shines the spotlight on its unsung amp era with the “hidden treasure” ’62 Deluxe brown-panel
- “Snoop told us, ‘The world needs D12. They’re screamin’ for it. Don’t stop now’”: The Detroit hip-hop icons are back with red-hot flows and real guitar riffs – and they’ve brought Eminem’s right-hand guitar man along for the ride
- “Ry Cooder once said there is really no better tool for the guitar than your right hand. There are so many ways you can approach it”: Eric Bibb on why happiness is a good acoustic guitar – and what makes the electric a different species
- “I don’t want to sound like a w****r, but I’m more of a mystic than a musician”: She’s worked with Courtney Love and Radiohead’s producer. Now Bethia Beadman is embarking on a baritone guitar adventure rooted in Sanskrit and mantra