Ellie Rogers

Ellie Rogers

Since graduating university with a degree in English, Ellie has spent the last decade working in a variety of media, marketing and live events roles. As well as being a regular contributor to Total Guitar, MusicRadar and GuitarWorld.com, she currently heads up the marketing team of a mid-scale venue in the south-west of England. She started dabbling with guitars around the age of seven and has been borderline obsessed ever since. She has a particular fascination with alternate tunings, is forever hunting for the perfect slide for the smaller-handed guitarist, and derives a sadistic pleasure from bothering her drummer mates with a preference for “f**king wonky” time signatures.

Articles by: Ellie Rogers

Daniel Dafreez Johnston

“We were trying to put blues riffs on dance beats. We wanted to see what happens if you fuse those two worlds”: Meet Daniel ‘Dafreez’ Johnston, the “blues rave-up” pioneer combining folk fingerstyle and EDM

By Ellie Rogers published

Teaming classic Strat sounds with tightly sync'd delays in My Baby, Daniel ‘Dafreez’ Johnston is a mercurial guitar talent

(L-R) FINNEAS and Billie Eilish perform onstage during the "Happier Than Ever Tour" at The Forum on April 08, 2022 in Inglewood, California

“Her number one piece of feedback is to be quieter. Sometimes, we bicker and maybe I win”: FINNEAS reveals his guitar technique debates with Billie Eilish

By Janelle Borg published

The artist and super-producer recalls recording guitars on Eilish's latest album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, and why the Fender Acoustasonic is a key tool in his production toolkit

Jimmy Page, James Taylor and Tracy Chapman

The 50 greatest acoustic guitar songs of all time

By Jonathan Horsley published

As voted for by you, this list spans some of the most significant acoustic moments ever committed to tape – and features a controversial winner…

Filippa Nässil of Thunder Mother

“Fans think it’s very cool to see a pregnant lady playing. People are saying I’m the real Thunder Mother!” Thundermother’s Filippa Nässil is riffing and touring all the way through her pregnancy – she explains how she’s adapted her rig to suit her bump

By Ellie Rogers published

The Swedish hard rocker details the challenges of staying on the road into her third trimester – and why it proves you can have everything you want

Heartworms performs at the British Music Embassy at The Courtyard on March 18, 2023 in Austin, Texas.

“I don’t know what I’m trying to portray, but it’s always going to be uncomfortable and vulnerable”: Meet Heartworms, the six-string experimentalist who went from busking for rent to playing the Royal Albert Hall with St. Vincent

By Ellie Rogers published

Self-taught and self-motivated, Jojo Orme expresses herself through her complex pedal arrangements and quest for uncomfortable riffs

Susan Tedeschi

“I got to meet all the people that make the guitars, and I was blown away by how many women were in there. Women never get the cred”: Susan Tedeschi on the making of her long-awaited signature Telecaster and the next generation of blues guitar heroes

By Ellie Rogers published

The blues powerhouse’s first signature Fender has been a long time coming. She explains why it has finally given her confidence in her guitar playing – and names the up-and-coming players she’s keeping an eye on

Mario and Sarah Quintero of Spotlights perform live

“People are always surprised that I’m playing a P-Bass and he’s playing a Stratocaster – it’s crazy just how heavy they can be”: Meet husband-and-wife guitar team Spotlights, the dreamsludge tonesmiths championed by Mike Patton

By Ellie Rogers published

Dreamsludge, doomgaze, doomsludge… Whatever you call them, Mario and Sarah Quintero are producing some of the heaviest tones in the business. They reveal how they do it – and why couples who riff together, stay together

Anthony Pirog playing his Abernethy Sonic Empress guitar

“I view everything from the pick to the speaker as my instrument”: Meet John Frusciante favorite Anthony Pirog – the boundary breaking guitarist who’s jamming jazz, punk and fusion with Fugazi’s rhythm section

By Ellie Rogers published

The D.C. virtuoso has joined forces with his heroes as The Messthetics

Mike Kinsella

“We played a bunch of really awkward shows with both of us staring at our tuners the whole time and then we broke up for 15 years”: Math-rock pioneer Mike Kinsella on his unlikely journey to cult guitar hero status with American Football

By Ellie Rogers published

As his latest Owen album looms, the guitarist reflects on how he discovered the tunings that made him so influential, doing it all without pedals and why he can only play Teles

Albert Collins, John Lee Hooker, Eric Gales

“So well-versed in the art of blues that B.B. King said ‘he was like another one of my sons’”: 12 blues guitar albums that chart the genre – and the instrument’s – evolution

By Ellie Rogers published

From Son House to Eric Gales, John Lee Hooker to Albert Collins, these classics highlight how blues guitar has changed over the years – its stories, tones and techniques all passed down and reinvented

Marcos Mena of Standards

“I asked Ibanez for a Telecaster-style guitar with a single neck pickup. I was expecting them to make fun of me and say no!” Standards’ Marcos Mena is bringing joy to virtuoso playing with his custom mint green tapping machine

By Ellie Rogers published

As the pop-shred maestro honed his fruit-inspired instrumental math-rock technique, Ibanez warned him his neck-pickup-only AZ might look bad – but it turned out to be his perfect guitar

Mike Griffiths

How does a Welsh rock band that trades in “filthy, nasty guitar tones” end up writing a song with Brian Johnson of AC/DC? Himalayas’ Mike Griffiths explains the story behind their “unexpected gift”

By Ellie Rogers published

The Welsh rockers’ debut album, From Hell to Here, is essential listening for those who like rock from the garage and the desert – especially where the guitar “sounds quite wild a lot of the time”

Devon Ross

“I’ve always picked up my dad’s guitars, but I wasn’t that serious about it. Then I realized it was natural to me – it was so deep in my soul I didn’t have a choice”: Thurston Moore loved her demos. Now Devon Ross is journeying from actor to guitarist

By Ellie Rogers published

Inspired by ‘60s pop and ’90s alt-rock alike, the Fender Mustang-toting Irma Vep star – and daughter of Lenny Kravitz guitarist Craig Ross – brought her debut EP to fruition with help from the Sonic Youth icon

Tosin Abasi of Animals as Leaders performs during Swanfest at Heart Health Park on April 23, 2022 in Sacramento, California.

“Technical playing can get cleaner, and that’s possibly even more challenging than just being faster”: We met the academics who study shred guitar for a living – they explained why it’s changed dramatically since the ’80s, and the 3 ways it can develop

By Ellie Rogers published

A new study documents the challenges facing modern-day virtuosos, who not only have to balance perfection and authenticity, but now have to be “10 things that used to be 10 full-time professions”

Rosie Frater-Taylor

“I love Gibson – I always have. Even though people like Slash play Les Pauls, for me they work better in a jazzier sound-world”: Jimmy Page was bowled over by her playing. Now Rosie Frater-Taylor is injecting jazz solos into pop for an all-new sound

By Ellie Rogers published

Inspired by jazz-go-pop stars like George Benson and Pat Metheny, the Pickup Music tutor and rising star has a unique guitar-meets-vocal vamping style

Matteo Mancuso playing a Yamaha Revstar

“Sometimes it’s not really about complexity. There are some jazz tunes that are incredibly simple like AC/DC”: How Matteo Mancuso is redrawing the frontier for guitar and unlocking the fretboard one chord at a time

By Ellie Rogers published

The fingerstyle fusion phenom talks technique, the illusion of jazz complexity – the reality of the guitar's complexity – and why everything is okay so long as you land on a good note

Jon Gomm

“Basically, I climb up telegraph poles late at night, tear down the cabling with my bare hands and use that to string my guitar!”: Jon Gomm on how he's using wild tunings, giant strings, and lessons from Jeff Beck's whammy work to redefine the acoustic

By Ellie Rogers published

If you want to be a revolutionary player, you need a revolutionary attitude, and Gomm says that means looking for sounds you have never heard before

Matteo Mancuso

“It’s a little bit softer and you get a different attack”: Matteo Mancuso took the guitar world by storm with his otherworldly playing style – now he’s revealed the secret to his flawless fingerpicking tone: fake nails

By Matt Owen published

He's already given his advice on crafting better lead lines. Now, the young virtuoso has kindly revealed how you can get natural tones to match

Jon Gomm and Joni Mitchell

“In trying to make this huge sound, she ended up with this ‘one-person band’ approach that was completely different to the guitarists that’d gone before”: Jon Gomm on how Joni Mitchell changed progressive acoustic guitar forever

By Ellie Rogers published

One acoustic hero pays tribute to another, with Gomm pinpointing the pioneering approaches championed by Mitchell that make her one of the most influential acoustic players of all time

Eric Clapton and Scott Holiday

“Eric Clapton played with a stately authority. It’s missing in guitar today. It seems every great player has to play very fast. It can be distasteful, honestly”: Scott Holiday says Slowhand’s slow hand is still the gold standard for expressive playing

By Ellie Rogers published

Clapton remains an ever-present force in the Rival Sons star’s own sound – here’s why Holiday views his hero as one of the most influential guitarists of all time

Josette Maskin

“When you’re playing pop, you need to get the ego out of the way. You’re trying to elevate the song, rather than be heard as a guitar player”: The key to good pop guitar, says MUNA guitarist Josette Maskin, is to play less than you actually want to

By Ellie Rogers published

Inspired by Jeff Beck and session legend Paul Jackson Jr, Josette Maskin explains how MUNA balances three guitar players, how they ended up using fuzz more than distortion, and why label boss Phoebe Bridgers is underrated as a guitarist

Eddie Van Halen and Paul Gilbert

“Eddie was like a new sun appearing in the sky. You could sense that the world would never be the same”: From the big bang of Eruption to tone tips and warm-ups – Paul Gilbert shares the knowledge gleaned from a lifetime studying Eddie Van Halen

By Amit Sharma published

The shred icon salutes his greatest influence – with the insight of a fellow guitar obsessive

Troy Redfern

“A Whammy pedal might be sacrilege on a vintage National, but live, it’s really interesting!” Troy Redfern may play slide guitar, but he doesn’t want to sound like Derek Trucks – and his bold solo approach blazes a new blues trail

By Ellie Rogers published

There's already a lot of hype about the British blues maestro's new Kickstarter-funded album. Redfern checks in to share his unconventional gear pairings, and how his solos are informed by Frank Zappa's musical philosophy

Emily Wolfe

“It was so fun to learn how to play the doubleneck – there’s so many switches and knobs that it was essentially like learning another instrument”: Emily Wolfe is expanding her guitar arsenal – and processing rage through gnarly tones

By Ellie Rogers published

The Epiphone signature artist isn't missing any targets on new album The Blowback, turning up the fury with a jerry-rigged DIY guitar sound that's set to blow

Hawxx

“It’s not about how fast you can play. It needs to sound like pain or it needs to sound disgusting – it’s about what the guitar needs to convey”: Introducing Hawxx, the feminist metallers out to “de-wankify” heavy guitar clichés

By Ellie Rogers published

Jackson-wielding guitarists Anna Papadimitriou and Hannah Staphnill channel feminist rage into pummeling riffs on their debut face-ripper, Earth, Spit, Blood & Bones