
Jackson Maxwell
Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.
Latest articles by Jackson Maxwell

Ronnie Wood explains his guitar dynamic with Keith Richards at launch for surprise new Rolling Stones album
By Jackson Maxwell published
The album's laundry list of star guest spots were top priority for the launch event Q&A, but arguably more interesting were the nuts-and-bolts insights into how the Stones have musically kept on, well, rolling, for well over 60 years

Fender’s Telecaster 75th anniversary show might be the greatest assemblage of Tele talent ever
By Jackson Maxwell published
Held at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, the Tele Town concert was highlighted by perhaps the most electrifying Telecaster jam of all time – featuring, to name a few participants, Jack White, Brad Paisley, Tommy Emmanuel, and John Osborne

Former Turnstile guitarist Brady Ebert faces potential life sentence after indictment on attempted first-degree murder
By Jackson Maxwell published
The indictment follows Ebert's arrest in March on charges of attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault, after he allegedly hit former Turnstile bandmate Brendan Yates’ father with his car

How Sean Lennon's legendary father inspired him to pick up the guitar
By Jackson Maxwell published
For Sean Lennon, the guitar was a means of connecting to the father who was taken from him when he was barely five years old. Though, he added in a new interview with GW, their playing styles are noticeably different

April 2026 Guitar World Editors’ Picks
By Michael Astley-Brown, Janelle Borg, Jackson Maxwell, Matt Owen, Matt Parker published
Fresh new cuts from all corners of the guitar world courtesy of Muse, Arlo Parks, Jack White, Ed O'Brien, Weezer, Periphery, and more...

Who's the most exciting up-and-coming guitar player?
By Jackson Maxwell published
Let us know who's got you optimistic about the future of the instrument

Meet Andrea Krakovská, the Joe Satriani-endorsed “aerial guitarist” combining fretboard acrobatics with real acrobatics
By Jackson Maxwell published
The self-described “aerial guitarist” tears it up while performing dizzying feats of aerial choreography, often upside-down – and her Satch cover earned plaudits from Herman Li and the master himself

Who is the most iconic Fender Telecaster player?
By Jackson Maxwell published
The Telecaster doesn’t get enough credit for its versatility – and in its 75 years of production, it’s found its way into every genre. Let us know who you think is the greatest Tele wrangler of them all

The 17-year-old guitar prodigy who flourished with Dio, but got off to a nightmare start
By Jackson Maxwell published
Rowan Robertson's fairy-tale ascension sent him from pubs to arenas virtually overnight. But he was a little over-confident for the first of those mega gigs…

March 2026 Guitar World Editors’ Picks
By Michael Astley-Brown, Janelle Borg, Jackson Maxwell, Matt Owen, Matt Parker published
Collaborative instrumental greatness from six-string aces new and old (SatchVai), bossa nova guitar bliss, sublime slide work, swashbuckling 12-bar blues... we've had it all this month

Have you ever regretted selling a guitar?
By Jackson Maxwell published
It’s a crossroads that nearly every guitarist has come to at some point or another. Share your story with us

How Travis Barker-championed pop-punk heavyweight KennyHoopla found his dream Tele via a shady Facebook Marketplace deal
By Jackson Maxwell published
Lightweight, loaded with a pair of P-90s, and adorned with a photo of his late childhood cat, the Tele has become the singer-songwriter/guitarist's closest six-string companion

What makes a guitar worth $14.6 million?
By Jackson Maxwell published
Last week, David Gilmour's Black Strat sold at auction for an incredible $14.6 million. What could compel someone to spend that kind of money on a guitar?

I attended the biggest guitar auction in history – and witnessed a new dawn in the value of the instrument
By Jackson Maxwell published
The monumental bidding wars that took place on the first night of the Jim Irsay Collection auction at Christie’s New York were a testament to the power of the instrument and the aura of the classic rock gods, and left attendees spellbound

David Gilmour's Black Strat sells for record-shattering $14.5 million in the biggest guitar auction in history
By Jackson Maxwell last updated
We were live on the ground at Christie's auction house in New York as the world's greatest guitar collection went under the hammer

Who's the best guitar player you've ever seen live?
By Jackson Maxwell published
Did the best live guitar playing you've ever seen come from a hero you'd been dying to see for years? Or someone out of the blue, who you'd never heard before? Tell us the story!

It was nothing more than a throwaway jam – then they were playing it at the Grammys in tuxedos
By Jackson Maxwell published
In the annals of ’90s alt-rock one-off hits, few were more improbable than Liar, the snarky funk-metal jam that brought hardcore heavyweight Henry Rollins and his band onto mainstream radio, and to music's biggest stage

Which guitarist should every beginner listen to?
By Jackson Maxwell published
Someone you know has just picked up the guitar for the first time. They ask you: which guitarist should I listen to and really study first? Who can I learn the most from? You can only name one

February 2026 Guitar World Editors’ Picks
By Michael Astley-Brown, Janelle Borg, Jackson Maxwell, Matt Owen, Matt Parker published
Two generations of virtuosos – Steve Vai and Matteo Mancuso – join forces, Midwest Emo GOATs American Football return, Anna Calvi works wonders with her Telecaster, Mateus Asato gives us long-awaited instrumental bliss, and Angine de Poitrine deliver, uh, “Dada-Pythago-Cubist Mantra-rock” – all this and much, much more

We asked what constitutes “fake” guitar playing – here's what you had to say
By Jackson Maxwell published
It seems many of you came to an agreement on where to draw the line

The band's guitarist felt the song was beneath its writer, but it became one of the biggest guitar-pop hits of the 2000s
By Jackson Maxwell published
Though critically beloved, Fountains of Wayne are known to most only as the band behind Stacy's Mom, the cheeky and irrepressible smash hit that remains a staple of 2000s nostalgia playlists – and that's exactly what guitarist Chris Collingwood was afraid of

What constitutes “fake” guitar playing?
By Jackson Maxwell published
Separate viral videos in recent months have accused multiple young, ultra-popular, social media-savvy guitarists of being “fake”. But what does that mean in this day and age? And what makes that label a new phenomenon?

When one of alt-rock’s goofiest bands snuck into a storage space, and recorded a solo through Santana’s guitar rig
By Jackson Maxwell published
A tip from a roadie led to a clandestine operation that, its lead perpetrator said, “resembled an early morning bank heist”

Prove your knowledge of the strangest guitars ever built
By Jackson Maxwell published
You're a no-nonsense guitar type? Sorry, this is all nonsense! OK, not all of it – some of these six- (and four, and... 17) string builds have serious functions, but they sure make it weird along the way

Billie Joe Armstrong shows off mysterious new Marshall at Green Day's Super Bowl set – could a signature amp be on the cards?
By Janelle Borg published
Eagle-eyed viewers have pointed to the top left corner of the amp, which has a label boasting a word that looks a heck of a lot like “Dookie”. An official take on Armstrong's “Dookie mod” Marshall, perhaps?
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