Features

Dethklok’s Brendon Small started struggling to play, so he took a lesson with a metal virtuoso

By Clay Marshall published 7 April 26

Ahead of touring with Amon Amarth, Small reveals the positive side of having a dozen guitars stolen, the “perpetual motion” of his band’s shows, the best guests on Metalocalypse, and his quest for the perfect concert

How recording in Eddie Van Halen’s 5150 Studios inspired Alter Bridge to make their most riff-heavy statement yet

By Amit Sharma published 7 April 26

The latest album from Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy finds Alter Bridge going full-throttle in EVH’s studio

He wrote some of the defining anthems of the ’90s with Smash Mouth. Now Greg Camp is focusing on his Nashville punk-rock supergroup

By Andrew Daly published 7 April 26

Camp started out as a drummer before EVH made him realize the advantages of guitar. The young Carson Daly helped make his band famous. Now he’s powering forward with supergroup The Defiant’s second album

Ashley Reeve leads the low-end for everyone from Cher to Filter – and her right-hand tone is her most important asset

By Nick Wells published 7 April 26

When she’s not performing with Cher, Ashley Reeve has honed her bass playing prowess with the likes of CeeLo Green, Adam Lambert and alternative rock band Filter

Doug Pettibone on taking lessons from Andy Summers, touring with Jewel, and not getting fired by John Mayer

By Andrew Daly published 6 April 26

The first-call guitarist explains why he loved working with Lucinda Williams but had to leave, how he got the gig back, his chemistry with Marc Ford, and faking it on pedal steel until Mayer helped him make it

Joe Perry put his “desert island guitar” through hell but it’s still his number one

By Andrew Daly published 6 April 26

Perry’s Fender/Warmoth “Burned Strat” aka the “Rat Strat” was the main guitar on Aerosmith’s recent collab with Yungblud

Danny Moffat on how The Collect Pond are wearing a '90s pejorative as a badge of honor

By Joe Bosso published 6 April 26

A jangle-pop-inspired Boston post-punk band that shares its name with a putrid body of water in 19th-century Lower Manhattan? What’s not to love!

What this pristine 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard tells us about the myth of the ’Bursts

By Dave Davidson published 6 April 26

A so-called Double-O, this 1960 Les Paul was made from ’59 parts, and is a bona-fide grail. But this was not always the case. Back in the day, players just didn't get the appeal

Avenged Sevenfold’s Zachary Baker on cooking up a country album with a modeler and an Epiphone acoustic

By Daryl Robertson published 5 April 26

He built his name shredding stages with one of metal's biggest bands. Now, Zacky Vengeance talks us through the making of his debut album and why he relied on digital modelers over amps

A blues guitar hero showed me how he held his pick – and it changed the way I played guitar

By Matt Owen published 5 April 26

Some sage advice has shaped my entire playing journey – and anyone can give it a go for immediate results