Features archive
July 2021
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85 articles
- July 30
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- The 47 greatest live guitar moments: the most iconic, infamous and explosive onstage antics in six-string history
- Juanes: "If you want to be a good player, you need to practice every day, take your instrument everywhere. Sleep with it"
- Paul McCartney: "Anything Wings did had to be viewed in the light of The Beatles. And the comparisons were always very harsh"
- Meet Kenny Brown, the greatest of the Hill Country blues sidemen
- Tamar Aphek: "The first thing that captivated me about rock was all the kinds of distorted sounds you can get on a guitar"
- July 29
- July 28
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- Eddie Van Halen talks honing his technique, his imitators, and the origins of Eruption in this classic 1996 interview with Billy Corgan
- Cory Wong: "When you design a guitar with Fender, you want to make it unique, so it stands out against all the other Strats"
- Anna Leone: "I've never seen myself as a guitarist per se. It's more like a tool that I use to write songs with"
- True bypass vs buffered bypass: what’s the difference?
- July 27
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- The greatest delay moments of all time: 25 classic guitar tracks elevated by echo
- Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock: "I quit trying to find my favorite guitar. All the precious pairing of instruments and amps is just time spent not writing"
- Brad Gillis: “My first gig with Ozzy was horrendous – at soundcheck we only played 7 of the 18 songs on the setlist, and Ozzy didn't even show up!”
- Marty Friedman: "I spend 80 percent of my time on the arrangement. If I have that beautiful frame, the notes I play inside it are going to really come through"
- July 26
- July 24
- July 23
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- As Everything Unfolds' Adam Kerr: “You can have the heaviest riff in the world, but if there's nothing but palm-muted chugs leading up to it, it won't hit like it needs to”
- Best guitar amps under $1,000 2021: 10 top combo amps and heads
- Buddy Guy: “When you pick up a guitar, you have something of your own even if you don’t realize it”
- July 22
- July 21
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- Paul Gilbert: "My slide playing is a risky career move. There have been times when I've tried stuff on stage and people have walked out the door!"
- Deryck Whibley on mental health: “Life can be really hard, but it can be great, too. We just have to work at it”
- 50 architects of the electric guitar
- Steve Vai reflects on his role in Crossroads: “The guitar duel was energetic and well laid out – kids responded to that”
- The history of guitar synths
- July 20
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- Tony Visconti reflects on the genius of T. Rex's Marc Bolan
- Royal Blood‘s Mike Kerr: “There are videos on how to sound like us on a budget of £1,500. And I’m always thinking, ‘Man, you could do it with £600!’“
- Everything Everything's Jeremy Pritchard: "I really enjoy the limitations of the bass. It’s forced me to be creative with the basic building blocks of music"
- July 19
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- The Obsessed's Scott "Wino" Weinrich: "The objective is to get my sound with just the pickups, amps, and hands. It’s always worked for me"
- How Rickenbacker evolved into one of the most iconic guitar brands in music history
- Black Veil Brides' Jake Pitts and Jinxx on silver linings, defying the haters, and the digital guitar gear revolution
- July 16
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- Hearty Har's Tyler and Shane Fogerty on learning from their father, starting their own studio and experimenting with sounds
- Fernando Saunders on Lou Reed, playing the White House and hitting Harlem jazz clubs with the Czech political elite
- Carlos Santana’s long-time bassist Benny Rietveld reflects on a career at the front line of expression
- Classic gear: Gretsch 6122 Chet Atkins Country Gentleman
- July 15
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- Polish Club’s David Novak: “We’ve moved beyond the OG Polish Club setup”
- Dan Auerbach: “That reckless abandon when we play was learned from people like Kenny Brown... that’s why we can go and improvise a record together“
- Emily Wolfe: “I love to just go off live, but on the record it's going to be out there forever, so I need to make sure every note matters”
- July 14
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- Stone Temple Pilots’ Robert DeLeo: “It’s important for any musician to listen to as many kinds of music as you can”
- Evile's Ol Drake on resisting progress, out-Hetfielding Hetfield, and the gory taste of thrash
- The Neal Morse Band's Eric Gillette counts down his top 5 favorite guitar solos
- Mike Keneally on working with Frank Zappa: “My mind was being blown on a daily basis”
- July 13
- July 12
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- Spotlight: Harper Bloom
- Mikael Akerfeldt on 20 years of Opeth's Blackwater Park: "I was bitter and beaten down – I didn’t have much hope for us. All I knew was I liked the music I’d written"
- Ludic's Ayla Tesler-Mabe on classic rock epiphanies, stylistic detours and funk guitar as a “bed of sound“
- Spotlight: Wallice
- July 9
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- Best blues guitars 2021: these six-strings have the blues and they ain't bad
- Classic gear: 1950s Fender Stratocasters
- The new wave of classic rock: 15 guitar bands you need to know about
- 6 ways you can streamline your live guitar rig
- The secrets behind Steve Lukather's guitar tone on Along For the Ride
- Sam Kiszka: “The P-Bass has been proven to be the best bass, perhaps of all time. Leo Fender was one of the greatest revolutionaries of our time“
- 9 reasons you need a pedalboard power supply
- July 8
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- DZ Deathrays’ Shane Parsons and Lachlan Ewbank: “It’s almost like the record opens up as you get further and further into it”
- Mick Jones looks back at producing Van Halen's landmark 5150: "It was a pretty intense experience – but we achieved something very special"
- 10 easy and practical tips for getting a great live guitar sound
- 11 best metal guitars 2021: hell-raising electric guitars for shredders on any budget
- July 7
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- How to protect your hearing – the most important part of your guitar tone
- Beartooth's Caleb Shomo: "With this album, it was about working the choruses into all of the riffs. The riffs were always the priority in the writing process"
- Pierre Bensusan: “The way you tune the strings should not be used to hide a possible lack of imagination, but it should enhance it“
- Indie-rock trailblazers Martin Courtney and Francis Lung wax lyrical on the gear and songwriting behind their new albums
- July 6
- July 5
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- AFI’s Jade Puget: "I do a lot of effects in-the-box, because there are infinite things you can do – you can create unique tones that have never been done before"
- The life and times of Jamaican guitar legend Ernest Ranglin
- Roger Mayer on making the Purple Haze Octavia, a faithful recreation of the iconic pedal made famous by Jimi Hendrix
- Adeline: “For me, bass is about finding a good groove that people may not even notice – a good groove that I want to keep playing forever“
- July 2
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- 10 of today‘s brightest guitar talents discuss the everlasting impact of Eddie Van Halen
- Best amp modelers 2021: rack-mounted and floorboard options for every budget
- The secrets behind Jimmy Page's guitar tone on Led Zeppelin's Communication Breakdown
- Ricky Warwick: “I don’t have the patience to learn all the scales – it never interested me. My heroes were always the rhythm guys“
- Issy Ferris: “Playing bass gives me a power and character on stage that I hadn’t experienced before, and has made me a better performer and writer“
- July 1
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- Best earplugs for musicians 2021: 8 guitarist-friendly plugs for every budget
- How Gary Moore's propulsive playing and fiery tone changed the course of blues guitar
- John Goldsby: “It’s expected nowadays that you know how to play Brazilian music, or funk, or hip-hop, or metal. A lot of younger bass players can do it all“