Features archive

June 2026

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65 articles

June 23
- “I was 38 when we went on tour with Pearl Jam. A long time ago, I’d given up on the dream of something like that happening”: Dead Pioneers on how indigenous politics and pedal-builds have powered them to punk glory
- “Bob Rock said, ‘OK, tune up, and we’ll do the rhythm for this song now.’ I was like, ‘What?’” Kirk Hammett didn’t play rhythm guitar on Metallica's first five albums. That all changed with 1996’s controversial Load
- “I’ve never been very confident as a player. I’ve always felt like I had to work hard, and maybe I didn’t appreciate that I have a natural talent for playing guitar”: Alex Lifeson’s 20 greatest guitar moments in Rush
June 22
- “Most retailers simply make copycat products and charge a little less. That’s completely uninteresting to me”: Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto aims to defy skepticism with his new house brand – and insists we don’t need more Les Paul or Tele clones
- “We end up drinking until 5 in the morning. I wake up with the worst hangover of my life, and now I’ve got to play with Metallica”: How a late-night drinking session with Lars Ulrich almost ruined Robert Trujillo’s Metallica audition
- “The Revstar is doing really well right now. I think that’s because it’s so different to what other major brands like Gibson and Fender are putting out”: Inside 60 years of Yamaha guitars – how the Japanese firm forged its own six-string path
- “Its popularity extends beyond jazz boundaries – notable players include Steve Howe, B.B. King and even John Frusciante”: Why Gibson’s longest-running production electric remains one of the world’s more affordable vintage guitars
June 20
- “Eric Clapton isn’t God. Jack Bruce is. When I was 14 I sprayed his name on my bedroom wall in luminous paint to remind me who the greatest bass player in the world is”: Jeff Berlin on meeting his bass hero – and playing White Room alongside him
June 19
- “I’m sick of people saying Walk On the Wild Side is a classic. I got paid £12, and David Bowie didn’t even show up”: Session bass legend Herbie Flowers on the making of Lou Reed’s 1972 hit – and the hardest session he ever did
- “I’d given up hope. Then Wendy Dio called me. She asked how I’d feel playing in front of 20,000 people”: Rowan Robertson was 17 years old when he joined Dio. He looks back on how he got the gig – and why it all came to an end after one album
- “It was identical. Same room, same guitar, same movements. It was literally my video… except I’d been replaced”: Guitarists are having their videos stolen, replaced by AI and used to scam people out of money – and nobody is doing anything to stop it
- “There’s a lot of gear I had to get rid of because rent was due. I was always paid as a sideman – there were only a few moments where I was paid decent money”: Marc Ford’s life in guitars
June 18
- “I have no idea what the first song I learned was. My memory has been worn down by copious LSD experiments”: Billy Squier on saving his ’59 Les Paul from a fire, the world’s greatest Marshall and why he stopped practicing
- “Look for ones built from 2013 onwards… Gibson changed a lot of things and they became much, much better guitars”: How to get a bargain on a Les Paul Standard ’Burst reissue
- “These days I would be reluctant to say that Gibson invented the archtop”: The untold history of German guitar building
- “Someone in the band screamed, ‘Don’t you know what a privilege it is to play with Frank? How can you ruin his music?’” The notorious final tour of the Zappa band, and his bassist’s role in its demise
June 17
- “We started talking about Black Sabbath, and Buzz goes, ‘You know they did this thing called drop D.’ We said, ‘What’s that?’” Kim Thayil on how Soundgarden took rock guitar into the superunknown – and the unfinished Chris Cornell tapes
- Was Neal Schon the godfather of ’80s glam metal? Tracing the surprising origins of Mötley Crüe’s seminal Looks That Kill riff
June 16
- “There was a lot of interference and push to be commercial. We went along for the ride – and got left in the middle of nowhere”: The thrash metal bands who deserved to make it – but didn’t
- “The downpicking approach was inspired by competition between Dave and I. Like, ‘Here’s a riff… Wait, you can’t play that. Hahaha!’” How James Hetfield wrangled Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax for metal’s biggest reunion
- “My next-door neighbor was Paul McCartney. We got to talking, but I never told him who I was. I had this fear that he wouldn’t know me”: YouTubers, sloppy solos, Paco de Lucía’s darkest tour secrets… in conversation with Al Di Meola and Julian Lage
- “Alex and I looked at each other and went, ‘Wow, I think we have a drummer… Now what do we do?’” Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson on the inside story behind the Rush reunion
June 15
- “That is the most ‘Seattle’ riff I’ve ever heard in my life”: The recording of Nirvana's Bleach – and the band's “ultimate grunge song”
- “I want three Telecasters, rather than just one, because they’re sufficiently different to justify it!” Everything you need to know about 1950s Telecaster pickups – and how to build your own replicas
- “Steve Albini died, a friend died, my father died, the father of my wife died. But I want to focus on the positive”: How a composer's approach and 40 DD-3 pedals helped noise masters MONO to heal their grief
- “It’s something I’ve always done all my life, and I can’t get away from it. I have to remind myself it’s okay to play the tops of chords”: Doug Gillard of Guided By Voices on finally going solo again – and the playing quirk he can’t shake
June 14
- “Van Morrison didn’t speak to us, and we didn’t speak to him. We just started playing through the charts”: How jazz bassist Richard Davis helped shape Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks
June 12
- “Be mercenary – get rid of five guitars to get one incredible piece”: 25 tips for finding your dream guitar (for the right price)
- “I fell in with some Texas boys and started jamming. They had these G&Ls. The first time I picked one up, I fell in love”: Jerry Cantrell on the magic and mods of his iconic “Blue Dress” G&L Rampage – and his gift from Eddie Van Halen
- “It was the nicest guitar at NAMM”: The Gold Caged Steelcaster is a $15,000, 24-carat T-style inspired by a Cadillac – and it takes James Trussart’s metalwork lutherie to new levels
June 11
- “I just don't like chords – I don't like playing them. Music is much more interesting when everybody plays a harmonic line that creates a wider picture”: How Death Cab for Cutie found their second act – by embracing the weird, and guitars from their past
- “I jammed with Prince once, and he was like, ‘What is that effect you have on your guitar?’ I said, ‘Nothing.’ He couldn’t believe it”: Lenny Kravitz on the time he blew Prince’s mind with his guitar tone
- “The guitar is based on a Strat I have, as well as my Jazzmaster. I’m biased, of course, but it sounds really good!” Guitar tone gourmand Ariel Posen spills the secrets to his sound
June 10
- “I looked at him like he had two heads and said, ‘Let me get this straight – you’re going to fire Jake E. Lee from his own band?’” Greg Chaisson waited years to reunite with Jake E. Lee. But then he had to quit, and couldn’t say why
- “I wanted to leave, but I didn't have the guts to quit. Just as I reached for the phone, it rang. ‘Hi, Flea, you’re fired’”: The call that ended Flea’s days as a pick-playing punk and set him on the path to worldwide fame with the Red Hot Chili Peppers
- “So common that it is depicted as a generic electric guitar in a dictionary”: When Fender went to court and lost – the 2009 court ruling that failed to trademark the Stratocaster
- “I was just playing, warming up for the show, and Glenn comes busting in… ‘What the hell’s that?’ ‘I don’t know, it’s just this lick I warm up with.’ He said, ‘No, that‘s an Eagles song, dude!’” The making of the Eagles’ 1976 masterpiece Hotel California
- The $330,200 Fender Telecaster that connects Danny Gatton to Lou Reed
June 9
- “I woke up hallucinating. It felt like a really bad acid trip. I tried to talk about that in the song”: Failure’s Ken Andrews is one of alt-rock's most influential tonesmiths. He talks teaming up with Hayley Williams and his return from near-death
- “I was like, ‘Oh, this playing sounds weirdly familiar.’ And then I found the video. It was lifted note for note”: The moment Jack Gardiner realized Giacomo Turra had lifted his licks
- “The P-90s in it are ridiculously good. I’m still trying to work out quite why they’re as good as they are, if I’m honest”: What makes this 1957 Les Paul Special such a smokeshow?
June 8
- “I found myself sitting next to Keith Richards – just two guys playing the guitar. Doesn’t get much better than that!” From Eric Clapton to Daft Punk and Avenged Sevenfold, Greg Leisz has played with everyone. But don’t call him a session guitarist
- “Everyone in the room thought I was buying it. Maybe it helped – people weren’t bidding the way they were on some of the other guitars!” What Derek Trucks made of Jerry Garcia’s $11m Tiger guitar
- “When Ozzy approached me, there was an inner warning light that said, ‘Don’t do that because you have just left UFO and Scorpions’”: Michael Schenker on his lifelong pursuit of self-expression and track-by-track guide to Don't Sell Your Soul
June 7
- “I wasn’t shocked by Angine de Poitrine. Microtonalism has always been there. When Hendrix played 20 cents sharp, it’s the most beautiful thing he played”: David Torn is playing louder and heavier than ever, leaving a trail of trashed bridges in his wake
- “It’s fine to become a technical monster, but if you can’t come up with a good bassline it’s useless”: Lee Sklar shares his secrets for finding the perfect groove in the studio
June 6
- “When Squeeze were first successful, we essentially had to dumb down to fit in with what was going on”: Glenn Tilbrook on the sounds that gave Squeeze a push, and the resurrection of the English rock legends' early recordings
- “I borrowed that lick from Willie Weeks. By the time we hit my hometown, I had the entire solo under my fingers”: How Gerald Johnson’s twisting bassline culminated in a full-on solo – a rarity for a 1973 rock track
June 5
- 15 hotshot NYC guitarists that prove the Big Apple’s still got some bite – from the Rat Queen to the most-hyped indie band on the planet
- “I’ve tried Strandbergs and other ergonomic guitars. They were all close, but they weren’t it”: Meet the Afghanistan war veteran who made it his mission to design the ultimate ergonomic guitar
- “I was just jamming to the track, and Michael came down with Brooke Shields. I asked, ‘Is this cool?’ He said, ‘Anything you want, Slash’”: The surreal beginning to Slash’s musical relationship with Michael Jackson
- “Some of these guitars have doubled in value between 2019 and now”: The best guitar bargains on Reverb – and how to get more for your old gear
June 4
- “I was broke, so I said yes to everything. I just knew I could never have a normal job”: How Henrik Linder went from struggling music student to overnight success with Dirty Loops
- “I snapped, flipped him off, grabbed my coat, and stormed out of the studio. I told him to ‘get Steve Vai’”: Kim Thayil reveals his battles over Soundgarden’s Superunknown and Black Hole Sun
- “Without the guitar, I’d probably be a professional dog-walker or in jail”: The life and times of Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell
- “He was extremely let down by his manager. The guy ripped him off of so much money. To get Peter to talk about that, it was very painful”: Behind the scenes of the Peter Frampton documentary
June 3
- “Stone Gossard is the reason I picked up guitar in the first place. Having a front row seat to his playing has been amazing”: Josh Klinghoffer on Chili Peppers vs. Pearl Jam and playing in Andrew Watt's new wrecking crew
- “I was like, ‘Let’s freshen up the electric guitar.’ 60 years later, you’re still putting out tributes to the station wagon”: The story of John Mayer’s Fender fallout – and how it gave birth to the Stratocaster’s biggest rival
- “Even though it’s a budget guitar, it’s great. Paul Stanley used to smash one up at the end of KISS shows”: The amps that defined punk, the custom electric that was “painted in a shed” – Bruce Watson on the gear behind Big Country’s sound
June 2
- “I was a child – he’d choose which records I would get royalties on and which I didn’t. He was stealing my money, and I didn’t realize it”: The untold story of “The Lost Beach Boy” David Marks
- “I suspect Fender decided against building Thinlines with this specification because they would have been too expensive to manufacture”: What two 1967 prototypes tell us about the evolution of the Telecaster Thinline
- “Damon got very good, so it was pretty hard to write with him around – especially when he was rejecting your songs”: How Graham Coxon came out from his Blur bandmate’s shadow
June 1
- “I did four or five songs, then Ozzy said, ‘Welcome aboard’. I would have loved to have spent more time with him”: Randy Rhoads was his guitar teacher. Then he ended up in Ozzy Osbourne’s band
- “Everyone who is anyone has used one at some point in their careers”: The story of the Boss digital delay pedal that changed the world
- “He took some small songs of mine that nobody paid any attention to and turned them all into classics”: 11 cover songs that Jimi Hendrix made his own – including one that became Eric Clapton’s favorite Hendrix track