Features archive
August 2023
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94 articles
- August 31
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- “Rocco Prestia could have held that 16th-note pattern in his sleep – it’s airtight” Halestorm bassist Josh Smith picks his top 5 bass albums
- “Hetfield would say, ‘Dude, get that bass s**t happening!’ It was a breathin'-down-your-neck type of thing...” Jason Newsted on the making of Metallica’s Load album
- “Every rock band is trying to write their own Seven Nation Army riff... It’s nice when you write something powerful that even a beginner could learn”: Simplicity is the key to a good guitar anthem – just ask Skindred’s Mikey Demus
- “Bonnie allows you to play what you feel and solo the way you like – there’s room for that, and it’s really refreshing”: Meet Duke Levine, the latest guitar ace in Bonnie Raitt’s formidable live lineup
- For over six decades, the Gibson Hummingbird has been an acoustic guitar staple. Now country icon Miranda Lambert has reimagined it as the Bluebird – she explains what inspired the radical makeover
- “We’re not taking the p***, playing silly rock riffs. I work hard to honor the original players”: How prog icon Robert Fripp ended up covering – and loving – Megadeth, Metallica and Slipknot
- August 30
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- “The thing about the electric guitar is you have an amplifier, so you don’t have to overplay… In fact, it sounds more powerful if you don’t”: Carl Baldassarre on how an academic love of Led Zeppelin inspired his dynamic new album
- Gibson only made 98 Flying Vs in the 1950s – which makes this ’58 Flying V one of the rarest electric guitars to come out of the company’s factory
- “As a kid, I had a hard time making friends. The guitar was a universal way to communicate where I didn’t have to worry about being cool”: For Nita Strauss, the guitar has been a lifelong ally in battling anxiety and addictions
- “Pedals are such an integral part of the music we make – potentially more than the guitar”: Meet BDRMM, the Mogwai-backed stompbox addicts behind one of 2023’s essential shoegaze albums
- August 29
- August 28
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- “As I came off the stage I said, ‘How much do you want for it?' He wanted the princely sum of 600 pounds”: Bernie Marsden plays the blues on “The Beast,” his legendary 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, and reveals its origin story
- “He completely floored me. I hadn’t been so gung-ho about a guitar player since Jeff Beck”: How David Bowie helped launch Stevie Ray Vaughan’s career – and why their joint tour was canceled at the last minute
- “People tell me my big mistake was not learning guitar right-handed... No, my big mistake was not learning guitar upside-down!” Meet Nat Myers, the Dan Auerbach protégé updating rootsy blues for the post-pandemic era
- “It needs a tune – but we’ll do that free of charge!”: Meet the Gibson Firebird that Jimmy Page lost in a drinking game with John Bonham
- August 27
- August 26
- August 25
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- “When I flick the pickup selector, it turns my bass into a Stratocaster!” Mike Kerr on how he broke all the bass rules for his signature Fender Jaguar – and why his “lack of ability” is key to Royal Blood’s astronomical success
- “The inability to play music or access words was quite frightening, but it was interesting… It became a focal point to write around”: Ben Howard feared the worst after suffering two mini-strokes. He returned with his most adventurous album yet
- August 24
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- “Trent Reznor and I were very 'f*** you' about guitars – it was the complete antithesis of what was going on with the era”: Filter's Richard Patrick on developing his unorthodox approach to tone – and his reunion with Nine Inch Nails
- “People would tell me, ‘Oh, you sound and play just like Eddie Van Halen.’ It got under my skin enough that I called Eddie”: Vito Bratta, one of the definitive ’80s shredders, looks back on a career of world-beating solos with White Lion
- August 23
- August 22
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- Big Muff vs Fuzz Face: what's the difference?
- “It suddenly made me feel so mature. I remember getting the shivers! It was not death metal”: How Jimmy Page, Stevie Wonder, Grand Theft Auto III and Steven Wilson helped Opeth become modern-day prog icons
- “We had a lot of adrenaline. Sometimes we didn’t remember what we did until the day after”: Inside the psych-surf sound of Teke::Teke – a riptide of antique drive pedals, improvisatory freakouts and needle nose pliers
- August 21
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- “I have had moments where I got the best tone on the cheapest guitar because I spent so much time with them”: Tora Dahle Aagård on the guitar gear in her life
- “Guitars adapt to whoever is playing them. I can play somebody else’s guitar for two weeks and it will change according to how I play it”: Ralph Towner on the sensitivity of the six-string – and why he doesn't use an amp on stage
- “Guys like Andy Timmons told me my playing is a part of his musical DNA. Marty Friedman and Paul Gilbert told me the same thing”: Angel's Punky Meadows on the return of a cult guitar hero
- Best Gretsch guitars: Explore those iconic Gretsch tones with our top picks
- August 20
- August 19
- August 18
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- “I was just trying to play distorted bass – everything had to be on 11!” Napalm Death bassist Shane Embury on writing riffs and fighting nazis
- “The fun part is singing over it”: how John Mayer turned a DIY practice routine into “probably the most emo song” he has
- The evolution of the late-‘60s Gibson Les Paul Custom – a near “exact duplicate of the original” that has become a holy grail for collectors
- “An absolute groundbreaker as a player”: His Telecaster mastery was the backbone of records by Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, and countless others – watch James Burton demonstrate his incredible chicken pickin’ technique
- August 17
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- 8 ways to keep your kids interested in playing guitar
- “It’s not about how complex your phrases are, it’s just about your style and stamp”: Sevendust’s John Connolly and Clint Lowery on how they “fell back in love with the art of soloing”
- “I’d love to have all vintage stuff. There’s just something different about using an original version of a legendary pedal”: John Notto reveals what’s on his pedalboard
- August 16
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- “The notion that there’s a designated lead and rhythm guitarist seems like such an antiquated concept”: For Hail the Sun, guitar duos are a puzzle – and it makes their fretboard-melting riffs all the more compelling
- Download and stream the audio from Guitar Techniques 352
- “It was the classic sob story in school – I was a bit of an outcast and didn’t make friends. The guitar was my release and my escape”: Sophie Lloyd went from filming YouTube covers to touring arenas with Machine Gun Kelly – she recounts her meteoric rise
- “Joe Perry had hit a block, so I was called in to play on Train Kept a Rollin’. They said, ‘Don't tell anyone – no-one can know’”: From Alice Cooper to Peter Gabriel and Aerosmith, Steve Hunter has led one of session guitar’s most remarkable careers
- “Stephen said, 'Why don't you just play along with my guitar line?' I said: 'Why don't you just p**s off?'” A classic interview with Deftones bassist Chi Cheng
- August 15
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- “Classical guitar is often about emulating other people, especially older generations – so I just wanted to do the wildest thing possible”: Marcin Patrzalek is reinventing the nylon-string for a new generation – and going viral while he’s at it
- “Will we see a bass player in the White House one day? Maybe, but it might not be me!” Forrest Gump star Gary Sinise on why he plays bass for veterans
- “Rhythm playing is the backbone of what a guitar player is trying to say – and it’s become deeply undervalued today”: Adrian Vandenberg is back with one of this year’s biggest rock guitar albums – where melody and rhythm are king
- August 14
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- Download and stream the audio from Total Guitar Annual 2024
- Best impulse response loaders 2024: professionally recorded guitar tones on the go
- “I'm still slammed with orders. Each B-Bender is made with care and love, just like I did with the first one for Clarence White”: How Gene Parsons reinvented electric guitar playing with the B-Bender
- "Like wrestling an octopus": How to play bass like Les Claypool
- “It felt like I had been training my whole life for that gig”: How Nuno Bettencourt ended up playing with Rihanna
- August 12
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- Best impulse responses 2024: the secret sauce of great recorded guitar tone
- “I was close to being kicked out of school. A therapist suggested guitar playing would help me with my behavior and grades…”: Peruvian shredder Charlie Parra had an unlikely path to success – but Eddie Van Halen was always his guiding light
- August 11
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- Everything you need to know about tube amp attenuation
- “I can’t be a better Paul McCartney. I can’t be a better you. I can only be a better me”: 7 questions with Kat Dyson
- “Fenders give me so much versatility – I can go from rock to cumbia to funk to salsa to vallenato to metal”: He’s one of Colombia’s biggest-selling artists – now Juanes has a signature Stratocaster as multitalented as he is
- Steve Hackett called him “probably the most proficient tapper out there”: Watch underrated tapping genius Stanley Jordan apply his masterful technique to Stairway to Heaven – on two guitars at once
- “Everything about the design appeals to me”: Jacob Collier on why he created his wild 5-string Strandberg – and how he unlocked a new musical language with its unusual alternate tuning
- August 10
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- "We had no idea we were going to do it": That time Jimmy Page, Jack White and The Edge saluted the Band with a surprise campfire cover of The Weight
- “I’ve often said I’d rather be a Chet Atkins back-room guy. But I’m an opportunist, too. So, if the spotlight keeps falling on me, I’ll have to rise to the occasion”: Steve Howe reveals what it takes to mastermind a prog institution
- “The Franken V is literally a dream come true. It’s the best guitar I’ve ever had”: Scott Ian always wanted a V-shaped version of Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstein – and Jackson made it a jaw-dropping reality
- Best amp simulators: lose the amp, keep the tone
- “Prince was serious about what he wanted. He would turn around, point to you and say, ‘Go!’”: Josh Dunham names the five albums that helped shape his sound with Prince
- “Playing with Bob Dylan was like entering The Twilight Zone of music. You thought, ‘They’re going to wake me up tomorrow because all of this is impossible’”: Robbie Robertson reflects on his remarkable career and the end of the Band
- August 9
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- “We’ll play up to 200 songs over the course of a tour… it would drive me crazy to play the same songs every night”: Warren Haynes on what drives Gov’t Mule – and why he’s focusing on writing guitar epics
- “The kids just went ape”: The menacing riff that inspired Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend and Jeff Beck – and had a guitar tone so aggressive it was banned from the radio
- “With an SG, I can let out my visceral, animalistic side as a player. That’s difficult for me to attain with anything else”: How Greta Van Fleet’s Jake Kiszka is embracing primal guitar and blues heroes
- August 8
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- “My guitar playing in itself is crude and extremely simple, but whole sonic worlds grow out of it”: Swans influenced everyone from Nirvana to Tool, but Michael Gira still doesn't see himself as a guitarist
- For decades no-one even knew his name. This month, James Jamerson will have a street named after him
- “For me, Wish You Were Here is the most satisfying album. I really love it. I'd rather listen to that than Dark Side of the Moon”: David Gilmour opens up on the creative tension that built Pink Floyd's classic records
- August 7
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- “I think it's fairly impossible to be a guitarist without loving Steve Vai”: Nili Brosh names 10 guitarists who shaped her sound
- “I don't know whether we played it properly, but the audience loved it”: When Black Sabbath regularly covered Smoke on the Water – and unwittingly inspired Spinal Tap's Stonehenge
- “Guitar geeks’ eyes pop out of their heads”: Introducing Nepco – the stunning indie guitar builds that ask, ‘What if Danelectro made Vs?’
- August 5
- August 4
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- “The nylon-string guitar is obviously the most beautiful instrument in the world”: Norwegian singer-songwriter Juni Habel on making hazy acoustic folk without a steel-string in sight
- “I was bullied for my technique. I just used that as motivation… keep playing until you smoke the haters”: Meet Snõõper, the Jack White-signed Nashville indie punks making art from 100mph fretwork
- “On a quick trip to interview Paul Reed Smith I was told we were going to the White House so I’d better pack a suit”: Celebrating 500 issues of Guitarist, one of the world’s greatest guitar magazines
- His underrated guitar playing influenced everyone from the Beatles to Nirvana – here's how Lead Belly used his 12-string skills to play his way out of prison
- August 3
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- Introducing HotWax, the 18-year-old grunge enthusiasts named after an unsung overdrive pedal and making ’90s alt-rock anthems for generation Z
- “It's not always easy – metal is not a mainstream genre in Japan. But we can expand the range of people who enjoy it”: Lovebites' Midori Tatematsu on her mission to bring 24-fret metal shred to the masses
- “Wings are underrated. It’s difficult to follow The Beatles. It’s like following God”: How Paul McCartney quit the world's biggest band... and triumphed
- August 2
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- “40 minutes of bass solos just ain’t going to work for me”: Meshell Ndgeocello on why she could never be as solo-orientated as Jaco Pastorius
- “I would definitely advise trying classical guitar – it’s really easy to translate classical chord shapes to pop music”: How NY duo The Lemon Twigs are leading the ’70s glam rock guitar revival
- “We’ve always said genre’s a lie since day one”: Meet Hot Milk, the Manchester punk-rockers who love P-90 pickups and EDM in equal measure, and count Dave Grohl among their fans
- “The apocalypse will happen before most of our pickups ever take a dump”: Jason Lollar on what drives him to make better pickups than anything that’s gone before
- “I'd hear Dave Mustaine aimlessly riffing on the couch, and it's the riffs that ended up on the first two Megadeth – and, frankly, Metallica – records”: Megadeth's first lead guitarist Greg Handevidt on the birth of a metal institution
- August 1
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- “We’ve never wanted to come across like we’re doing things properly”: How Squid overcame imposter syndrome to develop a mesmerizing post-punk guitar sound
- The bizarro novelty hit from 1965 that featured one of the wildest alternate tunings in guitar history – and Lou Reed
- “You bassists who think your bass isn’t loud enough, you’re right! I always want my bass louder in the mix”: How Geddy Lee found his sound with Rush
- Best bass pickups: Improve your bass sound with options from Fender, Aguilar, Seymour Duncan and more
- “The first guitar that I really fell in love with was a Les Paul – going to Gibson felt very full circle because that’s where I started”: Mark Morton on his future with the guitar giant, his enviable vintage collection and touring with Pantera
