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November 2025

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78 articles

November 30
- “You always get some guitar player stealing everyone’s thunder. Bass is mega-important – anyone who’s got an ounce of groove in them realises that”: How a hypnotic ‘Mani’ bassline propelled one of the Stone Roses’ finest moments
- “The origins of its nickname remain obscure, but, thankfully, the rest of its particulars were easier to pin down”: You know Greeny, now it’s time to meet Stripe – Gary Moore’s other go-to ’59 Les Paul, and a guitar of incalculable vibe
November 29
- I am determined to find great tone for under $100. Behold! I have unearthed the best cheap pedal deals from Boss, MXR, Electro-Harmonix, JHS, Walrus Audio and many more
- “I’ve probably spent all my royalties on the endless pedals that arrive at the door to my wife’s displeasure”: How Marillion’s Steve Rothery forged a new musical alliance – and got addicted to buying pedals in the process
- “Playing a 5-string bass is a different world, but I feel way more funky with just four strings”: L.A. session bassist Pops Magellan on swapping stadium shows with megastars to shine the spotlight on her own material
November 27
- “I saw Ace Frehley bending backwards doing a solo. That’s when it clicked with me: ‘I wanna be a rock guy now!’” Inspired by Kiss, Metallica and Dokken, DRAIN’s Cody Chavez is the hardcore hero who isn’t afraid to shred
- “There’s no weight relief and limited colors, but this is the real deal with vintage vibe and feel”: 6 Gibson USA Les Pauls we love that won’t break the bank
- “I thought, ‘Oh, it’s just a fellow musician, that’s fine,’ and he walked out with the case. When I went to get my guitar, it was gone”: Roger McGuinn on the Ovation 12-string that fell apart and the infamous Rickenbacker theft of ’65
November 26
- “We parked up outside Steve Vai’s caravan. His guitar tech saw me. Next thing you know, Steve’s there, and I’m trying my best to play Tobacco Road”: He was a guitar god at 8, then he disappeared – the unlikely story of Thomas McRocklin
- “One promoter just bailed… So we stole his PA and sold it for gas money”: The life and times of infamous Philly punk icons Ink & Dagger
November 25
- “Young bass players should diversify their sound if they want to land gigs. Not everyone can be in Foo Fighters”: How Juan Alderete’s infatuation with bass gear made him one of the world’s greatest authorities on pedals and effects
- “Right before we get on stage, Paul said, ‘I don't want to discourage you, but you’ve got 4,000 people in the crowd – and a worldwide stream’”: Meet Magnolia Boulevard, the soulful rockers personally backed by Paul Reed Smith
- “I’d put it right alongside any of the classic Fender amps. I think it’s earned that right”: 30 years of the Blues Junior – the Fender combo that came, saw and conquered the tube amp market
November 24
- “If all you want to do is sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan, you’re screwed. There was only one of him and he did it better than anyone else”: What Guthrie Trapp learned while escaping the country player label – and how the fretboard can change your life
- “Tony Rice is the closest guy to a shredder that I was fixed on – but he could only influence me so far because I didn’t really understand his vocabulary”: Robbie Fulks on the “miracle” of bluegrass and the ecstasies of improv solos
- “The guitar is the most difficult instrument to play. Trumpet players might argue with me”: Robben Ford on his favorite Tele, Dumble magic and why the guitar is a tough nut to crack
November 23
- “I spent 14 years in the Iron Maidens. It was a great time… but I didn’t start playing guitar to be a professional tribute musician”: How Courtney Cox found her own identity bringing malevolent riffing to the coven of Burning Witches
- “I wrote that for my mom. I never thought about releasing it, but she passed away last year”: Fresh off his stint with the Goo Goo Dolls, Sammy Boller has a new EP – featuring two-handed tapping and an 8-string borrowed from Tim Henson
November 22
- “I met Billy Cobham on a Campbell’s Soup jingle and doing an Avon jingle with Herbie Hancock. It was an amazing time”: A pre-fame Stanley Clarke took chance after chance at a 1974 session with Aretha Franklin – and helped define a soul classic
- “My wife has told me, ‘I see from the outside that you can’t stop. This is who you are, this is what you do’”: George Lynch on resurrecting his band, what it would take for him to go back to blues, and chasing that elusive masterpiece
November 21
- “I’d heard these rumours that ‘it’s even been a sunburst’… I’ve read that one, too. But I could find no evidence of this”: Up close and personal with Gary Moore’s mythical 1960 Fender Stratocaster – the $330,000 Strat that lit up his Red House performance
- “I found it more rewarding playing bass than playing rhythm. I've always been into Northern Soul and funk grooves and it was like, ‘This is it’”: Anchoring Primal Scream and the Stone Roses, Mani proudly defied trends, and re-defined rock bass in the 90s
- “When I finished, I sent Kirk Hammett a picture and said, ‘Do you want to use it?’ He replied in all caps, ‘YES!’” Gibson CEO Cesar Gueikian has spent 4 years learning how to build guitars – and his prized SG was played at metal’s most historic concert
November 20
- “I’m not a music theory brother at all. He ripped my solo apart”: From soloing next to Misha Mansoor and Marty Friedman to meeting the demands of Josh Middleton, Heriot are next-gen metal guitar heroes in the making
- “I asked Eric, ‘Can I play them?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, of course.’ So he went home and I had full licence to play his guitars”: Stephen Dale Petit on break-ups, cancer, Eric Clapton and why the original “blues hooligan” is no gun-for-hire
- “I found this Junior on Reverb and it turned out to be Billie Joe Armstrong’s signature. It doesn’t look like other Juniors – it looks like a Fender”: Anglo-French blues-rocker Laura Cox on Les Pauls vs SGs, and getting huge tone from a Junior guitar
November 19
- “Guitars are total peacocks. It’s an extension of the performance”: Inspired by Brian May and Prince, The Rocket might be 2025’s wildest guitar build – NYC firebrand Des Rocs explains why it’s the “opposite of the Joe Bonamassa complex”
- “I am brutally honest, even at the risk of losing my gig. Ace loved it because he was surrounded by people who’d say he could do no wrong. I never did that”: Anthony Esposito’s unique career alongside the Spaceman, George Lynch and Jake E. Lee
November 18
- “I’m nervous of that guitar because it’s so expensive. I can barely look at it”: Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil on how you can shake the Earth with one finger, and why he fell in love with Kirk Hammett’s Greeny – even if he’s still Team Strat
- “I went to the Crossroads Festival when I was 7. I've been married to my Eric Clapton Strat since I was 13”: Meet NYC trio Tchotchke and their six-string hotshot Emily Tooraen – who caught the blues bug when she saw B.B. King and ZZ Top as a kid
November 17
- “The six-string system never hooked my brain. With this guitar, none of the shapes work, so you have to think differently”: Jacob Collier taught me how to play his 5-string guitar – but I learned much more than just new shapes and tunings
- “I was just too frightened – it was too big a moment with everyone looking at the guitar player. I couldn’t do it”: Paul McCartney was meant to be the Beatles’ lead guitarist – then stage fright led him to George Harrison
- “I was almost throwing down a challenge with some of those basslines: play me if you can!” John Paul Jones’ best Led Zeppelin basslines – including an eight-string classic
- “There are people who bought my signature Jaguar because of its reputation – they don't have to be a fan of my music”: Johnny Marr on reinventing the Fender Jaguar (again), the “biggest reunion of all time” and why Nile Rodgers deserves more credit
November 16
- “I moved over to Fender for a couple of years, learning a lot of history there – but also how I didn’t want to make a guitar”: How John Suhr built one of guitar’s hottest boutique brands
- “I said, ‘We aren’t getting paid properly. I’m going back to New York.’ Duane Allman said, ‘I’m gonna go home and start a band with my brother’”: Jerry Jemmott played with B.B. King and George Benson – but two car accidents influenced him the most
November 15
- “At one stage it sounded like Guns N’ Roses’ November Rain. It was so pompous and bombastic – just the worst”: It was a “nightmare” to record and reduced Thom Yorke to tears – but this difficult Radiohead song went on to be a viral smash
November 14
- “We were afraid the record company was going to chuck us, so I started playing these chords. It all came about pretty quickly – like magic”: Dave Davies on the Kinks’ argumentative energy, mixed feelings on Van Halen, and Jeff Beck, the “loose cannon”
- “I’ll just grab ahold of the G string, pinch it and then bend it way up. You’re doing it to get a laugh out of the guys”: Big Wreck’s Ian Thornley on channeling Eric Johnson and Steve Morse – and why he’s called a guitar the “Jungle Gym”
- “Initially, Gary was very frosty. I said, ‘On this track, you used the “Greeny” Les Paul, didn’t you?’ And his eyes lit up”: Inside the final Gary Moore gear auction – from the amps behind his sound to the red Strat that unleashed his blues power
November 13
- “I used to be obsessed with being super-clean… Then I realized that was really boring”: Far Caspian made one of this year's best indie records, and he did it by paring down guitar layers (from “40” to three) and embracing dirt
- “I already played guitar with a pick, so that’s how I played bass. I didn’t know you were supposed to play it with your fingers!” Kim Deal’s DIY attitude with the Pixies inspired a generation of alt-rockers
November 12
- “I thought it was the worst film I’d seen in my life! I was super-embarrassed. But that solo became part of the franchise’”: Stevie Salas on Bill & Ted, playing arenas with Rod Stewart then opening for Joe Satriani, and turning down both Van Halen singers
- “I lost my mojo for a minute, but they propped me back up”: He was one of the great blues guitar talents of the ’90s, then the gigs dried up. Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith helped him get his game face back on
- “A guy offered me way more than I paid – it was too hard to pass up. I let it go and immediately regretted it”: Phil X on the guitars he’s loved and lost – and how Eddie Van Halen taught him to “enjoy and ruin” the instrument
November 11
- “I moved a refrigerator for them and they said, ‘Here, take this guitar for gas money or whatever’”: How Jack White came upon the castaway guitar he'd use to play Seven Nation Army at the Grammys
- “It’s the guitar pedal equivalent of the Ark of the Covenant”: 50 years ago, Electro-Harmonix set the template for the future of guitar stores – then it disappeared without a trace. This is the story of the Hall of Science
- “Jim Carrey stormed the stage mid-song to air guitar his right leg like a maniac”: From David Bowie going rogue to George Harrison x Paul Simon, EVH and SRV – the 50 greatest guitar moments in SNL history
- “When I first came into the band, it was split into factions. Now everything feels solidified”: Guns N’ Roses’ longest-serving guitarist Richard Fortus on his bond with Slash and why he’s as surprised as anyone he’s still in the band
November 10
- "The building blocks of ’60s-style rock and roll, R&B and funk/soul": Ernie Ball Pino Palladino Smoothies flatwound bass strings review
- “Jeff Beck would pick up my fretless and play the craziest licks. I was in awe”: Pino Palladino’s adventures with The Who, John Mayer, Eric Clapton and his Music Man fretless bass
- “When I was 15, I was hustling it out in the juke joint clubs – and then along came Mr. Buddy Guy…” From teenage prodigy to modern guitar royalty, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram is ushering in a new era for blues guitar
November 9
- “Boldly established Ibanez as a new contender in the highly competitive Superstrat market”: How Ibanez’s era-defining RG550 transformed high-performance guitar
- “He used seashells as a pick, that's where he gets all that squank from”: Brilliant players of all persuasions have earned their stripes in Lynyrd Skynyrd's three-guitar army. Rickey Medlocke takes us through all of them, and what made them special
November 8
- “It's more than an effect. It's an instrument in itself”: Made famous by David Gilmour, and employed by Rory Gallagher and the Beatles, the Binson Echorec is a secret-recipe tool that helped define rock guitar tone
- “All I wanted was to be a punk rocker and play the bass guitar. I went completely in the other direction from jazz, and now I'm trying to catch up”: When Flea met Charlie Haden – and had much more in common than you might think
November 7
- “It’s so hard when you come in to bands like Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers where the fans actually care who the bass player is”: How Oteil Burbridge set about replacing Phil Lesh to become Dead & Company’s new singing bass hero
- “If I could ever even get close to the feel or touch of that performance, I could die a happy man”: He’s inspired by Buddy Guy, played EVH in a Van Halen tribute band and made his name in GA-20 – say hello to Pat Faherty's new power trio
- Get the most from your tube amp with the Orange Valve Tester MKII
- “Son House rolled his eyes back and tossed his head – he seemed to go into a trance, snapping and slamming the strings”: Rory Block left home as a teenager then met and impressed her blues heroes
November 6
- “That’s all I had for weeks… People started banging on the wall – ‘Don’t play that anymore!’” Tom Petty wanted to turn a catchy riff into a much-needed hit. He didn't stop playing it until he did
- “Let me see you lay down a groove like Poundcake. That’s harder than getting up there and soloing”: The lead single from Van Halen’s 1991 album with Sammy Hagar combines a thunderous bassline with a revved-up power drill
- “I wanted to learn a Nirvana song. The teacher was like, ‘Kurt Cobain is one of the worst guitarists in the world’”: Sub Pop-backed alt-rockers SPRINTS on guitar trolls, setting amps on fire – and the tonal benefits of olive oil
- “There’s a synergy between you and a great instrument. That could be a $300 Squier or a $5,000 Gibson. It doesn’t matter”: Chris Buck on vintage “dogs”, signature model intrigue, and how rock royalty helped his regal blues-rock tap into America
November 5
- “Bernie was playing right out of Randy’s pedalboard and amp. He said Randy’s pedalboard was doing changes on its own”: Bernie Tormé only played seven gigs with Ozzy Osbourne – but he saved the Black Sabbath frontman’s career
- “I would like people to know that I was the true inventor of ska and reggae”: Ernest Ranglin on working with Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, James Bond – and how he influenced “almost every aspect of Jamaican music”
- “I didn’t have the brainpower to focus – I was just like, ‘I need to make sure Frankenstein is safe’”: Anxiety, wildfires, slap guitar: How Wolfgang Van Halen made the monster guitar album of 2025
November 4
- “A lot of the issues were to do with management and stuff that pitted me and Axl against each other”: Slash on his return to Guns N’ Roses, changing up the Sweet Child O’ Mine solo, and what needs to happen for a new GNR album
- “Do you want to recycle or try something new? I never chased popular opinion as much as I chased my inner feelings”: How surviving cancer inspired Ana Popovic to take blues guitar to the dancefloor
- “I never thought I’d get hired by a pop band. Opening for Coldplay with Willow Smith was never a career goal”: Few bassists can match the technical ability of Mohini Dey, thanks to her work with Steve Vai, Willow Smith and just about everyone else
- “I’m not sure why the tour ended so abruptly. I never got a bunch of my gear returned. People don’t get sacked from Sabbath – they just don’t get spoken to again!” Ask Jo Burt about Freddie Mercury, Brian Setzer and The Troggs – just not Black Sabbath
November 3
- “Changing from active to passive was huge – I’d forget to change the batteries and have a meltdown pre-gig when my EMGs died”: Conjurer just dropped a modern sludge-metal classic – and they made it using custom guitars with satanic scale lengths
- “The quality of guitars didn’t plummet overnight – some might argue that it remained high for at least a decade”: Fender CBS guitars get a bad rep – but what actually changed?
- “He had Double Trouble on a couple of his records. He had a relationship with Stevie Ray Vaughan. He was a touring machine who did it the hard way”: Eric Gales on his all-star blues tribute to his brother, the man who started him on guitar
November 2
- “I would run across the stage and ‘break’ the bass over my head while our sound guy played samples of trees cracking”: Described as the 4-string equivalent of painting with a sledgehammer, Van Halen’s Ultra Bass was not your typical bass solo
- “I had a really bad detox. I fell down a flight of stairs. I screwed up my shoulder and neck and couldn’t play guitar for a while. I thought God had taken it all away”: How Ace Frehley came back from the brink with his first solo album in 20 years
November 1
- “I hate new basses. I think they are terrible. I don’t want to have one in my hands”: How Sting’s 1953 P-Bass set the tone for this Police classic
- “Me and Chino rowed a lot when we were working on it. It was a really abrasive process”: Deftones' White Pony was one of the first metal masterpieces of the new millennium. Its creation was anything but smooth sailing