Features archive
September 2026
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112 articles
- September 30
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- “I was drunk. I fell flat on my face, but I could still squeeze out some notes, even though I was unconscious”: Mick Mars wasn’t even awake when he recorded parts for one of Mötley Crüe’s biggest tunes
- “Steve Jones threw the guitar against the wall, stormed out and never came back to get it”: The story of Gary Moore’s ’55 Les Paul Junior – a bargain buy from a Sex Pistol
- September 29
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- “I’m not a shredder. I don’t do leads. The solo was figured out on the spot”: Jim Adkins on the making of Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American – and The Middle’s iconic guitar lead
- “I don’t think a film can define her legacy – she did that through her playing. But it can help more people hear it”: Jazz virtuoso Emily Remler has gone unnoticed for far too long – now, one filmmaker is bringing her story to light
- Why the neck-to-body join has a major impact on the way your acoustic guitar plays and sounds
- “I’ve never been a fan of a shop that doesn’t let you play the good stuff”: Behind the scenes at Well Strung Guitars – Farmingdale, NY's emporium of vintage treasures
- September 28
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- “We asked 500 guitar and bass players, and 50% said they can’t or don’t set up their guitars”: MusicNomad is on a quest to make guitar setups simple – combining tools, education, and step-by-step guidance for beginners and pros alike
- Meet the Formula 1 engineer who started his own boutique tube amp brand, Woodfield: “The way I look at the amplifier, it’s an instrument. It’s as important as your guitar”
- “The Rockestra was quite a session – I was in the guitar section with Denny Laine, Hank Marvin, David Gilmour and Pete Townshend”: Laurence Juber on his bass lesson from Paul McCartney and the making of Wings’ 1979 swan song
- “The prognosis was I’d have two years of playing left in me before the batteries in my hands ran out”: A degenerative nerve condition forced blues fingerstylist Amit Dattani to hang up his acoustic. Then a custom electric guitar saved his playing
- “Crazy things happen when we play this song. Someone was crowdsurfing and threw out their prosthetic leg for me to sign”: How Drowning Pool made Bodies
- September 27
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- “Interestingly, the cheaper L-00 and L-0 models generally have a bolder, more focused tone than fancier similar models”: In praise of Gibson's L-00 – the small-bodied acoustic that could
- “A musician serves an intention, a continuum, a storytelling… You need to be listening carefully to what you play”: The quintessentially French, impossibility brilliant Pierre Bensusan on the freedom of DADGAD and unpredictable magic of performance
- “Bruce told me he wanted to sound more like Jeff Beck, so he ended up buying this Gibson. It turns out he’d bought an EB-6!” How Jimmy Fallon’s bassist bonded with Bruce Springsteen over their shared love of 6-string bass
- September 26
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- “The most common mistake is thinking it’s an out-of-tune guitar”: What people get wrong about microtonal music
- “It’s kinda like when Santa leaves the workshop and the elves get to play”: Weezer’s Brian Bell reveals his Mason Marangella-built pedalboard
- “Robert Fripp asked me to get together with some guys he knew. In the studio were Adrian Belew, Bill Bruford and Robert. My jaw dropped”: Tony Levin’s lessons from Steve Vai, Robert Fripp and Peter Gabriel
- September 25
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- “I was broke. I only had $200 and we booked a gig. There was this guitar at a pawn shop that had been there for years...” How George Thorogood stumbled across the Gibson that became his go-to guitar – a week before his first gig with the Destroyers
- “The day I was meant to leave, I was lying in my bed, paralyzed. I was like, ‘If I’ve got to keep doing these tours, I’m going to end up dead’”: Industrial metal pioneer Justin Broadrick on his punk salvation, Phoebe Bridgers collabs and burying Godflesh
- “I’m going to go home broke because I shipped everything over here... but at least I’ll have my sound”: Talking gear, tone and technique with the great Eric Johnson – and the “stigma” around modifying vintage Strats
- “Neil Young was supposed to play the solo, but he couldn’t make it, so I did it myself”: The cult up-and-coming ’90s guitarist who ended up pitching in for Neil Young at the last minute
- “The people who go with Yamaha don’t want the old-style. There’s a level of freedom if you’re a brand that doesn’t have that baggage”: Matteo Mancuso on the making of his signature Yamaha Revstar
- “There were shows where we literally weren’t allowed to stay inside the venue. We’d have to wait in the car until the support act had finished”: Teenage bassist Aria Becker on the strange realities of life in an underage band
- September 24
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- “As I sling Jack’s own Triplecaster over my shoulder, the gravity of the situation hits me”: I played Jack White’s guitar rig – here’s what I learned
- “I cut a hole in it and used a ruler as a neck and rubber bands as strings. I’d imitate Jimi Hendrix”: Micki Free on the time he made a guitar out of a detergent box and the advice Billy Gibbons gave him
- “I got back into classic jazz… exploring all those wonderful guitarists – Wes Montgomery, Pat Martino, Kenny Burrell and Grant Green”: Deirdre Cartwright on why she’s still flying the flag for jazz standards
- Rig breakdown: build your own version of Jack White's tricked-out stage setup
- September 23
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- “I took a blowtorch to it. I nearly killed myself”: Johnny Marr tried to make his first guitar look like Rory Gallagher’s – and it made him pass out
- “I never imagined I’d be standing onstage playing Detroit Rock City with Kiss”: Tommy Thayer is taking a funky next step with Shogun Mojo – but he still loves the day job
- Paul McCartney – a life in guitars: from the Ed Sullivan Epiphone to his Blackbird acoustic, and one of the world’s rarest Gibsons
- September 22
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- “I thought it was nice to give something to the SE. When I was growing up, the more accessible guitar got punished”: John Mayer makes the black pickguard PRS Silver Sky a reality in the most unexpected place – a Land Rover Defender collaboration
- I played my beloved Strat when I opened for Weezer. It got me discovered by Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready. Then I gave it away to a prison
- “I was nervous that Jerry would go, ‘Are you ripping off my sound?’ I fixed that problem by having him play it!” Tim Montana grew up with no electricity and running water. Now he’s collaborating with Jerry Cantrell, Slash and Billy Gibbons
- “This amp gave us a chance to show people another side of Fender that has always been there, even if it hasn’t been front and center”: How Fender resurrected its under-the-radar classic, the ’62 Deluxe
- September 21
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- “I thought, ‘This is a McCartney song, surely? No, it’s Andy.’ What a joyful noise. I even liked my out-of-tune intro. Steven Wilson corrected that when he remastered everything. But I miss it”: Dave Gregory on the guitar story behind XTC’s 1979 classic
- “I felt what Capitol label head Gary Gersh did was malevolent and almost vindictive. He just kicked me to the curb”: Billy Squier on his classic album that went unheard when the label tried to bury it
- September 20
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- “He floored us. When David and I met him, we knew he’d fit in looks-wise, but we had no idea what was coming until he picked up his Les Paul”: The rise and fall of Mick Ronson – rock ’n’ roll’s most quietly spoken guitar hero
- “We played SXSW. A week later, our bassist gets an email – Dan Auerbach saw us play. He's like, ‘Hey, do you want to come to Nashville and record?’” Meet the Animeros, the Auerbach-approved guitar trio with big-screen appeal
- “It’s an honor that my dad named me after Duane. People will always associate me with that lineage. It’s who I am. But I want people to hear my songs and consider that there’s more to it”: Duane Betts on hope, legacy, and his guitar right-hand-man
- “I have no idea why Gillie wanted his guitars to look like 1950s kitchen cabinets. Maybe it matched his personality or the band’s stage outfits”: Walnut brown, super-rare, these custom-order ’50s Fender Telecasters beg the question – who was Gillie?
- “I modified The Edge’s Strat and he got this magic music out of it. Even I never thought of using it that way”: The fabled Infinite Guitar saved one of U2’s biggest hits. But why did Michael Brook’s invention never go into production?
- September 19
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- “When you stand onstage with Liam and he’s singing those songs, it’s incredible… He brought the vibe in bucketloads”: Barrie Cadogan on Liam Gallagher, Morrissey, and Primal Scream – and how John Squire started it all
- “Dickey was instantly recognizable. When I started playing with him, I realized I needed to go to school to figure out how to make every note sound like myself”: Warren Haynes on playing with Clapton, his favorite guitar and first rig
- “A fan wrote to Dave and said, ‘I hope your new stuff is faster than Metallica.’ The tempos sped up, and we became a thrash band that night”: When a fan challenged Megadeth to outpace Metallica, the band responded by cranking up the tempos
- “It was super-cool looking – and very uncool in an indie rock world”: Page Hamilton on the ESP Horizon that’s been on every Helmet album from Meantime on (and was a GW cover star)
- September 18
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- “Duane came onstage. It was hard to see, so I tried to help him with the amp. He looked at me and said, ‘Man, I think I know how to run an amp by now!’” Dickey Betts and Duane Allman’s rocky first jam
- “He leaned down and whispered in my ear, ‘Do you mind if I try something else on the solo?’ I had to have faith, and boy, was it rewarded”: The greatest Paul McCartney post-Beatles guitar moments
- Here’s how Laney’s Ironheart Foundry Series brings analog Ironheart tone to solid-state amps: “Everything you need, nothing you don’t”
- “When James got his first offer to play at the Troubadour, I thought it would be one gig. It turned into 20 years”: Lee Sklar looks back on his early sessions with James Taylor and Jackson Browne – and the beginnings of a legendary studio career
- September 17
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- "There's no replacement for picking up a guitar and feeling those strings": Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, Paul Gilbert, and more on how to get your fingers fretboard-ready by building your calluses the right way
- “We grew up massive fans of Green Day. We knew all the lore and how Rob worked with them – we were just starstruck”: Riff Wood formed when they were 11 years old. Then they were discovered by Green Day’s producer. Stadiums are next
- September 16
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- “Although he lets me take all the lead breaks, Malcolm’s still a better guitarist than Eddie Van Halen”: What Angus Young thought of Eddie Van Halen
- “Mike McCready played the prototype during Alive and Even Flow live with Pearl Jam. How much more R&D truth can you get?” How signature models are really made – and how they can drive innovation in guitar design
- “We want you to get twice your money’s worth. If we’ve made a $600 guitar and you’re like, ‘I’d have paid $1,200,’ that’s a home run”: Jack Higginbotham on why PRS needed a CEO, and why it’s him
- September 15
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- “We’ve never been a Strat band or a Marshall band. It feels a little too on-the-nose for what a rock sound should be”: Troy Van Leeuwen on turning his Custom Shop 12-string into a Squier signature, and channeling Robert Fripp for the new QOTSA record
- “John and Paul weren’t interested. The next day I was in a car with Eric Clapton and said, ‘Why don’t you come and play on this track?’” George Harrison on the Beatles classic saved by Slowhand
- “Her soloing is wild, well thought out, and performed with ease and abandon. It reminded me of playing with Jason Becker”: Marty Friedman’s 12 favorite guitar collaborations from his Japanese variety show channel
- “He bought it on a trip with Noel Gallagher, a day or two after they first met. Johnny said, ‘Let’s go for a sandwich. Never buy guitars on an empty stomach”: Johnny Marr’s most iconic guitars, the stories behind them – and why he’s selling them now
- September 14
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- “Classical guitar is under-appreciated in heavy music. No-one would think it could hold a drop A# tuning”: Alt-rock nomad Emma Ruth Rundle on channeling Smashing Pumpkins, her nylon-string awakening, and what made her sell her beloved Gibson SG
- “Slayer’s Kerry King saw Mustaine rip it up on this guitar, leading to him accepting the offer to join Megadeth… for three weeks”: Dave Mustaine’s life in guitars – how the Megadeth main man weaponized the Flying V
- September 13
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- “That energy popped back like we had been playing all the time. Nobody was rusty, man. Everybody was on – like we'd just got off the J.B.’s bus!” How Bootsy Collins and his James Brown alumni brought the J.B.’s back to life for the Superbad soundtrack
- “There’s the Stanley Brothers, Flatt and Scruggs, and Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass. But there’s no mother of bluegrass”: How Lindsay Lou, Molly Tuttle and an all-star cast united to uncover the women behind bluegrass’ biggest songs
- “When I’ve played the guitars of people I’ve looked up to, it always feels like there’s DNA on them – like you’re getting a visit from your heroes”: Marcus King on his new signature Epiphone acoustic, playing Tiger, and his brotherhood with Brent Hinds
- “We tell our guitar techs we’re sorry profusely. I feel horrible for making their lives miserable”: Mark Holcomb on how Periphery harnesses super-heavy guitars for a super-heavy album that takes djent to a dark place
- “Gibbons has used his frequently on ZZ Top albums – he often plays through two at once”: Meet the world’s first ‘pedal’ – a steampunk wonderland you need Windex to use
- “The first thing he said to me was, ‘You’re in the band, but you gotta get a new guitar. You can’t play that SG’”: Neil Giraldo on how a push from Rick Derringer led him to the B.C. Rich Eagle
- September 12
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- “I’m not trying to toot horns, but Joe Bonamassa said there are only a few guitar players that can do the Albert King bends correctly, and he said my name”: From teenage rigs to stage disasters – the life and times of Eddie 9V
- “That fine line between a trainwreck and a stroke of genius is exactly what Ted McCarty tapped into”: The Gibson Flying V – how a misunderstood design conquered the guitar world
- “It was not about making a copy of somebody else’s guitar. It was about improving the guitar in general”: Petr Furch on 45 years of acoustic guitar innovation – and the challenge to make his guitars better
- September 11
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- “The peso coin is a rarity, but we’ve still got a few filed down for the ready”: Why Billy Gibbons started using a peso as a guitar pick
- The rise of stainless steel frets: why players are making the switch, and what makes them better than traditional nickel
- “It was the early Jimi Hendrix days. I was persuading George to do something feedback-y and crazy. I was showing him what I wanted and he said, ‘Well, you do it’”: On the trail of Paul McCartney, the Beatles’ not-so-secret guitarist
- “Don Felder played, and I sat in. It was weird looking out and seeing Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas looking back at us”: The continuing guitar adventures of Peter Frampton – from Skywalker Ranch to his new all-star solo album
- “Our guitarist saw an online ad where Bon Jovi was looking for a local band to open for them. She didn’t even tell us she’d applied!” How Violet Lea went from self-taught bassist to opening for Bon Jovi
- September 10
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- Why pedal artwork matters – and how it impacts your sound without you even realizing: “They're tools for making music, but they're also statements about who we are as players and what we value as artists”
- “Most people hate our best-selling guitars right out of the gate”: We’re in a golden era for new body shapes, but they still split opinion – we speak to the brands risking it all in a nostalgia-led market
- “I ran over to the student center, unenrolled from all my classes and hit the road”: Noah Kahan was an unknown when his guitarist got the gig. Now he’s playing Fenway Park with his own signature guitar
- “Technology is supposed to make things easier, not get in the way”: Are apps ruining guitar gear? We argue for and against the trend that has taken over practice amps
- “Ozzy’s such a nice guy. But the day I walked out of the band I was like, ‘I’m glad to be out of that’”: Bernie Tormé’s turbulent eight-gig stint with Ozzy Osbourne
- September 9
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- “Metal players embraced it, but so did players like David Gilmour”: 20 gear innovations that changed guitar playing
- “I remember trying to sound like Chris Squire. Ozzy’s reaction was, ‘What the hell is that?’” How Geezer Butler helped define the sound of heavy metal on this eight-minute Black Sabbath opus
- “When the next generation are 60 with money for a vintage guitar, they’re going to want a Strandberg, not a Fender. Les Pauls will be collectible art pieces”: Meet the 24-year-old luthier taking headless guitar design into the future
- “Visitors saw stacks of amps with names like Yngwie Malmsteen, George Lynch, Jake E. Lee and Adrian Vandenberg on the service tags”: The story of Eddie Van Halen’s elusive amp tech, José Arredondo – and the new amp that honors his legacy
- I admit it: I’m a wah-wah addict. It’s the greatest sound a guitar can make. And I have proof
- September 8
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- Ditch the soldering iron: you can swap pickups in seconds with these guitars
- “This guy dutifully opened the case. I can still smell it. It was this otherworldly object, like something out of Raiders of the Lost Ark”: Johnny Marr on the guitars he’s loved and is about to lose at auction – and the one that started it all
- “There was this D-Day where everybody in rock music got dropped except for us and Beck. I felt the immediate hatred in town”: Weezer’s Brian Bell on polarizing fans (and the band), proving the critics wrong, and making the Gold Album
- “Gibson wasn’t the only company to lose its mind in thrall to technology”: The 21st century guitar innovations that never caught on
- September 7
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- “Every line has to be played live. It’s what this freak show is all about – making it ridiculous, hard and painful for the musicians, thus fun for the audience”: Angine de Poitrine tell us the origin story of guitar’s most surreal band
- Ball-ends through the tuners? Meet the Steadfast Stopbar, the Les Paul tailpiece that strings your guitar backwards
- What are impulse responses? A guitarist’s guide to the secret sauce of great guitar tone
- Have you been putting your capo on wrong? Tommy Emmanuel says this is the right way to do it – and it could save your tuning
- September 6
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- “Being a musician in Latin America is difficult. You end up paying almost three times the standard price for a guitar”: Nervosa’s Prika Amaral on her unconventional playing style and overcoming Brazil’s broken music scene
- What happened to Syd Barrett’s Mirror Disc Telecaster? “Even if it were discovered today it would be very difficult to verify as actually being the Pink Floyd founder’s guitar”
- “It was a pedal designed to make your bass sound like a trombone, but I could make it sound like Jimi Hendrix”: How Ralphe Armstrong unlocked Hendrix-inspired expression on one of Jean-Luc Ponty's most adventurous recordings
- The player who transformed B.B. King from “terrible” to legendary: “It was no fun to play with him. When he found out who I was he begged me to join him. I’m responsible for him being what he is today”
- “John Lennon laid down a simple guitar part. Then David asked me if I wanted to go to dinner with them!” The genius of David Bowie’s guitar collabs in 9 classic tracks
- The surprising history of the first-ever signature guitars, from custom builds for teachers to high-profile artists
- September 5
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- “I got word that Chester was gone, and it just hit me so hard. I never listen to that song the same anymore”: Stone Temple Pilots bassist Robert DeLeo has experienced the death of his lead singer twice – and somehow found a way to keep playing
- “Bob Rock said, ‘I’ve got Metallica. That’s only gonna take a couple of months…’ 13 months later he finished their record and we had to find another producer”: Billy Duffy on staying true to the Cult’s manifesto and his vision for rock guitar
- “Right when I started with the Ramones is when I bought a guitar. The first song I learned to play was a Ramones song”: How the Ramones took New York punk round the world
- Gene Simmons, Don Felder and Slash have all enlisted his drum skills. Now Brian Tichy is stepping out from behind the kit, guitar in hand: “This is me saying, ‘I’m not just a drummer and never have been’”
- September 4
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- “Anything that sounds remotely like a Tele is that Esquire. It’s my impression of Keith Richards”: Steve Lukather played his 1951 Esquire on sessions with Joni Mitchell and Dolly Parton. And it tells us a lot about the evolution of the Fender Telecaster
- “I hate it. I just about get away with it every time”: Noel Gallagher was forced into becoming Oasis’ lead guitar player – and he didn’t want the role
- “I’ll do a lot of things Eddie does, and it kills me. I wish I could take time and come up with something that nobody has done before”: Randy Rhoads on the struggle to become his own player and avoid the Eddie Van Halen comparisons
- “I made a beeline through the crowd to hand Chuck Berry his ES-335. His eyes were windows into the legend”: The Canadian guitarist who worked with Rush, Heart and k.d. lang – and unwittingly co-wrote a Rolling Stones song
- September 3
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- “After I stopped touring with Ian Brown, people would ask him, ‘Where’s that Asian Jimi Hendrix that plays with you?’” From the Stone Roses to Paul Weller, poverty to ’59 Les Pauls, Aziz Ibraham shares his remarkable story
- “I think the price was down to the ‘cute’ factor of being a little nine-year-old. The poor attorney took pity on me”: Hannah Wicklund on how a blues lawyer got her playing boutique guitars aged 9 – and the weapon she picked to take on Deep Purple and Yes
- "I thought it was only for heavy riffs": I traded my ES-335 for a baritone guitar for a month and fell under its spell – here's 5 reasons why I think every traditional guitarist should try a baritone
- September 2
- September 1
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- “Rock ’n’ roll is an old person’s game now – there’s still loads of people 10 years older than me who are doing it. I imagine they’ve got personal trainers and better health regimes than I do”: The inimitable Robyn Hitchcock on the enigma of songwriting
- “Undoubtedly the first popular, commercially successful guitar amp with reverb”: Is this humble Ampeg the vintage tube combo to rival golden-era Fender amps?
