Features archive
September 2026
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28 articles
- 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?
