Seven decades since it rolled off the production line in Fullerton, California – and whatever your personal tastes – you’d have to agree that Leo Fender’s deathless doublecut is the quintessential electric guitar.

It’s the shape a kid would draw if you handed them a crayon. It’s the model you’d show to a visiting glow-fingered alien curious about humanoid rock ‘n’ roll.

To sling a Strat is to experience the ultimate collision of tone and ergonomics.

Respect to the Telecaster (born three years earlier, in 1951), but it’s a caveman’s club next to Leo’s next great lightbulb moment.

Sleek as a surfboard, contoured to the body like a well-cut suit, with stellar access and the first bulletproof tremolo system. Sonically unique, with an unmistakable singlecoil ‘cluck’ that could be fattened, starved, or stacked via a cluster of idiot-proof dials and a five-way selector (from the mid-’70s on).

Back then, in 1954, the Strat seemed to come from the future, and even now, if you pause and consider it afresh, it still does.

But the Fender Stratocaster would just be a glorified carpentry project without the players who danced across its neck and gave it life. Here we celebrate 25 of the very best Strat-o-masters, from the worlds of blues, rock, funk, disco, prog, shred, grunge, metal, and beyond.

Buddy Holly

It’s December 1, 1957. Buddy Holly is performing That’ll Be The Day on his Ed Sullivan Show debut, and the great American public is seeing the Fender Stratocaster in action for the first time.

He might look like a librarian on uppers, but the Texan bandleader’s piston-pump rhythm work is not to be sniffed at, and to a generation that has known nothing but horn bands, that hard, biting jangle is a clarion call announcing that things will be different from now on.

Jimi Hendrix

Admittedly, the defining image of the Strat’s greatest Sixties ambassador sees him torching the damn thing onstage at 1967’s Monterey Pop Festival. But the instrument’s real pyrotechnics happened before Jimi lit the match.

Exploring the outer limits of its mischief-ready sonic scope and easily abused tremolo, he couldn’t have conjured the same black-magic cacophony – or the beauty of Little Wing – from any other model. Jimi’s trademark flip ‘n’ restring, meanwhile, was an audio-visual WTF that only cemented the impression he’d just stepped off a spaceship into Swinging London.

Hank Marvin

You Americans don’t know how lucky you are. It wasn’t until 1959 – a full five years after US production began – that Shadows bandleader Cliff Richard bought and gifted to his guitarist what is believed to be the first Strat on British shores (a Fiesta Red stunner with gold hardware). Those gorgeous, glassy, plaintive melodies on Apache and Wonderful Land wouldn’t have shimmered the same on anything else.

Jeff Beck

Sure, a Telecaster (in the Yardbirds) and Les Paul (on Blow By Blow) were fine for the punch-your-lights-out early stuff. But when Beck really found his voice and fell into his signature techniques – the volume swells and whale-song whammy tickles, exemplified by Where Were You – only the Fender doublecut could get the job done.

“What is it about the Strat that I love so much?” he mused in an interview with Malcolm Gerrie of Sky Arts. “Its endless color…”

Eric Clapton

Like Beck, EC played ’em all, from his Yardbirds Tele, through the revved-up Les Paul of the Bluesbreakers, to the SG-fueled ‘woman’ tone showcased on Cream’s Disraeli Gears. But like so many Sixties galacticos, as the decade turned, he was drawn to the Strat, retooling a clutch of second-hand models bought from a Nashville music store into the fabled Blackie mongrel that drove everything from Cocaine to Wonderful Tonight.

“I felt like Blackie had become part of me,” Clapton once told Guitar Player. “A guitar like that comes along maybe once in a lifetime.”

David Gilmour

Compared to his ’70s-gunslinger peers, the Pink Floyd man didn’t play too many notes. But the sweetness of his phrasing, twinned with the haunting, bell-like quality of his ’69 Black Strat, meant each one was a symphony (revisit the shivering four-note starburst of Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part II).

That Black Strat was just recently auctioned from the private collection of late Indianapolis Colts boss Jim Irsay for $14.5 million, making it officially the world’s most valuable guitar.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

The Texas bluesman picked up his early-’60s Strat – known as both Number One and First Wife – from an Austin music store in 1974. As a man who played so hard he had to perform DIY on his own tattered fingers, the instrument probably deserved its retirement in 1990 – while SRV’s tragic death that August meant he never saw Fender’s signature replica launch two years later at NAMM.

Ritchie Blackmore

Deep Purple’s dark wizard got his wings on a Gibson ES-335, but a fateful 1969 encounter with Eric Clapton’s roadie changed everything (“He brought a Strat, so I said to him, ‘Do you want to sell that guitar?’”).

In a 2024 GW interview, Blackmore told us he tracked Smoke On The Water on a mongrel, before summing up the Strat’s pragmatic magic: “It’s a way of paying the bills. It also happens to be an incredible guitar.”

Nile Rodgers

Just for a moment, consider how many unfathomable millions of dollars must have flowed through the Chic legend’s ‘Hitmaker’ Strat.

Seeing action with everyone from David Bowie to Madonna, the sonic character of its unusually light alder body is perfect for Rodgers’ muted hits and zingy chord fragments. But he might never have picked it up from a Miami pawn shop in ’73 were it not for the curt advice of wingman/bassist Bernard Edwards (“Get a Strat, motherf***er!”)

Yngwie Malmsteen

Before the Scandi shredder broke out with 1984’s Rising Force, ‘scallops’ were something you gagged on at posh dinner parties.

Inspired by a 16th century lute with carved-out frets, Malmsteen recalled that “people thought I was crazy” when they saw his teenage handiwork. But there was no arguing with the added velocity of scalloping, which made this already-lightning-fast player even speedier, like strapping rockets on Usain Bolt’s sneakers. Only Clapton was offered a Fender signature Strat before him (but Malmsteen’s ’88 model was the first to feature his signature on the headstock).

Dave Murray and Janick Gers

Given all that demon iconography, you’d expect Iron Maiden’s three-guitar frontline to reach for something macabre from the B.C. Rich brochure. In fact, the British metallers’ gallop is largely underpinned by a pair of workhorse Strats, with Janick Gers favoring a Seymour Duncan JB JR-bolstered model and Dave Murray driving a pair of Hot Rails (Adrian Smith is more of a dabbler, mostly wedded to his Jackson San Dimas).

Tom DeLonge

The Blink-182 man has bounced between Fender and Gibson his whole career, and lately seems sworn to his signature Starcaster. But after retiring the iconic early “Sticker Strat”, the Enema Of The State period saw DeLonge punch out parts like All The Small Things on a pastel-hued Custom Shop Strat with a lonely Seymour Duncan Invader bridge ’bucker (it was released in 2001 as a production guitar).

Albert Hammond Jr

Beset by bowel-tuned nu-metal, it felt like we hadn’t seen a Strat in years when The Strokes broke out with 2001’s Is This It.

While Nick Valensi was all studied cool on an Epiphone Riviera, his corkscrew-curled wingman hammered thrillingly at a high-strapped 1985 reissue of a ’72 Strat (that instrument was also behind the feral, Freddie King-inspired solo on Last Nite).

Billy Corgan

Alt-rock will forever be associated with a sticker-coated Jazzmaster, but look closer and the Strat appeared in the hands of everyone from Kurt Cobain (at the ’92 Reading Festival) to Mike McCready (the out-of-phase shimmer on Yellow Ledbetter). Amongst these, Corgan was arguably the greatest virtuoso and most committed Strat-o-phile.

In his words, the Smashing Pumpkins leader “walked into a Guitar Center one day and, off the wall, bought an Eric Clapton ’57 reissue. That became the main guitar for Siamese and Mellon Collie, and launched a thousand ships of people chasing that sound.”

Mark Knopfler

Before he settled back into the molten Les Paul solos of Brothers In Arms, the Dire Straits leader was the fastest gun on London’s post-punk scene, revered for the quicksilver bob ‘n’ weave outro to 1978’s Sultans Of Swing.

Tellingly, the red ’61 he played it on (supposedly something of a partscaster) was one of the few models that Knopfler chose to ring-fence from his 2024 guitar auction.

Bonnie Raitt

The Californian slide goddess and 13-time Grammy winner picked up her first Strat on the street following a 1969 gig – immediately falling for the often-neglected third position. “It’s all about that middle pickup,” says Raitt. “You just can’t beat it.”

Eric Johnson

The Cliffs Of Dover virtuoso could easily have followed his G3 brethren into an Ibanez endorsement. But Johnson is a Strat diehard with a very specific wishlist, insisting that models from ’54, ’57, and ’58 are best (“I think Fender had a shipment of wood that was real special”) and adding an offbeat f-hole to his 2018 signature thinline.

Cory Wong

Funk belongs on a Strat – don’t argue – and Wong’s kinetic grooves with Vulfpeck have moved more feet than anyone on the modern scene. He’s proved price isn’t everything with his dedication to his teenage Highway One model – also the inspiration for his 2021 signature model – and should really be taking a salary as Fender brand ambassador.

Wong was led to the aforementioned Highway One Strat by his father, who – Wong said in a 2023 Guitar World interview – told him, “‘Listen! You love the Chili Peppers, you love Stevie Ray Vaughan. Look at Jeff Beck, look at Jimi Hendrix, look at Stevie Ray and Eric Johnson.’ He gave me this lineage of the Stratocaster and basically said: Look at all the things this guitar is capable of.’”

H.E.R.

The Strat’s generation-leaping appeal is underlined by Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson, whose breakout 2021 album, Back Of My Mind, bends the backbone of vintage R&B into bold new shapes.

“The Strat is an iconic guitar, just because of the look and shape,” says the 28-year-old Californian (who got her own signature model in 2020). “But the tone, the heaviness… to me, it’s the unicorn. It’s classic, but it’s new at the same time.”

Rory Gallagher

Bought on credit in 1963, and beaten like a dog through the ’70s and ’80s, the Irishman’s ’61 looked set for a quiet retirement. Instead, it now enjoys an afterlife as a blues-rock Excalibur, loaned out to wide-eyed fanboys like Joe Bonamassa.

“I’m thinking, ‘I’m gonna take so much shit for this’,” recalled the US bluesman of test-driving Rory’s doublecut at London’s Hammersmith Apollo in 2011. “Because everyone on the Internet will go, ‘Who do you think you are?’ But anybody would have done it…”

The Edge

U2’s sonic maverick has built up quite a rack since 1980’s Boy (you could argue he’s equally associated with the Explorer). But hands-down the most neck-tingling moment of any show is the delay-drenched jewelry box tinkle of Where The Streets Have No Name, and for that, a Strat on the middle pickup is non-negotiable.

Mdou Moctar

If your first guitar had been built from driftwood, bicycle cables, and the keys used to open sardine tins, you’d be glad to get on a Strat too. The desert-blues figurehead’s only stipulation is that the strings on his American Professional left-hander are at least two years old.

Steve Lacy

Every time you think you’ve got the Strat all figured out, a twenty-something gunslinger comes along and flips it on its head.

Take the Californian alt-R&B phenom, who splits his licks between solo work, The Internet, and a billion guest-spots with everyone from Vampire Weekend to Tyler, The Creator. Then there’s Lacy’s rulebook-shredding People Pleaser signature Strat – complete with an onboard fuzz circuit.

Ry Cooder

There’s a case that the Californian slide man barely qualifies as a Strat player. His trademark ‘Coodercasters’, after all, are so heavily modded that Leo Fender would barely recognize them as his children. But Cooder demands inclusion for his beyond-spellbinding, desert-baked, and dust-blown tone.

Buddy Guy

When the great Louisiana bluesman headed north in ’57, he assured his ailing mother he’d return from Chicago at the wheel of a polka-dot Cadillac. Guy couldn’t keep that promise, but made amends by commissioning his spotted Fender signature model.

He’s never strayed from the Strat, and even on the brink of his nineties, used it to dig out a gorgeous fingerstyle blues in the credits scene of last year’s Oscar-winning Sinners.

As the old adage goes, comparison is the thief of joy. Even the best of us experience imposter syndrome – but, as Cory Wong and bassist to the stars, Oteil Burbridge, discuss on the Wong Notes podcast, the key is to develop, and be confident enough in, your own playing style.

“Lean into what you are,” Burbridge imparts. “That's what I do, and that's what people call me for. But when [they call] me for 'this', and now you're saying you don't want me to do 'that', I'm like, 'I think you need to get someone else.'”

Wong notes that “guitar players are very susceptible to clashing of egos, where you feel like you're against each other”.

He reflects, “Naturally, we as humans [are] sometimes like, ‘Oh, I feel threatened because of whatever.’”

He goes on to describe himself as a “late bloomer” when it came to finding himself and his own sound – a journey that has culminated in a distinct philosophy: “I'm not competing with anyone., I'm just me. There could be 10 of us soloing over the same tune. I'm like, guess what, I'm gonna give you the most me version of this thing.”

That philosophy has meant he's no longer afraid to trade leads with his heroes. Before, imposter syndrome may have got the better of him. Now, Wong embraces his own style.

“If you talked to me when I was 25 years old, I would have been frightened to take a solo after Joe Satriani,” Wong admits.

“Now it's just like, ‘Oh, Joe's gonna be Joe. I'm going to be me. There's no way I'm going to be able to do what Joe did, and he's not going to do what I'm going to do. So we're good.’ It's like we're shopping at different aisles of the grocery store here.”

As Burnbridge sums it up, “You've got to get to that place. [It's like] a whole field of flowers, they're not competing with each other – they're making it better being all together. It's more impressive.”

In more recent Wong news, the modern-day funk maestro discusses why he’s not buying the Klon hype, and why you don’t need to use a piece of gear just because somebody else uses it.

This month on Bought & Sold, we welcome a bona-fide funk-master to the conversation about all things gear, as Cory Wong joins us for a discussion that ranges from the philosophical (what is a serious guitar?) to the practical (how to find the gear that works for you), and takes in some biographical detail, like the time he found a vintage Gibson for chickenfeed.

What was the first serious guitar that you bought with your own money?

“That depends. It’s kind of a deep question because what qualifies as a serious guitar? To me, the first serious guitar that I bought with my own money was my first electric guitar, which was a Gretsch Traveling Wilburys [TW-100T] model that I got for 45 bucks at a pawn shop down the road from where I lived. It was serious because I was like, ‘I’m finally gonna play guitar.’

But in the way that you’re probably asking, my first serious guitar was a Highway One Stratocaster. I still have it to this day; it’s my blue Strat. That was the first one where I was like, ‘I really want to do this thing.’ I played that Highway One Strat for years and still play it all the time when I’m not using my signature Strat.

I love it to this day. It was one of those things where it was the first American Strat – and the only one – I could afford. I don’t claim it to be a perfect guitar; I’ve done a ton of mods to it. And I’m playing my signature guitar a lot more because it fixed a lot of the problems that one Highway One guitar had.

What was the last guitar that you bought and why?

I bought an old 1940s Martin from Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville. I made the mistake of going into the vintage room… that’s where I get tempted. I played this guitar and kept thinking about it. I was like, ‘All right, man, my rule is I gotta give it 24 hours.’ I told the guy, ‘Hey, can you just set this aside and give me one day to think about it?’

I went home and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I went back the next day, brought my other acoustic to see if I was solving a problem I couldn’t with my current guitar, and I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s got this thing to it. It’s a different sound.’ So I had to have it.

What’s the most incredible find or bargain you’ve ever had when buying guitars?

This is also the one guitar I wish I’d never sold, and the best find I’ve had. I was going up to Northern Minnesota for a camping trip with friends. On the way up to the North Shore, I went to this little music shop – like a used shop, if I remember right, they were selling records and instruments – and there was a 1970s Gibson S-1 in a butterscotch colour.

Now, I’m not a Gibson guy. I’m a Fender guy through and through. But I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a weird guitar. It’s cool.’ I played around with it. The pickups were unique and it had this cool vibe to it. So I’m playing it, and I’m like, ‘Dang, this thing is a sick vintage guitar.’

I’d never had a vintage guitar. I was 22 and never owned a vintage guitar in my life. I just figured they’re way too expensive. So I get up to the counter and the guy’s like, ‘Ah, you know what? I just don’t like that guitar. I’ll give it to you for a few hundred bucks.’

So I bought it for 300 bucks. I loved that guitar. It was amazing. But coming out of college, I didn’t have any money and needed to sell some gear to be able to pay my rent. Unfortunately, that was one of the casualties. The legend of rent is way hardcore, as they say in School of Rock [laughs].

What’s your best buying tip for somebody looking to buy their ultimate guitar?

You don’t need to use a piece of gear just because somebody else uses it. Certain gear is right for some people and not others. Some people have very specific ways they play or approach things. So whatever works for you, gets you excited and gives you those butterflies in your stomach, that’s the right gear for you.

We’re enamoured by the mystique of gear. Like, yeah, I’ve played through real Klons, and guess what? They’re great. But I’ve played through other overdrives that have given me that feeling in my stomach where I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is great.’ And that’s nice because now I have an overdrive that’s less expensive than a Klon [laughs].

I’ve played through really expensive amps – and it’s cool that other people like these amps and that famous people like these amps – but they’re not really the thing for me. So my biggest piece of advice is to find what gear gets you excited and motivated to play. And buy what’s most effortlessly able to express your voice on the instrument. That’s the gear for you.

When was the last time you stopped and looked in a guitar shop window or browsed online, and what were you looking at?

Well, I’ve been trying to prevent myself from doing this lately! The last piece of gear I was actually looking at and interested in was that ’40s Martin I mentioned earlier that I bought. But I mean, I look at every pedal that comes out. So if there’s a pedal, a new amp or a guitar that comes out, I’m checking all of them out. That’s just because we’re guitar players, and we just love gear [laughs].

But also, as someone who’s in the industry and in the business, I’m curious: ‘Why did those companies make this thing? Does this solve an issue? Is this a creative endeavour or is this a money-making thing?’ If it’s any of those, that’s okay. But as a consumer and as an industry person, I’m interested in: ‘What problem does this piece of gear solve? Why do we need this?’

If forced to make a choice, would you rather buy a really good guitar and a cheap amp or a cheap guitar and a top-notch amp?

What level of cheap are we talking about here? [laughs] I have to say I’m gonna go with a nice guitar. At the end of the day, I can always go direct; I can always just pass through the amp. The way I play, a lot of times, I just like DI guitar tone, anyway. The type of tone I’m looking for is pristine, like the highest-quality clean tone. So if I have a nice guitar playing through a relatively inexpensive amp, I can normally make the amp work.

What ends up happening in the end to the listeners is I can make it sound pretty good, whether it is a combination of amp settings, the mic placement, or how you EQ the mic in the PA. With those things, I can do a lot.

But I definitely want a nice guitar. I want it to feel good under my fingers. I want it to stay in tune. Because as nice an amp that you can have, it doesn’t matter if the guitar doesn’t play in tune up and down the neck. The amp is not going to fix that.

If you could only use humbuckers or single coil pickups for the rest of your career, which would it be and why?

That’s easy – single coils. I’m a Strat guy.

Cory’s Go-to Rig

I have two different guitars. One is the Fender Cory Wong Signature Stratocaster. The second guitar is a Music Man StingRay II; that’s my humbucker guitar. I use a [Shure] GLXD16 wireless unit, which has a tuner on it that goes into a Neural DSP Quad Cortex, and I’m running the Archetype Cory Wong plugin on that. That’s my amps, cabs and some effects.

But in the effects loop of the Quad Cortex I have the Hotone Wong Press volume/wah pedal, which I helped develop with them. It’s my favourite volume/wah on the planet by far. And I have a Wampler [Cory] Wong compressor, which, go figure, I worked on with Wampler. It’s my favourite compressor out there and it also has a clean boost and a DI out if you want.

That goes into the Jackson Audio Optimist, which is a dual overdrive and EQ. There’s two sides of the overdrive that go into each other. Then, if you press the two buttons, there’s an EQ function to it, which, honestly, is amazing. From there, it goes into the effects loop and returns back to the Quad Cortex, and the Quad Cortex goes direct to front-of-house. That’s what I use.

• Cory Wong’s Syncopated Summer Camp takes place August 13-16 in San Francisco.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

One of the coolest and most badass-sounding things a guitarist can do is double a long, complex bassline an octave higher. This was my approach for the song Dean Town, which I recorded with Vulfpeck for our 2016 album, The Beautiful Game.

The tune was inspired by legendary bassist Jaco Pastorius’ Teen Town, which he recorded with Weather Report on the 1975 album Heavy Weather.

Like Teen Town, the bassline in Dean Town is a through-composed melody, which means it’s a continuous and non-repetitive piece of music.

The melody was written by our keyboard player Woody Goss and “made famous” by bassist Joe Dart. I decided to octave-double Joe’s intricate bassline through the long initial section of the tune, which was challenging!

Before launching into the melodic line, let’s take a look at the basic underlying chord changes, outlined in Figure 1. In the song, each of these notes – F#, C#, E and B – is played for two full bars, as steady 16th notes. So it’s an eight-bar loop. The tune’s melody is 16 bars long and is played over the eight-bar progression two times.

The first time the 16-bar melody, or “head,” is played, it’s performed by the bass alone. The second time through, I octave-double it on guitar.

This 16-bar melody is shown in Figure 2. Using palm-muting throughout, I begin with a one-beat pickup, and bar 1 starts with the 16th notes E-D#-C#-A, followed by the root note, F#, which falls on beat 2. Right from the start, this is a little deceptive, as the low F# root note hits you like it’s on “1,” but it is in fact on beat 2.

As you play through the line, you’ll see that it includes some complex, syncopated rhythms driven by eighth and 16th notes and rests, with many “holes” dropped into unexpected places.

Bar 6 begins with a four-note chromatic row, from F# up to A, followed by high melodic notes that bounce off open low-E 16th note syncopations. Bars 7 and 8 circle around B7 with the notes of B major pentatonic (B, C#, D#, F#, G#), which resolves in bar 9 to F#m, with the bar ending with dead-string hits and a high chordal accent on the final 16th note of the bar.

Bars 10-12 offer a break from the barrage of 16th notes with repeated eighth-note accents on the F# root note, only to return to very syncopated lines in bars 13-16.

The biggest challenge when doubling a complex, rhythmically dense bassline like this is precision. It simply will not work and will sound sloppy if I don’t nail every phrase and mirror the articulations of the bass.

Later in the tune, I play a funky rhythm part high up on the fretboard that consists of syncopated double-stops on the G and B strings, shown in Figure 3. Notice that each bar repeats and how the notes work with the underlying chord changes. Utilizing two-note chords like this is a great way to outline the harmony with just a minimal amount of information and textural density.

This is the last installment of my column Follow the Groove for now, so I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these columns and the ideas presented have been useful to you. See you on the road!

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Crafting an appealing guitar solo for a song is always a creative challenge. There are many different approaches one can take: Do I follow the chord changes so that the notes line up perfectly with the progression? Or should I simply strive to “be melodic,” like a singer, even if the notes are a little less “anchored” to each chord?

For me, the best approach is usually to follow the “song within a song” compositional concept, while also being aware of what each chord in the progression affords me as a soloist.

A good example of this can be heard in the track Meditation, from my 2020 album Elevated Music for an Elevated Mood. It’s a song that I play at most of my shows, and I know there are certain things that will always work, but I don’t want to always lean on those things; sometimes I just want to explore and see where the music will go.

Compositionally, the tune is pretty simple, with a clearly defined melody built into a primary guitar part.

As shown in Figure 1, I begin by outlining the chords with 10th intervals, also known simply as “10ths,” starting with an E major chord built from the open low E root note and a major 3rd above it, G#, sounded in the next higher octave, which creates a 10th. I use my pick and middle finger to pick the notes on the low E and G strings.

These two-note forms built from 10ths move up to F#m, G#m and Bm, and then descend to A, followed by an E major chord. At the end of bar 3, I include G major, with the notes G and B, and in bar 4 move down to F#m and E. This is repeated in bars 5 and 6. In bar 7, I play a Jimi Hendrix-style riff on beat 3, followed by the chord changes D - A/C# - E.

Figure 2 shows the slight variations I introduce the second time through. In bar 3, I play Gmaj7 instead of G, and in bars 6-8, I move to higher chord voicings and phrases for the E - D - A/C# - E changes.

This progression sets up a great vibe to solo over, and I’ll usually begin in a reflective or contemplative way. And though I keep the individual chords in mind, I often simply think E Mixolydian (E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D), E major (E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#), or E major pentatonic (E, F#, G#, B, C#) and sometimes even E minor pentatonic (E, G, A, B, D), depending on where I am in the progression.

Throughout the section, I’ll mostly sit on E major pentatonic, except over the G chord in bar 4 and the D chord in bar 8. In these spots, I try to avoid playing any notes that will clash with the chord, such as G#.

Figure 3 offers an example of drawing from a melodic sensibility first and foremost, which is always a solid approach. In bars 1 and 2, I’m moving freely through E major pentatonic, but at the end of bars 2 and 7, I target a D note over the D chord.

My goal is to make the lines sound like they belong together, “singing” my way through the solo as melodically as I can. And if the ideas are solid, they can become repeatable motifs.

Starting with a contemplative vibe allows me to build a slow arc to increase the intensity in a natural way, so that I can lead the listener on an engaging musical journey. And maintaining the connection to the chord progression can help make the solo sound and feel like an integral part of the song.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

NAMM 2026: When Cory Wong’s signature Music Man StingRay II was unveiled at last year’s NAMM, the self-professed “Strat guy through and through” asserted the guitar was born out of his need for a humbucker-equipped option “that can do everything the Strat doesn’t do.”

Wong's vision proved to be a winning recipe, and now, Sterling by Music Man is offering a more affordable version coming later this year.

Developed in collaboration with the Vulfpeck guitarist, the Sterling by Music Man StingRay II features a roasted maple neck (as opposed to its pricier sibling's roasted figured maple neck), a rosewood fingerboard, locking tuners, an enlarged headstock, and an oval-shaped pickguard inspired by the iconic StingRay bass body.

Much like the Music Man version, it comes fully equipped with HH pickups – although it isn't yet clear whether they're also the custom-designed Cory Wong HT humbuckers – and a 3-way toggle switch for a “dynamic, versatile tonal response.”

There is also less variety in terms of the colorways – with dark blue and silver offered as the only two variants (the official names haven't been revealed yet), but, for $749.99, you get a lot of guitar for the more conservative price.

In addition to Wong's signature model, Sterling by Music Man is rolling out the brand's first-ever baritone guitar. Featuring a 27.5” scale, 24 frets, and B-standard tuning, this all-new model promises to deliver “a deeper low-end presence within the StingRay lineup.”

Other specs include a roasted maple neck and rosewood fingerboard, vintage trem, locking tuners, and two ceramic humbuckers for tonal firepower galore. Offered in an attractive Toluca Lake Blue, the StingRay Baritone (SR50) is available now for $849.99 from trusted partner retailers.

For more information, head to Sterling by Music Man.

And, speaking of the Sterling by Music Man lineup at this year's NAMM, the brand has also unveiled scaled-back versions of former All That Remains guitarist Jason Richardson's signature Cutlass.

In this lesson, I’d like to talk about how to solo and create harmonized melody lines utilizing dyads, which many guitarists refer to as “double-stops.”

Although, technically, the term double-stop means two strings held down with a single finger, it is widely used to refer to any two notes sounded together. The most commonly used dyads/double-stops on the guitar are pairs of notes that are a 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, or octave apart.

A great example of how I use double-stops can be heard on the new Fearless Flyers song, Anaheim.

If you’re familiar with my music, you know that a big part of my sound is harmonizing pentatonic scales. For example, as demonstrated in Figure 1, I’m playing the D major pentatonic scale (D, E, F#, A, B) starting on the 6th, B, sounded at the 7th fret on my low E string.

The notes of this scale are harmonized by simultaneously sounding a 4th or a 3rd above each scale tone on the next higher string; these higher notes also follow the structure of D major pentatonic, meaning they stay within the confines of the scale.

A big part of how I attain the desired sound is to strum all of the two-note pairs with downstrokes and palm muting. Figure 2 illustrates another riff performed this way. The downstrokes and palm muting give the riff a very specific sound and feel that’s almost marimba-like, or like pizzicato strings.

When I play a lot of dyad-based melodies, I’ll switch back and forth between muting and allowing the strings to ring freely. As shown in Figure 3, I begin by allowing the strings to ring then briefly switch to palm muting before releasing the palm mute to add finger vibrato to the held notes.

Figure 4 is also built from harmonized note pairs based primarily on D major pentatonic. Here, I begin with pizzicato palm-muted figures then switch to double-stops that I allow to ring.

You may ask, “How do I know what note pairs to play?” In these examples, at times I’m sticking with D major pentatonic, but I will also sometimes broaden the harmony to D major hexatonic (D, E, F#, G, D, B) or even the D major scale (D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#). Most often, I simply follow my ears in choosing what to play, so the end result isn’t always formulaic.

A great way to practice this double-stop harmonizing technique is to move up and down the fretboard playing pairs of adjacent string sets in harmonized 3rds.

As demonstrated in Figure 5, I move up the top two strings playing 3rds, as they occur within the D major scale. Also practice doing this on all other pairs of adjacent strings, such as the G and B strings, as shown in Figure 6.

In Figure 7, I play D major pentatonic double-stops in different areas of the fretboard, moving freely between the different pairs of adjacent strings.

Doing this is a great way to memorize these shapes, so that you’ll be able to easily incorporate this approach and technique into your solo lines and harmonized melodic ideas.

Direct Flyte is a track from my 2022 album, Power Station, and features the great Victor Wooten on bass. The song has morphed a little bit in subsequent live performances, as we’ve tightened up the arrangement and gotten very specific about the individual parts.

What I’d like to talk about today is how the syncopations of the tune’s primary guitar part work in conjunction with the chordal accents supplied by the keyboard, which I think is a good example of effective ensemble arranging.

When you hear how the two instruments work in tandem, you’ll get a good idea of how I like to approach coordinating various musical elements like an orchestral arranger.

The form of the tune is “AABA.” The three “A” sections are in A minor, and the “B” section modulates up a minor 3rd to C minor. The rhythm guitar part I play during these sections is a four-bar phrase that’s fairly simple.

Following the AABA form, there’s a single-note ensemble (band) section, shown here in Figure 1.

In bar 1, a pattern based on the A minor pentatonic scale (A, C, D, E, G) descends across the bottom three strings in straight 16th notes, followed in bar 2 by octave shapes for F# and G. Notice that I palm mute the entire phrase.

My inspiration for this tune was Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, but through a funky lens, as if Tower of Power had written and recorded the melody.

As you listen to Direct Flyte, you’ll hear that the guitar part lands in one place and the keyboard part lands in another. We’re very intentional about that because, when you have a 10-piece band, there’s a high potential for individual parts to step on each other. Communication and arrangement is key to making sure all of the parts are precise, serve a purpose and do not get in each other’s way.

Figure 2 illustrates the primary guitar part: I begin on the A root note and then play C and E together by barring the G and B strings. My strumming hand is moving in continuous 16th notes, so that each single note, dyad or muted-string accent will occur at precisely the right place in the “grid.”

In the spaces left by the rhythm guitar, the keyboard adds chord “stabs.” Figure 3 shows the keyboard part. It begins with a heavy accent on Am7 on beat 1 of the first bar. In bar 2, Am accents are played twice during beat 3. Bar 3 is identical to bar 1, and bar 4 is silence.

The initial keyboard accent adds a lot of power to the downbeat, and the subsequent hits effectively fill the space left by the rhythm guitar. If we pan the instruments left and right, it feels like a musical conversation.

Figure 4 puts the entire arrangement together. In bar 9, after eight bars on Am, we move up to Cm, and in bar 12 a chromatically descending line is played as a band figure to modulate back down to Am, where the four-bar “A” phrase is repeated. This is followed by the single-note descending figure from in Figure 1.

The takeaway here is how every element integrates into a very specific Minneapolis/Prince-style rhythm, with all of the instruments coming together on the chromatically descending line shown in bar 10 of Figure 4.

In my arrangements, I use the mindset of an orchestral arranger for the instruments to play off of one another in a “call and response” manner and then to coalesce into a big, powerful unison part.

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Ace of Aces is the debut track from the 2018 self-titled EP by the Fearless Flyers, which is a side project from the band Vulfpeck that consists of me, guitarist Mark Lettieri, bassist Joe Dart and drummer Nate Smith.

This track all started from a melodic line I had written. Jack Stratton, our producer, had compiled a handful of live performance clips of each of us in the band playing and said, “Let’s work on these musical concepts as different things. We’ll use Cory’s line as the anchor then try to come up with four different sections of playing over one chord.”

I’ve seen people cover the tune, and one thing most get wrong about it is they’re not intentional about the sections in the way they should be. The best way to explain this is to demonstrate how Mark’s and my guitar parts work together in the arrangement, which I think is interesting and informative.

The tune starts with a primary bassline-like riff, shown here in Figure 1, which is based on the E major pentatonic scale (E, F#, G#, B, C#) with some syncopated chromaticism happening on the low E string. Compositionally, that’s actually the most important part of the tune.

Figure 2 illustrates Mark’s rhythm guitar part for the tune’s first “verse.” It’s is based on a 7th-position E9 chord shape, and the top three strings are strummed and move down from a 9th-fret barre, sounding E6, to a passing-chord at the 8th fret then to E9 at the 7th fret.

The strum rhythm is 16th notes, with pitchless, fret-hand-muted percussive scratches between the accented chord hits.

I play baritone guitar on this track, tuned to A standard (low to high: A, D, G, C, E, A). But for this column I’ve adapted my baritone parts for a conventional guitar in regular E standard tuning (low to high: E, A, D, G, B, E).

My approach with the baritone in this tune is like that of a second bassist, as Joe is playing a relatively simple part. As shown in Figure 3, I play a repeating line that’s based on the E Mixolydian mode (E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D) and pick a lot of fret-hand-muted, percussive notes between the pitched notes.

The ways in which Mark’s and my parts weave together is a key element of the arrangement. There are some spots where we play a harmonized line together; my baritone guitar part is shown in Figure 4. This line is recalled at the end of the tune.

After repeating the initial riff, we move to the second ”verse,” for which Mark switches to a rhythm part based around an E7#9 chord, not unlike Shining Star by Earth, Wind & Fire. Then, midway through the verse, we play a different line in unison, which is based on the E minor pentatonic scale (E, G, A, B, D), shown in Figure 5.

While Mark is sitting on that E7#9 chord, I change my baritone guitar part to Figure 6, which accentuates the minor 3rd, or #9, G.

For the third verse, Mark and I switch to a “gospel-y,” downstrokes approach. As shown in Figure 7, his part consists of descending 6ths on the top two strings followed by E9sus4 and E9 chord accents.

Over that, I add, on the baritone, a “gospel quartet” line based on E Mixolydian (see Figure 8). The song then moves to a bass feature then a drum feature and ends with a reprise of the line from Figure 1.

As you can see, Mark and I have very specific parts that we devised to fit together, all while working with the other instruments to create a bigger, wider sound.

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For over forty years, Phish’s Trey Anastasio has been on a constant quest to push the boundaries of guitar playing just a little further with every record and project he’s involved in – and that, according to Anastasio, sometimes means straying away from the instrument we all know and love when crafting his guitar parts.

“The reason all guitar music sounds the same is because people just put their hands in the same position,” he tells Cory Wong on the Wong Notes podcast. “On a piano, you write melodies and chords. On a guitar, it's built so weird with that one string in the wrong position, and so everybody plays the same crap all the time.

As he succinctly describes it, “It's all the square, the box, the blah, blah, blah.” His solution, which is allegedly on full display in his upcoming material, is writing “all this guitar music on the piano, which is what I used to do in the old days.

“I used to write everything, a lot of stuff, on the piano, and then I'd learn it on the guitar, and then I recorded it. And once it was all recorded, it sounds really melodic and very, very unique – unlike any guitar music I've really heard before.”

Speaking about how his early inspirations shaped his thought process and approach to composition, Anastasio waxes lyrical about how he “loved Brian May. I was just obsessed with Queen. So, Queen, Zeppelin, Fripp, Broadway, classical music, Ravel, and all that kind of added into this.

“I wrote a lot of this stuff on the piano… these chords and these melodies... Brian May and Fripp, that was the [guitar] tone I was going for. I wanted a mid-rangy, sustaining [tone] that sounded like a voice.”

Earlier this year, Anastasio contributed to a stunning rendition of The Beatles' While My Guitar Gently Weeps in New York alongside Peter Frampton and one of the guitar world's fastest-rising stars.

When I am composing and arranging music, I like to think as an orchestrator. As the guitarist, I try to represent just about everything that’s in the arrangement – the drum syncopations, horn parts, keyboards, etc. – in multiple guitar parts. I might start with a bass-like theme, along the lines of Figure 1.

Playing in the key of G, I begin on a low G and then playing a G one octave higher on the last 16th note of beat 1. After a 16th rest on beat 2, the high G is played again, followed by E to F in eighth notes. I’ve now established a “16th-note grid” that serves to represent the rhythmic syncopation of the music.

My next inclination would be to add a complementary part above that, one that’s intentionally simple and sparse. As shown in Figure 2, I play two-note shapes, 3rds apart, on the D and G strings, that fall on the upbeat of beat 2 into beat 3. Doing this serves to strengthen these accents in each bar, simple as it may be.

A great way to add to these two parts is to virtually double Figure 2 an octave higher. As shown in Figure 3, I begin each bar with a quick accent on G9, followed by the same two-note shapes 3rds apart, played one octave above the previous part.

For a fourth guitar part, I could add a 16th-note horn-like stab, voiced as a unison bend on the top two strings, on the last 16th note of beat 1, as shown in Figure 4.

Right now, everything I’ve played fits into the same type of 16th-note rhythm, so, all together, it feels like one big groove.

My next inclination is to move away from the 16th-note grid and add something that hints at the other parts but supplies a little more momentum via a straight eighth-note feel. This is shown in Figure 5 and is built from other two-note shapes that are 3rds and 4ths apart.

Notice that for many of these parts, I play them as four-bar phrases, as opposed to a repeating one- or two-bar phrase. This way, the parts are less repetitive and also come to a “conclusion” in bar 4 before the phrase repeats.

A great part to add now is something along the lines of a shaker or hi-hat accenting straight 16th notes throughout. Figure 6 is played in this way, devised of muted-string accents along with the interval of 2nds, sounded with F and G notes.

Just as a drum kit has a kick, snare and hi-hats, this high part functions like the hi-hats, while the previous figures are more representative of the kick and snare.

At this point, with all these guitars outlining the rhythmic foundation, it’s good to add a more melodic part, like Figure 7. Here, I play 3rds on the G and B strings, descending and then ascending one fret at a time. Also, I’m getting a pizzicato violin-like sound by using palm-muted downstrokes.

What else is missing? Thus far, everything is quite rhythmic, so, with this new layer, I have the ability to really change the vibe via some ringing chords, treated with a little bar vibrato, as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 9 offers another part played with the same approach, similar in vibe to Miles Davis’ Freddie Freeloader.

My objective with all this is to find a purposeful role for each guitar part, and when they’re added together, it feels like one unified rhythmic and harmonic entity.

Last time, we delved into the all-important topic of developing solid pick-hand timing when strumming. To me, that’s where the groove is: the pick hand is the timekeeper, and I’ve spent a lot of time working on exercises designed to bolster my strumming competence. In this column, I’d like to share some more of these exercises.

One of the interesting things that I did to develop my strumming technique had nothing to do with my wrist motion or how to hold the pick. I actually had teachers in college tell me that my technique was terrible and say “you should hold your pick this way!”

I eventually realized that everyone’s bio-mechanics are different and unique, in terms of works best and most efficiently. So, I don’t swear by my technique; I swear by my ability to control my right-hand movement and the exercises I used to get there.

An unorthodox approach I took was to borrow something from my old marching band drum line exercises and adapt them to guitar. In hitting the snare drum, I’d practice the typical “stick control” exercises of “right-left-right-right” (RLRR) or “left-right-left-left” (LRLL) and I practiced “grid-ing” drills of shifting accents from one 16th note to another. I realized that this approach could enhance my right-hand technique.

Let’s pick up from the last lesson’s examples with steady 16th-note strumming on fret-hand-muted strings, utilizing the “steady motor” approach of down-up-down-up alternate strumming on every beat, as shown in Figure 1.

If you verbalize the four beats of 16th notes in each bar as “1-ee-an-da, 2-ee-an-da, 3-ee-an-da, 4-ee-an-da,” the pick strokes are down-up-down-up, etc., with “ee” and “da” being strummed with upstrokes.

When strumming this way, your have three options: hit a note or chord, play a “chuck” (muted-string strum) or play nothing — just let your hand swing over the strings.

Figure 2 illustrates a “grid-ing” exercise to strengthen pick-hand control for strumming, achieved through shifting the accents. We begin with one bar of accenting the four downbeats (1, 2, 3 and 4), strumming them a little harder than normal. This is followed by a bar of accents on “ee,” then a bar of accents on “an” and ending with a bar accenting “da.”

Now let’s switch the accents to two beats each, as shown in Figure 3. On beats 1 and 2, I accent the downbeats, and on beats 3 and 4, I accent “ee.” In bar 2, I accent “an” in the first two beats, then “da” in the last two.

In Figure 4, I shift the accent forward on each beat, which is a little more challenging to do. Proceed slowly at first while tapping your foot squarely on each beat, then gradually increase the tempo.

The next step is to work in some chords. In Figure 5, I press down on an E9 voicing at the same accent points specified in the prior examples, moving from one 16th-note accent to the next on each successive beat.

In Figure 6, I apply this approach to a more traditional funk rhythm part with changing chords. As you’ll discover, rhythm parts like these are much easier to play once you learn to control how your two hands work together in laying down a solid rhythm part.

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This month, I’d like to talk about the paramount importance of the right, or pick, hand – how it’s the keeper of time and the thing that gives us the groove while we play.

I’ll demonstrate some examples and practice tips for you to work on to help develop your strumming technique.

When it comes to strumming, I subscribe to the “steady motor” method, keeping my hand in perpetual motion, in an unbroken down-up “pendulum” pattern, most often in a 16th-note rhythm, even when I’m not hitting every 16th note.

As shown in Figure 1, I’m strumming steady 16ths in an alternating pattern while dampening all of the strings with my fret hand.

In Figure 2, I apply this strumming technique to a chord progression. Notice that, in bar 1, on beat 2, I strum G5 and let it ring for the equivalent of three 16th notes as my hand keeps moving before striking the chord again. In bar 2, I switch to eighth-note accents on beats 2 and 4.

In Figure 3, the technique is applied in a funk context. Here, I repeatedly strum a G9 voicing, interspersed with muted-string accents.

In all three examples, my right hand is doing the same thing, moving down-up-down-up in 16th notes, which may be counted “1-ee-and-uh, 2-ee-and-uh, 3-ee-and-uh, 4-ee-and-uh.”

Any note or chord that falls on a downbeat (“1,” “2,” “3” or “4”) or eighth-note upbeat (“and”) is sounded with a downstroke, and anything that falls on the second or fourth 16th note of the beat (“ee” or “uh’) is caught with an upstroke. This way, I never have to think about my strokes, as the continuous motion will make those decisions for me.

Are there times when I’ll change my strumming approach for a unique musical situation? Absolutely – this is just a general guideline.

When moving my hand like this, I don’t always strum the strings, even though the down-up motion is constant. There are three sounds that you can get: a chord (or note), a muted-string accent (“x”), or nothing at all – silence. In funk-style music, the most effective rhythm parts combine notes, chords and dead-string accents with space, which together create the desired syncopated rhythms.

Figure 4 illustrates an example of this. On beats 1 and 3, I sound C9 on the downbeats and on the last 16th-note upbeat (“uh”). On beats 2 and 4, the downbeats are silent while the muted-string accents through the rest of the beat are strummed in steady 16ths. In those holes of silence, my right hand is swinging over the strings without touching them.

I learned a lot about rhythm guitar from listening to and watching Nile Rodgers and Prince play, and also chatting with Nile about rhythm guitar techniques.

Figure 5 offers an example of a chord progression played in Rodgers’ rhythm style. For my tune Cosmic Sans, the main chord progression is Em11 - Cmaj7 - A7 - F#m7b5 - B7#5.

If I were to strum a full barre-chord voicing for each chord, it would feel too “chunky.” Instead, I do what Nile advised me to do – “Fret the whole chord form, but only sound parts of it at certain times, moving your right hand from the lower to the higher strings; that will add clarity and definition.”

Nile will often move back and forth between full chords and smaller voicings, as in Figure 6. His tunes Good Times and Le Freak are great examples of this.

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Today I’d like to talk about downpicking – picking or strumming consecutive downstrokes – and why it can be so musically effective.

This is something I learned from studying the riff-writing style of Metallica’s James Hetfield. If you think about the approach to guitar that I’m mostly known for, it seems to have little in common with Hetfield’s.

But I would argue that it has much to do with it, because so much of the energy, feel and sound of one’s rhythm parts has to do with the manner in which we attack our strings.

When it comes to sound and feel, there are huge differences between alternate picking (down-up-down-up), legato phrasing (using hammer-ons and pull-offs) and downpicking.

In Figure 1, I begin playing a two-note G5 chord in an eighth-note rhythm using alternate strumming then switch to consecutive downstrokes in bar 3.

Notice the big difference in sound between the two strumming techniques. The difference becomes even greater if you additionally palm mute the downstrokes… and that’s without even changing your tone or engaging an effect!

A good way for me to exemplify the distinct qualities of downstrokes versus upstrokes is by demonstrating the two main parts of an instrumental tune of mine called Lilypad.

When crafting rhythm guitar parts, I like to work from a “hook,” or compositional, mindset, and my approach here was to create a lead line that was generated by a rhythm part.

The tune’s main theme outlines the chords Bb (Bb, D, F) and Ab (Ab, C, Eb). In devising this rhythm part, I set out to use two-note dyads to describe each of these chords. In Figure 2, I play an ascending series of dyads, using the triadic tones of Bb.

Figure 3 illustrates the “A section” of Lilypad, which is phrased with a combination of 16th- and eighth-note rhythms, all of which I attack with palm-muted downstrokes. The figure is built almost entirely from dyads, most of which are based on a Bb triad.

At the end of bar 4, I move down chromatically, from Bb to A to Ab, then proceed to play the same four-bar idea in bars 5-8 but transposed down a whole step, using Ab chord tones.

The tune’s next section moves down to the relative minor key of Bb major, G minor. As shown in Figure 4, here I play a combination of downstrokes and upstrokes, downpicking bass notes on the low E string, followed by upstroke dyad “stabs” on the top two strings, with pairs of fret-hand-muted “dead-string” accents sandwiched in between on the D and G strings.

In bar 3, I move this idea down a whole step and two frets to imply and Fm sound.

As you can see, the difference in pick attacks makes these two parts sound completely different. As always, I’m thinking like a drummer here. Adopting this mindset can help drive your rhythm parts in unique and effective ways.

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A great approach for all rhythm guitar players is this: think like a drummer! Granted, the drummer is the one who is driving the song’s momentum, but rhythm guitar can similarly contribute.

Let’s begin with some simple things we guitarists can do that are derived from a standard drumbeat, the primary elements of which are the patterns played on the kick drum, snare, and hi-hats.

If we think of just the kick alternating with the snare, we’ve got, “Boom, kahh, boom-boom, kahh.” Add the hi-hat, and it’s, “Tss, tss, kahh, boom, boom-boom, kah, tss, boom, kahh” etc.

We can emulate these different elements on the guitar. Starting with the hi-hat, Figure 1 shows a series of fret-hand-muted strings sounded as straight eighth notes. We also have low and high notes.

Figure 2 emulates the alternating kick-to-snare sound that falls on the quarter-note downbeats, with a low G serving as the kick and a G one octave up functioning as the snare.

Also available to guitar players is the sound of harmony and melody. Putting all these things together will result in a rhythm guitar part that contributes to the groove akin to a drum set, but with the added bonus of pitches and timbres.

Figure 3 offers an example of a rhythm part that combines these different drumset-like elements, played in the key of G. The initial low G note in bar 1 represents the kick drum, followed by muted-string accents that function like the hi-hats.

On beat 2, I slide into a two-note G7 voicing in the place of the snare accent, and beats 3 and 4 feature E and F bass notes walking up to G in alternating octaves. Bar 2 is virtually the same, but I stop on the low F on beat 4. The two-bar phrase is played three and a half times and ends with a chordal accent on G7.

Figure 4 presents another rhythm part, this one a little simpler, to help drive the point home. Here, the four elements are the low G, played on beat 1 of each bar; the two-note G7 voicing, played on beat 2, the Bb-to-B hammer-on played on beat 3, and the E-to-F eighth notes on beat 4. To me, this is a great example of how a rhythm guitarist can think like a drummer.

Let’s move to the key of E minor and shift between the i (one minor) chord, Em9, and the IV (four) chord, A7, the voicings of which are illustrated in Figure 5.

Figure 6 is a nine-bar rhythm part built from alternating bars of Em9 and A7. Notice the dead-string accents that fall on various upbeats and downbeats. Additionally, I slide up from the last note(s) at the end of each bar to add emphasis to the chord change. In bar 5, I drop in a high E unison bend, which functions like a one-beat “horn blast.”

We can elaborate on this idea, as shown in Figure 7, which sounds a high Em9 on beat 1 and emulates a crash-cymbal accent.

The more you think like a drummer, the more you’ll be able to effectively lock in with the rhythm section. If your bass player is thinking along the same lines, you both will add a lot of value to the groove.

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Cory Wong must surely qualify as being one of the busiest guitarists we’ve ever met. At the time of this interview he was on tour with The Metropole Orkest, but he’s also to be found taking on funk guitar duties with both The Fearless Flyers and Vulfpeck, not to mention sundry side projects like Cory & The Wongnotes. And apart from that he’s a Grammy nominated producer – that’s an awful lot of day jobs all rolled into one, you have to admit.

When you consider that Vulfpeck were one of the first ever bands without a manager and not signed to a major label to have sold out Madison Square Garden – a feat that they may well pull off again this coming September – it’s easy to see that funk is once again very big news.

With grooves so intense even sunlight can’t shine through, all of Wong’s projects benefit from his tight-as-you-like guitar work, and just recently he’s added another signature guitar to his performance regimen.

There’s already a Fender Strat that bears his name, and now he can be seen toting a new Ernie Ball Music Man guitar, too. More of that later, but first we had to find out how he’s managing to juggle all the projects he’s involved with.

How’s the tour going?

“I’ve been on a tour all around Europe and the UK, and I’m feeling very good right now. 11-piece band out on the road – absolutely smashing. We did a couple of US tours, we’ve been to Asia, so when you play that much with a band, your instincts are right in alignment.

“The set goes wildly from highly arranged material to completely open. That line getting blurred is really fun because a lot of times we’ll go into exploration mode, but somehow we’ll just all be locked into the same thing, or we’ll be listening so intently to each other that it feels like it was arranged ahead of time.

“It’s like, ‘Yo, what did we do last night on that thing?’ It’s like, ‘I don’t remember.’ We’ve got to listen back because I have no idea what we did, but we were so locked in. At this point we’ve been playing so much together that the band is just on fire. So the tour has been going awesome. Shows have been huge.”

What other projects are you working on, currently?

“Putting out a new Vulfpeck album. Right now we’re in the midst of releasing an album called Clarity Of Cal [released in March 2025 on Vulf Records] which was recorded in California in front of an audience. We actually did this with the last Fearless Flyers album [Fearless Flyers IV, Vulf Records] where we just go in and rehearse the tunes for a day or two.

“We had voice memos that we sent to each other and everybody learned the material. Then we played eight shows and we played some songs, and then it’s like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna record our next album – right now.’ We just played the album down, and then we played a bunch more music. So in the middle of our concert, we had this album session.

“It’s not a live album, it’s just an album recorded live in front of an audience. But you’d be surprised at how much isolation you can get nowadays with a lot of the stuff. It’s pretty crazy. So yeah, a new album coming out with Vulfpeck. Really fun, really excited about that.”

Anything else in the pipeline?

“We also just recorded a brand new album with The Fearless Flyers. We were all in California for a concert and for NAMM. You know, it’s one of those bands where we don’t get together that often because we’re all so busy individually. So whenever we can get together, let’s just get the most mileage out of this thing.

“We knew we were all going to be together, so we had prepared for a few months on some material for a new album. We came in, tracked the album in a couple days, and I think I just finished mixing it yesterday.

“That’s part of my secret to being prolific. When I’m on tour, I’m also mixing the album from the other thing, you know? It’s like, sometimes I find myself in a studio on an off day where I can really work on other stuff.

“Doesn’t always work for everybody, but, for me, it’s nice to be able to do that. So that way, when I get home, I can actually have some time. Because if I didn’t finish mixing this album, as soon as I get home, I’ll be like, ‘All right, I gotta get into album audio…’ I need it checked off my to-do list so I can actually relax when I get home.

“So there’s a lot of new music coming out between The Fearless Flyers and Vulfpeck. I’m doing a bunch more touring and just always exploring different parts of my own artistry as Cory Wong, so it’s been a really fun last couple years, and this year looks to be the same sort of thing. We’re just getting out there and playing.”

Do you find that there’s an adjustment you have to make between playing with Vulfpeck, The Fearless Flyers, and The Metropole Orkest?

“With any project, when I get in the right headspace, I just need to understand my role. ‘How do I fit into this? What is being asked of me? How can I best use my skill set?’ [With] Cory Wong, well, yeah, I’m the front person. It’s my vision. I’m the band leader. It’s all my thing. And what’s asked of me is to be out front, and I need to take command of the thing because that’s what’s expected.

“When it comes to Fearless Flyers, I’m a member of the band and my role in that is playing guitar, and, yes, I have leadership responsibilities in it – producing the record and mixing the record and whatever – but that’s just part of the role. It’s not just about me.

“With Vulfpeck, the headspace I’m in is also like, we’re a band. I’m part of this band, and we, at certain times, need to step up and take command of the stage, but the majority of the time, I’m playing what feels appropriate for the song.

“So it’s all about headspace. And, actually, I think what it does is it deepens my artistry because it helps my awareness; I’m constantly trying to be aware of what any moment or any song needs. How can I do something that feels like it really contributes to this song and adds value to it but stays within the role that it needs to, to make sure that whatever is supposed to be paid attention to is being paid attention to?”

Your new Ernie Ball Music Man StingRay II signature guitar launched earlier this year. Tell us about it.

“I’ve been looking for a humbucker guitar for a lot of years. I finally had to accept the reality that single-coils weren’t going to give me everything that the world has to offer – because, well, they’re just different. It’s a different tool, right? I love my Strat; I’m a Strat guy through and through, but I just needed a guitar with humbuckers.

“If I go out on tour, I just want two guitars: I want a guitar that can do everything that the Strat doesn’t do. So I want something to give me the George Benson, Larry Carlton thing. I want something to give me the screaming lead and driving punk thing in a bridge pickup. And in the middle, I want something that’s just got the Earth, Wind & Fire, Prince, funky thing that’s different from the Strat.

“I figured it was maybe impossible to get out of one guitar, but I tried a bunch of different pickups and a bunch of other guitars, and I got pretty close with some of them. Then one day, I was just scrolling the internet and I saw [Vulfpeck/Fearless Flyers bassist] Joe Dart texting me, he’s like, ‘Yo, so the Joe Dart Jr bass is coming out, check it out!’ And he sent me a picture.

“This thing looks amazing. It’s basically just like a miniature StingRay, and it had one pickup and whatever. I emailed Brian Ball [CEO of Ernie Ball Inc]. I was like, ‘Hey, can you just slap six strings on there and a humbucker and send me one?’

“He’s like, ‘No, I can’t. That’s not how it works…’ So it’s like, ‘Okay, well, have you guys ever made a StingRay guitar? Because that shape is really cool. You guys should make one. You should do it. It’d be so awesome.’

“Then they made a render, and said, ‘What do you think of this?’ I’m like, ‘It’s awesome!’ They’re like, ‘Okay, hold on. I feel like we’re kind of collaborating on this. How involved do you want to be in this?’ I said, ‘However involved you want me to be. Because what you’re doing right now is making the guitar that I want to be a companion to my Strat.’ So they said, ‘All right, let’s do this as a collaborative guitar.’”

Was Fender okay with you working with Music Man on the new guitar?

“I called Fender and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m looking for a humbucker guitar, and blah, blah. I’m exploring this space with Music Man, I mean, it’s a completely different guitar, you know? It’s a totally different tool.’ So it’s like, ‘All right…’ There were a lot of things that [Ernie Ball Music Man] were very set on, and there was a lot of stuff that I really wanted.

“I wanted a bigger headstock; they did some math and figured out how to respace this and whatever because it also makes it look a little more like the StingRay bass shape with the bigger headstock. We tweaked a couple little things just for ratios and whatnot. I wanted the same scale length as a Strat, and I wanted it to feel comfortable and familiar to me.”

“But the pickups – I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to be able to do George Benson and Larry Carlton in the neck pickup. I want to be able to do Satriani and Tom DeLonge in the bridge pickup. And I want to be able to do Prince and Al McKay in the middle.’ The fun thing about the engineers and designers at Music Man is that they’re just up for any challenge, and they’ve proven themselves.

“Take a look at any of the signature guitars they’ve put out with any of their other artists: they really try to get into what the artist’s vision is and let the artist lead and really express themselves. So they didn’t tell me, ‘You’re nuts. That’s not going to happen.’

“I was telling myself, ‘It’s nuts, it’s not going to happen,’ because I’ve been trying to do it for the last three years, finding a guitar with a bunch of different pickups and whatnot. And within the third set of pickups they sent over, somehow they just nailed it.”

You’re obviously really happy with the guitar!

“I’m so stoked about this guitar. What it’s done is it’s really made it so that when I go on tour, I can bring my Strat and I can bring [the Music Man] for everything else, you know? It’s kind of interesting; everybody knows me as a Strat player, like that is my voice.

“But any professional guitar player who says, ‘Oh yeah, I just play one guitar,’ they’re lying. We all know that. [This guitar is] the perfect companion to the Strat, in every way. It’s very different.

“So I’ve been loving having a guitar like this, being able to work with Music Man. The attention to detail that they have is absolutely insane. They make incredible instruments.”

• Clarity of Cal is out now via Vulf Records.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

This month, I’d like to talk about some effective approaches to weaving multiple guitar parts together, whether working with another guitarist or layering parts for a recording. In my previous column, I talked about how to devise rhythm guitar parts that best serve the song and the groove. For me, it’s not just about playing chords; it’s about finding compositional and “hook” elements in your playing.

A common question is, “How do you figure out what to do when there are two guitarists?” The answer is the same as for “What do I do when playing with a keyboard player?” or “What do I do when there’s a horn section?” It always comes down to knowing what my function and role are within this specific arrangement.

In some songs, I might be the one that’s driving the rhythmic momentum, and in others, my role might be to lay down a bed of harmony that sits in the background, like a cloud that “hugs” the whole tune together. Other times, my part might be out front as much as possible, such as during a guitar solo, serving as the focal point of the music.

I approach working with another guitarist in the same way I do with any other instrument: what is their role, what is my role, and how can we collaborate most effectively? The first thing you need to do is listen to what the other instrumentalist is playing and see if what you’re doing can enhance that by doing something similar, or something completely different.

One of the typical things I’ll do when layering parts is to play a chord-based figure and then add a single-note “bubbly” part.

Figure 1 offers a rhythm part built from a C9 chord that's embellished with simple single-note melodies. Throughout most of the pattern, my pick hand strums steady 16th notes in a down-up-down-up fashion; notice the use of muted-string accents and 16th and eighth rests, which add rhythmic contour to the part.

If I were to add a second part, it wouldn’t make sense to play Figure 2, which just sits on a C7 chord. I’d be more prone to play a bubbly single-note part such as Figure 3, which accentuates the 6th, A, and the minor 3rd, E, and adds a Meters-type vibe.

We now have two completely different parts with different functions that mesh well together: one is based on a solid chord rhythm and the other is based on a melodic line played with a different tone.

Figure 4 offers another example of a melodic part, this time built from unison bends, 6th intervals and single-note lines. I begin with a high-G unison bend on the top two strings and then ascend chromatically in 6ths fretted on the D and B strings.

In bar 2, I switch to a single-note line that incorporates some chromaticism. This two-bar figure then repeats three times with slight variations.

Whatever you choose to play, your mindset should be, “how can I best serve the song, without taking away from the focal point,” be it a lead vocal or instrumental solo.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Cory Wong sparked discussion just over a month ago when he insisted that guitarists should not call themselves “advanced guitarists” unless they can ace one exercise: knowing where all the notes are on a guitar – and recall them on demand. It was a controversy that extended far beyond Wong's comment section, with Jack White even weighing in on the debate.

Now, Joe Satriani is giving his two cents on the matter, agreeing with Wong's statement and reasserting how essential it is for both veteran guitarists and complete rookies to know the fretboard like the back of their hand.

“I would always insist that you know every single note right from the beginning,” he tells Cory Wong on the Wong Notes podcast. “Find-the-note-everywhere exercise. I think that's what I would write on the top of the lesson book. And I'd always tell them [guitarists], ‘Look, it's gonna take maybe three weeks, and then you'll never think about this ever again.’”

Satch also mentions how kids who have just started learning the guitar need to hone in on this early so they’ll “never have to learn it again.”

“The time to learn these things is when you're that young, and your cells are being recreated every minute, and you've got a million hormones and all this energy, and it's the hardest time to focus, but it's the best time to learn. It'll just become part of who you are.”

The veteran guitarist takes the same approach when it comes to scales: learn them as early as possible. “I would always tell them, ‘This is not music – you got to learn this, form an opinion about it. That's what you're playing the scales for. What's your opinion of Mixolydian versus Phrygian dominant? When do you pull one scale out instead of the other?’ You have to make that decision. How are you going to do that if you can't play it?” he concludes.

Aside from giving his hot takes, Satriani is busy rehearsing with Steve Vai for the SatchVai Band – the first official band the two have formed together in their 50-year musical careers.

Rhythm guitar maestro Cory Wong may have been a self-professed “Strat guy through and through”, but the need for more versatility in the form of a humbucker-equipped guitar – coupled with an off-kilter idea inspired by an iconic bass design – led him to knock on Ernie Ball's door. The rest, as they say, is history – or in this case, the StingRay II, which was officially unveiled this past NAMM.

“I just needed a guitar with humbuckers. If I go out on tour, I just want two guitars: I want a guitar that can do everything that the Strat doesn’t do,” Wong says of the collaboration in the newest issue of Guitarist.

As Wong puts it, he was in the market for a guitar that can deliver a range of sounds: something that delivers the “George Benson, Larry Carlton thing”, “screaming lead and driving punk thing in a bridge pickup”, and “something that’s just got the Earth, Wind & Fire, Prince, funky thing that’s different from the Strat”.

After realizing that it’s near-impossible to get all of those tones out of one guitar, he embarked on his quest for a companion to his Strat. However, despite testing different pickups and guitars, none of them stuck. Then, out of the blue, Wong found a spark of inspiration.

“Then one day, I was just scrolling the internet and I saw [Vulfpeck/Fearless Flyers bassist] Joe Dart texting me, he’s like, ‘Yo, so the Joe Dart Jr bass is coming out, check it out!’ And he sent me a picture,” he recalls. “This thing looks amazing. It’s basically just like a miniature StingRay, and it had one pickup and whatever.”

What followed was a real-life lightbulb moment. “I emailed Brian Ball [CEO of Ernie Ball Inc]. I was like, ‘Hey, can you just slap six strings on there and a humbucker and send me one?’ He’s like, ‘No, I can’t. That’s not how it works…’

“So it’s like, ‘Okay, well, have you guys ever made a StingRay guitar? Because that shape is really cool. You guys should make one. You should do it. It’d be so awesome.’”

A render and a couple of exchanges later, Wong was officially hooked. “I’m like, ‘It’s awesome!’ They’re like, ‘Okay, hold on. I feel like we’re kind of collaborating on this. How involved do you want to be in this?’ I said, ‘However involved you want me to be. Because what you’re doing right now is making the guitar that I want to be a companion to my Strat.’ So they said, ‘All right, let’s do this as a collaborative guitar.’”

As for whether Wong managed to achieve the tone (or should should that be tones?) of his dreams, the answer is a resounding yes.

“I’m so stoked about this guitar. What it’s done is it’s really made it so that when I go on tour, I can bring my Strat and I can bring [the Music Man] for everything else, you know?” he gushes.

“It’s kind of interesting; everybody knows me as a Strat player, like that is my voice. But any professional guitar player who says, ‘Oh yeah, I just play one guitar,’ they’re lying. We all know that. [This guitar is] the perfect companion to the Strat, in every way.”

And, in other news, in his inaugural Guitar World column, Wong lays out the principles – and the mentality – of good rhythm playing, and how you can make it fun.

For more from Cory Wong, plus new interviews with Mike Campbell and Lita Ford, pick up issue 524 of Guitarist at Magazines Direct.

Hello, and welcome to my new column for Guitar World! Over the next few months, I will demonstrate many of the approaches I use to craft guitar parts.

I’d like to start by addressing rhythm guitar playing and what I believe should be the mindset of a rhythm guitarist: why you should care, why it matters, and how you can make it fun!

For some players, their approach to rhythm guitar is, “Oh, someone else gets to do all of the fun stuff while I do this!” I suppose one could feel that way because they’re not exploring all of the available creative options.

When it comes to rhythm playing, my mindset is the momentum of the song and considering whether I need to add something harmonic and/or melodic.

Oftentimes, the keyboards or bass are covering the chord changes, so I don’t need to play them. This gives me the freedom to think about melody or ways to outline or enhance the harmony.

For example, if the chord chart says “G,” there are many ways to interpret that. I could play Figure 1, which is a straight G barre chord strummed in a syncopated 16th-note rhythm.

Or I could play Figure 2, utilizing an open G5 voicing. The same approach applies if the chart says G7, G9 or Gm. In these examples, I’m just playing a chord; it certainly doesn’t sound like a song or riff.

One thing we can strive to do is make a rhythm part sound like a hook, iconic to the song. For example, if a cover band is playing the song, they would have to play that specific part.

Figure 3 presents a rhythm part that's both melodic and rhythmically syncopated. It contributes to the momentum of the groove while also being so specific that one could sing it.

Let’s say I don’t need as much harmony, but the song could use some rhythmic push and melodic content. Instead of being the “chords person,” I’ll think of myself as a bongo player who can play pitches.

Figure 4 offers an example of this approach: while strumming steady 16th notes, I alternate between sounding single notes and muted strings to create a rhythm part that’s both harmonically and rhythmically strong.

Imagine playing multiple roles. Within a song, there might be a big chordal accent on “one” played by the keyboards, followed by a percussion riff and then bookended by a horn phrase. I can roll all three of those elements into a single guitar part, as in Figure 5.

I start with an accent on G9, followed by muted 16th notes and a single-note melody, then, in bar 2 by a two-note harmonized melody. Figure 6 offers another example, played at a slightly slower tempo.

The key is to create a unique part. My rhythm guitar approach can best be described as looking to create a song within the song, which fosters a more creative and expressive mindset that can help give the song a unique musical fingerprint.

Cory Wong has issued a hot take on Instagram, claiming that players can’t call themselves advanced guitarists unless they can ace one specific test.

“Gentle call out to the folks that consider themselves advanced guitarists,” he says in a new reel with his new Ernie Ball guitar sat on his lap. “If you can't do this exercise, I wouldn't consider you an advanced guitarist.”

The exercise in question? Knowing where all the notes are on an electric guitar (or any guitar, for that matter), and being able to play them instantly on demand.

“You should know where all the notes are on a guitar! Can you play me a C on every string?” he queries.

Wong then flexes his own knowledge by showing how quickly he can smash off six of the same note, each on a different string, emphasizing why guitarists should get to know the ins and outs of their fretboard.

It’s a challenging exercise, and certainly one that will get brains firing if players take on the challenge at a speed anywhere near Cory ‘Lightning Fingers’ Wong.

But it’s a great test. Especially because, unlike like the piano, the notes on the guitar are not laid out linearly, meaning finding a C note on every string takes a little more working out. So it’s a worthwhile skill to have, even more so if players jump between different tunings and keys.

To those ends, players like Monuments' John Browne and Clayton King have talked up the magic of open tunings for metal because there are far fewer open note variations – for instance, standard guitar tuning sees only one string repeat. In DADGAD, there are only three different strings to learn – D, A, and G.

It's a bit of a cheat code, but it helps navigate the challenges that the standard guitar tuning provides when chasing specific notes on the fly. Either way, both players here have spoken of the value of knowing which notes are where at any given moment.

“If you can't do that, I'm not calling you an advanced guitarist,” Wong wraps up. “That's all there is to it; get to work.”

Of course, his post has got the punters talking, with a stream of comments all offering pointers to guitarists wanting to understand the notes of the fretboard better.

Other users have also underlined that some of the greatest guitar players earned their stripes without a solid grasp on theory, and some have pointed to the players who can play very complicated chords without knowing their technical names.

It's certainly divided opinion, and Wong has revelled in those contrasting responses: “Didn’t know this would trigger so many folks,” he later commented. “I’m here for it.”

It's safe to say that, as far as newer faces go, Grace Bowers has risen to the upper echelons of the guitar world – with a Grammy performance, accolades, late-night talk show appearances, and nods from Dolly Parton, Lainey Wilson, Susan Tedeschi, Devon Allman, and a string of other big names under her belt.

However, while Bowers cut her teeth playing blues, her debut album, Wine on Venus, suggests she may be moving beyond that label and into pastures new.

“I get the label as a blues rock artist a lot, and I hate that,” she tells Cory Wong on his Wong Notes podcast. “That's not the type of music I make, nor is it the kind of music I listen to. Not to rag on people who do make blues rock music, but it's so overdone right now.

“I'm trying so hard to stray away from it, especially with our live shows. It's very much like more funk and soul-based, rather than blues and rock. And there's definitely still elements of that in there.

“But I can't stand that label, and it doesn't help being a quote/unquote Instagram guitarist either, because that's what most Instagram guitarists are, more than likely, blues players, and I just feel like that's so limiting being labeled as that.”

As to why people have imprinted blues rock onto her playing and music, Bowers admits that a lot of the videos she posted a year or two ago were more blues-leaning, simply because that’s what she was listening to at the time. However, as was the case with her playing, her listening palette has also expanded.

“I'm still learning every day and practicing, but it's not blues anymore at all. And listening to our record that might be a bit hard to hear, but our live shows are definitely not blues or rock.”

“What would you call it?” asks Wong.

“Funk and soul, with some rock thrown in,” she asserts. “I mean, there's definitely still a blues influence behind all that. That's what got me started playing guitar. So, of course, it's going to come out quite a bit, but I would label it more funk and soul.”

That said, Bowers recently named her favorite guitar player of all time – and it's a legendary player from the blues-rock stable.

Cory Wong is one of today’s leading lights of rhythm guitar, taking the Nile Rodgers school of funk and teaming it with Steely Dan voicings and George Benson melodic sensibilities to forge a sound that has won him not one, but two signature guitars with two separate companies.

When Guitar World caught up with him at NAMM 2025 to promote the second of those models, the dual-humbucker Ernie Ball StingRay II, we hit Wong with a theory: that given social media algorithms favor pyrotechnic lead playing, the art of good rhythm guitar is getting lost in the noise.

His response makes essential reading for players of all stripes.

“I totally get it on the algorithm celebrating lead guitar because it’s like, ‘Whoa, what's that thing?! That's cool!’ And just because we’re scrolling, we want something that's gonna grab our attention,” he reasons. “And lead guitar, I think, inherently, does that a little bit more.

“But with rhythm guitar, it's the majority of what most guitar players play, honestly, if they're playing in a band. [But] I don't think the art is lost. I think [there's] just less emphasis on it.

“There's so much feel and groove that can be affected by the way a rhythm guitar player plays. I think it's just the nature of the role.”

In highlighting the differences between lead and rhythm players, Wong points to one guitarist in particular, who stands out as one of the most identifiable rhythm players in his mind.

“One of my favorite rhythm guitar players, or guitar players in general, is Rob Harris from Jamiroquai,” he says. “[With] a lot of rhythm guitar players, it's hard to recognize them if you're just listening to the album. [With] lead guitar players, it’s more like, ‘Oh, that's Vai, that's Satch.’ It's maybe a little more obvious who somebody is.

“But with rhythm guitar, for whatever reason, I always know when it's Rob Harris. I've heard him on tracks, and I look up the tracks, and I'm like, ‘Oh, that's Rob.’ It's the tone, it's the touch, it's the feel, it's the voicing choices.”

Besides his distinctive syncopated vamps with Jamiroquai – including stone-cold classic album A Funk Odyssey – Harris’ playing has cropped up across the spectrum of rock and pop, with credits including Kylie Minogue, Anastasia, Kanye West, Deep Purple’s Don Airey and the Lego Batman soundtrack.

The reason why Harris’ work is so identifiable is down to one thing – and it’s something all great rhythm players share: the ability to create “undeniable hooks”, says Wong.

“A lot of people, when they play rhythm guitar, they’re just, ‘Oh, the chords are this,’ and then they just play the chords. It's like, ‘Those are the chords to the song. Now, let's come up with parts that are this song.’

“I'll listen to people playing, like you're just playing a chord progression. It doesn't sound like you're doing anything iconic for your band… this tune needs something signature to it.

“I think a lot of times people don't love playing rhythm guitars [because] they see it as just playing chords or playing a chord progression. I think they limit the level of creativity that they’re able to unlock if they were just like, ‘Yeah, these are the chords, but I'm going to come up with a hook or an interesting line in the rhythm realm,’ but really it's kind of a hook.”

Wong points to session legends Paul Jackson Jr and David Williams – both famed for their work with Michael Jackson – as examples of players who were masters of creating rhythm guitar hooks, and making their parts pop as much as lead solos.

You can watch the full interview above, in which Wong dishes on working with Ernie Ball Music Man alongside Fender, why great lead players can overshadow their rhythm playing, as well as how he ended up selling his signature gear on his merch stand on tour.

For more info on the StingRay II, head to Ernie Ball Music Man.

NAMM 2025: Ernie Ball Music Man has teamed up with funk virtuoso Cory Wong to introduce the brand-new StingRay II guitar, directly inspired by the design of the iconic StingRay bass – a first for the brand.

While it’s not the first StingRay guitar model, it’s the first time EBMM has attempted to accurately reproduce previously bass-only features, like the distinctive rounded scratchplate, on a guitar build.

Promising “unmatched clarity, versatility, and precision,” the model comes in two versions – the StingRay II and StingRay II Deluxe – and offers a different flavor compared to Wong’s signature Fender Strat, released in 2021.

Speaking about this new collaboration – and why he temporarily set aside focusing on his beloved Fender Strats – Cory Wong says,

“Huge shout out to Fender for being open to me exploring a second guitar in my rotation. I've been a Strat guy my whole life. It's the instrument that's defined my voice on the guitar, but this instrument is one that's going to give me options to expand my color palette.

“Different guitars are going to draw out things in your playing, unique to what sounds they have to offer. I think the way the neck feels, the way the pickups sound, and even the way that it looks, is going to give your body and brain information that unlocks certain areas of creativity.”

Wong goes on to explain that a signature bass served as the catalyst that sparked the idea to reimagine the bass’ iconic design – with a six-string twist.

“When they released the Joe Dart Jr. StingRay bass, I asked what I thought was a simple question, ‘Can you put six strings and humbuckers on it?’ I guess it wasn't quite that easy, but Music Man was up for the challenge, so they actually asked me to help with the design and development process to create this guitar.

“The StingRay bass is an iconic instrument, but there's certain design things about it that would need to change in order to make it work as an electric guitar.”

So, what does this new guitar, designed in collaboration with the Vulfpeck star, bring to the table?

First off, both models boast a select alder body and an ergonomic design that takes a page from the StingRay bass's book, delivering “smooth playability and effortless fret access,” along with a roasted figured maple neck.

Additionally, they come fully equipped with 22 stainless steel frets, gold hardware with a Cory Wong neck plate, and ultra-clean Cory Wong HT humbuckers for the bridge and neck pickups.

The Deluxe model takes things a little further – with a roasted maple fretboard, parchment binding, and a matching headstock for a more “refined” look. When it comes to colorways, the standard model is available in Charcoal Blue and Cashmere, while the Deluxe is offered in Pine Green and Polaris White.

Starting today, both StingRay II finishes, along with the StingRay II Deluxe in Pine Green, are available from authorized Ernie Ball Music Man dealers.

As for the exclusive StingRay II Deluxe in Polaris White, it’s limited to just 30 pieces – and can only be purchased through The Vault on the official Ernie Ball Music Man website.

Given that George Benson’s influence is boundless, it’s no surprise that Cory Wong and Andy Timmons treasure his legacy, which they’re preparing to celebrate and share at Benson’s upcoming Breezin’ with the Stars guitar camp.

Through records like White Rabbit (1972), Bad Benson (1974), and Breezin' (1976), the veteran jazz fusion guitarist traversed genres, opening countless musical minds along the way.

“The thing about George is that if he were just a pop guitar player, he would be a legend,” Wong tells Guitar World. “This cat is arguably one of the greatest players to ever exist. If you look at some of these legendary songs, there’s just an incredible depth of artistry.”

And Timmons – who at 61, is a generation ahead of Wong, 39 – agrees. “I’ll never be able to do exactly what George does. Some people study the technique, but it’s more about absorbing the feel and ideas and feeling the swing.”

Breezin’ with the Stars is the first event of its kind for Benson. Alongside Wong and Timmons, the guest list features Patti Austin, Norman Brown, Al Di Meola, Tommy Emmanuel, Stanley Jordan, Steve Lukather, Lee Ritenour, and others. It takes place at the Wigwam Resort in Phoenix, Arizona, January 3 to 6.

“When George announced he was doing a camp, I said, ‘Whoa, I gotta be there!’” Wong says. “I was like, ‘I wanna hang out with George and learn from him.’ So I’ll be instructing and giving a masterclass. I’m excited to absorb everything and all the wisdom he has.”

Timmons adds: “I’ve been a lifelong fan. Most people know me for rock ’n’ roll, but jazz really has informed how and what I play. It’s not overtly obvious, but I’ve absorbed a lot from George over the years. It’s going to be incredible, and a little intimidating, considering the characters involved here.”

Wong and Timmons agree that Breezin’ is the casual listener’s go-to record; it put Benson at the top of jazz, pop, and R&B charts in the ‘70s, a previously unheard-of phenomenon. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

“There’s an early record called It’s Uptown,” Timmons says. “That one, along with The George Benson Cookbook, were some of his jazz records I owned.”

Wong reports: “There’s a live album called Weekend in L.A., and it was No. 1 for weeks. It was like, ‘Benson is that good he can even do it live!’ If you want to get an idea of the live Benson thing, that’s the one.

“But if you want to get more into his jazz side I’d say Benson Burner is an incredible record, and so is The George Benson Cookbook, because it gives you an idea about young George.”

Breezin’ with the Stars promises a four-night event for the ages. Wong knows he has a job to do, but that won’t stop him taking in the atmosphere. “I wanna dive in a little deeper; I want to understand his thought process and artistry.”

“I want to understand how he balances playing jazz versus R&B and pop in his head. Is it all just the same to him? I’m hoping to walk away with conceptual knowledge and understanding. I don’t need him to show me lines; I wanna hear about his concept.”

“Just the pure entertainment of being around these amazing players will be great,” Timmons says. “The camaraderie, education, and inspiration lasts for years. You’ll get so much out of it.

“I would have gone to this camp even if I wasn’t invited. I’m going because George has never done anything like this. I always tell people, ‘See the greats while you can.’ If any of my heroes get anywhere near me, I’m gonna try to absorb it.”

• Book your guitar camp tickets at breezinwiththestars.com.

Cory Wong and Hotone Audio have put their heads together for an ingenious space-saving signature stompbox that serves as an all-in-one volume, expression, and wah pedal.

The funk aficionado has long been a lover of an expression pedal. However, with pedalboard space at a premium for many players these days, adding just one expression pedal can prove to be problematic.

Wong and Hotone Audio understand this struggle, and they’ve come to the rescue with the Wong Press.

“All of my favorite ones were huge. They took up so much space on a pedalboard, and all were separate,” decries Wong. “I wanted to have three-in-one in a smaller footprint.”

The guitarist endeavored to ensure this ambitious multi-purpose build nailed the brief, and says he took the beta pedal and “road-tested it like you would not believe”. Hence its exhaustive two-year build process.

The result is a three-in-one pedal with a four-in-one functionality, as an additional wah with a volume mode has also been installed into its clever innards.

Its core template came from Hotone’s Soul Press, which offers the same three-strong trick bag. Here, Wong has influenced the reshaping of its volume curve and drafted in an adjustable Q value range that helps players get far more out of the wah effect.

A selection of color-coded LED lights serve a dual purpose. They both let players know which mode the pedal is in, and what position the pedal’s treadle is in to assist with cocked-wah sounds.

Two voicings are buried within – Warm (290Hz to 1.4kHz) and Classic (360Hz to 1.8kHz) – and expression pedal and guitar tuner jacks have been added for easier pedalboard configuring. All this, of course, has been kicked into shape courtesy of some rugged Wong touring.

“I have taken this thing all around the world,” says Wong. “[I’ve] thrown it on a plane, thrown it in the back of the van – all in a suitcase, not even a Pelican or a hard case – just to see if this pedal’s durability was up to my standards.”

Its volume and expression-altering traits may be valuable assets in many a guitarist’s toolkit – especially for those wanting a greater dynamic response from their active pickups – but Wong believes it can also assist all players, who he says “have been sleeping on wah for the last two decades”.

As such, he’s quick to talk up the wah’s magic, saying: “I don’t think people realize how many different textural things and rhythmic things you can get into with a pedal. And also to just have a different color palette to draw from in your guitar solos.”

Indeed, perhaps at the slight influence of the rise of floor modelers – many of which come sans expression pedal – the wah pedal doesn’t seem in vogue with today’s current generation of players.

Perhaps that’s about to change then, with the Wong Press playing its part. It looks like it could be an invaluable gig companion for modelers and more traditional pedalboards alike.

The Hotone Audio Wong Press costs $199 and is available now.

Head to Hotone Audio to learn more.

Syncopation is a musical term directly associated with rhythm. In short, syncopation is where rhythms tend to fall on and utilise the off-beat, rather than landing on the stronger on-beats. This approach helps to create interesting rhythms, adding musical tension to the flow of a piece of music.

One genre of music synonymous with syncopation is funk, where 16th-note patterns are used to create rhythmic displacement and interest. The use of 16th notes, or semiquavers as they are commonly known, give musicians an extra palette of beats to exploit.

Rather than having eight beats to play with in each bar, counted as 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + within a regular bar of 4/4, further subdividing these into 16ths creates a feel of 1e+a, 2e+a, 3e+a, 4e+a. This gives the musicians 16 beats to play with in each bar, allowing for greater rhythmic flexibility.

An example of a guitarist who revels in this style of playing is Nile Rodgers. Nile is
a master at constructing syncopated guitar rhythms be it for Chic’s I Want Your Love, Diana Ross’ I’m Coming Out, David Bowie’s Let’s Dance or Sister Sledge’s We Are Family.

Cory Wong is a modern-day funk influencer, with his tight, syncopated 16th note rhythm gaining many fans.

The key to playing funk guitar is to keep your strumming hand loose and relaxed, while maintaining a consistent up and down motion. The ideal is to strum the strings on the required beats within your 16th-note pattern.

This technique is a standard method for playing rhythm guitar as a whole, where the constant up and down movement of the strumming hand works like a metronome, helping to keep you in time.

When using this technique to play 16th notes, the e and a beats will land on up-strokes, while the down beat and + will land on down-strokes. Maintaining this for an extended period of time can be tiring at first, so it’s important not to tense your strumming hand, but keep it as loose as possible.

This same approach can be used when playing single-note syncopated lines, once again helping you to stay in time and locked in with the groove.

The following examples and study piece showcase a number of different 16th-note patterns. I have included the strumming and picking patterns for all of the tab and notation to show which beats should fall on either a down or upstroke.

If you are unfamiliar with this style of playing, you could start by strumming a single chord using straight 16ths, getting used to how it feels, where some beats land, and also those where the plectrum bypasses the strings.

Crack your funk chops and it will add a new layer to your playing, because rhythm is one of the most important but sometimes neglected elements of guitar playing.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 2, Bass 4, Middle 5, Treble 6, Reverb 3

A clean tone is a must for most funk. Many players opt for neck pickup or positions 2 or 4 on a Stratocaster, but a Tele‘s both pickups on, or both pickups together on a humbucking guitar, all work well.

A compressor pedal can be useful to even out dynamics, but care is required with the settings as well as use of delay; too much (or not being in time) can create confusion.

Playing examples

Example 1

This single-note line involves playing a combination of pitched and ghost notes (where the pick glances over the strings but without sounding actual notes). Keep a constant 16th-note picking pattern with a slight rest at the end of each bar. Don’t lift the pick too far off the strings or you’ll lose strumming efficiency.

Example 2

Ghost notes are removed here, where the emphasis is on the off beat, requiring lots of up strokes (and silent down strokes). Aim for consistent timing and fluency.

Example 3

A single A7 chord is the basis for this example, which is played in suitably syncopated fashion. Keep your strumming hand loose and follow the picking directions, making sure that you lock in with the groove.

Example 4

Double-stops feature in this example. Ensure that you avoid or mute the rest of the strings to keep the sound clear and concise.

Example 5

A series of A dominant chords makes up this final example. Play as clearly and fluently as you can, muting any unplayed strings and keeping your strumming hand loose. Avoid needless flailing, which destroys strumming efficiency and can disrupt your timing. You might want to watch your rhythm hand to see how you’re doing.

Vulfpeck's Cory Wong has treated fans with a stripped-down set against the picturesque backdrop of Red Rocks Park in Jefferson County, Colorado. Alongside the performance, Wong gave his take on defying the expectations associated with a guitar-led band.

The Grammy-nominated guitarist performed new renditions of his tracks Flyers Direct, Pebbles, Team Sports and Airplane Mode, accompanied by his band. For this live recording, Wong brandished a Martin 000CJr-10E acoustic guitar, connected to a Neural DSP Quad Cortex.

“When somebody signs up to listen to a guitar-led band, they might assume it's going to be a bunch of shredding and a traditional guitar hero sort of band,” Wong says in an interview with Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre.

“And for me, I like doing that sometimes. But I don't always want the guitar to be the lead voice all the time. It's the arrangements, and it's choosing when what to do, and what to feature at any given moment.”

Wong also comments on the benefits of drawing inspiration from sources beyond music. “A lot of musicians draw inspiration from other music. And of course, I do that and I have done that a lot in the past.

“If I'm only focusing on music as my source of inspiration, the music I make starts to sound kind of like the thing that I'm listening to. And if I do things like look at a beautiful landscape or a piece of artwork, I'll score the moment and take it in. I can try to write a song that feels like what this [referring to Red Rocks Park] looks like.”

In a 2021 Guitar World interview, Wong talked about this ongoing journey to find his own signature sound through evolving techniques:

“I’ve always been on this journey of finding my signature sound, finding my voice. And I started doing something that I don’t see a lot of guitar players doing – using a technique in all kinds of contexts from lead to rhythm. And the technique is simply hitting the strings with my hand. I know that sounds absurd, like anyone could do that.

"But if you listen to the intro of my song Companion Pass, there’s this triplet lick where I play an upstroke, hit the strings and then there’s a downstroke. So sometimes I might find a spot where I’d normally pick a note, and hit the strings with my palm somewhere – almost like palm muting – but a little towards the neck.”

Wong recently teamed up with anarchic electronic artist Marc Rebillet for an impromptu jam at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Electronic artist and multi-instrumentalist Marc Rebillet treated fans to an onstage collaboration with Vulfpeck guitarist Cory Wong and saxophonist Joey Dosik on July 14 at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Funk band Vulfpeck also performed a separate set at the festival. However, the collaboration was as unexpected as Rebillet's sets usually are, as the artist is known for largely improvising his set, with a little help from his loop station.

In the funk-inspired frenzied jam, Wong took over rhythm duties, holding down Rebillet's synth and loop work, and Dosik's extended saxophone solo.

“The collab we’ve all been waiting for. Marc Rebillet’s set got even more epic when Vulfpeck’s Cory Wong and Joey Dosik joined the party,” posted Montreux Jazz Festival on their official social media accounts. Rebillet commented, “I’m checking my sources, but it’s possible that we snapped here.”

As fitting for the occasion, Wong brandished his sapphire blue signature Fender Stratocaster. In a 2021 interview with Guitar World, Wong described working with Fender on his first-ever signature guitar as a “dream come true.”

When speaking about the Strat's quirk, a push/pull switch on Tone 2 that bypasses the pickup selector and defaults to position 4, Wong said: “When I play, I have quite a wide sweep with my picking hand. That’s my technique – sweeping wide and using my wrist flexibility. And I end up hitting the pickup selector and surprising myself, so I got this fourth position panic button. Wherever the pickup selector is, this button makes sure I stay in fourth position.

“It was a fun idea. When you are lucky enough to be designing a signature guitar with Fender, you want to make it more unique, so it stands out against all the other Stratocasters. Before, I would use gaffer tape to make it stay in fourth!”

Rebillet is currently on tour in Europe and will begin his US tour in September, which includes a residency at New York's Blue Note Jazz Club from September 26 to September 29.

Vulfpeck are currently in the midst of festival appearances in Europe, before kicking off back-to-back shows at The UC Theater in Berkeley, California, which will also double as live recording sessions for an upcoming album.

There are some rock ’n’ roll stories you just couldn’t make up. One is how Spanish bassist Vincen García went from messaging Cory Wong on Instagram to standing with him onstage in front of thousands with a bass in his hand.

When it was announced that Sonny T would be missing from the European leg of Wong’s 2023 tour due to undisclosed circumstances, García was quickly named as his last minute stand-in. “I’d messaged Cory to see if he needed a bassist,” García told Bass Player. “He sent me a playlist, his tour manager's phone number and said, ‘See you two days!’”

Initially, picking up the gig at the drop of a hat was difficult, as you might expect. “I had 48 hours to learn the set. There was no rehearsal, so I was a little nervous about the whole scenario, but Cory's band has been playing for a long time, so they were all relaxed. They helped me on the first night with cues onstage.”

Remarkably, García was also fairly calm about learning the songs. “The great thing about Cory’s music is that it can be interpreted in your own way. I had to pick up the chords and really make each bassline my own. It was an experience I’ll never forget.”

If you’ve heard the earth-shattering bass playing of Vincen García – a searing mixture of incredible chops and mind-boggling groove – you’ll appreciate that his enormous energy was the perfect fit for Cory Wong’s funk formula.

García checked in with Bass Player ahead of his own upcoming European tour. 

When did you start playing bass?

“When I was a kid, my classmates and I wanted to start a band, but nobody else wanted to play the bass! So I decided to start with the instrument myself.” 

Do you remember your first bass guitar?

“Yes. It was an Academy Precision. I remember it had a high action, and it was very hard to play. Now I play a Yamaha BB.”

Do you play with fingers or a pick?

“Fingerstyle! It’s just better for me. I might use a pick for playing louder styles of music, but I have finally nailed the tone I like when I play with my fingers. I can get a much warmer sound.”

What would you play if you wanted to impress someone?

“It depends on the person and what they’re impressed by! Maybe some slap basslines? Or some ghost notes? I like to bring out the artillery!”

How often do you experiment with effects?

“I keep varying what’s on my pedalboard. What I like the most is the natural sound of the instrument, but I do use some reverb, wah, and octave effects.”

You used a wah with Funky Times. What are those guys like to work with?

“We met at the Guitar Summit in Germany. They’re great guys and I’m sure we’ll do more in the future.”

Who are your bass heroes?

“There are the obvious names like Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller, Jaco Pastorius and Richard Bona, but I also like players like Junior Braguinha, Michael Pipoquinha, Kinga Glyk, Guille Vadala, and guitarists like Cory Wong, Mark Lietteri, and Eli Soares.” 

What bassline do you wish you had written?

“Teen Town by Jaco. It’s such a great bassline. I also listened to Marcus Miller's slapped version, which I also love.”

What’s your favorite bassline to play?

“Os Anjos Te Louvam by Eli Soares. Eli is a musician, singer and producer. He is a true artist. You can tell he writes with a guitar, but he also does all of the arrangements. He is always doing covers of his own songs – and I love that. This particular bassline is great to play. It has so much groove.” 

Do you have any advice for bass players who are just starting?

“Always enjoy making music with the bass guitar, and whatever you do, do it with desire and love. Whenever I play live, I want to engage with the audience. I love when people enjoy watching me play.”

• For tour dates, stop by vincengarcia.com.

As a major player in the world of funk, Cory Wong tasks himself with placing his considerable rhythm guitar skills centre stage – something he calls “lead rhythm guitar”. 

The result? Well, he delivers some of the finest, slickest and most creative funk playing you’ll hear today. And getting to that level? It takes a certain amount of creativity, and the idea is to go beyond basic chord vamps and inject something “signature” or “iconic,” some musical ideas of your own. 

Here, the Minneapolis maestro takes us through some of the ways he approaches jamming around simple chords – and that’s something we could all brush up on! Using just a couple of well-known barre chord shapes, Cory outlines some creative ways to take your rhythm and phrasing to the next level. 

Example 1. Single-note chord outline

Cory kicks off with a look at how a single-note funk line can outline a chord (Am7 here). He keeps a 16th-note rhythm going, with the strumming determined by the “right-hand motor staying steady.” 

Listen out for muted notes (shown with Xs in the tab). Cory plays first with, then without mutes – and you can hear how sparse it is when you boil it down to just the notes. There’s no right or wrong though. Make your own parts as sparse or energetic as you like! 

Example 2. Chord outline with diads

Here, Cory expands his idea by adding notes from the chord, but notice that these are just two-note shapes – no big chords to be found! But it does sound richer and more colourful, and it’s a creative idea you can employ in your own funk rhythms, or any other style for that matter.

Take a look at Cory’s fingers in our video. You’ll see he’s often spreading them fairly flat across the fretboard, muting out the idle strings so he can strum confidently. 

Example 3. Chord outline with triads

Taking the idea one step further, Cory adds another string on top of the two-note shapes, which again changes the sound, and you can hear our funk maestro accenting those chords as he strums. 

And, as he mentions, the notes are, by and large, from an Am7 chord and the A minor pentatonic scale (which are near identical, notes-wise). If you happen to know the scale and the chord then you have a starting point to take Cory’s ideas further. 

Example 4. Harmonised major pentatonic scale

Here, Cory demonstrates how he plays the pentatonic scale lick using two notes at a time in songs like Julia. Note that he prefers the vibe of downstrokes and palm-muting. 

Example 5. Harmonised major pentatonic scale 2 

A development on the previous idea. As Cory says, “It sounds interesting, but really, it’s quite easy. You’re just outlining a pentatonic scale, but you’re playing two notes at the same time.” 

Example 6. Dominant chord vamp

Listen out for Cory’s quick blast with a straight-strummed C7 chord. We’ve not tabbed it here because he’s talking about how to go beyond the basics of what is essentially just a strummed chord. 

The riff he plays here outlines the C7 chord but with much more going on. Cory plays the most important notes from the C7, plus a few more for added colour, and not forgetting the ever-present string muting for musical punctuation and groove. 

Example 7. Down the octave

A similar idea to the previous riff here, but thanks to being in a lower octave there’s a different feel. As Cory says, what’s important with a lick like this is that it’s memorable and singable – and these two riffs certainly deliver. Go back and listen to his first jam on the C7 chord and you’ll get the idea!

As one of the most respected players working in funk right now, Cory Wong is widely regarded as the Nile Rodgers for the next generation. He explains how to make sure you stay right in that pocket and reveals the chords that can get you through any musical scenario…

Your right hand is often described as a motor – always ticking along even in between the notes you play…

“What I noticed early on is that a lot of things feel easier when all the downstrokes are on the beat or on an ‘and’. And all the ‘e’ and ‘a’ notes are played using an upstroke. If I live by that philosophy, that means my right hand is just pulsing 16th notes the whole time. I’m just deciding what to hit the strings, which strings to hit, how many notes I’m actually fretting or whether to just play scratches. 

“I never have to think about strumming patterns – it’s all taken care of because the motor is always going. And even if the rhythm has a lot of pauses and rests, it sounds less jerky because my internal subdivision is always ticking. If my brain is counting every 16th note and I’m only playing eighth notes, I will play tighter.”

Because there’s less margin for error…

“Exactly. Players who are only thinking in eighth notes might have more leeway to speed up or drag, because there’s more space between eighth notes. Give yourself twice the amount of precision. I always try to think of one subdivision deeper.”

Another part of your playing is how you hint at chords instead of playing every note… 

“That’s something I’ve learned from people like Nile Rodgers. He won’t play the full chord, even though he’s got the full Emin7 grip on his left hand. That way, even if he hits more strings than he planned to, it’s always going to be the right note. But he generally focuses on picking only the upper few strings. Prince did that a lot, and he’s my favourite rhythm guitarist. The idea is to give only the amount of information that’s needed from you.”

Which is one huge difference between a funk ensemble and a rock power trio, right?

“Yup. In a lot of bands I play with, there might be keyboard players, plus a horn section, maybe even another guitarist. All of a sudden there’s a lot of information happening in a lot of different ranges which can interfere with each other. If we’re just jamming on a C7, I might just play a root and a flat seven – like the C on the first fret of the second string and the Bb on the third fret of the third string. I’ll do that instead of the whole shape. 

“On its own it can sound like a weird, clashing two-note thing. But in the context of a big band and wider arrangement, it suddenly sounds really cool. The dissonance is what makes it interesting, people will go, ‘Oh, what’s that?!’ When I first started out playing rock music in trios, I was responsible for taking up space – that’s the point of it. But in a funk band, you don’t need all that pressure on yourself. The role is different.”

That lets listeners fill in the blanks themselves, too…

“I could give away more information, but it’s cooler – especially with instrumental music – to let the listener interpret it for themselves. Leaving space invites the listener into the music. You can make the listener a part of your song and they will connect to it even more if they’re allowed to use their own creativity and imagination in the song. 

“A perfect example is the interval of a 10th on guitar, it sounds so cool and interesting. Just listen to a song like (The Beatles’) Blackbird, which is a root and a third but the third is up an octave. They are far enough apart for your ears to almost hear the notes in between! Our minds fill in the blanks.”

Your chord knowledge is extensive. Which ones do you find yourself using most?

“There are three realms of chords for me. Think of it as three trees: major, minor and dominant, and each one has three branches. So in G the major tree will have Gmaj7, G6 and Gmaj9. Those are the ones I play the most. For minor, I have Gm7, Gm6 and Gm9. To me, Gm7 is the classic Nile chord and all you have to do is play a regular fifth-string rooted minor chord and take your pinky off. 

“With dominant, I mainly think about G7, G9 and G13, though I also like G7#11 and G9#11 because they sound interesting. If you learn these chord shapes, there’s a lot of mileage right there. 

“One thing I got hip to later on is sus chords like Gsus9. It’s funny, in Vulfpeck we always call it the ‘classic’ because you hear it in Earth, Wind & Fire, Michael Jackson and D’Angelo. It’s a very piano-like voicing that you won’t find in a lot of guitar books, but I use it all the time!”

• Lucky One is out now. 

When it arrived, Cory Wong’s Fender Stratocaster signature guitar immediately found fans thanks to its nifty fourth position-centric wiring and stunning Sapphire Blue Transparent lacquer finish.

Well, that guitar has now been treated to two new limited-edition colorways – and if you thought you liked Wong’s electric guitar then, you’re going to absolutely love it now.

Without complicating things, the guitar has retained its original spec sheet inspired by Wong’s original Highway One Stratocaster, though has arrived with a significant cosmetic overhaul courtesy of two of the Big F’s most popular colorways.

Those colors in question are Surf Green and Daphne Blue, which – when paired with the model’s pearl pickguard – take the already-incredibly-nice-looking six-string to new aesthetic heights.

Both models can be seen in action in the video below, which sees Cory Wong jam with, erm, Cory Wong, in a bid to showcase the sights and sounds of the two limited offerings.

As we said above, the new looks have been matched with the tried-and-trusted tones of Wong’s flagship signature model, which come by way of Seymour Duncan Cory Wong Clean Machine single-coils.

Just like the Sapphire Blue iteration, the Surf Green and Daphne Blue examples have a pickup position “panic button” wired in, allowing players to revert straight back to the funk master’s favored fourth position with a push/pull tone pot.

The core of the instrument is headed up by an alder body – scaled-down and sculpted for extra comfort and playability – as well as a maple American Ultra modern D neck, affixed to the body via a curved neck heel. A rosewood fingerboard with rolled edges, dot inlays and a 10”-14” compound radius also makes the cut.

Other notable appointments include deluxe locking tuners, a vintage-style tremolo bridge, a custom neck plate, a subtly modified headstock shape and even an accompanying hair tie – affixable to the tremolo springs – to achieve Wong’s famed rhythm tone.

“I’ve wanted to release the Cory Wong Stratocaster in other colors since the original Sapphire Blue Transparent version was released in 2021,” Wong said of his new guitars. “I'm a visual person and believe the look of a guitar can affect the approach one takes to playing it. 

“Certain instruments can draw things out of a musician, and the vibe of the instrument definitely plays a role in that,” he added. “With the release of these two new colors, my goal was to provide players with a guitar that exudes a bright, fun energy.”

As far as we’re concerned, it’s going to take a monumental effort to pip these two beauties as 2023’s nicest-looking signature guitars, though that probably speaks volumes to the timelessness of Fender’s Surf Green and Daphne Blue finishes.

Regardless, Wong’s personal flourishes seem to elevate things further: the smaller body is a really nice touch, and who wouldn't want a fourth position panic button?

Because of their limited nature – though an actual number hasn't been confirmed – the Surf Green and Daphne Blue models are slightly pricier, weighing in at $2,249 apiece, in comparison to the $2,199 original.

For more information, head over to Fender.

In this lesson, we’re looking at pop-funk. Generally seen as popular, radio-friendly music, pop-funk is a pretty wide sub-genre, ranging from classic Michael Jackson to the output of modern players such as Cory Wong – part of a new breed of guitarists who skilfully blend old-school funk with other genres such as hip-hop, gospel and jazz. So here we’ll look at ideas from seven pop-funk players. 

David Williams is one of the most important funk guitarists, yet remains largely unknown. His  intricate lines have graced some of the biggest ever hits, including Rock With You, Billie Jean and Thriller.

During an era filled with hair-metal and shred, Williams extolled the virtues of the ‘rhythm solo’, as exemplified in his short lead break in Billie Jean. This characteristic style saw him as the most sought-after session guitarists of the ’80s and ’90s.

The other guitarists here surely drew inspiration from Williams’ playing, so here’s where we’ll start our lesson.

Example 1. David Williams

In this Williams-style riff,  precise syncopation and picking technique are required throughout, with a couple of phrases that start on the offbeat 1/16th upstroke. This B major based riff uses an Em7 chord borrowed from the parallel key of B minor.

When jumping between non diatonic chords, you need to use the appropriate notes. Here it means a slight tweak in Bar 4; we’re using a D note derived from B natural minor (B-C#-D-E-F#-G-A) for the Em7 section.

Example 2. Paul Jackson Jr.

Paul Jackson Jnr was one of the most prolific LA session guitarists of the ’70s-’90s, performing alongside Michael Jackson, The Temptations, Luther Vandross, Bobby Womack, The Pointer Sisters, Chicago and Whitney Houston.

His credits are truly astonishing, and extend beyond the classic session player era into the modern day with artists such as Daft Punk and The Weeknd. 

This example centres around an Am11 shape that’s played with the third and fourth fingers (the fourth finger should be barred over the top two strings).

This shape is derived from a concept known as quartal harmony, where 4ths are stacked on top of each other to create a slightly ambiguous, suspended sound that’s great for improvising in many styles including funk.

Example 3. Prince

Prince is one of the world’s most iconic artists who shouldn’t need any introduction. He helped to pioneer the Minneapolis Sound in the late ’70s, a funk-rock sub-genre that mixed in elements of new wave and synth pop. Even through the artistic changes in his career, there’s an identifiable funk undercurrent on every single album. 

The minor 11 shape used in the previous riff features heavily in this example. Most of the ideas are based around the closed A minor pentatonic shape in 5th position, but the extra major 6th (F#) provides that classic Prince twist, especially at the end of bar 4.

Example 4. John Frusciante

The Red Hot Chili Peppers emerged from the funk-rock revival of the ’90s, blending funk with aggressive rock to produce a punk-funk-rock sound. Unlike most of the guitarists here, John Frusciante wasn’t well-schooled in the ways of funk before joining the band. 

Although he was a fan of P-funk’s Eddie Hazel, his main influences were Page, Beck, Hendrix and Zappa. He learned most of his groove and funk style from emulating the playing the Chilis’ late guitarist, Hillel Slovak. 

This groove is based on a simple I-V7 (Em-B7) chord progression, but uses a D#dim7 chord as a great substitute for B7. This jazzy diminished 7th substitution is built on the 3rd degree of the V7 chord and creates a B7b9 sound. The D# also helps the chord resolve really well to the following one.

Example 5. Adam Smirnoff (Lettuce)

Lettuce have been at the forefront of modern, largely instrumental funk ever since their debut album Outta Here in 2002, with guitarists Adam Smirnoff and Eric Krasno providing the backbone to the Boston funk collective. 

Smirnoff effortlessly blends gospel, soul and dub ideas in his funk playing, and this groove features all these styles in quick succession. 

The palm-muted triplet in bar 4 is a typical reggae/dub style rhythm and sounds great against the straight eighth rhythm in the background. It should create the feeling of ‘putting on the brakes’ and is an excellent way to create rhythmic interest. 

Example 6. Mark Lettieri (Snarky Puppy)

Mark Lettieri started out in the R&B and gospel scene of the Dallas, Fort Worth area of Texas, which eventually led to him joining the instrumental jazz funk group Snarky Puppy. In 2018, Lettieri joined up with The Fearless Flyers, featuring Cory Wong and Joe Dart of Vulfpeck on guitar and bass. Lettieri often uses dextrous fingerstyle, combined with gospel chord chops. 

This groove borrows the slap technique of bass and converts it to the more guitar-orientated rest slap denoted by ‘RS’. The picking hand naturally comes to rest on the strings, rather than executing an overt bass-style slap. 

All of the ghost notes (shown by an X in brackets) and rest slap indications use this technique with varying degrees of force, and adding the thumb will accentuate the percussive sound.

Example 7. Cory Wong

Cory Wong, from the Vulfpeck and Fearless Flyers stable, has released several solo albums and collaborated with Dirty Loops. His early influences include David Williams, Paul Jackson Jnr, and Nile Rodgers, which can be seen in his particularly rubbery, loose picking hand wrist. 

This riff uses the bass guitar ‘pat’ technique (lightly patting the fretting-hand fingers on the strings, as opposed to slapping them, but without fretting specific notes, and is best executed with several flat fingers to avoid this). 

It also intersperses some traditional funk chord fragments with improvised double-stops. The lick in bar 4 can be viewed through the lens of a basic E major pentatonic scale shape, slightly tweaked to include the D note from E Mixolydian for a funky E7 sound.

Wampler has teamed up with Cory Wong for the aptly named Wong Compressor – a dual-function compressor pedal that, according to the pedal specialist, is at the heart of Wong’s uber-clean funk tone.

The dual functionality of the pedal arises from its two footswitches, which each engage the compressor and boost sides of the stompbox. Put together, the two circuits result in a “dynamic toolkit” that can be used to navigate an impressive range of tonal embellishments.

The majority of the action takes place in the compressor side of the pedal. Operated via the independent Compress footswitch, it utilizes Volume, Sustain, Attack and Blend knobs, as well as Brian Wampler’s “signature Tone control”.

As far as compression controls go, it’s all fairly self-explanatory, with the unique Tone control vowing to add additional “sparkle and chime” into the mix.

One final compression control, a side-mounted Comp On button, can be engaged for an always-on mode for when the Wong Compressor is needed solely for its boost pedal circuit.

Speaking of which, the boost function has a footswitch of its own, as well as a sole Boost control knob and Mids/Flat toggle switch. Notably, the circuit is based on classic MDX Strat boost-style circuitry once favored by Eric Clapton.

In practice, the Mids/Flat toggle flicks between a flat frequency boost voice and a more saturated, mids-focused alternative, while Boost, unsurprisingly, balances the level of boost that’s introduced into the signal.

In a bid to become a “complete solution for sculpting tone either on stage or in the studio”, the Wong Compressor comes equipped with an XLR Out – a Wampler first appointment that lets players use the pedal for direction connection to PA, mixers or audio interfaces.

As an added bonus, a Ground Lift button can be found on the left hand side to wrestle with any unwanted ground noise.

“This [pedal] is made for the modern player who seeks the analog tone of the past,” Wong said in a demo video. “Wampler and I have designed this pedal to be a compressor and boost and DI.

“One of the things that I’ve found in common with all the best compressors, is that they don’t take your tone and squash it down,” he went on. “What Brian Wampler and I have worked on is to find a compressor that will take that dynamic range, tighten it up and make it actually feel fatter and fuller.”

The Wong Compressor is available now for $270.

Head over to Wampler to find out more.

It’s Wong’s second signature pedal in as many years, after the Vulfpeck rhythm hero teamed up with Jackson Audio in 2022 for The Optimist dual overdrive.

“A lot of instrumental guitar music felt very esoteric to a lot of people, and Jeff Beck was one of the first people to be an ambassador for instrumental guitar music in a way that didn’t feel so esoteric, but had so much feel, so much emotion and so much depth to it. 

“He did stuff that was very smart, but it came across in a way that was more from the heart than the head. Now, I feel like I’m somebody who’s an ambassador for the instrument itself and an ambassador for instrumental guitar music, and Jeff paved the way with so many of his albums. Obviously, and most famously, there’s Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers, which is such a beautiful delivery of melody on the guitar.”

The guitar sings

“Jeff is one of the people who first figured out how to connect with the general public with instrumental guitar, and so much of it was by making it sound like somebody singing. You put some actual feel, and you put something in there that feels like it’s a person speaking, rather than things being played on the guitar. He had an incredible way of connecting on a human level with his instrument, and he was able to transcend the instrument in a lot of ways.

“There’s a lot of people who do very impressive instrumental guitar work, but it’s to showcase the instrument, or to showcase a technique. That’s fun, that’s cool and that has its purpose, but I feel like Jeff was channelling something that didn’t matter whether it was going to be guitar or whether it was going to be saxophone or piano. 

“He had something innately in him that he needed to express, and he was able to communicate. The way that he best communicated was with his guitar and by delivering that emotion through his guitar. That’s something that is a gift to the guitar community.” 

Master of the Stratocaster

“I’m a diehard Strat guy. There are so many reasons why, but Jeff Beck was on that list of reasons. When I was a kid, I had a crappy little guitar from a pawn shop, but when I was finally ready to take the guitar seriously, I needed a good guitar – a real guitar – and my Dad said, ‘All right! We’re going to get you a Stratocaster!’

“He’d decided what kind of guitar I was going to get, and was like, ‘Listen! You love the Chili Peppers, you love Stevie Ray Vaughan. Look at Jeff Beck, look at Jimi Hendrix, look at Stevie Ray and Eric Johnson.’ He gave me this lineage of the Stratocaster and basically said: Look at all the things this guitar is capable of. I’m glad that was the logic and I studied the masters of the Strat for years. 

“Jeff Beck approached the Stratocaster and approached the use of the trem bar in a way where it’s not just coming down, it’s also bringing it up. It’s a different feel when you bend a string versus when you hold a string and push the trem in to make it go sharp. That was part of his sound and that was something that was very uniquely his.”

The ultimate bandleader

“To be a good bandleader, it’s important to know what other good bandleaders do, and what things need to be communicated to just the band, versus what things need to be communicated to the band with the audience in consideration. 

“I’ve studied a lot of my favourite bandleaders and favourite guitar players, and when you look at somebody like Jeff Beck, he had an ability to lead in a way that’s probably more subtle than a lot of others, but still communicated just as strongly. If you take a look at James Brown or Prince when they’re calling something out, it’s much more overt and it’s inviting the audience in on it as well. 

“Jeff had a way where his playing or his phrasing would suggest that it’s going somewhere. He’d phrase something just enough that you’d think it’s going to go to another thing, but then he’d make a gesture that confirms it. It’s not so overt, but if you’re listening and you’re watching, he’s giving his audience and his band just enough to keep them informed.”

Lost in music

“Sometimes, when somebody will go see a show they think, ‘I should just be watching Jeff the whole time,’ and we naturally have that because they’re the star and their name’s on the marquee. But there’s a time to disappear in the music. He did that masterfully – oftentimes in a trio setting, which is very hard to do. 

“I have a 10 or 11 piece band, so it’s quite easy for me to disappear in the music because I can lay back and let other people go way up, and there’s all this other stuff happening. In a trio setting, it’s a lot harder to do.

“He was able to do that in so many different settings that really showed depth that doesn’t always get recognised as being something that’s hard to do on guitar. But, it’s incredibly hard to do. You have to learn how to step out front and learn to sometimes disappear into the landscape.”

A singular voice

“I am personally known for a certain thing and I have mastered that thing. That is my voice, but I can also do a lot of the other stuff. I just choose not to. Jeff is a prime example of that, and gave permission to say: ‘I’ve got a voice. I’ve got a thing that others don’t do.’ 

“If we’re just talking in terms of guitar technique, and if you were to look at a lot of what he did on paper, it would maybe be more simple than what a lot of other guitar players do. But, he had all that other stuff as well, he just chose not to do it because he had a certain way of playing that made him stand out and made him a singular voice on the instrument.”

Eric Gales is fast developing a reputation as something of a spotlight stealer. In other words, such is the ferocity of his live improvisational prowess, whenever he links up with one of his guitar-playing peers on stage, he usually ends up leaving said stage having absolutely blown everyone away.

There is evidence to back this up. At Joe Satriani’s G4 V6.0 Experience last month, Gales teamed up with Satch, Steve Lukather and Mateus Asato and helped contribute to one of the best jams of the year so far. Rewind the clock even further, and Gales turned in 2021’s most astonishing live solos while cameoing for Gary Clark Jr.

Now, Gales is back to his usual tricks, having recently been recruited by funk maestro Cory Wong for a live jam of the latter’s Cory and The Wongnotes track, Meditation.

Wong – who is having a notably quiet year by his own insane standards on the album release front – brought out Gales during a Power Station tour show last Sunday (February 19) at The Ritz in Raleigh, North Carolina, who immediately undersold what his contribution to the track would be.

“So, I’m going to try my best to play one or two notes, and I’m going to get out the way,” the blues titan told the crowd, before immediately reneging on his declaration and playing far more than just the “one or two notes” he promised.

In fact, what he did end up playing was perhaps one the finest live blues solos of his career. Sitting at just around the five-minute mark, Gales’ death-defying fretboard throwdown has all the hallmarks of a video that will stand the test of time as being a sonic manifesto on how to really shred the blues.

Indeed, we anticipate listeners will return to the video to watch on in awe at the sheer magnificence of Gales’ effort, which turned Meditation from a soulful bop into a vicious solo masterclass of the highest order.

From the early wah pedal pentatonic licks to the finale’s Whammy-charged bends, the solo navigates just about every technical trick up Gales’ sleeve, with the Magneto signature artist – opting for an upside down Fender Stratocaster for this outing – blitzing through dizzying licks, lightning-quick scale runs and tasteful blues motifs.

Part of what makes Gales’ playing such a force to be reckoned with is his ability to marry fretboard pyrotechnics with elite phrasing and note selection, with the guitarist never once wasting a note, or putting in one too many where they don’t belong, in his latest electrifying outing.

Words don't really do Gales’ effort here any justice, but Wong himself offered a nice closing summation in the video's description by nicely articulating the question we imagine was on everybody's mind: “Can someone please teach me how to play guitar like Eric Gales?”

Back in 2021, Fender teamed up with funk guitar master Cory Wong to create a new signature Stratocaster. 

Unique in its beautiful Sapphire Blue transparent lacquer finish, the signature guitar also stands out sonically, with its trio of Seymour Duncan Cory Wong Clean Machine electric guitar pickups.

The Clean Machines have proven to be popular enough since the guitar's release that Seymour Duncan has now made the pickups available as a standalone set. You can hear Wong show off their sonic capabilities below.

Based on Seymour Duncan's Antiquity Surf units, the Clean Machines are designed to provide the squeaky-clean funk rhythm guitar tones that made Wong famous, coupled with "singing" lead tones. 

Wong liked the Antiquity Surf single-coils, but felt he needed a bit more oomf from the set's bridge pickup. At the same time though, Wong loved the classic look of the single-coil trio on his Stratocaster, and didn't want to transform the guitar into an HSS model. 

So, with Seymour Duncan, Wong created a high-output, hum-cancelling stack bridge pickup with an Alnico V magnet. The middle and neck single-coils, meanwhile, feature Alnico IVs. 

"I just like the look of an SSS Strat, rather than an HSS, but I like the thickness and sound of that humbucker in the bridge," Wong explains in the video above. "The single-coil in the bridge doesn't quite have enough body to it – it sometimes feels like it empties out – so we decided to try an Alnico IV magnet in the neck and middle, and a hum-cancelling, stacked Alnico V in the bridge.

"We wound them a little hotter," Wong went on. "It gives a really nice, spanky tone. It handles overdrives and distortions a lot better than the softer-wound one. It captures that spanky, clean thing, but as soon as you hit the overdrive, it still has the nice, warm thing and it pushes the drive in a really pleasing way."

Seymour Duncan's Cory Wong signature Clean Machine pickups are available now. The neck and middle pickups ring up at $99, while the higher-output bridge pickup will set you back $119. The full set, meanwhile, costs $317.

For more info on the pickups, visit Seymour Duncan.

If you were to take a cursory glance around the internet in search of Julian Lage’s rig, you’d probably come to three conclusions: he uses quite a variety of acoustic guitars and electric guitars, he favors a small handful of tube amps, and – surprisingly – he hardly uses any effects pedals at all. 

Why does he opt against using a fully stocked pedalboard, you ask? Well, it’s probably got something to do with the music he plays – after all, the pure, clean tone that Lage employs for his jazz escapades is up there with the smoothest sounds of all.

However, Cory Wong posed the question to Lage himself in a recent installment of his Wong Notes podcast, with the funk maestro quizzing the jazz virtuoso as to why he’s “not in the pedal game”.

As it turns out, the topic goes far beyond surface level questions of tone, and directly relates to how Lage approaches playing the instrument. Specifically, he says effects pedals interfere with his musical “choreography”, and interrupt the tiny, “millisecond” connections between him and the guitar.

“Of course, being a guitar lover and admirer for my whole life, I’ve always had a curiosity about pedals [and] how people use them,” said Lage. “I take note of people like yourself and other friends of ours who do it so intentionally.

“There have been occasions where I’ve gone, ‘Okay, this is it, I’m getting a loop pedal,’ or, ‘I’m going to get an overdrive,’” he continued. “And pretty much every time without fail there's an immediate disconnect for me where I get baffled. I don’t understand why it’s doing its function.

“For me, it almost feels like it takes away the connection between the touch on the guitar and the sound, and my logical brain goes, ‘Yeah, Julian, that’s the point, it changes it.’”

It’s a disconnect that Lage has tried to overcome, but one that ultimately gets in the way of his celebrated style of playing – a style that is characterized by an otherworldly grasp of dynamics and phrasing.

Of how pedals affect his approach, Lage continued, “I’m so disoriented that I go, ‘I’m going to go back to the other thing.’ And the other thing is just somewhat of an obsession with what I think of as choreography on the guitar. 

“I think of all guitar playing as choreography,” he explained. “Like, if you move a certain way, you get a certain sound. If you want a different tone, you have to move differently. 

“And the movement isn't relegated to the fingertips. It’s the whole system. It has a lot to do not only with the movement towards notes, but also how you get off of things.”

Elaborating on how these considerations impact his playing, Lage added, “If I want something to sound like it has a little more space around it, I need to move slower when I come off of the note. We’re talking milliseconds, it’s really not a lot. 

“But in whatever research I’ve done it seems like those considerations affect it greatly, and maybe because there's such an obsession there the thought of having anything else in the chain… I can’t compute.”

That’s not to say Lage doesn’t use any pedals, though. Speaking to MusicRadar last year, the jazz man revealed a few of his go-to units, including the Strymon Flint reverb pedal and the Shin-ei B1G.

Julian Lage is set to release his upcoming album, View With a Room, later this year.

Joe Satriani has announced the lineup for the star-studded 2023 G4 V6.0 Experience, which will take place early next year at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort and Spa in Las Vegas.

Satch has enlisted a wealth of electric guitar A-listers, encompassing a huge range of heritage names and more contemporary players.

Chief among them are Peter Frampton, Steve Lukather and Steve Morse, who will be on hand to offer instruction, share their knowledge with attendees, and provide intimate advice in a series of classes and workshops.

Joining them will be players of all styles, including Alex Skolnick, Eric Gales, John 5, Mateus Asato, Cory Wong and Nili Brosh, all of whom will partake in a variety of clinics, jams and intimate breakout sessions.

Satch will also be hosting nightly live performances with his longtime backing band – comprising drummer Kenny Aronoff, bassist Bryan Beller and keyboardist/vocalist Rai Thistlethwayte – for which he will be joined by his guests.

The four-day event takes place on January 3-7 2023, and will see guest tutors address a range of topics, from songwriting and soloing to gigging, gear and more.

Of the G4’s inception, Satch said, “When I first put together the G3 concerts, it was to create a camaraderie that is often missing in the general day-to-day competition of the music industry.

“From there we came up with the concept of the G4 Experience,” he added. “I didn’t want to do a traditional clinic, just getting up in front of people and giving impersonal lessons to a room full of people – I thought, what can we do that will truly reflect my values as a teacher? 

“With the G4 Experience, we create an interactive community where I’m joined by these other stars that have been making amazing music and pushing the art form of guitar forward for decades. From all stylistic approaches and musical walks of life.”

He continued, “We bring together this eclectic mix to show all the different sides of playing guitar. They’re all brilliant musicians with styles that are all over the map. They all have such different jobs, they’ve made millions of people happy with their playing, and yet they do it so differently.”

According to the website, all backline gear is provided, meaning attendees just need to bring their guitars. They will also have access to accommodation, food, and meet and greet sessions with their guitar heroes.

“The G4 Experience is all about the community,” Satriani went on to say. “I can’t state that enough. Everyone is not only there to enjoy the music, they’re trying to learn everything they can. 

“There’s a lot of information stored up in this head that I want to give to the fans and I’m very much looking forward to sharing it with everyone who attends.”

To find out more, head over to G4 Experience.

Neural DSP has assembled an all-star electric guitar trio comprising Tim Henson, Plini and Cory Wong for an original guitar instrumental titled Sunset.

Produced and performed by all three Neural DSP artists, Sunset marks the first time the six-string slingers have teamed up. The track, which debuted online last week, was was co-written with Oksami (Eric Gao). The music and guitar playing is incredible. But we'll get to that. 

Perhaps most notably, Sunset is truly a 21st-century collaboration, created virtually, the result of a remote collaboration from all involved, and with all three players using only their respective signature Archetype plugins.

It has all the ingredients for two-and-a-half minutes of sheer instrumental bliss, and that’s exactly what Sunset is. After getting the ball rolling with some three-way rhythmic interplay, Wong does what Wong does best and dials in some subtle funk via a blend of upper-string stabs, executed on the fretboard of his signature Fender Stratocaster.

A rapid free-fall down the top E string segues into some more fluid chordal interplay decorated by some classically Henson and Plini lead lines, with the latter then taking the reins for an Electric Sunrise-esque solo that showcases the sonic breadth of his Strandberg.

It’s Henson, then, who takes the headline slot, and rounds Sunset off in style via his trademark style of quasi-percussive rhythmic playing, which is littered with plenty of fretboard acrobatics for good measure.

According to Wong, Sunset started to come together after Henson had a loose sketch of the track on a demo and the main riff. Then they all took it to FaceTime and hashed it out.

“I remembered a beat I had written with Oksami that was a perfect match for all of our styles,” says Henson. “I played it for Plini and he heard ideas immediately. A couple of hours later he had sent me his parts for the song so I got to work on adding some of mine while Cory did his that week.”

“Since we all live in different parts of the world, we just decided to track our parts in our own studios,” Wong explained. “Plini and I both really dug the musical idea, so we chatted about how to build the form and who would be featured over which sections. Tim stitched it together and here we are.

“I'm a huge fan of both Plini and Tim, and it was really fun to work on this because it was a chance for each of us to not just showcase our Archetype plugins but to really put the spotlight on our three unique voices as musicians.”

Of course, the trio’s playing is propped up by some state-of-the-art engineering, with Wong describing his signature Archetype plugin set as “the centerpiece of my guitar tone in the studio and at home”.

Likewise, Plini considers his own plugin as his “go-to rig” and Henson reveals he started using it on his projects while his plugin suite was still in the developmental stage.

“I use it all the time,” he said. “It is all over my band Polyphia’s new album. I’ve also been using it for all of my production work on the side.”

Of the collab, Neural DSP Chief Marketing Officer Dan Davies commented, “Cory, Tim, and Plini are three of the people at the forefront of modern guitar, each in their own way. They each serve a very different niche, but they're all collaborating on a common platform – the Neural DSP Archetype. 

“Sunset is a must-see for all of their individual fans, but it will also be a way to introduce each guitarist to the other’s fans. As many have said already, ‘it’s truly the collaboration I didn’t know I wanted or needed’.”

To celebrate track's release, all three signature Archetype plugins are currently discounted by 30 per cent, and available as a Sunset bundle. Sunset, the song, will be available on Spotify later in the year.

For more, head over to Neural DSP.

Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly roundup of the musical highlights from the, erm, world of guitar. Every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Megadeth – We’ll Be Back

What is it? The first single from Megadeth’s long-awaited 16th studio album, The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! The thrash metal heroes return in glorious form with an exceptionally rousing opening riff – wrought with a barrage of machine gun-esque palm-muted alternate picking – before both Dave Mustaine and Kiko Loureiro take turns to step up to the plate, trading frantic six-string blows that would floor most mortals.

Standout guitar moment: We’re quite frankly spoiled for choice, but Kiko’s solo from the 1:56 mark surely has to take the cake. That blistering slide-infused two-handed tapping passage towards the end of the section is the very definition of face-melting.

For fans of: Slayer, Testament, Anthrax

– Sam Roche

Lari Basilio – Your Love

What is it? The Brazilian guitar phenom returns with the announcement of her third album and this, the title track she premiered today on Guitar World. Written, arranged and produced by Basilio, it’s the quintessence of her style and compositional sensibility. 

She makes it look effortless. This is music for leisure, for weekends, for summer afternoons when it doesn’t matter what time it is. And yet we, as guitar players, know just how difficult it is to firstly establish melodies like this, and exploit them fully without calling attention to fretboard tricks we are using. Basilio’s playing is clever and life-affirming.

Standout guitar moment: Basilio’s tone is worth tuning in for alone. Her signature Ibanez LB1 has this chameleonic quality that references classic Fender, but in her hands, it sounds like something we’ve never heard before. 

But what will bamboozle most players is Basilio’s feel during the most nimble passages. Around 40 seconds in, you’ll get an idea of how she does casual virtuosity like few other contemporary players.

For fans of: Joe Satriani, Mateus Asato, Andy Timmons

– Jonathan Horsley

Tim Henson – Sunset (ft. Cory Wong and Plini)

What is it? A new track featuring three of the most exciting players in the modern guitar world: Tim Henson, Cory Wong and Plini. Infectiously groovy, Sunset finds the trio trading lick for lick on their respective signature models, straddling the boundary that separates pop and funk. 

It’s all-instrumental, but contains more melodic intrigue throughout its two and a half minutes than most vocal-driven songs. Not at all surprising, though, given the caliber of the musicians featured.

Standout guitar moment: How can you even begin to choose a standout guitar moment from a track with such a lineup? But gun to the head, we’d say Plini’s skilfully placed rapid alternate picking runs edge out in front – but by only millimeters.

For fans of: Polyphia, Intervals

– Sam Roche

The Mars Volta – Blacklight Shine

What is it? Vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Ernie Ball Music Man-wielding guitar hero Omar Rodríguez-López have in recent years played with alt-rock supergroup Antemasque and a reunited At the Drive-In, but Blacklight Shine is their first new single under the Mars Volta banner in a decade. Kaleidoscopic and just plain exciting, the song is a welcome return from this always intrepid group.

Standout guitar moment: The kinetic psych-funk six-string soundscape Rodríguez-López creates is this song’s power source, with each passing listen revealing another one of its ingredients. We can’t wait to hear what else he has up his sleeve.

For fans of: At the Drive-In, Antemasque, Coheed and Cambria

– Jackson Maxwell

Ozzy Osbourne – Patient Number 9

What is it? Two years and a bout of Covid since his last album, Ordinary Man, the Prince of Darkness is back, with a brooding mid-tempo single, Patient Number 9. The title track from his forthcoming 13th solo album – which fittingly arrives September 9 – sees Ozzy recruit, Johnny Depp collaborator and guitar legend Jeff Beck for some stellar lead playing peppered over the course of its seven and a half minutes.

Standout guitar moment: Beck’s solo from the 3:38 mark is anything but conventional, as he serves up some tastefully broken-sounding guitar licks with a suitably dirty guitar tone.

For fans of: Judas Priest, Black Label Society, Black Sabbath

– Sam Roche

Spirit Adrift – Mass Formation Psychosis

What is it? This latest work of vintage steel from Nate Garrett’s Texas-based doom metal project is taken from their forthcoming EP 20 Centuries Gone, which is out August 19 and comprises mostly covers culled from the most important records in Garrett’s collection. 

There’ll be songs by ZZ Top, Skynyrd, Metallica, Pantera and Thin Lizzy on the record, but this is more what we associate Spirit Adrift with, Garrett pinning the jam to a big doom riff, but daring to lean further into melodies than some of his contemporaries might dare.

Standout guitar moment: It’s the verse riff. It’s how it has that yowling quality, like the hull of a ship mewling in a storm, and it gives the track a rhythm and an energy that would be a groove in any other musical context.

For fans of: Pallbearer, Crypt Sermon, Candlemass

– Jonathan Horsley

Delicate Steve – I Can Fly Away

What is it? Delicate Steve – AKA Steve Marion – is a session musician and guitarist who has spent most of the last decade attempting to make his guitar sound like, well, anything but that. His efforts have won the admiration of Paul Simon, Yeasayer and Kanye West, to name a small sample. 

His latest album, After Hours (due July 8), sees Marion doing the last thing anyone would expect: making a back-to-basics collection of ‘guitar and amp’ instrumentals. 

Standout guitar moment: Well the supremely-chilled I Can Fly Away is so heavy on Stax-y summer vibes that you’ll need to apply sunscreen before listening. 

For fans of: Carlos Santana, El Ten Eleven

– Matt Parker

Kirk Fletcher – Afraid To Die, Too Scared To Live

What is it? The lead single from the veteran bluesman’s forthcoming album, Heartache By The Pound, Afraid To Die, Too Scared To Live is a swinging and soulful tune with impeccably snappy horn arrangements and an affecting, vulnerable heart. 

Standout guitar moment: Fletcher’s all business here, and this song’s all the better for it. The phrasing in each of his solos is perfect, his runs sharp and pointed, but never a second too long. They’re the sound of a true pro at work.

For fans of: Eric Gales, Joe Bonamassa, Larry McCray

– Jackson Maxwell

Rat Tally – Spinning Wheel

What is it? The lead single from singer-songwriter Addy Harris’s debut full-length as Rat Tally, In My Car, Spinning Wheel is a hazily tuneful gem imbued with unease, restlessness and a touch of nostalgia.

Standout guitar moment: Those distorted, deliciously hook-y solos. Now that’s how you create a memorable lead with just a few notes!

For fans of: Charly Bliss, Snail Mail, Smashing Pumpkins

– Jackson Maxwell

Jonathan Young – Wolf Within

What is it? Jonathan Young is a multi-instrumentalist with an aesthetic that suggests he had a Tron-like adolescence, lost in the 1s and zeros of the binary architecture of a videogame netherworld. 

Like, this is a guy whose art is largely savored on YouTube, where he has over two million subscribers, and yet it’s like he is under the proscenium, tapping into heavy metal’s most carnival desires. 

On this one, he has Caleb Hyles (1.63m YouTube subscribers) on hand to duet and lend the song a sort of steel-plated Tenacious D vibe.

Standout guitar moment: The fact that he resists the urge to solo. How can a Kiesel endorsee show restraint on a track such as this?

For fans of: DragonForce, Blind Guardian, Helloween

– Jonathan Horsley 

The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Unlimited Love is quite possibly the guitar album of 2022. It has everything. 

There are the anthems, tracks that will soundtrack millions of people’s summers. There are ballads, the Chilis resizing their sound to compose something more intimate, tracks such as Tangelo, which let the acoustic guitar take the lead. 

But there’s more: this is the record that welcomes guitarist John Frusciante back to the fold, back where he belongs. A talent like his comes along once a generation if we are lucky. Whether he is casting a web of Hendrix inspired rhythm on his Fender Stratocaster or leaning into something more atonal and out there, somehow he always makes the right choices.

Game recognizes game, and so to accompany Guitar World’s epic interview with Frusciante, we tracked down some of the best players on the planet to get their perspective on his playing, to ask them what makes him great, and perhaps to pick some favorite moments from a discography animated by his gifts on guitar.

Let’s kick things off with the maestro…

Steve Vai

“John has always been an MVP in any band he performs with. He always writes the perfect part, and his passion for vintage recording gear captures his tone magnificently. 

“Perhaps one of my favorite performances by him is an obscure one, Inca Roads by Frank Zappa, performed solo live. Anyone who can play it is a Jedi boss! I never had to play that part when I was with Frank, thank goodness.”

Nili Brosh

“For me it’s Otherside off of Californication. It’s a great example of how the simplest guitar parts can be so clever and well-fitting for a band like RHCP. I can’t imagine that writing parts to complement Flea’s grooves (without getting in the way) is an easy task. Frusciante is the very definition of a guitarist who doesn’t overplay – and always lays down such appropriate ideas that include his specific voice.”

Rodrigo Sanchez (Rodrigo y Gabriela)

“JF is among the very few guitar players of our generation that came up with his own very distinctive sound, and that’s not an easy thing to do on an instrument that has been around for a long, long time. 

“Despite his being on my radar forever, it wasn’t until our 2019 album, Mettavolution, that you can hear his influence – and it’ll be very present in the new Rodrigo y Gabriela album.”

Philipp Dausch (Milky Chance)

“John’s songwriting and his sense for harmony and sound has always been so inspiring. Curtains [Frusciante’s 2005 solo album] is a masterpiece that showcases all of that – and A Name or Time Tonight are two of my favorites.”

Ayla Tesler-Mabe

“What I love most about John Frusciante is the way his style has the clear roots of old-school guitar greats like Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa, yet still remains completely of the times (if not a little bit futuristic). His heroes pushed the limits of the instrument and inspired generations of people to pick up the guitar… and John has done the same!”

Samantha Fish

“One of the first albums I bought for myself was Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The interplay between the bass and rhythm guitar is so in the pocket and organic – lots of innovative, understated guitar moments followed by chaos and fireworks. 

“The solo on I Could Have Lied is so expressive and emotional; it adds this desperation to Anthony Kiedis’ delivery. I loved the guitar playing on the title track – it’s riff-driven, melodic, explosive. The whole album kills.”

Joe Satriani

“Original, raw, heartfelt and pure, Herculean and supernatural – these are some of the words I would use to describe John’s guitar playing. 

“Whether he’s working with the cleanest of clean tones with a total absence of ambience, or the craziest of fuzzed-out, psychedelic, melt-your-face-off lead sounds, he always makes it feel natural and sound personal. 

“John’s live performances with the Chili Peppers are exceptional examples of his organic, highly creative and high-energy approach to using a Strat.”

Sophie Burrell

“By the Way was one of the first albums I ever heard. I was instantly fascinated by John’s playing and I always thought he had such an interesting style; it’s so dynamic and expressive, and you can tell it’s him straight away. Not to mention his tones are absolutely stunning! His songwriting is awesome too, always playing for the song and giving it exactly what it needs.”

Chris Buck

“I vividly remember hearing Under the Bridge the first time and not being able to fathom that it was just one guitar. There were bass notes, harmony and lead lines all happening at once, and for someone who had convinced himself that power chords were all that was needed, it was like he was playing a different instrument entirely. 

“It’s an experience John himself has echoed numerous times as he described hearing Little Wing for the first time – that melodic style of rhythm playing that Curtis Mayfield pioneered and Jimi Hendrix expanded on is an integral part of my playing today; John was the first person I heard put it to such good use.” 

Laura Jane Grace (solo artist, Against Me!)

“One of my first-ever public performances was at summer camp playing air guitar along to Under the Bridge. John was one of my earliest influences in that way. I was fascinated just mimicking him. I think he’s brilliant, one of my favorites. 

“The Red Hot Chilli Peppers Live at Slane Castle is one of the all-time best live performances ever captured on footage, and it’s at least half because of John’s contribution.”

Daniel Donato

“My favorite piece from Frusciante would, hands down, be Snow (Hey Oh) – for several reasons. Aside from the absolutely legendary complex arpeggio executed in a legato liquid manner, and the mass cultural timeless effect it has had since its recording, the homage paid to the traditions of J.S. Bach in the chordal cycle of the riff reminds us that sometimes the simple magics of this universe are just what our souls need.”

Sophie Lloyd

“John Frusciante is responsible for some of the most catchy and recognisable riffs in music. My fave is Dani California. Although he’s one of the most skilful guitarists out there, he’s not hugely technical – he just has enormous feel and doesn’t rely on fast, crazy runs to impress. He uses things such as dynamics and tonal range, interesting pedal effects and his other-worldly timing to compliment any song he’s playing on.”

Sadler Vaden (solo, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit)

“Scar Tissue is one of my favorite Frusciante performances. I love the slide solos, and the main guitar parts are so economical, just like so much of his writing/playing. 

“Obviously, you can hear his influences such as Hendrix, etc., but the parts he composes are uniquely his own. 

“They are always deceivingly hard to pull off and most of the time you can sing his solos note for note. To me, that’s a mark of a great guitarist.”

Helen Ibe

“Every guitar part in Under the Bridge is iconic. The beginning is very stark and nearly plain. When the hi-hats enter, you can hear the Jimi Hendrix influence; John deconstructed Hendrix’s vibe and built it back up into his own thing. Sure, you can hear Jimi’s influence, but John’s invention is absolutely identifiable. 

“The variety of sounds he gets from the beginning of the song through the bridge are equally iconic. From solemn-sounding chords in the beginning, to the slightly overdriven and nearly reverb-free compressed sound of the chorus, to that chorused sound in the refrain where it goes from A major to A minor… The song has everything.”

Cory Wong

“One of the things I love most about John is his ability to fill up so much sound with so much simplicity. His parts leave room for the bass and drums to do their thing, but they outline the harmony. The hooks are always catchy, and they fill up just the right amount of space while leaving enough for the imagination to fill in some of the blanks. 

“A lot of the riffs are just so hooky – all the parts are so cool in the way they interact. But it’s not like he’s playing huge chords to fill things out; he’s playing things that are actually a little more simple, with fewer notes than what a lot of other people would play. 

“That plays into the technical and theoretical way he approaches things. He plays things that feel very catchy, interacting and weaving between the bass and the drums but also able to stand on their own.” 

Nita Strauss

“When I started playing guitar, Californication was the biggest album in the world. I was immediately struck by John Frusciante’s slinky, funky, effortless style of riffing and soloing – often imitated, never duplicated.”

 Josh Kennedy (The Black Moods) 

“Frusciante’s playing on Hey from Stadium Arcadium is impeccable. His clean guitar part creates this innocence that matches not only the vocal melody, but the tone of the overall piece. It creates this vibe to truly ride alongside the lyrics that Kiedis sings – all adding up to a guitar solo that can bring a man to his knees.”

Brian Fallon (solo, The Gaslight Anthem)

“The version of Don’t Forget Me from La Cigale feels like the entire band working at a fluidity you only find from people connecting to a moving force that’s beyond all of them. 

“The way John is playing here feels otherworldly. I’d think that even he would say he was connected to something beyond our human comprehension, where you get entirely lost in the music that’s happening at that moment. 

“There’s no way to force that state of mind for a musician or creative person; you have to just show up and hope it comes to visit you. Clearly, on this night John was met.”

Gretchen Menn

“John Frusciante is a master of riffs that are imaginative, interesting, yet totally in service of the song. And his sense of time and groove give an understated effortlessness. 

“One of my favorite riffs is on Snow (Hey, Oh); he takes a straightforward chord progression yet makes it so engaging, so musical, by choosing cool voicings, great articulation and well-placed slurs and dynamics.” 

Joe Langridge-Brown (Nothing But Thieves)

“There’s a song called Don’t Forget Me – I swear, the solo is only three notes played over and over again. At the time, I felt like I had to play really fast because the best players were doing all these amazing arpeggios. 

“So that was the song that made me understand that the right three notes can affect you way more than anything for the sake of speed or technicality. I’ve seen some pictures of his rig, and it’s unreal. The guy has so many pedals on different boards, so he’s probably to blame for my love for that as well!”

Dominic Fike

“I love John Frusciante’s top lines in relation to the rhythm guitar and bass. Every note feels like it’s where it’s supposed to be, but every choice he makes still catches me off guard. The perfectly placed hammer-on in every riff trickled into my playing early on. 

“And the way he can create so much tension with only one or two strings over a bass line – like the solos in Scar Tissue. Moments like that have always made me feel better about keeping it simple.”

Steve Selvidge (The Hold Steady)

“Pretty Little Ditty was a clear indicator of what was to come from John. I saw him on MTV, then on the Mother’s Milk tour when I was 16. Being a Funkadelic fan, his playing spoke to my aesthetic as a guitarist. Plus he just looked really fucking cool. 

“He was just old enough for me to still kinda idolize, but young enough that I could also relate to him and even think that playing to a sold-out room of 1,200 or so people might be possible for me, too.”

Zak and Rex Cox (Uncured)

“While John is best known for his work with RHCP, we know him best for his more avant-garde work with the Mars Volta and Omar Rodrígues-Lopez. The Bedlam in Goliath is one of our favorite progressive albums of all time, and the layers of guitar work are incredible. 

“John and Omar’s riffs are groovy throughout, with tasty wah solos and dirty stop-box effects pushing the experimental concepts developed through the whole album.”

Tad Kubler (The Hold Steady)

“I was a massive RHCP fan in high school. Hillel Slovak was still alive when I discovered them. It was wild to see the evolution/transformation of the band. I first saw RHCP on the Uplift Mofo tour, just after Hillel passed away. I was in 10th grade. 

“And then I think I saw five or six shows when they were touring Mother’s Milk. The difference in those two versions of the band was astounding. John was a guitar hero.”

Aaron Bruno (Awolnation)

“John Frusciante really sees music as a great tradition that is passed down and not something that’s possessed by individuals. It’s a more fluid thing that he’s a part of. He studies it and is very disciplined with how he relates to it.

“He’s good at constantly being inspired by different artists and different types of music, pulling from all of these different things when writing. He left RHCP after Blood Sugar Sex Magik and then didn’t play guitar for years!

“When he rejoined the band, his fingers didn’t have the same strength that they did before. Instead of feeling defeated and like he wasn’t good enough, he directed his attention to guitarists who weren’t as flashy but who played more simply and were more about the interaction with the other instruments. He used his limitations as a strength, not a weakness, which is an amazing mindset.

“Since then he has obviously regained all that strength and has played more like a ‘guitar hero,’ but the fact that when he couldn’t, he still wrote/recorded Californication – that’s amazing. I particularly love his playing on Hard to Concentrate – all those different guitar sounds (that don’t sound like guitar) are really special. 

“It’s hard to choose a favorite, but his playing on Dosed kind of sums up how much emotion he is pulling from the instrument, with all those different parts going at once.”

Ace (Skunk Anansie)

“What I like about John is, what he plays is really simple, totally direct and just literally works for the song. This makes people connect with it really quickly and easily. There is a certain honesty about is playing that also shows the flaws as well as the brilliance. 

“I like his tone because it’s quite classic and it sounds like he really likes Jimi Hendrix, which is always a good starting point. What he does is different from everyone else… he is just him, and his vibe and personality comes out through the playing. 

“It doesn’t sound like a technically brilliant virtuoso; he sounds like a musician with a lot of soul and feeling. I would say my favorite song by him, just for being a real standout track, is Under the Bridge. It’s simple, honest and really moving – three things that are very difficult to capture in a single guitar part.”

Roy Oliver (Capital Theatre)

“What instantly stood out to me about John’s guitar style was that it was so diverse. His tasty, clean, melodic riffs, crunchy funk rhythms and big, screaming guitar solos really showcase his abilities, and that’s been inspiring to me, a guitarist who loves all kinds of music and sounds. 

“To pick one piece of work is challenging, but I really love his work on This Velvet Glove. It’s got those nice clean riffs with that funky crunch guitar providing a great rhythmic change. Basically anything by John seems to float my boat.”

Pat Cassidy (The Districts) 

“There is an instrumental track on To Record Only Water for Ten Days called Ramparts that has owned a small piece of real estate in my subconscious since I was 13. Clocking in at roughly 70 seconds, the recording is rather sparse, just multiple layers of John’s signature simple yet hugely emotive guitar playing. 

“This song in particular was a big influence to me at that time because I had just acquired my first pedal, a Boss RC-20 Loop Station, and began making short instrumental recordings myself.

“I’ve always been drawn to some of John Frusciante’s solo home recordings and those of artists like Daniel Johnston for the same reason. They capture a certain sense of intimacy – as if nobody was intended to hear them. You can feel that the music was made purely for the sake of expression.”

Although funk can be traced back to the early days of James Brown, like all styles, it has evolved a lot over the past 60 years. With an increasing body of great rhythm guitar players on the live circuit as well as well as online, there’s never been a greater abundance of talent and innovation, that’s constantly pushing stylistic boundaries. 

Within this evolution, funk has crossed over into other styles such as RnB, neo-soul, fusion, gospel, and many more guitarists are becoming switched on to the beauty of using a clean sound and really working on rhythm and harmony.

At its heart, classic funk is all about syncopation, space and generally static/simple chords. The crossover into neo-soul and gospel largely retains this element of syncopation and rhythm but tends to use more extended and colourful harmony. 

You’ll also find many of the guitarists featured here frequently use fingerstyle technique to bring in slaps/pops borrowed from classic funk bass technique, together with wider intervals and greater control over chord shapes.

Example 1. John Frusciante funk #1 

When many people think of funk, they often turn to this ’90s-inspired Frusciante style rhythm. This small partial chord is inherently funky because of the space, fret-hand mutes and swing feel. 

It’s all about how it interacts with the bassline, so notice how we’re not filling the bar with endless fret-hand muting. In this case, less is more.

Example 2. John Frusciante funk #2 

Just like the classic James Brown blueprint of having two interlocking guitar parts, this D minor pentatonic idea is designed to ‘fill in the cracks’ of our previous guitar part. 

John is a master of string muting, especially when fretting single notes while strumming through all the strings. Once you’ve mastered this technique, you’ll have the freedom in the picking hand to improvise any rhythm you like.

Example 3. Eric Krasno funk

As part of jazz-funk outfit Lettuce, Krasno’s style often mirrors the sparse single-note lines of James Brown’s most famous guitarist Jimmy Nolen. 

Try to view our example riff through the lens of the B7 chord shape at the 7th fret and you should be able to see the connection between classic blues lines that target pentatonic ideas within the shape. 

Aim to keep your pick hand moving at all times, but try to avoid constant fret-hand mutes.

Example 4. Cory Wong funk

Cory’s signature sound is position 4 on a Strat together with a dash of compression to make those funky lines pop. 

He has a particularly rubbery pick hand wrist, so the key to this riff is constant pick hand motion coming from the wrist rather than the arm. 

This riff is also a great lesson in how to get the most from a humble E7 chord, with Cory’s trademark melodic variations up and down the neck.

Example 5. Snarky Puppy fingerstyle

Snarky Puppy’s Mark Lettieri is a great fingerstyle specialist. Here the thumb, index and middle fingers can be used for percussive effects as well as playing chords/notes. 

Beat 2 is a great example of the ‘keeping time’ percussive technique. This offbeat ‘mini slap’ comes from pivoting the pick hand at the wrist, away from the strings and back to rest on the strings.

Example 6. Mark Lettieri neo-soul 

Here, as we delve into gospel-tinged neo-soul, we start to hear complex chord extensions such as the 9th and #5th for added tension. Much of the gospel/neo-soul stylistic vibe of this riff comes from the quick hammer-ons on chords. 

As with our previous Lettieri-inspired riff, fingers work best, as you can get some great separation between notes in the chords. You can also try raking through chords with the thumb (as with the C#m9 chord).

Example 7. Mateus Asato funk

This Mateus Asato-inspired riff is a natural development of Mark Lettieri’s fingerstyle approach, but here we’re also incorporating a similar funk chord shape to our Frusciante ideas. 

Again, the pick hand ‘keeps time’ by slapping/coming to a rest on the strings on every backbeat (beats 2 and 4). The final bar is a great example of how Mateus uses slick hammer-ons/legato as a rhythmic/percussive device.

Example 8. Melanie Faye neo-soul 

The use of the whammy bar is a great way to add a lyrical/vocal-like quality to your extended chords, and this is a feature heard a lot in contemporary neo-soul. 

Try to be subtle however, so you only need to use the ring and pinky finger to apply a gentle vibrato to the bar. The quick slide/legato manoeuvre that many guitarists all the way from Chris Buck to Melanie Faye love to use is a key idea that can add interest to simple single-note melodies. 

Example 9. Justus West neo-soul

Taking inspiration from Grammy-winning multi-intrumentalist and producer Justus West, here we have a beautiful Am6/E chord that provides harmonic movement from the E major base. 

Notice how there’s an internal melodic idea throughout that almost feels like a crossover from classic jazz. The downward chord slides can be a little tricky to master at first. Here you need to concentrate on getting equal pressure on all your fingers as you slide, so watch out for any fret buzz or muted notes. 

Example 10. Isaiah Sharkey soul/jazz

Isaiah tends to play lines on the jazzier side of the street, so alongside classic soul chord ideas and improvised pentatonic lines, you’ll also find ‘outside’ chords such as the G7#5#9. Here, the addition of #5 and #9 intervals provides tension before you move back to the home chord of Cmaj7.

Earlier this year, Cory Wong announced a new installment of his Cory and The Wongnotes YouTube series – a variety show format he first introduced last year that sees him team up with an all-star house band and an array of guest collaborators.

After recruiting Big Wild and Chromeo for episodes on Imitation and Creativity, respectively, the prolific electric guitar titan has now dropped the show’s latest episode: a one-hour-plus bass guitar extravaganza, which features bass legend Victor Wooten.

The 70-minute showcase is front-ended with The Great British Bass Off – a five-minute parody of Britain’s The Great British Bake Off that was released ahead of the episode – which in turn is followed by a performance of Wong and Wooten's new collaborative track, Direct Flyte.

There’s also a 40-minute interview with Wooten himself, in which the influential bass guitar player shared his advice for aspiring learners of the low-end, and discussed how budding bassists can move between the ranks from amateur to advanced.

“If I explain it the way my brother Regi [Wooten, guitarist] taught us, music is melody, harmony and rhythm,” Wooten reflected. “The bass and the drums are the foundation of that rhythm. 

“For the younger bass players coming up,” he continued, “if we learn to do the flashy things on the bass without having that solid foundation, it’s like building a roof without the floor and wondering why the roof won’t stay up. The foundation has to be there so you can build up. Like, you bake a cake before you ice it.”

As for how young players can rise through the ability ranks, Wooten emphasized the need to go back and listen to “who played it first”, citing the importance of understanding “the where, the why, the when” in order to become fully attached to the instrument.

“Go back to the beginning of, ‘Who played it first?’ Even the music of today is built upon the music of yesterday. The music of yesterday had simple basslines note-wise, but there’s a whole history and lesson in every bass part.”

Of how this tidbit can be put into practice, Wooten went on to say, “The one thing I have people do is, go back and learn some early simple basslines, play them for 15 minutes, and don’t change a thing.

“Now, write me five other basslines similar to that,” he added. “The art of coming up with great basslines is almost like the art of being a rhythm guitarist. You see it dying.”

Perhaps the most profound piece of wisdom from Wooten, though, was his advice on how an individual can unleash their creativity. After asking Wong for three words he associated with music – to which Wong offered “Heart”, “Love” and “Joy”, Wooten observed, “Notice you didn’t say, ‘Music is a guitar’? ‘Music is technique, music is theory’?

“Without our instrument in our hands, we go right there. As soon as we pick it up, we forget those words. If that’s what music is, that is what we should be playing every time we pick up the instrument.”

In anticipation of the premiere of his upcoming Cory and The Wongnotes season, electric guitar maestro Cory Wong has announced new album Power Station, and dropped the effort's lead single of the same name, for which he’s recruited fellow funk fanatic, Mark Lettieri.

It’s a Wong track, so naturally it has everything you’d expect the Vulfpeck guitarist to deliver: an abundance of outrageous right-hand funk rhythms, propped up by irresistible brass turnarounds and infectious percussion, as well as a dangerously catchy vocal flow.

Lettieri – opting for a Bruno Bacci Leonardo baritone guitar, rather than his PRS Fiore signature guitar – is also on hand to ensure the funk-o-meter flies off the charts, and flanks Wong for a series of stank face-inducing low-end rhythm work.

What is a little unexpected, though, is Wong’s decision to deck out Power Station’s interlude with a two-hand tapping sequence that plays host to a quirky melody line – it is a lead playing technique, after all, that is rarely associated with the robust rhythm man.

Despite his tendency to favor funk rhythms, Wong – who is an equally adept soloist – throws formalities out the window and makes light work of the lick while in an inch-perfect, track-appropriate power stance.

Power Station will be found on Wong’s upcoming album of the same name, which arrives April 29. It will coincide with season two of The Wongnotes, following a variety show/record release model that was established during the first run of episodes.

The show, which will debut tomorrow (April 12), will air on Wong’s YouTube channel and will arrive in weekly installments every Tuesday. As per a previous announcement, it’s set to be one of Wong’s most star-studded collaborative efforts yet.

Those in line to take the hot seat include Nate Smith, Victor Wooten, Sierra Hull, Béla Fleck and Chromeo, as well as Big Wild, Billy Strings, Lindsay Ell and Joey Dosik.

Of the upcoming episodes, Wong commented, “This season of Cory and The Wongnotes is exciting for me because I got to invite some of my musical heroes on to the show, and even write music with them. 

“The guests on this season are incredible musicians,” he continued. “Each with an interesting and unique journey with how they’ve arrived where they’re at. I got to dive deep with them both musically and personally with extended interviews and recording live in the room together. 

“Each episode has its own theme and I was able to explore how those themes relate to everyday life as a musician. The sketch comedy plays off of each theme and how my mind sees the world through the musician's lens.”

Season two of The Wongnotes has already been previewed by The Great British Bass Off – an unmissable bass guitar comedy skit that parodies British Channel 4 program The Great British Bake Off.

To catch the first episode of The Wongnotes season two, keep an eye on Cory Wong's YouTube channel.

As legend has it, Steve Vai and Prince almost had one of the jams of the century, when Vai took to a trip to the Purple One’s Paisley Park studio. However, as things panned out, the two never ended up trading licks, because Prince never actually showed up to the session.

Instead, Vai was left to jam into the early hours of the morning with Sonny T. and Michael Bland, Prince’s bass guitar player and drummer at the time. Footage of the night supposedly exists, but it’s since been lost, and has never been seen by the public eye.

Up until this point, there’s been remarkably little info on the story, but luckily for us Cory Wong – who sat down with Vai on an episode of his Wongnotes podcast – put the guitarist in the hotseat to quiz him about what really happened on that fateful night at Paisley Park.

And, as it turns out, Prince did in fact attend the jam session. Kind of.

“Yes, it’s true,” Vai confirmed. “I was a huge Prince fan. We were playing in Minneapolis, and my wife’s cousin worked at Paisley Park – he oversaw the studio and everything.

“Prince would have these wild open nights at Paisley Park, and it was fantastic,” he continued. “I went there after a show with the band, and Sonny [T.] and Michael [Bland] weren’t there; they were home in bed sleeping.

“I got there late – it was two, three AM or something – and I never saw Prince; I just had messages. He had them call Sonny and Michael, and woke them up. Next thing I know, they’re out of bed and they’re there, and it’s the three of us on stage jamming.

“It was great. These guys… man, they’re like magic. I’m like, ‘Prince has got it made with these guys!’ My guys were good too, just different. It was fantastic.”

After jamming with the pair, Vai was then informed that “the boss is going to come down and jam with you”, after which studio workers were summoned to assemble Prince’s rig – pedalboard, guitars, the whole works – on stage.

Alas, despite being told he was minutes away from sharing the stage with the Purple One for an anything-goes jam, Vai soon realized the evening was not going to play out the way he expected.

“We’re jamming and time’s going by, it’s getting later and later and earlier in the morning, and he’s just not there. I’m like, ‘I’ve got to get to the next gig!’ I said, ‘I’m so sorry, I’ve got to go.’”

According to Vai, footage of himself jamming with Sonny T. and Michael Bland exists, and was recorded by none other than Prince himself, who was admiring the jam from backstage the whole time.

“As it turned out,” Vai added, “from what I was told, he was in a room watching – the whole stage was outfitted with cameras – from backstage and videotaping it. He never came down; he just sat and watched.”

Anyone else now itching to see this footage? By the sounds of it, the jam must have been one hell of a spectacle if Prince decided to take a step back and admire it from afar.

Hopefully our wish will be granted soon, with Wong announcing his plans to track down a copy of the bootleg VHS, supposedly in the possession of Sonny T. – who now plays in Wong’s band – to digitize it for Vai. Please be quick, Cory.

In the meantime, Wong and Sonny T. have been working together on the next series of Wong’s Cory and The Wongnotes sketch show, debuting their must-see Great British Bass Off skit this week.

Last week, Cory Wong announced that a new series of Cory and The Wongnotes – his YouTube-based variety show that debuted last year – was officially on the way.

And, while Wong kept us on tenterhooks by remaining tight-lipped over the first episode’s air date, the funk electric guitar god has further whetted our appetites by dropping a five-minute segment from the upcoming season.

Titled The Great British Bass Off, the new comedy skit is perhaps one of The Wongnotes' finest, arguably surpassing even the lofty comedic standards set by the first season. A riff on British series The Great British Bake Off, the clip sees Wong take on Sonny T. and Annie, a “retired music teacher," in a battle of the bass guitar chops.

Those familiar with the original show will no doubt be impressed by the level of detail the Wongnotes production team has achieved with its script and setting, from the picturesque rural B-Roll right down to the regimented orders issued by the competition’s judges.

Kitted out in matching aprons – which serve no purpose other than to tie in with the culinary theme – each bassist is tasked with composing a “classic” eight bar riff in a funk groove at 116bpm over a Gm7 chord.

“Timing, composition and taste” are all paramount to the challenge and, just like the show, each individual’s low-end effort is explained by a narrator and visualized by way of a charming illustration. Again, the highest of marks have to be awarded for authenticity.

Wong – who flexes his caricature-like British accent to add even more humor into the mix – devises “a riff that’s totally British: a nice little jammy riff from my Grandma," which goes up against Sonny T.’s stomping, slightly more impressive soundbite.

It’s Annie, though, who steals the show, with her “ostinato-based line, accented by a number of double-stops and a chromatically ascending turnaround." Seriously, it’s as if Wong has recruited the Bake Off script writers themselves.

Alas, despite Annie’s winning performance, she clearly isn’t playing the bass at all. Still, that’s just a minor technicality in the grand scheme of things – Wong and Sonny eventually get handed an effective disqualification based on the fact that they aren’t even British.

Bake Off tropes aside, there’s still an abundance of uber-sweet bass playing to sink your teeth into. Wong, Sonny T. and Annie’s entries are expertly executed, offering up an array of fingerpicking grooves, scintillating slap motifs and percussive muted plucks.

All we know now is we can’t wait for Cory and The Wongnotes season 2. Head over to Cory Wong’s YouTube channel to stay up to date with the show’s upcoming release.

Steve Vai's legacy as a guitar player is unbeatable: a virtuoso who not only backed rock royalty, but designed his own instrument, practically invented his own vocabulary, and changed the way we think about instrumental guitar music forever.

So when he lists five contemporary players to watch, we'd all do well to listen – as we did back when he named the 'best guitar player' of all time (if such a concept existed, of course).

There are some game-changing guitarists with hugely individual styles here – with Vai's endorsement, the future of exemplary guitar playing is in very safe hands indeed…

1. Tim Henson

“Tim Henson [of Polyphia] is exploring new grounds. I’m seeing an evolution in a direction that I didn’t… that I couldn’t even see coming. And it’s magnificent. I just love hearing those ideas and watching the execution of them. 

“He thinks totally outside the box. And if you listen to early stuff, you can hear when he was thinking conventionally, but something happened and he just surrendered to some kind of creative vision. And that’s what their music is. It’s fantastic.”

2. Cory Wong

“I love watching him play. It’s rare for a guitarist to truly understand what it means to lock and what it means to groove. Of course, everybody has a level of understanding of groove. You may have a shredder that just has this powerful ability to play wildly fast. Or a jazz guy who can play chord changes at the speed of light. 

“There’s few cream-of-the-crop guitar players who play rhythm that own the groove. They own it – meaning they can play ahead of the groove, behind the groove. They can divide the groove in a relatively unconventional kind of a groove, and own it, and make you feel it while they’re doing it. And I love that about Cory. He owns it. 

“He’s also doing really interesting things with arrangements, reaching outside of the box of conventionality and [the style is] a little more homeschooled. He’s using horns and these kinds of things, as opposed to technology, as being in the forefront. It’s really about groove and I love that.”

• Cory Wong: “Most people know me as a rhythm player with a clean sound. But I’ve been playing lead guitar since I was a kid, too”

3. Matteo Mancuso

“He’s one of these players that has really evolved the fusion-style guitar playing. He has incredible ears, but his technique is pretty remarkable. You know, he can play with a pick, but he plays with his fingers. 

“The variations of tone that he gets and the smoothness, and things like his intonation, his ability to play melodically over pretty fierce changes and stuff like that. I think he’s more of an evolution in the fusion department. I’m really looking forward to seeing some of the things that he eventually comes out with.”

4. Yvette Young

“Yvette [of Covet] is just a wildly artistic person from head to toe. Her guitar playing and the things she comes up with is one aspect. It’s a particular colour in her palette. She has this creative perspective that I just find so refreshing. She’s an artist, she paints, and I just really love the energy and the atmosphere that she manifests.”

• Yvette Young: “I never really felt like I got good on guitar. The way I spend my time is still very much based around improving”

5. Daniele Gottardo

“Daniele is one of the few, for me, that is doing remarkable things with technique. I see phenomenal players all the time. People send me clips and it’s stunning what younger people are doing, how they’re evolving technique on the guitar. 

“But it’s very rare that I ever hear any real harmonic evolutions. Daniele sends me stuff sometimes. I listen and I go, ‘Okay, this guy’s thinking and feeling outside of the box.’”

• Steve Vai on how Frank Zappa inspired him to design the Ibanez JEM – and why the Japanese guitar builder succeeded where others failed

Last year, funk guitar extraordinaire Cory Wong turned talk show host for an all-new web series titled Cory and The Wongnotes, which saw him interview, jam and eventually record with a host of special guests.

And, just as we were beginning to lose hope that The Wongnotes experiment may have been a one-off – Wong has a notoriously full in-tray, after all – the Vulfpeck electric guitar player has now confirmed a second season of his hit YouTube talk show.

Announced via a one-minute trailer, Cory and The Wongnotes part two looks like it’s going to be every bit as binge-worthy as its predecessor, filled with more comedy skits, insightful interview segments and, of course, some mouth-watering funk jams.

It will also continue Wong’s fine collaborative form, with the announcement further teasing the guests that will take the hot seat on the show. Fellow guitarists Larry Carlton and Mark Lettieri will make an appearance, as will bass guitar legend Victor Wooten.

Multi-instrumentalist Big Wild – aka Jackson Stell – is also on the lineup, which is completed by electro-funk duo Chromeo, banjoist Béla Fleck, bluegrass player Billy Strings, pop singer-songwriter Lindsay Ell, vocalist and mandolinist Sierra Hull and session drummer heavyweight Nate Smith.

Wong’s frequent Vulfpeck bandmate Joey Dosik is also slated to appear.

Highlights from the trailer include snippets of new songs, a peep at Wong’s fresh Neural DSP Quad Cortex-loaded setup and a new segment called “The Great British Bass Off” – a riff on the BBC's The Great British Bake Off.

The funk maestro also looks to have kept hold of the stellar house band that served him so well in the first season, with returning players including bassist Sonny T., drummer Peter Janjic, percussionist Nêgah Santos and keys player Kevin Gastonguay.

An official release date is yet to be announced, with the trailer merely teasing that the show is “coming soon”.

The Wongnotes season two is the latest piece of evidence to showcase the fact that, not only is Wong a sensational guitarist, he’s also a genius content creator. In recent times, he launched his own podcast – on which John Mayer recently featured – and took to the ice rink for arguably his most bizarre extra-musical activity yet, Wong On Ice.

This is alongside all of his usual musical commitments, as well, which saw him release a staggering 12 albums across 2020 and 2021. He’s already released two albums this year, too, after teaming up with his Vulfpeck comrades for Vulf Vault 005: Wong’s Cafe and his Fearless Flyers pals for Fearless Flyers III.

Head over to Cory Wong's YouTube channel to keep up to date with The Wongnotes season two.