Nearly 100 of Johnny Marr’s history-lavished guitars have sold for £4 million at auction.

The official sum of £3,649,280, or about $4.87m, was achieved after a five-hour Christie’s auction and included buyers from 34 countries – showing how far the Smiths guitarist’s reach spans.

The lot included a bizarre nine-pickup Stratocaster, his 1982 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo (which also moonlighted in Oasis), and the 1960 Cherry Red ES-355, used as a bargaining chip to get the indie band to sign to US label Sire Records.

The history and prestige of those instruments were reflected in their respective sale prices, totalling over £500,000 (approx. $669,000). The Rickenbacker fetched £358,400, the ES-335 went for £204,800, and the bonkers Strat smashed its £10k estimate by going for £38,400.

Three other guitars reached triple-figure sums. The 1984 Gibson Les Paul that starred in the music video for the Smiths’ 1985 track The Boy With The Thorn In His Side sold for £204,800 (approx. $274,000). His custom Roger Giffin T-Style, in its standout green finish, went for £121,600 (approx. $163,000). It is also tied to the Smiths’ music video history via Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now and the Meat is Murder album more broadly.

Rounding out the trio is a 1963 Epiphone Casino, which was tuned up to F# and paired with a Fender Twin Reverb for the iconic main guitar track of How Soon Is Now. Estimated to sell for just £30,000, the hammer eventually went down at £102,400 (approx. $137,000).

On the acoustic front, the big winner was Marr's 1971 Martin D-28 – his main writing and recording acoustic guitar in the Smiths. That went for £128,000, smashing its £35-50k estimate.

Most of the amps up for grabs sold for just over the £10K ($13,300) threshold. They included a 1967 Fender Dual Showman head and matching 2x15” cabinet, a 1998 Matchless DC-30 combo, and a Fender Pro amp from 1960.

“The auction has been a great experience and has exceeded all my expectations,” Marr says (via the BBC). “I’d like to thank everyone who made bids and special thanks to Christie’s for making it so memorable.”

The money raised is going to Marr’s chosen charities, the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and the Autistic Society.

It marked a prestigious guitar journey that started, he says, with a moment that felt like it came straight out of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Speaking to Guitarist ahead of the auction, Marr said he was happy for his beloved instruments to sell for more modest figures than sums generated by Mark Knopfler and David Gilmour – whose Black Start is the most expensive guitar in the world.

“My hope is that someone who’s got a regular job in Glasgow, who fancies a good guitar but wants one of mine, will be able to afford it,” he said.

Head to Christie’s for the full auction results, and for the stories behind the guitars, check out our in-depth feature and exclusive photography.

The sale of a great player’s guitar collection is sometimes lamented by fans, however, it’s something we are seeing more often as celebrated musicians reflect on the road travelled and the road yet to come.

As a player always ready to embrace the future, Marr is clearly no servant to his own backstory. But why is he choosing to sell some of the most important guitars, amps and even the gold and platinum discs that he’s picked up over the years?

“He found the process of writing and publishing the book Marr’s Guitars in 2023 quite a cathartic experience,” says Amelia Walker, Christie’s Head of Private and Iconic Collections, who is overseeing the sale.

“In the process of writing the book about the guitars, he was getting them all out, holding them… finding the muscle memory of all these amazing songs that he’d written on them – particularly some of the earliest guitars – and then going out after the book was published and speaking about them…

“And then when that whole tour wrapped up, and it was time to put them away, the impression I got was that he didn’t want them just to get put away in cases again.

“With his [signature] Jag, he’s basically created an instrument that does everything he needs – so he doesn’t see as many opportunities to use a lot of these instruments in the future.

“And yet he wants them to be played, he wants them to find new owners and I think he really loves the idea of people coming up to him in years to come and saying, ‘I’ve just written a song on your D-28’, or ‘I’ve just played your Rickenbacker on stage,’ or whatever it might be. Or even if it’s not someone who performs, just ‘I love your guitar,’” Amelia says.

“The final lot count is 111,” she continues. “There are about 90 guitars and we’ve got about 10 gold records… actually gold, silver and platinum. Mainly Smiths, but also one for Electronic’s [eponymous debut] 1991 album and a recording he made with Bryan Ferry, which are all being sold for charity.

“And then there’s a collection of concert posters and promo posters, which again are all being sold for charity. There are about 10 amps as well – no pedals – and I think most of them are amps that he’s had for his whole career.”

It’s an impressive collection even when viewed simply as vintage instruments – but when you consider the music made with them, it adds real depth to Marr’s decision to let them go, and pass the proceeds of around 20 lots on to his chosen charities (The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and the National Autistic Society).

Before they go under the hammer, we took the opportunity to take a close look at the most important (and distinctive) of his guitars, with Amelia as our guide.

1963 Epiphone Casino

“Compositionally, a lot of his songs start on acoustics, but How Soon Is Now was written on the Casino, over what sounds like the most prolific songwriting weekend of all time, when he wrote William, It Was Really Nothing and Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want and then How Soon Is Now as the third, just to top it off [laughs]. The fact he wrote the song on the Casino and then also used it to record that riff makes it very, very special.

“He used the Casino at Glastonbury in 1984 which, by all accounts, was the moment that the festival kind of shed its hippie roots and went into pop because [The Smiths] were in the pop sphere by that year.

“Then everyone rushed the stage and there were these guys trying to climb up the sheet metal in front of the stage, while he’s playing that guitar. Casinos have such a strong association with the music that he loved from the ’60s that he was listening to. So yeah, it’s a really cool thing, and everyone loves that song.”

1959 Gibson ES-355

“So this guitar is probably the one guitar – other than the Rickenbacker – that is most associated with the Smiths. I think it was probably the third guitar he owned in that band: he had a Gretsch [Atkins Super Axe], the Rickenbacker and then this.

“He got it because the Smiths went to New York between Christmas and New Year in 1983, and they were due to play their first show and to sign to Sire Records with Seymour Stein – they were already signed to Rough Trade in the UK but they were going to do their US deal [with Sire]. Johnny had heard about Sire doing a similar deal with Brian Jones, so he cheekily said, ‘We’ll sign to Sire if you buy me a guitar.’

“So they played their show on New Year’s Eve at Danceteria, and then on 2 January, Johnny marched Seymour to 48th Street and bought this guitar, which is a thing of beauty. He got back to the hotel and I think before even sitting down he wrote Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.

“Johnny talks about songs ‘falling out of him’ and sort of just coming to him, as well as guitars giving him songs – and it seems that this guitar inspired him to do that. He then used it to record a lot of the Smiths’ second album [Meat Is Murder] and it’s seen on stage throughout 1984 and 1985.”

“He made a few modifications to it. It was, obviously, originally a stereo [output] guitar but he didn’t want it to be stereo so he switched it to mono. And then I think at some point in the late ’80s, Bill Puplett replaced the wiring harness but unfortunately we can’t date that because everything’s shielded and it’s really hard to see.

“But we still have the original [wiring harness] that he took out and from that we can tell the original pots must have been taken out before he bought the guitar as the harness that was in there dates to ’83 – all the pots are ’83. But it’s still got these lovely [original] Patent Applied For pickups.

“The Varitone must have been switched out as well because that dates from a bit later than 1959. The guitar’s factory order number dates it to late ’59, but then it was shipped on 2 February 1960. So it’s a bit of a hybrid, crossing over ’59 and ’60.”

1992/93 Rickenbacker 330

“When you think Johnny Marr, really you think Rickenbacker. This particular guitar also appears on the front cover of Supersonic by Oasis – just lying on the floor. That says a lot about Johnny’s generosity in lending instruments to other musicians and further underlines that he wants his guitars to be played. He wants them to give songs to other people.

“The Rickenbacker is [the sound of] This Charming Man and so many other songs. It’s his jangly sound and I think it was a deliberate choice at the time – he wanted his playing to go in a certain direction and that’s what the Rickenbacker did for him. His melodic arpeggio playing and picking out the individual strings of the chord, rather than just strumming, is so intertwined with the Rickenbacker.

“He got it in ‘83 and he used it to record the single This Charming Man, which was tracked along with a Telecaster that belonged to producer John Porter. I think Johnny only had two guitars at the time [this and the Gretsch Super Axe], and John thought he needed another one on that track.

“He then used it on most of the Smiths’ first record as well. I think a lot of that record was written on the Gretsch because he didn’t have the Rickenbacker at the time, but the recording itself is a lot of Rickenbacker with the Tele added in. It’s really so connected with the Smiths emerging and their whole story.”

Custom Roger Giffin T-Style 

“That guitar was custom-made by Roger Giffin. I think having played John Porter’s Tele, Johnny really wanted one. So Alan Rogan, who worked with The Who, Keith Richards and George Harrison, put [Marr’s then girlfriend, now wife] Angie in touch with Roger Giffin and she bought the guitar for him.

“It’s heavy – it weighs around the same as Tiger [Jerry Garcia’s custom electric built with exotic woods by Doug Irwin], around 10lbs. But the Roger Giffin guitar is iconic because of its unique look, and so many fans will remember it as the guitar he played on Top Of The Pops with the Smiths.

“Johnny switched out the neck humbucker after a while because originally it had a Mighty Mite zebra-coil pickup fitted. But now it’s got a different humbucker with these very distinctive hexagonal pole pieces – a Bare Knuckle ‘Juggernaut’. We don’t know when that mod was done but again the work was completed by Bill Puplett.

1963 Lake Placid Blue Fender Stratocaster

“That was a John Entwistle guitar, so that came from him, via Alan Rogan. There were about seven or eight guitars that came from John, who seemed to have the most amazing, huge collection of guitars… there’s a fantastic photograph taken around 1977 of him in his living room, literally surrounded by guitars – and we managed to spot one of Johnny’s in the photo, which is pretty cool [a Gretsch 6120].

“It’s actually composite – it’s got a ’65 neck, and the body is ’63, which is why he would have wanted it. He used it on Strangeways Here We Come, for the solo in Paint a Vulgar Picture – which is notable because it’s his first proper solo on a Smiths record.

“We don’t know what neck it had on it originally, but at some point in the late 1980s he took the neck off his sunburst Strat – which had this really beautiful bird’s-eye maple neck, and is really distinct because it has particular wear on the first and third fret, and switched it onto this Lake Placid Blue guitar.

“In late 1989 he was photographed with it for the cover of the January 1990 issue of Guitar Player magazine, with the maple neck. I don’t know when he put this [current] 1965 rosewood neck on it – we’re still verifying that.”

1977 Gretsch Atkins Super Axe

“This was Johnny’s only guitar for I don’t know exactly how long. It’s pre-Morrissey, pre-Smiths and I think – until he got the Rickenbacker– it was the only guitar he had. I think it was some sort of part-exchange when he sold his [prior] Les Paul. And it’s interesting that he chose this model.

“I don’t know if it was literally what was available in the shop, or if he was on the lookout for a Gretsch... but he was clearly looking to move away from the Les Paul when he swapped it for this. He wrote the whole of the first album on this, and recorded Hand In Glove on it.”

1984 Gibson Les Paul Standard

“He got this new in 1984. Again, I’m not sure of the exact date, but it was probably around September. When he bought it, it didn’t have a Bigsby – he put that on himself in about the summer of ’85, because we have photos of him with the Les Paul without a Bigsby on in December ’84 and March ’85. But then by the time the Smiths were on Top Of The Pops in October ’85, it had the Bigsby on. He’s said that if the building was on fire, this would be the guitar he’d grab.

“Because I think he’s done more on that guitar than any other in terms of consistent use throughout his career, even up until his current record that’s about to come out [The Age Of Everything], there are parts on that record that have been played with this particular Les Paul.”

“It’s got Seymour Duncans in now and I think they were double blacks originally, but they always had covers on them during his time in The Smiths, and then at some point they got swapped out again by Bill Puplett.

“We’re still investigating when the Seymour Duncans were fitted but, again, I think it would have been late ’80s, because he used the Les Paul in the music video for The The’s track Dogs Of Lust and you can very clearly see there’s a zebra in both positions – and that was in 1993.”

1978 9-Pickup Modified Fender Stratocaster

“We initially had no idea who created this, but we had another look at the instrument when we took some of the guitars to New York for an exhibition in late June. And we found a label indicating who [had carried out the major modifications]. It seems as though the idea was the concept of one brother, Stephen Liddard, with the work itself done by a Richard Liddard in 1991.

“So that would have been just before Johnny bought it from Music Ground in Doncaster. He bought it on a trip there with Noel Gallagher, just a day or two after they first met… Noel remembers Johnny saying, ‘Let’s go for a sandwich. Never buy guitars on an empty stomach.’

“But anyway he bought the 9-pickup Strat and, much later on, it was used in the video for his solo record Spirit Power And Soul. It’s amazing, just about the maddest thing you’ll ever see, and it was the concept of the Liddard brothers in, I presume, somewhere near Doncaster.”

1963 Gibson J-160E

“I think [he acquired this guitar] at the same time he bought the Casino when he was very Beatles-focused, and wanted that Beatles sensibility in his playing. This was around the time The Smiths moved to London just after they released their first record, and that was when he met Alan Rogan. This was when he started to have a bit of money to buy guitars and when his guitar-purchasing really sort of started taking off.

“He went from only having two to suddenly having three… five… seven guitars, and wanted them so he could do different things for specific reasons and sounds. He used it, as I mentioned before, when he wrote three of the most epic Smiths songs on a quiet weekend when the band had nothing on – William, It Was Really Nothing and Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want were both written on that guitar.”

• Marr’s Guitars: The Johnny Marr Collection will go under the hammer on September 17. See Christies for more details.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Johnny Marr was one of Oasis' first supporters, and famously lent them an electric guitar or two as they pieced together their earliest material.

Most notably, The Smiths’ man sent his iconic 1982 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo to the group to aid in the recording of their soon-to-be smash, Definitely Maybe.

It even ended up in a photoshoot for the band's debut single, Supersonic. But the responsibility of babysitting the guitar weighed heavily on Noel Gallagher, a die-hard Smiths fan.

That same guitar is now a standout attraction at Marr’s upcoming Christie’s auction. In a video promoting the sale of nearly 100 electric and acoustic guitars, Gallagher and Marr take a trip down memory lane.

“Someone took it out and just put it on the floor so it would look like we were a working band,” Gallagher recalls of a famous photoshoot. “It’s on the cover of Supersonic.”

Released in December 1993, Supersonic was one of the group’s earliest hits. The cover features the band looking busy in the studio. Look closely, and you can see the Rickenbacker laid on the ground, next to a sunburst Gibson Les Paul.

“I remember looking at it on the floor going, ‘That can not be The Smiths’ guitar, there’s no way he sent that down here to a load of geezers from Longsight,’” Gallagher then chuckles.

“I was like, ‘You better take that back, mate – what if someone stands on it?’”

The album would later be mastered at Marr’s Manchester studio, further tying the two bands together. Vitally, the guitar survived destruction, which can’t always be said about Oasis recording sessions. A cherry red ES-335 and an engineer’s acoustic can attest to what kind of brutality can occur when the Gallagher brothers fall out

Marr, meanwhile, has spoken in depth about the guitars he’s set to give away later this week, and some prized pieces of Smiths history are included.

The Rickenbacker itself, which was used to track This Charming Man, is estimated to sell for £60,000-80,000 (approx. $79,000-£105,000).

The Johnny Marr auction takes place on September 17.

See Christie’s for more.

Johnny Marr woke up last night in a cold sweat. “I had a bit of a 3am attack of the ‘oh-my-Gods’,” he tells Guitarist. But there’s no need to ask the 62-year-old the cause of his palpitations.

On 17 September, the indie-rock legend will follow the biggest names in blue-chip rock ’n’ roll – David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton – and auction off his four-decade guitar collection at Christie’s of London.

For a player whose instruments have so often seemed like an extension of his arm, it’s practically an amputation. “This auction is a bit of a wrench,” admits Marr. “But for me it’s boom or bust. If I’m going to do this, I’m going to go for it. And once I made up my mind that I was going to go through the rest of my life without these guitars, I’ve tried to hold that position and not get too sentimental.”

That’s Johnny. As well as being a shining example of a human being (a proportion of auction proceeds will go to charity), the guitarist has never been one for nostalgia.

It’s the reason he quit the greatest indie-rock band of them all – The Smiths – at their ’87 peak for a kaleidoscopic solo career taking in everything from teaming up with Bert Jansch to the Inception soundtrack. Likewise, it’s why he chose to jettison these fabled guitars to record new solo album, The Age Of Everything, with a box-fresh signature Jaguar.

“With this guitar collection that I’ve had for 40-odd years being suddenly absent, it’s definitely going to feel like my life is different,” says Marr. “And I’m quite excited about that, y’know?”

What was the motivation behind your auction?

While I was documenting these instruments for the Marr’s Guitars book, there was a kind of catharsis. I’d go home from a day’s shoot and really be able to remember who I was and how I felt when I was using those guitars in the 80s, 90s and onwards.

Then we did the events in New York, Manchester, London and Dublin, and when they were being put back in cases, it felt like putting them in a cage at the zoo. It seemed really weird because they had become these living things to me again. So that was the overriding emotion – that they should be cherished on a daily basis by somebody.

How have you found working with Christie’s?

It’s been fascinating. From the transportation to the climate-controlled rooms to the forensic analysis. Y’know: “Why is this decal different? You must have changed it.” It’s mind-boggling, the expertise. I did enjoy nerding out with guitar nerds And with all due respect, everyone I’ve worked with at Christie’s are real guitar nerds!

Let’s start by talking about the ’82 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo.

Anyone who’s been in a successful group will tell you the early days are unmatched. So all of that is synonymous with that Rickenbacker: the excitement of the early songs, but also The Smiths taking off at the age of 19, which is how old I was when I got that guitar.

I bought that with the first bit of money I made, and I immediately started writing things like Still Ill and Accept Yourself. And because that guitar had such a vibe, it stayed with me all the way through, even to the solo records.

You loaned it to Noel Gallagher. Weren’t you worried that he’d damage it?

It never occurred to me that my guitars would be damaged. I’ve always been very loose like that. I cherish them, but I also leave them leaning up against amps, lying on the floor. I’m a bit of a liability where guitar stands are concerned, so my guitars are actually safer leaning up against amps.

It’s an aesthete thing as well. I always thought guitar stands looked clumsy. Maybe it’s to do with being the oldest in an Irish family and being let loose to do whatever the hell I wanted when I was about 11. But I have the same attitude with my guitars. Like, “They’ll be all right.”

I suppose I’m a bit cavalier, but I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve only had significant damage to two guitars, caused by myself. One was my ’73 Custom. My tech had come down with food poisoning so I had to use New Order’s tech, who had no idea about tunings, he only knew about synthesisers.

So the gig was a disaster and, in frustration, I threw the guitar up in the air. Miraculously, it only damaged one of the machineheads. Another time, it was a Flying V. But they’re notorious for breaking their headstocks.

Didn’t Noel once break a Les Paul of yours?

Yeah, in a fracas on stage in Newcastle. There’s probably some Geordie guy who’s still got the bruises to show for it.

We have to talk about the ’60 Cherry Red ES-355…

Seymour Stein of Sire Records came to wine and dine The Smiths one night in 1984. It was a done deal we were going to sign to Sire. We’d have happily paid him: it was our dream label. But I was asking about The Stones in the 60s, and he made the mistake of telling me he’d always take Brian Jones to get a guitar. So I saw my opportunity. I told him if he bought me a guitar, The Smiths would sign to Sire.

On a snowy day in New York, I hung around the Sire offices all day, so Seymour wasn’t going to escape. We walked to We Buy Guitars on 48th Street and, as is often the way – and it’s a bit like this with pets – it already felt like I owned it when I saw it.

There’s this romantic notion many musicians have – myself included – that instruments have music in them. As soon as I got that 355 back to the hotel, I wrote Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now. Which took about 10 minutes.

Then I immediately wrote Girl Afraid. There’s a few guitars like that in the auction. If they end up in the hands of songwriters, they’ll definitely deliver songs.

Did your ’84 Roger Giffin ‘Telecaster’ have songs in it, too?

It did. Although it might be a trick of the mind because it was a very prolific time. That was a gift from my girlfriend [now Marr’s wife], Angie. It was probably the second time we felt like we were suddenly wealthy. It probably cost £400. It was just such a beautiful surprise, that my girlfriend put in the thought and research.

How she lugged it over from Tower Bridge to the West End, where we were recording that day, is beyond me. It’s the heaviest guitar you’ll ever come across because it’s got loads of brass. But that means it’s got an amazing sound.

It’s so loud. I was such a little guy back then, probably only seven-and-a-half stone. I’m not such a big guy now. But I would only be able to play three songs on it during a concert, and then I had to swap over to an acoustic to recover.

Because it’s such a stable machine, it held tunings really well. I wrote songs on it like Meat Is Murder, which is open G, and then The Headmaster Ritual, which was open D. I played overdubs, too, things like Nowhere Fast. It’s funny with guitars.

There’s this associative thing. For instance, in the 90s, if a guitar player came across his mate’s Epiphone, he’d probably start playing like Noel Gallagher. So because it was a Telecaster, Nowhere Fast was somewhat of a rockabilly song.

Did you hold any guitars back from the auction?

There’s a few. Bryan Ferry gave me a Hagstrom: it’s [in the gatefold] of the Roxy Music album For Your Pleasure. I have one of Nile Rodgers’ first signature Strats. There’s the Telecaster that Chrissie Hynde gave me.

It’s been a selection process. Like, there’s a signature Strat that Edge gave me that I did put in the auction because it’s for charity, and I think because it was previously owned by a name player, it’ll raise a bit of money.

I’ve kept a couple of ’73 Strats. My son owns a few of my Modest Mouse Jazzmasters, so I’ll be borrowing those off him. Another workhorse I’ve kept is a ’63 SG. In theory, I could get another, but I thought, ‘Well, this one’s perfect, so why bother?

How have you adapted your gear choices to record your latest studio material?

My workhorses have been easy to decide on. There’s a ’63 335, just an amazing instrument that delivers – I used that on my new album, The Age Of Everything.

This new album has so many different tones, from Spin’s edge-of-distortion chime to the glassy funk of Ophelia. How did you dig them all out?

Rather fortuitously, the most recent version of my signature Jaguar has even more tone options. My Jags have 11 sounds, without any of them crossing over. But the Signature Special with lipstick pickups, it also has a position where it does all of that but with the added middle pickup.

There’s one other option, too, which is just the middle pickup but with high-pass filter. I’ve lost count of how many sounds I can do, but I used that guitar really extensively on the new album and it works a treat.

Isn’t there a danger of you inadvertently building up yet another collection?

Yes, there is. And who would blame me? That’s quite a nice prospect. But the remaining guitars that I have now – and there’s not loads of them – I really appreciate them.

The ’84 Standard is another icon.

I put the Bigsby on that in late ’85, I think. I always wanted a Bigsby, but I wanted a short one and back then they weren’t easy to find. Again, I’ve got Angie to thank. On tour, she went to some guitar store and came back to the soundcheck: ‘There you go, darling.’ She’s quite a woman. That’s why I’m still with her. It’s all because of the guitar gifts.

That Bigsby changed the way it felt significantly. Then I swapped the pickups to Seymour Duncans and put on partial-taps. I’m aware that, in theory, keeping a guitar stock, particularly where wiring’s concerned, usually means a better tone electronically. However, in the case of that Les Paul, everything came together brilliantly.

I investigated that guitar more fully – forensically, in fact – last year when Gibson made some copies for the Teenage Cancer Trust. We looked into the pitch angle, which is somewhat of an anomaly because it’s 14 degrees.

So the combination of the Bigsby, pitch angle, pickups and the partial-tap – which applies to the inside coil of the humbucker – makes it not behave like a regular Les Paul. Which I think is why I ended up playing it almost exclusively clean, like on the top line for The Headmaster Ritual. But you really hear it on Regret by New Order.

Smiths fans will definitely recognise the ’63 Casino.

Yeah, that’s the tremolo sound on How Soon Is Now. A lot of players of my generation in the 80s and 90s – I’m thinking of Noel, Paul Weller, Gem Archer – we liked the idea of those guitars. They were played by The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks, and if it’s good enough for those guys, it’s good enough for me. But sound-wise, that Casino didn’t suit the existing Smiths material. It was too distinctive.

But that really paid off with How Soon Is Now. I hadn’t played that guitar for a long time, and when we came to photograph it for the book, I held it and it brought me back in the time machine. All you’ve got to do is stick it through a Twin, put the trem on and it sounds exactly like How Soon Is Now.

That nine-pickup Strat looks more like something Steve Vai would own.

I have no idea what happened there. I can’t imagine anyone [building that] other than if there was a guitar player who joined Kraftwerk in 1984. I bought that the first time Noel Gallagher and I went to a guitar shop together [in 1992].

I wasn’t actually drunk, but I’d definitely have been hungover. I was also very into Kraftwerk and just thought it looked amazing. It only came good in 2001, when I used it for Spirit Power And Soul. So it got there in the end.

There’s a Lake Placid Blue Jaguar in the auction. How did you fall for that model?

The first night I got together with Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse, he had a Jag and my Telecaster just would not compete with his sound.

That’s partly because he was playing through a Super Six. I had to abandon my Telecaster and Deluxe, and the only guitar at hand was a Jaguar. I thought I didn’t get on with them, but I played this black ’63 of Isaac’s and came up with the riff that became Dashboard.

After that, I went through a period where [people kept] offering me Jaguars. Angie told me, “You’re like one of those weird [people] who takes in every cat in the neighbourhood. Do you have to own every old Jag in the world?” And I said, “Yes, I do.” But to be fair, they were much cheaper than they are now.

Was that how your signature model came about?

Yeah. When I joined Modest Mouse, that was 2005, and in Portland, Oregon, at the time, everybody was making knock-ups, y’know, custom guitars. That led me to the idea of making my own Jag.

I was experimenting with necks and pickups, and doing it all in what I call ‘absolute conditions’. In other words, because we were playing arenas, the stages and the distance from your amps were the same every night. So if you change your guitar mid-set, you immediately hear it: “Oh, that pickup is brighter.’ We were playing so much that any change in my routine, I was able to evaluate straightaway.

I was absolutely obsessive for about two years. At that time, Fender contacted me and said, “Why don’t we do a signature?’ I said to them, “Look, leave me to it and I’ll make myself my perfect Jag – with Bill Puplett – then you can just copy it.”

How do you feel about the estimates at your auction?

Well, compared with other auctions, the prices don’t look too horrible. The people who follow me might not necessarily be the same people who follow Mark Knopfler or David Gilmour. Two people I’ve got the utmost respect for. But my appeal as a guitar player is coming from a different place and a different time. That’s the main reason I put a lot of my Jags in there, precisely because they’re not heritage antiques.

My hope is that someone who’s got a regular job in Glasgow, who fancies a good guitar but wants one of mine, will be able to afford it. They’re not all tens of thousands. In the past, I’ve never regretted selling, like, one of the Playland guitars or something I used on The Messenger.

Because I know it’s someone who really cares about [what I’ve done in] my career overall. It’s not just someone who wants to buy the How Soon Is Now guitar and stick it in a glass case. I want a fan to buy these guitars.

How do you feel about the notion of a tech bro bidding on the Rickenbacker?

It’s not really for me to control if someone wants to hang it up in a collection, but something tells me that isn’t going to be the case. Precisely because I come from a different culture from Jeff Beck and David Gilmour. And not to say that their fans aren’t [guitar fanatics]. But y’know, I’m an indie-rock musician and I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be an indie-rock fan who buys my guitars.

When you take a bird’s eye view of your collection, are there any themes? You seem to prefer classic stuff.

Yeah, because when I first got known in The Smiths, playing what we know as ‘classic’ or ‘vintage’ guitars was quite unusual. There were other players doing it, like Edwyn Collins in Orange Juice, or Geordie [Walker] from Killing Joke played a 295, Will Sergeant played Jaguars. But there weren’t really many people playing semi-acoustics and certainly not Rickenbackers – although Paul Weller had done it before me.

Even for someone of my age to play a Tele in ’83 was unusual. But I was somewhat of a classicist, really. I remember, it being the 80s, Ovation gave me a loaner because I’d started using acoustics on songs like Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want.

But whereas people in more mainstream bands would’ve just been happy to play the Ovation, it was important to me that as soon as I could afford it, I got a Martin D-28. I had enough about me to know about quality, from a recording point of view.

What was your first ‘proper’ guitar? Not a schoolboy knockabout, the real deal.

It was a black [Les Paul] Standard. I think it was a 1980. I had that in a couple of bands before The Smiths. I couldn’t afford a Gretsch Country Club, a 6120 or a Chet Atkins, but just before I formed The Smiths I felt I had to have the right guitar and that had to be a Gretsch. So I [traded the Les Paul and] got the Super Axe and that’s what I did Hand In Glove – and wrote all the first album – on.

Do you remember the first time you ever saw a guitar?

I was about five. At a party, my uncle put his Chelsea boot up on a chair and played a few chords. That blew my mind. But the most significant thing was at my cousin’s christening. I’m from an Irish family and at weddings and christenings there was always the same show band. Before they played, my dad approached the guitarist and said, ‘My boy’s guitar mad. Can he see your Strat?’

So this guy dutifully opened the case. I can still smell it. It was this otherworldly object, like something out of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was all the things that people from the generations before me say about Strats, y’know, that the design was space age. And I was obsessed. I was really into football and my bike. But not like I was into guitar.

Would you ever consider bidding on a guitar yourself?

The one I really wanted was Jeff Beck’s Oxblood Les Paul. I think you have to be either a Jeff Beck freak or a guitar freak to understand the appeal. Because I’ve got a couple of mates who love rock music and it’s just a brown guitar to them. The other would be Rory Gallagher’s ’61 beat-up Strat, which I’ve had the good fortune to have played.

Do you remember how it felt to scrap for your next guitar? To sell one to afford another?

Oh, Jesus, yeah. Or swapping a guitar with somebody and hoping that it was better than yours, and that they didn’t realise that. It doesn’t seem that long ago when I was hustling – putting myself in some pretty precarious situations – to get my first proper Les Paul. So it’s not beyond me how amazing this whole thing is…

• Marr’s Guitars: The Johnny Marr Collection is held at Christie’s London on September 17.
• Johnny’s latest album The Age Of Everything is released 2 October on BMG.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World Editors’ Picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured our editors' attention over the past four weeks or so.

With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from August and noted our personal highlights – the playing, tones, and songwriting that most set our six-string (or seven- or eight-string) senses a-tingling.

Highlights this month include a tongue-in-cheek single from a certain Rivers Cuomo, a dash of microtonal pop, a centuries-old nautical ballad about Napoleon (yes, the Napoleon Bonaparte), Tele trills for days, and jangly riffs from a very charming man.

All that and much more in our playlist below.

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

Track of the month: Weezer – C.E.O.

Rivers Cuomo has always been a deceptively gifted guitar player, but I am particularly obsessed with the opening chord on Weezer’s latest tongue-in-cheek single. It’s one of those inversions that’s optimistic, melancholy, and pure magic. I’d happily hear it in an indie rager or a post-rock weepie.

Fortunately, Cuomo has opted for the former, and while there’s a cheeky air of resignation about it – heck, the opening line is “cranking out another '90s jam / wish I could do something new” – C.E.O. sits neatly in the mid-section between Blue and Green. Oh, and I figured out that chord: 2x434x (in standard tuning). A Bmaj7 with an F# on the bottom? Rivers, you sly ol’ dog.

Also playing:

• Russian Circles – Seventh Seal
• Grace Bowers – Eat Shit and Live
• Sarah Longfield – Wrath

Matt Parker – Deputy Editor

Track of the month: Jake Xerxes Fussell – Boney

Fussell is my favorite kind of folky – someone who makes new from old, and does not regard an electric guitar as heretical. Hence why this centuries-old nautical ballad about Napoleon Bonaparte is somehow rendered fresh as a spring morning in his hands. And it is his hands and ears that make the difference here.

Fussell’s reverberating, finger-picked Tele lines cascade and luxuriate in the space of this sparse arrangement. It is confident and not showy, relaxed but not lazy, blending moody palm mutes on the lower strings with almost tropical color and a hint of tremolo in the upper registers. He is the sort of guitarist who can knock you down with a feather.

Also playing:

• Paerish – Vapor Cloud
• Lily Seabird – The Afterglow
• Devil Master – Death Anthem

Jackson Maxwell – Operations Editor

Track of the month: Bloc Party – Pigwig

Man, until a week or so ago, I had no idea that my pick this month was going to be such a contrarian one. The reception to Pigwig, the latest single from UK alt-rock heroes Bloc Party’s forthcoming record, Anatomy Of A Brief Romance, has been… less than stellar, one might say. And yeah, the lyrics aren’t Kele Okereke’s finest, sure – but that’s not why we’re here, is it?

Russell Lissack’s got his Tele trills going again! His rapid-fire interplay with Okereke is as good as it’s been in a looooong time. Perhaps I’m an unsophisticated lout yearning for the days 20 years ago, when Bloc Party stood on Mount Rushmore overlooking the ten trillion other two-guitar bands of the era that were practicing some form of the angular, terse ping-pong riffing taught in the school of Television. Sue me, I guess – I like this tune a lot.

Also playing:

• The Tallest Man on Earth – Deliver Me From Trying
• beabadoobee – Memories
• Tommy Lefroy – Thief

Matt Owen – News Editor

Track of the month: Johnny Marr – It’s Time

Just like Johnny Marr was taken aback by UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham jamming The Smiths in Kyiv with Ukrainian soldiers, I have been equally enamored with the Britpop icon’s latest solo single, It’s Time.

Marr – who was on the cover of the most recent issue of Guitarist and has a bumper celebrity guitar auction coming up – is gearing up to release his new album in October. It’s Time is an exceptional appetizer, with a crystalline Smiths guitar tone and jangly riff that wouldn’t have felt out of place in the band’s heyday.

Also playing:

• Nothing But Thieves – Baby Kool (Evelyn)
• Hermanos Gutiérrez – Los Andes
• Phoebe Bridgers – I Can’t Wait

Janelle Borg – Staff Writer

Track of the month: Maddie Ashman – Amber

Turns out, you do get a good song recommendation from Instagram every once in a while…

When Maddie Ashman’s Reel (specifically, this Reel) popped up on my feed, I was instantly transfixed, and it’s easy to see why.

I mean, who doesn’t like off-kilter, avant-garde, guitar-based pop that not only uses alternate tunings but is also microtonal? Ashman is tearing up the pop playbook – all while playing a Mustang – and Amber is the perfect introduction to an artist who’s quickly becoming this generation’s Imogen Heap.

Also playing:

• Slayyyter – brand new chanel$
• Protomartyr – Feed the Sewer
• Grace Potter – Main Street U.S.A

The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr has heaped praise on UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham for his recent riffing, calling it a “victory for guitar.”

In his latest exhibition of his guitar chops, Manchester-born Burnham showed his support for Ukraine amidst their war with Russia by visiting Kyiv and jamming The Smiths’ Rusholme Ruffians with soldiers. It came after he jammed with another Manchester icon a few weeks ago.

It didn’t take long for word to get to Marr, who wrote the song for the band’s standout sophomore record, Meat is Murder, in 1985.

“I can’t quite get my head around it,” Marr told Absolute Radio (via Music Radar). “I don’t know if pride’s the word, but it probably is. I’ve only just been told about it, in great detail.

“I think it’s an amazing thing,” he added. “In all honesty, for me, it’s like a victory for the guitar.”

The song in question was indirectly influenced by Elvis Presley, with Marr drawing from Del Shannon’s cover of his 1961 hit, (Marie’s The Name) His Latest Flame. In fact, the two songs collided in a medley on Rank, the band’s only live album. They recorded it at the National Ballroom in Kilburn, London, in 1986, and released it two years later.

“It’s kind of beyond me to process it, really, because it could be massive, that,” Marr continues. “But I just sort of go, ‘How great is the guitar? What an amazing tool the guitar is.’”

The guitar that Burnham played on – a silver-finished T-style from Kyiv-based brand WM Guitars – was used to entertain soldiers on the front lines of war and boost their morale. It shows the instrument’s magic.

Proving he’s still a man of the people despite his guitar hero status, Marr recently helped a session player get their guitar back after FedEx had a shipping nightmare.

Marr is also set to part ways with some illustrious Smiths-era guitars and beyond in a bumper auction next month.

Johnny Marr has accumulated a fair few guitars since his time with British indie rock pioneers The Smiths. In fact, he's gotten to the point where he’s auctioning off his four-decade guitar collection at Christie’s in London this September.

Yet, among them all, there’s one guitar – a 1960 Cherry Red ES-355 – that harks back to a very exciting time for Marr. It was 1984, around the time The Smiths started generating enough buzz to be wined and dined by the industry.

So, when legendary music executive Seymour Stein of Sire Records approached the band, Marr took the opportunity to coax him into acquiring his dream guitar.

“[It was] one night in 1984. It was a done deal we were going to sign to Sire,” Marr tells Guitarist. “We’d have happily paid him: it was our dream label. But I was asking about The Stones in the ’60s, and he made the mistake of telling me he’d always take Brian Jones to get a guitar. So I saw my opportunity. I told him if he bought me a guitar, The Smiths would sign to Sire.”

Marr was committed to not letting Stein’s promise slide. “On a snowy day in New York, I hung around the Sire offices all day, so Seymour wasn’t going to escape,” he reveals. “We walked to We Buy Guitars on 48th Street and, as is often the way – and it’s a bit like this with pets – it already felt like I owned it when I saw it.”

Now estimated to fetch over $200,000 at auction, the Cherry Red ES-355 is one of the guitars that’s most associated with Marr’s Smiths era.

The veteran guitarist points to the “romantic notion” that many musicians, including himself, have: “that instruments have music in them”. And, in the case of the ES-355, it would deliver some pretty timeless hits.

Not only did he write two songs shortly after acquiring it, but he also used it extensively in the studio for the band’s sophomore album, Meat Is Murder. It was a fixture on stage throughout 1984 and 1985 as well – widely regarded as The Smiths’ golden era.

“As soon as I got that 355 back to the hotel, I wrote Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now,” he remembers fondly. “Which took about 10 minutes. Then I immediately wrote Girl Afraid.

“There’s a few guitars like that in the auction. If they end up in the hands of songwriters, they’ll definitely deliver songs.”

For more from Marr, pick up issue 541 of Guitarist from Magazines Direct.

When a session guitarist’s vintage Gretsch was lost by FedEx, “guitar Batman” Johnny Marr came in to save the day to help discover it over 1,000 miles away.

Ella Feingold, who has worked with Bruno Mars and auditioned for Prince, bought a 1960s Gretsch 6105 online, only for it to disappear just minutes from her doorstep on delivery day.

It was only after Marr intervened that the guitar was found in the strangest of places.

“So, I got some tea,” Feingold says in an Instagram post. “For those that don’t know, about two weeks ago, FedEx lost my guitar. I got this vintage 1960s Gretsch, and it was supposed to show up in my house, but it just completely disappeared.

“It was scanned on the truck; it was like 30 minutes away from my house. Then nothing.”

Feingold reached out to FedEx, only to find herself contending with “useless” AI chatbots. The situation needed a hero – and it was Johnny Marr who sprang to action.

“My friend Johnny Marr put a post on his Twitter about what had happened, and today I got hit up by a guitar store in Memphis, Tennessee,” Feingold continues. “And they’re like, ‘Hey, a random Gretsch guitar that just showed up at our store. We don’t know where it came from, but we saw Johnny Marr's post, and we’re wondering if it’s possible that this is your guitar.’”

Pictures quickly confirmed it: FedEx had missed the delivery location by several states. It’s hardly ‘deliver to a neighbor’, is it?

“Don’t ask me how a guitar that was coming to Western Massachusetts somehow ends up in Memphis, Tennessee, of all places,” Feingold says, a look of bemusement on her face. “I mean, I have to thank Johnny Marr, who’s like guitar Batman, for finding it.

It’s not the only lost guitar to have made a miraculous recovery in recent weeks. A few days ago, Eric Clapton’s obscure Summersburst Les Paul re-emerged after six decades. Before that, Misha Mansoor recalled how he was reunited with his original signature Jackson in a surprising way.

Looming large in the incredible catalog of Hans Zimmer, perhaps the greatest film composer of the 21st century, are his collaborations with blockbuster artisan Christopher Nolan.

Zimmer scored almost all of Nolan's films between 2005 and 2017, a run that included the Batman Dark Knight trilogy, Interstellar, and Inception, the mind-bending epic starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a sort of dream thief given the near-impossible task of planting an original idea into someone's mind while they sleep without their noticing. Trust me, it rocks, if you haven't had the pleasure.

Zimmer is, in Nolan's words, “A minimalist composer with a maximalist production sense.” He tends to be best-known for the blaring climaxes of his scores, but he often doesn't really get enough credit for the subtler, more atmospheric soundscapes that help make those tremendous swells, when they arrive, so powerful.

Indeed, another, milder texture was what Zimmer had in mind when he began writing a guitar part to counterbalance the leviathan low brass swells of Time, one of Inception's pivotal instrumental themes.

“I was sitting and playing around with bad sampled guitar sounds, and I started coming up with this little tune,” Zimmer said in a 2010 interview. “I knew at that moment who I was writing for.”

“[Hans] said he was going to get somebody like Johnny Marr,” Nolan recalled in a 2010 interview. “That was how he said it, [but] the smile on his face meant to me that that was exactly who we were going to have playing it.”

Luckily for Zimmer, the real Johnny Marr was happy to put his inimitable touch on the ringing arpeggios the composer had written for him.

Marr discussed the experience of working on the Inception score in a 2013 Guitar World interview. He realized there are rules you have to follow when contributing to film scores, and shared what he learned from working with the decorated composer.

“As a guitar player I used to think that you could approach soundtracks in an abstract fashion, perhaps because of Neil Young’s work on [the 1995 Jim Jarmusch film] Dead Man,” he said. “It seemed like there was a lot of scope for experimentation.

“That may be so, but my experience doing two different soundtracks – Inception and [2011 film] The Big Bang – taught me that there are two aspects that you absolutely have to follow.

“The first is that you must be appropriate to the scene’s emotion, whether it’s sad, dramatic, tense, excited, erotic, or whatever,” he explained. “The second is that you have to click with the director, because it’s his vision.

“Working with Hans was great, because he insisted on me being free to make it sound like me.”

That said, the collaboration presented a number of obstacles for Marr – not least because he was adapting another instrument to the electric guitar.

“The most challenging thing about the Inception pieces was that the parts were originally composed on a piano and written for 10 fingers to play.

“Even though some of the parts sound simplistic, I had to really work it out by detuning and playing in weird positions,” Marr continued. “Then there were the odd time signatures and key changes to deal with. But I really love Hans’ voicings, so it was fun to work them out on guitar.”

Marr recently announced that he's set to join the parade of celebrity guitar auctions with a mega sale of his own. All proceeds from 10 of the guitars will go to British charities, The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and The National Autistic Society.

Johnny Marr’s cleaning out his closet and the world’s wealthiest music fans are warming up their credit cards for yet another hot-ticket celebrity guitar auction. Why does this keep happening? Answering that very question through the medium of – as one fan describes it – “a snarky faux interview”… it’s Fret Buzz!

Lend us a dollar – Johnny Marr is auctioning his guitar collection in September.

My pleasure. So you’re good for the other $199,000?

Excuse me?

As befits an indie-guitar god, Johnny’s instruments are quite expensive. For instance, there’s a $200,000 estimate for his fabled 1960 ES-355.

Hmmm. Anything in my budget?

How about $106,000 for the ’82 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo played on This Charming Man?

Heaven knows I’m miserable now.

Well, we told you they’re expensive. Basically, if you put your hand in the air anywhere near Christie’s auction house in London, you’ll accidentally default on your mortgage for a road-soiled wah pedal.

Has Johnny fallen on hard times?

Don’t worry about Johnny. He’s doing very nicely. He’s just offloading a few dozen guitars because he “didn’t like the idea of my studio space becoming a museum”.

First-world problems…

Anyway, Johnny is famously a charming man, and the proceeds will go to various charities, including the Guide Dogs For The Blind Association.

Wow. Those guide dogs are going to be loaded. Will they all get gold collars?

That’s not how animal charities work.

How did this auction craze start, anyway?

Back in 1999, Eric Clapton sold his first batch, including the ’57 Brownie Strat. Since then, it’s gone gangbusters. In March, David Gilmour’s Black Strat regained the title of World’s Most Expensive Guitar, fetching $14.6m.

But aren’t these just ordinary production guitars that happened to be played by talented people?

Johnny reckons there’s more to it: “I once asked this acupuncturist if guitars had chi – a life force. He said, ‘Yeah, your guitars have got chi in.’ I was like, ‘I knew it!’”

Why don’t manufacturers just put in the chi at the factory?

Chi doesn’t work like that. It’s more of a spiritual thing. It’s under your fingernails.

Who has $14.6m, anyway?

Oh, all sorts of people. Tech bros. Russian princes. Centuries-old dynasties of European vampires. Regular folks, y’know?

Are you being sarcastic?

Yeah. People get annoyed by celebrity guitar auctions. But also excited. And jealous too. It’s hard to read the room sometimes.

Why the resentment?

It’s the notion of rock’s most cherished guitars being held captive in the iceberg basements of Silicon Valley, their voices forever silenced – except that one time Jeff Bezos took out Kurt’s Jag-Stang for a halting attempt at Come As You Are.

Isn’t that a simplistic view of auction buyers?

Yeah, maybe. Last year, Christie’s specialist Amelia Walker told GW that “at the Mark Knopfler sale, I remember seeing people in tears. It’s absolutely driven by the emotional connection.” She also points out that many guitars head to public museums – while the benefits for charity are undeniable.

Anyway, isn’t the guitar press partially responsible for stoking up this circus with its feverish coverage of celebrity guitar auctions?

Hey, don’t hate the player, hate the game.

Back to Johnny’s auction. Please, please, please, let me get what I want?

The best we can do is a ‘Comet Sparkle’ edition of Johnny’s signature Jaguar for $11,000. And that’s assuming you don’t get into a bidding war with a Big Oil CEO who was very sensitive at school.

The Smiths guitar icon Johnny Marr has teamed up with auction house Christie’s to sell nearly 100 items from his personal gear collection, with the bulk made up of guitars and amplifiers from across his career.

Over a five-decade career working with everyone from the Smiths to Pearl Jam, Billie Eilish and Hans Zimmer, his collection has understandably gotten bloated.

Each guitar, he says, “has helped me evolve as a musician, bringing new songs, new sounds and techniques,” but now he’s going through the “bittersweet” of letting them go so that they can write their next chapters.

Highlights include his Smiths-era 1982 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo (estimate: £60,000-80,000, approx. $79,000-£105,000). It was bought a year after its construction, after the band signed their first record deal, and it was a key feature of their 1984 self-titled debut album, including on This Charming Man. It also moonlighted on Oasis’ Supersonic single cover, after Marr loaned the guitar to Noel Gallagher during the Definitely Maybe recording sessions.

But it’s his 1960 Cherry Red Gibson ES-355, which could sell for as much as £150,000 (approx. $198,000), that appears to be the most valuable ahead of the auction. Sire Records founder Seymour Stein bought the guitar for Marr as a sweetener for signing to the label for US releases (reportedly a request Marr made after hearing Stein had once done the same for Brian Jones).

It featured on Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now and also appeared on Top of the Pops and The Tube during the band’s heyday; it’s believed this is the guitar that got Noel Gallagher hooked on ES-355s.

The Roger Giffin Korina ‘Telecaster’, built circa 1984 and expected to go for up to £30,000 (approx. $39,000), was an engagement gift from Marr’s now-wife, and was made by British luthier and one-time head of the Gibson Custom Shop, Roger Giffin. Giffin’s also built instruments used by Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, and Pete Townshend. The Telecaster featured on Top of the Pops (for Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now in 1984) and a year later on the Old Grey Whistle Test (The Headmaster Ritual and Nowhere Fast).

Elsewhere, the Martin D-28 (up to £50,000, approx. $66,000) used to record There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, Well I Wonder and Cemetery Gates, the Cherry Red 1984 Gibson Les Paul Standard (up to £120,000, approx. $159,000) is another notable six-string up for grabs. The latter can be heard on The Headmaster Ritual and featured at the Smiths’ final ever show in 1986, before being used alongside the Cribs and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

The auction comes after the 2023 publication of his book, Marr’s Guitars, which spun the individual tales of many of these new auction items. It’s made him realize they need to move on.

“The book turned out to be a cathartic experience, and when it was time for these beautiful instruments to go back into storage, I couldn’t imagine them being put away and left unplayed,” he says.

“It’s bittersweet to be parting with these guitars, but I want them to go to new homes and new people who will love them as much as I have. I hope they bring as much joy, inspiration, and fun – and new songs – as they have given me.”

Marr will donate 100% of the hammer price of 10 lots from the auction to the British charities, The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and The National Autistic Society.

Select highlights from the auction will be displayed in New York from 25 June to 1 July, before being displayed at Christie’s London HQ, ahead of the 9 to 16 September auction.

Visit Christie’s for more.

Gaining a bonafide legend as a music coach was a game changer for Rebecca Mardal, a Swedish guitarist and composer whose delicate and nuanced playing has built an army of fans online.

As one of three guitarists chosen for a mentorship by Johnny Marr – who helped write the script for jangly 90s alt-rock in the Smiths – Mardal didn’t waste time picking his brain.

“I heard him say in some interview that if you only play electric guitar, you're half a guitar player,” says the instrumentalist. Until then she’d only played electric, so she asked him about it. “He said, ‘When you play acoustic guitar, not only do your muscles have to be more involved, but it's a whole different approach.’ I sort of took that to heart.”

She grabbed a 70s-era Sigma acoustic and began to reinterpret her tune I Think I Was Meant to Be Alone per Marr’s suggestion: “He said to spend 30 minutes every day on acoustic guitar.”

When she sent him the results, he wholeheartedly approved. She recently released the song on digital platforms alongside Lossbyn, which Marr declared “an amazing piece of music.”

Initially inspired by Green Day, Mardal played punk rock on her first guitar, a sunburst Strat copy, before broadening her lens after a few years and catching up with guys in bands around her, who were playing Led Zeppelin and AC/DC.

She’s since upgraded her arsenal with a 2003 American-made Fender Stratocaster, retrofitted with a Giffin-made neck that Marr gifted to her, as her main guitar.

Mardal may not be a household name yet, but millions have already heard her music through her compositions for the music library Epidemic Sound. While her atmospheric tracks are centered around guitar playing, she also dabbles with soul and lofi hip-hop, inspired by YouTubers like Miles Jasnowski.

The songs tracked in her modest home studio have garnered placements on TV shows like Survivor and in TikTok shorts via brand videos from Vans, ESPN, and McDonald’s. Guitarists may be more keyed into her own clips on social media, where she’s accumulated more than 25 million streams and an audience exceeding 70,000 followers.

She built that fanbase by posting videos of herself playing glossy, reverb-laden licks and walking be-bop jazz lines on her Strat and PRS axes, alongside clips of her takes on older songs such as Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, popularized by Frankie Valli and later given a hip-hop makeover by Lauryn Hill.

While covers are a great way to reel people in, Mardal sees them less as straight tributes and more as her own versions of the songs. “The percussive and rhythmic side of my playing has really taken off on social media, as a result of the covers,” she says.

“It developed further after I started playing the slimmer neck that Johnny gave me. It’s now a big part of what I’m exploring on my upcoming album, through reworked songs.”

As she explores new ways of creating unique soundscapes, Mardal isn’t concerned with rushing matters, in the studio or on the fretboard.

“I’m interested in keeping things almost ridiculously harmonically simple for my original songs, so that the focus naturally shifts toward feel, phrasing, and dynamics.”

“It’s not about playing fast. It’s not even about technique. It’s about making people feel something.”

Choosing feel over the itch to shred comes naturally to her, and the continued pursuit of elegant passages has endeared her to fans who find peace in her playing.

“I got a message this morning from someone who was like, ‘I have cancer and I have a hard time sleeping, but your music helps me relax,’” she says.

“I think that if I want a niche on social media, it’s gonna have to be that – I don’t really want to be part of that short-attention-span, fucking stressful scene, with all the vicious comments. I want to be a safe place.”

It was the summer of 1985, and Johnny Marr was a man out of time. Three years earlier, while still a teenager, the guitarist had co-founded the Smiths in Manchester, England, with vocalist Morrissey (bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce completed the lineup).

But the crystalline chime of his Rickenbacker 330 was still a lone voice in the era of sweep-picked flash. “The ’80s shredders were a joke,” Marr told this writer in 2009. “That’s guitar playing as an Olympic sport. If you’re into decent music, it’s just offensive.”

What, then, did Marr deem ‘decent music’? In their early career, the Smiths had covered more ground than their indie-jangle elevator pitch would suggest, roaming from the swampy tremolo judder of How Soon Is Now? to the airtight Chic-inspired funk of Barbarism Begins at Home and the ringing doublestops of This Charming Man (a track Marr always denied was influenced by African highlife, but it sure sounds like it).

But the band’s opening albums had been patchy, and now, as he sketched out the songs for third release The Queen Is Dead, the guitarist knew nothing less than a masterpiece would do.

“It occurred to me one afternoon that the next Smiths album had to be a serious piece of work,” wrote Marr in his 2016 autobiography, Set the Boy Free. “The stakes had got higher, and greatness was a possibility for the band if we were prepared to go for it. I stood and thought about it, and then I said to myself, ‘You’re going to have to dig deep, whatever it takes.’”

The material took shape fast. Marr remembers sitting nose-to-nose with Morrissey to present the new songs on his 1971 Martin D-28, and in a single evening, the pair had chased down the foundations of Frankly, Mr Shankly, I Know It’s Over and There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.

“We didn’t waste any time,” he wrote of his ferocious work ethic in the period.

Likewise, as the band loaded into London’s RAK Studios, the 21-year-old guitarist became the driving force. When he wasn’t out on the floor with a rig that included a ’78 black Les Paul Custom (later loaned to Noel Gallagher of Oasis) and a ’63 L-series white Strat, Marr was to be found presiding over the mixing desk from morning until midnight, fueled by an endless stream of joints and strong coffee.

“Smoking pot in the studio never hindered me – it helped me shut out the outside world just enough to do the job,” he reflected. “I didn’t need anything else in my life. My world was the studio, and I tried to ignore everything that might distract me.”

That was easy: these were songs you could lose yourself in. The Queen Is Dead’s opening title track began with Joyce’s tribal tom tattoo, but it’s Marr’s thrilling wah-soaked outro that defines it, the guitarist channeling the Velvet Underground’s I Can’t Stand It as he beats his Les Paul almost into matchwood.

“Johnny did that pretty much live in one take,” recalled engineer Stephen Street. “It was just one of those inspired performances. He just got this great harmonic feedback from his Les Paul and as he changed the angle on the wah pedal, it changed the note.”

At the other extreme, there was the melancholy shimmer of There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, Morrissey’s ode to doomed romance and shared suicide (‘To die by your side, well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine’) driven by a stuttering chord sequence that held magic even in embryonic form.

“I decided to record it using the Martin acoustic I’d written it on,” explained Marr, “and it felt like the music was playing itself. We were high with it, and after just a few takes, we had one of our best ever songs – something that felt at the time like pop music and beyond.”

With the possible exception of the turgid Never Had No One Ever and the demented rockabilly of Vicar in a Tutu, The Queen Is Dead demanded front-to-back listening.

There was the sardonic swipe at label boss Geoff Travis on the aforementioned Frankly, Mr. Shankly (“It was in total contrast to the others and sounded like an eccentric vaudevillian romp”). There was the grave-waltz of I Know It’s Over (one of the few songs where the Smiths deserved their miserabilist reputation). “I’ll never forget when Morrissey did that vocal,” Marr told journalist Johnny Rogan. “It’s one of the highlights of my life.”

On the flipside, that desolate number was countered by the spring-heeled rhythm punch of The Boy with the Thorn in His Side and Cemetry Gates.

“I was on the train,” reflected Marr of writing the latter song, a joyous Kinks-influenced sunbeam that belied Morrissey’s lyric about an afternoon exploring the tombstones. “And I was thinking, ‘Right, if you’re so great, first thing in the morning, sit down and write a great song.’ I started with the Cemetry Gates B-minor-to-G change in open G.”

At the album’s midpoint, meanwhile, was Bigmouth Strikes Again, its visceral minor-key assault establishing Marr among the most muscular players in British indie-rock. “I wanted something that was a rush all the way through,” said the guitarist, who described the song as his take on the Rolling Stones’ Jumpin’ Jack Flash. “I thought the guitar breaks should be percussive, not too pretty or chordal.”

Finally, signing off the album was Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others, a baffling ode to the differing dimensions of the female form that would have been a throwaway curio without the hypnotic glide of Marr’s folk arpeggios. “Some things just drop out of the heavens, and Some Girls was one of them,” he reflected. “It’s a beautiful piece of music.”

So The Queen Is Dead was done, and Marr knew “no-one could touch us – that was the peak of the Smiths’ career.” An unequivocal triumph, then? Not exactly. The laser focus of helming the album sessions had weighed heavy on the young guitarist, whose weight fell to about 98 lbs. as he ran on nervous energy, brandy and cocaine.

“I rarely thought about food unless it was absolutely necessary,” he recalled. “I’d just get on with recording and sometimes someone might make me a sandwich.”

The music was just one of the burdens carried by Marr. Facing legal action over the Smiths’ move from Rough Trade to EMI – and serving as the band’s de facto manager, right down to the logistics of van hire – it’s easy enough to join the dots between the overworked, rail-thin figure haunting the mixing desk and the borderline-alcoholic who would soon write off his BMW, then walk away from arguably the most important British guitar band of the decade at the peak of its powers.

“The more bitter the split became,” wrote Marr of that 1987 parting, “the better off I felt out of it, and soon I was just happy to be out of it altogether. I was in charge of my own life again.”

But that was all to come. For just a heartbeat in the summer of 1986, the Smiths were the greatest band in Britain. With 40 years of hindsight, it might seem gloriously unlikely that The Queen Is Dead came into our lives the same year as Metallica’s Master of Puppets, Van Halen’s 5150 and Poison’s Look What the Cat Dragged In – and stranger still that the album defied the zeitgeist to achieve gold sales in the U.S.

But perhaps that just speaks to the magic of a charmed 12 months in music, when it seemed anything was possible.

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

What is it?

Johnny Marr’s first Fender signature guitar was a celebration of the Jaguar but also with a hint of, ‘okay, let’s fix the bits that don’t work’. This new Special Jaguar follow-up doesn’t really change the sentiment except for the obvious addition of three lipstick pickups (that we associate with Danelectro, of course), which replace the custom-wound Bare Knuckle Jaguar-style pickups of the original.

You’re certainly not going to mix up the iterations; the lipsticks’ unique appearance in their domed split-tube chromed covers almost adds a boutique-style mash-up vibe.

The bright plating also matches the guitar’s lower control plate and upper shoulder ‘rhythm circuit’ plate, plus the additional treble-side chrome plate, which originally held three slide switches to switch each pickup on/off, and the classic ‘strangle’ switch, which mounts the four-way lever switch for pickup selection here.

It’s not the only change as, like the original, there’s no rhythm circuit: that bass-side chromed plate holds the ‘universal’ bright switch and another bright switch for the lever switch position 4 (bridge and neck in series). On our new model the addition is the lowest-placed third switch, a three-position switch specifically for the middle pickup: off, on and solo’d.

Pickup and control changes aside, the guitar follows the original JM Jaguar with its all-nitrocellulose gloss finish, although this time the only colour offered is black. Its offset body is still alder and also features subtly enhanced body contours, while the maple neck retains its vintage style with the body-end truss rod adjustment and a profile based on Johnny’s 1965 Jaguar, like the original.

While vintage-style ‘small’ frets are retained, this time they’re on a more modern 241mm (9.5-inch) radiused rosewood ’board; the first version used the original 184mm (7.25-inch) camber.

Another area that Johnny tweaked was the classic offset bridge and vibrato tailpiece. The former swaps the individual threaded-rod height-adjustable saddles for the Mustang style, which uses three different-diameter solid-brass barrels (each with a central string groove) to create the string camber, which can’t move.

The original signature had wider vintage-style string spacing of 56.5mm; here that’s narrowed to 52.5mm and, as a result, the outer strings sit in a little more.

Another tweak is the nylon ‘locks’ for the bridge’s needle-point height-adjustment screws, which stop the screws moving as the originals tend to. Here, these are stainless steel and larger in diameter than the standard Fender screws. There’s also another nylon collar for the push-in vibrato arm, which means it’s not only tight‑fitting, but it stays put where you want it and is also really responsive to the lightest of touches.

Many of the tweaks for the original guitar – and that feature on this new Special, too – were conceived with the help of the late Bill Puplett, Johnny’s long-time repair person of choice.

For example, Johnny shares that it was Bill who suggested swapping to Kent Armstrong lipstick pickups for this Special. Meanwhile, the hardware tweaks, such as those bridge-post locks and the vibrato arm stabilisation, were conceived by engineer John Moore of Staytrem fame.

Specs

• PRICE: $2,999/£3,099/€3,649 (inc case)
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Offset double-cutaway solidbody electric
• BODY: Alder
• neck: Maple, custom shape (based on Marr’s ’65 Jaguar), bolt-on
• SCALE LENGTH: 610mm (24”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Synthetic bone/42.6mm
• FINGERBOARD: Rosewood, ‘ivory’ dot inlays, 241mm (9.5”) radius
• FRETS: 22, vintage style
• HARDWARE: Fender Jaguar bridge with Mustang saddles and vintage style ‘floating’ tremolo tailpiece, split-post tuners — nickel/chrome plated
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm 
• ELECTRICS: 3x custom-wound Kent Armstrong Johnny Marr single-coil lipstick pickups, 4-position lever pickup selector switch, 3x slide-switches: Universal Bright Switch, Bright Switch for lever switch position 4, middle pickup off/on/only. Master Volume, Master Tone
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.89/8.56
• OPTIONS: None
• RANGE OPTIONS: Original Johnny Marr Jaguar (£2,619) features a pair of Bare Knuckle Jaguar-style single coils and is available in Olympic White and Metallic KO (red)
• LEFT-HANDERS: No
• FINISHES: Black – gloss nitrocellulose neck/body
• CONTACT: Fender

Usability and sounds

Offset guitars can be heavy thanks to their enlarged bodies, and this sample isn’t the lightest we’ve played, though it is trimmer than the original 2012 sample we had for evaluation. Strapped on, it has a very centred balance and, while it has that shorter scale, it doesn’t feel small. It’s a very comfortable feel.

The same can be said for the neck profile, which is quite full in the hand, even in lower positions where it’s a lot thinner, depth-wise, at 21mm than it is by the 12th fret, where it measures 25mm. This vintage-style profile is also structurally very sound and there’s zero neck-flex here.

You really need to get your head around the expansive possibilities that the array of switches offer – particularly before you head off to a gig. First of all, it might have three pickups like a Stratocaster, but you can also run it as a two-pickup ‘Telecaster’ (like the original JM Jaguar), and that depends on where you set the lower-placed three-position push-switch on the bass-side panel.

Pushed up towards the headstock, the middle pickup is out of circuit so the four-way switch on the treble side gives us bridge, both, neck, and neck and bridge in series like a Telecaster, with the four-way switch series mod.

Move that lower push-switch to its centre position and the middle pickup is now added to the first three selector-switch positions, creating bridge and middle, all three, and neck and middle, while the previous series sound is now just the middle pickup. Finally, with the switch pushed down towards the bridge, the middle pickup is solo’d in all positions of the four-way switch.

Then we have the two bass-cut switches: the universal bright switch (the top one) moves left to right, or treble to bass side. In the treble-side position it’s bypassed; in the bass-side position it’s active on all selections on the four-way selector. The middle switch is another bright-switch, but for the bridge/neck series sound. To add to the confusion this switch moves north to south, or up and down: in up position it’s on; in down it’s off.

To warm up our test amp, we use a ’69 Telecaster with its long-serving Fender Custom Shop pickups and four-way lever switch to add the bridge/neck series voice. And the Special sounds a little polite in comparison. That’s no bad thing, though, as the lipstick voices have something of a purity to them.

There’s a lot of attack, but at the bridge there’s a relatively smooth high-end. The snap continues with the neck pickup, although it’s a fuller and richer sound, of course. Quickly soloing the middle pickup – and, yes, it sits nicely between those two extremes – it’s easy to hear why Johnny Marr wanted to effectively highlight this voice.

Bridge and neck in series is the biggest voice on the guitar, but it only appears with the middle pickup out of circuit. Switching the middle pickup to on (but not solo’d) we get bridge and middle (in parallel), which adds some Strat-y bounce.

Likewise, neck and middle while all-three on (again in parallel) is a subtle shade in between: all three selections are a little softer sounding. We’re beginning to feel spoiled for choice. The two bass-cut bright switches obviously thin out the low-end and enhance the honk.

If you’re after articulate clean jangle and chime, well, this is your vehicle, not least with some – or quite a lot of – modulation. But while that may be a major draw, the Special works extremely well with some much more gained sounds, like a good Danelectro, from spluttery fuzz to heavier and much heavier voicings. Here, again, those bass-cut switches really work, tightening the low-end, and are a great tool for band playing and recording, helping to focus the sound.

One thing to note is that the tone control – which is wired a little differently from standard, and has a lower value capacitor – gives a very usable range and seems to slightly reduce the volume as it’s initially rolled back. Subtle, yes, but another useful sonic-shaping tool.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

It certainly does what it says on the tin. This really is a Johnny Marr tool with all the brightness and articulation his style demands, but it’s far, far from limited to our man in terms of its potential use. It also builds on the sonic options of his first signature: there’s a bit more Strat in here, plus that ‘all round’ middle pickup, which can be solo’d.

Yet dig a little deeper and there’s a lot more to enjoy, especially when you get your head around the switching options, not to mention the very usable tone control, which does a pretty usable jazz-box impersonation when rolled down, before you turn it back up and launch into Spaghetti Western twang. It loves a pedalboard, too, and takes on yet another character with fuzz and overdrives.

Guitar World verdict: At the time of writing, it is the most expensive USA production Jaguar – nearly double the price of the recently introduced Professional Classic – so its considerable appeal will be somewhat limited, but it remains a beautifully crafted piece with very sensible upgrades and those stellar sounds. A serious outlay, then, but also a very serious and considered pro-level and quite unique instrument.

Hands-on videos

Fender with Johnny Marr

Empire Music

• Fender Johnny Marr Jaguar Signature review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

At first glance, Beyonce and Lil Yachty collaborator Patrick Wimberly might not rank highly on your list of potential producers for The Cribs – but on new album Selling A Vibe, the UK indie stalwarts felt it was time to surprise themselves.

“The idea that working with somebody like Patrick would seem unusual for us is actually a little bit distressing,” says bassist Gary Jarman. “Because we never envisioned ourselves to be a raw rock band; we're very hook-oriented.”

The trio’s own idea of who they are has often contrasted with wider perception. Formed in Leeds, UK, by twins Ryan and Gary, plus brother Ross Jarman (on guitar, bass and drums respectively), they arrived in the last gasp of the old record industry and were slung in with the indie sleaze movement.

However, hailing from Northern England – and far removed from the industry tastemakers, drug-takers and nepotism that came out of ’00s London – they’ve fought an uphill, DIY battle against the unwritten class system of the British Phonographic Industry [this is still the name of the UK industry body, in the year 2026 – Ed].

“We grew up without much money and so we just used whatever we had at hand and tried to make it sound good,” explains Gary. “We always got called a lo-fi band. It was frustrating, because to me, all the records deemed lo-fi are by people who don’t have much stuff trying to make it sound as good as they possibly can.”

Still, success has brought its rewards; and the group have gone on to make albums with their hero Steve Albini, produce Squier signature guitars, and even attract indie rock’s superstar contractor Johnny Marr to their ranks for three years.

Wimberly has his own indie credentials as one half of Chairlift with Caroline Polachek, and with Blood Orange and MGMT productions under his belt. But in contrast to what you’d expect from a big-name producer, he came in with no preconceptions.

“I've got this tiny little Silvertone amp from the 60s, and Patrick loved the tone,” says Ryan by way of example. “It’s just my practice amp at home – a $200 amp that became the main amp on the record because he heard something in it.”

That and Gary’s favorite ’73 P-Bass was about all they took along. And in contrast to what you might expect from working with a big producer, the brothers Jarman describe the whole process as a “liberation”.

“You can get stuck with a degree of baggage over time,” says Ryan. “It’s good to purge yourself of all the stuff you think that you need – you don’t really need it. The most important thing is what you’re playing. All the other stuff is just a distraction or a crutch.”

What were your favorite moments on Selling a Vibe from a guitar and bass perspective?

Ryan Jarman: The playing in If Our Paths Never Crossed is something I wanted to get on a record for ages. When we first started the band, I figured out a way of making the guitar sound like an analog synth but without any effects, just a Tube Screamer.

It involved taking all the tone off the guitar and it was down to certain things with the pickup selector, pulling the strings and muting in a specific way. We never found a place for it on a record before, but that's what I'm playing in the chorus of If Our Paths Never Crossed.

Gary Jarman: From a bass point of view, I really like the bassline on Brothers Won’t Break. It’s really soul-influenced. The other one is Self Respect. We were in the practice room, and I said to my brothers, “What we really need is some kind of Michael Jackson thing,” and I played that line! It was off the cuff, as an example, but it became the signature line in the song.

Ryan: We did our best to get out of our own way on this record. If something felt good it was like, “Alright, let's just call that done.” Everyone has a tendency to keep working on something, thinking, “I can make it better!” It doesn’t take long until it tips over and you’re making it worse.

Gary: It’s that saying, “Look at yourself in the mirror and take one item off before going out.” Coco Chanel said that, but I think it’s a good thing to think about in music too.

We’re coming up to the 10-year anniversary of your Squier signature models. Is there any chance of a reissue?

Ryan: I've been hassling Fender for ages to bring them back. The amount of times I get asked about those guitars is crazy, and there’s been people pushing them online to do it. But for whatever reason, Fender seems more interested in making their own weird hybrids these days.

I had three, but two of them are prototypes, so I only really had one good player. I’m like, “I really need another one,” because, for me, it wasn’t just a vanity project. I spent ages getting that guitar just right. It’s the only Fender bridge – the only setup – that really works for me.

So to placate me, they made me a Custom Shop version, which is great. I’m really liking it, but I was hoping that they’d bring the signature back; so many people ask me and I never have an answer. Some people think I’m gatekeeping them, or I’ve got a big stash at home!

Like you’re sat there feeding them into Reverb every month.

Gary: Yeah! There’s an irony in that those guitars were built to be affordable guitars. That’s why they were Squiers – so people could afford a quality instrument that could be functional and look good. Now they’re changing hands for $2,000!

There was an article about how it’s the most expensive Squier ever or something – that and that baritone. The appreciation is higher than any other guitar. It’s gone from like $300. But they weren’t intended to be collector’s pieces or expensive instruments.

Ryan: That's the way I always saw it. I spent a long time making sure the functionally was there, if it was going to be someone’s first guitar. And I played those Squiers live. It’s absolutely a professional instrument. But I have no idea what the future holds for it.

Last year your friend and collaborator Steve Albini passed away. You’ve spoken previously about how he was a warmer guy than people might expect. What are your memories of him?

Ryan: One of the things I liked about working with Steve was on the first day we got to Electrical Audio in Chicago, before we’d set anything up, he asked us some questions with his clipboard. He went, “What do you want to do?” We said, “We want to record it live and we don’t want to do any overdubs.” And he was like, “Yeah, that’s fine.”

He set up, and so quickly we were hearing that sound that’s so familiar. It was always exciting for us – that sound is part of your childhood. One day I said, “I think I need to double the guitars here,” and Steve was like, “I wouldn’t.

“You told me at the start of the session that you didn’t want to do that. You’re going against your original vision for it – and I don’t think that’s ever a good idea.” I really appreciated that about him. It’s so easy to start doing stuff out of protocol.

Gary: He was a community-oriented guy. When I went in there I felt quite shy but as I come from an engineering background, I had a lot of questions for him. Steve sat me down and drew diagrams, showing me exactly what he was doing. He told me all his secrets. He was like, “If you want to take any element of this, it’s yours. This is public domain.”

Some people, especially in the music world, think it’s their thing and nobody else can have it. Steve Albini developed one of the most iconic and recognizable drum sounds ever, and he’s just there like, “Yeah, I’ll show you how to do it!”

People saw him as this abrasive character – but that’s only because he looked out for the artist above everyone else. The people writing the checks saw him as difficult because he was sincere, honest and very egalitarian. He was the absolute perfect collaborator, just a really generous guy.

Your former bandmate Johnny Marr is also known for being generous – he famously gave Noel Gallagher his first Les Paul. Did he ever gift you any guitars?

Ryan: Me and Johnny were supposed to do a guitar swap when we first started working together. I had this white ’70s Mustang as my main guitar, and he really liked the album that was on, The New Fellas. He kept saying, “We should do a guitar swap!” It was like a talismanic kind of thing as he was joining the band. Eventually I was like, “Let’s do it!”

Then when we were at his house I’d be like, “Come on then Johnny, what guitar you gonna trade me?” He had an amazing collection. He’d always show me this really horrible Stratocaster that had nine pickups on it! It became a joke – every time I brought up swapping, he’d be like, “I’ve got it for you here!”

Gary: It was joked about so often that you started to think, “Is this actually what the swap’s going to be?” But I think he likes that guitar now, that black Strat with all the pickups.

It was in his video for Spirit Power and Soul.

Ryan: It weighed an absolute ton! The first time he showed me it, he was like, “Look at this!” He was laughing. When I first started going to his studio, after we decided we were going to write songs together, we got stoned and we’d just sit in his studio all night. It was really fun – and he’d be showing me that guitar, like, “Who in their right mind built this?”

Johnny just released a new signature Jaguar Special – you could always drop him a line about that.

Gary: Between the three band members, we all had a little bit of input on Johnny’s first signature Jaguar. The prototype was built for touring with The Cribs because, when he first started touring with us, he was bringing out this ’60s blue Jaguar.

At a gig at Leeds University Refectory he went out and got hit with a pint straight away! After the show we were like, “Johnny, that guitar is too fancy for touring with us!”

So he got two US vintage reissue Jaguars, a white and a black one, and we changed the pickguards, and they were his workhorse guitars for The Cribs. When he was working with us on the road he started developing his signature guitar with Neil Whitcher from Fender.

Ryan: He was going to give us one of the first ones when he came through, but that never happened.

I'm spotting a pattern here…

Ryan: Yeah, I’m just going to say – don’t hold out much hope on getting one of these Jaguar Specials, know what I mean?

You guys have a lot of knowledge of the Fender offset guitars and oddities as well.

Ryan: That was because we could never afford guitars. The first thing I got was a Jag-Stang and I’d saved up for it all summer by washing dishes. But as a result of not being able to afford them, we’d spend all our time reading about them, in magazines, Fender catalogs or dial-up internet!

If you did get the money together, you needed to know exactly which one you were going to get. So we always had a fondness for the oddballs. The Duo-Sonic was the one I always liked because it was £150 from a pawnshop in the middle of Wakefield. I loved it because it was cheap.

Gary: We’d set our sights on stuff that seemed attainable, like a Music Master bass or a Duo Sonic, because they weren’t £2,000 or whatever. That’s why we wanted to make Squiers – just to evoke that memory we had as kids; something that’s cool and attainable.

Ryan: Or that '70s Mustang. Should we tell him about that?

Tell me about the ’70s Mustang!

Gary: For Ryan's 18th or 19th birthday he got a ’78 Sunburst Mustang, which was really cool. The neck was figured.

Ryan: It was like a bird’s eye maple neck and headstock. It was really weird.

Gary: It looked really cool. It was still cheap – £600 or whatever, in the late ’90s. We used it on all the early Cribs stuff. But in 2002 it got nicked after a show in Leeds, at the Cockpit, and went missing for years. Then in 2020 I was reading an interview online, and there, in the background in a photo, was the Mustang on the wall!

It had the figured maple neck and also a little bit of the pickguard missing, like Ryan’s. So I sent it to him – “Ry, is this your guitar?” He’s like, “Looks like it!” The interview was with the owner of Dirty Hit [Jamie Oborne], The 1975’s label. We started matching photographs and it looked the same. Eventually, we heard from Matty Healy, who was like, “Yeah, it was my guitar for a bit!”

Ryan: He’d used it in some of his videos [including Sex], and he was like, “I swapped it with the guy from Dirty Hit. I know all about that guitar.”

Gary: We’d given a report to the police, but it had never showed up. I suspect it was stolen in Leeds, then moved over to Manchester, where Matty obtained it, then gave it to the guy from Dirty Hit.

So I contacted the guy from Dirty Hit, and Wakefield police put together a forensic thing with photographs, showing it was the exact same guitar, and Fender verified it was the same guitar. Then Jamie from Dirty Hit was like, “The problem is I don’t have it anymore!”

He’d given it to one of their other artists, Beabadoobee and it was like her main guitar. So it was Ry’s guitar, it went missing for 20 years, then it was with Matty Healy in The 1975, then it went to Beabadoobee. I don't know where it is now; we’re still trying to get it back.

Ryan: I still want it back! It’s one of the only guitars that’s ever meant anything to me. I used it in The Cribs before we became a professional band and it sounded great. West Yorkshire Police keep saying, “We’ll go get it for you.” But I don’t want there to be a bad vibe about it.

Technically it’s still mine. But I'd feel guilty about getting it back if someone else is using it. But then I’m like, “Why do I feel guilty because it was stolen off me?” It’s just a weird thing.

Gary: Ultimately it just hit a wall. But it’d be really nice to get it back. It would be a really circuitous, cool story.

• Selling a Vibe is out now via Play It Again Sam.

Over the years, Johnny Marr has developed a reputation for gifting and lending out his guitars to his musician friends – including the likes of Oasis' Noel Gallagher and Radiohead's Thom Yorke, to name a select few.

Now The Cribs have shared a story about a “talismanic” guitar trade that Marr proposed during the time he joined the British indie rockers – from 2008 to 2011, spawning the album Ignore the Ignorant – recalling Marr’s ‘joke’ attempt to swap Ryan Jarman's tasty ’70s Mustang for his nine-pickup Stratocaster.

“Me and Johnny were supposed to do a guitar swap when we first started working together, because I had this white ’70s Mustang,” Jarman tells Guitar World in an upcoming interview.

“It was my main guitar at the time, and he really liked the album that was on, The New Fellas. He kept saying, ‘We should do a guitar swap!’ And also, it was like a talismanic kind of thing, as he was joining the band.

“Eventually, I was like, ‘Let's do it!’ Then, the next time we'd be at his house, I'd be like, ‘Come on then Johnny, what guitar you gonna give me [for the trade]?’

“He had an amazing guitar collection... and he would always show me this really horrible Stratocaster that had nine pickups on it… this stupid guitar that was in his studio. It became a joke that every time I would bring up swapping the guitars, he would be like, ‘I've got it for you here!’”

As for whether the swap did actually happen, well, let's just say that Jarman never ended-up with a nine-pickup Strat.

“It was one of those things where it was joked about so often that you started to think, 'Is this actually what the swap's going to be?’” recalls bassist Luke Jarman. “[But] I think he likes that guitar now. That black Strat with all the pickups!”

Indeed, Marr memorably put the guitar to use in his video for Spirit Power and Soul.

“It weighed an absolute ton,” recalls Ryan. “I remember the first time he showed me... we were stoned in his studio – when I first started going up there, after we decided we were going to write songs together. We would just sit in his studio all night. It was really fun – and he'd be showing me, like, ‘Who in their right mind built this?’”

Guitar World’s interview with the Cribs will be published in the coming days.

And, speaking of vintage guitars, Jarman recently recounted how one of his other Mustangs miraculously ended up in the hands of contemporary British indie powerhouses The 1975 and Beabadoobee nearly two decades after it was stolen.

Performing alongside Paul McCartney must feel nothing short of surreal for those who've been lucky enough to experience it. Johnny Marr knows that feeling first-hand – and he recently recalled what he learned from his “mind-blowing” jamming sessions with Macca.

“If you take a band like the Beatles – they always come to mind because they’re the yardstick everyone thinks about,” he says on The Overlap podcast.

“Ringo is so important to the sound. If it was anyone else it would be a completely different band. But, pretty lowkey, George Harrison – speaking as a guitar player – [he was] one of the greatest guitar players ever.

“Paul McCartney, on the other hand – and speaking as a musician – I had a mind-blowing experience playing with Paul McCartney when I was younger.”

Marr goes on to say Macca is equivalent to having “two guys” in a band, “Because he’s so melodic, he’s so attitude-y, and just [has] amazing musicality.”

The guitarist notes that, perhaps nowadays, McCartney's legendary status beyond the musical sphere makes it easy to forget his bass chops.

“You forget, actually, about what their craft is,” he asserts. “And Paul McCartney reinvented a way of playing the bass. You think of him as a songwriter and a singer really, but as a bass guitar player, it’s next-level, really.

“I think that was really deliberate. I think he took great pride in being... he wanted to be the best bass player in the world.”

The Beatles as a whole revolutionized music, but as Marr notes, Macca's bass chops were equally evolutionary, helping to transform the traditionally 'background' instrument into a melodic force that could carry hit after hit.

Post-Smiths, Marr developed a reputation as a gun for hire, which included a brief period during which he jammed with the Beatles bassist.

“I didn’t do a recording session with him as such, but we did get together for a good long eight-or-nine-hour day, and just played and played and played very intensely, really loudly,” he told The Autojubilator in a 2013 interview.

“Which was pretty great, obviously. I remember everything about it. We played I Saw Her Standing There, Twenty Flight Rock, Tutti Frutti. I got him to play Things We Said Today, and I think we played some Wings stuff. C-Moon, I remember. That was fun. He and I were singing harmonies on I Saw Her Standing There – that was a pretty good moment, too. I was only 23, maybe 24.”

Marr recently launched his latest signature Jaguar with Fender, and shared what he hopes this new version communicates to the next generation of guitarists.

Having been in the industry for over 40 years, Johnny Marr knows a thing or two about how the guitar world – and, by extension, the music industry – operates. While many may have been introduced to his work through his early years with ’80s indie rock legends The Smiths, he has since carved a path that traverses genres and labels.

That path has seen him work with a diverse spread of artists from The Pretenders to Modest Mouse, The Cribs, The The, and even Hans Zimmer. In short, a true chameleon – with the guitar serving as the unifying throughline in all his various endeavors.

When he released his first signature Jaguar with Fender 13 years ago, it was clear that Marr had put his years-long experience on stage and in studios worldwide – along with his in-depth knowledge of what makes a guitar tick – to good use. The result? One of Fender’s best-selling signature models.

Fast-forward to 2025, and he took this one step further with the recently released, limited-edition signature special Jaguar, which expands the model’s tonal palette into Strat and even P-90 territory.

“My original signature guitar does so many sounds,” he enthuses. “[For this new one, I've lost count], and the thing I'm most proud of is, it's not active. There’s no batteries living in it.

“Aside from the radius and it being a bit more of a rock sound in quite a few positions, it sounds very much like a Stratocaster, which means that when you play at high gain, it almost does a kind of blues rock sound, which is unusual from a Jag, because a Jaguar is notoriously difficult to get a decent rock sound out of.

“I wouldn't say it’s for metal or for shredding, but you never know!” he quips. “Maybe I'll do a third one that you can shred on.”

What motivated you to create a second signature Jaguar model, and how does it differ from your original design?

[The original] has been really commercially successful, and has continued to sell and sell, which makes me really proud, because other guitar players like it, and of all different kinds of music – it's not just an indie rock machine.

I wanted to continue to do what I do on my [first] signature Jag, but make it for people who wanted a bit more of a conventional feeling guitar – [for example,] make the radius a little bit different [9.5” as opposed to the original’s 7.25”]. It's not me improving my original signature Jag. It's just an alternative to my original Jag.

The new one has a pretty unique pickup selection system, and it also has lipstick pickups, as opposed to the first’s custom-wound Bare Knuckle single-coils. Can you walk us through the thought process behind all this?

For nearly 40 years, I had the same guitar luthier, whose name was Bill Puplett, who sadly passed away a couple of years ago. I don't use the word genius a lot, but there are some people who worked with Billy who would use that word.

Bill got very excited about the idea of the lipstick pickup. And I have to give him credit for putting that idea in my head. And then I had the burgundy Jag, which I thought was a really good-looking guitar, and so we used that as a prototype. So, between Bill and myself, we started to try these different lipstick pickups. But really, it was Bill's ingenuity that came up with the configuration of the pickups.

So, my original signature Jaguar does a lot. It has a Telecaster blade switch [that] gives you four different scenarios: the bridge pickup, the two pickups together, the neck pickup, and the bridge and middle pickup in series.

But with the new Signature Special, you have all of that – but then you also have all of that with the middle pickup added, and then also just the middle pickup.

What the other switches do is all of the above, but with a high-pass filter, which is what I retained from the original ’60s design. And then the third switch [is] a slider switch [that] when it's in series position is an extra notch filter, because when the pickups are in series, they are so fat-sounding that they just take it away from the Fender realm, and they almost sound more like a P-90.

Would you consider it a tribute to Bill?

Yeah, that's right. And we all felt that because it was the last project that Bill was involved in, and he was very passionate about it. The wiring is really ingenious.

This year, I got to collaborate with Gorillaz and also with Franz Ferdinand. Because I've got the prototype, I wanted to see how it would work with a different kind of music to my own, and the fact that it's so versatile has really come up pretty good.

Your first signature Jaguar inspired a new generation of players. What do you hope this new version communicates to younger guitarists?

There are people who bought my signature Jaguar because of its reputation – and because they don't necessarily have to be a fan of my music – but what I feel I did with both my signature Jags [is that] they are more efficient than the original ’60s design. That's to do with the change in the blade switch and the way the bridges behave – staying in tune, the saddles, and all of those things that I felt were necessary improvements.

So I want for that to continue, but also maybe a new person coming along who thinks that they want to do all of that, but also for it to be more of a rock guitar. I think that was my original idea, to not lose anything of my signature Jag, but for it to behave better as a driven guitar.

You've lent a lot of guitars to other musicians in the past, like Noel Gallagher, of course, and Radiohead. Do you still lend your guitars out these days?

Well, I think most of my friends actually own my guitars now [on a sort of] a permanent loan [laughs]. I tend to encourage my friends to try different things. So, for example, when Radiohead were making In Rainbows, I couldn't believe they'd never used a Les Paul before. I think I loaned them an SG for the album. And Thom [Yorke] ended up buying an SG himself.

Who, in your opinion, are some of the artists or bands right now who are really shaping the guitar scene?

I feel a little weird even bringing this up, because I've been around for so long, but I can't help but celebrate the fact that we're just now so used to female bands.

When I was starting out in the early ’80s, particularly when I started with the teenage bands in the late ’70s, women in rock, certainly playing guitar with bands, either as the lead singer or lead guitarist, were nowhere near as common. You had Chrissie Hynde, obviously, Bonnie Raitt, Joni Mitchell… but there were few rock guitar players.

And now, you only have to look at social media for a couple of minutes, and you see all these girls playing dazzling guitar.

I know the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have been around a long time, but I always really, really like whenever they put a new record out, because I think Nick Zinner is a really, really exciting guitar player. I like The Last Dinner Party – [Emily Roberts] is a good guitar player. And also, I'd say Fontaines D.C.'s latest record's [Romance] got the type of guitar playing that I just really like.

Speaking of influential guitar players, what are your thoughts on Oasis’ recent reunion shows?

From the minute the reunions were announced, in the UK, at least, almost three-quarters of the country were cheered up. Because Noel's my friend, to give you a serious answer, I'm very happy that he's reunited with his brother. That's a great thing, obviously, but the concerts had such an elevated atmosphere and a real positive message of the power of music.

When I was in America, because people know that I play with Noel, so many people were telling me that they went to the concerts and how amazing these concerts were – and, sometimes, it was people who you wouldn't think were fans of Oasis.

So it became like a cultural phenomenon, with the main inspiration being about unity. That's something that is very much in need in today's world. So they've done something really great, not only for themselves, but really, for a lot of people. They brought a lot of people joy. And it's something I've never seen in my lifetime. Biggest reunion of all time.

Did they ask you to guest star?

There were three very, very loud guitar players up there, because Gem [Archer] has got a big sound as well, and between Bonehead [Paul Arthurs, bassist] and Noel, I think they've got plenty of decent jackets up there. They don't need me in a good jacket! [laughs]

And finally, which guitar players have inspired you over the years – particularly ones people might not expect?

You know who I think was a really, really interesting guitar player? John Lennon. Some of the things that people don't quite realize he was doing on the White Album... I can go down rabbit holes.

And John McLaughlin. Whenever I mention John McLaughlin, I think people are surprised because I come out of the indie rock scene. But you know, when I started out, I would be talking about Nile Rodgers. And at the time, I remember that all those boys who were working in the British music press couldn't believe what they were hearing when I was talking about Nile Rodgers.

But now, everybody can understand that me and Nile Rodgers have got a lot in common – mostly to do with the way we make music: collaborating with other bands, producing and arranging, and using the guitar as a kind of hook.

The idea of someone standing behind a mixing desk working on vocals with the singer, but with their guitar around their neck, while still being known for playing the guitar – Nile was a bit of an example for me, really. It's [all] an evolution.

• The Limited-Edition Johnny Marr Signature Special Jaguar is available now from Fender retail partners. For more information, visit Fender.

Hello, and welcome to Guitar World’s gear round-up, your one-stop-shop for keeping up to date with what’s been happening in the big wide world of guitar gear over the past seven days.

From new electric guitars to amp modeler updates, the guitar industry is never short of fresh releases, and it can sometimes be hard to stay abreast of every new launch that may be of interest to you.

To make things a little easier, we’ve put together an essential must-read guide that will cover the major releases, the boutique drops, and everything in between.

This week, Jacob Collier's ascension to the status of modern-day guitar hero reached new heights with two accessible signature five-string acoustics, Johnny Marr reinvented the Fender Jaguar once again, the original Tube Screamer designer returned with a new take on the classic overdrive, and more...

Taylor Jacob Collier GS Mini and Academy 22e

Last year, Jacob Collier kickstarted a five-string revolution. The revolution is now entering its second phase with the arrival of two new Taylor signatures, which help make the Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalists expansive new guitar language more accessible than ever before.

The first Collier Taylor from last year weighed in at $2,799. This new Academy 22e is $999. Its companion GS Mini is just $699. If you’ve ever been intrigued to dive into the waters of five-string guitars, there has never been a better time than now.

It’s got the ergonomics of a six-string, so there’s plenty of room to move about in, but only five strings tuned to DAEAD. It’s an accessible entry point to easy open chord shapes and expansive soundscapes, and encourages a whole new way of playing. Trust me, I’m speaking from experience. The five-string isn’t going anywhere. And we love it.

For more: Taylor Guitars

Fender Johnny Marr Jaguar

Johnny Marr’s guitar collection certainly isn’t short in variety, but there’s one model above all else that the Smiths legend is intrinsically linked to: the Fender Jaguar. It’s been by his side for much of his career, prompting Fender to release a highly acclaimed signature version that many believe to be the finest modern Jag of all time.

Well, that’s now got competition, because Marr has reinvented the Jag once again for his newest signature. It is an absolute corker of a guitar. That finish is stunning. The addition of those lipstick pickups? Utter genius. Of course, it sounds as good as it looks, and it also has a new not-so-secret switch to flick between wiring modes. Marr himself said he wanted to make a model that “pushes players to explore new tones and possibilities”. This does exactly that.

We also saw a prototype floating around on IG with a maple neck. It would be nice if Fender had plan to release that one as well…

For more: Fender

Marshall Spinal Tap Infinity amp

When Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel revealed that he had asked Marshall to build an amp that went to Infinity for the band’s recent sequel, we began wondering whether the British amp brand had any plans in motion to make those available to the wider public.

After a few weeks of whispers and speculation, Marshall this week launched a special-edition JVM410H, which brings a 40-year collaboration in the making full circle. It’s been called ‘the loudest amp ever made’, and while that may not be strictly true in terms of output, it certainly is loud in style.

Two channels have been named after St. Hubbins and Tufnel. The bass knobs have been renamed ‘Smalls’. Each control goes to 11, a nod to that infamous scene from the first film. The Master Volume goes to Infinity. It is about as Spinal Tap as you could have hoped for.

“I think it's amazing that something so off-the-cuff has become an integral part of our company's history,” Marshall’s Steph Carter told Guitar World. “That one line has cemented itself as kind of a tagline for the company.”

For more: Marshall

Universal Audio UAFX 2.0

Universal Audio’s UAFX pedals have become a firm favorite among casual players and pros alike. The Edge ditched his tube amps for a UAFX amp modeler at The Sphere. John Mayer recommends them to all beginner guitar players. Guitar World has dished out plenty of rave reviews over the years.

They’ve not been without fault, though, with the V1 pedals all lacking MIDI compatibility, suffering from less-than-ideal app integration, and offering a limiting one-additional-preset function. That’s all been rectified with UAFX 2.0, though – a free-to-download software that addresses all those shortcomings.

As far as updates go, this is pretty major, and it spans across all dual switch effects pedals and amp modelers, so each and every UAFX stompbox is about to hit a new level.

For more: Universal Audio

Gibson Les Paul Junior / Special Double Cut

Gibson may have first developed its Les Paul Junior and Special guitars as entry level student models, but it didn’t take long before pros were harnessing their full potential and they both became rock ‘n’ roll staples beloved by everyone from Leslie West to Billie Joe Armstrong.

Fortunately, the double-cut versions – which, I’d argue, are infinitely cooler – are now back. They closely channel the spirit of those vintage models, and come complete with the P-90 pickups that made them such standout models. That LP Jr. DC in Cherry Red is calling my name. Woof.

For more: Gibson

Third Man Hardware x JHS Pedals Troika

Jack White’s Third Man Hardware effects company has announced its latest collaborative release – the Troika, a ‘horse-powered’ delay pedal made in partnership with JHS Pedals. It’s a spin-off of a rare Honda Sound Works Fab Delay pedal from Japan that White brought into early development discussions.

Funnily enough, JHS founder Josh Scott had apparently never come across it before (that’s how you know it must be rare). The Troika has been kitted out with three slider controls, and a bunch of I/Os to make it work with vocals and guitar. In fact, White used a prototype Troika all over his latest record, No Name, and now relies on it as an indispensable part of his live rig.

If you’re wondering about the ‘horse-powered’ bit, peep those horses on the front. Troika is, after all, the name for a Russian sleigh that gets pulled by three horses. Duh.

For more: Third Man Hardware

Sterling by Music Man Mike Herrera

Who even needs control knobs anyway? Well, I recently went on a spiritual journey of six-string self-discovery, so, I very much do. MxPx punk pioneer Mike Herrera certainly doesn’t, though – and his new Sterling by Music Man signature very much makes that clear.

It’s a stripped down version of his OG StingRay and an ode to both his DIY spirit and modded bass, with two dummy knobs that channel his frills-free playing philosophy. Oh, and it looks cool as hell, too.

For more: Sterling by Music Man

EHX Pico Atomic Cluster

EHX flipped the mini-pedal market on its head back in 2023 when it announced its “most ambitious pedal release” since Mike Matthews first opened up shop. The range's original aim was to downsize the firm's classic stompbox. It has since evolved, serving as a platform of experimentation. The Pico Atomic Cluster is a prime example of that. In EHX’s own words, it’s “unlike any effect Electro-Harmonix has made before”.

It’s a weird, lo-fi, synth, glitch-y, auto-arpeggio pint-sized package of sonic chaos that just sounds and behaves differently. It really needs to be heard to be believed; words don’t do it justice. It’s a mini pedal, so I’m sure I’ll be able to squeeze one into my ‘board somehow…

For more: EHX

TWA Source Code

No, this isn’t just another Tube Screamer. It might in fact be the Tube Screamer of all the Tube Screamers. One Tube Screamer to rule them all. See, the TWA Source Code isn’t a clone – it’s the ultimate evolution of the iconic overdrive pedal, designed by the original creator of the TS808 himself, Susumu Tamura.

It is a culmination of Tamura’s five decades of experience in overdrive design packaged into a single chassis. The next-gen TS has increased headroom, and multi-transistor input buffer for signal preservation, and ‘Magic IC’ op amp for improved amp-like feel, a new ‘Bite’ control, and +6dB of boost for increased output.

And it has a really, really cool ‘’ logo that lights up when the Source Code is switched on. And there I was thinking I don’t need another overdrive pedal…

For more: MaxonFX

Benson Portable Distortion 424 MKII

Let’s go over it again: over the last few years, the guitar world has witnessed something of a tone revolution thanks in part to Mk.gee – a maverick emerging guitar hero who shunned amps for a guitar rig that relied heavily on multi-track Tascam Portastudio for its preamp. It was everything modern players had been encouraged to avoid, but it’s back – and now blown-out, bit-crushy analog DI tones are all the rave.

JHS Pedals got in on the hype with the 424 Gain Stage, and now Benson – which has been developing its own solution to the Tascam pedal conundrum for some time – has also thrown its hat into the ring.

This limited release actually goes one step further though, expanding the versatility of the original circuit by adding a bypassable buffer that drastically alters the tone and character. In other words, it’s more of a pedal’s pedal, and will play nicely with the rest of your rig. Unfortunately, it’s already out of stock…

For more: Benson

Heather Brown Darlene

The pedal to level up your compressor game? Heather Brown Electronicals’ Darlene is an ultra-quite analog compressor designed with one goal in mind: to let players’ dynamics breathe and keep their sound pure.

It’s meant to solve some common compressor qualms, those being flattened tones, choked dynamics and unwanted noise. The Darlene has a low noise floor to combat the latter, the choice of either true or bypassed buffer, and three knobs (Sustain, Blend and Volume) to dial in the required compression.

It’s also said to be something of a Swiss army stompbox, capable of being an always-on polish, a transparent clean boost, and a thickener for drives.

For more: Heather Brown Electronicals

Fulltone Ultimate Octave

One of Fulltone’s most celebrated designs – and, indeed, one of the most well-known octave pedals full stop – is back on the market, with the effects firm announcing the return of the Ultimate Octave.

A firm favorite of Joe Satriani and something of a pedal cult classic, the pedal returns with a smaller footprint to make it more pedalboard friendly, but keeps the same capacity for tone-tweaking. Two footswitches; knobs for Volume, Fuzz and Tone; and a Bright/Fat switch is all you need to harness what Fulltone is calling “one of the most intense upper-octave circuits ever made”.

For more: Fulltone

Schecter John Browne Zenith

I’ll be the first to admit that “metal” guitars in their truest form aren’t my personal favorite, but while I was scoping out the show floor at Guitar Summit 2025 a few months back, I did do a double-take while strolling past the Schecter stand.

Why? Well, because it had its new John Browne Zenith signature on display, of course. That finish – dubbed Fracture White – is gnarly as hell. I love the matching headstock. The single pickup and hardtail bridge is up my street. Not quite enough to convert me, but I admire it for what it is: a ruddy cool metal guitar.

For more: Schecter

Vox Micro Superbeetle

Vox has aimed to reimagine portable amplification with the Micro Superbeetle – an authentic Vox amp capable of delivering the company’s singular sound in an, erm, micro-sized package. What’s neat is it’s a stack format – the head can be used as a standalone portable five watt amp. It offers three Vox tones – Clean, Drive and High Gain – plus Bluetooth connectivity for music streaming.

For more: Vox

Fender has reunited with Johnny Marr for a limited-edition signature Jaguar that not only builds on the success of his original best-selling signature model with the brand, but promises to blend “vintage character with modern innovation.”

“The Jaguar has been central to my sound and style for nearly 15 years,” enthuses Marr. “With this new model, I wanted to create an instrument that feels classic but also pushes players to explore new tones and possibilities.

“From my work with The Cribs playing gritty in-your-face indie, to the cinematic soundscapes I crafted with Hans Zimmer, the Jaguar has been an incredible asset in helping me expand my sound, no matter the genre or the occasion.”

Specs-wise, the Limited-Edition Johnny Marr Signature Special Jaguar features a custom gloss nitrocellulose black lacquer finish, a smooth custom neck inspired by Marr's own 1965 Jaguar, and a rosewood fingerboard with 22 vintage-style frets and ivory dot inlays. Furthermore, it boasts a Jaguar bridge with Mustang saddles, complemented by a vintage-style ‘floating tremolo’ tailpiece.

Perhaps one of the most interesting additions is the set of custom-wound Kent Armstrong Johnny Marr single-coil lipstick pickups, which offer a “unique range of tonal versatility.”

The tonal palette is further enhanced by the presence of Marr’s personal wiring scheme and an all-new four-position blade switching system – plus three slide-switch options – all of which deliver a “fresh perspective” on the classic Jaguar tone.

Speaking about this new signature release, Max Gutnik, Chief Product Officer at Fender, says, “Johnny Marr’s legacy as one of the most inventive guitarists of the last four decades is undeniable.

“The new Signature Special Jaguar is a versatile, performance-ready twist on his classic instrument that delivers a captivating tone with great feel. We’re thrilled to share it with guitarists everywhere.”

Priced at $2,999.99, the Limited-Edition Johnny Marr Signature Special Jaguar is available now from Fender retail partners.

For more information, visit Fender.

This year’s Oasis reunion tour has been widely cited as a musical phenomenon, with many calling it the event of the year.

And after reuniting for their first shows in 16 years, who could blame fans – and those in search of a good dose of nostalgia – for the palpable excitement, really? Among Oasis’ many fans is Johnny Marr, who famously loaned a struggling Noel Gallagher a 1960 Gibson Les Paul and, later, a black 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom, when the band was starting out.

Now, in a new Guitar World interview, Marr gives his two cents on the resounding cultural impact of the Oasis reunion tour.

“It's an amazing thing that I saw, from the minute the reunions were announced in the UK, at least three quarters of the country were cheered up,” he notes. “Because Noel's my friend, of course, to give you a serious answer, I'm very happy that he's reunited with his brother. That's a great thing, obviously, but the concerts had such an elevated atmosphere and a real positive message of the power of music.

“When I was in America, because people know that I play with Noel, so many people were telling me that they went to the concerts and how amazing these concerts were, and sometimes, it was people you wouldn't think were fans of Oasis,” he relates.

“So it became like a cultural phenomenon, with the main inspiration being about unity. That's something that is very much in need in today's world. So they've done something really great, not only for themselves, but really for a lot of people. They brought a lot of people joy. And it's something I've never seen in my lifetime. Biggest reunion of all time.”

As for whether he ever got the call to, perhaps, guest star at one of the shows, Marr replies with a laugh. “Well, there were three very, very loud guitar players up there, because Gem [Archer] has got a big sound as well, and between Bonehead [Paul Arthurs] and Noel, I think there's plenty of decent jackets up there as well. They don't need me in a good jacket either!”

In more recent Oasis news, band co-founder and rhythm guitarist Bonehead recently announced he's temporarily pulling out of the rest of the reunion shows following his cancer diagnosis.

Every guitarist has a missing gear story. Whether it’s a stolen electric guitar or a pedal that mysteriously disappears right after soundcheck, it happens to the best of us.

Unfortunately, Johnny Marr has himself mixed up in a “missing gear” story at this very moment – and he's been pleading online with UPS to help him recover his lost equipment.

Days before kicking off a run of shows, Marr has taken to X to air that his guitars have gone missing, alleging UPS has misplaced, or even lost, a fair few of his touring instruments.

“Dear UPS where are my guitars?” he wrote on X. “They disappeared a week ago. I’m hearing from you now that they’ve been lost. Explain.”

The guitarist goes on to tag Fender and Gibson – meaning that he had at least a couple of Fenders and Gibsons in the mix. However, the final straw for Marr came when he was asked to provide some, er, visual support.

“Asking me to describe what my guitars look like is not filling me with confidence,” Marr continues. “They look exactly like the ones you put in one of your delivery vans days ago. Remember?”

"Look for one that says ‘80’s Icon’ on the case and another one that says ‘Woke As Fuck,’” he quips.

While UPS is reportedly investigating the matter, as of the time of writing, Marr hasn't issued an update on his missing gear.

Late last year, the Smiths guitarist launched a new signature Martin M-7, whose specs don’t stick to the script.

Some producers find their niche and stick to it. Others, like two-time Grammy winner Andrew Watt prefer to challenge themselves with each new project.

He’s made himself at home while working with pop heavyweights like Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, and Lady Gaga and rock royalty alike: see Ozzy Osbourne, Pearl Jam, and the perpetually shirtless Iggy Pop for evidence.

His ability to spearhead success stories has made him one of the most in-demand producers in the business. A guitarist first, he’s also played on most of the records he’s worked on and his chops have proved as versatile as they come each and every time. So how does he do it?

“It’s not about ‘your thing.’ In the studio, it’s about what’s right for the song,” Watt tells Guitar World. “There are so many musicians that you hear or see live that you could be blown away by, but once they get into the studio, they can’t come up with parts that will last forever.

“That’s what being in the studio is about. It’s about a great part, something that makes a kid want to go and play guitar, or something that’s just accentuating rhythmic accents or providing a good accompaniment to what’s being sung.”

The studio, he feels, is a humanizing experience. When the songs are in the can, artists can waltz onto stages across the globe, play rock star, and feel 10 feet tall. The experiences to get to that point, however, are where an artist can be challenged, and belittled even, if artistic struggles get the better of them.

David Gilmour recently said that his 2024 album Luck and Strange was the best thing he’d put out since The Dark Side of the Moon. That was thanks, in part, to the fact that producer Charlie Andrew (Alt-J, Wolf Alice) didn't care about his prestigious back catalog. His role was to challenge Gilmour and ensure the record was the best it could be.

“He has a wonderful lack of knowledge or respect for this past of mine. He’s very direct and not in any way overawed, and I love that,” Gilmour explained. “He said things like, 'Well, why does there have to be a guitar solo there?' and 'Do they all fade out? Can’t some of them just end?'”

Watt’s approach is wholly similar. For whoever he works with, he has but one burning question.

“What’s the part?” he asks. “That’s what leads everything – providing a groove for the song or a good chord base for the song to do its thing, and for the message of what’s being sung to hit someone in the heart. I’m parts-focused, and I would say that is the most important thing when being in the studio.

“It’s not just about the jam,” he continues. “Even the Grateful Dead had parts, you know what I mean? It’s about finding the part.”

Working on Patient Number 9 with Ozzy – a record that looks like it might be the Prince of Darkness’ last – saw Watt recruit a trio of guitar legends in Jeff Beck, Tony Iommi, and Eric Clapton. Still, when it comes to a player who understands this mentality better than the rest, he always refers to a British indie rock legend: Johnny Marr.

“That guy’s parts on every single song he’s on, no matter what the artist is,” he enthuses. “Whenever he plays, he has his tone and sound, but he’s just sculpting these perfect parts, weaving in and out of the song, even if the song is written to what he’s playing.”

Watt’s full interview with Guitar World, which charts the evolution of his producing career, his love of Black Sabbath, and his role in the band's star-studded final show, will be published in the near future.

Given that it was designed by the man who quit The Smiths at the peak of their powers in 1987 – having single-handedly invented indie-rock – perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that Johnny Marr’s new signature Martin M-7 doesn’t stick to the script.

Teaming with the fabled Pennsylvania-based luthier for the project is a logical move: Marr has been loyal to the Martin brand since he hired his first D-28 for The Smiths’ 1985 Meat Is Murder album (and refused to give it back).

But from the hybrid body shape to the three-piece back – not to mention the pièce de résistance, an octave G string – the 61-year-old’s creation is anything but a cynical rebadge, its widescreen jangle and seventh tuning peg making fans question their eyes and ears when he walks on stage.

“You have these instruments that you already think are perfection, so, in my case, the D-28 and D-35,” he considers. “But then, when you change or personalise one aspect, you start getting into invention…”

How did this collaboration start?

“Well, Fred Greene [Martin’s VP of Product Management] contacted me a couple of years ago. We got together at a show in Pennsylvania, near the Martin factory, and about halfway through our conversation, I realised I was being invited to invent my dream Martin out of thin air. Which was such a privilege and surprise.

“What Fred drew out of me were my enthusiasms about different aspects of the guitar. So the M-7 and M-6 [the standard six-string equivalent] were designed very organically. I realised I was daydreaming of this ideal acoustic.”

The acoustic has always been in your toolkit, hasn’t it?

“Yeah. My connection to acoustic guitars goes back to the very first guitar sound I was drawn to, which was the strumming of Don Everly on Wake Up Little Susie. But at the same time, also, C’mon Everybody by Eddie Cochran, where the acoustics are layered and loud. There’s this idea that acoustic guitars are about fingerpicking and folk accompaniment.

“I’m an acolyte of Bert Jansch, so I can testify to that. But that really loud, layered, straightforward strumming on those rock ’n’ roll records is a singular sound. You hear Jeff Lynne pay homage to it on Runnin’ Down A Dream by Tom Petty. Or Queen Of Hearts by Dave Edmunds. They’re all echoes of this signature technique that snagged me when I was six or seven.

“I’ve had a lifetime of doing this now, all my adult life. And I’ve always incorporated acoustic guitars into what I do. I mean, this thing I’m talking about – just really driving the acoustic into the ground – I did it on a song from my last solo album called Counter Clock World.

“Other times, I’m playing in tunings, which is something I got from Joni Mitchell, via David Crosby. Through all the records I’ve made, I was very deliberate in putting acoustic guitars to the foreground.”

You’ve said Rory Gallagher was the player who turned you onto Martins.

“Well, that was the first time I ever saw a D-35, when Rory used to do Out On The Western Plain. Sadly, but luckily for me, I got to play that very D-35, not long after Rory passed away.

“And then, my D-28 that I got in the Smiths days in around ’85 – I hired that, and within about 10 minutes, I said to myself, ‘This is not going back.’ That one has magic in it, and I’ve done a lot with it over the years. But then, almost to break out of that, when I started playing with Bert, I used a 70s D-35.

“When I was a kid, I could name the owner and whereabouts of every guitar within a 20-mile radius. And as an adult, I can reel off a whole load of musicians and what acoustic guitar they own.

“For example, Bernard Butler’s got an amazing J-200, as does Ronnie Wood. Then again, one of the best D-28s I ever played belonged to Beth Orton. They really make an impression on me, these guitars. Always have done.”

Let’s talk about the M-7’s flagship feature. What inspired that octave G?

“My friend Bill Puplett – who is sadly no longer with us, but he worked on my guitars from 1987 – we had a conversation about a British blues player in the ’60s. I’ve forgotten his name, but he added an extra tuning peg, pin and string to his acoustic, and pioneered this seven-string model.

“I also saw Roger McGuinn talking about his signature model on stage in the late ’90s. I’d never played a seven-string – or heard one in person. But the concept intrigued me and I hoped it would do what I thought it’d do, which was to behave, technically, like a regular six-string acoustic but have something that just delights your ear.”

Sonically, the M-7 seems like a close cousin of a 12-string guitar.

“Over the years, I’ve always kept up playing 12-string. Every so often, I’ll go through phases of playing 12-string to keep my acoustic chops up and not get lazy.

“And then, a few days into that, I always go through the same thing, which is, I think, ‘I’m going to get rid of every six-string I own. There isn’t a better sound than this, and anyone who bitches about them being hard to grapple with – buy a tuner.’

“However, sometimes you just don’t want all of that high-octave stuff. So my M-7 does what you think it’s going to do, but it sounds like it’s got added production on it. When I’ve been using it live, I tend to forget that it’s even got the high octave on it.

“And then, sometimes, I’ll really dig in and make a point of playing a little more around that octave. I’ve been living with it now for a long time and I’ve found that regular six-strings almost sound like they’re missing something to me now.”

It’s that little bit of extra harmonic information, isn’t it?

“Exactly. Within minutes, you forget it’s there. But you’d notice if it disappeared.

“In spite of that, it was my idea to do the six-string version [M-6] because when I was talking to other players, I could see that when I said ‘seven-string’, they got stuck on that information and I had to qualify what I’d done by saying, ‘But even without the seventh string, it’s still a great instrument.’ I thought we should offer people who may only want one luxury instrument the option of not having that seventh string.

“The six-string version is killer anyway because of all the other things about it. Y’know, the bracing, the shallower M-style body, the three-piece back, et cetera. The neck, as well, is not trying to be all things to all men.

“Which I find frustrating with some modern guitars because in trying to please everyone, sometimes the feel is just so generic. So I was very specific about the dimensions and absolutely adamant that we didn’t have any satin finish nonsense on the back.”

You’re not a fan of satin necks?

“As I understand it, satin necks were a ’90s idea. But I’m of the opinion: ‘If it’s too problematic moving your hand up and down a glossy neck, you’re in the wrong job, mate.’

“I used to read that in the ’80s with some metal players: ‘Oh, I can’t handle it when there’s too much gloss on the neck.’ The only person who’s allowed to say that is Eddie Van Halen.

“I’ve got friends who have taken sandpaper to the neck because they can’t handle the gloss. But it’s like, ‘Stop being a baby. Put the hours in and wear it down yourself.’”

How did you settle on the body shape?

“The seventh string was the first thing I thought of, and then the dimensions of the M-7 was the last remaining piece. I said to Martin, ‘Can I make the front like a D-28 and the back like a D-35: has anyone ever done that?’

“What I love about both the six- and seven-string version is that the bottom is essentially the size of a dreadnought but the depth means that if you want to play unaccompanied arpeggios and do the West Coast thing – without a pick, just with fingers – it really holds up. But then, if you hammer it like a rhythm guitar, it sounds like The Who.”

Martin guitars have a reputation for mighty bottom-end.

“That’s right. I’ve got a friend in a well-known band, and he’s sometimes peeved me about my use of Martins because he says they have unnecessary bottom-end. My retort was always: ‘Well, you need to learn to play properly using the lower strings and start writing songs in tunings.’ Because he’s a Hummingbird and J-200 freak.

“But with my signature models, I’m trying to do that thing where they sound good recorded and they will take that really punchy rhythm playing. That’s why I say it sounds like The Who. I think a bit of that is down to them being slightly shallower than the dreadnought, but they still have the rest of those dreadnought dimensions.”

Do you find the M-6 and M-7 more comfortable than a dreadnought?

“Well, that was an unexpected bonus. As soon as it arrived, I went, ‘Oh, hello – I could get used to this.’ I’ve been touring with my seven-string and I don’t miss that extra depth of a dreadnought, particularly on stage when you’re going through a PA. You absolutely don’t need it.

“As for the electronics [LR Baggs Anthem], I just went with Martin’s advice. I’ve used them live and they sound great.”

The new model sounds like it would really sing with a guitar capo.

“I almost use capos too much. I’m trying to wean myself off ’em somewhat. I’m not joking. Just Google pictures of me: more often than not I’m using capos, and so many times on the 4th fret. For some reason, guitars like capos on the 4th fret; they sing out really well. In my live show, I move capos around all the time.

“That’s something I learnt really young, when I was copying players like Stephen Stills, and what Bert, Martin Carthy and John Renbourn were doing. These days, on electric, I use G7th capos, but the last few I’ve been using [on acoustic] were actually my old Jim Dunlops, believe it or not. They’re fantastic.”

The spruce top and rosewood body have a lovely warm finish.

“I was really pleased to get the top colour in a shade that I consider to be ‘classic’. Because there’s a lot of acoustics that come out, for some reason, in a shade I don’t like.

“Martin were great about it. I drove them a bit mad about the shade. And I had the option to relic it, but I wasn’t going to do that, given my feelings about the neck.

“The thing about old guitars is that people beat them up through playing them, and that’s what I wanted. If someone buys one of my guitars, one day it will be old. It doesn’t need to come out of the box looking pseudo-old.”

Finally, what inspired the retro-cool Souldier strap supplied with the new guitars?

“I’ve had all kinds of different designs with Souldier, and when I came to do these acoustics I wanted a classic colour scheme, and Jen [Tabor, founder] gave me a few options. Because I was a kid in the ’70s, I was seeing a lot of acoustic players, so I went for a sort of ’70s style.

“I get quite obsessive about these things, so I tried out way more designs than I ought to have, but I got there in the end. I remember when you couldn’t get decent straps – I call them the dark times.

“In the ’80s, when I was coming up in the Smiths days… Oh, man. I’d go into guitar shops and could I find one without skull and crossbones on? No. So it’s definitely progress!”

• Johnny Marr’s M-6 and M-7 are available now from Martin Guitars. 
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

It was December 2023, and backstage at Manchester’s Aviva Studios, Johnny Marr was wrestling with a dilemma. Playing the same venue the night before with a 30-piece orchestra, he’d turned to a Martin D-28, of the kind that propelled him to ’80s stardom in the Smiths, and gifted him classics like There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.

Now, flanked by elite classical musicians and facing an expectant hometown crowd for the second show, Marr found himself debating whether to give a trial by fire to the prototype of his new signature Martin M-7, which was delivered half an hour earlier.

As the man who jumped from that most cherished of British indie-rock bands with no safety net in 1987, perhaps it’s no surprise to learn that Marr took the leap of faith that night, walking from the wings with the head-turning seven-string model.

“The minute I took it out, people noticed the tuning configuration and did a double-take,” Marr tells us. “But the most striking thing is when you hear it.”

Conceptually, the M-7 is not quite without precedent. Back in 2005, that other great master of crystalline chime, Byrds icon Roger McGuinn, launched a signature Martin guitar that also offered a doubled G string.

Even so, it’s remarkable to hear how Marr’s new model sings, its jangle-ready format accentuated by a wishlist of build features including an all-solid Grand Auditorium body, full-thickness mahogany neck and three-piece back (a regular six-string, the M-6, is also available).

“It was all instinct for me,” he says. “But the really exciting thing was whether all those different features would work together as one instrument.”

Do you remember the first time you saw a Martin?

“Yeah. It would have been Rory Gallagher in 1976, when he did that acoustic bit in his set. Before that, it was Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Joni Mitchell.

“I was just a kid then, but in the ’70s, it was mostly American artists who were playing Martins. It was the Californians’ choice. I don’t think John Martyn played Martins. And I think Bert Jansch would have played whatever he could get his hands on at the time.

“I was always into D-28s – from before I could get one, really. A lot of my heroes were playing them and I thought they were dead cool. The first Martin I got myself was the 1971 D-28 that I wrote loads of the Smiths stuff on. I got some great songs out of it, straight out of the gate, and it recorded really well.

“I think the first song I wrote on it was Well I Wonder, and I used it from the Meat Is Murder album onwards. It was from some hire company – I just refused to give it back! I did end up paying for it, by the way. And I’ve still got that guitar.”

What was so good about that particular D-28?

“Well, I think if it’s a Martin from the early ’70s, it’s gonna be a good instrument. We all know there’ll be some narky idiot on the internet who’ll want to contradict me on that – but they’re wrong.

“Every early- and mid-’70s D-28 I’ve played has always been really musical. It seems an obvious term to use about a guitar, but that’s the best way I can put it. I did notice that mine was a particularly good one. But I’ve got loads of mates who bought early-’70s Martins, and they’re all great.”

Which other Martin models have been in your lineup?

“Usually, I don’t go for lots of pearl and fancy designs. I like things that feel a little more pragmatic and straightforward. So the D-28 appealed to me on that level. That was my main six-string until the early ’90s, when I got into D-35s with Electronic and Pet Shop Boys. I guess I just fancied a change. I also used a D-41 on Strangeways, Here We Come, so I would flip between that and the D-28.”

Let’s talk about the standout feature of your new M-7 – that octave G. Were you aware of Roger McGuinn’s model?

“No, I’ve never come across it, although I saw him talking about it once. I think the idea came out of conversations with my dear friend Bill Puplett. He told me about some obscure blues player in the early ’60s who played around the clubs in Soho with a seven-string.

“Conceptually, it seemed like a good fit for me, because of the ringing thing I do. I just thought, ‘Seven strings are probably better than six.’ In that regard, anyway. I wouldn’t be interested in a seven-string electric with the low B.”

The M-7’s tone has a 12-string guitar flavor, but how does it compare to play?

“With the way I play – which is a bit of a ‘one-man band’ approach – I’m trying to play the whole song, a cross between rhythm and top lines. You can do that on a 12-string, but you have to apply yourself and you need a big breakfast. It’s not for the faint-hearted.

“I’m really glad I persevered when I was younger and it didn’t alienate me too much, because I know a few players who just don’t want to know.

“So I’m au fait with 12-strings, and the seven-string is definitely a different beast. It’s much easier to negotiate, and in terms of technique and application, it’s hardly any different to a six-string, but sound-wise, it adds a new dimension. With some of my old riffs that would have been played on a regular six-string, it sounds more like the ‘deluxe’ version.

“It’s definitely different, particularly if you lean into it with voicings that have a lot of activity on the G. What can I say? Ring ring, y’know? But some of that sound is also down to the construction of the actual guitar, more so than just the extra G string. That’s almost as significant as having that extra string, which is why we’re also doing the six-string version.”

You’re known for using dreadnoughts, but this is a Grand Auditorium.

“That’s right. I wondered whether the narrower body would be more comfortable. Had that not worked, I would have gone back to a regular size. But it makes me want to play with more attack. I’m playing more like Pete Townshend, because my ear instinctively wants me to get more juice out of it.

“I think that’s what certain players – some of whom are my friends – like out of [Gibson] J-200s and Hummingbirds, that are traditionally used for rhythm. This is a really strong rhythm guitar. I think it’s the closest that Martin has got to those rock ’n’ roll records that usually have J-200s on.”

And you specified a full-thickness neck with gloss finish?

“I have to try and talk about the neck without sounding offensive or angry. Satin finishes: why? No need. You’re really playing that fast that you need to have a satin neck? Really?

“Like, a beautiful glossy neck, that was on all the old guitars since time immemorial – your technique is so dazzling, or you’re so uncomfortable putting your hand on that gloss, or you’re so affronted by it, that we’ve had to have years of really bad finishes on necks? No need. Wear it down yourself, you lazy sod!”

Why did you decide the L.R. Baggs Anthem acoustic guitar pickup would bring out the M-7’s voice?

“It’s a little bit of a throwback to the Baggs on my D-35 I used with Bert Jansch. Bert – who was a great lover of guitar technology – always remarked on my Baggs pickup. It was a coincidence that Baggs was the Martin company’s pickup of choice anyway. So that was a lucky thing.

“It’s really nice to calibrate, the preamp is great, and then, as I was saying, I got to try it out literally 30 minutes after it arrived with an orchestra. I wasn’t sitting around for two weeks being conceptual, because there’s no better test than getting up on stage in front of 2,000 people.”

What was it about the acoustic guitar that called to you as a teenager?

“Well, unlike my pals, I didn’t feel the need to abandon the acoustic as soon as I could get an electric. It’s partly the reason why I play electric the way I do, which is born out of moving first-position chords around the neck and finding melodies within those shapes.

“A couple of my pals wanted to be Ritchie Blackmore and Jimi Hendrix – and I get it. But I wasn’t intending on forming a band that sounded like Voodoo Child or Highway Star.

“I liked the sound of Bus Stop by the Hollies, and what Tony Hicks was doing on those records. Going even further back, to being a little kid, the first guitar sound I was hooked on was what Don Everly did on Wake Up Little Susie, and those early Everlys records, because my parents used to play them at parties, very loud. And the acoustic overdubs on C’mon Everybody by Eddie Cochran.”

You’ve talked about the Stooges’ Gimme Danger as a key influence.

“A hundred percent. That’s a great example, now you bring it up. And Nils Lofgren – a big track for me is Share a Little, off of Cry Tough. It’s so compressed, and because he plays with a thumbpick, he’s got so much attack on his downstrokes. The sound of that, for a long time, I thought was one of the best things I’d come across.

“He also had a band called Grin, and there’s a similar sound on a song called Love Or Else. You can hear the bridge rattling because he’s hitting it so hard. And then, of course, growing up in the U.K. in the ’70s, you can’t ignore the Who’s Pinball Wizard.”

Likewise, you’ve said you wanted your Smiths acoustic parts to have attitude…

“I was determined that this aspect of the band was going to get noticed. I was so proud for us to be an all-out guitar band, that I didn’t want to be polite about those things. The songs I’ve mentioned – the Everlys, Eddie Cochran, etc. – were in the rear-view mirror in the culture of the early ’80s. But not in mine. So it was my agenda to push that.

“You know, like on the start of Bigmouth Strikes Again, say, and Unhappy Birthday. At the time, I was conscious that no-one else was doing that, even after I’d been doing it for a few years. That was another one of the things I was proud of the band for.”

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke supposedly once said he considered the Smiths to be a powered-up folk band. Would you agree?

“Yeah, I like that. I really liked Bert Jansch. And because of Bert, I listened to Martin Carthy, John Martyn, eventually Nick Drake and Donovan. So folk is in there.

“I did go through a time where I thought of us exactly the way Thom puts it, a folk band but [fused with] the Patti Smith Group. I think I was pretty deliberate about that. And d’you know what? A lot of the Velvet Underground sounds like folk to me.”

Do you feel like the M-6 and M-7 have good songs in them?

“Oh yeah, I absolutely do. Let’s put it this way – since I got my signature Martins, I really don’t feel the need to pick anything else up.”

You could have easily just stayed in the Smiths. Where did that musical curiosity come from?

“I think it’s just my personality. I can’t remember a time when that impulse and that broad remit as a musician wasn’t there. Everything was fair game to me, although there’s definitely things I don’t like – some classical music just doesn’t resonate with me, and there’s a lot of extreme metal I’m not interested in, obviously.

“For some reason, the only word I can find for it is ‘wonder.’ It’s that, really – wonderment in music. I didn’t know it was going to happen, but working with Hans Zimmer now makes total sense to me. I had to kind of beat through the undergrowth for that privilege. But it comes as no surprise to me.”

• Find out more about Johnny Marr's signature M-7 at Martin Guitar.

Gibson has partnered with Johnny Marr to produce a highly limited run of hand-signed Gibson Les Paul signature electric guitars, which are inspired by The Smiths legend’s 1984 Les Paul Standard.

The partnership has been formalized to celebrate the first anniversary of Gibson Garage London, whose birthday will be commemorated by the Gibson Garage Fest.

News of the festival that arrived earlier this month promised it would include the release of high-profile six-strings designed in collaboration with some big-name artists, and now we have our first of the event.

As such, the new LP will be available exclusively from the Gibson Garage London starting next Friday (February 21). Only 20 will be made, and each will be hand-signed by The Smiths icon himself.

They will be up for sale at an as-yet-undisclosed price until they are sold out, following which they will be gone for good. All the profits from the LPs will be donated to Teenage Cancer Trust.

As for the guitar itself, Gibson and Marr have clearly pulled no punches, opting to recreate one of Marr’s most important Les Pauls. Specifically, they’ve reissued the Les Paul that was first played during the recording of The Smiths’ Meat is Murder record, and that promptly became one of his go-to guitars.

It featured heavily both on stage and in the studio with The Smiths, and was one of Marr’s guitars of choice during his time with The The, The Pretenders and The Cribs, as well as during his work with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.

Not only that, Marr once picked it as one of his favorite guitars, and revealed it to be the one he has used on more records than any other.

“I bought this guitar from A1 Repairs in Manchester for the second Smiths album, Meat Is Murder,” Marr once told The Guardian. “It may surprise some people to learn that this is the guitar I’ve used on more records than any other.

“When people think of me having a ringing sound, they usually assume it’s a Rickenbacker, Fender Telecaster or Fender Jaguar, but it’s often been this 1980s Les Paul. It’s the guitar I played on the last song the Smiths played together in concert.”

Marr has waxed lyrical about this particular Les Paul in the past, and included it in a run-down of his most prized guitars during a conversation with Guitar World last year.

“I got it to write on and used it a lot during that album,” he said at the time. “Before the Jag days, that Les Paul was on more records than any other guitar I owned. Many people think I was doing it all on the Rickenbacker in the ’80s, but a lot of the clean arpeggio stuff was done on that Les Paul.”

“These guitars are a faithful reproduction of my beloved 1984 Gibson Les Paul, bought in Manchester back in the day,” Marr explains in a new Gibson release. “It’s the guitar I’ve kept and used since that time on loads of different records, so I was beyond delighted to see it recreated in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust.

“It’s an amazing organisation that I've had an association with for about ten years. It’s a privilege to be involved in this good cause and I’m very glad to be affiliated with it, especially when it involves making a fantastic Les Paul.”

To ensure their authenticity, each guitar was created through Gibson’s Made-to-Measure program, which employs “the artisans of the Gibson Custom Shop locations in Nashville, Tennessee, and Bozeman, Montana, handcraft the world’s most desirable electric and acoustic guitars”.

It features a classic Les Paul spec sheet, and boasts the same small B50 Bigsby tailpiece that can be found on the original.

“It’s a great honour to continue our partnership with the Teenage Cancer Trust for another year, and for 2025 we have the legend that is Johnny Marr adding his support,” adds Lee Bartram, Head of Commercial, Marketing and Cultural Influence – EMEA.

“These guitars Johnny has signed take inspiration from his 1984 Gibson Les Paul Standard with Bigsby which has been featured on many British classic records over the years, and are a fitting tribute to the amazing work the TCT continue to do.”

It’s the latest addition to Marr’s stock of signatures, which now spans a number of different guitar manufacturers. Not only has Marr now been the recipient of both Fender and Gibson signature guitars, he also partnered with Martin last year for a seven-string acoustic model.

Visit Gibson to find out more.

Gibson Garage Fest will also see Jack Bruce's iconic EB-1 bass – which starred during the Cream reunion in 2005 – be put up for a one-time-only public display.

There are players who like factory-fresh satin necks, and those who don’t. Johnny Marr can very much be considered a member of the latter camp.

On paper, the appeal of a satin neck is seemingly obvious. Unlike gloss necks, those given the satin treatment promise an easy worn-in feel, and promote improved speed and better neck navigation by offering significantly less friction between the neck and fretting hand.

Gloss necks, on the other hand, are prone to becoming ‘sticky’, especially in sweatier playing scenarios, and are sometimes avoided in favor of sleeker satin.

For Marr, though, traditional gloss necks are by far the better option for players. In fact, in the new issue of Guitar World, he had some rather choice words for those who subscribe to the satin school of thought.

When asked about why he opted for a gloss neck on his new Martin M-6 and M-7 signature guitars, Marr replies, “I have to try and talk about the neck without sounding offensive or angry. Satin finishes: why? No need. You’re really playing that fast that you need to have a satin neck? Really?

Marr’s comments are certainly going to cause a stir, owing to the strong popularity of satin necks and the sheer number of players who consider reduced friction and a smoother neck – one they don’t stick to – to be the superior option.

Indeed, satin necks are becoming increasingly the norm on modern builds from the likes of PRS and Fender, and many DIY players are partial to sanding down gloss necks in order to speed up the process of achieving a vintage worn-in feel without having to spend years manually doing it themselves through playing.

Of course, there are those who prefer gloss necks, and there are plenty of companies (Gibson immediately springs to mind) that remain loyal to the more high-end finish.

Marr is one of them, and as he goes on to explain, he doesn’t feel like there’s a need to tinker with the time-tested treatment – and he’s especially skeptical of those who artificially sand their own gloss necks.

“Like, a beautiful glossy neck, that was on all the old guitars since time immemorial – your technique is so dazzling, or you’re so uncomfortable putting your hand on that gloss, or you’re so affronted by it, that we’ve had to have years of really bad finishes on necks? No need. Wear it down yourself, you lazy sod!”

It's a point of view Marr shares for all his guitars. His signature Fender Jaguar, for example, is inspired by his own 1965 model and that, too, features a full-on gloss neck.

Visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitar World, which features the full interview with Johnny Marr.

Martin has partnered with Johnny Marr to produce two new signature guitars – one of which is an oddball seven-string acoustic guitar.

The Smiths legend has become widely known for his left-field electric guitar creations. Back in 2021, for example, he recorded new music with a bonkers nine-pickup Fender Stratocaster, dubbed ‘The Spirit Strat’.

Speculation that a similarly out-there acoustic was in the works recently arose, after Marr was spotted playing an unidentified seven-string Martin at various gigs over the past few weeks.

Now, Marr has officially injected some of that experimental spirit into the Martin M-7, which offers a generous Grand Auditorium body size and throws an octave G string into the mix to help deliver that unmistakable Marr jangle.

Joined by a standard M-6, both instruments feature mahogany necks with a slightly thinner nut width for “a unique feel”, as well as a unique hybrid design that combines the width of a Jumbo guitar with the thickness of a regular 000.

Other specs include a spruce top, East Indian rosewood back and sides, and an ebony fingerboard that boasts 20 frets. Ebony has also been used for the bridge, while a scalloped X Brace pattern and LR Baggs Anthem electronics can both be found under the hood.

What's also notable about the M-7 is the fact that, despite having seven strings, it only has six bridge pins. That's because the two G strings share one pin – meaning the fretboard hasn't had to be drastically widened in order to accommodate an extra string.

“I've now got my own signature guitar that makes me sound like in the studio when I've put this really great old compressor on it with a great mic and a little hint of the high string in there,” says Marr.

“All of these things that I do on record using a few guitars, I've got it all in the one guitar that I can carry around with me, and if I go play with a pal or go and guest with someone, I sound like me.”

As Martin notes, the M-6 and M-7 are the latest footnotes in Marr’s storied association with the brand. Over the years, he’s loyally played a D-28, and famously used his 1971 model to record hits such as There Is a Light That Never Goes Out and Cemetery Gates.

The Martin M-6 and M-7 models are available now for $4,999 apiece.

Visit Martin to find out more.

In the final issue of Total Guitar, the esteemed British guitar magazine is celebrating 30 years of history with an epic search through its sprawling archives. One of the highlights that has been unearthed is a classic interview with Noel Gallagher – where he discusses the time Oasis nearly had Johnny Marr as a second guitarist.

The interview dates back to a moment in time when the Britpop band were finishing work on their fourth album, Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants.

During that interview at Wheeler End Studios, just outside London, Gallagher reflected on handling nearly all of the guitar and bass parts on the album due to the departure of two founding members: guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs and bassist Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan. He also revealed how Smiths legend Johnny Marr had been ready to step in if needed.

“I never really wanted to play lead,” Gallagher admitted. “I’m more of a rhythm guitar player. That’s how I write.”

“Johnny Marr offered his services to the band. He said, ‘If you can’t find anyone I’ll step in for a while’. And we said, ‘Fine’. But then we recruited Gem [Archer]. Johnny was just gonna save us if we didn’t have anyone.”

Marr and the Gallagher brothers go way back. In addition to sharing the common thread of being from Manchester-Irish families, the veteran guitarist met Oasis when they were still relatively unknown.

As the story goes, Marr noticed they were taking a long time tuning between songs, so he loaned Noel a couple of his guitars, including a Les Paul previously owned by The Who's John Entwistle.

For Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, Gallagher continued the tradition of using Marr's guitars.

“I got this Les Paul from Johnny,” he said. “There were really modern pickups in it and I didn’t like it. So I tossed the pickups out, took some from another guitar, and put them in this.” He quipped, “It’s a better guitar now, so he’s not getting it back!”

Following the band’s much-hyped reunion announcement, a handful of Oasis guitars – including Noel’s Definitely Maybe Epiphone Les Paul – exceeded initial estimates at a recent Sotheby’s auction.

Johnny Marr's 1988 Fender American vintage 1962 reissue Stratocaster and 1980s Mesa Boogie amplifier rig are expected to reach £15,000-£25,000 ($19,500-$32,500) and £2,000-£4,000 ($2,600-5,200) at an upcoming auction.

The Strat, which features an Olympic White finish, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, upgraded EMG pickups and upgraded hardware, is in good condition, despite having a few scuffs from its heavy usage.

“This guitar was given to Johnny Marr by Fender back in 1988. And in 1988 itself, he joined The The after a short stint with The Pretenders. The seller purchased it directly from Johnny Marr,” says auctioneer and guitar expert Luke Hobbs from the auction house Gardiner Houlgate.

The guitar was Marr's touring instrument during his tenure with the English post-punk band The The, particularly during their lengthy 1989 to 1990 The The Versus the World tour.

It was made in the premises that later became the Fender Custom Shop, and was crafted to the same specs as Marr's favorite guitar, his 1962 Strat, which was too valuable to risk damage or theft.

Johnny Marr's guitar tech, Phil Powell, kitted it with EMG pickups during the American leg of the tour to deal with hum issues. Moreover, it has an old-style Precision bass brass knob, which allows for better grip.

The guitar can be spotted in the live concert film The The Versus the World at The Royal Albert Hall and was featured heavily in promotional material released during that era.

The Strat comes in its original case, which comes with Marr's personal thumb pick and a custom Ernie Ball ‘Johnny’ plectrum, various photos of Marr, a signed provenance note and signed headstock, a postcard detailing the guitar's use, and various magazines from that era.

Alongside the Strat, the auction features Marr's 1980s Mesa/Boogie amplifier rig. This comprises a Mesa/Boogie studio preamp, quad preamp, Simul-Class 295 power amplifier and footswitch, bearing live settings hand-marked to the control knobs.

In a 1997 The Guitar Magazine interview, Marr talked about his rig during this era: “I decided it was time to concentrate on playing just one guitar onstage through an entire set and letting technology do the rest of the work.

“In the Smiths, I used to take 14 guitars out on the road; in The The I’d just take two Strats… my rack cost more than the entire guitar collection! But it was all about playing, which was great.”

The auction is set to take place on September 3, alongside a limited-edition Malmbeg ABBA 40th anniversary star guitar, left-handed Gordon Smith GS-2 inspired by John Lennon's Gibson Les Paul Junior, and a 1973 Gordon Smith guitar made for Nightwing's Alec Johnson.

For more information, visit Gardiner Houlgate.

Johnny Marr has long been known as “the man who would not solo”. But that’s kinda inaccurate, as Marr has soloed, sometimes in decidedly sing-song fashion, like on the Smiths’ Shoplifters of the World, for example. So maybe, Marr should be known as “the man who used crystal-clear arpeggios and interesting chord inversions rather than pulling off divebombs via big-ass amps” instead. Then again, legends via folklore aren’t born through literalism.

Anyway, as per the perpetual positive vibes slung Marr’s way, we can agree that he’s the proverbial king of the antiheroes – regardless of whether he solos. None of that has mattered to Marr, though, as he continues to craft landscape-defining indie music. But beyond that music, Marr’s life has been defined by utter devotion to all things six-string.

Marr is so intertwined with his now-massive collection of curios that he’s decided to celebrate them via Marr’s Guitars (HarperCollins, 2023), a 288-page book that reads more like a life story than an art project. To that end, Marr agrees.

“I’m glad it reads that way, because it’s basically my life story through the lens of photographing my guitars”, he says. “The original inspiration came through photo shoots with Pat Graham while he was working on a book called Instrument. I recognized his unique way of photographing guitars, which I found very beautiful. 

“Pat takes these close-up, abstract shots that show a bit of rust on the bridge or a scuff on the neck, and I was fascinated by that. I originally wanted Marr’s Guitars to be full of abstract photos, but as more guitars were photographed, it evolved.”

If you’ve been following along with Marr, you’ll know he’s almost never without his trusty Fender Jaguar. It’s understandable, as he has done some incredible things with the guitar that figuratively and literally bears his signature. 

When asked what drew him to the offset, Marr says, “The Jag, specifically my signature Jag, is a cross between a Gretsch and a Rickenbacker. And it plays like a Fender, but sonically, it’s like playing all three. It’s completely custom-made to sound like me. Like the Rickenbacker, the Jag made me play like me. 

“When I picked up Isaac Brock’s [Modest Mouse] ’63 Jag while writing Dashboard, it was life-changing. And here I am still playing the Jag. I don’t even like guitar changes in my live set.”

Putting together Marr’s Guitars has re-established Marr’s connection with many long-relegated axes in his extensive collection. “When I picked up my Epiphone Casino that I hadn’t played in 25 years, I was transported back to the last time I played it. When I grabbed my green Fender Tele I got in ’84, I remembered the clothes I wore when I got it. It’s hard to explain; guitar players will know what I’m talking about.

That “hard to explain” thing is precisely what Marr’s Guitars is about. Sure, Marr has a massive, covet-worthy collection of guitars, but if we step outside the grandeur and dig into the crux of the thing, undoubtedly, one can understand the relationship. More so than any other instrument, a guitar in hand can transport the player to a time when a literal millisecond defined a feeling.

“There’s tiny little messages you get from your brain when you put your hand on a neck,” Marr says. “You expect it to be slim, and it’s not. It’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is like a 1960 neck.’ Or you pick up a Tele, and you’re like, ‘I was expecting this to be much lighter,’ but you remember why it’s not.”

Marr smiles before adding, “And when you plug it in, you hear that sound and the nuances that make old, non-generic guitars different. The pickups are hand-wound, and human beings carved out the neck. You forget how individual guitars are and how they get that character – until you pick them up again.

“A vintage guitar isn’t rad because it’s old and cool,” he says. “It’s about the unusual things that – as soon as you grab it – make you say, ‘Okay, yeah, that’s right. I remember that about this guitar.’”

Tell me about how you came upon your Rickenbacker 330. 

“I got it when the Smiths started taking off. It was the first ‘Does this mean I’ve made it?’ thing I got. Before that, I had been playing a Gretsch [Chet Atkins] Super Axe and constantly snapping strings because I was tuned up a whole step. I was forever snapping strings, and when the band got a deal, I got the Rickenbacker to be my backup guitar,’ but that changed because it was better than my ‘main guitar.’ [Laughs]”

Did you immediately know it was special?

“I knew it would make me play a certain way about chords and arpeggios. I knew the strength of the Smiths in those early years was the chord progressions I was using, and I didn’t want to do anything that reminded me – or anyone else – of pentatonic stuff. 

“The Rickenbacker steered me in the harmonic direction of unusual arpeggios and chord changes. It was an excellent instinctive choice; I’ve had friends buy Rickenbackers, and they’re never as good as mine. It turns out that in the early ’80s, Rickenbacker made some particularly good guitars.”

Have you figured out why?

“I used to think it was the finish. But then Martin Kelly [musician, label boss] told me that John Hall took over Rickenbacker in ’84 and spent 18 months getting all the specifications improved. 

“And it’s often said that ’86 is the vintage year, but I bought mine in ’84 when John Hall took over the company, and it’s been great. I’ve always had an instinct that those few years in the ’80s were particularly good, and I was right. Those were the comeback years for Rickenbacker.”

And how about the 12-string sunburst ES-335 used during the Strangeways, Here We Come sessions?

“At that point, I liked 12-string guitars, but like almost every other player on the planet, I learned that they took some application. I had been playing a Rickenbacker, and a 12-string was a hassle for an impatient guy like me, who was now working with some impatient tech. 

“I had to get used to it, and it was a bitch keeping it in tune, especially those ’60s ones. But when I discovered the ES-335 12-string, I said, “Okay, let’s give this a go,” and it immediately clicked. It was a big guitar, but the humbuckers were dialed down and a little darker. That was the guitar I gave Bernard [Butler] from Suede, who remains the custodian of that guitar.”

Do you subscribe to the idea that we’re only temporary stewards of our guitars, as the best guitars will outlast us?

“That’s a lovely notion, and I agree with that, but that’s not why I’ve given guitars away. I gave them away because I’m close with people like Bernard, Noel [Gallagher] and [Radiohead’s] Ed [O’Brien], and I did it as a sign of respect. It was an act of sharing because I’m close to them. 

“As you can see from the book, I’ve got a lot of guitars, so it was a way of letting go and letting my friends love them. But I will say the Oasis thing with Noel was different because in the very early days, they’d only played a few shows, and no-one knew they’d be so big. I just liked Noel and wanted to help him as he was just starting. When I was starting, I got a helping hand, and I wanted to help a fellow Mancunian, Irish fellow, so I gave him the Les Paul I wrote Panic on.”

These days, you’re most often seen with your Fender Jaguar. Does it carry the same cache as some of the guitars you’ve had longer?

“Oh, there’s no competition when it comes to that. No guitar will ever come close to the Jag because I’ve played it exclusively for years. I’ve had these moments with the Jag, like doing the [James] Bond thing with Billie Eilish, the Inception thing, and playing Glastonbury. 

“When I had 60,000 people singing There Is a Light That Never Goes Out back at me… I’ll never forget that because it was so brilliant. As for the older guitars, I became famous for using those through photographs from the ’80s, and they were close to me. But nothing comes close to the journey I’ve had with the Jag.”

Is there one guitar of yours that people don’t pay enough attention to?

“One guitar that people who have followed me probably know about but maybe don’t realize is such a big deal is my ’85 Gibson Les Paul. It’s the cherry red one I got when the Smiths were about to start recording Meat Is Murder. 

“I got it to write on and used it a lot during that album. Before the Jag days, that Les Paul was on more records than any other guitar I owned. Many people think I was doing it all on the Rickenbacker in the ’80s, but a lot of the clean arpeggio stuff was done on that Les Paul.”

One oddball guitar I can recall is the nine-pickup Strat used in your Spirit, Power, and Soul video.

“Ah, yes. [Laughs] That was created by some crazy loon, who I imagine is somewhere in the north of England; they did that to a guitar. I got that Strat in the early ’90s, while I was out with a young Noel Gallagher. 

“Back then, I used to drink, and when Noel and I went to a guitar shop after a long night out, I saw that guitar, and it made total sense to me. But the thing about that guitar is it sounds terrific! There are nine on/off switches and nine out-of-phase positions. She’s a guitar tech’s nightmare, but I used it on [2022’s] Fever Dreams Pts. 1-4, and I wrote Spirit, Power, and Soul on it.”

Are there any guitars or tones you’re still chasing?

“The answer is not in buying another guitar, only because I bought one a few days ago. But I am sort of working on a sound… I’m chasing a sound I hope to use on the next record. You can have all these things, like a Uni-Vibe; I can have that, but I’ll only ever sound like Jimi Hendrix, you know? 

“As the years go by, it gets harder to do things that haven’t been done, and you end up sounding like yourself anyway. So there’s always a bit of chasing, but maybe the point of it all is adventure. I look around at all this tech, and I remind myself not to let it overtake me. I love adventure, but what I love most is the element of mystery that comes with it.”

• Marr's Guitars is out now via HarperCollins.

Gibson has rekindled its partnership with Noel Gallagher to produce an ultra-limited, special-edition reissue of the Oasis legend’s 1978 Les Paul Custom, which will be released to celebrate the grand opening of the Gibson Garage UK.

Notably, the incredibly classy electric guitar is based on the same ‘78 LP that was given to Gallagher by Johnny Marr. The guitar quickly became a studio and stage stalwart for Noel, who used it extensively for both live performances and recording sessions.

For example, the Les Paul – which Gallagher identifies as one of his favorite instruments – can be heard on (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, and also starred in the music video for Whatever.

As mentioned, this particular six-string has been created to mark the opening of the Gibson Garage UK, which will officially open its doors to the London public on Saturday, 24 February. As such, only 20 of these instruments will be made, and they will be available exclusively from the store.

Further still, all profits from the sale of the personally hand-signed ‘78 Les Paul Customs will be donated to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

“The Les Paul Custom that Johnny gave me in 1994 was always one of my favourite guitars and it carries a lot of history,” Gallagher said in a statement. “The reissues are great, they feel almost identical. I am delighted they are being sold to support the Teenage Cancer Trust.”

It’s a statement release from the two parties, so it comes as no surprise that Gibson has made every effort to make the ‘78 LP as close to the source material as possible. 

To do so, the brand’s Custom Shop Murphy Lab was involved in the project, with the guitar featuring a lightly aged Ebony finish, uncovered humbuckers and classic Custom flourishes, including the block inlays and sleek binding.

As Gallagher himself says, the guitar has a pretty intriguing history. It’s well documented that Marr gifted instruments to a young Gallagher while Oasis were still finding their feet – in fact, the 1978 Les Custom wasn’t even the first one that the Smiths legend bestowed to his compatriot.

Before that, Marr lent a struggling Gallagher a 1960 Les Paul, which ended up smashed after Noel attempted to deal with a stage invader at a gig.

As the story goes, Marr then received a call asking for another guitar to take its place. In response, he supplied a replacement 1978 Les Paul Custom. The same Les Paul, it turned out, that featured on The Queen Is Dead.

“Me giving Noel those guitars has become such a big story over the years, but people don’t realise that at the time he wasn’t who he is now,” Marr told The Guardian. “He was just a kid from Burnage.

“I had no idea Oasis were going to go on to such big things. I did it because he was in need, because I was lucky and had lots of guitars, and because I wished someone had done it for me.”

Over the years, Gallagher treated the ‘78 LP to a few tonal and cosmetic adjustments, including swapping out the original humbuckers for a pair of P-90s that he had cribbed from a Gibson Firebird, and covering the body with some gnarly stickers. The control knobs and pickguard were also changed during Gallagher’s custodianship. 

“Somewhere down the line, the pickups had got damaged, and I had taken them out,” Gallagher said of the Les Paul (which looks like a totally different beast now) in an interview with That Pedal Show. “That guitar is the heaviest piece of equipment I’ve ever picked up.”

For this release, the Les Paul has been revived in its original-looking format, complete with the humbuckers, cream pickguard, amber control knobs, and the coil-tap switch that Marr had originally had implemented into the instrument – the same coil-tap, it should be noted, that helped create the opening lead line of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?

That it’s been revived for such a good cause makes this release all the more significant. 

“These guitars are steeped in their own musical history celebrating the iconic moment one British music legend gifted a priceless guitar to another, like the handing of a baton,” said Teenage Cancer Trust Head of Music and Entertainment, Jane Ashton.

“Our sincere thanks to Gibson guitars, long-term supporters of Teenage Cancer Trust, and our Ambassador Noel Gallagher. The money raised will make an enormous difference in the lives of young people with cancer and could fund two Outreach nurses for an entire year, helping us to reach more young people in the UK no matter where they live.”

Only 20 of Gallagher's hand-signed '78 Les Paul Custom will be made, and they will be exclusively available at the opening of the Gibson Garage UK this Saturday. A price is yet to be revealed.

This isn't the first time Gibson has partnered with Noel Gallagher to produce a guitar. In August 2922, the brand recreated two of Gallagher's prized guitars – the 1960 ES-335 and Epiphone Riviera.

Over the course of Brian Fallon’s three-album solo career – all recorded and released while on hiatus from his main gig fronting the Gaslight Anthem – he never played any of his other band’s songs with his solo group, despite having sure-fire crowd pleasers like 45 and The ’59 Sound in his pocket.

“I just felt it was weird to have another band playing your old band’s songs,” Fallon says from his home in New Jersey, where he’s been tinkering with amps ahead of the October 27 release of History Books, the first Gaslight Anthem album since 2014’s Get Hurt.

“I guess it’s not weird if you’re Noel Gallagher and your band’s broken up and you’re not getting back together – or Johnny Marr,” he says. “But for us, it was less about it being over and more like, we just don’t know what the next move is. And it took about eight years to figure that out.”

Being off the road for a year and a half following the release of the introspective Local Honey in 2020 gave him space to think about what might come next for his solo career. The answer was easy: nothing. “I was like, ‘I’m good,’” he says. “I feel like I did what I wanted to do for myself, and I really did not have anything else to add.”

While at first he was hesitant to whisper the word “reunion” even to himself, he began writing songs that felt a lot like his old band. Positive Charge, the first song fans heard from History Books this summer, was also the first song he wrote in that initial spurt of creativity. “I was like, maybe I wanna write rock songs again,” he says, “and then that came out so quickly and easily, like it was waiting there for me to grab it.”

Fallon slow-walked the steps to the band’s eventual reset in 2022 from there, first calling on drummer Benny Horowitz, whom he credits as the “unofficial spiritual advisor” of the band. 

They talked, and then they jammed some of Fallon’s new songs. Once they brought in guitarist Alex Rosamilia and bassist Alex Levine, they dove into the back catalog without a plan, calling out songs on the fly to see if they still felt like the Gaslight Anthem. 

That reconnection inaugurated the second era of the band, consummated with sold-out shows on both sides of the Atlantic later that year. But none of it would have happened without the spark of Positive Charge, an archetypal slab of their barnburning style – “Gaslight Anthem 101,” as Fallon says – that connects right out of the gate with tortured licks from the J Mascis school of phrasing and overdrive. 

As they prepared to record History Books, they reached far beyond their early punk influences, and even beyond the oft-cited inspiration they gleaned from Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen (who turns up on the title track). In the process, they focused more than ever on guitar solos, the time-honored rock cliché that even Nirvana and Sonic Youth embraced.

“Everybody knows we came up on Bruce Springsteen, the Clash, all that stuff,” Fallon says, “and that’s true. But the music that was ours, when we were 11, was Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, all that stuff. It was very guitar focused. So I said to Alex, ‘I want the music to be more focused on guitar solos, and we should both try to do ’em.’”

True to his word, the 10 songs on History Books pack more adventurous guitar work than much of the band’s previous five albums. Despite their straightforward, punk-influenced heartland rock sound, Fallon and Rosamilia aren’t necessarily boxed into off-the-shelf pentatonic runs. 

On Autumn, Rosamilia veers into Come As You Are territory by manipulating an Electro-Harmonix Small Clone, the same pedal Kurt Cobain used on the Nirvana hit, with producer Peter Katis ratcheting the intensity with more effects on his side of the callback mic. 

“Peter comes in with this really hard tremolo, and he’s stuttering the guitar part while Alex is making a bend, and the two of ’em are insane together, and I’m loving this,” he says. The taste of freedom led to more experimentation in sounds, an about-face from the more conventional guitar sounds of their previous work.

“We kept the sound pretty traditional, always – clean guitar, tape echo, whatever Bruce Springsteen and Joe Strummer had, that’s what I want,” he says. “And when we did [Autumn], we were like, but that’s not ours. What’s ours? And what was ours was all this noise-rock insanity, ’cause we came from this angular punk.”

Those out-there sounds are an even bigger departure for Fallon, whose singer-songwriter solo albums became more mid-tempo and employed more acoustic instruments from 2016’s Painkillers through Local Honey. But with History Books, he not only slams the cover down, he practically tosses it onto the pyre. 

“Springsteen for sure taught me how to write songs, but Hot Water Music and Pearl Jam and Dinosaur Jr. and Fugazi and Sonic Youth, and even the Beastie Boys, that’s who taught me how to play those songs that I’d learned to write,” he says. 

“We didn’t know how to play as well as Jimi Hendrix or even Mike McCready or any of those guys, but we definitely could go [imitates guitar noise] with a fuzz pedal, and it was great. That’s the first time you felt like you had Thor’s hammer and there was electricity running through your guitar and shooting out into this lame town that you lived in. And that’s why you get into music – to kick stuff over, you know?”

• History Books is out now via Rich Mahogany Recordings.

Hello, and welcome to Essential Guitar Tracks. As you may well know, 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.

Our goal is to give you an overview of the biggest tracks, our editor’s picks and anything you may have missed. We’re pushing horizons and taking you out of your comfort zone – because, as guitarists, that’s something we should all be striving for in our playing. 

So, here are our highlights from the past seven days – now with a Spotify playlist…

blink-182 – More Than You Know

Released alongside Box Car Racer-esque ballad One More Time, More Than You Know strikes the opposite tone to the feelgood pop-punk of Edging – Tom DeLonge’s first song of his second reunion with blink-182 – and taps right into the band’s ‘serious’ eras.

The track ranks among blink’s heaviest offerings thanks to Travis Barker’s relentless kick drum work in the chorus, but more importantly, Tom DeLonge’s knack for an irresistible moving octave shape riff shows no sign of abating.

All of which bodes well for the reunited trio’s first album since 2011, One More Time…, which drops next month. (MAB)

Joanne Shaw Taylor – Sweet ’Lil Lies 

No, this isn’t a blues-y rerun of Fleetwood Mac’s Little Lies – it’s the latest track from Telecaster titan Joanne Shaw Taylor, who brings her A-game (both in terms of tone and phrasing) for more than five minutes of top-notch noodling.

Seriously, if you’re looking for examples of flawless blues guitar tone, look no further. Taylor tightens things up for a compressed, just-over-the-edge-of-breakup lead tone that she channels into not one, but two of the finest blues solos you’ll hear this week. (MO)

The Breeders – Divine Mascis (feat. J Mascis)

Two giants of alt-rock unite for this previously unreleased alternative joyride through The Breeder’s 1993 song Divine Hammer. Reportedly, it was sent to “guitar god” J Mascis for his input, only to be returned with an alternate vocal. The brass baubles on that guy…

Still, it’s all worked out and Mascis’ crackling vocal sounds superb over the real Deal backing, laden as it is, with colorful distortions and vocal harmony. (MP)

The National – Crumble (feat. Rosanne Cash) 

We sure weren’t expecting – less than five months after they returned with First Two Pages of Frankenstein – another new record from America’s favorite sad indie dads, and yet, this week the quintet surprised us with yet another new LP, Laugh Track.

The album finds the band pushing themselves in some refreshing ways, no more so than on Crumble, on which the Dessner boys put their cowboy hats on, throwing in some tasty, appropriately bend-y country fills to accompany Rosanne Cash’s sterling guest vocals. (JM)

Chelsea Wolfe – Dusk

The queen of gothic industrial guitar returns after her blockbuster 2021 collaboration with Converge. Dusk is typically brooding, but it’s less chaotic than Wolfe’s usual electric fare, easing off on the distortion pedals and upping the atmosphere. But all hell breaks loose for the outro as an arsenal of direct fuzz tones add an explosive edge to wiry riffs that would otherwise border on blues territory. (MAB)

The Vaccines – Heartbreak Kid 

British indie rock stalwarts The Vaccines ushered in news of their sixth album this week by dropping their first single of 2023. With the cavernous reverb soundscapes that hark back to early years Vaccines – especially their cult classic debut album – Heartbreak Kid has everything you’d want from a Vaccines song: a catchy chorus, infectious melodies, and searing guitar licks that test the band’s indie rock resolve. (MO)

Squirrel Flower – Intheskatepark

Imagine Wavves recontextualised away from the ocean in an overcast city and you’re getting somewhere near the super-chunky tonal touchpoints for Squirrel Flower’s new single Intheskatepark. That fuzz is thick, but it’s all juxtaposed with a wispy vocal that drifts over the top like smoke. (MP)

Johnny Marr – Somewhere

It may not feature his 9-pickup Fender Stratocaster, but alt-rock guitar hero Johnny Marr’s new tune, Somewhere, has pretty much everything else you’d want from the man. By that, we mean – from literally the first downbeat – arpeggios that sound as if they’ve descended from the heavens themselves, and ringing motifs that’ll stick in your head for hours. And just what is that Lipstick-pickup Jag? (JM)

Steven Wilson – What Life Brings

The first tastes of The Harmony Codex, the Porcupine Tree mastermind’s forthcoming seventh solo album, haven’t been especially heavy in the six-string department, but What Life Brings is a rich tapestry of gentle acoustics, shimmering tremolo’d electrics and an epic, exquisitely delivered guitar solo that is pure Gilmour. (MAB)

Yasmin Williams – Dawning 

Virginia native Yasmin Williams is nothing less than one of the most innovative and exciting acoustic guitar players in the game right now, and her new single, a fingerpicking masterclass titled Dawning, may just be her most dazzling composition yet.

While it’s technically airtight, the real riches of Dawning are its sense of melody and its rewarding small details – just listen to the harmonics that close out the intro, and the song as a whole. (JM) 

Art of Anarchy – Vilified

This hard-rock supergroup have gone through an enviable roster of singers, all of whom feature ‘Scott’ in their name: first Scott Weiland, then Scott Stapp, and now Jeff Scott Soto, who appears on their first new material since 2017.

For all the lineup shifts, the guitar heroics of Jon Votta and Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal have remained intact, and if you like your solos with plenty of aching bends and pentatonic runs, you won’t be disappointed. Oh, and hi, Cuba Gooding Jr.! (MAB)

Bleachers – Modern Girl

Recording extraordinaire Jack Antonoff has quickly become The Big Name in pop production in recent years, helming the desk for the likes of Taylor Swift, The 1975, Pink, Lana Del Ray, St. Vincent and many, many others. It’s no wonder that an artist with such a talented ear for crafting records would also be able to make exemplary music of his own, which he does through the Bleachers medium.

His latest track, Modern Girl, is Antonoff with the chains off, loaded with awe-inspiring Springsteenisms aplenty and copious amounts of jangling, chorus-coated guitars. (MO)

Malina Moye – Courage

Back in March, Moye singled out Courage as one of her favorite tracks from her latest album, Dirty. “It has delicious chords,” noted the guitarist and singer. “It’s full sonically and has layers.” Several of those layers consist of beautifully melancholic blues leads that deftly probe through lush, soulful chord work. Call us crazy but we even detect hints of Gary Moore in the overdriven solo tone and hangdog sustain. (MP)

Also on this week's playlist...

• Bad Nerves – USA (Live)
• Eliza McLamb – Glitter
• Hannah Wicklund – Lost Love
• HotWax – Phone Machine
• Pretenders – Losing My Sense Of Taste
• Crawlers – Would You Come to My Funeral
• Being As An Ocean – Death Can Wait
• The Beaches – Kismet

Johnny Marr is preparing to publish a new book documenting his gear collection throughout his career with The Smiths and beyond. The straightforwardly-titled Marr’s Guitars is essentially a six-string biography and is due on shelves this fall (October 17).

“Guitars have been the obsession of my life,” says Marr. “They've been a mission and sometimes a lifeline. So I'm delighted to have made Marr's Guitars. 

“It's very different to other guitar books and is more of an art book, with stories of songs and sounds. It's been a long time coming and is a labour of love.”

The book will reportedly run the gamut from his teenage pickings, through to iconic Smiths instruments, including his Rickenbacker 330 and Gibson ES-355 and onwards to the development of his widely praised signature model, the Fender Johnny Marr Jaguar.

The entries will be accompanied by shots from music photographer Pat Graham, which we’re told will “showcase the guitars fully and in beautiful micro detail”, alongside Marr’s personal reflections and tales about each instrument.

In addition to Marr’s better-known equipment, one of the more tantalizing aspects of the press release is the mention of various instruments that the guitarist has been gifted or acquired from other notable musicians. 

Among the inclusions is a Stratocaster from Nile Rodgers (we wonder if this was a signature model trade, or something more vintage in flavor), a Hagstrom from Bryan Ferry and a Yamaha acoustic guitar that once belonged to Scottish folk and fingerstyle great, Bert Jansch.

Marr’s Guitars will also detail some of the instruments that the Smiths icon has given away or sent on productive loans, including a Stratocaster that Noel Gallagher used in the creation of Oasis mega-hit Wonderwall and a Gibson Les Paul that went to Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien and subsequently wound up on 2007’s In Rainbows.

We reckon it’s a safe bet it will also feature the nine-pickup Stratocaster from 2021’s Spirit, Power, Soul video.

The guitarist has reportedly been directly involved in all aspects of the book “right down to the finest detail,” or so says Tristan de Lancey, Creative Director at the book’s publisher Thames And Hudson. “The result is nothing short of a careerography expressed through a photographic deep dive into the cherished creative tools of a living legend.”

Which is basically what we’re all about, so count us in. Marr’s book can also be viewed as the latest in an emerging trend in guitarist gear biographies (or ‘tone tomes’ as we’re calling them in group chat). 

James Hetfield recently announced his own book, Messengers: The Guitars Of James Hetfield, which will also be published in October, while Slash arguably set the template with his book The Collection, which was released via Gibson’s in-house publisher last year.

For more information and pre-order details for Marr’s Guitars, keep an eye on Thames and Hudson.

For enthusiasts, spectators, and aficionados, the '80s proved to be a fascinating time in the evolution of guitar-driven music.

In the '70s, rock music was mostly about sex appeal, glam, glitz and high-octane machismo. And while the '80s would provide plenty of hot-rodded presto-clones, a budding movement was bubbling to the surface.

The '80s indie and alt-rock era would ultimately diverge in many directions, detouring to the depths of goth-rock and riding the speedway of punk while hitting the off-ramp to post-punk on the way, before finally nestling into the safe harbors of jangle pop. But amidst the chaos, fresh music was forged via increasingly interesting and off-beaten techniques.

Remembered as a time when the elicit sounds of angst and discontent were allowed to run free, '80s six-stringers inadvertently amalgamated eccentric sounds and ideas, rewiring the brains of unsuspecting fans and critics alike. Call it blissful devastation via over-amplified glory – or, more simply, a changing of the guard.

The soundscape of indie and alt-rock had many originators, and while we'd love to cover them all, below we've narrowed down 22 guitar heroes who played a particularly significant role in shaping the sound of '80s indie and alternative rock.

22. Guy Perry (The Motels)

These days, The Motels' former lead guitarist goes by Adrian Peritore, but back in the group's heyday, the new wave strummer was known as Guy Perry. Perry served as a perfect sideman to The Motels leader, vocalist and star of the show, Martha Davis.

He used a variety of guitars in his day but could most often be seen brandishing a Fender Stratocaster. A capable songsmith with an innate sense for texture, Perry is one of new wave's earliest heroes.

21. Peter Case (The Plimsouls)

This Buffalo-born indie original was a staple among a bustling '80s scene with his band The Plimsouls. As the leader, vocalist, primary songwriter and guitarist, Case carried a heavy load for The Plimsouls but did so with style and class.

Though he's shifted chiefly to an acoustic guitar later in life, in the '80s Case often wielded a Fender Telecaster when laying down his indie magic. Though The Plimsouls' run was short-lived, their two early '80s records are essential listening.

20. Andy Partridge (XTC)

Swindon-forged art rock outfit XTC has never been known as a "guitar band" per se, but make no mistake, the contributions of vocalist/guitarist Andy Partridge are not to be taken lightly. As one of the originators of art rock, post-punk, new wave and more, Partridge formed an intrinsic musical relationship with bassist Colin Moulding, resulting in sheer musical magic.

Though Partridge was never one to showboat or take an excessive solo, his use of layering and chameleon-like approach to chord progressions handily defined the early years of the art rock and new wave scenes.

19. Craig Scanlon (The Fall)

Between 1979 and 1995, Mark E. Smith, leader of the legendary Manchester post-punk act, The Fall, worked with myriad musicians. But of all those various cohorts, Smith never once connected with any in the same way he did with guitarist Craig Scanlon.

Featuring across 17 albums and the co-writer of over 120 of The Fall's songs, Scanlon's use of Hagstrom II and III guitars, along with Fender Jags, quite literally defined The Fall's disruptive sound. After leaving The Fall, Scanlon was rumored to be dormant, with whispers of him possibly joining Elastica afoot as well. And though that never materialized, Scanlon does resurface for air now and again.

18. Gordon Gano (Violent Femmes)

With an acoustic guitar in his hand and enthusiasm for days, New York native Gordon Gano aided in the Violent Femmes' '80s ascent. As critical darlings and commercial underdogs, Gano and the Femmes merged folk, alt and punk into a blissful blend of unsettling and downright weird glory. 

Surely, you've heard Blister in the Sun, but the depth of Gano's songsmith runs far deeper, as evidenced by the gospel-punk group he formed in the late '80s, The Mercy Seat. An avid storyteller and an enthusiastic guitarist, if you have the chance to see Gano live, don't forsake it.

17. Michael Timmins (Cowboy Junkies)

Hailing from Toronto, Canada, the Cowboy Junkies were mainly comprised of three siblings, Margo Timmins (vocals), Peter Timmins (drums) and chief songwriter and guitarist, Michael Timmins. The early days of the Cowboy Junkies are the stuff of cowpunk lore, after the group's debut record was recorded in their family garage with a single ambisonic mic. 

But the group's second record, The Trinity Session, changed the game. Timmins' varied stylings are all over the Junkies' music, funneled through an electric mix of hollow body and Telecaster guitars. Known for playing while seated, Timmins' approach to his instrument is genuinely singular among his peers.

16. Jason Pierce (Spaceman 3)

The epitome of Rayban-wearing cool, and with a vintage Fender Jag adorning his wiry frame, Jason Pierce – AKA J. Spaceman – dazzled Spaceman 3's cult audience during the '80s.

Seamlessly splicing alt, space rock, and neo-psych, Peirce's shapeshifting tendencies as a guitarist proved a linchpin for Spaceman 3's chaotic blend. In addition to being increasingly active within the free jazz networks, Pierce found time to form another seminal band in the early '90s, the experimental Rugby-based act, Spiritualized.

15. Jon Auer (The Posies)

As a disciple of Big Star's Alex Chilton, Jon Auer carried on with the '80s tradition of lionizing forgotten '70s forefathers to power-pop perfection. Alongside partner Ken Stringfellow, Auer formed a bond via music that resulted in a sublime blend of indie heaven. Though not an innovator, Auer is undoubtedly a defender of the faith. 

His status as an able guitarist and über-talented songwriter made him worthy of the 12-string Epiphone he often proudly strapped across his chest. As one of the architects of 1988's Failure, Auer's legacy is cemented. But if you asked him, his aiding in a reformed Big Star's '90s return may well be the proverbial feather in his cap.

14. William Reid (The Jesus and Mary Chain)

A master of feedback and noise via a Gibson ES-330, William Reid deeply weaved himself into the fabric of '80s post-punk. The fuzzed-out, gain-drenched ruckus the Glasgow native conjured alongside his brother Jim verged on white noise, with just a touch of pop sensibility to keep things on the rails. 

As frontrunners among the masses, The Jesus and Mary Chain's first two records, Psychocandy (1985) and Darklands (1987), proved to be hyper-critical moments in a decade awash with pertinent music. Though a bit petulant, Reid and his brother still soldier on with their flagship band to this day, keeping intact the core of their sound via Reid's able fingertips.

13. Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü)

Considered an icon among the punk, alt and indie scenes, and a champion of human rights, vocalist and guitarist Bob Mould took the '80s by storm with his band Hüsker Dü. An aggressive guitarist flaunting an array of Strats, and the occasional Gibson Flying-V, Mould's aggressive approach, coupled with his cheeky songwriting, provided listeners with a shuttering display of off-beat duality. 

While Zen Arcade (1984), New Day Rising (1985), and Candy Apple Grey (1986) are showstoppers, Mould nearly managed to better them in his second and third act's with Sugar and as a solo artist in the '90s and beyond.

12. Daniel Ash (Bauhaus/Love and Rockets)

After challenging consumer appetites for oddity via music with goth rock act Bauhaus, guitarist Daniel Ash sought new ways to break the soundscape. The result of that yearning was Love and Rockets, an act Ash formed with fellow Bauhaus alum, bassist David J. While Love and Rockets featured much of Ash's signature brooding cache, he was able to flex his melodic side as well. 

From the start, Ash was on a mission to "make the guitar not sound like a guitar", and with a Fender Telecaster slung over his shoulder, Ash did just that. In retrospect, Ash's tone is like no other, proof of which can be seen through his enduring influence over the likes of Dave Navarro, Kim Thayil, and John Frusciante.

11. Lee Ranaldo/Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)

Hailing from Long Island, New York, with noise rock stalwarts Sonic Youth, Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore sought to tear down the idea of guitar-driven music completely. One of many struggling bands in a busy NYC scene, Sonic Youth emerged as Greenwich Village darlings, riding to the top of the heap through a string of genre-defying albums. The pair's viewpoint on their instruments was fresh, vivid and untethered to all established norms. 

Most associated with Fender Jazzmaster, Ranaldo and Moore weren't afraid to deploy modified Les Pauls, luthier-built Moonlanders, and Tele Deluxes to forcefully push their alternative tunings into unsuspecting listener's earholes.

10. Bob Stinson (The Replacements)

He was by no means a virtuoso or a hard worker, but as a founding member and the lead guitarist of The Replacements, Bob Stinson changed alt-rock forever. Known for being completely unhinged and often disastrously inhibited by copious amounts of drugs and alcohol, Stinson angrily attacked his guitar like a sloppy drunk on payday. Still, the six-stringer seemed to have a heaven-sent gift, and though he fought it through the use of intentionally abused guitars, garish technique and a punk rock attitude, his gift bled through. 

Stinson proved integral to the band's first four albums before being ejected from the band for bad behavior. In the wake of his departure, though, The Replacements soldiered on for three more records. Alas, without Stinson, their sound and vibe were never the same.

9. Bernard Sumner (Joy Division/New Order)

Sumner is primarily known in the modern age for his consistent jarring with former friend and bandmate, bassist Peter Hook. And though the state of the band may be something of a sad situation in 2022, dial the clock back some 40 years, and New Order was a true pillar of the alt and post-rock communities. 

In the wake of Ian Curtis's death, New Order rose from the ashes of Joy Division, embarking on a musical journey for the ages. Sumner's approach to the guitar is not unlike many of his contemporaries, but his ability to write catchy riffs via his Gibson SG set against a gothic background proved a distinctive and successful calling card. 

8. David Byrne (Talking Heads)

Scottish-born artist David Byrne's resume is as long as it is varied. As such, to simply rule him a "guitar player" would be doing him a great injustice. Byrne was the leader, vocalist, primary songwriter and guitarist of the legendary art-rock meets new wave act, Talking Heads. 

While Byrne played many guitars during the Talking Heads reign, he was most often seen with his beloved red Fender Telecaster Thinline Deluxe, which accompanied him on the Talking Heads Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2002. Perennially underrated, Byrne was a highly inventive guitarist and energetic performer, crafting many tracks throughout his career that are considered some of the greatest of all time.

7. Andy Gill (Gang of Four)

As one of the premier purveyors of post-punk, Gang of Four's Andy Gil deconstructed all preconceived notions of what the guitar could achieve within a three-to-four-minute cut. With an angular, jagged style, Gill harbored little regard for listeners' delicate eardrums. As a guitarist, Gil was unique, to be sure, but as a songwriter, he was in a class nearly unto himself, penning many of Gang of Four's most famous tracks. 

A notable producer as well before his 2020 death, Gill managed to oversee records by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Jesus Lizard, the Stranglers, Killing Joke, Therapy? and many more. As a man of many hats, Gill's impact is everlasting.

6. James Honeyman-Scott (The Pretenders)

As one of the most versatile and talented guitarists of his era, it's tragic that Honeyman-Scott is most often remembered for leaving us too early at age 25. He was handpicked by Chrissie Hynde, a choice that paid dividends immediately. To be sure, Hynde is an able songstress, but Honeyman-Scott handily added melodic fretwork and skillful-yet-subtle lead lines that tied Hynde's songs together. 

The duo's contrasting styles resulted in a divergent yet magical stew set to take the '80s by storm, but Honeyman-Scott's sudden death changed the trajectory of The Pretenders forever. While his moment in the sun was brief, his influence over his bandmates and peers is felt to this day.

5. Joey Santiago (Pixies)

Seemingly allergic to pentatonic scales and harboring an aggressively defiant swagger, Filipino-American indie hero Joey Santiago broke in with the Pixies in the late '80s. As originators of the loud/quiet/loud dynamic that would be perpetually mimicked in the '90s, Santiago and the Pixies should be considered true precursors to grunge. 

A perfect sideman for Frank Black, Santiago was a willing participant in a vision to erratically steer the Massachusetts-bred act off the beaten path and into an unknown wilderness. The Pixies internally combusted in the early '90s but would reform in 2004. Some 18 years on, Santiago can still be seen with his favored jet-black Les Paul, dutifully strumming for indie rock's favorite band.

4. Robert Smith (The Cure)

It's not a stretch to deify The Cure's Robert Smith. As The Cure's vocalist, guitarist and voicebox, Smith, set the gold standard for post-punk, goth rock, new wave, and art rock. With his skillful blending of melody and a never-ending desire to genre hop, Smith found himself an unwilling critical and commercial success, exploding to worldwide fame in the mid to late '80s. 

As one of indie rock's first "influencers", Smith evoked an emo aesthetic using lipstick, black eyeliner and a nasty habit of scribing depressing lyrics, bookended by classically influenced, detuned-yet-poppy guitar stylings. These days, Smith and The Cure aren't always active, so when they take the stage, be sure you're there to see it.

3. Peter Buck (R.E.M.)

At its crux, R.E.M. was a cavernous blend of sweeping desire, with its Rickenbacker-toting guitarist, Peter Buck, at its epicenter. While Buck is a capable songwriter and master crafter of memorable melodies, his approach to the guitar has always been simple. Through the idiosyncratic use of open strings and delicate chording to create chiming effects, Buck made a name for himself. 

Known to be prickly with a strong sense of "fuck off" exuding from his bristling fingers, Buck could quickly provide sudden bursts of aggression. And though R.E.M. shuttered its doors in 2011, Buck recently released his first new music in 12 years, All the Kids are Super Bummed Out, proving the unassuming legend's story has yet to be entirely written.

2. John McGeoch (Siouxsie and the Banshees/Public Image Ltd.)

Few guitarists in the 1980s could elicit sounds akin to Siouxsie and the Banshee's John McGeoch. With a tobacco sunburst Yamaha SG1000 in hand, McGeoch possessed an authoritative style, propped up by an array of inventive arpeggios, delicate string harmonics and a seething disdain for conventional scales. McGeoch would prove a massive influence over his contemporaries and future standouts alike. 

Still, sadly, he ended his career without a band and with no outlet for his music before his untimely death in 2004 at the young age of 48. The passing of time has been kind to McGeoch and his work, though, and as the years wear on his influence becomes staggeringly apparent.

1. Johnny Marr (The Smiths)

Marr has been described as "arguably Britain's last great guitar stylist", a "God-like genius", and most affectionately, "the man who would not solo". No matter the title, Johnny Marr effortlessly shrugged off once-ironclad notions. Unafraid to lay back, Marr's jangly sound, open tunings, melody-ridden arpeggios and chordal chiming are all notable components of his playing style.

Marr's restraint, dynamic refrain and fluid action while using various Fender Jags, Strats, Teles and Rickenbacker 300s set him apart from the pack. Marr starred with The Smiths before playing sideman with The Pretenders, The The, and Electronic, showcasing a pared-down approach to create harmonious space. 

As his career has worn on, Marr has continued to reshape and upend established norms with Modest Mouse, The Cribs and his solo work. In short, Johnny Marr is an indie guitar treasure.

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.

Maya Delilah – Pretty Face 

What is it? The latest single from 22-year-old British singer-songwriter Maya Delilah, who – after amassing a huge following via Instagram and TikTok thanks to her soulful six-string chops – releases Pretty Face to celebrate her new partnership with Blue Note/Capitol Records. It’s a perfect intro into the sonic universe of Delilah, which sees her emotive vocals orbit around a mixture of elite phrasing, impeccable feel and irresistible tone.

Standout guitar moment: Though Deliliah spends most of the track strumming away, she gives herself the opportunity to let loose on the fretboard around the 2:00 mark, breaking free from the shackles of rhythm guitar to belt out a blues-y, bend-heavy solo that literally oozes soul.

For fans of: John Mayer, David Ryan Harris, Madison Cunningham

– Matt Owen

Yo La Tengo – Fallout

What is it? The lead single from This Stupid World, the beloved Hoboken, New Jersey indie trio’s first new non-instrumental album in five years. Few bands have aged as gracefully into their fifth decade as Yo La Tengo, and Fallout, quite simply, is everything that’s so damn good about them in a four-and-a-half-minute package – snarling layers of distorted riffing that cleverly disguise sweet-as-candy pop songwriting.

Standout guitar moment: Ever the Neil Young fan, guitarist/singer Ira Kaplan – perhaps unconsciously – tips his cap to one of his heroes by stabbing a single chord over and over and over again at around 2:50. On first listen, you might expect those to be the opening bars of one of Kaplan’s trademark bizarro fretboard freakouts, but after all these years, he doesn’t need to race frantically up and down the fretboard to offer that same cathartic release.

For fans of: My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, The Velvet Underground

– Jackson Maxwell

Kiichi Chaos – Metality (The Vitality Anthem)

What is it? A modern-day renaissance man, Matt Heafy is apparently never settled unless he’s putting out new music. After Trivium put out their latest album, In the Court of the Dragon last year, Heafy turned his sights to Ibaraki, a black metal side project, under which he released his first album, Rashomon, earlier this year.

And now, in the relative downtime from both projects, Heafy has released a new single under a new moniker: Kiichi Chaos. This time, Heafy – a keen gamer himself – lends his formidable song writing talents to Team Vitality, a French esports organization who play first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, or CS:GO, competitively.

“Metal and gaming are two constants in my life that I hold near and dear,” Heafy states. “I've always found that gaming and metal go so well together... it's as if they belong together.”

Standout guitar moment: The riff that kicks in from the 0:47 mark following a melodic choral section is Trivium-esque, with galloping palm-muted chugs and ever-so-heavy arpeggiated low-string runs.

For fans of: Trivium, All That Remains, Killswitch Engage

– Sam Roche

David Knudson – No Ways No Means (feat. Tim Kasher of Cursive)

What is it? 2022 has become one of the most prolific years in David Knudson’s career. Four years on from the demise of Minus the Bear, the sonically inventive guitarist released his debut album, unveiled a new song with Botch, and even announced live shows with the mathcore heroes.

As if that weren’t enough, he’s now releasing a new EP, Undo / Redo, and No Ways No Means, which features the vocal talents of Cursive’s Tim Kasher, is the first single: a fuzzed-up hard-rock stomper that will have MTB fans bopping in an angular fashion.

Standout guitar moment: That main riff has something of a Morello feel to it, but check that octave-up solo with wild whammy (or Whammy?) bends: there aren’t loadsa notes, but the delivery is perfection.

For fans of: Minus the Bear, Cursive, Sparta

– Michael Astley-Brown

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Pretty Boy (feat. Johnny Marr) 

What is it? Manchester, England, has produced some of the biggest bands – and in turn, some of the biggest guitar players – of all time, boasting alumni such as Oasis and The Smiths. Now, two of those Mancunian guitar gods, Noel Gallagher and Johnny Marr, have teamed up for a new single, released under the former’s High Flying Birds name. It’s a perfect combination of the pair’s respective playing styles, filled with jangly leads, punchy rhythms and some acoustic layering for good measure.

Standout guitar moment: The acoustic and bass both do a grand job of holding down the fort for the first few minutes, but what follows the breakdown at the 2:30 mark is especially tasty – a wall of rhythm riffs that play host to an infectious lick.

For fans of: Oasis, The Smiths, Sam Fender

– Matt Owen

Buffalo Nichols – Meet Me In The Bottom

What is it? Side A of his new two-sided single, Meet Me In The Bottom is a thrilling expansion of the Milwaukee bluesman’s sound. Punctuated by a fuzz-blasted bass line and dramatic punches of feedback, the song – a re-working of a blues classic – is a magnificent roller-coaster ride that grabs you from the first bar and never lets go. 

Standout guitar moment: While distantly related to the blues, Nichols’ thrilling lead breaks – especially the second one – more readily recall the mind-expanding sounds of the psychedelic ‘60s, with their droning, almost sitar-like melodies and quick-fire pickin’.

For fans of: The Black Keys, The Doors, The White Stripes

– Jackson Maxwell

Iggy Pop – Frenzy 

What is it? A standalone single from the Godfather of Punk, who has tapped Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith for three-minutes of raw riffage. With production hero Andrew Watt behind the desk, the one-time-only supergroup smash speakers left right and center, serving up one of the most raucous 180 seconds we’ve heard in quite some time.

Standout guitar moment: We can’t think of a track title that would better describe Frenzy, with the single-note stabs and warbling riffs exploding into an off-the-chain, wah-loaded throwdown for the outro.

For fans of: The Stooges, Guns N’ Roses

– Matt Owen 

Vended – Overall

What is it? With the potent blood of metal royalty coursing through their veins, it’s no surprise that budding five-piece Vended have a sound that’s undeniably Slipknot-esque, with drop-tuned, distorted guitars, pummeling rhythm sections and spine-tingling sound design elements.

But for the stylistic cues the group have taken from their metal titan fathers, vocalist Griffin Taylor and drummer Simon Crahan – along with guitarists Cole Espeland and Connor Grodzicki, and bassist Jeremiah Pugh sure are paving their own path.

And another brick in that road is laid with the band’s ferocious new single, Overall, a dynamically varied metalcore cut peppered with enough weighty riffs to get any pit spinning.

Standout guitar moment: Lead guitar is generally abstained from to leave more room for straightforward riff brutality, and no riff hits quite as hard as the one in the breakdown from the 2:21 mark.

For fans of: Slipknot, Tallah, Tetrarch

– Sam Roche

Longheads – Glossolaila

What is it? Throw King Gizzard, the Doors and Black Sabbath into a melting pot, add a dash of desert rock and you get UK four-piece Longheads, who dropped new EP Mars Doesn’t Feel Like Home Anymore this week. The whole thing is a tripped-out journey that oozes atmosphere from every note, but Glossolalia is a relatively succinct summary of the band’s groove-heavy psychedelic approach.

Standout guitar moment: The second that solo kicks in against a backdrop of phaser-set-to-stun rhythms is a trip in itself.

For fans of: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, All Them Witches, Black Mountain

– Michael Astley-Brown

Samia – Mad At Me

What is it? The rising singer/songwriter’s first collaboration with pop mastermind (and ex-Vampire Weekend guitarist) Rostam Batmanglij, Mad At Me is the most outwardly accessible song of Samia’s career so far. Loaded with bubbling synths and packing an effortless chorus, the second single from Samia’s forthcoming album, Honey, signifies that she might not be an ‘under-the-radar’ talent much longer. 

Standout guitar moment: There’s not a whole lot of guitar on this tune, but what little there is – particularly that heavily-processed, feedback-coated lead after the first chorus – sure makes its mark. 

For fans of: MUNA, Vampire Weekend, Phoebe Bridgers

– Jackson Maxwell

Voice Of Baceprot – PMS

What is it? A hard-riffing, melodic new single from Indonesian trio, Voice of Baceprot. Short for perempuan merdeka seutuhnya (“completely independent woman”), PMS celebrates women who are breaking stereotypes and boundaries in all forms.

Impressively dynamic and varied, the track flips consistently between hard-rock riffing and more melodic chorus sections, even carving out a section from the 2:04 mark for bassist Widi to do a spot of noodling.

Standout guitar moment: Guitarist and frontwoman Marsya lets loose with a solo from the 1:37 mark, crafted with simple-but-effective melodic runs and occasional spurts of alternate picking.

For fans of: Burgerkill, DeadSquad

– Sam Roche

Noel Gallagher has teamed up with fellow English guitar legend Johnny Marr on his new single, Pretty Boy.

The first taste of the upcoming fourth album from Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – which is due to arrive next year, almost six years after the band’s last full-length, Who Built the Moon? – Pretty Boy finds former Smiths man Marr serving some of his trademark jangly electric guitar riffing over a bed of quick-strummed acoustic guitar. Watch the track’s music video below.

As Gallagher explains, Pretty Boy was the first track he wrote, demoed and finished for High Flying Birds’ yet-untitled fourth record, “so it’s only right that it’s the first thing people get to hear”.

“Massive shout out to my mainest man Johnny Marr for taking it somewhere special,” he says, adding that the first person to spot his cameo in the track’s music video “wins a packet of Flamin’ Hot Wotsits Giants” (a British snack similar to Cheetos).

In an interview with the Daily Star earlier this year [per Music News], Gallagher described much of the new High Flying Birds album as having an “orchestral” vibe.

“There is a track on the album called Dead to the World, which is one of the best songs I have ever written,” he said. “It gives people goosebumps. It’s quite orchestral and a bit like [1969 film] Midnight Cowboy.” 

Gallagher added: “The whole album has got a vibe. There’s 10 songs and six of them have got strings.”

The former Oasis guitarist also revealed that the album “took [him] a year to write”, adding that those who have heard it so far have given their approval.

“People are coming to the studio and you play them the track and they’re like, ‘Fucking hell! I’m getting goosebumps listening to that’,” he said. “I forget because I’m so into [it] now that it’s just a bunch of songs that I want to finish so I can write some more.”

Johnny Marr and Noel Gallagher have enjoyed a decades-long friendship, with the former loaning the latter guitars in the early days of Oasis in the early ‘90s.

As the story goes, Marr attended one of the band’s early gigs after they had generated some buzz around Manchester, but was not impressed with how long Gallagher had spent tuning his guitar. “You could go get a pint and come back, and he’d still be tuning,” he told Far Out Magazine.

At Marr’s suggestion that he buy himself a new guitar, Gallagher – who was unemployed at the time – retorted: “Alright for you, isn’t it? I’ve got like 12 quid.”

So he offered to loan Gallagher one of his guitars: a sunburst 1960s Gibson Les Paul and formerly owned by The Who’s Pete Townshend. The budding Oasis man accepted, and the guitar quickly became his main six-string, and was used to write Live Forever, from the band’s 1994 debut, Definitely Maybe.

But some time later, while on tour, Noel’s brother Liam became involved in an altercation when an audience member rushed the stage, prompting Noel to take a swing at the invader with the loaned guitar. 

As a consequence, the guitar was badly damaged, but fortunately Gallagher was able to convince Marr to issue him a replacement, this time the black Les Paul he used to write the entirety of the Smiths’ 1986 album The Queen is Dead.

But this guitar was sent to Gallager with a word of warning. “This one’s well heavy,” Marr wrote. “If you take a big swing with this one you’ll take the fucker out!”

In another interview with Stereogum, Marr described Gallagher as “a hell of a lot more than meets the eye”.

“He’s very disciplined,” he said. “He’s one of the most disciplined people I’ve ever worked with, without a shadow of a doubt. Maybe even the most disciplined. Incredibly industrious. 

“Then there’s the other side of his life. He can’t walk 100 meters around the British Isles without people stopping him for selfies, and he’s not insane. [Laughs] I would be, without a doubt. I only have to get stopped five times and I go into a meltdown about culture. He’s a very impressive dude.”

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ new album is yet to receive an official release date, but it’s slated to arrive next year.

Fender has reskinned Johnny Marr’s signature Jaguar electric guitar in a “highly limited color option," Fever Dream Yellow.

First unveiled on the guitarist’s social media a year ago in September 2021, and officially announced in May this year, the Fever Dream Yellow Jaguar is named after Marr’s fourth solo album, 2022’s Fever Dreams Pts 1 – 4.

Like the already-available Olympic White and Metallic KO iterations of the Johnny Marr Jaguar, the Fever Dream Yellow-finished model features an alder body, custom-profile maple neck with vintage-style truss rod adjustment – a design based on Marr’s trusted 1965 Jaguar – and a 7.25”-radius rosewood fingerboard with 22 vintage-style frets.

Elsewhere, the guitar features two custom-wound Bare Knuckle Johnny Marr signature single-coil pickups, controlled by master volume and tone knobs and a modded four-position blade switch, which can select both pickups at once either in parallel or series, or each pickup individually.

Other features include a Jaguar bridge with Mustang saddles and nylon post inserts for improved stability, and a vintage-style floating tremolo tailpiece with a taller tremolo arm and nylon sleeve insert to prevent the arm swinging during playing.

This guitar is now the sixth color variant of the Johnny Marr Jaguar. Alongside the mainstay Olympic White and Metallic KO colorways, Fender once launched a run of three limited finishes – Black, Lake Placid Blue and Sherwood Green – though these are now discontinued.

The Fever Dream Yellow Johnny Marr Jaguar is available now for $2,299. For more information, head to Fender.

While we first caught wind of the Fever Dream Yellow Jaguar last year, we suspect Fender put its launch on hold after Marr unveiled his insane nine-pickup Stratocaster in August 2021, for fear it would be overshadowed by the latter.

In an interview with Total Guitar back in April, Marr spoke about how Covid lockdowns inspired the creation of Fever Dreams Pts 1 – 4.

“I had the title Fever Dreams before the pandemic, but what was happening to everybody fed into the concept of the record,” he said. “I wanted to write about consciousness and perception. For the song Hideaway Girl, I wrote the lyric, ‘Every day is a fever dream.’

“My experience of lockdown was of time not meaning what it should. I’ve had conversations with people where it seemed like weeks were whizzing by in seconds. And then other times a day would feel like a week.”

It may come as a surprise to many, but the late blues guitar legend Rory Gallagher had a profound impact on Johnny Marr.

Despite cutting his teeth with The Smiths and building a reputation as one of today’s most prolific indie rock musicians, Marr’s musicality was significantly shaped by the untamed blues rock licks that emanated from the Irishman’s 1961 Fender Stratocaster.

Such styles may differ significantly, but, in Marr’s own words, Gallagher‘s 1971 album Deuce was “a complete turning point” for him as a guitar player – a significant shift in his guitar-playing journey during which “the penny just dropped”, thanks to the swing of In Your Town and blues licks of Should’ve Learnt My Lesson.

That context provides an even greater level of significance to the video below, which sees Marr wield Gallagher’s iconic ‘61 Strat to pay tribute to one of his biggest heroes.

Not only that, Marr can also be heard playing the battered-and-bruised Stratocaster through Gallagher’s Fender Bassman – the streamlined setup that was the crux of Gallagher’s world-beating tone.

The video, taken from 2013, was first published on February 28, just days before what would have marked Gallagher’s birthday.

To celebrate the occasion, Marr – who had just received the God Like Genius Award from NME – picked up his hero’s Strat to noodle through a range of blues-y licks and classic Rory riffs.

Marr has been vocal about the influence Gallagher had on his playing in the past, telling The Guitar Magazine in January 1997 that the Irishman’s “straightforward street image” appealed to him at a time when he was “desperate for something to call my own”.

“He had a very straightforward street image – jeans, plimsoles, a really battered guitar – and it just connected with me,” Marr explained. “I went to see him in concert and he scared the life out of me, honest! 

“He was so intense I couldn't believe it,” he continued. “I wanted to get closer, but I was scared in case he made eye contact with me and the earth swallowed me up or something. I can remember staying off school for a couple of days pretending I was ill and trying to play along with his records.”

However, the transformative moment for Marr came when he was playing along to Deuce: “There was one day when I was playing along to his Deuce album, which was just a complete turning point for me as a guitar player. 

“I sussed it out, and the penny just dropped; ‘I can play!’” Marr went on. “It's funny, 'cos about six months ago I dug all the records from that period of my life out again, and I can hear echoes of what I do chordally in what Rory Gallagher used to do. I don't know if anyone else would pick up on it but for me it was quite shocking.”

Few Stratocasters are as rare or revered as Gallagher’s own ‘61 model. Purchased in 1963 for £100 from the owner of Crowley’s Music Store in Cork, Ireland, it was supposedly the first Stratocaster to ever enter the country.

After acquiring the guitar, Gallagher quickly made it his go-to instrument and treated it to many modifications over the years, including new pickups and tuners. He also swapped out the vintage three-way switch in favor of a more versatile five-way, and wired the bottom tone pot to act as a master parameter.

The Strat was briefly stolen in the late-'60s, though was eventually found abandoned in a ditch after it was featured on a segment of the Garda Patrol TV show – a domestic program that worked to reunite people with their lost possessions.

Though Gallagher played a handful of other guitars throughout his career, such as a white 1966 Fender Telecaster, it's the '61 Strat that is synonymous with the blues great, having served him faithfully right up until his death in 1995.

Johnny Marr jumped onstage during The Killers headline set this weekend to perform a short run of Smiths tunes with the Las Vegas band.

Marr is currently supporting Dave Keuning and co on their North American run, and appeared during their shows at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena on Friday (August 19) and Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday (August 20).

Fan-shot footage from the Vancouver gig shows the indie guitar icon arriving onstage before Killers frontman Brandon Flowers asks, ‘Do you wanna hear a couple of songs?’ 

Marr and the band performed Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before and There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.

The following night’s performance in Seattle saw Marr join the band during their encore, once again performing There Is A Light…, alongside Smiths tune What She Said and The Killer’s knee-sliding mega-anthem Mr Brightside. 

Setlist.fm also lists Marr as performing during the encore of The Killers’ Portland show last night (August 21). Fan-shot footage has since materialised of all three shows (though audio quality is not great, sadly).

The recent North American shows are not the first time Marr and The Killers have teamed-up. Way back in the halcyon days of June 2019, the guitarist joined the band onstage in the UK during their Glastonbury Festival performance to play The Smiths’  This Charming Man.

The Killers are clearly relishing their chance to get back on the road and play (both with and) in front of people. 

Last month, they invited Phoebe Bridgers onstage for the first live performance of their song Runaway Horses, which was released during the pandemic on 2021’s Pressure Machine. 

The album saw the return of Keuning on guitar. Speaking to Guitar World in 2021, Keuning admitted that the pressure of constant touring made him reconsider his position, and ultimately take some time out.

“It’s exhausting – especially if you have children or family back home,” he said. “But even if you don’t have children or family back home, you’re never home… or you’re barely home and then you’re planning to leave again. I was burnt out from traveling more than anything. Because 80 per cent of the time, you’re not home. A little more balance would have been nice.”

Keuning says he missed playing shows but ultimately did not regret sitting out the tours. Once he was back onboard he co-wrote two tracks for Pressure Machine, including the title-track, which came together with him playing some chord changes on acoustic guitar while Flowers improvised vocals.

“I really like that one,” said Keuning. “That was one [where] I was on acoustic, and kind of the same process – I was playing acoustic in the room, he started singing scratch vocal lyrics, and it came about pretty nicely. There was a bridge I had for it that we never needed. And that melody, he came up with right on the spot. So, nice and natural on that one.”

For Johnny Marr, the idea to record a 16-song double album came to him in a flash of inspiration. The title Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 simply popped into his head one day, and that was it. 

“That title solved a lot of problems for me,” he says. “First off, it’s a great title. If I just called it Fever Dreams, you know, that’s good, but it’s not that good. Fever Dreams Parts 1-4 makes you go, ‘OK, what’s that all about?’ It made me think that – ‘All right, what’s this business of four?’ 

“So I had to work backward from the title, and immediately I realized, ‘All right, it’s got to be a double album, and we can release it in stages.’” He laughs. “The record company thought I was a marketing genius, but it was purely because I had this title.

From there, all Marr needed was enough songs to match the expansive nature of his concept. Fortunately, the British guitar legend found that he had plenty of time on his hands. 

After wrapping a 2019 tour in support of his previous album, Call the Comet, he began work on new demos just as the Covid pandemic forced much of the world into lockdown mode. “I had already planned to make the record anyway, so in a funny way I was kind of fortunate in my timing,” he says.

During this period, the only project that conflicted with Marr’s album schedule was his work with composer Han Zimmer on the soundtrack to the new James Bond film, No Time to Die. It’s their third collaboration, a relationship that began with the dream-based movie Inception in 2010, and continued five years later with The Amazing Spider-Man 2. 

“I worked on the Bond film for a few months, but even then I was still able to write songs for my album,” Marr says. “As most people no doubt know, there’s plenty of downtime when making movies.”

Although the guitarist insists he was dead set against making a straight-up Covid-influenced album (“that would come off as dated very quickly”), he admits the day-to-day experience of recording in relative seclusion subconsciously permeated his lyrics.

“I wanted to avoid being too direct about the state of the world, singing about stores being closed and all that,” he says, “but a lot of the album is about how I perceive things, and I made the leap to presume that my audience might be feeling the same way.”

He cites the dark and dramatic groover All These Days as an example: “On that I sing, ‘Drinking with my shadow / escape the sensory / another day tomorrow, tomorrow, endlessly.’ A lot of people were doing that, sitting and drinking on their own late at night going, ‘What’s tomorrow going to bring?’” Similarly, there’s the surging disco-pop gem Night and Day, which finds Marr singing, “Just want to breathe in the hot spots / it’s all TikTok to me / stop the clocks, please.” 

“That was being really informed by all the imagery I was seeing from your country in the United States on the television,” he notes. “The album is littered with all these references without being too overt to the point of losing the poetic sensibilities, I think.”

Taken as a whole, Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 is something of a masterstroke – a meticulously plotted 70-minute opus that breezes by like a record half its length. Throughout much of the album, Marr surrounds his songs with au courant electronic rhythms while drizzling his arrangements with the kinds of sweeping, kaleidoscopic guitar textures that have been his calling card since the early days of the Smiths. 

Whether he’s dabbling in driving electro-disco (Spirit, Power & Soul), getting introspective inside sophisticated balladry (Rubicon), rocking a rootsy rave-up (Tenement Time) or luxuriating in arty dream anthems (Ariel, Sensory Street), his rousing – and at times, symphonic – six and 12-string guitar treatments brim with commanding authority and crafty individuality. 

At 58, Marr still maintains the seemingly ageless mod hairdo he’s worn for years, and he boasts the kind of resume (the The, Electronic, Modest Mouse, the Cribs, and for a brief time, the Pretenders) that would make most guitarists green with envy. 

As he eases oh-so-coolly into elder statesman status, he considers his legacy as a pioneering modern rock guitar hero: “I was never a shredder, but the term ‘guitar hero’ to me sounds actually quite noble. Back when I started, I wanted to be a guitar hero who played great songs. This was at a time when there were a lot of things being done on guitar that I felt were outdated and corny. 

“But there was also a generation of young men in the U.K. and America who were onto something new – Robert Smith, John McKay, Will Sergeant. A lot of us took note from Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine. Those guys were game-changers. I loved all that… and still do.”

On the topic of game-changing guitarists, a lot of people would cite you and Peter Buck for how you both popularized the rhythm-lead style of playing in the early Eighties.

“Well, I wouldn’t disagree with that.”

While other players showboated their skills, you both seemed to operate with a kind of tasteful restraint. 

“A big lesson I learned when I was very young – maybe 11 or 12 – was when I read an old interview with John Lennon. He was talking about serving the song and being a really good rhythm player. And then growing up in the Seventies, it seemed as if one of the Ten Commandments of Guitar was, “Thou shalt be like Keith Richards” – you know, be the engine of the band. There’s people like Mike Campbell, too.”

I remember that Lennon interview. He said, “I play rhythm. It’s an important job. I can make a band drive.”

“Exactly. There it is. Now, to be honest, I’m still not above fetishizing the guitar the way we all do. You get me with another guitar player, and we’ll trade our stories about the SG we got in 1980 or whatever. If there’s a room full of guitar players, I’m the last to leave, man. I’m just as hooked as everybody else, and I have been since I was 5 or 6. 

“I just think that the way I looked at guitar playing was perhaps a little different from what others were at the time, and I think somebody like Peter Buck felt the same way. We both loved the look of Rickenbackers. 

“In my case, it was actually to restrict me and force me to play a certain way, believe it or not. With a Rickenbacker, I had to focus on chords, which was the right thing to do. Peter and I have that in common. Over the years, we’ve become friends, and of course, he’s someone I’ve got great respect for.”

Not to belabor the Smiths, but does your time in that band now seem like a million miles away at this point?

“Oh, yeah. Without a doubt. I’ve never felt like I’ve been running away from it, but I left that band when I was 24. Any 24-year-old leaving any job wants to not be defined by that. I’m proud of the records the group made, but in all honesty, I’d say I feel like I’m probably on part four of my career now.” 

After the Smiths, you’ve played with quite a few other bands. Do you go into these situations thinking they’re temporary, or do you sometimes think far beyond that? 

“Actually, I go into each situation with no idea how it’s going to turn out, and that’s the exact same headspace as when I was 13, 14 or 15, when I would go around the neighborhood and play in different bands. The first major band I joined was called Sister Ray, and they were these really gnarly adults. 

“I wanted to play with them because they sounded like a cross between the Stooges and Hawkwind, and I’d never played that sort of stuff. I thought, “Well, I’ll be a better guitar player if I learn to play at very high volume with these fairly druggy sort of reprobates who have a reputation for being amazing live.”

Sounds like a solid career move.

“Yeah. And then this other band that I joined had a really talented songwriter who lived just a few blocks away from me. It was a real challenge for me because he used to employ all these key changes and tunings. He was into Todd Rundgren and Andy Partridge, so we were playing all these passing chords. I got quite a lot of chops from that. 

“Going into Modest Mouse, for example, was the grownup version of that. I was invited to go to Portland, Oregon, as a 10-day experiment, and what happened in that scenario was we got tight as pals very quickly. It was like a brotherhood, and then it was just too fucking weird to bail.” 

Did the same thing happen with the Cribs?

“Very similar situation. We were supposed to cut four songs for a seven-inch or a 45 EP. I went in with all these riffs, and we just kept writing. The inspiration was flowing, so we went, ‘Let’s make an album out of this.’ From that experience, we formed a very strong friendship. So it’s actually the opposite of what it may appear to be on the outside. If you ask people I’ve been in a band with, they’ll tell you that I get very committed.”

Why then don’t you tend to stick around longer?

“I was in Modest Mouse for four years, and I was in the Cribs for three years. In each case, pretty much, I was ready to make another album, and the other guys weren’t. So I’d just go somewhere else and make an album.”

Let’s touch on some songs on your new record. Tracks like Receiver, All These Days and a few others have guitar sounds that hark back to the early days of the Cure and U2, but they also recall the early days of… Johnny Marr. Do you hear that? 

“Yeah, that was a conscious thing. I like those sounds. OK, I really have to put a kind of a modest disclaimer here: Along with some other people, I’m one of the reasons why those sounds exist. I like them, so I use them. On the other hand, it’s not like I haven’t gone out of my way to do other shit. 

“For example, on the song Ariel, or on Receiver, as you mentioned, there’s a real kind of flange thing going on, which is very much of my generation. And you know what? The part sounded great because of it. 

“On Ariel, when I played the main riff, I thought, ‘This is either me or Will Sergeant – or it’s both of us together.’ Those sounds were the vocabulary I used in the Eighties. They were useful then, and they still hit the spot when required.”

Tenement Time is drenched in delay sounds that collide off each other. And in Speed of Love, you play a heavily delayed solo that sounds as if you’re using an E-Bow.

“That’s me playing one of my Jaguars that’s customized with Fernandes Sustainer pickups. The guitar becomes a six-string E-Bow. Those pickups are amazing. If you’ve got the guitar on low, you can feel all the strings vibrate while you play. It’s beautiful, like an electrical storm all through the track.” 

Are you using that on the solos in Human?

“The first solo break has the sustainer on, but the end solo is a 12-string SG, which is pretty rare. I’ve got it going through a Leslie. If anyone can be bothered getting that together, I really recommend it for the sound.”

In many ways, the album is like an instructional course on the many ways a guitarist can use delay and reverb pedals. As it is with the Edge, those sounds are a real part of your approach to composition. 

“I just assume that delay is going to be part of the equation. I didn’t realize how much delay I’d grown into using until in the early 2000s, when a friend of mine picked up one of my guitars in the rehearsal room and started to play. And I thought, ‘Shit, man. There’s so much delay on there.’

“Around about the same time, Neil Finn pointed out to me that I play very loud yet gently. I never knew I played loud, because it doesn’t sound loud to me. My amps are very hot, but they’re also clean. As far as delay, I think I differ from somebody like the Edge, where it’s almost a mirror of what he’s doing. I play to it, so it’s just this halo.

“If you took it away, you would really notice. But while you’re listening to it – well, maybe you would notice, but a lot of people don’t realize just how much is on there. When I do sessions, which I still do, people are usually quite surprised how much delay I’m dialing in at first, but it usually kind of disappears behind what I’m doing because I’m quite a busy player.

You mentioned your Jaguar. Was that your main guitar on this record?

“Yeah. Over the years, I’ve kind of honed things down. The Jag does a big job. In short, my Jag sounds exactly like a Rickenbacker crossed with a Gretsch, but it plays like a Fender. It would’ve saved me quite a lot of money back in the day. I use that, but I always use a Gibson, as well. These days, I use ’73 Les Paul Customs for that dark thing. 

“For the last seven or eight years, I’ve also played Yamaha SGs for their articulation. The guitar I’ve recorded with more than any of the guitar is the red Les Paul Standard that I got in 1985 when the Smiths did Meat Is Murder. If I’m ever doubling arpeggios, that’s my go-to clean arpeggio guitar. 

“A while ago I started to use a Gibson doubleneck. Now I’m never without one because it’s just the best 12-string sound. It started with the movie Inception. It would be 3:30 in the morning, and I’d be jet-lagged and driving engineers mad while we were making a movie about people putting themselves to sleep. I realized the sound I was chasing was this distorted harmonic 12-string. And the only one that was in the building belonged to another composer. 

“It was this funky old EDS-1275. I started using it, and I realized that it’s the best goddamn electric 12-string sound. For a start, you’ve got the old humbuckers on there, but then you’ve also got this massive wood. 

“That gives you the option of letting the other neck ring out if you want to put it in a drone, which I sometimes do. That’s why I’ve recently acquired this very rare SG 12-string, because moving the other one around London, it’s like carrying a friggin’ sideboard.”

Any other guitars?

“I use a few acoustics that I’ve been using forever – Martins. There’s this company in the U.K. called Auden that makes these beautiful 12-strings, all handmade. So that’s it then – my Jags, some with the sustainer and my regular Jags, and then all the other ones. I try to keep things honed down.”

• Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 is out now via BMG.

Pearl Jam brought out Johnny Marr during their set at BST Hyde Park on Saturday (July 9).

The Smiths guitarist joined the veteran Seattle rockers midway through the set for their cover of Throw Your Hatred Down – originally from Neil Young’s 1995 album, Mirror Ball – playing the track’s extended guitar solo during its outro. 

Marr also appeared for the final song of Pearl Jam’s set – a cover of The Who’s Baba O’Riley – alongside producer Andrew Watt, who accompanied frontman Eddie Vedder on his recent Earthlings solo tour.

Much to our minor disappointment, Marr didn't pull out his monstrous nine-pickup Strat for the performance, instead opting for a Gibson Les Paul.

Pearl Jam’s Saturday set at BST Hyde Park was the second of the band’s two performances at the London festival, following a vastly different set on Friday evening (July 8).

Highlights of the band’s Friday set included Better Man – the first time the band have played the Vitalogy cut as an opener since 2014 – a cover of Public Image Ltd’s Public Image, and staple encore outro, Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World.

The group’s Saturday set featured hits including Animal, Alive and Dance of the Clairvoyants, and Not for You, which the audience requested over Whipping.

• Learn Johnny Marr's rhythm guitar secrets

Pearl Jam wrapped up their recent US tour in support of 2020’s Gigaton early after bassist Jeff Ament tested positive for Covid.

Aside from the last-minute cancelations, the tour served a host of notable moments, including a performance of Eruption by guitarist Mike McCready in tribute to Eddie Van Halen, and a tribute to late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins featuring Chad Smith and the band’s resident touring guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.

Also of note: McCready – known to be a tube amp man – was seen playing through Fender Tone Master digital guitar amps, while frontman Eddie Vedder and guitarist Stone Gossard busted out some rare Gibson electric guitars for the trek.

Pearl Jam’s current European tour is set to wrap July 25 in Amsterdam, after which the band will take a month off, before heading back to North America for a string of dates from September 1.

When John Frusciante made his 2009 solo record The Empyrean, he invited Johnny Marr to play on several tracks. From there, a deep connection was formed between the two musicians.

“It was really fun,” John recalls. “I got to see how Johnny’s creative process worked on the guitar. He’s very unorthodox: in The Smiths’ stuff, the guitar is often a thing blending in with the band, but when you actually see the way Johnny comes up with things, and the way he thinks through the instrument, it’s just totally unconventional. And it was amazing to see that creative process at work fitting into the context of a pre-recorded piece of music. 

“He’s is an extremely nice person as well: mild-mannered, no ego there or anything like that. When we were doing the mix of that album, it wasn’t like normal, when you write down what’s on each track on the sticker that you put on the mixing console – you write rhythm guitar, lead guitar, whatever it is. But with him, it’s just ’Johnny Marr!’ 

• John Frusciante names his favorite modern-day guitar players

“It’s like a synthesizer or a sound effect or something. It doesn’t function in the mix in the way that a guitar usually does. It’s its own little universe coming out of that one track. It was really exciting to see it from that perspective. It just doesn’t fit into the mix in any kind of traditional way. You’ve just got to look at it as its own rule.”

Repaying the compliment, Johnny says: “Without being overly simplistic or corny, guitar players are definitely a breed, and John and I hit it off straight away. There is this obsessive thing with guitar players – whether it’s about sound or scales or models of guitar, it just seems to be part of the package. 

“John and I were recording in his house, which was nice. And with him, there was a quiet sort of intensity. There’s an almost zen-like stillness about his focus when he’s writing. There’s this underlying honour in what he’s doing. John has an approach to music which is almost sacred.”

• Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 is out now via BMG.

He’s the Smiths guitar wizard who inspired a legion of indie guitarists to experiment with jangly tones. And, from the Madchester scene and 90s Britpop to later acts like The Killers, The Decemberists and The Drums, Johnny Marr’s influence is truly lasting. 

Notably, he’s created his legacy without languishing in one band for four decades – Marr’s influence comes from the breadth of his career’s work with acts such as The The, Electronic, Modest Mouse, The Cribs, and in more recent years as a solo artist. 

Here, we’re looking at some key elements of Johnny’s playing style; parts of his playing that were at the core of the sound of The Smiths in the 80s, right up to today’s solo work. Our tab examples showcase some of the technical and compositional approaches Johnny has used over the years. 

Work through at your own pace and appreciate the magic...

Example 1.  Sophisticated chords: Slash chords

Johnny Marr is a fan of using rich sounding chords in his arrangements, such as the C/F slash chord here – it’s a C major chord over an F bass note. 

F doesn’t appear in the C chord (the notes are C, E and G), so you can be sure you’re adding colour to the sound of the basic chord. To record our part we used a 12-string electric guitar, inspired by Johnny’s use of the Rickenbacker 360-12.

Example 2.  Sophisticated chords: Extended major chords

This example showcases a great way to play the major 9 chord sound, but listen out too for those dips on the tremolo arm, which are key to the sound. 

We used a trem-quipped Gretsch but Johnny is better known for his Bigsby-loaded Gibson ES-355, which featured on tracks such as The Smiths’ Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now. 

Example 3.  Sophisticated chords: Major 7ths & minor 9ths

Here we’re using one chord shape in two different contexts. Firstly we play the shape at the 12th fret with the bass guitar playing an E note, creating an Em9. Then the shape is played at the 7th fret over a D bass note to give a Dmaj7 sound. It’s a trick Johnny used in The Smiths’ I Don’t Owe You Anything.

Example 4.  Acoustic strumming

Johnny has a great rhythmic sense, and songs like Bigmouth Strikes Again by The Smiths or Hi Hello from Marr’s Call The Comet 2018 solo album feature strummed acoustic parts. 

The galloping rhythm here features on many The Smiths songs; the open strings help create continuity between the chords and add to the ringing jangle. 

Example 5.  2nd fret capo

In this example, we add a simple electric guitar line over our strummed acoustic example – similar to Marr’s work on The Smiths’ Back To The Old House or This Tension from his 2014 Playland solo album. Use alternate picking and make sure the strings ring out constantly.

Example 6. 2nd fret capo

In some recording sessions with The Smiths, Marr would tune his guitar up by a tone to F# standard tuning (F# B E A C# F#). Obviously a capo at the 2nd fret is the more practical choice for the sake of experimenting. 

Our example is inspired by 2nd-fret capo songs like Barbarism Begins At Home and This Night Has Opened My Eyes. 

Example 7. Fuzzy tones

There are several The Smiths songs such as What Difference Does It Make and Sheila Take A Bow that feature fuzz distortion tones, in addition to more recent songs like Tenement Time. Our example has a shuffle feel, so all of the eighth notes are slightly swung. The open strings provide sustain, ringing out to provide a denser texture. 

Example 8. Funky partial chords

For this example, we’re embellishing the acoustic guitar foundation we laid down in Example 6. Johnny’s two-note chord approach can be heard on Smiths tracks such as This Charming Man and Meat Is Murder. The main consideration here is to maintain the muting of the open strings with your idle fretting fingers. 

Example 9. Layering parts 1: Jangle chords

Marr is known for his multi-tracked soundscapes with layered guitar parts. For our example we started by double-tracking an acoustic guitar part with a 2nd-fret capo. The next layer is notated here and consists of simple spread chords played on a 12-string electric guitar with a capo on the 2nd fret. The idea is to add to the track, but still leave enough space for the next layer.

Example 10. Layering parts 2: Doublestops and harmonics

Inspired by Cemetry Gates and This Charming Man, we’re adding another layer to the previous part here with a simple motif using doublestops and natural harmonics.