The rise of generative AI has brought about a paradigm shift, leaving both artists and music fans scrambling to differentiate between what is real and what is artificial.

Gone are the days when online sleuths were concerned about whether someone was “fake” playing or using a backing track (that’s so 2025). Now, it’s all about whether the guitarist on screen is even human, or just a figment of machine learning and algorithms.

But even the machines have to learn from real players, as guitarist, songwriter, and social media influencer Sophie Burrell found out the hard way.

“I was scrolling on TikTok and got recommended a video of a ‘girl’ playing guitar,” Burrell tells Guitar World. “It was identical to my setup. Same camera angle, same room, same guitar, same movements. It took me less than a second to realize it was literally my video, except I’d been replaced by an AI-generated character.”

Initially, she found it funny. But that soon turned into frustration and anger when she realized that audiences were engaging with these AI-generated videos – at the expense of her reputation and years of hard work.

“It honestly feels like a Black Mirror episode,” she says. “It blows my mind that instead of learning an instrument or developing a skill, people would rather steal someone else’s work, slightly alter it with AI, and then take credit for it themselves.

“I’m angry that people can steal my content without my consent, replace me entirely using AI, repost it without crediting me, gain attention from it, and then use the engagement to funnel people towards whatever they’re selling – which is usually something inappropriate.”

Feeling helpless after social media platforms failed to act, Burrell went public with a video that has since gone viral. Turns out, her case wasn’t a lone incident but the latest in an onslaught of disturbing AI-generated playing videos specifically targeting female guitarists and their fans.

Sophie Lloyd is no stranger to the guitar world, having crafted videos that rack up millions of views, built a community of millions of fans, launched a solo career, and toured the world with the likes of MGK. Her high-profile public persona has led to her videos being targeted and, in some cases, being manipulated by bad actors to defraud victims.

“I’ve received dozens of emails from people claiming they’ve been speaking with me over video calls for months – clearly scammers using AI impersonation,” she says. “Some of the situations are genuinely devastating, with people being scammed out of large amounts of money.

“The idea that our music and content can be stolen so easily is really disheartening. We rely on interactions with our content for visibility, monetisation, and opportunities. It’s literally our livelihood being stolen, and platforms need to start treating it that way.”

Brazilian breakout star Larissa Liveir agrees. She is also undergoing the futile experience of reporting these videos, only to realize they’ve instead multiplied without any punitive action.

“I started feeling violated because I realized that anyone can take my image and do whatever they want with it, even things that go completely against my values,” she says. “They can put me in clothes I would never wear, create overly sexualized poses that I would never choose, or make it seem like I said or did things that were never actually me.

“I’ve seen them alter some of these women’s images to expose more of their bodies and drastically change their physical features in order to sexualize them without their consent. TikTok often says there’s nothing wrong with accounts using my name, my photos, AI-generated content, and comments asking people to message them privately, even though that obviously leads to private conversations where people can be manipulated and scammed.”

In some cases, bad actors go one step further to damage these guitarists’ reputations.

Tanya Yakimova is a guitarist, performer and content creator from Odesa, Ukraine, with over 1.7 million followers on Instagram alone. She claims: “Some people were using these fake videos to build trust with my fans and then attempt to scam them out of money. I have seen screenshots where scammers, pretending to be me, asked fans to send money or purchase Apple gift cards and account credits.”

After we conducted our interview, Yakimova’s team reached out with more unsettling news. “Recently, we discovered several Telegram groups dedicated to AI-generated explicit content, where Tanya’s face is being inserted into pornographic videos, GIFs, and images without her consent. Some of these groups contain hundreds of pieces of content.

“What is also concerning is that users in these groups somehow share and distribute real personal information about Tanya. We do not know where this information is coming from, but it adds another disturbing layer to the situation.”

While the forms and severity of the fraud and abuses vary between players, the fact that it is overwhelmingly female-presenting guitarists' and bassists’ videos being appropriated suggests a sort of AI-facilitated honeytrap, with an added layer of overt misogyny.

The actions seem intended to either degrade these players and put their reputations in jeopardy, have a financial motivation in defrauding and scamming fans – or both.

“The rock, metal and guitar world is still heavily male-dominated, and when you look at the motives behind a lot of these profiles (especially the ones promoting NSFW sites), it makes sense that they target women,” notes Burrell.

“They’re using female musicians to attract attention from a male audience, often older people, who might not realize what they’re looking at is AI-generated.”

Mercyful Fate bassist Becky Baldwin has also had her image used in deepfakes and AI-generated videos intended to defraud fans. She notes that “social media companies are not interested in protecting women. Women playing instruments gain traction on social media. They attract a lot of male followers.

“When attractive, scantily clad fake women are being generated on a massive scale to make money for an unknown person, it makes me extremely concerned for everyone’s mental wellbeing.”

Because of the wild west that is AI-generated playing videos, she feels “lumped in with fake players,” when, in reality, “people who follow me know that I have had a real music career, touring and recording for almost 15 years.”

Mari Zaghete, a 19-year-old Brazilian guitarist, singer and content creator, first noticed the phenomenon in clips from other players in her circle. However, it wasn’t long before bad actors started targeting her videos. “The audio was the same, the setting, the facial expressions, the dynamics of the performance – only with a different face superimposed using AI,” she says.

Zaghete believes that playing content, carefully crafted by female-presenting guitarists, is particularly easy to target because, aside from the image, “There’s [also] movement, technique, hand speed, performance, iconic songs… so these are videos that capture attention very quickly.

“Instrumental performance videos are easy to reuse because the focus is on the music and the visuals, not necessarily on the person speaking. That makes it easier for people using AI to replace the real artist’s image with an artificial character without the audience noticing.”

For Lloyd, though, “the bigger issue isn’t the gender bias – it’s the theft of copyrighted content and identity.” Indeed, laws relating to AI are practically non-existent or limited in most countries and jurisdictions.

In the US, Executive Order 14365 pushes for a “single national framework” for AI, though critics argue that it does little to address copyright and privacy concerns. In 2025, Congress passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act, aimed at non-consensual intimate imagery and deepfakes posted online and typically made with the assistance of AI.

Earlier this year, the Senate passed the DEFIANCE Act, which, if passed into law, would give victims the right to sue over deepfake pornography.

Across the pond, the European Union “lacks specific rules on the copyrightability of AI-generated works.” While in 2024 it enacted the Artificial Intelligence Act – widely regarded as the world's most comprehensive AI regulatory framework, especially at the time – the EU has been criticized for narrowing and softening some of the Act’s original obligations, particularly when it comes to copyright transparency and compliance requirements.

One thing all of the players involved have in common – aside from their gender – is their struggle to get the social media firms to take action. “The problem isn’t the technology itself, but rather how we use it,” says Zaghete.

“AI can be an incredible tool when used properly. The issue arises when it’s used without transparency, without authorization, and without protection for the original creator. Clearly, social media platforms aren’t keeping up with the speed at which this is growing.”

Metal guitarist and content creator Lauryn Leroy, known online as Lauryn’s Guitar, adds, “[When reporting], it’s hard to get through to a real person who understands what the issue is. Platforms need to be more transparent about AI-generated content and give creators better ways to protect their content from being easily manipulated.”

Ultimately, though, the solution is far from simple, especially now that this Pandora’s box has been opened. Some artists, like Baldwin, are calling for a complete boycott.

“We should keep talking about how social media companies should take responsibility and at least clearly mark AI content, or ideally, allow us to block AI content from our feed,” she says. “We should not be funding social media companies through advertising while they are refusing to keep their users safe.”

Others recognize that AI can be leveraged – with limitations and boundaries. “I still believe AI can be an amazing tool for learning, creativity, and enhancing people’s craft, but it needs to be properly supervised and regulated,” says Lloyd. “There should absolutely be stronger copyright laws and protections surrounding AI-generated content and impersonation.”

Leroy emphasizes the need for platforms to be “more transparent about AI-generated content and give creators better ways to protect their content from being easily manipulated.”

Ultimately, nothing will change until there are genuine financial and legal consequences for AI fraudsters. As Zaghete observes: “If AI-modified content were prevented from being monetized, there would be a major decline in this type of material.”

Guitar World reached out to Meta with a request for comment on what it’s actively doing to protect artists and creators in the new world of AI. A representative responded, “We want people to know when they see posts that have been made with AI. In 2024, we announced a new approach for labeling AI-generated content.

“An important part of this approach relies on industry-standard indicators that other companies include in content created using their tools, which help us assess whether something is created using AI.”

TikTok did not reply.

• Have you experienced a similar issue with AI-generated guitar playing videos, or been scammed yourself? Get in touch with the Guitar World team at guitarworld@futurenet.com if you’d like to share your story.

British shredder Sophie Lloyd got her big break when she was scouted to play guitar for Machine Gun Kelly (mgk), and the gig has helped her navigate her performance anxiety.

Today, Lloyd boasts 1.3M YouTube subscribers, thanks to her lyrical instrumental arrangements that cover everyone from Muse to Britney Spears. Her blossoming solo career also saw her debut show at the Whisky A-Go-Go sell out in under five minutes.

But, as she reveals to Premier Guitar, her invitation into mgk’s band also saw her face one of her biggest fears head-on.

“I had an online career, and it started with a random DM,” Lloyd says of how she got the gig. “My anxiety got really bad during COVID. I was nervous playing in front of my mom and dad. I would avoid playing live at all costs, so I was almost grateful that COVID happened and I didn't have to do any live gigs.

“I knew I wanted to overcome that,” she continues. “I do enjoy performing, but the anxiety around it was crippling. I started doing things on Twitch, so I was behind a camera. There was a safety barrier there.”

Lloyd first joined mgk in 2022, debuting on his Mainstream Sellout world tour. Though the gig turned her life upside down in record time, it also provided her the opportunity to prove to herself that she was capable of playing massive shows.

“I was playing in front of 50 people the weekend before I first came out to LA [to join mgk], and then two days later I was playing my first arena in front of 13,000,” Lloyd laughs. “It was an insane jump, but it was an amazing moment. I had a moment where I looked out and felt that ‘This is where I'm meant to be.’ It was empowering.

“Now I can say it's pretty much completely gone. I just played the Women's Rugby World Cup final at Twickenham [London], playing by myself in front of a stadium of 80,000 people, and I felt so confident. There are always good days and bad days, but I'm proud to say I've overcome most of it. A couple of shots of tequila never hurts, either!”

Lloyd has regularly lifted the veil of what it's like being a working musician in the 2020s, including detailing what it meanas to be a successful guitarist in the social media era.

Her star-studded debut album, Imposter Syndrome, meanwhile, talks about exactly that, and it was something that she found many of her collaborators also suffered from.

The Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 came to a thrilling end over the weekend with England edging out Canada in a cross-Atlantic final – and shred hero Sophie Lloyd was handpicked to open the show.

Lloyd blended her original song Battleground with Bon Jovi's undeniable banger, Livin' on a Prayer, wielding her Kiesel Aries signature guitar for the occasion. It was a scintillating showing, one made even more impressive by the fact Lloyd shredded solo in front of 82,000.

“I seriously can’t get over how incredible yesterday was,” Lloyd later reflected in a heartfelt Instagram post. “Getting to open up the Women’s Rugby World Cup final to 82,000 people was one of the proudest moments of my life.

“It felt like such an empowering day for women everywhere, and I’m so honored to have played a part in it,” she continues. “Congratulations to all the players for helping shape history, and an extra special congrats to England for bringing the cup home.”

The Machine Gun Kelly guitarist's virtuosic reworkings of classic songs have seen her amass 1.25 million YouTube subscribers, cementing her as one of the most popular players of her generation.

She released a covers album and an LP of original material in 2023, officially launching her solo career, with her first show selling out in five minutes.

Her YouTube videos have proven to be quite the spectacle, too. Highlights include shredding Metallica with snakes and a tarantula named Rosie. Another, meanwhile, ended with a trip to the hospital when her finger went numb.

More recently, she has spoken candidly about the realities of becoming a guitarist in the social media age, having previously discussed her struggles with imposter syndrome.

But in front of a record crowd at the home of British rugby, she showed her class in droves, complete with dive bombs, some sumptuous bends, and plenty of flair.

Social media has undoubtedly played a key role in Sophie Lloyd's trajectory. From her first foray into the YouTube guitar scene in 2011, to being recruited as Machine Gun Kelly's guitarist and establishing herself as a bona fide solo act over the last couple of years, Lloyd has been serving one masterclass after another on how contemporary guitarists can leverage social media to rise the echelons of the guitar world.

Yet, this doesn't come without its pressures. Both Yvette Young and Matteo Mancuso have recently commented on the pressures of delivering surgical perfection when playing live shows, as each recorded moment – and a slight mistake while playing – can come back to haunt them.

In a candid social media statement, Lloyd lays her cards on the table about operating in the social media age and the constantly demanding algorithm.

“Lately I’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed with the pressures of social media,” she writes. “With so many amazing creators out there, I’ve been finding it harder and harder to stand out and keep up with the constantly changing algorithm. I kept comparing myself to others, chasing numbers, and honestly, it just stopped being fun.

“I think back to when I started posting videos when I was a young girl, I was so excited to pick up a guitar for hours every night learning my favourite songs, and sharing that with whoever would listen, not worrying about views or likes. I want to rediscover that passion and love for guitar and music.”

Her statement is accompanied by a video of Lloyd's unfiltered take on Joe Satriani’s Satch Boogie from Surfing with the Alien – a record she describes as “the first instrumental album that really got me into guitar.

“The song Satch Boogie was one I tried to learn when I was younger, and could just never get my fingers round it. So the other night, I went and sat down and started trying to work through it again. I was sat there for hours, really enjoying myself, actually playing guitar for fun like I used to. I want to bring that back into the content I make.

“So it’s time for a shift,” she asserts. “I’m going to be doing a new little series on my channel where I’ll be posting real stuff. No fancy lighting, no fake eyelashes, no overdubbed audio. Just the room sound, and what I’m actually doing and wanting to work on that day.

“I’m also going to do some more chatty, fun content as well that I would enjoy watching as a viewer. I want to be more myself, not overproduce things, and just get back to the real joy of playing guitar and making content.”

In a 2023 interview with Guitar World, Lloyd spoke about experiencing imposter syndrome when she was recruited as mgk's touring guitarist – a phase that inspired the title of her 2023 record, Imposter Syndrome.

Sophie Lloyd has announced that her debut U.S. show at Los Angeles' iconic Whisky a Go Go will go ahead as planned, despite many artists and venues canceling shows due to the devastating L.A. wildfires.

In a statement shared on social media, Lloyd writes: “Like most of the world, I have watched, with horror, the fires ravaging LA over the last week. We have witnessed unprecedented destruction across a city so beloved by so many.

“It feels very strange to be discussing our gig when people are experiencing so much loss and pain right now. But I have had a lot of people asking about the status of our show on Thursday, January 16th, at The Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood.

“Things are changing very quickly, but at this time, we have decided to go forward with the show. Everything will go ahead as planned including all the VIP experiences. Safety is our first priority so we will continue to monitor the situation and update you if there are any changes.”

Lloyd also mentions how, “if nothing else,” the show going ahead recognizes “the resilience of the people of L.A. and maybe provides a small distraction to the pain people may be feeling.”

She and her team will also donate a portion of the proceeds from the merchandise sold at the show, alongside $5 from each remaining ticket sold, to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation. Moreover, she will auction the signature Kiesel guitar she'll be using at the show to Pasadena Humane – a non-profit that has taken in over 400 animals since the fires started.

“To the people of Los Angeles - my heart is with you, my soul is with you, and I am with you, and I look forward to rocking out with you guys,” she concludes.

Many artists have made the difficult decision to cancel their upcoming shows in the L.A. area, including Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel at the Smothers Theatre and both Universal Music Group (UMG) and Warner Music Group's Grammy-related events, to name a few.

The Machine Gun Kelly guitarist's show will serve as her full-circle moment after she recently shared with Guitar World that she once met her childhood guitar hero, Joe Bonamassa, backstage at the Whisky a Go Go – the very venue she'll be playing at in two days' time.

Fresh from headlining a sold-out London show at the celebrated Camden Underworld, Sophie Lloyd was approached to play LA’s Whiskey A-go-go. Her US debut will take place at the fabled venue on January 16, joined by guest vocalists Lauren Babic, Cole Rolland and Nathan James.

“It’s just the home of rock and roll,” Lloyd says. “So for that to be my first US show is awesome. I saw Glenn Hughes from Deep Purple there, and it was phenomenal. It really is a legendary place.”

The Whiskey gig cements Lloyd’s arrival as an artist, capping a journey from social media personality to Machine Gun Kelly session guitarist to solo headliner in just three years.

In that time, Kiesel has launched her signature model, her YouTube and Instagram follower counts have passed 1.2m each, and she’s released duets with Trivium’s Matt Heafy, Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale, and Black Stone Cherry’s Chris Robertson.

Sophie took time out to tell us about the players who have shaped her melodic and technical approach.

1. Edward Van Halen

“Eddie’s probably on everyone’s list, but I can’t have this top 10 without him. That’s mainly because of his tapping techniques and his stylistic flair. He could pick up any guitar and sound like Eddie. Eruption was the first tapping lick I learned, and I carry that a lot – I like to do a lot of two-handed stuff in my playing as well.

“I stumbled upon Van Halen when I was 14 or 15 and just getting into guitar, discovering everyone. The first song I heard was Hot for Teacher. Just that riff at the beginning was absolutely incredible.

“Eruption was my phone alarm for a while – so we have a love-hate relationship because it woke me up every morning. Although I love it, it slightly traumatizes me when I hear it!”

2. David Gilmour

“I was never really into Pink Floyd growing up. I knew Another Brick in the Wall and stuff, but I never really delved into them until I decided I wanted to do a shred version of Comfortably Numb on my YouTube channel.

“Before studying David Gilmour’s playing, I was doing a lot of like, ‘Look at all the notes I can play – look how fast I can play!’ and there wasn’t that much feel behind my music.

“It was a really pivotal point in my playing where I switched from wanting to play all the notes to show what I can do to, ‘No, I want to serve the song. I want to create an emotion and a feeling and a story.’ That really came from David Gilmour. Now I try to allow breathing space like he does.”

3. Slash

“I admire the way Slash built his career. Obviously he was in this massive band, and then he went solo. Slash [2010] was with a bunch of artists from all different genres. That album really inspired my Imposter Syndrome album.

“He wasn't the singer, but you could tell it was his album. I tried to emulate that. Imposter Syndrome had vocalists from different genres – but it had my playing, my solos, my tone connecting all of these different songs together.

“I love the way Slash composes his solos. They always have a beginning, middle and end, and they build. I love his tone as well – it’s really cool how he flips between the bridge pickup and neck pickup. I’m not that good at it yet… I’m very uncoordinated; I always end up flipping the wrong way!”

4. Joe Bonamassa

“When my dad drove to school he'd always have Joe Bonamassa on. I think his playing is just so beautiful and moving, and really tells a story. People might not see the connections, because a lot of time I do more shred rock stuff, but I always try and end things with a cool blues lick, or put bluesy licks in there. It’s what everyone can grab onto. Joe just embodies that whole bluesy cool vibe.

“When I saw Glenn Hughes at the Whiskey, Joe Bonamassa was there playing a few songs. I got to go backstage and Joe knew who I was! I took a picture and texted it to my dad: ‘Look who I met!’ It shows that posting videos and all of that, you can reach these people. You never know what eyes are on you.

“Joe uses the pentatonic scale in a really creative way. He’s really making it something you’ve never heard before, just by doing intervallic playing and bends and different techniques. That’s something I’ve definitely looked into.”

5. Joe Satriani

“When I was 13 or 14 I bought Surfing with the Alien in HMV. I didn’t know who Joe Satriani was – I just liked the artwork! Then I played it, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is fate!’ Being fully instrumental but still telling a story was so cool to me.

“He made it sound like you’re in space just by using instruments. With a lot of instrumental music, people can get bored quite quickly. But this was one of the first albums I could listen to front-to-back and always be excited and moved.

“Since I've got my Kiesel signature guitar with a whammy bar, I’ve been looking into how he uses that, which has been fun. His legato licks are really cool. The way he navigates through scales, it’s not just like a little box – it’s like a diagonal scale across the whole fretboard. It lets you do super-long legato runs, which has become a massive part of my playing.”

6. Orianthi

“My mom took me to see the Michael Jackson documentary This Is It. That was the first time I’d seen a female guitarist, who looked kind of like me, completely crush it on stage and kind of steal the show.

“She has cool fashion as well, and brings this really cool vibe to the stage. I became obsessed with her; I got into all of her original music as well. Highly Strung, with Steve Vai, was my favorite song for so long.

“I love her tone. It’s a very warm, rounded tone. I love her PRS. I’ve tried to emulate that a little bit with with my Kiesel guitars. I use black limba. I think hers are mahogany, but they're very similar woods tonally.

“She combines those bluesy licks with that crazy shred style. She can do both things so well, and she just really has a lot of swag. As a woman, it was really cool to see another woman absolutely kill it like that.”

7. Guthrie Govan

“I went to a music university in London. A lot of my friends were just obsessed with Guthrie Govan. A big one for me was his song Waves – I remember learning that lick. It’s this really intervallic lick with a bunch of slides, and it goes every which way. It’s a proper twister for your fingers. I was like, ‘How does a brain think of this?’

“Trying to learn that was a moment where my playing kind of stepped up. His stuff really engages my mind. I have to think about, ‘What scale am I in now? What interval is this?’ When I got that Waves lick I was ecstatic. It got me thinking about intervallic playing. You can make a simple scale sound completely crazy. Guthrie does that really, really well.”

8. John 5

“I’m kind of ashamed to say I discovered John 5 relatively recently. I’m a Mötley Crüe fan and when I saw he’d joined I started researching him. Last year with Machine Gun Kelly, we were doing a lot of festival dates with Mötley Crüe. I got to watch so many of their performances from the side of the stage. He’s one of the most phenomenal live guitarists I’ve ever heard.

“His showmanship is something I really took from him. A lot of people can play guitar really, really well, but he knows the showmanship is also important; your fashion is important.

“He’s got this crazy light-up guitar. Things like that do make a difference in that live space, because there’s something that people will go home and tell their friends about. And the fun he injects into it – everything is so much fun!”

9. Synyster Gates

“When I was went through my emo phase, Avenged Sevenfold were a big part. I used to say, ‘If I can play The Beast and the Harlot solo, I’ll think I’m a good guitarist.’ I can’t play it now, but I did play it back then, and I put that on YouTube.

“He influenced me a lot. He uses a lot of chromatic playing. I think Bat Country was the first time I was like, ‘Oh, you don't have to play within a scale! You can venture from scales!’

“He introduced me to the chromatic scale and the harmonic minor. He has a jazz background, and I think that really shows in his playing, the scales and the note choices. I try to use a little bit of that: making things sound really dark.”

10. Zakk Wylde

“A lot of what I got from him is silly sounds! He wears a silver ring, and he does this cool thing where he goes down the string, tapping the ring against it, and it makes these kind of spacey sounds. If you look at my earlier videos, I rinse that so much! You can do it with a pick, but it sounds cooler with a ring – or I used to use a lip gloss!

“I’m trying to work on my alternate picking now. I always find legato easier; I struggle with really fast alternate picking. I’m looking at a lot of Zakk’s exercises to try and get that into my playing,.

“He’s the player that my vibrato comes from. He kind of hangs on the note and then does it really, really wide. That’s definitely something I try to emulate.”

• Sophie Lloyd plays Whisky A-Go-Go on January 16.

As she gears up for her debut US date at LA's Whisky a Go Go next week, Sophie Lloyd has looked back on one of the blues rock veterans who played an instrumental role in her early days – and still does, to an extent, when she sneaks in a blues lick or two.

“When I was growing up, my dad would drive me to school, and he'd always have Joe Bonamassa on,” she tells Guitar World. “I think his playing was just so beautiful and moving, and really told a story.

“People might not see the connections, because a lot of time I do more shred rock stuff, but I always try and end things with a cool blues lick, or put bluesy licks in there, because it just sounds so good. It's what everyone can grab onto. Joe just embodies that whole bluesy cool vibe.”

Lloyd finally met her childhood blues guitar hero in person – backstage at the very venue that will kick off another chapter in her career (talk about a full circle moment).

“When I saw Glenn Hughes at the Whisky, Joe Bonamassa was there playing a few songs. I got to go backstage, because we knew some of the guys in Glenn Hughes’ band, and Joe Bonamassa knew who I was!” she exclaims.

“I immediately took a picture and texted it to my dad, ‘You'll never guess who I met!’ It shows that, you know, posting videos on the internet and all of that, you can reach these people. You never know what eyes are on you.”

Head to TicketWeb for tickets for her LA show on January 16, and to Sophie Lloyd for special VIP packages.

Sophie Lloyd may not be the first person you think of when naming David Gilmour-influenced contemporary guitarists.

However, the shredder has recently revealed that the celebrated Pink Floyd guitarist, known for his feel-driven style, has played an important role in shifting her perspective on what makes an exceptional guitarist – and, with that, timeless solos.

“I was never really that into Pink Floyd growing up," she tells Guitar World in a new interview. “I knew Another Brick in the Wall and stuff, but I never really delved into them until I decided I wanted to do a shred version of Comfortably Numb on my YouTube channel.

"Before studying his playing, I was doing a lot of like, ‘Look at all the notes I can play, look how fast I can play!’ and there wasn't that much feel behind my music, I think.”

Delving deep into Gilmour's guitar parts for her shred cover served as a revelation for Lloyd. “That was a really pivotal point in my playing where I kind of switched from wanting to play all the notes and show everyone what I can do to like, ‘No, I want to serve the song,’” she admits.

“I want to create an emotion and a feeling and a story. That really came from him. Now I try to allow breathing space like he does, and create a sense of emotion.”

In a recent interview with Rick Beato, Gilmour did in fact dissect his lauded ‘feel’ playing technique, revealing that it all stemmed from the fact he “wasn’t gifted with enormous speed on the guitar.”

As for Lloyd, she’s gearing up for her debut US show on January 16 at LA's iconic Whisky A Go Go – setting her up for a busy year that includes a highly coveted slot at the UK's Download Festival.

Head to TicketWeb for tickets for her LA show, and to Sophie Lloyd for special VIP packages.

As Sophie Lloyd continues to establish herself as a bona fide solo artist – an era marked by last year’s debut album, Imposter Syndrome – the guitarist now has her sights set on amp modelers and crafting a Sophie Lloyd-approved plugin.

“I think it would be really cool to do something with an effects company like Neural DSP to make some kind of [plugin],” she tells Guitar.com. Lloyd has been a dedicated proponent of the Neural DSP Quad Cortex, so a signature plugin very much seems like the next logical step.

Discussing what her envisioned plugin would bring to the guitar community, she asserts, “I like things to be as simple as possible, [and] I think a lot of this stuff is kind of tailored towards big gearheads. I think it’d be cool to make a slightly more accessible version to people that doesn’t seem so intense.”

In a 2023 interview with Guitar World, Lloyd revealed that she has largely replaced her pedalboard – and, at times, traditional amps – with amp modelers like the Neural Quad Cortex and Kempers.

“I’m using Blackstar a lot. They’re a great amp company. I’m still using my Diezel for tones, but I also use the Neural Archetype [particularly the Nolly plugin]. When I’m out with MGK, we use Kempers; they’re very convenient for flying overseas and stuff,” she shared.

“There’s pedals, but we are using the Neural Quad Cortex [referring to her pedalboard for the MGK shows]. It’s cool because it’s got the pedals built in. I still have a kind of pedalboard, but I don’t use much other than some reverb.”

In September, Lloyd announced her debut US show at Los Angeles' legendary Whisky a Go Go, which sets her up for a busy 2025 that also includes a slot at the UK's Download Festival.

British guitar sensation Sophie Lloyd will make her live solo US debut at LA’s iconic Whisky A Go Go on January 16, 2025.

Earlier this year, Lloyd announced her debut solo UK show, which was initially scheduled to take place at London’s Camden Assembly. That sold out in just five minutes, and due to the sheer demand, the event was later upgraded to a bigger venue: Camden's The Underworld

Now, the guitarist – who rose to prominence on social media by transforming classic tracks into virtuosic shred workouts, before joining Machine Gun Kelly's band – will follow it up with a maiden solo headliner in the States.

To celebrate the latest announcement, she’s shared an incendiary, shred-filled rendition of Alice Cooper’s Poison on her signature Kiesel guitar – an axe players can spec themselves.

Her fingers flit between key guitar moments and searing vocal lines, offering a tasteful shred take on the classic tune, which showcases both her talent and ability to not overplay.

Her debut solo album, Imposter Syndrome, released last year to great acclaim. It featured big-name players like Trivium’s Matt Heafy, who hailed Lloyd as an “immensely talented force,” Chris Robertson, and the first female Kramer signature artist, Lzzy Hale.

“We put so much work and love into the Imposter Syndrome album and we’re so excited to finally bring that to the stage, first in London in October and then to LA in January,” says Lloyd.

“I’m so grateful for the strong American audience I’ve gained online over the years, and I think it’s about time I head over there and rock out with them in person! It was incredible to see the response to our London show and I hope the US will be just as excited to experience what we’ve got in store.

“It’s especially special to be playing at The Whisky, which is such an important part of rock and roll history, where almost all of my guitar heroes have played multiple times,” she continues.

Lloyd first graced the cover of Guitar World in July '23, and during the tell-all chat, she revealed that a cartoon character first inspired her to pick up the guitar.

Away from her work with MGK, Lloyd has forged a formidable reputation online with her musically acrobatic cover versions. That’s seen her take on Enter Sandman with the help of snakes and a tarantula, and deliver a Cliffs of Dover-esque version of The Office theme.

But video shoots can be a grueling endeavor. Lloyd recently recalled how she nearly lost a finger during a shoot with fellow YouTuber Cole Rolland. Thankfully, all digits have remained intact and she's ready to take the next step in her solo career on stages either side of the Atlantic.

Head to TicketWeb for tickets for the show, and to Sophie Lloyd for special VIP packages.

Injuries are, unfortunately, very common from guitar players, be it from brutal post-playing wear-and-tear on the fretting fingers a lá Joe Satriani, or a good ol’ fashioned broken finger, which could put you out of commission for any number of weeks.

Sophie Lloyd came very close to having perhaps the worst guitar-related injury of them all, though, when she almost lost a finger during a recent video shoot for her new single with fellow YouTuber Cole Rolland.

Lloyd and Rolland teamed up for the third time to record Lost in a Memory – yet another display of the pair’s respective virtuosity, which places Lloyd’s fiery shred chops under the microscope.

When it came to the single’s video shoot, Lloyd and Rolland got kitted out for the cameras, and unfortunately for the former, one of her rings almost robbed her of a digit.

“This will definitely be in my memory for a long time,” Lloyd says. “Straight after filming my part in this song I had to go to A&E [Accident and Emergency] to get a ring removed as my finger started swelling and going numb. Luckily all is okay and my finger is here to shred another day!”

Whether the swelling was the result of an ill-fitting ring, or because of the sheer heat emanating from her fretboard after she set it alight with her shredding, is unclear.

Lloyd even documented her trip to the hospital in an Instagram post (the last slide of the post above), which revealed the, erm, rather precarious process of ring removal – which involved a hand-held mini circular saw.

There’s a big lesson every player can take away from this tale. Namely, be careful with what accessories you wear while playing. Unless it’s necessary – for a fancy video shoot, for example – it’s probably best to leave it at home.

Regardless, Lloyd isn’t too traumatized by the near-finger loss, and looks back fondly on the whole Lost in a Memory experience.

“I feel like mine and Cole’s playing and writing styles really complement each other,” she says, “and this song specifically not only showcases Cole's incredible playing but also his ability to mix and produce and sing a killer song.”

Lloyd recently announced her first solo live show, which sold out in five minutes – forcing her to upgrade the venue.

Sophie Lloyd is best known both for sharing her formidable chops on social media – and as the guitar powerhouse in Machine Gun Kelly's band. 

However, she's now venturing out for her first solo gigs and has not just announced her first headline show (at London’s Camden Assembly venue on October 17), but sold it out in five minutes. As such, it has now reportedly been upgraded to the Camden Underworld, on the same date.

In an announcement video on social media, Lloyd explains why she opted for a smaller venue than she's normally used to. 

“As this is my first show, I wanted to have something quite intimate so it’s quite limited.”

However, after selling out the Camden Assembly in minutes, Lloyd posted, “I was not expecting that much demand!! We have now upgraded to Camden's The Underworld! So don't miss out!” 

In a 2022 interview with NME, Lloyd revealed she initially never wanted to be a touring musician “because I’m such a homebird”. However, her touring experience with Machine Gun Kelly completely changed her opinion. 

“Seeing people have those experiences to music that you’re playing, rather than just seeing numbers on a screen, that’s absolutely amazing. I’m excited to get out there in the real world a bit more, and not just be on a screen.” 

The guitarist released her debut album, Imposter Syndrome, last November. Given the album's metal riffs and solos and the unmistakable heavy rock swagger, we can expect Lloyd's first show to be a live representation of these key ingredients. 

With a number of high-profile musicians involved in the album, including Trivium‘s Matthew K Heafy, Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale, and Black Stone Cherry’s Chris Robertson, it will be interesting to see what Lloyd decides to do in terms of a vocalist for the shows.

Tickets for the upgraded show have just gone on sale. A VIP package tier, which includes exclusive meet-and-greets, photo opportunities, and the chance to hang out with Lloyd after the show, is also available. 

For more information about this headline show, visit Sophie Lloyd. 

Sophie Lloyd is one of the UK's most prolific and successful YouTube guitarists. Her unique shred guitar covers and lesson videos have garnered millions of views and earned her an extremely loyal fanbase.

She is now touring with Machine Gun Kelly and released her first solo album, Imposter Syndrome in 2023. The album is filled with heavy rock swagger, metal riffs and solos. Sophie is joined by guest vocalists like Lizzy Hale, Matt Heafy and Michael Starr, affirming the respect Sophie has gained within a few short years.

One of the most impressive aspects of Sophie’s playing is her creative propensity to combine techniques while maintaining a logical musical thread. Here we will focus on some of the techniques Sophie employs, from legato, to sweeping, to tapping, and finally combining them seamlessly.

Sophie’s style is smooth and flowing, which makes fretting-hand hammer-ons, pull-offs and legato a good place to begin. These techniques are helped with plenty of gain and a low action, but try practicing with a clean tone first as this will highlight any unevenness, where you may have a weaker finger, or are picking too heavily. Once you have identified weak areas, play examples 1 and 2 slowly and accurately to build the required tools. 

Now switch to distortion and work on keeping the licks clean by using the tips and underside of your fretting fingers and also your picking palm to touch the unused strings to keep them muted, so the played notes come through cleanly.

Example 3 is a sweep-picked arpeggio sequence utilising three and five-string triad arpeggio shapes. These shapes are built from the 1st, 3rd and 5th intervals of the chord over which they are played. A good habit to form is to name the intervals you are playing as well as the note names. This will build a full understanding of the musical context of what you are playing, beyond placing your fingers on the correct frets.

Good sweep picking depends heavily on muting unused strings so only one note at a time is heard. Once your fretting hand is working efficiently, the sweep picking becomes a lot easier. Use the edge of your pick to push through the string, rather than striking it with a flat pick and use a controlled motion from the wrist, rather than the elbow or arm.

For example 4 we move on to two-handed tapping, an extension of legato technique. The same rules apply, except now the notes are split between the two hands, switching the focus to coordination and timing. 

Finally we combine all of these techniques with example 5. The challenge here is to switch from legato, to sweeping, to tapping, to picking without disrupting the flow or timing of the notes, as Sophie does so well. Remember to start each example slowly and build up the tempo gradually using a metronome. Happy shredding! 

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 8, Bass 6, Middle 6, Treble 7, Reverb 2

Sophie’s main axe is her Kiesel signature guitar, based on their Aries model, with Kiesel Lithium bridge humbucker and a Sustainiac at the neck. Sophie favours a Diezel VH4 for her high-gain tone. 

The Lloyd tone is precise with plenty of gain and high end which easily cuts through the mix. Go for a high-gain tone with plenty of attitude and edge, with a touch of reverb or delay.

Example 1. Pentatonic legato

This lick ascends various E minor pentatonic positions (1-b3-4-5-b7) with hammer-ons and pull-offs. Start with the first finger and use the second, third and fourth fingers to hammer-on and pull-off on each string. Next ascend the neck on the highest two strings and finish with a third finger tone bend on the 22nd fret.

Example 2. Legato using three notes per string

Based in the A Aeolian mode (A-B-C-D-E-F-G), this lick is played with three-notes-per-string legato in a sextuplet feel. Keep your touch light to allow your fingers to smoothly and seamlessly move from one position to the next. Be sure to pick lightly (consider all downstrokes) to match the volume of picked and legato notes.

Example 3. Sweep picking arpeggios

This lick uses sweep-picked arpeggios based in E minor. The arpeggio shapes follow the chord progression Em-C-D -B and are each played with a two-note pull-off on the first string, followed by one-note-per-string on the second to fourth strings. Use the pick strokes indicated and focus on matching your fingers to the pick.

Example 4. Tapping and legato

This lick use two-handed tapping on the first string to play notes from the D blues scale (1-b3-4-b5-5-b7) in quick succession. Use the first, third and fourth fingers of your fretting hand to play the root, b3 and 5th intervals and use first or second finger of your fretting/tapping hand to play the moving notes.

Example 5. Mixing it up

This E harmonic minor (E-F#-G-A-B-C-D#) lick starts with a three-notes-per-string legato run, then switches to sweep-picked three-string diminished arpeggios followed by three-notes-per-string tapped diminished arpeggios. Finally, use alternate picking to descend the fourth string and finish with a semitone bend.

Back in December, we reported on a study published by Cambridge University Press titled Rock Guitar Virtuosos. It charts advances in electric guitar playing, as well as technology and culture, from the ‘60s to the present day.

Of course, we’re always delighted to see the wonderful world of shred being deemed worthy of academic discussion. But beyond providing a historical deep-dive into the instrument we all know and love, the study serves up some thought-provoking takeaways for contemporary creators.

“For a virtuoso, working situations have changed considerably since the last century,” reads the study’s abstract. “The aloof rock star has been replaced by the approachable virtuoso-guitarist-composer-innovator-producer-promoter-YouTuber-teacher-entrepreneur.”

As we witness everyone from Tim Henson to Manuel Gardner Fernandes to Sophie Lloyd juggle multiple disciplines while growing their careers – on social media as well as in more traditional arenas – the comment certainly chimes with our own observations from the last decade or so.

In addition, the study finds that modern virtuosos face greater scrutiny than those who went before, often being torn between opposing creative priorities: perfection vs. authenticity, innovation vs. consistency and technical ability vs. personality. Artists must balance those priorities in order to keep audiences hooked.

We met with the study's two authors, Dr. Jan-Peter Herbst and PhD student Alexander Vallejo. They aren’t your average intellectual bods – they absolutely know their way around a fretboard, too.

Herbst is a Los Angeles Music Academy alumnus and acted as Vallejo’s master’s degree supervisor, and he comes from the Paul Gilbert school of speed. Vallejo is a progressive rock aficionado who worships at the headless altar of Strandberg guitars. He’s recently released an album titled I’ll See You Soon, taking stylistic cues from the likes of Plini and Intervals’ Aaron Marshall.

Together they make a great team. “I’m more into the older generation of those guys we’re discussing in the book, whereas Alex is certainly more in the more recent camp,” smiles Herbst. “We’ve bundled our expertise!”

How did the study come about and what intrigues you about this particular moment in the evolution of guitar virtuosity? 

Herbst: “It really started with Alex’s master’s thesis. I’ve been more in the traditional world of virtuosity and Alex introduced me to so much in the more recent domain, and I found it hugely exciting. It opened a whole world to me, which academically is completely unknown.”

Vallejo: “I did my master’s on the development of guitar techniques, looking at sweeping, thumping and tapping, and seeing how these techniques have developed by looking at certain guitarists. While doing all of that, I was writing my own music.

“I follow many guitarists on Instagram. I look at guitar content every day. I’m looking at the quality of their content in terms of the videography, the editing and everything else that goes along with it – even guitarists that don’t necessarily have music out, but who are guitar influencers. What intrigued me was how they make a living and a name for themselves.”

How has virtuosity to have evolved from originators like Hendrix to today’s crop of artists-come-influencers?

Herbst: “One of the observations we’ve made – maybe more of a theory we’ve developed – is that the first generation of guitar players were really innovative in a multitude of ways.

”They were not just focused on lead guitar playing; they approached it quite holistically. They were exploring with technology, with effects, with distortion, with modulation and music production to enrich what they could perform live. 

“We don’t see so much of that in the second generation. The ‘80s were really just about exploring what you could accomplish on the instrument, and pushing technical boundaries. Usually, those players are really renowned for only one thing, maybe two.

“There are a few who are renowned for more, like Paul Gilbert, Dimebag Darrell or Zakk Wylde. They often went beyond pure technique or had a particular affinity to blues and emotional playing. Maybe they have some rhythmic chops – Nuno Bettencourt comes to mind – or they’re particularly academically minded like John Petrucci, Steve Vai or Joe Satriani.

“In the ‘90s and ‘00s it opens up again. Tom Morello went back to the ‘70s spirit of approaching things more holistically; as we continue into the ‘10s and ‘20s, our argument is that it’s a return to this idea of being very holistic.”

Vallejo: “We’ve come back around the circle to being innovative, and I think a really cool example in terms of guitar tone would be Unprocessed’s latest album, ...And Everything In Between. The tones aren’t incredibly orthodox – mixing all the heavy stuff with Manuel’s very clean playing. 

“Some guitarists look at the shred techniques and might find them cringey. When Tim Henson made the passing comment of ‘boomer bends’ he got a lot of backlash from the community. But it illustrates, within that circle, the whole ideology of moving forward and progressing.”

Are modern virtuosos under pressure to find new ways of making playing more difficult in order to be seen as more impressive? 

Vallejo: “I don’t think it’s about making playing harder; it’s about making playing more exciting. There’s always something coming up that people are doing slightly differently.

“I don’t think people will ever be content with what there is, as with Tosin Abasi and thumping. Now you have Ando San’s version and Tim Henson’s version, and they’re each different versions of the technique. Eventually something will come along that will shake the world up again and suddenly everyone has to learn how to do that.”

Herbst: “I think there are three areas in which technical playing can develop. The obvious one is that it can get faster. Then it can get cleaner – and that’s possibly even more challenging than just being faster.

“I think cleanliness is part of the progression because distortion has always been accused of disguising technical problems in execution. So it’s a natural progression in this regard to achieve more cleanliness.

“Then, the last one is borrowing from other musical influences.  What we’ve discovered about many players who have something new to offer is that they usually take inspiration from other instruments – from the piano to the koto, or brass instruments. Usually it’s some kind of adaptation that is developing technique, but also adding some originality.”

You’ve noted that virtuosos now have to take on multiple roles beyond writing and playing in order to succeed commercially. What’s changed? 

Herbst: “The fact that the recording industry has changed over time is widely known. Streaming has been blamed a lot – and rightly so – for the demise in decent salaries in the music industry, especially in more niche genres. Anything that’s more DIY and gets you closer to a fanbase definitely puts creatives at an advantage. 

“It’s also no secret that YouTube, if someone’s really accomplished, can pay quite a decent salary – not only from the direct streams, but also from affiliate links and other products that you can market. 

“Most of the guitarists we’ve studied offer video tutorials. Maybe they sell merchandise. So YouTube in itself can probably sustain a career, but if it can feed into all of these other revenue streams, it becomes really powerful.

“We can only speculate what the more established, older guitar players are earning based on their record sales, but it stands to reason that this new model might be more successful. But that doesn’t mean it’s less stressful!”

And the stress associated with these new responsibilities can have detrimental effects, particularly on artists’ mental wellbeing…

Herbst: “The indications we’ve seen in our research show that it’s very stressful to have this kind of lifestyle, because these creators have to produce content all the time – almost on a daily basis – and it needs to be perfect. 

“The expectation of creating content every day, being original and engaging with fans is something that wasn’t there previously. The earlier generations of guitar players were quite distant. They could go on tour and, for half an hour after the gig, sign some autographs – and that was it!”

Vallejo: “With guitarists on social media, lots of people follow them not just for being good at their craft, but also for their personality. 

“Keyan, the Australian guitarist, said that one of the biggest things that led to his growth was engaging with any fan that would comment – creating this personal relationship with whoever.

“Tim Henson used to do live streams on Twitch and that keeps a fanbase close. Fans admire your work ethic. They admire how you play and they want to also admire you as a person. They want to get to know you, more like a traditional celebrity.”

So what are the greatest challenges facing modern virtuosos? 

Vallejo: “If you’re starting out, it’s juggling everything. You have to get your technique and musicality there, and reach a level of competence that people will say, ‘Wow, that’s a great player.’

“Then you need to get your branding sorted; get your website and all of your social media up-to-date, and then you need to start engaging with fans.

“Let’s say you’ve done all that. Then you might start touring. So on top of social media, you have to organize live shows,  and that involves working with other people and more logistics.

“Then fans want to see things you do at live shows: how you prep for them and your gear. Then clinics happen. Then endorsement deals happen – and although endorsements help you, you must help them, and that’s another pressure.”

Herbst: “Virtuosos need to do maybe 10 things that used to be 10 full-time professions that one could perfect and train in for 50 years, making a whole career out of it. It’s just so much work and expertise in so many different domains: it’s technical, it’s creative, it’s economic.”

What are your predictions for the future?

Herbst: “I think what we’re seeing at the moment will continue. Musically, the compositions will hopefully develop and progress. The ‘80s was very much focused around the display of guitar technique and the song was really almost meaningless. Nowadays it’s more about songwriting and even groove and rhythm guitar playing. Virtuosity is not only in the solo guitar.”

Vallejo: “The guitar world and the whole virtuoso world is very much linked with progressive rock and metal. Take a look at Polyphia, who are incorporating lots of hip-hop and trap influences. More genres are coming in and influencing the music that these creatives are making. 

“Everything is developing in a very creative trajectory, and I think it will continue for a long time. I don’t think the guitar has reached its limits in any capacity – physically or with technology. It’s just going to keep on growing. I think it’s a very exciting road ahead.”

• Rock Guitar Virtuosos: Advances in Electric Guitar Playing, Technology, and Culture is available digitally from Cambridge.org.

Packing more twists and turns than a Quentin Tarantino movie binge, 2023 will be remembered for many reasons – some good, some surprising and some utterly heartbreaking. 

There was the return of the mighty Metallica, and while many of us were impressed by 72 Seasons, as you’ll read below, others weren’t so taken with the new material. 

The recently reunited Pantera – with Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante joining Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown – embarked on their first tour since the initial handful of Latin American dates at the end of last year, with the general consensus being this is a celebration very much worth witnessing.

There also was a fair amount of controversy, starting with an acrimonious split between Mick Mars and the remaining members of Mötley Crüe, which got very public and very legal after it was announced they’d hired John 5 to take the longtime guitarist’s place on the road and for future recordings. 

Other bizarre headlines included the discovery of Mary Ford’s 1961 Gibson Les Paul SG Custom on Facebook Marketplace, which was quickly snapped up by Gibson and brought to the Vault at their Garage in Nashville, and Roger Waters deciding to re-record Pink Floyd’s best-selling album.

The year also witnessed some big-name comebacks, from rock ’n’ roll originals the Rolling Stones to pop-punk idols Blink-182, as well as the long-awaited live return of AC/DC at the inaugural Power Trip festival in October, while in stark contrast veterans such as Buddy Guy and Aerosmith announced they would soon be retiring from the world’s stages. 

And then, of course, there are those we lost along the way – starting with the death of arguably the most inventive and deeply admired guitar player of all time only a few days into the new year. Almost a year on from Jeff Beck’s unexpected passing, we’re still struggling to comprehend the huge sense of loss. 

So, without further ado, here’s a look at some of the biggest guitar moments of 2023.

RIP Jeff Beck

Nothing that happened over the course of 2023 can compete with the sizeable hole left by Jeff Beck. 

He was the definition of what all of us strive to be – a musician who was deeply connected and in tune with whatever guitar he happened to be holding, someone who was unafraid to experiment in front of people and surprise all of us, himself included, with the results.

Geoffrey Arnold Beck died from a bacterial meningitis infection at age 78 on January 10, and our world hasn’t felt quite the same since. We’ll never hear his fingers snake their way through Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers, Led Boots or Brush with the Blues again – and our lives are infinitely poorer for it. 

Perhaps it was his one-time bandmate in the Yardbirds, Jimmy Page, who best captured the mood of the guitar community: “The six stringed Warrior is no longer here for us to admire the spell he could weave around our mortal emotions. Jeff could channel music from the ethereal. His technique unique. His imaginations apparently limitless. Jeff, I will miss you along with your millions of fans.”

Slash, Wolfgang, Jerry Cantrell and… Barbie?!

It should come as no surprise that the Barbie movie, a Hollywood blockbuster starring superstars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, ended up being the most talked-about film of the year. 

But given all its nostalgic bubblegum imagery and mainstream hype, one thing none of us would have banked on was Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen collaborating for the very first time on its soundtrack, joining forces specifically on I’m Just Ken. And that’s not the only rock ’n’ roll connection, either. 

In one of the scenes, Ken serenades Barbie with an ebony Gibson acoustic adorned with stickers spelling out his name in the Metallica font. 

On closer inspection, it soon became apparent that the guitar in question was in fact a Jerry Cantrell Fire Devil Songwriter, with distinguishable features such as the “Firefly” pickguard and telltale “Jerry Cantrell” truss rod cover.

Unassuming guitar teacher goes viral

It is not a common occurrence to see America’s Got Talent judge Simon Cowell openly applaud loud, shredding guitars – but this is yet another of the surprises 2023 had in store for us. 

The 59-year-old contestant who performed Queen’s We Will Rock You as a fret-burning instrumental was John Wines, a guitar teacher based in England who boasts more than 1.5 million online followers under the alias Old Grey Guitarist. 

“I was not expecting that,” said Cowell, as an excited crowd started screaming “We want more!” at the top of their lungs. Though he ended up getting knocked out in the semi-finals, it was an undeniable moment of victory for guitar enthusiasts around the world.

RIP Bernie Marsden

We heard in August the sad news of British guitar legend Bernie Marsden passing away at age 72. 

He’d performed in groups such as Paice Ashton Lord, Alaska and the Moody Marsden Band, and embarked on a lengthy solo career, though was arguably best known for his work in Whitesnake from 1978 to 1982, with writing credits to songs like Fool for Your Loving, Lovehunter, Trouble and, most famously, Here I Go Again. 

In what would sadly be his final GW interview, the man who famously played a 1959 Les Paul Standard he referred to as “The Beast” helped us pay tribute to George Harrison for the September 2021 cover story. 

“To put it simply: no Beatles, no George, no me,” Marsden said. “I’m proud to have gotten to know him when I was in Whitesnake in the 1970s. He invited me to his home, where he showed me his guitars, and we listened to and played music in his studio. I still feel very privileged to have gotten to call him a friend, but that’s another story.”

Kirk Hammett laughs in the face of critics

In the Metallica cover story that coincided with the release of the band’s 11th full-length, 72 Seasons, we noted how “this is the sound of Metallica showing us they’re the masters of their own destiny” and praised the quartet for seeming “more pissed off, defiant and inventive than they have in a long time.” But not everyone agreed.

“The new Metallica song is great, but I thought the solo was pretty underwhelming, so here’s something a bit spicier!” said YouTuber Bradley Hall in a video in which he wrote and performed his own solo in place of Hammett’s Lux Æterna fretwork. 

When confronted about said criticism, the Metallica guitarist remained remarkably indifferent. 

“I was just laughing the whole time,” he told Total Guitar. “I could string together, like, six or seven three-octave arpeggios in 16th notes, sit there every day and practice it and go, ‘Hey, look what I can do!’ but where am I gonna put it? It sounds like an exercise. I don’t want to listen to exercises and warm-ups every time I hear a song.”

Myles Kennedy gets his first PRS signature model

It’d be fair to say Myles Kennedy is a pretty big deal these days. When he’s not conquering arenas with Alter Bridge, the man who almost ended up replacing Robert Plant in Led Zeppelin tours the world with Slash and the Conspirators, and let’s not forget he also has two dazzling solo albums to his name. 

Given the success of Mark Tremonti’s PRS range, it was only a matter of time until the velvet-lunged singer/guitarist was awarded his own signature guitar. 

Looking at Kennedy’s PRS – with a swamp ash body, 22 frets, 25.5” scale length and overall T-style shape – there can be no confusion over where he’s drawing inspiration from. 

The pair of PRS Narrowfield MK pickups were carefully voiced “to capture the courage of humbuckers and the spank of single coils,” thanks to a five-way blade switch and push/pull tone control that acts as a preset tone roll-off for the treble position.

Nuno Bettencourt burns frets and melts minds

15 years after their last studio album, Extreme returned in 2023 with their most ambitious offering ever. And it was the solo from Rise – the lead single from new album Six – that got the guitar community talking more than anything else this year. 

In doing so, Nuno Bettencourt demonstrated just why he’s one of the most virtuosic and tasteful shredders in the game using a smorgasbord of furious alternate picking, divebombs, D minor pentatonic blues and, of course, those head-twisting muted hammer-ons for the big finale. 

Marshall is sold to a Swedish speaker company

Having played a substantial role in developing overdriven sounds, with notable users including everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Joe Bonamassa and Tool and a rich heritage that dates back to 1962, amplifier brands simply don’t come much more iconic than Marshall. This year brought an end to its family ownership, as the brand was acquired by Swedish firm Zound Industries for an undisclosed amount of dough. 

It wasn’t completely out of the blue; the company had partnered with Marshall 13 years prior to produce their lifestyle products, including headphones and speaker systems. In a press release, Terry Marshall, son of deceased founder Jim, said, 

“Since my father and I created the original Marshall amp back in 1962, we have always looked for ways to deliver the pioneering Marshall sound to music lovers of all backgrounds and music tastes across the world,” adding that he was confident that the newly formed Marshall Group umbrella company “will elevate this mission and spur the love for the brand.” 

Other big Marshall news included the rebirth of four classic pedals and the launch of the Studio JTM models.

Matteo Mancuso releases his debut album

While there’s clearly no shortage of new names emerging as future guitar stars, few have come as hotly tipped as 26-year-old fingerstyle virtuoso Matteo Mancuso, with world-beating talents like Joe Bonamassa, Steve Vai and Tosin Abasi all singing his praises.

Released back in July by Mascot Label Group, the Sicilian’s debut album, The Journey, certainly delivered on all that promise and then some, with tracks like Silkroad, Samba Party and Drop D nodding to jazz fusion greats like Guthrie Govan and Pat Metheny and ultimately demonstrating just how brilliantly well-rounded he is as a player. With stars burning this bright, there can be no doubt the future of guitar is in safe hands.

Mick Mars vs. Mötley Crüe

As the sole guitar player in the band and co-writer for era-defining tracks like Girls, Girls, Girls, Dr. Feelgood and Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.), Mick Mars’ contributions to Mötley Crüe cannot be overstated. 

And despite the age difference between him and the other members, as well as the health complications he’s endured for the majority of his adult life, it was shocking to see how things played out for the glam metal quartet in 2023. 

As well as accusing the group of using backing tracks live, Mars was adamant that he was being maneuvered out of the group he helped put on the musical map. 

“Now they’re trying to take my legacy away, my part of Mötley Crüe, my ownership of the name, the brand,” he told Rolling Stone. 

“How can you fire Mr. Heinz from Heinz ketchup? He owns it. Frank Sinatra’s or Jimi Hendrix’s legacy goes on forever, and their heirs continue to profit from it. They’re trying to take that away from me. I’m not going to let them.”

Mary Ford’s ’61 Gibson ends up on Facebook Marketplace

It would be fair to compare Facebook Marketplace to an online flea market; you never quite know what you might find and whether to take the listings on (pardon the pun) face value. But when Gibson Director of Brand Experience Mark Agnesi was sent the link to an ad for Mary Ford’s 1961 Gibson Les Paul SG Custom in Westerly, Rhode Island, he knew he had to act fast. 

Not only was the highly collectible triple humbucker double-cut in great condition for a 62-year-old instrument, but it also came with a piece of a handwritten setlist taped to its back, adding even more weight to its grand sense of history. 

The famous instrument once seen on the cover of Les Paul & Mary Ford’s 1962 album Warm and Wonderful was carefully transported to the Vault in the Nashville Gibson Garage, which opened its doors in 2021. 

Yamaha acquires Guild, announces Kim Thayil signature model

In February it was announced that Yamaha had bought Córdoba Music Group, the company that owned Guild, DeArmond pickups, Córdoba Guitars, HumiCase and two string companies – Savarez and Aquila. 

And that’s not the only big announcement concerning Guild; in September it was revealed that one of their most recognizable endorsees, Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil, would finally be getting his own S-100 Polara signature models, which, all things considered, looks set to be the best-selling artist model in Yamaha history.

Nita Strauss rejoins Alice Cooper, releases star-studded album

One of last year’s biggest stories was Nita Strauss leaving the Alice Cooper band to head out on tour with Demi Lovato. 

At the time she maintained no doors had been closed, however, she was simply trying out new things – and those words rang true earlier in March when it was announced she would be returning to Cooper’s notoriously horror-themed rock ’n’ roll circus. 

She also unveiled her second solo album, The Call of the Void, which featured guests as esteemed as Marty Friedman, Alissa White-Gluz, Lzzy Hale and even Coop himself. And as for her own guitar pyrotechnics, she revealed she’d used time off during the pandemic to work on her alternate picking. 

“There’s a fast lick in that first verse that I probably lifted from his parts in Racer X’s Technical Difficulties,” she told me. “There were definitely a lot of Paul Gilbert exercises happening in my house over quarantine.”

Sunn amps return – with a little help from Fender

In August it was announced that Fender and Mission Engineering were teaming up to revive cult amp brand Sunn Amplifiers, famously used and abused by high-decibel rock masters like Jimi Hendrix and Pete Townshend and stoner/doom dealers such as Boris, Melvins and Sunn O))) – the latter of whom loved the amps so much they named their band after them. 

It’s been a long time coming, considering Fender bought the company back in the mid-’80s. Expect “historic reproductions of classic Sunn designs” and “new products that incorporate modern technology” ranging from $499 to $3,299. 

“We’re proud to partner with Mission Engineering to uphold the legacy of the Sunn Amplifier brand and look forward to introducing modern players to the raw power that these classic amplifiers are capable of,” said Richard Bussey, Fender VP of Accessories, Lifestyle and Licensing.

Roger Waters re-records The Dark Side of the Moon

Vintage rock releases don’t come much more universally admired than Pink Floyd’s 1973 masterpiece, The Dark Side of the Moon, which many regard to be a perfect album from start to finish. 

Which is why news of Roger Waters re-recording its 10 tracks as The Dark Side of the Moon Redux was met by bewilderment and dismay, especially following the release of first single Money – in which Waters replaced David Gilmour’s legendary solo with a spoken-word poem set in a metaphorical boxing ring. 

“The new recording is more reflective, I think, and it’s more indicative of what the concept of the record was,” Waters said. Interesting…

Wolfgang unveils second Mammoth WVH album

Anyone who heard the Mammoth WVH debut will have known to expect great things from its follow-up, which was released in August. 

Once again Wolfgang Van Halen committed to performing everything himself and dazzling us with a perfect package of fine-tuned songwriting, arena-worthy chorus hooks and scintillating two-handed techniques. 

As well as nodding to his father’s legendary solo on Panama (“Yeah, that G-string bend and tap was very much one of my dad’s moves!”), Take a Bow was also notable for the equipment used to record it. 

“The Frankenstein was what I used on that solo,” he told this writer. “I had it plugged into my dad’s original Marshall head and cabinet… so it was exactly what he used for the early Van Halen stuff. I think you can hear it’s that tone.”

In memoriam

Other legendary guitarists who passed away over the course of the year include David Crosby, who made rock history in the mid-’60s as an original member of the Byrds and later became one quarter of folk supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; he died only a week after Jeff Beck. 

Two months later, it was announced that David Lindley – the multi-instrumentalist who had played in Crosby & Nash, as well as with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Rod Stewart, Dolly Parton and Ry Cooder – had died from chronic kidney damage following Long Covid. 

Les Paul devotee Gary Rossington, the longest-surviving founding member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, passed away in March, leaving behind a Southern rock legacy like no other. 

Other notable losses include Robbie Robertson (Bob Dylan/the Band), Guy Bailey (the Quireboys), Tim Bachman (Bachman-Turner Overdrive/Brave Belt), Ryan Siew (Polaris), Jack Sonni (Dire Straits), George Tickner (Journey) and Chris Overland (FM).

Sophie Lloyd releases long-awaited solo debut

It was a big year for Sophie Lloyd, who continued to perform on arena stages around the world in her new session gig with Machine Gun Kelly and even landed her first-ever GW cover interview. 

She also released her debut solo album, Imposter Syndrome, in November – which, as well as showcasing her impressive talents as a writer and arranger, included some high-profile guests such as Trivium’s Matt Heafy, Halestorm singer/guitarist Lzzy Hale and Steel Panther frontman Michael Starr. 

And there’s more, the Sophie Lloyd Signature Series was launched by Kiesel back in May, radically allowing players to customize and spec out the double-cutaway models as they see fit.

Josh Homme fights cancer and returns all guns blazing

On top of the well-documented child custody struggles with ex-wife Brody Dalle, Queens of the Stone Age singer/guitarist Josh Homme also revealed that he’d been treated for cancer in 2022. 

Though he remained understandably tight-lipped over the experience, he referred to the health struggles as “just the cherry on top of an interesting time period.” 

It very much seems as if he took all of that emotional baggage and churned it into a new album, In Times New Roman… which was released in June. Led by singles such as Emotion Sickness, Carnavoyeur and Paper Machete – which were notably more atmospheric and moody than those of its disco-laced Villains predecessor – QOTSA’s eighth full-length witnessed Homme and co-guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen delivering an absolute masterclass in vintage-leaning, life-affirming rock ’n’ roll.

Mark Tremonti reveals he’s launching a pedal company

As every GW reader will know, famous guitar players wanting to start their own gear companies is nothing revolutionary; some of the more successful ventures include Tosin’s Abasi Concepts, the Ola Englund-run Solar Guitars, Zakk’s Wylde Audio and Kirk Hammett’s high-gain pedal specialists KHDK. 

But that’s clearly not stopping Mark Tremonti from trying his luck as well. He disclosed he would be launching his own pedal brand in an interview focusing on his live rig. 

“I’m trying to develop a whole line of pedals,” he said after being quizzed about an unbranded prototype Uni-Vibe clone. He then went on to say he’s still thinking of a name for the company and has three units in mind for the big launch – the aforementioned vibe, a tremolo and an overdrive (“Of course I’m going after the Klon… Everybody’s going after the Klon,” he said).

Neural DSP keep adding big names to their Archetype range

Digital amp and effects specialists Neural DSP have really come a long way over the last five or so years. As well as releasing one of the most advanced units of its kind in the Quad Cortex, there’s been a whole host of signature Archetype plug-ins for guitar heroes like Cory Wong, Tim Henson, Plini and even one for Dream Theater mastermind John Petrucci. 

In October it was announced that Brazilian session maestro and Suhr endorsee Mateus Asato would also be getting his own Archetype, packing all of his favorite heads and cabinets – plus effects like compression, overdrive, fuzz, tremolo, chorus and vibrato – into one tidy interface for $119. 

Given his profile as one of the most expressive and respected six-stringers to launch a career via the Internet, with even John Mayer citing him as “one of the best guitar players around,” there’s been plenty of buzz.

The Boss accidentally hits tech with Tele

If you’re Bruce Springsteen’s tech, you’ve probably seen it all a million times. But no matter how prepared you might be, as we all know, sometimes things just don’t quite go according to plan. 

While performing in Atlanta at the beginning of February, the Boss launched his sunburst Telecaster at long-serving assistant Kevin Buell as he’s done many times in the past. And though he had his hands in the air and eyes on the prize, Buell miscalculated the trajectory of the missile and ended up taking a hit to the head, consequently ending up on the floor. 

After Springsteen quickly walked over to help his colleague and make sure there were no serious injuries, the show went on without any further hiccups.

Marty Friedman back on stage with Megadeth

Megadeth have had some truly world-class lead players in their ranks over the years, though most of us would agree it was the pairing of Dave Mustaine with Marty Friedman over the course of the ’90s that produced a lot of their finest work. 

It all came to a head in 2000, and both Mustaine and Friedman have been moving in different circles ever since – until February 27, 2023, that is, when the metal titans were performing at the Budokan arena in Tokyo. Friedman, who moved to Japan in 2003, joined the band for three classic songs from the albums he played on – Countdown to Extinction, Tornado of Souls and Symphony of Destruction. 

European fans were also lucky to witness thrash history in the making when Friedman joined Megadeth once again at German festival Wacken Open Air, performing Trust, Tornado of Souls, Symphony of Destruction and Holy Wars… The Punishment Due. 

In other Megadeth news, Wintersun’s Teemu Mäntysaari was hired to fill in on parts of their world tour while Kiko Loureiro tended to a family emergency – and has since been offered the position for the foreseeable future.

British YouTuber and electric guitar virtuoso Sophie Lloyd has taken on some titans of rock and pop culture in her time, shredding-up classics like Sultans of Swing and Comfortably Numb, but always adding something new to the mix.

Her latest effort might top them all, though – a monstrous, shred-heavy reworking of the The Office theme song, which morphs the comedy series’ signature tune into an airy, virtuosic lead guitar masterclass.

Lloyd has spent a significant chunk of the year on tour with Machine Gun Kelly and in support of her solo album Imposter Syndrome, but took to Instagram recently to drop the clip, announcing she was “back in the office.”

The song starts off with the an impressively accurate take on the original’s distinctive piano opening, replacing it with a chiming clean guitar and a distorted electric for the synth-y top line. 

While the original lasts for a scant 32 seconds, Lloyd lets her imagination run wild on this one, turning it into a lead guitar odyssey that cleverly weaves in and out of the main theme, before loading in some wild two-handed tapping.

It’s been well-received online, with one commenter invoking Eric Johnson comparisons, writing “Big Cliffs of Dover vibes!” – which is an equally bizarre and brilliant observation, given the context.

It’s not necessarily the song we expect to hear Lloyd choose to channel her inner Eric J., but there genuinely is something of Johnson’s brightness to it: that speed-of-light picking, vibrant touch, and ultra-harmonic amp tone are all in there. 

We also think it’s one of her most fun and creative treatments yet, bringing a completely new life to the classic TV theme. 

As ever, it works weirdly well, but the very fact that Lloyd can do this consistently is really a testament to her well-rounded ability as a player and her ear for melody – not always a given, especially among the prodigious shred talent online.

It’s not the first TV theme, the guitarist has found inspiring, though. Back in our cover interview earlier this year, she revealed that it was actually a cartoon that led her to pick up the guitar in the first place.

Sophie Lloyd’s stock in trade is a blend of shred and melodic rock, and here she takes you through some licks that you can employ in your own solos. 

First up is a three-note-per-string idea. It takes practice to develop the dexterity to play them well, but once you’ve made progress it’s a shortcut to speedy soloing. And you can always practise higher up the neck if Sophie’s stretches in G are a bit much. 

Moving on, Sophie outlines a cool lick using 5th intervals. It’s a clever take on a simple idea – the 5th is the powerchord interval, remember. 

Next is Sophie’s take on easy sweep picking. It’s a challenging technique but follow Sophie’s three-string shape and see how far you get. 

Sophie follows this with a pentatonic idea that, with a little creativity, could be applied in blues just as easily as hard rock. Finally, Sophie wraps up with a shred lick that combines pick- and fret-hand tapping.

Oh, and don’t miss Sophie’s guide to becoming a better player, where she shares her tips for getting better faster.

Example 1. Melodic three-note-per-string lick

Here, Sophie outlines the benefits of learning a three-note-per-string lick in a melodic rock context. As she explains, “it allows you to go up and down very quickly and efficiently, while also going diagonally across the fretboard, so you can cover a lot of ground.” A tapped lick follows the three-note phrase. Practise bite-sized phrases.

Example 2. Stacked 5ths lick

You know what a 5th is, right? It’s the interval between the two notes in a powerchord. Easy! Here, Sophie takes this idea, but, instead of playing powerchords, she creates a cool rock lick. It’s quite simple but the position shifts come thick and fast, so be sure to practise those moves slowly first. 

Example 3. Easy sweep picking

It’s easiest to think of these as six-note phrases that go down and up through each shape. The picking is key to making the lick work. Play: upstroke, pull-off upstroke, then three downstrokes to outline each six-note arpeggio. Those consecutive downstrokes are the core of what is known as sweep picking, because you’re using one single ‘sweep’ of your pick to achieve the downs. 

Example 4. Pentatonic cycles

Pentatonics are essential weapons in the arsenal of every guitarist – they apply in rock, blues, jazz, metal and more. Here, Sophie uses the old trick of repetition, where you take a bite-sized lick and repeat it to get the listener’s attention. 

Slash, Eric Clapton and Angus Young have all employed this technique. The beauty is that you can repeat as long as you like, take a melodic detour, then return to your initial idea again. It’s a very open concept. 

Example 5. Shreddy tapping

There are two ways to aid your learning process here in Sophie’s shreddy tapped lick. First, practise four-note phrases one at a time. The circled notes are tapped with the pick hand; the square ones are hammered on with a fretting finger. 

The second approach is, as Sophie advises, to focus on each hand individually. In particular, it’ll help if you memorise where the tapped notes are on the fretboard so you don’t have to look at your finger every time you tap.

It’s been a whirlwind year for British guitar sensation Sophie Lloyd, who went from being one of the most prominent players online to performing in arenas with Machine Gun Kelly, as well as releasing her own music with guest appearances from members of Trivium and Steel Panther. 

Here, she shares some of the most valuable knowledge she’s picked up along the way…

In the past, you’ve said legato feels like your strong point. How did you develop that fret-hand finger strength?

“I bought one of those Gripmaster hand exercisers when I was a kid and thought I was so cool on the school bus doing all my squeezes. I don’t think it made any difference to my playing! There’s no replacement for picking up a guitar, feeling those strings under your fingers and building your calluses. 

“It’s also really important to build the strength of each finger, because a lot of players might feel great about hammering on and pulling off between their first and middle fingers, but less confident about doing the same with their middle finger and pinky.” 

So you must have spent a lot of time working on different trills using each of your fingers?

“Yeah! It’s really good to work on fast trills going from your middle or fourth finger to your pinky, because there are more weak links in that part of the hand. I always use my little finger in legato runs, so it’s very valuable to me. There are some players who only use three fingers and I feel like they’re missing out on a massive part of their potential by neglecting the pinky.”

How exactly do you plan ahead for practice? Is there a routine?

“My old teacher used to say practice is like a triangle – one side is speed, the other is cleanliness and the other is accuracy. And whenever you’re learning, you need to focus on two of those and ignore the other. For example, if you’re practising with a metronome, you’re probably going to start off slower. In those situations you are sacrificing speed for cleanliness and accuracy. 

“It’s always important to get your muting technique down at this stage, whether that’s using your fretting hand fingers to cover unused strings or your picking hand, or both! You might find yourself lifting parts of your hand to only cover a few strings at a time and then also using the side of your picking hand palm to mute other ones.

“Once you have those down, you can start practising up to speed and keeping the accuracy, maybe sacrificing a little bit of cleanliness to begin with because you can build on that more once your speed is up. At the end, you have to add it all together to complete the triangle!”

What kind of warm-ups might you do before filming or performing?

“There are a few, like the classic chromatic climbing run playing four notes in succession on every string and then going up a fret. That really helps with both my alternate picking and legato, because I’m making sure every note is right on the beat. There’s a whole-tone lick I’ve been practising a lot, too – basically playing three notes per string, each one a tone apart and then starting a fret up on the next string. 

“So if you’re in A, that would be the 5th, 7th and 9th frets of the low E and then moving to the 6th, 8th and 10th frets of the next string and so on. Me and the other guitarist in Machine Gun Kelly’s band [Justin Lyons] are always doing that backstage to warm up and see who can do it faster! 

“Another thing I like to do is the Joe Satriani warm-up where you play chords that are one fret apart on the higher strings and then invert them every time you change. That’s a good one for waking up the fingers!”

You use a lot of two-handed ideas. How does one develop left and right hand synchronicity?

“I separate my two hands so both have a fixed position. For example, I might be playing a A minor pentatonic line with my fretting hand based on the 5th fret but start each string with a tapped note an octave up on the 17th fret. It sounds really cool when you do things like that because of the wide intervals. 

“Or you might do the same thing with your fretting hand but spell out position four of the minor pentatonic with your other hand, tapping notes like the 15th fret of the high E string, the 17th and 15th of the B string, the 17th and 14th of the G and so on. All you’re doing there is playing the minor pentatonic but using both hands to play it in different positions on the neck. 

“If it feels hard, try to get used to playing on one string with the tapped note changing every time, and it will soon feel quite seamless. Once you get the hang of that, you can train your brain to do similar things with the major and minor scales.”

By now, you should be more than familiar with Sophie Lloyd’s shred guitar updates of classic tunes. Previous offerings have run the gauntlet from Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven to Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb and Dire Straits’ Sultans of Swing.

All of those previous tracks have offered their own playing challenges, with Lloyd offering a savvy new, instrumental take on the source material. Now, just in time for Halloween, she’s taken on Metallica’s haunting classic, Enter Sandman.

The new clip is notable for several reasons. Firstly, from a playing point of view it offers an interesting new conundrum for Lloyd, given Kirk Hammett’s lead work on the track is already fairly complex – meaning you might expect she has less room to improvise.

Fortunately, Lloyd has a few tricks up her sleeve and if anything, in her hands, the song becomes more melodic, partly because she incorporates elements of James Hetfield’s vocal top lines into her lead work.

Elsewhere, Lloyd – who usually remains silent on the vocal front – breaks the norm by delivering the spoken word section that follows the central solo. 

On the video front, too, the clip is notable for containing a few spooky, Halloween-themed production nods, in the form of a candlelit church setting, some unsettling contact lenses and a couple of guest stars, namely two snakes and a tarantula. 

“Yes, that's a real spider,” comments Lloyd on YouTube. “Her name was Rosie, and no, I couldn't see anything with those eye contacts in!”

We have to admit Rosie appears to work the fretboard particularly well during Enter Sandman’s iconic ringing intro sequence.

The compelling thing about Lloyd’s version is that, as ever, it’s not about the gimmicks. She takes core elements of the track and shaves a minute and a half off the original, packing in new ideas in the process – though remains notably faithful to Hammett’s wah-laden guitar solo.

Watch the full clip above and, for more on the guitarist’s life away from YouTube – as Machine Gun Kelly’s go-to player and creating her solo album Imposter Syndrome – check out Guitar World’s recent cover interview with Lloyd.

Before she was touring the world with Machine Gun Kelly, writing and recording material for her first ever full-length album, and signing on as a Kiesel signature artist, Sophie Lloyd cut her teeth the same way as many aspiring electric guitar players did: by posting videos on YouTube.

Lloyd is still partial to a YouTube cover these days (she took on Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven not too long ago), but such videos were the bread and butter for an up-and-coming Lloyd, who has previously covered Muse’s Plug In Baby and even All I Want For Christmas Is You.

But her covers stand out for a specific reason: she turns classic tracks into shred masterclasses.

Now, Lloyd has returned to her roots to shreddify another pillar of rock guitar lore, this time taking on the snappy, sultry fingerstyle lines of Dire Straits’ Sultans of Swing.

It goes without saying that this is one of Lloyd’s most eyebrow-raising shred experiments to date. There is, after all, a huge stylistic gulf between the swanky single-coil sounds of Mark Knopfler’s original Fender Strat arrangement compared to the blink-and-you’ll-miss-them fretboard exploits of Lloyd and her Kiesel.

Having said that, it’s a gulf Lloyd bridges with unsurprising ease, with the cover staying relatively faithful to the original material by utilizing a noticeable Knopfler-esque clean tone. 

Despite lasting up to and including the first solo of the cover, that Straits sound is then swapped out for something more in line with Lloyd’s tonal wheelhouse (some searing high gain, naturally), which is used to dish out an assortment of familiar melodies and an amped up take on the track’s dizzying outro solo.

Turning Sultans of Swing into Sultans of Shred is a pretty tall order, but then again no one is more qualified than Lloyd when it comes to drastic musical makeovers, and she once again delivers the goods in spades.

Lloyd never once loses sight of the overall melodic direction of the track, and injects just the right amount of technical flair when she gives herself license to push the boundaries of Knopfler’s original guitar parts.

It is indeed a bold move, but Lloyd recognises that herself: “I decided to mix this one up a bit while still paying tribute to the original, she wrote in the video's description. “The solos are so rocking with distortion. Let me know if you like it or you think I ruined it!”

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…

Intervals – mnemonic

Since Wolfgang Van Halen named Aaron Marshall (aka Intervals) as his favorite guitarist on the planet, Marshall’s star has risen, and deservedly so. Now, with his first new material in three years, he gives his newly minted Schecter signature model a serious workout with an infectious slice of melodic progressive metal.

It’s rare that we call instrumental rock anthemic, but there’s something uniquely vocal about Marshall’s chops, which blend rhythm and lead in a way that updates the EVH ‘everything all at once’ template for the social media guitar generation. Hooks for days with tone and technique to match. (MAB)

Sophie Lloyd – Imposter Syndrome

The road to Sophie Lloyd’s first studio solo album (due November 10) has been littered with countless examples of fretboard mastery and a handful of A-list collaborations. Now, Lloyd has linked up with Lzzy Hale for Imposter Syndrome, the title track of the album.

Not only is it an apt title from the Kiesel signature artist – who recently spoke to Guitar World about her own struggles with having to block out such feelings in the wake of her meteoric rise through the guitar ranks – Imposter Syndrome is a triumphant reminder of just why Lloyd is one of 2023’s standout guitarists. (MO)

Santana feat. DMC – Let The Guitar Play

Carlos Santana is no stranger to successfully reaching across the (genre) aisle – after all, this is a man who turned a collaboration with an of-the-moment pop star into one of the biggest (and most unlikely) hits of the 1990s. New single Let The Guitar Play teams Santana with rap icon DMC, and finds each legend giving each other plenty of space to do what they do best. Darryl McDaniels brings his impeccable, scene-setting lyricism, while Santana puts on an absolute tone clinic.

The latter has repeatedly talked about how just a single note can be the axis around which the soul of a whole song spins, and the crystalline clarity and drama of the one he hits at around the :24 mark shows exactly what Santana means, and why he remains a paragon of soulful lead playing. (JM)

Note: This track is currently only available on YouTube, so no playlist for you this week.

Philip Sayce – Oh! That Bitches Brew

Sayce returns with a pummeling rock track that uses all of the riffs. The Led Zeppelin influence is inescapable here, with hints of Good Times, Bad Times in the punching stop/start riff, all complemented by some monstrous percussion and Sayce’s unignorable, almost piercing tone. (MP)

Unprocessed – Blackbone

When thinking about the guitarists and bands who are pushing prog music into new territory, the mind immediately springs to Polyphia, Animals As Leaders, Ichika Nito, and a handful of others. Manuel Gardner Fernandes and his band, Unprocessed, deserve to be mentioned in the same breath. 

If their previous single, Thrash, was “a moment for modern guitar playing”, Blackbone continues the precedent, showcasing Fernandes’ pinpoint percussive slap technique and virtuosic phrasing. There are also some battering ram chugs, as well, just for good measure. (MO)

HEALTH – Children of Sorrow (ft. Willie Adler)

LA industrial experimentalists HEALTH have a knack of attracting killer collaborators, featuring everyone from Soccer Mommy to Trent Reznor. But the addition of Lamb of God guitarist Willie Adler’s god-like palm-muted chops lends Children of Sorrow an otherworldly thrash vibe that sounds like nothing else. It’s expansive, hypnotic and thoroughly disconcerting. (MAB)

Sleater-Kinney – Hell

The hard-hitting first preview from Little Rope, the forthcoming LP from punk legends Sleater-Kinney, does a phenomenal job of balancing the band’s trademark dual-guitar attack and the more offbeat, electronic elements they’ve incorporated (to some consternation from longtime fans) into their sound in recent years.

When Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker get into Sabbath-y lockstep with one another before the last verse, though, it should be more than enough to reverse the thinking of anyone of the opinion that Sleater-Kinney just don’t have it anymore. (JM)

Slift – Ilion

Slift’s mind-expanding mastery of heavy dynamics, six-string flair and psychedelic experimentalism marks them out as one of the most exciting metal bands we’ve heard since Mastodon cracked the skye. No wonder Sub Pop has scooped up the French crew for their forthcoming third album, Ilion. 

According to Slift, the eponymous lead single represents the album as a whole. “It depicts monuments to ancient gods rising skyward from the dusty desert floor of a dying planet, battered by fierce winds. It's about the people condemned to live on this desolate land. And about the murderers of this world, who leave it for space and the hope of a new world, in a frantic crusade which will lead them to madness.” To which we would add, “Yes, but with guitars…” (MP) 

Alluvial – Bog Dweller

As Alluvial kick off their tour with tech-metal champs TesseracT, Wes Hauch demonstrates why he’s one of the most trusted names in heavy, with the kind of right-hand precision that requires more than just woodshedding; there’s something superhuman about the anatomy of that wrist.

Haunch’s otherworldly chops and sophisticated ear set the stage for Bog Dweller’s groaning pre-bent riffs, which churn your stomach and pummel it at the same time. Meanwhile, those pinched lines are Dimebag incarnate, and the solo is so precise it’s scary. Death metal has never sounded more alive. (MAB)

Kvelertak – Morild

Norway’s premier hard-rocking, heavy-metal loving punk hybrid monster gift us… Morild. It’s the closer of the new album Endling (the ending of Endling, if you will) and comes accompanied by a short but unsettling film, which was reportedly six months in the making. 

Like the video that accompanies it, the track is ambitious, morphing in and out of a tangled – yet, nonetheless, grooving – web of harmonic leads constructed from intricate layers of pedal tones and hammer-ons. Later, we’re treated to a series of Iommi-esque riffs and it somehow finishes in an euphoric melodic punk singalong. (MP)

Torres – Collect

Mackenzie Scott, who records under the name Torres, has put together quite the teaser for her upcoming What an Enormous Room album. First single Collect has an absolute belter of a riff that puts the humbuckers on her Telecaster to very good use. (JM)

Dope Lemon – Derby Raceway 

Since 2016, the Dope Lemon moniker has been Angus Stone’s musical outlet of choice, giving the seasoned singer-songwriter (who once went by the pseudonym Lady of the Sunshine) the medium to wade through alternative, indie and borderline psychedelic waters.

The self-produced Kimosabè – his fourth album to date – is a continuation of Stone’s trip into this sonic territory, with Derby Raceway excellently showcasing the key components of his irresistible sonic DNA: hypnotic hooks, infectious layering and no-nonsense fizzy riffs with some subtle grunge to boot. (MO)

Also on this week's playlist...

• Joe Bonamassa – Is It Safe to Go Home?
• FIDLAR – Nudge
• Ida Mae – American Cars
• Hinayana – Triptych Visions
• blink-182 – Dance With Me
• Rosie Frater-Taylor – Hold The Weight
• The Lathums – Thoughts of a Child
• Wayfarer – A High Plains Eulogy
• Laura Jane Grace – Dysphoria Hoodie
• Vixen – Red
• English Teacher – Nearly Daffodils

Sophie Lloyd has turned Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin classics into epic works of shred, building legions of followers on YouTube, showcasing the chops needed for high-profile tours with Machine Gun Kelly, and for realizing her ambition with her forthcoming debut solo album, Imposter Syndrome.

We might already think we know how she is as a player, with her recent interview with GW charting her meteoric rise, but who are the artists who had the biggest impact on her incendiary electric guitar style? Well, read on. Here, she picks 10 albums that changed her life. And if there are a few we could have guessed, there are a few curveballs, too.

1. Joe Satriani – Surfing with the Alien

“This was one of the first instrumental guitar albums I ever heard. I loved the way Joe can tell a story through his music and really take you on a journey. I spent a lot of time studying the songs on this album trying to perfect techniques he used and understand his writing style.”

2. Avenged Sevenfold – City of Evil

“This is one of those albums that makes me smile and gets me so hyped every time I listen to it. I feel like this album really helped me with my playing as I would literally sit there all night and learn these songs back to front.” 

3. The Smiths – Rank

“Morrissey is one of greatest songwriters ever, especially when combined with Johnny Marr’s guitar playing. What an incredible mix. The album takes you on a journey of raw emotion.” 

4. Slash – S/T

“This album inspired me to do my upcoming collab record. It’s really cool seeing a guitarist pull together a group of vocalists from different genres to make an amazing album.”

5. Pantera – Cowboys from Hell

“I love how heavy and primal this album is. Dimebag is one of my biggest inspirations for lead guitar. He always knew how to think outside the box and elevate a song with his soloing.”

6. Alice in Chains – Dirt

“This album really influenced my rhythm playing. It was one of my first introductions into grunge music. It’s just so raw. I love the heavy riffs and odd time signatures.”

7. Van Halen – Van Halen

“I think most guitarists would agree that this album revolutionized guitar. The techniques and style Eddie brought to the table were unmatched. He was and continues to be an inspiration to so many people.” 

8. Twenty One Pilots – Blurry Face

“Although it’s pretty light on guitar, the songs on this album really spoke to me and helped me through some tough times. The band is very daring and unafraid to break rules. The music is full of tempo and time changes, and sometimes it switches genres in the same song. Very inspiring.” 

9. Iron Maiden – Rock in Rio

“It’s rare that a live album can top the original studio recordings, but this record captures all the energy of a Maiden show. You can close your eyes and feel like you’re there. These versions take their already incredible songs to new levels. It’s such a magical experience listening to this album.” 

10. Machine Gun Kelly – Mainstream Sellout

“If we’re talking about albums that changed my life, I have to include this one. When I first heard Emo Girl on the radio while visiting the U.S. last January, I never thought I’d be playing it at a sold-out stadium just a few months later.”

Stairway To Heaven may have (somewhat controversially) just been voted the greatest acoustic guitar song of all time. However, when it comes to Sophie Lloyd’s new shred version of the Zeppelin classic, there’s not an acoustic guitar in sight.

Lloyd has spent a significant chunk of the past few years winning fans as Machine Gun Kelly’s go-to six-stringer and under her own steam, with debut album Imposter Syndrome. Now she’s taken some time out to get back to her YouTube roots, with this stunning and intricate reworking of Stairway.

The guitarist actually mentioned the song was incoming as part of her recent Guitar World cover feature and explained the process she goes through when putting together her shred-savvy re-workings of classic tracks.

“We’ll listen to all the layers,” says Lloyd. “It teaches me a lot about composition. In terms of playing, I study the guitarists and try to get inside what they do. 

“Like when I did Comfortably Numb, I tried to figure out David Gilmour’s scales and tones. That was a cool one because I learned how you can sound powerful even if you’re not shredding over everything; you sit back and let the music speak. 

“It’s the same thing with the Stairway to Heaven video I’m doing. You speak through just a few notes; it’s all about your vibrato and phrasing.”

A common mistake many technical players make when trying to rejig a rock classic is shredding over the length of a track, losing any sense of the dynamics and pacing that made it great in the first place.

Lloyd’s retooling of Stairway doesn’t lose sight of the track’s melodic signatures or arrangement, but armed with her Kiezel signature guitar, she still finds interesting ways to add a bit of a technical flair, reserving the face-melting stuff for the latter solo sections.

Check out the full clip above, and for more from the UK shred virtuoso, check out our full Sophie Lloyd interview, in which she discusses hitting arenas with Machine Gun Kelly, taking on challenging covers and being the classic guitar “sob story”.

The melding of genres is always a tricky bit of fun. And when it comes to rock and pop, no two genres seem to pair better. To that end, ever since Michael Jackson solicited Eddie Van Halen and Steve Lukather’s services for Thriller (1982), blazing axe-slingers stepping into the world of bubbly pop has become nothing short of commonplace.

While the idea is no longer novel, in the present day, many six-string heroes continue to lend their licks to various icons of pop music. Be it the G.O.A.T. Eddie Van Halen, eternal M.V.P. Nuno Bettencourt, perpetual hurricane in motion Nita Strauss or the effervescent new kid on the block Sophie Lloyd, it seems these two worlds shall continue to collide. With that in mind, here’s a rundown of 10 rock guitarists who went pop.

1. Eddie Van Halen/Steve Lukather with Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson’s Thriller might have come out 41 years ago, but the guitars still sound as fresh as they did in 1982. And that’s partly due to the scintillating solo one Edward Van Halen provided and the additional riffage that Toto six-stringer Steve Lukather (who also played bass) laid down for Beat It.

With a riff as rocking as it gets and a typically tap-happy solo, Beat It was a crossover hit that catapulted Jackson to unprecedented success. Beat It was so successful that Jackson would go on to follow its formula as he surged ahead.

2. Stevie Ray Vaughan with David Bowie

On the surface, a gritty bluesman such as Stevie Ray Vaughan seemed oddly paired with a glam rocker steeped in pomp and circumstance like David Bowie. But then again, Bowie had worked with iconic guitarists before (not least Mick Ronson), so perhaps Vaughan’s searing solo on 1983’s Let’s Dance isn’t so obtuse after all. 

In truth, Vaughan laid down the solo for Let’s Dance in 1982 before he reached iconic levels of blues stardom. And so, it could be said that Bowie was early to the party when it came to Vaughan, seeing something in the Texas-born hero that others hadn’t… yet.

3. Jeff Beck with Tina Turner

It’s been said that no guitarists managed to elicit sounds from their instrument as Jeff Beck did. He could play a mean blues, rock with any of his contemporaries, and out-shred any young buck who cropped up. 

For those reasons and about a million more, Beck’s pairing with soul icon Tina Turner for 1984’s Private Dancer was nothing short of sublime. Just when you thought Beck would zag right, he zigged left, spewing slick licks and memorable guitarism across multiple genres.

4. Jennifer Batten with Michael Jackson

We know Michael Jackson had a thing for silky smooth fretwork, and he collaborated with plenty of well-known gunslingers in his day. To that end, Jackson invited guitarists of all shapes and sizes into the studio while recording his albums. But while on tour, having a cast of all-stars on hand for nightly performances wasn’t realistic. 

And so, Jackson knew he needed to find someone capable of carrying the varying degrees of shreddery laid forth on his records, leading to the hiring of Jennifer Batten in 1987. Jackson found his live muse in Batten, and she hung around for more than a decade. Oddly, she never appeared on any of his studio records.

5. Slash with Michael Jackson

Somewhere along the way, Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash and the King of Pop must have formed an unlikely friendship, because they worked together plenty in the ’90s. The first instance was on 1991’s Dangerous, where Slash pummeled his way through the solo on Give It to Me. 

A few years later, Slash appeared on D.S. from 1995’s HIStory: Past, Present, and Future: Book I. And once more on Morphine, from the 1997 collection Blood on the Dancefloor: HIStory in the Mix.

Of all his various guitar collaborations, Jackson’s studio partnership with Slash was the only one that could be seen as ongoing. There seemed to be something about Slash’s bluesy licks that Jackson couldn’t get enough of.

6. Monte Pittman with Madonna

For those leaning toward metal, Monte Pittman is known as Prong’s demonstrative former lead guitarist. Metal exploits aside, with a Jarell MPS in hand, Pittman has been the main guitar-related squeeze of Madonna since 2001. 

In the 22 years since, Pittman has streaked across the globe with the Queen of Pop while appearing on albums such as 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor and 2008’s Hard Candy. 

Capable of laying back and covering Madonna’s ’80s catalog with gentle nuance, Pittman can more than step into the limelight and match the veteran pop vocalist’s energy pound for pound.

He also had the honor of teaching Her Madge Pantera’s A New Level – a riff she loved so much she played it every night for an entire tour.

7. Nuno Bettencourt with Rihanna

Nuno Bettencourt’s work with Rihanna on her 2010 album Loud is perhaps his most well-known diversion from rock, but it wasn’t his first. Many will recall the shredder’s collaboration with Janet Jackson, as he lent his rhythm licks on 1989’s Black Cat. But still, Bettencourt’s ongoing musical soiree with Rhianna remains his pop crème de le crème. 

His fretwork on Skin was an entry point to casa de Nuno for many pop-leaning fans. And if we push forward, before the hubbub surrounding Extreme’s new album, Six, Bettencourt was seen brandishing his Washburn beside Rihanna during the Super Bowl LVII halftime show.

8. Brian May with Lady Gaga

She might be one of the modern era’s biggest pop stars and a cultural phenomenon, but Lady Gaga is a rock-loving gal at her core. At least, that’s the impression given during her collaboration with Brian May on 2011’s Yoü and I. For the uninitiated, Yoü and I is best remembered as the penultimate track from Gaga’s monster sophomore affair, Born This Way.

May, with his Red Special in hand, added a certain je ne sais quoi to the festivities. Indeed, Gaga alongside May was a match made in glam-pop heaven, and some 12 years later, despite being labeled a pop song destined for Billboard infamy, Yoü and I has proved to be a true crossover hit.

9. Nita Strauss with Demi Lovato

In the summer of 2022, the longtime Alice Cooper tailgunner shocked the (guitar) world by stepping away from the shock rockers band to hit the road with Demi Lovato. Strauss was unfairly labeled a deserter while being subjected to questionable remarks from armchair critics and curious onlookers. 

But nearly a year after Strauss took her reprieve, all is well. Her tour with Lovato was an unmitigated success, allowing her to find the crossover success she deserved and desired. And much to the delight of rock fans, Strauss is back on the road with her old friends in the Alice Cooper band, too.

10. Sophie Lloyd with Machine Gun Kelly

As a shining example of hard work, creativity, grit, talent and determination, Sophie Lloyd is among the hottest names on the shred circuit today. Though innately talented, Lloyd took the road less traveled. 

Coming from a small town in the U.K., Lloyd parlayed a passion for guitar into a burgeoning career as a successful influencer via YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. 

And it’s a good thing, because that exposure led to polarizing pop star Machine Gun Kelly calling. In an instant, Lloyd’s life was changed, leading to mega tours, a solo career, a signature series of guitars with Kiesel and more social media followers than Lloyd could have ever imagined.

Hello, GW readers, in this exclusive lesson, I’d like to go over my guitar parts and solo in Do or Die, a song from my upcoming album, Imposter Syndrome. But first I want to thank GuitarWorld.com readers for voting Do or Die the second-best guitar solo of 2022!

Do or Die features vocalist Nathan James, an incredible singer who’s also a very good friend of mine. The song took off right out of the gate, and it’s now at 1.9 million views on YouTube. Again, thank you to everyone for the incredible, enthusiastic response and support!

The success of Do or Die was so crazy, because the song came out at the very end of 2022 and was the first single I’d released in ages. For it to do so well on all of the platforms was great, and I’ve read Guitar World since I was a kid, so the votes from the readers meant so much to me. 

Inspiration

In writing Do or Die, I was looking to create an ’80s-style classic rock song. I love that kind of music – I’m wearing an Iron Maiden T-shirt right now! – so I knew I wanted to go in that direction. 

Nathan is one of my favorite vocalists and I had him specifically in mind for this song. The mindset for the style and direction of the song was along the lines of Iron Maiden, with some gallop-y palm mutes in the rhythm part. 

Primary influences

Growing up, one of my favorite guitarists was Joe Satriani. He was the first player I became aware of who had made a career of writing instrumental records, all of which I thought were amazing. When I first heard Surfing with the Alien, it was the craziest album I’d ever heard, in terms of guitar techniques.

Another primary influence is Slash; he was very inspirational for this new album in particular. I love his 2010 solo album, Slash [also known as R&FN’R], with all of the collaborations with people like Ozzy Osbourne, Fergie, Chris Cornell, M. Shadows and so many incredible people. 

I love Guns N’ Roses too, as well as Pantera and Black Label Society, and I also was influenced by punk music as I was growing up, including the Misfits, Social Distortion and Rancid. I love the rhythm guitar playing in all of these bands. Overall, for me it was a big mix of different things all compiled together – anything with a killer solo you can jam out to.

One of the first solos I ever learned was Stairway to Heaven. I spent months trying to learn it. Hotel California was another one, as well as Metallica’s Master of Puppets. I also worked on all of the classic Eddie Van Halen solos with fretboard tapping; I thought I was the best guitarist in the world, even though I could only play one of his tapping licks.

How to play Do or Die

Do or Die is played in the key of A minor and at a tempo of 150 beats per minute. I start the song on a C power chord in 3rd position, pedaling off the open A string (see Figure 1). 

The C chord is followed by an A power chord and then a single-note lick, shown in Figure 2, which is based on the A minor pentatonic scale (A, C, D, E, G): slide up to the A note at the 5th fret on the low E string, then play C and D on the A string, bending the D note up a whole step to E and then releasing it back down to D, followed by the notes C and A. That figure repeats through the intro (Figure 3).  

This part ends with the quick descending lick shown in Figure 4, which is also based on A minor pentatonic and is built from a sequence of pull-offs and a finger slide that move across the G, D and A strings. 

Next up is the verse section, made up of the chords D5, C5 and A5 and some more open A-string pedaling (Figure 5). The second time through the two-bar phrase, I hang on the C note and add vibrato, as shown in bar 4. 

On the fourth time around, as shown in Figure 6, the phrase ends on the A5 power chord.

The pre-chorus has a few things going on. As tabbed in Figure 7, I begin with palm-muted power chords and play the progression C5 - D5 - C5 - D5 - E5 - G5, all on the A, D and G strings.

Over this part, I play a harmonized single-note line: the primary melody is played on the B string, as shown in Figure 8, and the harmony line is played on the G string (Figure 9). 

The chorus guitar parts are fairly simple. The progression is A5 - G5 - D5 - A5, utilizing a down-up-down strumming pattern (Figure 10). That pattern repeats a few times while I add a higher arpeggiated pattern, tabbed in Figure 11. 

On the D5 chord, I sometimes like to add the low A note on the 6th string, to fatten up the sound of the chord, so I’ll extend my index finger to barre the 6th string as well (see Figure 12). 

Figure 13 presents the entire chorus section, as I perform it live.

Coming out of the chorus, we add the lick shown in Figure 14, which is based on A minor pentatonic and functions as a tag for the chorus section. The arrangement then goes back to the verse, pre-chorus and chorus sections, with
the added single-note harmonized lines. 

The only thing that’s different about the second chorus is that the chords go around twice before playing the chorus tag that ends the section.

The Solo

After the second chorus tag, we come to the solo section, which is my favorite part of the song! I play the solo over a progression that’s virtually the same as that for the verses, but there are a few variations. 

As shown in Figure 15, I start on D5, followed by C5 and A5, and then slide up from G5 to A5 on the bottom three strings. The progression then shifts to G5 - F#5 - A5 and another slide up from G5 to A5. 

The solo is based primarily on A minor pentatonic and moves through various fretboard patterns and positions of the scale as it develops. I begin up at the 17th fret, in the “first box,” with a phrase built from bends and vibratos on the top two strings (see Figure 16). 

I then play a descending lick based on a repeating hammer-on/pull-off figure, illustrated in Figure 17, which is inspired by the types of solos you will hear on many Iron Maiden songs. From there, I go into Figure 18, which is a cyclic ascending pattern, played in the “second box” of A minor pentatonic. 

Figure 19 depicts the entire solo, as played up to speed, including the final phrase, shown in bars 13-16, which is built from a repeating motive that starts with a bend/release and then gradually moves down the A minor pentatonic scale. 

The solo ends on a natural harmonic (N.H.) sounded at the 5th fret on the G string, after which I add a gradual whammy bar dive.

Outro

After the solo, we reprise the chorus, and at this point I add a new guitar part, just to mix it up a bit (see Figure 20). 

That’s the song! It’s one of the simpler and more straightforward songs on the record, played in what I think of as a true “classic rock” style. I wanted to present a song that’s accessible for people to play and isn’t filled with a ton of crazy, flashy guitar playing. 

Developing solo technique

I like to work on legato phrases when I’m practicing, so the lines I play sound smooth and have a nice flow. I work on alternate and economy picking techniques as well, but I prefer the sound of legato phrases that combine hammer-ons, pull-offs and finger slides. 

I picked up a lot of great legato ideas from listening to Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, specifically the ways in which they incorporate three-notes-per-string fingering patterns and scale shapes.

Figure 21 illustrates one of the typical three-notes-per-string types of phrases I like to work on. It’s based on the A Dorian mode (A, B, C, D, E, F#, G), which is made up of the same notes as the G major scale (G, A, B, C, D, E, F#). I’ll move this type of phrase all over the neck, as a workout. I find this a really effective way to work on all of the modal positions while strengthening my legato technique. 

I’ll start with the Ionian mode, the major scale, and then move it up and down the fretboard, so that I can focus on various scale positions and areas of the neck. I love that sort of stuff, which you can hear in a few spots in the Do or Die solo. I use this type of legato articulation in many of my solos, as you’ll find in my soloing YouTube videos.

Picking techniques

My preference for single-note soloing is the flowing sound of legato phrases, but I also work on alternate and economy picking techniques all the time. Lately, I’ve been working on economy picking, sticking with the three-notes-per-string approach. 

With economy picking, you repeat, or rather continue, the direction of the previous pick stroke when crossing to the next higher or lower string, as you would do when sweep picking, or “raking” the pick across several strings. So if the last note on a given string is picked with a downstroke, then the first note on the next higher string would also be articulated with the same downstroke. 

Likewise, if the last note on a given string is picked with an upstroke, then the first note on the next lower string would also be articulated with a continuation of that upstroke. 

It’s a really cool and super-efficient technique to hone, but it seems so counterintuitive to what your hands and brain want to do, and it can be challenging to train your hands to maintain a steady rhythm when using the technique in the middle of a run. 

Economy picking is really helpful with playing fast – you can play crazy fast lines with economy picking – but it’s definitely a challenge to work into your picking style, until you get the hang of it. 

When I was in college, I had a wonderful opportunity to take a master class with the great Frank Gambale, who introduced me to economy picking. I’ve been watching a lot of his videos lately. He’s an incredible player and musician and a true master of this exciting and very useful picking technique!

Everything was going so well for Sophie Lloyd. The 27-year-old British guitarist had recently completed her first tours of the U.S. and Europe as part of rap-rocker Machine Gun Kelly’s band. It was a heady time for Lloyd, who, despite her sizable following on YouTube and Instagram, had previously only played club and pub gigs around the U.K. before signing on for Kelly’s Mainstream Sellout tour in the spring of 2022. 

Now she was playing big-time venues – Madison Square Garden, Wembley Arena, even the odd stadium or two – and she was “going down a smash.” 

And then it all seemed to go a bit wonky. In February of this year, Lloyd’s name was suddenly in headlines throughout the media, but for reasons that had nothing to do with her prodigious shredding skills. It all started when Kelly’s fiancée, actress Megan Fox, sparked online rumors of a split, which prompted one fan to write, “He probably got with Sophie” on Fox’s Instagram page. And that’s all it took. 

In a flash, Lloyd was clickbait fodder, with tabloid sites branding her “the other woman.” The speculation was quickly squashed by Lloyd’s management, and even Fox rushed to the guitarist’s defense, denying any kind of cheating scandal and writing on Instagram, “Sophie, you are insanely talented. Welcome to Hollywood. Your first unwarranted PR disaster.”

The brouhaha has since died down, and Lloyd can laugh about it now – somewhat. “It was a crazy time for me to be on the inside of all the media stuff,” she says. “Obviously, we all know the truth – it was complete bullshit – but it was wild to see this thing spread so fast and how everybody jumped on the bandwagon.”

Just as quickly, though, she pivots to a larger issue: the grim and, sadly, predictable stigma facing musicians who just so happen to be female.

“What I found especially upsetting was, the second there was some sort of drama, fingers immediately pointed at me,” she says. “It was like, ‘Oh, the girl musician – of course she’s at the root of it.’ Nobody would have said shit if I were the new dude in the band; they wouldn’t have suspected a thing. It was a bit unfortunate to be exposed to the toxicity of the media.”

If there was any kind of silver lining to the episode, Lloyd can point to a dramatic uptick on her own social media accounts. “I got 20,000 more Instagram followers,” she says. “People have been saying such nice things about my playing, so that’s a plus, I guess.”

Lloyd’s online audience is, indeed, impressive: on YouTube, she boasts close to 900,000 subscribers, and, as of this writing, her Instagram followers number just over 800,000.

Since she began posting guitar-centric covers of her favorite songs (by everyone from Green Day to Iron Maiden), she’s racked up tens of millions of views and has dazzled ax enthusiasts with her breathtaking chops; from melodic legato soloing to turbo-charged tapping, she’s got it all. 

Building on her success, Lloyd recently began re-imaging classic rock tunes in a series of “shred” videos in which she performs an entire track – vocal melodies and solos – in a blistering metal fashion. (Her operatic “shred” rendition of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb, in which she balances thoughtful bluesy lyricism with hypersonic, gonzo soloing, has already been viewed close to five million times.)

She produces the videos along with her partner, Christopher Painter, who also plays drums on the clips. “I’ll do guitars and bass, and then we’ll listen to all the layers,” she says. “It teaches me a lot about composition. In terms of playing, I study the guitarists and try to get inside what they do. Like when I did Comfortably Numb, I tried to figure out David Gilmour’s scales and tones. 

“That was a cool one because I learned how you can sound powerful even if you’re not shredding over everything; you sit back and let the music speak. It’s the same thing with the Stairway to Heaven video I’m doing. You speak through just a few notes; it’s all about your vibrato and phrasing.”

Lloyd’s stunning trajectory from successful online creator to high-level arena rocker might cause one to assume that it was all the result of a carefully crafted plan – a notion she quickly rejects. 

“I just kind of wing it,” she says with a laugh. “The truth is, I never set out to be an online content creator. I joined YouTube back in the day because there wasn’t a real music scene where I grew up. I had to follow a more unconventional path. I didn’t plan to be a touring musician, either; in fact, I like staying at home and being with my family. But the Machine Gun Kelly opportunity came to me, I ended up doing it, and I discovered I really enjoy it. I just love making music, and I’m open to whatever exciting thing comes my way.”

Up till now, the only original music Lloyd has released has been instrumental – most notably, there was her debut EP, Delusions, issued in 2018. Recently, she began releasing singles from her upcoming full-length album, Imposter Syndrome, that will include an array of guest vocalists. 

First up there was Do or Die, a blitzing shred-o-rama featuring Inglorious frontman Nathan James. Next up was the pile-driving Fall of Man, in which Trivium’s Matt Heafy – no slouch on the guitar himself – stepped back to allow for Lloyd’s commanding leads.

That track was soon followed by Hanging On, a swaggering stomper on which the guitarist teamed up with Canadian singer Lauren Babic. Lloyd is still completing work on the album (she just wrapped another raucous cut, Let It Hurt, with Black Stone Cherry’s Chris Robertson as well as Lost, an instrumental tune with fellow internet guitar star Cole Rolland), and she promises it will be a humdinger.

“I always said this album was going to be me paying homage to my 15-year-old self,” she says. “This is an album I wrote for that girl. I’m so fortunate to work with all of the amazing singers on the record, and I can honestly say I’ve been listening to them for years.

“I can’t tell you how gratifying it’s been – I’d write the songs, and then we’d send them off and hear back from the singers. They were like, ‘Yeah, I really dig this. I’m up for it.’ It’s all turned out better than I could have imagined.”

From what I understand, you started on the guitar as a child. Do you remember the moment when you knew you wanted to play?

“This is going to sound so embarrassing. It was actually when I watched SpongeBob SquarePants. [Laughs] It’s a great show. I saw the movie – they do a version of Twisted Sister’s I Wanna Rock, but SpongeBob sings, ‘I’m a goofy goober!’ They had the big band, and I thought it looked so incredible. I said, ‘Wow, I wanna do that!’”

SpongeBob rocked quite a bit. In one episode, he was a singer and Patrick played guitar. They rocked a stadium, and they had lights and lasers…

“[Laughs] Yeah, exactly! That was the start. Plus, my dad loved music, and he had all the classic rock around the house – Led Zeppelin, Joe Bonamassa, Rory Gallagher, all of these amazing blues guitarists. He didn’t play guitar, but because of him I was surrounded by music. I took a few classical guitar lessons when I was 10 or so, but I was like, ‘Nah.’ 

“Then I got an electric guitar – a Yamaha Pacifica – and I was like, ‘This is more like it.’ I got really into it. It was the classic sob story in school – I was a bit of an outcast and didn’t make friends. The guitar was my release and my escape. I found so much comfort from playing rock music. I’d come home from school and play for five or six hours.”

What kinds of songs were you playing?

“One of the first songs was Wild Thing. I did a thing called Rock Masters with Mike Hurst – he played guitar for Dusty Springfield. He’s like a second grandpa to me. I learned a lot from him. I had a bit of a natural feel for the guitar, but I also loved songwriting. 

“Once I got chords nailed down, it unlocked the writing thing in me. Then I got more into the technical side, so I played along with Iron Maiden, Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold. I got it all down quite quickly. The first full solo I learned was Stairway to Heaven.”

Not bad.

“Yeah. My dad said that if I learned it, he would buy me a PRS Mark Tremonti signature guitar. I did learn it, and he made good on that promise. [Laughs] That was one of the first videos I put up on Facebook. I was, like, 14 or something. I watched it the other day because I’m writing a ‘shred’’ version of it. I enjoyed the challenge of learning solos. I didn’t get hung up on the patterns or shapes; I thought of everything quite logically, really. I just had an ear for it.”

You were in your mid-teens by this point, right?

“Yeah, I was about 16.”

Were you already thinking of playing guitar as a career?

“Well, no. It felt like a distant dream. Nobody around me played, and I didn’t know anybody in the music industry. In the real world, I felt isolated. At school, I said, ‘I want to learn music at university,’ and they were like, ‘No.’ I got a scholarship to study forensic science at university – I was a bit of a nerd. A week before I was going to go, I said, “I really want to give this music thing a go.’ Luckily, my parents were supportive, and I got into a music university in London.”

At this point, which guitarists were you really into?

“Joe Satriani. Surfing with the Alien was a record I wanted to learn from start to finish. Angel Vivaldi was another one; he’s a good friend of mine now. I also loved Andy James, Synyster Gates and, of course, Slash. I really delved into them. At uni, I discovered Eddie Van Halen and went wild on him.”

You graduated from the British and Irish Modern Music Institute. Overall, was it a good experience?

“I have mixed opinions about music university. Ultimately, it was the right decision to go because of the people I met, but overall they tried to force me to be a session guitarist and be a carbon copy of everybody else. After a year, I realized I hadn’t played a song that I really loved. 

“I learned gypsy jazz and other things, but that wasn’t where my heart was. I came home from uni and learned this emo song I liked, and it was then that I said, ‘I need to take my creativity and mold it into something I enjoy.’ That’s when I started writing my first EP, Delusions.”

Before that, you started making your own videos.

“That’s right.”

How long did it take you to feel comfortable on camera?

“A while. Do you ever feel 100 percent comfortable with a camera on you? [Laughs] It’s good to look back at the videos and see the progress, which is why I started doing them in the first place. I didn’t know you could make money on YouTube. One of the first videos I made was Nightmare by Avenged Sevenfold. 

“Cut to last year and I’m sitting watching it with [bassist] Johnny Christ from the band. We had a big laugh about it. [Laughs] Some of the videos are a little cringey, but that’s OK. I’m not going to delete the older ones. I think it’s important to have reference points.”

How did you learn about guitars and gear? Trial and error?

“I watched a lot of videos on YouTube. I loved PRS for a long while, but then Rob Caggiano from Volbeat introduced me to Kiesel and I got into them. They’re very customizable, which I quite like. It was a similar thing with pedals and amps. 

“I played a Diezel VH4 for a while; working in a studio really gave me an idea of what sounds I liked. Doing my videos, I started getting more into guitar software; I’ve been using the [Neural DSP] Archetype: Nolly. A lot of it’s just been from doing research, looking around online and talking to people.”

I know you said you’re not big on planning, but what do you think you’d be doing if the Machine Gun Kelly gig hadn’t come up?

“Well, I do a lot of solo stuff, and we’re doing the album at the moment. I wanted to do some live shows with my partner and different vocalists. That’s sort of what we’re doing. I was in a smaller local band for a few years – Marisa and the Moths. 

“They were sort of a grungy rock band with some shred solos. We did club and pub gigs around the U.K. There weren’t big crowds, but I had a great time playing with them, and I learned so much. I left the band during quarantine. I just wanted to push my own music.”

How did the Machine Gun Kelly gig come about? Did he see you online and reach out to you?

“It was the drummer’s dad who found me, actually. Then Kels reached out and we had a FaceTime. We vibed and all went well. I sent over a video compilation of me performing live. This was only a few weeks before they had to go on tour; they had to make a decision quickly. I’m grateful that they kind of took a chance on me. I didn’t have to do an audition or anything.”

You just showed up to a rehearsal in the States, and that was it?

“Yeah, pretty much. They sent me over songs to learn, and I spent a lot of time going over them and making notes. I felt prepared. The guys were lovely and made me feel welcome as soon as I walked in. 

“Kels wasn’t there on the first few days, so that was a bit of pressure off. The first day was quite stressful, though, because it was such a different environment for me – there was this massive crew and everything. I had to snap out of my imposter syndrome and be like, ‘No, it’s OK. You do belong here. You deserve this.’”

All right, hold on. This phrase “imposter syndrome” almost implies you’re not good enough. Do you actually feel that way?

“Well, the imposter syndrome is a thing. It’s a phenomenon a lot of people experience in any field; not just music, but you basically feel like you’re an imposter. You don’t deserve to be where you are, and at any moment people will uncover you for what you are. I feel like I’ve broken out of that now. I proved to myself, like, ‘Yeah, you’re here for a reason. You’re good enough.’”

Were you a fan of Machine Gun Kelly’s music before this whole thing happened?

“Yeah. I’d heard some of his songs, but not that many. He’s not as big in the U.K. as he is elsewhere. He had some good songs with Yungblud and Halsey – I knew him through a lot of his collaborations.”

Was it immediately understood that you would have some musical leeway in the band?

“Yeah, he said from the beginning that he’s super-open. He loves the live experience and the idea of changing things around. He loves showcasing the talent of his bands because the bands are so talented. The other guitarist I play with, Justin Lyons, is one of the most amazing guitarists I’ve ever seen. 

“Kels wants to give everybody a chance to shine. He always likes to say. ‘We’re Machine Gun Kelly together.’ It’s just really nice. I know a lot of people make comments: ‘Oh, they’re not talented, blah blah blah. They’re not good.’ But if you could be in the room with us, you’d be amazed at the talent.”

Going from playing to small crowds to amphitheaters and arenas must have been quite an adjustment. Were you scared?

“It was the ultimate challenge, and I had to sort of fight through my demons and get on with it. I practiced so much before that first gig. I had built it up that I’d be nervous. I thought it would be really nerve-racking, but the moment I stepped on stage, everything melted away and it felt like I was meant to be there. 

“I saw all the faces and the signs and everything. I was surprised at how I took to it. I love watching everybody get crazy. The band would jump off shit, so I started doing some stunts as well. It’s been fun.”

You’ve been previewing cuts from your album while you record. You were a big Trivium fan growing up. What was it like working with Matt Heafy?

“Oh, he’s so nice. It was honestly incredible. Everyone on this album has just been so nice as well. Yeah, Matt Heafy was crazy ’cause I was such a big fan. There’s a picture of me taken on the first day of recording my Delusions album in a homemade Trivium T-shirt. It feels kind of full circle that I get to work with him. And it was fun to go to Florida and film the video with him. He got the vision kind of straight away. 

“Also, we recorded the track over Twitch, so that was quite interesting. I feel like it’s a modern way to record a song because we got that immediate feedback from fans about what they liked, what they didn’t like, if the lyric was good or if it was bad. He was like, ’Should I redo that scream? Was that, like, shit?’ It was cool to have that kind of live feedback there while he was writing. So yeah, that was a really fun way to do it.”

Why didn’t Matt play guitar on the track?

“We wrote the full instrumental before sending it to him. I think Matt was up for trying something a bit different. It was the first collab he’d done without his guitar. It really allowed him to showcase his voice. But I’d love to one day do another song with both of us playing on it.”

Let It Hurt with Chris Robertson is quite strong. Of everything I’ve heard, the riffs are killer. Do those come easily to you?

“I love writing riffs – they’re such a big part of constructing a song. With a lot of these songs, we’d have a vocalist in mind, so I’d sit down and write. I’d listen to a lot of music and tinker around, maybe flip it backward and then change out some of the chords. I just really enjoy building songs from start to finish.”

Are you thinking of forming a band with one dedicated singer?

That’s what we’re trying to think about: ‘How do we tour this?’ We’ve got a few ideas. We’re not sure whether we want to get a full-time vocalist – well, maybe. I guess it’s just about finding a vocalist that fits you and inspires you. We might try something where we have big screens and we get vocalists to record a performance. The violinist Lindsey Sterling does that. Visually, it’s pretty amazing.”

Are you at liberty to talk about how long you plan to stay with Machine Gun Kelly?

“I’m not really sure. I really enjoy working with him and touring with him. We’ll sort of see what direction he wants to go in as well. I think he wants to go more into the rap side of things again, so it’s sort of seeing where I’ll fit into that. I’m passionate about my solo career, of course. I’m taking each day as it comes, taking whatever adventures I can get.”

Let’s talk about your guitar, particularly your signature model from Kiesel.

“I wanted my Kiesel signature to be a shred guitar. It’s got a Sustaniac, which I first saw on Manson guitars. Matt Bellamy uses them, and they make just crazy noises. I wanted to sort of adapt it so you could do it on a shred guitar. 

“It’s got a very thin walnut neck with a purple heart stripe, but it can be customized for the number of stripes. We’ve got the royal ebony fingerboards, which gives you quite a warm round tone. And we use black limba for the body, which has similar tonal characteristics to mahogany, but it’s way lighter. The guitar is super light, and you can swing it – I like to do that on stage. It comes in purple, but people will be able to choose their own colors.

“I’ve got everything where I want it on this guitar. I love Kiesel’s Aries guitar shape, so I knew I wanted something similar to that. And being a girl, well, you have to think a little bit about the boob placement. Some guitars don’t fit as well under there.”

That’s important. 

“[Laughs] Yeah. You can buy it without the Sustaniac and whammy bar if you don’t want to go super-crazy.”

What about amps?

“I’m using Blackstar a lot. They’re a great amp company. I’m still using my Diezel for tones, but I also use the Neural Archetype. When I’m out with MGK, we use Kempers; they’re very convenient for flying overseas and stuff. I’m exploring a lot of different amps. We’ve used the EVH 5150 on the album. I absolutely love the sound of that. I’m not sold on any particular amp.”

Do you use a lot of pedals, or is it a lot of software?

“There’s pedals, but we are using the Neural Quad Cortex. It’s cool because it’s got the pedals built in. I still have a kind of pedalboard, but I don’t use much other than some reverb. I love the TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb and some delay. I don’t use a massive amount of crazy effects.”

Do you feel like you’re part of a revolution, going from an online presence into a major band situation?

“I guess so, but I don’t know. I skipped a few steps, I guess. For me, it’s been both a blessing and a curse. If I grew up in an area with a music scene and a lot of bands, I would have taken advantage of that. It’s interesting that I’ve been able to enter touring at such a high level. People always say, ‘You haven’t paid your dues,’ but I feel as though I’ve done that in a different way. I’m not the first person to do this by any means.

“But I think it’s cool that my journey has been documented. I think we’re definitely going to see a lot more of that, especially with TikTok and stuff. I was always worried before because this never seemed like a viable career to me. I didn’t know anybody in the music industry. I didn’t have anywhere I could fit. If I didn’t have this online thing, I don’t know how things could have unfolded. 

“I think it’s amazing that social media can open up all of these doors for people and allow other people to see them. At the same time, things get oversaturated and there’s obviously the downside to that, but overall it’s a new direction for music, and I think we all just kind of need to adapt to it. There’s so much amazing music, and people are doing incredible things. I think it’s really exciting.” 

• Follow Sophie Lloyd on YouTube. 

Machine Gun Kelly band member and virtuoso guitarist Sophie Lloyd has earned a reputation as a formidable player and this month, rightfully, makes her debut on the cover of the new issue of Guitar World. 

In her accompanying interview with GW, she discusses her earliest days as a guitarist – revealing in the process that her inspiration to pick up the instrument came from a most unlikely source. 

“This is going to sound so embarrassing,” Lloyd tells Guitar World. “It was actually when I watched SpongeBob SquarePants.” 

While, of course, we all know Spongebob has a banging theme tune, Lloyd says it was specifically a scene from 2004’s The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie that did it.

“It's a great show,” acknowledges Lloyd [which is fortunate, because we have zero tolerance for SpongeBob shade on GW – Ed]. 

“[Then] I saw the movie – [and] they do a version of Twisted Sister's I Wanna Rock, but SpongeBob sings, ‘I'm a goofy goober!’ They had the big band, and I thought it looked so incredible. I said, ‘Wow, I wanna do that!’”

Of course, while SpongeBob has taught the world many life lessons, the adventures of a cartoon sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea ultimately have their limitations as a practice aid, and Lloyd soon found herself on a more familiar six-string journey.

“That was the start,” explains Lloyd. “Plus, my dad loved music, and he had all the classic rock around the house – Led Zeppelin, Joe Bonamassa, Rory Gallagher, all of these amazing blues guitarists… 

“I was surrounded by music. I took a few classical guitar lessons when I was 10 or so, but I was like, ‘Nah.’ Then I got an electric guitar – a Yamaha Pacifica – and I was like, ‘This is more like it.’”

“I got really into it. It was the classic sob story in school – I was a bit of an outcast and didn't make friends. The guitar was my release and my escape. I found so much comfort from playing rock music. I'd come home from school and play for five or six hours.”

Now she’s on the cover of Guitar World, so we’d say that time has paid off...

Elsewhere in the wide-ranging interview, Lloyd discusses her role as Machine Gun Kelly’s guitarist, including the sexism she faced as a female guitarist following baseless rumors around their relationship; her forthcoming solo album Imposter Syndrome – which features the likes of Matt Heafy and Chris Robertson – plus her Kiesel signature guitar.

To read Lloyd’s full cover feature, head to Magazines Direct to pickup Guitar World issue 568.

I hereby welcome Sophie Lloyd to the GW cover club! It’s a joy to watch guitarists spring up, basically out of nowhere, to achieve such high levels of acclaim in this, um, interesting modern age of ours.

I joined GW in early 2011, and I’ve witnessed a few bright careers in the making since then, including occasional GW cover stars Billy Strings, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Jake Kiszka, Rob Scallon, and Wolfgang Van Halen (although Wolf did share a GW cover with his dad in 2008…).

OK, back to Sophie: Somewhere in Joe Bosso’s interview in this issue, Lloyd says, “People always say, ‘You haven’t paid your dues,’ but I feel as though I’ve done that in a different way.”

I agree. And what does “paying your dues” even mean in 2023? Isn’t building a massive online following over the course of several years paying your dues? Isn’t somehow shifting from the digital realm onto major brick-and-mortor stages like Madison Square Garden, Wembley Arena and the awesomely named KFC Yum! Center "paying your dues"?

Lloyd’s is definitely a unique story, and although I have very little inside information, I can promise you that her current stint with Machine Gun Kelly is still just the beginning.

Speaking of Lloyd, in this jam-packed issue you will find…

Welcome to the Machine: Lloyd discusses the joys – and the very public pitfalls – of her wild trajectory from popular online creator to Machine Gun Kelly’s arena-rocking secret weapon. (by Joe Bosso)

Exclusive Lesson with (and by!) Sophie: Lloyd breaks down her main riffs and solo in Do or Die and offers some useful playing and practicing tips – with tab and video. (by Sophie Lloyd)

Surfing with the Sophie: Lloyd chooses the 10 albums that changed her life. (by Andrew Daly)

Pop Goes the Shredder: 10 respected rock ’n’ blues guitarists who – for at least a little while, anyway – boarded the pop train. (by Andrew Daly)

This issue (AKA the September 2023 issue of Guitar World) is available right here, right now!

Elsewhere in this issue...

Famous rock recluse Vito Bratta discusses some of his greatest White Lion guitar solos, a poignant conversation with Eddie Van Halen and how he wound up using Jimi Hendrix’s Strat.

On their back-to-basics new album, Greta Van Fleet guitarist Jake Kiszka heads for the hills and cranks up the volume!

Warren Haynes and Gov’t Mule return with Peace…Like a River, a sublime example of longform rock ’n’ soul that draws inspiration from George Harrison, the Doors, and the multipart masterpieces of Kansas and Queen.

How did a Swedish death metal band end up releasing one of the greatest progressive rock masterpieces of the modern age? Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt looks back on 20 years of Damnation.

On Truth Killer, Sevendust's guitar-packed new album, guitarists Clint Lowery and John Connolly ponder the musical question – “How low can you go?”

Biggie smalls! Ten diminutive practice amps that’ll actually inspire you to practice.

In our Columns section, Joe Bonamassa discusses the finer points of the 1959 Gibson ES-345, Andy Aledort shows you how to weave four-part guitar harmonies, Josh Smith shows you how to use diminished phrases to connect chords in a blues tune, and Andy Timmons shows you how to describe a chord progression in a solo.

Besides Lloyd's transcribed Do or Die lesson, this month’s transcriptions are You Never Give Me Your Money by the Beatles, Will of the People by Muse, and Symphony of Destruction by Megadeth.

We have reviews of the Boss SDE-3000EVH Dual Digital Delay pedal, the Furch Violet D-SM acoustic, the Jackson X Series Dinky DK3XR HSS, the Apogee Jam X and Fishman’s Fluence Tim Henson Signature Series and Scott LePage Custom Series pickup sets.

In Power Tools, Chris Gill explores the history and allure of the 1983-85 Roland SDE-3000 Digital Delay.

OK, later!

You can buy new issues of Guitar World at Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Hudson News, Books-a-Million and other stores – and online from Magazines Direct. And, while you're at it, why not save on every issue by subscribing?

Kiesel has announced the Sophie Lloyd Signature Series, a line of signature guitars for social media virtuoso and Machine Gun Kelly guitarist Sophie Lloyd that come with a customizable twist.

Lloyd’s model is based around Kiesel’s double-cutaway Aries silhouette, but makes a number of key tweaks to the formula – not least offering guitar players the option of spec’ing key components of the model themselves, something of a rarity among signature designs.

Guitarists can choose the guitar’s top wood, headstock shape and tremolo system, not to mention a dazzling array of finishes (purple being Lloyd’s favorite, natch).

At its core, however, the SL model is built around a chambered black limba body – which promises a rich mahogany-inspired tone minus the weight – and comes with a flame maple top with Kiesel’s trademark deep binding effect.

Neck-wise, you’re looking at single-piece walnut with a 25.5”-scale, 14”-radius royal ebony fingerboard, packing 24 stainless steel frets. Lloyd has spec’d Kiesel’s “Thinner” neck profile, too.

One of the key components of Lloyd’s signature is an Iron Age killswitch, located on the guitar’s upper horn – the Aries’ contours have been adjusted to accommodate the extra control.

You’ll also notice a modified control layout, which now plays host to a pair of switches for the onboard Sustainiac neck pickup, which delivers infinite sustain – an addition inspired by the likes of Steve Vai and Matt Bellamy that Lloyd describes as “what it would sound like if you put an alien in your guitar”.

Combined with the killswitch and optional tremolo system, it should make Lloyd’s model one fun instrument for solo theatrics.

It is, however, worth noting that the standard SL model comes with just a Hipshot fixed bridge and no Sustainiac – although you do get the kill switch. Standard pickups are Kiesel’s Lithium humbuckers, controlled via a five-way pickup selector and volume pot.

Lloyd – who is planning to release her debut solo album at the end of the year – launched a limited-edition A6H Aries model with Kiesel back in 2020, but strong sales prompted a full-scale signature release.

Back then, Lloyd told us what drew her to the Aries model in particular. “It’s got that shreddy shape that you’d get with an Ibanez, with the heel-cut,” she explained, “but it has the warm, rounded tone of a Les Paul type of guitar, which is perfect for me because I had a Les Paul before this and I loved the tone. I just wanted something that would lend itself towards fast playing and a full 24 frets.”

Sophie Lloyd models start at $2,699 – any preorders placed before the official launch on May 24 come with a signed poster.

Head to Kiesel Guitars for full customization options.

Born into a musical family and raised in church on gospel music, Justin “GuitarSlayer” Lyons has been playing the guitar since he was big enough to hold one. He learned to play by ear – internalizing melodies hummed by his mother, looking up to his guitar player father, and listening to a cassette of B.B. King’s The Thrill Is Gone over and over until the sounds became like a second language. 

“As a five- or six-year-old listening to the blues, that really started to cultivate my sound, my technique, my gospel chops and my blues chops,” recalls the guitarist - now in his early 30s and with 15 years of working as a professional session guitarist and sideman under his belt.

In his youth, a predilection for “sliding around on the floor, kicking up in the air and breaking guitars,” earned him the “GuitarSlayer” nickname that has stuck ever since, and which Lyons proudly claims now gets used more than his “government name”. 

But, beyond having sent a guitar or two to ‘rest in pieces’, his lethal, multi-genre chops are what have helped him build one of the most impressive CVs in the business. He’s perfected jazz, funk, pop, R&B and rock playing styles, and worked with artists as diverse as Machine Gun Kelly, Lil Wayne, Chrisette Michele, Mindless Behavior, Tank, Tamela Mann, Vivian Green and Bobby Brown. 

“The only genre that I have not tapped into yet that I’m excited to tap into is country,” he enthuses.

But the Dallas, Texas native got his first major break in a much more unlikely genre: Korean pop music. 

“One of my friends hit me up and told me that there was a tweet from Lil Wayne’s musical director looking for a guitarist for an overseas opportunity,” explains Lyons. “So, I just responded to him and said, 'Hey, I have my passport in hand and I’m ready to go to the airport right now. What do you need?'”

The sheer cojones of Lyons’ response placed him a head and shoulders above other candidates and, despite having never heard of the genre at the time, he was invited to begin working and touring with some of the biggest names in K-pop – such as BlackPink, GDragon, and BigBang.

“Our band was called The Band Six, at the time, and they hired us to come and urbanize their music. The live sound and live flavor that everybody is experiencing today was generated from us back in 2012,” recalls Lyons. 

His willingness to seize an opportunity by setting aside preconceived notions of personal musical preferences is a lesson worth remembering for any aspiring session guitarist.

“As musicians, it’s fun to jam and it’s fun to play, but we are a business entity,” advises the now seasoned pro. “It changed my life overnight and started my journey.”

Fast-forward to today, and Lyons has been cranking the volume and unleashing his badass inner showman to vast arena audiences as the lead guitarist in rapper-turned-pop-punk-superstar Machine Gun Kelly’s live band. 

Playing to hundreds of thousands across both MGK’s Tickets To My Downfall and Mainstream Sellout tours – the latter of which also featured shred sensation Sophie Lloyd as part of the band – Lyons has become one of the most highly successful, adaptable and knowledgeable players working today. 

While home from the road, we caught up for more session world insights, tips for getting tour ready, and the gear he couldn’t be without… 

What’s your practice routine like when you’ve got a huge tour coming up? 

“I’ve got to a point now in my career – and this might sound crazy – but I mainly practice in my mind. Over the years, I’ve already built up the dexterity in my hands, and I’ve also practiced whatever song or whatever tour a million times, but I still chart it all out just for memorization’s sake. Now, I practice in my head – just going over my notes and making sure that when I’m on stage, I can still visualize the notes that are shooting out at me.

“Not only that, I’ve always gotta rock with my three favourite guitar players’ YouTube clips. One is Prince and I’ve got to watch a YouTube clip of Prince’s best solos. I have to watch Jimi Hendrix and I have to watch some Stevie Ray Vaughan. All these players are different in their own right and they all have a different swag, a different flavor and taste that just gets me pumped up and ready for my approach before I get up on stage.”

Is that for showmanship inspiration as much as the actual playing? 

“You’ve got to look the part, so it’s definitely about the showmanship, and I learned that from Prince.

“His showmanship was everything: how he spun with the guitar, how he’d break, how he’d look at the camera and wink or something. All of those little things just add to the show, and I think more players could take note of that.”

What’s the dynamic like when you’re working alongside guitarists like Machine Gun Kelly and Sophie Lloyd? 

“The Mainstream Sellout was Sophie’s first world tour ever, so knowing that I already had 15 years under my belt and that this was her first year, I wanted to make sure she was good, because we’re a team.

“My playing ability was definitely different than both her and Colson [Baker, aka Machine Gun Kelly], so they were definitely trusting me to come up with some things. Then we’d all work together as far as choreographing moves and what not. I just know what to do when lights hit, I know where the cameras are, and that takes years of exercise, practice and teambuilding.”

Have you had to learn any specific techniques for any of the tours you’ve been part of? 

“I’ll say that I had to learn a little tip. It’s a small thing but it helped me a great deal. I was in the studio with Machine Gun Kelly and we were working on some record, and he was like, 'Hey Justin, give me a solo.'

“I started doing some riffs of what I thought was tasty and face-melting but he just said, 'Whoa, give me something simple so that a guy that cannot play guitar could pick one up and do exactly what you did.'

“That little tip there blew my mind because I really had to simplify my thinking. When it’s digestible for everybody, you get to feed more people.”

It takes maturity to know how to not overplay… 

“Yes, especially with three guitars on stage and you’re finding or knowing your place. Coming from the K-pop world, it was a different structure of delivery. Every other show up until now, I'd been the only guitarist. Now, we have three guitars, so giving Sophie and Colson parts and making it an in sync thing has been – I won’t say challenging – but it has been fun and different.”

Given that your role is partly to help fulfil another artist’s vision, would you say you have to be egoless to make it in this business? 

“I can’t have an ego. If you call me for a job, you call me for a purpose. When I first got the call for Machine Gun Kelly, I sat down with management and said, 'What’s the goal here? What do you guys want to accomplish and what do you guys want this to look like?' I do that so I can mentally prepare for being on the same page. If I’m going in there worrying about myself, then I’m in trouble.”

Do you use different guitars for different tours and how do you go about making your choices? 

“I listen to the music and I sit with it. Of course, a single coil is going to give you one tone, and a humbucker is going to give you another tone. I just make sure that on tour I have a versatile guitar. 

“For the longest time, a PRS was my go to guitar, and I’ve always got to keep one on me just because of the versatility – from Strat to humbucker sounds. Lately, I’ve been loving the Schecter Diamond Series guitars that are shaped like a Les Paul. It’s a sexy guitar and it just fits. 

“It’s a case of going off the song and you can listen to something and kind of tell what guitar is what. I don’t mind asking the guys that produced the record what guitar and what stomp pedals got used so I can incorporate that with my tones.”

Tell us about your most unique instrument…

“Musicians are in the background and the artists or ‘the entity’ get propelled a lot. I was like, ‘Man, all of these companies just want me to play a black guitar’, and when the black lights come on stage, you just don’t see us. So, I made a guitar that glows in the dark.

“Me and a buddy of mine had the idea and we built it so we don’t have to continue to get backwashed. Politely, we can still be in the background, but twinkle. 

“We started it from scratch. I wish I’d had backing from a guitar company so we could have done at least an exclusive line of a hundred or two-hundred, just so it could be a special collectors’ item. It’s orange, which is my favourite color because it represents high vibration and happiness. 

“I was excited about that guitar and it was a fun project where a lot of people saw the guitar but they didn’t know the story behind it.”

What pedals and amps do you always take with you on tour? 

“When there are amps on stage and we don’t have to fight a sound engineer about being too loud, I love using my Triple Rec’ Mesa Boogie, and this Electra Dyne that they discontinued that I just love. 

“The tone is so warm and I think I always gravitate to the warmth because of my jazz background. It’s so much better than anything else to me in terms of penetrating the sound on stage when there’s a lot of noise and a lot of subs. It’s so boomy, you just need to have something that really cuts through. 

“Then, at first I was a Boss geek and I was rocking the ME-80 for the longest time because I love the analog sound. For so long, the digital tone was too mechanical for me and for my ears. But, as of the past three to five years, they’ve mastered that, so I’ve started using the GT-1000.

“On tour with Machine Gun Kelly, we used a Kemper. Everybody on stage is using Kempers to keep everything consistent. They help a lot because you can emulate the sounds from the actual projects and albums.”

What’s the best tip you could give someone looking to progress towards being ready for professional work? 

“First thing’s first, I would say you need to learn how to play with other people. You have to know when to listen, you have to know when the other guy’s turn is, you have to know when it’s not your turn, and you have to know when to jump in and jump out.

“Know who you’re playing with, know what their capabilities are and know what your capabilities are as well because everybody’s on the same team. It doesn’t have to be a competition when you’re all in the same band. Most times you don’t even have to do a lot. 

“Those things helped me out a lot with just being aware of everybody else. There’s a keyboard, a drum, a bass, two other guitars, you’ve got singers and vocal tracks, you’ve got sound effects. It doesn’t pay and it doesn’t make sense to add noise. Don’t add noise; add color.”

• Keep up with Justin Lyons on Instagram – his new single, Changes, is out now.

Sophie Lloyd has joined forces with Trivium frontman Matt Heafy for her latest heavy-riffing single, Fall of Man, which is lifted from her upcoming debut studio album, Imposter Syndrome.

The track was first teased way back in February last year, when Lloyd revealed she had spent some time recording a music video with Matt Heafy – a music video that will officially arrive next week.

Last November, Lloyd – who recently went on tour with Machine Gun Kelly – announced she’d be releasing her first-ever studio record of original material later this year, with the electric guitar titan previewing the effort by dropping its fiery lead single, Do or Die.

Fall of Man continues the heavy-riffing precedent set by Do or Die with an unwavering energy, dialing in oversized progressions that are decorated with the same mind-melting shred chops that made Lloyd a household name back when she started cutting her teeth with her YouTube covers.

Lloyd, who says working with Heafy was a “dream come true”, once again shows that she is as adept at writing songs as she is covering them, with her blistering electric guitar passages culminating in the form of a hypnotic guitar solo that doubles as an exploration of her Kiesel’s fretboard.

“Trivium have been one of my favorite bands since I was a kid,” Lloyd said of Heafy’s involvement in Fall of Man. “I used to dye my own Trivium T-shirts and wear them every day.”

Heafy finds himself plenty busy throughout the track as well, flexing his vocal prowess and serving up the parts that he wrote and recorded while streaming live on Twitch in front of fans, who were able to provide real-time feedback.

“Sophie Lloyd is an immensely talented force of a musician and songwriter,” Heafy reflected. “I recall first seeing Sophie’s guitar playing online and being truly blown away – so having been a fan of Sophie’s for several years, I was honored when asked to guest on an upcoming track. 

“When I learned that Trivium had been a long-time favorite band of Sophie’s, I was humbled and appreciative.” 

As for the song itself, Lloyd noted that – with the help of drummer and co-writer Christopher Painter – she took the opportunity to experiment with unfamiliar time signatures and scales that she doesn’t usually use in her everyday playing.

She added, “Also Matt writing and recording the song on Twitch was really cool as we got real-time feedback from fans on what they want to hear. He really elevated the song into a metal masterpiece and I’m so excited for people to hear it!”

It’s the second time in as many tracks that Lloyd has tapped a member of the hard rock/metal ranks for their support, having recruited Inglorious frontman Nathan James for Do or Die.

Imposter Syndrome has been in the works since before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and marks the first entry into Lloyd’s solo studio discography, after the Kiesel endorsee honed her craft delivering shred heavy versions of popular tracks via her YouTube channel.

There’s still no official release date for Imposter Syndrome, but it’s been confirmed the record will arrive later this year via Lloyd’s own Autumn Records label.

British guitar player Sophie Lloyd recently became the target of a baseless online rumor accusing her of having an affair with Machine Gun Kelly (MGK), whose relationship with actress Megan Fox is apparently on the rocks.

The rumor took flight after a fan commented on an Instagram post by Fox before she deleted her account. “He probably got with Sophie,” the fan reportedly said.

And that’s it. That’s all it took. One comment, then the mass gorging by media and consumers began. 

If morbid curiosity has you wondering if Lloyd, who joined MGK’s band last year as his touring guitarist, was tapping anything other than her fretboard, her spokespeople assured she is not.

“Sophie Lloyd is a professional, accomplished musician who has been needlessly dragged into the media based off of meritless accusations made by social media. Any suggestion that she has ever acted in an unprofessional manner or stepped out of her relationship are untrue. It’s disrespectful to her as a female artist and poor journalism and social commentary to be reporting anything else,” said her team. 

Fox also denied the accusation, who said via her reinstated Instagram account that, “There has been no third-party interference in this relationship of any kind.”

But this piece is hardly about MGK or Fox. It’s about the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Lloyd thanks to unevolved trolls instigating false information, and the clickbait hungry media perpetuating it.

Which begs the question: why Lloyd? If she were unattractive, would pitiful fans project their fantasies onto her in the form of rumors? If roles were reversed, would a guy be held to the same standards? 

Perhaps, but highly unlikely. It’s not sensational enough.

Now let’s take Lloyd out of the equation and focus on the actual problem.

We’ve come a long way in educating society on gender parity and on the stigmas surrounding women who play guitar. But every time we are objectified, whether consciously or not, we regress a thousand lifetimes, and our musicianship is grossly undermined.

The false allegation involving Lloyd is a categorical display of idiocy, but let’s explore how other less obvious, subtle acts of exclusion toward women who play guitar can equally present a pernicious threat to our evolution as a society. Shall we?

When you call yourself (or a woman who plays guitar) a “female guitarist”

Despite being a woman who plays guitar, I’ve never felt compelled to label myself as a “female guitarist.”

Why? Because while arguably 99.9% of people are using it in a completely inoffensive way, I think it deflects from musicianship and calls attention to the fact that I am a woman instead of a guitar player.

If that tickles your fancy, by all means, call yourself whatever you want. And yes, I get it. Society has a need to categorize and label and segment. But to what end? And is it to our advantage, or demise?

In the case of Lloyd’s statement shutting down the cheating allegations, indicating that the rumor was “disrespectful to her as a female artist,” I believe her PR people found it necessary to mention that she was a female precisely to shed light on the fact that she was targeted because she was a woman. So it’s all about context.

But generally speaking, though, I see no need to call it out.

Reason this with me: last time I checked, we’re born with the same amount of limbs and fingers, and gender has no direct impact on our ability to play guitar any differently. So why create a distinction that potentially generates divide? 

I take great pride in being a woman, I have a track record for supporting women in the industry, and am grateful for the pioneers who paved the way before us when women who played guitar were virtually non-existent. 

But I don’t understand why people say “female” guitarist to refer to a woman who plays guitar, and simply “guitarist” when referring to a man. Should we start calling the guys male guitarists? Um, please no.

Here’s a novel idea: why can’t we all just call ourselves guitarists? 

Sit with that for a while.

When you automatically assume we are singer-songwriters

The usual follow-up question when people learn I play guitar is, “Do you sing?” 

Many assume that because I am a woman who plays guitar, I am also a singer-songwriter. However, I have never heard anyone automatically follow-up with the same question with my guitar-playing guy friends (I’ve worked with hundreds of them for more than a decade – I would know).

I may be the shredder type. I may be the jazz cat type. I may be the classical guitar type. I may be all of the above type. Just because I play guitar and am a woman, it does not mean I am the Taylor Swift type.

And just because I don’t sing, it doesn’t diminish my abilities as a guitarist (sorry I can’t live up to your campfire expectations).

I mentioned earlier subtle acts of exclusion, meaning your perception of who we should be as guitarists may be based on unconscious bias – with the purest of motives, but potentially (and unintentionally) detrimental.

The singer-songwriter scenario is a good example, because your experiences or mainstream media have potentially shaped your perception to make you believe we only sing and strum.

But instead of automatically asking us if we sing, a more educated way of asking the question would be: what style of music do you play? 

When comments are disguised and patronized

I really shouldn’t have to explain why remarks like, “You’re good for a girl,” are distasteful. And we get them all the time. This is just one of many examples.

The point is not for you to be paranoid or to walk on eggshells, but to be equipped with the self-awareness to know if you are inadvertently being condescending, or if you are on the verge of igniting a global scandal while dragging unsuspecting victims along with you (e.g., Lloyd). 

So before you belt out mindless comments or questions, ask yourself, “Is my remark thoughtful in nature? Is it an educated question? How will my comment be perceived?”

And instead of focusing on anything you shouldn’t say, think about all the wonderful things you can say. Things like, “Wow, you’re a great guitar player! You’re incredibly talented! You’re a stellar musician! Your playing is top-notch!”

Because at the end of the day, what you say about others and how you perceive them, says more about you than it does about them. Think about it.

What can the greatest guitar solos of the year tell us about the business of playing the guitar? Well, in one sense, this annual democratic endeavor reveals a lot about where lead guitar is going technically. 

Once upon a time, some people were saying the guitar solo is dead, and yet here we are in 2022, in an era when individual virtuosity has never been more spectacular – and not just on social media, which has been an accelerant for neo-shred styles. Players are doing what they have always done, standing upon the shoulders of giants, in search of new techniques, new sounds, but also, more to the point, in search of themselves.

After all, that’s all technique is: a means to an end, a mode of expression. Once we look past the technique, we’ll find that the solos here all serve different purposes. They’re all telling different stories. That is what Chris Buck is doing with Cardinal Black’s Warm Love – we describe it as a journey, and it is, but it’s a narrative. It’s the same for Erja Lyytinen, whose meticulous intonation evokes the blues-rock greats, and for Slash, whose lyrical style is evergreen.

Take Eddie, from Red Hot Chili Peppers’ returning guitarist John Frusciante, a player of great gifts, not least his discipline, knowing when to temper his brilliance and when not to. Eddie, written in tribute to Eddie Van Halen, somehow does both, allowing him a bona-fide guitar hero moment that nonetheless has the good grace to not pull focus away from what Flea is doing on bass – a bassline like he is talking to Frusciante as he scales a rock face, telling him where to place his feet.

Others are the story, like how Steve Vai and Ibanez teamed up for one of electric guitar’s most bonkers, most intriguing creations, and the sound that he could get out of it. Or like when Steve Vai answered an email from two guys from Austin, TX.

And others act as all lead playing does – whether it’s clarinet, oboe, violin or a Les Paul – it acts as a power-up, changing the energy of the song, using all of the above, the sense of narrative, an exploration of technique and what’s possible, for a musical set piece that gets people out of their seats. And that’s why people play guitar.

• The 10 best guitar riffs of 2022

10. Erja Lyytinen – Bad Seed

The first single taken from the Finnish blues-rock phenomenon’s latest studio album, Waiting For The Daylight, features a solo that will stop you in your tracks should you be laboring under the impression that Lyytinen’s style is all about the slide, and strictly blues as manifested by all those 5s, 7s, and 8s on the tablature notation. 

This is the aggressive expansion of blues-rock’s melodic perimeter fence, as though Lyytinen is following in Gary Moore’s footsteps, chasing down big moonlit minor key melodies with her lead playing, digging into her two years getting musically booksmart at the conservatory, intonation on point, for a solo that effectively tells the story of the song without words.

9. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Eddie

RHCP’s big, massive and prolific 2022 was lit up with guitar highlights from returning guitarist John Frusciante. It wasn’t so much 365 days spent orbiting the sun as an outpouring – two albums, stadium tours, and a track that saluted the late Eddie Van Halen.

Taken from the Los Angeles superstars' second album of the year, Return of the Dream Canteen (where is this canteen, does it take reservations?), Eddie is not the sound of Frusciante with a modded Strat, a Marshall stack and a Variac in search of Eruption II, but in a sense it is the sound of Frusciante placing himself in that zone.

It opens with him at his most yowling, quasi-Hendrix fuzz, with the solo all the more impactful for sharing the mix with Flea’s peripatetic and propulsive eighth-note bassline. But as Eddie works towards a conclusion you ask yourself, ‘Is he going to go full-shred? He’s not.’ He did, kind of.

8. Slash – Fill My World (feat. Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators)

There is a case to be made that says 4 is the most Guns N’ Roses album Slash and Myles Kennedy have recorded together with their band of Conspirators. It has a sleazy grit to it, like an oyster recovered from the gutter on Sunset, a sense of animalism that is hard to put into a rock ’n’ roll record in the 21st century because contemporary audiences have long been deflowered; they’re inured to this kind of thing.

That the band were allowed to track it live – a long-held aspiration of Slash’s – was critical. There’s even something a little Sweet Child O’ Mine about the Fill My World, right there in that opening riff. But then Slash’s phrasing is always going to betray his latent appetite for destruction, right there in the controlled chaos, in the trebly clang of his Les Paul into Marshall head. Here, as ever, he proves that there’s no-one better at balancing noble melodic intent with rock’s devil-may-care fatalism.

7. Ghost – Griftwood

Sadly not a bold theater-metal cover of Scottish indie wets Travis’s Driftwood, this is kind of something else, subversive with its bash-the-bishop anti-religious pomp, and it plays out a little like Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love as reimagined for the Eurovision market.

It’s like they’ve turned black metal marshmallow pink. From the gussied up production to its redoubtable structure and pop dynamics, Griftwood is really is a masterclass in formal discipline, and of course a composition like this demands a big solo and a 2,000-watt spotlight to shine on it.

The anonymity of the Nameless Ghouls must make for an HR nightmare and streaming platforms must spend much of your subscription fees on designing the algorithm to administer royalties (no laughing at the back) to these cats, but it also makes adjudicating this style all that more difficult. Could it be Phil Collen in black robes and face mask? Is Vitto Bratta leading a double life? We’ll never know, but the solo rips all the same. La Suède, Douze points!

6. Nita Strauss – The Wolf You Feed (feat. Alissa White-Gluz)

Oh, so this is why they call her Hurricane Nita… Wowzers. With Nita Strauss’s 2022 was dominated by the headlines surrounding her departure from Alice Cooper’s touring band and joining up with pop superstar Demi Lovato, there was a risk her profile as a solo artist would fly under the radar.

But then Strauss had the good sense to hedge against this, drafting Alissa White-Gluz from Arch Enemy for some serious vocals – a collaboration she had been wanting to do forever – and firing out a work of anthemic up-tempo metal that could not be complete until she’d turned the strings on her Ibanez JIVAX2 signature guitar molten.

The Wolf You Feed was the second of two singles that will feature on her upcoming solo album, with the followup to 2018’s Controlled Chaos expected some time in early 2023. It is sure to be one of the guitar spectaculars of the year.

5. Alter Bridge – Pawns & Kings

Having ran away with the Palme d’Or for best riff of 2022, with Silver Tongue winning by a landscape, Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti return to chart highly once more for his unique abilities to gently melt the face. There’s something about the way those players just tease the notes off the fingerboard, with Pawns & Kings sounding like the divination of some sacred metal they have discovered while backpacking across the Sinai Peninsula.

The solo here is anticipated by an off-kilter legato shred-a-doodle that is more hyper-rhythm than lead, but when it arrives – complete with that high-end electric guitar tone courtesy of Paul Reed Smith’s R&D department – it is a stop-and-rewind moment.

It's also an invitation for all the young Tremontis to get their game faces on, retreat to the practice space, to try all the guitar picks at their disposal – maybe even all at once – and work on phrasing and those super-fluid transitions that Tremonti and Kennedy so insouciantly perform like a master maître d’ preparing his 10,000th Crêpes Suzette. Indeed, this is what 10,000 hours sounds like.

4. Cardinal Black – Warm Love

Chris Buck revs up his Goldtop Revstar to give Warm Love the warmth and the love that a soulful blues-rock track a decade in the making deserves. And it requires a fingerstyle approach to tease out all the dynamics. We’re assuming, or rather calling the live session version as definitive, because that’s where Buck really stretches out and perches his guitar where Tom Hollister’s vocals were just a minute before.

Using a wah pedal as an occasional filter, no doubt with some space added from a Dawner Prince Boonar, and then just seizing the improvisational initiative to take the solo from Point A through the scenic route to arrive at Point B in one piece. 

Though with a solo such as this, you don’t want the tension of thinking it’s all going to come crashing down; the tension here is how high he might take it. Well, 2022 was quite the year for Cardinal Black: Buck took this all the way to the Royal Albert Hall.

3. Steve Vai – Teeth of the Hydra

Steve Vai’s playing has outgrown the guitar. We have long suspected it. The clues were there: the accumulation of the double-necked electrics, the playing one-handed while recovering from surgery, all to keep things interesting and find new avenues for musical exploration. And now this: the best, the Ibanez Hydra, the triple-necked steam-punk custom build that inspired this ripping, not-of-this-Earth instrumental.

Anyone who has put in the hours working on their Travis picking will particularly appreciate Vai’s separation of various parts of his brain, as though head, shoulders, knees and toes can all act independently of each other, answering to their own metronome.

That Teeth of the Hydra is technically audacious goes without saying – it is a man playing a guitar with three necks – but it somehow encapsulates what an instrument like this should sound like, an instrument so cumbersome it needs to be on a stand, one that has its own theme song. We look forward to hearing a sequel.

2. Sophie Lloyd – Do or Die

Sophie Lloyd made her name by adapting tracks from across the length and breadth of the pop-culture firmament for shred guitar, and it turns out this gambit endows her with all the chops necessary to, y’know, just go out and tear it up as Machine Gun Kelly’s stunt guitarist, or to take on the big projects such as corralling her favorite singers into the studio – a power move inspired by Slash, who did something similar with his solo work – for an all-star album. 

Do Or Die is taken from her forthcoming solo album, Imposter Syndrome, which will be released in 2023, and features Nathan James on vocals. James, frontman of Inglorious, will thank you for not fast-forwarding the YouTube video to watch Lloyd set her Kiesel ablaze, but understands if you did.

1. Polyphia – Ego Death (feat. Steve Vai)

It had to be Ego Death. Just doing the arithmetic on the personnel involved would have led most to the conclusion that no other solo could compete. Here we have Steve Vai lighting up his Ibanez PIA with Scott LePage and Tim Henson holding down the rhythm.

With 8.8 million views on the Polyphia YouTube page, a second Top 10 finish for Steve Vai, and one of the most audacious moments on an album that in years to come might well become a byword for audacity, Ego Death is an early contender for the ne plus ultra of 21st-century guitar instrumentals. 

It is the sound of the master who never let himself lose his sense of radicalism stretching out to offer Tim Henson and Scott LePage a solo that is quintessentially Vai: virtuosic but playful, tricksy but melodic, and a perfect fit for the Polyphia aesthetic of pristine genius.

As Vai explained when he sat down with Henson, LePage and Guitar World, his playing on Ego Death was his gift for Polyphia to do with what they say fit. That meant cutting it up, as they often do, splicing instrumentation together, and taking a non-linear approach to writing and composition much in the way a hip-hop producer might.

“I wanted them to do it. It didn’t really matter – it’s not sacred,” Vai said. “It was chopped in a way that met their creativity demands, and I wouldn’t want them to do anything else. When I first heard it, though, it was so different. I thought, ‘Maybe they didn’t like what I did!’”

Oh, they did. Just listen to it. It’s perfect.

Social media shred star Sophie Lloyd has announced that her first-ever studio album, titled Imposter Syndrome, is finally on the way.

To preview the effort – and to usher in the next stage of her electric guitar-playing career – the Kiesel-endorsed artist has shared the record’s lead single, Do or Die, for which she’s recruited Inglorious frontman Nathan James.

Since the music for Do or Die was written by Lloyd, it’s no surprise the guitar work on display is first class. Having honed her craft with various shred reimaginings of popular tracks – such as Britney Spears’ Toxic and Beethoven’s 5th Symphony  – Lloyd’s new single sees her let loose on her own material, flexing both her compositional chops and six-string skills.

It’s a three-minute masterclass of what makes Lloyd such a force to be reckoned with. The rapid-fire riffs of the opening exchanges hit like a sonic sucker punch, while the relentless guitar solo at the 1:53 mark is filled with blistering pentatonic runs and, of course, some lightning-quick shreds.

When Imposter Syndrome arrives, it will be Lloyd’s first original material since 2019’s Bulletproof Revolver and, more notably, the first time she’s teamed up with a vocalist for her own songs.

Of the album, which has been in the works since before the first Covid-19 lockdown, Lloyd commented, “I can finally say that I have new music coming. 

“All my music before was instrumental, so this is a very special release for me as it includes vocals, and some of the people we’ve worked with are people I used to have as posters on my wall as a kid, so it feels very full circle,” she added. “It's something that I have been working on before the first lockdown, and to be here talking about it feels amazing.”

As for her partnership with James, Lloyd reflected, “I have been following his music for many years and he just has the most incredible voice and did such an amazing job on bringing this track to life. 

“I'm so grateful he was able to take part,” she continued. “I remember getting the rough vocals back from Nathan while I was away in LA, and we were just blasting it out of the car on the freeway. That's when I knew this would be the first single to be released from my album.” 

James echoed Lloyd’s sentiments, offering, “It was great working with Sophie on this track. I was sent the track without lyrics or melody and I wanted to write something that made sense, as if Sophie were saying it herself.” 

For the single, Lloyd and James were joined by bassist Adam Da Rat and drummer Christopher Painter. Romesh Dodangoda, whose credits include Nova Twins, Bring Me The Horizon and Motörhead, was in charge of production.

Though there’s no official release date, Imposter Syndrome will land sometime next year, and will see Lloyd team up with “some impressive names from the world of rock”. A music video for Do or Die will also be released next Friday (November 25).

Do or Die is available to stream on all digital platforms now.

Lloyd turns her attention to her own solo career after having spent the past few months working with Machine Gun Kelly, who recruited her for his 2022 Mainstream Sellout tour.

YouTube star Sophie Lloyd shared an incredible shred-heavy reimagining of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb earlier this year. Here she tells us how she went about tackling the ultimate feel solo and what she learned from listening in detail...

“I recently covered Comfortably Numb and have to say learning all of the parts was really interesting. David Gilmour is definitely more of a minimalist and I’m all about adding as much shit as you possibly can! So I had to take a different approach and look at how he was playing and what kind of notes he was choosing.

“For my version, we used the Archetype: Nolly Neural DSP plug-in going into Logic, which really works for big lead tones because it has nice overdrives, reverbs and delays. It doesn’t have phasers or anything else, it’s just the basic pedals which keeps everything simple. 

“David’s guitar sound is incredibly sweet – it’s clean-ish but with a bit of crunch, just on the edge of breaking up. I love that sound because it kinda emulates the notes he’s playing, because they are sweet but with a little bit of dirt here and there. For my cover, I kept close to my own sound, which has some raised mids and scooping out some of the lower frequencies.

“The first solo in Comfortably Numb is the happy one, going over the major chords. That’s why there’s such a contrast between the two leads – the short major one early on is what makes the longer minor solo at the end feel even more epic. The different moods help separate them really nicely.

“The minor solo being in the key of B is a big help. The only thing better would have been A minor pentatonic – that’s always the dream for us rock guitarists! In this solo, David repeats a lot of similar minor pentatonic runs, quite often staying in that first position box and maybe venturing out to the second. But he does so much in that small amount of space! 

“A lot of his runs have the same notes, but the timings are always changing ever so slightly, which I find really interesting. He’s really good at making the same notes feel different each time. 

“I don’t want to use the word simple, because it isn’t simple, but he does minimalism really well. There’s no crazy tapping, he’s happy to sit in that first minor pentatonic position and make it sound amazing. And you could listen to him play in that box for hours...

“But when he does break away from pentatonics, he carefully selects certain modal notes to make them feel subtle. He never over-uses those notes, so that’s what makes them stand out a bit more when he does play them. 

“He’s very careful with certain intervals – you’ll mainly hear pentatonics but when he throws in that minor sixth or something like a ninth, it feels so memorable. And every guitarist out there has pretty much nicked those ninth bends into the minor third!

“I find it’s the precision of those bends that always blows me away. The guitar is like an extension of him, like it’s part of his body. I really had to pay attention to that while working on the cover, listening to that element of his phrasing. I’m used to a wide rock vibrato and it’s taken ages to get there, so it was interesting to take a step back from that and go for slower bends that feel really soulful. And I don’t think there’s a better word for it – his bends have so much soul!”

YouTube and social media guitar sensation Sophie Lloyd has joined Machine Gun Kelly's live band for his forthcoming Mainstream Sellout tour.

In a new Instagram Story posted by MGK, Lloyd – who boasts 722,000 YouTube subscribers and 613,000 Instagram followers at the time of writing – can be seen rehearsing alongside the pop-punk superstar ahead of the imminent trek, which kicks off June 8 in Austin, Texas.

“Added a new friend to the band,” Kelly writes in a caption, while also tagging the other members of his band, guitarist Justin Lyons, bassist Steve “Baze” Basil, drummer JP “Rook” Cappelletty and producer and songwriter Brandon Allen.

Lloyd has since posted several Instagram Stories of her own, writing: “Secret's out – I'll be joining Machine Gun Kelly on his Mainstream Sellout tour this year!”

The guitarist – who has just arrived back in the UK after rehearsals – adds that she's “so incredibly excited to be given this opportunity”, and that she's “honored to play alongside such amazing musicians”.

MGK's Mainstream Sellout tour – which supports his second pop-punk-flavored outing of the same name – kicks off at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas on June 8.

The trek spans 43 dates, hitting Miami, Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles and loads more, before wrapping up August 13 at the FirstEnergy Stadium in Kelly's hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.

A second leg will begin a month later in Europe from September 17, in which MGK will perform in Germany, Italy, France, the UK and more. For a full list of Mainstream Sellout tour dates, head to Machine Gun Kelly's website.

Like any YouTuber with a large online following, Sophie Lloyd has a history of partnering with other musicians – teaming up with fellow YouTube star Cole Rolland and Trivium's Matt Heafy in the past year alone – but Machine Gun Kelly is the most high-profile of her collaborators to date.

The British guitarist is known for her shred guitar takes on popular songs, which have included renditions of Britney Spears' Toxic, festive classic All I Want for Christmas is You, and Muse's Plug In Baby, which she recorded using a Manson guitar gifted to her by Matt Bellamy himself.

While Machine Gun Kelly appears entrenched in guitar music for now, he recently revealed plans to revert to rap for his next album to make people “miss” his pop-punk material.

“If I keep doing things to prove things to people, I'm going to one, drive myself crazy and two, not make a good product,” he told Audacy's Kevan Kenney last month. “I made [2020's] Tickets to my Downfall and Mainstream Sellout because I wanted to make them. I need to now also make people miss that sound.”

He added that he's keen to complete his trilogy of pop-punk albums with a third outing in the future, though. “I don't think making a third that's so [similar] is going to be exciting unless it's missed,” he said.

Sophie Lloyd has taken to social media to tease her upcoming collaborative project, for which she’s recruited Trivium’s Matt Heafy.

In an Instagram post, Lloyd – who has amassed a huge following thanks to her shred-heavy covers – dropped the bombshell that she had been busy behind the scenes recording a music video with Heafy.

“No Metal Monday cover today,” wrote Lloyd, “but I think this counts instead! Spent the day filming a music video with Matt Heafy. Watch this space.”

And, naturally, where there is a music video, there is a song.

Heafy responded to the post by commenting, “Thank you so much for having me on this amazing tune!”

Not only was Lloyd’s own response an expression of her gratitude for having Heafy on the track, it also served as a small teaser, with the online six-string slinger announcing that Heafy had “smashed it” in the studio.

There’s been no official word regarding what the release will be called – nor when it will be unveiled – but Heafy posted a sneak peek of the video on his Twitter account shortly after Lloyd broke the news.

Acknowledging his lack of Les Paul in the clip, he wrote, “Matt with no guitar makes me feel: ________________ I can’t wait for y’all to see this Sophie x Kiichi tune coming up!”

Heafy also took the opportunity to congratulate Lloyd on her online following during their Instagram exchange, saying, “It’s been awesome watching you grow your empire – and I can’t wait to see how it all grows from here.”

“Empire” is perhaps an appropriate term to describe Lloyd’s online presence, which currently comprises over half-a-million Instagram followers and 665,000 YouTube subscribers – and her loyal following comes as no surprise.

In recent times, Lloyd has impressed with a series of online covers, turning Britney Spears’ Toxic into a certified shred-a-thon, as well as teaming up with Cole Rolland for a heavy reinvention of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.

To keep up to date with Lloyd, visit Sophie Lloyd’s Instagram account.

As solo artists, Sophie Lloyd and Cole Rolland are considered two of today’s most formidable YouTube shredders, and for good reason.

While Lloyd has made a name for herself playing in the Marisa and the Moths and treating her YouTube viewers to shred-ready makeovers of popular tracks, Rolland has been making equally tsunami-like waves on the internet courtesy of his trademark EDM/metal hybrid playing style.

Given the context, it was inevitable that when the pair finally joined forces for a monstrous, metal-infused magnum opus, it was going to equal parts boundary-pushing and exquisite electric guitar work.

Well, at long last, the two Kiesel-endorsees have finally teamed up, and have delivered a mammoth reimagining of one of the most iconic and recognizable classical tracks in history – Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.

Swapping the ominous opening four-note motif for some high-gain punches, and supercharging the track with harmonized lead lines, Lloyd and Rolland serve up Beethoven like you’ve never heard it before.

With Lloyd opting for her signature Kiesel Aries A6H and Rolland wielding a Kiesel CR Custom DC700, the pair proceed to layer on some sweet call-and-response licks, transforming the rapid-fire string parts into blazing fretboard runs.

“I’ve been a fan of Cole’s for a long time, so when he approached me about this collab I was immediately up for it and knew it was going to be something special,” said Lloyd.

“Beethoven’s symphonies such as this one have inspired rock and metal music for years and it’s been so interesting to delve into the theory behind these songs and create something that both metalheads and classical junkies can headbang along too in unison!”

“We work really well together and I’m looking forward to doing more collaborations with him in the future!”

Of the new collaboration, Rolland recalled, “Sophie and I have joked around for ages about working together and it finally happened!

“We arrived at creating a fully unique, metalized arrangement of the classical piece, Beethoven's 5th Symphony,” he continued. “I promise you've never heard Beethoven like this. The original piece lends itself to dueling violins that call and answer each other in such an engaging way. 

“Why not experience this on fully new terrain with shredding electric guitars, thick breakdowns, and modern metal production? Sit back and enjoy our take on one of the most recognizable pieces in the history of music.”

Sophie Lloyd and Cole Rolland’s reinvention of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is available now on all streaming platforms.

Sophie Lloyd has mastered the art of transforming popular songs into straight-up shred-a-thons. Her YouTube channel – which currently boasts over 600,000 subscribers – plays host to all manner of six-string reinventions, from a soaring cover of Muse's Plug In Baby to a face-melting take on Mariah Carey's festive classic All I Want For Christmas is You.

And now, in her latest video, the social media six-stringer has given Britney Spears' Toxic – perhaps one of the most iconic pop songs of all time – the shred treatment, trading Spears' iconic vocal hooks for a frenzy of nimble two-handed tapping phrases and rapid-fire alternate picking runs. Check it out below. 

Lloyd, of course, wields her Kiesel signature model – the Aries A6H – a Purple Burst-finished S-type complete with high-strength carbon-fiber stability rods, glow-in-the-dark Luminlay SuperBlue side dots, a Hipshot bridge, 25.5" scale length and Kiesel-designed Lithium humbucking pickups.

“Having an Artist Series guitar has been one of my aspirations since I was a kid, and to have one with my favorite guitar company is just mind-blowing,” Sophie said last year following her announcement of the signature model. 

“Ever since I got this guitar it’s provided me with so much inspiration and creativity which has really taken my playing to the next level, and I’m so excited for everyone to try it and fall in love with it as much as I have.”

Last year, in an interview with Guitar World, Lloyd revealed that she finds it “challenging” to improvise over a backing track, describing her approach as more “methodical”.

“I think it is one of my biggest weaknesses, but also one of my biggest strengths,” she explained. “I find it very challenging to just put on a back track and think, ‘Oh yeah, here we go!’ And then just shred something.

“I find that quite challenging. I like that proper nerdy thing – sit down with headphones and try and write the piece mathematically, in a way. ‘Play this here. I’ll play this there. And then I’ll wanna do a shredding part here.’ I’ll really think it through and process it, and once I have written it, then it’s, ‘Okay, now I have to learn how to play this.’”

With over half a million YouTube subscribers and 350k Instagram followers, it's fair to say Sophie Lloyd has discovered the winning formula for social media success. 

Her reimagined shred covers of classic songs have garnered her not only legions of supporters, but a Kiesel signature guitar, too: the Limited Artist Edition A6H Aries.

Recently, her efforts caught the eye of Muse frontman Matt Bellamy, who was reportedly so impressed with her work he sent her a Manson MA EVO Floyd Rose Sustainiac electric guitar.

And as you'd expect, she wasted no time putting the instrument to work. In her latest cover, Lloyd shreds through Origin of Symmetry lead single Plug In Baby, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the track's release.

Plugging in her trademark Diezel VH4 amp head, Lloyd implements all manner of six-string wizardry, replacing the track's vocal line with everything from rapid ascending hammer-on lines to jaw-dropping sweeps.

“I am quite a methodical writer,” Lloyd said in a recent Guitar World interview, detailing her approach to piecing together shred covers. “I think it is one of my biggest weaknesses, but also one of my biggest strengths. 

“I find it very challenging to just put on a back track and think, ‘Oh yeah, here we go!’ And then just shred something... 

“I like that proper nerdy thing – sit down with headphones and try and write the piece mathematically, in a way. ‘Play this here. I’ll play this there. And then I’ll wanna do a shredding part here.’ I’ll really think it through and process it, and once I have written it, then it’s, ‘Okay, now I have to learn how to play this.’”

It’s kind of strange seeing Sophie Lloyd in the 16:9 aspect ratio of a Zoom meeting. We’re far more used to seeing the English guitarist in a boxy, Instagram-friendly 1:1. 

But it’s definitely Lloyd. That's her trademark Diezel VH4 sitting the background. More on why she chose this four-channel monster as her go-to guitar amp shortly. Beside the VH4 is a newly acquired signature guitar custom-spec’d with Kiesel, which is as good a reason as any for the call. 

From the sharp angles of its 3x3 pointed headstock – complete with drop shadow Kiesel logo – to its hardtail Hipshot bridge, the Sophie Lloyd Limited Artist Edition A6H is a shredder’s guitar.

Lloyd’s A6H has a black limba body with a burl maple top, a bolt-on neck, and a royal ebony fingerboard that’s carved into a flat ’n’ speedy 14” radius and topped with 24 stainless steel medium-jumbo frets. 

Her signature Purple Burst finish showcases all the detail in the burl. There are a couple of direct-mount Lithium humbuckers, a five-way blade selector with volume and tone controls. As Lloyd says, one of the big attractions of the Kiesel is that the guitars are customizable, but for them to work with her sound, they have to be versatile, too.  

Educated at the UK’s BIMM Institute, Lloyd has built a formidable 350k+ following on Instagram through her uncanny talent for plucking classic tracks from the pop-cultural canon and reimagining them as instrumental shred pieces. 

She will take on anything. It could be a John Williams piece, such as the Jurassic Park theme, Guns N’ Roses’ November Rain or the Eagles’ Hotel California, but Lloyd pares the composition down, rebuilds it as a guitar piece and makes it her own.

Here we will talk about that process, and what that demands of her technically. But we'll also talk about what it is like to be the quintessential 21st century guitar hero – one who developed her sound and grew her audience almost entirely online. 

The internet offers today’s player incredible advantages in getting their music out, but it's not without its downsides. Not least of which is the question of trolls, but also is it incentivizing behaviors that are unhealthy for musicians?

But let’s start with the Kiesel. Because it's way too cool not to.

What drew you to Kiesel?

“I’ve known a lot of people online who I follow and am close with who have played a Kiesel before. Rob Caggiano from Volbeat first introduced me to them. I looked them up and they have a nice online community around them; everyone seems to be very, very supportive of each other, and everybody is  involved with each other’s stuff.

“The great thing about Kiesel is that they are quite customizable. If you give them a call they will kind of do whatever you want with it, which is really, really cool for a guitar brand, and I think that is what makes them unique, just how personalized you can get your instrument.”

Is yours an off-the-shelf body shape?

“This is the Aries model. It came with everything I wanted. It’s got that shreddy shape that you’d get with an Ibanez, with the heel-cut, but it has the warm, rounded tone of a Les Paul type of guitar, which is perfect for me because I had a Les Paul before this and I loved the tone. I just wanted something that would lend itself towards fast playing and a full 24 frets.”

What pickups are in it?

“These are the Kiesel Lithium passive pickups. They have a really, really great balance between power and clarity. They are very versatile, so if you are playing that lead stuff, or even more chordal stuff, like jazz – I did a jazz model at uni with this guitar and they said the tones were great. It has a tight low end and it can sustain for ages as well. It’s everything I wanted out of a tone.”

You use a string dampener. What benefits do you get from it? Is there an impact on the tone?

“No, it doesn’t at all. Some people say it is cheating. I probably agree. I started using it when I first got into the studio because I think whenever you are recording it is almost essential to use one to get rid of that excess string noise and palm noise. It acts as a mute if you were to do some two-handed tapping. It doesn’t affect the tone at all.”

Behind you, there is a VH4. Now, our first question would be: do you only endorse gear that rhymes with weasel?

“Yes! That is the main thing.”

We await you joining Dweezil Zappa’s touring group. But in all seriousness, how do you tame that VH4 in a domestic setting? Do you use an attenuator?

“Sometimes I’ll mic this up, but because I'm in a London flat, I’ll use the Neural DSP Archetype [plugin]. I use a lot of guitar software, and they’re great; they emulate the Diezel tones.”

Ah, so when you do a segment for social media, you won’t necessarily go through the amp?

“Yeah, I’ll be going through my audio interface. It depends what I'm doing. Sometimes I’ll mic up the Diezel if it's a bigger shred, like Living On A Prayer, when I did my shred version on YouTube, or on playthroughs of my own stuff. Then I’ll go through the Diezel because I want it to sound big and fat. But the smaller posts I’ll use the Neural DSP.”

The VH4 is fascinating. It’s just so much… amplifier. Talk us through some of its features. How does it work with your playing?

“I started using this amp when I went into the studio to record my first EP, Delusions. The producer [Jason Wilson] had it, and he just got the best tone I have ever heard out of my guitar. I literally heard it and went, ‘This is it. This is the tone. What is it?’ 

“I think he had run it through two cabs, a Marshall and an Orange. There was a lot of production going on as well. I absolutely loved it, and I actually got into a band with that producer – he let me steal his and we went on tour with it. 

“Every night it would just sound great, and I would listen back on the videos, and when you listen back on live performances [usually] it’s like, ‘Oh, it doesn’t sound as good as I thought it did.’ But every time, ‘Yup! That’s the tone.’ It’s interesting, because it doesn’t have any of the normal features; it doesn’t have reverb built in or anything like that.

“But out of the back it has four channel loops, so each channel has a separate effects loop, which was really good because I could have my delay and reverb set on the Lead channel, and all I needed to do was switch to that channel and it would be there. And on the Clean channel, I could have a chorus and a phaser.”

Is it a more subtle amplifier than its reputation would suggest? 

“I think so. I think the clean tones you can get out of it are really beautiful, because the clean tones on some amps, I find they can be a little bit distorted, like with Marshall amps, I find their cleans break up just a little bit, which is a cool sound but it is not the sound that I want.

“But these are really clean. Channel two is a crunch channel, so it’s a lot more bluesy, and you have full control of how much gain you want. I am a sucker for channel four, though! The big leads channel, that’s the channel we all want to be on.”

What other amps do you use?

“I have a 100-watt Boss Katana, which is a really good practice amp. I use that every day, because you can have it quiet and still get really great tones. Everything is built-in. It’s kind of the reverse of the Diezel; you don’t need any pedals. I also recently got the Boss GT-1000.”

Nice. How do you find the GT-1000 as an amp modeler? It can do so much...

“I absolutely love it so far. Obviously, I haven’t had the opportunity to play it live yet and test those cool features, but you can just plug it in front of house at a gig and you don’t actually need an amp. 

“I think that’s what Nita Strauss does. At the football games she plays, she uses one. I am really excited to try that out. At the moment, I use it plugged in when I am practicing, just to get some cool tones.

“It is amazing just how many built-in tones are great just as they are – I haven’t experimented too much on my own because they stuff that they give you is just beautiful straight out of the box. It has got stuff for jazz, stuff for rock, metal, everything you could want.“

You mentioned tones at university. Did they grade you on tone at BIMM? 

“It was part of it. It definitely wasn’t like you would fail if you had an awful tone, but it could boost you up a few marks. When I was at BIMM, I didn’t get into tone that much. 

“I wasn’t a super-super gear head. I’ve got a lot more into tones recently, and that’s why I like the GT-1000 so much because it means I can experiment when I am writing. I can just hit a button and it is a crazy octaver that I would never think to use, but then you write a cool part with it.”

The GT-1000 would have been very handy at BIMM.

“Yeah, if I had had this as a student I would have literally have taken it in everyday, especially since it is so small. You can carry it on the tube. When we were there, at music school, when you are doing the live performances, it’s kind of like everyone has the same tone. The amps are there and you can’t really touch anything a lot of the time.”

How did you find music school? Was it a collegiate environment, collaborative, or was it competitive?

“I think it’s a mix of everything. I don’t think it is for everyone. You need to go into music school with the mindset of knowing who you are as a musician, because generally at music school they will try and shape you into a certain thing. 

“In my experience, they wanted everyone to become a session player, so if you knew you wanted to be a rock guitarist, like I did, they wouldn’t really let you be a rock guitarist. They would be like, ‘Well, you need to do all of this stuff, and you need to learn this.’ Looking back, I think that was very beneficial, because learning all of these country licks and jazz licks, I can now put them into my playing. I’m very glad I did learn them.

“But the way they go about it, the general vibe of music school, if you didn’t want to be a session player, it wasn’t really worth doing. They didn’t encourage you to be your own artist.”

Could you be a session player now? 

“I think I could. I don’t mind being a session player but I definitely think my skills cater a lot more to the rock/shreddy type of stuff and I think, as a session player, you have got to be really good at all the genres. I can’t do the chicken pickin’ so I couldn’t do the country sessions. But I have done the odd session here and there. [Pauses] 

“But I am so happy with what I am playing now. I get invited as a session musician but I get invited as myself. ‘Now, we want a Sophie Lloyd solo.’ I get to do it that way, which I think is a lot of fun, rather than trying to emulate what other musicians have sounded like.”

How do you take apart a song when you are going to do a cover? Because it always sounds like you and yet these songs are so stylistically diverse.

“I just did a vlog about this on my Patreon. I will listen to the piece, find out what the basic chords are, and then getting the tones is a big part. I’ll whack some distortion on there, double-tracked, panned to both sides, and have my usual rhythm with an octave on top. 

“I like to continue that across all the different shreds that I do so that they sound relatively even – even though they are completely different songs, different genres, just so they have a consistent path through them. And it’s the same thing with the leads. I am experimenting a bit more with them.

“Then, I’ll try get the melody down. I’ll figure out what the melody is, and once I know what it is and I can play that fluently, I will make it a bit more guitar-y, adding some bends and some slides, and once I have got that going I’ll say, ‘Okay, there are breaks here and here; let’s put some super-fast lick in there but make sure that we land on that ending melody so it stays within that melody.’ 

“It is thinking about your target notes. You want to hit the key notes in your melody that people will recognize… And then… Then just do stupid stuff around that! [Laughs]”

Totally. That's the thing with instrumental guitar – you need to know where that off-ramp is.

“Definitely. It is knowing where you want to go with it. I am quite a methodical writer. I think it is one of my biggest weaknesses, but also one of my biggest strengths. I find it very challenging to just put on a back track and think, ‘Oh yeah, here we go!’ And then just shred something. 

“I find that quite challenging. I like that proper nerdy thing – sit down with headphones and try and write the piece mathematically, in a way. ‘Play this here. I’ll play this there. And then I’ll wanna do a shredding part here.’ I’ll really think it through and process it, and once I have written it, then it’s, ‘Okay, now I have to learn how to play this.’ 

“I think it’s a strength because it has really given me my particular sound, and how I play, but I would also love to be able to practice more improvising, and be a little more ‘Let’s go!’ and play a crazy solo.”

That is the eternal – and internal – struggle for musicians. Every player’s greatest strength is the fact that they are themselves, unique.

“Yeah, definitely.”

And then it’s also our greatest weakness, because we always covet another person’s abillity, or way of phrasing something…

“Yeah, we’ll never be satisfied!”

But getting past all that, it’s healthy and mature to make peace with what we are not great at and look at the wider picture.

“Before I probably wouldn’t even have admitted that I couldn’t improvise that well. I wouldn’t have even said that. But I think playing like I do, makes me who I am as a guitar player, and I love it. I hate it a little bit, but I love it. I’m still figuring it out. I am still a young musician in the grand scheme of things. I am still learning. I’m still processing everything.”

Okay, that’s the guitar. But how do you survive the internet? It’s like playing to an audience where the hecklers are in your monitors.

“[Laughs] Oh, 100 per cent.”

More fundamentally, though, social media rewards certain behaviors, and is metrics-driven, and yet here you are, a musician, unique. How do you work through all that, resisting the algorithm to be yourself?

“Well, the internet is amazing. It got me where I am today. I am a glorified bedroom player in a way. All of my videos have been online, and that is definitely where I have become well known in the guitar world. And I think that is really, really cool. 

“I have met so many people, people I wouldn’t have known otherwise, so many friends I wouldn’t have made if it wasn’t for the internet and being in that guitar community – especially since I came from quite a small town. There was no music scene. They didn’t have gigs at all where I was from. It was unheard of to be a musician, and online is where I found my community.

“I’ll always be thankful for that but it is quite difficult with trolls. I think if you are putting something out on the internet, you have got to have a thick skin. You’ve got to think, ‘Yeah, I am going to get some negative comments. People are going to be rude about this. You’re going to be made into a meme at some point.’ All this stuff is going to happen and you are just going to have to brush it off.”

That takes some doing.

“It is really, really hard. I remember my Nirvana shred cover, which was Smells Like Teen Spirit, I took it as fun. I was jamming over a cool, well-known song and then everyone in the comments – I don’t want to blast anyone but it was shared on this Facebook page. It was crazy. ‘Kill yourself!’ All of this. ‘Kurt Cobain would shoot you!’ 

“It was horrible. It was dark. That got me down for a few days, but that is when I got this epiphany where, ’I am on the internet, and I have to just deal with this.’ The next day I made a ‘shredding to Justin Bieber video‘ instead. It was a retort. You can shred over anything you want.”

That is not healthy.

“My worry is that people who have just started guitar will see these comments, or see the things that people are saying, and then they won’t want to carry on playing because they might feel, ‘I’m not playing it right. I don’t want to get hate like that.’ 

“It might really put them off playing. Although the internet is great for guitarists, and you can find so much great, emerging talent, it is also quite dangerous for making people not feel good enough, and have this mental health struggle.”

• The biggest threat to the guitar? It could well be guitarists: how online hate endangers the instrument we love
• Why comparing yourself to other guitarists is bad news for your playing, creativity and mental health

What are your plans now? You have an album in the works.

“I have indeed. We are almost finished getting all the demos together so we are hoping to go into the studio with Romesh [Dodangoda] around March. I am really excited for this album because it is going to be quite a collaborative album. 

“We’re getting a lot of vocalists onboard. Obviously, I am mainly an instrumental player, but this album is going to have a lot of guest vocalists, and I think will be really, really fun to write in that way. 

“I really enjoyed that process, because each song on the album is quite different. They all cater to specific vocals to specific styles of the people who we want to sing on it. It has been really fun to write in that way.”

What can we expect? Are they all original compositions?

“Yeah, all original. There are probably going to be three instrumentals that are little more old-school Sophie-style and then there is a lot of rock, classic rock ’n’ roll, a lot of blues-rock and there’s some slightly heavier proggy stuff as well. There’s a pop-punk song as well, which is happy and poppy. 

“It depends on what singers we get on it. We want it to be an album that people look at and think, ‘That’s so weird… But it works.’ It has a consistent theme throughout but everything is different. It’s inspired by Slash’s R&FN'R, that first album he did with Lemmy, Fergie, and all those people.”

• The Kiesel Sophie Lloyd Limited Artist Edition A6H Aries is out now, priced $2269. See Kiesel for more details.
• Sophie Lloyd is on Instagram and YouTube.

Having amassed over half-a-million subscribers on YouTube and over 300,000 followers on Instagram, it is no longer news that popular social media and Marisa and the Moths guitarist Sophie Lloyd is one of the best in the biz.

On her channels, Lloyd treats listeners to her instrumental rearrangements of popular songs from a host of different genres, including Billie Eilish's Bad Guy, The Eagles' Hotel California and even The Ghostbusters theme.

Now, the internet is once again graced with Lloyd's presents as she offers up a festive-themed cover on her electric guitar.

The social media sensation has decided to branch out by giving a Christmas song the Sophie Lloyd treatment and gifts us with an un-fir-getable cover of a pop classic.

The festive installment to her collection of covers sees Sophie sleigh a sizzling shred guitar version of All I Want for Christmas is You and, snow joke, it's a cracker.

Replacing Mariah Carey's vocal line from the 1994 original with a guitar arrangement that sees her utilize a number of techniques that she has in her stocking, Lloyd's version brings together a pop Christmas classic and her typically tasty high-gain tone – yule miss out if you don't listen.

In the video, Lloyd can be seen playing her new Kiesel Limited Artist Edition A6H Aries model, which was officially released last month.

Kiesel Guitars has joined forces with social media sensation Sophie Lloyd to launch a Limited Artist Edition of her A6H Aries electric guitar.

Built to Sophie's specifications at Kiesel's Custom Shop in Escondido, California, the new model features a premium black limba body and neck with a 3X3 headstock, and a 24-fret royal ebony fingerboard with staggered offset mother-of-pearl dot inlays.

Electronics include direct-mounted Kiesel Lithium humbucking pickups, which are controlled via master volume and tone knobs and a five-way selector switch.

Other features include dual high-strength carbon-fiber stability rods and a fully-adjustable truss rod, glow-in-the-dark Luminlay SuperBlue side dots, a Hipshot bridge, a Sophie Purple Burst finish and 25.5" scale length.

“Having an Artist Series guitar has been one of my aspirations since I was a kid, and to have one with my favorite guitar company is just mind-blowing,” Sophie says. 

“Ever since I got this guitar it’s provided me with so much inspiration and creativity which has really taken my playing to the next level, and I’m so excited for everyone to try it and fall in love with it as much as I have.”

“We are honored and excited to be offering a Limited Artist Edition guitar with the amazing Sophie Lloyd!” adds Chrys Johnson of Kiesel Artist Relations. “She’s a phenomenal player who deserves to be spotlighted.”

The Sophie Lloyd Limited Artist Edition A6H is available now for $2,269, which includes a signed photo from Sophie.

For more information, head to Kiesel Guitars.

Here’s someone who clearly watched Brian May’s Bohemian Rhapsody tutorial – and then some.

Meet Sophie Lloyd, a UK-based electric guitar player who, in addition to her own music, posts YouTube videos of her performing shred versions of songs like AC/DC's Highway to Hell and Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Now Sophie, armed with her Kiesel guitar and Diezel VH4 amp, has given the shred treatment to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, replete with tapping, sweep arpeggios and lots and lots – and lots – of harmony guitars.

You can check out the performance, in all its over-the-top glory, above.

And for more information on Sophie, shred – er, we mean head – over to her official YouTube channel.