Five Riffs You Should Never Play at a Guitar Store—And How to Play Them

(Image credit: Stephen Kelly/Flickr Creative Commons)

Undoubtedly, you’ve walked into your local guitar store to check out some axes, pulled a guitar off the wall, plugged it in and began wailing with a selection of your favorite riffs. But did it ever cross your mind that your choice of riffs could be driving the staff crazy? (Or was that your intention all along?)

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Christopher Scapelliti is editor-in-chief of Guitar Player magazine, the world’s longest-running guitar magazine, founded in 1967. In his extensive career, he has authored in-depth interviews with such guitarists as Pete Townshend, Slash, Billy Corgan, Jack White, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren, and audio professionals including Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott. He is the co-author of Guitar Aficionado: The Collections: The Most Famous, Rare, and Valuable Guitars in the World, a founding editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine, and a former editor with Guitar World, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Maximum Guitar. Apart from guitars, he maintains a collection of more than 30 vintage analog synthesizers.

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