As I wrote in this space last year, we typically get an early start on our annual end-of-year issue. Therefore – out of necessity – a lot of this issue was put together in late October, including our annual “biggest guitar news of the year” feature.
But, to prove how alive, dynamic and inherently interesting “guitar land” is, I had to update our news feature – literally on the page – almost every day as our printer deadline approached. Whether it was the sale of Eddie Van Halen’s “Kramer Ad” guitar, the Stray Cats’ tour cancellation, Gibson/Epiphone’s Back to the Future ES-345s, Nigel Tufnel’s new Marshall amp or who knows what else, there was always something happening.
Of course, the biggest – and most tragic – piece of “late news” was the death of Kiss co-founder Ace Frehley, a down-to-earth and charismatic guy (not to mention a local boy) who graced our cover several times.
We happened to have an unpublished early-2025 Frehley interview in the can, so it made sense to include that as part of this issue’s 11-page Ace tribute. This "lost interview" conveys everything that made Ace fun to talk to and know – his honesty, his sense of humor and his wealth of detailed memories about the good-ish ol’ days.
This dashing, rectangular and bulbous issue includes...
* Our editors choose the guitarists of the year – 20-ish players who left their indelible mark on 2025, including Nuno Bettencourt, Jake E. Lee, the guys from Mirador, Marcus King, Nigel Tufnel, Noel Gallagher, Stephen Carpenter, Tim Henson and a ton more.
* A recap of the biggest guitar news of the year – including the deaths of Ace Frehley, Ozzy Osbourne and Brent Hinds, plus that massive Back to the Beginning event way back in July, the end of Megadeth, those Modified Marshalls and more.
* The GW gang chooses our favorite new gear of the year, including the EVH SA-126 Standard, the Boss RT-2 Rotary Ensemble, Taylor's new Gold Label acoustics and many, many more things that we'd love to own.
* A plethora of guitar stars – including Don Felder, Brad Gillis, Kiki Wong, Max Cavalera, Herman Li, Vernon Reid, Joe Perry, Keith Urban, Eric Gales, Richard Fortus, Melanie Faye, Steve Stevens and more – choose the year’s best albums, solos, riffs, songs, guitar moments, guitarists of the year and more.
* A tribute to Ace Frehley, including an interview conducted in early 2025 but not published till this issue.
Not so fast! We've got this stuff too
The Gear Hunter checks in with Paul Reed Smith over at PRS Guitars, a company that's celebrating its 40th anniversary.
We also chat with Nuno Bettencourt (one of our guitarists of the year) and transcribe – for the first time in our 45 years on the planet –Young Man Blues from Live at Leeds by the Who. Our other transcriptions are Shinedown's 2025 track Three Six Five and Buddy Holly's Blue Days, Black Nights, featuring the late, great Sonny Curtis on guitar.
Gear-wise, we explore the history and allure of the Gibson SG Standard, and we review all this lovely stuff:
- Ibanez Q54W
- Boss PX-1 Plugout FX
- Sterling by Music Man Kaizen 7
- Fender American Professional Classic Stratocaster
- Warm Audio Throne of Tone
- JHS Pedals 424 Gain Stage
Finally, we have new columns by Joe Bonamassa, Jared James Nichols and Cory Wong, and we introduce a new columnist, Blackberry Smoke guitarist Charlie Starr.
You can buy new issues of Guitar World at Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Hudson News, Books a Million and other stores. But why not save on every issue by subscribing?
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