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April 2026

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81 articles

April 18
- “When the session was over, Mickie said, ‘Nope, Peter can’t be in your band. There’s only going to be one star, and that’s you’”: Suzi Quatro reveals Peter Frampton nearly joined her band – but was rejected by her producer
April 17
- “Sometimes you’ve gotta use popsicle sticks and put it on some low-budget scaffolding to get it to work”: Joe Bonamassa on how best to set up P-90s – and what sets them apart from humbuckers
- Built to inspire: Yamaha heralds a new era for the Pacifica with long-awaited SC Standard Plus model
- “I learned that the hard way at rehearsals”: How Jason Falkner got the Foo Fighters gig filling in for Pat Smear – and the biggest mistake he made in prep
- “I got my first guitar for Christmas at the age of 11. I had a book that said, ‘Tune your low string wherever it sounds good…’”: How Stanley Jordan accidentally stumbled upon the tuning that defined his genius two-hand tapping approach
- “A small yet mighty gig bag hero”: Mesa/Boogie launches powerhouse preamp/DI with all the tone-shaping capabilities of its high-end Subway line
- “His dad got him a guitar. The next day he came back playing Black Magic Woman by Santana. He was obsessed with being great at guitar”: Prince was destined to become a guitar legend as soon as he started playing
April 16
- “It was like, ‘Here’s what we need.’ They said, ‘But you have to use Fender parts.’ I said, ‘Alright, I’ll see you guys later’”: Steve Morse on why his ill-fated Fender signature guitar never got off the ground
- “I said, ‘We gotta re-record this. This is terrible. I cannot allow this to happen’”: How Linda Perry saved 4 Non Blondes’ ’90s classic What's Up? from certain doom
- “I was nervous enough, and that spring goes flying. I looked for about 15 minutes, and time was running out”: What it takes to tech and tour with Slash, according to a pro guitar technician
- “George Clinton said, ‘You just can’t play guitar like that until your heart has been shattered to smithereens and you have lost all hope’”: Flea looks back on his life-changing jam with Parliament-Funkadelic guitar hero Eddie Hazel
- “All of a sudden, I heard, ‘Morgan!’ I went outside, and I was like, ‘Oh my god! It’s Kim Deal!’” Morgan Nagler on the time Kim Deal showed up on her driveway – and they wound up writing songs together
April 15
- “Nostalgia for a time when digital was still new”: How Mk.gee is bringing back a ’90s-era modeler favored by Joni Mitchell, David Lynch, and Sting
- “The essential Les Paul concept, refreshed for today’s musicians who want something more personal”: Gibson gives the Les Paul Studio the Double Trouble treatment
- “John 5 was probably the only other dude who was playing a Tele in metal. By nature, it was designed for country and chicken pickin’”: Why Jim Root eschewed traditional metal guitars and made the Telecaster his main Slipknot instrument
- “Bold by design, built for modern guitarists”: Epiphone gives Gibson designs a fierce and affordable modern makeover with all new Futura series
- “50 years since you last played that”: Watch the moment Paul McCartney was first reunited with his long-lost Höfner bass – half a century after it was stolen
April 14
- Yuichiro Yokouchi, founder of one of the world's largest guitar manufacturing companies, dies at age 98
- “Music’s highest honor”: 2026 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees announced – and there’s a long overdue nod to some British heavyweights
- “A level of historical accuracy previously unseen”: The Fender Vintera III line is here – and sets a new benchmark for its vintage-inspired guitars
- “I like to keep things simple, as the saying goes: It’s only rock ’n’ roll”: Never mind the modelers, here’s a Sex Pistols Marshall amp
- “Time is of the essence”: Joe Bonamassa issues public plea to help session player Mason Stoops recover his stolen vintage guitars
April 13
- “It's a struggle every day. The good news is I can still play music. I can still play guitar”: No Doubt's Tom Dumont reveals Parkinson's disease diagnosis
- “The whole idea of the band was to assume a bit of a satirical approach to rock music”: Angine de Poitrine, the viral math rock band, reveal that their microtonal approach started as an “inside joke”
- Watch Alice Cooper deliver a shock rock version of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, with some help from new guitarist Anna Cara
- “His work helped shape the sound of generations of musicians”: Lyndon Laney, founder of Laney Amplification, has died aged 77
- “I got a call one evening, and they said, ‘Dumble’s in the Valley. You’ve got to go over’”: Larry Carlton on the first time he met a legendary amp maker – and received a private concert from a guitar great
April 12
- “A piece of rock and roll history”: Guitars gifted, played and modded by Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen and Keith Richards are all going to auction – and expected to sell for more than $1,500,000
April 11
- “I’ve literally waited years for this to come out. It’s even nicer than I imagined it would be”: All the guitar gear that has caught my eye this week – including another potentially game-changing AI practice amp
April 10
- “Own a piece of grunge history”: The backline used on Nirvana’s Bleach tour is to be auctioned off today
- “The amount of songs that were coming out of him is almost unprecedented”: Noel Gallagher's workhorse Epiphone – featured in the Wonderwall music video – is expected to exceed expectations at auction
- “This amp exists for one reason – to put my real tone in a box… No watered-down version, no extra junk”: Zakk Wylde’s signature Berzerker amp is here and it is a vicious 50-watter weighing under 5lbs
- “A guitar that sits at the intersection of love, collaboration and some of the most influential songwriting of the late 1960s”: The 1913 Gibson used to write Here Comes the Sun and Let It Rain – owned by Eric Clapton – is now up for auction
- Mooer takes on JBL with its own AI stem separation tech – and it could change the way you practice your favorite songs
- “Bob let him play one overdub, then cut him off. George said to me, ‘Don’t let him do that again’”: The time Bob Dylan and a Beatle were at odds over a guitar solo
- “I thought it was a bit too bizarre, but you all went crazy for it”: The hottest new guitar gear releases of March 2026 – according to Guitar World readers
- “It’s a workhorse guitar. Say a producer in Nashville needs an SG, and they pick that thing up; this will do anything they want”: Sadler Vaden’s new signature SG is a working player’s guitar – and it could be Gibson’s 2026 sleeper hit
- “I feel like I get one lawsuit served every week”: Neal Schon sets the record straight on claims made by Journey singer Arnel Pineda that he was pressured to go on tour against his will
April 9
- Elvis’ 1968 Comeback Special Hagstrom Viking II is heading to auction (again) – and is now expected to sell for more than $1 million
- “It’s an honor to enter this journey”: Mateus Asato confirms he’s joining Fender – and might have given us the first look at his signature guitar
- Guitar Center's massive Guitar-A-Thon sale is officially underway with up to 30% off thousands of items including $700 off a Gibson Les Paul – here's 9 of the best deals from the sale
- “I’ll find an hour-long Swedish massage video and turn off the sound”: Why tapping genius Stanley Jordan practices guitar by soundtracking massages on YouTube
- “It was heartbreaking. I remember the day I saw that album and those erroneous credits for the first time. It was like a punch in the solar plexus”: Bob Daisley on not receiving credit for playing on Ozzy Osbourne’s Diary of a Madman
- “People are gonna be like, ‘What is that?!’” PRS is championing a new tonewood – and it’s already been adopted for an artist signature
- “A friend of mine called me up and said, ‘I’ve got a couple of guitars you might be interested in…’” Joe Bonamassa’s storied Lazarus Les Paul, which was once brought back from the dead, has been bought by a pop-punk guitar hero
April 8
- “They were sending me leftovers that other people hadn’t picked up. After Ultimate Sin, I felt I should have something a bit more personalized”: Charvel pays tribute to Jake E. Lee’s Ozzy Osbourne era with newest signature model
- “I hope this journey inspires more young musicians from our region to pursue their passion”: Ibanez welcomes its first-ever female Indian endorsee – fast-rising guitarist, Imnainla Jamir
- “It felt like the worst moment of my life. I walked up to the truck, saw the padlock on the ground, and my heart sank”: The moment Wings’ former sound engineer had to tell Paul McCartney his priceless Höfner bass guitar had been stolen
- Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Pete Thorn trade solos over Led Zeppelin classic at recent SatchVai Band show
- Former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham’s alleged attacker charged with stalking and threatening his family for years
- “I didn’t expect this to inspire me so much”: Jackson finally releases Misha Mansoor’s Surfcaster – one of the most anticipated offset guitar releases of the modern era
- “I turned up at my first audition with my Squier Telecaster – that was all I owned”: The 18-year-old who replaced one of Britpop’s most revered guitarists
- Yamaha redefines the concept of the modern acoustic guitar with the TAS3 C TransAcoustic – which puts the entire creative process into one instrument
- “I couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead”: ESP appoints new US CEO – as outgoing head retires after 39 years
- "What if your best song is the one you haven't written yet?" Songwriting For Guitar's free two-day live event will make you a better songwriter - here's how to sign up
April 7
- “Guitars haven’t changed that much in the last 50 years. We’re about to change that”: Guitar Center is setting up its own in-house guitar brand – and it’s asking players for their help
- “My student tricked me into getting an Instagram”: The off-hand advice from a student that helped kickstart Yvette Young’s career
- “After his funeral, me and my buddy snuck into his house and took the guitar”: Pepper Keenan got his first guitar after a tragic accident
- “It absolutely blew my mind”: Why Dave Grohl is obsessed with viral Canadian microtonal duo Angine de Poitrine
- “The guitar community came through and sent about one million solos to me”: The world’s buzziest guitarists fought to get on this Bilmuri track – now the winning solo has been revealed
April 6
- “Automatically you go into blues when you do that”: Big Country's golden guitar rule that steered them clear of the blues
- “I’d buy a ‘54 Strat, and then I’d sell it, buy one, sell it… I just kept trading them off. I’ve been disappointed in some of those”: Eric Johnson on why a guitar's age, value, and cool factor don't necessarily make it a better instrument
- “The company that handles all our equipment has completely boned us. We have literally nothing to play”: The All-American Rejects cancel show after gear is “mistakenly shipped across the country”
- “I certainly didn’t know how to build a studio. It was all Donn’s magic”: Donn Landee, the engineer who masterminded 5150 Studios, and helped shape Van Halen’s sound, dies at 79
April 5
- “I told myself I’d stop buying JHS Pedals gear. At this rate, my pedalboard is going to look like a shrine to the company”: All the guitar gear that caught my eye this week – including the most outrageous Ibanez I think I’ve ever seen
April 3
- “Something you’ll hear a lot of is, ‘Oh, you didn’t earn that relicing.’ But people who like it aren't thinking of it like that”: The real reason why relicing is so popular, according to a Fender Custom Shop Masterbuilder
- “He rolled up with his guitar on his back and his Fender Deluxe in his right hand”: Mark Lettieri on his jams with John Mayer, and how they ended up working together on one of the biggest PRS shows in history
- “They’re 16 bars, and that’s it. There’s no extended solos”: Adrian Smith on why making music outside of Iron Maiden lets him stretch his soloing wings
- “He will be remembered for his unwavering empathy and compassion, and his magnetic, inimitable presence on and off the stage”: Harm’s Way guitarist Bo Lueders dies at 38
- Who is the most iconic Fender Telecaster player?
April 2
- “When I was asked who was the best up-and-coming guitarist, I had no hesitation”: Alice Cooper announces new 22-year-old guitarist, handpicked by Nita Strauss to be her replacement
- Yes postpone upcoming tour dates due to guitarist Steve Howe requiring “essential surgery”
- Turnstile co-founder and former guitarist Brady Ebert arrested for attempted murder after allegedly hitting former bandmate's father with his car
- “That way, I can bend notes the way I want, and it also saves my hands”: How Joe Perry is changing his guitar setup to battle the early signs of arthritis
- “The two things I remember are the cool guitar stuff… and this never-ending scream”: Billy Corgan on the first time he met Courtney Love and witnessed Hole live
April 1
- One of Slash's Guns N' Roses reunion tour Les Pauls expected to fetch up to $400k at auction
- “What happens when you do more with dramatically more?” Quilter Labs unveils The Vamp, a four-wheeled, 200,000-watt guitar amp
- “Get the data-driven results musicians dream of”: Chibson and Acorn Amps team up for the definitely-not-Google Drive pedal
- “If you talked to me when I was 25 years old, I would have been frightened to take a solo after Joe Satriani…” Why Cory Wong is no longer afraid to trade leads with his heroes
- “Way more rare than a Klon”: JHS Pedals pays tribute to mysterious pedal builder with the Coyote – a new fuzz based on one of the rarest pedals of all time
- “I just remember thinking, ‘I can’t play this thing’”: Why Steve Vai struggled to play Brian May’s iconic Red Special