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May 2026

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144 articles

May 31
- “I find that the electric guitar is almost a separate species”: Why being an acoustic guitarist doesn't necessarily make you an electric player – according to Eric Bibb
- “The riffs are precision-engineered steel. The whiplash solos deliver mind-melting dexterity in the vein of classic-era Megadeth. And it’s catchy as hell, too”: May 2026 Guitar World Editors' Picks
May 30
- “It won’t leave your tap water tasting of hot dogs. It won’t make your Hershey’s bar taste of starfish”: This week's hottest new guitar gear – featuring Wes Borland's Jackson and a Korn pedal
- “I sold the guitar to Bob Rock like an idiot for $10,000. Then Slash blew up, and I immediately missed out on about $150,000": Billy Duffy on the one guitar he wish he never sold
- “I had people from the woodworks reach out… I hadn’t talked to them for years, and they're like, ‘Hey, how's it going? We should get a coffee’”: Yvette Young on ending up in a Super Bowl commercial she didn't know about – and the realities of going viral
May 29
- “Built on the same ingredients that forged the sound”: Korn have released another pedal that channels the sound of their genre-defining debut record due to overwhelming fan demand
- “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if I could go back and emulate all those guitar sounds I had from those records?’” Alex Lifeson used TONEX and Fractal to recreate classic Rush tones – and he’s taking them on tour
- “I was sobbing for eight minutes. After that I was like, I don't care so much about guitar solos anymore”: Why Paul Gilbert started prioritizing quality songwriting over crazy guitar solos
- Roasted maple necks on a $185 S-style? Harley Benton’s refreshed and relaunched ST-Modern HH goes all-in on value
- “I was starting to get tired – as much as I hate to say it – of the very predictable Marshall sound”: Slash took his new favorite amp brand on the Guns N’ Roses tour without telling anyone
May 28
- “I thought, ‘I’ll show him how to do Blackbird.’ I think he knew it better than I did!” Paul McCartney on the time he gave Paul Mescal a Beatles guitar lesson
- “A lot of guitar players are like, ‘Oh, well, Jimmy Page was fine with that, so I guess I don’t need more fret access, or I don’t need better balance’”: Tosin Abasi on the art of designing cutting-edge instruments that keep the guitar’s core
- Guitar Center just launched an awesome acoustic guitar sale with discounts hitting up to 30% off premier strummers from Taylor, Martin, Gibson, Yamaha, and more
- “I spent the next 45 years trying to get someone to replicate that”: John Fogerty on the long-lost amp that was the key to his Creedence Clearwater Revival tone
- “It’s not a guitar where you grab the strings and bend them, Albert King-style. I tried twice and broke two strings!” Derek Trucks on the challenge of playing Jerry Garcia’s Tiger
- “The company disagrees with Fender’s assessment”: PRS has been hit by a cease-and-desist from Fender – bringing John Mayer’s Silver Sky into the center of the S-style legal dispute
- “Once John’s back in the picture, it’s like the other records don’t exist”: Why Josh Klinghoffer feels his Red Hot Chili Peppers contributions have been erased from history
- “I will never forget looking across the sound booth in the studio and seeing Paul smiling, and I’m playing guitar to Ringo’s drums”: Ozzy Osbourne producer Andrew Watt on what it was like to play with two Beatles in the studio
May 27
- “A pedal that leaves players saying, ‘WTF!’”: DOD and Morley team up for the triple threat Wah-ocTo-Fuzz pedal
- “I said, ‘It’s everything I need. Can I borrow it to do my demo?’ They went, ‘Let me ask Ern’”: Steve Morse on how a gear nightmare lead him to Ernie Ball – and the signature guitar of his dreams
- “The focus is on products that completely replicate the exact body design”: Fender is finally speaking out on its cease-and-desist strategy. We reveal the company’s endgame, how it plans to work with rivals and who it’s really going after
- “It’s about time!” Wes Borland’s Jackson King V went from factory floor reject to Limp Bizkit icon – now it’s been released as a signature guitar
- “He called and said, ‘I don’t like what’s going on with Ritchie Blackmore. I’m looking for an escape’”: That time Ronnie James Dio offered to front ’70s glam-rock outfit The Sweet
- “We were heavily in debt. Either we go home, and I go work for my dad as a plumbing assistant, or we just say screw everybody”: Alex Lifeson on the Rush “protest record” that saved the band – and won them their independence
May 26
- “I wanted to have the most Steve Vai song possible on the record”: Matteo Mancuso reveals the advice his hero gave him – after they ended up working together
- “I might even refer to him in my mind, as if we’re still writing together”: Paul McCartney explains how John Lennon is still inspiring his songwriting six decades on
- 6 reasons why Fender won’t win its Stratocaster legal campaign – according to the lawyer who beat them before
- “In my older age, I’m thinking, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have been playing Marshalls for 35 years…’” Why Graham Coxon is questioning his classic Blur guitar rig
- “He had an electric guitar, and his mom wouldn’t let him plug into the amp”: David Lee Roth fights tears as he recalls his partnership with Eddie Van Halen
- “Would you rather we didn’t listen to customers? That we just hide in our offices and listen to some corporate shirts pontificate on pickup choices?” Guitar Center CEO responds to backlash over the brand’s in-house guitar project
May 25
- “There was a big commotion – alarms going off and fire engines circling – so I went straight to the closet, looked at my four Les Pauls…” The time Billy Squier had to pick one guitar to save from a burning building
- “Kirk Hammett gave me one of his Greenies. I’ve been having fun with that”: Alex Lifeson is taking a Metallica signature guitar on the road with him for Rush’s reunion
- “I couldn’t tell who it was. When he turned around, I went, ’Oh my God! That’s Jimmy Page!’” The words of encouragement a Led Zeppelin legend gave Gus G after he joined Ozzy Osbourne’s band
- I've been covering Memorial Day guitar sales for 6 years. If you really want to save on guitar gear today, these are the 7 sales you need to check out – and it’s an Amazon-free zone
May 24
- “They had already gone through a lot of guitar players, but there were only a few they liked. One of them was this kid, Zakk Wylde”: The guitarist who lost the coveted role to Zakk Wylde on what it was like to audition for Ozzy Osbourne
May 23
- “New S-styles from Ibanez? They company probably couldn’t believe its timing”: This week's hottest new guitar gear – including a pedal you can wear on your wrist (sort of)
May 22
- “The bass you think of when you go to pick a bass. It’s magic and it really has no limits”: Fender celebrates 75 years of the Precision Bass with three stunning anniversary models
- “The ultimate pedal demo guitar”: You’ve seen it in the JHS Pedals demos – now you can get a signature version of Josh Scott’s custom Bilt Relevator
- Welcome to the future, people – Donner just unveiled a headless electric guitar with an onboard amp, effects, Bluetooth and a detachable speaker
- “I made an S out of it because it sucked”: Raven Slaughter was a ’70s Cleveland rock icon who sawed up a Gibson into his own custom guitar – now a hospice patient, he has visited his “old friend” at the Rock Hall
- I've found the only Amazon Memorial Day deal for guitarists worth caring about – score an impressive $190 off this 4.5-star retro offset that you'll fall in love with
- Nuno Bettencourt and Rick Beato form unlikely partnership to rip through a Thin Lizzy classic at the Six-String Sanctuary
- “Fender wants a showdown”: What is Fender’s endgame in its cease and desist campaign against S-styles? This video might have the answer
- “We’ve got the company on a good trajectory. Now we’re playing offense”: Guitar Center has joined forces with the founder of Reverb – what does this mean for the retail giant?
May 21
- “Deputies hit all the right notes bringing this case to a close”: Police officers in California recover $60,000 worth of stolen guitars – still with Guitar Center price tags on
- “If this isn’t a 10 out of 10 announcement, I don’t know what is”: The Smashing Pumpkins reunite with Siamese Dream producer for the first time in 32 years
- “This is a PR disaster that will haunt Fender for years”: Two of guitar’s biggest YouTubers are cutting ties with Fender over its cease and desists
- Guitar Center’s Memorial Day sale has officially landed with up to 30% off the best guitar gear – including $250 off a PRS SE Silver Sky and $599 off a Gibson J-45
May 20
- “The final piece of the puzzle”: Misha Mansoor completes his Juggernaut jigsaw with new Jackson that introduces a firm-first feature
- “A cherished figure within the Zappa community, where fans embraced him not only for his talent but for his generosity”: Ike Willis, long-time guitarist and vocalist with Frank Zappa, dies aged 70
- “It’s comic book level villainy”: Your reactions to Fender’s cease and desist strategy – and how it could transform the S-style market
- “I am not comfortable playing with the band under the current circumstances”: Rhea Thompson sets the record straight on her Tailgunner departure amidst allegations against band’s bassist
- “One of the last guitar solos he recorded”: Before he died, Brent Hinds recorded a solo for a Marcus King track – and it’s been released
- Ibanez’s S-style lineup gets a serious expansion with 6 sleek new AZ models
- “The guitar is the instrument of the people”: The IGF Summer School moves to the historic spa town of Cheltenham for its 31st year
- “He fired a shotgun out of a window. We said to our tour manager, ‘You need to take that gun off him! If we go in there, he might shoot us’”: The moment glam-rock icons The Sweet knew they had to part ways with their singer
May 19
- “He falls on the floor in a fetal position and puts his hands on his ears. ‘Oh my god, I can't believe it! That was in my dream’”: The time Jimi Hendrix was knocked off his feet by Eddie Kramer’s tonal technique
- "For all the guitar people out there who look at me as not an electric player, don’t let the person behind the guitar fool you”: Ed Sheeran and PRS drop a new baritone – and they’re even gunning for metal and jazz players
- “I practiced more for Billy's first lesson than I've ever practiced for one of my own”: How Billy Strings’ guitar mentor approached the challenge of teaching the “monster” bluegrass player
- “If we were in the black when we finished a tour, we’d party into the red”: Dr. Hook’s enigmatic guitarist and vocalist, Dennis Locorriere, dead at 76
- You don't have to wait for the Memorial Day weekend to save big because Fender just jump-started the sales with up to $600 off guitar gear - here’s my 5 standout deals, including $230 off an all-solid acoustic and $74 off an underrated fuzz pedal
- Musician’s Friend just surprise-dropped their Memorial Day sale early, saving you up to 60% off big-name brands – there's $500 off an eye-catching Gibson, $250 off a gorgeous PRS, and up to 45% off must-see pedal deals
- “Many drummers reached out to me in the aftermath of Neil’s passing. That was most distasteful to me”: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson on the drummers that tried to force a Rush reunion on them
- “I was worried about amp sims when Rick Beato says nothing sounds as good as a tube amp. Then he posted our song and said, ‘Sick guitar tone!’” When one of indie-rock’s hottest guitarists fooled Rick Beato with amp sims
- “Ozzy and Sharon were skeptical about my guitar shape. They felt it looked too weird”: When Ozzy Osbourne tried to convince Gus G to change his guitar of choice
May 18
- “This movie will absolutely happen... We're full steam ahead”: Jack Osbourne confirms Ozzy Osbourne biopic is still in the cards
- “My newest creation”: A luthier has made a headless version of Brian May’s Red Special, and it’s dividing opinions online
- “This case could set a precedent, impacting countless other builders and musicians”: Fender escalates legal campaign against S-style guitars, issues first cease and desist to US builder
- Epiphone announces its first ever signature guitar for a Korean artist
- “It’s a bit of a mystery. I’ve found that at my age it’s time to pull back on touring”: Ritchie Blackmore issues health update – and explains how he’ll get back to live gigs
- “I was on tour, doomscrolling. I got a targeted ad, and it showed a picture of this guitar”: The time Misha Mansoor found his lost Jackson Juggernaut signature guitar in a Guitar Center
May 17
- “I didn’t have a guitar, so he let me play this Strat that he got from Jimi’s old guitar tech. It was the best-playing guitar ever”: My Chemical Romance's Ray Toro was strictly a Les Paul man, until he got his hands on one of Jimi Hendrix's Strats
- “I played that on just about every Eagles record”: Don Felder names the most important guitar in his 300-strong collection
- “You can get a little bit of everything”: Grace Bowers’ tone tips to get the most out of the Gibson SG
- “Learning how to be a good second guitar player is essential”: Veteran producer Dann Huff on the unsung art of session guitar
May 16
- “We once came close to an Angine de Poitrine tribute guitar. This might be the next best thing…” All the guitar gear that caught my eye this week – including a Sting-approved limited-edition Fender
- What was your first guitar?
May 15
- The Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi takes “temporary break” from the band's upcoming world tour – and his replacement has been announced
- “We have spent more than $100,000 in tariffs since April 2025”: EarthQuaker Devices CEO calls for musical instruments to be exempt from tariffs as industry continues to be negatively hit
- Mateus Asato pictured with mystery Fender offset – could this be his new signature model?
- “Links the exhilaration of shaping guitar sounds to the everyday act of checking the time”: You can now get an official Ibanez Tube Screamer watch
- Pocket mammoth savings on some of our favorite stompboxes in Sweetwater's ginormous pedal sale - including popular units from UAFX, Beetronics FX, DigiTech, Keeley, Maxon, and so much more
- “He actually signed it for me on the back of the headstock. That’s the most magical bass”: How Victor Wooten got his hands on his biggest hero’s bass guitar
- Fender and Pac-Man team up for a limited-edition Telecaster (and no the dot inlays are not edible)
May 14
- “It was just in my closet, and one day I pulled it out, turned it on, and thought, ‘Wow… this is a sound that I’ve been missing’”: How Mike Campbell ended up reconnecting with a classic piece of Heartbreakers gear
- “None of it sat well with him. The further we went into rock, the less he liked it”: When the Eagles’ founding guitarist knew it was time to leave
May 13
- “They’ve been stuck in London customs for a month”: Paul McCartney's guitars allegedly held up in England ahead of major Rock & Roll Hall of Fame exhibition
- “He had a flat full of headless basses. He’d figured out a way he could nick them”: The crazy method a thief used to steal 50 bass guitars – including one belonging to Guy Pratt
- “You’ll see the return of some of our most iconic products from the past”: The metal amp brand beloved by Dimebag Darrell, Kirk Hammett and Scott Ian is on the cusp of making a comeback
- “We did call him because we owed him that. He was important for the band”: Alex Van Halen says they tried to recruit Michael Anthony for Van Halen’s David Lee Roth reunion
- “Some believed she drove her car off a cliff in Canada. Others claimed she started a new life in Brazil”: She was a pioneering singer-songwriter who disappeared without a trace – now 50 years on, Connie Converse is finally getting her dues
May 12
- “Tariffs will not shift purchases to US-made beginner instruments. They will price beginners out of the market”: NAMM President John Mlynczak testifies about the impact of tariffs in Washington DC
- “I was like, ‘That’s the guitar I want.’ They said, ‘That’s going to start some s***’”: The real reason Machine Gun Kelly chose a razor blade shape for his signature guitar
- “If I could make it sound like a Floyd Rose, without it looking like one, I’d do that”: Grace Bowers specs out her dream SG – is this what a potential signature Gibson could look like?
- “Hendrix didn’t just play through Marshall amps. He redefined what they could do”: Marshall honors Jimi Hendrix with limited edition drop
May 11
- “It was a whole library of tapes. It was such great stuff”: Steve Vai on the time Eddie Van Halen played him never-before-released material – at the guitar legend’s house
- A Fender Master Builder, who’s made guitars for Mk.gee and Buddy Guy, has left to start their own guitar company – and their first release is a stunning boutique offset
- Eastwood launches Angine de Poitrine-inspired double-neck – years after it nearly launched a signature model for the microtonal wizards
- “It got nicked out of the back of the car in Liverpool. I’ve never had a Strat like that since”: Glenn Tilbrook is still mourning the stolen ’59 Fender he bought from folk-rock royalty
- Eric Clapton ends gig early after being hit by object thrown from crowd
May 10
- “It turned out to be the worst time to do an auction – his guitars really undersold”: The celebrity guitar auction where guitars did not sell for what they should have
- “I got it from the Guitar Center behind the steakhouse that I worked at”: Julien Baker reveals the guitar that she got with an early paycheck, which ended up shaping her breakthrough record
May 9
- "Some of these guitars have doubled in value between 2019 and now": The modern guitars that have held their value best, according to a Reverb expert
- “It was driving me nuts, bringing 15 guitars on the road. So I started looking at some guitar modeling…”: How Jeff “Skunk” Baxter took his session guitar experience and inspired a radical digital guitar
- “Jaws were hitting the floor when Blackstar was showing off this off at NAMM 2026”: All the new guitar gear that caught my eye this week – featuring EVH shredders and some $99 big fun from JHS Pedals
May 8
- “If I don’t accept what I have, I’m going to be mad for the rest of my life”: Peter Frampton on how his health diagnosis spurred him to keep playing guitar
- “He's one of the best musicians in the world. He's the only guy who could have filled that space”: Don Henley explains why Vince Gill is such a valuable asset to the Eagles
- “If I didn’t get some kind of help, I was going to die. So I said, ‘You guys, can I have a minute? Please give me a minute.’ And they said, ‘No’”: Jason Newsted explains how addiction struggles led to his Metallica departure
- “Premium gear gets discounted somewhere. Today it's scattered across marketplaces and clearance racks. Musician's Friend pulls it into one place”: Guitar Center relaunches Musician’s Friend as an off-price outlet for premium gear
- “I don’t want to make a record without that guitar”: How Dave Grohl found the “lucky guitar” that appears on every Foo Fighters album
- “I carry it in a sleeping bag – it looks like a dead body”: Angine de Poitrine’s strange choice of gig bag causes problems at airports
- The best-selling mini-modeler now with wireless editing and MIDI – meet IK Multimedia’s TONEX ONE+
May 7
- “He called me the night before he passed to tell me how much he loved it”: Posthumous Steve Cropper album announced, featuring some of electric guitar’s biggest names
- “He got the same sound. It’s the way he played – it wasn’t his gear”: What happened when Brian May recorded with Black Sabbath – and played through Tony Iommi’s rig
- “I played the songs for him, and he said, ‘No… I don’t think we can use any of that.’ I was like, ‘Right. Cheers’”: Damon Albarn rejected an entire album of Blur songs – and accidentally kickstarted guitarist Graham Coxon’s solo career
- “I met this guy who worked at Peavey. He offered me some stuff, and I was broke…” The blue-collar amp that Tyler Bates used on all his albums with Marilyn Manson
- “Purebred music-making machines”: EVH updates the Wolfgang Special line with baked maple necks and ’boards, and colors to dazzle
- “It started showing signs of the color changing… PRS brought it back to life”: This guitarist’s “baby” completely lost its finish – so PRS stepped in
- “I did 40 tours with it, and never had a problem. It’s my favorite guitar on the planet”: The underrated metal guitar that Nervosa’s Prika Amaral swears by
- Federal court rules in favor of Dean Guitars in Dimebag Darrell Estate’s protracted legal dispute
May 6
- “In the middle there's this mesh we call ‘the ancient form of weaving.’ Sometimes we cross accidentally!” Ronnie Wood explains his guitar dynamic with Keith Richards at launch for surprise new Rolling Stones album
- “This city didn't just embrace the Telecaster, it helped define it”: Fender’s Telecaster 75th anniversary show might be the greatest assemblage of Tele talent ever
- “When I played, it was almost like I made every note count even more. It was rejuvenating”: Why Jared James Nichols has switched to Marshall amps after playing Blackstar for 15 years
- “I was like, ‘God, what do I do? If I sit behind the drums, it makes me sad. If I listen to music, it makes me sad’”: Dave Grohl on life in the aftermath of Kurt Cobain's death – and how his switch to guitar and songwriting marked a new chapter
- “A momentous union of two storied and unstoppable forces”: DragonForce announce Alissa White-Gluz as their new vocalist in shock move
- “I don’t want to hear someone improvise and stretch out and be completely extemporaneous”: St. Vincent has named her pick for the best guitar solo of all time – and says it should always be played note-for-note
- “This never stops taking my breath away”: Joe Walsh becomes the latest guitarist to take a Yamaha Revstar to the stage as the Eagles hit New Orleans
- “What started as a joke turned into a track that Steve knew had magic in it”: Eric Clapton recorded a song with Steve Cropper before the session legend’s passing – and it will be part of his final body of work
May 5
- “I couldn’t believe it. When I was 15, I would skip school, take the bus into the city, and see the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore East”: Al Di Meola becomes the latest guitarist to play Jerry Garcia's “Tiger” on stage
- “A solo that felt more like a moving cry of the soul than a musical spotlight”: Rolling Stone has revealed its Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time – and its number one pick corrects a previous injustice
- “These songs are played a lot. They’re often not played well”: Guitar Center reveals the 10 most-played guitar riffs in its stores – and no, Stairway to Heaven isn’t one of them
- 200,000 models, AI stem separation, impossibly big sound: Blackstar just dropped a mini amp that could change the market forever
May 4
- Turnstile co-founder and former guitarist Brady Ebert faces potential life sentence after indictment on attempted first-degree murder
- “I didn’t like playing music because my band were successful, or I’d get noticed as a guitar player. I just played because I missed my dad”: How Sean Lennon's legendary father inspired him to pick up the guitar
- “David Coverdale wanted my solos to be a certain way. He had to kind of approve my solos”: Reb Beach on why crafting guitar solos with Whitesnake was more challenging than Winger
- “When I was in high school, nobody played these guitars. They were completely derided”: Why Nels Cline fell in love with Jazzmasters
- “Ozzy didn’t know I had been a student of Randy’s. He stood right in front of me while I played and afterward told me that my style reminded him of Randy”: How Joe Holmes got the coveted Ozzy Osbourne gig
May 2
- “They’ve revived B.B. King’s first-ever guitar and made it $349. I know what my next acoustic is going to be”: All the new guitar gear that caught my eye this week – including Chase Bliss’ “most foolish” pedal yet
May 1
- “A new world record for Slash memorabilia”: A Les Paul used during Guns N' Roses' classic lineup reunion tour becomes the most expensive Slash guitar ever sold at auction
- “B.B. King’s first guitar was a red Stella acoustic. That’s the kind of impact we want this brand to continue to have”: Harmony brings the Stella brand back from the dead with a $349 solid-topped parlor
- “She put it under her bed and didn’t play it for 60 years. When I got it, it still had the original strings on it”: Why telling your guitar’s backstory could help it sell for more money
- “I used it in the Damned, playing with Iggy… That guitar was part of me”: The Damned frontman Brian James’ ‘New Rose’ Gibson SG sells for over $95,000
- “He’s like, ‘Where did you find that? Our storage unit’s been broken into. Everything’s been cleared out’” Korn bassist Ra Díaz recovers 15 bass guitars that were stolen from him – thanks to community effort
- David Allan Coe, the outlaw country legend who played with Dimebag Darrell and gave Warren Haynes his break, has died, aged 86