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April 2025
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121 articles
- April 30
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- “I was auditioning guitar players. One guy comes in with that turquoise guitar. I looked at it and I thought, ‘That’s my guitar’”: Lita Ford had her prized B.C. Rich Mockingbird stolen – but crossed paths with it in the most bizarre circumstances
- “Vintage looks and performance at an accessible price”: Epiphone expands its high-end Inspired by Gibson Custom Collection – and introduces a key upgrade to its 1959 Les Paul Standard reissue
- April 29
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- “Muddy Waters and BB King, I knew ’em before they passed away, and they told me, ‘Man, if you outlive me, just try to keep the blues alive’”: Buddy Guy is still on the road – and he’s back on the big screen in Michael B. Jordan’s Sinners
- “Stevie came to my 5th birthday and gave me a pawnshop Harmony. It didn’t have a gig bag, it had two paper grocery bags on either end”: Tyrone Vaughan descends from blues greatness – and SRV helped him start his guitar journey early
- “Live right up to the last breath and stay positive about the world, your family and the environment you live in”: Mike Peters, frontman of the Welsh band, The Alarm, has died aged 66
- Only one day left to save! Guitar Center’s massive Guitar-A-Thon sale is nearly over, but there's still time to score $600 off a Gibson Les Paul, as well as hundreds of Fender, Martin and more
- “I can’t believe how complicated the parts she’s playing are. You just never know how those are coming to be in the studio”: FINNEAS reveals his surprise guitar hero whose playing left him scratching his head
- “It could be something you could bequeath to those you love”: Red Witch’s Apothecary pedals could outlast every other stompbox on your ’board – and even become family heirlooms
- “Take a lunar journey”: Guitar Center continues its big-brand collaborative hot streak and takes Fender on a Moonlight Drive with a trio of limited-edition Player II models
- April 28
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- “Tom Morello comes back and says, ‘Guess what? Ozzy wants to sing No More Tears’”: Sammy Hagar reveals how many songs Ozzy Osbourne will perform at his final show
- English folk icon Wizz Jones – guitar hero of Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and Thurston Moore – has died at 86
- “Damn, that guy could shred. Can you imagine what that would have sounded like?” Wednesday 13 says the late Alexi Laiho once came close to joining him and Slipknot’s Joey Jordison in Murderdolls
- “Their music gave a voice to generations and influenced many artists that followed in their footsteps”: One of the most iconic session players of all time has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, alongside The White Stripes and Soundgarden
- April 26
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- “My brother's trying to knock Norm down in price. He's worth $800 million. He goes, ‘I'll give you a bottle of whiskey on top’”: Frank Stallone on the prized vintage Epiphone that Sylvester bought him – and the guitar's mysterious origins
- "They said, 'We don't have a direction yet, but you got the gig!' I said, 'Well, let me think about it'": Yngwie Malmsteen on why he turned down UFO
- April 25
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- “A huge shake-up in the amp modeler market”: These are the gear releases that have caught my eye this week – and the ones you might have missed
- “I loved working with David Gilmour… but that was an uneasy collaboration”: Pete Townshend admits he’s not a natural collaborator – even with bandmates and fellow guitar heroes
- “You’ve gotta lose the fuss. You grab the new guitar, you scratch it. Grab the key right away": Kiko Loureiro on why players shouldn’t be too precious about their guitars
- “It was the first and last time I've ever argued with Brian May. He was so adamant about us not doing it”: Nuno Bettencourt recalls Extreme’s rebellious Queen medley at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert
- “He brought something out of me that just ain't the same without him”: The song Sammy Hagar wrote with Joe Satriani after dreaming about Eddie Van Halen is here – and as promised, it features some stellar guitar work
- “More people play stop-tails than guitars with locking tremolos. We dig both”: EVH delivers on its hardtail promise and launches the Wolfgang Standard T.O.M. – which vows to take Eddie's legacy to new heights
- April 24
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- “I knew the spirit of the Alice Cooper group was back – what we were making was very much an album that could’ve been in the '70s”: Original Alice Cooper lineup reunites after more than 50 years – and announces brand-new album
- “Such a rare piece”: Dave Navarro has chosen the guitar he’s using to record his first post-Jane’s Addiction material – and it’s a historic build
- “The best guitar player I ever heard”: Nashville guitar extraordinaire Mac Gayden – who worked with Bob Dylan, Elvis, Linda Ronstadt and Simon & Garfunkel – dies at 83
- April 23
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- “Even standing with the guitars is tricky”: Ritchie Blackmore's health sparks concern after update from wife and musical partner Candice Night
- “The rest of the world didn't know that the world's greatest guitarist was playing a weekend gig at this place in Chelmsford”: The Aristocrats' Bryan Beller recalls the moment he met Guthrie Govan and formed a new kind of supergroup
- “Our answer to everything players have asked for and more”: Neural DSP’s Nano Cortex had one major drawback – but now it’s been addressed with a huge free firmware update that takes on Kemper and TONEX
- Carlos Santana hospitalized following pre-show medical emergency
- April 22
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- “The musicians, shops, and brands who use Reverb have always been at the center of all that we do”: Reverb has been acquired by two new investors – and will once again become an independently operated company
- Weezer’s first show was opening for Keanu Reeves’ band Dogstar. Now the John Wick star is set to play a villain in the Buddy Holly hitmakers’ forthcoming mockumentary
- “Even the thought that Clapton might have seen a few seconds of my video feels surreal. But I’m truly honored”: Eric Clapton names Japanese neo-soul guitarist as one to watch
- One of the UK's biggest guitar stores has sold its stock and website to online retailer Gear4music for $3.2 million – after weeks of speculation over its future
- “Imagine the roaring intensity of Meshuggah’s live performances echoing through your rig”: Meshuggah’s world-ending guitar tones are now available in a signature pedal
- Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong tackles one of Randy Rhoads’ most iconic solos – tapping and all – in live cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train
- “It’s not meant to be anything more than a thank-you – with love, with respect, and with one hell of a guitar solo”: Sammy Hagar set to release track inspired by a dream he had about Eddie Van Halen, co-written with Joe Satriani
- April 21
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- “I was playing in the living room, he walked past and shot me this look of ‘Do that again.’ So I bent the string up and he gave me this nod of approval”: Jack Moore on lessons learned from his father, Gary
- “I heard the Money solo and thought, ‘This is amazing!’ So I sent David a telegram saying, ‘Remember me? I'm in a band now called Roxy Music’”: Phil Manzanera on his friendship with David Gilmour, and the key to the Pink Floyd man's unmistakable tone
- “It’s really quite genius, but also hard to learn – it sounds insane, but sometimes the easiest songs still get me nervous”: Kiki Wong reveals the Smashing Pumpkins song she had the most trouble with
- April 20
- April 19
- April 18
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- “I could be blazing on Instagram, and there'll still be comments like, ‘You'll never be Richie’”: The recent Bon Jovi documentary helped guitarist Phil X win over even more of the band's fans – but he still deals with some naysayers
- “The Strat was about as ‘out’ as you could get. If you didn’t have a Floyd Rose, it was like, ‘what are you doing?’”: In the eye of the Superstrat hurricane, Yngwie Malmsteen stayed true to the original
- Guitar World deals of the week: save $250 on a Gretsch semi-hollow guitar, bag a budget busting EQD delay pedal, plus all the best deals on guitar gear over the Easter weekend
- “It's like saying, ‘Give a man a Les Paul, and he becomes Eric Clapton. It's not true’”: David Gilmour and Roger Waters hit back at criticism of the band's over-reliance on gear and synths when crafting The Dark Side of The Moon in newly unearthed clip
- “A new signature for Misha Mansoor, but not the one we’ve been waiting for”: The essential guitar gear releases you might have missed this week, from Chase Bliss and PRS to Jackson and Fender
- April 17
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- “I said, ‘Let’s get Hendrix to play on it.’ His manager said, ‘Jimi’s playing shows back-to-back.’ So we got Jimmy Page”: The hit ’60s single that was supposed to feature Jimi Hendrix… but ended up with Jimmy Page
- “There are people who think it makes a big difference to the sound. Stevie always sounded the same whether it was rosewood or maple”: Jimmie Vaughan says your fretboard choice doesn’t matter – and SRV is his proof
- “Jeff Beck used to love seeing him and Lenny play live – it feels full circle”: Lenny Kravitz guitarist Craig Ross has been playing Jeff Beck’s $490,000 Yardburst Les Paul onstage for an entire tour
- “You got it!” Rare footage of Andy Summers teaching John Mayer how to play Message in a Bottle emerges
- “My hand hit the glass and it broke. It got totally trashed. I can’t feel my pinky from nerve damage”: The freak injury that changed the way Chris Poland played guitar – and ended up informing the sound of Megadeth’s Rattlehead
- April 16
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- Mark Tremonti’s PRS signature amp is one of the best affordable high-gain heads on the market – and it just got one major upgrade
- “These measures threaten the economic and cultural impact of U.S.-made musical instruments”: NAMM president responds to Trump's tariffs – urgently urging the administration to exempt the musical instrument market
- “You might laugh a little. The post office shipped your guitar to Jim Root”: This metal fan ordered a new guitar from Sweetwater – but it ended up with the Slipknot guitarist
- “I hope they never do one of Van Halen. I told Wolfie, ‘Make sure I’m dead’”: Eddie Van Halen's former wife, Valerie Bertinelli, rules out Van Halen biopic
- “The hotshot guitar player at our gig said, ‘Your guitar sounds terrible. You should leave that thing on.’ So I turned on the Big Muff…” How a heckler helped J Mascis unlock his Dinosaur Jr. guitar tone
- April 15
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- Stevie Ray Vaughan, Simple Minds, Megadeth, the Cult and the class of 1985 – only in the new Guitar World
- “My guitar tech ran in and said, ‘Hey, you want to meet Pete?’ I was too scared”: The Smithereens’ love affair with The Who goes way back – yet when guitarist Jim Babjak got the chance to meet Pete Townshend, he turned it down
- “The most in-demand mods straight from the factory”: Fender’s elevated Player II Modified line brings the firm’s most sought-after guitar upgrades to the masses
- “Last time we were here, in ’89, we played with Slash on this stage. I don't remember what we did...” Slash makes surprise appearance at former Hanoi Rocks singer Michael Monroe's show at the Whisky a Go Go
- “I’m inspired”: John Mayer has been spotted playing a Neural DSP Quad Cortex live for the first time – could this be his new amp modeler of choice?
- April 14
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- The heaviest acoustic guitar ever made? Two budding builders craft an acoustic entirely from concrete because they “thought the idea was really funny”
- “There’s a slight latency in there. You can’t be super-accurate”: Yngwie Malmsteen names the guitar picks that don’t work for shred
- “David Crosby said, ‘I don't like it, man. That folky 2/4 time never gonna play on the radio’”: The Byrds needed a hit or they’d be dropped. Releasing a cover of Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man as their first single was a gamble that paid off
- “The nuisance is exacerbated by the repetition and poor quality of some of the performances”: Buskers banned from London’s Leicester Square as performances likened to “psychological torture”
- “This particular way of concluding Bohemian Rhapsody will be hard to beat!” Brian May with Benson Boone, Green Day with the Go-Gos, and Lady Gaga rocking a Suhr – Coachella’s first weekend delivered the guitar goods
- April 11
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- “A virtuoso beyond virtuosos”: Matteo Mancuso has become one of the hottest guitar talents on the planet – now he’s finally announced his first headline US tour
- “His songs are timeless – you can’t tell if they were written in the 1400s or now”: Michael Hurley, guitarist and singer/songwriter known as the ‘Godfather of freak folk,’ dies at 83
- “The future is pretty bright”: Norman's Rare Guitars has unearthed another future blues great – and the 15-year-old guitar star has already jammed with Michael Lemmo
- “I said, ‘Mike, I don’t know how to tell you this, but that’s a note-for-note guitar solo from...” Mike McCready stole his Alive solo from Kiss – but Ace Frehley had already stolen it from another legendary classic rock band
- The guitar gear releases you might have missed this week, from Martin and Fender to Tone King and D'Angelico
- “You run scales so when inspiration and instinct kicks in you're able to keep up with it”: Larkin Poe's Rebecca Lovell explains her “hunt and peck” approach to guitar solos – and how scales can make all the difference
- Epiphone brings one of Gibson’s most desirable one-off finishes to the masses with Guitar Center-exclusive Widow Les Paul – but it’s been given a twist
- Celebrated jazz guitarist George Freeman, best known for his work with Charlie Parker and Gene Ammons, has died aged 97
- April 10
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- “After I made the RD with Epiphone I found it wasn't actually that comfortable to play live”: Bring Me the Horizon’s Lee Malia is no stranger to signature offsets – but he wasn’t too fond of his first
- “Tom would say, ‘Play your guitar with a car key.’ It was very experimental”: Little Feat's Fred Tackett recalls Tom Waits' left-field approach to guitar playing – and his one-of-a-kind studio sessions
- I spent way too long looking through all 372 deals in the Thomann Easter sale – here are the 5 I’d buy
- “Seeing friends and heroes of mine having their solos plagiarized broke my heart”: Giacomo Turra used their solos note-for-note for his own viral content. Now the guitarists who had their playing “stolen” are speaking out
- “Something’s stirring behind closed doors…” Joe Satriani plays For the Love of God? Steve Vai and Satch tackle each other’s most iconic leads in first SatchVai Band rehearsal footage
- “Eric’s standing there drinking an orange juice. He looks at me and says, ‘Been doing this a while, have you?’” When Eric Clapton saw an up-and-coming Tommy Emmanuel play for the first time
- April 9
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- “You're getting the most precisely built, easily adjustable guitar we've ever made”: Taylor Guitars just announced a guitar neck innovation that allows players to micro-adjust string height “in seconds” – without removing the neck or strings
- “I was like, 'I'm a kid. I should apply. He's gonna say no, right?' But he said yes”: This 12-year-old heavy metal prodigy never expected to be mentored by a former Megadeth guitar player – but that’s exactly what happened
- “I asked him to get me four bass strings because I only had a $29 guitar from Sears”: Bootsy Collins is one of the all-time bass greats, but he started out on guitar. Here’s the sole reason why he switched
- “This isn’t just a makeover. It’s a full-on glow-up”: Martin’s Junior Series Dreadnought is the best all-round acoustic electric guitar on the market – now the entire range has been given its most significant upgrade yet
- “I was reluctant, even in Rush, towards the end – I was not playing nearly as many solos. I just wanted to get away from that”: Alex Lifeson on his complicated relationship with guitar solos – and why he cut down on leads in Rush's later years
- “I don’t only think in barre chords – that’s a slightly arrogant statement to make”: Brian May and Roger Taylor disagree about their guitar contributions to Taylor’s Queen tracks
- “It’s the guitar I’ve dreamed of making for years”: Jackson and Bring Me the Horizon’s Lee Malia champion the rise of the metal offset with new signature Surfcaster
- April 8
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- "I never use my tube amp at home now, because I have a Spark Live": 5 reasons you should be picking up the Positive Grid Spark Live in the massive Guitar Month sale
- “The ‘Destruct’ button really sets it apart from just about any other Tele”: Fender and Mike Campbell recreate the Red Dog – the Heartbreaker’s heavily modded 1972 Telecaster, which he played with Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac
- “Trent Reznor told me, ‘You’re by far the best guy that we’ve tried. I would love to have you in the band’”: Richie Kotzen came close to joining Nine Inch Nails – but one detail stopped him getting the gig
- “In the beginning, I was a terrible rhythm player. I avoided it like the plague”: Martin Barre once distanced himself from rhythm playing – but some Steve Lukather wisdom changed his mind
- “One of the most unbelievable things I’ve ever seen in music”: Popular social media guitarist Giacomo Turra accused of stealing other musicians’ songs for content
- “That is how you make an entrance!” Jack Black mimes on a Minecraft’d Flying V as Kirk Douglas nails the Sweet Child O’ Mine solo on Jimmy Fallon
- April 7
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- “What they do harkens back to classic rock and real musicianship”: Amadou Bagayoko, singer and Malian guitar great, dies at 70
- “They said, ‘The Ace Hotel have you on camera leaving with the guitar.’ I was like, ‘I thought it was a gift!’” Machine Gun Kelly on the time he stole a cheap Martin from a hotel – and was billed $5,000
- “I had never done that before. I thought Jimmy was going to go, ‘Nice one’ – he looks at me and goes, ‘Don’t you ever do that again’”: That time Chrissie Hynde enraged one of her Pretenders bandmates because she stopped playing mid-gig
- “Dave was the master of some of the most iconic basslines in music history”: Dave Allen, former Gang of Four bassist and post-punk heavyweight, dies aged 69
- “I never met anyone who was his own person as much as Al was”: SSD guitarist and hardcore pioneer Al Barile dies aged 63
- “I think Pantera might’ve talked about this in Hot and Heavy”: Kayla Kent nails Eddie Van Halen’s Ice Cream Man solo in the style of Dimebag Darrell
- April 5
- April 4
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- “I'd sit there with my guitar and that was my education. This show gave me purpose, it gave me hope”: Gary Clark Jr. dons a Strat to cover Stevie Ray Vaughan classics at Austin City Limits' 50th Anniversary televised special
- “There was never any half-measures with Gary. If he didn’t like something he’d soon tell you to f**k off”: In July 1979, Gary Moore stormed off stage and officially left Thin Lizzy – now, guitarist Eric Bell reveals the real reason why
- “One of the coolest guitars I own”: Dweezil Zappa has some absolutely wild guitars in his vault – but his insane one-of-one fretless Gibson SG is one of his favorites
- “Delivers the same tones that made the original popular with legends”: Rotosound’s ultra-rare fuzz pedal has been reissued – bringing Jimmy Page-approved fuzz magic to the masses
- “Maybe we could buy a 12-string and have it sawed in two”: Kevin Bacon and Jimmy Fallon rewrite Bryan Adams’ Summer of ’69 – and make it all about six-strings
- “It's getting harder for him. But I've seen people younger than him in wheelchairs on stage doing what they do”: Ritchie Blackmore suffered a heart attack last year – and a return to Europe has been ruled out for the time being
- “A classical guitar for the modern era, with all the specifications expected by the seasoned player”: Harley Benton seizes on the Polyphia-led nylon-string revival with a versatile acoustic-electric for under $300
- “That’s the same guitar I’m playing on stage with the band and on tour with Green Day in front of 50,000 people”: Billy Corgan on why he plays off-the-shelf Reverends – and isn’t fussed about playing expensive guitars
- “The guitar work on her tracks is perfectly wonderful without me, so I decided to throw some mud at the wall”: Pete Townshend passes the torch to the next generation as he lends his guitar chops to emerging Dutch guitarist's latest record
- April 3
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- “I was working with David Gilmour and I said, ‘I can't work out how to play this.’ He couldn't either’”: Phil Manzanera tried to relearn one of his classic riffs after it was sampled by Kanye West and Jay-Z – and even the Pink Floyd hero couldn’t help him
- “I could barely play his guitar. He had 12s on the top. It was like a G string. I was like, ‘How do you do that?’”: Huey Lewis and the News' Chris Hayes looks back on his friendship with Stevie Ray Vaughan – and the blues great's notorious guitar setup
- “That was the first time I’d ever listened to one and gone, ‘What is that? I want to learn how to do that’”: Justin Hawkins is known for his rock chops – but a soul and reggae legend inspired him to break the rules
- April 2
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- “Who doesn't want to hear the recording of Ted Nugent and Eddie Van Halen jamming?” Ted Nugent's colossal archive includes sessions with EVH, Billy Gibbons and the Mothers of Invention
- “It went wrong since Corona”: Bax Music, one of Europe’s largest musical instrument retailers, files for bankruptcy and ceases operations
- “If you’re youngish, cute-ish and can play that axe, you’re for me”: Chaka Khan is holding open auditions to find a new guitar player – but she’s got some very specific requirements
- “I walked in and said, ‘Can I get that guitar, the one at the end there?’ He looked at the name on the credit card and then looked up at me”: Chrissie Hynde on that one time she bought her own signature guitar off the shelf
- “I wasn’t into King Crimson at all. Definitely not my kind of music”: How Andy Summers formed one of the 1980s’ most unlikely guitar partnerships with Robert Fripp – despite not being especially keen on some of his work
- April 1
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- “Affordable versions of the three best basses I've ever held in my hands”: Sterling by Music Man completes its trilogy of Joe Dart signature models with a trio of made-to-order basses that cost less than $500
- “Blurs your bassist so the mix stays focused on where it really matters”: From feline fuzz pedals to Bootsy Jooce, the April Fools Day guitar gags are out in full force this year – and we've rounded up the best
- “After his successful election, we sell this kind of guitar in the U.S. We once got an order with 12,000 guitars”: New documentary appears to confirm that Trump Guitars are being manufactured in China
- “The all-in-one music creation companion”: Donner’s HUSH-I PRO offers built-in FX and onboard IRs – and it could be the ultimate travel guitar
- “When I saw it, I couldn’t believe how cool it was”: Joe Satriani is selling one of his rarest guitars – an ultra-ambitious Ibanez Y2K Crystal Planet prototype
