News archive
December 2025
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90 articles
- December 15
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- “I’m very grateful to have it and be its current custodian”: The surprising Cinderella story of the vintage Nocaster that connects a glam metal star to Keith Urban
- “The beginning of new relationships between Fender and Korean artists”: Fender unveils its first-ever signature guitar with a South Korean artist – and it’s a streamlined Strat with a trick up its sleeve
- “It’s insane. He died aged 25, only guitar players remember him, and yet he was the sound of the Pretenders”: Chrissie Hynde pays tribute to the underrated guitar hero who defined the Pretenders
- “There’s still a ton happening behind the scenes”: Tommy Thayer says there is still more in store for Kiss
- “Thank you for giving us so much joy. Life and talent always turned up to 11”: Spinal Tap director Rob Reiner and wife Michelle found dead at their LA home
- December 14
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- “Al Di Meola would call Yamaha and other companies, and say, ‘I think you need to pay attention to what’s going on here’”: Paul Reed Smith remembers his attempts to build guitars for other brands before starting his own company
- “It’s taken its time, but finally one of rock music’s most iconic instruments has been launched as a signature run”: All the guitar gear that has caught my eye this week – including a follow-up to the internet-breaking Bad Monkey story
- December 13
- December 12
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- “We were told they’d all gone down. You’ll never see a house full of people get so quiet, it was pin-drop silence – eventually we found out Buddy and Eric were okay”: Veteran bluesman Larry McCray recalls the night Stevie Ray Vaughan died
- “The moment I discovered what it feels like to teach yourself a riff that you love, I was hooked. It feels like you're riding the universe”: Hole and Smashing Pumpkins' Melissa Auf der Maur reveals the bassists who compelled her to pick up the instrument
- “Arguably the greatest year in rock music history”: Warren Haynes to play legendary Jerry Garcia, Dickey Betts and Mike Bloomfield guitars at Gov’t Mule NYE show – honoring the music of 1971
- “When people ask, ‘Why do you need so many?’ They don’t get what it is to be a collector. You have the ability to preserve things”: Joe Bonamassa on why he takes gear collecting so seriously
- “I had to reassess why I was even playing. I stopped playing electric guitar for a year”: Steve Stevens says going on tour with Van Halen made him rethink his relationship with the guitar – and it gave way to one of his most experimental albums
- December 11
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- “I think people pay for their biases – people will pay more to reinforce the incorrect opinions that they already have”: Jason Isbell on why Mexican-made guitars should not be underestimated
- “His towering generational talent created the kind of multicultural American music that reached far beyond America itself”: Raul Malo – genre-blending frontman for The Mavericks – dies aged 60
- “I can’t say how he got the variety of sounds he did. They broke the mold when they made him”: This late rock guitar legend doesn’t get the credit he fully deserves, according to Paul Rodgers
- “Full shred combined with maximum chug”: Solar Guitars breaks new personal ground with its latest Assassin Series model – which offers a firm-first fret count of 27
- “My hand to God, I didn’t intend to hurt Ace or his legacy”: Gene Simmons apologizes for previous comments saying Ace Frehley dying due to a series of “bad decisions”
- “We found it. We built it”: A forgotten design for the Big Muff 2 spent 50 years buried in dust – now JHS Pedals and Electro-Harmonix have unearthed it and turned it into a reality
- December 10
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- “Noel has said, ‘No rest for the immensely talented,’ so take that how you want”: Gem Archer hints at Oasis' next move
- “A true gift, 2 years in the making”: Brian May gifts Tony Iommi a custom Red Special replica – but it’s taken some inspiration from his legendary 'Old Boy' SG
- “He would have wanted his fellow musicians to receive everything to which they are entitled”: The estates of Jimi Hendrix’s bandmates are suing Sony over streaming rights
- “One of the most significant artefacts in rock music history”: Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged Martin D-18E – the world’s most expensive guitar – has been donated to the Royal College of Music London
- “It’s clear to see that modelers have won the battle”: Modelers outsold traditional amps and combos in 2025 – but the war between the two might not be over just yet
- “We are big fans of tube amplifiers. There’s no substitute for playing an amp in a room”: From amps to plugins, Tosin Abasi teases the next evolution of Abasi Concepts
- “It was the guitar he played on the band’s earliest demos and at their early club gigs”: The Harmony Stratotone that Brian Jones used to teach Keith Richards and played on the Rolling Stones debut single fetches $150,000 at auction
- “Do you see Taylor Swift shredding scales? I don’t think so”: Wolfgang Van Halen on how fans unfairly critique his guitar playing because of his father – and why shredding like Eddie isn’t important
- December 9
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- “Being in the same band with Joe felt like watching a childhood fantasy step out of my teenage brain”: Steve Vai and Joe Satriani announce the return of the SatchVai Band with their debut U.S. tour – and tease an upcoming album
- “On the real Arm the Homeless guitar, a dog chewed the headstock. Other than that, they’re absolutely identical”: Tom Morello has been playing a Fender Arm the Homeless replica live and none of us noticed – now it’s available to buy
- “The guy met me in a Tower Records parking lot and gave me that bass... I’ve recorded every record on it since I got it”: How Flea landed his cherished 1961 Fender Jazz Bass after finding a seller during the early days of Twitter
- “This isn’t a remake. It's an evolution”: The DigiTech Bad Monkey broke the internet with its Klon-aping antics – now it’s back and badder than ever before
- December 8
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- “Tuning it was really hard… especially because I was stoned a lot of the time”: Joe Walsh walks you through the guitars he’s selling at auction – including one with a Morse code fretboard
- Tetsu Yamauchi, former bassist of Free and the Faces, has died at 79
- “We are building a system to stimulate and retrieve energy to Earth”: Electro-Harmonix wants to harness the magnetosphere’s energy to solve the AI power crisis
- “Moments like this don’t happen in real life”: Jared James Nichols spotted a pedal builder in the audience at one of his gigs – then handed him his guitar mid-solo
- “There is no greater story of triumph than that of B.B. King. I’m humbled to help bring it to life”: A B.B. King biopic is on the way – and it will chronicle the blues legend’s life, legacy and Lucille
- “I step back and I’m like, ‘Don’t think about it. Maybe you nailed it, maybe you didn’t’”: John Mayer names his favorite solo with Dead & Company – and plays it live on air
- “He broke my heart, but at the same time, I was like, ‘Okay, well, I would love to have a Fender Jazz Bass’”: Bootsy Collins' first Fender Jazz Bass has just been sold at auction – and shot past its estimate
- December 7
- December 6
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- “I’d met Elvis Presley’s guitar player, who told me James Burton used banjo strings...” How Ritchie Blackmore came across an obscure string mod that introduced him to a whole new sound – and why it didn’t work for him
- “A warning shot to the competition and a reminder that Fender is still very much a force in the amp modeler market”: All the guitar gear that has caught my eye this week – including a new digital era for EVH
- “He was completely ignored by the guitar press of that time period”: Vernon Reid on the guitarist he believes is massively underrated – even though he kept “the Hendrix voice” alive
- December 5
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- “They’ve raised the bar, stretched the boundaries and won the ears and hearts of the young generation”: Tommy Emmanuel names the emerging players who are flying the flag for a new era of Americana and bluegrass
- Flea has announced his debut solo album – but he’s not the only bassist playing on it
- “There was a certain amount of desperation in Frank returning my call and saying, ‘I don't believe you, but get over here and prove it'”: How Mike Keneally landed the Frank Zappa gig – after cold-calling his guitar hero
- “Every time I watch videos of her playing guitar I melt on the floor”: Danielle Haim reveals her biggest guitar influences – and who she believes is one “of the most genius guitar players” of all time
- “This amp has taken me about 10 years to nail down”: A long-lost Beach Boys Dumble that has spent the past 35 years in Hawaii has surfaced – and Jason Momoa is using it on his new album
- “He was going to record it, so they put it on hold so nobody else could. But he didn’t actually record it”: Sheryl Crow says Don Henley told her to stop giving her songs away after she wrote a song for Eric Clapton that never got released
- “The SEs were going to go away. We were having trouble with sales”: Paul Reed Smith on the near-fateful end of the PRS SE Series – and what saved it from extinction
- December 4
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- Fender keeps up with Neural DSP in the amp modeler race by giving the Tone Master Pro its first polyphonic synths – included in major free firmware update
- Guns N’ Roses share 2 new singles ahead of 2026 world tour – could the long-awaited studio album be next?
- The ultimate strap for heavy guitars? D’Addario’s new Comfort strap could be the solution to your back problems – and could have you playing for longer
- “I took it into rehearsals and Frank Zappa said, ‘If you wanted to ruin your guitar, why didn’t you loan it to a friend?’” Adrian Belew shares unseen photos of “the first relic’d guitar” – which he created with Seymour Duncan
- The lost Ace Frehley interview, the year's best new gear and 2025's guitarists of the year – only in the new Guitar World
- “Tosin Abasi told me once, the first time he heard us, he said, ‘This music is broken’”: Meshuggah's Mårten Hagström reflects on changing the face of metal guitar
- “Words fail me in describing his impact on music”: Steve Cropper, 1941-2025 – the guitar world pays tribute
- December 3
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- “He helped create some of the most enduring songs in music history”: Steve Cropper, Stax and soul guitar legend, Booker T. & the MG’s co-founder, dies at 84
- “They were trying to sell the guitars to distributors who had no idea who I was, like, ‘Who is this YouTube guy?’” Ola Englund on why he decided to set up his own guitar company
- “Virtually indistinguishable from the all-tube original”: EVH signals the start of a brave new era with its first digital combo – which promises authentic Eddie Van Halen tube amp tones
- “People don't know this. He loved it”: Jeff Beck secretly played a PRS at home – and the company is trying to get it back
- “I am a true enemy of the pick. It’s the most limiting thing in the world”: Marcin on why he will never use a guitar pick
- “Legends never die. They evolve”: Ross Electronics returns under new family stewardship – a year after JHS Pedals’ ill-fated revival
- “I texted Jake and told him, ‘There’s no way in hell I’m taking that solo. You’re going to play it!’” Why Nuno Bettencourt said no when Jake E. Lee asked him to play one of his iconic solos at Back to the Beginning
- “He proved to me long ago that Fender belongs in the world of heavy metal”: Fender honors Iron Maiden’s 50th Anniversary with a stable of limited signatures for Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, Janick Gers and Steve Harris
- December 2
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- “It’s the size of a big foot pedal. I get all kinds of great sounds out of it, no matter what I plug into it”: Joe Perry used a $219 pedal amp to record most of the guitars on Aerosmith’s new EP with Yungblud
- “I think Jimmy's pointing at Ed, but he motions for me to come over. He said, ‘You have something that these other guys here don't’”: Steve Lukather was hanging out with Eddie Van Halen, when Jimmy Page paid him the highest compliment
- These 30 epic Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are still live - including electric guitars, acoustics, pedals, amps, and software
- Epiphone brought one of Gibson’s most desirable one-off finishes to the masses earlier this year – now that Guitar Center-exclusive Les Paul has been given a major Cyber Monday discount
- December 1
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- Want to channel Brian Setzer, Chet Atkins, Duane Eddy, and the legends of rockabilly and country for less than $1,000? You'd be rocka-SILLY to miss this Cyber Monday deal
- Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, but at $400 off, this is the ultimate acoustic deal for Taylor Swift fans this Cyber Monday
- I rigorously tested 14 patch cables in 2025, and five of my top six are heavily discounted this Cyber Monday – fix your pedalboard for as little as $2.49 a cable
- Need to restock your gig bag essentials? These are the last-minute uber-cheap accessory deals you need to quickly jump on
- “For the style, it’s a near-perfect”: We called this do-it-all Superstrat a world-class instrument – now Yamaha’s groundbreaking Pacifica Standard Plus is cheaper than ever before
- MXR’s FOD Drive gets you Billie Joe Armstrong’s Dookie Drive tones in a non-signature pedal, and Sweetwater has just sliced the price by nearly half for Cyber Monday
- $0.38 a pick? You heard that one right – Amazon is offering some killer deals on Dunlop's flagship guitar pick series
- “Gives you the keys to a studio full of classic tube amps, speaker cabs, stompboxes, and effects”: Universal Audio’s amp-emulating pedals have been a huge success – now they’ve arrived in plugin form via the all-inclusive Paradise Guitar Studio
- “He said, ‘You think I’m old. Don’t you ever hold back onstage again”: Tommy Emmanuel on the time Les Paul baited him into bringing his A-game to a jam
- “This is the guitar I wrote and recorded Chasing Cars with”: Snow Patrol auctions off life-changing and career-defining Fender Telecaster for children’s charity
- I will die on this hill: Fender acoustics are criminally underrated. Mine's held its own at a stadium and stages over Europe, so now it’s $80 off for Cyber Monday, I’m picking up a back-up
- This is the biggest guitar bargain we’ve spotted all year – get a $900 D’Angelico for just $399
- The Gretsch Synchromatic Falcon is my guitar of the year. It’s not on sale for Cyber Monday, but I’ve found a look-alike for half the price that still is - but the sale ends tonight!
- A major life change made me realize I need a mini amp – and this is your last chance to bag one for as little as $36
- Martin has been the go-to acoustic guitar brand for the likes of Elvis, Eric Clapton and John Mayer – now you can join the ranks for less than $600
- “Our lawyer called it the most psychopathic contract a session musician could ever be handed”: Six former Cradle of Filth members file lawsuit against Dani Filth and the band’s management
- “Even we don’t fully know what it is yet”: Gamechanger Audio has reimagined the loop pedal with the Recorder
- “I really like it. If you’re a young guitar player, that’s money well spent”: John Mayer says this Dumble-inspired pedal amp is a smart investment – and you can still save $50 before Guitar Center's Cyber Monday sale ends
- Dave Grohl's Epiphone signature model broke the Internet last year – now, it can be yours for a fraction of the original price, thanks to this massive Cyber Monday discount
- Going wireless transformed my live performances and with 20% off the Xvive A58 for Cyber Monday, it's time to cut the cord
- "With the Player II Jazzmaster, Fender delivers a contemporary twist on a classic design without losing the original’s soul": score $220 off a guitar I awarded 4.5 stars to for Cyber Monday
- Cyber Monday guitar deals 2025 LIVE: all of today's biggest savings at Sweetwater, Guitar Center, Fender, Amazon and more
